Wednesday

The Daily WAR (11-01)

Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
 
 
 
    The Chief Rabbinate of Israel has cut ties with the Vatican over the Pope's decision to lift the excommunication on an English bishop who denies the full extent of the Holocaust.
    The Chief Rabbinate also cancelled a meeting scheduled in March with the Holy See's Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews.
 
    "What does the pope think we feel when he did that? That a man who is a bishop and Holocaust denier -- and today of course the most vulgar aspect of anti-Semitism is Holocaust denial -- and for the pope to go that far and do what he did, knowing what he knows, is disturbing."
(Truth about Wiesel: A PROMINENT FALSE WITNESS)
 
    Pope Benedict today reaffirmed his "full and unquestionable solidarity" with Jews in an attempt to relieve tensions after a Catholic bishop denied the full extent of the Holocaust.
    "While I renew with affection the expression of my full and unquestionable solidarity with our (Jewish) brothers, I hope the memory of the Shoah will induce humanity to reflect on the unpredictable power of hate when it conquers the heart of man."
 
    The lifting of excommunication for 4 bishops of the Society of St. Pius X is just the beginning of a process of dialogue with the traditionalist group, says a member of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei.
 
    The Russian Orthodox Church chose an advocate of improved relations with the Vatican as its new spiritual leader last night, raising the prospect of a reconciliation between Rome and Moscow.
    Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad was elected Patriarch in the Church's first leadership election since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
    Kirill becomes the 16th Patriarch and head of a Church that has enjoyed a remarkable renaissance in Russia since the Soviet collapse.
    His election is likely to strengthen efforts to heal the 1,000-year-old schism between Russian Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism. Kirill enjoys good relations with the Vatican and has met Pope Benedict XVI numerous times.
 
 
 
    Germany's far right has welcomed the move by Pope Benedict XVI to lift the excommunication of British bishop Richard Williamson, who denied the Holocaust in an interview last week. German Jewish leaders are appalled at the decision.
 
    Jewish leaders refused to attend a Holocaust remembrance ceremony in the German parliament on Tuesday in protest over the lack of attention paid to survivors.
 
    An opinion poll has revealed that many Germans consider Israel 'aggressive', following Tel Aviv's military offensive against Gaza.
 
    German authorities are investigating an Internet video of masked men vowing in several languages to attack Germany for supporting the US-led military campaign in Afghanistan. The details are chilling.
 
    It's Rhinegold all over. In the past, there was one category of conflict between the central bank and the government in Germany, which the government would always lose. It is the attempt to get your fingers on the Bundesbank's gold reserves.
    The Christian Democrats in Germany are so alarmed about the stimulus package that their fiscal policy spokesman is now proposing to use up the Bundesbank's gold reserves, FT Deutschland reports.
    Germany has the 2nd largest amount of gold reserves in the world, after the US, with around 3400 tons. The value is put at €75bn.
    In other words, to fund the stimulus spackage, Germany could use 66% of its reserves, and still have a bit of gold left.
 
    Germany's constitutional court has been handed a 2nd complaint over the EU's Lisbon Treaty with the potential to delay the country's final ratification of the document for several months.
    The new legal action, running to over 200 pages, is concerned with economic as well as political issues, which the complainants say are not addressed by the Lisbon Treaty.
    They argue that a prognosis on European integration given by the country's constitutional court in a 1993 judgement on the Maastricht Treaty - which paved the way to the euro - has turned out to be false.
    Germany has to hand the papers of the Lisbon treaty over in Rome for complete ratification to have taken place. President Koehler is waiting for the court judgement before making the move.
 
 
 
    The most recent conflict between Moscow and Kiev over natural gas supplies has reignited the controversy over new transit routes. Europe could get its future gas from the highly controversial Nord Stream pipeline to the north, or via the Nabucco pipeline to the south. But will either ever get built?
 
    Russia held out an olive branch to Obama today by suspending plans to deploy missiles in Europe, according to a report in Moscow.
    An official from Russia's General Staff in Moscow told Interfax news that the move had been made because the new US leadership was reconsidering plans to establish a missile defence shield in eastern Europe.
 
 
 
    What if the entire tale of the Jewish Diaspora is historically wrong?
    And what if most modern Israelis aren't descended from the ancient Israelites at all, but are actually a mix of Europeans, North Africans and others who didn't "return" to the scrap of land we now call Israel and establish a new state following the attempt to exterminate them during World War II, but came in and forcefully displaced people whose ancestors had lived there for millennia?
    That's the explosive thesis of When and How Was the Jewish People Invented?, a book by Tel Aviv University scholar Shlomo Zand (or Sand) that sent shockwaves across Israeli society when it was published last year.
    After 19 weeks on the Israeli best-seller list, the book is being translated into a dozen languages and will be published in the US this year.
 
    Benjamin Netanyahu's brand of US-inspired politics is out of step with the credit-crunch Americans.
    In the wake of the Gaza campaign, and in the run-up to the general election, politicians are slicing and dicing the electorate in shameless pursuit of differing "old country" voters.
    Most remarkable has been the scramble to attract the pivotal Russian vote. The psephologists believe the émigré Russians take a belligerent view of Israel's need to defend itself from attacks by Hamas and other Palestinian extremists.
 
    An Israeli soldier has been killed in a bomb blast and at least 2 Palestinians have died in retaliatory fire in the Gaza Strip, threatening the region's fragile ceasefire and prompting Israeli tanks to return to the territory.
 
    Palestinian President Abbas vowed on Tuesday to take a tough stance in talks with Israel and said he would tell a US envoy that Israel's Gaza offensive proved it was not intent on peacemaking.
    Abbas also said he would back international efforts to prosecute Israel for war crimes. "We will do all we can to prove Israel committed crimes that would make your skin crawl."
 
    Egypt warned European countries on Tuesday to think carefully before sending ships to patrol Gaza's coastal waters to prevent arms smuggling, saying such a move could have significant consequences on ties with Arab states.
 
    Following scores of denials he would trumpet the plan, Obama hailed a so-called "Saudi Peace Initiative," which offers normalization of ties with the Jewish state in exchange for extreme Israeli concessions.
    In an interview with an Arab television network – his first formal interview as president – Obama trumpeted the Saudi initiative.
 
    Obama's interview with al-Arabiya television is remarkable in several ways, but what strikes me the most is that it coincided with the first air strikes on Pakistan under his administration.
    In the Arabiya interview, Obama was at his charming best, and the easily charmed were bowled over.
    The interview had some troubling aspects, an undercurrent of hardness running through the feel-good rhetoric, the mailed fist beneath the velvet glove.
 
    Muslim leaders have praised Obama for his "marked departure" from the foreign policy of George W. Bush, but criticised US support of Israel.
 
    Obama is planning to refocus US efforts in Afghanistan to concentrate military might on the battle against Al Qaeda and the Taliban, with less emphasis on reconstruction and governance, senior administration officials said Tuesday.
    He is also considering whether to maintain a close relationship with Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, who has come to be viewed by some members of the new Obama administration as a possible impediment to American goals in Afghanistan.
 
    Despite being denied proper access to the Law Faculty building, ex-ambassador Craig Murray spoke and answered questions from the entrance for over 45 minutes.
    He spoke on the US war in Central Asia for control over natural gas pipelines, war profiteers, and anti-Muslim propaganda in the media.
 
 
 
    President Sarkozy, in a meeting with Iran's new ambassador to Paris on Monday, announced his country's readiness to promote ties with Iran.
 
    Chancellor Merkel has assigned the country's ex-leader, Gerhard Schroeder, the task of talking to Iran, and is scheduled to travel to Tehran next month.
 
    President Ahmadinejad demanded on Wednesday that Obama apologise for the "crimes" committed by the US against Iran over the past 60 years.
    He also called on Washington to withdraw its troops from across the world as a proof of Obama's commitment to change.
    Ahmadinejad said the advocates of change must "stop supporting the Zionists, outlaws and criminals," and called on the US to "stop interfering in other people's affairs.
 
    Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he is troubled by Iranian activities in Latin America that he sees as meddling. He didn't say just what he thinks Iran is up to militarily. But he called Iran a threat there that Russia, despite high-profile maneuvers, is not.
 
 
 
    A lawyer whose case challenging Barack Obama's eligibility to occupy the Oval Office was denied a hearing in the US Supreme Court says she will demand records of a meeting between the justices and the president.
    Her case now reverts to the lower court, where it was pending when her emergency appeals were submitted to the Supreme Court.
    But the Supreme Court's actions now may become the subject of further questions, because Obama visited with the justices in their private chambers in a meeting closed to the public just before his inauguration.
    Taitz said a defendant in a legal action meeting with the judges who are deciding the case without have a representative from the other side is unprecedented – and unacceptable.
 
    Obama's nominee for deputy secretary of state contends American taxpayers are required to pay for abortions, a position that contradicts the US Supreme Court's interpretation of the Constitution.
 
 
Free room 'n board!...
    A new bill introduced in Congress authorizes the Department of Homeland Security to set up a network of FEMA camp facilities to be used to house U.S. citizens in the event of a national emergency.
    The National Emergency Centers Act (HR 645) mandates the establishment of "national emergency centers" to be located on military installations for the purpose of to providing "temporary housing, medical, and humanitarian assistance to individuals and families dislocated due to an emergency or major disaster," according to the bill.
 
    The Establishment Media is hyping the dire prophecy of a Russian professor that the US will have a bloody civil war and "disintegrate," after which the secessionist regions will be absorbed by other nations.
    The Establishment Media Moral: we must patriotically embrace our federal government or face horrendous consequences.
    Certainly a full-blown civil war would be hellish. With modern weapons the casualties could exceed all our other wars. The disruption of food production and distribution chains in our specialized economy could trigger famine.
    However, our political establishment is playing a rhetorical game when it strives to link secession and civil war.
    There won't be a civil war if we the people support a constitutional amendment to allow the 50 states of the United States to peacefully become 50 independent nations through voluntary disunion.
    Let's abolish the Cult of Federalism, before our wannabe-caesars can extract more of that kind of blood-drenched "glory" from us. Today it is our corrupt federal government that drags us toward collapse.
 
 
 
    Rising unemployment spared no state last month, and 2009 is shaping up as another miserable year for workers from coast to coast.
    And the unemployment picture is bound to get worse in every region of the country, economists say.
    In 2008, the country lost 2.6 million jobs, and in 2009 at least 2 million more jobs are forecast to disappear.
 
    World economic growth is set to fall to just 0.5% this year, its lowest rate since WW2, warns the International Monetary Fund.
    The outcome, it says, has been to send global output and trade plummeting. "We now expect the global economy to come to a virtual halt."
 
    Even before the euphoria evaporates, analysts are preaching gloom and doom for Obama on the home front.
    The economic growth of the Bush years, such as it was, was fueled by an explosion of private debt; now credit markets have collapsed and the economy is in free-fall.
 
    State, local, and private pension plans (worth trillions of dollars) covering millions of government employees and union workers with "defined benefit" accounts are teetering on the brink of implosion, victims of both a sinking stock market and investment strategies influenced by political considerations.
 
    The worst financial crisis since the Great Depression cast gloom over the opening of the World Economic Forum with warnings against creeping protectionism and expectations that government bailouts alone will restore the world's biggest economies to growth.
 
    "We cannot underestimate the challenges and dangers that the world economy faces in 2009," Stephen Roach, chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia.
    But if Davos men and women agree that things look awful, the burning question of what is to be done turns them fiery.
 
    What we are currently experiencing with the financial crisis and its consequences is the birth of a new era - a wake-up call to overhaul our institutions, our systems and, above all, our thinking.
    It is a call to remind us of the need to adjust our values to the needs of a world that rightly expects a much higher degree of responsibility and accountability.
 
    Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, is set to present his vision for a new world economic order in a speech this evening in an attempt to seize the initiative from advanced economies reeling from the credit crisis.
    Putin, who is making his first trip to Davos, is bidding to set the agenda for discussions on the global economy.
 
 
 
    Mexico appears poised on the precipice of disintegration and our nation's economy continues to demonstrate a worrying crisis in solvency.
 
    A swig of soda or a bite of a candy bar might be sweet, but a new study suggests that food made with corn syrup also could be delivering tiny doses of toxic mercury.
    For the first time, researchers say they have detected traces of the silvery metal in samples of high-fructose corn syrup, a widely used sweetener that has replaced sugar in many processed foods.
    The source of the metal appears to be caustic soda and hydrochloric acid, which manufacturers of corn syrup use to help convert corn kernels into the food additive.
 
    In studies of what is called the hygiene hypothesis, researchers are concluding that organisms like the millions of bacteria, viruses and especially worms that enter the body along with "dirt" spur the development of a healthy immune system.
    Several continuing studies suggest that worms may help to redirect an immune system that has gone awry and resulted in autoimmune disorders, allergies and asthma.
    (And: "To protect yourself from these disorders and insure long-term super health-as well as to aid your body's healing quest in the case of these and other related disorders-may I respectfully suggest you eat some dirt? Do not be surprised by what I say. Dirt-or to be more specific, the Earth's soil-is one of your body's best friends." -- Patient Heal Thyself)
 
    The size and shape of body parts can speak volumes about our health, fertility, and even our personality traits.
 
    Just as "Y2K" and its batch of predictions about the year 2000 have become a distant memory, here comes "2012."
    Fueled by a crop of books, Web sites with countdown clocks, and claims about ancient timekeepers, interest is growing in what some see as the dawn of a new era, and others as an expiration date for Earth: December 21, 2012.
 
    "In the 40th year, on the 1st day of the 11th month, Moses proclaimed to the Israelites all that YAHWEH had commanded him concerning them..." (Deut 1:3)
 
 
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