Outwardly Pope John Paul II, who has been actively involved in battling war and suppression, is a beacon of hope for those who long for freedom. Internally, however, his anti-reformist tenure has plunged the Roman Catholic church into an epochal credibility crisis.
The Catholic church is in dire straits. The pope is deathly ill and deserves every bit of sympathy he can get. But the church must live on, and in light of the selection of a new pope, it will need a diagnosis, an unadorned insider analysis. The therapy will be discussed later.

Many marvel at the staying power of this highly fragile, partially paralyzed head of the Roman Catholic church, a man who, despite all medications, is barely able to speak. He is treated with a sort of reverence that would never be extended to an American president or a German chancellor in a similar state. Others feel put off by a man they see as an obstinate office bearer who, instead of accepting the Christian path to his own eternity, is using all means at his disposal to hold on to power in a largely undemocratic system.

Even for many Catholics, this pope at the end of his physical strength, refusing to relinquish his power, is the symbol of a fraudulent church that has calcified and become senile behind its glittering façade.

The festive mood that prevailed during the Second Vatican Council (1962 to 1965), or Vatican II, has disappeared. Vatican II's outlook of renewal, ecumenical understanding and a general opening of the world now seems overcast and the future gloomy. Many have resigned themselves or even turned away out of frustration from this self-absorbed hierarchy. As a result, many people are confronted with an impossible set of alternatives: "play the game or leave the church." New hope will only begin to take root when church officials in Rome and in the episcopacy reorient themselves toward the compass of the Gospel.

In the past three years we have sponsored many groups of Palestinians and Israelis to come to Plum Village, to practice with us. All of them have big pain and suffering within. Most of them did not know how to breathe, recognize and embrace the fear, the anger, the frustration, the despair in them.

They could not look at each other. They could not talk to each other, because their fear is huge, their anger is so huge. With Buddha Sangha supporting, they are able to breathe in and out, generating the energy of mindfulness and embrace tenderly their anger, their fear, their frustration.

They learned to breath with us. They learned to walk with us. They learned to sit down finally with us. They learned to eat mindfully, wash the dishes mindfully with us, and finally we helped them to practice, the practice of deep compassionate listening to the other group of people. And we helped the other group of people to practice gentle speech, loving speech, so that they can empty their heart. They can to express everything that is in their heart, their fear, their suffering, their anger and so on.

The practice is having an opportunity to speak out everything in your heart because you can get a relieve when you do so. But you should be trained to speak in such a way the other group of people can listen and understand. Therefore calm, gentle speech must be learned. [...]

You can not love, you can not love unless you understand. You can not be compassionate and accept the other person unless you understand him, her or them.

But understanding what? Understanding their suffering, their difficulties, their obstacles, their despair. Once you have understand, your heart opens. The nectar of compassion springs up. And you don't suffer any more because compassion has been born in your heart. [...]

Watch this talk in video streaming.

One of the biggest changes in politics in my lifetime is that the delusional is no longer marginal. It has come in from the fringe, to sit in the seat of power in the Oval Office and in Congress. For the first time in our history, ideology and theology hold a monopoly of power in Washington. Theology asserts propositions that cannot be proven true; ideologues hold stoutly to a worldview despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality. When ideology and theology couple, their offspring are not always bad but they are always blind. And there is the danger: voters and politicians alike, oblivious to the facts.

Remember James Watt, President Ronald Reagan's first secretary of the interior? My favorite online environmental journal, the ever-engaging Grist, reminded us recently of how James Watt told the U.S. Congress that protecting natural resources was unimportant in light of the imminent return of Jesus Christ. In public testimony he said, "after the last tree is felled, Christ will come back."

Beltway elites snickered. The press corps didn't know what he was talking about. But James Watt was serious. So were his compatriots out across the country. They are the people who believe the Bible is literally true -- one-third of the American electorate, if a recent Gallup poll is accurate. In this past election several million good and decent citizens went to the polls believing in the rapture index. That's right -- the rapture index. Google it and you will find that the best-selling books in America today are the 12 volumes of the "Left Behind" series written by the Christian fundamentalist and religious-right warrior Timothy LaHaye. [...] So what does this mean for public policy and the environment? Go to Grist to read a remarkable work of reporting by the journalist Glenn Scherer -- The Road to Environmental Apocalypse. Read it and you will see how millions of Christian fundamentalists may believe that environmental destruction is not only to be disregarded but actually welcomed -- even hastened -- as a sign of the coming apocalypse. As Grist makes clear, we're not talking about a handful of fringe lawmakers who hold or are beholden to these beliefs. Nearly half the U.S. Congress before the recent election -- 231 legislators in total and more since the election -- are backed by the religious right. [...]

And why not? There's a constituency for it. A 2002 Time-CNN poll found that 59 percent of Americans believe that the prophecies found in the book of Revelations are going to come true. Nearly one-quarter think the Bible predicted the 9/11 attacks. Drive across the country with your radio tuned to the more than 1,600 Christian radio stations, or in the motel turn on some of the 250 Christian TV stations, and you can hear some of this end-time gospel. And you will come to understand why people under the spell of such potent prophecies cannot be expected, as Grist puts it, "to worry about the environment. Why care about the earth, when the droughts, floods, famine and pestilence brought by ecological collapse are signs of the apocalypse foretold in the Bible? Why care about global climate change when you and yours will be rescued in the rapture? And why care about converting from oil to solar when the same God who performed the miracle of the loaves and fishes can whip up a few billion barrels of light crude with a word?"

Related:
The Godly Must Be Crazy: Christian-right views are swaying politicians and threatening the environment (Grist)

CNN's chief news executive Eason Jordan has quit over remarks he made about journalists killed in Iraq, possibly by US forces, the television network has said.


CNN said on its website on Friday that Jordan conceded his remarks at last month's World Economic Forum in Davos were "not as clear as they should have been".

Several participants at the event said Jordan told the audience US forces had deliberately targeted journalists - a charge he denied.

Jordan quickly explained that some journalists were killed because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and were struck by a bomb, while others died because American forces mistook them for the enemy.

Fear made George Bush’s presidency, gave him his “mission”, and allowed him to remain in office. Before Sept. 11, he had drifted to the lowest approval rating ever for a president after just eight months on the job. Throughout the 2004 campaign, Republicans hammered “September 11”, “terrorism” and “Saddam Hussein” like an anvil chorus. Bush got his victory; it was the smallest win of any second-term president since Woodrow Wilson in 1916, but he acts as if it is the moment of deliverance Republicans have been waiting for since Herbert Hoover lost the White House.

Fear fostered Bush’s “political capital”, so he sees no reason why it should fail him now. His attempt to transfer fear from the war on terrorism to the war on the New Deal may not be confusing to him, but the truth is that only fear generated in foreign policy has protected him politically from his unpopular positions on domestic issues. Since Sept. 11, without variation, Bush’s poll numbers have paralleled the quantity of news stories about terrorism. The more terrorism dominates the media, the higher his ratings; and whenever terrorism declines, he begins to sink. The war on terrorism is his meta-narrative. But what happens when the ground shifts?

An American woman who concocted a heartbreaking story of how her soldier husband died a hero in Iraq has admitted the story was a hoax.


The touching story of how Specialist Jonathan Kenney took a bullet meant for an Iraqi child on 29 January was reported by the Colorado media after a news release was sent to them by the non-profit group Homefront Heroes.

In reality, there is no record of a soldier with that name dying in Iraq. Sarah Kenney is married to a man named Michael Kenney, and he is neither currently in the military nor serving in Iraq.

An American civil rights lawyer was yesterday convicted of aiding terrorism by smuggling secret messages from an Islamist client, who was jailed for plotting to destroy several New York landmarks, to his followers outside.
Lynne Stewart, 65, built a fierce reputation fighting for the poor, the dispossessed, radicals and revolutionaries in her 30-year career. She was found guilty of conspiracy, giving material support to terrorists and defrauding the United States government. She faces up to 20 years in prison.

The case has attracted intense scrutiny in the US. Some lawyers have argued that Ms Stewart has been the target of vindictive and overzealous prosecutors, punishing her for acting in defence of unpopular clients.

The image of a boy shot dead in his helpless father's arms during an Israeli confrontation with Palestinians has become the Pietà of the Arab world. Now a number of Israeli researchers are presenting persuasive evidence that the fatal shots could not have come from the Israeli soldiers known to have been involved in the confrontation. The evidence will not change Arab minds—but the episode offers an object lesson in the incendiary power of an icon
The following sketch marks the location of the father and son who took cover adjacent to a Palestinian shooting position at the junction. After Palestinian policemen fired from this position and around it toward an IDF position opposite, IDF soldiers returned fire toward the sources of the shooting and during the exchanges of fire the Palestinian child was apparently hit and killed.

An IDF investigation and re-enactment appears to show conclusively that the 12-year-old boy from Gaza, Muhammad al-Dura, was not shot by Israeli soldiers - but was rather the victim of a cruel plot staged by Palestinian sharp-shooters and a Palestinian television cameraman.

More Information about this incident in the following links:

• The truth about Mohamad Aldura
• WHO KILLED MUHAMMAD AL-DURA?BLOOD LIBEL
• Who Shot Mohammed al-Dura?
• Who caused the televised death of 12-year-old M. al-Dura?
• Photo of Palestinian Boy Kindles Debate in France
• The Death of Muhammad Rami Jamal Aldura

Bono, U2’s lead singer, is one of the leaders of the campaign to supply the third world with drugs by dismantling the intellectual property rights of pharmaceutical companies. So is this his position on IPRs generally? Not at all. Bono is also one of the leaders of the campaign to strengthen the IPRs of (you’ve guessed it) musicians. Today, most European countries protect copyrights on sound recordings for no more than 50 years. The U2 members think that they should be allowed to "retain their copyright for at least as long as they live, and to pass it to their heirs, just like any other asset that they own." Yes, it’s very easy to say that property if theft when you’re talking about other people’s properties. Someone might say that there is a big difference between music and life-saving drugs. I agree. Gifted musicians would probably continue to create music even if they didn’t make much money on it. But I don’t think that anyone would continue to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into research for new drugs if they had no way of financing that investment through sales. And, even though I really like U2, I would prefer a world without "With or Without You", "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" and "New Year’s Day" to a world without life-saving drugs. By Johan Norberg

Researchers from the Palo Alto, Calif.-based computing giant have created devices called crossbar latches that can be used to perform calculations in microprocessors, the same function silicon transistors now have. The difference is that crossbar latches--which consist of a grid of microscopic wires linked by molecules at their intersections--are far smaller and, potentially, far cheaper to make because they are produced using processes more akin to inkjet printing rather than the ornate etching processes required for today's chips. Both factors give chipmakers an opportunity to dodge some of the technical difficulties and painful costs awaiting them in coming decade.

HP has already shown how crossbar latches can be used in memory. "This is the final piece of the puzzle for building a molecular computer," said Phil Kuekes, senior computer architect and primary inventor at HP's Quantum Science Research (QSR) unit. [...]

What it looks like: A single crossbar latch consists of a three wires: a "latch" wire and two control, or clock, wires. The latch wire lies under the other two. The wires are connected by molecules, which transfer electrical impulses from one wire to the next. In the latches used to perform calculations, it is a layer of a common acid made up of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, namely stearic acid.

In layman's terms, a series of electrical impulses will close the molecular switch between the latch wire and the first clock wire. The impulses will then open the switch between the latch wire and other clock wire. In digital terms, a computer interprets this action as a "0". Conversely, opening the first switch and closing the second becomes a "1." [...]

A key attribute of the switches is that the junction between the wires can be as small as 2 nanometers. The equivalent junction in current transistors inside 90-nanometer chips is about 60 nanometers, meaning that far more crossbar latches can be put into the same space that now holds transistors. (*) Traditional transistors, in fact, will never be able to hit these limits, Kuekes said.

Eliminating the Need for Transistor (Hewlett Packard) "The technical problem we face is to make extremely small electronic components (at the molecular scale), use very large numbers of these components to make very complex circuits, but manufacture these circuits at much less cost than today's integrated circuits," says Phil Kuekes, another author and senior architect, Quantum Science Research. "This requires many disciplines to work together. To make them function at the smallest scales, we use quantum physics. To achieve massive complexity, we use computer architecture. To keep them inexpensive, we use low mechanical precision and do self-assembly with chemistry. And to deal with the inevitable defects of chemical self-assembly, we use defect tolerant design algorithms." These algorithms enable computer architects to design around flaws in chips.

Related:
The crossbar latch: Logic value storage, restoration, and inversion in crossbar circuits (Journal of Applied Physics, 2005)

(*)A nanometer is one billionth of a meter or 39/1,000,000,000 inch.