Day: June 7, 2013

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Bush Dick Cheney Domestic Policies News Politics Technology

And This Is A Surprise, Why?

Yes, I try to be a good liberal every chance that I can, but honestly, I can’t help but think that this NSA surveillance business is a big yawn. We live in an electronic, connected world. We provide information via phone, cable TV, Internet, e-mail, texts, check boxes (especially after we’ve all thoroughly read the 28 page privacy statement that all website provide us with), billing address is same as mailing address online forms when we buy something, credit card information (stored on a third party server), Facebook, Twitter, Skype, Tumblr, picture sharing sites and on and on and on.

Now we learn that the government, in the name of national security and with the acquiescence of the executive, legislative and judicial branches, has gathered this data (I believe that “scooped” is the reigning cool-person way to describe it) and could use it to discover patterns in our behavior. If they wanted to. It’s disturbing, but I cannot share the outrage. I saw it coming, and when I was a corporate technology trainer in the 1990s, I made a point of warning every student who sat in my class that everything they did on a computer, whether on the Internet or in a Word document, was fair game for any eyes that wanted to pry. This is ever more true today. People ignored or minimized this at their peril. And this was before September 11, when the corporations and government had even less of an excuse to watch us.

Okay, perhaps I’m being naive and obtuse and blind and I’m ignoring dangers that other can clearly see, but I don’t think so. Maybe this article is absolutely wrong, but again, I don’t think so.  Yes, I understand that there’s a difference between willingly giving your data and the government mining for it, and I certainly don’t want the government to get used to taking data that citizens have not freely given it, but in a way, we have.

This is also part of our history, and has been going on since the Alien and Sedition Acts. And the 1917 Espionage Act. When we signed on to Truman’s Doctrine of containing Communism, we tacitly agreed that the government could check that we were loyal. Joseph McCarthy went too far and was too reckless. Richard Nixon did similar things, but he was elected VP and president and had J. Edgar Hoover to both support and threaten him. When they went too far, the Congress reined them in. So it will be today.

The problem now is that the threat of attack is too real and the consequences too terrible to let our guard down for even a second. The Chinese and Iranians are conducting cyberattacks that threaten our systems. How would you like the government to respond? By only following the bad people? That’s like asking the police to only shoot or arrest bad guys. Most times it happens, but when it doesn’t we react with a fury that sometimes ignores facts or circumstances. The same is true today. The NSA’s job is to conduct information-gathering and use that data to find patterns of behavior that might lead to terrorism. To say that they should not be gathering all of the data that they can is counterproductive.

That the press has reported this story based on a whistle-blowers actions shows that our system still works. The government will be held accountable. At this point, that’s good enough for me.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives and on Twitter @rigrundfest

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college News shooting

Santa Monica College Shooting Reportedly Leaves Several Wounded

Santa Monica College was placed on lockdown Friday after reports that a suspect fired a gun inside a campus building just before noon.

There are several victims, including the shooter, confirmed Santa Monica police Sgt. Rudy Flores to the Associated Press.

Flores also said that the police fielded several reports of a man on a street corner shooting at vehicles.

In all, there are four people being treated for injuries at UCLA hospitals. Three people are receiving care at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, said a hospital spokesperson to The Huffington Post. Two are in critical condition and one is in serious condition.

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Featured News Videos

Jamaican Police Beating School Girl Caught On Tape

The below video captured a Jamaican police officer manhandling a young girl who reportedly attends Spalding High School.

The video is going viral online and has sparked an outcry from Jamaicans both at home and abroad.

Watch the video and weigh in below in comments.

h/t – URBANISLANDZ

Categories
Relationships

Sluts Don’t Want Slutty Friends

Branden Lee is a blogger, screenwriter, producer, and actor, currently residing in Boston, MA. Follow Branden on Twitter and Tumblr.

A recent Jezebel article profiled a Cornell College of Human Ecology study called “Birds of a Feather? Not When It Comes to Sexual Permissiveness“.  In this study 721 co-ed students were asked to rate their feelings regarding promiscuity between males and females.

The study showed that both men and women that considered themselves to be slutty/promiscuous would rather not have friends that are also slutty/promiscuous.

The reasoning for men with many sexual partners not wanting to befriend other men with a high count of sexual partners is because they don’t trust the other guy around their partner.

The reasoning for promiscuous girls not wanting to befriend fellow promiscuous girls is because it’s not socially acceptable to be friends with known harlots.

Such slut shaming!

Well if you know you’re a moral-less skank who can’t be trusted around other people’s men, you wouldn’t want another moral-less skank who can’t be trusted around other’s people’s men anywhere near your own man.

I consider myself a promiscuous boy, and I have tons of fantastic long-lasting relationships with many promiscuous women. There’s something about being an only child that makes you more likely to become a slut. But with my girlfriends, I’m gay and they’re straight so of course we don’t have to worry about poaching each other’s men, though I do tend to mainly attract bisexual guys and guys with girlfriends….

But if there is one moral code I will never break, it’s never to hookup with a guy who’s been with someone I consider to be a friend. Plus that’s gross. I don’t want any penis that’s been inside one of my friends inside of me. Enemies may be a different story. I once almost hooked up with someone else’s boyfriend just because they didn’t accept my friend request on Facebook.

I don’t have many gay friends, probably because they don’t want to befriend a known morally corrupt Jezebel, but my very best gay friend is also a slut, and we don’t have to worry about the other trying to steal each other’s men. I don’t like old guys, and he doesn’t like fat guys.  Although every guy he’s been with has hooked up with one of his “friends”.

Some sluts can’t be trusted…but we’re all not that bad.

Categories
Domestic Policies

Safety in the Name of Surveillance

Hey, America, WE’RE AT WAR!!! This is No Ordinary War, but it’s still War just the same! Stop it with your Penny-Anny whining about “Privacy and Civil Liberties” being taken away. It was taken away after 9/11, less we forget. Immediately after we were attacked with the planes diving into buildings, the Bush Administration began wiretapping phone calls and emails because of potential threats from known and unknown al-Qaeda groups.

President Bush authorized a surveillance program in late 2001, allowing the NSA (National Security Agency) to monitor communications between the United States and foreign countries without court oversight when a party is believed to be linked to al-Qaeda. During the 2008 article that revealed President Bush’s tactics, Administration officials had acknowledged that the NSA program was broader, and intelligence sources had described a vast effort to collect and analyze telephone and e-mail communications that were later scrutinized by the government for desired information. Does this Ring A Bell? Fast Forward to Thursday, June 6th.

On Thursday, President Obama was slammed for doing the EXACT SAME THING George Bush did as President, yet Obama is being pummeled by some Right Wingers, some Democrats that seemed to have forgotten what Bush initiated after 9/11, by media outlets like the New York Times and Fox News (No Surprise There) and every day Americans who also have forgotten WE’RE AT WAR!!!

Collection of audio, video, email, photographic and Internet search usage of foreign nationals overseas who use any of the nine major Internet providers, including Microsoft, Google, Apple, Yahoo and others has also taken place.

Thursday was June 6th, the Commemoration of D-Day. On June 6th, 1944, the Great Theater of Battle was the Normandy invasion which was to liberate Europe from the stronghold of Adolf Hitler and the German war machine.

During WWII, we knew what the enemy looked like. Another battle was taking place thousands of miles away in Japan. We saw them coming in Big Ships across the oceans, hundereds of thousands of planes in the air and Tanks across the desert. Today, our enemy lives in caves but has the technological skills of a seasoned IBM’er.

They disguise themselves by blending in like you and me. By going to work everyday, or enrolling in schools, colleges, the Armed Services, they are unnoticed because they adopt our way of life. Then, without warning, the Fort Hood Shooting takes place. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan opened fire on his fellow servicemen, killing 13 and injuring 30. Then Sen. Joe Lieberman opined that Hasan was under personal stress and may have turned to Islamic Extremism.

And how about the Boston Marathon Bombers? The brothers, Dzokhar Tsarnaev, 19 and his brother who was killed in a gun battle with police in Boston, 26- year old Tamerlan, killed 3 and injured over 260 with pressure cooker bombs. The purpose of the attack after investigation and interrogation of young Dzokhar, Extreme Islamist beliefs and the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Don’t sleep America! There are many other ‘cell groups’ right here on our soil. And it takes a great deal of surveillance that WE Have No Idea About that HAS to be monitored.

To be sure, Obama didn’t launch the data-mining initiatives, which were started during the Bush administration, though he has expanded them. He had defenders Thursday ranging from California Sen. Feinstein, a liberal Democrat, to South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a conservative Republican. “It’s called protecting America,” Feinstein said.

Obama called it “a false choice between the liberties we cherish and the security we demand.” Yes, we demand our Freedoms but do we sacrifice Freedom over our Safety?

Senior administration officials defended the programs as critical tools and said the intelligence they yield is among the most valuable data the U.S. collects. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said the Internet program, known as PRISM, can’t be used to intentionally target any Americans or anyone in the U.S, and that data accidentally collected about Americans is kept to a minimum.

At hearing of this story that NEVER SHOULD HAVE BEEN REPORTED, I asked several Verizon users their thoughts on the whole matter, one being my In-Law. She stated, “ I’ve got Nothing to hide so I’m not concerned”. A golf buddy stated he had concerns of how the government gathers our information but didn’t feel threatened since he was a law-abiding citizen. I always wonder why when it comes to things of this nature, people get all flushed and bothered. If you have Nothing to hide, why does it bother you so much?

In the name of Safety, I want All the Protection my Government can Provide for my family, friends and this Great Country. In the name of Freedom, We have to Allow some Inconveniences along the way.

The enemy has brand new ways of infiltration. We can’t always see them, but thank God we have people working to Cease and Desist ALL perpetrators who would do us harm.

And by the way, the reason I said this story should Never have been reported, it opens the eyes of the Enemy. Now, they have to regroup and change the way they were doing ‘business’. Because our government knew of their actions, their mode of communication, their habits, they too have heard this story. We’re back to square one. In that reporters zealous for getting a story out there, You may have just jeopardized the security of not just Americans, but the World as a Whole…I’m just saying…

Categories
Politics Rape

Rape Suspect Buried Alive With His Victim

Police had identified the 17-year-old as the possible culprit in the rape and murder of a 35-year-old woman near the municipality of Colquechaca.

The chief prosecutor says more than 200 furious local people seized Santos Ramos and buried him in the grave of his alleged victim.

He says residents blocked roads into the village to stop police arriving.

A reporter for a local radio station, who would only speak anonymously for fear of reprisals, told the media that Mr Ramos was tied up at the woman’s funeral.

He said mourners threw him into the open grave alongside the woman’s coffin and filled the grave with earth.

Colquechaca is a town of about 5,000 inhabitants some 207 miles ( 333 km) south-east of the Bolivian capital, La Paz.

Categories
Entertainment michael jackson

AEG Has “Irrefutable” Evidence that Paris is NOT Michael’s Daughter

Interior designer Kenneth Bordewick, who was a regular visitor to the Jackson home before Michael died of a drug overdose in 2009, tells me: ‘Paris has always ruled the roost. She was in charge of the whole house before Michael died. The kids were completely spoiled by the staff, and Paris told everyone what to do, including her father. They would have big arguments; there was always a lot of drama with Paris.’

She was only 11 when Jackson died, and to this day, it’s said she assumes a maternal role, particularly where her younger brother Prince Michael, 11, is concerned.

Although his children emerged into a kind of normality after his death, they had to deal with the burden of sudden fame alongside their grief.

Paris seems concerned by her father’s legacy — and wants him to be remembered as a consummate entertainer, not a drug-addicted oddball.

In a newspaper interview last month she talked about wanting to get his old Neverland estate going as a kind of theme park — to help underprivileged children. She doesn’t see — as he didn’t — that the idea of an accused paedophile helping children could be viewed as grotesque. As a teenage user of social media, she has been bombarded with distasteful messages about his proclivities.

She is also said to be terrified by the prospect of testifying at the ongoing ‘wrongful death’ lawsuit the Jacksons are bringing against concert promoters AEG. Michael was signed to perform a series of gigs which the family argues he was in no fit state to perform. She can expect to be asked about her father’s health and state of mind before he died, and the events of the day he died.

Now AEG has a further bombshell — it claims to have ‘irrefutable’ proof that Michael is not the biological father of Prince or Paris, which they wish to bring to court.

Jackson family lawyers argue that the issue is irrelevant, and AEG is just seeking to embarrass the family.

Read more: Mail Online

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Featured

Father With 22 Children By 14 Women, Sued For Unpaid Child Support

Orlando Shaw, who has 22 children by 14 women, is being sued for unpaid child support.

A Tennessee man who has 22 children by 14 women is being sued in what might be one of Nashville’s most expensive child support cases, according to NBC affiliate WTVF.

In an interview outside court, Orlando Shaw said he loves all of his kids and considers himself a good father — it’s just that he can’t afford to pay child support.

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