Tuesday, March 11, 2003

Bobby Knight Won't Take Salary



From iWon - Sports News:



Bob Knight's income tax return next year is bound to look a little odd.



He told Texas Tech to keep his salary - all $250,000 of it - because he didn't do a very good job, and neither did his team.



"I'm just not at all satisfied with what transpired with our team in terms of our fundamental execution. I don't think it's anybody's fault but mine," the Red Raiders coach told The Dallas Morning News for Tuesday's editions.





He probably can live pretty well without it but still it is refreshing to see that he's not resting on his laurels.

Monday, March 10, 2003

Pope Suspends All Audiences to Pray for Peace



From Zenit News Agency:



John Paul II will suspend his audiences this week to go on retreat and dedicate himself especially to prayer for peace in Iraq and the Holy Land.



The Pope made this announcement today when greeting several thousand people gathered in St. Peter's Square for the midday Angelus.



The Holy Father asked the faithful to pray for him and his closest aides in the Roman Curia, who will be on retreat until next Saturday.



"During this week of silence and prayer, I will have present the needs of the Church and the concern of the whole of humanity, especially in regard to peace in Iraq and the Holy Land," he said.


Talk About Threats!



From smh.com.au: Pyongyang: We'll put a torch to New York -



North Korea would launch a ballistic missile attack on the United States if Washington made a pre-emptive strike against the communist state's nuclear facility, the man described as Pyongyang's "unofficial spokesman" claimed yesterday.



Kim Myong-chol, who has links to the Stalinist regime, told reporters in Tokyo that a US strike on the nuclear facility at Yongbyon "means nuclear war".



"If American forces carry out a pre-emptive strike on the Yongbyon facility, North Korea will immediately target, carry the war to the US mainland," he said, adding that New York, Washington and Chicago would be "aflame".

Sunday, March 9, 2003

The Humanitarian Costs of War



From Zenit:



A leaked U.N. report calculated up to a half-million people could require medical attention in case of a military conflict, the British daily Guardian reported Jan. 29. The World Health Organization estimated that about 100,000 civilians could be wounded, and another 400,000 would be hit by disease due to the bombing of water and sanitation services and the lack of food.



The U.N. Children's Fund calculated that around 3 million people, 80% of them children under age 5, would be in a dire situation regarding a lack of food. The U.N. report noted that some 16 million Iraqis depend on the monthly food basket of basic goods supplied by the government. In the event of war these supplies likely would be disrupted.



On Jan. 28 a group of U.K. aid organizations -- Oxfam, CAFOD, Christian Aid, ActionAid and Save the Children -- published a joint press release warning that military action could trigger a major humanitarian disaster. "Military action against Iraq could devastate the lives of millions of people," Oxfam director Barbara Stocking was quoted as saying. "The humanitarian situation in Iraq is now more fragile than it was on the eve of the 1991 Gulf War."



The declaration also commented that under the Geneva Conventions it is against international humanitarian law for "any objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population" to be targeted during military action. In the case of Iraq, these objects include infrastructure such as ports, railways and roads vital for the distribution of food aid across the country as well, as the water and sanitation system, powered by the main electricity supply.


Saturday, March 8, 2003

Iraq has Drones?



Again something I've heard nothing about in the American press.



From the Times Online:





A REPORT declassified by the United Nations yesterday contained a hidden bombshell with the revelation that inspectors have recently discovered an undeclared Iraqi drone with a wingspan of 7.45m, suggesting an illegal range that could threaten Iraq’s neighbours with chemical and biological weapons.



US officials were outraged that Hans Blix, the chief UN weapons inspector, did not inform the Security Council about the drone, or remotely piloted vehicle, in his oral presentation to Foreign Ministers and tried to bury it in a 173-page single-spaced report distributed later in the day. The omission raised serious questions about Dr Blix’s objectivity.



Miraculous Images?



I've been reading for the past few months about images appearing all over the place. This one of Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared on a highway in Mexico City. I saw the image on Fox News the other night. There is an image posted at this site and a brief story as well.

Friday, March 7, 2003

John Allen Writes About the LA Congress



This is where I was last week. I actually spoke with John as we were walking from one conference to another. I joked about some of his leading candidates in Conclave dying off. He mentioned that he is under contract to revise the book every two years.



Of the people he mentions hearing, I did hear Father Tony speak at a youth rally. I also heard John speak just before the Native American Liturgy in the Arena, but none of the others.



Here is a sampling of his column:



Go to The Word From Rome for his full report.



The congress is an incredible event, reflecting the energy, the diversity, and the sheer size of Los Angeles itself. A friend who works for the U.S. bishops observed that it's remarkable that so many lay Catholics --somewhere around 22,000 --would give up a beautiful Southern California weekend to sit through what amounted to a series of lectures on ministry, trends in catechesis, and the issues facing John Paul's successor. For three days, the Anaheim Convention Center literally buzzed with Catholicity.