Day: April 19, 2005

How did this happen? A scientific laboratory operated by the United States government has published results of a study of Big Bang related conditions that could be interpreted to suggest that it took God longer than seven days to create the universe!

The substance that existed just after the universe was born was more of a liquid than a gas, according to an experiment that claims to have created a new state of hot, dense matter.

Physicists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory smashed together basic particles of atomic nuclei, called quarks and gluons, in the giant Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC).

Out of that demolition derby came something unexpected: instead of a gas of free quarks and gluons, the matter seemed to be liquid- like, according to a press release from the laboratory released on Monday.

The research will be published in the journal Nuclear Physics A.

The Democrats on Foreign Relations did their level best to derail the nomination of hotheaded Bush political operative John Bolton as US Ambassador to the United Nations but it was Republican Sen. George Voinivich of Ohio who shut down the vote for now:

A Senate committee delayed a crucial vote today on President Bush’s nomination of John R. Bolton to be the United States’ ambassador to the United Nations after a Republican senator stunned the Foreign Relations Committee by saying he might oppose the nomination if forced to take a stand.

The delay exposes Bolton, a controversial State Department hawk, to at least three more weeks of efforts by Democrats to derail his nomination as other Republicans waver over allegations that Bolton intimidated subordinates over disagreements about policy and intelligence assessments.

The delay also marks a setback for the Bush administration, which was trying to push the nomination through the committee in the face of the wavering support of two moderate Republicans, Sens. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska.

But it was a third Republican, Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio, who voiced doubts about Bolton today and forced a delay in the vote.

“I’ve heard enough today that I don’t feel comfortable about voting for Mr. Bolton,” Voinovich said. “I’ve heard enough today that gives me concern as a member of this committee.”

Washington Post:

The House this week will consider $8 billion in tax breaks targeted to the energy industry at a time when some of those companies are enjoying soaring profits from high consumer prices.

The vast majority of the tax breaks would benefit companies that produce and supply traditional forms of energy, with a large portion going to the oil and natural gas sector.

CBS News:

President Bush doesn’t fare very well in the latest CBS News poll with an approval rating of just 44 percent and still limp support for his proposed Social Security overhaul.

But at least he’s doing better than Congress, which earns a thumbs-up from only 35 percent of Americans – nearly as low a rating as it received last month immediately after lawmakers’ unpopular intervention in the Terri Schiavo case…

[President Bush’s] overall approval rating remained little changed at 44 percent, but his disapproval rating climbed above 50 percent for only the third time since he took office.

And despite the president’s efforts to rally support for his Social Security plan, seven in ten Americans say they’re uneasy about his approach to the issue.

More people (49 percent) say the president’s plan to partially privatize the system is a bad idea than say it’s a good idea (45 percent).

Significantly, there’s been no increase in support for Mr. Bush’s Social Security plan since he and other Republicans began actively campaigning for it in January.

This was published before Cardinal Ratzinger was elected Pope:

Journalists have been poking around Ratzinger’s teenage years during World War II, apparently searching for any pro-Nazi sentiment…

The German cardinal is a hero to doctrinal conservatives, while liberal camps are supposedly rooting for Martini, considered more open-minded.

The 78-year-old Bavarian prelate is the supposed favorite of cardinals leaning toward an elderly figure to lead the church for likely just a few years while churchmen try to absorb the legacy of the late pope’s 26 years at the helm.

A Sunday Times of London profile on Ratzinger, saying his doctrinal watchdog role has earned him uncomplimentary nicknames like “God’s rottweiler,” reported on his “brief membership” in the Hitler youth movement and service, in the final stretch of the war, in a German anti-aircraft unit.

In his memoirs, Ratzinger speaks openly of being enrolled in the Nazi youth movement against his will when he was 14 in 1941, when membership was compulsory. He says he was soon let out because of his studies for the priesthood.

Two years later, he was drafted into a Nazi anti-aircraft unit as a helper, a common fate for teenage boys too young to be soldiers. Enrolled as a soldier at 18, in the last months of the war, he barely finished basic training.

Ratzinger’s wartime past “may return to haunt him,” the British paper wrote on the eve of the conclave’s start.

Other accounts indicate that he is even more reactionary than Pope John Paul II. With polls showing huge numbers of American Catholics in disagreement with their church over issues like birth control, ordaining women to be priests and allowing priest to marry, the appointment of this leader with a hint of fascism in his past could be construed as a shot across the bow to the faithful in this country.

Isn’t this how schisms get started?