What Adam Curry is reading

Obama Serves 14-State Governors With Warnings of Arrest: And why is this not front page news? | Opinion
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  Sat, 11 May 2013 06:58
  (Before It's News)
  by Ken LariveBarack Hussein Obama had served 14-State Governors in the United States, National Security Letters (NSLs) warning that the Governor's actions in attempting to form ''State Defense Forces'' needs to be halted ''immediately'' or they will face arrest for the crime of treason. The employment of NSLs was authorized by the Patriot Act introduced by George W. Bush. Contained within the section related to these letters, it is forbidden for anyone receiving a NSL warning to even acknowledge the existence of said communication.
  Obama is angered by the several State Governors who have reestablished ''State Defense Forces.'' These forces are described as: ''State Defense Forces (also known as State Guards, State Military Reserves, State Militias) in the United States are military units that operate under the sole authority of a state government; they are not regulated by the National Guard Bureau nor are they part of the Army National Guard of the United States. State Defense Forces are authorized by state and federal law and are under the command of the governor of each state. State Defense Forces are distinct from their state's National Guard in that they cannot become federal entities.''
  Mr. Obama is fearful of these State Defense Forces, in that he does not have control of said forces, and with the U.S. Military stretched to near breaking from multiple deployments and theatre actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, these State military forces would be under the direct command and authority of the Governors in which states have said forces. In essence, the Governors would have ''de facto control'' of the United States.
  The two Governors leading this move are: Tim Pawlenty, Governor of Minnesota; and Rick Perry, Governor of Texas. Both of these State Governors stated they have: '''...deep fear the President is destroying their Nation.'' Governor Pawlenty's fear of Obama is that since Obama took office he has appeased America's enemies and has shunned some of America's strongest allies, especially Israel. Governor Perry has declared that Obama is punishing his State of Texas by dumping tens-of-thousands of illegal Mexican immigrants into the cities and small towns of Texas. Governor Perry further recently stated: ''If Barack Obama's Washington doesn't stop being so oppressive, Texans might feel compelled to renounce their American citizenry and secede from the union.''
  Obama fearing a revolution against him by the states, has moved swiftly by nationalizing nearly all National Guard Forces in multiple states; Georgia, Alabama, Kansas, Minnesota, Tennessee, Virginia, Louisiana, South Carolina '' to name a few. The Governors of the Great States of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia still have under their Command-and-Control the State Defense Forces to go against U.S. Federal forces should the need arise. Also important to note: There are NO U.S. laws prohibiting National Guard troops from also joining their State's Defense Forces. This dilemma occurred during the Civil War with many ''citizen soldiers'' choosing to serve their states instead of the Federal Government.
  This is a fluid and still developing situation that warrants close attention.
  Source: http://itmakessenseblog.com/2013/05/07/obama-serves-14-state-governors-with-warnings-of-arrest-and-why-is-this-not-front-page-news/
'Hawaii Five-o' Kidnapping Episode Eerily Mirrors Cleveland-Based Horrors
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  Fri, 10 May 2013 12:43
  Viewers of CBS's Hawaii Five-O didn't have to imagine this scenario May 6.
  By now, most readers will have heard of the discovery of three women, Amanda Berry (now 27), Michelle Knight (now 32) and Gina DeJesus (now 23), all of whom had been kidnapped in their teens or early 20s in Cleveland.
  Spoilers to follow...
  The CBS show's episode Ho'opio (To Take Captive) told the story of a girl (coincidentally also Amanda) who had been kidnapped at the age 7 ten years ago. Her body is found shot in the back and dumped in a shallow grave. The Five-O team initially is investigating the young woman's murder when a hair found on the body takes them in a different direction. They expected the hair to be from the girl's abductor, but instead discover it belongs to another little girl--Ella--who was taken only a day before the discovery of Amanda's body.
  Now they have a second kidnapping and must race to find little Ella before the trail goes cold.
  At first the team arrests a thug who was seen in a van with tires fitting the pattern of tracks found at scene of Amanda's murder. But soon they discover that the creep was actually casing homes for a string of burglaries in Ella's neighborhood. He's a criminal but not their kidnapper.
  Video surveillance of an intersection near Ella's home brings another lead, when Detective Chin Ho Kelly (Daniel Dae Kim) notices a blue car passing through the intersection six times in less than an hour. Enhancement of the video shows them that the driver is a woman wearing a Honolulu Police Department uniform. The car's tags give them a name, and they quickly determine the woman is not a cop.
  When Five-O raids her home, the woman kills herself rather than being arrested. After searching the home they ascertain that Ella is not there and that the woman is a serial abductor. Her closet is full of uniforms that would make children trust her--police, nurse, even a nun. They also find cash and evidence of false identification for Ella.
  This is when the motive for both Amanda and Ella's kidnappings becomes clear. Whoever took both girls wanted the welfare money and they needed a minor child to collect it by posing as the parents. With Amanda about to turn 18, she not only was of no use to them, she had become a liability.
  Once Five-O determined who was collecting the checks, they were able to go directly to their home. But when they arrive the couple, played by Mare Winningham and Henry Rollins, feign ignorance. McGarrett (Alex O'Loughlin) discovers the secret room where the girls were both held, but Ella is not present. Winningham's character is convinced to admit that Ella was there after McGarrett shows her Amanda's dead body (apparently she didn't know, or didn't want to know that her husband had disposed of her), but she only knows that Rollins has hidden Ella, but not where.
  That brings us to Detective Danny Williams (Scott Caan). Readers may remember that in a previous episode ''Danno'' railed against a legitimate gun shop owner for not keeping records of ammunition sales, which are not required by law. But in this episode the ''good cop'' has no problem beating the information out Rollins' character to find out what he wants to know, the law be damned. Danno takes off his badge and McGarrett walks away as Williams beats Rollins' character--off screen--until he tells him where Ella is.
  There is, of course, a happy ending, when the team finds Ella buried alive in a field, but otherwise unharmed.
  We don't yet know the motive(s) behind the real life abductions in Cleveland. And there's no reason at this point to believe that welfare fraud was involved this case (though it could be). But the creepy coincidence of this story, which was obviously written and filmed before the discovery of these three women, is uncanny.
  In both the show and reality girls named Amanda were kidnapped and held hostage for a decade. What are the odds of those two coincidences and then the show actually airing on the very night the women are found?
OUTRAGE! Obama Administration Allowed Radical Cleric to Curse US Navy SEAL Heroes at Funeral Services (Video & Transcript) | The Gateway Pundit
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  Fri, 10 May 2013 12:42
  Islamic Cleric Cursed US Heroes at Their Funeral''Obama Administration complicit.
  This combo shows the 30 troops killed in a helicopter downing in Afghanistan on Saturday, Aug. 6, 2011. The Pentagon on Thursday, Aug. 11, 2011 identified the Americans as 17 members of the elite Navy SEALs, five Naval Special Warfare personnel who support the SEALs, three Air Force Special Operations personnel and an Army helicopter crew of five. (AP Photo)
  Today three families of Navy SEAL Team VI special forces servicemen, along with one family of an Army National Guardsman, appeared at a press conference to disclose never before revealed information about how and why their sons along with 26 others died in a fatal helicopter crash in Afghanistan on August 6, 2011. This was just months after the successful raid on the Bin Laden compound in Pakistan.
  At the press conference today the families released video on how military brass, while prohibiting any mention of a Judeo-Christian God, invited a Muslim cleric to the funeral for the fallen Navy SEAL Team VI heroes. This cleric disparaged in Arabic the memory of these servicemen by damning them as infidels to Allah. A video of the Muslim cleric's ''prayer'' was shown this morning with a certified translation.
  This will break your heart.From the funeral services at Bagram Air Force BaseHere is the radical cleric's curse on our fallen SEALs.
  Amen. I shelter in Allah from the devil who has been cast with stones.In the name of Allah the merciful forgiver.The companions of ''THE FIRE''(The sinners and infidels who are fodder for the hell fire)ARE NOT EQUAL WITH the companions of heaven.The companions of heaven (Muslims) are the WINNERS.Had he sent this Koran to the mountain, you would have seen the mountain prostrated in fear of Allah.(Mocking the GOD of Moses)Such examples are what we present to the people, so that they would think.(repent and convert to Islam)Blessings are to your God (Allah) the God of glory and what they describe.And peace be upon the messengers (prophets) and thanks be to Allah the lord of both universes (mankind and Jinn).
  For the record '' Political correctness killed these heroes '' then political correctness allowed them to be insulted at their funeral service.
  Are there any courageous Christians left in this country?Are there any Christians willing to stand up for their faith?
Pro Libertate: Sheriff Bradshaw and the Palm Beach County Psihuska
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  Fri, 10 May 2013 12:40
  ''What does it hurt,'' asked Sheriff Ric Bradshaw of Florida's Palm Beach County, ''to have somebody knock on the door and ask, `Hey, is everything OK?'''The answer to that question obviously depends on the identity of the ''Somebody'' who is making that inquiry. What Sheriff Bradshaw had in mind was a strike force composed of deputies, social workers, and ''mental health'' professionals from a ''Behavioral Sciences Unit'' (BSU) who would be on-call twenty-four hours a day, ready to be deployed to visit the homes of what the Soviets used to call ''socially dangerous people.'' In the Soviet Union, such people would often be involuntarily committed to a psihuska, or psychiatric prison.''We want people to call us if the guy down the street says he hates the government, hates the mayor and he's gonna shoot him,'' Bradhsaw told the Palm Beach Post in describing the BSU, which would be funded through a $1 million grant from the state government. That grant hasn't been formalized, but if the state legislature balks, it's quite likely the Feds will chip in: In a speech last February 6 to the Alliance of DelRay Residential Organizations, Bradshaw said that he would prefer to fund the unit ''through a federal grant.''This is precisely the kind of pilot program the Feds would find worthwhile '' indeed, it represents a model of ''preventive intervention'' that the federal government has been promoting for at least two decades.During her reign of terror as Dade County Prosecutor '' in which she displayed unalloyed viciousness in tearing children from their homes and persecuting innocent parents '' Reno created ''Neighborhood Resource Teams'' teams composed of ''community-friendly, highly respected police officers, social workers, public health nurses, [and] community organizers, working full time within a narrow neighborhood,'' she recalled in a May 1993 speech to the National Forum on Prevention of Crime and Violence.Reno had the temerity to offer her program as a national model just weeks after presiding over the April 19 holocaust at Waco, where she and her underlings provided the indispensable service of annihilating dozens of innocent children after torturing them for fifty-one days.Like Reno, Bradshaw describes the purpose of his proposed Behavioral Science Unit in therapeutic terms. The objective, he insists, is ''violence prevention'' and ''referral to services,'' rather than an arrest. To those on the receiving end of that intervention, this distinction is entirely theoretical: Being taken into custody by armed strangers is an arrest, irrespective of the semantic camouflage, and every encounter between the public and the State's costumed enforcers is pregnant with life-threatening violence against the innocent.Employing the services of ''mental health professionals'' to certify that people are dangerous to themselves or others would negate the need for an actual criminal prosecution. And for Bradshaw, the most potent indicator that a given individual is a ''socially dangerous person'' is a hatred for the institutionalized affliction called ''government.''The man accused of shooting Rep. Gabrielle Giffords ''was telling other people about how much he hated government and government officials,'' Bradshaw told his audience. The assumption here is that such opinions are symptoms of incipient criminal behavior. This is why the sheriff intends to create a 24-hour tipline through which neighbors, family, friends, and others can inform on people who display such dangerous attitudes.''It's the same principle that's used by the Secret Service that's very successful,'' he insisted. The S.S. has a hotline that can be used to report impious and supposedly threatening comments about the murderous bureaucrat who occupies the Oval Office, on the assumption that blasphemy against the divine person of the Dear Leader is itself a criminal act.While Bradshaw and others of his ilk regard idle words to be dangerous, if not criminal, they can't see how people could perceive a threat in the sudden, unsolicited presence of armed state functionaries on their doorstep. After all, asks the sheriff, what would it hurt to send his deputies to confront people who aren't suspected of a crime?If he possessed a particle of honesty, Sheriff Bradshaw would pose that question to Dennis Gaydos, and listen carefully to the answer. Because of the kind ministrations of Bradshaw's deputies, Gaydos is now missing an ear and an eye.What makes his case an even more compelling precautionary example is the fact that, according to a lawsuit he filed against Bradshaw, Gaydos '' a homeless man -- had ''contacted a local assistance agency by telephone for the purpose of a referral for residential resources, financial aid, and general counseling.'' While he was on the phone, the helpful social workers with whom he was speaking made a ''referral'' of their own to Bradshaw's agency, which responded by dispatching a SWAT team.Gaydos had established a shelter on a parcel of land behind a church. The pastor in charge of the congregation had given Gaydos permission to be there. Shortly after Gaydos called for help, a combined tactical force composed of deputies from the sheriff's office and officers from the Palm Springs Police Department -- kitted out in paramilitary drag, carrying the familiar assortment of weapons, and supplemented with a helicopter -- set up a staging area near Gaydos's shelter.Although they were dealing with a sickly, unarmed homeless man who was not a criminal suspect, the Berserkers treated the incident as a combat situation. As they approached the encampment, Gaydos '' who was holding his cell phone '' stood up. Without a word of warning, he was shot twice in the head with rubber bullets. The first round damaged an ear; the second one destroyed his left eye. The assailants later tried to justify the head shots by claiming that they had seen a knife in Gaydos's hand '' but since no knife was ever recovered, this can be dismissed as a self-serving lie of the kind routinely offered by police officers after they kill or mutilate an innocent person.About a year before the PBSO participated in the assault that mutilated Gaydos, Captain David Carhart, the head of the department's violent crimes division, was purged from the force following multiple incidents in which he broke into the home of former girlfriends. One of them, Tracey Seberg, filed a complaint with the sheriff's office '' and Carhart responded by threatening to kill her if she didn't retract it. According to Seberg, Carhart told her that he ''felt like God when in uniform'' and thus didn't believe that he was subject to the rules that apply to mere Mundanes.Although Carhart faced up to 15 years in prison for burglary and stalking, he was demoted to lieutenant and then quietly dismissed from the department in a mass layoff, receiving a $120,000 severance package.Neither Burrows nor Carhart is presently available for duty with the Behavioral Science Unit. However, Sheriff Bradshaw will be able to make use of the services of Sgt. Brent Raban, a sociopath who was discharged from the force after boasting about his habit of beating suspects '' and then reinstated, with the expectation of $150,000 in back pay, through the intervention of the police union.Like the members of a hyper-violent police gang in Milwaukee, Sgt. Raban has an adolescent fixation on a comic book character called the Punisher. This wouldn't be a problem to anybody else if Raban hadn't been given a state-issued costume and official permission to act out his violent fantasies on helpless people. He advertised his intentions by accessorizing his costume with a camouflage-colored skullcap displaying the word ''Punishment.''''It's not crime-fighting '' I'm dealing out PUNISHMENT!'' observed Raban in a 2009 Facebook post written while he was patrolling Belle Glade, a city whose residents are besieged by both private crime and officially-sanctioned police violence. Raban wasn't concerned about facing charges, he gloated, because ''Like a good batterer, I know the areas that hide the marks well.'' In another post he complained that it had been at least two weeks since he had beaten somebody, and that this prolonged dry spell had left him ''itchy.''When on-shift opportunities to beat handcuffed suspects became scarce, Raban found other ways to indulge what his boss calls a ''propensity and inclination to go do violent things.'' On one occasion he parked his squad car behind a school bus that was decanting young children, turned on his blue lights, and used his PA system to insult and upbraid parents who were picking up their kids '' most likely in the hope that one of them would be provoked into offering him an excuse to inflict ''punishment.''He was eventually fired after a woman in his neighborhood complained that he had parked his patrol car on the sidewalk in front of her home and used his position as a deputy to harass her family. By that time, Sheriff Bradshaw '' who had reluctantly been forced to have Raban sign a ''last-chance contract'' '' was compelled to fire Raban. But in Florida, as is the case in most other states, it is practically impossible to fire a law enforcement officer.In April of this year, an arbitrator ordered Bradshaw to reinstate Raban and pay him back wages. According to the people responsible for imposing ''accountability'' on law enforcement officers, Raban's sociopathic behavior does not disqualify him for service as a Palm Beach County Deputy '' which may well include working with the BSU to visit and take into custody people anonymously accused of ''hating the government.'' After all, what other personality type would be interested in a job of that kind? Thank you, thank you, thank you!My friends, I am indebted beyond measure for your unfathomably generous response to the appeal I posted a couple of weeks ago. During that interval I have spent most of my time flat on my back while undergoing daily (for a while, twice-daily) antibiotic treatments.I'm still facing weeks of treatment, but things are looking immeasurably better now than they did two weeks ago, and our prospects have been made much brighter through the immense and Providential generosity you have displayed to me and my family. Thank you so much for your help; your kindness has literally reduced me to tears on several occasions.Without intending to slight anybody who has helped us, I want to make special public mention of Lew Rockwell, Ernie Hancock, Scott Horton, and Dr. Stan Monteith, each of whom used his influence to let many other people know about my plight. I intend to express personal thanks to everybody who has donated to help us out in this crisis, as well. God bless all of you -- and thank you, once again, on behalf of my entire family.
Bakersfield man dies in custody of Sheriff's deputies | KGET TV 17
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  Fri, 10 May 2013 12:32
  BAKERSFIELD, CA - A 33-year-old Bakersfield man died in Sheriff's Department custody Wednesday morning after an eight-minute fight with deputies in front of Kern Medical Center.Deputies said the man, David Silva, was immediately combative and fought to avoid arrest.
  But, that account is disputed by eyewitnesses who say they videotaped the confrontation and then fought all day to keep the Sheriff's Department from taking their tape.
  Deputies said they had to use batons and a police dog to subdue Silva during the fight.
  "The suspect continued to resist the deputies and fight with the deputies," said Ray Pruitt, Kern County Sheriff's Department.
  Silva died at Kern Medical Center shortly after he was taken into custody around 12:40 a.m.
  Pruitt said it took five deputies and two CHP officers to get Silva under control.
  "There were no tasers deployed. It's my understanding there was no pepper spray," added Pruitt.
  But, there's another side to this story in southwest Bakersfield.
  Detectives knocked on the door of Melissa Quair around 2 a.m. seeking two cell phones.
  She didn't want to go on camera but said the family was at KMC visiting a relative overnight. They didn't just witness what happened with Silva, they captured it on video.
  "The first phone they seized they basically said 'you can do this the easy way or the hard way.' The hard way is they are going to keep him up all night until they could find a judge to sign a search warrant. It was a little heavy-handed on the part of the officers. These were just well-meaning citizens who videotaped an incident and had no grudge against anybody and doing what they could as citizens and yet they were treated as criminals," said attorney John Tello.
  The family hired attorney John Tello to represent them. They say the video shows Silva did nothing to provoke deputies.
  "Just listening to them. It's going to show numerous officers beating a man who was basically unconscious. And, they're claiming, I haven't verified this, the individual was handcuffed behind his back and those handcuffs were attached to the leggings on his feet," added Tello.
  Deputies eventually obtained a search warrant and left with both phones.
  "Anybody will tell you, you hogtie a person, it depresses the diaphragm and the person can't breathe and the person may die," said Tello.
  An autopsy is scheduled for Thursday to determine how Silva died.
  Silva pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of disturbing the peace in 2008. A drunk and disorderly case was dismissed in 2010.
Massive Disaster Drill Planned at Pennsylvania Amusement Park on May 13 - | Intellihub.com
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  Fri, 10 May 2013 12:30
  Photo: Dark Government
  By JG VibesIntellihub.comMay 4, 2013
  The Drill will take place on May 13th at an amusement park called ''Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom'' in central Pennsylvania, and will involve hundreds of emergency responders from around the country.
  While there is a very significant probability that this will only be a drill, it is important to get the word out about these exercises before they actually happen so people are already aware if the drill does go live.
  According to a local news source:
  With the terror of the Boston Marathon fresh in mind, Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom will be the site of a large-scale emergency preparedness drill on May 13. The drill, sponsored by the Northeast Pennsylvania Regional Counter Terrorism Task Force, will center on an emergency incident at the amusement park in South Whitehall Township, replicating ''a hazardous condition with multiple casualties during the peak of the park's summer season,'' according to a township news release.
  ''When an emergency occurs you always revert to the manner in which you have been trained, and during an emergency it's too late to exchange business cards,'' task force manager Robert G. Werts said.
  ''The goals of [the task force] are to provide training for emergency personnel who will respond to the dangerous conditions they confront and allow those persons to become familiar with the needs and operational abilities of other first responders prior to arriving at an actual emergency,'' Werts said.
  ''Dorney Park is pleased to work with this group of federal, state and local agencies to assist in their training efforts,'' said Jason McClure, the park's vice president and general manager.
  the article also mentioned that participants will include the South Whitehall Emergency Management Agency and police department; Lehigh Valley Hazmat/Special Operations; Cetronia Ambulance Corps and Cetronia Fire Department; Lehigh County 911; the Lehigh County coroner's office; Lehigh Valley Health Network and St. Luke's University Health Network; and the Allentown and Bethlehem fire departments.
  This may only just be a drill as they are saying it is, but these drills are important to look out for, because all too often when something goes wrong, the government is coincidentally staging a drill nearby.
  ******
  Read more articles by this author HERE.
  Follow my updates at www.facebook.com/jgvibes
  J.G. Vibes is the author of an 87 chapter counter-culture textbook called Alchemy of the Modern Renaissance, a staff writer, reporter for Intellihub.com and Executive Producer of the Bob Tuskin Radio Show.You can keep up with his work, which includes free podcasts, free e-books & free audiobooks at his website www.aotmr.com
I'm still here: back online after a year without the internet | The Verge
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  Fri, 10 May 2013 12:26
  I was wrong.
  One year ago I left the internet. I thought it was making me unproductive. I thought it lacked meaning. I thought it was "corrupting my soul."
  It's a been a year now since I "surfed the web" or "checked my email" or "liked" anything with a figurative rather than literal thumbs up. I've managed to stay disconnected, just like I planned. I'm internet free.
  And now I'm supposed to tell you how it solved all my problems. I'm supposed to be enlightened. I'm supposed to be more "real," now. More perfect.
  But instead it's 8PM and I just woke up. I slept all day, woke with eight voicemails on my phone from friends and coworkers. I went to my coffee shop to consume dinner, the Knicks game, my two newspapers, and a copy of The New Yorker. And now I'm watching Toy Story while I glance occasionally at the blinking cursor in this text document, willing it to write itself, willing it to generate the epiphanies my life has failed to produce.
  I didn't want to meet this Paul at the tail end of my yearlong journey.
  In early 2012 I was 26 years old and burnt out. I wanted a break from modern life '-- the hamster wheel of an email inbox, the constant flood of WWW information which drowned out my sanity. I wanted to escape.
  I thought the internet might be an unnatural state for us humans, or at least for me. Maybe I was too ADD to handle it, or too impulsive to restrain my usage. I'd used the internet constantly since I was twelve, and as my livelihood since I was fourteen. I'd gone from paperboy, to web designer, to technology writer in under a decade. I didn't know myself apart from a sense of ubiquitous connection and endless information. I wondered what else there was to life. "Real life," perhaps, was waiting for me on the other side of the web browser.
  My plan was to quit my job, move home with my parents, read books, write books, and wallow in my spare time. In one glorious gesture I'd outdo all quarter-life crises to come before me. I'd find the real Paul, far away from all the noise, and become a better me.
  My goal would be to discover what the internet had done to me over the yearsBut for some reason, The Verge wanted to pay me to leave the internet. I could stay in New York and share my findings with the world, beam missives about my internet-free life to the citizens of the internet I'd left behind, sprinkle wisdom on them from my high tower.
  My goal, as a technology writer, would be to discover what the internet had done to me over the years. To understand the internet by studying it "at a distance." I wouldn't just become a better human, I would help us all to become better humans. Once we understood the ways in which the internet was corrupting us, we could finally fight back.
  At 11:59PM on April 30th, 2012, I unplugged my Ethernet cable, shut off my Wi-Fi, and swapped my smartphone for a dumb one. It felt really good. I felt free.
  A couple weeks later, I found myself among 60,000 ultra-Orthodox Jews, pouring into New York's Citi Field to learn from the world's most respected rabbis about the dangers of the internet. Naturally. Outside the stadium, I was spotted by a man brandishing one of my own articles about leaving the internet. He was ecstatic to meet me. I had chosen to avoid the internet for many of the same reasons his religion expressed caution about the modern world.
  "It's reprogramming our relationships, our emotions, and our sensitivity," said one of the rabbis at the rally. It destroys our patience. It turns kids into "click vegetables."
  My new friend outside the stadium encouraged me to make the most of my year, to "stop and smell the flowers."
  This was going to be amazing.
  I dreamed a dreamAnd everything started out great, let me tell you. I did stop and smell the flowers. My life was full of serendipitous events: real life meetings, frisbee, bike rides, and Greek literature. With no clear idea how I did it, I wrote half my novel, and turned in an essay nearly every week to The Verge. In one of the early months my boss expressed slight frustration at how much I was writing, which has never happened before and never happened since.
  I lost 15 pounds without really trying. I bought some new clothes. People kept telling me how good I looked, how happy I seemed. In one session, my therapist literally patted himself on the back.
  I was a little bored, a little lonely, but I found it a wonderful change of pace. I wrote in August, "It's the boredom and lack of stimulation that drives me to do things I really care about, like writing and spending time with others." I was pretty sure I had it all figured out, and told everyone as much.
  As my head uncluttered, my attention span expanded. In my first month or two, 10 pages of The Odyssey was a slog. Now I can read 100 pages in a sitting, or, if the prose is easy and I'm really enthralled, a few hundred.
  I learned to appreciate an idea that can't be summed up in a blog post, but instead needs a novel-length exposition. By pulling away from the echo chamber of internet culture, I found my ideas branching out in new directions. I felt different, and a little eccentric, and I liked it.
  Without the retreat of a smartphone, I was forced to come out of my shell in difficult social situations. Without constant distraction, I found I was more aware of others in the moment. I couldn't have all my interactions on Twitter anymore; I had to find them in real life. My sister, who has dealt with the frustration of trying to talk to me while I'm half listening, half computing for her entire life, loves the way I talk to her now. She says I'm less detached emotionally, more concerned with her well-being '-- less of a jerk, basically.
  Additionally, and I don't know what this has to do with anything, but I cried during Les Miserables.
  It seemed then, in those first few months, that my hypothesis was right. The internet had held me back from my true self, the better Paul. I had pulled the plug and found the light.
  Back to realityWhen I left the internet I expected my journal entries to be something like, "I used a paper map today and it was hilarious!" or "Paper books? What are these!?" or "Does anyone have an offline copy of Wikipedia I can borrow?" That didn't happen.
  For the most part, the practical aspects of this year passed by with little notice. I have no trouble navigating New York by feel, and I buy paper maps to get around other places. It turns out paper books are really great. I don't comparison shop to buy plane tickets, I just call Delta and take what they offer.
  In fact, most things I was learning could be realized with or without an internet connection '-- you don't need to go on a yearlong internet fast to realize your sister has feelings.
  But one big change was snail mail. I got a PO Box this year, and I can't tell you how much of a joy it was to see the box stuffed with letters from readers. It's something tangible, and something hard to simulate with an e-card.
  In neatly spaced, precisely adorable lettering, one girl wrote on a physical piece of paper: "Thank you for leaving the internet." Not as an insult, but as a compliment. That letter meant the world to me.
  But then I felt bad, because I never wrote back.
  And then, for some reason, even going to the post office sounded like work. I began to dread the letters and almost resent them.
  As it turned out, a dozen letters a week could prove to be as overwhelming as a hundred emails a day. And that was the way it went in most aspects of my life. A good book took motivation to read, whether I had the internet as an alternative or not. Leaving the house to hang out with people took just as much courage as it ever did.
  By late 2012, I'd learned how to make a new style of wrong choices off the internet. I abandoned my positive offline habits, and discovered new offline vices. Instead of taking boredom and lack of stimulation and turning them into learning and creativity, I turned toward passive consumption and social retreat.
  A year in, I don't ride my bike so much. My frisbee gathers dust. Most weeks I don't go out with people even once. My favorite place is the couch. I prop my feet up on the coffee table, play a video game, and listen to an audiobook. I pick a mindless game, like Borderlands 2 or Skate 3, and absently thumb the sticks through the game-world while my mind rests on the audiobook, or maybe just on nothing.
  People who need peopleSo the moral choices aren't very different without the internet. The practical things like maps and offline shopping aren't hard to get used to. People are still glad to point you in the right direction. But without the internet, it's certainly harder to find people. It's harder to make a phone call than to send an email. It's easier to text, or SnapChat, or FaceTime, than drop by someone's house. Not that these obstacles can't be overcome. I did overcome them at first, but it didn't last.
  It's hard to say exactly what changed. I guess those first months felt so good because I felt the absence of the pressures of the internet. My freedom felt tangible. But when I stopped seeing my life in the context of "I don't use the internet," the offline existence became mundane, and the worst sides of myself began to emerge.
  I would stay at home for days at a time. My phone would die, and nobody could get ahold of me. At some point my parents would get fed up with wondering if I was alive, and send my sister over to my apartment to check on me. On the internet it was easy to assure people I was alive and sane, easy to collaborate with my coworkers, easy to be a relevant part of society.
  So much ink has been spilled deriding the false concept of a "Facebook friend," but I can tell you that a "Facebook friend" is better than nothing.
  My best long-distance friend, one I'd talked to weekly on the phone for years, moved to China this year and I haven't spoken to him since. My best New York friend simply faded into his work, as I failed to keep up my end of our social plans.
  I fell out of sync with the flow of life.
  there's a lot of "reality" in the virtual, and a lot of "virtual" in our realityThis March I went to, ironically, a conference in New York called "Theorizing the Web." It was full of post-grad types presenting complicated papers about the definition of reality and what feminism looks like in a post-digital age, and things like that. At first I was a little smug, because I felt like they were dealing with mere theories, theories that assumed the internet was in everything, while I myself was experiencing a life apart.
  But then I spoke with Nathan Jurgenson, a 'net theorist who helped organize the conference. He pointed out that there's a lot of "reality" in the virtual, and a lot of "virtual" in our reality. When we use a phone or a computer we're still flesh-and-blood humans, occupying time and space. When we're frolicking through a field somewhere, our gadgets stowed far away, the internet still impacts our thinking: "Will I tweet about this when I get back?"
  My plan was to leave the internet and therefore find the "real" Paul and get in touch with the "real" world, but the real Paul and the real world are already inextricably linked to the internet. Not to say that my life wasn't different without the internet, just that it wasn't real life.
  Family timeA couple weeks ago I was in Colorado to see my brother before he deployed to Qatar with the Air Force. He has a new baby, a five-month-old chubster named Kacia, who I'd only seen in photos mercifully snail mailed by my sister-in-law.
  I got to spend one day with my brother, and the next morning I went with him to the airport. I watched dumbfounded as he kissed his wife and kids goodbye. It didn't seem fair that he should have to go. He's a hero to these kids, and I hated for them to lose him for six months.
  My coworkers Jordan and Stephen met me in Colorado to embark on a road trip back to New York. The idea was to wrap up my year with a little documentary, and spend the hours in the car coming to terms with what had just happened and what might come next.
  I thought hard about whether I could succeed online where I'd failed offlineBefore we left, I spent a little more time with the kids, doing my best to be a help to my sister-in-law, doing my best to be a super uncle. And then we had to go.
  On the road, Jordan and Stephen asked me questions about myself. "Do you think you're too hard on yourself?" Yes. "Was this year successful?" No. "What do you want to do when you get back on the internet?" I want to do things for other people.
  We stopped in Huntington, West Virginia to meet a hero of mine, Polygon's Justin McElroy. I met with Nathan Jurgenson in Washington DC. I thought hard about whether I could succeed online where I'd failed offline. I asked for tips.
  What I do know is that I can't blame the internet, or any circumstance, for my problems. I have many of the same priorities I had before I left the internet: family, friends, work, learning. And I have no guarantee I'll stick with them when I get back on the internet '-- I probably won't, to be honest. But at least I'll know that it's not the internet's fault. I'll know who's responsible, and who can fix it.
  Late Tuesday night, the last night of the trip, we stopped across the river from NY to get "the shot" from New Jersey of the Manhattan skyline. It was a cold, clear night, and I leaned against the rickety riverside railing and tried to strike a casual pose for the camera. I was so close to New York, so close to being done. I longed for the comfortable solitude of my apartment, and yet dreaded the return to isolation.
  In two weeks I'd be back on the internet. I felt like a failure. I felt like I was giving up once again. But I knew the internet was where I belonged.
  12:00AM, May 1st, 2013I'd read enough blog posts and magazine articles and books about how the internet makes us lonely, or stupid, or lonely and stupid, that I'd begun to believe them. I wanted to figure out what the internet was "doing to me," so I could fight back. But the internet isn't an individual pursuit, it's something we do with each other. The internet is where people are.
  the internet isn't an individual pursuit, it's something we do with each otherMy last afternoon in Colorado I sat down with my 5-year-old niece, Keziah, and tried to explain to her what the internet is. She'd never heard of "the internet," but she's huge on Skype with the grandparent set. I asked her if she'd wondered why I never Skyped with her this year. She had.
  "I thought it was because you didn't want to," she said.
  With tears in my eyes, I drew her a picture of what the internet is. It was computers and phones and televisions, with little lines connecting them. Those lines are the internet. I showed her my computer, drew a line to it, and erased that line.
  "I spent a year without using any internet," I told her. "But now I'm coming back and I can Skype with you again."
  When I return to the internet, I might not use it well. I might waste time, or get distracted, or click on all the wrong links. I won't have as much time to read or introspect or write the great American sci-fi novel.
  But at least I'll be connected.
  Video by Jordan Oplinger & Stephen GreenwoodEditing by Jordan OplingerAudio mixing by Brendan MurphySpecial thanks to Billy Disney, John Lagomarsino, Regina Dellea, Ross Miller, Ryan Manning, Sam Thonis, and Thomas Houston
  Photography by Michael B. ShaneArt Direction by James Chae
  Read nextFirst Person Shooter: Taser's new cop-cam takes aim at perps and privacyMatt StroudWho am I? Data and DNA answer one of life's big questionsLaura JuneHow emoji conquered the worldJeff BlagdonSeduced by 'perfect' pitch: how Auto-Tune conquered pop musicLessley AndersonI used Google Glass: the future, but with monthly updatesJoshua TopolskyDrones over US soil: the calm before the swarmBen Popper
European Commission to criminalize nearly all seeds, plants not registered with Govt
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  Archived Version
  Fri, 10 May 2013 11:59
  Europe is rushing towards the good ol days circa 1939, 40... A new law proposed by the European Commission would make it illegal to "grow, reproduce or trade" any vegetable seeds that have not been "tested, approved and accepted" by a new EU bureaucracy named the "EU Plant Variety Agency."It's called the Plant Reproductive Material Law, and it attempts to put the government in charge of virtually all plants and seeds. Home gardeners who grow their own plants from non-regulated seeds would be considered criminals under this law.
  The draft text of the law, which has already been amended several times due to a huge backlash from gardeners, is viewable here.
  "This law will immediately stop the professional development of vegetable varieties for home gardeners, organic growers, and small-scale market farmers," said Ben Gabel, vegetable breeder and director of The Real Seed Catalogue. "Home gardeners have really different needs - for example they grow by hand, not machine, and can't or don't want to use such powerful chemical sprays. There's no way to register the varieties suitable for home use as they don't meet the strict criteria of the Plant Variety Agency, which is only concerned about approving the sort of seed used by industrial farmers."
  Virtually all plants, vegetable seeds and gardeners to eventually be registered by governmentAll governments are, of course, infatuated with the idea of registering everybody and everything. Under Title IV of the proposed EU law:
  Title IV Registration of varieties in national and Union registersThe varieties, in order to be made available on the market throughout the Union, shall be included in a national register or in the Union register via direct application procedure to the CVPO.
  Gardeners must also pay fees to the EU bureaucracy for the registration of their seeds. From the proposed law text:
  The competent authorities and the CPVO should charge fees for the processing ofapplications, the formal and technical examinations including audits, variety denomination, and the maintenance of the varieties for each year for the duration ofthe registration.
  While this law may initially only be targeted at commercial gardeners, it sets a precedent to sooner or later go after home gardeners and require them to abide by the same insane regulations.
  Government bureaucracy gone insane
  "This is an instance of bureaucracy out of control," says Ben Gabel. "All this new law does is create a whole new raft of EU civil servants being paid to move mountains of papers round all day, while killing off the seed supply to home gardeners and interfering with the right of farmers to grow what they want. It also very worrying that they have given themselves the power to regulate and licence any plant species of any sort at all in the future - not just agricultural plants, but grasses, mosses, flowers, anything at all - without having to bring it back to the Council for a vote."
  As a hint of the level of insane bureaucracy that gardeners and vegetable growers will be subject to under this EU law, check out this language from the proposed EU law:
  Specific provisions are set out on the registration in the Union variety register and with regard to the possibility for the applicant to launch an appeal against a CPVO decision. Such provisions are not laid down for the registration in the national varietyregisters, because they are subject to national administrative procedures. A new obligation for each national variety examination centre to be audited by the CPVO will be introduced with the aim to ensure the quality and harmonisation of the variety registration process in the Union. The examination centre of the professional operators will be audited and approved by the national competent authorities. In case of direct application to the CPVO it will audit and approve the examination centres it uses for variety examination.Such language is, of course, Orwellian bureaucraticspeak that means only one thing: All gardeners should prepare to be subjected to total government insanity over seeds, vegetables and home gardens.
Russia Warns Obama: Global War Over ''Bee Apocalypse'' Coming Soon
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  Fri, 10 May 2013 11:58
  World's Largest English Language News Service with Over 500 Articles Updated Daily
  "The News You Need Today'...For The World You'll Live In Tomorrow."
  What You Aren't Being Told About The World You Live In
  IronMountainApocalypse: The True Story Of 2013
  A ''must have'' book for those seeking to understand the true events surrounding the most troubled years of our modern times. (Continued)
  Picking up the Pieces: Practical Guide for Surviving Economic Crashes, Internal Unrest and Military SuppressionBy: Sorcha Faal ''In the span of less than 3 months gasoline prices will rise 500%. The prices of both food and shelter rise over 300%. (Continued)
  Partisans Handbook:By: Sorcha Faal ''Essential Survival Guide For Resisting Foreign Military Occupation, Escape And Evasion Techniques, Surviving Interrogation, Facing Execution, Wilderness Survival (Continued)
  May 10, 2013
  RussiaWarns Obama: Global War Over ''Bee Apocalypse'' Coming Soon
  By:Sorcha Faal, and as reported to her Western Subscribers
  The shocking minutes relating to President Putin's meeting this past week with US Secretary of State John Kerry reveal the Russian leaders ''extreme outrage'' over the Obama regimes continued protection of global seed and plant bio-genetic giants Syngenta and Monsanto in the face of a growing ''bee apocalypse'' that the Kremlin warns ''will most certainly'' lead to world war.
  According to these minutes, released in the Kremlin today by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation (MNRE), Putin was so incensed over the Obama regimes refusal to discuss this grave matter that he refused for three hours to even meet with Kerry, who had traveled to Moscow on a scheduled diplomatic mission, but then relented so as to not cause an even greater rift between these two nations.
  At the center of this dispute between Russia and the US, this MNRE report says, is the ''undisputed evidence'' that a class of neuro-active insecticides chemically related to nicotine, known as neonicotinoids, are destroying our planets bee population, and which if left unchecked could destroy our world's ability to grow enough food to feed its population.
  So grave has this situation become, the MNRE reports, the full European Commission (EC) this past week instituted a two-year precautionary ban (set to begin on 1 December 2013) on these ''bee killing'' pesticides following the lead of Switzerland, France, Italy, Russia, Slovenia and Ukraine, all of whom had previously banned these most dangerous of genetically altered organisms from being used on the continent.
  Two of the most feared neonicotinoids being banned are Actara and Cruiser made by the Swiss global bio-tech seed and pesticide giant Syngenta AG which employs over 26,000 people in over 90 countries and ranks third in total global sales in the commercial agricultural seeds market.
  Important to note, this report says, is that Syngenta, along with bio-tech giants Monsanto, Bayer, Dow and DuPont, now control nearly 100% of the global market for genetically modified pesticides, plants and seeds.
  Also to note about Syngenta, this report continues, is that in 2012 it was criminally charged in Germany for concealing the fact that its genetically modified corn killed cattle, and settled a class-action lawsuit in the US for $105 million after it was discovered they had contaminated the drinking supply of some 52 million Americans in more than 2,000 water districts with its ''gender-bending'' herbicide Atrazine.
  To how staggeringly frightful this situation is, the MNRE says, can be seen in the report issued this past March by the American Bird Conservancy (ABC) wherein they warned our whole planet is in danger, and as we can, in part, read:
  ''As part of a study on impacts from the world's most widely used class of insecticides, nicotine-like chemicals called neonicotinoids, American Bird Conservancy (ABC) has called for a ban on their use as seed treatments and for the suspension of all applications pending an independent review of the products' effects on birds, terrestrial and aquatic invertebrates, and other wildlife.
  ''It is clear that these chemicals have the potential to affect entire food chains. The environmental persistence of the neonicotinoids, their propensity for runoff and for groundwater infiltration, and their cumulative and largely irreversible mode of action in invertebrates raise significant environmental concerns,'' said Cynthia Palmer, co-author of the report and Pesticides Program Manager for ABC, one of the nation's leading bird conservation organizations.
  ABC commissioned world renowned environmental toxicologist Dr. Pierre Mineau to conduct the research. The 100-page report, ''The Impact of the Nation's Most Widely Used Insecticides on Birds,'' reviews 200 studies on neonicotinoids including industry research obtained through the US Freedom of Information Act. The report evaluates the toxicological risk to birds and aquatic systems and includes extensive comparisons with the older pesticides that the neonicotinoids have replaced. The assessment concludes that the neonicotinoids are lethal to birds and to the aquatic systems on which they depend.
  ''A single corn kernel coated with a neonicotinoid can kill a songbird,'' Palmer said. ''Even a tiny grain of wheat or canola treated with the oldest neonicotinoid -- called imidacloprid -- can fatally poison a bird. And as little as 1/10th of a neonicotinoid-coated corn seed per day during egg-laying season is all that is needed to affect reproduction.''
  The new report concludes that neonicotinoid contamination levels in both surface- and ground water in the United States and around the world are already beyond the threshold found to kill many aquatic invertebrates.''
  Quickly following this damning report, the MRNE says, a large group of group of American beekeepers and environmentalists sued the Obama regime over the continued use of these neonicotinoids stating: ''We are taking the EPA to court for its failure to protect bees from pesticides. Despite our best efforts to warn the agency about the problems posed by neonicotinoids, the EPA continued to ignore the clear warning signs of an agricultural system in trouble.''
  And to how bad the world's agricultural system has really become due to these genetically modified plants, pesticides and seeds, this report continues, can be seen by the EC's proposal this past week, following their ban on neonicotinoids, in which they plan to criminalize nearly all seeds and plants not registered with the European Union, and as we can, in part, read:
  ''Europe is rushing towards the good ol days circa 1939, 40... A new law proposed by the European Commission would make it illegal to "grow, reproduce or trade" any vegetable seeds that have not been "tested, approved and accepted" by a new EU bureaucracy named the "EU Plant Variety Agency."
  It's called the Plant Reproductive Material Law, and it attempts to put the government in charge of virtually all plants and seeds. Home gardeners who grow their own plants from non-regulated seeds would be considered criminals under this law.''
  This MRNE report points out that even though this EC action may appear draconian, it is nevertheless necessary in order to purge the continent from continued contamination of these genetically bred ''seed monstrosities.''
  Most perplexing in all of this, the MRNE says, and which led to Putin's anger at the US, has been the Obama regimes efforts to protect pesticide-producer profits over the catastrophic damaging being done to the environment, and as the Guardian News Service detailed in their 2 May article titled ''US rejects EU claim of insecticide as prime reason for bee colony collapse'' and which, in part, says:
  ''The European Union voted this week for a two-year ban on a class of pesticides, known as neonicotinoids, that has been associated with the bees' collapse. The US government report, in contrast, found multiple causes for the collapse of the honeybees.''
  To the ''truer'' reason for the Obama regimes protection of these bio-tech giants destroying our world, the MRNE says, can be viewed in the report titled ''How did Barack Obama become Monsanto's man in Washington?'' and which, in part, says:
  ''After his victory in the 2008 election, Obama filled key posts with Monsanto people, in federal agencies that wield tremendous force in food issues, the USDA and the FDA: At the USDA, as the director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Roger Beachy, former director of the Monsanto Danforth Center. As deputy commissioner of the FDA, the new food-safety-issues czar, the infamous Michael Taylor, former vice-president for public policy for Monsanto. Taylor had been instrumental in getting approval for Monsanto's genetically engineered bovine growth hormone.''
  Even worse, after Russia suspended the import and use of an Monsanto genetically modified corn following a study suggesting a link to breast cancer and organ damage this past September, the Russia Today News Service reported on the Obama regimes response:
  ''The US House of Representatives quietly passed a last-minute addition to the Agricultural Appropriations Bill for 2013 last week - including a provision protecting genetically modified seeds from litigation in the face of health risks.
  The rider, which is officially known as the Farmer Assurance Provision, has been derided by opponents of biotech lobbying as the ''Monsanto Protection Act,'' as it would strip federal courts of the authority to immediately halt the planting and sale of genetically modified (GMO) seed crop regardless of any consumer health concerns.
  The provision, also decried as a ''biotech rider,'' should have gone through the Agricultural or Judiciary Committees for review. Instead, no hearings were held, and the piece was evidently unknown to most Democrats (who hold the majority in the Senate) prior to its approval as part of HR 993, the short-term funding bill that was approved to avoid a federal government shutdown.''
  On 26 March, Obama quietly signed this ''Monsanto Protection Act'' into law thus ensuring the American people have no recourse against this bio-tech giant as they fall ill by the tens of millions, and many millions will surely end up dying in what this MRNE report calls the greatest agricultural apocalypse in human history as over 90% of feral (wild) bee population in the US has already died out, and up to 80% of domestic bees have died out too.
  May 10, 2012 (C) EU and US all rights reserved. Permission to use this report in its entirety is granted under the condition it is linked back to its original source at WhatDoesItMean.Com. Freebase content licensed under CC-BY and GFDL.
  [Ed. Note: Western governments and their intelligence services actively campaign against the information found in these reports so as not to alarm their citizens about the many catastrophic Earth changes and events to come, a stance that the Sisters of Sorcha Faal strongly disagrees with in believing that it is every human beings right to know the truth. Due to our missions conflicts with that of those governments, the responses of their 'agents' against us has been a longstanding misinformation/misdirection campaign designed to discredit and which is addressed in the report ''Who Is Sorcha Faal?''.]
  Apocalypse Slams Into America, Few Notice
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Oh, You Silly Man - By Michael Weiss | Foreign Policy
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Fri, 10 May 2013 11:51
  The photographs showing U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry smilingand slappingpalms with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are being circulated bymany Syrians opposed to the Bashar al-Assad's regime as visual obituaries oftheir cause. Weren't these men supposed to be on opposite sides of theSyrian conflict? And why does the Herman Munster-ish Lavrov look happier thanhis American counterpart?
  Perhaps because the atmospherics of Kerry's recent visit toMoscow were meant to show that his hosts were under no illusions as to who wasthe more desperate and bowed party. First, Kerry's motorcade sat in Moscow traffic for a half hour becauseof a military parade rehearsal for Victory Day, which celebrates the Sovietdefeat of the Nazis in World War II. Then Russian President Vladimir Putin keptKerry waiting for three hours before granting him an audience, upon which he fiddled with his pen and more resembled a manindulging a long-ago scheduled visit from the cultural attach(C) of Papua NewGuinea than participating in an urgent summit with America's top diplomat.
  The pro-Kremlin newspaper Izvestiaclaimed that Kerry had been"counting on convincingMoscow not to block sanctions against Damascus. It didn't work." Even if false,the framing of the story provides good insight into how the Russian governmentviewed these talks. And in the end, Kerry gave Putinexactly what he wanted: Washington's assent to a renewed push for negotiationsto end the geopolitical catastrophe in Syria.
  Sometimebefore May is behind us, the United States and Russia will host a conferencebased on the parameters of the Geneva Protocol, which was agreed to lateJune 2012under the auspices of the United Nations. The communiqu(C) callsfor a "Syrian-led political process leading to a transition thatmeets the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people." To pave the way such anagreement, the document demands the end to armed violence by both sides, therelease of political prisoners, granting journalists freedom of movementthroughout the country, and the "[c]onsolidation of full calm and stability." Sincethis would-be roadmap was cobbled together almost a year ago, morethan 50,000 Syrians have died in the Assad regime's desperate attemptto crush the uprising.
  Theunderlying assumptions are that Russia can "produce" Assad or hisrepresentatives, pressuring them to attend this confab,and that theUnited States can produce both the political and military wings of the Syrianopposition with which it has chosen to partner, namely the Syrian NationalCoalition and the Free Syrian Army's Supreme Military Command, headed by Gen.Salim Idris. Neither of the latter bodies existed when the Geneva Protocol wasfirst introduced, and Idris now finds himself forced to do what Russia'sclients in this conflict never have to do -- beg.
  Indeed,while Assad imports long-range missiles from Iran and allows Islamic RevolutionaryGuard Corps commander Maj. Gen. Qasem Suleimani to build a 150,000-strongsectarian militia to inherit the responsibilities of the Syrian military, Idris is writing open letters to his patron asking for more help. The U.S. responseis to ask Idris's men to kill al Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra fightersfirst, and only then turn their attention back to President Basharal-Assad's forces.
  Syriahas allegedly been subjected to sarin gas attacks, seen the deaths of morethan 70,000 people and the displacement of nearly a quarter of its entirepopulation, and become a haven for a growing and ambitious al Qaeda franchise.Now Kerry wants the world to believe that it can travel back in time and revivea diplomatic initiative that was stillborn even at the time. It's not going towork.
  Asthe Russians like to remind the world, nowhere in the Geneva Protocol is therea demand that Assad must resign or even promise not to take power again infuture. John Kerry appears to agree: In a joint press conference in Moscow withRussian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the secretary of state offered this stark reappraisal of President Barack Obama's repeatedinsistence that Assad quit the scene. "[I]t's impossible for me as an individual to understand howSyria could possibly be governed in the future by the man who has committed thethings that we know have taken place," he said. "But ... I'm not going todecide that tonight, and I'm not going to decide that in the end."
  Kerrywas forced to hastily repudiate his wishy-washiness in Rome by remindingreporters of the original U.S. stance. But his initial responsemay convince the Russians that the U.S. position on Assad's departure isnegotiable.
  Kerry'scomment about Assad's future mirrored Obama's now-notorious "red line" on theuse or mobilization of chemical weapons. After the White House admitted thatAssad likely used chemical weapons against his own people -- a step that Obama oncesaid would be a "grave mistake" -- America's next diplomatic move onSyria was this effort to revive moribund peace talks.
  All this is taking place against more caffeinated legislativeefforts to assistthe opposition. Sen. Robert Menendez (R-NJ) introduced a bill on May 6 that wouldprovide U.S. arms and militarytraining to vetted rebels, and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI)took to the floor todaycalling for precision air strikes using stand-off systems on Assad's aircraftand missile launchers. What the Kremlin correctly gleans from such schizophrenicshifts in U.S. policy and rhetoric is that Washington hasn't got a coherent strategy tospeak of. And the Putinists surely won't have missed this tucked-awayquote from an unnamed U.S. official: "If [Assad] drops sarin gas onhis own people, what's that got to do with us?"
  Russian security officials will read that as an open invitation to Russia toassist the White House in putting off intervention in Syria. Already,they've beenall too happyto oblige: A day after Kerry left Moscow, the Wall Street Journalreported on an "imminent" deal between Russia and Syria to furnish Assadwith S-300 missiles -- the same high-tech, anti-aircraft system that Washingtonpressured Russia not to sell to Iran. The supposed package will include "sixlaunchers and 144 missiles, each with a range of 125 miles," and the firstdelivery is scheduled to occur within the next three months. Such weapons wouldno doubt boost the argument of non-interventionists in Washington who contendthat Syria's air defenses are too formidable to impose a no-fly zone.
  Putin'smind lies open like a drawer of knives, yet the United States -- andeven some members of the Syrian opposition -- persist in the illusion that theRussian leader can change. But why should he, when it's the West's position onSyria that's proven eminently mutable? Lavrov wasn't being glib or unscriptedhimself when, in aninterview with Foreign Policy,he said that he was "gratified to note some positive change which occurred onthe part of those who have been denying any possibility for a dialogue as longas President Assad is in Syria."
  Lavrovthen reiterated Russia's right to sell arms and anti-aircraft weaponry toAssad, and noted that it was the Americans, not the Russians, who were backingdown on their demands. Fyodor Lukyanov was similarly correct in his assessment in al-Monitoron Thursday: "Russia'sposition is certainly not changing.... Rather, it is the US that is refining itspoint of view -- not due to Russia, but as enthusiasm wanes regarding whatSyria might look like after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad leaves."
  From the beginning, the Russian strategy hastracked well with that of the Assad regime's: prolong the conflict to thepoint where jihadists are the most visible presence on the other side, thenframe it in the grammar of the global war on terror. Taking a page from Assad'sbook, Russiahas characterized all of Syria's rebels -- including recentmilitary defectors from the regime -- as "terrorists." It has tried to lay the blame for the Houlamassacre -- in which 108 civilians, including many women andchildren, were butchered by pro-regime shabiha-- on the opposition. It has facilitated the regime's propaganda about the rebels'use of chemical weapons by insisting that the United Nations restrict itsforensic investigation to just one area in Aleppo, rather than allowing theU.N. team to launch a full investigation across the country. Russia is alsoaware that the United Nations cannot access Syrian territory without Assad's permission, which is as unforthcoming as it is convenient for those whobelieve that no amount of credible or "concrete" U.S. intelligence on weaponsof mass destruction will be taken seriously after Iraq.
  Lavrov was certainly right to say that Russia's position hasbeen "consistent." Now compare this to theWhite House, which first established a policy of regime change when Obama saidthat Assad had to "step aside" in August 2011 -- only to then quietly rescindthat policy by backing former U.N. Syria envoy Kofi Annan's failed six-pointpeace plan in March 2012.
  Onealmost envies the Kremlin at this late hour. After much intransigence at TurtleBay and a steady stream of arms shipments and military advisers to the Assadregime, Putin finds that his expectations for restoring Russia's great powerstatus have actually been exceeded. He wanted to be equal to the United Statesin foreign affairs, but on Syria, he's clearly now the manto see. Happy Victory Day.
Presidential Nominations Sent to the Senate
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  Archived Version
  Source: White House.gov Press Office Feed
  Fri, 10 May 2013 11:31
  The White House
  Office of the Press Secretary
  For Immediate Release
  May 09, 2013
  NOMINATIONS SENT TO THE SENATE:
  Mark D. Gearan, of New York, to be a Member of the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service for a term expiring December 1, 2015. (Reappointment)
  Rose Eilene Gottemoeller, of Virginia, to be Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, vice Ellen O. Tauscher, resigned.
  Joseph W. Nega, of Illinois, to be a Judge of the United States Tax Court for a term of fifteen years, vice Thomas B. Wells, retired.
  Penny Pritzker, of Illinois, to be Secretary of Commerce, vice John Edgar Bryson, resigned.
  Michael B. Thornton, of Virginia, to be a Judge of the United States Tax Court for a term of fifteen years, (Reappointment)
  Davita Vance-Cooks, of Virginia, to be Public Printer, vice William J. Boarman.
  Thomas Edgar Wheeler, of the District of Columbia, to be Member of the Federal Communications Commission for the remainder of the term expiring June 30, 2013, vice Julius Genachowski.
  Thomas Edgar Wheeler, of the District of Columbia, to be a Member of the Federal Communications Commission for a term of five years from July 1, 2013. (Reappointment)
Bryce Reed Arrest For Destructive Device - Business Insider
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  Archived Version
  Fri, 10 May 2013 11:23
  Bryce Reed, an Emergency Medical Services worker in West, Texas, was arrested early Friday on a charge of possession of a destructive device.A reporter at news station WFAA in Texas tweeted that Reed is accused of possessing bomb-making materials.
  Reed was a first responder in last month's fertilizer plant explosion in the small town about 80 miles south of Dallas.
  The cause of the fire and resulting blast is still under investigation, and local news station KWTX says there is so far no indication that Reed's arrest is connected to the explosion that killed 14 people and injured about 200 others. Many of those who died in the blast were first responders.
  A "destructive device" commonly refers to a bomb or grenade, but can also refer to other types of devices.
  Reed was close to a man, Cyrus Reed, who died in the explosion. Some media outlets report that Cyrus is Bryce's brother and others say he's Bryce's close friend.
  Reed talked to multiple media oulets '-- including the Los Angeles Times and CNN '-- after the explosion. He spoke extensively with The Dallas Morning News about his experience with the tragedy and his difficulty coping afterward.
US Government shuts down 3D gun manufacturer | Washington Times Communities
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Thu, 09 May 2013 23:00
  Tiffany Madison
  Related ColumnsDALLAS, May 9, 2013 - The revolutionary concept of 3-D printed firearms has been building momentum for months now. Online observers, innovators, investors and the generally curious celebrated as the first completely 3-D printed handgun became a reality. Since the blueprint for ''The Liberator'' hit the web, the file was downloaded more than 100,000 times in a few days.
  Today, the government shut it down.
  SEE RELATED: Sunday Slant: 3D printable gun, a genie best kept in its bottle?
  Cody Wilson, the 3-D gunsmith, law student, and founder of the non-profit innovation outlet, Defense Distributed, broke the bad news in a tweet to his followers.
  According to an earlier interview, Wilson received a letter from the US Office of Defense Trade Controls Compliance, Enforcement Division (DTCC/END) which demanded the group remove the content in question from public domain.
  The complaint reads that the ''DTCC/END'' will review the data Defense Distributed has released to ensure compliance with ''Category I of the USML'' (United States Munitions List). Apparently, releasing the files possibly violated the ITAR, or International Traffic in Arms Regulations.
  SEE RELATED: After recent shootings, Americans reject renewed calls for federal gun controls
  Though Wilson is not legally restricted from privately manufacturing firearms, apparently sharing emerging technology without a license or written approval from the government is unlawful. ''Commodity Jurisdiction'' determination requests were solicited for ten of Defense Distributed's file types, including ''The Liberator.''
  The website files are down and the site's banner states, ''DefDist Liberator Pistol: This file has been removed from public access at the request of the US Department of Defense Trade Controls. Until further notice, the United States government claims control of the information.''
  ''The Liberator,'' is a 16-piece plastic firearm crafted by 3-D printers. A metal firing pin and embedded shank bring the weapon in compliance with the 30-year old Undetectable Firearms Act. Most downloaders do not have the software or equipment to produce a working gun with the files, but curious minds inquire. The download rate is likely to further explode, and is available all over the Internet. Facebook pages are intent on sharing this technology until Defense Distributed returns.
  But this move by federal authorities did not come as a surprise for firearm advocates.
  Prior to Wilson's receiving this letter, persistent gun control proponents Rep. Steve Israel, (D-NY) and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) supported the Undetectable Firearms Modernization Act which would attempt to ban all plastic 3-D printed guns and high-capacity magazines.
  According to Israel's website, ''The Undetectable Firearms Act that Rep. Israel is introducing makes it illegal to manufacture, own, transport, buy, or sell any firearm that is not detectable by metal detector and/or does not present an accurate image when put through an x-ray machine. The reauthorization would extend the life of the bill for another 10 years from the date of enactment.''
  ''[These firearms] have no metal and could therefore slip through a metal detector,'' Chuck Schumer stated. ''We're facing a situation where anyone '-- a felon, a terrorist '-- can open a gun factory in their garage, and the weapons they make will be undetectable.'' There was no mention of the fact that without ammunition a gun is nothing more than a paperweight.
  In response to calls for bans, the Internet scoffed at legislative attempts to stifle inevitable technology. Cory Doctorow highlighted the futility of attempting to stifle online information or enforce bans on technology.
  ''[Will they implement] Firmware locks for 3D printers? A DMCA-like takedown regime for 3D shapefiles that can be used to generate plastic firearms (or parts of plastic firearms?). A mandate on 3D printer manufacturers to somehow magically make it impossible for their products to print out gun-parts?''
  Every one of those measures is nonsense, and worse: an unworkable combination of authoritarianism, censorship, and wishful thinking. Importantly, none of these would prevent people from manufacturing plastic guns, and all of these measures would grossly interfere with the lawful operation of 3D printers.''
  Technical drawings for building guns have been in the public domain for centuries, and that information is protected as free speech. Bureaucrats with proven, fundamentalignorance of the Internet establishing restrictive bans and rules regarding online information distribution sets a dangerous precedent.
  According to Forbes, Wilson intends to explore legal exemptions for non-profit public domain releases of technical files. He asserts that the Internet, as the most robust information-sharing network in human history, counts as a library under ITAR's statutes.
  Wilson feels that government harassment is a sign he is doing something good for society by challenging outdated regulatory practices. ''The blueprints have already moved beyond the DefCad.com database, seeded several times on the file-sharing site Pirate Bay. It's in the fabric of the Internet.''
  According to Wilson, the organization's ideal goal is to test constitutional rights. ''This is the conversation I want,'' he says. ''Is this a workable regulatory regime? Can there be defense trade control in the era of the Internet and 3D printing? I think this isn't a project about firearms, it's a project about political equality.''
  Wilson predicted that they would come after his creation, but that they could not stop its proliferation. Now, only time will tell if he is correct.
  To express your thoughts on this subject, you can contact Defense Distributed's Facebook page.
  This article is the copyrighted property of the writer and Communities @ WashingtonTimes.com. Written permission must be obtained before reprint in online or print media. REPRINTING TWTC CONTENT WITHOUT PERMISSION AND/OR PAYMENT IS THEFT AND PUNISHABLE BY LAW.
White House ''Rethinking'' Plan to Arm Syrian Rebels: Wait a Minute, Didn't They do That Already?
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: BlackListedNews.com
  Thu, 09 May 2013 16:29
  By Daniel Taylor,Old-Thinker NewsSecretary of Defense Chuck Hegel announced earlier this month that the White House was ''rethinking'' its opposition to arming Syrian rebels.
  Since then, Senator Robert Menendez has introduced legislation to '''...allow the U.S. to provide arms, military training and non-lethal aid to the rebels.''
  But wait a minute, didn't we hear reports of this already? The alternative media has pointed out that the Benghazi incident points to a larger operation that the Obama administration is not eager to reveal. The Wall Street Journal reported in November of last year, ''The U.S. effort in Benghazi was at its heart a CIA operation.''
  What was this operation? According to the Business Insider, it involved sending heavy armaments including mortars, rocket propelled grenades and heat seeking missiles to Syrian rebels. Many of these fighters are openly linked to Al-Qaeda.
  As a side note, take a minute to read this 2002 article from the Washington Post describing the U.S. government effort to radicalize Afghan schoolchildren from the late 80'²s to early 90'²s. Millions were spent on textbooks filled with radical Islamic teachings meant to militarize a generation to fight the Soviet Union. As of 2002, the books were reported to be in continued circulation.
  Perhaps the White House '' in ''rethinking'' its opposition to arming Syrian rebels '' is seeking retroactive justification for what it has already done. Regardless, the operation has succeeded in planting the seeds of war which may soon force this issue into the memory hole.
Facebook Home downloads: When 1M is a small number
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: CNET News
  Thu, 09 May 2013 16:21
  Having a million of anything seems like a daunting figure, but it's a drop in the bucket for Facebook's billion-people network.
  Facebook confirmed Thursday that Android users have downloaded its Facebook Home software suite just shy of a million times since the product's launch last month. While that's a whole lotta mobile users, it's a tiny number considering what's possible.
  If you consider the number of Facebook users and the amount of Android devices sold, you get a massive network of potential Home users. The social network alone has more than 1 billion users on the site. That's a thousand times more than the number of Home downloads so far.
  Then there's the sheer number of Android devices out there -- 144.7 million Android smartphones were sold in the fourth quarter, according to Gartner. Google said in April that 1.5 million Android devices are activated each day.
  Of course, only a handful of Android smartphones from Samsung and HTC could actually download the skin, limiting the potential downloads. While they were among the most popular devices, including the Galaxy S3 and HTC One X, it's not representative of the entire base of Android users.
  But, Maribel Lopez, an analyst at Lopez Research, said a million downloads is actually decent given the complexity of the download and setup process.
  "Frankly, I'm surprised they did so well given that it's not easy for the average user to figure out how to do this, " she said.
  Facebook Director of Product Adam Mosseri acknowledged this issue at a press conference Thursday.
  In response, Facebook said it plans to add more educational features to help introduce the product to new users. The company is also working on a number of issues that users have identified as problematic, including the ability to organize and arrange apps.
  "It's not really important to us," Mosseri said about the low number of downloads. "What's important to us is if people are liking the apps a lot."
  Facebook did not share when these changes are coming, but it's in the company's best interest to act quickly and override the negative reviews Home's been getting so far.
  Lopez said the future success of Home -- which is supposed to be Facebook's centerpiece product for Android -- will cast a long shadow on the company.
  "This has huge implications for what it takes to be a real brand in 2015," Lopez said.
Flyers don't turn off phones in planes, survey finds
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories
  Thu, 09 May 2013 16:19
  Flyers don't turn off phones in planes, survey findsJavascript is currently disabled in your web browser. For full site functionality, it is necessary to enable Javascript. In order to enable it, please see these instructions.24 minutes agoDespite rules requiring US flyers to turn off their phones and other electronic devices, many people leave them on, a survey showed Thursday.
  Despite rules requiring US flyers to turn off their phones and other electronic devices, many people leave them on, a survey showed Thursday.
  The survey released by the Airline Passenger Experience Association and the Consumer Electronics Association suggests US regulators could ease the ban, which assumes that electronic devices could interfere with navigation equipment.
  The survey found 30 percent of passengers accidentally left an electronic device turned on during a flight, even though they are required to turn them off during takeoff and landing.
  When asked to turn off the devices, 59 percent said they always turn their devices completely off, 21 percent of passengers said they switch their devices to "airplane mode," and five percent say they sometimes turn their devices completely off.
  Of those passengers who accidentally left a portable device turned on in-flight, 61 percent said it was a smartphone.
  Last year, the head of the US agency that regulates telecommunications called for an easing of the ban on using mobile phones and other electronic devices on airplanes.
  The Federal Aviation Administration has begun a review of the rules.
  The Federal Communications Commission studied the question several years ago but found insufficient evidence to support lifting the ban at the time.
  Explore further:US agency chief seeks to ease airplane electronics ban
  (C) 2013 AFP
  More from Physics Forums - General Engineering
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  YouTube launches pay channels with campy flicksChildren's shows like "Sesame Street," inspirational monologues by celebrities and campy movies'--these are among the offerings on 30 channels that will soon require a paid monthly subscription on YouTube.
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  Flyers don't turn off phones in planes, survey findsJavascript is currently disabled in your web browser. For full site functionality, it is necessary to enable Javascript. In order to enable it, please see these instructions.24 minutes agoDespite rules requiring US flyers to turn off their phones and other electronic devices, many people leave them on, a survey showed Thursday.
  Despite rules requiring US flyers to turn off their phones and other electronic devices, many people leave them on, a survey showed Thursday.
  The survey released by the Airline Passenger Experience Association and the Consumer Electronics Association suggests US regulators could ease the ban, which assumes that electronic devices could interfere with navigation equipment.
  The survey found 30 percent of passengers accidentally left an electronic device turned on during a flight, even though they are required to turn them off during takeoff and landing.
  When asked to turn off the devices, 59 percent said they always turn their devices completely off, 21 percent of passengers said they switch their devices to "airplane mode," and five percent say they sometimes turn their devices completely off.
  Of those passengers who accidentally left a portable device turned on in-flight, 61 percent said it was a smartphone.
  Last year, the head of the US agency that regulates telecommunications called for an easing of the ban on using mobile phones and other electronic devices on airplanes.
  The Federal Aviation Administration has begun a review of the rules.
  The Federal Communications Commission studied the question several years ago but found insufficient evidence to support lifting the ban at the time.
  Explore further:US agency chief seeks to ease airplane electronics ban
  (C) 2013 AFP
  More from Physics Forums - General Engineering
  Related StoriesUS agency chief seeks to ease airplane electronics ban Dec 07, 2012
  The head of the US agency that regulates telecommunications is calling for an easing of the ban on using mobile phones and other electronic devices on airplanes during takeoff and landing.
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Executive Order -- Making Open and Machine Readable the New Default for Government Information
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: White House.gov Press Office Feed
  Thu, 09 May 2013 10:43
  The White House
  Office of the Press Secretary
  For Immediate Release
  May 09, 2013
  EXECUTIVE ORDER
  - - - - - - -
  MAKING OPEN AND MACHINE READABLE THE NEW DEFAULTFOR GOVERNMENT INFORMATION
  By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows:
  Section1. General Principles. Openness in government strengthens our democracy, promotes the delivery of efficient and effective services to the public, and contributes to economic growth. As one vital benefit of open government, making information resources easy to find, accessible, and usable can fuel entrepreneurship, innovation, and scientific discovery that improves Americans' lives and contributes significantly to job creation.
  Decades ago, the U.S. Government made both weather data and the Global Positioning System freely available. Since that time, American entrepreneurs and innovators have utilized these resources to create navigation systems, weather newscasts and warning systems, location-based applications, precision farming tools, and much more, improving Americans' lives in countless ways and leading to economic growth and job creation. In recent years, thousands of Government data resources across fields such as health and medicine, education, energy, public safety, global development, and finance have been posted in machine-readable form for free public use on Data.gov. Entrepreneurs and innovators have continued to develop a vast range of useful new products and businesses using these public information resources, creating good jobs in the process.
  To promote continued job growth, Government efficiency, and the social good that can be gained from opening Government data to the public, the default state of new and modernized Government information resources shall be open and machine readable. Government information shall be managed as an asset throughout its life cycle to promote interoperability and openness, and, wherever possible and legally permissible, to ensure that data are released to the public in ways that make the data easy to find, accessible, and usable. In making this the new default state, executive departments and agencies (agencies) shall ensure that they safeguard individual privacy, confidentiality, and national security.
  Sec. 2. Open Data Policy. (a) The Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), in consultation with the Chief Information Officer (CIO), Chief Technology Officer (CTO), and Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), shall issue an Open Data Policy to advance themanagement of Government information as an asset, consistent with my memorandum of January 21, 2009 (Transparency and Open Government), OMB Memorandum M-10-06 (Open Government Directive), OMB and National Archives and Records Administration Memorandum M-12-18 (Managing Government Records Directive), the Office of Science and Technology Policy Memorandum of February 22, 2013 (Increasing Access to the Results of Federally Funded Scientific Research), and the CIO's strategy entitled "Digital Government: Building a 21st Century Platform to Better Serve the American People." The Open Data Policy shall be updated as needed.
  (b) Agencies shall implement the requirements of the Open Data Policy and shall adhere to the deadlines for specific actions specified therein. When implementing the Open Data Policy, agencies shall incorporate a full analysis of privacy, confidentiality, and security risks into each stage of the information lifecycle to identify information that should not be released. These review processes should be overseen by the senior agency official for privacy. It is vital that agencies not release information if doing so would violate any law or policy, or jeopardize privacy, confidentiality, or national security.
  Sec. 3. Implementation of the Open Data Policy. To facilitate effective Government-wide implementation of the Open Data Policy, I direct the following:
  (a) Within 30 days of the issuance of the Open Data Policy, the CIO and CTO shall publish an open online repository of tools and best practices to assist agencies in integrating the Open Data Policy into their operations in furtherance of their missions. The CIO and CTO shall regularly update this online repository as needed to ensure it remains a resource to facilitate the adoption of open data practices.
  (b) Within 90 days of the issuance of the Open Data Policy, the Administrator for Federal Procurement Policy, Controller of the Office of Federal Financial Management, CIO, and Administrator of OIRA shall work with the Chief Acquisition Officers Council, Chief Financial Officers Council, Chief Information Officers Council, and Federal Records Council to identify and initiate implementation of measures to support the integration of the Open Data Policy requirements into Federal acquisition and grant-making processes. Such efforts may include developing sample requirements language, grant and contract language, and workforce tools for agency acquisition, grant, and information management and technology professionals.
  (c) Within 90 days of the date of this order, the Chief Performance Officer (CPO) shall work with the President's Management Council to establish a Cross-Agency Priority (CAP) Goal to track implementation of the Open Data Policy. The CPO shall work with agencies to set incremental performance goals, ensuring they have metrics and milestones in place to monitor advancement toward the CAP Goal. Progress on these goals shall be analyzed and reviewed by agency leadership, pursuant to the GPRA Modernization Act of 2010 (Public Law 111-352).
  (d) Within 180 days of the date of this order, agencies shall report progress on the implementation of the CAP Goal to the CPO. Thereafter, agencies shall report progress quarterly, and as appropriate.
  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 OMB 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.
  (d) Nothing in this order shall compel or authorize the disclosure of privileged information, law enforcement information, national security information, personal information, or information the disclosure of which is prohibited by law.
  (e) Independent agencies are requested to adhere to this order.
  BARACK OBAMA
Why Anti-Authoritarians are Diagnosed as Mentally Ill
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Thu, 09 May 2013 08:48
  (Note: Read Bruce Levine's latest post: Anti-Authoritarians and Schizophrenia: Do Rebels Who Defy Treatment Do Better?
  In my career as a psychologist, I have talked with hundreds of people previously diagnosed by other professionals with oppositional defiant disorder, attention deficit hyperactive disorder, anxiety disorder and other psychiatric illnesses, and I am struck by (1) how many of those diagnosed are essentially anti-authoritarians, and (2) how those professionals who have diagnosed them are not.
  Anti-authoritarians question whether an authority is a legitimate one before taking that authority seriously. Evaluating the legitimacy of authorities includes assessing whether or not authorities actually know what they are talking about, are honest, and care about those people who are respecting their authority. And when anti-authoritarians assess an authority to be illegitimate, they challenge and resist that authority'--sometimes aggressively and sometimes passive-aggressively, sometimes wisely and sometimes not.
  Some activists lament how few anti-authoritarians there appear to be in the United States. One reason could be that many natural anti-authoritarians are now psychopathologized and medicated before they achieve political consciousness of society's most oppressive authorities.
  Why Mental Health Professionals Diagnose Anti-Authoritarians with Mental Illness
  Gaining acceptance into graduate school or medical school and achieving a PhD or MD and becoming a psychologist or psychiatrist means jumping through many hoops, all of which require much behavioral and attentional compliance to authorities, even to those authorities that one lacks respect for. The selection and socialization of mental health professionals tends to breed out many anti-authoritarians. Having steered the higher-education terrain for a decade of my life, I know that degrees and credentials are primarily badges of compliance. Those with extended schooling have lived for many years in a world where one routinely conforms to the demands of authorities. Thus for many MDs and PhDs, people different from them who reject this attentional and behavioral compliance appear to be from another world'--a diagnosable one.
  I have found that most psychologists, psychiatrists, and other mental health professionals are not only extraordinarily compliant with authorities but also unaware of the magnitude of their obedience. And it also has become clear to me that the anti-authoritarianism of their patients creates enormous anxiety for these professionals, and their anxiety fuels diagnoses and treatments.
  In graduate school, I discovered that all it took to be labeled as having ''issues with authority'' was to not kiss up to a director of clinical training whose personality was a combination of Donald Trump, Newt Gingrich, and Howard Cosell. When I was told by some faculty that I had ''issues with authority,'' I had mixed feelings about being so labeled. On the one hand, I found it quite amusing, because among the working-class kids whom I had grown up with, I was considered relatively compliant with authorities. After all, I had done my homework, studied, and received good grades. However, while my new ''issues with authority'' label made me grin because I was now being seen as a ''bad boy,'' it also very much concerned me about just what kind of a profession that I had entered. Specifically, if somebody such as myself was being labeled with ''issues with authority,'' what were they calling the kids I grew up with who paid attention to many things that they cared about but didn't care enough about school to comply there? Well, the answer soon became clear.
  Mental Illness Diagnoses for Anti-Authoritarians
  A 2009 Psychiatric Times article titled ''ADHD & ODD: Confronting the Challenges of Disruptive Behavior'' reports that ''disruptive disorders,'' which include attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and opposition defiant disorder (ODD), are the most common mental health problem of children and teenagers. ADHD is defined by poor attention and distractibility, poor self-control and impulsivity, and hyperactivity. ODD is defined as a ''a pattern of negativistic, hostile, and defiant behavior without the more serious violations of the basic rights of others that are seen in conduct disorder''; and ODD symptoms include ''often actively defies or refuses to comply with adult requests or rules'' and ''often argues with adults.''
  Psychologist Russell Barkley, one of mainstream mental health's leading authorities on ADHD, says that those afflicted with ADHD have deficits in what he calls ''rule-governed behavior,'' as they are less responsive to rules of established authorities and less sensitive to positive or negative consequences. ODD young people, according to mainstream mental health authorities, also have these so-called deficits in rule-governed behavior, and so it is extremely common for young people to have a ''duel diagnosis'' of AHDH and ODD.
  Do we really want to diagnose and medicate everyone with ''deficits in rule-governed behavior''?
  Albert Einstein, as a youth, would have likely received an ADHD diagnosis, and maybe an ODD one as well. Albert didn't pay attention to his teachers, failed his college entrance examinations twice, and had difficulty holding jobs. However, Einstein biographer Ronald Clark (Einstein: The Life and Times) asserts that Albert's problems did not stem from attention deficits but rather from his hatred of authoritarian, Prussian discipline in his schools. Einstein said, ''The teachers in the elementary school appeared to me like sergeants and in the Gymnasium the teachers were like lieutenants.'' At age 13, Einstein read Kant's difficult Critique of Pure Reason'--because Albert was interested in it. Clark also tells us Einstein refused to prepare himself for his college admissions as a rebellion against his father's ''unbearable'' path of a ''practical profession.'' After he did enter college, one professor told Einstein, ''You have one fault; one can't tell you anything.'' The very characteristics of Einstein that upset authorities so much were exactly the ones that allowed him to excel.
  By today's standards, Saul Alinsky, the legendary organizer and author of Reveille for Radicals and Rules for Radicals, would have certainly been diagnosed with one or more disruptive disorders. Recalling his childhood, Alinsky said, ''I never thought of walking on the grass until I saw a sign saying 'Keep off the grass.' Then I would stomp all over it.'' Alinsky also recalls a time when he was ten or eleven and his rabbi was tutoring him in Hebrew:
  One particular day I read three pages in a row without any errors in pronunciation, and suddenly a penny fell onto the Bible . . . Then the next day the rabbi turned up and he told me to start reading. And I wouldn't; I just sat there in silence, refusing to read. He asked me why I was so quiet, and I said, ''This time it's a nickel or nothing.'' He threw back his arm and slammed me across the room.
  Many people with severe anxiety and/or depression are also anti-authoritarians. Often a major pain of their lives that fuels their anxiety and/or depression is fear that their contempt for illegitimate authorities will cause them to be financially and socially marginalized; but they fear that compliance with such illegitimate authorities will cause them existential death.
  I have also spent a great deal of time with people who had at one time in their lives had thoughts and behavior that were so bizarre that they were extremely frightening for their families and even themselves; they were diagnosed with schizophrenia and other psychoses, but have fully recovered and have been, for many years, leading productive lives. Among this population, I have not met one person whom I would not consider a major anti-authoritarian. Once recovered, they have learned to channel their anti-authoritarianism into more constructive political ends, including reforming mental health treatment.
  Many anti-authoritarians who earlier in their lives were diagnosed with mental illness tell me that once they were labeled with a psychiatric diagnosis, they got caught in a dilemma. Authoritarians, by definition, demand unquestioning obedience, and so any resistance to their diagnosis and treatment created enormous anxiety for authoritarian mental health professionals; and professionals, feeling out of control, labeled them ''noncompliant with treatment,'' increased the severity of their diagnosis, and jacked up their medications. This was enraging for these anti-authoritarians, sometimes so much so that they reacted in ways that made them appear even more frightening to their families.
  There are anti-authoritarians who use psychiatric drugs to help them function, but they often reject psychiatric authorities' explanations for why they have difficulty functioning. So, for example, they may take Adderall (an amphetamine prescribed for ADHD), but they know that their attentional problem is not a result of a biochemical brain imbalance but rather caused by a boring job. And similarly, many anti-authoritarians in highly stressful environments will occasionally take prescribed benzodiazepines such as Xanax even though they believe it would be safer to occasionally use marijuana but can't because of drug testing on their job
  It has been my experience that many anti-authoritarians labeled with psychiatric diagnoses usually don't reject all authorities, simply those they've assessed to be illegitimate ones, which just happens to be a great deal of society's authorities.
  Maintaining the Societal Status Quo
  Americans have been increasingly socialized to equate inattention, anger, anxiety, and immobilizing despair with a medical condition, and to seek medical treatment rather than political remedies. What better way to maintain the status quo than to view inattention, anger, anxiety, and depression as biochemical problems of those who are mentally ill rather than normal reactions to an increasingly authoritarian society.
  The reality is that depression is highly associated with societal and financial pains. One is much more likely to be depressed if one is unemployed, underemployed, on public assistance, or in debt (for documentation, see ''400% Rise in Anti-Depressant Pill Use''). And ADHD labeled kids do pay attention when they are getting paid, or when an activity is novel, interests them, or is chosen by them (documented in my book Commonsense Rebellion).
  In an earlier dark age, authoritarian monarchies partnered with authoritarian religious institutions. When the world exited from this dark age and entered the Enlightenment, there was a burst of energy. Much of this revitalization had to do with risking skepticism about authoritarian and corrupt institutions and regaining confidence in one's own mind. We are now in another dark age, only the institutions have changed. Americans desperately need anti-authoritarians to question, challenge, and resist new illegitimate authorities and regain confidence in their own common sense.
  In every generation there will be authoritarians and anti-authoritarians. While it is unusual in American history for anti-authoritarians to take the kind of effective action that inspires others to successfully revolt, every once in a while a Tom Paine, Crazy Horse, or Malcolm X come along. So authoritarians financially marginalize those who buck the system, they criminalize anti-authoritarianism, they psychopathologize anti-authoritarians, and they market drugs for their ''cure.''
  Related Items:
  Related ResearchThe Vermont Longitudinal Study & Correction of Seven MythsCompulsory Hospitalization Does Not Improve OutcomesPeople With Schizophrenia Diagnoses Actually Do Listen
  Bruce LevineAnti-Authoritarians and Schizophrenia: Do Rebels Who Defy Treatment Do Better?How Technology Worship Keeps Americans Ignorant about Depression Treatment How the ''Brain Defect'' Theory of Depression Stigmatizes Depression SufferersMarginalization and the Mental Health Industry Racket (video)
  Michael CornwallAre Some Psychiatrists Addicted to Deference?I Don't Believe in Mental Illness, Do You?
  Corinna WestWhy Can't They Hear Our Truth? We Have a Cure10 Reasons Survivors Might Know More Medicine Than Psychiatrists
  This entry was posted in Blogs, Popular by Bruce Levine, Ph.D.. Bookmark the permalink.
99 One-Liners That Rebut Climate Change Denier Talking Points | Alternet
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Thu, 09 May 2013 08:16
  Progressives should know the disinformers' most commonly used arguments '-- and how to answer them crisply.
  May 7, 2013 |
  Progressives should know the disinformers' most commonly used arguments '-- and how to answer them crisply. Those arguments have been repeated so many times by the fossil-fuel-funded disinformation campaign that almost everyone has heard them '-- and that means you'll have to deal with them in almost any setting, from a public talk to a dinner party.
  You should also know as much of the science behind those rebuttals as possible, and a great place to start is SkepticalScience.com.
  BUT most of the time your best response is to give the pithiest response possible, and then refer people to a specific website that has a more detailed scientific explanation with links to the original science. That's because usually those you are talking to are rarely in a position to adjudicate scientific arguments. Indeed, they would probably tune out. Also, unless you know the science cold, you are as likely as not to make a misstatement.
  Physicist John Cook has done us a great service by posting good one-line responses and then updating them as the science evolves and as people offer better ways of phrasing. Below I have reposted the top 99 with links to the science. You can find even more here. Everybody should know the first 20 or so.
  For instance, if somebody raises the standard talking point (#1 on the list) that the ''climate's changed before,'' you can say, '' Climate reacts to whatever forces it to change at the time; humans are now the dominant forcing.'' That is actually quite similar to what was my standard response, ''The climate changes when it is forced to change, and now humans are forcing it to change far more rapidly than it did in the past'' (see '' Humans boosting CO2 14,000 times faster than nature, overwhelming slow negative feedbacks'' and '' New Science Study Confirms 'Hockey Stick': The Rate Of Warming Since 1900 Is 50 Times Greater Than The Rate Of Cooling In Previous 5000 Years ''). Working in the ''humans are now the dominant forcing'' part is a good idea.
  Cook explains the origin of these one-liners in a 2010 post, '' Rebutting skeptic arguments in a single line.'' I have included the longer 'paragraph' rebuttals, which any CP reader who plans to speak out on this subject '-- in public or just with friends and associates '-- should also be familiar with.
  Skeptic Rebuttal One Liners Skeptic ArgumentOne LinerParagraph1''Climate's changed before''Climate reacts to whatever forces it to change at the time; humans are now the dominant forcing.Natural climate change in the past proves that climate is sensitive to an energy imbalance. If the planet accumulates heat, global temperatures will go up. Currently, CO2 is imposing an energy imbalance due to the enhanced greenhouse effect. Past climate change actually provides evidence for our climate's sensitivity to CO2.2''It's the sun''In the last 35 years of global warming, sun and climate have been going in opposite directionsIn the last 35 years of global warming, the sun has shown a slight cooling trend. Sun and climate have been going in opposite directions.3''It's not bad''Negative impacts of global warming on agriculture, health & environment far outweigh any positives.The negative impacts of global warming on agriculture, health, economy and environment far outweigh any positives.4''There is no consensus''97% of climate experts agree humans are causing global warming.That humans are causing global warming is the position of the Academies of Science from 19 countries plus many scientific organizations that study climate science. More specifically, around 95% of active climate researchers actively publishing climate papers endorse the consensus position.5''It's cooling''The last decade 2000-2009 was the hottest on record.Empirical measurements of the Earth's heat content show the planet is still accumulating heat and global warming is still happening. Surface temperatures can show short-term cooling when heat is exchanged between the atmosphere and the ocean, which has a much greater heat capacity than the air.6''Models are unreliable''Models successfully reproduce temperatures since 1900 globally, by land, in the air and the ocean.While there are uncertainties with climate models, they successfully reproduce the past and have made predictions that have been subsequently confirmed by observations.7''Temp record is unreliable''The warming trend is the same in rural and urban areas, measured by thermometers and satellites.Numerous studies into the effect of urban heat island effect and microsite influences find they have negligible effect on long-term trends, particularly when averaged over large regions.8''Animals and plants can adapt''Global warming will cause mass extinctions of species that cannot adapt on short time scales.A large number of ancient mass extinction events have been strongly linked to global climate change. Because current climate change is so rapid, the way species typically adapt (eg '' migration) is, in most cases, simply not be possible. Global change is simply too pervasive and occurring too rapidly.9''It hasn't warmed since 1998'"For global records, 2010 is the hottest year on record, tied with 2005.The planet has continued to accumulate heat since 1998 '' global warming is still happening. Nevertheless, surface temperatures show much internal variability due to heat exchange between the ocean and atmosphere. 1998 was an unusually hot year due to a strong El Nino.10''Antarctica is gaining ice''Satellites measure Antarctica losing land ice at an accelerating rate.While the interior of East Antarctica is gaining land ice, overall Antarctica is losing land ice at an accelerating rate. Antarctic sea ice is growing despitea strongly warming Southern Ocean.11''Ice age predicted in the 70s''The vast majority of climate papers in the 1970s predicted warming.1970s ice age predictions were predominantly media based. The majority of peer reviewed research at the time predicted warming due to increasing CO2.12''CO2 lags temperature''CO2 didn't initiate warming from past ice ages but it did amplify the warming.When the Earth comes out of an ice age, the warming is not initiated by CO2 but by changes in the Earth's orbit. The warming causes the oceans to give up CO2. The CO2 amplifies the warming and mixes through the atmosphere, spreading warming throughout the planet. So CO2 causes warming ANDrising temperature causes CO2 rise.13''Climate sensitivity is low''Net positive feedback is confirmed by many different lines of evidence.Climate sensitivity can be calculated empirically by comparing past temperature change to natural forcings at the time. Various periods of Earth's past have been examined in this manner and find broad agreement of a climate sensitivity of around 3°C.14''We're heading into an ice age''Worry about global warming impacts in the next 100 years, not an ice age in over 10,000 years.The warming effect from more CO2 greatly outstrips the influence from changes in the Earth's orbit or solar activity, even if solar levels were to drop to Maunder Minimum levels.15''Ocean acidification isn't serious''Ocean acidification threatens entire marine food chains.Past history shows that when CO2 rose sharply, this corresponded with mass extinctions of coral reefs. Currently, CO2 levels are rising faster than any other time in known history. The change in seawater pH over the 21st Century is projected to be faster than anytime over the last 800,000 years and will create conditions not seen on Earth for at least 40 million years.