Seven Days That Shook Wall Street

A look back at the historic-and often scary-events that changed the U.S. financial system forever BUSINESS WEEK [McGraw-Hill] - By Phil Mintz - September 19, 2008 It was the week that shook the financial world to the core. On Friday, Sept. 12, traders left the New York Stock Exchange for the weekend. But key banking officials, facing the impending failure of the venerable Lehman Brothers investment house and a shaky outlook for two other huge financial players-investment firm Merrill Lynch (MER) and insurance giant American International Group (AIG)-began a series of weekend meetings in an effort to prevent a possible collapse of the global financial system. Over the next seven days, the nation's financial leaders, captained by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, produced a rapid succession of moves that reversed a decades-long trend toward financial deregulation and fundamentally changed the face of the American financial system. Lehman failed and Merrill was sold to Bank of America (BAC). The government took effective control of AIG in an $85 billion bailout. And, in the biggest intervention of all, officials proposed to purchase the troubled mortgage assets of financial firms, a move that could cost hundreds of billions of additional dollars. Meanwhile, worried investors sent the stock markets into a dizzying ride of huge gains and losses. Here's how the events unfolded: Friday, Sept. 12: The trading week ends with the fate of 158-year-old Lehman Brothers in grave doubt. Its stock had fallen sharply due to fears over its financial condition. Paulson, Bernanke, and New York Fed President Tim Geithner begin a series of meetings in Lower Manhattan with top bankers in an effort to engineer a bailout of Lehman, which had bet heavily in the subprime mortgage market. Two possible buyers emerge: Britain's Barclays (BCS) and Bank of America. Saturday, Sept. 13: Talks on a possible Lehman buyout continue. The would-be rescuers look to the government to take on some of the risk, as it did in the shotgun sale of Bear Stearns to JPMorgan Chase (JPM) in March and the effective nationalization on Sept. 8 of mortgage giants Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE). Government officials hold fast that there will be no federal bailout. Talks are inconclusive. Sunday, Sept. 14: The negotiators continue meeting, facing a deadline to act before Asian markets open for Monday morning trading. But government officials insist there will be no federal backing of a Lehman rescue. With no help from Washington forthcoming, Barclays-the only possibility left after Bank of America leaves the table-withdraws. Lehman is done for. Meanwhile, Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain, seeing the writing on the wall, arranges the sale of his company to Bank of America for about $50 billion. In one day, the fates of two storied companies are sealed. Monday, Sept. 15: Lehman Brothers Holdings, the bank's holding company, files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and says it will try to sell key business units. Investor concern now turns to the fate of AIG, fearing a liquidity crisis. Rating agencies cut AIG's credit rating. Despite reassurances about the economy from Paulson and President George W. Bush, the stock market plummets. The Dow Jones industrial average drops more than 504 points, or 4.4%, the biggest loss since right after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. The failure also roils overseas stocks, sending them plunging. Meanwhile, concerns about a slowing economy take oil below the psychological benchmark of $100 a barrel, its lowest level since February. Tuesday, Sept. 16: The Federal Reserve meets and keeps the federal funds rate unchanged at 2%. Asian markets, some of which had been closed for a holiday on Monday, plummet. The Russian stock market goes into a tailspin, with the largest exchange down more than 17% before the Russian government halts trading. Managers of the Primary Fund, a supposedly supersafe money market fund, say that shares have fallen below the sacrosanct $1 valuation. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs (GS) and Morgan Stanley (MS), the two remaining independent investment banks, report stronger-than-expected results. However, investors continue to beat down the companies' shares. Amid all the turbulence, U.S. officials decide that AIG is indeed "too big to fail." In a move that would have been unthinkable before the credit crisis began, the Fed arranges to lend $85 billion to AIG in exchange for a 79.9% equity stake. The deal is announced Tuesday evening. Even before the deal is finalized, the Dow reverses an earlier loss and gains 141 points. Wednesday, Sept. 17: The government bailout of AIG fails to stem investor fears as they flee to safety. Credit markets tighten. The New York Times reports that Washington Mutual (WM), the nation's largest thrift, has put itself up for sale. The Dow plunges 449 points. Thursday, Sept. 18: The New York Times reports that Morgan Stanley has "stepped up" merger talks with Wachovia (WB). The Fed moves to pump money into the financial system through lending programs operated by several overseas central banks and the Fed's own moves. At the same time, the government begins action on the hugest bailout of all, committing hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to buy troubled mortgage assets from beleaguered financial institutions. As word of the evolving plan spreads, stocks rally. The Dow closes up 410 points. In the evening, Paulson and Bernanke and Securities & Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox go to the U.S. Capitol to brief lawmakers on the plan, which requires congressional authorization. Friday, Sept. 19: The buyout plan-with few firm details-is announced and stocks soar worldwide. President Bush says the move puts "a significant amount of taxpayer dollars on the line," but he says the risk of not acting "would be far higher." In additional actions, the Treasury and Fed act to guarantee the assets of money-market funds, which had been threatened by the meltdown of the financial markets, and the SEC places a temporary ban on the short-selling of nearly 799 financial stocks. The Dow closes up 368.75 points, 45 points below where it was a week earlier but still 911 points over its bottom on Thursday morning. A momentous week indeed, but there is no sign the economic drama will limit itself to a mere seven days. Lawmakers and regulators are to work through this weekend in an effort to devise bailout plan legislation that can come to a vote next week. The bipartisan consensus surrounding the deal can come undone as the details are ironed out. But for drama, it will be hard to match events that have reshaped the U.S. financial landscape for years, if not decades to come. Mintz is BusinessWeek.com's B-schools channel editor in New York. Original Report http://www.businessweek.com/print/bwdaily/dnflash/content/sep2008/db20080919_945045.htm FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. 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Digging out the truth?

THE JERUSALEM POST [Mirkaei Tikshoret/CanWest] - Op-Ed By Lela Gilbert - August 14, 2008 My first introduction to Jerusalem in 2006 took place on Tisha Be'av, the fast commemorating the destruction of the First and Second Temples. I stood at the Western Wall, during that time of the Second War in Lebanon, watching thousands of Jewish faithful, from all different walks of life - women and men, soldiers and Hassidim, Sephardim and Ashkenazim - gathered in unity to remember and to mourn. It was like entering the very soul of Israel. This Tisha Be'av caused me to reflect further on those lost Temples, particularly now that I have spent two years in the country, during which I had occasion to visit the Temple Mount. After passing through two security checks before entering, a different world appeared - one with no visible vestige of Judaism - on that ancient and holiest of Jewish sites. Christianity hasn't fared any better. In fact, for Christians, the writing is on the wall - literally and figuratively - the wall inside the Dome of the Rock. In Arabic calligraphy dating from the seventh century, the text declares that God has no son; that Jesus was not resurrected (Islam also denies that he was crucified); that Jews and Christians, "the People of the Book," transgress by not embracing Muhammad's revelation; and that Allah's reckoning will come swiftly on those who do not believe. Christians' attachment to the Temple Mount is based on Jesus's words and deeds as recorded in the Gospels. It was strange enough for me to discover, therefore, that Jews and Christians are not permitted to read their scriptures or pray aloud there. But it wasn't until learning that during the 2000 Camp David negotiations, PLO chairman Yasser Arafat had denied that any Jewish Temple had ever existed on the Mount that I grasped the depth of the divergence from the Hebrew Scripture, New Testament and historical records that is out there, and not as fringe an idea as one might assume. SIFTING THROUGH tons of rubble that had been illicitly dug up on the Temple Mount by the Muslim Wakf and stealthily dumped into a landfill, biblical archeologist Dr. Gabriel Barkay, professor at Bar-Ilan University, is in the midst of the project of a lifetime. I put the question of Temple denial to him. "This denial of the historical, spiritual and archeological connections of the Jews to the Temple Mount is something new," he says. "There was always talk about the temple of Solomon in Jerusalem - called the 'praise of Jerusalem'- in Arabic literature, in Islamic literature. This new idea of Temple denial is due to the Arabic fear of Jewish aspirations connected to the Temple Mount. It is part of something I call the 'cultural intifada.'" Barkay says the change took place in the 1990s: "In the Washington DC think tanks surrounding president Bill Clinton, it was understood that the Temple Mount was the crux of the problem of the Middle East conflict. These think tanks decided that if there could be 'split sovereignty' on the Temple Mount, then split sovereignty could also be achieved over the entire land of Palestine. So they suggested that in a future agreement, the Temple Mount would be split horizontally. That is to say that whatever is above ground, the part that includes the shrines of the Muslims, would be under Palestinian sovereignty. Whatever is underground, which would include the remnants of the Temple of the Jews, would be under Israeli sovereignty. "It's a brilliant idea, an excellent idea, but totally idiotic from a practical point of view. You cannot have a building standing with its foundations in another country. You cannot have a building with the infrastructure and the plumbing in another country. And you cannot have sovereignty on the subground without having accessibility to the subground, because the accessibility is from above ground. The whole thing was stupid." Barkay explains that the Temple Mount is honeycombed with more than 50 different cavities, holes, passageways and cisterns that are "filled with earth which is saturated with very valuable archeological materials. Enormous damage was done in these works which were carried out mainly from 1996 and onward. The idea that came from the circles surrounding Bill Clinton and leaked to the Wakf authorities is what generated the illicit building activities - I wouldn't call them excavations - but destructive work which was carried out brutally on the Temple Mount. The fear, the fear of anything representing a Jewish presence on the Temple Mount drove them mad." PRIOR TO my own visits to the Mount, I had been warned not to carry a bible or "holy objects" with me, and to stay away from the Dome of the Rock shrine and the Aksa Mosque, into which non-Muslims are forbidden to go. Nor was I allowed to see a third edifice which I'd read about - the Marwani Mosque - a gigantic, subterranean building, located in the southeast corner of the Temple Mount Plaza. In 1996, the Wakf had reconfigured an underground structure, formerly known as "Solomon's Stables," into a mosque. Their contractors lowered the inside surface of the building by removing large quantities of priceless soil, rich in archeological evidence. According to Barkay, the history they hauled away in dump trucks was not Muslim. "The building was never a mosque. It is actually more connected to traditions about Jesus. There are quite solid hints in the literature of the existence of an early Christian church there, marking the place where St. James was killed in the first century. The place is more Christian than Muslim." In November 1999, the Wakf asked permission from the Israeli government to open an emergency exit leading from the Marwani Mosque. "The prime minister at that time was Ehud Barak, and as usual he didn't consult with anybody else," Barkay recalls. "He gave them permission. But instead of an emergency exit, they created a main entrance to the building - a monumental entrance. For that entrance, they dug a pit 40 meters long and 12 meters deep. They did it with bulldozers in the most destructive manner possible, that of a bull in a china shop. The work on that place should have been done carefully, not with bulldozers. They removed 400 truckloads of earth." For Barkay, sifting through those truckloads of material is essential, because it amounts to exploring a black hole in archeological history. Although Israel is one of the most excavated places in the world, explored continuously since the 1850s, the Temple Mount has been surveyed but never excavated. Therefore, ironically, the digging and removal of earth in the 1990s has provided a new opportunity. "At least it enables us to look at the soil, though everything comes from a very disturbed context," Barkay says. "But we know it comes from the Temple Mount. And we have tens of thousands of finds." These finds, that cover approximately 15,000 years, have altered the historic understanding of the area's history. Sponsored by the Ir David Foundation, volunteers working with Barkay have been sifting through the debris, and have found Stone Age flint implements. They have discovered pre-Israelite material, Bronze Age pottery, two Egyptian scarabs and several seals and seal impressions. One very significant find, confirming the recorded history of the Temple's existence, is the fragment of a bulla, a clay lump with a seal impression upon it, which is about 2,600 years old and dates from the First Temple period. Its inscription bears part of official's name, Gealyahu son of Immer. The Immer family is recorded in the Bible. "In Jeremiah 20:1," Barkay says, "probably the brother of Gealyahu is mentioned, a priestly man named Pashur son of Immer. He is introduced as the man in charge of the Temple." Findings from the time of Solomon's Temple up to the 20th century illuminate the raging conflicts of passing civilizations. "We have enormous quantities of war artifacts: We have lead slingshots of the Seleucid armies in the battles of Judah Maccabee. We have arrowheads of the army of Nebuchadnezzar, who destroyed the First Temple. We have arrowheads of the Hellenistic period. We have one arrowhead bearing distinguishing markings of having been shot by a catapult. Those machines were only used by the armies of Titus in 70 CE in the destruction of the Second Temple. We have stone slingshots; we have spearheads; and we have medieval arrowheads from the Crusader conquest of the Temple Mount. There are even bullets from both the Turkish army and the British army in World War I." Other findings on the Temple Mount - jewelry, coins, pottery shards and architectural fragments - provide specific details of human life spanning several millennia. "We have material dating back to the 10th century BCE, the time of David and Solomon. We have material from the time of the kings of Judah. We have material in abundance from the early Christian period. This is very significant, because it is written in most history books that the churches moved to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher after it was built (it dates back to at least the fourth century), and that thereafter the Temple Mount was neglected and was a garbage heap. But now we have to build a new history, based on archeological evidence. "We have fragments of capitals from church buildings. We have remnants of chancel screens that separated the presbytery from the nave of the church. We have several bronze weights for weighing gold coins from the Christian era. We have to rethink the role of the Temple Mount in the time of early Christianity. Was it a garbage heap? Or is that biased history? I think that history was ideological." Barkay says that large quantities of animal bones have been found on the Mount. "Bones are very important. We have pig bones which had to have come from pagan or Christian times. We also have bones of foxes. And that is interesting, because in the Talmud we have a story about foxes which until recently I thought was a legend." IN SPITE of these discoveries, Temple denial remains a growing phenomenon in Europe and America, particularly in leftist intellectual circles. It is supported by the reality that there are no visible remains of the temples of Jerusalem on the Temple Mount. Barkay contends that there were remains still visible in the 1960s and 1970s, which have either been removed or covered up by gardens. "The Islamic Wakf says, 'We are not going to let you dig, but show us any remains of the Temple.' You cannot have it both ways. If you don't allow people to dig, then don't use this absence of remains as an argument. "Temple denial is a very tragic harnessing of politics to change history. It is not a different interpretation of historical events or archeological evidence. This is something major. I think that Temple denial is more serious and more dangerous than Holocaust denial. Why? Because for the Holocaust there are still living witnesses. There are photographs; there are archives; there are the soldiers who released the prisoners; there are testimonies from the Nazis themselves. There were trials, a whole series of them, starting with Nuremberg. There are people who survived the Holocaust still among us. Concerning the Temple, there are no people among us who remember. "Still, [to deny the Temples], you have to dismiss the evidence of Flavius Josephus; you have to dismiss the evidence of the Mishna and of the Talmud; and you have to dismiss the writings of Roman and Greek historians who mention the Temple of Jerusalem. And you have to dismiss The Bible. That is, I think, way too much." The writer has authored or co-authored more than 60 books, primarily in the field of ecumenical Christian non-fiction. Her work includes the recently released biography Baroness Cox: Eyewitness to a Broken World and the award-winning Their Blood Cries Out, co-authored with Paul Marshall. She is also an Adjunct Fellow at the Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute. Original Report Here http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1218710365298&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

The $55 trillion question

The financial crisis has put a spotlight on the obscure world of credit default swaps - which trade in a vast, unregulated market that most people haven't heard of and even fewer understand. Will this be the next disaster? FORTUNE MAGAZINE [Time, Inc./Time Warner] - By Nicholas Varchaver, senior editor and Katie Benner, writer-reporter - September 30, 2008 As Congress wrestles with another bailout bill to try to contain the financial contagion, there's a potential killer bug out there whose next movement can't be predicted: the Credit Default Swap. In just over a decade these privately traded derivatives contracts have ballooned from nothing into a $54.6 trillion market. CDS are the fastest-growing major type of financial derivatives. More important, they've played a critical role in the unfolding financial crisis. First, by ostensibly providing "insurance" on risky mortgage bonds, they encouraged and enabled reckless behavior during the housing bubble. "If CDS had been taken out of play, companies would've said, 'I can't get this [risk] off my books,'" says Michael Greenberger, a University of Maryland law professor and former director of trading and markets at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. "If they couldn't keep passing the risk down the line, those guys would've been stopped in their tracks. The ultimate assurance for issuing all this stuff was, 'It's insured.'" Second, terror at the potential for a financial Ebola virus radiating out from a failing institution and infecting dozens or hundreds of other companies - all linked to one another by CDS and other instruments - was a major reason that regulators stepped in to bail out Bear Stearns and buy out AIG (AIG, Fortune 500), whose calamitous descent itself was triggered by losses on its CDS contracts (see "Hank's Last Stand"). And the fear of a CDS catastrophe still haunts the markets. For starters, nobody knows how federal intervention might ripple through this chain of contracts. And meanwhile, as we'll see, two fundamental aspects of the CDS market - that it is unregulated, and that almost nothing is disclosed publicly - may be about to change. That adds even more uncertainty to the equation. "The big problem is that here are all these public companies - banks and corporations - and no one really knows what exposure they've got from the CDS contracts," says Frank Partnoy, a law professor at the University of San Diego and former Morgan Stanley derivatives salesman who has been writing about the dangers of CDS and their ilk for a decade. "The really scary part is that we don't have a clue." Chris Wolf, a co-manager of Cogo Wolf, a hedge fund of funds, compares them to one of the great mysteries of astrophysics: "This has become essentially the dark matter of the financial universe." *** AT FIRST GLANCE, credit default swaps don't look all that scary. A CDS is just a contract: The "buyer" plunks down something that resembles a premium, and the "seller" agrees to make a specific payment if a particular event, such as a bond default, occurs. Used soberly, CDS offer concrete benefits: If you're holding bonds and you're worried that the issuer won't be able to pay, buying CDS should cover your loss. "CDS serve a very useful function of allowing financial markets to efficiently transfer credit risk," argues Sunil Hirani, the CEO of Creditex, one of a handful of marketplaces that trade the contracts. Because they're contracts rather than securities or insurance, CDS are easy to create: Often deals are done in a one-minute phone conversation or an instant message. Many technical aspects of CDS, such as the typical five-year term, have been standardized by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA). That only accelerates the process. You strike your deal, fill out some forms, and you've got yourself a $5 million - or a $100 million - contract. And as long as someone is willing to take the other side of the proposition, a CDS can cover just about anything, making it the Wall Street equivalent of those notorious Lloyds of London policies covering Liberace's hands and other esoterica. It has even become possible to purchase a CDS that would pay out if the U.S. government defaults. (Trust us when we say that if the government goes under, trying to collect will be the least of your worries.) You can guess how Wall Street cowboys responded to the opportunity to make deals that (1) can be struck in a minute, (2) require little or no cash upfront, and (3) can cover anything. Yee-haw! You can almost picture Slim Pickens in Dr. Strangelove climbing onto the H-bomb before it's released from the B-52. And indeed, the volume of CDS has exploded with nuclear force, nearly doubling every year since 2001 to reach a recent peak of $62 trillion at the end of 2007, before receding to $54.6 trillion as of June 30, according to ISDA. Take that gargantuan number with a grain of salt. It refers to the face value of all outstanding contracts. But many players in the market hold offsetting positions. So if, in theory, every entity that owns CDS had to settle its contracts tomorrow and "netted" all its positions against each other, a much smaller amount of money would change hands. But even a tiny fraction of that $54.6 trillion would still be a daunting sum. The credit freeze and then the Bear disaster explain the drop in outstanding CDS contracts during the first half of the year - and the market has only worsened since. CDS contracts on widely held debt, such as General Motors' (GM, Fortune 500), continue to be actively bought and sold. But traders say almost no new contracts are being written on any but the most liquid debt issues right now, in part because nobody wants to put money at risk and because nobody knows what Washington will do and how that will affect the market. ("There's nothing to do but watch Bernanke on TV," one trader told Fortune during the week when the Fed chairman was going before Congress to push the mortgage bailout.) So, after nearly a decade of exponential growth, the CDS market is poised for its first sustained contraction. *** ONE REASON THE MARKET TOOK OFF is that you don't have to own a bond to buy a CDS on it - anyone can place a bet on whether a bond will fail. Indeed the majority of CDS now consists of bets on other people's debt. That's why it's possible for the market to be so big: The $54.6 trillion in CDS contracts completely dwarfs total corporate debt, which the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association puts at $6.2 trillion, and the $10 trillion it counts in all forms of asset-backed debt. "It's sort of like I think you're a bad driver and you're going to crash your car," says Greenberger, formerly of the CFTC. "So I go to an insurance company and get collision insurance on your car because I think it'll crash and I'll collect on it." That's precisely what the biggest winners in the subprime debacle did. Hedge fund star John Paulson of Paulson & Co., for example, made $15 billion in 2007, largely by using CDS to bet that other investors' subprime mortgage bonds would default. So what started out as a vehicle for hedging ended up giving investors a cheap, easy way to wager on almost any event in the credit markets. In effect, credit default swaps became the world's largest casino. As Christopher Whalen, a managing director of Institutional Risk Analytics, observes, "To be generous, you could call it an unregulated, uncapitalized insurance market. But really, you would call it a gaming contract." There is at least one key difference between casino gambling and CDS trading: Gambling has strict government regulation. The federal government has long shied away from any oversight of CDS. The CFTC floated the idea of taking an oversight role in the late '90s, only to find itself opposed by Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan and others. Then, in 2000, Congress, with the support of Greenspan and Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, passed a bill prohibiting all federal and most state regulation of CDS and other derivatives. In a press release at the time, co-sponsor Senator Phil Gramm - most recently in the news when he stepped down as John McCain's campaign co-chair this summer after calling people who talk about a recession "whiners" - crowed that the new law "protects financial institutions from over-regulation ... and it guarantees that the United States will maintain its global dominance of financial markets." (The authors of the legislation were so bent on warding off regulation that they had the bill specify that it would "supersede and preempt the application of any state or local law that prohibits gaming ...") Not everyone was as sanguine as Gramm. In 2003 Warren Buffett famously called derivatives "financial weapons of mass destruction." *** THERE'S ANOTHER BIG difference between trading CDS and casino gambling. When you put $10 on black 22, you're pretty sure the casino will pay off if you win. The CDS market offers no such assurance. One reason the market grew so quickly was that hedge funds poured in, sensing easy money. And not just big, well-established hedge funds but a lot of upstarts. So in some cases, giant financial institutions were counting on collecting money from institutions only slightly more solvent than your average minimart. The danger, of course, is that if a hedge fund suddenly has to pay off on a lot of CDS, it will simply go out of business. "People have been insuring risks that they can't insure," says Peter Schiff, the president of Euro Pacific Capital and author of Crash Proof, which predicted doom for Fannie and Freddie, among other things. "Let's say you're writing fire insurance policies, and every time you get the [premium], you spend it. You just assume that no houses are going to burn down. And all of a sudden there's a huge fire and they all burn down. What do you do? You just close up shop." This is not an academic concern. Wachovia (WB, Fortune 500) and Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) are wrangling in court with a $50 million hedge fund located in the Channel Islands. The reason: A dispute over two $10 million credit default swaps covering some CDOs. The specifics of the spat aren't important. What's most revealing is that these massive banks put their faith in a Lilliputian fund (in an inaccessible jurisdiction) that was risking 40% of its capital for just two CDS. Can anyone imagine that Citi would, say, insure its headquarters building with a thinly capitalized, unregulated, offshore entity? That's one element of what's known as "counterparty risk." Here's another: In many cases, you don't even know who has the other side of your bet. Parties to the contract can, and do, transfer their side of the contract to third parties. Investment firms assert that transfers are well documented (a claim that, like most in the world of CDS, is impossible to verify). But even if that's true, you're still left with the fact that a given company's risks are being dispersed in ways that they may not know about and can't control. It doesn't help that CDS trading is a haphazard process. Most contracts are bought and sold over the phone or by instant message and settled manually. Settlement has been sloppy, confirms Jamie Cawley of IDX Capital, a firm that brokers trades between big banks. Pushed by New York Fed president Timothy Geithner, the players have been improving the process. But even as recently as a year ago, Cawley says, so many trades were sitting around unfulfilled that "there were $1 trillion worth of swaps that were unsettled among counterparties." Trade settlement is not the only anachronistic aspect of CDS trading. Consider what will happen with CDS contracts relating to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The two were placed in conservatorship on Sept. 7. But the value of many contracts won't be determined till Oct. 6, when an auction will set a cash price for Fannie and Freddie bonds. We'll spare you the technical reasons, but suffice it to ask: Can you imagine any other major market that would need a month to resolve something like this? *** WITH WASHINGTON SUDDENLY in a frenzy of outrage over the financial markets, debating everything from the shape and extent of the mortgage plan to what should be done about short-selling, the future for CDS is very blurry. "The market is here to stay," asserts Cawley. The question is simply: What sorts of changes are in store? As this article was going to press, SEC chairman Christopher Cox asked the Senate to allow his agency to begin regulating CDS - mostly, it should be said, to rein in short-selling. And the SEC separately announced that it was expanding its investigation of market manipulation, which initially targeted the short-sellers, to CDS investors. Under other circumstances, Cox's request might have been met with polite silence. But the convulsions over the mortgage bailout are so dramatic that they are reminiscent of the moment, soon after the Enron scandal, when Congress drafted the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation. The desire to blame short-sellers may actually result in powers for Cox that, until very recently, he showed no signs of wanting. Should legislators wade into this issue, the measures most widely seen as necessary are straightforward: some form of centralized trading or clearing and some form of capital or reserve requirements. Meanwhile, New York State's insurance commissioner, Eric Dinallo, announced new regulations that would essentially treat sellers of some (but not all) CDS as insurance entities, thereby forcing them to set aside reserves and otherwise follow state insurance law - requirements that would probably drive many participants from the market. Whether CDS players will find a way to challenge the rules remains to be seen. (ISDA, the industry's trade group, has already gone on record in opposition to Cox's proposal.) If nothing else, the New York law may provide additional impetus for the feds to take action. For now, the biggest impact could come from the Financial Accounting Standards Board. It is implementing a new rule in November that will require sellers of CDS and other credit derivatives to report detailed information, including their maximum payouts and reasons for entering the contracts, as well as assets that might allow them to offset any payouts. Anybody who has tried to parse CEO compensation in recent years knows that more disclosure doesn't guarantee clarity, but any increase in information in the CDS realm will be a benefit. Perhaps that would limit the baleful effect of CDS on (must we consider it?) the next disaster - or even help us prevent it. http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/30/magazines/fortune/varchaver_derivatives_short.fortune/index.htm FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

FrankenFighters: Be More Than You Can Be

WIRED NEWS [Advance/Newhouse] - By Noah Shachtman - March 2007 As in the days of Noah...

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Barack Obama-the Muslim Christian?

CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW NETWORK - By Jill Martin Rische - July 8, 2008 In the crazy world of American politics, it should come as no surprise when a fast-talking presidential candidate attempts, yet again, to redefine Christianity. This time around, we have Barack Obama and his cohort of political reformationists nailing their 95 Theses smack dab in the middle of our foreheads. “I am a Christian!” Obama proclaims from rooftops all over America as swooning women breathe his name like a prayer. The junior Senator from Illinois has become the messiah of millions: Obama will cure what ails American society and-yes-the world. Change We Can Believe In is his mantra, ringing like a funeral dirge to the few who remember that change is not always good. Barack Obama aka Barry Soetoro (his name throughout his Muslim youth) claims to be a “committed Christian” and yet the emerging truth about him is a study in contradiction and frankly, alarming: I am a Christian (but I was a devout Muslim); I am a Christian (but I never renounced Islam); I am a Christian (but there is more than one way to God). [1] Add to this the fact that Barack Obama flatly denies his Muslim roots, even labeling the word Muslim a “smear,” and suddenly the question of integrity pops into the picture. Who is telling the truth: Barack Obama aka Barry Soetoro or his relatives, teachers, and childhood friends? Eyewitness testimony, reported on credible websites, reveals that Barack Obama was raised Muslim and was, in fact, quite devout throughout his youth. [2] Today, Senator Obama states that his “Christian” faith is not the only way to God, and he rejects Christian positions on key moral issues. Finally, he never formally renounced the Islamic faith he followed until he met his wife, Michelle. [3] So who, exactly, is Barack Obama? It’s only fair to let the man speak for himself: The Gospel According to Barack Obama 1. God/Jesus: “I believe that there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people.” “Jesus is an historical figure for me, and he’s also a bridge between God and man, in the Christian faith, and one that I think is powerful precisely because he serves as that means of us reaching something higher.” [4] 2. Heaven: “What I believe in is that if I live my life as well as I can, that I will be rewarded. I don’t presume to have knowledge of what happens after I die.” [5] 3. Hell: “I find it hard to believe that my God would consign four-fifths of the world to hell. I can’t imagine that my God would allow some little Hindu kid in India who never interacts with the Christian faith to somehow burn for all eternity. That’s just not part of my religious makeup.” [6] 4. Sin: What is sin? “Being out of alignment with my values.” [7] 5. Salvation - The Born Again Experience: “I’m not somebody who is always comfortable with language that implies I’ve got a monopoly on the truth, or that my faith is automatically transferable to others. I’m a big believer in tolerance. I think that religion at its best comes with a big dose of doubt.” [8] “If all it took was someone proclaiming I believe Jesus Christ and that he died for my sins, and that was all there was to it, people wouldn’t have to keep coming to church, would they.” [9] 6. Doctrine: “Obviously as an African American politician rooted in the African American community, I spend a lot of time in the black church. . . . Rarely in those settings do people come up to me and say, what are your beliefs. They are going to presume, and rightly so. Although they may presume a set of doctrines that I subscribe to that I don’t necessarily subscribe to.” [10] 7. Abstinence and Abortion: “Look, I've got two daughters, 9 years old and 6 years old. I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby. I don't want them punished with an STD at the age of 16.” [11] “I think women, in consultation with their pastors and their doctors and their families are in a better position to make these decisions than some bureaucrat in Washington. That's my view. Again, I respect people who may disagree, but I certainly don't think it makes me less Christian.” [12] 8. Same-sex marriage “As your President, I will use the bully pulpit to urge states to treat same-sex couples with full equality in their family and adoption laws. I personally believe that civil unions represent the best way to secure that equal treatment. But I also believe that the federal government should not stand in the way of states that want to decide on their own how best to pursue equality for gay and lesbian couples-whether that means a domestic partnership, a civil union, or a civil marriage.” [13] 9. Fundamentalism: “I am a great admirer of our founding charter, and its resolve to prevent theocracies from forming, and its resolve to prevent disruptive strains of fundamentalism from taking root in this country. . . . As I said before, in my own public policy, I’m very suspicious of religious certainty expressing itself in politics.” [14] 10. Faith and Life Role Model: “I think Gandhi is a great example of a profoundly spiritual man who acted and risked everything on behalf of those values but never slipped into intolerance or dogma. He seemed to always maintain an air of doubt about him. I think Dr. King, and Lincoln. Those three are good examples for me of people who applied their faith to a larger canvas without allowing that faith to metastasize into something that is hurtful.” [15] And so, my friends and associates, that is the gospel according to Barack Obama. Senator Obama believes you can be a Christian and not believe in the biblical Jesus Christ. He believes you can support homosexuality-including civil marriages and adoptions-and still be a follower of Jesus Christ. Barack Obama believes the taking of innocent life in the form of an unborn child is acceptable under most circumstances. He believes there is more than one way to God. He has never publicly renounced the Prophet Mohammed. This is the “Christianity” of Barack Obama, who seems to think he can take historic theology and spin it like cotton candy. But the bottom line in life is that words have specific meanings. A heart is a heart-it can never be a lung. Definition is the foundation of logic, and logic fuels a rational society. Barack Obama may use and abuse the name “Christian,” but as long as he rejects the biblical definition of Christianity, he can never be one. For information on the cults and the occult, and a free listening library, visit WalterMartin.com. [1] Reuven Koret, “Is Barack Obama a Muslim wolf in Christian wool?” Israel Insider, http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Politics/12745.htm (accessed June 23, 2008). For further analyses see “Obama: Sermon on Mount Justifies Same-Sex Unions,” CNS News, http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPolitics.aspPage=/Politics/archive/200803/POL20080303b.html, and “Obama was ‘quite religious in Islam,’ WorldNet Daily, http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=60559. [2] Koret, Is Barack Obama a Muslim wolf in Christian wool? Koret documents the fact that Barack Obama took “mengaji” classes (Koran recitation)-at his Muslim school. “To put it quite simply, ‘mengaji classes’ are not something that a non practicing or so-called moderate Muslim family would ever send their child to. To put this in a Christian context, this is something above and beyond simply enrolling your child in Sunday school classes.” “The fact that Obama had attended mengaji classes is well known in Indonesia and has left many there wondering just when Obama is going to come out of the closet.” [3] Koret, Is Barack Obama a Muslim wolf in Christian wool? Senator Obama’s church did not require him to renounce his Muslim beliefs in order to embrace Christianity. Koret writes, “On Feb 15/08, Usama K. Dakdok, President of The Straight Way of Grace Ministry called Obama’s Church and reported the following conversation: “I then asked the person who answered what I needed to do to join. She told me that I needed to attend two Sunday School classes in a row and then I would walk the aisle. I replied, “That sounds easy. One last question please. If I am Muslim and I believe in the Prophet Mohammed, peace be unto him and I also believe in Jesus, peace be unto him, do I have to give up my Islamic faith to be a member in your church? She answered: “No, we have many Muslim members in our church.” [4] Cathleen Falsani, “Barack Obama: The 2004 ‘God Factor’ Interview Transcript,” http://falsani.blogspot.com/2008/04/barack-obama-2004-god-factor-interview.html (accessed June 24, 2008). Falsani says of Obama: “It's perhaps an unlikely theological position for someone who places his faith squarely at the feet of Jesus to take, saying essentially that all people of faith-Christians, Jews, Muslims, animists, everyone-a know the same God.” [5] Falsani, Barack Obama: The 2004 ‘God Factor’ Interview Transcript. [6] Falsani, Barack Obama: The 2004 ‘God Factor’ Interview Transcript. Falsani says of Obama: “Obama doesn’t believe he or anyone else, will go to hell. But he’s not sure if he’ll be going to heaven, either.” [7] Falsani, Barack Obama: The 2004 ‘God Factor’ Interview Transcript. [8] Falsani, Barack Obama: The 2004 ‘God Factor’ Interview Transcript. [9] Falsani, Barack Obama: The 2004 ‘God Factor’ Interview Transcript. [10] Falsani, Barack Obama: The 2004 ‘God Factor’ Interview Transcript. [11] CNN, “Ballot Bowl 2008,” http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0803/29/bb.01.html, (accessed July 6, 2008). [12] Barack Obama Rally at Hocking College in Nelsonville, Ohio, Sunday, March 2, 2008. Transcript available at http://www.wtap.com/news/headlines/16161977.html. (Hear audio from WTAP-TV) See also, “Reaction to Obama -- babies are God’s gift, not a ‘punishment’,” One News Now, http://www.onenewsnow.com/Election2008/Default.aspx?id=74609 (accessed June 24, 2008). [13] Barack Obama.com, Open Letter “Equality is a Moral Imperative.” http://pride.barackobama.com/page/content/lgbthome, Obama states, “We also need a president who’s willing to confront the stigma-too often tied to homophobia-that continues to surround HIV/AIDS. I confronted this stigma directly in a speech to evangelicals at Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church, and will continue to speak out as president.” [14] Barack Obama, Open Letter, “Equality is a Moral Imperative,” http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/alexokrent/gGggJS (accessed July 6, 2008). [15] Falsani, Barack Obama: The 2004 ‘God Factor’ Interview Transcript. Distributed by www.ChristianWorldviewNetwork.com http://www.christianworldviewnetwork.com/article.php/3729/By_Jill_Martin_Rische FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Milford Schools Adopt Breath Testing For Alcohol

Christians: Protect Your Children Under New Policy Students Subject To Breathalyzer Test ASSOCIATED PRESS - September 9, 2008 MILFORD, Conn. ― Milford's school board has adopted a new policy that students are subject to breath testing for alcohol at school functions. Under the policy, students entering a public school-sponsored dance will have to take a Breathalyzer test. The policy has been adopted as an effort to cut down on teen drinking. The policy also allows school administrators to test individual high schoolers during the school day if there's reason to suspect they've been drinking alcohol. School officials say if a student refuses to take the Breathalyzer, the student could be suspended for 10 days. - - - - http://wcbstv.com/local/milford.high.school.2.813105.html FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Everything seemingly is spinning out of control

Ed. Note: This was published back in June, but with Gustav hitting New Orleans as I write it seems a good time to review this article. - Scott

ASSOCIATED PRESS - By Alan Fram and Eileen Putman - June 21, 2008 WASHINGTON - Is everything spinning out of control? Midwestern levees are bursting. Polar bears are adrift. Gas prices are skyrocketing. Home values are abysmal. Air fares, college tuition and health care border on unaffordable. Wars without end rage in Iraq, Afghanistan and against terrorism. Horatio Alger, twist in your grave. The can-do, bootstrap approach embedded in the American psyche is under assault. Eroding it is a dour powerlessness that is chipping away at the country's sturdy conviction that destiny can be commanded with sheer courage and perseverance. The sense of helplessness is even reflected in this year's presidential election. Each contender offers a sense of order - and hope. Republican John McCain promises an experienced hand in a frightening time. Democrat Barack Obama promises bright and shiny change, and his large crowds believe his exhortation, "Yes, we can." Even so, a battered public seems discouraged by the onslaught of dispiriting things. An Associated Press-Ipsos poll says a barrel-scraping 17 percent of people surveyed believe the country is moving in the right direction. That is the lowest reading since the survey began in 2003. An ABC News-Washington Post survey put that figure at 14 percent, tying the low in more than three decades of taking soundings on the national mood. "It is pretty scary," said Charles Truxal, 64, a retired corporate manager in Rochester, Minn. "People are thinking things are going to get better, and they haven't been. And then you go hide in your basement because tornadoes are coming through. If you think about things, you have very little power to make it change." Recent natural disasters around the world dwarf anything afflicting the U.S. Consider that more than 69,000 people died in the China earthquake, and that 78,000 were killed and 56,000 missing from the Myanmar cyclone. Americans need do no more than check the weather, look in their wallets or turn on the news for their daily reality check on a world gone haywire. Floods engulf Midwestern river towns. Is it global warming, the gradual degradation of a planet's weather that man seems powerless to stop or just a freakish late-spring deluge? It hardly matters to those in the path. Just ask the people of New Orleans who survived Hurricane Katrina. They are living in a city where, 1,000 days after the storm, entire neighborhoods remain abandoned, a national embarrassment that evokes disbelief from visitors. Food is becoming scarcer and more expensive on a worldwide scale, due to increased consumption in growing countries such as China and India and rising fuel costs. That can-do solution to energy needs - turning corn into fuel - is sapping fields of plenty once devoted to crops that people need to eat. Shortages have sparked riots. In the U.S., rice prices tripled and some stores rationed the staple. Residents of the nation's capital and its suburbs repeatedly lose power for extended periods as mere thunderstorms rumble through. In California, leaders warn people to use less water in the unrelenting drought. Want to get away from it all? The weak U.S. dollar makes travel abroad forbiddingly expensive. To add insult to injury, some airlines now charge to check luggage. Want to escape on the couch? A writers' strike halted favorite TV shows for half a season. The newspaper on the table may soon be a relic of the Internet age. Just as video stores are falling by the wayside as people get their movies online or in the mail. But there's always sports, right? The moorings seem to be coming loose here, too. Baseball stars Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens stand accused of enhancing their heroics with drugs. Basketball referees are suspected of cheating. Stay tuned for less than pristine tales from the drug-addled Tour de France and who knows what from the Summer Olympics. It's not the first time Americans have felt a loss of control. Alger, the dime-novel author whose heroes overcame adversity to gain riches and fame, played to similar anxieties when the U.S. was becoming an industrial society in the late 1800s. American University historian Allan J. Lichtman notes that the U.S. has endured comparable periods and worse, including the economic stagflation (stagnant growth combined with inflation) and Iran hostage crisis of 1980; the dawn of the Cold War, the Korean War and the hysterical hunts for domestic Communists in the late 1940s and early 1950s; and the Depression of the 1930s. "All those periods were followed by much more optimistic periods in which the American people had their confidence restored," he said. "Of course, that doesn't mean it will happen again." Each period also was followed by a change in the party controlling the White House. This period has seen intense interest in the presidential primaries, especially the Democrats' five-month duel between Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton. Records were shattered by voters showing up at polling places, yearning for a voice in who will next guide the country as it confronts the uncontrollable. Never mind that their views of their current leaders are near rock bottom, reflecting a frustration with Washington's inability to solve anything. President Bush barely gets the approval of three in 10 people, and it's even worse for the Democratic-led Congress. Why the vulnerability? After all, this is the 21st century, not a more primitive past when little in life was assured. Surely people know how to fix problems now. Maybe. And maybe this is what the 21st century will be about - a great unraveling of some things long taken for granted. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080621/ap_on_re_us/out_of_control FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Messianic Jews and the Law of Return

ISRAEL TODAY MAGAZINE - By Mike Decker - September 24, 2007 Messianic legal analysis The nation of Israel has the right to define itself as a Jewish nation and the definition given, as of today, is that a Messianic Jew is not considered Jewish for the purposes of the "Law of Return." The Messianic Jewish community claims that it is another stream within Judaism that is resurrecting after 2,000 years of silence. The Messianic Jewish community explains its legitimacy by historical and theological claims. Theologically, Messianic Jews claim that Yeshua is really the promised Messiah according to the Messianic prophecies revealed in the Jewish scriptures, and historically they claim that all the first followers of Yeshua were devout Jews. With the establishment of the Jewish nation, many Jewish people have been convinced that Yeshua is truly the Messiah according to the Jewish scriptures and have consequently begun to believe in Yeshua, while insisting on keeping their Jewish identity. Today, the Messianic Jewish community consists of approximately 15,000 members within the nation of Israel and approximately 300,000 members from around the world. This is a religious community, which believes both in the Tanach and in the New Testament, and that Yeshua is the Messiah of Israel, according to the many prophecies revealed in the Tanach. The Messianic Jewish community is recognized as having a very Zionistic and pro-Israel approach, among many other reasons, because they see the reestablishment of the nation of Israel as the fulfilment of scriptural prophecy. Therefore, the members of the Messianic Jewish community are loyal citizens of Israel that are prompt to serve in the army and to fulfil all their legal obligations. Notwithstanding the abovementioned, the personal definition of the Messianic Jewish community is not yet accepted by many within the Jewish nation and is thoroughly rejected by the different orthodox streams within Judaism. This fact is revealed as it relates to the Law of Return. The "Law of Return" is a secular law, which is the central, legal expression of the nation of Israel as being a nation for all the Jewish people. This law was made in the Knesset on the 5th of July 1950 and it grants every Jew, being secular or religious, the right to immigrate into Israel and to receive an Oleh Certificate, which according to the Law of Citizenship, is an immediate prerequisite before receiving an Israeli citizenship. In the year 1970 and as a result of two very famous constitutional court decisions, e.g. Roffeisen v. the Minister of Interior and Binymin Shalit v. the Minister of Interior, an amendment was made to the "Law of Return" wherein a definition for a Jew was made which indicates that a Jew is a person born of a Jewish mother, and is not a part of a different religion. Furthermore, after an additional amendment which grants the right of return also to family members of Jews, this right was conditioned to the ones who did not wilfully change their religion. Now, and subsequent to the abovementioned amendment of the "Law of Return", I wish to review all the court decisions which have determined that a Jew who believes in Yeshua is a part of a different religion, according to the definition given to a Jew in the "Law of Return"; and as a person who wilfully changed his religion according to the section which grants family members of Jews to immigrate into Israel. The first court decision which I will briefly review is in regards to Hatshins v. the Minister of Interior. This court decision deals with a family, belonging to the Christian religion, who decided to convert to Judaism in order to immigrate into Israel, by virtue of the "Law of Return", and to establish a congregation to teach Jews that it is possible to both believe in Yeshua and to remain Jewish. Immediately, when their plot was discovered, their conversion was cancelled, along with their right to immigrate into Israel. Justice Berenzon wrote words in his decision that echo in all the similar court decisions which were made after this particular one, and they are: "Concerning Yeshuim who are considered and recognized as Jews, we have never yet heard of. This is absolutely unacceptable --- ask any Jew on the street if this phenomena is probable and their definite answer will be: 'no'." Two years after this an additional case had transpired in Dorflinger v. the Minister of Interior. This case was in connection with a Jewess named Ester Dorflinger. Her request to immigrate into Israel and to receive an Israeli citizenship as a Jew was rejected, since the Ministery of Interior decided that she is part of a different religion. Ms. Dorflinger fervently insisted that there is no contradiction between the fact that she is Jewish and the fact that she believes that Yeshua is the Messiah. However, to the regret of the members of the Messianic Jewish community, she did not succeed in convincing the judges. In the wording of Justice Victon: "She has raised many extended and tortuous claims as to the possible link of a Jew believing in Yeshu(a) as the Messiah, as if we are living today in the beginning of the first century, and as if since then nothing has transpired as it relates to different religious structures that have been established and that have disconnected themselves from Judaism, and for all those who choose to join those different paths." After very solid and broad precedents had already been determined, as it is related to Jews who believe in Yeshua, an additional court decision was made. In Beresford v. the Minister of Interior, a Messianic Jewish family attempted to immigrate into Israel by virtue of the "Law of Return" and was denied of this right. In spite of the fact that this issue had already been settled and very negative precedents had already been determined, this family decided to appeal before the Israeli Supreme Court of Justice against the governmental decision that had been made concerning their steps toward immigration. In a court decision that is spread over tens of pages given by Justice Elon (an obvious Religious Judge) it was unquestionably determined that any Jew who believes in Yeshua in any shape or form and/or any Messianic Jew is part of a different religion and has decided to wilfully change his/her own religion. In a very short period after this, an additional court decision was made in Kendel v. the Minister of Interior wherein the Beresford family, along with several other families who belong to the Messianic Jewish community, appealed before the Israeli Supreme Court of Justice, claiming that they are now inactive in Messianic Jewish activity and that a separation needs to be made between their inner beliefs and their external activities. Justice Netanyahu rejected their claims. As it relates to the other families, Justice Netanyahu also rejected their appeal for different reasons that are needless to review at this point. The last and final court decision was made in 1995 in David Yochanan v. the Minister of Interior. In a very short paragraph written by Justice Aharon Barak, David Yochann, who did not even have any documentation to prove that he was Jewish, was denied any right to immigrate into Israel as he claimed to be a Messianic Jew. As we can now examine, all the abovementioned decisions created a very negative precedent for the Messianic Jewish community. These are being reviewed in almost every constitutional discussion in Israel, wherein the important question is raised regarding, "Who is a Jew?" Consequently, there are several suggested drafts for basic laws that indicate that the "Law of Return" does not apply to Messianic Jews, such as in the treaty between Professor Ruth Gabizon and Rabi Ya'akov Madan, and which can be found in www.gavison-medan.org.il. The legal situation that has been created, as it is related to Messianic Jews, is: i.e. that a Messianic Jew, whose mother is Jewish, is considered a Jew who wilfully changed his/her religion, is therefore part of a different religion and is not entitled to immigrate. However, a Messianic Jew whose father, grandfather, or spouse is Jewish, according to the definition in the "Law of Return", is entitled to immigrate into Israel. Such a Messianic Jew immigrates into Israel because he is a family member of a Jew and therefore such a Messianic Jew has never changed his religion and the fact that he is part of a different religion, as defined by the abovementioned court decisions, is altogether irrelevant. Many obstacles have arisen for the Messianic Jewish community regarding the aforesaid decisions, the major one being a wrong implementation of the precedent that was made. The registration clerks at the Ministry of Interior are not required to be educated about all of these legal matters. Therefore, as being "an average Jew on the street", according to their understanding every person who is a part of the Messianic Jewish community is not entitled to immigrate into Israel by virtue of the "Law of Return". This understanding is felt and interpreted as a decision being made in an exclusive manner. This particular obstacle is intensified and deployed when one considers that the information regarding the different members of the Messianic Jewish community is, for the most part, being communicated to the registration clerks by activists of extreme fundamental religious groups who purpose to prevent Jews from believing in ways different according to theirby law, from immigrating into Israel. In other cases after some Messianic Jews have already immigrated into Israel, the Ministry of Interior can refuse to renew their passports, refuse to register their newly born children, and in extreme cases, revoke their citizenship. In essence, the above-mentioned situation reveals an illegal alliance between a governmental office that is obligated to operate in a non-discriminative, legal and equal manner and between fundamental religious groups, their core values being to advance their main objectives of preventing Jews from believing in ways different from theirs. An appeal that attacks the abovementioned wrong implementation of the precedents that were made in the aforesaid court decisions is Sean Stakbak and others v. the Minister of Interior. This appeal, which was submitted before the Israeli Supreme Court of Justice in February 2005, deals with a group of petitioners who belong to the Messianic Jewish community, are not considered Jewish according to the definition in the "Law of Return", but who are requesting to immigrate into Israel only as family members of Jews. A decision to this appeal has not yet been given. It must be emphasized, however, that the Messianic Jews who are Israeli citizens have the potential to greatly influence the nation of Israel as a group that is expanding and as of today consists of approximately 15,000 members. All the abovementioned appeals were made by foreigners who have attempted to immigrate into Israel and were refused by the Ministry of Interior. The nation of Israel has the right to define itself as a Jewish nation and the definition given, as of today, is that a Messianic Jew is not considered Jewish for the purposes of the "Law of Return". However, most of the court decisions, which have dealt with discrimination against the Messianic Jews who are citizens of the nation of Israel, were in favour of the members of the Messianic Jewish community who have been harassed simply because of their beliefs. These acts of harassment stand in opposition to the laws of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. In this Jewish and democratic state, the character of the nation has been formed by its activist citizens. It seems to me that one of the main problems here is that the Messianic Jews in Israel have not been active enough in the Israeli society. Perhaps they do not realize that their voice could have a strong influence on the different decisions made by the Israeli leaders and even on the nation of Israel as a whole. It seems that they also may be greatly intimidated by the real threat of ostracism and persecution by those who have proven to be vehemently against their beliefs. It is also likely that the Messianic Jewish community simply does not know its legal rights as citizens of Israel. The government of Israel certainly has the right to define itself. Yet the citizens of the nation also must have the opportunity and right to have a part in forming this aforesaid definition as well. http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=182&view=item&idx=1550 FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Church challenges in Kosovo, Montenegro

Briefing on the present-day challenges for the Orthodox Churches in Kosovo and Montenegro. SERBIANNA - By Ioannis Michaletos - April 13, 2008 The Christian Orthodox Churches in the Balkans draw their heritage from the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine) since the early middle ages. The following centuries, autocephalous Patriarchies were established in Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania amid serious conflicts between different actors motivated by political, national or even social motives. Currently Orthodoxy in the Western Balkan region faces tremendous challenges due to the unstable political climate and the intrusion of foreign elements seeking to exploit the situation. Kosovo The Kosovo Eparchy as it has been numerously debated became a hotbed for Islamic activism since the mid 90’s when the first Mujahedins arrived in Northern Albania and established training camps in order to assist in the rebellion of the Kosovo Albanians. The post-1999 period witnessed the destruction of a large part of the 1,000 year old Serbian-Orthodox tradition, widely known as “Cultural genocide”. The main aim was to eradicate sites that connect this land with the Serbian nation and in a greater scale, with the Christian Orthodox tradition. Apart from the above it is interesting to note, that other religious groups tried to intervene for their own benefit and establish a stronghold in Kosovo. The Baptists during the past 15 years actively supported the Kosovo’s Muslim majority, in order to gain access to the region assuming it could lead to a mass conversion of Muslims to this particular Christian faith. The results were not satisfactory, since only one Church was established with very few followers, most probably not more than 80-100. Despite continuous volunteer ventures to Kosovo organized by mainly Baptist groups in Texas; the Kosovo Albanians remained largely aloof. The Roman Catholic Church is the denomination of roughly 5% of Kosovo’s Albanians and witnessed great difficulties in the first years since 1999. Actually their numbers might be as much as 2% if one counts the ones permanently living abroad. According to an OSCE report “Catholic Albanians have faced continued intimidation and harassment...A common feature of many attacks was the underlying intention to force minorities to leave and/or to ensure their silence through fear.” The situation has changed recently and a new Cathedral was established in Pristina that will be complete within the next few years. The Vatican progressively wants to recapture lost ground and in parallel accommodate further Albanian Catholic’s posture in the life of the Province. As it is the case in many regions in the world; the Catholic Church will assist its followers acquire elevated positions in the social and political life in Pristina a task being made rather easy since the declaration of independence leaves Pristina dependent of European help in which the Catholic Church still has very strong voice. A recent development saw the involvement of anti-abortion groups, such as: Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and its Protocols. They are influenced by Evangelical American groups and they protested against the introduction of abortion rights in the so-called “Kosovo constitution”. A representation of these organizations traveled to Pristina and their tasks might possibly include the creation of religious nucleus of relative denominations in a region that is greatly inflicted by poverty, corruption and criminality, and is eager to attract Western support. It is likely that the influence of Protestant groups will increase in the coming years and that might lead to a conflict with the Catholic Church and the Muslim majority. Montenegro The current Archbishop of Montenegro, Amfilohije Radovic, considers the opponent Montenegro Orthodox Church heretical and schismatic. The latter was formed in 1993 and has not achieved a legal recognition by the Orthodox Churches and the Ecumenical Patriarchy. The main reason for the creation of MOC is to deconstruct the deep Serbian-Montenegrian bond thus achieving a permanent division between the two lands. The Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral is an integral Diocese of the Patriarchy in Belgrade, and maintains strong links with the Greek Church in Athens and the Ecumenical Patriarch in Constantinople. It is also safe to estimate that it has the backing of other Orthodox powers, namely Romania and Russia, thus his position is solid for the long-term. Another aspect of the turbulent development in Montenegro is the indirect involvement of the Catholic Church and the Knights of Malta. According to reliable local sources, the Montenegrin authorities and the unrecognized church (MOC) led by Miraš Dedeic plan to seize three of the greatest Christian relics - the right hand of St. John the Baptist, pieces of the True Cross, and the icon ("Filernosa") painted by the Holy Apostle Luke. Two of the three relics are currently at the Cetinje monastery, while "Filernosa'' is at the State Museum in Cetinje. As the newspaper Kurir had discovered in early 2007, the Montenegrin government is under pressure by the Malta Knights. It is calculated that the relic will first relocate to the Holy Trinity Church by Miraš's followers, and then turned over to the Knights of Malta, a powerful order which had lobbied for the independence of this new country. "Metropolitan of Montenegro Amfilohije Radovic has written a letter notifying Prince Aleksandar Karadjordjevic of the intentions of Montenegrin authorities," says a Kurir source close to the Serbian Orthodox Church, "since the royals deposited the relics in Montenegro in 1941, while trying to escape the German occupation. In the letter to the Serbian prince, Amfilohije warned that the Knights of Malta desire the relics greatly, and asked that the royals publicly request the return of the relics to Belgrade." The Knights of Malta are major financiers of MOC and have already tried to seize the relics once. Montenegro's president Milo Djukanovic and the Knights of Malta had a plan to take the relics out of the country in early 2006, but were thwarted by a media campaign organized by the pro-Serb opposition. The relics were the reason Djukanovic had a clandestine meeting with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican in late 2005. Bypassing the normal diplomatic protocols, the then Serbian-Montenegrian Union Embassy and the Montenegrin consulate, the audience was arranged by Anton Zbutega of Kotor, a Maltese Knight. The priceless icon "Our Lady of Filerno", known as "Filernosa" is said to have been painted by Apostle Luke almost two thousand years ago. History records that it was brought to Malta by the Hospitallers in the 16th century, and that it stayed there till 1789, when it arrived at the Russian court. There the old metal frame was replaced with gold, and the frame was bedecked with precious jewels. Some 270 diamonds were arranged in a double row around the halo, with rubies and brilliants in between. After the October Revolution, the icon was moved to Denmark, then spent a short time at an Orthodox church in Berlin, and finally came to the Karadjordjevic court in Belgrade. It was moved to Montenegro at the start of World War Two, and has been at the National Museum of Montenegro since 1978 Like "Filermosa" the right hand of St. John has had an interesting historical odyssey, from Jerusalem to Constantinople, Malta, St. Petersburg, and then via Denmark and Berlin to Belgrade. At the outset of World War Two, King Petar II left Belgrade with the government, carrying the two relics and pieces of the True Cross They were turned over to Patriarch Gavrilo at Ostrog monastery, in the night between April 14-15 1941. Archimandrite Leontije of Ostrog guarded the relics well, and they remained unnoticed until 1952, when Communist authorities found them under the false floor in the Archimandrite's room while searching for the remaining royal gold. The relics were brought to the secret police vault in Podgorica, and kept there till 1978. That year, the Hand of St. John and the pieces of the True Cross were turned over to the Cetinje monastery, while the icon was transferred to the National Museum in Cetinje. The importance of the aforementioned culminations is the existence of a behind-the-scenes religious drive primarily by the Catholic Church in Montenegro-Kosovo and the political developments that might occur because of this. It is certain that religion will play a future role in the Western Balkan scene and will lead to power shifts. For the moment the regional experts and analysts should be aware that apart from the political, economic and security intelligence; the religious one is as equally important when one wants to acquire a deeper understanding of the balances and developments in this part of the earth. NOTE: The relics had always a significant value and the one who acquires can use them for greater political ends. It is interesting for the reader to enquire around the fate of relics and antiquities after the end of every recent war. In a few words it is not a matter of mere prestige but a subtle trial to invest on the subconscious of a nation, for the long-term and alter the historical traditions and the hierography. Main sources: www.christiantoday.com/.../4215.htm http://kosovo.birn.eu.com/en/1/70/4101/ www.savekosovo.org/default.asp?p=9&leader=0&sp=78 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1976371/posts www.ce-review.org/01/2/pozun2.html www.esiweb.org/index.php?lang=en&id=274 www.predsjednik.cg.yu/print.php?id=930&jezik=0 http://www.newmontenegro.eu/cultura/icona-madonna-filermosa.aspx Original Report Here http://www.serbianna.com/columns/michaletos/032.shtml FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 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Tish'a B'Av - A Day of Mourning

KOINONIA HOUSE - from the August 05, 2008 eNews issue This Sunday, August 10th, is known as Tisha b'Av on the Hebrew calendar. Tisha b'Av simply means it is the 9th day of the Jewish month of Av. However Tisha b'Av is much more than just a date on a calendar. This peculiar day holds great significance for the Jews, as it is expressly linked with Israel's destiny. Jewish tradition regards Tisha b'Av as the day the Children of Israel were prohibited from entering the Promised Land. You will recall, God commanded Moses to send 12 spies into the land of Canaan, one from each of the tribes of Israel. They returned with tales of a land flowing with milk and honey. However Israel feared the inhabitants of the land. Of the 12 spies, only 2, Joshua and Caleb, had faith that God would deliver the land into their hands. God had delivered them from slavery and Egypt, parted the waters of the Red Sea, protected them, and miraculously provided for their every need. Yet the nation of Israel was consumed by fear and doubt, thus God decreed that a generation would pass away, wandering in the wilderness, before Israel would be allowed to enter His Land. The 9th of Av has marked some of the most harrowing days in the history of the nation of Israel: - On the 9th of Av, in the year 586 B.C., the First Temple, built by Solomon, was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, and the Babylonian captivity began. - On the 9th of Av, 70 A.D., the Second Temple, that which was standing during Christ’s ministry, was destroyed by the Romans, precisely as Jesus predicted in Luke 19. - Also on this day, in the year 135 A.D., the famous Bar Kokhba revolt was squelched when Bethar, the last Jewish stronghold, fell to the Romans. - One year later, in 136 A.D., the Roman Emperor Hadrian established the heathen temple to Jupiter on the site of the Jewish Temple. Hadrian rebuilt Jerusalem as a pagan city, and renamed the land as Palestina, to distance its Jewish heritage. (This attempt to disavow the land from its Jewish roots was echoed by the British in their labeling the land "Palestine.") The date when the Temple area was plowed under by the Romans was the 9th of Av. - On March 31, 1492, the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella issued a royal decree that all Jews must leave Span. The deadline was set for August 3rd of that year. If any Jews were found in Spain after this period they were to be killed. On the Jewish calendar, it was the 9th of Av. If that weren't enough, the 9th of Av is also the day of: - The declaration of the Crusades by Pope Urban II in 1095 - The burning of the Talmud in 1242 - The signing of the edict by King Edward I in 1290 expelling the Jews from England - The start of the First World War in 1914 - The mass deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to the Treblinka extermination camp in Poland in 1942 - The bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center by Arab terrorists in 1994 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which killed 86 and wounded more than 120. Thus the 9th of Av, Tisha B'Av, has become a symbol of all the persecutions and misfortunes of the Jewish people, for the loss of their national independence and their sufferings in exile. It is a day of intensive mourning for the destruction of the Temple and for Jerusalem. In 2005, the 9th of Av marked another milestone in Israel's history. That year Tisha b'Av marked the beginning of the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. All 21 Gaza settlements were evacuated along with four of 120 settlements in the West Bank. The withdrawal marked the end of Israel's 38 year presence in the Gaza Strip. Approximately 9000 Jewish settlers were made to leave their homes, some were forcibly removed. The withdrawal took place amid a backdrop of widespread protests, and was accompanied by whispers of civil war. The withdrawal was seen as necessary for Israel's security. However in the eyes of the Palestinians, the Gaza withdrawal represented victory in their armed struggle against the Israeli occupation. Israel's retreat was seen as the direct result of the sacrifice of suicide bombers and the almost constant barrage of mortar and rocket on settlements. The bottom line: it was a victory for terrorism. Six months later, after being credited for bringing about the Israeli retreat, the terrorist organization Hamas claimed victory in the Palestinian parliamentary elections. Tisha b'Av is indeed a day of mourning. It is marked with sadness and fasting. On this day the Jews are reminded of their tragic history. Yet they will also be looking forward, toward the ultimate rebuilding of the Temple, to a time when the 9th of Av will become a day of joy and gladness (as it was foretold in Zechariah 8:19). We do know that the Temple will be rebuilt because Jesus, John, and Paul all make reference to it. But we also know that this Temple will be desecrated by the Coming World Leader when he sets himself up to be worshiped. It is possible this prophetic event will also take place on Tisha B'Av - and may happen in the not-too-distant future. . . . http://www.khouse.org/enews_article/2008/1227/print/ FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Army Yanks 'Voice-To-Skull Devices' Site

Nonlethal weapon which includes (1) a neuro-electromagnetic device which uses microwave transmission of sound into the skull of persons or animals by way of pulse-modulated microwave radiation; and (2) a silent sound device which can transmit sound into the skull of person or animals. NOTE: The sound modulation may be voice or audio subliminal messages. One application of V2K is use as an electronic scarecrow to frighten birds in the vicinity of airports.

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/05/army-removes-pa.html

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.