It sounds like you have little snitch blocking software update, as the default is to ask. Check the Little Snitch Configuration and delete the entry for software update, then it will prompt for any connection. If that doesn’t work you could try whitelisting software update:

Go to the Little Snitch Configuration, click the Plus button, Chose the application (/System/Library/CoreServices/Software Update), allow any server any port any protocol.

If you want to be more strict than that this is what I have. I just did it by adding whenever software update tried to use it. I imagine you blocked

action: allow
process: /System/Library/CoreServices/Software Update.app/Contents/MacOS/Software Update
destination: swcdn.apple.com.edgesuite.net
port: 80
protocol: 6
help: wants to connect to swcdn.apple.com.edgesuite.net on TCP port 80 (http).

action: allow
process: /System/Library/CoreServices/Software Update.app/Contents/MacOS/Software Update
destination: swquery.apple.com
port: 80
protocol: 6
help: wants to connect to swquery.apple.com on TCP port 80 (http).

action: allow
process: /System/Library/CoreServices/Software Update.app/Contents/MacOS/Software Update
destination: swscan.apple.com
port: 80
protocol: 6
help: wants to connect to swscan.apple.com on TCP port 80 (http).

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1. Call your state’s Department of Licensing, and ask whether or not you need a special license to start a travel agency business. Many states do not require such licensing. If your state does require you to obtain a travel agency license, expect to pay a fee for it.

2. Obtain a general business license for the area in which you live or plan to operate your business. Most cities and towns require such licensing of all businesses, even if they are home based.

3. Find a host agency to work with, such as Dugan’s Travel or Nexion. A host agency can allow you to book travel for your customers using its established accounts. You will earn commissions for your bookings, but you should expect to pay a percentage of your commissions for the privilege of booking through its accounts.

4. Get training to ensure the success of your travel agency and avoid common pitfalls. Remember, one mistake could cause your clients major inconvenience, so you’ll want to know exactly what you’re doing before you start booking travel. You could take an online training course or classes at a brick-and-mortar school, but many host agencies offer free training when you sign on with them. The Outside Sales Support Network (OSSN) offers training information, as does the National Association of Commissioned Travel Agents (NACTA).

5. Advertise your new travel agency business. Shout news of your grand opening on travel-based messaged boards and search engines. Put up flyers and take out newspaper ads, and establish a website.

6. Begin to book reservations for your clients using the Internet and your telephone. Most travel suppliers make it easy for agents to contact them, as they want their business. If you work with a host agency, you’ll probably receive a list of suppliers, complete with contact information, to make your job easier.

Here’s a brief look at the five different types of travel service businesses covered in this article, and in Travel Services start-up guide:

1. Homebased: If you want to keep your overhead low and your profits high, this could be the type of business for you. Thanks to the internet, homebased agents have at their command all the same tools that used to be available only at a traditional brick-and-mortar travel agency. The internet also has delivered another important advantage to homebased travel services: Such businesses are no longer expected to be brick-and-mortar. After years of buying books online, bidding and selling in online auctions, and paying bills online, customers today are very comfortable buying all kinds of services via the internet-and in fact, they look rather askance at companies that do not have an internet presence since they want to surf for information day and night.

It’s also important to note that it’s possible to run any of these five types of businesses from the comfort of your home, although specialty/niche businesses, corporate businesses and franchise business are the most likely to be based in a brick-and-mortar facility.

2. Independent contractor: If you like working in a traditional travel agency but love the freedom of being your own boss even better, then working as an independent contractor in the travel industry could be the right move for you. Independent contractors make their own hours (with the needs of the travel agency in mind, of course), build their own client list, and are solely responsible for paying their own way at tax time. At the same time, they benefit from having a physical office where they can meet with clients, pick up walk-in business, and drop the name of an established agency when they make cold calls or follow up on leads. That gives you the type of credibility that can be very valuable when you’re just starting out on your own.

But you don’t have to be present physically in someone’s office to be an independent contractor. Some travel agents, like Bill Jilla, an independent contractor in Florida, handles travel arrangements and other services for an established company right from the comfort of his home office, although he also has worked as an independent contractor in a brick-and-mortar travel agency.

3. Specialty/niche business: Since leisure travel makes up 80 percent of total sales in the travel industry (according to Plunkett Research), there are plenty of opportunities for entrepreneurs who want to offer specialty travel services. You can get into the field in more than one way. First, you can offer tours and packages tailored to the interests and needs of particular groups. Second, you can choose to offer very specialized niche services that will appeal to a very narrow demographic. For example, California entrepreneurs Michael Chu and Ying Liu offer a highly specialized set of services to business travelers to China. Third, you can offer luxury travel services. For example, on entrepreneur we’ve met offers charter airline services to top-level business travelers and another arranges stays in luxury villas in both the United States and abroad.

4. Corporate travel: Actually a type of niche travel service, corporate travel has been singled out in this book because of the various opportunities it offers. But beware, it can be difficult to break into this particular field. A lot of companies already have their own in-house staff or have been dealing with the same travel agency for eons. However, new companies of all kinds with no previous travel agency ties spring up all the time and may be open to the idea of having their own travel service, while others may be looking for a new company because they aren’t entirely happy with the job their existing travel agency is doing. Conversely, you might be able to land a spot as an independent contractor or homebased agent on a travel agency team that already has an established clientele. Either way, there is money to be made for the right entrepreneur.

5. Franchise: If you like the idea of launching a “plug and play” business that is ready to go right out of the box, then a travel services franchise could be your ticket to success. With a franchise, you purchase the rights to use a tried and true concept, as well as the name recognition and business procedures that come along with it. However, you do have to conform to the franchisor’s established methods of doing business. In addition, the best franchisee is a person who has been successful in a previous career, because, of course, franchises don’t run themselves and a basic knowledge of established business practices is necessary.

Visit:

http://www.125aday.com/books/287/start-travel-agency.cfm

http://www.careerplanner.com/Career-Ideas/Start-Your-Own-Home-Based-Travel-Business.cfm

http://ytb-fortunes.com/

http://ytb.com/

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defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add ‘{tile-data={}; tile-type=”spacer-tile”;}’

Repeat this step for each separator you would like, and make sure to press Enter each time to execute the command.
To add a separator to the right side of the dock (the document side) enter this into the terminal:

defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-others -array-add ‘{tile-data={}; tile-type=”spacer-tile”;}’

Repeat this step for each separator you would like, and make sure to press Enter each time to execute the command.
Now you need to reset the Dock, which can be done by entering this into the terminal:

killall Dock

–Removing the Separators–

If you ever decide that you don’t want the separator(s) anymore there are two fast ways to get rid of them. Just like most other Dock items you can drag each one off the Dock to have them removed, or you can Ctrl+Click (a.k.a. right-click) on them and select the remove option.

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“For decades, concern has been brewing about the dumbed-down popular culture of young people and the impact it has on their futures.” – Mark Bauerlein

Who is concerned? Whose world is it? And what kind of world was left to them?

Could it be that, as with each successive generation, today’s youth have taken a good hard look at preceding generations and come to the conclusion that they’ve been left holding the bag? I mean look at shape the world is in.

Why would anyone, especially a generation who should be looking forward to all that life has to offer, buy into that which hasn’t worked? Isn’t that the definition of stupid?

The more seasoned among us may disagree and reiterate the same criticism about youth that has been going round since Adam had Cain – that kids today don’t quite measure up to expectations. Funny thing is that the kids may be thinking the same thing about their parents’ generation.

Mark Bauerlein’s book is said to lay out a compelling vision of how “we” might address this generation’s deficiencies.

My question is – deficiencies to whom?

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by Ben Mattlin (NPR’s MORNING EDITION, April 28, 2010)

I get a lot of recommendations to join Facebook groups with names like Fight SMA. I never respond.

SMA stands for spinal muscular atrophy, and I was born with it. I’ve never walked or stood, and over time have lost the use of my hands. It’s a progressive, neuromuscular weakness. It occurs in one of every 6,000 births, and is the most common cause of genetically based neonatal death. So fighting it is a noble cause, and I feel for parents who’ve lost their babies, but it’s not my cause. I can never support a group that aims to cure me.

My disability is part of who I am. It’s all I’ve ever known. Who would I be without it? It doesn’t define me, but it has informed every aspect of my life. Even as a child, I never dreamed of walking. Flying, yes. I wanted to be a superhero, but I never wanted to be just like everyone else.

My big brother, who doesn’t have SMA, once asked me what I’d do if there were an operation that could fix my muscles but risked leaving me worse off or dead. No thanks, I said. Even then, it was the thought of losing my trademark wheels that terrified me, not death.

I can see that being able to do more physically would be helpful. I’d like to be a little less dependent on other people and machinery. But when I try to picture myself stripped of my disability, it leaves me feeling cold and lost. My Facebook friends might not agree. Many people with SMA do feel more physically vulnerable than I do. Yes, I know I wouldn’t be here without scientific progress.

Yet I can’t help having a mental block against medicalizing disability. It just doesn’t square with my particular form of disability pride. After all, if you dream of a cure, aren’t you saying we’re not okay as we are? And if we focus on medical fixes, don’t we risk misdirecting our energies away from the external inequities that we can and must end: the barriers of architecture, attitudes and economics that truly handicap us.

Disability is a fact of life. It’s here to stay, so why not celebrate it as another part of human diversity? Call me crazy, but I sort of like myself just the way I am.

http://home.earthlink.net/~bmattlin2/id46.html

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We, in our own lives, have everything we need to discern the truth. If we cannot glean truth by critically and unashamedly assessing ourselves, then how do we know truth?

How do we relate to truth we cannot apply in our own lives? And if we cannot apply it in our own lives, how is it true to us?

“To thine own self be true”, may not be canonical, but does, in my opinion, respect the uniqueness God has created in each individual.

Even the process of studying requires us to contextualize the information studied based on our own life experiences, without which we would be unable to understand.

Now some may argue that you don’t have to understand to believe. (i.e. Daawee may not understand how I can take over his computer in Chicago while I’m in Indianapolis. But if he is CONVINCED I am doing it, he believes it.

On the other hand, if Marc comes to me and tells me he’s just been abducted by aliens, I may want to believe him, but will have a hard time doing so if he cannot provide me with evidence or information that MAKES SENSE TO ME.

We can never be sure we see exactly the same thing. Take Jenny, who is color blind and is ashamed of it, and hasn’t told anyone. She has learned over the years to distinguish gradations of color through HER eyes. When I ask her which tomato is reddest, she can tell me – BUT WE DON’T SEE THE SAME THING.

Two people looking at a flag pole that is painted two colors can argue all day long about what color the flag pole is. Until they step away from their vantage point, they may never realize that the other person’s perspective is just as correct as their own; but none of them, until they stepped out beyond their own perspective to EXPERIENCE the other perspective could completely ascertain the Truth.

Do you and I’ll do me. After all, who am I to dictate what is good for another person? Is my life so perfect that I can tell someone else how to live a perfect life?

Each of us is like a needle in a ball of needles, all connected at the core. Each of us represents and offers a perspective of life that is uniquely legitimate. Our lives are enriched through relationships with others – sharing our perspectives with each other and learning from each other, broadening the horizon of our understanding.

It reminds me of the words of Jesus when he said, “where two or more are gathered in my name, there I am also.”

Iron sharpens iron. When we come together, let us reason with one another in the spirit of truth, which is, of course, the spirit of love…

When we do this, we not only see others more clearly, but ourselves as well. Believe it for yourself.

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What was that song from back in the day from “School Daze”? “I Can Only Be Me” by Keith John.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6laIAWUzg8

I understand that there is an argument based on scripture that says we must deny ourselves (our own base proclivities) in order to realize our God given potential.

Paul said “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.”

That’s a supposed to be a good thing, right? Free from our instincts, fears, and carnal desire – and reborn into a “new world” with a new perspective, clear sight, new vision, and unmistakable purpose.

Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? – Matthew 16:24-26

Each individual is responsible for his/her own decisions… for his/her own soul. We know that we reap what we sow. Its up to you whether you want to follow man or God. The other alternative is to become your own god.

Man = flawed.
You = flawed.
God = perfection.

But what if you don’t know God to be perfection? What if you aren’t sure there even is a God?

I cannot make anyone believe anything. I believe that God reveals himself to people – and that it is up to the them if they want to believe. It is THEIR choice.

Most of the people in the Bible I can think of – who KNEW God to be God – allowed their own imperfections to get in the way of their belief in God.

Adam didn’t love God… and God was right there with him!

Moses had a self esteem issue, kneeling before God!

Jeremiah didn’t want to waste his breath, though he had witnessed for God many times!

Samson was irreverent, though he knew he was ordained by God!

Jesus sweat blood! Though he knew Whose he was!

So I can understand how difficult it is for people to develop a relationship with an INVISIBLE being who is supposed to be the Creator of the Universe.

But nobody else’s experience can substitute for my own relationship with God. Not my Dad’s, or my Grandmother’s, or my daughter’s. That is MY responsibility, whether I choose to embrace it or not.

Life has shown me that relationships, on any level, require work. I don’t expect that it is ay less true with my relationship with The Almighty. Maybe even more so…

See what you done started!

I did want to say that there are semantics at work with regard to religious terminology which I think can be misleading. True believers practice Islam and are Muslims by literal definition.

The world’s definition of these terms and the true meaning of the words are often diametrically opposed as they contradict each other. Is this intentional?

KKK members called themselves Christians.

Kunta was called Tobe.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

As it is written, so shall it be done.

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The Law governs our sensual being. Love governs our spiritual being. The Pharisees were criticized for zealously defending every jot and tittle of the Law and missing the spirit from which it was offered.

There is a story I have repeated a million times of a little girl who asks her mother why she cuts off the end of the turkey before placing it in the oven. The mother shrugs and says that she doesn’t know, that her mother always did it that way. The grand daughter asks the same question of her grandmother and her grandmother laughs. The grandmother says that when she was younger she lived in a house that had a stove that wasn’t very deep – and that to get the turkey to fit in the oven, she had to cut off the end of it.

An a-ha moment for the little girl.

Oftentimes people have a hard time reaching those a-ha moments and end up following traditions and forming habits out of sentiment and sometimes ignorance. In time we become slaves to ritual and even resentment and rebellion when we fight back blindly against the ghosts of our past. Some people wander in this wilderness all their lives, unable to get to the promised land for all the baggage they carry and can’t let go of.

Jesus did not come to do away with the law but make it more perfect. Work without faith is no better than faith without work, but marrying the two – King and Priest – frees one into a knowing beyond knowledge. This is wisdom. Let all who have ears say Amen.

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Cow is a mobile dispensary. It is the treasure of medicines. The cow urine therapy is capable of curing several curable and incurable diseases.

The holy texts, like Atharva Veda, Charak Samhita, Rajni Ghuntu, Vridhabhagabhatt, Amritasagar, Bhavprakash, Sushrut Samhita contain beautiful description about these things.

Cow Urine Treatment and Research Center, Indore has conducted a lot of research in the past few years and reached at the conclusion that it is capable of curing diabetes, blood pressure, asthma, psoriasis, eczema, heart attack, blockage in arteries, fits, cancer, AIDS, piles, prostrate, arthritis, migraine, thyroid, ulcer, acidity, constipation, gynecological problems, ear and nose problems, abortion and several other diseases.
The analysis of cow urine has shown that it contains nitrogen, sulphur, phosphate, sodium, manganese, carbolic acid, iron, silicon, chlorine, magnesium, melci, citric, titric, succenic, calcium salts, Vitamin A, B, C, D, E, minerals, lactose, enzymes, creatinine, hormones and gold acids. A person falls ill when there is deficiency or excess of the substances inside the body.

The cow urine contains those substances, which are present in the human body. Therefore consumption of cow urine maintains the balance of these substances and cures incurable diseases.The Indian culture gives special place to cow. All the 33 gods have cow as their prime temple. Deva means to give, the strength to give, the ability to give more and take the minimum.

This is known as Devata.

The cow takes very less from us and gives us more. Therefore the Indian people have proved this with the help of strict devotion and dedication that cow has a prominent place in the Indian life and economy. Wealth, religion, sex and salvation are accomplished with the service of the cow. The Indian farmer used to known as king or the giver of grains due to the developed tradition of India thousands of years back. When we were popular as golden bird and world Guru then this was the basic mantra. Our entire life is dependent on cow.The whole world calls cow as mother. The reason is that the birth-giving mother gives milk to its child only for one or two years, but the mother cow gives milk throughout its life, which is like nectar.

A black cow is tied in the Shiva temple, when we see the Shiva along with the black cow then we are able to overcome the malefic effects of planets in our natal horoscope. When we see the ankles of the cow we protect ourselves from sudden deaths.

Taking rounds of the cow is equivalent to visiting all the holy places. As the paipal tree and holy basil plant give oxygen similarly cow is the only animal, which emits major amount of oxygen. If one spoon of pure ghee is poured on the burning cow cakes dung (fuel) then they can produce one-ton oxygen, therefore ghee made with cow milk is used in sacrificial fires and havans. There is no other better method to remove pollution.The cow milk, butter, ghee and buttermilk are like nectar.

The cow dung is not faeces but purifier of faeces. It produces best quality of grains, fruits, and vegetables by becoming the best type of manure. Cow urine is a divine medicines and is a pesticide for the crops. Pure ghee made with cow milk on the cow cakes, the smoke emitted thereby subsides the effect of poisonous gas. Cow urine contains copper, which converts into gold inside the human body. It removes the toxicity. Drinking cow milk gives strength and increases the pure qualities in the human mind.

The horns and hunch of cow are like two powerful pyramids. We receive the strengths of stars and Sun through the medium of cow dung, milk, curd, ghee etc. the place where the cow is tied does not produce any vastu related ill effects. If there is any malefic effect of any planet, serving the cow with chapatti, jaggery calms down the malefic effect.A person was suffering with cancer and had been told that they would not survive for long; cow therapy was done on such cases. Out of the many patients, who were suffering with cancer for the last 4 years are now leading a healthy life. In the same way the diabetes patient who was taking insulin and having a sugar level of 488 or 420 did not have the necessity to take insulin after the treatment.

In the same way AIDS, asthma, psoriasis, eczema, blood pressure, heart disease, prostrate, piles also cured with this treatment.

Premchand Rathore was suffering from asthma and isnophilia. He had palpitations and cough along with phlegm. He is now enjoying a healthy life after taking cow urine therapy. The cough and phlegm reduced. Mrs. Sharda Jalani was having varicose veins and dismonerrhoea. She used to have swollen nerves, pain, and swelling as soon as she used to stand up and it was very painful at the time of menses. She was advised operation for both the problems. But she went for cow urine therapy and is now healthy. Omprakash Paul suffered an heart attack, he had high levels of cholesterol and chest pain. After taking cow urine therapy he is able to walk up to four kilometers, he does not get chest pain and cholesterol level is also normal.

Chandmal Gurjar suffered with cancer of the food pipe four years back, he could not take liquids also. Now he is able to eat and drink properly, he is healthy and working in the fields. There are thousands of people who have recovered from serious diseases after taking this therapy.

Today many AIDS patients are taking cow urine therapy. People who were suffering with migraine and headache for the past 15 years have recovered within six months of taking this therapy. Whether it is the question of relieving tension or improving the memory power. In the past few years the Cow Urine Treatment and Research Center, Indore has treated one and half lakhs of people. Out of the total patients 85 to 90 percent were patients of constipation there is an old saying that if the stomach is clean half of the diseases get cured automatically.

The patient taking cow urine therapy says that he is enjoying sound heath and passing bowels easily within one month of this therapy.Sushma Khurana has thyroid complaint. Before taking this therapy her T3 level was 4, T4 was 15, TSH was 0.2. After six months of this treatment T4 was 9.97, TSH was 1.35 and today she is free of this problem. This therapy is also beneficial in the case of eczema, ringworm, itching and other skin problems. Old eczema patients have gained a lot from this therapy. Not only that school and college going girls are free from the menace of pimples and acne with this therapy.Cow Dung Tooth-Paste, Anyone?

from: http://rupeenews.com/2008/02/16/chilled-urine-drinking-hot-in-india-telegraph-reports/

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WASHINGTON — At a time when U.S. Army troops are fighting two wars halfway around the globe, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan possessed all the qualifications the military so desperately needs: He is an Arabic-speaking Muslim of Palestinian descent, a doctor, a psychiatrist and a midlevel commander.

But that was before Nov. 5, before, authorities say, Hasan opened fire at Ford Hood, before he was accused of murdering 13 of his colleagues, and before his case raised questions about whether the U.S. military may have relaxed its standards to keep Hasan and others in uniform to meet the unrelenting demand for troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“The Army is caught in a perfect storm,” says Larry Korb, the Pentagon’s top manpower official during the Reagan administration. “It’s had to lower standards to keep people coming in — and it’s made changes to keep people from getting out.”

Alarmed, the White House and Capitol Hill are vowing to investigate whether warning signs of potential trouble are being routinely ignored in a military stretched to — or beyond — the breaking point.

“The president has asked every agency involved … to investigate why this happened, how this happened, and to ensure that they can tell him that it won’t happen again,” said President Barack Obama’s spokesman, Robert Gibbs.

In Hasan’s situation, there are many reasons why Pentagon officials wouldn’t want to lose an officer of his background. Arabic-speaking Muslims are in extremely short supply, as are doctors and psychiatrists.

Indeed, the Army has been trying to train and keep psychiatrists such as Hasan for years amid mounting cases of post-traumatic stress disorder among soldiers returning from multiple tours in the war zone.

The ranks of Army psychiatrists suffer some of the most chronic shortages among the Army’s 27 medical specialties, according to the Government Accountability Office, Congress’ watchdog. Physicians in general are in short supply. The Army fell short 159 doctors over the eight-year period ending in 2008, meeting only 93 percent of its goal of 2,421 physicians, the GAO found.

Some doctors are being forced to remain in uniform under the Pentagon’s “stop loss” authority that enables the military to keep soldiers beyond their official enlistment limits. At least 11,000 soldiers in the Army, the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard are being retained under “stop loss” rules.

Majors are needed

Hasan also was a valuable find for the military because he helped fill another need: Majors.

Because of enlistment cutbacks dating back to the end of the Cold War, the Army faces a shortage of midlevel officers, including a 15 percent shortage of majors in the medical corps. To ease a looming shortage of 3,000 majors, the Army has put young captains on the fast track to the rank of major. A decade ago, 78.1 percent of captains were promoted to the rank of major. In the past year, that percentage jumped to 94.1 percent.

Because of shortages among specialists — and also to maintain troop levels needed to fight two wars — the Army also has been forced to periodically rewrite standards for incoming recruits to keep up a flow of more than 70,000 enlistees each year.

It raised the maximum enlistment age from 34 to 42 in 2006. Fitness standards have been pushed to the breaking point: 25 percent of prospective recruits between the ages of 17 and 24 are now deemed medically obese — five times the percentage in the 1980s.

Educational standards have slipped, as well. The Army accepted nearly 14,200 high school dropouts among 67,395 incoming recruits without prior military service in 2007, for example.

The Army also has been flexible on recruits’ prior criminal activity. It granted 10,236 waivers for misconduct including felonies and 4,962 medical waivers including failure to pass drug or alcohol entrance tests to enlist 67,395 new recruits in 2007.

“They’ve taken people in who should not be in — and they’re promoting people quickly who should not be promoted,” said Korb, the military manpower expert. “Now we have to live with that.”

An Army Recruiting Command spokesman, Douglas Smith, says the service retains “high recruiting standards” with the quality of the force “always top priority.” But the military also offers “deserving individuals who have overcome mistakes an opportunity to realize their potential to be high performing soldiers.”

The nation’s deep recession has freed the Army to raise entrance standards again as more civilians flee poor job prospects in the economy to join the armed forces.

The Army is drawing its highest percentage of high school graduates since 1996, with 58,836 of the 61,933 recruits in fiscal 2009 holding high school diplomas.

Because of the manpower shortages, some lawmakers are asking if the military is ignoring potential warning signs in individual cases.

Hasan, for example, won a crucial promotion two years after cautioning colleagues at Walter Reed Army Medical Center that Muslims needed leeway to leave the Army as conscientious objectors to “decrease adverse events.” He reportedly said that the Koran took precedence over the U.S. Constitution.

But his superiors and his psychiatric colleagues apparently never had him evaluated on either security or psychological grounds.

Background checks

Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee panel that handles military readiness, says the Army needs to “conduct a good, good background check on these people.”

“We need to ask, before these people become officers or are accepted into specialty schools like medical doctors, psychiatrists and psychologists, about their commitment to our nation,” Ortiz said.

Hasan’s ability to remain in the military also raises questions about the lack of coordination between U.S. intelligence services. Months before Hasan pinned on the golden oak leaves of an Army major, he exchanged e-mails with a radical Islamic cleric in Yemen who knew three of the 9/11 hijackers and once presided over a mosque in Falls Church, Va., attended by Hasan.

The e-mails came to the attention of a joint FBI counterterrorism task force last year, but the exchange was never shared with intelligence agencies — an oversight that President Barack Obama ordered investigated on Thursday.

stewart.powell@chron.com

gmartin@express-news.net

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