What makes Turkey so special? Real estate, for one thing. Turkey is both a physical and symbolic bridge between the West and the turbulent Arab and broader Muslim worlds. There is little that the United States can do to respond to the deepening crisis in Syria, for example, whether it is imposing sanctions or launching military intervention, without buy-in from Ankara. But Turkey’s significance to Washington is far greater than location. Politically, it offers reforming Arab states like Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt a compelling governance model, proving that a ruling Islamic party (in this case the Justice and Development Party or AKP) can preside over a vibrant democracy that brings sustained growth (including a red-hot 10 percent rise in GDP in 2010) to its people. Turkey shows Islamist reformers that there is indeed a middle ground between strongman rule and sharia law.
The Internationalist » Turkey at the Crossroads (Literally)
Friday, May 11, 2012
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Fujitsu develops world's smallest and slimmest palm vein biometric authentication sensor deployable in tablet devices
Fujitsu Laboratories Limited today announced development of the world's smallest and slimmest palm vein authentication sensor that is capable of being employed in tablet devices. By upgrading the technology's design with new image sensors and other optical components, Fujitsu Laboratories has successfully slimmed down the new sensor to a thickness of 5 mm.
Fujitsu develops world's smallest and slimmest palm vein biometric authentication sensor deployable in tablet devices
GB Interview with Geert Wilders from Loudon's Blog
‘Marked for Death’: Beck Interviews Anti-Islamist Dutch MP Geert Wilders
Trevor Loudon's New Zeal Blog
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Pediatricians in Canada discharging unvaccinated children - thestar.com
Pediatricians in Canada are starting to discharge children whose parents refuse to have them vaccinated.
More and more, doctors are taking a stand when their medical advice is being ignored, said Dr. Hirotaka Yamashiro, chair of the pediatrics section for the Ontario Medical Association and president of the Pediatricians Alliance of Ontario.
“There have been some pediatricians who are very concerned about that, and may not take on the patient in the beginning,” Yamashiro said. “If you are going to fundamentally disagree with one of the things I think is good for your child, what else are we going to have a problem with?”
Dr. Fatima Kamalia, a Thornhill-based pediatrician, says she discharges patients whose parents refuse to have them vaccinated.
Pediatricians in Canada discharging unvaccinated children - thestar.com
More and more, doctors are taking a stand when their medical advice is being ignored, said Dr. Hirotaka Yamashiro, chair of the pediatrics section for the Ontario Medical Association and president of the Pediatricians Alliance of Ontario.
“There have been some pediatricians who are very concerned about that, and may not take on the patient in the beginning,” Yamashiro said. “If you are going to fundamentally disagree with one of the things I think is good for your child, what else are we going to have a problem with?”
Dr. Fatima Kamalia, a Thornhill-based pediatrician, says she discharges patients whose parents refuse to have them vaccinated.
Pediatricians in Canada discharging unvaccinated children - thestar.com
Monday, April 23, 2012
Catholic Bishops Take on Obama
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has taken a bold stand for religious freedom. In a recent statement, titled “Our First, Most Cherished Liberty,” the bishops call for repeal of contraception coverage mandated by the Department of Health and Human Services. The clarified position sets up a dramatic confrontation with the Obama administration—and would, if the bishops prevail, help preserve the religious liberty of all Americans.
Catholic Bishops Take on Obama | The Weekly Standard
Catholic Bishops Take on Obama | The Weekly Standard
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Homes abandoned amid riot warnings in Chicago
In a sign of what may be coming, residents of a Chicago condo building located near the site of next month’s NATO summit have been asked to leave for the event or risk being caught in a storm of rioters.
Homes abandoned amid riot warnings in Chicago
Homes abandoned amid riot warnings in Chicago
Friday, April 20, 2012
New federal agency OFR stirs 'Orwellian' fears | Fox News
It is the most powerful federal agency you’ve never heard of -- and lawmakers from both parties on Thursday vowed to keep abreast of its astonishing growth and rein it in, if necessary.
The Office of Financial Research, or OFR, was created by the Dodd-Frank financial services overhaul that President Obama signed into law in July 2010. Technically housed under the Treasury Department, the agency has until now received its funding not from the Congress, but directly from the Federal Reserve.
Starting in July, the OFR Fiscal Year 2013 budget, estimated at $158 million, will be funded entirely through assessments -- also known as taxes -- on bank-holding firms with consolidated assets worth at least $50 billion.
But as became clear at Thursday’s hearing by the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, a close reading of the law the president signed provides no limit on the growth of OFR’s budget, nor on the taxes the agency can impose on big banks to fund it.
New federal agency OFR stirs 'Orwellian' fears | Fox News
The Office of Financial Research, or OFR, was created by the Dodd-Frank financial services overhaul that President Obama signed into law in July 2010. Technically housed under the Treasury Department, the agency has until now received its funding not from the Congress, but directly from the Federal Reserve.
Starting in July, the OFR Fiscal Year 2013 budget, estimated at $158 million, will be funded entirely through assessments -- also known as taxes -- on bank-holding firms with consolidated assets worth at least $50 billion.
But as became clear at Thursday’s hearing by the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, a close reading of the law the president signed provides no limit on the growth of OFR’s budget, nor on the taxes the agency can impose on big banks to fund it.
New federal agency OFR stirs 'Orwellian' fears | Fox News
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Rep. Dan Burton: The Danger of Underestimating Obama
Mr. Obama knows precisely what he is doing: He is changing America into his vision of a European-style socialist utopia where the government controls every aspect of our lives. Consider the facts, since taking office, Mr. Obama has taken control of the student loan industry, the health care industry, the banking and financial sectors, and he orchestrated the bankruptcy and reorganization of two-thirds of the American automotive industry, leaving his political allies in the labor movement in effective control of the companies and allowing the administration to dictate the industry’s direction.
Trevor Loudon's New Zeal Blog
Trevor Loudon's New Zeal Blog
Islamists Removed From Egyptian Presidential Race
In the aftermath of last year’s “Arab Spring,” two Islamist parties — the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, and the Salafist Al-Nour Party — have consolidated their power in the parliament, and gained control of the committee charged with drafting the nation’s new constitution. The move to allow only token representation to Christians in the process of writing the future of Egypt led the handful of Coptic Christians on the commission to resign in protest. With clear majorities of the members of both houses of parliament in the hands of Islamists, the last remaining possible elected balance to their power would have been in the presidency.
Islamists Removed From Egyptian Presidential Race
Islamists Removed From Egyptian Presidential Race
The Catholic Post : Article - Full text of Bishop Jenky's homily
Remember that in past history other governments have tried to force Christians to huddle and hide only within the confines of their churches like the first disciples locked up in the Upper Room.
In the late 19th century, Bismarck waged his “Kulturkampf,” a Culture War, against the Roman Catholic Church, closing down every Catholic school and hospital, convent and monastery in Imperial Germany.
Clemenceau, nicknamed “the priest eater,” tried the same thing in France in the first decade of the 20th Century.
Hitler and Stalin, at their better moments, would just barely tolerate some churches remaining open, but would not tolerate any competition with the state in education, social services, and health care.
In clear violation of our First Amendment rights, Barack Obama – with his radical, pro abortion and extreme secularist agenda, now seems intent on following a similar path.
Now things have come to such a pass in America that this is a battle that we could lose, but before the awesome judgement seat of Almighty God this is not a war where any believing Catholic may remain neutral.
This fall, every practicing Catholic must vote, and must vote their Catholic consciences, or by the following fall our Catholic schools, our Catholic hospitals, our Catholic Newman Centers, all our public ministries -- only excepting our church buildings – could easily be shut down. Because no Catholic institution, under any circumstance, can ever cooperate with the instrinsic evil of killing innocent human life in the womb.
No Catholic ministry – and yes, Mr. President, for Catholics our schools and hospitals are ministries – can remain faithful to the Lordship of the Risen Christ and to his glorious Gospel of Life if they are forced to pay for abortions.
The Catholic Post : Article - Full text of Bishop Jenky's homily at men's march and Mass
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Look who's buying up flooded farmland
Old article by Ann Barnhardt about last year's Mississippi River flooded farm land, good to refer back to and check up on the progress of this situation. Soros funding is a big part of this.
Trevor Loudon's New Zeal Blog
Trevor Loudon's New Zeal Blog
Historic Western town fights feds over very existence
Government wants to forbid access to water resource for Tombstone, AZ. This issue is larger than AZ, as the US Forest Service is on a campaign to deny States and private corporation ANY access to federal lands....this is a 10th Amendment Issue. In 1916 the Forest Service granted Tombstone the rights to draw their water from the surrounding mountains. Due to weather/fire issues, this water system is in need of repairs. The Government is refusing to grant permission as the water plant is on Federal lands.
Historic Western town fights feds over very existence
Historic Western town fights feds over very existence
'Islam-lite' Kosovars determined to stay secular
Kosovo’s secular majority are uneasy over a drift towards a more conservative Islam, writes MARY FITZGERALD in Pristina
'Islam-lite' Kosovars determined to stay secular - The Irish Times - Thu, Apr 12, 2012
'Islam-lite' Kosovars determined to stay secular - The Irish Times - Thu, Apr 12, 2012
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Activists fight "cyber-security" bill that would give NSA more data
An online activist site has collected 300,000 signatures in opposition to a pending "cyber-security" bill that critics say would allow increased government spying on the Internet. The petition focuses on a bill by Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), but his legislation is one of at least four proposals now being considered by Congress.
According to Jerry Brito, a researcher at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, there are four competing bills because the two parties—and the two houses of Congress—disagree about how best to deal with online security issues. One point of controversy is over who will take the lead on the issue, the Department of Homeland Security or the National Security Agency. A bill by Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), which would have given the leading role to DHS, was originally expected to pass easily through the Senate. But several Senate Republicans, led by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) were dissatisfied with the Lieberman bill and introduced competing legislation that envisioned a larger role for the NSA.
The ensuing partisan gridlock in the Senate created an opening for the House to act, and at least two pieces of legislation have been introduced in the lower chamber. The leading bill, by Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), follows Senate Republicans in allowing sharing with the NSA. It focuses on facilitating information sharing, both between the government and the private sector, and between private network operators. It exempts "cyber-security" information-sharing from other legal restrictions, and it immunizes network providers from liability for failing to act on information they receive under the provisions of the act.
A competing bill sponsored by Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA), places stricter limits on which agencies can receive information and what they can do with it.
Activists fight "cyber-security" bill that would give NSA more data
According to Jerry Brito, a researcher at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, there are four competing bills because the two parties—and the two houses of Congress—disagree about how best to deal with online security issues. One point of controversy is over who will take the lead on the issue, the Department of Homeland Security or the National Security Agency. A bill by Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), which would have given the leading role to DHS, was originally expected to pass easily through the Senate. But several Senate Republicans, led by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) were dissatisfied with the Lieberman bill and introduced competing legislation that envisioned a larger role for the NSA.
The ensuing partisan gridlock in the Senate created an opening for the House to act, and at least two pieces of legislation have been introduced in the lower chamber. The leading bill, by Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), follows Senate Republicans in allowing sharing with the NSA. It focuses on facilitating information sharing, both between the government and the private sector, and between private network operators. It exempts "cyber-security" information-sharing from other legal restrictions, and it immunizes network providers from liability for failing to act on information they receive under the provisions of the act.
A competing bill sponsored by Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA), places stricter limits on which agencies can receive information and what they can do with it.
"Classic case of overreach"
Ars Technica asked Jim Dempsey of the Center for Democracy and Technology to evaluate the competing bills. He argued that all four bills go too far in allowing private companies broad authority to share information with the government. He said the Rogers and McCain bills, in particular, "allow private companies very broadly to share cyber-security information with the government," including the NSA.Activists fight "cyber-security" bill that would give NSA more data
The NSA Is Building the Country's Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say)
3.15.12 article:
But “this is more than just a data center,” says one senior intelligence official who until recently was involved with the program. The mammoth Bluffdale center will have another important and far more secret role that until now has gone unrevealed. It is also critical, he says, for breaking codes. And code-breaking is crucial, because much of the data that the center will handle—financial information, stock transactions, business deals, foreign military and diplomatic secrets, legal documents, confidential personal communications—will be heavily encrypted. According to another top official also involved with the program, the NSA made an enormous breakthrough several years ago in its ability to cryptanalyze, or break, unfathomably complex encryption systems employed by not only governments around the world but also many average computer users in the US. The upshot, according to this official: “Everybody’s a target; everybody with communication is a target.”
The NSA Is Building the Country's Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say) | Threat Level | Wired.com
But “this is more than just a data center,” says one senior intelligence official who until recently was involved with the program. The mammoth Bluffdale center will have another important and far more secret role that until now has gone unrevealed. It is also critical, he says, for breaking codes. And code-breaking is crucial, because much of the data that the center will handle—financial information, stock transactions, business deals, foreign military and diplomatic secrets, legal documents, confidential personal communications—will be heavily encrypted. According to another top official also involved with the program, the NSA made an enormous breakthrough several years ago in its ability to cryptanalyze, or break, unfathomably complex encryption systems employed by not only governments around the world but also many average computer users in the US. The upshot, according to this official: “Everybody’s a target; everybody with communication is a target.”
The NSA Is Building the Country's Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say) | Threat Level | Wired.com
NSA To Build $1.5 Billion Cybersecurity Data Center
The National Security Agency, whose job it is to protect national security systems, will soon break ground on a data center in Utah that's budgeted to cost $1.5 billion.
The data center will be built at Camp Williams, a National Guard training center 26 miles south of Salt Lake City, which was chosen for its access to cheap power, communications infrastructure, and availability of space, Gaffney said. The complex will comprise up to 1.5 million square feet of building space on 120 to 200 acres, according to the NBC affiliate in Salt Lake City.
Article from 10.9.09
NSA To Build $1.5 Billion Cybersecurity Data Center - Government - Security - Informationweek
The data center will be built at Camp Williams, a National Guard training center 26 miles south of Salt Lake City, which was chosen for its access to cheap power, communications infrastructure, and availability of space, Gaffney said. The complex will comprise up to 1.5 million square feet of building space on 120 to 200 acres, according to the NBC affiliate in Salt Lake City.
Article from 10.9.09
NSA To Build $1.5 Billion Cybersecurity Data Center - Government - Security - Informationweek
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