Lately, I've been feeling a bit like Randy Quaid's character in ID4: "I been sayin' it! I been sayin' it for years!"

Arrgh.

***

Wall Street Socialism Paves Way for Global Government

Bush, in his speech, called for “leading nations” to “better coordinate national laws and regulations.” He urged the “reform” of international financial institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank so that their “governance structures” come to “better reflect the realities of today’s global economy.”

I think I’m starting to get it. First it was “Big Government to the Rescue.” But since that didn’t work, we now need “Global Government to the Rescue.” We will not only lose our money but the sovereignty of our nation. Our media have been active accomplices in this unfolding catastrophe.




Why Europe is secretly afraid of a socialist America

Suppose you've been living under the protective wings of a benevolent superpower for sixty years. And suppose you've used that big half century to take off on an endless vacation -- spending all your tax money to buy votes for the socialist Ruling Class. It's been one long, grand, drug-infested, sex-drenched, self-indulgent, tabloid party scene. Any time danger threatens you look to Washington for protection. The rest of the time you noisily abuse those Yankee imperialists, merely to boost your fragile ego. Corruption has become pervasive.

That's Europe today.

What a sweet deal.

But now you see your guardian superpower electing a guy who wants to follow your example. Whooops! Time to sober up. Fast.




Religion and hope

The meeting on interfaith peace and dialogue being held under the auspices of the UN General Assembly is truly a rare event. An occasion where 17 leaders from across the world, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Jordan, Pakistan, Israel, the Philippines, Spain, the UK and the USA, can meet and dine together under the same roof is, to say the least, unusual.





I don't even know what to say to this one:

The dawn of the Age of Aquarius

The election is history, so where do we stand?

We covered a few of the celestial details in our Oct. 10 Athena's Web column:

On Inauguration Day, there is a call for a radical shift across the land. With the Sun, Mercury, Jupiter, the Moon's lunar node, Chiron, and Neptune all in Aquarius, there are six celestial votes for change that will not be denied. This is a crescendo of activity, a wave of electricity seeking change, demanding change.
...
On Inauguration Day there will be four planets, Chiron and the Moon's lunar node in Aquarius.

Change is in the air.

As we approach the Age of Aquarius, its vibration is growing stronger. The more you understand the essential nature of Aquarius in all the microcosms around you - in the members of your family, the figures of history, or the events in our lives, the more you'll perceive the similarity of vibration that is getting ready to step center stage. The future is Aquarius.

We are indeed headed for a one-world government and an international system of exchange, but it will not be based upon the models that exist now. Once the celestial iron has worked out a few of the wrinkles, all the people of the planet will willingly work as one under heaven.
Of one thing we can be certain: Change is on the way. It's just not going to happen as we imagined.


I dunno anymore. I just hope the hippy one-worlders and Obama-sciples are happy in their Lisa Frank dream world with unicorns and ponies and such. They won't be happy when they're drafted into the civilian security force.




Africa faces ‘enormous difficulties’ on macroeconomic convergence - UN

14 November 2008 – African countries are making tremendous efforts towards sound macroeconomic policy convergence on inflation, budget deficits and economic growth rates, but need to mainstream regional monetary and macroeconomic objectives in their national development strategies, according to a new United Nations report.

“African countries are experiencing enormous difficulties in achieving the desired macroeconomic convergence criteria set by Regional Economic Communities (RECs),” the report, Assessing Regional Integration in Africa (ARIA III), says.




OECS Heads to meet in Montserrat

OECS Heads of Government will gather in Montserrat on November 19 to 21 for the 48th Meeting of the OECS Authority.

The on-going efforts to establish an OECS Economic Union and the move by Trinidad and Tobago to join the Union will be among the major talking points at the meeting.




Single GCC currency is still years away

With monetary and fiscal convergence criteria yet to be agreed, delays are inevitable The birth of the GCC's single currency is enduring almost as long a gestation as that of its European cousin the euro.

It was 20 years after the European Monetary System was created in 1979 that the euro was finally introduced.

The GCC single currency was agreed in principle in 2001, with 2010 set as the target for monetary union to take effect. But it looks like many more years will pass before it appears in people's wallets.





Canada to argue against global controls at summit

WINNIPEG, Manitoba/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Stephen Harper will advocate strong national oversight of markets and international consultation in talks with world leaders this weekend, but will argue against global regulation as a way to solve the economic crisis.




West has to accept power shift to east

In retrospect this may be seen as the moment when the neo-liberal model of modern capitalism pioneered by Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and George W Bush was laid to rest and new paths to more effective international governance of capitalism were explored. At the series of summits now planned over the coming year, detailed agreement on these controls and on how to manage the transition to a more sustainable mode of economic development will be hammered out.

The political kaleidoscope throughout the western world has been thrown into confusion by the dramatic nationalisation of banks and other financial institutions in the US and Europe. US president-elect Barack Obama is even coming under pressure to part nationalise the US motor industry as General Motors, and maybe Chrysler and Ford, edge dangerously close to bankruptcy. Impeccably orthodox conservatives are calling not for a "smaller state" but a much bigger state. The result is likely to be a form of state capitalism rather than socialism - but little wonder the political left has been stunned by the speed of events.





The New Russia Is no Longer a Crippled Giant

Many of the world’s up-and-coming new powers neither embrace nor aspire to the Western model of liberal democracy. This makes the idea of an "alliance of democracies" a nonstarter. The new powers include authoritarian regimes and they demand a role in global governance. Russia is ready to cooperate, if the West is ready to take it seriously.




Duma clears way for longer terms in Russia

MOSCOW: As a bill extending Russia's presidency from four to six years barreled through the Russian legislature on Friday, it fell to the old-timers from the Communist Party to put up a fight.

"Why do we have to do this today?" said Viktor Ilyukhin, a Communist legislator, during discussions Friday in the State Duma, the lower house of Parliament. "Why are we in such a hurry? A strict authoritarian regime has already been established in this country. There is already an unprecedented concentration of power in one person's hands."



What innovations are most important to world's future?

'Russia, China against Iran sanctions'

Medvedev seeks fresh start in Russia-U.S. ties

Russian gas producer Novatek's profit up 18% to $481 mln in Jan-Sep

Gazprom increases gas exports by 9% to 182 bln cu m in 9M08

Iran finance minister meets IDB president

Iran, S. Korea insist on expanding ties
[yes, that's South Korea.]

Sarkozy questions US missile shield plan

Turkey, Italy PMs agree to cooperate

Gordon Brown risks run on the pound, says George Osborne

US energy crunch comes home

Turkey wants more Iranian gas

Gazprom commences drilling first exploratory well in Venezuela

Gazprom says not interested in Repsol stake
Russia's gas export monopoly Gazprom denied on Friday that it wanted to buy a 20 percent stake in Spanish oil major Repsol, as the stake was too small.

OPEC to hold emergency meeting in Cairo on November 29

Somali pirates risk choking key world trade route

Kashkari Says Treasury Approving 20 Bank Stakes Today
[more socialism! yay! ]

GM Collapse at $200 Billion May Exceed Bailout Plan

World leaders begin crisis talks

G-20 to Back Stimulus, Smooth Over Differences on Regulation

Global governance of financial sector not 'feasible or realistic': Harper

Food crisis a warning we must heed

Afghan school empty after acid attack on girls

Al-Qaeda's influence is spreading, says CIA chief
Al-Qaeda's influence is spreading across Africa but Osama bin Laden is increasingly cut off from the organisation by his life on the run, the head of the CIA has warned.

Barack Obama is warned to beware of a ‘huge threat’ from al-Qaeda
Security officials fear a ‘spectacular’ during the transition period
[that's what Biden was talking about. 'Member, he also said Obamatons wouldn't like what happened in the aftermath.]

Battle rages for last stronghold
[Mosul=Nineveh]

Five rockets slam into Ashkelon area

Partnership for Lebanon announces new initiatives to drive social and economic growth of Lebanon

Khreiss: Lebanese consent a defeat for Israel

Lebanon finds Aussie terrorist Belal Saadallah Khazaal guilty

Hezbollah wants a referendum on its weapons
Beirut (AsiaNews) - Hezbollah wants a referendum to determine whether or not the Lebanese want them to possess weapons.

Lebanon 'safe from turmoil'


Egypt retakes Bedouin flashpoint
Egyptian security forces say they have redeployed in large numbers in the Sinai desert after clashes with local Bedouin left several tribesmen dead.
[Syria has massed troops on it's border with Lebanon, near the Israeli border. Egypt has now massed troops near the Israeli border. How much longer til the SHTF?]


Missile strike kills 12 in Pakistan tribal area

Suleiman: Mustaqbal and Syria Backed the Army Against Fatah al-Islam

Olmert wants direct talks with Syria by January: newspaper

Foreigners attacked in Peshawar

Syria heartened by Obama's plan for Iraq: envoy

Syria's Christians as a "Present" to Aoun

Tabourian says Lebanon may need to shop for affordable power in Jordan

Lahoud: Priority is to defend Lebanon, not disarm Hizbullah

UN chief calls for continued ceasefire

West queries IAEA aid for Syria during atomic probe

Yemen, Syria keen to boost cooperation

Zaki: We Agreed with Lebanese Military Regarding Wanted Elements




DOUBLE-O BAMA
But no: the passive campus yakker for Bond, the naval pilot POW for desk-jockey. That’s it in a nutshell: Culture-wise, conservatives are only up for the supporting role.

That’s the problem, and pulling the lever for a guy with an R after his name every other November isn’t going to fix it. If the default mode of a society’s institutions is liberal, electing GOP legislators eventually accomplishes little more than letting a Republican driver take a turn steering the liberal bus. If Hollywood’s liberal, if the newspapers are liberal, if the pop stars are liberal, if the grade schools are liberal, if the very language is liberal to the point where all the nice words have been co-opted as a painless liberal sedative, a Republican legislature isn’t going to be a shining city on a hill so much as one of those atolls in the Maldives being incrementally swallowed by Al Gore’s rising sea levels.




Uruguay head vetoes abortion bill

Catholic priest in U.S. faces excommunication for woman's ordination

Cardinal at CUA: Obama is ‘Aggressive, Disruptive and Apocalyptic’

India's first lunar probe lands on the moon


Japanese 'giving up on sex'
Japan is facing a crisis in the bedroom that threatens the very future of the nation, according to the head of the nation's Family Planning Association.

More than 100 homes burned in California blaze
Named after the fire's suspected place of origin, the Tea Garden Estate, the fire has destroyed a monastery, multimillion-dollar mansions and modest ranch-style homes and forced more than 5,500 people to evacuate

Mothers hacked in albino attacks

Serbia investigates mystery of missing mental patients

Tick population on rise, increasing disease threat

Signals from secret US-Australian navy base may have caused Qantas jet dive


Some question rationale for sales tax holiday on guns
COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - Later this month you will have the chance to buy a gun in South Carolina sales tax free.
[ROAD TRIP!!!]