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Monday, July 29, 2002
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Barry Carter writes: Great spiritual leaders, like Jesus and Buddha, thousands of years ago spoke of a win-win and abundant reality. However, without aligned structures we have not accepted it. Without direct alignment, which shows how the effects of our benevolent actions help us, we have had too little motivation to see the systemic win-win reality of the universe. We, therefore, talk a good game on Sunday and other holy days, but our actions for the other six days of the week, when it comes to meeting our practical needs, run counter. ... According to Don Carew, co-author of The One-Minute Manager Builds High Performance Teams, teams that have broken through to become super high-performing all have one thing in common. They all have a very high degree of caring for one another. They are focused on each other’s needs; they are interconnected; there is love. A high degree of caring for others is a key trait of individuals with high emotional and spiritual intelligence. Obviously, in order to have a high functioning team, members cannot themselves be dysfunctional. The team, which is the heart of Mass Privatization, has at its core the need to move beyond self. There is the need to focus on other people’s needs, to contribute to others and society. I refer to this as interconnectedness or spirituality. Some, however, simply call it love. (07/29/02) | |
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New York Times -- But a risk that the banks cannot expunge is the fear taking hold among investors that the nation's largest financial institutions were central to the financing of the stock market bubble that has burst so spectacularly. That perception is not only punishing bank stocks, which were not long ago seen as a haven for investors, but it is also casting a pall over the entire market, fund managers say. If banks are found to have facilitated corporate misdeeds — such as hiding losses at Enron, as has been alleged in Congress — severe damage will be done to already battered investor confidence in the entire financial system. "The banks have been both the least visible and the most important components of the financing of the new economy over the last 10 years," said Jonathan H. Cohen, portfolio manager at JHC Capital in Greenwich, Conn., and former head of Internet research at Merrill Lynch. "Investors know that most Internet and telecom companies were part of a bubble, and that many brokerage houses were involved in the sustaining of the bubble. Now people are getting around to focus on the role of the commercial banks." Bank stocks, as measured by the Philadelphia Stock Exchange/KBW Banks index, have lost 10.4 percent in the last two weeks alone. The index consists of 24 major banks and large regional institutions. Leading the way down have been Citigroup and J. P. Morgan Chase, which both fell 15 percent last week. (07/29/02) | |
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Hubert G. Locke writes: The main reason all the rhetoric of the past several months is so outlandish is its apparent assumption that Saddam is an idiot. Are we to suppose that -- while the media carry almost daily accounts of war plans being drawn up, troop estimates made, allies enlisted and announcements issued, all signaling our intent to invade Iraq, march on Baghdad and bring about Saddam's demise -- he is just sitting there, twiddling his thumbs and wondering when or where the first bomb is going to drop? Has there ever been a nation before in all of history so confident of the superiority of its cause and its power -- and so willing to dismissively consider the "collateral damage" that its action would entail -- that it advertised for months in advance its bellicose intent? (One does come to mind, but I dare not mention it.) It is of more than passing interest that the war-drum beating regarding Saddam and Iraq has had an inverse relation to the Dow-Jones Industrial Average; as the latter has plummeted, the former has intensified. George W. Bush wouldn't be the first national leader to launch a war that effectively managed to divert attention from a shattered economy, a level of public distrust regarding business and political leadership that is palpable and a sense of national malaise of growing proportion. (07/28/02) | |
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Sunday MIRROR -- London: Prime Minister Tony Blair has clashed with President George Bush over the go-ahead for a war on Saddam Hussein. The PM wants a fresh mandate from the United Nations for any military action. He fears a split in the Government and a serious diplomatic rift between the West and Middle East states if the US and Britain go it alone. Foreign office advisers have told him the present UN mandate for sanctions against Iraq does not cover an armed attempt to topple Saddam. ... Mr. Blair believes public opinion will be more supportive if the two leaders are able to show that every diplomatic channel has been exhausted. In phone calls over the past week he has urged Mr Bush to seek the backing of the UN to "legitimise' the assault in the eyes of the world. (07/29/02) | |
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SunSpot.net -- Stem cells taken from bone marrow can grow new blood vessels in the eyes of mice, a development researchers say raises the possibility of treating some diseases that often lead to blindness in humans. In tests in mice, the stem cells injected into the eye became incorporated into the eye's structure and formed new blood vessels. If the process turns out to work in humans, the scientists hope to use it to treat eye diseases affecting the blood vessels in the retina. They include diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration, two leading causes of blindness. Dr. Martin Friedlander, who headed the research team at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., said it may be possible to use the process to rescue sick blood vessels or, in modified form, inhibit the growth of abnormal vessels in the eye. His research will be published in the September issue of the journal Nature Medicine. (07/29/02)
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DRUDGE REPORT -- A mosquito alert has been issued at the White House -- after a dead bird discovered on the mansion's grounds tests positive for West Nile virus. "Preliminary tests show the presence of West Nile," a health official said this weekend of the decomposing crow found by the Secret Service near a fountain on the South Lawn. "Mosquitoes spread the disease, all parties in the area should be on guard." ... But one White House staffer who contacted the DRUDGE REPORT was less confident. "More people died last year from this thing than all who died from the anthrax outbreak! Hell, I'm worried." West Nile has killed 18 people since its appearance in the United States in 1999, and caused notable infections in 161, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Infected birds or mosquitoes have appeared in 28 states so far this year. (07/28/02) | |
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CNN news -- One by one, nine soggy and exhausted miners, their faces blackened with coal dust, were pulled early Sunday from a flooded Pennsylvania coal mine after being trapped underground for more than three days. The last one pulled from the 240-foot deep shaft was 41-year-old Mark Popernack, who emerged at 2:45 a.m. and gave his rescuers a thumbs-up. All nine men were taken to hospitals where they will remain under observation for at least 24 hours, officials said. They will be reunited with their families at the medical facilities. (07/28/02) | |
6:17:39 AM 
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© TrustMark
2002
Timothy Wilken.
Last update:
7/31/2002; 3:04:48 PM.
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