HardTail's Chronicles

All Georgia Residents Westboro Nut-Jobs is planning on protesting a soldiers funeral in Ludowici, GA.

2013-08-01T22:01:00.001-04:00

Passing this info along. The nut-jobs are coming to Georgia. Lets shows them some Southern Hospitality.
I am for free speech but let families grieve please. Especially our solders. We fight for your rights weather we agree to the mission or not.

I got to put this out to my readers.

2013-07-31T18:50:00.001-04:00

#StandWithRand #86to86 86 senators who voted to continue sending aid to Syrian Rebels instead of putting that $1.5 billion back into our own! Make it heard tweet it out in 10 Min.. Both of Georgia's senators voted to send the money overseas.

10 Signs Your Girlfriend Is A Bitch

2013-07-31T18:26:00.000-04:00

I couldn't help myself on this one. I came across this and thought I would share..

No.10 - She’s self-centered

To a bitch, the only person in the world of any importance is herself. Others are merely warm bodies who get in the way of her selfish pursuits. She is the only person affected by a tragedy. The only feelings worth considering are hers. A bitch is so obsessed with herself that she would rather get a manicure than visit your father in the hospital.

No one should have to tolerate this kind of superiority complex — especially a good man, who tends to be the preferred victim of the bitch.

No.9 - She criticizes everything about you

Shaming is a common tactic women use to control their men. The bitch takes this to the extreme. By making you feel inadequate in every domain, she hopes to make you lose your self-confidence, then rely on her to do things “right.” Nothing is good enough for her, and you are the only one, aside from her bitch friends, who actually listens. So she nags about everything you say and do.

No.8 - She’s coldhearted

A bitch is typically amoral, adhering minimally to the ethical codes of society while transgressing those that are inconvenient to her. She dismisses civility for her own gains. She’s manipulative and scheming, always looking for underhanded ways of taking advantage of people or even hurting them. And as proof that she lacks a woman’s gentle soul, she never cries or shows soft emotion.

No.7 - She expects to be treated like a queen

A bitch is usually a spoiled brat who simply refuses to grow up. She was pampered and adored as a child, and typically given anything she asked for. As an adult, she still thinks she is entitled to everything. She consistently expects car rides, gifts and attention from you. She makes constant demands of people, and never listens to their requests. There is no fixing such a person; it’s programmed into her. Only by being denied several times will she begin to get a clue.

No.6 - She slights you in bed

You want to know just how heartless such a woman can be? Not only does she not appreciate all the effort you put into pleasing her sexually, she also has the gall to ridicule you. But she’ll pick the oddest times to do so, such as during an unrelated argument or just randomly in passing. This could be a cruel comment about your size, stamina or technique. More grating still is the fact that she would go crazy if you were to reciprocate the slur.

No.5 - She treats people like trash

As someone who believes luxury treatment is owed to her, a bitch has no respect for those who do things for her. She’s rude to people who work in the service industry, such as waiters and clerks, seeing them not as human beings, but as robots who exist solely to serve her. She talks at them — not to them.

She has no compassion for people in need, such as the poor or the sick. “It’s their own fault,” she’ll tell herself and others. More sickening still, she’s mean to children, as they are a nuisance and can’t do anything for her. And since her existence dwells on envy, she constantly badmouths other women over trivial things, such as their earrings or the way they speak.

No.4 - She never pays

As she thinks that it is the duty of others to provide for her, the bitch is a tightwad. On dates she always selects expensive restaurants and orders the priciest dish and drink, but never offers to pay. She won’t pitch in for gas on trips or for food at a get-together. She buys crappy gifts for others, when she can be bothered, usually expecting you to pay for them. And if you mention any of these things, she’ll accuse you of being cheap!

No.3 - She bosses you around

A bitch’s massive superiority complex makes her think people are born to be her servants, especially her boyfriend. As someone who spends a lot of his time with her, she uses you to do all the menial tasks that she doesn’t want to. Sometimes she’ll even boss you around for the power trip — just because she can.

No.2 - She embarrasses you in public

A bitch cares nothing about the feelings of others, not even those of the hapless sap she may be dating. In fact, she uses her man as a punching bag. Sometimes she even berates him in front of his friends, or even hers. She does this either as a power trip, to show others she can, or simply to beat a man’s self-worth down to her own level — after all, misery loves company.

No.1 - She flirts with other men

This is the most intolerable trait of a bitch, which many men sadly tolerate. She’ll tease and allure other men right in front of you, never once considering how you may feel about it. There are no bounds to her search for attention and admiration. And to top it off, she’ll extract whatever feelings of jealousy she can from you by comparing you to other men

So thoughts on this one. Like I said not my writings just came across it and thought it was kind of factual.

Myths about men and dating unmasked.

2013-07-30T10:38:00.000-04:00

Are men more romantic than women? Popular opinion would suggest not, but a new survey says that, in fact, men are way ahead when it comes to one area of romance.

The online survey quizzed around 100,000 people and found that while 48 per cent of men have fallen in love at first sight, a mere 28 per cent of women could say the same.

It’s not the first time popular ideas about men and romance have been wrong. Here are 10 myths about men and dating - well and truly debunked.

Myth one - men cheat, women are cheated on

It’s popularly believed that men are the cheaters in relationships and women the cheated on. Men don't cheat alone, so it’s commonly thought that a few women cheat a lot, but that far more men have been unfaithful at least once or twice.

Most figures don’t back that up. One recent study found that, while more men than women admitted to cheating, the gap was less than five per cent (20 per cent of men admitted cheating, compared with 16 per cent of women).

There’s also evidence to suggest that women are better at not getting caught, meaning unfaithful women may have longer affairs than unfaithful men.

Myth two - men tell great big whoppers

Studies suggest that, in relationships and while dating, men might lie a little more than women. We lie about how many partners we’ve had in the past, what our long-term intentions are, and how long ago we broke up with a previous partner, among many other things.

But figures suggest that between eight and 15 per cent of children have not been fathered by the man who thinks he is the biological parent.

So we might lie more, but it’s hard to imagine that our lies are worse.

Myth three - men are cold, women romantic

A wealth of research now exists to debunk this myth. The study mentioned at the start only confirms an earlier poll by match.com, which found that 54 per cent of men had felt love at first sight, compared to 44 per cent of women.

Myth four - women fall in love fastest

A study by Pennsylvania State University in the US found that most people thought of women as the hopeless romantics, and men as stand-offish and emotionally cold. The same study then went on to debunk the stereotype completely.

It found that three times as many men as women said 'I love you' first to their partners. That’s right, the three little words that mean so much are much more likely to come out of a man’s mouth first than his girlfriend’s.

Myth five - but...but...seriously, women DO fall in love fastest

Erm, no they don’t. The Penn State survey mentioned earlier also found that men were likely to start falling in love within weeks, while with women it took several months.

Another study, by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also found that men start thinking about saying 'I love you' a good six weeks before women do.

It seems the more loved-up gender - contrary to popular opinion - is men.

Myth six - women are the ones pressing for kids

Once ensconced in a relationship, the common perception is that, when women start talking about having kids, men have to be dragged kicking and screaming into bed.

But new research suggests that, in fact, men are just as broody as women, and sometimes more so. Research presented to the British Sociological Association recently found that men want to be fathers just as much as women want to be mothers.

And according to an earlier survey of more than 5,000 people by match.com, over half of single men aged 21-35 want children, compared with 46 per cent of women.

Myth seven - men need more space

OK, so men might fall in love and want kids and all that, but when they’re in relationships they need a lot of space. They need endless nights out with the boys and a 'man cave' to retreat to. Women, on the other hand, crave constant cuddles and intimacy. Right?

Wrong.

A US study from 2011 found that, in fact, the opposite was true. The data showed that 77 per cent of women say having their personal space is 'very important,' against 58 per cent for men; 78 per cent of women say the same about having their own interests and hobbies (64 per cent for men). And 35 per cent of women (compared to 23 per cent of men) say regular nights out with friends are important.

The study’s authors concluded that men and women are increasingly reading each other’s script. Compared to previous generations men want more intimacy and women more independence.

Myth eight - men are sex mad

Young and single men might be obsessed with sex, but that might be because they’re not getting much.

In relationships, the story may be different. According to a poll of nearly 2,000 men in long-term relationships by online pharmacy ukmedix.com, men are more likely than women to turn down sex. Over 60 per cent of the men surveyed said they turned down sex more frequently than their female partner. And for over 40 per cent of the men, sex once a fortnight was fine.

Myth nine - men think about sex all the time

You’ve probably heard the statistic that men think about sex every three seconds. Or was that seven seconds? Or was it every two minutes?

We forget the actual figure, because each time you hear it in the pub it’s different. It’s also a myth.

A study published in 2011 did find that men think about sex more than women, but only roughly 19 times a day. So that’s one sex thought every hour and a bit.

And the study found something else besides. Men think about food as much as sex, and sleep nearly as much. So men think about their physical needs a lot, and more than women do, but we don’t think about sex anywhere near as much as previously claimed.

Myth 10 - men break up and move on

The final myth says that when a love affair ends, cold and heartless men spend a couple of days in a bit of a bad mood and by the weekend are back on the pull. Women, on the other hand, spend months tearing their hair out and analysing what went wrong.

In fact, a US study found that, when a relationship is in trouble, men are more badly affected than women. Men also dealt with rocky love lives in a more damaging way, turning to booze for back-up while jilted women turned to friends.

Part of that might be that women see the end coming before men do. Research conducted at Carnegie Mellon University suggests that women adjust better to the end of a relationship because they've already thought about the possibility, whereas men are typically unprepared for it.

So are you a cold, unromantic man who is in a relationship largely for the sex and would much rather be out swilling beer with the boys than staying in with your partner? If so it seems that you might be in the minority.

So have your say below and tell us what you think.

Warning: The girl is using you!

2013-07-29T17:09:00.001-04:00

A relationship is a new adventure and it's something to be excited about. Sure, every couple has a few early teething issues and past failures or mistakes often govern a person's mindset. This is normal and probably quite healthy to bear in mind when making decisions, but making a new relationship work involves opening yourself up to the fact you may get hurt.

That said, there are certain warning signs that could alert you to the notion that your partner isn't as keen on you personally as you may have hoped.
So how can you protect yourself from the type of girl who's just using you for what you can give to them? Whether it be an ego-boost, money, or a short distraction before someone else comes along, you don't want to find out she's really not that into you after it's too late.
Money
This may seem obvious, but it isn't always the case. A woman likes to feel special and a chivalrous man will be happy to buy dinner, drinks, tickets and other things. If a bloke expects a date to chip in with the bill right away he may come across as cheap, and that's the last thing you want. Generosity is an important trait, after all.
So, at the start of a relationship it's best to perhaps wait and see if her attitude to paying changes. But if you're past the third date and she's not offering to split the bill, alarm bells should go off.
The same rule applies when you meet a girl at a bar. Sure, buy her one, maybe two drinks, but come the third, it's her round.
It's all on her terms
A relationship involves compromise and flexibility. It's nice to know your partner will go out of her way to make you happy and vice versa. So, when you have no say in anything and find your girlfriend is only available when she wants to be, there's a problem.
Of course, she's entitled to her own life, but if she shows disinterest in everything you do and isn't prepared to go that extra mile, so to speak, the chances are she isn't keen on getting to know you.
An excellent tester is your friend's opinions, because they should be honest with you and want to see you happy. If you're girl makes no effort with your friends and family then it's fair to assume you're considered nothing more than a time-filler. She'll be out the door as soon as someone she considers better comes along.
Physical and emotional manipulation
Women have a great deal of power over men and they know it! First up, they generally know men lust after them and that we love sex, and secondly they also know how to play the victim and make us men feel guilty.
Emotional manipulation comes in many forms, and if your girl is using any of them she obviously doesn't respect you enough to communicate properly. You shouldn't put up with this.
One popular technique is weeding out previous bad experiences and weaving them into your current relationship to make you feel bad. Yes, she may have been treated poorly in the past, but that isn't your fault — and if she's not prepared to talk openly about it with you, there's nothing you can do. Yes, express concern and sympathy, but if you're dealing with a train wreck, then she's not seeing you in the right light.
Avoiding sex is a big one, too, especially when you've been dating for a little while. Of course, you can't expect to sleep with a girl right away and you certainly don't want to appear as though it's all you want, but you really shouldn't have to ask.
Women are sexual creatures as well, and most of them will have normal sex drives. If she really is into you and comfortable in the relationship, she'll most likely want to have sex with you as much as you want to get physical with her. If she's withholding, then you know there's something wrong.
Remember, what you get out of a relationship should be roughly what you put in. If you're genuinely treating your girlfriend with respect and showing her how much you care then she should return those feelings equally. You know why you are in the relationship and what you want out of it — so don't accept anything less.
How can you tell if your partner is using you? Have your say below

FBI admits to flying drones over US without warrants

2013-07-28T19:21:00.000-04:00

The Triton unmanned aircraft system.(Reuters / Bob Brown)

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says it has used drones for domestic surveillance purposes in the United States at least ten times without obtaining warrants. In three additional cases, drones were authorized but “not actually used.”

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Thursday published a letter from FBI Assistant Director Stephen D. Kelly, who admitted that the agency used unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) domestically, without gathering any warrants.

“The FBI uses UAVs in very limited circumstances to conduct surveillance when there is a specific, operational need,” the letter reads. “Since late 2006, the FBI has conducted surveillance using UAVs in eight criminal cases and two national security cases.”

The bureau said that it would only be required to obtain a warrant to use a drone in cases for which a person “would have a reasonable expectation of privacy.” The FBI stated that it has not yet needed to ask for a warrant, but that all requests for drone use must be reviewed by an agency lawyer and approved by a senior management official.

The agency said that one of the cases involved the rescue of a five-year-old boy who was being held hostage in an underground bunker. The information strongly suggests that the agency was referring to the Alabama hostage crisis in which a retired truck driver kidnapped a boy from a school bus and held him hostage for six days.

Drone usage was also authorized in three additional cases, but the FBI did not release details about the nature of those circumstances.

Sen. Paul has long advocated against domestic drone usage, and in March held up CIA Director John Brennan’s nomination for nearly 13 hours, due to his history of defending drone strikes. In June, FBI Director Robert Mueller admitted that his agency uses drones to spy on US citizens without any “operational guidelines.” Since Mueller’s announcement, Paul has sent a series of open letters to the FBI, requesting detailed information about its use of drones in the United States.

In his second letter, mailed July 9, Paul threatened to filibuster the confirmation hearing for James Comey, Mueller’s successor, if he didn’t receive a response. This week, Paul finally received the information he sought.

But Paul was discontent with part of the agency’s response. In a follow-up letter addressed to Mueller, he expressed concern about the FBI’s ability to use drones without a warrant in cases where there is no “reasonable expectation of privacy.” He said the clause could result in “an over-broad interpretation of this protection,” and asked the FBI to clarify what would require a warrant.

Sen. Paul also took his concerns to Twitter, telling his followers that “spying without warrants is unconstitutional.”

Overall, confirmation of the FBI’s drone use might be cause for concern among privacy advocates and anti-drone activists. Dave Norris, a councilman of Charlottesville, Va., predicted last February that drone use would occur domestically, and feared that there would be room for abuse.

“To me, it’s Big Brother in the sky,” he told the New York Times. “I don’t mean to sound conspiratorial about it, but these drones are coming, and we need to put some safeguards in place so they are not abused.”

So now you know Big Brother is watching you and invading your life without guidelines or warrants.

As always feel free to leave your comments.

How to Know if Your Girlfriend Is Cheating on You

2013-07-26T19:21:00.001-04:00

Sometimes, a good relationship can be ruined by mistrusting your girlfriend. But if you suspect she's cheating, the nagging suspicion can be almost impossible to ignore. Here's how to start figuring out if your fears are real.

1. Take a step back. Before you do anything rash, take a moment to exhale and consider the situation. Ask yourself:
What makes you think she's cheating? Do you have hard evidence, or just a hunch?
How trustworthy do you think your girlfriend is? Do you think she'd be capable of something like this?
Has your girlfriend lied to you? Can you think of any instances when you haven't been sure if she's telling the truth?
Is she absent or unreachable for long periods of time? Does she bail out on your plans often?

2. Observe. Watch how your girlfriend acts around you and other people. Do you notice any significant changes in her behavior, such as:

Does she send you text messages or calls less often? If you start being the one to call or text her first all the time, that's a bad sign.
Secret phone conversations. Does she leave the room every time she gets a call on her cell? Is she just trying to be polite? If she's trying to guard her conversations on the phone, there may be reason to worry.
Distinct changes in appearance. If your girlfriend suddenly starts worrying a little more about her appearance, (new clothes, always clean shaven, spending more time in the mirror) she may be trying to look good for someone else. If she gets dressed up for you, that's one thing but if they seem to spend a little more time looking good to go out without you, you might want to look into that.
Picking fights: Is your girlfriend picking fights and arguing more with you? This could just be an excuse to get out of the house. Picking a fight and then storming out of the house to get away from you is an easy way to go spend time with someone else.
Lying: Catching her in a lie, no matter how small, is always cause for concern. Try to connect lies with certain time frames and you may have a connection to infidelity.
Computer time: An increase in computer time may a sign you are being cheated on. There are many adult chat rooms out there that cater to infidelity.
Friends behavioral change: If your friends seem to feel uncomfortable around you, they may know something that you don't. This is a classic sign that your girlfriend is cheating on you and you are the last to know.
Accusing you: Another common sign you are being cheated on is that she constantly accuses you of the very same thing she is guilty of — cheating. She may drop hints that you are having an affair because her own guilt is starting to wear on her.
Emotionally detached. When she no longer cares about things related to the relationship. She has a cold, distant vibe that feels as if a large wall is up and you can't do anything to break it down.

3. Express affection and watch how she responds. These are signs that she might be thinking of cheating:

Tell her you love her. Does she say it back?
Hold her hand. Does she try to pull it away? Does she look nervous?

4. Look at her past. Like the old saying goes, "Once a cheater, always a cheater". Has she snuck around other boyfriends in the past? If so, then, she might already be comfortable with cheating.

5 Be up-front with her. Tell her you have something on your mind, and ask if she has time to talk in a private space. Don't accuse her (such as, "I know you're cheating!"), but do express your feelings (like "I feel like you're losing interest in our relationship").

Notice whether or not she gives you an answer. If she isn't cheating, she has no reason not to be straightforward and reassure you that everything is fine. If she is, she might talk in circles without really saying anything.
If she becomes defensive or tries to turn the tables on you, this might be her guilt talking.

6. Follow your gut. Sometimes, you just know things without having to second-guess yourself. No amount of crying and denial can rival the feelings you have in the pit of your stomach. After you've taken all the evidence into consideration, it's time to follow your intuition.

Quick Tip Rundown
If she is making excuses not to spend time with you but is going the extra mile to hang out with her so-called friends, it's likely that she doesn't want to be with you anymore.

If your girlfriend begins to start acting differently with the way she speaks to you and the way she acts when you are not around that could be a sign.

She will make all kinds of excuses to make you feel bad and the ease of getting away from cheating.

You can obviously tell if your girlfriend is cheating on you if she doesn't have the time to be with you anymore. It almost seems as if she has plans without you.

Don't just randomly ask her, "Hey, you wouldn't happen to be cheating on me, would you?" She's going to say no anyway and she'll think you don't trust her.

Nothing you can do will dictate her actions. Sometimes, there is simply nothing you can do but walk away. Never, ever, dismiss this as an option or you will not get anywhere.

She doesn't want you to know her associations, see her emails or her phone.

If she talks (texts) another guy more than she texts your or when you are out doing something, it's a good sign she might be cheating.

If she can't look you in your face while you two are talking, that might mean she is cheating on you.

If your girlfriend is coming home at extremely late hours after long periods of absence, this may be a sign that she is having an affair.

Well this is the first part of the two part blog series I have for Yall this weekend. Look for part 2 tomorrow. As always feel free to leave your comments .

FED's demand your user names and password for your online accounts.

2013-07-26T10:34:00.001-04:00

Secret demands mark escalation in Internet surveillance by the federal government through gaining access to user passwords, which are typically stored in encrypted.

The U.S. government has demanded that major Internet companies divulge users' stored passwords, according to two industry sources familiar with these orders, which represent an escalation in surveillance techniques that has not previously been disclosed.

If the government is able to determine a person's password, which is typically stored in encrypted form, the credential could be used to log in to an account to peruse confidential correspondence or even impersonate the user. Obtaining it also would aid in deciphering encrypted devices in situations where passwords are reused.

"I've certainly seen them ask for passwords," said one Internet industry source who spoke on condition of anonymity. "We push back."

A second person who has worked at a large Silicon Valley company confirmed that it received legal requests from the federal government for stored passwords. Companies "really heavily scrutinize" these requests, the person said. "There's a lot of 'over my dead body.'"

Some of the government orders demand not only a user's password but also the encryption algorithm and the so-called salt, according to a person familiar with the requests. A salt is a random string of letters or numbers used to make it more difficult to reverse the encryption process and determine the original password. Other orders demand the secret question codes often associated with user accounts.

"This is one of those unanswered legal questions: Is there any circumstance under which they could get password information?"
--Jennifer Granick, Stanford University

A Microsoft spokesperson would not say whether the company has received such requests from the government. But when asked whether Microsoft would divulge passwords, salts, or algorithms, the spokesperson replied: "No, we don't, and we can't see a circumstance in which we would provide it."

Google also declined to disclose whether it had received requests for those types of data. But a spokesperson said the company has "never" turned over a user's encrypted password, and that it has a legal team that frequently pushes back against requests that are fishing expeditions or are otherwise problematic. "We take the privacy and security of our users very seriously," the spokesperson said.

A Yahoo spokeswoman would not say whether the company had received such requests. The spokeswoman said: "If we receive a request from law enforcement for a user's password, we deny such requests on the grounds that they would allow overly broad access to our users' private information. If we are required to provide information, we do so only in the strictest interpretation of what is required by law."

Apple, Facebook, AOL, Verizon, AT&T, Time Warner Cable, and Comcast did not respond to queries about whether they have received requests for users' passwords and how they would respond to them.

Richard Lovejoy, a director of the Opera Software subsidiary that operates FastMail, said he doesn't recall receiving any such requests but that the company still has a relatively small number of users compared with its larger rivals. Because of that, he said, "we don't get a high volume" of U.S. government demands.

The FBI declined to comment.

Some details remain unclear, including when the requests began and whether the government demands are always targeted at individuals or seek entire password database dumps. The Patriot Act has been used to demand entire database dumps of phone call logs, and critics have suggested its use is broader. "The authority of the government is essentially limitless" under that law, Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat who serves on the Senate Intelligence committee, said at a Washington event this week.

Large Internet companies have resisted the government's requests by arguing that "you don't have the right to operate the account as a person," according to a person familiar with the issue. "I don't know what happens when the government goes to smaller providers and demands user passwords," the person said.

An attorney who represents Internet companies said he has not fielded government password requests, but "we've certainly had reset requests -- if you have the device in your possession, than a password reset is the easier way."

Source code to a C implementation of bcrypt, a popular algorithm used for password hashing.
Photo by Declan McCullagh
Cracking the codes
Even if the National Security Agency or the FBI successfully obtains an encrypted password, salt, and details about the algorithm used, unearthing a user's original password is hardly guaranteed. The odds of success depend in large part on two factors: the type of algorithm and the complexity of the password.

Algorithms, known as hash functions, that are viewed as suitable for scrambling stored passwords are designed to be difficult to reverse. One popular hash function called MD5, for instance, transforms the phrase "National Security Agency" into this string of seemingly random characters: 84bd1c27b26f7be85b2742817bb8d43b. Computer scientists believe that, if a hash function is well-designed, the original phrase cannot be derived from the output.

But modern computers, especially ones equipped with high-performance video cards, can test passwords scrambled with MD5 and other well-known hash algorithms at the rate of billions a second. One system using 25 Radeon-powered GPUs that was demonstrated at a conference last December tested 348 billion hashes per second, meaning it would crack a 14-character Windows XP password in six minutes.

The best practice among Silicon Valley companies is to adopt far slower hash algorithms -- designed to take a large fraction of a second to scramble a password -- that have been intentionally crafted to make it more difficult and expensive for the NSA and other attackers to test every possible combination.

One popular algorithm, used by Twitter and LinkedIn, is called bcrypt. A 2009 paper (PDF) by computer scientist Colin Percival estimated that it would cost a mere $4 to crack, in an average of one year, an 8-character bcrypt password composed only of letters. To do it in an average of one day, the hardware cost would jump to approximately $1,500.

But if a password of the same length included numbers, asterisks, punctuation marks, and other special characters, the cost-per-year leaps to $130,000. Increasing the length to any 10 characters, Percival estimated in 2009, brings the estimated cracking cost to a staggering $1.2 billion.

As computers have become more powerful, the cost of cracking bcrypt passwords has decreased. "I'd say as a rough ballpark, the current cost would be around 1/20th of the numbers I have in my paper," said Percival, who founded a company called Tarsnap Backup, which offers "online backups for the truly paranoid." Percival added that a government agency would likely use ASICs -- application-specific integrated circuits -- for password cracking because it's "the most cost-efficient -- at large scale -- approach."

While developing Tarsnap, Percival devised an algorithm called scrypt, which he estimates can make the "cost of a hardware brute-force attack" against a hashed password as much as 4,000 times greater than bcrypt.

Bcrypt was introduced (PDF) at a 1999 Usenix conference by Niels Provos, currently a distinguished engineer in Google's infrastructure group, and David Mazières, an associate professor of computer science at Stanford University.

With the computers available today, "bcrypt won't pipeline very well in hardware," Mazières said, so it would "still be very expensive to do widespread cracking."

Even if "the NSA is asking for access to hashed bcrypt passwords," Mazières said, "that doesn't necessarily mean they are cracking them." Easier approaches, he said, include an order to extract them from the server or network when the user logs in -- which has been done before -- or installing a keylogger at the client.

Sen. Ron Wyden, who warned this week that "the authority of the government is essentially limitless" under the Patriot Act's business records provision.
Getty Images
Questions of law
Whether the National Security Agency or FBI has the legal authority to demand that an Internet company divulge a hashed password, salt, and algorithm remains murky.

"This is one of those unanswered legal questions: Is there any circumstance under which they could get password information?" said Jennifer Granick, director of civil liberties at Stanford University's Center for Internet and Society. "I don't know."

Granick said she's not aware of any precedent for an Internet company "to provide passwords, encrypted or otherwise, or password algorithms to the government -- for the government to crack passwords and use them unsupervised." If the password will be used to log in to the account, she said, that's "prospective surveillance," which would require a wiretap order or Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act order.

If the government can subsequently determine the password, "there's a concern that the provider is enabling unauthorized access to the user's account if they do that," Granick said. That could, she said, raise legal issues under the Stored Communications Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

The Justice Department has argued in court proceedings before that it has broad legal authority to obtain passwords. In 2011, for instance, federal prosecutors sent a grand jury subpoena demanding the password that would unlock files encrypted with the TrueCrypt utility.

The Florida man who received the subpoena claimed the Fifth Amendment, which protects his right to avoid self-incrimination, allowed him to refuse the prosecutors' demand. In February 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit agreed, saying that because prosecutors could bring a criminal prosecution against him based on the contents of the decrypted files, the man "could not be compelled to decrypt the drives."

In January 2012, a federal district judge in Colorado reached the opposite conclusion, ruling that a criminal defendant could be compelled under the All Writs Act to type in the password that would unlock a Toshiba Satellite laptop.

Both of those cases, however, deal with criminal proceedings when the password holder is the target of an investigation -- and don't address when a hashed password is stored on the servers of a company that's an innocent third party.

"If you can figure out someone's password, you have the ability to reuse the account," which raises significant privacy concerns, said Seth Schoen, a senior staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

As always feel free to coment.

Obama Executive Order: All Americans Must Get Tested For HIV/AIDS

2013-07-18T11:54:00.000-04:00

Yes another executive order. This just keeps rolling out. Not sure if I am for this or against it... You tell me..

EXECUTIVE ORDER- – - – - – -ACCELERATING IMPROVEMENTS IN HIV PREVENTION AND CARE IN THE UNITED STATES THROUGH THE HIV CARE CONTINUUM INITIATIVEBy the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in order to further strengthen the capacity of the Federal Government to effectively respond to the ongoing domestic HIV epidemic, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. Policy. Addressing the domestic HIV epidemic is a priority of my Administration. In 2010, the White House released the first comprehensive National HIV/AIDS Strategy (Strategy), setting quantitative goals for reducing new HIV infections, improving health outcomes for people living with HIV, and reducing HIV-related health disparities. The Strategy will continue to serve as the blueprint for our national response to the domestic epidemic. It has increased coordination, collaboration, and accountability across executive departments and agencies (agencies) with regard to addressing the epidemic. It has also focused our Nation’s collective efforts on increasing the use of evidence-based approaches to prevention and care among populations and in regions where HIV is most concentrated.

Since the release of the Strategy, additional scientific discoveries have greatly enhanced our understanding of how to prevent and treat HIV. Accordingly, further Federal action is appropriate in response to these new developments. For example, a breakthrough research trial supported by the National Institutes of Health showed that initiating HIV treatment when the immune system was relatively healthy reduced HIV transmission by 96 percent. In addition, evidence suggests that early treatment may reduce HIV-related complications. These findings highlight the importance of prompt HIV diagnosis, and because of recent advances in HIV testing technology, HIV can be detected sooner and more rapidly than ever before.Based on these and other data, recommendations for HIV testing and treatment have changed. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force now recommends that clinicians screen all individuals ages 15 to 65 years for HIV, and the Department of Health and Human Services Guidelines for Use of Antiretroviral Agents now recommends offering treatment to all adolescents and adults diagnosed with HIV.

Furthermore, ongoing implementation of the Affordable Care Act provides a historic opportunity for Americans to access affordable, quality health care. The Act is expanding access to recommended preventive services with no out-of-pocket costs, including HIV testing, and, beginning in 2014, insurancecompanies will not be able to deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions, including HIV. Starting October 1, 2013, Americans can select the coverage that best suits them through the new Health Insurance Marketplace, and coverage will begin January 1, 2014.

Despite progress in combating HIV, important work remains. Since the publication of the Strategy, data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that there are significant gaps along the HIV care continuum — the sequential stages of care from being diagnosed to receiving optimal treatment. Nearly one-fifth of the estimated 1.1 million people living with HIV in the United States are undiagnosed; one-third are not linked to medical care; nearly two-thirds are not engaged in ongoing care; and only one-quarter have the virus effectively controlled, which is necessary to maintain long-term health and reduce risk of transmission to others.

In light of these data, we must further clarify and focus our national efforts to prevent and treat HIV infection. It is the policy of my Administration that agencies implementing the Strategy prioritize addressing the continuum of HIV care, including by accelerating efforts to increase HIV testing, services, and treatment along the continuum. This acceleration will enable us to meet the goals of the Strategy and move closer to an AIDS-free generation.

Sec. 2. Establishment of the HIV Care Continuum Initiative. There is established the HIV Care Continuum Initiative (Initiative), to be overseen by the Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy. The Initiative will mobilize and coordinate Federal efforts in response to recent advances regarding how to prevent and treat HIV infection. The Initiative will support further integration of HIV prevention and care efforts; promote expansion of successful HIV testing and service delivery models; encourage innovative approaches to addressing barriers to accessing testing and treatment; and ensure that Federal resources are appropriately focused on implementing evidence-based interventions that improve outcomes along the HIV care continuum.

Sec. 3. Establishment of the HIV Care Continuum Working Group. There is established the HIV Care Continuum Working Group (Working Group) to support the Initiative. The Working Group shall coordinate Federal efforts to improve outcomes nationally across the HIV care continuum.

(a) Membership. The Working Group shall be co-chaired by the Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy and the Secretary of Health and Human Services or designee (Co-Chairs). In addition to the Co-Chairs, the Working Group shall consist of representatives from:

(i) the Department of Justice;(ii) the Department of Labor;(iii) the Department of Health and Human Services;(iv) the Department of Housing and Urban Development;(v) the Department of Veterans Affairs;(vi) the Office of Management and Budget; and(vii) other agencies and offices, as designated by the Co-Chairs.

(b) Consultation. The Working Group shall consult with the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, as appropriate.

(c) Functions. As part of the Initiative, the Working Group shall:(i) request and review information from agencies describing efforts to improve testing, care, and treatment outcomes, and determine if there is appropriate emphasis on addressing the HIV care continuum in relation to other work concerning the domestic epidemic;(ii) review research on improving outcomes along the HIV care continuum;(iii) obtain input from Federal grantees, affected communities, and other stakeholders to inform strategies to improve outcomes along the HIV care continuum;(iv) identify potential impediments to improving outcomes along the HIV care continuum, including for populations at greatest risk for HIV infection, based on the efforts undertaken pursuant to paragraphs (i), (ii), and (iii) of this subsection;(v) identify opportunities to address issues identified pursuant to paragraph (iv) of this subsection, and thereby improve outcomes along the HIV care continuum;(vi) recommend ways to integrate efforts to improve outcomes along the HIV care continuum with other evidence-based strategies to combat HIV; and(vii) specify how to better align and coordinate Federal efforts, both within and across agencies, to improve outcomes along the HIV care continuum.

(d) Reporting.(i) Within 180 days of the date of this order, the Working Group shall provide recommendations to the President on actions that agencies can take to improve outcomes along the HIV care continuum.(ii) Thereafter, the Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy shall include, as part of the annual report to the President pursuant to section 1(b) of my memorandum of July 13, 2010 (Implementation of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy), a report prepared by the Working Group onGovernment-wide progress in implementing this order. This report shall include a quantification of progress made in improving outcomes along the HIV care continuum.

Sec. 4. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department, agency, or the head thereof; or(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

BARACK OBAMA

Source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/07/15/executive-order-hiv-care-continuum-initiative

I am evil...

2013-07-17T17:45:00.001-04:00

Yes I am that ass that is going 60 to 70 miles an hour making you speed all the way with me and when you catch up with me I stop doing 70 in a 60 why cause I can and I am evil today..

Sorry that's how i is.
Sent via goggle voice...

Sources: NSA sucks in data from 50 companies

2013-07-17T09:29:00.002-04:00

Yep the FEDS ae at it agian and up to their same old tricks. When are "WE THE PEOPLE" gonna wake up..

Analysts at the National Security Agency can now secretly access real-time user data provided by as many as 50 American companies, ranging from credit rating agencies to internet service providers, two government officials familiar with the arrangements said.

Several of the companies have provided records continuously since 2006, while others have given the agency sporadic access, these officials said. These officials disclosed the number of participating companies in order to provide context for a series of disclosures about the NSA's domestic collection policies. The officials, contacted independently, repeatedly said that "domestic collection" does not mean that the target is based in the U.S. or is a U.S. citizen; rather, it refers only to the origin of the data.

The Wall Street Journal reported today that U.S. credit card companies had also provided customer information. The officials would not disclose the names of the companies because, they said, doing so would provide U.S. enemies with a list of companies to avoid. They declined to confirm the list of participants in an internet monitoring program revealed by the Washington Post and the Guardian, but both confirmed that the program existed.

"The idea is to create a mosaic. We get a tip. We vet it. Then we mine the data for intelligence," one of the officials said.

In a statement, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said that programs collect communications "pursuant to section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, " and "cannot be used to intentionally target any U.S. citizen, any other U.S person, or anyone within the United States."

He called the leaks "reprehensible" and said the program "is among the most important" sources of "valuable" intelligence information the government takes in.

One of the officials who spoke to me said that because data types are not standardized, the NSA needs several different collection tools, of which PRISM, disclosed today by the Guardian and the Washington Post, is one. PRISM works well because it is able to handle several different types of data streams using different basic encryption methods, the person said. It is a "front end" system, or software, that allows an NSA analyst to search through the data and pull out items of significance, which are then stored in any number of databases. PRISM works with another NSA program to encrypt and remove from the analysts' screen data that a computer or the analyst deems to be from a U.S. person who is not the subject of the investigation, the person said. A FISA order is required to continue monitoring and analyzing these datasets, although the monitoring can start before an application package is submitted to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

From the different types of data, including their credit card purchases, the locations they sign in to the internet from, and even local police arrest logs, the NSA can track people it considers terrorism or espionage suspects in near-real time. An internet geo-location cell is on constant standby to help analysts determine where a subject logs in from. Most of the collection takes place on subjects outside the U.S, but a large chunk of the world's relevant communication passes through American companies with servers on American soil. So the NSA taps in locally to get at targets globally.

It is not clear how the NSA interfaces with the companies. It cannot use standard law enforcement transmission channels to do, since most use data protocols that are not compatible with that hardware. Several of the companies mentioned in the Post report deny granting access to the NSA, although it is possible that they are lying, or that the NSA's arrangements with the company are kept so tightly compartmentalized that very few people know about it. Those who do probably have security clearances and are bound by law not to reveal the arrangement.

This arrangement allows the U.S. companies to "stay out of the intelligence business," one of the officials said. That is, the government bears the responsibility for determining what's relevant, and the company can plausibly deny that it subjected any particular customer to unlawful government surveillance. Previously, Congressional authors of the FAA said that such a "get out of jail free" card was insisted by corporations after a wave of lawsuits revealed the extent of their cooperation with the government.

It is possible, but not likely, that the NSA clandestinely burrows into servers on American soil, without the knowledge of the company in question, although that would be illegal.

The 2008 FISA Amendments Act allow the NSA to analyze, with court orders, domestic communications of all types for counter-terrorism, counter-espionage, counter-narcotics and counter-proliferation purposes. If the agency believes that both ends of the communication, or the circle of those communicating, are wholly within the U.S., the FBI takes over. If one end of the conversation is outside the U.S., the NSA keeps control of the monitoring. An administration official said that such monitoring is subject to "extensive procedures," but as the Washington Post reported, however, it is often very difficult to segregate U.S. citizens and residents from incidental contact.

One official likened the NSA's collection authority to a van full of sealed boxes that are delivered to the agency. A court order, similar to the one revealed by the Guardian, permits the transfer of custody of the "boxes." But the NSA needs something else, a specific purpose or investigation, in order to open a particular box. The chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, said the standard was "a reasonable, articulatable" suspicion, but did not go into details.

Legally, the government can ask companies for some of these records under a provision of the PATRIOT Act called the "business records provision." Initially, it did so without court cognizance. Now, the FISC signs off on every request.

Armed with what amounts to a rubber stamp court order, however, the NSA can collect and store trillions of bytes of electromagnetic detritus shaken off by American citizens. In the government's eyes, the data is simply moving from one place to another. It does not become, in the government's eyes, relevant or protected in any way unless and until it is subject to analysis. Analysis requires that second order.

And the government insists that the rules allowing the NSA or the FBI to analyze anything relating to U.S. persons or corporations are strict, bright-line, and are regularly scrutinized to ensure that innocents don't get caught up in the mix. The specifics, however, remain classified, as do the oversight mechanisms in place.

The wave of disclosures about the NSA programs have significantly unsettled the intelligence community.

The documents obtained by the two newspapers are marked ORCON, or originator controlled, which generally means that the agency keeps a record of every person who accesses them online and knows exactly who might have printed out or saved or accessed a copy. The NSA in particular has a good record of protecting its documents.

The scope of the least suggest to one former senior intelligence official who now works for a corporation that provides data to the NSA that several people with top-level security clearances had to be involved.

The motive, I suspect, is to punch through the brittle legal and moral foundation that modern domestic surveillance is based upon. Someone, at a very high level, or several people, may have simply found that the agency's zeal to collect information blinded it to the real-world consequences of such a large and unending program. The minimization procedures might also be well below the threshold that most Americans would expect.

Clapper said in his statement that the disclosures about the program "risk important protections for the security of Americans."

As always feel free to comment.

Is the NSA Making a Gun Registry?

2013-07-17T09:21:00.001-04:00

A bipartisan group of Senators who aren’t satisfied with the National Security Agency’s (NSA) answers on a whole host of questions, recently sent a letter to the agency trying to get some more definite answers. The Senators, led by Ron Wyden (D-OR), asked whether or not the NSA was collecting (or had collected) data that went beyond simple phone records. Data like gun purchases.

The Senators were troubled that the actions of the NSA could have allowed them to collect bulk data that the government should not be privy to.

“It can be used to collect information on credit card purchases, pharmacy records, library records, firearm sales records, financial information, and a range of other sensitive subjects. And the bulk collection authority could potentially be used to supersede bans on maintaining gun owner databases, or laws protecting the privacy of medical records, financial records, and records of book and movie purchases.”

The Senators are worried that the NSA’s understanding of their legal limits and boundaries may be quite different than that of the American people. The problem is that much of the guidelines that our more clandestine agencies are using have been developed in secret and do not have any oversight until someone uncovers malfeasance.

Operating in this manner, many agencies may indeed be breaking the law simply because they understand the law to give them certain freedoms that they do not actually have.

In other words, because of the Patriot Act and other similar legislation that our government is using to fight the war on terror, certain government agencies may actually be breaking the law and diminishing the Constitution simply because they interpret the law wrong deciding that it gives them more power than it really does.

We have already seen that the NSA has completely disregarded our rights under the 4thAmendment; if they thought it could keep a terrorist attack from happening why wouldn’t they violate our 1st or 2nd Amendment too? This could be exactly what is happening now. The letter drafted by the Senators is broader than this, but the information the NSA has been consuming may allow them to build a partial (but very large) national gun registry, allowing the government to know which law abiding citizens have firearms, and what type of firearms they have.

A spokesman for Senator Mike Lee, who signed on to the letter as well, said it best:

“In this country, the government can’t just monitor your constitutionally protected activities—like gun ownership—just because it wants to “The justification that, ‘if you’re not doing anything wrong, you don’t have to worry about it,’ turns us into a police state very quickly. That’s why Congress is right to seek broad oversight of the NSA’s data collection programs.”

Obama Signs Executive Order to Allow Shut Down of All US Communications!

2013-07-11T14:08:00.000-04:00

US President Barack Obama quietly signed his name to an Executive Order on Friday, allowing the White House to control all private communications in the country in the name of national security.

President Obama released his latest Executive Order on Friday, July 6, a 2,205-word statement offered as the “Assignment of National Security and Emergency Preparedness Communications Functions.” And although the president chose not to commemorate the signing with much fanfare, the powers he provides to himself and the federal government under the latest order are among the most far-reaching yet of any of his executive decisions.

“The Federal Government must have the ability to communicate at all times and under all circumstances to carry out its most critical and time sensitive missions,” the president begins the order. “Survivable, resilient, enduring and effective communications, both domestic and international, are essential to enable the executive branch to communicate within itself and with: the legislative and judicial branches; State, local, territorial and tribal governments; private sector entities; and the public, allies and other nations.”

President Obama adds that it is necessary for the government to be able to reach anyone in the country during situations it considers critical, writing, “Such communications must be possible under all circumstances to ensure national security, effectively manage emergencies and improve national resilience.”Later the president explains that such could be done by establishing a “joint industry-Government center that is capable of assisting in the initiation, coordination, restoration and reconstitution of NS/EP [national security and emergency preparedness] communications services or facilities under all conditions of emerging threats, crisis or emergency.”

“The views of all levels of government, the private and nonprofit sectors, and the public must inform the development of NS/EP communications policies, programs and capabilities,” he adds.

On the government’s official website for the National Communications Systems, the government explains that that “infrastructure includes wireline, wireless, satellite, cable, and broadcasting, and provides the transport networks that support the Internet and other key information systems,” suggesting that the president has indeed effectively just allowed himself to control the country’s Internet access.

In order to allow the White House to reach anyone within the US, the president has put forth a plan to establish a high-level committee calling from agents with the Department of Homeland Security, Pentagon, Federal Communications Commission and other government divisions to ensure that his new executive order can be implemented.

In explaining the order, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) writes that the president has authorized the DHS "the authority to seize private facilities when necessary, effectively shutting down or limiting civilian communications."

In Section 5 of his order, President Obama outlines the specific department and agency responsibilities that will see through his demands. In a few paragraphs, President Obama explains that Executive Committee that will oversee his order must be supplied with “the technical support necessary to develop and maintain plans adequate to provide for the security and protection of NS/EP communications,” and that that same body will be in tasked with dispatching that communiqué “to the Federal Government and State, local, territorial and trial governments,” by means of “commercial, Government and privately owned communications resources.”

Later, the president announces that the Department of Homeland Security will be tasked with drafting a plan during the next 60 days to explain how the DHS will command the government’s Emergency Telecommunications Service, as well as other telecom conduits. In order to be able to spread the White House’s message across the country, President Obama also asks for the purchasing of equipment and services that will enable such.

The fact that our nation needs so much "national security" is puzzling, given the fact that President Obama has declared himself leader of the front that has ended terrorism in the U.S. It seems like now, more than ever, our nation is in peril according to the State Department; but many U.S. citizens are asking themselves, "From what?", or better yet, "From who?"

According to Obama, the items of confiscation, or shut down can include: wireline, wireless, satellite, cable, broadcasting, internet, and other key information systems. Never in United States' history has a president given himself the authority to shut down the entire nation and immobilize the citizenry.

The public has been alerted recently that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been buying an excessive amount of weaponry and ammunition; inclusive of hallow point bullets. DHS has also been given authority to "supervise" some protests throughout the nation. Tea Party groups have had several organized and peaceful protests circled by Department of Homeland Security officers, leading many to believe that DHS has been given the authority to intimidate as well.

If you combine bullets with nationwide immobilizing of all communications, the power given unto the government, is a power our founding fathers never foresaw, nor wished.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recently announced that they had already used drones on Americans for surveillance.

This is just one step closer to American's journey towards a police state. As always please feel free to leave your comments.

Religion..... Catholic's, Baptist's, Rabbi's

2013-07-01T08:25:00.001-04:00

A Catholic Priest, a Baptist Preacher and a Rabbi all served as Chaplains to the students of Northern Michigan University at Marquette in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. They would get together two or three times a week for coffee and to talk shop. One day, someone made the comment that preaching to people isn't really all that hard, a real challenge would be to preach to a bear. One thing led to another, and they decided to do an experiment. They would all go out into the woods, find a bear, preach to it, and attempt to convert it to their religion.

Seven days later, they all came together to discuss their experiences.

Father Flannery, who had his arm in a sling, was on crutches, and had various bandages on his body and limbs, went first.

'Well,' he said, 'I went into the woods to find me a bear. And when I found him, I began to read to him from the Catechism.

Well, that bear wanted nothing to do with me and began to slap me around. So I quickly grabbed my holy water, sprinkled him and, Holy Mary Mother of God, he became as gentle as a lamb. The Bishop is coming out next week to give him first communion and confirmation.

'Reverend Billy Bob spoke next. He was in a wheelchair, had one arm and both legs in casts, and had an IV drip. In his best fire-and-brimstone oratory, he exclaimed, 'WELL, brothers, you KNOW that we Baptists don't sprinkle! I went out and I FOUND me a bear. And then I began to read to my bear from God's HOLY WORD! But that bear wanted nothing to do with me. So I took HOLD of him and we began to wrestle. We wrestled down one hill, UP another and DOWN another until we came to a creek.

So I quickly DUNKED him and BAPTIZED his hairy soul. And just like you said, he became as gentle as a lamb. We spent the rest of the day praising Jesus. Hallelujah!

The Priest and the Reverend both looked down at the Rabbi, who was lying in a hospital bed. He was in a body cast and traction with IVs and monitors running in and out of him. He was in really bad shape. The Rabbi looked up and said: "Looking back on it, ...circumcision may not have been the best way to start.....

Sorry Couldn't help myself.

DHS Guards IRS Offices as Americans Call For Impeachment, IRS Officials Pleading 5th

2013-06-14T09:52:00.000-04:00

Over at the National Journal, pundit Charlie Cook has written that Republicans should just stop harping on scandals about Benghazi, IRS, and Associated Press (and Fox and CBS) — because the public doesn’t care. Is that true? Do you really not care that scandals are currently oozing out of the administration like body fluids out of a salted slug?

We here at Mr. Conservative believe that you care deeply. You care about the Benghazi scandal because four brave men died in the service of their country. You care because their deaths came about through a combination of denial (“Al Qaeda?! No, there’s no Al Qaeda here”) and negligence (“I’m Hillary Clinton and this Stevens guy is boring me with his requests for extra security.”). You care because, on the night they died, Obama issued stand-down orders and vanished from the scene, presumably to catch a good night’s rest before campaigning in Vegas. And you care because, after the attack, the administration lied to you repeatedly, not for national security reasons, but to cover its own failures.

You care about the fact that Obama’s Justice Department has been spying on reporters – including reporters who routinely carried water for his policies and peccadillos – because you believe in the First Amendment. The Founders understood that a government remains honest only if it knows it’s being watched. Obama’s administration understands that reality too, which is why it tried to stop anyone from watching iAnd lastly, you care about the burgeoning IRS scandal because you understand that this a scandal like no other: instead of the ordinary cover-ups or insider political attacks that have characterized political scandals since at least the American Civil War, this scandal reached outside of Washington, D.C. and aimed itself directly at you. It doesn’t matter whether the IRS acted under direction from above or if the employees, who are almost exclusively Democrats, decided on their own to engage in a little political jihad against conservatives. What matters is that Washington, D.C., from Democrat top to Democrat bottom, believes Washington that the federal government is untouchable, and can therefore use its power to stifle political speech and dissent.

You bet you care. This is serious stuff.

It’s also very confusing stuff, because an overwhelming cascade of stories has spilled out regarding IRS wrongdoing. This kind of data load can overwhelm people’s circuits and cause them to shut down – allowing National Journal pundits to sneer that ordinary Americans couldn’t care less that the current administration is a toxic combination of corruption and ineptitude. To make it a little easier for you, here’s a chronological run-down of what’s been going on, starting with the day that Lois Lerner broke the news:

May 10, 2013: Lois Lerner, the head of the IRS’s Tax Exempt division, speaks at an ABA conference. Out of the blue, in response to a seemingly innocent question from someone in the crowd, she admits that (and we’re paraphrasing here) “Oh, yes, by the way, we think that, maybe, you might want to know that the IRS has been targeting Tea Party and small government groups.” She then spins a series of lies — about the number of groups targeted, about the fact that the targeting was intentional, about the non-regional nature of the IRS’s attack on conservatives, and about the length of time the IRS and the administration knew what was going on.

May 15, 2013: A mere five days after Lerner first admitted to just a little, itty-bit of IRS wrongdoing, more and more stories bubble up about what had actually happened. Lerner’s lies were quickly exposed:

(1) The 75 targeted groups Lerner claimed were targeted was closer to 500;

(2) Beginning in 2011, no conservative groups got approved for tax-exempt status;

(3) The IRS was auditing individual conservatives (an act of malfeasance separate from harassing non-profit groups);

(4) The IRS was harassing pro-Life groups by demanding that they provide pro-abortion information;

(5) The IRS was leaking to hard-Left groups confidential financial information about conservative groups and individuals;

(6) The IRS was interfering with legitimate education activities; and

(7) The IRS was stealing millions of medical records, including the records for all California judges.

May 15-16, 2013: Steven Miller, the acting Commissioner of the IRS, announces that he is resigning. Whew! At last, someone is taking the fall. But it was not to be. It turns out that Miller was an interim head and was heading out the door anyway on June 1. His “resignation” simply saw him leave a little sooner.

May 17, 2013: Right on the heels of learning that the IRS was stealing medical records comes what seems like related news: the IRS official who directly oversaw the tax-exempt division is now in charge of all IRS ObamaCare enforcement. The IRS has already announced that it will spend billions of dollars and hire thousands of employees to make sure that you pay for free medical care one way or another. Perhaps the IRS was getting a little head-start on the project….

Also, is it even news that, on the same day, Barack Obama taps into his inner Sergeant Schultz (from Hogan’s Heroes) and announces that he knew nothing about anything?

On the same day, Rep. Mike Kelly, disgusted by Steven Miller’s pathetic attempts to defend what the IRS had done (along with his constant memory failures), launches into an epic, and completely enjoyable, tirade about the IRS’s tyrannical conduct. Even ABC, one of the administration’s water carriers, was moved to remark that Obama probably knew before the election that the IRS was stifling conservative dissent.

May 18, 2013: Christian Voices for Life of Fort Bend County, Texas, reveals that the IRS investigated it so aggressively that it demanded that it demanded them to detail and explain all of their prayers. The IRS did exactly the same to the Coalition of Life in Iowa.

Also on May 18, 2013, Jack Lew, whom Obama appointed as the Treasury Secretary for his second term, despite dodging and weaving, concedes that the scandal was becoming common knowledge in the Fall of 2012, and implies that this was known before the election.

Other newly revealed IRS wrongdoing comes out on May 18: The IRS was laundering money from veterans’ disability checks and it had targeted a prominent Romney donor with three audits, with a bonus audit coming from the Department of Labor. The audits revealed only that the government owed the Romney supporter money (which it still has not paid).

May 19, 2013: Senator Ted Cruz points out the obvious: the IRS is either irredeemably corrupt and incompetent, or structurally too flawed to function. No matter the problem, the best way to deal with the situation is to abolish the IRS and then to enact a simple tax code without loopholes and without the need for a potentially tyrannical government agency to peer into every aspect of people’s lives.

May 20, 2013: The call goes out that a Tea Party group is organizing protests on May 21, at IRS offices across the nation. The need for those protests becomes even more obvious when an IRS employee, tired of being scapegoated as one of the “rogue” low-level employees Lois Lerner had blamed, says that the orders for the IRS abuse from the top.

May 21, 2013: Tea Partiers gather at IRS offices around the nation, peacefully protesting IRS abuses. They do so despite stories about the IRS trying to intimidate reporters and employees by using armed guards as “escorts” when reporters tried to interview employees about the scandal.

Those people who attend the protests report that the Department of Homeland Security appears at many of these protests, including at protests in Missouri, Florida, Illinois, and Indiana. The federal government fails to explain why local police could not handle these protests or why a federal organization that’s institutionally hostile to conservatives is the enforcement agency of choice. Certainly, if past protest history is anything to go by, Tea Party protests have invariably been peaceful, and the Tea Partiers have cleaned up after themselves once the protest was over.

Photo: Gateway Pundit

Photo: BizPacReview

In Los Angeles, the DHS puts choppers in the air and blocks protesters from federal property. One California protester says that a woman claiming to be with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) tried to drive her away. ICE, incidentally, is charged with policing America’s borders. However, it has received orders from high-up in the administration to leave illegal immigrants alone. Apparently it didn’t get the same message about respecting American citizens exercising their constitutional right to free speech, assembly, and peaceful protest.

While the media ignores the protests, it can’t ignore the fact that Lois Lerner has announced that, when she appears before Congress, she will plead the Fifth. (Although the Los Angeles Times, which first breaks the story, does try damage control by burying it so deeply on its website that it practically takes a bloodhound to find it.) The implication is obvious: although she cannot be forced to incriminate herself, Lerner has effectively conceded that illegal conduct occurred on her watch.

Perhaps the most important information that comes out on May 21 is also the least noticed. It’s a quiet little tweet from Joseph Curl, a Drudge editor:

CIA source says Fox News scandal the “4th Shoe”; says it goes much deeper; says WH also sitting on “something” that has top aides terrified.

The mind boggles.

May 22, 2013: Which brings us to today’s events.

Lois Lerner made a statement on her own behalf that she was innocent – and then she pleaded the Fifth. Questions are already being raised about whether, having made a substantive statement, Lerner can then shut down questioning. Many legal scholars believe that her statement opened the door to cross-examination.

Is the National Journal correct? Do you think ordinary Americans can never be made to care about the toxic sludge oozing out of this scandal-ridden administration?

Guys Demerit System

2013-06-05T12:41:00.000-04:00

All men (married or not) will attest to some real wisdom in this email...

...In the world of romance, one single rule applies:

MAKE THE WOMAN HAPPY!
Do something she likes, and you get points.
Do something she dislikes, and points are subtracted.
You don't get any points for doing something she expects.
Sorry, that's the way the game is played.
Here is a non-exhaustive guide to the point system:

SIMPLE DUTIES
You make the bed. (+1)
You make the bed, but forget the decorative pillows. (-10)
You throw the bedspread over rumpled sheets. (-3)
You go out to buy her what she wants (+5) in the rain (+8)
But return with Jack Daniels. (-5)

PROTECTIVE DUTIES
You check out a suspicious noise at night. (+1)
You check out a suspicious noise, and it is nothing. (0)
You check out a suspicious noise, and it is something. (+5)
You pummel it with an iron rod. (+10)
It's her pet Schnauzer. (-20)

SOCIAL ENGAGEMENTS
You stay by her side for the entire party. (+1)
You stay by her side for a while, then leave to chat with an old school friend. (-2)
Named Tina (-10)
Tina is a dancer. (-10)
Tina has breast implants. (-40)

HER BIRTHDAY
You take her out to dinner. (+2)
You take her out to dinner, and it's not a sports bar. (+3)
Okay, it's a sports bar. (-2)
And its all-you-can-eat night. (-3)
It's a sports bar, it's all-you-can-eat night, and your face is painted the colors of your favorite team. (-10)

A NIGHT OUT
You take her to a movie. (+1)
You take her to a movie she likes. (+5)
You take her to a movie you hate. (+6)
You take her to a movie you like. (-2)
It's called 'Death Cop.' (-3)
You lied and said it was a foreign film about orphans. (-15)

YOUR PHYSIQUE
You develop a noticeable potbelly. (-15)
You develop a noticeable potbelly and exercise to get rid of it. (+10)
You develop a noticeable potbelly and resort to baggy jeans and baggy Hawaiian shirts. (-30)
You say, "It doesn't matter, you have one too." (-80)

THE BIG QUESTION
She asks, "Do I look fat?" (-5)
You hesitate in responding. (-10)
You reply, "Where?" (-35)
You give any other response. (-20)

(Yes, you lose points no matter what)

COMMUNICATION
When she wants to talk about a problem, you listen, displaying what looks like a concerned expression. (+2)
You listen, for over 30 minutes (+50)
You listen for more than 30 minutes without looking at the TV. (+500)
She realizes this is because you have fallen asleep. (-4000)

Yes guys its really a Catch 22 and there is no way to win ever with a woman.

Ten Reasons Why Being In A Relationship Sucks

2013-04-26T09:56:00.001-04:00

Ten Reasons Why Being In A Relationship Sucks

You have to be super sensitive to someone else’s needs all the time. “Babe, are you ok? Babe, I feel really distant from you right now. What’s going on?!” You’re slightly paranoid all of the time. Their highs are your highs. Their lows are your lows. It can just get…super exhausting.
Someone has power over you. They have the ability to make you sublimely happy and they can also make you feel super depressed. You lose slight control over your moods. When you enter a relationship, it’s as if you sign a contract that says, “I give you 70% of my feelings. I acknowledge that you can play with them, make them feel good, and I also acknowledge that you can fucking destroy them.”
You worry you might lose yourself in the relationship. You could simply become a +1 and just start to have no other identity than “I’m someone’s boyfriend/girlfriend.” It will go on your tombstone: “Sarah Taylor (Tom Smith’s girlfriend. The one with the blonde hair)” and that will be that. Because you’re so afraid of that happening, you’ll have to designate certain evenings as “girls night” or “boys night” and you’ll constantly be worrying about your friends being mad at you and feeling deserted. You’ll feel sad that you even have to do this, that you can’t just see them without labeling it as “This is the time I see my friends.” Maybe you can, maybe you can’t. It all depends on the person and the relationship.
The fights that never seem to go anywhere or get resolved. One minute you’re laughing together and the next you’re threatening to break up. Once these fights become recurring, you know the relationship is living on borrowed time.
Realizing how crazy you can be. Becoming consumed with jealousy, hacking into emails, questioning your lover’s whereabouts. You take a step back and think to yourself, “Um, who is this person? Why is love making me act like a psycho nightmare?” Relationships can make you become someone you aren’t—someone who is slightly terrifying and needs to know everything all the time. “BABE, WHERE R U? HELLO? BABE!”
You have to like their friends even if they’re terrible. Their best friend might even hate you and you might just hate them, but you still have to put time in and hang out together. You realize you might be chained to this best friend forever. If you get married to your significant other, this person will be showing up to your fiftieth birthday party with a smirk on their face. And you’re just thinking to yourself, “I didn’t even want to know you for one day, let alone 2o years.”
The fear that the sex will become routine and mechanical. There was a time when you couldn’t keep your hands off of each other. Their body was brand new and you couldn’t wait to discover every nook. Now it’s become like a treasure map with frayed edges and smudged markings. You’ve seen all of it. You’ve done everything you can to it and now it just sits there looking old and familiar.
The cold harsh reality of cheating. Wondering if you could ever hurt the person you love the most if you had one too many cocktails one night. Four margaritas + one person you’re attracted to = one irrevocable mistake.
You’re worried that one day your lover will break your heart. They’ll spend years nurturing it and letting it grow. Then one day they’ll destroy everything in a moment. You won’t recognize the person who broke your heart. You’ll question whether or not you ever truly knew them. One day they have a face that you know and love, and the next they look and feel like a stranger. This is something that everyone experiences at some point but when it happens to you, it will be the most bizarre foreign experience of your life.
You’re worried that one day you’ll break their heart. You’ll just wake up one morning and decide you’re over it. Or maybe it will happen more gradually like a sickness that’s building in your stomach. Their jokes will stop being appealing and their body will look sallow. And you almost wish they could be the one to dump you. Because if someone falls out of love with you, there’s someone to blame. But if you’re the one who ruins them, you have no one to blame but yourself .

As always feel free to comment.

Americans 'snapping' by the millions.

2013-04-23T10:34:00.002-04:00

Americans 'snapping' by the millions.

Terrorism. Chaos. Fear of the future. In the age of Obama, America is undergoing a “fundamental transformation” – that much everyone knows.

But what few seem to realize about this transformation is that the sheer stress of living in today’s America is driving tens of millions to the point of illness, depression and self-destruction. Consider the following trends:

•Suicide has surpassed car crashes as the leading cause of injury death for Americans. Even more disturbing, in the world’s greatest military, more U.S. soldiers died last year by suicide than in combat;
•Fully one-third of the nation’s employees suffer chronic debilitating stress, and more than half of all “millennials” (18 to 33 year olds) experience a level of stress that keeps them awake at night, including large numbers diagnosed with depression or anxiety disorder.
•Shocking new research from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that one in five of all high-school-aged children in the United States has been diagnosed with ADHD, and likewise a large new study of New York City residents shows, sadly, that one in five preteens – children aged six to 12 – have been medically diagnosed with either ADHD, anxiety, depression or bipolar disorder;
•New research concludes that stress renders people susceptible to serious illness, and a growing number of studies now confirm that chronic stress plays a major role in the progression of cancer, the nation’s second-biggest killer. The biggest killer of all, heart disease, which causes one in four deaths in the U.S., is also known to have a huge stress component;
•Incredibly, 11 percent of all Americans aged 12 and older are currently taking SSRI antidepressants – those highly controversial, mood-altering psychiatric drugs with the FDA’s “suicidality” warning label and alarming correlation with school shooters. Women are especially prone to depression, with a stunning 23 percent of all American women in their 40s and 50s – almost one in four – now taking antidepressants, according to a major study by the CDC;
•Add to that the tens of millions of users of all other types of psychiatric drugs, including (just to pick one) the 6.4 million American children between 4 and 17 diagnosed with ADHD and prescribed Ritalin or similar psycho-stimulants. Throw in the 28 percent of American adults with a drinking problem, that’s more than 60 million, plus the 22 million using illegal drugs like marijuana, cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens and inhalants, and pretty soon a picture emerges of a nation of drug-takers, with hundreds of millions dependent on one toxic substance or another – legal or illegal – to “help” them deal with the stresses and problems of life.

By the way, things are no better over the pond – and may be worse, according to one major study that concluded almost 40 percent of Europeans are plagued by mental illness.

Note: This report is is excerpted from the April 2013 issue of WND’s acclaimed Whistleblower magazine, “STRESSED AND DEPRESSED: The unreported health crisis of the Obama era.”

What on earth is going on? Why isn’t medical science – and for that matter all of our incredible scientific and technological innovations in every area of life – reducing our stress and lightening our load? Why doesn’t the almost-magical availability of the world’s accumulated knowledge, thanks to the Internet, make us more enlightened and happy? Why is it that, instead, more and more of us are so stressed out as to be on a collision course with illness, misery, tragedy and death?

Most important, what can we do to reverse course? Fortunately, amazingly effective help is available – but more on that later.

‘He wants people to snap’

“Life is difficult,” wrote psychiatrist M. Scott Peck at the outset of his international best-seller, “The Road Less Traveled.” Stress, difficulties, disappointments, accidents, disease, misfortune, cruelty, betrayal – they’re unavoidable in this life.

Yet, during eras when society and families are stable, unified and fundamentally decent and moral – as, say, America during the 1950s – the stress level for each person is minimized, or at least not compounded by a perverse society. Conversely, when – as is the case today – we have widespread family breakdown, a depraved culture that mocks traditional moral values, a chaotic economy and disintegrating monetary system and a power-mad government dominated by demagogues and sociopaths, the normal stresses of life are greatly multiplied.

Thus it has come to pass that America, long the hope of the world, has grown increasingly dispirited and angry, which in turn breeds anxiety, fear, confusion, hopelessness and depression.

After all, let’s face the hard facts: We just re-elected perhaps the worst president in history, someone manifestly obsessed with dismantling traditional, free-market capitalist America and transforming it into a socialist nanny state. That in itself is highly stressful – at least for the roughly half the population that still understands socialism always leads to a profound loss of freedom and prosperity.

Then there’s today’s relentless economic pressures: high unemployment (the actual rate is at least double that of the “official” government rate), foreclosures and bankruptcies, a stagnant growth rate, 11,000 new people signing up for food stamps every single day, rising taxes for the entire middle class whose net worth is simultaneously shrinking, ever-higher prices for food, gas and other essentials – and overshadowing it all, a galactic national debt burden, courtesy of a wildly out-of-control government unrestrained by either the Constitution or common sense.

That, too, is very stressful. Top it all off with an administration continually abusing the public for the sake of enlarging and consolidating its political power – for instance, by purposely making the “sequester” cuts hurt Americans, even our active-duty soldiers, as much as possible.

Make no mistake: This sort of stress on Americans is not only intentional on the part of Team Obama – it is strategic. Remember, these people are revolutionaries (that is, engaged in “bringing about a major or fundamental change,” as Merriam-Webster puts it) and utterly committed to replacing one societal structure – America’s constitutional, limited-government, free-enterprise system – with another – a socialist, wealth-redistributionist system run by an all-powerful government.

Such a radical change cannot be accomplished while Americans are calm, happy, content and grateful for their blessings. Citizens must be unhappy and stressed out. Indeed, widespread popular discontent has always been the required fuel for leftist transformation.

Just reading a few pages into Saul Alinsky’s notorious “Rules for Radicals,” one encounters repeated confirmation that the very key to radical “change” is keeping the populace angry, encouraging their grievances, stoking their resentments and making sure they are continually upset. That is the primary psychological dynamic of “community organizing” – and America today is led by community-organizer-in-chief Barack Obama, a long-time master practitioner and instructor in Alinsky’s neo-Marxist agitation methods.

Top radio talker Rush Limbaugh recently picked up on this normally unspoken aspect of Obama’s modus operandi: “I think he wants people to snap,” opined Rush. “I think Obama is challenging everybody’s sanity. Obama [is] literally pushing people to snap, attacking the very sanity of the country.”

Commenting on Obama’s sudden obsession with employing every means possible to deny law-abiding Americans their constitutionally guaranteed right to keep and bear arms, Limbaugh exclaimed: “All of this is so in our face. Everything that people hold dear is under assault. Deliberately making people upset! This is not what presidents do.”

It’s not what presidents do – unless they happen to be leftist revolutionaries, in which case “deliberately making people upset” is precisely what they do to accomplish their intended “fundamental transformation.”

We need to realize that Americans could not have twice elected a leader as transcendentally unworthy of the presidency as Barack Obama without first having had their minds and hearts captured. Through constant leftist indoctrination, emotional manipulation, ruthless intimidation – and then being rewarded once they have “converted” – perhaps half of the American electorate has been programmed over the course of decades by a subversive school system and equally perverse “news” establishment. Truth be told, both institutions have become full-blown abominations, occupying as they do near-sacred stations of public trust in American civilization.

Of course, at the nuclear core of the myriad assaults on traditional America is the rejection (at least by society’s elites) of God and repudiation of the Judeo-Christian values that underpin Western civilization. This in turn has led to pervasive societal disintegration and a Pandora’s Box of almost unimaginable problems.

Unfortunately, despite our nation’s growing number of seriously troubled people, psychiatry provides little help. It has evolved in our secular, mechanistic culture to see virtually all mental, emotional and spiritual problems as genetic or physiological in origin. No longer is there any such thing as sin. Nothing is moral or spiritual. Good character, introspection, understanding, repentance and forgiveness, so vital to genuine healing, are now irrelevant. Just write a prescription.

Since the current research fad is to conclude (as the National Institute of Mental Health puts it) that “depressive illnesses are disorders of the brain,” psychiatry has come to rely heavily on altering our brain chemistry by (in the case of depression) tricking it into producing higher levels of neurotransmitters like serotonin and norepinephrine. But this forces us to ask an obvious question: What are you talking about? Do you really believe that the 23 percent of American women ages 40 through 59 currently on antidepressants ALL have defective or diseased brains?

Or, is it just possible that, rather than tens of millions of inexplicably damaged brains, much of today’s epidemic of “depression” and other “disorders” has a lot more to do with the prevalence of stress, pressure, confusion, cruelty, anger, injustice, temptation and corruption all around us – and our inability to deal with it without being infected and hurt by it?

Finding the way out

There are, of course, proven commonsense steps each individual can take to minimize the effects of stress. Chuck Norris’ personal list of “12 ways to avoid depression” is as good as any available online, and encompasses everything from diet and exercise to meditation and gratitude to God.

But boiling the matter down to core essentials, there are really three time-tested elements required for staying healthy physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. They are:

1) A genuinely healthful diet: Newsflash – eating the wrong foods (or eating too much) causes huge problems. Obesity is not only stressful, but has myriad adverse health effects, including depression. Likewise, eating foods that are heavily processed, high-sugar, adulterated, chemicalized, processed, artificially flavored, colored, sweetened and preserved stresses both body and mind. As WND columnist and orthopedic surgeon Lee Hieb, M.D., puts it, “If my great-grandmother would not have recognized something as food … I don’t eat it.”

Mountains of research and dietary wisdom can be boiled down to this: Eat a variety of fresh, natural foods, especially vegetables and fruits and particularly lots of enzyme-rich raw foods. Fish and chicken are fine, so is red meat in moderation, same with dairy (eggs, milk and butter – not margarine), but buy natural/organic whenever possible.

2) Regular exercise: A good exercise regimen not only helps keep our heart (and the rest of us) healthy, it confers untold benefits, tangible and intangible – plus it is, all by itself, a major de-stressor! Again, WND columnist Chuck Norris, who as a six-time undefeated world karate champion (and reputedly the world’s toughest man) knows a little about exercise, says this: “Exercise is a cure for so many ills; depression is one of many. Exercise is so powerful on our mind that Men’s Health calls it the drug-free depression cure.” Enough said. Just do it.

3) Personal quiet time for prayer and reflection, allowing us the opportunity to seek the Creator’s will while letting go of accumulated anger, frustration and resentment toward others. (In other words, renewing our love for God and our neighbor.) Anger in all its forms has long been shown to be at the very root of many serious problems and illnesses, both physical and mental.

Pause button. One all-important point needs to be made here: It is not the stress itself that harms us, but rather, the way we overreact emotionally to it. And primarily, that reaction is one of resentment, either overt or subtle.

Grasping this often-overlooked fact leads directly to the bottom-line principle for successfully coping with stress, whether it’s related to money, work, health, relationships or trauma: Learn to calmly endure the stress (or as the Bible expresses it, “trials and tribulations”) with genuine patience and faith instead of anger and frustration, and an amazing thing happens: The stress, rather than making us sick and debilitated, actually serves to make us stronger, more at peace and more whole.

Help with this all-important facet of stress management comes, ironically, from the occupation Forbes calls the “most stressful job” in America – namely, the U.S. military.

Despite the tremendous ravages of war stress – 22 suicides per day among U.S. military veterans (on average) and an epidemic of post-traumatic stress disorder and other war-trauma conditions streaming out of Iraq and Afghanistan – a quiet revolution in overcoming stress is nevertheless unfolding within the military.

Like the constantly inculcated attribute of “resilience,” the military has also found the practice of “mindfulness” to be extremely helpful in overcoming stress. And the gold standard in this growing field is “Be Still and Know,” a simple and time-tested awareness exercise that been used in all five armed service branches for many years.

Currently relied on by tens of thousands of soldiers and veterans, “Be Still and Know” is the key ingredient included in a compact disc titled “Coping Strategies.” In essence, the 30-minute exercise helps users discover genuine patience, mental clarity and (a word the Founding Fathers used a lot) equanimity. It has been highly endorsed by both the U.S. Army’s chief of chaplains, Maj. Gen. Douglas L. Carter, who calls it a “great resource for our Soldiers,” and Col. John Bradley, M.D., long the chief of psychiatry at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

“Coping Strategies’” distributing organization, the nonprofit Patriot Outreach founded by U.S. Army Col. Antonio P. Monaco, offers the CD (or Internet download) free to all U.S. military personnel, veterans and family members upon request. It is also readily available to civilians, at a nominal charge to support the free grants to the military. Patriot Outreach’s program has been publicly praised by Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad as well as former GOP presidential candidate Sen. Rick Santorum.

Having written about “Coping Strategies” and the “Be Still and Know” exercise a couple of years ago, I recently checked in with a member of the Patriot Outreach team, Navy Vietnam veteran Lee Booton, for an update.

Booton, after experiencing a lot of combat, came home from Vietnam with a nice big fat case of post-traumatic stress disorder. (“In the middle of the night I was pounding on my wife, thinking I was still fighting the North Vietnamese,” he told me. “I felt horrible.”) Yet years later, when he was introduced to “Be Still and Know,” Booton knew it provided the answer he and other stressed-out soldiers were desperately seeking. Over the past five years, volunteering with Patriot Outreach, Booton has “met face to face with returning troops” and personally “handed out between 5,000 and 6,000″ of the “Coping Strategies” CDs to vets and encouraged others to download the exercises for free. (There are actually four exercises included in “Coping Strategies” – the main one, “Be Still and Know,” plus three others that focus specifically on “Overcoming Pain,” “Overcoming Fear” and “Overcoming Stress.”)

Does he ever hear back from the soldiers he helps? “Yes!” says Booton enthusiastically. “Sometimes they give me a big hug and say, ‘Boy, does that work,’ or ‘You helped save my life – this made it so much easier for me to deal day-to-day with all of my issues.’”

‘Cure stress’

“Be Still and Know” was developed by Roy Masters, who at 85 is the patriarch of stress experts, having taught this method since 1960 to millions, his fans including everyone from movie star John Wayne to Internet journalist Matt Drudge. He also hosts talk radio’s longest-running counseling show, “Advice Line,” on Talk Radio Network. The author of 18 books, Masters was featured on the Sean Hannity Show to discuss his newest book, “Hypnotic States of Americans.

Recently, all four of the audio exercises on the “Coping Strategies” CD have been released in a new civilian version on a dedicated MP3 player called, “The Cure Stress Device.”

“In today’s high-tech, wireless world,” said Masters, “a little, self-contained audio device the size of a credit card seemed like the best delivery system possib

In a recent message he tweeted, Masters summed up more than 60 years of work in just 140 characters: “Learn to endure cruelty and injustice without resentment and after the stress has passed you will find the fulfillment you have been seeking.”

“Most stress,” explains Masters, “is simply cruelty, in one form or another, directed at us by other stressed-out human beings, who themselves have been victimized by cruelty and stress in their own pasts.

“Imagine, however, that someone said or did something cruel to you, but that you did not react in any way whatsoever – you did not become upset, resentful or even ruffled. You simply observed that this person was saying or doing something cruel, as though you were calmly observing the scene in a movie. You simply would not be stressed by what would appear to others to be a highly stressful encounter. Stress and cruelty affect us as profoundly as they do only because we react to them resentfully.”

The exercise works so well, he adds, because “it enables you to become objective, a little bit separate, detached and disentangled from all your troublesome thoughts, emotions, heartaches, fears and traumatic memories – and that, all by itself, is extremely helpful, and actually healing.”

‘You just be cool and calm’

“Stress” – our modern name for all the trials and tribulations the Good Lord in His wisdom deems necessary for us to grow in character and faith – is not the enemy. It is, however, the difficult but necessary part of life that tests us, proves us, and ultimately makes us better – or kills us.

Fortunately, in the loving sacrifice of his Son, not only did God make provision for the forgiveness of mankind’s sins, but He also gave us another priceless gift – the perfect example of how to deal with stress. Even while hanging on the cross in agony, Jesus did not resent his tormentors and even asked God to forgive them. That’s the essence of what we need to find.

In one sense, our task is simple: Since our past sins have been forgiven, and since the future is in God’s care alone, we just need to focus on discovering how to live right now, in this present moment, with faith, patient endurance and perfect integrity.

Now more than ever, it is essential that Americans get a handle on stress. The pressures of modern life are being greatly multiplied by the ever-present threat of terrorism and a socialist government that thrives on promoting everything dark, perverse and angry (and therefore stress-producing) in human nature. Remember, Winston Churchill called socialism “the gospel of envy.”

After Rush Limbaugh warned his listeners that Obama wants good Americans “to snap,” he added, good-naturedly: “You just be cool and calm. Everything’s going to be fine. I’ll tell you when it’s not.”

Indeed, to prevent Obama and company from completing their “fundamental transformation” of America, we are going to have to learn to stay cool, calm and collected – and not just on the surface, but deep down in our souls.

Know this: If you are upset at Obama and the maniacal left – if you’re angry, full of rage, feeling hopeless, frustrated, wanting to drop out, or wanting to lash out and act violently – believe me, that’s precisely what your adversary wants. Not only that, that’s how he wins, because when you’re upset and angry and overreacting – pardon me for putting it this way – you become stupid. That’s what’s wrong with the Republican Party. Its principles are magnificent (read the 2012 platform), but most of its leaders are intimidated by the ruthless Obama administration and the blatantly biased and abusive “mainstream media.” Thus, in their reactive, intimidated state of mind, they become ineffective, cowardly and contemptible (with a few notable exceptions, for which we are very grateful).

This is true not just of politicians, but all of us: No matter how smart, moral and right-thinking we might otherwise be, when we’re angry and upset we do not possess God’s grace, wisdom, courage and creative genius guiding our steps, and thus we are no match for the evil rising in America.

But if Americans would discover grace under pressure – hey, Ronald Reagan had it, why can’t we? – if enough of us found strength and resolve that were rooted, not in rage, but in righteousness and love of God and our neighbor, then nothing, and I do mean nothing, could stop us. Having regained our lost innocence, we would likewise see our beloved country restored to the noble land it once was.

Tweet Uncovered That Suggests Sandy Hook Tribute Video Uploaded Before Newtown, CT Shooting

2013-02-14T14:24:00.001-05:00

More evidence surfaced throughout the week surrounding the Sandy Hook school shootings, painting a picture startlingly “alternative” to the one officially suggested.

Another week has gone by since the Newtown, Connecticut shooting tragedy. Following suit is a weekly emergence of more stunning information that unfortunately points to a much different scenario surrounding the events than what the public has been led to believe.

On top of the already obvious omissions made by the establishment's media, like the fact that there were no assault rifles used to kill any students or staff at the school, at least one other assailant was arrested attempting to flee from the scene and the impossible coincidence Sandy Hook would bereferenced on a map as a target area in the “Dark Knight Rises” Batman movie, unavoidably associated with the Aurora theater shootings, new evidence has come to light that could be the smoking gun highlighting a much more serious situation than what the general public has been given the opportunity to understand.

As if those facts alone weren't enough to raise extremely serious questions as to why the establishment's media is refusing to acknowledge and investigate such obvious circumstances, blowing away any remaining hope these facts and omissions happen to be mere coincidence is the revelation that multiple different online events occurred, referencing the shootings specifically, days and even weeks prior to the actual shootings.

As it turns out, screen-shots of a tribute video and related tweet, including a blog posting and the Google time-stamp for the date in which the official Sandy Hook relief funds website was created, all show dates either around a month or a couple days prior to the event, respectively.

The Vimeo tribute-video and subsequent tweet, uploaded by an account named @bacmaster by “Joseph Ametrano,” is showing to have been time-stamped by servers on Nov. 10, prior to ironically being recently made private or removed by the account holder. Screen-shots also show a blog posting on the YouCaring.com charity website for Dec. 10, also showing as having since been removed, along with an official Google time-stamp showing the United Way victim's fundraising website page, created and titled specifically for the Sandy Hook shootings, was posted Dec. 11, three days before the event actually happened.

Although it is still largely unknown as to who is actually responsible for the entire situation, based on eyewitness testimony, police dispatch audio and video footage, it's obvious it was not merely pulled off by only one 20-year-old, named Adam Lanza, that snapped after taking antidepressants for too long. In addition to the fact that the car at the scene is registered to a known criminal and drug dealer, named Christopher Rodia, an incredible amount of facts about the story have been conveniently ignored by a mainstream media that is subsequently altering public perception into generally believing it was a lone-gunman using an assault rifle, neither of which is true.

After also finding what seems to be trained “crisis actors” that include alleged victim's parents clearly talking comfortably and laughing before a noticeable attempt to get into character for news cameras, eyewitnesses claiming to have seen other suspects being arrested while frantically attempting to escape the immediate area, another identical drill being run by the government at the same time right down the road and many other unreasonable evidence exclusions by the establishment and/or its puppet media, all screams of a blatant attempt to ignore facts that would change the entire attitude surrounding the aftermath, who may have been responsible and the entire gun “debate” in general.

One thing is quite clear, however. Something is very wrong and it's not the fact that the average American has access to semi-auto firearms, that's for sure.

The user dutchsinse, a credible truthseeker on Youtube, uploaded a video claiming to show a Sandy Hook Tribute video uploaded to VIMEO back in November of 2012, weeks before the shooting. He had since realized that VIMEO timestamps are not concrete, but issued a retraction (at bottom of article) and another video upload saying a tweet had been posted confirming the upload to VIMEO on November 10, 2012.

There have been many inconsistencies, which we were among the first to document. More updates to come.

The Twitter user @bacmaster‘s tweets are now locked. If this is true, Sandy Hook needs to be re-examined immediately and the mainstream media must hold “authorities” accountable.

If these allegations are true, this is the smoking gun for people to realize that a big lie is hiding under the surface of Sandy Hook, just like the Batman shooting. With all the gun control cries, out there, forget Demand A Plan… Demand the truth.

Facebook links to the early fundraiser are below.

Regardless of timestamps at “vimeo”, you can’t fake TWEET timestamps ! And you can’t fake the FUNDRAISERS setup days beforehand!

Sandy Hook School Shooting on December 14, 2012

Twitter posts from November 10, 2012 and video here:

GET IT BEFORE ITS GONE!!!! google cache of the twitter for sandy hook being tweeted on Nov 10, 2012 !

MANY thanks to xBLACKxOPSxSECRETSx

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Ftwitter….

———–

Only the title of the video EMBED changes..

the title of the tweet and the text of the tweet DO NOT CHANGE.

see my twitter page now for the example: here is a screenshot

http://www.twitter.com/dutchsinse

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=488946324491130&set=a.363126717073…

Again, the text and title of the original tweet DO NOT and CAN NOT be changed on twitter.

———–

Tatoot1009 has documented the entire thing here as well:

http://tatoott1009.com/2013/01/08/what-the-hell-is-going-on-here-sandy-hook-e…

———-

facebook post with twitter screencapture here:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=488877064498056&set=a.363126717073…

———-

facebook post showing fundraiser setup to receive funds days beforehand: On December 10, 2012

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=488136441238785&set=a.363126717073…

More info available at

UPDATE: This video (was on my main page) ..vimeo videos CAN be ‘reloaded’ , thus the time stamps on vimeo are not a good focus point! The twitter feed should be our main proof , if there is any to be had.

Took this video down (on the main channel) due to being possibly wrong on the vimeo angle.

However, the video AND the tweet have now been deleted by the uploader — thus we have no clickable proof anymore..

Thank God 10,000+ people saw the Twitter links today, and many took screenshots.

I’m reuploading here (on my backup channel) for reference, so you can see events as they unfolded.

At this point, I’m disregarding the time stamps on Vimeo, since people CAN backdate videos there…. throw out the vimeo time , its irrelevant at this point.

The Twitter feed, which also showed the title of Sandy Hook, that is another story , as well as the fundraiser sites we found yesterday (1/7/2013).. The twitter feeds and google time stamps on the fundraisers, those cannot be faked, changed, or altered by the end user.

more information below this video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgKOCb1e0XA

As of the time of this writing, if you search on Google for the URL of the United Way Sandy Hook fundraising page (see instructions, below), you will get a Google search result saying the page was created on December 11, 2012.

What's so odd about that? The Sandy Hook shooting took place three days later, on December 14, 2012.

If your head is suddenly ringing with shouts of "conspiracy theory!" you're not alone. This kind of news immediately sets off red flags with most people, including myself. "Is this for REAL?" I found myself asking when I first saw this.

So I grabbed a screen shot from Google search results, and you can see that below. Yep, it shows December 11, 2012, clear as day. In fact, it has consistently shown this for the past four days.

Click here to see these search results yourself. (If you get results showing any date other than December 11, then Google has changed them.)

The parameter on the end of the search URL, by the way, is "as_qdr=y15" which tells Google to display the date the page was created.

Here's the screen shot of the results I have been consistently getting over the past several days:

As you can see, it clearly shows "December 11, 2012" as the date the page was created. The page reads:

United Way extends our most sincere condolences and prayers to all those families affected by the devastating events in Newtown / Sandy Hook...

For a full screen shot of the United Way page, click the following link:
www.naturalnews.com/images/Screenshot-Newtown.Uwwesternct.org.jpg

It's clear that this page was created to raise funds for Sandy Hook victims. Yet the Sandy Hook massacre did not occur until three days AFTER this page was created, according to Google.

I did some checking around and found that one Google engineer says the date is a "glitch." That seems odd, since Google's date property seems to be accurate for everything else I can find.

For example, I wrote a story about the mysterious death of John Noveske yesterday. If you run a Google search for it, using the date parameter, it correctly lists the exact HOUR of my publication of that page.

Click here to see the search results yourself.

So I'm not sure why Google search results would be correct about seemingly all the others pages it indexes, but somehow wrong by three days on the United Way Sandy Hook fundraising page.

The "glitch" explanation seems suspect to me. It sounds like a quick answer to try to downplay something that could be the biggest story of the year. Because if the United Way knew about the Sandy Hook massacre three days before it actually happened, then the entire thing had to have been scripted.

WTC 7 building was announced "destroyed" while it was still standing!

Historically speaking, this is all very relevant because we've seen this before with 9/11.

As the following video shows, in 2001 a BBC news reporter stood on camera and announced that the World Trade Center 7 building had collapsed even while it was still standing directly behind her!

That video, which was censored by Google Video (surprised?), can be viewed here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltP2t9nq9fI

Why did the BBC make this mistake? Because just like CNN, which has a long and hilarious history of releasing totally fake news broadcasts (like THIS one from the Gulf War), the BBC was leaked the information about the WTC 7 building collapse before it happened. The news was embargoed to a specific hour, but the BBC calculated the time zone incorrectly and accidentally ran the news an hour early.

(By the way, that fake CNN Gulf War video linked above was so incredibly, laughably stupid that one of the guests being interviewed hears a biological attack siren and grabs a HELMET! Keep all this fakery in mind when you consider the credibility of people like Piers Morgan...)

This broadcast time-shift mistake sounds exactly like what happened with the United Way Sandy Hook fundraising page. Three days too early. Somebody didn't follow the embargo, it seems, and they hoped no one would notice. They didn't realize Google was spidering everything before the massacre took place.

For the record, the collapse of WTC 7 was, without question, caused by planned demolition explosives. After reviewing the actual facts of what happened, only a completely insane (or irrational) person could conclude anything other than that. No wonder more than 1,700 professional architects and engineers have gone on the record questioning the ridiculously laughable official explanation of 9/11. See their website here: http://www.ae911truth.org

9/11 was clearly staged for the purpose of passing the Patriot Act and justifying the so-called "War on Terror" that continues to this day. See where it took us? Now Obama uses the same excuse to pass the NDAA. That's what happens when all the Republicans hoo-rah their guy in the White House while not thinking ahead far enough to realize a Democrat would some day use the same false terror excuse to take away everybody's guns.

Increasingly, Sandy Hook looks like it might have been staged as well. What do you think?

10 Things To Do When You Win The Lottery

2012-11-27T09:20:00.000-05:00

10 Things To Do When You Win The Lottery

If you win the jackpot in the next Lottery drawing, you won’t ever have to worry about money again–right?

Wrong.

With good money management you–and your heirs–could live handsomely for many, many years. But from the moment that you claim that prize, you will be descended upon by vultures who want a hefty helping of those winnings. And if you didn’t have smart money habits up until now, you could easily turn out to be your own worst enemy by quickly squandering the fortune.

The first precautionary step you should take between now and the drawing is to sign the back of the ticket, says Carolyn Hapeman, a spokeswoman for The New York Lottery. A lottery ticket is a bearer instrument, she explains, meaning that whoever signs the ticket and presents a photo ID can claim the prize. So if you haven’t signed the ticket and it blows out of your hand while you are waiting for a bus, or if you show it to a buddy in a bar and accidentally leave it on the counter, you’ve lost the loot.

Here are some steps to help you steer clear of additional risks. Most of them work well for other windfalls too–for example with sudden wealth that comes from an inheritance or the sale of a business.

1. Remain anonymous if your state rules permit it. Once people know you’re suddenly wealthy, you’ll be badgered by requests for handouts from everyone from charities to long-lost friends and relatives–not to mention all the financial “experts” who will be vying for your business. So check state rules to see whether you can dodge them all by remaining anonymous.

Although Mega Millions is a national lottery, rules on winner publicity vary by state. In New York, for example, winners’ names are a public record. Elsewhere it may be possible to maintain your anonymity by setting up a trust or limited liability company to receive the winnings, says Beth C. Gamel, a CPA with Pillar Financial Advisors in Waltham, MA. A client of Gamel’s who won a past lottery did that, and had a lawyer claim the prize on behalf of of the trust.
Depending on where you bought the ticket, prize winners have between 180 days and one year from the date of the drawing to claim their prize. So find out what the state rules are and plot a course.

2. See a tax pro before you cash the ticket.You have the choice between taking the prize money all at once or having it paid out over 26 years in the form of an annuity. With a lump sum payment, you must immediately pay tax on the entire amount, says Michael A. Kirsh, a financial planner in New York. With an annuity, you are taxed only as you receive the payments. People who have trouble controlling their spending might prefer the discipline of receiving the money as an annuity. But this payout form has other drawbacks, Kirsh notes. You will want to compare the effective yield of the annuity with what you could earn by taking the money as a lump sum, paying the taxes and investing the proceeds.

Another issue to consider is whether taking an annuity will leave your family without the cash they need to pay estate tax if you die before the 30-year period is up, Kirsh says. In such situations people typically buy life insurance policies to cover the estate tax bill.

You have 60 days from the time you claim your lottery prize to weigh the pros and cons. During this time, ask advisers to crunch the numbers and help you decide which type of payment suits you best.

3. Avoid sudden lifestyle changes. For the first six months after you win the lottery, don’t do anything drastic, like quitting your job, buying a McMansion, or trading up for a luxury car. Meanwhile, set aside a fixed amount for splurges—it’s only natural to want to celebrate your windfall.

Save the big purchases for later. For example, you could rent a house in the neighborhood where you were thinking of moving, before you make any commitments, says Guerdon Ely, a financial planner in Chico, Calif. If you need a new car, buy a budget model for now.

4. Pay off all your debts. There is no better investment than paying off debts. Whether it is credit card debt or a mortgage, your rate of return equals the interest rate on the loan. With today’s abysmal yields on relatively secure investments like CD's and Treasury's that’s especially true. When you've paid down a dollar of debt, that’s a dollar you no longer owe. When you invest a dollar, you can’t be sure whether it will grow or shrink.

5. Assemble a team of legal and financial advisers. In situations like this it’s very hard to know “who’s trying to help you and who’s trying to use you,” says Ely. Rather than signing on to a group of advisers that someone else has put together, he recommends handpicking your own lawyer, accountant and investment adviser and requiring them to work together.

Carefully vet each adviser before discussing your situation. Check broker records at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. For attorneys and insurance agents, see whether there have been any complaints filed with state disciplinary authorities.

If you live in a small community and don’t want lawyers there to know your business, seek out a professional in the nearest large city. Names can be found on martindale.com, the nationwide lawyers’ directory that you can search by location and area of practice, and on the Web site of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, a group of trust and estate lawyers.

In effect, the team you put together will function as your board of directors, Ely says. You can start by having a fee-only adviser put together a long-term financial plan and running it by the group for comment. Once you've decided on a plan, they can provide checks and balances on each other. You can ask one of them to serve as quarterback, coordinating the group effort. That person can also play the “bad guy,” declining requests from people or organizations for gifts that you don’t want to make.

6. Invest prudently. Ely recommends putting the money in safe, short-term investments and not even touching it for the first six months. Then ask your advisers is to put together an investment portfolio divided half-and-half between equities (such as stocks) and fixed income (like bonds). Don’t fall for investments that you don’t understand or that sound too good to be true.

7. Live within a budget. Especially if you’re not accustomed to having a lot of money, it may take some discipline to preserve your winnings and not go on a wild spending spree. One way to restrain yourself is to only spend income–not principal. Especially in today’s investment world, “It takes a lot of principal to generate income and once you start spending principal, the principal quickly dissipates,” says Dennis I. Belcher, a lawyer with McGuireWoods in Richmond VA.

The best defense is to erect a variety of roadblocks that make it difficult, if not impossible, for creditors to reach your money and property. These asset protection strategies, as they are called, can range from relying on state-law exemptions to creating multiple barriers through the use of trusts and family limited partnerships or limited liability companies. It may be possible to rely on a variety of strategies, either separately or in combination with each other.

8. Take steps to protect assets. People who are worth a lot of money need to guard against losing assets to creditors. They include everyone from disgruntled spouses and ex-spouses to people who win lawsuits against you. If people think you have deep pockets they may look for reasons to sue. “If you win the Powerball, everyone’s going to be laying in front of your car so you can run over them so they can sue you,” says Ely. It’s prudent to ensure you are not an easy target.

9. Plan charitable gifts. You can offset the additional income from your lottery winnings with a charitable deduction. But you must make your donation by Dec. 31.

For gifts to a public charity, donors are entitled to an income tax deduction for up to 50% of adjusted gross income (AGI) for cash contributions and up to 30% for donations of other appreciated assets held more than 12 months.

If you are unable to decide between now and year-end which charities to support, it may be worth considering a donor-advised fund. With a donor-advised fund, you can make a charitable donation this year and claim a federal tax deduction for your irrevocable contribution but postpone recommendations about which charities should receive grants from the account until some time in the future.

10. Review your estate plan. If your winnings have made you suddenly wealthy, this may be the first time that you need to plan for estate tax. The sweeping tax overhaul of 2010 offers more flexibility than ever before. Each person has a $5 million limit on tax-free transfers, which can be applied during life, when you die or some combination of the two. If Congress doesn't act by the end of this year, that exclusion amount will revert to $1 million and the tax rate will increase to 55%. So if you want to share some of your largess with family and friends, this is the ideal time to do that.

From Forbes Magazine

Why I hate TLC's Honey Boo Boo..

2012-11-08T12:29:00.001-05:00

This is for you Lauren. I told you it was coming.

Before I really get into the weeds with this there is a reason I am posting this. I am educated well traveled and guess what I come from that area. I went thru school with Honey Boo Boo's father Michael. We all rode the school bus together.I am best friends with Mike's cousin who I will not name and no he doesn't act like them. He like me works hard and takes care of his family in normal ways. Yes I do have a accent and sometime I may use "Redneck" terms. I like to hunt, fish, ride 4-Wheelers and the such. But really people We are not ignorant stupid people down here. Most of the jobs in the United States are in the south do the research. And if one more person tells me "Oh I know where you are from. You from where Honey Boo Boo Lives" I think I will scream... Keep that in mind Ms. Rizzuto. ;-).

Why I hate TLC's Honey Boo Boo..

TLC’s new hit reality series Here Comes Honey Boo Boo is the talk of the town. The series follows the Thompsons, focusing on the daily interactions between the family members and mother June's attempts to enter Alana into beauty pageants.Honey Boo Boo, a.k.a. Alana Thompson, 6, was first introduced to television audiences on TLC’s Toddlers & Tiaras early this year and since then they are considered as characters that seem copied from the DNA of reality TV.

Its actors and producers are proud of creating a show that ties Bill Clinton’s DNC speech ratings; it is of course nothing less than an honor but the show that makes them earn more than $4000 a day is watched because people like making fun of this family that lives in Georgia.

Check out these tweets:

June Shannon, Honey Boo Boo’s mother, knows that people hate her and their new reality show, “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.” That hate isn't stopping her from continuing with the TLC hit show or living their lives as they see fit.

TMZ reported on September 5 that June Shannon understands that many critics think of them as redneck trash. June Shannon also knows that many people love them.

“For every person that is hating on us, there’s three people that love us,” June Shannon told TMZ. She went on to say that “a lot of people relate to us.”

It is unknown if Joy Behar is one of the “haters.” She did have some harsh words for Honey Boo Boo. Joy Behar called the little girl “a fat kid” and “Honey Boobs Boobs.” Despite calling a little girl names, Joy Behar voiced her concern over Honey Boo Boo’s diet of junk food.

Love it or hate it, “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” is a popular reality television show on TLC. So popular, it was watched by more people than the Republican National Convention.“I can’t watch it,” Mindy Leonard, from Warr Acres, said. “They are abusing Honey Boo Boo. I don’t hate them. I just wish they take some parenting classes and learn to feed her properly. They make folks from the south look like stupid hicks and not all of us are like that.”

Among the many crimes against humanity that TLC, this country's most socially irresponsible channel, has inflicted upon viewers, perhaps Toddlers & Tiaras is the worst. Well, until the breakout star of that show -- a precocious/annoying child named Alana but better known as Honey Boo Boo Child, who is pageant-whored-out by her obese mother, June -- got her own series. It’s appropriately titled Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.

The third episode airs at 10pm Wednesday if you want to help reduce the worth of the world by watching it. No pressure.

Listen, I understand the allure. Honey Boo Boo is a name that’s funny. It rolls off the tongue. Alana, age 6, apparently will say anything. Like, “A dollar make me wanna holler.” She’s all about money. And pageants. And winning. Oh, and drinking her “go-go juice” before each pageant, which is a mixture of Red Bull and Mountain Dew. It winds up the pudgy little girl, and she goes onstage to dance and prance and make faces that the judges truly seem to love.

As does TLC. And lots of viewers.

Which brings us back to that allure. Some people watch because they are entertained by the spectacle of it, apparently without realizing how awful and soul-crushing it is. Others -- let’s say this is you -- watch it because you get the wink-wink that TLC is giving the country and other people like you. It’s the green light to laugh at rednecks and fat people, which is how Honey Boo Boo’s mother, June, aka Mama, readily describes the family.

Everybody loves to laugh at the cliche, and reality shows love to exploit that. Like Jersey Shore. But once the cliches are in on the joke, they start pandering to the camera, and some of the joy is lost. They just become annoying because now they've taken the power we had over them -- laughing at their pathetic lives -- and are turning it into cash.

Which is probably what Mama is doing with Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. She’s already famously into “extreme couponing” and justifying a way to save money so she can send Alana to another pageant. But there is some sense here that maybe Mama is too dumb to be savvy enough, just yet, to play to the stereotype like Snooki and company. Which makes the show that much more horrifying and TLC that much more repellant.

Because this is exploitation squared, Honey Boo Boo Child. There’s no doubt that a dollar makes TLC wanna holler. Once hilariously known as The Learning Channel, it has no equals when it comes to showing the underbelly of America. And the neat trick is that everyone who watches can’t really call bullshit on the practice -- precisely because they’re accomplices in the success of selling and promoting trash.
For the longest time, this is why I never watched. I'm a big believer in the concept of “vote with your remote.” Hate it? Don't watch it. End of story.

But there’s something peculiarly reprehensible about Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. It’s not simply that Alana is going to need to melt down every cheap trophy she wins or do some extreme couponing to pay for therapy, it’s that there’s seemingly no punishment for TLC in producing this without conscience. (Yes, I know, we're well past that point with TLC. But still.)

Having caught up with Here Comes Honey Boo Boo -- after trying to put her and her family out of my mind and vacuumed from the cultural part of my soul after seeing them on Toddlers & Tiaras -- I realize I'm not as jaded as I thought. Translation: I guess I never thought a reality show would be this transparently heinous.
Mama is 33. She’s massively overweight (last count, 303 pounds -- down from 309 after a three-week “diet”). She’s involved with Mike, aka Sugar Bear, who couldn't be more Central Casting from Deliverance if you did a national search. Mike basically sits there, dumbfounded. That’s his role. In the opening credits to Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, Mama farts and laughs about it. In the last episode, one of her three overweight daughters (including one who's pregnant, of course), laughs and says: “That crust on my mama’s neck, I don’t know what it is.” Turns out it’s exactly what everyone thinks it is: an egregious amount of dirt stuck in the fat rolls of her neck.

“I ain't trying letting myself go – I just look good when I want to look good,” Mama says, unconvincingly. In one episode she tells the camera she needs to blow her nose, then takes a face cloth and does just that. Then smiles.

The show uses subtitles, because the apparent lack of education and the Georgia accents mesh together like some kind of indecipherable Scottish accent.

Is Mama a hoarder? Of course she is, with all that extreme couponing. She says it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out how to do it. Neither does it take a rocket scientist to figure out that this redneck exploitation is a step or four too far in our culture. But it won't stop anytime soon -- unless everyone stops watching.

And why would they? Honey Boo Boo just got a pet pig (irony lost) called Glitzy. Honey Boo Boo says, in apparent seriousness: “I hope Mama don’t eat Glitzy. She eats everything else.”
In one scene, Glitzy craps all over the dinner table. One of the daughters yells about Mama: “She was gonna eat it! It looked like a hot dog to her. A burnt hot dog.”

Yep. We're there. At that depth where no one imagined we'd go, even the cynical ones.
One of Mama’s daughters is nicknamed “Chubbs.” Another is nicknamed “Pumpkin.” The other one is pregnant. “Anna’s baby daddy ain't in the picture,” Mama explains helpfully, noting that she had Anna when she was 15. For her part, Anna tells the camera less than convincingly that she'll probably be a good, but not great, mother.

Which is encouraging.

This same episode has the family jumping on a makeshift Slip N’ Slide. “Heat and big people don’t mix, period,” says Mama.

“Rednecks take a bath, water slide and mud bath all at the same time,” Mama notes.
Honey Boo Boo hasn't been on a great roll at the pageants lately. She’s lost a few. That’s why they got her the pig. And a new pageant coach who is -- wait for it -- also ridiculously obese. The new dance number for Alana has her trying to be Elvis. “Do you know who Elvis is?” the pageant coach asks. Says Honey Boo Boo, “He’s Santa Claus’ helper."

God help us all.

So here’s the deal: You know this show is exploitation. TLC knows it. Maybe even Mama and HBB know it, deep down in their rotund bodies. Here Comes Honey Boo Boo is a car crash, and everybody rubber-necks at a car crash, right? It’s human nature.

Yes, except that if you play that card, you also have to realize that human nature comes with the capacity to draw a line, to hold fast against the dehumanization and incremental tearing down of the social fabric, even if this never-ending onslaught of reality television suggests that’s a losing effort. You can say no to visual exploitation. You can say no to TLC. And you can say no to Honey Boo Boo Child.

Somebody has to.

What do you think of “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo?” Is it good television or just a way to exploit Honey Boo Boo and her family?

Please share your thoughts and opinions in the comment section below.

What I want for Christmas.....

2012-11-07T16:14:00.005-05:00

ROUSH PERFORMANCE UNVEILS 700 HP MUSTANG

Three powerhouse performance brands have come together at this year’s SEMA Show to showcase their finest products in a 2013 Mustang GT. ROUSH® Performance, Ford Racing and Sherwin-Williams Automotive Paints have collaborated to produce an incredible 700HP ROUSH Stage 3 Mustang.

“This awesome Mustang features the hefty Ford Racing Aluminator Engine in concert with the ROUSH Phase 3 Supercharger Kit. This durable powertrain produces 700HP and over 585 ft-lbs of torque. We are excited to announce that this engine package will be available as a ROUSH Stage 3 Mustang powertrain upgrade for our 2014 model year Mustangs,” says Tim Wheeler, VP Sales and Marketing at ROUSH Performance. “Our customer base has been hungry for a forged block configuration powered by our best ROUSH supercharger…and we think this engine package will blow away everyone’s expectations.”

Phase 3 AluminatorThe ROUSH Performance vehicle packages remain in place for the 2014 model year with the ROUSH Stage 1, Stage 2 or Stage 3 packages. ROUSH recently announced their line-up of Phased supercharger kits to provide consumers a choice when adding power to their Stage 3 Mustang.

“The ROUSH Stage 3 Mustang equipped with the 700HP ROUSH Phase 3 Supercharger Kit and the Ford Racing Aluminator Engine represents the most powerful Mustang that ROUSH has ever produced,” adds Wheeler.

This SEMA Roush Stage 3 Mustang displays a custom paint scheme by Sherwin-Williams Automotive Paints. The Sin City Silver and Luminescent Lime will turn a lot of heads during SEMA this week. ROUSH Performance Mustang and F150 Truck customers will also have the opportunity to upgrade with a custom Sherwin-Williams Paint Scheme beginning in early 2103 for their new vehicle. Look for more details and pricing from ROUSH Performance very soon.

2013 ROUSH Stage 3 SEMA Mustang build specs:

Phase 3 Mustang Interior

This is a 2013 Mustang GT transformed into a ROUSH Stage 3 performance vehicle that is showcasing the 700HP Phase 3 ROUSHcharger Kit, as well as a variety of other retail part enhancements available from ROUSH Performance:

ROUSH 5.0 Phase 3 supercharger – 700HP and 585lb-ft tq
Sherwin-Williams “Planet Color” custom Sin City Silver and Luminescent Lime paint scheme
Ford Racing Aluminator Motor showcasing forged internals allows ROUSH to dial-up the horsepower
Ford Racing X-Brace painted to match the exterior body colors
ROUSH 20” five spoke wheels painted in metallic black
Cooper Tires 20” RS3 tires
ESCORT Radar – Smart Mirror, Passport 9500ci, and Smart Cord
Eaton Truetrac locking rear differential
Recaro custom seats embroidered with the ROUSH Phase 3 logos

ROUSH Stage 3 Parts-

ROUSH’s R6 Aerobody kitROUSH ESCORT Radar In Phase 3 Mustang
ROUSH Performance Exhaust
Hood Scoop
Quarter Window Louvers
ROUSH Suspension Kit with Wheel Hop Reduction Kit
Extreme Lowering Springs
ROUSH 6 Piston Brake System custom painted
LED Boost Gauge
Exclusive ROUSH Vent Pod
ROUSH Shifter Ball
Illuminated Sill Plates
Billet Performance Pedals
Stage 3 Interior Trim Package less seats
Suede Steering Wheel
ROUSH Hood Struts
Phase 3 Badges
Custom Coil Covers painted Luminescent Lime to match the paint scheme
Lower Grille
ROUSH Truck Mounted Tool Kit

Breaking News.... Lance Armstrong Fired From Paper Route.

2012-11-06T12:37:00.001-05:00

Breaking News.... Lance Armstrong Fired From Paper Route.

Obama / Romney... Michele Obama said that the first car Barack picked her up in was so old,

that you could see the ground below them. Not to be out done, Ann Romney said the same thing

about Mitt’s helicopter.

Florida News... Governor Scott started a toll-free meningitis hotline, but accidentally gave out the

number of a phone sex line. People in Florida are upset. They would like to treat their meningitis

without the side effect of going blind.

The Election as we know it... Would you believe that more than half a billion dollars have been

spent on presidential campaign ads so far. It is a good thing that our schools and roads are in such

good shape or I’d be really mad.

Russia... Some Russians are still claiming that Vladimir Putin’s election was rigged and that he has no

legitimate claim to power. Do you know what these Russians are called ?....... MISSING !

Bidden... Did you catch this dirt bag laughing at the last debate with Ryan ? Biden continues to remind

me of the criminal that has gotten away with murder and then begins sending the cops puzzle notes

with cut out alphabet letters to figure it out.

Lewinsky... Yep, she’s at it again. Monica is writing a book about her affair with Bill Clinton. Now I’m

waiting for the audio book. Monica is sure to produce a most successful “oral history.”

Bieber Update... During a recent concert on tour, Justin Bieber vomited twice on stage. Once is an

accident, but if it happens twice, maybe the songs are trying to tell you something.

Publishing News... Arnold Schwarzenegger’s book is doing well. In it he says that, “cheating on Maria

was the stupidest thing he ever has done in his lifetime.” Excuse me Arnold, but not to those of us

that have seen your movies.

Just some notes...

1. When life gives you lemons...use them as a garnish for a little something on the rocks.

2. There’s a way of transferring funds that is faster than electronic banking. It’s called marriage.

3. Remember; Men have feelings too. For example; We feel hungry.

4. Wives. If your husband says he’ll fix it, he will. There is no need to remind him every 6 months about it.

5. Playboy reportedly offered Sarah Palin $4,000,000 to pose nude in an upcoming issue. Michelle Obama was offered $50 by National Geographic.

6. In other news........ we all remember when KFC offered a "Hillary"meal, consisting of 2 small breasts and 2 large thighs.

7. Now, KFC is offering the "Obama Cabinet Bucket". It consists of nothing but left wings and chicken shit.

Question of the Week... What’s the Vegan answer to fish sticks ? Answer...... Stick sticks.

From me... Last night I tried to drown my sorrows, but the bastards learned how to swim.

And Mary... Just so you know... Mary’s cell number has nothing to do with her phone. And last week, somebody stole her identity, today, they showed up at the front door and pleaded for her to take it back.

Just found this beautiful Love Story and want to share it with ya'll.

Dear H.T.,

I will seek and find you.I shall take you to bed and have my way with you.I will make you ache, shake & sweat until you moan & and groan. I will make you beg for mercy, beg for me to stop. I will exhaust you to the point that you will be relieved when I'm finished with you. And, when I am finished, you will be weak for days.

All my love,

The Flu

Heartwarming now isnt it. Now get your mind out of the gutter and go get your flu shot!

Just keeping you up to date, as this is my civic duty.

gonna nap now....see ya....H.T.

New 'Star Wars' Movie Announced for 2015, Disney Buys Lucasfilm for $4B

2012-10-31T15:57:00.001-04:00

That disturbance in the Force you feel is millions of Star Wars fans crying out in joy. In the best post-hurricane news imaginable, Disney has just purchased Lucasfilm Ltd., venerable custodian of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, for a $4.05 billion cash and stocks deal. Kathleen Kennedy, who joined the George Lucas-founded company in June as co-chair, will be promoted to Lucasfilm president, reporting directly to Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn.

Best of all, Disney has announced that a new Star Wars movie is actually in the works for a 2015 release. A press release from the studio states that the movie in question will be Star Wars: Episode VII, almost guaranteed to be a post Return of the Jedi-set project. That’s very interesting, as the post-ROTJ Era has already been thoroughly explored in books and graphic novels considered canon by Lucasfilm. Will Episode VII involve previously established creations like Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Princess Leia? Or will it take place in a distant future with all new characters. No matter what, let the collective geekgasm commence!

As if this wasn't enough to scramble your brain like a Jedi mind trick, Disney says that even beyond Episode VII "more feature films [can be] expected to continue the Star Wars saga and grow the franchise well into the future." A conference call with Disney investors further revealed that the plan is to release a new Star Wars movie "every two to three years," including Episodes VIII and IX. Apparently, part of Disney's Lucasfilm acquisition deal was a full treatment for a new Star Wars trilogy.

However, though Disney will technically possess the rights to the Indiana Jones franchise, the studio has decided not to touch that particular property. At least for the time being. The fact is, Star Wars is ready-made for endless permutations, with new characters played by new actors. The Indiana Jones franchise, on the other hand, is inextricably tied to Harrison Ford. Without him, you've got nothing.

The merger of the two companies hardly comes as a surprise. Disney and Lucasfilm have partnered for years on such events as Star Wars Weekends at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida and for the sale of Star Wars-themed Disney merchandise. Along with Lucasfilm Ltd. itself, the merger also means Disney will acquire visual effects powerhouse Industrial Light & Magic and sound design firm Skywalker Sound.

“Lucasfilm reflects the extraordinary passion, vision, and storytelling of its founder, George Lucas,” said Robert A. Iger, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company in a statement. “This transaction combines a world-class portfolio of content including Star Wars, one of the greatest family entertainment franchises of all time, with Disney’s unique and unparalleled creativity across multiple platforms, businesses, and markets to generate sustained growth and drive significant long-term value.”

George Lucas, Chairman and CEO of Lucasfilm, also says in a statement, “For the past 35 years, one of my greatest pleasures has been to see Star Wars passed from one generation to the next. It’s now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers. I’ve always believed that Star Wars could live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime. I’m confident that with Lucasfilm under the leadership of Kathleen Kennedy, and having a new home within the Disney organization,Star Wars will certainly live on and flourish for many generations to come. Disney’s reach and experience give Lucasfilm the opportunity to blaze new trails in film, television, interactive media, theme parks, live entertainment, and consumer products.”

Is this the best news that Star Wars fans could have expected or what?

Billionaires Dumping Stocks, Economist Knows Why.

2012-10-30T09:38:00.000-04:00

I was reading this and thought it would be a good blog today amid all the elections, economy and all thats happening in the world at this current time. With all thats going on with the world economy this doesn't surprise me.

So what do these people know that we don't? After all these guys made their money off of the stock market and have been champions of the U.S. stacks and trying to make America viable again. To me this means the worst has yet to come and if these billionaires are dumping all their U.S. stocks then America needs to wake up and look out.

Personally I don't think we are at a end of this fallout yet and I believe it will get worse over the next few years. So read the article and make your opinions for yourself.

Billionaires Dumping Stocks, Economist Knows Why.

Despite the 6.5% stock market rally over the last three months, a handful of billionaires are quietly dumping their American stocks . . . and fast.

Warren Buffett, who has been a cheerleader for U.S. stocks for quite some time, is dumping shares at an alarming rate. He recently complained of “disappointing performance” in dyed-in-the-wool American companies like Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble, and Kraft Foods.

In the latest filing for Buffett’s holding company Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett has been drastically reducing his exposure to stocks that depend on consumer purchasing habits. Berkshire sold roughly 19 million shares of Johnson & Johnson, and reduced his overall stake in “consumer product stocks” by 21%. Berkshire Hathaway also sold its entire stake in California-based computer parts supplier Intel.

With 70% of the U.S. economy dependent on consumer spending, Buffett’s apparent lack of faith in these companies’ future prospects is worrisome.

Unfortunately Buffett isn’t alone.

Fellow billionaire John Paulson, who made a fortune betting on the subprime mortgage meltdown, is clearing out of U.S. stocks too. During the second quarter of the year, Paulson’s hedge fund, Paulson & Co., dumped 14 million shares of JPMorgan Chase. The fund also dumped its entire position in discount retailer Family Dollar and consumer-goods maker Sara Lee.

Finally, billionaire George Soros recently sold nearly all of his bank stocks, including shares of JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Goldman Sachs. Between the three banks, Soros sold more than a million shares.

So why are these billionaires dumping their shares of U.S. companies?

After all, the stock market is still in the midst of its historic rally. Real estate prices have finally leveled off, and for the first time in five years are actually rising in many locations. And the unemployment rate seems to have stabilized.

It’s very likely that these professional investors are aware of specific research that points toward a massive market correction, as much as 90%.

One such person publishing this research is Robert Wiedemer, an esteemed economist and author of the New York Times best-selling book Aftershock.

Before you dismiss the possibility of a 90% drop in the stock market as unrealistic, consider Wiedemer’s credentials.

In 2006, Wiedemer and a team of economists accurately predicted the collapse of the U.S. housing market, equity markets, and consumer spending that almost sank the United States. They published their research in the book America’s Bubble Economy.

The book quickly grabbed headlines for its accuracy in predicting what many thought would never happen, and quickly established Wiedemer as a trusted voice.

A columnist at Dow Jones said the book was “one of those rare finds that not only predicted the subprime credit meltdown well in advance, it offered Main Street investors a winning strategy that helped avoid the forty percent losses that followed . . .”

The chief investment strategist at Standard & Poor’s said that Wiedemer’s track record “demands our attention.”

And finally, the former CFO of Goldman Sachs said Wiedemer’s “prescience in (his) first book lends credence to the new warnings. This book deserves our attention.”

In the interview for his latest blockbuster Aftershock, Wiedemer says the 90% drop in the stock market is “a worst-case scenario,” and the host quickly challenged this claim.

Wiedemer calmly laid out a clear explanation of why a large drop of some sort is a virtual certainty.

It starts with the reckless strategy of the Federal Reserve to print a massive amount of money out of thin air in an attempt to stimulate the economy.

“These funds haven’t made it into the markets and the economy yet. But it is a mathematical certainty that once the dam breaks, and this money passes through the reserves and hits the markets, inflation will surge,” said Wiedemer.

“Once you hit 10% inflation, 10-year Treasury bonds lose about half their value. And by 20%, any value is all but gone. Interest rates will increase dramatically at this point, and that will cause real estate values to collapse. And the stock market will collapse as a consequence of these other problems.”

And this is where Wiedemer explains why Buffett, Paulson, and Soros could be dumping U.S. stocks:

“Companies will be spending more money on borrowing costs than business expansion costs. That means lower profit margins, lower dividends, and less hiring. Plus, more layoffs.”

No investors, let alone billionaires, will want to own stocks with falling profit margins and shrinking dividends. So if that’s why Buffett, Paulson, and Soros are dumping stocks, they have decided to cash out early and leave Main Street investors holding the bag.

But Main Street investors don’t have to see their investment and retirement accounts decimated for the second time in five years.

Wiedemer’s video interview also contains a comprehensive blueprint for economic survival that’s really commanding global attention.

Now viewed over 40 million times, it was initially screened for a relatively small, private audience. But the overwhelming amount of feedback from viewers who felt the interview should be widely publicized came with consequences, as various online networks repeatedly shut it down and affiliates refused to house the content.

“People were sitting up and taking notice, and they begged us to make the interview public so they could easily share it,” said Newsmax Financial Publisher Aaron DeHoog.

“Our real concern,” DeHoog added, “is the effect even if only half of Wiedemer’s predictions come true.

“That’s a scary thought for sure. But we want the average American to be prepared, and that is why we will continue to push this video to as many outlets as we can. We want the word to spread.”

Article from © 2012 Moneynews. All rights reserved.

As always feel free to add your comments good bad or indifferent. Until next time

HT