Month: June 2008

Senate seen approving housing rescue bill

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Senate was expected to approve as soon as Wednesday the biggest government program yet to tackle a deep housing market slump feared to be dragging the economy into recession.

The legislation would create a $300 billion fund to help up to 400,000 troubled homeowners refinance costly, exotic mortgages into more affordable, government-backed loans. It easily cleared a Senate test vote by an 83-9 vote on Tuesday.

Israel Prodding U.S. To Attack Iran
Bush Administration Weighs Striking Iran’s Nuclear Complex, Which Could Trigger 3rd War In Region

Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen leaves Tuesday night on an overseas trip that will take him to Israel. The trip has been scheduled for some time but U.S. officials say it comes just as the Israelis are mounting a full court press to get the Bush administration to strike Iran’s nuclear complex.

CBS consultant Michael Oren says Israel doesn’t want to wait for a new administration. “The Israelis have been assured by the Bush administration that the Bush administration will not allow Iran to nuclearize,” Oren said. “Israelis are uncertain about what would be the policies of the next administration vis-à-vis Iran.”

Israel’s message is simple: If you don’t, we will. Israel held a dress rehearsal for a strike earlier this month, but military analysts say Israel can not do it alone. “Keep in mind that Israel does not have strategic bombers,” Oren said. “The Israeli Air Force is not the American Air Force. Israel can not eliminate Iran’s nuclear program.”

Current Mood: Cynical

A borough council has banned the term “brainstorming” – and replaced it with “THOUGHT SHOWERS”.

Bosses fear the phrase to describe idea sessions may offend epileptics or the mentally ill. Staff have been sent memos about the change – and even sent on training courses. But charities representing epileptics have branded the move political correctness gone mad.

Margaret Thomas, of the National Society for Epilepsy, said: “Brainstorming is a clear and descriptive phrase. “Alternatives such as ‘thought shower’ or ‘blue-sky thinking’ are ambiguous to say the least.

“Any implication that the word ‘brainstorming’ is offensive to epileptics takes political correctness too far.”

Epilepsy causes seizures, like a “storm” of activity in the brain.

Richard Colwill, of mental health charity SANE, said: “This ban goes too far. Few would be genuinely offended by the word ‘brainstorming’ in the context of council meetings.”

An insider at Tunbridge Wells Borough Council in Kent said: “No one took it seriously at first, but they’re certainly keen to wipe out the word once and for all.” A spokesman said: “We take diversity awareness very seriously. The majority of staff have taken part in training and been asked to use the term ‘thought showers’.”

Current Mood: Cynical

Court overturns father’s grounding of 12-year-old

A Canadian court has lifted a 12-year-old girl’s grounding, overturning her father’s punishment for disobeying his orders to stay off the internet, his lawyer said. The girl had taken her father to Quebec Superior Court after he refused to allow her to go on a school trip for chatting on websites he tried to block, and then posting “inappropriate” pictures of herself online using a friend’s computer.

The father’s lawyer Kim Beaudoin said the disciplinary measures were for the girl’s “own protection” and is appealing the ruling.

“She’s a child,” Beaudoin said. “At her age, children test their limits and it’s up to their parents to set boundaries. I started an appeal of the decision today to reestablish parental authority, and to ensure that this case doesn’t set a precedent,” she said. Otherwise, said Beaudoin, “parents are going to be walking on egg shells from now on”.

“I think most children respect their parents and would never go so far as to take them to court, but it’s clear that some would and we have to ask ourselves how far this will go.”

According to court documents, the girl’s internet transgression was just the latest in a string of broken house rules. Even so, Justice Suzanne Tessier found her punishment too severe.

Beaudoin noted the girl used a court-appointed lawyer in her parents’ 10-year custody dispute to launch her landmark case against her dad.

Current Mood: Aggravated

Vatican bans Dan Brown film Angels & Demons from Rome churches

The Vatican has banned the makers of Angels & Demons, the latest Dan Brown thriller to be filmed, from shooting scenes not only in the Vatican but in any church in Rome on the ground that it is “an offence against God” and “wounds common religious feelings”.

Archbishop Velasio De Paolis, head of the Vatican’s Prefecture for Economic Affairs, said that the author had “turned the Gospels upside down to poison the faith. It would be unacceptable to transform churches into film sets so that his blasphemous novels can be made into mendacious films in the name of business.”

Father Marco Fibbi, spokesman for the diocese of Rome, said: “Normally we read the script, but this time it was not necessary. The name Dan Brown was enough.” The Vatican fiercely condemned both the novel The Da Vinci Code and its film version, which starred Tom Hanks as the Harvard professor Robert Langdon.

Key scenes are set in the Vatican and two Rome churches, Santa Maria del Popolo and Santa Maria della Vittoria. In both churches cardinals are murdered and mutilated with mysterious marks and symbols. Father Antonio Truda, parish priest at Santa Maria del Popolo, said that there was “no question” of allowing scenes to be shot there. “It’s bad enough having to put up with tour guides explaining the scene to tourists,” he said.

The Vatican asked the faithful to boycott the film of The Da Vinci Code, which Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, then Archbishop of Genoa and now, as Secretary of State, the right-hand man of Pope Benedict XVI, described as a “phantasmagorical cocktail of inventions” and “a pot-pourri of lies”. The film was also contested bitterly by the arch-conservative Roman Catholic organisation Opus Dei, represented in the film by a ruthless killer monk, although it has no monks.

“phantasmagorical cocktail of inventions” and “a pot-pourri of lies”? Sounds like a good description for organized religion. Colour me cynical :)

Source: The Times

Current Mood: Amused