Tuesday, October 01, 2013

1 Oct - Blogs I'm Following

Seongsan-ri from Seongsan Ilchulbong 성산 일출봉Seongsan-ri from Seongsan Ilchulbong 성산 일출봉 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
English: Vocanoe of Halla Mountain in Jeju Isl...English: Vocanoe of Halla Mountain in Jeju Island, South Korea (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
English: This is the picture of Oedolgae Rock ...English: This is the picture of Oedolgae Rock in course 7 of Ollegil in Jeju Island. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Seaside cliff off Jeju.Seaside cliff off Jeju. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
11:31am MDST

400 years of dance...Kabuki dance - Amanda Mattes

Obi-Wan Kabuki at AMERICAN KABUKI - 1 second ago
Note: the reason I chose to use the term "American Kabuki" for this blog refers to the common American usage of the term "Kabuki Theatre" in to describe the formalized predictable drama we see in American Politics since the early 1980s. It is no means meant to insult Japanese culture or this fine dance form. Rather its meant to illustrate the formalized and predictable nature of political discourse in America. When I chose the name this blog was meant to be a political satire site, but life took another direction and I began investigating the banking system which seemed to... more »

Heather Answers Henry the Banker's Questions

Obi-Wan Kabuki at AMERICAN KABUKI - 1 second ago
The following is from recent Skype Conversations...share in transparency to the public... some emoticons are have been left in their Skype text form where I had no ready substitute for them on the blog. [10/1/13 4:05:41 AM] HeatherAnnTucciJarraf I: On 10/1/13, at 12:00 AM, Henry O'Leary wrote: ================== MY QUESTIONS FOR HEATHER... But first, I am REPOSTING some EXCERPTS from above: . . WHY ME? / If not me, Who? / QUOTE / I have been fascinated with this "movement" for a long time. I have probably listened to well over 100 hours of podcasts, and done a great deal of readi... more »

The "Holocaust" as a PSYOP

John Friend at John Friend's Blog - 4 minutes ago
I've often said that the lies associated with WWII, Adolf Hitler's National Socialist Germany, and the fake Jewish "Holocaust" form the historical paradigm in which the vast majority of Americans, and indeed much of the world's population, collectively view the history of the 20th century. Alternatively, the lies associated with the events of September 11th, 2001 form the modern political paradigm in which the vast majority of Americans, and indeed much of the global population, collectively view the beginning of this young century. The official narratives of both WWII and September ... more »

US SPIRITUAL LEADERS ON JEJU ISLAND

Bruce K. Gagnon at Organizing Notes - 5 minutes ago
*Nipponzan Myohoji buddhist monk Gilberto Perez (left) and Jesuit Father Bix (right) join the dance at the front gate of Jeju Island Navy base construction site. Both men are from Washington state in the US**Catholic nuns and priests join the protest at Jeju* A big event was held in Gangjeong village on Jeju Island, South Korea by the Catholic community during this past weekend. It was a celebration of two years of active Catholic resistance at the base. Jeju Island Bishop Kang has been a tremendous supporter of the Navy base resistance effort and said about the weekend protest... more »

Joan Walsh profiles her Darling Chris!

bob somerby at the daily howler - 11 minutes ago
*TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2013* *Her uncles get drunker than yours:* For our money, Chris Matthews’ relationship with Jack Welch is the great unexplored story of modern pseudo-journalism. That said, we liberals aren’t even allowed to know that this question exists! We’re programmed to cluck about Rupert Murdoch. At the same time, we’ve never heard about Welch and NBC News and Clinton, Clinton and Gore. Joan Walsh maintains this embargo in today’s Salon. Absurdly enough, Walsh is assigned to profile Matthews, the fellow who helped her earn her bones as a cable news star. For that reason,... more »

Is Obama the Singing Frog?...

Adrienne at Adrienne's Corner - 13 minutes ago
*I doubt if even free beer would help.*

Permaculture resource hierarchies

risa bear at A Way to Live - 29 minutes ago
We have all heard of "reduce, reuse, recycle": the waste hierarchy. This is where the idea fits into Permaculture, as principle number five. It also fits under Right Awareness in the Eightfold Way, as wastefulness is thought to be a prime indicator of an unenlightened life, showing disrespect for the universe and its inhabitants. There is a story of three Zen monks seeing a succulent vegetable leaf drifting down a stream, and they discuss among themselves the likely heedlessness of whomever tossed it away. Then along the riverbank comes another monk, running with a hooked stick to... more »

Republicans In Swing Districts Posture Against Government Shut Down They Voted For

DownWithTyranny at DownWithTyranny! - 32 minutes ago
Far right Republican Congressman Gary Miller (CA) was basically redistricted out of office... except he managed to win a very blue district because of a quirk in California's new election law that found him running against a fellow Republican in the general, all the Democrats having eliminated each other in a crowded open primary. Obama had won what is now CA-31 (Colton Loma Linda, San Bernardino, Redlands, Rancho Cucamonga) with 122,691 votes (57%) against McCain's 89,376 (41%) in 2008. Last year Obama scored another 57-41% victory in the district, taking 118,043. On the same ba... more »

Stained Glass Fall Votives

Debra Hawkins at Housewife Eclectic - 1 hour ago
I couldn't be happier that fall has arrived. We used to joke when we lived in Texas that we had two seasons. Summer and Summer Lite. It never bothered me, until people back home started to post pictures of crisp, colorful leaves and hot apple cider. Then I would spend the fall feeling homesick until they started posting pictures of snow and then I would laugh and head to the beach. There is pretty much nothing better than the taste of pumpkin, the feel of sweatshirt weather and the crunch of leaves beneath your feet. I have almost as many fall decorations as Christmas, it is just ... more »

Hunter S. Thompson, 1998: "The Democratic Party are not trying to save Clinton; they are trying to save themselves."

Paul Coker at News Spike - 1 hour ago
Honourably discharged from the air force in 1958, Thompson began freelance writing, working as the Caribbean correspondent in San Juan, Puerto Rico for the *New York Herald Tribune*, also reporting from South America in 1962 for the *National Observer*. During this period, an argument with the *National Observer* editors over an effusive review of Tom Wolfe's The Kandy-kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamlined Baby left him out of work. Thompson used his enforced leisure time to write a novel, *The Rum Diary* – the story set in San Juan and narrated by a semi-autobiographical ... more »

Syria disarmament team launches mission

Saman Mohammadi at The Excavator - 1 hour ago
Here we go. *Video Title: Syria disarmament team launches mission. Source: Al Jazeera. Date Published: October 1, 2013.* "This is quite an ambitious timeline. Also, the situation on the ground does complicate the mission. So this is quite challenging. This is the most challenging operation that we will undertake." - Ahmet Uzumcu, Director General of Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). "Lavrov: It is crucial to determine who is responsible for using #chemicalweapons in #Syria" - *Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs*.

A search for perfection

sue at Is the BBC biased? - 1 hour ago
I won’t attempt to replicate Craig’s perceptive article or repeat too many excerpts from Schama’s final episode “Return”. As it happens, my collection of quotations and observations were similar to Craig’s, so maybe great minds really do think alike. Condensing this enormous topic into five hour-long parcels was a huge undertaking for Simon Schama, and one of his major dilemmas must have been what to leave out. It would be churlish of me to keep complaining about crucial facts that were omitted. His approach was to recount an anecdote here and a biographical vignette there and allo... more »

The 'Fraidy Cat Conference

Jonathan Bernstein at A plain blog about politics - 1 hour ago
OK, all through this thing, and all day yesterday, I thought that a shutdown was relatively unlikely. Not impossible, but below 50/50. Why? Because it was pretty obvious that only a small group of Congressional Republicans thought it was a good idea. To some extent because it really isn't a good idea for them; to some extent because everyone has massively overlearned the lessons of 1995-1996 (Sean Trende is the latest to look at the minimal electoral effects). Indeed, Byron York reports that the true believers are somewhere around 30 to 60 House Republicans -- and, reporting last ni... more »

APS prizes: Moore; Kosower, Dixon, Bern; Volovik, Mineev

Luboš Motl at The Reference Frame - 2 hours ago
Due to its unprofessional activities in the climate debate, I am not exactly a fan of the American Physical Society. But let me mention the new winners of some of its prizes that were announced today. The 2014 Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics goes to Greg Moore (whom I know from Rutgers, an impressive physical mathematician), "For eminent contributions to mathematical physics with a wide influence in many fields, ranging from string theory to supersymmetric gauge theory, conformal field theory, condensed matter physics and four-manifold theory." The 2014 J.J. S... more »

@wotist4 - yes there's more

Not a sheep at Not a sheep - 2 hours ago
Following on from this post from yesterday and this post from earlier today, I thought I'd bring you up to date. Don't worry, @wotsit4 hasn't retracted his incredibly stupid/naive claim that without Zionists there would be no Middle East problem. Maybe he's still to find the time to research Sunni and Shia conflict... This post was prompted by @wotsit4's attempt to evade addressing the above by calling me a 'TROLL'. The mind of the lefty is a predictable thing; if they find themselves out-argued and incapable of reasoning their way out of a corner they resort to name-calling: 'RACIST... more »

@wotsit4 the gift that keeps on giving

Not a sheep at Not a sheep - 2 hours ago
Following on from this blogpost of yesterday I thought you might like to see some more tweets from @wotsit4 It's odd how @wotsit4 is happy to call attention to the supposed size of the 'Jewish lobby' in the USA but has 'no interest in any religion' when he's asked a question about Muslim Brotherhood linked members of Barack Hussein Obama's administration. It seems that only the supposed power of Jews concerns him.

Why There is a Recession/Depression During Every GOP Regime

Len Hart at The Existentialist Cowboy - 2 hours ago
*by Len Hart, the Existentialist Cowboy* Every major economist has espoused the 'LABOR THEORY of VALUE'. That includes the conservative Adam Smith and the left-leaning Karl Marx. ERGO: a declining "real' wage that should be going to labor TRICKLES (in fact, FLOWS) upward to the ruling elites. The Axis of Reagan/GOP are wrong. Wealth does not and has never 'trickled down'. "Suppy Side Economics" was and remains a scam, a con sketched out, it is said, on a napkin by Arthur Laffer. Laffer is remembered for his "Laffer curve" said to illustrate the theory that reducing taxes for the ve... more »

George H.W. Bush's "New World Order"

Len Hart at The Existentialist Cowboy - 2 hours ago
*by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy* Bush Sr is at his most sinister in a YouTube video in which he promises a "New World Order". It's creepy --the gleam in his eye, his evil grin, the quaver in his voice. Admittedly --Bush Sr is creepy. But this performance is off the boards. NWO means different things to different people. As a result, very little written about it is meaningful or significant. Hitler had in mind a world dominated by the Third Reich. But recent use of the term does not necessarily mean Nazism. In some cases, it may be worse. Muddying the waters is the "Illumin... more »

A failure to immediately and unequivocally deny a vague allegation does not entitle a judge to discount evidence

James C Morton at Morton's Musings - 2 hours ago
R. v. J.S.W., 2013 ONCA 593 deals with silence or a failure categorically to deny an allegation - can that be taken as either agreement or at least a weakness in credibility of a later denial? The Court holds: [49] The appellant was not told where, when, or how the appellant was alleged to have fondled the complainant. Had the appellant been told the specifics of the allegations, and had the appellant then told the police that he was not sure, or logically could have, rubbed the complainant's chest and vagina and licked her foot when she stayed at her apartment in the year ... more »

Shut Down and Out

Karen Garcia at Sardonicky - 2 hours ago
Government shutdown is actually kind of a misnomer. That is because the leaders who actually run things have neither been shut down, no will they ever shut up. The Congress critters have not gone home. To the contrary, they're boozing it up* like it's 1929. The White House is open for business and schmoozing it up. Obama is reportedly feeling pretty chipper. Because as far as I know, Terror Tuesday has not been disrupted by Shutdown. As a matter of fact, economic terrorists Lloyd Blankfein and Jamie Dimon and a whole passel of their unprosecuted little bankster buddies will be drop... more »

Tuesday Nerd Blogging

Charli Carpenter at Duck of Minerva - 2 hours ago
* *via George Takei – see also his new book.

Republicans own this shutdown

Libby Spencer at The Impolitic - 3 hours ago
Crackpot cons in John Boehner's House of Dysfunction (and their paid and volunteer apologists) are desperately trying to shift the blame for the govenment shutdown onto the Democrats but anyone who plays the "both sides do it" storyline on this one is either a liar or a fool. The irresponsible party here couldn't be more clear: The federal government shut down for one reason: House Republicans did not pass a six-week funding bill. That doesn’t mean a majority of the House opposed the bill, however. In fact, the House never got to vote on it. Speaker John Boehner refused to hold... more »

Your future under Obamacare...w/update

Adrienne at Adrienne's Corner - 3 hours ago
*this is how you'll receive your "free" health care...* [image: Healthcare.gov] Health Insurance Marketplace: Please waitWe have a lot of visitors on our site right now and we're working to make your experience here better. Please wait here until we send you to the login page. Thanks for your patience! *Update:* The System is down at the moment.We're working to resolve the issue as soon as possible. Please try again later. ------------------------------ Please include the reference ID below if you wish to contact us at 1-800-318-2596 for support. Error from: https%3A//www.healt... more »

KRG Elections Change Region's Politics, But Will It Change The Government?

Joel Wing at MUSINGS ON IRAQ - 3 hours ago
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) recently completed its latest parliamentary elections in September 2013. The results shook up Kurdish politics. One of the ruling parties, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) finished 3rd behind its partner the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP and the opposition Change List. The Islamic parties ran separately, dividing their votes. The real question now isn’t the ballot count, but rather what government will come of it. Who will participate, and who will be in opposition will show whether the region is ready for real political reform or n... more »

SPOTTED: Some truly awful “he said/she said” reporting!

bob somerby at the daily howler - 3 hours ago
*TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2013* *MINOR HINT: It’s on the front page of the Times:* Yesterday, we hung our head over the pitiful work of our liberal tribe. At Salon, a tribal leader denounced some outrageous “he said/she said” reporting about the government shutdown. Despite his claim that everyone’s doing it, his examples came from some very minor sources—and his four examples were highly underwhelming. That was pitiful work. This morning, though, we awoke to some truly horrible “he said/she said” reporting about the shutdown. And this reporting appears in a high-profile spot, on page o... more »

Peltier Tribunal Agenda: Indigenous Peoples Rights

brendanorrell@gmail.com at CENSORED NEWS - 3 hours ago
SCHEDULE AND PRESENTERS (Subject to Change) Update  Earthcycles Livestream  OCTOBER 2 -- 4, 2013 Oct. 2 9:00 – 9:20 a.m. – Opening Prayer Ceremony 9:20 – 9:40 a.m. – Welcome Dorothy Ninham, Director of Wind Chases the Sun, Inc., and Former Oneida Nation Judge Lakota Culture, Identity, and History 9:40 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. – Introduction: Why We Are Here William Means,

The Military-Industrial Complex is Killing the US

Mark Daniels at Global Political Awakening - 3 hours ago
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Why Descartes' "Proof" of the Existence of God is Fallacious

Len Hart at The Existentialist Cowboy - 3 hours ago
*by Len Hart, the Existentialist Cowboy* In a nutshell Descartes' "proof" is derived from a definition of God! Simply, God must exist by definition. But that assumes his existence. If it were true, then "God" is the only thing proven to exist by definition. There are various versions of the Ontological argument. Descartes' version differs from that of St Anselm which was, interestingly, referred to in one of the Indiana Jones movies. Descartes' latter's version, indeed, proceeds from the definition of the word "God" and is, therefore, problematic from the outset! How, for example, ... more »

The Coming Global Revolution

Mark Daniels at Global Political Awakening - 3 hours ago
[image: Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...] *Youtube* An amazing speech by Rainn Wilson on the coming global revolution that must happen in order for us to move forward as a human race. Subscribe to Tragedy and Hope's Channel Enter your email address to subscribe to our newsletter: Delivered by FeedBurner Be the Change! Share this using the tools below.

Read Stuff, You Should

Jonathan Bernstein at A plain blog about politics - 3 hours ago
Happy Birthday to Randy Quaid, 63. Good stuff: 1. Ross Douthat mostly makes sense about the shutdown as party strategy. 2. Jim DeMint and Obamacare, from Lucia Graves. 3. Ezra Klein and Sarah Kliff have a monster ACA FAQ. 4. John Sides on, roughly, mandates and democracy. 5. Read Ed Kilgore's disagreement with me over Boehner. 5. And Stan Collender on why the shutdown will last at least a week. That's what I would think, with only one main alternative possibility: that Republicans already decided in advance that they wanted, for whatever reason, to get over the deadline before c... more »

Obama and the Myth of "American Exceptionalism"

Land Destroyer at Land Destroyer - 3 hours ago
*Eric Draitser of StopImperialism.com appears on RT on Friday September 27, 2013 to discuss the issue of "American Exceptionalism" as described by Obama in his speech at the UN General Assembly. Draitser explains how Obama's rhetoric is meant as a response to Russian President Putin's Op-Ed piece in the NY Times which questioned the merits of so-called "exceptionalism". Additionally, Draitser examines the way in which this idea is deeply embedded within the collective psyche of the American people and that this notion is used to justify the worst elements of US foreign policy. F... more »

Untitled

New Orleans Ladder at New Orleans Ladder - 3 hours ago
*Lead proponent of oil and gas lawsuit loses spot on levee board ~Jeff Adelson, New Orleans Advocate* *New flood insurance program begins today ~Jordan Blum* *Exquisite Corps of Engineers prepare for October 1 closures of USACE-operated campgrounds and day-use parks* *New Share the Gulf Coalition Seeks Fairness for Gulf Commercial Fishermen ~Gulf Seafood Institute*

The Top 10 Ways The US Government Shutdown Will Affect You Today

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Daniels) at Global Political Awakening - 3 hours ago
[image: Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...] Jeff Berwick The stroke of midnight has just passed and the US government has turned into a pumpkin. Well, we wish. In fact the US government like some eternal zombie continues to walk the Earth even without the souls of taxpayers upon which to feast. And, even that isn't totally true. Like any zombie it still collects the blood of its victims (taxes) even while most of its zombie army (federal government employees) sit at home on a paid vacation... and most of their oppressive "services" continue on, like the CIA, NSA, ... more »

The Assault on Public Education in SC Continues: More Innovation!

P. L. Thomas at Schools Matter - 4 hours ago
How much education innovation can a high-poverty state take? Apparently, according to former-general-without-a-second-of-experience-as-a-teacher Superintendent Mick Zais, just a little more. As reported by Patrick Hayes at EdFirstSC (and not reported at the Charleston Post and Courier because the P&C is all about endorsing the worst possible policies for SC public schools, such as merit pay and VAM as well as TFA, charter schools, and misguided teacher evaluations), Zais wants to delete rules that limit class size, teacher workloads, and mandatory staffing levels for teachers, guida... more »

Did The Republicans Actually WANT To Close Down The Government All Along?

DownWithTyranny at DownWithTyranny! - 4 hours ago
And it's not just Maddow who is pointing out that this wasn't just a bunch of random berserk teabaggers causing this. This is official, well-planned out Republican Party strategy, as Jonathan Chait explained to *New York*magazine readers yesterday. In January, demoralized House Republicans retreated to Williamsburg, Virginia, to plot out their legislative strategy for President Obama’s second term. Conservatives were angry that their leaders had been unable to stop the expiration of the Bush tax cuts on high incomes, and sought assurances from their leaders that no further compro... more »

INVISIBLE CHILDREN: The Dumbest Adults in the World!

bob somerby at the daily howler - 4 hours ago
*TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2013* *Part 2—One different world:* Why do students in miraculous Finland top the world in reading and math on international tests? Correction! Miraculous Finland’s very good students don’t always top the world. Let’s recall what happened in 2011 on the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), one of the three (3) major international tests in which the developed nations take part. You heard it! There are *three* major international testing programs (3), not just one (1). What happened on the 2011 TIMSS in both grades tested (grades 4 and ... more »

The Assault on Public Education in SC Continues: More Innovation!

plthomasedd at @ THE CHALK FACE - 4 hours ago
How much education innovation can a high-poverty state take? Apparently, according to former-general-without-a-second-of-experience-as-a-teacher Superintendent Mick Zais, just a little more. As reported by Patrick Hayes at EdFirstSC (and not reported at the Charleston Post and Courier because the P&C is all about endorsing the worst possible policies for SC public schools, such as merit pay and […]

Leadership

Paul Coker at News Spike - 4 hours ago
*In human affairs, some people are born to lead,* * * *Others aspire to greatness,* * * *Still more have greatness thrust upon them.* * * * * *And some people just come from Ohio.* * * * * * *

ISA Working Groups

Jon Western at Duck of Minerva - 4 hours ago
Registration is now open for the two ISA Working Groups scheduled for ISA Toronto. I am coordinating one of them with my colleague Kavita Khory on Global Trends in War, Conflict and Political Violence. The Working Group is sponsored by the International Security Studies Section. Here’s a brief description: The year 2014 marks the 100th Continue reading

The Crazies Rule The Roost

Owen Gray at Northern Reflections - 4 hours ago
It has been clear for some time now that the Republican Party is The Stupid Party. But with today's shut down of the federal government, the Republicans have earned the moniker, The Delusional Party. They are "rebels without a clue," Paul Krugman writes. Unless they can defund health care, they will refuse to raise the federal debt ceiling: Now suppose it became clear that U.S. bonds weren’t safe, that America couldn’t be counted on to honor its debts after all. Suddenly, the whole system would be disrupted. Maybe, if we were lucky, financial institutions would quickly cobble tog... more »

Iran and US cautiously commence steps to normalize relations and resolve nuclear dispute - which conflicts with geopolitical agenda of the Saudis , Israel , hawks in the US and Iran and the war party generally !

Fred Walton at Catharsis Ours - 4 hours ago
http://news.antiwar.com/2013/09/30/downplaying-diplomacy-obama-threatens-to-attack-iran/ ( War talk just to placate Israel ! ) Downplaying Diplomacy, Obama Threatens to Attack IranAims to 'Reassure' Israel by Threatening Iran by Jason Ditz, September 30, 2013 Print This | Share This Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with President Obama today, and in the interest of keeping up his pro-Israel bonafides, President Obama followed up the meeting with a statement threatening military action against Iran. Usually that’s nothing to be taken too seriously. threatening Iran is jus... more »

US Government shutdown occurs ! First shutdown in 17 years - apart from more political posturing from both political parties , here is what to expect going forward , including a handy list of possible impacts from the shutdown onAmerican citizens !

Fred Walton at Catharsis Ours - 5 hours ago
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-10-01/furloughed-government-workers-selling-gold-silver ( Massive slam of gold and silver just went down ! ) Furloughed Government Workers Selling Gold, Silver? [image: Tyler Durden's picture] Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/01/2013 08:17 -0400 - Precious Metals - Reality inShare1 While gold prices remain above their pre-Un-Taper levels, they have been monkey-hammered once again this morning as the world awakes to a US Government shutdown for the first time in 17 years. Silver has retraced all its post-Un-Taper gains and is holding at... more »

Fukushima updates - September 27 , 2013 ..... More lies from Tepco and the Government of Japan - anyone counting on these two parties to save Japan are delusional !

Catharsis Ours - 5 hours ago
More Government and Tepco lies , more Tepco foibles and screw ups ..... Reactor5&6 pump up 6,000 tones of seawater per hour from Fukushima port to discharge to outside of the port Posted by *Mochizuki* on September 27th, 2013 · No Comments Share on facebookShare on twitterShare on emailShare on printMore Sharing Services On 9/26/2013, Tepco announced reactor5 and 6 pump up 6,000 tones of seawater from the plant port per hour. The water is used to cool down the reactors, and it’s discharged to the outside of the plant port. In the presentation to IOC, Japanese prime minister Abe s... more »

Stress

thwap at thwap's schoolyard - 5 hours ago
So here's a video:

FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force and New York Police Department Spying Unit

Paul Coker at News Spike - 6 hours ago
NYC Google, NYPD Spying Unit, FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force syzygy in a three block series from 8th Avenue to West Side Highway (11th Avenue) between West 15th and West 16th Street. Perpendicularing this NYC Spy Dark Side Syzygy is the brilliant super-syzygy High Line, its bedazzled visitors unaware of the sensitive operations they decorate and camouflage against an attack, perambulating and lounging directly below and above the NPYD spying unit and across the avenue from the JTTF. West entrance to FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force (NBC are initials of the National Biscuit Co... more »

What a ONEderful World

Breaking The Silence at Removing The Shackles - 6 hours ago
The message in music is delivered on a level that surpasses just the simple written or spoken word. The toning and frequencies of the music combined with the lyrics and the emotional intent is a physically palpable energy that we feel on a higher level than many people perceive. The message can be so charged that it can bring people to their feet and draw a world together. Three songs and their lyrics for you to enjoy. Don't get caught up in the political rhetoric of who is aligned with what party or this religion or that ideology, don't get your knickers in a twist over percept... more »

Say No to Internet Censorship by Signing This Petition

Stranger in a Strange Land at Stranger in a Strange Land - 7 hours ago
Say No to Internet Censorship For the first time, actual Presidents and Prime Ministers of 12 powerful countries will meet behind closed doors to seal *an extreme Internet censorship plan called the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).1* We know from leaked drafts2 that the TPP will make the Internet more expensive, censored, and policed. *Experts say, “kids could be sent to jail for downloading” and whole families could be kicked off the Internet.3* This final meeting is happening in a few days -- Send decision-makers these three demands by filling out the form on this page before it'... more »

Thai Berry Pickers Cheated Again & Again In Sweden

Stranger in a Strange Land at Stranger in a Strange Land - 7 hours ago
This has become an annual event in Sweden in which Swedish Berry Companies and Foreign Employment Agencies play a shell game to cheat poor labourers who come to Sweden with the hope of returning to their homeland with a generous salary. This has been a recurring nightmare for not just the Thais but also for Bulgarians, Chinese and Vietnamese. The Swedish Government is allowing it by not really taking any action. Laws or rules are established but not enforced. The only way that this will stop is by the Governments taking action in the Berry pickers countries of origin. I will p... more »

"Because I Might Die" : The Art of Making Vice-Presidential Picks

Paul Coker at News Spike - 7 hours ago
*"Now, why don't you just leave me and Vice President Santiago to our own devices?* * * *Right, Santiago..?"* * * *"Si!"* * * *- Dave Chappelle, 2003* * * * * * * I contend that the art of making a Vice-Presidential Pick lies in choosing someone without Presidential ambitions of their own, who will do exactly what you will have made clear you wanted to do prior to being shot, thereby eliminating any perceived gain to be had by shooting you. And on that basis, in spite of his accident-prone tendency to find himself in unfortunate situations (almost to the same extent as any black ... more »

Brrrh, cold and wet

James C Morton at Morton's Musings - 8 hours ago

Five Most Popular Posts for September

Phil at A Very Public Sociologist - 8 hours ago
The five most read posts of the month were: 1. UK's Top 50 Worst Political Blogs 2013 2. Syria: Three Questions for Vince Cable 3. Ed, Falkirk and the Westminster Bubble 4. Ted Grant and Trotskyism 5. The Politics of Royal Mail Privatisation I know from past experience that a list - seemingly any list - tickles the belly of internet-travelling political people. And though the Top 50 may have been a bit of a fail in terms of the smaller numbers who participated than was the case in 2010 and the fact Socialist Unity won, the audiences loved it. Hey, next year maybe some more of you mig... more »

Iran and WMD

Paul Coker at News Spike - 8 hours ago
Shah of Iran on Nuclear Weapons from Spike1138 on Vimeo. When coming to power in 1979, Ayatollah Khomeni proclaimed *"Nuclear facilities are the work of the Devil, and we shall close them down."* *And he did.* It was only in 1984, after 4 years of entrenched warfare with the US-endorsed armies of Saddam Hussain and under chemical and biological assault, Khomeni was persuaded to remove the seals and restart the Persian centrifuges.... Corona KH-4 photograph of Israel’s nuclear research center at Dimona (Kirya Le’Mechkar Gariini) (KAMAG), 10 December 1965 (Courtesy of Global S... more »

"September 11 - The New Pearl Harbor" - Trailer

Mike Philbin at PROGNOSIS II - 9 hours ago
"September 11 - The New Pearl Harbor" is a 5 hour documentary by Massimo Mazzucco that summarizes 12 years of public debate on 9/11. While aimed primarily at a general, uninformed audience, the film also contains some new findings that may be of interest to advanced researchers. The trailer is below, and here's a LINK TO THE FIVE HOUR DOCUMENTARY.

Vladimir Putin Writes for the New York Times

Paul Coker at News Spike - 9 hours ago
Op-Ed Contributor *A Plea for Caution From Russia* What Putin Has to Say to Americans About Syria By VLADIMIR V. PUTIN Published: September 11, 2013 MOSCOW — RECENT events surrounding Syria have prompted me to speak directly to the American people and their political leaders. It is important to do so at a time of insufficient communication between our societies. Relations between us have passed through different stages. We stood against each other during the cold war. But we were also allies once, and defeated the Nazis together. The universal international organization — the Unite... more »

CIA: Excerpt from the Director's Message to the Workforce: Remembering 11 September 2001

Paul Coker at News Spike - 10 hours ago
*Excerpt from the Director's Message to the Workforce: Remembering 11 September 2001* * * *September 11, 2013* * * *Colleagues:* Today we mark twelve years since the terrible attacks that shook our Homeland on September 11, 2001—a tragedy that had a profound impact on our Agency, the Nation, and the world. While much work still needs to be done on the counterterrorism front, CIA officers should be proud of the many, many contributions they have made since 2001. Indeed, the CIA now works more closely than ever with its domestic and foreign partners to thwart the plans of al-Qa‘ida ... more »

Yeah, That'll Work...

Paul Coker at News Spike - 10 hours ago
The Iraqi-Syrian Border:

Artist Taxi Driver - George Osborne - "Nobody will get something for nothing, except you!"

Mike Philbin at PROGNOSIS II - 10 hours ago
Artist Taxi Driver rants on about George Osborne's Conservative Party Speech statement about Work Fare, "Nobody will get something for nothing, except you!" citing his offshore trust fund and renovations to his mansion. *"The German slogan 'Arbeit Macht Frei' is somewhat tainted by its connection with Nazi concentration camps, but its essential message, 'work sets you free' still has something serious to commend it. There is dignity to be gained from any job, no matter how menial, and for young people at the start of their careers, there are valuable lessons to be learned from any f... more »

The Cowboy of the NSA : Inside Gen. Keith Alexander's all-out, barely-legal drive to build the ultimate spy machine.

Paul Coker at News Spike - 11 hours ago
9 September 2013 *The Cowboy of the NSA Keith Alexander* ------------------------------ http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/09/08/the_cowboy_of_the_nsa_keith_alexander Foreign Policy Magazine *The Cowboy of the NSA * Inside Gen. Keith Alexander's all-out, barely-legal drive to build the ultimate spy machine. BY SHANE HARRIS | SEPTEMBER 9, 2013 Shane Harris is a senior writer for Foreign Policy and author of The Watchers: The Rise of America's Surveillance State. On Aug. 1, 2005, Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander reported for duty as the 16th director of the National Security Agency, the... more »

How Right Wing Is Right Wing Enough-- In Mississippi? Teabagger Steven Palazzo Gets A Primary

DownWithTyranny at DownWithTyranny! - 11 hours ago
Steven Palazzo has represented southeast Mississippi (MS-04-- Gulfport, Hattiesburg, Biloxi, Laurel) since the Great Blue Dog Apocalypse of 2010 when he beat longtime incumbent Gene Taylor. Unless you live in some blood-red hellhole, you probably never met a public official as right-wing and extreme as Palazzo. Even though he represents a hurricane prone Gulf Coast area-- which was devastated by Katrina-- he was one of the few Republicans from coastal areas to vote against aid for the victims of Hurricane Sandy. The 4th has a PVI of R+21 and Romney beat Obama there, 199,354 (68%) ... more »

MALL FALSE FLAG

Anon at aangirfan - 11 hours ago
Princess Obama Of Kenya Pictures The people who attacked the Kenyan Mall were allowed to escape. *Anonymous comments: * *The Kenyan Government has confirmed that it is not holding any of the bodies of the terrorists behind the Westgate attack.* Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph ole Lenku said that it does not have custody of the bodies of the five terrorists *allegedly* gunned down in the siege. Forensic investigation are being spearheaded by ... the FBI, agents from Israel, UK Metropolitan Police, German and Italian agents... Questions over missing people after mall attack | The... more »

If You Don't Know What Happens During A Government Shutdown, You'll Probably Be Very Surprised (Who Are The Goons Who Will SHUT IT DOWN? Republicans of 2013)

Welcome to fascism-run-amuck shutdown city. So what actually happens during most government shutdowns? Rebels Without a Clue This may be the way the world ends — not with a bang but with a temper tantrum. Our learned friend at Sardonicky has some answers to this fear-inspiring question: In the event of a government shutdown this week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will not be able to

"Shadows Of Glass" - Toronto's Condo Skyline ...

leftdog at Buckdog - 11 hours ago
** * **A great short film by Canadian film maker and progressive Mikailus. * *Written, Produced, Directed, Photographed, Edited by MIKAILUS Narrated by JESSICA BINSTOCK Music by LEE ROSEVERE "Prologue" Lab: NIAGARA CUSTOM LABS Transfer: FRAME DISCREET Shot on 16mm with a Beaulieu 2016*

Senior's Home In Premier Brad Wall's Constituency Plagued By Bed Bugs

leftdog at Buckdog - 11 hours ago
** *Saskatchewan's Potash and Oil industries are booming. Billions in profits are rolling in to them steadily. Yet, services to the people of Saskatchewan - who actually own the natural resources - have never been more wanting. Here's an example: .. in the constituency represented by Premier Brad Wall, a local seniors home simply can't get the financial resources they need from the provincial government to eradicate an infestation of bed bugs! * *Heritage Towers, a Saskatchewan Housing Authority seniors home in Swift Current, has a beg bug infestation and residents say the gover... more »

Syrian Deputy Prime Minister Walid al-Moualem: West Gave Al-Qaeda Chemical Weapons

Saman Mohammadi at The Excavator - 11 hours ago
Syrian Deputy Prime Minister Walid al-Moualem's speech to the United Nations has been buried. You would think the world would be interested in what he has to say considering that his country is in a big crisis and was directly threatened by the United States in early September. The Obama administration backed off, *choosing to tread lightly*, but it still has its finger on the trigger. Last week, President Obama and President Rouhani got all the buzz and press at the United Nations. But their speeches lacked substance, passion, and clarity. In contrast, this man actually had somet... more »

Guest Post - Are Your Finances Being Fed on by Vampire Appliances?

Small Footprints at Reduce Footprints - 12 hours ago
All over the UK homeowners are waging a war against energy waste, investing in insulation, LED light bulbs and doing everything they can to try and eliminate the major causes of inflated household bills. However, there is another enemy in the fight to save money that is hiding in the corners of most rooms in the house, feeding on your electricity and raising that energy bill - 'vampire' appliances. What is 'Vampire' Power? Known by a number of different names - including standby power, phantom load and leaking electricity - 'vampire' power refers to the electrical power that is cons... more »

George Stephanopoulos Thinks Iran is Enriching Weapons-Grade Uranium...But It's Not.

Nima Shirazi at Wide Asleep in America - 14 hours ago
Iran's new foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif appeared on ABC's "This Week" and addressed a number of the same questions every Iranian official is asked again and again in interviews by the American media. George Stephanopoulos, who effectively conducted the same interview with former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad three years in a row, asked Zarif about possible concessions Iran is

Some Thoughts on Election Season

Way Way Up at Fort McMurray Adventures - 14 hours ago
It's pretty hard to miss all the election signs around town the past few days, a sure indication that we are now in the midst of a municipal election campaign. I must admit I haven't really paid all that much attention to politics at the local level though I know I probably should. I've spent much of my life in small towns and cities just seem a lot more complex with more competing issues. Throw in fact that we face a great deal of infrastructure challenges here as the region continues to grow as well as the fact that this is, well, Fort McMurray (land of opportunity if you're lo... more »

GAIA PORTAL: Smoothing and Harmonizing of Incoming Higher Vibrationals Now Occurs…

Obi-Wan Kabuki at AMERICAN KABUKI - 14 hours ago
* * * * *Smoothing and Harmonizing of Incoming Higher Vibrationals Now Occurs…* by ÉirePort Smoothing and harmonizing of incoming Higher Vibrationals now occurs to minimize local energetic disruptions and responses. Hue-Beings as well as hu-beings perceive this as a "resting mode", although overall Gaia vibrationals increase continues. Reference to "peaks" is always related to a temporal issue, and not related to a "finality".* Assertion of Higher D Individuality continues, as all connection among Gaia Beings is assured. "Resting mode" allows further joining of so-named "shadow s... more »

No, non, nyet!

risa bear at A Way to Live - 15 hours ago
We can all find something to criticize in the way civilization is going. "No, non, nyet," we say all day long, on blogs, forums, and social media. But the Buddhist principle of "right saying" suggests another approach we can try, more closely related to a saying I've often heard: "Is it *kind*? Is it *true*? is it *necessary*? Then go ahead and say it." In a tree-planting labor cooperative of which I was a member in the 1970s-80s, we had a practice (consciously borrowed from Marxism), used in crew meetings or the twelve-crew General Meetings, of "Criticism/Self Criticism." In a ... more »

Shelby County's Mayor, Mark Luttrell, Leading Public Effort to Privatize Head Start in Memphis

Jim Horn at Schools Matter - 15 hours ago
In 2010 State Democratic Chairman, Chip Forrester, said this about Shelby County mayor, Mark Luttrell: "He's a right-wing ideologue whose two planks are to build a bigger jail [now #10 in the U.S.] and to out-source county jobs. He's attempting to cozy up to Democrats, and he's not clear about his Republican pedigree. There's a sense that Mark Luttrell is a moderate, somebody who stays in the middle. That's not the case." The bigger jail, Luttrell got as sheriff. A really big one. Forbes, in fact, lists Shelby County Jail as #10 largestin the nation. Luttrell is now leading ... more »

NETANYAHU AND IRAN: WHAT NEXT?

There is just one of two scenarios that can be deduced from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s obsessive stance on Iran: he either genuinely believes that Iran wants to build a nuclear weapon specifically to launch at Israel or he has some ulterior motive for wanting the US to attack Iran. An examination of the two scenarios makes it clear that of the two, the second is far more plausible. For decades Netanyahu, his political supporters in Israel and their neoconservative supporters in the US and elsewhere around the world have insisted that Iran has a nuclear weapons progr... more »

PENTAGON PROPAGANDA

Bruce K. Gagnon at Organizing Notes - 16 hours ago
The Department of Defense (Endless War) has turned its huge public affairs program into an offensive propaganda campaign being run by the same contractors that spy on the world through the intelligence agencies, according to a DCBureau-National Security News Service (NSNS) investigation. Military and foreign policy has been privatized in the US. The Pentagon's #1 job is to serve as the primary resource extraction service for corporate globalization. We've got to nationalize military production and convert it to sustainable technology production. Wind turbines, rail systems, sola... more »

"A Look to the Heavens"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 16 hours ago
“Have you ever seen the Pleiades star cluster? Even if you have, you probably have never seen it like this: all dusty. Perhaps the most famous star cluster on the sky, the bright stars of the Pleiades can be seen without binoculars from even the depths of a light-polluted city. With a long exposure from a dark location, though, the dust cloud surrounding the Pleiades star cluster becomes very evident. The below exposure took about 30 hours and covers a sky area several times the size of the full moon. *Click image for larger size.* Also known as the Seven Sisters and M45, the Pl... more »

TV Watch: As of now, the message from "Breaking Bad" to non-Blu-ray fans seems to be: Drop dead!

KenInNY at DownWithTyranny! - 16 hours ago
[*Click to enlarge -- it gets really big!*] *by Ken* I resorted to my Plan C last night and watched the *Breaking Bad* finale in real time, and then the finale of the final-half-season after-show, *Talking Bad*. They were fine. No complaints about them. They did what the situation called on them to do. But I might explain that my Plan A was to schlepp to Astoria to watch the episode live on the movie screen of the Museum of the Moving Image. The series is so meticulously photographed and edited that I bet it would look fabulous in big-screen format. (As I've mentioned, this is how... more »

"Promise Me..."

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 16 hours ago
“Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” - Christopher Robin to “Pooh”

Chet Raymo, "Life"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 16 hours ago
* "Life"* by Chet Raymo "ACCTCCTCTAATGTCA ACCTCCCCTAATGTCA" "The first string of letters above represents an actual sequence of amino acids on human chromosome 10. The second string is the corresponding sequence for an elephant. I copy the strings from a New Yorker article on Neanderthals by Elizabeth Kolbert. She tosses them in more or less at random just to show what a DNA sequence looks like. Still, they jump off the page. Humans and elephants. A four-letter code. Four molecules called neucleotides, arranged in pairs along a spiraling ladder, the double-helix - adenine, th... more »

Rumi, "Never Alone..."

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 16 hours ago
"On this earth as beyond this earth you never are alone, But are in constant company of things and beings That take a share in your life as you take a share in theirs. As you seek them, so they seek you. As you partake of them, so they partake of you." - Rumi, “The Book of Mirdad”

Kahlil Gibran, “Children of Gods, Scions of Apes”

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 16 hours ago
*“Children of Gods, Scions of Apes”* * *by Kahlil Gibran "All that you see was and is for your sake. The numerous books, uncanny markings, and beautiful thoughts are the ghosts of souls who preceded you. The speech they weave is a link between you and your human siblings. The consequences that cause sorrow and rapture are the seeds that the past has sown in the field of the soul, and by which the future shall profit. My Soul gave me good counsel, teaching me to love what the people abhor and to show good will toward the one they hate. It showed me that Love is a property not... more »

Turkish Court Case regarding Syrian 'Jihadis' aka NATO/Israeli mercs procuring chemical weapons

Penny at Penny for your thoughts - 16 hours ago
Once one trudges through the heavy handed spin ,contained in numerous paragraphs, to finally reach the actual subject of this Al Monitor article*, dated September 30/13: Turkish Court Investigates Syrian Jihadist Use of Chemicals* we all get to read about NATO/Israel's hired killers ability and success at getting the ingredients to make a noxious, toxic chemical weapon. Not that it will be a real surprise to anyone who has read here for quite some time now. Why? Because, I had covered this incident in Turkey and additional arrests made in Iraq! *So, first the latest! Then it will ... more »

Proposal denied. But thanx for playing.....

Breaking The Silence at Removing The Shackles - 17 hours ago
So the US Corporation, I mean "government" is going to close down at midnight tonight. Are you really all that shocked? The games that these "public servants" have been playing have been all about their personal and party-line agenda's and nothing about budgets or spending or cuts or even Obamacare. Since the beginning of this year, with the whole ramped up Main Stream Media Circus over the next year budget... with the drama queens pumping out the fear porn and their threats of what will happen if suchinsuch doesn't happen by this day... I mean this day, no actually two tuesdays f... more »

So let’s shut down the govt!

Peter Cresswell at Not PC - 17 hours ago
There’s one simple way for the US Government not to be shut down, but it’s the one thing that’s never going to happen: for the US Government to stop overspending and avoid going over the debt ceiling again. But that’s just not going to happen, is it. Because both major US political parties are infected with the overspending bacillus. So, instead of actually stopping the overspending, which is what the existence of a debt ceiling is actually designed to encourage, every form of political flunky in town—like every conjuror offering a lesson in misdirection—wants to talk about somet... more »

Call me a simpleton, but I love me some Mailbox!

Shaun Johnson at @ THE CHALK FACE - 17 hours ago
I just resubscribed to The Mailbox Magazine. Prior to graduate school and the whole intellectual thing, I used to love getting new issues. It always seemed like I received something right after I taught it. Now, I’m NOT liking all the Common Core alignment nonsense. And I know all of my former higher education colleagues […]

"Amber..."

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 17 hours ago
"Here we are, trapped in the amber of the moment. There is no why." - Kurt Vonnegut

The Daily "Near You?"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 17 hours ago
Horton, Michigan, USA. Thanks for stopping by.

The Vatican Bank to shut all Foreign Embassy Accounts to halt money laundering - apparently in contrast to the US and Europe , Of course , the question is whether the Vatican is taking money laundering seriously , or is this just a tactic to divert attention from allegations from disgraced Prelate Nunzio Scarano ?

Fred Walton at Catharsis Ours - 17 hours ago
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-09-30/vatican-bank-shut-all-embassy-accounts-halt-money-laundering Vatican Bank To Shut All Embassy Accounts To Halt Money Laundering [image: Tyler Durden's picture] Submitted by Tyler Durden on 09/30/2013 19:15 -0400 - Iran - Iraq - Italy - Reuters - Switzerland inShare Followng Pope Francis' demand that the Vatican Bank review its procedures, Reuters reports that the bank is *likely to close all accounts held by foreign embassies, following concerns about large cash deposits and withdrawals by the missions of Iran, Ira... more »

"No Bragging Point..."

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 18 hours ago
“It shouldn’t be a bragging point that “Oh, I don’t get involved in politics,” as if that makes you somehow cleaner. No, that makes you derelict of duty in a republic. Liars and panderers in government would have a much harder time of it if so many people didn’t insist on their right to remain ignorant and blindly agreeable.” – Bill Maher

Rodney Dickens: Nothing good will result from the Reserve Bank’s lending restrictions”

Peter Cresswell at Not PC - 18 hours ago
Economist Rodney Dickens reckons nothing good will result from the Reserve Bank’s lending restrictions that come into force today. Having played a major part in fuelling the speculative bubble in the housing market in the 2000s with low interest rates, the Reserve Bank’s latest actions are partly driven by a desire not to repeat the same mistake. Rather than resort to the tried-and-true remedy of hikes in the Official Cash Rate (OCR), Governor Wheeler, like his predecessors, wants to try a new experiment, with bank lending restrictions being the new toy this time around. In the ... more »

Lamar W. Hankins : A Case Study in DWI in San Marcos, Texas

thorne dreyer at The Rag Blog - 18 hours ago
Kyle Maysel's arrested is reported on San Marcos television. Image from kens5.com. A case study: DWI and the citizen accused A San Marcos attorney was arrested on a DWI charge during a 'no refusal' weekend and questions have been raised about the conduct of the police and the judge involved in the case. By Lamar W. Hankins / The Rag Blog / September 30, 2013 SAN MARCOS, Texas -- This

Yanis Varoufakis - discusses what Merkel's third term means for Europe ! How o deal with Greece fully minding that Portugl and Ireland will be watching , with Spain and Italy lurking in the bailout wings for their dollop of euros to address still hidden insolvent banking systems ? And how long will the German people sign off on bailout bonanzas for the peripheral nations while facing ever rising taxes at home ? Yanis offers his modest proposal for ending the European crisis ( which naturally will be ignored )

Fred Walton at Catharsis Ours - 18 hours ago
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/09/yanis-varoufakis-what-merkels-third-term-means-for-europe.html MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2013 Yanis Varoufakis: What Merkel’s Third Term Means for Europe Yves here. Varoufakis gives a high-level overview of the political and economic constraints on Merkel in dealing with the festering Eurocrisis. While many of the political issues have received decent coverage in the English language press, the nature and severity of Germany’s economic challenges have gotten scant notice. *By Yanis Varoufakis a professor of economics at the University of Athens. Cro... more »

Untitled

New Orleans Ladder at New Orleans Ladder - 18 hours ago
*Domeland Security ~Library Chronicles*

President Obama's Bilateral Meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu

Saman Mohammadi at The Excavator - 18 hours ago
Title: President Obama's Bilateral Meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. Source: The White House. Date Published: September 30, 2013. Description: President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu speak to the press after a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office to discuss the progress on final status negotiations with the Palestinians, and developments in Iran, Syria, and elsewhere in the region. September 30, 2013.

Why Party Conferences Still Matter

Phil at A Very Public Sociologist - 18 hours ago
I've been meaning to write an inconsequential reply to Labour MP turned ex-blogger Tom Harris about party conferences. He writes in last week's * Telegraph* about how party conference is "not for him" and that as a phenomenon they're largely useless nowadays anyway. He does make some useful points. Conference really is for the most committed of political bods. Given the huge prices charged for visitors' passes (delegates are funded by their constituency parties/associations), you might say party conference is the province of them with more money than sense. You can't disagree with h... more »

Government Shutdown: "Rebels Without a Clue"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 18 hours ago
* * *"Rebels Without a Clue"* By Paul Krugman “This may be the way the world ends — not with a bang but with a temper tantrum. O.K., a temporary government shutdown — which became almost inevitable after Sunday’s House vote to provide government funding only on unacceptable conditions — wouldn’t be the end of the world. But a U.S. government default, which will happen unless Congress raises the debt ceiling soon, might cause financial catastrophe. Unfortunately, many Republicans either don’t understand this or don’t care. Let’s talk first about the economics. After the governmen... more »

Elsewhere: Boehner, Cruz, more

Jonathan Bernstein at A plain blog about politics - 19 hours ago
Today's TAP column was about how John Boehner is far more secure in his job than people seem to think. Over the weekend at Salon, I argued that Ted Cruz didn't get closer to the White House this week; it's one thing to annoy other Senators, but it's another to lead your party off a cliff in a very visible way. And at PP today, I pointed out again that if 25 or so sane Republicans refuse to vote for the Cruzified CR, the fight would likely be over. Later this afternoon, there was some reporting that exactly that might happen -- in fact, that the latest CR (which has the Vitter Amen... more »

PAYING FOR YOUR OWN SURVEILLANCE

Bruce K. Gagnon at Organizing Notes - 19 hours ago
Due to fiscal crisis in the US the NSA would like you to help pay for your own surveillance. Please buy these phones and help out the NSA.

Why you can’t take the "slam" out of "Islam"

Peter Cresswell at Not PC - 19 hours ago
[image: tvr's picture]*In recent weeks, followers of the so-called Religion of Peace have slaughtered hundreds of innocents in Pakistan, in Kenya, and in Nigeria. And that’s just in recent weeks--the litany of Islamist slaughter just in the last half-century alone is a long one. Islam was born with a sword, and has a history soaked in blood. This guest post by Terry Verhoeven (right) explains why this is inevitable.* Islam isn’t alone in its barbarism. Christendom has its own history of barbarous totalitarianism, from which it has since largely recovered—so why can't Islam have i... more »

MILITARY SPACE PLANE

Bruce K. Gagnon at Organizing Notes - 19 hours ago
Air Force mini-shuttle X-37B: The U.S. Air Force is preparing to consolidate "mysterious mini-shuttle" operations at Kennedy Space Center or Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Analysts contend the military space plane is part of the Pentagon's effort to develop the capability to strike anywhere in the world with a conventional warhead in less than an hour - known as Prompt Global Strike.The development of these new space planes is one reason that the Obama administration and the Pentagon are eager to reduce nuclear weapons stockpiles in Russia and China in the years to c... more »

TIME FOR NEW SYSTEM

Bruce K. Gagnon at Organizing Notes - 19 hours ago
You might be surprised to learn that 42% of Americans believe that capitalism isn't working out so well for us? According to a Brookings Institution’s July survey, more than a quarter of Americans say capitalism is working “not too well” while 16% say capitalism is working “not at all well.” The key point is that there is no democracy in capitalism. The people, the workers, have virtually no say in decision making at the workplace nor in the halls of government. The economic system and the political system are rigged and the public is getting tired of it. These numbers show tha... more »

The most ignorant or deliberately offensive tweet ever? It's @Wotsit4

Not a sheep at Not a sheep - 20 hours ago
wotsit4 (@wotsit4) tweeted at 0:31 PM on Mon, Sep 30, 2013: @notasheepagoat were it not for zionists there'd be no Middle East problem (https://twitter.com/wotsit4/status/384641697738932224) So is @wotsit4 someone with no knowledge of the thousand plus years of enmity between Shia and Sunni, the various and many different types of sectarian fighting amongst Muslims in the Middle East or indeed any cognisance of the realities of Middle East affairs, or is @wotsit4 someone with a real problem with Israel and the desire to blame the Jews for everything. Either way not my sort of pe... more »

Mainstream Media's Ongoing Disinformation Campaign on Iran

Nima Shirazi at Wide Asleep in America - 20 hours ago
NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams As the United States and Iran carefully embark on a renewed push for diplomacy, including direct contact between the presidents of each country for the first time in 34 years, the mainstream media continues to stymie any chance for an honest assessment of Iran's nuclear program, engaging instead in disinformation, misrepresentation and misleading

Economics for Real People: ‘Productivity, Density and Auckland’s Urban Future’

Peter Cresswell at Not PC - 20 hours ago
*This week, the Auckland Uni Economics Group has another guest speaker for you to enjoy (and question). Here’s the news…* Hi everyone, This Thursday, we are excited to be having Geoff Cooper, the Chief Economist of The Auckland Council, come and speak to us. [image: Auckland business confidence surges.] *About the Event: **Productivity, Density and Auckland’s Urban Future:* At the turn of the 20th Century, just 40% of New Zealanders lived in cities. Since then, nine in every ten New Zealanders have chosen to live in an urban area. Despite the evolution of various technologies r... more »

Explaining The Political Factors Behind The Increasing Violence In Iraq, An Interview With Maria Fantappie, Iraq Researcher At The International Crisis Group

Joel Wing at MUSINGS ON IRAQ - 20 hours ago
Violence in Iraq has escalated to the worse levels seen since 2008. The insurgency is making a comeback, while the central government is repeating many of the mistakes made by the United States after the 2003 invasion. The cause of this crisis is a breakdown in the country’s politics. Members of the Sunni community feel increasingly alienated from the government, because their national leadership has failed, their local politicians are ignored, Baghdad has focused the security forces upon their areas, and the protest movement has not achieved any tangible results. To help explain ... more »

Government shutdown, Obamacare, from the combox, and various and other sundry thoughts...

Adrienne at Adrienne's Corner - 20 hours ago
*because I have a house to clean.* I know all good blogger advice is to dole out your posts bit by bit (byte by byte?) I don't know about you, but I don't have time for all that nonsense. I have a house to clean. So here it all is, in one big blob that you can peruse at your leisure. *Government Shutdown* No biggie. Can't go to a federal park? Go to a local park instead. *Obamacare* Tuesday is Oct. 1st. Does anyone really believe that the interwebs are going to light up with all these poor uninsured people demanding their health insurance? Here's what's really going to hap... more »

Could It Be An All-Night Ping Pong Party in Congress?

Jonathan Bernstein at A plain blog about politics - 20 hours ago
So far today, the Senate tabled the CR version that the House passed Saturday night, and House Republicans are meeting and reportedly are going to pass a third version of their anti-Obamacare CR. Reporters are tweeting that Republicans are coming out of their meeting a lot less enthusiastic than they were on Saturday. They surely know that their new CR is DOA in the Senate; perhaps they intend to pass this one, have it get sent back again, and then surrender. Perhaps they can't even hold together for one more futile round. But maybe not! Which brings up one possibility. Both sides... more »

Grayson Offers The GOP Terrorists A Face-Saving Way To Walk Back Off Their Cliff

DownWithTyranny at DownWithTyranny! - 20 hours ago
Over the weekend, Barbara Lee (D-CA), an icon for peace, sent out an appeal to her supporters to back Alan Grayson. In 2001 Rep. Lee was the *only*Member of Congress to just say no to the Bush-Cheney request for authorization to attack Afghanistan. "In Alan Grayson," she wrote, "I see another Member of Congress who shares my love for peace." As I explained to the *National Journal* last month, Barbara and Alan were the two strongest figures rallying the House to reject Military-Industrial Complex plans to bomb Syria and, perhaps, draw the U.S. into a war with Iran. She's not writi... more »

Minimum wages laws explained in one flowchart

Peter Cresswell at Not PC - 21 hours ago
The argument for a so-called “living wage” is simply the same old argument for legally enforced minimum wages, only this time on steroids. Which means it makes even less economic sense. Despite that, New Labour have decided it makes political sense since, presumably, few have the economic argument at their fingertips—so here, to cut out and keep, is a handy flow chart summarising the arguments for and against. The author of the flowchart, Stephen Hicks, has much more here on each of the steps. Content is copyright PC.BlogSpot.Com © Please contact author for permission to republis... more »

Backbone of the BBC

Craig at Is the BBC biased? - 21 hours ago
Here's the ever-inspired Clive James on the BBC's best-known silverback: So successful are the vertebrates that one of them is making huge television programmes at the age of 87. David Attenborough was back yet again with *Rise of Animals: Triumph of the Vertebrates* (BBC Two). Every vertebrate has a backbone: the device which best expresses “how you and I came to be what we are”. That statement might apply to Attenborough but I’m bound to say that the spectacle of his undying energy left me with no backbone at all. Dissolved by envy, I just lay there like a puddle of plankton whi... more »

Mike Pence’s Faith-Based Quest to Corporatize Preschool

Doug Martin at Schools Matter - 21 hours ago
By Doug Martin Even though Indiana does not fund preschool and even failed to pass a law for a preschool pilot program recently, Mike Pence has a newly-formed early childhood learning advisory committee which doesn’t seem to be meant to help the situation. In fact, the advisory committee reflects a free-market biblical capitalism and should shock true Christians and parents alike. Instead of funding full public early learning initiatives in Indiana, this committee appears to be Pence’s faith-based quest to corporatize preschool and hand out taxpayer money to Christian Right groups... more »

Why Poverty and Mass Incarceration Do Not Matter in the U.S. | the becoming radical

plthomasedd at @ THE CHALK FACE - 21 hours ago
Why Poverty and Mass Incarceration Do Not Matter in the U.S. | the becoming radical.

"How It Really Is"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 21 hours ago

Some “Helpful” Advice

antiqueteacher60 at @ THE CHALK FACE - 22 hours ago
So, today in my email, I get this little “gem” – some “helpful” advice from my BOCES Center for implementing the Math Modules. OH JOYOUS DAY!! I am SO thankful that not only has NYSED told me exactly what to say, now my BOCES Center is giving me step by step advice about implementing the […]

Don't Worry: It's Only a Chemically-Induced Coma

jurassicpork at Welcome Back to Pottersville - 22 hours ago
[image: http://www.hollywoodrepublican.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/uncle_sam_in_hospital1.jpg] (By *American Zen*'s Mike Flannigan, on loan from Ari Goldstein.) Except, unfortunately, the chemical used in this case was alcohol. Perhaps nothing more indelibly delineates the sheer moral turpitude of the right wing than doing a Google search using only the keywords "Congress" and "booze" and coming up with nearly two and a half million hits. Yet now our federal legislative body and alcohol are forever inextricably entwined as if they should be. And even as the Republic... more »

“6th-Grader Terrorizes Students With Horrific Drawing”

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 22 hours ago
* * *“6th-Grader Terrorizes Students With Horrific Drawing”* by Prr Lzkdrqxcwm “A sixth-grader from Deer Trail, Colorado has been suspended for drawing an inappropriate picture. The drawing did not include any gun, but showed a checkpoint backed up by a SWAT team carrying flower pots while an unarmed drone hovered above. The suspended girl, whose name is kept secret at the request of her family, said she “just wanted to draw something about social justice, the environment, and the glory of government.” An editorial in the British newspaper The Guardian virulently attacked the sch... more »

Untitled

New Orleans Ladder at New Orleans Ladder - 22 hours ago
*Levee authority, Corps of Engineers in standoff over ownership of hurricane protection system ~Bob Marshall, The Lens*

Psychology: “The Bystander Effect”

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 22 hours ago
* * *“The Bystander Effect”* by smartknowledgeu “In the 1960s, Columbia University researchers, John Darley and Bibb Latané, conducted a now famous study of a phenomenon that they coined “the Bystander Effect” in which they sought to prove that people made their most important decisions by observing social cues of their peers and would not dissent from these cues if the majority of their peers conformed to a uniform “norm”. To test their thesis, Darley and Latané falsely informed subjects, the “marks”, that they were being recruited to take part in a study about the many problem... more »

Has bogus “he said-she said” reporting led to the impending shutdown?

bob somerby at the daily howler - 22 hours ago
*MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2013* *Salon tries to offer examples:* Has bogus “he said-she said” reporting led to the (impending) government shutdown? That’s what it says in the headline to a new piece at Salon. The piece, which strikes us as very weak, is reprinted from BillMoyers.com. The piece is lousy work. It’s the kind of work in which liberals copy Fox News techniques while lacking the skill of Fox News. Without any question, the coming shutdown is idiocy in action. That said, should “Beltway reporters” be blamed? This is the way Joshua Holland begins his piece: HOLLAND (9/30/13... more »

The Story of the Jews (Part 5)

Craig at Is the BBC biased? - 22 hours ago
The BBC Two continuity announcer introducing last night's final episode of Simon Schama's *The Story of the Jews* described it as "a very personal journey". The four earlier episodes were always prefaced by the word "personal", but this was the first time the phrase "*very* personal" had been used. Why? Well, perhaps because this was the episode the BBC most wanted to keep itself at arm's length from and the use of the words "very personal" made it very clear that 'THIS IS SIMON SCHAMA'S VIEW, NOT THE BBC'S!!' Sadly, a personal take on the history of the modern state of Israel was... more »

Quite a good line from George Osborne re Ed Miliband

Not a sheep at Not a sheep - 23 hours ago
"If you want to know the consequences of an Ed Miliband premiership, just look at the plan of the man who knows him best. His brother - David Miliband: 1. leave Parliament 2. leave politics 3. leave the country 4. dedicate your life to 'International Rescue' David and Ed Miliband, the greatest sibling rivalry since the Bible - Cain and not very Abel."

Catch of the Day

Jonathan Bernstein at A plain blog about politics - 1 day ago
An excellent one from Philip Klein, who argues that conservatives are now overcompensating for being too easy on Bush-era Republicans by being unrealistically harsh towards Obama-era Republicans: Republicans can prevent the passage of gun control, as they have. But when it comes to the current debate, many conservatives have been arguing that if Republicans cannot get Obama to wipe out or seriously undermine the signature legislative accomplishment of his presidency, the only reason is that Republicans lack sufficient courage. And that's a completely absurd expectation. Read, as th... more »

Photos Joni Tucker: Long Walk 4: Indigenous Sovereignty in Wichita Kansas

brendanorrell@gmail.com at CENSORED NEWS - 1 day ago
. . Censored News Photos by Joni Taylor Tucker, thank you! See more photos of this day by Long Walker Bad Bear:  http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2013/09/long-walk-4-wichita-kansas-fight.html Photo 1: September 29, 2013: Longest Walk 4: Circle Gathering for Rally at the "Keeper of the Plains." Michael Lane discusses Indigenous Sovereignty with supporters.      Photo

The Rob Ford Revival

thwap at thwap's schoolyard - 1 day ago
Rob Ford's chances for re-election have improved lately: Almost half of Torontonians approve of the job Rob Ford has been doing as mayor of Canada’s largest city, a new poll suggests. Forty-nine percent of the 1,082 Toronto residents over 18 surveyed on Sept. 21 and 22 indicated they supported Ford, an increase from 44 per cent at the end of August. It's because 1) Rob Ford will never lose the support of the most stupid and/or ignorant of the electorate, and 2) Ford's opponents sought to steal his thunder on the idiotic Scarborough Subway and only ended-up playing into his hands. ... more »

Is The Medical Device Tax A Big Enough Deal To Shut The Government Down Over? 17 Conservative Democrats Think So

DownWithTyranny at DownWithTyranny! - 1 day ago
Saturday night House Republicans passed 248-174 a repeal of a medical device tax as part of the CR that threatens to shut down the government. They are demanding a one year delay to the Affordable Care Act and the repeal of the medical device tax. Few people who don't listen to Hate Talk Radio even know what the medical device tax is or why Republicans think it's worth shutting down the government-- or risking the jobs of more than 30 swing district Republicans-- over. Sarah Kliff explained what it's all about for *Washington Post* readers on Saturday before the vote. First... wh... more »

Game of Chicken and the US Government Shutdown: What Game Theory Can Tell Us About Likely Outcomes

amurdie at Duck of Minerva - 1 day ago
As I’m sure all astute Duck readers are aware, today marks a critical day in the US House and Senate – if no deal is struck today on a spending bill, the US government will shut down at one minute after midnight on Tuesday morning. The issue at the heart of the controversy: a series Continue reading

Where sentence to be imposed exceeds range suggested opportunity for further submissions appropriate

James C Morton at Morton's Musings - 1 day ago
R. v. Stewart, 2013 ONCA 579: [4] As to sentence, in our view, the trial judge made several errors in principle. She exceeded the sentence sought by the Crown by a substantial amount, over two years, without giving the parties an opportunity to make submissions as to why the range suggested by counsel was inappropriate and failed to provide reasons for such a significant departure from the suggested range. Further, the sentence was manifestly excessive.

The Busy Girl's Guide to Makeup and $200 Sephora Giftcard Giveaway

Debra Hawkins at Housewife Eclectic - 1 day ago
We have the most fabulous giveaway today. McKenzie from Girl Loves Glam's makeup book is finally here. It is called The Busy Girl's Guide to Makeup. McKenzie is about twenty kinds of fabulous, so I knew I needed to get my hands on her book soon! I am so excited to be able to be part of a giveaway that will not only give you the chance to win the new book, but $200 to Sephora! [image: The Busy Girl's Guide to Makeup book] Mckenzie says: Doing your makeup doesn't have to be scary, time consuming, or a total chore anymore. This book is full of great tips and tutorials to help you ... more »

CMS: \(2.5\)-\(\sigma\) excess in top+Higgs production with dileptons

Luboš Motl at The Reference Frame - 1 day ago
*If real, it's one of the most universal signs of the gluino* The CMS experiment just released a new paper which I mention because it explicitly claims an excess, unlike the overwhelming majority of papers that agree with the Standard Model almost perfectly: Search for the standard model Higgs boson produced in association with top quarks in multilepton final states (CMS PAS HIG-13-020) The heaviest known elementary particle is the top quark, \(t\), along with its antiparticle. Their mass is \((173\pm 1)\GeV\) or so. The second heaviest known elementary particle is the Higgs boson, ... more »

Department of the Army Memorandum 05 Nov 2001: Collecting Information on U.S. Persons

Paul Coker at News Spike - 1 day ago
Department of the Army Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence Washington, DC 20310-1001 05 Nov 2001 DAMI-CDC (25-30q) MEMORANDUM FOR SEE DISTRIBUTION SUBJECT: Collecting Information on U.S. Persons 1. The 11 September 2001 terrorist attack on America presented the United States and the U.S. Army with unprecedented challenges. Both our nation and our Army are responding vigorously to these challenges and will ultimately be victorious over international terrorism. Achieving this victory will not be easy, however. Our adversary is not a clearly defined nation-state with fi... more »

Censored News: 24 Hours to Raise Funds to Cover Peltier Tribunal!

brendanorrell@gmail.com at CENSORED NEWS - 1 day ago
                                                                                                                                                                Censored News has 24  hours to raise $600 to cover Peltier Tribunal UPDATE: Thanks so much to NAIS, LPDOC Chapter -Flanders, Belgium for providing funding for coverage. By Brenda Norrell Censored News The Peltier Tribunal

MALL SUSPECT RELEASED.

Anon at aangirfan - 1 day ago
*British citizen, and possible MI6 agent, Sharif Ahmed Abdirizak, who arrested as he tried to flee from Kenya to Britain. http://www.dailymail.* * **Sharif Ahmed Abdirizak, who was suspected of being involved in the mall attack in Kenya, has been released without charge.* British citizen Sharif Ahmed Abdirizak was arrested by the Kenyan authorities as he tried to fly out of Kenya after the Westgate attack. According to the Kenyan authorities, he was carrying maps of the mall on his laptop. *http://www.dailymail.* "The arrest has been downplayed by Britain, with High Commissioner in... more »

Harper government legalizing marijuana farms

LeDaro at LeDaro - 1 day ago
That is something coming from the conservative government – especially Harper regime. *The Conservative government is launching a $1.3-billion free market in * *medical marijuana this Tuesday, eventually providing an expected 450,000 * *Canadians with quality weed. (Pawel Dwulit/Canadian Press)* Read CBC story here.

Monday Linkage

Charli Carpenter at Duck of Minerva - 1 day ago
Gunmen killed scores of students in their sleep at Yobe State College of Agriculture in Nigeria early Sunday morning. via Adam Jones on FB, it is interesting to note this massacre was reportedly sex-selective, with only young males targeted – what Jones has referred to elsewhere as ‘gendercidal‘. The NYTimes’ Sunday expose on accidental guns Continue reading

Somehow, Salon saw Cruz getting schooled!

bob somerby at the daily howler - 1 day ago
*MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2013* *This is what actually happened:* In this morning’s column, Paul Krugman says our current situation is “crazy.” It’s hard to deny that it is. Consider what’s happening as we look ahead to a shutdown, then perhaps to a debt limit debacle. As he closes his column, Krugman outlines the situation—a situation that’s even crazier than he explains in this passage: KRUGMAN (9/30/13): *So how does this end? The votes to fund the government and raise the debt ceiling are there, and always have been:* every Democrat in the House would vote for the necessary measure... more »

Talkin' Détente with Scott Horton

Nima Shirazi at Wide Asleep in America - 1 day ago
Capping off a surprising and historic week in Iran-U.S. relations, this weekend I spoke with Scott Horton of AntiWar Radio and the aptly-named Scott Horton Show to discuss the potential for real diplomacy and possible rapprochement between the two nations after 34 years. In addition to covering the strikingly rapid progress toward a mutually beneficial nuclear deal, Scott and I talked about why

The Insecurity of the Security State

Karen Garcia at Sardonicky - 1 day ago
The good folks of the Surveillance State are terrified that we are not afraid enough of the bogeyman. They worry that we're not comfortable with our roles as domestic targets of our own government. So, instead of scaling back the surveillance, the spooks are simply ramping up both the fear and the guilt. They are striving mightily to wipe the Snowden egg off their faces even as they cravenly try to hide their faces. Therefore, it's no big surprise that, having slunk and lurked on the dark side for so many decades, they are N.S.A. (Not So Adept) at filling this tall public relations ... more »

Shutdown Notes

Jonathan Bernstein at A plain blog about politics - 1 day ago
Bullet-point style, looking ahead... * The government shuts down if Congress doesn't act today. There is still, however, plenty of time if everyone cooperates to do a short-term extension, whether it's a one-day, one-week, or any other length. * The House can do that easily if Republicans want it. In the Senate, it could be blocked by one Senate...however, it would make little sense for any Senator to do so (which doesn't mean that Cruz or Lee won't, but I don't think they would). * If Republicans (or, for that matter, Democrats, although the latter seems extremely unlikely to me) ... more »

Communication breakdown, drives them insane

Libby Spencer at The Impolitic - 1 day ago
I'm on a long overdue visit with my mom so outsourcing the daylight posting. Must reads of the moment: Brilliant post on the wingnut bloggers reaction to the impending government shutdown and possibly the best hed in the history of the internets by Edroso at his big media gig on the Village Voice. Clearest review of this current crackpot con brain meltdown and analysis of why the GOP would be taking this apparently suicidal stand that I've seen yet by Peter Weber at The Week. Peter is one of the few mainstream journalists I've seen mention *all* the GOP hostage demands, in particu... more »

A Mom's View of Vaccinations: The Flame That Fuels The Debate by Sarita Coren

Stranger in a Strange Land at Stranger in a Strange Land - 1 day ago
A Mom's View of Vaccinations: The Flame That Fuels The Debate by Sarita Coren Green Med Info, 24 September 2013 *"You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist." ~Friedrich Nietzsche * To vaccinate or not to vaccinate that is the heated debate. Regardless of what position you hold, the vaccination topic carries weighted emotions like anger, fear, intolerance, and especially the need to be right. At the end of the day, what should be a personal, educated choice becomes controversial fodder for others to judge and v... more »

INVISIBLE CHILDREN: Black kids disappeared!

bob somerby at the daily howler - 1 day ago
*MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2013* *Part 1—Three different worlds:* “Three different worlds/We live in three different worlds...” If Jerry Vale or Don Rondo were active today, they’d have to rewrite their classic hit song. Back in 1956, Rondo had a fairly large hit with the claim that we live in * two* different worlds. Today, Amanda Ripley’s ballyhooed book, The Smartest Kids in the World, helps us spot at least three. Ripley’s book is often extremely weak; often, it seems a bit scam-ridden. That said, the book is often quite interesting as it explores educational cultures around the wo... more »

Tablet Update and Windows 8 Review

Southern Man at Southern Man - 1 day ago
All three of Southern Man's regular readers may recall that back in JuneThe Dean presented Southern Man with a shiny new Microsoft Surface Pro running Windows 8 RT and he has bee playing with it ever since. So he will break his review into three chunks: the hardware itself, the Windows 8 Metro interface, and Windows 8 proper, with comparisons to Southern Man's now three-year-old first-generation iPad. Disclosure: Southern Man wrote his first program in BASIC using a teletype on a PDP-8 (Girl Programmer is chortling as she reads this). He owned the second TRS-80 sold in Southern City... more »

Untitled

New Orleans Ladder at New Orleans Ladder - 1 day ago
*2nd phase of BP trial looks at responsibility for delay ~Michelle Kunzelman, AP* *Farm To (Preschool) Table: Abeona House Gets Healthy Food To Little Kids~Laine Kaplan-Levenson, WWNO *

Long Walk 4 Wichita Kansas 'Fight the Tarsands'

brendanorrell@gmail.com at CENSORED NEWS - 1 day ago
. . Thanks to Western Shoshone Long Walker Bad Bear Sampson for sharing these photos with Censored News! Wichita, Kansas on Sunday! Joni Taylor Tucker writes to Censored News: September 29, 2013: Longest Walk 4: Circle Gathering for Rally at the "Keeper of the Plains." Michael Lane discussed Indigenous Sovereignty with supporters. Longest Walk 4

OSF: Time Gives Perspective

John Carroll at Dying in Haiti - 1 day ago
OSF, Time Gives Perspective... http://t.co/GNnIakgbb1 — John A. Carroll (@haitianhearts) September 29, 2013

Italian political crisis takes a turn as PDL Senators may bolt party unless Berlusconi backs off ... stay tuned !

Fred Walton at Catharsis Ours - 1 day ago
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2013/09/berlusconi-faces-party-revolt-collapse.html Monday, September 30, 2013 12:48 PM Berlusconi Faces Party Revolt; Collapse of Italian Government Hangs in Balance; Rush For Votes is On Late last week, former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi ordered five ministers to resign from Italy's government. They did, and as a result, current prime minister Enrico Letta's coalition government is on the verge of collapse. Mr Berlusconi, leader of the centre-right Forza Italia party, said the resignations were a response to the government’s de... more »

MaWangMess: Wang wins another round

Michael Turton at The View from Taiwan - 1 day ago
*Jes' restin'.* AFP reports on Ma taking another blow: Taiwan's parliamentary speaker scored another victory in the battle for his job Monday after the high court upheld a ruling against his party's decision to expel him over claims of influence-peddling. Earlier this month, the Taipei district court granted Wang Jin-pyng's request for a provisional injunction against the Kuomintang (KMT) party, allowing him to hold his party membership and therefore continue as speaker. The party, led by President Ma Ying-jeou, appealed the ruling, but the appeal was thrown out by the high court... more »

Read Stuff, You Should

Jonathan Bernstein at A plain blog about politics - 1 day ago
Happy Birthday to Carlos Guillen, 38. Good stuff for what should be a very newsy week: 1. Sarah Binder looks at the House Republican conference. 2. Amy Fried on why Democrats aren't going to agree to delay the ACA. 3. Granted, this is all speculative, but I think that Molly Ball has the better of the argument about the effect of a shutdown (if it happens) on the next round of bargaining and brinksmanship. 4. Sarah Kliff reports on WH efforts to lower expectations on October ACA sign-ups. 5. And probably worth bookmarking the September Kaiser survey, giving the state of public o... more »

Why did the al-Shabaab Islamist terrorists separate Muslims from non-Muslims before killing the non-Muslims?

Not a sheep at Not a sheep - 1 day ago
David Wood of Answering Muslims has his theory as to why whilst Western leaders and the media assure us that the recent terrorist attack at a Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya has nothing to do with Islam, and that the terrorist group al-Shabaab is violating the commands of Allah and Muhammad, opening the Koran shows us otherwise. He also believes it's clear that Islamic history has been repeating itself for fourteen centuries.

New Hampshire: Why Blue America Has Endorsed Carol Shea-Porter But Not Anne Kuster

DownWithTyranny at DownWithTyranny! - 1 day ago
New Hampshire has two House districts. The first district, represented by Carol Shea-Porter, is most of the eastern part of the state, including Manchester, Portsmouth and Dover. The second district, represented by Anne Kuster, encompasses the western and northern parts of the state from Nashua and Concord to Keene and Dixville Notch. NH-02 is strongly Democratic with a PVI of D+3. Obama beat McCain there 56-43% and beat Romney 54-44%. Last year Kuster beat the Republican incumbent, mainstream conservative Charlie Bass 168,954 (50%) to 151,858 (45%). NH-01 is a true swing district... more »

Dear Commander Dress-Up : Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

Alison at Creekside - 1 day ago
First you claw back veterans' benefits and AG lawyers try to have their class-action lawsuit about it thrown out of court for not being "the appropriate way for veterans to express their concerns", then you want them to sign a form promising not to complain about it in public . We have a social contract with the Canadian Forces to care for them after they have risked life, limb, and mind for us. Doesn't matter if we think the wars and policing actions our government sent them off to were crap - that's the fucking contract. They have the right to fair benefits under that contract a... more »

US Government shutdown loom after standoff between house and Senate continues regarding delaying Obamacare ! Even though the house passed its continuing spending resolution ( CR ) Saturday , the Senate will not even meet until 2pm today - Dc as devolved into a game of chicken at this point and the question seems to be how long this game will continue ?

Fred Walton at Catharsis Ours - 1 day ago
While the Shutdown circus continues , notice what doesn't stop ! http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-09-30/government-may-shut-down-these-18-october-pomos-will-proceed-come-hell-or-selective- The Government May Shut Down, But These 18 October POMOs Will Proceed Come Hell Or Selective Default [image: Tyler Durden's picture] Submitted by Tyler Durden on 09/30/2013 15:15 -0400 - Ben Bernanke - Capital Markets - default - Federal Reserve - POMO - POMO inShare As pointed out earlier, the Federal Reserve does not depend on Congressional appropriations, and wi... more »

Shutdown

Paul Coker at News Spike - 1 day ago
Lessons from the great government shutdown of 1995-1996 By Glenn Kessler *"There's a very good possibility that government will shut down. I know the Democrats have their talking points lined up. They'll blame us for everything. What will we do?" --Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.), Feb. 22, 2011* "Clinton's trump card was the veto. Under the Constitution, Congress must muster a two-thirds majority to overcome a presidential veto. So Gingrich had loudly proclaimed that he had a tool to confront the veto: the government shutdown. *"He can run the parts of the government that are left, or h... more »

Why did she choose me?

Not a sheep at Not a sheep - 1 day ago
This email came to me on gmail and was not picked up as spam, maybe it's genuine? Assalam Alaikum...I am Mrs Aidah Abdul Basir!! Robinson.Brian 15:00 (21 hours ago) to I am Mrs Aidah Abdul Basir, a Muslim woman.I have picked you for an inheritance.I am aware that this is certainly not a conventional way of approach to establish a relationship of trust and confidence, but you will realize the need for my action.Please contact me on my private email for more details: abdulbasir006@outlook.com< mailto:abdulbasir006@outlook.com> LEGAL DISCLAIMER The information transmitted is intende... more »

Revolution And The Corporate State

Owen Gray at Northern Reflections - 1 day ago
Chris Hedges has no illusions about the power of the corporate state: The state, to protect itself, lies. Politicians, corporations, the public relations industry, the entertainment industry and our ridiculous television pundits speak as if we can continue to build a society based on limitless growth, profligate consumption and fossil fuel. They feed the collective mania for hope at the expense of truth. Their public vision is self-delusional, a form of collective psychosis. The corporate state, meanwhile, is preparing privately for the world it knows is actually coming. It is ce... more »

Stolen Antiquites for sale in Israel and likely America

Penny at Penny for your thoughts - 1 day ago
ht to karin for this article. And yes, I was steaming! This is a subject I have talked on more then once. The sale of priceless stolen artifacts. The effect on the countries having their history stolen and the wider loss to humanity as a whole. I am surely not the only person who understands how disgraceful these thefts are? As I have mentioned previously most of these stolen items end up in the hands and homes of the moneyed classes. Shall I say it is not a surprise to see priceless ancient Egyptian artifacts being sold in Jerusalem? *Shameful. Truly, shameful* On Monday, the Mi... more »

So tired -- I hate Mondays!!!

James C Morton at Morton's Musings - 1 day ago

Fukushima Could be 15,000x Worse than Hiroshima with Removal of Fuel Rods

urupiper at Yesterday 's Lies - 1 day ago
[image: Natural Society] http://naturalsociety.com/breaking-fukushima-15000-times-worse-hiroshima-removal-fuel-rods/#ixzz2gBrgEqqx *by* Christina Sarich *September 28th, 2013* A Yale Professor is compelling the world to wake up from its nuclear slumber and face some cold-hard facts, *“All of humanity will be threatened for thousands of years” if the Fukushima Unit 4 pool can’t be kept cool. Your worries about eating cesium-contaminated fish from the Pacific Ocean are grounded in fact, but this is a world-wide disaster of the most epic proportions just waiting to happen.* If nothing e... more »

German patriotism is apparently verbotten

Not a sheep at Not a sheep - 1 day ago
The re-elected German Chancellor Angela Merkel is unwilling to wave the German flag, would she have preferred the flag of the EU?

Taichung AmCham Walkathon

Michael Turton at The View from Taiwan - 1 day ago
The website _______________________ [Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores
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1 Oct - The View

English: View of the main (and oldest) buildin...English: View of the main (and oldest) building of Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi or Monastery of Saint Moses the Abyssinian, Syria Français : Vue du bâtiment principal (et le plus ancien) du monastère de Mar Mousa, Syrie (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

While George Zimmerman walks free, Marissa Alexander, a 33-year-old African-American woman from Florida, is currently serving a 20-year sentence for firing a WARNING SHOT into the wall to scare off her violent and abusive husband...
Health insurance exchanges opened for business as of an hour ago.
Obamacare Is Here
www.huffingtonpost.com
Obamacare is here. Nearly 1,300 days after President Barack Obama signed his signature health care reform program into law, its most important feature finally takes
Thanks a lot, Congress.
(Scott Dro)
 
Underground News Network shared a link.
The DEA Thinks Medical Records Don't Count as "Private" | VICE United States
www.vice.com
The Feds say they can peek into any records that are shared with a pharmacist, even without a warrant. This directly contradicts state law in
Conrad Black: Toward a theory of Canadian exceptionalism

Please read it. Do not dismiss it. Black concludes: "More broadly, Canada is exceptional as the only trans-continental, officially bicultural, parliamentary confederation in history. Canada has also been an exceptionally successful liberal state, and we should build on this to abolish prison for (all but a few) non-violent people; to legalize drugs but require treatment for hard drug users; to honour the treaties with the native peoples fully; to use the tax system to reduce poverty by incentivizing poverty reduction schemes as a way of reducing a wealth surcharge; and to lead the reform of international institutions.

The Canadian answer to the problems in the United States must not be sniggering; it must be to do better here."

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/09/28/conrad-black-toward-a-theory-of-canadian-exceptionalism/
 
 
There are at least 22 published scientific studies that show a link between vaccines and autism and there are many more out there with similar findings. http://www.naturalnews.com/042293_vaccines_autism_medical_studies.html
eration Maple shared Being Liberal's photo.
Political Organization · 812,132 likes
Since House Republicans are terrorizing the American economy and the precarious financial conditions of so many US citizens with a #governmentshutdown, they should get a dose of their own medicine, says Mark Karlin.

iPhone Wallpaper

The diet that rid Megan Sherow of cancer is entirely raw and vegan but also simple, convenient and affordable. http://www.naturalnews.com/042289_raw_food_diet_terminal_brain_cancer_Megan_Sherow.html


The Net : the planning and building of a scientifically controlled world order 

If the Supreme Court sides with #McCutcheon, an incredibly small number of citizens will see their influence increase by an incredibly large amount.

View our full analysis here: http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2013/10/01/mccutcheon/

 

17 years ago I had to tell 15,000 employees at the Department of Labor that they had to go home without pay and I didn't know when they'd get their next paychecks. Today the same message is being delivered to over 800,000 federal workers, and almost a million more are being given IOUs instead of pay. The right-wing radicals in the Republican Party don't really care that their extortion has led to this -- and possibly even worse in two weeks when the debt ceiling is to be lifted -- because they don't like the government of the United States. They and their wealthy patrons, who have been financing non-stop ads against the Affordable Care Act and bankrolling even more extreme candidates in Republican primaries, would like to "drown the government in the bathtub" in the words of their guru, Grover Norquist.

Above all, they want Americans to believe the reason they can't get ahead no matter how hard they work is because government is giving their tax dollars to the "undeserving" poor, thereby distracting attention from the fact that almost all the economy's gains continue to go to a small group at the very top.

 

1,000,000 Strong Against Offshore Drilling and GASLAND posted 2 updates.

Government shut down closes our national parks -- but the oil & gas industry can still drill & frack 12 parks.

CLICK LIKE if you'd prefer we shut down fracking on our national parks over shutting down the government!
CLICK LIKE if you'd prefer we shut down fracking on national parks, and not the government. Read more here: http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/09/26/2682131/national-parks-government-shutdown/
 
Congress docks the pay of about 800,000 federal workers...without losing their own pay: http://huff.to/19UjqJG
 

How & Why America was Dumbed Down to Create World Government: The ULTIMATE History Lesson w/ John Taylor Gatto

"Despite unequivocal evidence of its positive social and economic impact, education suffers from chronic under-investment." Read our experts on how innovative financing mechanisms could help fix the problem.

(Illustration by Paul Lachine)
"Financial Innovation Goes to School" by Philippe Douste-Blazy, Carol Bellamy, & Robert Filipp
www.project-syndicate.org
Despite unequivocal evidence of its positive social and economic impact, education – particularly at the preschool and primary levels – suffers from chronic under-investment. Innovative financing mechanisms, including an

At best, the empirical evidence for human impact on climate change, more specifically, the anthropogenic global warming (AGW), is based on correlational research
 A methodological note on the making of causal statements in the debate on anthropogenic global warming

In Honor of Dr. Thomas B. Manton, a True Modern American Hero

A BP Gulf Oil Spill HERO is railroaded through the
Florida Criminal Justice System, then dies after being assaulted in the
Florida State Prison System

“the offending oil company should never be given command over the oil spill response”.

Findings of Persistency of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in ResidualTar Product Sourced from Crude Oil Released during the DeepwaterHorizon MC252 Spill of National Significance

Obama administration restricts findings on Gulf’s dead dolphins

The rampant use of antibiotics in agriculture is not unheard of. Actually 80% of US antibiotics are used for agricultural purposes. You can help keep your family antibiotic-free by using antibiotics only when absolutely necessary and by purchasing organic, antibiotic-free meats and other foods from local farmers. Food Democracy Now has also created a petition against the overuse of antibiotics in livestock production in the US. If you care about this issue, I suggest you use this petition to make your voice heard >> http://bit.ly/1f9B2FU
 ( Government regulation when it is supposedly at work ? )

Last month, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Senator Mark Udall (D-Colo.) asked the U.S. Food & Drug Administration to finalize its 2001 guidance on voluntary labeling of GMOs.

Sorry, Senators. But voluntary will never be the new mandatory.

If the FDA heeds the request of Senators Warren and Udall, we could see the end of states’ rights to label GMOs. And the end of non-GMO certification and labeling.

Learn More:
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_28376.cfm

TAKE ACTION: Tell Senators Warren and Udall: FDA’s Voluntary GMO Labeling is Good for Monsanto, Bad for Consumers
http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/tell-senators-warren?source=c.url&r_by=5382364


The OCA, along with Friends of the Earth U.S., SumOfUs and other protectors of the environment have called on Home Depot and Lowe's to stop selling plants coated in #neonicotinoids. #Neonics, as they’re not-so-affectionately called, are a class of pesticides considered largely responsible for killing off the honeybee. But we need your help!

Here’s what to do:

First, visit The Home Depot and Lowe's Home Improvement Facebook pages and ask them to stop selling bee-killing pesticides and pre-poisoned bee-friendly plants.


The Home Depot's Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/homedepot

Lowe's Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/lowes

Second, sign the petition if you haven’t already. And forward it to a friend.

Sign the petition here:

http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/home-depot-and-lowes?source=c.url&r_by=5382364

Short Life Expectancy for BP Whistleblowers?

Dashlane · Suggested Post
Keep track of all of your passwords in this free and secure app.

Download now: http://bit.ly/19XTpKb
Keep track of all of your passwords in this free and secure app.

Download now:  http://bit.ly/19XTpKb

7 News Investigations: Body Bugs Part II


The Harper Government is now putting medical marijuana profits in the hands of big business and has destroyed a poor person's ability to grow their own. Typical of this corporatist, ignorance-based, moronic government.
Thousands in Japan reported to be suffering massive and recurring nosebleeds in recent days — Gundersen: Japan doctors tell me “We know our patients have radiation illness” but forced to keep it secret (VIDEO)

http://enenews.com/thousands-in-japan-reported-to-be-suffering-massive-and-recurring-nosebleeds-in-recent-days-gundersen-japan-doctors-tell-me-we-know-our-patients-have-radiation-illness-but-forced-to-keep-it-se

The Kennedy Doctrine

Syria and the Law of Humanitarian Intervention
( Bombs R US )

Afghan Corruption, and How the U.S. Facilitates It

“It is time that we as Americans — in government, in the media, and as analysts and academics — took a hard look at the causes of corruption in Afghanistan. The fact is that we are at least as much to blame for what has happened as the Afghans, and we have been grindingly slow to either admit our efforts or correct them.”
That was written in September 2010 by Anthony H. Cordesman, national security expert and a former Reagan Pentagon official, in a Center for Strategic and International Studies report, “How America Corrupted Afghanistan.”
Cordesman, who spent a good deal of time in Afghanistan, wrote: “We can probably do more to fight the worst causes of Afghan corruption by changing our own actions than by any amount of effort to encourage Afghan anti-corruption drives.”
He particularly criticized the military contracting process, saying, “The bulk of the money actually spent inside Afghanistan went through poorly supervised military contracts and through aid projects where the emphasis was speed, projected starts, and measuring progress in terms of spending rather than results.”
U.S. coalition financial records covering $475 million in fuel purchases and payments from October 2006 to February 2011 had been shredded. 

Detention of Greenwald Partner in London Clearly Came on US Orders

UN Report on Syria Does Not Say What John Kerry Says It Said

CIA & Mossad Death Squads Exposed In Syria

Many of the so called “free syrian army” are in FACT just foreign fighters and fanatics, brought into Syria by the Western Powers, the CIA and Mossad, so as to engineer a false and highly exaggerated impression of the situation there, in order to intervene militarily in Syria and depose Assad’s Government.
What worked so wonderfully for them in Libya, they are trying to repeat in Syria.

When Posting a Link is a Crime

The Texas-based journalist is sitting in jail awaiting trial on three different indictments and facing a sentence of over a century if convicted in a case that is so outrageous and frightening that it rivals the cases and plights of those better-known information distributors. Brown is being charged, essentially, with doing something everyone (including myself right now) does on the Internet: he posted a link.

Arizona Legislature Passes Sweeping Electronic Speech Censorship Bill

Link TV Programs 

 


LGBT people deserve equal rights everywhere. That's why this morning we filed a federal lawsuit against Shannon, Mississippi, a rural town whose mayor and aldermen denied a business license to PJ Newton because she wants to open a bar that would welcome the LGBT community.

A town cannot deny a business license because of hostility toward members of a particular group. Nor can it deny a license in order to prevent someone like PJ from sending a positive message about LGBT people in Mississippi.

Like and share to support PJ's bold stance against government-backed discrimination and learn more: http://sp.lc/1bqcmXh
There are four levels of consciousness. Most people never make it out of level one and are condemned to suffer in this self-imposed hell of an inner world. Here are the four levels of consciousness:

1. Unconscious Unconsciousness
At this stage you are not even aware that you are unconscious. You attract negative things into your life at a rapid pace, as if you have developed a negative ball of energy rolling down hill. Nothing is ever your fault and you are always looking for someone to blame.

2. Conscious Unconsciousness
Here you are aware of your negative thinking and the consequences that it might bring. You might see your negative pattern and have become aware of what it is that you are attracting. You may not like what you are attracting, but you have taken responsibility for it.

3. Conscious Consciousness
You deliberately decide to focus pure and positive thought on something and remove all resistance to its arrival. And, sure enough, it arrives. Your creation might be something as simple as visualizing a parking space opening up for you at the mall. You deliberately intended it, allowed it to come to you and acknowledged it when it arrives.

4. Unconscious Consciousness
When you get to this point, you do not have to work so hard to create things in your life. You are a believer in how the mind game is played and you spend conscious time each day making your mind important. New creations come to you easily and quickly. You have built a positive ball of energy that continues to roll forward in your favor. People call you the "lucky one".
I may not be Christian, but i'll send this anyway. Even if it isn't true. It could very easily be.
A must READ - Good morning said a woman as she walked up to the man sitting on the ground.

The man slowly looked up.

This was a woman clearly accustomed to the finer things of life. Her coat was new.. She looked like she had never missed a meal in her life.

His first thought was that she wanted to make fun of him, like so many others had done before.. "Leave me alone," he growled....

To his amazement, the woman continued standing.

She was smiling -- her even white teeth displayed in dazzling rows. "Are you hungry?" she asked.

"No," he answered sarcastically. "I've just come from dining with the president. Now go away."

The woman's smile became even broader. Suddenly the man felt a gentle hand under his arm.

"What are you doing, lady?" the man asked angrily. "I said to leave me alone.

Just then a policeman came up. "Is there any problem, ma'am?" he asked..

"No problem here, officer," the woman answered. "I'm just trying to get this man to his feet. Will you help me?"

The officer scratched his head. "That's old Jack. He's been a fixture around here for a couple of years. What do you want with him?"

"See that cafeteria over there?" she asked. "I'm going to get him something to eat and get him out of the cold for awhile."

"Are you crazy, lady?" the homeless man resisted. "I don't want to go in there!" Then he felt strong hands grab his other arm and lift him up. "Let me go, officer. I didn't do anything."

"This is a good deal for you, Jack" the officer answered. "Don't blow it.."

Finally, and with some difficulty, the woman and the police officer got Jack into the cafeteria and sat him at a table in a remote corner. It was the middle of the morning, so most of the breakfast crowd had already left and the lunch bunch had not yet arrived...

The manager strode across the cafeteria and stood by his table. "What's going on here, officer?" he asked. "What is all this, is this man in trouble?"

"This lady brought this man in here to be fed," the policeman answered.

"Not in here!" the manager replied angrily. "Having a person like that here is bad for business.."

Old Jack smiled a toothless grin. "See, lady. I told you so. Now if you'll let me go. I didn't want to come here in the first place."

The woman turned to the cafeteria manager and smiled....... "Sir, are you familiar with Eddy and Associates, the banking firm down the street?"

"Of course I am," the manager answered impatiently. "They hold their weekly meetings in one of my banquet rooms."

"And do you make a godly amount of money providing food at these weekly meetings?"

"What business is that of yours?"

I, sir, am Penelope Eddy, president and CEO of the company."

"Oh."

The woman smiled again. "I thought that might make a difference." She glanced at the cop who was busy stifling a giggle. "Would you like to join us in a cup of coffee and a meal, officer?"

"No thanks, ma'am," the officer replied. "I'm on duty."

"Then, perhaps, a cup of coffee to go?"

"Yes, ma’am. That would be very nice."

The cafeteria manager turned on his heel, "I'll get your coffee for you right away, officer."

The officer watched him walk away. "You certainly put him in his place," he said.

"That was not my intent. Believe it or not, I have a reason for all this."

She sat down at the table across from her amazed dinner guest. She stared at him intently.. "Jack, do you remember me?"

Old Jack searched her face with his old, rheumy eyes. "I think so -- I mean you do look familiar."

"I'm a little older perhaps," she said. "Maybe I've even filled out more than in my younger days when you worked here, and I came through that very door, cold and hungry."

"Ma'am?" the officer said questioningly. He couldn't believe that such a magnificently turned out woman could ever have been hungry.

"I was just out of college," the woman began. "I had come to the city looking for a job, but I couldn't find anything. Finally I was down to my last few cents and had been kicked out of my apartment. I walked the streets for days. It was February and I was cold and nearly starving. I saw this place and walked in on the off chance that I could get something to eat."

Jack lit up with a smile. "Now I remember," he said.. "I was behind the serving counter. You came up and asked me if you could work for something to eat. I said that it was against company policy."

"I know," the woman continued. "Then you made me the biggest roast beef sandwich that I had ever seen, gave me a cup of coffee, and told me to go over to a corner table and enjoy it. I was afraid that you would get into trouble... Then, when I looked over and saw you put the price of my food in the cash register, I knew then that everything would be all right."

"So you started your own business?" Old Jack said.

"I got a job that very afternoon. I worked my way up. Eventually I started my own business that, with the help of God, prospered." She opened her purse and pulled out a business card.. "When you are finished here, I want you to pay a visit to a Mr. Lyons...He's the personnel director of my company. I'll go talk to him now and I'm certain he'll find something for you to do around the office." She smiled. "I think he might even find the funds to give you a little advance so that you can buy some clothes and get a place to live until you get on your feet... If you ever need anything, my door is always opened to you."

There were tears in the old man's eyes. "How can I ever thank you?" he said.

"Don't thank me," the woman answered. "To God goes the glory. Thank Jesus...... He led me to you."

Outside the cafeteria, the officer and the woman paused at the entrance before going their separate ways....

"Thank you for all your help, officer," she said.

"On the contrary, Ms. Eddy," he answered. "Thank you. I saw a miracle today, something that I will never forget. And.. And thank you for the coffee."

God is going to shift things around for you today and let things work in your favor.

If you believe, send it.

If you don't believe, delete it.

God closes doors no man can open & God opens doors no man can close..

If you need God to open some doors for you...send this on.

 http://removingtheshackles.blogspot.ca/

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