Rare Earthquake Shakes Connecticut
Scientists say it was a small earthquake that shook houses in Chester and surrounding towns.
The U.S. Geological Survey says it recorded a 2.0 magnitude earthquake early Tuesday morning three miles northwest of the center of Chester.
Many people in the area called 911 to report that their houses were shaking. The state police dispatched troopers, but they weren’t able to find any reason for the shaking.
Earthquakes are unusual in Connecticut.
Are We In The Middle of A Financial Meltdown
The scariest thing I’ve read recently is a speech given last week by Tim Geithner, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Mr. Geithner came as close as a Fed official can to saying that we’re in the midst of a financial meltdown.
To understand the gravity of the situation, you have to know what the Fed did last summer, and again last fall.
As late as August the favorite buzzword of financial officials was “contained”: problems in subprime mortgages, we were assured, wouldn’t spread to other financial markets or to the economy as a whole.
Soon afterward, however, a full-fledged financial panic began. Investors pulled hundreds of billions of dollars out of asset-backed commercial paper, a little-known but important market that has taken over a lot of the work banks used to do. This de facto bank run sent shock waves through the financial system.
The Fed responded by rushing money to banks, and markets partially calmed down, for a little while. But by December the panic was back.
Again, the Fed responded by rushing money to banks, this time via a new arrangement called the Term Auction Facility. Again the markets calmed down, for a while.
Russia Harks Back To Cold War Strategy
According to Russian military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer, what Moscow is doing with these incidents is providing not a threat but a message.
“The message that we’re back again, that we’re still a kind of something, a chip off the Soviet Union, we have the capabilities, we have those heavy bombers that can carry nuclear weapons, which other nations do not have, and that we should be taken seriously,” he told The World Today.
Lawrence Korb, a senior fellow at the Centre for American Progress and former assistant secretary of defence in the Reagan administration, says the Russians have not adjusted to the fact that they are no longer a great power.
“Given the high price of oil in the last decade, their economic situation is obviously better, but their military is a shadow of its former self and they have very, very limited capabilities,” he said.
Mr Korb says the US Government will recognise that their posture toward the Russians has to change.
“We can just no longer assume that we can do whatever we want in the security realm without some sort of reaction,” he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been reacting with threats to what he sees as the United States getting ever closer to his country, particularly with the American plan for parts of its missile defence shield to be installed in eastern Europe.
“To protect our national security, we have to respond”, Mr Putin said at his final media conference recently.
Mr Putin has also talked about the arms race beginning once again. But as for these recent demonstrations of power over US warships escalating beyond something symbolic, Mr Felgenhauer thinks that is highly unlikely.
“Risk is really minimal because no one really right now is on a war footing at all,” he said.
But he says it does, to some extent, amount to a resurgence of Cold War rhetoric and actions.
Parents Of 166,000 Students Could Face Criminal Charges As California Court Rules Against Homeschool
A “breathtaking” ruling from a California appeals court that could subject the parents of 166,000 students in the state to criminal sanctions will be taken to the state Supreme Court.
The announcement comes today from the Pacific Justice Institute, whose president, Brad Dacus, described the impact of the decision as “stunning.”
“The scope of this decision by the appellate court is breathtaking,” he said. “It not only attacks traditional homeschooling, but also calls into question homeschooling through charter schools and teaching children at home via independent study through public and private school.”
“If not reversed, the parents of the more than 166,000 students currently receiving an education at home will be subject to criminal sanctions,” he said.
Recession Fears Rise As Economy Continues To Falter
The job market’s deterioration comes as oil prices climbed this week to a record $105.47 a barrel. Meanwhile, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported a record number of American homes went into foreclosure the last three months of 2007, and the Federal Reserve said homeowner equity, battered by sliding home prices, fell to the lowest level since World War II. This all means a tighter squeeze on consumers, who are likely to pull back on spending, which drives about 70 percent of the US economy.
Stock prices, too, continued their slide. The Dow Jones industrial average shed 146.70 points yesterday, closing at 11,893.69, the lowest since October 2006.
“It’s a very toxic mixture,” said Nigel Gault, chief US economist at Global Insight, a Waltham forecasting firm. “Things are go ing to get worse in the immediate future.”
President Bush, reacting to the unexpected job losses, yesterday acknowledged economic activity has slowed. But he said the recently approved package to stimulate the economy, primarily through tax rebate checks to most Americans, will provide a “booster shot.” In addition, aggressive interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve will provide a further lift.
Economists expect the Fed to cut rates again, perhaps by three-quarters of a point, when policy makers meet March 18. The Fed has already cut the benchmark rate by 2.25 points since September, to 3 percent, the lowest level in nearly three years. Many economists forecast that the rate, which influences just about every other borrowing rate, will fall to 2 percent or lower before the Fed is done cutting.
Lower interest rates aim to stimulate the economy by reducing borrowing costs, which encourage businesses and consumers to borrow and spend. But the impact of rate cuts has been blunted by the so-called credit crunch as banks, many sustaining huge losses from rising defaults in risky mortgages known as subprime, have become reluctant to lend.
“The rate cuts are setting the stage for better times later, but they can’t deal with the credit crunch going on,” said Allen Sinai, chief economist at Decision Economics Inc., a Boston financial market advisory firm. “We are in a very dangerous situation that the downturn won’t be mild and short, but long and deep.”
Israel Fears New Uprising By Palestinians – Possible 3rd Intifada
Fears of a new Palestinian “intifada,” or uprising, have been stoked by a shooting rampage that left dead eight Israelis at a Jerusalem yeshiva, raising the death toll from militant attacks since Jan. 1 above the total for all of last year.
Israel’s army yesterday closed Palestinian areas of the West Bank and banned young men from attending Friday services at the mosques on the Temple Mount in the Old City.
After hours of silence, Hamas took responsibility for the carnage Thursday inside the prominent Mercaz Harav Yeshiva, or Jewish seminary, the Ha’aretz newspaper reported on its Web site. But the Associated Press later reported that Hamas had backtracked on their claim.
“There may be a later announcement. But we don’t claim this honor yet,” said Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas’ military wing.
The attack came on the heels of an Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip that Palestinian officials say killed more than 120, including a disputed number of civilians. The campaign targeted militants who have been barraging southern Israel with rockets. Four Israelis have also been killed in fighting since last week.
Day of Silence – Parents Urged To Boycott Day Promoting Homosexuality
March 9, 2008 by admin
Filed under Moral Decay
What if homosexuals staged a huge promotion of that sexual lifestyle choice, and no one came to see it? That’s exactly what a coalition of organizations is proposing for April 25, this year’s “Day of Silence,” which is sponsored in public schools across the nation to promote homosexuality.
“It’s outrageous that our neighborhood schools would allow homosexual activism to intrude into the classroom,” said Buddy Smith of the American Family Association, one of a long list of organizations asking parents to keep their students home from school on that day.
“‘Day of Silence’ is about coercing students to repudiate traditional morality. It’s time for Christian parents to draw the line – if your children will be exposed to this DOS propaganda in their school, then keep them home for the day,” he said.
The “Day of Silence” promotion is intended, ostensibly, to make students “aware” of the “discrimination” suffered by homosexuals in society, by having students remain silent for the day. Such events typically are organized by a school’s “Gay-Straight Alliance” group, but the event has been promoted for its previous 11 years by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, an organization with the agenda of establishing homosexual advocacy organizations such as GSAs in all schools in the nation.
Obama Ties Same-sex Issues To Jesus Sermon on Mount
With voting just hours away in “Super Tuesday II,” some remarks by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama linking same-sex relationships to Jesus famous Sermon on the Mount are raising some eyebrows in the Christian community.
During a Sunday campaign stop in Nelsonville, Ohio, Pastor Leon Forte of Grace Christian Center in Athens, Ohio, asked the Illinois senator to address social concerns:
“Your campaign sets a quandary for most evangelical Christians. They believe in the social agenda that you have. They have a problem with what the conservatives have laid out as the moral litmus test about who is worthy and who is not.”
As part of a lengthy videotaped response, Obama referred to the speech by Jesus found in the Gospel of Matthew, as well as some anti-homosexual statements made by the apostle Paul which he called “obscure”:
Dollar: It Will Only Get Worse
Despite all the pain the U.S. dollar has endured in recent days, the greenback may still have further to fall before seeing any sort of relief, according to currency experts.
Driving much of the dollar’s decline this week were tepid remarks about the U.S. economy by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who hinted that the central bank would cut interest rates once again at the Fed’s March meeting.
Those comments, combined with a number of troubling signs about the strength of the U.S. economy, helped send the dollar tumbling to multi-year lows against a host of currencies including the Swiss franc, the Malaysian ringgit and Japanese yen.
Vatican and Muslims Prepare For Historic Meeting With Pope
Muslim representatives and Vatican officials begin talks this week that they hope will lead to an unprecedented Catholic-Islamic meeting.
Five representatives from each side will meet on Tuesday for two days in Rome to work out the details of a larger meeting that will include Pope Benedict later this year.
“We have to bring the dialogue up to date following the great successes of the pontificate of John Paul II,” said Yahya Sergio Yahe Pallavicini, vice-president of the Italian Islamic Religious Community.
Catholic-Muslim relations nosedived in 2006 after Benedict delivered a lecture in Regensburg, Germany, that was taken by Muslims to imply that Islam was violent and irrational.
Muslims around the world protested and the Pope sought to make amends when he visited Turkey’s Blue Mosque and prayed towards Mecca with its Imam.
After the fallout from the Regensburg speech, 138 Muslim scholars and leaders wrote to the German-born Pontiff and other Christian leaders last year, saying “the very survival of the world itself” may depend on dialogue between the two faiths.
The signatories of the Muslim appeal for theological dialogue, called the “Common Word,” has grown to nearly 225 since.
“Now there is a need for deeper dialogue on doctrine, theology and the character of religions in today’s world and the challenges we face,” Pallavicini told Reuters.
“We must try, together with the Pope, to get on a path of dialogue on issues confronting humanity today,” he said.
Besides Pallavicini, the Muslim delegation to the preparatory talks will include a Turk, a Briton, a Jordanian and a Libyan.
The Vatican delegation includes Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, head of the Vatican’s Council for Interreligious Dialogue, the head of the Pontifical Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies in Rome and a professor from Rome’s Gregorian University.
Death of a Taboo: Acceptance of Sex-Selective Abortion Growing
March 3, 2008 by admin
Filed under Stories Of Interest
An article in this weekend’s Los Angeles Times reports that more North American women are using inexpensive genetic tests to determine the sex of their children before birth. These tests may then become the determining factor in deciding for abortion.
The tests, which cost $300 or less, are often used to determine the sex of a child before birth. The LA Times reports that they have been found to be unreliable and more than a hundred women have launched suits against one Massachusetts company, Acu-Gen, over wrong results. Direct-to-consumer genetic tests have burgeoned in the market with about 1,400 different types currently sold.
Columnist William Saletan, following up today at Slate.com, writes that the article is an indication of the growing public acceptance of sex-selective abortion. He asks, how “does a taboo begin to die?”
Saletan writes that the new twist on sex-selective abortion, which is known to be widespread in North America and has had devastating demographic consequences in India, is the “ease, safety and privacy” with which it is now available. Sex-selection tests are cheap and easy, and although their accuracy has come into question, they are often a precursor to abortion.
Saletan points to the shift in emphasis indicated by the LA Times article: “The very idea of elective prenatal sex-testing used to be controversial, especially in light of rampant sex-selective abortion in Asia. Now these tests are being bought, used and reported just like any other prenatal test.” The increasing social acceptability of the practice is indicated by the fact that the couples and women interviewed did not hesitate to allow their names to be used, although none of those quoted actually aborted.
Global Food Shortages Loom As Wheat Crop Shrinks
The world is only ten weeks away from running out of wheat supplies after stocks fell to their lowest levels for 50 years.
The crisis has pushed prices to an all-time high and could lead to further hikes in the price of bread, beer, biscuits and other basic foods.
It could also exacerbate serious food shortages in developing countries especially in Africa.
The crisis comes after two successive years of disastrous wheat harvests, which saw production fall from 624m to 600m tonnes, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
Experts blame climate change as heatwaves caused a slump in harvests last year in eastern Europe, Canada, Morocco and Australia, all big wheat producers.
Booming populations and a switch to a meat-rich diet in the developing world also mean that about 110m tons of the world’s annual wheat crop is being diverted to feed livestock.
Short term pressures have compounded the problem. Speculative buying by investors gambling on further price rises has further pushed up prices.
Though shortages are often blamed on the use of land for biofuel crops, the main biofuel cereal crop is maize, not wheat. Farmers have brought millions of acres of fallow land into production and the FAO predicts that the shortages could be eliminated within 12 months.
Christian Morality
March 3, 2008 by admin
Filed under Moral Decay
In an era when evangelical ministers are endorsing pro-abortion candidates and an Episcopal bishop is marrying his gay lover, I guess it is no surprise that our own charismatic church leaders are sending out confusing signals about morality these days. It seems that in 2008, up is down, right is wrong and biblical absolutes are up for grabs.
This is especially true when it comes to marriage, an institution that once was considered sacred by all Christians. Nowadays, many preachers and even famous evangelical authors have created a new trend: Throwaway wedding vows. Christian divorce today is cheap, easy and not that much more expensive than a facelift. And some of our superstar preachers have figured out a way to use Bible verses to support their moral failures.
Kuwaiti Paper: Mega-Attack on Israel in March
The Kuwaiti daily Al-Watan quoted “top Western sources” Monday saying that, “according to reliable intelligence information, Hizbullah has begun planning a large-scale attack on Israel in retaliation for its [alleged] assassination of senior Hizbullah commander Imad Mughniyah.”
According to the report, translated by MEMRI, the attack is being planned in coordination with Syria and Iran, and is to take place before the Arab summit next month.
It was also reported that there would be a simultaneous terrorist escalation by Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other PA groups in Gaza.
