ClearWords

It seems to me that there's something a bit screwy about the government's credit crunch bank rescue plan. If it's true that they plan to fund it by issuing government bonds, then since the likes of you and me are the ones who are expected to buy the bonds, that means we will effectively be lending to the banks. Forgive me if I'm being naive, but isn't it supposed to be the other way round? What's more, whatever the banks repay will be recouped from us, their customers, in interest and bank charges. What they don't repay, the government will recoup in tax. Either way, we ourselves will be the ones paying back what was borrowed from us. Surely it's the borrower, not the lender, who is supposed to repay the loan?

In the beginning -- there was just God. And the Voice of God said, "Let there be light". Suddenly, the darkness was pierced by the brightest, whitest, most searing eruption of light that could ever be imagined; closely followed by the loudest, deepest and most violent explosion that could ever qualify to be described as sound. At that moment, in an unspeakably vast cavity of space whose existence had never before been seen or imagined -- where before, there was nothing -- an immense weight of something sprang into being. From the place of the Voice, an endless cloud of matter exploded, its perimeter racing outwards at the speed of light; filling the enormous emptiness, driven outward by the very Breath of God. Time passed. Whether seconds or aeons no-one can tell, for time itself was still young. There was no way to record its passing; no-one to measure it. The cloud grew and grew, the matter expanded and cooled. The light dimmed -- but was not extinguished. Clouds of gas for