This Weeks Sound Off

-- Recession that started in December 2007 ended in June 2009, making it longest since WWII, group says. –CNN Reports

Yeah, okay! Convince me! Honestly, I don’t believe it! Things aren’t getting better. The economy is still on life support, and those of us who are working continue to struggle to make ends meet. Life is quite different from two years ago! Nonetheless, I’m thankful to be gainfully employed.

Locally Speaking

Freestyle Music Park Creditors Cry Fraud, Fight Back

Several creditors of Freestyle Music Park allege the park's owners are attempting to defraud them of money they are owed through legal posturing in a foreclosure suit, a claim Freestyle's lawyer denies.

Five companies filed answers last week to a foreclosure suit brought by FPI US, the mortgage holder, against FPI MB Entertainment, the park's owner, in Horry County court. Four of those suits claim that FPI US and FPI MBE are essentially the same company, involve the same people and structured the mortgage deal to unrightfully deny creditors money they are owed.

Nate Fata, FPI MBE's lawyer, denies the claim that they are the same company but said he would not offer an opinion on the proceedings beyond what appears in court documents. –Sun News

Ragbag Headliners

Health Insurers Drop Coverage For Children Ahead Of New Rules

Health plans in at least four states have announced they're dropping children's coverage just days ahead of new rules created by the healthcare reform law, according to the liberal grassroots group Health Care for America Now (HCAN).

The new healthcare law forbids insurers from turning down children with pre-existing conditions starting Thursday, one of several reforms Democrats are eager to highlight this week as they try to build support for the law ahead of the mid-term elections. But news of insurers dropping their plans as a result of the new law has thrown a damper on that strategy and prompted fierce push-back from the administration's allies at HCAN.

The announcement could lead to higher costs for some parents who are buying separate coverage for themselves and their children at lower cost than the family coverage that's available to them.

"We’re just days away from a new era when insurance companies must stop denying coverage to kids just because they are sick, and now some of the biggest changed their minds and decided to refuse to sell child-only coverage," HCAN Executive Director Ethan Rome said in a statement. "The latest announcement by the insurance companies that they won't cover kids is immoral, and to blame their appalling behavior on the new law is patently dishonest.

"Instead, they should reverse their actions immediately and simply follow the law. If the insurance companies can casually turn their backs on sick children now, who will they abandon next? This offensive behavior by the insurance companies is yet another reminder of why the new law is so important and why the Republicans’ call for repeal is so misguided."

Health plans and state insurance commissioners in July raised concerns that the new rules could lead some insurers to stop children-only coverage because families could wait until their children get sick to buy coverage.

Days later, the Obama administration issued regulations clarifying that insurers would still be able to establish enrollment periods in accordance with state law.

"To address concerns over adverse selection, issuers in the individual market may restrict enrollment of children under 19, whether in family or individual coverage, to specific open enrollment periods if allowed under state law," the Department of Health and Human Services clarified.

The issue had largely dropped out of sight since then, but insurers including WellPoint and CoventryOne have announced in recent days that they're dropping children's coverage in California, Colorado, Ohio and Missouri, according to HCAN. –The Hill 

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Google: Internet Freedom Is Declining

 Think internet censorship only happens in China and Iran?

Think again, says Google.

The search company this week released a new online tool to highlight specific instances of government censorship of the internet in countries from Germany to Turkey and Australia to Thailand.

Called Google Transparency, the online report shows that internet censorship around the world is increasing over time, and not always in the countries you'd expect, said Dorothy Chou, a Google policy analyst who worked on the project.

"The threat to internet freedom has actually been growing over the past few years," she said, noting that the United States generally bucks that trend by supporting open online communication.

Google Transparency includes an interactive map where users can see how many requests countries have made for Google to block or remove content.

The online tool also lets users explore internet up-time in specific countries for specific Google-owned websites. Using the tool, for example, people can see that Iran blocked YouTube after a disputed election in 2009 and hasn't let its internet users see that video website since. After "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" -- an online protest in support of free speech -- earlier this year, Pakistan similarly blocked YouTube for 10 days, the data show.

Countries that would be thought less likely to filter the internet also try, Chou said.

Thailand, for example, asked Google to remove YouTube videos that showed the Thai king, Bhumibol Adulyadej, with feet near his head. A national law bans such offensive representations, Chou said, and Google agreed not to show such videos within Thailand, although they are still available elsewhere in the world.

Germany bans neo-Nazi content, and Google has agreed to remove such sites from its Google.de search engine in that country, Chou said. Turkey, meanwhile, blocks YouTube, she said, because the company refused to take down all potentially offensive videos about Ataturk, the Turkish political hero.

Australia is considering a law that would block some websites in an effort to prevent the trafficking of child porn, she said.

Google said it hopes Transparency will shed light on how the internet differs from country to country, and on the efforts of nations to block internet content.

"What we're trying to do is give a picture of what's accessible around the world -- are our services accessible?" she said. "What we believe is more information is better for users." The data only applies to sites that Google owns, which include Blogger, YouTube, AdWords, Google Maps and others.

Google's tool is the first of its kind published by a private-sector group, Chou said. The site Herdict.org, a project of a group at Harvard University, aims to crowd source similar information by asking users around the world to post when specific internet services go down. Herdict -- a combination of the words "herd" and "verdict" -- maps the user-submitted data on its website.

A group called the OpenNet Initiative also has published a world map showing to what degrees countries censor social and political speech online.

Herdict's blog praises Google for posting global information about internet censorship, but it said the project is difficult to navigate.

With regards to China, Stefan Kulk, an internet lawyer, wrote on the Herdict blog that Google's new tool is more confusing than the one it replaces, which showed internet users which Google services were up or down in that country using a simple chart and plain language. "From the China availability chart we know that Google Docs is 'partially blocked.' This is however hard to see from the data in Google's new traffic tool," Kulk wrote.

Chou, from Google, said it is difficult to compare one country to another using Google Transparency. Data about how many times countries have asked Google to remove content, as well as how many times they have requested information about Google users, is not uniform. It also does not include China, she said, because providing such information is illegal under Chinese law. Publishing it also could endanger Google employees in China, she said.

Data about whether Google services are blocked in China is available on the new Google service, but it is published as a graph instead of as a list.

The Google data also do not indicate whether Google did or did not comply with specific censorship requests for the various countries. The tool instead lists the percentage of requests that Google complied with.

Between January and June of this year, the United States asked Google for information about its users 4,287 times and filed 128 requests asking Google to remove information from its websites, according to the data.

Google said it complied with nearly 83 percent of U.S. requests that it remove information from its search engine or other sites.

Chou said Google complies with the laws of the countries in which it operates, and declined to list a specific example of a censorship request in the United States. She said, however, that a request might be for Google to remove content from a blog that violates U.S. copyright law.

Google also sends information about online content it is asked to remove to a website called ChillingEffects.org, she said.

Because the data are not collected in the same way for all countries, and because Google is based in the United States, it is difficult to compare those numbers to the censorship requests of other countries, Chou said.

In general, she said, countries are making more efforts to block online content.

"The openness and freedom that have shaped the internet as a powerful tool has come under threats from governments who want to control that technology," she said, adding that the public will be able to see this shift with Google's new tool. –CNN Tech

This Guy Has A Good Point!

Doggin’ Obama???

Your President

In a recent speech, Obama said [referring to various negative comments about him]: "They talk about me like I'm a dog."

A foreign political pundit's response was: "Maybe it's because he treats the American people like a fire hydrant!"

Author Unknown

25 Things Chefs Never Tell You

Do restaurants recycle the bread basket? Are most of us bad tippers? Food Network Magazine surveyed chefs across the country — anonymously — to find out everything we’ve always wanted to know.

Chefs are pickier than you think:

Liver, sea urchin, tofu, eggplant, and oysters, of all things, topped the list of foods chefs hate most. Only 15% of chefs surveyed said they’d eat absolutely anything.

Still, chefs hate picky eaters:

More than 60% said requests for substitutions are annoying. Some of their biggest pet peeves: When customers pretend to be allergic to an ingredient, and when vegetarians make up rules, like “a little chicken stock is OK.”

When eating out in other restaurants, chefs say they avoid pasta and chicken:

Why? These dishes are often the most overpriced (and least interesting) on the menu. Said one chef, “I won’t pay $24 for half a chicken breast.” Said another, “I want something I can’t make myself.”

Chefs have expensive taste:

The restaurant chefs most often cited as the best in the country was The French Laundry in California’s Napa Valley. It ought to be — dinner there is $240 per person, before wine.

...and yet they like fast food:

Their favorite chain: Wendy’s. Culinary degrees aren’t necessarily the norm. Just half the chefs surveyed graduated from a cooking school. The rest got their training the old-fashioned way, by working their way up through the kitchen ranks.

Critics trump movie stars in the VIP pecking order:

A whopping 71% of chefs said they give special treatment to restaurant critics when they spot them; only 63% do the same for celebrities. Making out in the bathroom is old news. More than half of the chefs have found customers kissing — and much more — in the restaurant loo.

Roaches are more common than you think:

Yes, 75% of chefs said they’ve seen roaches in the kitchen. And yet, chefs swear their kitchens are clean. On a scale of 1 to 10, 85% of chefs ranked their kitchens an 8 or higher for cleanliness.

Only 13% of chefs have seen a cook do unsavory things to a customer’s food:

The most unbelievable tale: “Someone once ran a steak through a dishwasher after the diner sent it back twice. Ironically, the customer was happy with it then.”

Your bread basket might be recycled:

Three chefs admitted that uneaten bread from one basket goes right into another one.

Chefs work hard for low pay:

The chefs we surveyed work between 60 and 80 hours a week and almost all of them work holidays. Sixty-five percent reported making less than $75,000 a year. Waiters take home an average of $662 a week, often tax free.

“Vegetarian” is open to interpretation:

About 15% of chefs said their vegetarian dishes might not be completely vegetarian. Beware if you’re one of those super-picky vegan types: One chef reported seeing a cook pour lamb’s blood into a vegan’s primavera.

Paying for a last-minute reservation probably won’t work:

Only one chef said bribes will help you score a table when the restaurant is fully booked; he suggested “promising to buy a bottle of Dom Pérignon or Opus One.” A better bet: Being buddies with the chef.

Menu “specials” are often experimental dishes:

Contrary to popular belief — that specials are just a chef’s way of using up old ingredients — most chefs said they use specials to try out new ideas or serve seasonal ingredients. Only five chefs admitted that they try to empty out the fridge with their nightly specials.

The appropriate tip is 20%:

That’s what chefs leave when they eat out, and it’s the amount they think is fair.

...unless the service is really poor:

An astounding 90% of chefs said it’s fair to penalize bad waiters with a smaller tip.

That rule about not ordering fish on Sunday might be worth following:

Several chefs warned, “We don’t get fresh deliveries on Sunday.”

Chefs hate working on New Year’s Eve more than any other holiday:

Valentine’s Day was a close second, but don’t take that to mean chefs aren’t romantic: 54% of those surveyed said they like it when couples get engaged in their restaurant.

They secretly want to be Alton or Giada:

Nearly 60% of chefs said they’d want their own cooking show.

Chefs cook when they’re sick:

It’s a long-standing tradition in the restaurant industry: Cooks report to duty unless they’re practically hospitalized. Half of those we surveyed said they come to work sick, and they stay there through injuries, too. Many chefs have cut themselves on the job, gone to get stitches, and returned to work to finish out the night. Accidents definitely happen: Almost every chef we surveyed has been injured on the job in some way, and several chefs said they’re missing parts of their fingers.

The five-second rule actually applies:

A quarter of the chefs surveyed said they’d pick up food that dropped on the floor and cook it.
Your waiter is trying to influence your order:

Almost every chef surveyed (95%) said he or she urges servers to steer customers toward specific dishes on the menu each night.

Restaurants mark up wine by a lot more than you might expect:

Most chefs said that a bottle on their wine list costs 2½ times what the same one would cost in a wine store.

There’s a reason so many restaurants serve molten chocolate cake:

More than 75% of chefs said they take inspiration from other restaurant menus. –Yahoo Green

By the Editors of Food Network Magazine

Obama Drops 'Creator' From Declaration Quote

President gives no credit to author of life, liberty, pursuit of happiness

 Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute's

33rd Annual Award Gal

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President Obama removed the reference to the "Creator" from the Declaration of Independence when he quoted a portion at a meeting of the Congressional Hispanic Congress.

Obama said, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, endowed with certain inalienable rights: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

But the actual quotation is:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." -Vision For America

A Paradoxical Thought!

"Fathom the odd hypocrisy that Obama wants every citizen to prove they are insured, but people don't have to prove they are citizens". ~ Ben Stein

From The Center For Individual Freedom

It simply wasn't enough to sue the State of Arizona and drag it before the United Nations for trying to secure its border and protect its citizens against violent illegal alien cartels...

... Now, Barack Obama has unleashed his fury on Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Reports have surfaced that the Obama Department of Justice (the same Obama Department of Justice that dropped a slam-dunk voter-intimidation suit against the New Black Panthers) is suing Sheriff Arpaio and sending an unmistakable message to law enforcement officers across America... Enforce our immigration laws and face the full wrath of the United States Government.

Make no mistake. The Obama administration is using every resource at its disposal to destroy Arpaio and advance its Amnesty agenda. But don't take our word for it. Sheriff Arpaio stated without equivocation: “These actions make it abundantly clear that Arizona, including this Sheriff, is Washington’s new whipping boy. Now it’s time to take the gloves off.”

We could not agree more, And yet, the silence from Congress is still inexcusably deafening.

And the time is here and now for our so-called elected leaders in Congress to take a stand. Either they support Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, Sheriff Arpaio, the people of Arizona and the overwhelming majority of Americans who support Arizona’s efforts to secure its borders... or, they support Barack Obama’s smear tactics against the leaders in Arizona and his open borders agenda.

As Sheriff Arpaio said, "It's time to take the gloves off."

What Others Are Saying About This Targeting Of Sheriff Arpaio.

Sheriff Arpaio is no stranger to controversy. He already bears the nickname, “America’s toughest sheriff” for his no-nonsense approach to law enforcement. And according to a number of reports, Mexican cartels have placed a million dollar bounty on Arpaio's head.

Apparently, this notoriety has not only made him a target for the cartels, but also has placed him in Obama's crosshairs.

As a matter of fact, Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce called Obama's pursuit of Arpaio a "witch hunt."

“It’s a witch hunt — that’s exactly what this is. This is the most un-American President in the history of the United States. ... For the first time in history a sitting President has sided with a foreign government against a U.S. state. It is outrageous.”

Bob Driscoll, a former Justice Department Civil Rights Division official who is representing Arpaio said: "It's a totally political lawsuit. ... They want to find evidence of discrimination, but all they're finding is evidence of law enforcement that includes immigration enforcement."

Driscoll added: “Today's lawsuit by the Department of Justice is part of a deliberate media strategy to ‘get tough’ on Sheriff Arpaio and the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, and undermine immigration enforcement by a local sheriff who is trying desperately to make up for this administration's own indifference to the topic.”

The AmericanThinker.com wrote: "The Obama administration has taken border non-enforcement to a whole new level. By refusing to offer reasonable assistance to law enforcement and by suing those who simply try to protect the border, the administration is, in effect, placing... cartels, human traffickers, and infiltrating Islamic terrorists above the safety of American citizens. Truly incredible."

Why Pursue Sheriff Arpaio?

That's a good question and perhaps the behavior of the Obama Justice Department might provide answers.

Here are the details. Obama’s Department of Justice initiated an investigation against Sheriff Arpaio some months back for allegedly engaging in “civil rights” violations.

But hold your horses... after months of investigation, the Obama Justice Department ISN'T suing Arpaio's office over civil rights violations... instead the Obama Justice Department is contending that Arpaio's office is refusing to cooperate with its investigation.

According to The Washington Examiner, the Obama Department of Justice filed suit against Sheriff Arpaio's office for "refusing to fully cooperate in a federal investigation into allegations that the sheriff and his deputies are guilty of racial discrimination."

Arpaio says that accusation is bunk and told The Examiner: “These people in Washington met with my attorneys only a few days ago. And in that meeting, Washington got our cooperation; they admitted they already have thousands of pages of the requested documents; and they were given access to interview my staff and get into my jails.”

Arpaio added: “They smiled in our faces and then stabbed us in the back with this lawsuit. The Obama administration intended to sue us all along, no matter what we did to try to avert it.” 

Of course, such bait-and-switch tactics have a familiar ring. Didn't the Obama administration, after all, initially contend that (SB 1070), the Arizona immigration enforcement law, would lead to racial profiling and then sued Arizona on other grounds altogether when it was apparent that the accusation of racial profiling had no merit?

The Examiner comes to the following conclusion: "As the DOJ lawyers claim Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s lack of cooperation with the feds is 'unprecedented,' it should not be lost on anyone that what is actually unprecedented is that a sitting U.S. president is waging a war against Arizona."

That just about says it all. As a matter of fact, many are wondering why the Obama Justice Department is investigating Arpaio at all.

According to Investor's Business Daily: "Our misnamed Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against an Arizona sheriff at the top of the administration's enemies list. Prosecute border sheriffs and sue states but protect the Black Panthers? Gotcha. ... What makes the case interesting, as the Washington Examiner's Byron York reports, is that in September 2008... Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducted its own investigation of Arpaio's office and procedures and found nothing inappropriate or illegal."

You read that right. Obama's Justice Department decided to investigate Arpaio's office AFTER ICE concluded that Arpaio's office was operating totally above board.

What exactly is going on here? Is this pursuit of Arpaio simply a case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing?

Hardly.

Sheriff Arpaio, according to Robert M. Engstrom with Human Events, is accusing "the Obama Administration of taking sides against Arizona and trying to use him and Gov. Jan Brewer 'as puppets.'" Engstrom, quoting Arpaio, added: “'They don’t like us enforcing immigration law,' he said. 'I am not going to surrender.'”

If Arpaio is not surrendering... if he's ready for the fight, we should be ready for the fight too.

Nero May Have Played His Fiddle While Rome Burned But Obama Is Throwing Gasoline On The Fire.

An overwhelming majority of Americans for years have pleaded with the federal government to secure the border and stop the flood of illegal aliens pouring into the United States.

But Barack Obama, believing that he knows best, has not only refused to take serious and substantive steps to enforce our immigration laws... he has sued Arizona for attempting to enact reasonable immigration laws... he has hauled Arizona before the United Nations... and now... he's using every resource at his disposal to go after a local sheriff who is simply attempting to enforce the law.

Obama's motives are clear. He wants to shove amnesty for illegal aliens down the throats of the American people at all costs... by any means necessary.

But unfortunately, as a result of his actions, right before our very eyes, cities in Arizona and across the United States are literally starting to resemble war zones.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer acknowledged this horrendous and unfortunate fact when she signed SB 1070 into law, "We cannot sacrifice our safety to the murderous greed of... cartels. We cannot stand idly by as drop houses, kidnappings and violence compromise our quality of life. We cannot delay while the destruction happening south of our international border creeps its way north."

Senator Jim DeMint recently echoed those sentiments: "States along the border are facing kidnappings... human trafficking and gang violence and they have a duty to keep their residents safe."

Even the former champion of amnesty, Senator John McCain, is acknowledging that "Arizona is under siege..." Phoenix, Arizona is now one of the kidnapping capitals of the world, second only to Mexico City. In fact, the situation is so bad that the government has recently placed travel advisories and in some cases closed large tracts of land as far as 80 miles north or our southern border.

That's why Arizona passed SB 1070 and that’s why as many as 22 other states are presently considering similar legislation.

Gang violence... human trafficking... rampant lawlessness that will extend across the United States from sea-to-shining-sea. Those unfortunate side effects go hand-in-hand with Barack Obama's Amnesty-for-all vision for America.

That's why Obama has placed himself, yet again, in direct opposition to the people. It wasn't enough to refuse to enforce the law... it wasn't enough to sue Arizona for attempting to enforce the law... it wasn't enough to invite the United Nations to his open-borders, pro-Amnesty party.

Now, Obama is sending an unmistakable message to every law enforcement officer in the country... Enforce the law and we will pursue you.

The time to fight back is now.

Yours In Freedom,

Jeff Mazzella
President
Center for Individual Freedom

Amazing New Designs For The Dollar Bill

The American dollar is in bad need of a makeover. Thanks to the Dollar ReDe$ign Project, we may now have some options.

Organized by creative strategy consultant Richard Smith, the Dollar ReDe$ign Project is soliciting ideas for the dollar bill of the future. "Our great 'rival', the Euro, looks so spanky in comparison it seems the only clear way to revive this global recession is to rebrand and redesign," the project notes on its website.

Fisher started the project in with the intent of "trying to find a catalyst to restart our economy" he told Fox News. The recent competition is now closed, and voting ends on September 30. "This has touched people's hearts," Fisher said, and "people feel the dollar touches their lives."

The leading vote-getter for this year's competition (pictured below) was submitted by British duo Dowling Duncan, which features a unique vertical design.

Why a vertical format? "When we researched how notes are used we realized people tend to handle and deal with money vertically rather than horizontally," they note on the Dollar ReDe$ign Project's website. "You tend to hold a wallet or purse vertically when searching for notes. The majority of people hand over notes vertically when making purchases. All machines accept notes vertically. Therefore a vertical note makes more sense."

Mark Gartland submitted the entry below, entitled "America Today." The $50 bill features (pictured below) Sacagawea, the native American Indian who acted as Lewis and Clark's interepreter and guide. Noting the "cosmetic drabness" of the current dollar bill, Gartland selected various historical icons from including Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln and President Obama to represent the "diverse fabric" of the U.S.

Self-taught web designer Sean Flanagan submitted "Moving Forward, Looking Back," (below) which hews to many of "base color, size and orientation" of the classic dollar bill, but offers more than a few pleasant upgrades. Flanagan also utilized only American-designed typefaces and says his design would require at least "three different layers of solid ink," a preemptive strike against counterfeiting.

If these money makeovers weren't enough, The Dollar ReDe$ign Project has even circulated a petition to get the U.S. government to seriously consider their ideas.

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Other Design Entries To

Dollar ReDe$ign Project

Parents, Do You Know What These Texts Mean?

Do you know what this means: %*@:-( ?

Or this: ~~#ZZZZZZ ?

If the answers are no, you're not a teenager who uses alcohol or drugs.

'Boy am I old'

Six years ago, Ryan Jones didn't know what the above terms meant either -- but that was before he became an expert in the shorthand teens use to communicate about their illicit activities.

It all began in 2004, when Jones, a software engineer, received some odd instant messages at work, using terms such as "idk" and "lyk." It was all Greek to Jones.

Jones, a computer programmer in Allen Park, Michigan, quickly realized the messages weren't from his boss -- they were from his boss' children who were hanging out at the office with their father for the day. As a joke, they'd gone into their dad's AOL account and sent silly, innocent instant messages to everyone in the office, and none of the adults could understand the shortcuts and slang.

He later learned "idk" means "I don't know" and "lyk" means "like."

"It was a real 'boy am I old' moment," Jones remembers. "But then it occurred to me the slang was actually really creative and saved time and keystrokes. I was talking to some of the other programmers, and we thought it would be a cool idea to start a website that had translations of the slang that kids use."

Jones created noslang.com in 2005, and as more readers have submitted terms related to drugs and sex, what started out as a fun little lexicon of innocuous shortcuts has become a valuable educational tool for parents to learn about what their children are up to.

Hate letters from teens

Children across the country are heading back to school, and new research from the Partnership for a Drug-Free America shows that a third of parents are concerned computers and texting make it harder to communicate with media-engrossed teens about sex, drugs, alcohol and other risky behaviors. This is a particular concern for many parents, especially considering another new report, from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, finds 5.7 million public school students attend gang and drug-infected schools.

Jones has now made it his mission to help parents detect when their children are discussing dangerous activities online.

In his online dictionary, there are thousands of slang terms related to drugs and sex (there are 88 drug shortcuts beginning with the letter "a" alone). "A- boot," for example, means someone is under the influence of drugs, "cu46" means "see you for sex," and "gnoc" means "get naked on cam," meaning a webcam.

"Whether you're a parent, teacher, law enforcement officer or simply a concerned friend -- it's important to stay up to date on the latest drug-related slang terms," Jones writes on the website.

You won't find every drug- and sex-related term on Jones' website. While readers have submitted thousands of examples of slang, he refuses to include ones that are just too disgusting.

"You should see the things I reject on a daily basis," he says. "Some of this stuff is pretty vulgar."

After they read through his dictionary, parents appreciate the education, Jones says. "Parents write me thank you notes all the time, and I occasionally get hate letters from teens," he says.

Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden agrees that parents need to wise up to what their kids are saying to each other online. His office has made more than 100 presentations about understanding teen online communications.

'A huge disconnect'

"There's a huge disconnect between parents and kids," says Wasden, who makes presentations to parents and teens about how to communicate safely online. "For parents, there is a mystique about technology, but texting is the standard way [teens] communicate with one another."

To demystify electronic communications among teens, Wasden suggests keeping an eye on your child's texts and online communications, whether it's via instant messages or Facebook.

You'll be in good company if you do. According to a recent study from the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project, 64 percent of parents look at the contents of their child's cell phone.

This may seem overbearing, but remember: Looking at what your child says online could keep your child out of a dangerous situation.

"I'm the parent," Wasden says. "If I have to choose between having my child upset with me or having them be victimized, I'm going to chose for them to be upset with me every time."

Of course, it doesn't help to read what they write if you can't understand it.

"There's a broad range of terms that even vigilantly monitoring parents may not recognize," says Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. "Kids are developing their own language and don't want anyone to know what it is."

If you see terms that are unfamiliar to you, go to one of several translators and dictionaries that help parents decipher the terms that teens use in chat rooms, text messages and instant messaging boards.

You can find teen lingo translators from the state of Idaho, noslang.com, teenchatdecoder.com, netsmartz411.org and 1337Talk.com.

Groups such as the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Parents. The Anti-Drug, the Partnership for a Drug-Free America and the Office of National Drug Control Policy have lists of street terms and slang, including those specific to drug or sexual activity.

Once you get the hang of the language, you can try your hand at translating a real message found by Susan Shankle and Barbara Melton, co-authors of the book "What in the World Are Your Kids Doing Online?"

The message reads:

"1 w45 50 j4ck3d up |457 n16h7. 1 5c0r3d 50m3 cr4ck 47 7h3 p4r7y 50 1'd h4v3 17 f0r 70n16h7 4nd 70m0rr0w, 4nd 7h3n J1mmy 700k 0ff w17h 17, 7h3 455h0|3! 1 4m 4|| j1773ry 4nd n33d 70 m337 up w17h y0u 70n16h7 4f73r my p4r3n75 7h1nk 1 4m 45|33p. c4n y0u m337 m3 47 b0j4n6|3'5 47 m1dn16h7 ju57 f0r 4 f3w m1nu735? 1 ju57 n33d 4 |177|3 4nd 1 c4n p4y y0u b4ck 0n m0nd4y, 1 pr0m153."

Translation:

"I was so jacked up last night. I scored some crack at the party so I'd have it for tonight and tomorrow, and then Jimmy took off with it, the [expletive]! I am all jittery and need to meet up with you tonight after my parents think i am asleep. Can you meet me at Bojangle's at midnight just for a few minutes? I just need a little and I can pay you back on Monday, I promise." -CNN

This Weeks Sound Off

Snopes.com Lie Unveiled

PLEASE READ THIS VERY CAREFULLY. It is about Snopes.com's lie about Obama and Elena Kagan, whom Obama had highly recommended and whose appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court had been confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

A friend went to Snopes.com to check out what Snopes.com had to say about a WND article about the Supreme Court dockets and Elena Kagan. According to Snopes.com, the article was "false" and there were "no such Supreme Court dockets". Just for further confirmation, my friend then googled the Supreme Court website, typed in Obama/Kagan, and guess what? Everyone of those dockets referred to in the WND article are in the Supreme Court website! Snopes.com LIED!

So my friend wrote Snopes.com saying:

RE: the WND article about Elena Kagan and Barak Obama dockets. As for the information Snopes.com has posted in which Snopes.com stated that there were no such cases as claimed by WND and that the article is false, I went directly to the Supreme Courts website, typed in Obama/Kagan and lo and behold(!), the website immediately came up with all of the dockets that WND mentioned. I have long had the uncanny suspicion that Snopes.com has been slanting things, but this was really shocking! I hope you will be much more truthful in the future.

Just in case you didn't already know. . . all the while before Kagan was recommended and approved by the US Senate to be Supreme Court justice, Kagan has been representing Obama against all the petitions and suits against Obama regarding his birth and citizenship. Now that she is already in the Supreme Court, she is in an even better position to help further rule in favor of Obama's and his cohorts' irregularities and questionable acts. Not only does Obama owe Kagan a lot politically, but it is also to Obama's and his friends' distinct advantage for Kagan to be in the Supreme Court; that appears to be why Obama highly recommended Kagan for the position and wanted her confirmed a.s.a.p. She has been the reason why many, if not all, of the suits filed against Obama (several suits are by fellow Democrats) have been dismissed and/or never heard.

Once again the dirty politics and the U.S. Senate have sold the America to the devil. Fortunately, someone suspected & figured out why Obama nominated Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court post. Pull up the Supreme Courts website below, go to the dockets and search for Obama/Kagan.

Things just keep getting crappier and stinkier. The American people mean nothing to today's politicians.

Below are some websites of the Supreme Court docket. Check out some of the proceedings. Guess what? Elena Kagan has been and is the lawyer representing Obama all along!

Source Unknown

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SC Docket No.1 - SC Docket No. 2 - SC Docket No. 3

Locally Speaking

Hotel makes way for Ferris wheel in Myrtle Beach

Golden Villa coming down for Ferris wheel construction

Crews have started clearing out the two-tower Golden Villa hotel in downtown Myrtle Beach, which will be demolished next week, to make way for a new Ferris wheel.

Al Mers, a partner in Pacific Development, the St. Louis-based company that's bringing the 187-foot-tall SkyWheel to downtown Myrtle Beach, said work is moving ahead as crews remove asbestos from the hotel in preparation for its demolition.

The demolition is scheduled to begin Monday or Tuesday, and Mers said the lot at 1106 N. Ocean Blvd. should be flat by about Oct. 22.

"The first thing people will see going up are the piers," he said. Because the wheel and the adjoining building are being built in the hurricane surge zone, they must be constructed on a deck that will sit 20 feet above sea level - 3 to 4 feet above the ground on the lot.

Piers to hold the wheel's steel frame will sink 30 feet deep, Mers said.

The wheel is part of the ever-changing face of downtown Myrtle Beach.

When the SkyWheel is finished, it will be one of the downtown district's tallest structures. The height limit is 240 feet, and there are nine resort towers that are between 20 and 23 stories, said Fire Marshal Bruce Arnell, including the Ocean Forest Plaza, the Carolina Grand and the Grand Atlantic.

The Slingshot frame is about 170 feet tall and stands on a small hill, and when the SkyWheel is finished, it should be about 200 feet tall.

The wheel is scheduled to open in the first week of May.

The steel frame is being constructed in pieces outside St. Louis, and the "ballooned-out-square" gondolas that will carry riders are being crafted in Switzerland, Mers said.

"They are like what you'd see on a ski lift," he said. "They are the latest upgrade - the fourth generation."

Each gondola is temperature controlled, and because they are clear from floor to ceiling, each will have a slight tint to help keep it cool in the summer and make scenery watching more comfortable.

Once the lot is cleared and prepared, about "50 truck loads" of steel will arrive and be stored in Myrtle Beach, delivered to the site as needed. Mers said the A-frame could be here by December. –Sun News

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Court Gives Go-Ahead To Repossess Freestyle Music Park Property

An Horry County judge has granted one of Freestyle Music Park's creditors the right to reclaim property that sits inside the shuttered park, according to court documents.

VenCore Solutions requested an order to take immediate possession of the property, stating that the property was in immediate danger of destruction. The Oregon-based company had leased a wide variety of property, including shelving units and radios, to Freestyle.

The lawyer for FPI MB, Freestyle's owner, wrote a letter to VenCore confirming that the the property "is currently uninsured and not subject to a hurricane contingency plan," according to an affidavit from James Paul Johnson, VenCore's Chief Operating Officer. The judge granted the order on Sept. 8, stating that it appeared the property was in immediate danger.

B. Keith Poston, VenCore's attorney, said the company instructed him not to comment on the case. Nate Fata, FPI MB's attorney, could not be reached immediately for comment.

It is unclear how VenCore will go about repossessing the property.

VenCore initially leased the property to Hard Rock Park in an agreement that was passed on to Freestyle when it bought the park out of bankruptcy in 2009.

VenCore additionally claims Freestyle owes $1,074,738 for failing to comply with the terms of the leasing agreements.

Freestyle closed after a disappointing first season and did not reopen in 2010. –Sun News

Ragbag Headliners

The Widening Gap In America

Percentage of Americans in poverty rises to 14.3% in 2009, highest in decades, Census Bureau says. –CNN Reports

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Georgia Town To Residents: Uphold The Law -- Uphold Your Pants

The town of Dublin, Georgia, is putting saggy, baggy pants in the category of indecent exposure, with violators facing fines of up to $200.

Dublin Mayor Phil Best said he plans to sign this week an amendment to the municipality's indecent exposure ordinance. The amendment, which Best plans to put into immediate effect at the City Council meeting, prohibits the wearing of pants or skirts "more than three inches below the top of the hips exposing the skin or undergarments."

"We've gotten several complaints from citizens saying the folks with britches down below their buttocks was offensive, and wasn't there something we could do about it," Best said.

The mayor said after about a year of fielding complaints, he put the city attorney to work researching how other localities have dealt with the derriere dilemma. The result was that council members decided to put exposure due to baggy clothing in the same category as masturbation, fornication and urination in public places.

Patrolling for offenders will be left to local police in the town about 140 miles southeast of Atlanta. Violators could face fines ranging from $25 to $200, or court-mandated community service. –CNN Justice

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81% Rate U.S. Economy As 'Poor' - CNN Poll

A new national poll released Sunday indicates that eight in 10 Americans say that the economy is in poor shape, and the number that say conditions are very poor is on the upswing after steady declines through the spring.

And according to a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey, more people blame the Republicans over the Democrats for the country's economic problems.

Eighty-one percent of the public rates the county's economic conditions as poor, with 18% describing the economy as good. Forty-four percent of people questioned describe economic conditions as very poor, up seven points from July.

The poll indicates that roughly half the country says that conditions have not improved in the past two years. The other half says that the economy has gotten better, but many of them expect things will get worse in the near future.

"Roughly a third of all Americans say that the economy has gotten better and will continue to do so," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "But one in five say that things have gotten better but will take a turn for the worse in the months ahead -- essentially predicting the "double-dip" that many economists are worried about."

So which party gets the blame for the country's current economic problems?

According to the survey, more Americans hold the Republicans responsible than the Democrats, with 44% blaming the GOP and 35% picking the Democrats.

"And when George W. Bush's name is added to the mix, the number who blame the Republicans rises to 53%, with just a third saying that Barack Obama and his party are at fault. That indicates why the Democrats are likely to mention Bush's name every chance they get between now and election day," Holland said. –CNN Money

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For Many Unemployed Workers, Jobs Aren't Coming Back

 
The U.S. economy will eventually rebound from the Great Recession. Millions of American workers will not.

What some economists now project — and policymakers are loath to admit — is that the U.S. unemployment rate, which stood at 9.6% in August, could remain elevated for years to come.

The nation's job deficit is so deep that even a powerful recovery would leave large numbers of Americans out of work for years, experts say. And with growth now weakening, analysts are doubtful that companies will boost payrolls significantly any time soon. Unemployment, long considered a temporary, transitional condition in the United States, appears to be settling in for a lengthy run.

"This is the new reality," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's  Analytics. "In the past decade we've gone from the best labor market in our economic history to arguably one of the worst. It's going to take years, if not decades, to completely recover from the fallout."

Major employers including automakers and building contractors were at the core of the meltdown this time around. Even when the economy picks up, these sectors won't quickly rehire all the workers they shed during the downturn.

Many small businesses, squeezed by tight credit and slow sales, similarly aren't in a hurry to add employees. Some big corporations are enjoying record profits precisely because they've kept a tight lid on hiring. And state and local governments are looking to ax more teachers, police officers and social workers to balance their budgets. Meanwhile, U.S. legislators have shown little appetite for a new round of stimulus spending.

It all points to a long slog for the nation's unemployed. In May, a record 46% of all jobless Americans had been out of work for more than six months. That's the highest level since the government started keeping track in 1948, and it's about double the percentage of long-term unemployed seen during the brutal recession of the early 1980s. –LA Times

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New Health Reform Measures Start

More health care reform measures are kicking in, with many of them taking effect this month.

While Michigan's major insurers say the changes will have little, if any, impact on health care premiums, analysts say consumers can expect insurance rate hikes eventually.

Two major changes this month include extending insurance coverage for dependents to age 26 and barring insurers from not accepting children 19 and younger because of pre-existing conditions. Both changes could add significant numbers to the ranks of the insured.

Some changes under President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act began phasing in earlier this year and will continue through 2014. The reform package, signed into law in March, aims to reduce fast-rising health care costs and provide affordable health coverage to more than 45 million uninsured Americans. –The Detroit News

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Health Insurers Plan Hikes

Health insurers say they plan to raise premiums for some Americans as a direct result of the health overhaul in coming weeks, complicating Democrats' efforts to trumpet their signature achievement before the midterm elections.

Aetna Inc., some BlueCross BlueShield plans and other smaller carriers have asked for premium increases of between 1% and 9% to pay for extra benefits required under the law, according to filings with state regulators.

These and other insurers say Congress's landmark refashioning of U.S. health coverage, which passed in March after a brutal fight, is causing them to pass on more costs to consumers than Democrats predicted.

The rate increases largely apply to policies for individuals and small businesses and don't include people covered by a big employer or Medicare.

Many carriers also are seeking additional rate increases that they say they need to cover rising medical costs. As a result, some consumers could face total premium increases of more than 20%.

While the increases apply mostly to the new policies insurers write after Oct. 1, consumers could be subject to the higher rates if they modify their existing plans and cause them to lose grandfathered status. –Wall Street Journal

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Imam: We Are Proceeding With NYC Islamic Center

The imam at the center of an ugly controversy over an Islamic center near New York's ground zero broke his silence Tuesday, just hours after a broad coalition of Christian, Jewish and Islamic leaders denounced what they described as a rising tide of anti-Muslim bigotry across the United States.

"I have been struck by how the controversy has riveted the attention of Americans, as well as nearly everyone I met in my travels," said Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf in an editorial published online by The New York Times Tuesday night.

"We have all been awed by how inflamed and emotional the issue of the proposed community center has become," wrote Rauf, who has just returned from a State Department-sponsored Middle East trip to promote U.S.-Muslim relations.

"The level of attention reflects the degree to which people care about the very American values under debate: recognition of the rights of others, tolerance and freedom of worship."

The imam was clear about his intentions.

"We are proceeding with the community center, Cordoba House. More important, we are doing so with the support of the downtown community, government at all levels and leaders from across the religious spectrum, who will be our partners. I am convinced that it is the right thing to do for many reasons," he wrote.

Rauf described the center to be built two blocks from the former site of the World Trade Center towers -- destroyed by terrorist-hijacked commercial jets on September 11, 2001 -- as a "shared space for community activities, like a swimming pool, classrooms and a play space for children."

"There will be separate prayer spaces for Muslims, Christians, Jews and men and women of other faiths," he wrote. "The center will also include a multifaith memorial dedicated to victims of the Sept. 11 attacks."

"I am very sensitive to the feelings of the families of victims of 9/11, as are my fellow leaders of many faiths. We will accordingly seek the support of those families, and the support of our vibrant neighborhood, as we consider the ultimate plans for the community center. Our objective has always been to make this a center for unification and healing."

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg spoke on Tuesday about the plan and criticized politicians he claims are using the issue for political gain ahead of midterm elections in November.

Various faith leaders in recent weeks have expressed concerns about hate crimes against American Muslims in the run-up to this weekend's anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, which coincide with the holiday of Eid-al-Fitr, marking the conclusion of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. –CNN U.S.

"Remember Who We Are" by Krista Branch

Fingerprint Sharing Leds To Deportations

A rapidly expanding illegal immigration enforcement program has led to the deportation of 47,000 people over 18 months when the Homeland Security Department was sifting through millions of fingerprints taken at local jail bookings.

About one-quarter of those did not have criminal records and slightly less — about a fifth — had committed or were charged with what are categorized as the most serious crimes, according to government data obtained by immigration advocacy groups who had sued.

ICE posted the data on its website late Monday in advance of the group's release of the data Tuesday.

The federal government says the fingerprint sharing program, known as Secure Communities, helps to identify criminal immigrants who threaten public safety in the U.S.

Secure Communities is one of several ICE programs targeting immigrants charged or convicted of crimes. Overall, 49 percent of the immigrants ICE has deported so far this year have been criminals, compared to 35 percent all of last fiscal year.

Immigration advocates say the government spends too much time on lower-level criminals and people who have not committed crimes. They also allege the program makes people fearful of reporting crimes, does not protect against racial profiling and is being forced on some communities without consent.

"ICE essentially throws a gill net over the concept of immigration reform. It sweeps up all the little people along with what they say is their intention, which is to deport serious and violent criminals," said San Francisco Sheriff Michael Hennessey, whose city is having trouble getting out of the program. He said people picked up on traffic violations, whose charges are later dropped, still get deported.

From October 2008 through June of this year, 46,929 people identified through Secure Communities were removed from the U.S., the documents show. Of those, 12,293 were considered non-criminals and 9,831 were labeled as having committed the most serious crimes.

Fingerprints of people booked into jails already are sent to state criminal justice departments to be checked against federal criminal databases. Under Secure Communities, they also go to Immigration and Customs Enforcement to run through Homeland Security databases.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement divides crimes into three categories, with Level 1 being the most serious. Level 1 crimes include actions that threaten or compromise national security, murder, rape, drug crimes punishable by more than one year, theft and even resisting arrest.

Most of those deported committed Level 2 or 3 crimes or were non-criminals, a monthly report of Secure Communities statistics shows.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced Tuesday that Secure Communities is in place in all 25 counties along the U.S.-Mexico border. Her statement, released just before advocates criticized the program in a conference call with media, did not say when that occurred.

"Secure Communities gives ICE the ability to work with our state and local law enforcement partners to identify criminal aliens who are already in their custody, expediting their removal and keeping our communities safer," Napolitano said.

Richard Rocha, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman, said Monday non-criminals may be people who have failed to show up for deportation hearings, who recently crossed the border illegally or who re-entered the country after deportation. He also said it's important to remember that more people commit offenses that are considered Level 2 and 3 crimes.

The Obama administration wants Secure Communities operating nationwide by 2013.

As of Aug. 3, 494 counties and local and state agencies in 27 states were sharing fingerprints from jail bookings through the program.

California had the highest percentage of immigrants deported who had committed Level 1 crimes, with 38 percent of a total 14,823 immigrants sent out of the country, according to statistics from 24 of the states participating through the end of June. In Georgia, 39 percent of 624 immigrants removed were non-criminals, the highest rate among the states.

Travis County, Texas led all counties with the highest percentage of non-criminals deported, 82 percent of 724, according to the groups' analysis of the statistics.

The Immigration Justice Clinic at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York, the National Day Laborer Organizers Network and the Center for Constitutional Rights had requested and sued for the statistics. They are awaiting the release of more data from the program. –Yahoo News

"Pledge of Allegiance" by Red Skelton

Wrong Court Ruled On Arizona Law

In a stunning development that could potentially send the nation into a Constitutional crisis , an astute attorney who is well-versed in Constitutional law states that the ruling against the State of Arizona by the federal judge, Susan Bolton, concerning Arizona's new immigration law is illegal.

An article in the Canada Free Press states in part: "....Does anyone read the U.S. Constitution these days? American lawyers don't read it. Federal Judge Susan R. Bolton apparently has never read it. The same goes for the U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder...."

The US Constitution is very clear and plain.

Article III, Sec. 2, clause 2 says: "In all cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction."

In other words, Susan Bolton, the federal judge in the Arizona case has absolutely no constitutional jurisdiction over the matter upon which she ruled.

As the Constitution makes abundantly clear, only the U.S. Supreme Court can issue rulings that involve a State. This means that neither Judge Bolton nor the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco , to which the case is being appealed, have any legal standing whatsoever to rule on the issue. Thus, even U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has no authority to hear the case.

In a related development, another explosive discovery is: the Constitution specifically allows an individual State to wage war against a neighboring country in the event of an invasion, should there be a dangerous delay or inaction on the part of the federal government.

From Article I, Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution, are the following words: "No State shall, without the consent of Congress, engage in War, unless actually invaded, or is in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay."

No one who is actually familiar with the crisis at the southern border can deny that Arizona is endangered by the relentless assault of lawless Mexican invaders who ignore US federal and state laws, inundate our schools and medical facilities with unpaid bills, and even endanger the very lives of citizens by criminal drug cartels that engage in kidnapping, murder, human trafficking, and other mayhem, including aiming missile and grenade launchers directly at U.S. border cities from just across the Mexican border. This is every bit as much of an invasion as any other foreign nation sending a fleet of warships to the any US port.

The Constitution that forms the basis of the rule of law in this country says that Arizona has legal right to protect itself in the case of inaction or delay on the part of the federal government, including waging war in its self-defense.

This, when coupled with the clear Constitutional mandate that only the Supreme Court is allowed to hear cases involving the States, should be ample legal basis for attorneys representing Arizona to go after the federal government with a vengeance.

Governor Jan Brewer and the stalwart members of the Arizona legislature have ample legal reason to stand firm against the illegal bullying of an arrogant, lawless federal government.

And there are established procedures by which the federal judge, Susan R. Bolton, can be removed from her position as a result of her violating her oath of office to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America.

Author Unknown

Milton Firedman - Greed

A Woman In The Welfare Office

A woman trailed by 15 kids of varying ages and sizes walked into the welfare office.

"Wow! What in the h---?" the social worker silently exclaimed to herself, and then quite audibly asked the woman, "Are they all yours?"

"Sho' is, they's all mine," the woman replied with a tinge of sarcasm in her voice after having been asked the same question for the 'nth' time.

The woman then hollered, "Sit down, Leroy." And each child rushed to find a seat.
'Well,' said the incredulous social worker, 'I'll need each child's name.'

"Well, th' boys is all named Leroy: L-E-R-O-Y, and th' girls is all named Leighroy: L-E-I-G-H-R-O-Y."

With utter disbelief scrawled all over her face, the case worker managed to keep from outrightly saying 'how stupid !' Instead as tactfully as she possibly could, she mused loudly: "How interesting! Every boy is 'Leroy' and every girl is 'Leighroy'...."

The woman countered,'It makes things much easier for me. When it's time to get 'em outa bed an' ready for school, I jes' yell, 'Leroy!' An' when it's time for dinna', I yell 'Leroy!' An' they all comes a runnin'. An' if I need to stop a kid who's runnin' to the street, I yell 'Leroy', an' all of 'em stop. Givin' 'em th' same one name is the sma'test idea yet.'

After the social worker turned the matter over in her mind for several seconds, with tightly knitted and furrowed eyebrows, she inquired, 'But what if you want only ONE kid to come, instead of the whole bunch?'

'Then I calls th' kid by his or her las' name. . .' the woman replied.

Author Unknown

The New World Order

Bush - Obama - Clinton

A New Health Threat

"Liberty is to the collective body what health is to every individual body. Without health, no pleasure can be tasted by man; without liberty no happiness can be enjoyed by society"  ~ Thomas Jefferson

Now that we have recovered from the swine flu vaccination threat to our health and wellbeing, a new threat, using another level of security scare, is being used to expose the flying population to either excessive ionizing radiation or ultra high frequency radiation. Thanks to the radical Muslim effort, or whomever is behind this, to blow up an airplane on Christmas Day 2009, TSA Security Laboratory Director Susan Hallowell recently announced the agency’s intent to use back-scatter X-ray machines for passenger surveillance.

Obviously we need to refine our screening techniques to provide maximum safety for our air travel. This is not our objection. Our objection is that these X-ray machines, being field tested at JFK, LAX, and Orlando, penetrate a few centimeters into the skin and reflect back out a naked body image. While some will view this as a personal violation, this is not the immediate problem. Thomas Wiggins, a radiation company engineer, admits that before 9/11, proposing such a system would be like ordering his own death sentence. He has changed his mind and now states that they could “scan a pregnant woman 200 times without a health risk”. This is an entirely scientifically fallacious statement.

Those implementing this near-sighted, and ultimately genocidal, agenda have deliberately ignored the outstanding research of Dr. John Gofman, Professor Emeritus of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley (photo left) showing that THERE IS NO SAFE DOSE OF IONIZED RADIATION. This statement is based on years of serious unbiased research. Ionizing radiation in the X-ray spectrum damages and mutates both chromosomal DNA and structural proteins in human cells. If this damage is not repaired, it can lead to cancer. X-rays also damage the interior walls of the arteries. These radiation damaged cells are unable to process lipoproteins correctly, resulting in atherosclerotic plaques and mini tumors in the arteries thus stimulating atherosclerosis and heart disease.

Dr. Gofman’s studies indicate that radiation from medical diagnostics and treatment is a causal co-factor in 50% of America’s cancers and 60% of our ischemic (blood flow blockage) heart disease. He stresses that the frequency with which Americans are medically X-rayed “makes for a significant radiological impact.” The bottom line is that the more people are exposed to these higher doses of radiation the greater their risk of real life-threatening cancer and heart disease.

A report in the British medical journal Lancet noted that after breast mammograms were introduced in 1983, the incidence of ductal carcinoma (12% of breast cancer) increased by 328%, of which 200% was due to the use of mammography itself. A Lawrence Berkeley National Lab study has demonstrated that breast tissue is extremely susceptible to radiation-induced cancer, confirming warnings by numerous experts that mammograms can initiate the very cancers they may later identify. Dr. Gofman believes that medical radiation is a co-factor in 75% of breast cancer cases. With this information, it would not be very intelligent to expose your breasts to radiation from X-ray machines at airports. This is an explicit danger to American women. (Infrared mammography is a far safer diagnostic tool. Research shows that flesh-eating women have a higher rate of breast cancer. A plant-source only diet is the best protection against breast cancer.) We always have to analyze the risks and benefits. In this case the risks of women dying from the radiation from these machines far outweigh the risk of death caused by a terrorist high-jacking airplanes. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t improve security, but these procedures must not introduce a scientifically proven life-threatening hazard to our health. Already, because of our toxic lifestyle, America’s cancer rates are rising in every category. It is a well known fact that airline pilots and cabin crews suffer more skin and breast cancer due to higher levels of radiation while flying. Dr. Abram Petkau has uncovered significant statistical research showing that a pregnant woman flying in an airplane, in her first trimester exposes her baby to enough radiation to increase its risk of leukemia sixteen times. I, myself, have measured radiation at 30,000 feet using a radiation counter and found it to be ten times higher at this altitude than on the ground. To add additional lethal radiation to people, already getting an unhealthy dose from flying, when there are other alternatives, seems genocidal, whether conscious or unconscious.

The other source of surveillance being considered is ultra high frequency radio waves. There are scanners available that produce a frequency 1000 times higher than is healthfully advisable. Some examples of this are radar, producing a wide variety of radiations, causing cancer and neurological problems. Microwaves are also noted to cause cancer in areas in which people are exposed. Swedish research on the use of ultra sound technologies on fetuses indicate that it may cause subtle brain damage, and may be associated with delayed development in infants, as well as learning disorders.

The attempted terrorist attacks do create some concern. We do need to think about appropriate security without creating a screening system lethal to our population. Although I am sure these extremists and terrorists would support such a lethal screening system with great humor.

There are many forms of security screening that could work, in addition to effectively enforcing those systems already in place. In this particular case, the young man’s father actually went the embassy in Nigeria and warned them of his son’s intentions. In every incident there have been traceable warnings. We have had sufficient evidence. Presently billions of dollars are being spent on technology that makes us less secure, because we are screening people who are not a threat, namely the US population. When we put our energy in one direction, we move it away from another. In this situation, they are rerouting attention away from the actual threats. A variety of security consultants have specifically said that we need to focus on identifying the terrorists and their patterns instead of their tactics, which are always changing. Their suggestion is not to put money into X-ray machines that will have a genocidal effect on our population, but rather into an intensive examination of evidence, as has been put forward in each of these bombings. In this way we would have a focus on the actual problem instead of on innocent global and national populations. The security systems in Israel are the best in the world, and they utilize this approach. It is not a “profile approach”, which could be considered against the US constitution, but it is an anti-terrorist approach. Given the amount of onslaught in Israel, they seem to be doing quite well without subjecting their population to this “needle in a haystack” methodology. Using a priority system for classifying travelers and people has been executed in some countries very successfully. People have the right to request a TSA non-radiation search, which may include dogs sniffing for chemicals, as well as, in high security cases, a strip search.

I am urging you to start expressing your concern now. We must strongly protest to convince authorities that this is a dangerous, thoughtless, and genocidal approach, which will increase the risk of cancer, atherosclerosis, heart disease, and brain damage to our population. The risk/benefit analysis does not justify these measures, which are at best foolish and genocidal.

Dr. Cousens suggests four points of action:

1. Demand that Congress mandate TSA’s radiation experiments be strictly voluntary.
2. Demand the right to request that TSA conduct a non-radiation search of our persons.
3. Demand our right to abstain from security procedures that may harm our children.
4. Initiate an e-mail campaign to convince TSA and the airlines that forcible assault by radiation makes the cost of an airline ticket impossibly prohibitive.

You may leave a note at this link. (http://www.tsa.gov/contact/index.shtm) The TSA toll free comment line is: 1-866-289-9673.

Blessings to your health and spiritual well being.

By Dr. Gabriel Cousens, M.D., M.D. (H), D.D.

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Letter to Congress
Below is a template you may use to write to your Senators and Congress(wo)men:

Dear (Senator/Congressman/Congresswoman),

I am writing to express my concern over the TSA’s use of back-scatter X-ray machines for passenger surveillance at airports. These machines are an invasion of personal privacy and a serious health risk. Beyond the reflection of a naked image for security personal to scrutinize, these machines expose the passenger to ionized radiation, of which extensive research has proven, there is no safe dosage. People have the right to request a TSA non-radiation search, which may include dogs sniffing for chemicals, as well as, in high security cases, a strip search.

I urge Congress to mandate that the TSA’s radiation experiments be strictly voluntary. The health of our population and future generations should not be jeopardized to ensure its own security. If safety measures must be taken, let’s be certain that they are truly safe.

Sincerely,
(Your Name)

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Letter/Email to TSA
Here is a ready-to-use template for writing to the TSA:

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing to express by concern on TSA’s use of back-scatter X-ray machines for passenger surveillance at airports. These machines are an invasion of personal privacy and a serious health risk. Beyond the reflection of a naked image for security personal to scrutinize, these machines expose the passenger to ionized radiation, of which extensive research has proven, there is no safe dosage. People have the right to request a TSA non-radiation search, which may include dogs sniffing for chemicals, as well as, in high security cases, a strip search.

I urge that the TSA’s back-scatter X-ray scans be strictly voluntary. The health of our population and future generations should not be jeopardized to ensure its own security. If safety measures must be taken, let’s be certain that they are truly safe.

Sincerely,
(Your Name)