POLITICAL: U.S. Intelligence Community

Saturday, December 22, 2012

http://lewrockwell.com/engelhardt/engelhardt453.html

The Visible Government

How the U.S. Intelligence Community Came Out of the Shadows

by Tom Engelhardt

TomDispatch

*** begin ***

Their book with that startling title, The Invisible Government, was published in 1964 and it was groundbreaking, shadow-removing, illuminating. It caused a fuss from its very first paragraph, which was then a shockeroo: “There are two governments in the United States today. One is visible. The other is invisible.”

I mean, what did Americans know at the time about an invisible government even the president didn’t control that was lodged deep inside the government they had elected?

Wise and Ross continued: “The first is the government that citizens read about in their newspapers and children study about in their civics books. The second is the interlocking, hidden machinery that carries out the policies of the United States in the Cold War. This second, invisible government gathers intelligence, conducts espionage, and plans and executes secret operations all over the globe.”

The Invisible Government came out just as what became known as “the Sixties” really began, a moment when lights were suddenly being shone into many previously shadowy American corners. I was then 20 years old and sometime in those years I read their book with a suitable sense of dread, just as I had read those civics books in high school in which Martians landed on Main Street in some “typical” American town to be lectured on our way of life and amazed by our Constitution, not to speak of those fabulous governmental checks and balances instituted by the Founding Fathers, and other glories of democracy.

I wasn’t alone reading The Invisible Government either. It was a bestseller and CIA Director John McCone reportedly read the manuscript, which he had secretly obtained from publisher Random House. He demanded deletions. When the publisher refused, he considered buying up the full first printing. In the end, he evidently tried to arrange for some bad reviews instead.

*** end quote ***

The essence of the Tin Foil Hats is that there are conspiracies that we just never “know about”.

Here’s the “shadow government” one again.

Never really been able to understand it.

Still don’t.

But it’s scary fascinating stuff.

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JONFINDING: Manager of Business Services, global Pharmaceutical company in Princeton , NJ

Friday, December 21, 2012

Dear FJohn,

My name is Robert Rizza, I am the Managing Director with SNI Companies. My client is a global Pharmaceutical company in Princeton , NJ.

I am looking for an experienced Manager of Business Services. They offer amazing benefits, and tremendous growth. my client has experienced 40% growth over the past 3 years.

Would you happen to know anyone that is interested in this opening?

Robert Rizza
Managing Director
108 Stanhope Street Princeton, NJ 08540 Phone 609-452-0287
Brizza@snicompanies.com
Proud winner of the 2011 Best of Staffing TM Client competition

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POLITICAL: Menendez jumps on the tragedy to do a gun grab!

Friday, December 21, 2012

Dear Friend,

The senseless, horrific tragedy that took place in Newtown, Connecticut last Friday has shaken us all to our cores. We ask ourselves, why? Today, I spoke on the Senate floor to join with every American in expressing our deep and abiding grief as a nation and our deepest — most heartfelt — condolences to the families of the victims.

As the father of two, this strikes painfully close to my heart, painfully close to the heart of every parent. There is no greater sorrow — no deeper pain — than the enormous grief that these families are suffering: 20 innocent children, 6 teachers and school employees and their families. No parent should ever have to bear the unspeakable pain of losing a child, especially to this type of tragedy.

Enough is enough.

We must ensure the Newtown tragedy marks a turning point when we are all willing to come together and do what’s right. As we pray for the victims, I believe we must commit ourselves — as a nation — to a long-overdue debate about gun violence and how we help those who suffer mental illnesses in our society.

We must finally pass common sense gun laws. No more politics. No more excuses.

Sincerely,

Robert Menendez

United States Senator

***************

My response: “Repeal the gun free zones around schools. Allow the school folks to pack heat. Worked for the Israelis!

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GUNS: GOA needs support

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Dear Usual:

The tragedy in MA is a direct result of what I call “wishful thinking” aka “the Tooth Fairy will make it all better”. The world is a dangerous place. But what passes for political leadership in the USA engages in it regularly. They passed the “gun free schools” legislation and the problem is solved. That works so well for drug prohibition.

Thirty years ago, the Israelis solved their “school security” problem by REQUIRING teachers and school staff to be armed. Further they had their IDF train civilian grandparents in proper weapons and started a program of “school volunteers”. Problem solved. THe terrorists moved on to “softer targets”.

In MA, instead of the principal attempting a “bull rush” on the active shooter, wouldn’t you have trusted her with a weapon to return fire. I’m confident that she would have made the right choices. But the federal law denied even that possibility.

I’m not a fan of the NRA because they give in. This is NOT about hunting; this is about rights. Ask the German Jews, the Armenians, the Cambodians about the results of being disarmed. Oh yeah, you can’t they are most all DEAD. The literature is ripe with stories about a single weapon stopping or minimzing a massacre. We never hear where things are stopped without a shot being fired. Why is that? Because it doesn’t fit the Big Media’s planned left wing agenda.

Sorry to interrupt your holiday with some tough talk. But, Joe Biden, the author of the failed “Assault Weapons Ban” (i.e., ban guns that look scary despite the fact that they weren’t the ones used in any of the incidents), is coming back with his recommendations. Guess what those will be? I’ll bet a paycheck it is NOT repeal the “Guns Free School Zone” law.

Please like GOA on Facebook. It’s free. Consider joing GOA. If you’re of a mind to it, visit a range and squeeze off a box. (They rent guns by the hour and sell the bullets. They’ll even give you a lesson if needed.)

So, keep your finger off the trigger and on the keyboards to let the politicians know you care. (Even if you don’t. Make them worry.)

fjohn

———- Forwarded message ———-

From: Gun Owners of America <Gun_Owners_of_America@capwiz.mailmanager.net>

Date: Wed, Dec 19, 2012 at 10:17 PM

Subject: GOA Defending Your Rights on the Firing Line

To: Ferdinand Reinke

Gun Owners of America

GOA Defending Your Rights

on the Firing Line

CNN’s Piers Morgan slams

Larry Pratt and all gun owners

In case you missed it, Piers Morgan called GOA Executive Director Larry Pratt and his Second Amendment friends “idiots” on Tuesday night.

Yes, Piers thinks you’re an idiot.

But Pratt ruffled Piers’ feathers by shooting back, telling him that “Brits like him” just don’t like listening to facts.

Gun Owners of America has been out front defending your gun rights and has appeared on scores of media outlets all across the country — and even across the world.

Some of the notable highlights include:

GOA’s Larry Pratt on Piers Morgan on Tuesday night

Director of Communications Erich Pratt in US News & World Report

And Larry Pratt again with the opposing view piece for USA Today on Monday.

Make no mistake about it! We are in the fight of our lives.

Barack Obama has made it his central priority to destroy us. And he and his anti-gun allies have billions of dollars of support from the TV, print, and cable media.

Obama will start out trying to ban semi-automatics, magazines and gun shows. But make no mistake about it. Obama’s initial efforts to crush us will just be the first step to making the entire country a replica of Chicago -– complete with across-the-board gun bans and defenseless citizens.

Julian Epstein, an MSNBC commentator, candidly revealed that the point of Obama’s campaign was not any particular piece of legislation, but rather to “break the back” of the gun lobby.

You can be sure of this: The battle against Obama and his anti-gun stooges will be the biggest fight of our lives.

Already, Gun Owners of America has been the most prominent spokesman for the Second Amendment in the wake of the horrific Newtown tragedy.

Roll Call, the newspaper of record on Capitol Hill, remarked that, in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, “the reaction from one gun rights group [GOA] stood out.”

The liberal Huffington Post trumpeted: “Gun Owners of America steals Newtown gun debate while NRA hides.” It went on to say that “[w]hat is surprising is that [GOA Executive Director] Pratt is the only gun lobby representative willing to discuss his beliefs in public in the days after the Connecticut massacre.”

GOA has virtually been a solitary voice giving interviews all over the country –- and the world -– on behalf of gun rights and the Second Amendment.

Stand with us so that we can continue fighting against the anti-gun onslaught.

As much as anyone, we deplore the efforts of anti-gun zealots to exploit this tragedy for political gain. But if we hide in fear, we will have lost the debate and the legislative battle before even coming onto the battlefield.

We cannot let that happen.

This has not been without cost. We have received death threats against us and our children, and hundreds of profanity-laced emails. One writer said he wished our own children had died at Sandy Hook. Another said he wished that all our GOA members would “just put a gun to their heads and pull the trigger.”

But, when you stand up to sick-minded opportunistic people –- as we have –- you can expect their true colors to show through.

We hope our members are proud of us. As our legislative counsel told one liberal reporter: “I think a lot of people who see and hear us fighting, at a time when [gun control advocates] are ready for battle, they’ll remember it.”

So we need your help to keep fighting.

And we need you to fight alongside us.

ACTION:

(1) Go to our Facebook page at Gun Owners of America and “like” us, if you have not already. There are daily articles there that will keep you up to date with what is going on in regard to our gun rights.

(2) Please do everything you can to help us, as we work overtime during this holiday season to defend our rights.

(3) Help us recruit even more gun owners on our free email alert list. Once the new Congress is sworn-in this January, we will be fighting the biggest battle of century.

Please forward this e-mail to friends and family

Gun Owners of America

8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102

Springfield, VA 22151 703-321-8585

http://www.gunowners.org

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RANT: Required pre-Christmas gift giving

Thursday, December 20, 2012

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/unfortunate-truths-about-child-pornography-and-the-internet-feature/

WOW! Certainly should be required reading for anyone BEFORE they allow their children to have ANY access to a computer or cell phone.
Argh!
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MEMORIES: 42 years ago

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

a beautiful young lady said “i do”

changed me forever

she was called away two years ago

changed me forever

just waiting

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RANT: Taylor is not the marketing maven I thought she was

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Personally, I was astonished!

She is supposedly a “marketing maven”.

BUT!

She missed the boat — or someone did — with the Walgreen’s deal.

FIRST, She should have has a “display clause”. “Her” display was messy! Needed to be “straightened”.

SECOND, she should have INSISTED on a higher quality notebook.

(a) the paper used in her notebook was of flimsy quality; (not that I think it has to be great, but it was like tissue paper)

(b) it has no red margin line line normal loose leaf filler; (how much did that add to the bottom line!) AND

(c) I was expecting some “personalization”. (Since her audience is tweens, preteens, and at least one fat old white injineer I would suggest that the “notebooks” should have taken the opportunity to communicate something inspirational to all the young girls who hang on her every word and one fat old white guy injineer who wishes he was 50 years younger.)

If I was a “pop star”, then I hope I would try to “communicate” with my young girl fans?

Do I tell them to: (a) study hard? (b) close your knees and bring about world peace; or (c) figure out what you want to be when you grow up like I did and don’t let anyone distract you from your goal.

****

Taylor Swift, Walgreens, and me

A marketing whore?

That’s a little “hard”.

Is that like a man is assertive and a woman is bitchy?

You have to admire that her net worth reportedly jump about 165M$ in the last year. And, that’s what they know about. Her merchandise sales and tie ins fly under the radar.

She’s really the successor to Reba who succeeded Dolly.

The only question is can she sustain it.

The stuff that I read says that there are 2 year transitions early in the “star career” early between 14 and 21. Then they begin to lengthen until they finally become decades. Cites of successful transitions are Betty White, Liz Taylor, Jodi Foster, and Madona. Cites of unsuccessful are Jenna Elfman, Lindsey, Pink, Barbara Striesand, Jane Fonda, and on and on.

It’s a tough business and the public is fickle.

I’d cite Lady Kazan, who technically had a better voice than her contemporary Babs, but lost out. Judy Collins succeeded over Jody Mitchell but couldn’t make the transition form Folk music to the Beetles.

I feel bad for people with a gift who’s gift for whatever reason can not make the leap. “Starving artist” is a cliche.

At the very least, someone like these people must “make hay while the sunshines” because at any minute the music can stop and they are left without a chair.

I think the thing that I admire most about a Taylor Swift is that she “knew” what she wanted to do so early in life and had the huevos to go for it. She sounded “sad” when she said she wanted to go to college but made a decision to forego it to pursue her career. Her “stones” came out when she passed on the record deal from RCA. (Wonder who, if anyone, got fired for that?) And, she had the chutzpah to sign with a start up record label as their Number One artist.

Amazing.

Shows me the nerve of a cat burglar. The savvy of a NYC three card mote dealer. And the Noblise Oblige of some one who’s living their dream.

Argh!

Sometime beauty makes to weep for what you are not.


ADMINISTRIVIA: Asserting ownership

Monday, December 17, 2012

http://www.blogdash.com/full_profile/?claim_code=49da76499a0c0dd117793bca7d556cc7

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INTERESTING: Is this the “gay gene” that everyone was seeking?uote

Monday, December 17, 2012

 

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/12/11/scientists-may-have-finally-unlocked-puzzle-of-why-people-are-gay

Scientists May Have Finally Unlocked Puzzle of Why People Are Gay

Lesbians get it from fathers, gay men from mothers?

By JASON KOEBLER

December 11, 2012

*** begin quote ***

Long thought to have some sort of hereditary link, a group of scientists suggested Tuesday that homosexuality is linked to epi-marks — extra layers of information that control how certain genes are expressed. These epi-marks are usually, but not always, “erased” between generations. In homosexuals, these epi-marks aren’t erased — they’re passed from father-to-daughter or mother-to-son, explains William Rice, an evolutionary biologist at the University of California Santa Barbara and lead author of the study.

“There is compelling evidence that epi-marks contribute to both the similarity and dissimilarity of family members, and can therefore feasibly contribute to the observed familial inheritance of homosexuality and its low concordance between [identical] twins,” Rice notes.

Rice and his team created a mathematical model that explains why homosexuality is passed through epi-marks, not genetics. Evolutionarily speaking, if homosexuality was solely a genetic trait, scientists would expect the trait to eventually disappear because homosexuals wouldn’t be expected to reproduce. But because these epi-marks provide an evolutionary advantage for the parents of homosexuals: They protect fathers of homosexuals from underexposure to testosterone and mothers of homosexuals from overexposure to testosterone while they are in gestation.

*** end quote ***

Is this the big breakthrough that allows the human race to move forward?

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INTERESTING: What’s the “jedi religion”?

Sunday, December 16, 2012

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9737886/Jedi-religion-most-popular-alternative-faith.html

‘Jedi’ religion most popular alternative faith

Today’s Census figures show that 176,632 people in England and Wales identify themselves as Jedi Knights, making it the most popular faith in the “Other Religions” category on the Census and the seventh most popular faith overall.

***

You have to be kidding me!

I could understand a lot of the possible answers, but … this one stuns me!

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