Reporting from Washington — Senior military leaders took the exceptional step of briefing President Bush this week on a severe and widespread electronic attack on Defense Department computers that may have originated in Russia — an incursion that posed unusual concern among commanders and raised potential implications for national security.

Defense officials would not describe the extent of damage inflicted on military networks. But they said that the attack struck hard at networks within U.S. Central Command, the headquarters that oversees U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, and affected computers in combat zones. The attack also penetrated at least one highly protected classified network.

Read it all.

The brewing conflict between Common Cause Partners and Communion Partner Bishops and Rectors is the result of a lack of communication between the two groups. The former group has not heard the Communion Partners’ articulation of their call, which is to remain in TEC as a witness. The assumption has been that they have the mutual goal of reforming the church. Because of this assumption, it has been widely stated that the Communion Partners Plan is a “non-starter,” or that the Communion Partners will have “no alternative” but to join the new province once it is formed. When one substitutes the goal of being a witness for that of reforming the church, it becomes obvious that joining a new province is not an alternative at all. In fact, joining a new province would be an act of disobedience for those who are called by God to remain as a witness.

What is needed above all else is the spirit of charity. Those who are called to remain in TEC need to acknowledge and honor the call of those who are called to leave and form a new entity. Likewise, the reformers need to refrain from making assumptions about those who are called to be a witness and respect their chosen path of obedience. Although our ecclesiological goals may be different, our ultimate goal is the same; to proclaim the Gospel in whatever circumstance we find ourselves. May we be united in our mutual ministry and supportive of one another as we manifest our obedience along the distinct paths to which we are called.

Read it all. Careful readers of this blog will note that I have been harping on this theme of charity (follow the links) for a long time. There needs to be much more of it in the days ahead.

We’ve gotten through roughness before. Of things to be thankful for, I personally include this. I traveled this year, and when I fly I say a prayer that has become a ritual: “Dear God, put your big hands under this plane and lift it up, and carry it forward through the air untouched and unharmed by other objects. And may its inner workings work. And put us down softly in our place of destination, and return us safely to our homes, and to those in whose lives we are enmeshed.”

It occurs to me that is perhaps how many of us are feeling about our country this Thanksgiving: Lord, thank you for our previous safety, and get us through this turbulence.

Read it all.

Go here and then click on the link labelled “Suffering Soldiers” to view Bob Woodruff’s important and disturbing story.

Unemployed workers filled the third floor of the Employment Security Commission [in the Charleston, South Carolina area] on Wednesday morning. The mood was somber and businesslike.

One-hundred claims were processed Tuesday, more than double the number of claims handled the same time last year, said Chuck Rein, a commission staffer who advises veterans at the Lockwood Boulevard office.

Hal Wynn, a radiology technician with 35 years of experience, said he was recently laid off indefinitely from the Medical University of South Carolina. He would like to visit family in Missouri during the holidays but said he can’t afford it.

“This is the first time I’ve ever been laid off. It’s kind of a shock,” he said. Wynn, 58, said his gift-buying would be “kind of slim” because of his financial situation. His 14-year-old son lives with him.

Read it all from yesterday’s local paper here.

About 50 conservative Anglican leaders, including eight young theological students, gathered in Toronto for a one-day consultation on Nov. 25 and emerged with a determination to remain within the Anglican Church of Canada. They came from 16 dioceses across the country.

Rev. Brett Cane of St. Aidan’s Anglican Church in Winnipeg is chair of Anglican Essentials Federation who was quick to point out that the organization is going through a name change. He said that the “Essentials” label has negative connotations in some parts of the country. He said that the federation is loosening its connection to the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC). “We will still maintain links of fellowship with the network but we will not be organizationally tied together.”

Read it all.

A Wal-Mart worker died after being trampled when hundreds of shoppers smashed through the doors of a Long Island store Friday morning, police and witnesses said.

The 34-year-old employee, a temporary maintenance worker, tried to hold back the unruly crowds just after the Valley Stream store opened at 5 a.m.

Witnesses said the surging throngs of shoppers knocked the man down. He fell and was stepped on. As he gasped for air, shoppers ran over and around him.

Ugh. Read it all.

So far, this has been one of the most severely destructive bear markets in history. Almost no asset class has been spared. Stocks, commodities, housing, bonds have been battered. All the famous investors have been slaughtered — Buffett, Pickens, Icahn, Adelson. Of the 500 stocks in the S&P 500, only 13 are up for the year. The Legg Mason Value Fund, which boasts the longest streak of beating the S&P 500, is down over 65% this year, the third year that the fund has under performed the S&P. According to Investor’s Business Daily’sMutual Fund Index, the average growth fund is now down for the year around 44%. My own guesstimate is that the average US investor has lost over 50% of his or her assets so far this year.

—Richard Russell, author of the Dow Theory Letter”