Sunday

The Daily WAR (13-23)

Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
 
 
 
 
    Pope Benedict XVI today hailed this week's UN anti-racism conference and urged countries to join forces to eliminate intolerance, but he made no reference to the US boycott of the meeting.
    The conference beginning Monday in Geneva is an important initiative, the pope said, because ''even today, despite the lessons of history, such deplorable phenomena take place.''
 
 
 
    Germany and the EU are still debating whether they should attend a controversial UN anti-racism conference.
 
    Germany reluctantly faces up to the scale of its banking disaster.
 
    Volkswagen may have passed Toyota to be the world's largest automaker in sales last quarter, because of higher demand in its main markets, Reuters reported, citing partial company data.
 
 
 
    A president who is surprised by the extent of his own unpopularity.
 
    Hopes of early European Union accession recede in Croatia.
 
    The European Union finds it hard to agree over how to deal with China.
    The fear of irrelevance haunts Euro-types, for all their public boasting about Europe's future might.
    The thought that the EU might not greatly interest China is especially painful.
    European governments do not even agree on what they want from China.
    They are fuzzily committed to EU "values", but will readily trample on those in a scramble to secure jobs and cheap goods for their voters.
 
 
 
Go figure...
    The Palestinian human rights debate has taken a new turn with the appointment of Richard Goldstone, a Jew with close ties to Israel, to head a UN investigation into atrocities allegedly committed in Israel's recent war with Hamas.
 
    George Mitchell, the US envoy to the Middle East, has told Palestinian officials that the US will vigorously pursue the creation of a Palestinian state.
    "The United States is committed to the establishment of a sovereign, independent, Palestinian state where the aspirations of the Palestinian people to control their own destiny are realised."
 
    Security sources say Israel and Iran are conducting rival intelligence operations in Eritrea, the poor African state on the Red Sea.
    The Israelis fear Eritrea could be a flashpoint if Iranian Revolutionary Guards continue to ship arms to militants in Gaza via the Eritrean port of Assab.
    Israel is said to have 2 Eritrean bases, one a "listening post" for signals intelligence, the other a supply base for its German-built submarines.
 
    Sudan's Islamist opposition leader, Hassan al-Turabi, has been prevented from travelling to Paris for medical treatment, an aide says.
    Turabi had a travel permit from the interior ministry but was stopped at Khartoum airport, the aide said.
 
    In an article published in December 2007, following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, I suggested that the US-NATO course for Pakistan consisted "in  fomenting social, ethnic and factional divisions and political fragmentation, including the territorial breakup of Pakistan."
    Recent developments indelibly point to a broadening of the Afghan war theater, which now encompasses parts of Pakistan. The underlying tendency is towards an Afghan-Pakistani war.
 
    The Chinese cyber spies have penetrated so deep into the US system — ranging from its secure defence network, banking system, electricity grid to putting spy chips into its defence planes — that it can cause serious damage to the US any time, a top US official on counter-intelligence has said.
 
 
 
    President Ahmadinejad claimed that Iran is the "guarantor" of security in the Middle East as his armed forces paraded in Tehran.
    "Today the Iranian nation, with its religious armed forces, is ready to have a wide role in world management and to establish security based on justice across the world. The world should know that Iran is a nation of ideals and supports peace and security based on justice for all nations."
 
    Iran's army chief says Tehran will not talk to countries that have deliberately chosen to ignore Israeli atrocities in the Middle East.
    "We will not sit at the negotiating table with those who have shut their eyes and ears and preferred to talk on behalf of the Zionist entity," Major General Firouzabadi told reporters.
 
    The Israeli military is preparing itself to launch a massive aerial assault on Iran's nuclear facilities within days of being given the go-ahead by its new government.
    Two nationwide civil defence drills will help to prepare the public for the retaliation that Israel could face.
    "Israel wants to know that if its forces were given the green light they could strike at Iran in a matter of days, even hours.
    They are making preparations on every level for this eventuality.
    "The message to Iran is that the threat is not just words," one senior defence official told The Times.
 
    The Iranian president on Saturday hailed the nation as "one of the strongest in the region" during a celebration to mark Army Day. "Today our nation is one of the strongest in the region and a great part of the world. And no country dares to threaten it."
 
    Israel is trying to make clear that even though the US plans to begin a diplomatic dialogue with Iran, it holds a realistic military option against Tehran's nuclear program.
    Without a deal that assuages Israel's concerns, there may be no other choice but to attack.
 
    Can Israel still call the US its best international friend? Apparently not, if you believe the tone of the local media.
    Watching the drama unfold inside Israel, the increasingly tense dialogue between Barack Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu is taking on all the trappings of a duel.
    Almost every day brings news of another sore point between the countries, a source of yet further inflammation of their once warm relations.
    US officials are openly using Israeli anxiety over Iran's fledging nuclear program as a bargaining chip to force Israel's hand on giving up control of the West Bank Palestinian territory.
    No less a figure than White House chief-of-staff Rahm Emanuel — whose father fought with the militant Zionist group the Irgun, and whose appointment had provided such reassurance to Israeli officials — was quoted this week laying down the law to Israel.
    If Israel wants US help to defuse the Iranian threat, Emanuel was reported to have told Jewish leaders in Washington, then get ready to start evacuating settlements in the West Bank.
 
Hmmm...
    Four American banks, including Citibank and Goldman Sachs, have applied for opening a branch in Iran, an Iranian daily has reported.
    The banks made a formal request to the Central Bank of Iran about 20 days ago to establish a branch in the country, the Jaam-e-Jam newspaper quoted an informed source as saying.
    "If the CBI approves their request, these 4 banks will set up a temporary branch in an Iranian free trade zone," the source told Jaam-e-Jam, without revealing the names of the other 2 banks.
    "If they can work according to Iran's banking law, they will be allowed to open branches in Tehran and other cities."
 
    An Iranian revolutionary court has sentenced US-Iranian journalist Roxana Saberi to 8 years in jail on charges of spying for the US, her lawyer said.
 
 
 
    The most powerful Jewish lobby in America is facing an unprecedented threat from a rival pro-peace pressure group that is vying for the ear of Barack Obama.
    For the past 25 years, the influential and hawkish American Israel Public Affairs Committee has helped thwart every US presidential effort to deliver Middle East peace on terms it was unhappy with.
    The lobby's legendary stranglehold over US foreign policy is now receding with the rise of J Street, which describes itself as the "political arm of the pro-Israel, pro-peace movement".
 
    Obama declared he was seeking 'a new beginning' with Cuba at the opening ceremony of the Summit of the Americas, as Washington and Havana traded warm words after a half century of hostility.
 
    Obama has been photographed shaking the hand of Venezuela's anti-American leader Hugo Chavez at Summit of the Americas in Trinidad - a moment of considerable symbolism after years of antagonism and outright hostility.
 
    Latin American leaders railed against the US during Barack Obama's first trip to the region, turning what was intended to mark a new direction in relations into a history lesson that chastised "Yankee troop" interventions and US-dictated economic policies.
    Obama arrived at the 5th Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago yesterday promising to "listen and learn" from regional leaders. He got an earful.
 
    Bolivia's leader says Washington continues to conspire against him — despite Obama's pledge of a new era of mutual respect toward Latin America.
 
    All is not well in Obamafanland. Whatever the last straw, a growing number of Obama enthusiasts are starting to entertain the possibility that their man is not, in fact, going to save the world if we all just hope really hard.
 
    Members of both sides of the aisle in Congress are expressing outrage and seeking an investigation into a new Department of Homeland Security report on "extremism" that targets US military veterans, opponents of abortion and supporters of other conservative causes.
 
    Today, we're seeing a return of anti-militia hysteria.
    Just as the federal government and its liberal defenders throughout the 1990s conflated patriotic Americans and peaceful separatists with dangerous "hate" groups and Rush Limbaugh's listeners with Timothy McVeigh, we have the same kind of culture-war nonsense today.
 
    I watched closely all the tea parties all over the country Wednesday. What a showing of national pride and solidarity.
    What a showing of subservient compliance and casual indifference. What a joke.
 
Already closed?...
    Does the Christian church bear any responsibility for our current financial-system collapse? [Yes!]
    The real reason behind the current financial-system breakdown is one few wish to talk about.
    The ongoing collapse of our financial systems and institutions is based on a morality crisis prevalent in both the church and the nation.
    In 2003, I wrote a book entitled "God's Got a Problem," which asked the questions whether God would judge and was judging our nation for its unabashed sin and rebellion against Him.
    In that book, I predicted that God would judge our idols of money, adult toys, commercialized sex and entertainment.
    More importantly, the book explored the responsibility of the Christian church for the nation's soon-coming judgment.
    Make no mistake: The predicted judgment has begun and will intensify in additional forms unless we repent of our thinking and our ways.
    We need a reformation of evangelical Christian thinking. We need it now.
    [WAR: He's so close, but yet so far. Yes, we need to "repent of our thinking and our ways" -- which includes the unbiblical religion of Christianity!!
    So "evangelical Christian thinking" needs, not just a reformation, but to be rebuked and repented of -- for rebelling against the truth of the Bible and following the teachings of her Mother Whore in Rome and the traditions of dead, pagan, Sun-worshipping men.]
 
 
 
    Sometimes we change because we want to: lose weight, go vegan, find God, get sober. But sometimes we change because we have no choice. The calculus of life suddenly offers new equations.
 
    Bondora isn't the only homeowner making an about-face in her approach to the stigma of foreclosure; if anything, homeowners like her see that efforts to prevent foreclosure may make them more financially vulnerable than succumbing to it and starting anew.
    Despite new refinancing and loan modification programs made available under the Obama administration, mortgage experts say that many homeowners still face difficult choices in the short run.
 
    Optimism that banks' fortunes have reached bottom may be premature.
 
    The trillions of dollars in cash, virtually interest-free loans and government guarantees the banks have been given with no strings attached first by Bush and now by Obama, have, not surprisingly, begun to register as handsome profits on major banks' balance sheets.
    The banks are continuing, with the blessings of the Obama administration, the same predatory policies that generated massive fortunes on Wall Street and eventually plunged the US and world economy into the deepest crisis since the Great Depression.
 
    Is the current stock market rebound based on fundamentals, or are more sinister forces at work?
    Tyler Durden, one of the best financial bloggers around, have found some circumstantial evidence that suggests the mysterious Plunge Protection Team has recently been boosting the stock market.
    And some might say Goldman Sachs is running the show.
 
    As previously noted, the Federal Reserve has failed on its own terms. Prominent Wall Street economist Henry Kaufman says that the Federal Reserve is primarily to blame for the financial crisis.
 
    Japan's government said the economy remains in a "severe" state, keeping its assessment unchanged for a 2nd month. "The economy is worsening rapidly while in a severe situation."
    Japan is heading for its worst postwar recession as a global slowdown erodes corporate profits, prompting job and wage cuts.
 
    Things could yet get a lot grimmer.
 
    Financial crises can drag on because efficient remedies are politically unpalatable.
 
    Expectations that foreign companies can cash in on Iraq's oil riches are in doubt after a key parliamentary body in Baghdad pledged to "push Shell out" and halt a forthcoming licensing round.
    The warning from the secretary of the Iraqi parliament's oil and gas committee was seen by financial analysts yesterday as a serious threat to Western investment opportunities in a country that holds the 2nd-largest oil reserves in the world.
 
 
 
    Evidence mounts that brains decide before their owners know about it.
 
    A striking fact has changed my view of Islam: that for 400 years, between the Islamic victories of the 7th century until the end of the 11th century, a half of the world's professing Christians lived under Muslim rule.
 
    An evangelical Chinese billionaire and his two billionaire brothers are behind a massive project of building the world's first biblically proportioned Noah's ark.
    The Kwok brothers, heirs to Hong Kong's largest real estate developer, has built the 450-foot-long ark/luxury hotel complete with 67 pairs of fiberglass animals.
 
    Orthodox Christians have been marking Easter at celebrations throughout Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
    Thousands of worshippers crowded into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, Christianity's holiest shrine, for the Holy Fire Ritual.
    Greek Orthodox, Armenians and other Eastern rite Christians mark Easter a week after Protestants and Catholics as the Orthodox Church follows a different calendar.
 
Speakin' of following a calendar...
    Catholics identify the changing of the day of worship as a sign of Catholic authority!
    Catholics, in fact, feel the Protestants should keep the Sabbath as long as they reject the authority of Rome.
    What then are millions of professing Christians to do? Should they, like Martin Luther, just avoid rocking the boat?
    [WAR: So wouldn't it be logical/reasonable to apply this logic/reason to the issue of the Gregorian Calendar (GC)?
    If we reject Catholic authority over determining what day to rest (which affects you only 1 day of the week), shouldn't we also reject its authority over determining what each day is to be called and numbered (which affects you every day of the week)? It's the only logical conclusion!
    The keeping of Sunday is "a sign of Catholic authority" only over Christianity. But the keeping of the GC is the "a sign of Catholic authority" over all the world's nations and peoples.
    This is why I've chosen to start "rocking the boat"...]
 
 
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