This and That...

[Warph]

Rep. Trey Gowdy: Lawmakers Not Told Of 1000s Of NSA Privacy Violations,
"I'm Worried About The Republic"

(He gets the seriousness of where we are at.  If only we could clone Gowdy and Ted Cruz, and elect them in every district)

Via The Hill:
Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said late Friday that he doubts that members of Congress were briefed on the on the several thousands of privacy violations carried out by the National Security Agency (NSA) that were revealed earlier this week.

An internal NSA audit and other documents leaked by Edward Snowden revealed that the agency had broken its own privacy rules and violated privacy rights of citizens thousands of times since 2008, according to The Washington Post.

"I wonder how many of my colleagues in Congress were briefed that there were thousands of errors made with respect to this program, because I have a sneaking suspicion the number is zero," said Gowdy on Fox News.

"That's how many of my colleagues were told ahead of time before we had to learn from a leaker to a newspaper that there were thousands of violations."

Many members of Congress, including Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who is charged with overseeing the NSA, have said they were not made aware of the audit until recently.
And Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has called for a hearing on the matter when Congress returns next month.

Gowdy said he's been hearing a great roar of dissatisfaction and distrust from voters in his South Carolina district, and that Congress needs to take serious steps to fix its oversight capabilities of highly secretive intelligence operations, like those carried out by the NSA.

"If we don't get that figured out, I'm not worried about winning elections, I'm worried about the republic," said Gowdy. "People who are governed have consented to be governed [and] have to have trust in the people we have put in positions of responsibility."



http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/317511-gowdy-doubts-lawmakers-were-briefed-on-nsa-privacy-breaches

[Warph]

Woman Holds Two Men Hostage Till One Will Have Sex With Her

(There are no words...)

Via News4Jax:
http://www.news4jax.com/news/police-woman-holds-men-hostage-for-sex/-/475880/21508486/-/jxd6qf/-/index.html


A Wisconsin woman is in jail after being accused of holding two men against their will and forcing one of them to have sex with her.

Terry L. Boyd, 52, was arrested on Monday and charged with false imprisonment, obstructing an officer, disorderly conduct and bail jumping for two separate incidents where she imprisoned men, one of whom was her roommate.

The first incident happened around 3:49 a.m. Monday when officers responded to a call from neighbors who heard a loud argument and a man screaming for help.

Officers arrived to see Boyd blocking the entrance. One of the men in the incident threw a set of keys to the cops who then forced their way into the house, according to the Wisconsin Rapids Tribune.

The men told the officers that the suspect refused to let them leave until one of them had sex with her. The male victims were rescued but told police they did not want to press charges, according to the police report.

[Warph]

As Egypt Burns Obuma Cycles Into Action

 

(Okay... you got me: the President isn't doing anything about Egypt... other than asking the State Department to support the Muslim Brotherhood.  Here's the bicycle Clown and dog Mooch taking quick action after word that hundreds have been slaughtered in Egypt:

Oh...  And besides those decisive actions, the President met with writer/actor Larry David.  On the golf course.  For the 140th time)

[Warph]

COLOR MRI SCANS: Your Brain Before and After a 20-Minute Walk

Interesting verification of the synergy between mental and physical health.


This great graphic is really an MRI of the brain. It was posted by Maria Popova on her always stimulating blog, Explore. The MRI was provided by Dr. Chuck Hillman from the University of Illinois...

...It shows that after a 20-minute walk there is increased brain activity and the particular type of activity is generally associated with happiness.

It is a useful reminder of the interconnectedness of the mind and body (with apologies to the usual dualism presented). It is also a good reminder that by exercising our bodies, we also reinvigorate of brains.

(Interestingly, Biff Spackle was able to secure an MRI scan of a typical liberal progressive's brain:)

[Warph]

Pictures of the Day

The Gun Is Civilization
Written March 23, 2007
by Marko Kloos

Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of either convincing me via argument or forcing me to do your bidding under threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories, without exception.

Reason or force, that's it.

In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of social interaction and the only thing that removes force from the menu is the personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.

When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have to use reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your threat or employment of force.

The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree on equal footing witha19-year old gang banger, and a single guy on equal footing with a car load of drunken guys with baseball bats.

The gun removes the disparity in physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender.

There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad force equations. These are the people who think that we'd be more civilized if all guns were removed from society, because a firearm makes it easier for a[armed] mugger to do his job. That, of course, is only true if the mugger's potential victims are mostly disarmed either by choice or by legislative fiat–it has no validity when most of a mugger's potential marks are armed.

People who argue for the banning of arms ask for automatic rule by the young, the strong, and the many, and that's the exact opposite of a civilized society. A mugger, even an armed one, can only make a successful living in a society where the state has granted him a force monopoly.

Then there's the argument that the gun makes confrontations lethal that otherwise would only result in injury. This argument is fallacious in several ways. Without guns involved, confrontations are won by the physically superior party inflicting overwhelming injury on the loser.

People who think that fists, bats, sticks, or stones don't constitute lethal force, watch too much TV, where people take beatings and come out of it with a bloody lip at worst. The fact that the gun makes lethal force easier works solely in favor of the weaker defender, not the stronger attacker. If both are armed, the field is level.

The gun is the only weapon that's as lethal in the hands of an octogenarian as it is in the hands of a weight lifter. It simply wouldn't work as well as a force equalizer if it wasn't both lethal and easily employable.

When I carry a gun, I don't do so because I am looking for a fight, but because I'm looking to be left alone. The gun at my side means that I can not be forced, only persuaded. I don't carry it because I'm afraid, but because it enables me to be unafraid. It doesn't limit the actions of those who would interact with me through reason, only the actions of those who would do so by force. It removes force from the equation... and that's why carrying a gun is a civilized act.

[Warph]

(Wow... Alan Keyes Rips Obamanation.  No punches pulled here!)

[Warph]

Insight: After Disaster... the Deadliest Part of Japan's Nuclear Clean-Up

Fukushima, Japan: 3 Meltdowns and Counting.... Hold your breath for this one as things are going from very very bad to much worse.

It's a helluva hot mess... literally... with cancer up 40% in Japan since the disaster. That number is rising steadily and will continue for decades to come and it will not be confined to Japan.

The industry is treading in areas in which it has little to no knowledge and is about to take on the riskiest procedure ever , the removal of 400 tons of nuclear material without the aid of computers.  It holds the possibility of a chain reaction that would be terrible.

The situation in Fukushima, ignored by the mainstream media for the most part is pretty much uncontainable and is the worst nuclear disaster in history, far surpassing Chernobyl.

Fukushima features 3 meltdowns.  How many know that?

The chances of the rods breaking during the procedure are high.  The water being contained at the site is building up and the reactors themselves are becoming unstable.  This is the most radioactive water in history. There has never been anything like it.

Make no mistake, this will effect everyone on earth and just because mainstream media and bloggers ignore it doesn't make it go away.

...Warph

From Reuters:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/14/us-japan-fukushima-insight-idUSBRE97D00M20130814

"Containing radiation equivalent to 14,000 times the amount released in the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima 68 years ago, more than 1,300 used fuel rod assemblies packed tightly together need to be removed from a building that is vulnerable to collapse, should another large earthquake hit the area.

Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) is already in a losing battle to stop radioactive water overflowing from another part of the facility, and experts question whether it will be able to pull off the removal of all the assemblies successfully.

"They are going to have difficulty in removing a significant number of the rods," said Arnie Gundersen, a veteran U.S. nuclear engineer and director of Fairewinds Energy Education, who used to build fuel assemblies.

The operation, beginning this November at the plant's Reactor No. 4, is fraught with danger, including the possibility of a large release of radiation if a fuel assembly breaks, gets stuck or gets too close to an adjacent bundle, said Gundersen and other nuclear experts.

That could lead to a worse disaster than the March 2011 nuclear crisis at the Fukushima plant, the world's most serious since Chernobyl in 1986.

No one knows how bad it can get, but independent consultants Mycle Schneider and Antony Froggatt said recently in their World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2013: "Full release from the Unit-4 spent fuel pool, without any containment or control, could cause by far the most serious radiological disaster to date."
More Info:
http://www.livescience.com/38844-fukushima-radioactive-water-leaks.html

http://www.globalresearch.ca/fukushima-uncontainable/5345754

[Warph]

Via CNS News
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/john-kerry-little-thing-called-internet-makes-it-much-harder-govern#

"Well, folks, ever since the end of the Cold War, forces have been unleashed that were tamped down for centuries by dictators, and that was complicated further by this little thing called the internet and the ability of people everywhere to communicate instantaneously and to have more information coming at them in one day than most people can process in months or a year.

It makes it much harder to govern, makes it much harder to organize people, much harder to find the common interest," said Kerry,    "and that is complicated by a rise of sectarianism and religious extremism that is prepared to employ violent means to impose on other people a way of thinking and a way of living that is completely contrary to everything the United States of America has ever stood for.      So we need to keep in mind what our goals are and how complicated this world is that we're operating in."

..."Lurch" Kerry
Sec. of State


Come on, Lurch... I blame Al Gore who invented the internet in the first place... (just kidding, Venton Cerf).

Forces unleashed... like ravening wolves, Lurch?  'Tamp down' those forces!
 
That rotten internet makes propaganda so much more difficult.  How much  better when people are kept isolated and incommunicado, ignorant and unaware.   

This may be a new project for  NYC Mayor Bloomberg too.       

The internet giving people more than they can handle in a month or year?  Isn't that overload?  Can that be good for the mind?  It should be banned like soda ,electronic cigarettes and salt.
 
Times are tough, Lurch... but keep your chin up.  Perhaps you can run for president and solve the woes of internet, politics and  religion by bringing back the  heavy handed control our founding fathers tried to... 'Tamp Down.'

...Warph

[Warph]

Meanwhile Back at Fukushima.... Twice as much radioactive ground water is flowing into the ocean from Fukushima where the radioactive leaks are out of control as per official statements from Shinji Kinjo, an official at the Nuclear Regulation Authority.

*Tepco began paving over the area to keep out rainwater but it seems it has only accelerated the grave situation by causing the ground water to swell.

*Radioactive materials are entering the ocean at an ever growing rate, twice as much as officials once believed.       

*The situation is considered grave.  Strontium has been found to be leaking into the ocean.     

*The strontium level is 100 times that of cesium.


Via Nat Geo:http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2013/08/130807-fukushima-radioactive-water-leak/

"The makeup of the radioactive material being leaked by the plant has changed. [Ken Buesseler, a senior scientist with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution who has analyzed thousands of samples of fish from the area] said the initial leak had a high concentration of cesium isotopes, but the water flowing from the plant into the ocean now is likely to be proportionally much higher in strontium-90, another radioactive substance that is absorbed differently by the human body and has different risks. The tanks (on the plant site) have 100 times more strontium than cesium, Buesseler said. He believes that the cesium is retained in the soil under the plant, while strontium and tritium, another radioactive substance, are continuing to escape.

[...]

The higher concentration of strontium-90 that is now in the outflow poses a trickier problem, because it is a bone-seeking isotope. "Cesium is like salt—it goes in and out of your body quickly," he explains. "Strontium gets into your bones." While he's still not too concerned that fish caught off the U.S. coast will be affected, "strontium changes the equation for Japanese fisheries, as to when their fish will be safe to eat."

Pictures: The Nuclear Cleanup Struggle at Fukushima
Surveying a Reactor's Ruin
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2011/11/pictures/111111-nuclear-cleanup-struggle-at-fukushima/

[Warph]

*** A Prophecy Against Egypt ***

The burden of Egypt. Behold, the LORD rides upon a swift cloud, and comes to
Egypt; and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at His presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt within it.

And I will spur Egypt against Egypt; and they shall fight every one against his brother, and everyone against his neighbor; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.

And the spirit of Egypt shall be made empty within it; and I will make void the counsel thereof; and they shall seek unto the idols, and to the whisperers, and to the ghosts, and to the familiar spirits.

And I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the LORD of Hosts.
And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be drained dry....The Lord has mingled within her a spirit of confusion,and they will make Egypt stagger in all its deeds,like a drunken man staggers in his vomit.
And there will be nothing for Egypt that the head or tail, palm branch or reed, may do." (Isaiah 19:1)


"What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun."
...Ecclesiastes 1:9 NIV