U.S. Gathered Personal Data on Times Reporter in Case Against Ex-C.I.A. Agent

Amplify’d from spirituallysmart.blogspot.com

U.S. Gathered Personal Data on Times Reporter in Case Against Ex-C.I.A. Agent

By CHARLIE SAVAGE

WASHINGTON — Federal law enforcement officials, trying to uncover the sources of a New York Times reporter, James Risen, obtained extensive records about his phone calls, finances and travel history, according to a court brief filed late Thursday.

Prosecutors gathered “various telephone records showing calls made” by Mr. Risen, as well as “credit card and bank records and certain records of his airline travel” and three credit reports listing his financial accounts, the document said.

The brief was filed by lawyers for a former Central Intelligence Agency official, Jeffrey A. Sterling, who has been charged with leaking classified information to an unnamed reporter. The details of Mr. Sterling’s indictment, which was unsealed earlier this year, made clear that prosecutors believe he was a source for Mr. Risen’s 2006 book, “State of War: The Secret History of the C.I.A. and the Bush Administration.”

One of the book’s chapters details a C.I.A. program in 2000 that aimed to disrupt Iran’s nuclear research by giving it blueprints for a nuclear device containing a hidden design flaw. Mr. Risen portrayed the effort as botched, saying it probably helped Iran gain valuable expertise.

The indictment made clear that the government had obtained records of the men’s e-mail and phone contacts. But those could have been obtained by gaining access to Mr. Sterling’s accounts alone. The new brief, which was reported Thursday evening by Politico, showed that law enforcement officials have also extensively investigated Mr. Risen.

The brief did not say when the government obtained the records about Mr. Risen, and the Justice Department declined to discuss the matter. Its investigation into Mr. Sterling dates to the administration of George W. Bush, and Mr. Risen was twice subpoenaed — once under Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey, and again under the current attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., Mr. Mukasey’s successor in the Obama administration.

Mr. Risen has refused to talk about his sources. The first subpoena lapsed when a grand jury expired, and a federal judge eventually quashed the second subpoena. It remained unclear whether prosecutors would try to subpoena him again for Mr. Sterling’s trial.

Under Justice Department rules, prosecutors may seek subpoenas of journalists for testimony or for their phone records only if the information sought is essential and cannot be obtained in another way.

In addition, the attorney general must personally sign off after balancing the public’s interest in the news against its interest in effective law enforcement. Those regulations do not cover other kinds of personal records for journalists, however.

It also remained unclear whether the phone records came from Mr. Risen’s account. Justice Department rules require notifying a reporter within 90 days if his or her phone records have been subpoenaed. Mr. Risen said that he had received no such notification, but that he believed that the Justice Department had been “harassing” him because of his reporting during the Bush administration.

“This seems to bolster the view that I was targeted by the government,” Mr. Risen said. “They basically tried to get everything about me. I’m not sure what else they could have gotten except my kids’ birth certificates.”

Lucy A. Dalglish, the executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, portrayed the scrutinizing of Mr. Risen as part of a crackdown on leaking that is making it increasingly difficult to report on security and intelligence matters. (The Obama administration, in its first two years, indicted more officials for leaking information to reporters than any previous one.)

“Is it creepy? You bet it is,” Ms. Daglish said. “But that’s how the feds investigate crimes. The problem is that Jim and other reporters are going to have a much more difficult time in the future having government whistleblowers talk to them, and that’s the reason they do this.”

Scott Shane contributed reporting. Read more at spirituallysmart.blogspot.com

 

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Charlie Sheen says to Alex Jones, "We're Vatican Assassins" mockingly

Amplify’d from spirituallysmart.blogspot.com

Charlie Sheen says to Alex Jones, "We're Vatican Assassins" mockingly

Quote during interview with Alex Jones: "...Guys, it’s right there in the thing, duh! We work for the Pope, we murder people. We’re Vatican assassins. How complicated can it be? What they’re not ready for is guys like you and I and Nails and all the other gnarly gnarlingtons in my life, that we are high priests, Vatican assassin warlocks... " Hear it here More Here

Video from Associated Press.

More Info on the "Sheen" name and Martin Sheen's Jesuit/Vatican connections.

'Haim Levine' crack not anti-Semitic, Charlie Sheen says (poll)

Comment from Vanity Fair article: "This is not just about Charlie Sheen. Any TV show is a team effort involving hundreds of people. The selfishness displayed by Charlie Sheen this week means that a large number of people will lose their jobs. Sheen can go for a long time without work, but the grips, make-up, wardrobe, lighting, filming, editing specialists, writers and other production staff cannot. We all want Charlie Sheen to admit to himself that he has a problem and get clean and sober. Judging from his recent comments, it's obvious that he has not yet addressed the depth of his sickness. Worse, by being so childish and arrogant in his recent comments, he has left a debris trail of shattered careers in his wake for hundreds of people. Shame on him. Any actor, especially an overpaid star of a sitcom, should understand that their success comes not just from their talent or the hype that created their inflated myth, but from the support of fellow actors and an army of production staff. That Charlie Sheen could be so cavalier with his comments shows how pathetically self-centered and still in denial he really is. Pathetic." Read more at spirituallysmart.blogspot.com

 

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Critiquing the Spirit of Prophecy

Amplify’d from spectrummagazine.org

Critiquing the Spirit of Prophecy

Donna Haerich

I like Ellen White.  She is one of my role models.  My childhood bedroom was the same one in which she had slept when visiting Graysville, Tennessee in the early 1900’s.  I believe I grew up breathing in her residual spirit.  But the Ellen I know and love is not the Ellen of most of my contemporaries.

I was introduced to Ellen, as were most of you, via a narrative that told of a sickly young girl with only a third grade education who was the recipient of supernatural visions.  As the story goes, she was  influential  in the founding of the Adventist church and over her lifetime produced numerous books and articles on a wide variety of subjects.  Interpretation:  no way could such a simple woman have written such beautiful  passages – no way could an uneducated  woman have understood such deep theological concepts - she had to have been “inspired”.   Her message and her words had to have come directly from God.

Often when I’m preparing my Sabbath School lesson in the wee hours of the morning (frequently Sabbath morning) I am at a loss as to what to bring to my class.  As I study the biblical passages, I pray that God will help me prepare (often with promises that I will not to wait until the last minute again) and I am impressed with a concept, an idea, an understanding that connects the thoughts in a way that I had not heretofore considered and my lesson plan seems to miraculously fall into shape.  While I privately thank the Lord for these insights –I would not dare say to my class later, “the Lord showed this to me.”  Better they think that I’m just intelligent and knowledgeable than risk presuming to have the gift of prophecy.

But for my friend Ellen, this was not an option. In fact it was a social necessity that she acknowledge her total dependence on God for her insights.    In her day women were believed to be not as intelligent as men and incapable of strenuous intellectual pursuits.   She was born into a patriarchal culture in which women’s influence and talents were confined to the feminine domestic sphere.

It is difficult for us today to envision a time when the common belief was that women’s intellectual capacity was limited and that as females they were unable to grasp abstract ideas and concepts.  Their smaller brain size was seen as scientific evidence of their reduced mental capacity.  As the physically weaker sex   their limited energies were to be conserved for the vital and debilitating business of childbearing, not in pursuing a higher education.  It was man’s God-given responsibility to protect, oversee and guide a woman’s decisions and actions.

Upon marriage the identity of a woman merged with that of her husband.  Under law a married woman was not legally a person.    She could not own property, enter into agreements, vote, sit on a jury or initiate law suits.  She could not sign contracts or legal papers without the signature of her husband.    Her husband received all her assets and personal property and the rights to their use as he saw fit.  He was entitled by law to conjugal rights at his discretion with or without her consent.

Women in 19thcentury America were physically, socially, mentally, physiologically and legally dependant on the care and protection of men.  This situation was believed to be according to “natural law”.  This position was taught from the pulpit, the scholar’s lectern and propagated in the public press.  It was enforced by the laws of the land and supported by the medical and scientific community.

Whatever Ellen wrote, whatever she said, when and how she said it, must be seen against the backdrop of the cultural thinking of the day.  Even how Ellen saw herself and how she envisioned her mission must  be filtered through the mindset of women in her day.  As her social indoctrination was quite thorough, it would be natural for her to consider even her own intellectual insights as originating outside of herself.  Therefore her best defense when speaking would be to say, “The Lord showed this to me.”

The Bible and the Bible alone was the mantra of the early pioneers.  In order to accept Ellen White as a prophet, the early Advent believers developed the doctrine of the perpetuity of spiritual gifts.  Using Scripture, they established that the gift of prophecy did not cease with the first century church.   They maintained that the Holy Spirit continued to be active and had guided God’s church down through the ages. *

Even though her “gift” of prophecy was validated doctrinally by the company of believers there was still no way in hell that the men of her day were going to consent to take direction and counsel from a woman.   To do that would go against the natural order and would be contrary to their lifetime of social conditioning.   Therefore Ellen White’s leadership role had to be indirect.  Her direction and counsel would be accepted only if she could be perceived as merely “God’s messenger”.  She was just God’s “delivery system”; she was but “the conduit” through which God spoke.

Nonetheless, Ellen was a serious student of the Bible.  She had a large personal library and read widely.  She sought help in her writing from commentaries, other bible writers and scholars.  She was a world traveler and had a wide breadth of general knowledge.   She was endowed with keen insight into human nature.  She had the ability to hold large congregations in rapt attention and could lecture at length on various subjects with knowledge and skill.

By any external standard, Ellen was a well educated, self-made woman.  Today we would have recognized her literary accomplishments with an honorary doctorate degree.  But by attributing her spiritual insights to an external source the church was able to marginalize Ellen’s own innate abilities as a preacher, a writer and as a Scriptural scholar.

But now a secondary problem arises.  Once a prophet has spoken their message becomes fixed - at least according to the 19thcentury belief and understanding of a prophet’s role.  The prophet’s words were the words of God.   One cannot dispute, change, alter, or mess with God’s word.

Whether it was her own enculturation as a 19thcentury woman or the preconceptions and expectations of her readers, or both, once the script had been written, once people believed her to have a direct line to heaven, her use of the phrase, “the Lord showed me…” could no longer been seen as a literary device but was indicative of the voice of God and was not to be questioned.

I believe God gave the “gift” of prophecy to the Adventist church so that we could see up close and personal just how inspiration works.**   That way we, as a people, could clearly understand our doctrine of “thought inspiration” and could apply it to the study of Scriptures.   I believe our church was blessed in a special way with a firsthand visual aid of the prophetic gift.  As much value as there is in what Ellen had to say – the demonstration of how she said it and the way in which she formed and produced her writings is inestimable.   She gave us a window on the way in which the prophets of old functioned.   However by focusing on the limited predictive nature of prophecy we missed our calling.

Had we not been so fearful of examining the methods in which Ellen White exercised her gift, we would have been in a better position to welcome the vast amount of current scholarship that has exploded in the past fifty years in the area of Biblical studies.   With our church’s gift of a real live prophet we should have been at the forefront of biblical interpretation and been able to place this increased knowledge of the Bible in perspective for the current generation.  But Ellen was relegated to the same status as the biblical prophets and became locked in the same erroneous paradigm of infallibility.

All prophets wrote in their times and cultures.  Ellen White was no exception.  She was not out of step with the mores and standards of her day.  Her counsels were wise and timely for the people living a hundred and fifty years ago.  Sadly Adventist young people today must risk being seen as rebellious when they enjoy activities that are time conditioned.  Ellen’s counsel on social conventions must now be either rigidly adhered to or rejected outright.

As time passed Ellen’s prophetic voice was co-opted by church leaders and others who sought to use her gift for their own benefit - to consolidate power, to increase financial coffers and to validate their own ministries.   Thus, unlike other churches of the time which moved into the 20thcentury and adapted their beliefs and practices to the cultural norms of society, the SDA church remains forever locked in the 19thcentury.   While other conservative churches were able to change with the times, the SDA church faces the danger of becoming a relic of the past.  The very gift that was to free God’s church to grow and become a light to the world became the mechanism which anchored the church to the past.  We made an icon of Ellen and an idol of her messages.

*This doctrine really wreaks havoc with the whole notion that the doctrine of the Trinity was merely a man-made affair.

**I believe Ellen White processed the gift of prophecy in the same manner in which the prophets of old wrote and spoke and therefore must be evaluated and interpreted using the same hermeneuticalmethods as used to understand Biblical writers. Read more at spectrummagazine.org

 

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You'll believe anything you read online, won't you?

Amplify’d from www.scientificamerican.com

You'll believe anything you read online, won't you?

By Colin Schultz |

In July, 2010, one corner of the blogosphere erupted with the seething, burning rage that online communities seem to have a unique ability to muster.

The spark that lit bloggers' fuse was a decision by SEED Media Group decision-makers to allow a team of writers from PepsiCo Inc. to operate a blog about nutrition and global health on its popular ScienceBlogs.com blogging network. Many of ScienceBlogs' other writers felt this choice had leapt across the ethical line. Some thought the Pepsi-authored blog wasn't labelled clearly to let readers know what they felt it was – advertising in disguise. Some felt that by staying, their reputations, and their credibility, would be diminished.

While SEED did eventually reverse its plan, the damage had been done. The network began haemorrhaging writers, losing nearly a quarter of its roster before the week was out. Blogging as a platform flies on wings of trust, and it seemed that ScienceBlogs - one of the first, and certainly the most prominent science blogging network - had flown too high.

The fiasco – dubbed Pepsigate as the saga unfurled – revolved around two major issues: traditional notions of the advertising-editoral divide that have plagued publishing for ages, but also a new struggle stemming from a lack of understanding of how readers assess the credibility of blogs. Knowing how readers decide to believe a blog post could help make sense of Pepsigate, and whether or not giving a clearer biography of the Pepsi blog's authors would have made any difference.

One recent study by Thomas Chesney and Daniel Su tried to dig into the factors people use to judge blogs by focusing on pseudonymous* blogging and the impact it might have on perceived credibility.

Chesney and Su gave 269 undergraduate students – 182 in the UK, 87 in Malaysia - a fake story chronicling a blogger's discovery of, and subsequent battle with, nail fungus (ew?). The posts were identical except for the blogger's biographical information running along the top. Here, the researchers had three types of bio: 1) a pseudonym only 2) a pseudonym, age, and sex, or 3) the blogger's “real” name, age, sex, email address and photograph.

The students rated the blogger's perceived credibility, successfulness, trustworthiness, and reputation, along with whether they thought the writer had “an interest in important affairs,” integrity, and had “information of superior quality.” Each of these terms was judged out of seven and combined to give a one-number measure of the bloggers perceived credibility, with one being believable and seven being a skeezy dirtbag.

It turned out, much to the surprise of the researchers, that having a full set of biographical information, or having nothing but a nickname (KrystalKidd, or another similarly creative pseud) made absolutely no difference on how credible the students thought the blogger was.

"I wasn't expecting that at all,” said Chesney, a researcher at the University of Nottingham. "I thought it would make a difference, this idea of having not just a name but also a photograph, but it didn't. There was no difference.”

Pseudonymous bloggers were rated with a 4.40 +/- 0.93, pseud, age and sex earned 4.28 +/- 0.79, and fully identifiable bloggers got 4.26 +/- 0.89. In other words, all three set-ups left the bloggers somewhere in the middle of the seven point scale.

"Whatever the reason," said Chesney, "the implication of [the study] for bloggers is that, should they wish to publish anonymously, they can do so without a loss of credibility."

But in my mind, this is only one possible way of looking at the results. Yes, it could be that people are sympathetic to anonymous bloggers. Or, maybe it's just that the level of trust for blogs isn't up for discussion. So it might not be that bloggers aren't losing credibility by being anonymous, but rather that even by having a photo, an email address and all the rest, bloggers just aren't capable of gaining any points. Chesney said he's sympathetic to the two different interpretations.

"I think that's exactly right. This study doesn't shed any light on which of those it is, but it could be either," he said.

Chesney said there is at least one strong reason why the results may not be perfectly applicable to blogging today, however. He said the research was conducted in around 2006, "before it became known in the mainstream that news organizations were willing to look at blogs, Flickr streams, and microblogs as valid information sources."

He said that at the time, it might have been that, despite their growing prominence, “blogs perhaps were not seen as something worth attention.”

But, Chesney and Su's findings seem to fit within previous research into the perceived credibility of websites in general. The pair wrote that in a study by Eysenbach and Köhler, which looked at how people get health information online, that "few participants were able to name the website where they had eventually found information, and none of them had checked any ‘disclaimer’ or ‘about us’ section of the websites they looked at."

The research, along with a pinch of extrapolation, suggests that for the average browsing reader, the one who will come across a story from Twitter, Facebook, Reddit or any other source, will hardly even notice – let alone care – whose blog they are currently reading. They will read the post, and decide what to make of it based on the content. And then, just like when people learn bad science from movies, they will probably forget where they found the information in the first place.

My point in tying this research to the Pepsigate scandal is to suggest that those who happen to be in charge of giving bloggers an expanded platform (like by being on a blogging network run by a magazine company), need to be particularly ethical in regards to who they hand a keyboard. If the research shows that readers don't look at biographies or check an author's credentials, then the practice of running disguised advertising is a huge breach of their obligations to their audience.

With the default credibility of blogs running so low, and there being little a blogger can do to improve it, they need to be especially protective of any gains they manage to make – a lesson SEED may have learned just a little too late.

*The authors refer to anonymous blogging throughout their study, but technically the research seems to refer to pseudonymous blogging - blogging under a nickname. Anonymous bloggers would be completely unidentified.

This article is based on an earlier draft published on the CMBR blog.

For more on this topic, see:

This post by  Scicurious about the pros and cons of being a pseudonymous blogger.

The Pseudonymity Laboratory, a series of posts exploring pseudonymity in science online.

Two stories about the problems that can arise from misattributed credibility- one about the public perception of climate change, and another on manufactured health controversies.

An ode to the special place anonymity has in all of our little e-hearts, and what Google is doing to let us keep it.

Thanks to Psychasm at LabSpaces for pointing me to this study.

Image Credits: Nuclear explosion, "ScienceBlogs.com, circa July 2010." Photo credit: FEMA.  Anonymous, "Anonymous bloggers are seen as equally credible as named bloggers. No word yet on the internet group 'Anonymous.'" Photo credit: Vincent Diamante Read more at www.scientificamerican.com

 

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Arab Unrest Signals Messiah's Coming

Prophecy! MESSIAH REVEALED! - Is He Coming Soon REDUX http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBs6aAifNdE&feature=player_embedded

Amplify’d from ohlundonline.blogspot.com

Arab Unrest Signals Messiah's Coming

Ipse Spiritus testimonium reddit spiritui nostro, quod sumus filii Dei. (Romans 8:16) Ynetnews reports prominent rabbis from the Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox sector explain Mideast uprisings as a clear proof that a higher power is at work. Rabbi Aharon Leib Steinman, the leader of the ultra-Orthodox Lithuanian sector in Bnei Brak, blames the instability in the Middle East on contemptuous attitudes toward Torah study. Steinman said: "Recently it appears that there is a powerful effort to destroy and agitate the world of the Torah, through various attempts to prosecute kollels and yeshiva students". Steinman continued: "When you try to agitate the world of the Torah, God agitates the world". Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, an unconventional Lithuanian leader who is believed to have mystic powers, said "that any unrest that God creates shows that the Messiah is coming, and that we must begin to prepare for it and become stronger". Another prominent rabbi, Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz, is certain that God is causing the turmoil in order to put the people in their place. Lefkowitz said the one who does not see that God is running the world is not evil, but a fool. That was a wise statement! According to Elijah the Tishbite, Hillary Rodham Clinton will be the next U.S. President chosen to be. Asia Times Online reports the global cascade of "Jasmine revolutions" in the Middle East and North Africa appears to have entered North Korea. Hundreds of protesters are said to have clashed with security forces in North Korea. The clashes in North Korea seem to be "an eruption of long pent-up discontent". The President of the United States, Barack Obama, and the European Union have chosen to sit idle and to passively watch the revolutions in the world without interfering. I approve of that policy. We should only interfere if a minority is threatened by extinction, but that is not the case in any of the nations now in turmoil. In Libya as in the other revolting nations, it must be up to the local populations to fight out their own future without foreign intervention. All we can do is to watch and deplore all the killings and all the deaths. To support puppets with billions of dollars, would not only be a waste of money, but would also be counter productive as it would turn those populations against us in the long term. But we should pray for all nations in the name of Jesus Christ. "Sine offensione estote Iudaeis et Graecis et ecclesiae Dei", 1 Corinthians 10:32. Read more at ohlundonline.blogspot.com

 

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Comet Elenin Is Approaching

Comet Elenin is coming (2011) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsFhHmoK_d8&feature=player_embedded#at=106

Amplify’d from ohlundonline.blogspot.com

Comet Elenin Is Approaching

Terraemotus magni erunt per loca et pestilentiae et fames terroresque de caelo et signa magna erunt. (Luke 21:11) Comet Elenin is said to reach perihelion on 9/11/11. It also appears that the comet's size across is 50 kilometers (31 miles). Comet Elenin will bring debris with it and even if the comet doesn't collide with Earth, which depends on what it encounters in the Oort cloud, our planet will pass through the debris trail - at 60.000 mph! "And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth", see Revelation 12:4. Maybe that is why the Russians are in such a big hurry to upgrade and build a huge new number of underground "nuclear shelters"? There are however no indications yet that comet Elenin would be an UFO artificial object. We have interesting times ahead for us all. "Et erunt stellae de caelo decidentes, et virtutes, quae sunt in caelis, movebuntur", Mark 13:25. Read more at ohlundonline.blogspot.com

 

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Amplify’d from www.ydr.com

Ex-FBI agent sentenced for killing woman

The Associated Press

LAS VEGAS—A retired San Diego FBI agent has been sentenced to eight to 20 years in prison for slaying his son's girlfriend after a plan to evict the woman ended in violence. Clark County District Judge Donald Mosley handed down the sentence Wednesday to Edward Preciado-Nuno, who was convicted by a jury of voluntary manslaughter, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. The 63-year-old Vietnam War veteran beat Kimberly Long to death with a hammer in November 2008 in the garage of his son's Las Vegas home, striking her more than a dozen times in the head. Preciado-Nuno testified at trial that Long had attacked him with a hammer first and he was defending himself when he killed her. But Mosley said it was difficult to believe that striking someone in the head 13 times was done in self-defense. Preciado-Nuno, a 25-year FBI agent who retired in 2003, came to Las Vegas from San Diego after he was asked by his son, Jeffery Preciado, for help in evicting Long from the home following a fight several days before the slaying. Her five-year relationship with Preciado had crumbled, and a confrontation between Preciado-Nuno and Long while Preciado was staying at a hotel sparked the fatal fight. At the sentencing hearing, Preciado-Nuno apologized to the victim's family and his own family for what had happened. Defense attorney Tom Pitaro asked the judge to take into consideration his client's FBI and military service, and to sentence Preciado-Nuno to probation. Prosecutor Giancarlo Pesci said Preciado-Nuno already was given such consideration by the jury, which spared him the murder conviction prosecutors had sought. Carol Heckeler, Long's adoptive mother, said on Friday that justice had been served by the verdict. "Kimmy can rest in peace now," she said. ——— Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal, http://www.lvrj.com Read more at www.ydr.com

 

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The Joey Gold Show





Listen to internet radio with Joey Gold on Blog Talk Radio

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Amplify’d from www.ydr.com

Sex offender registry gets tweaks to aid in search

AMANDA DOLASINSKI The York Dispatch

Pennsylvania residents can find the number of registered sex offenders living just half a mile from their home as part of the states revamped sex offender registry website.

The sites improvements include the ability to search for sex offenders by municipality and within a specific radius. The site can also find offenders even if the user misspells the name.

York City Detective First Class Dana Ward said the site appears to be easier for people to navigate. Using the site is important for the safety of residents and their children, he said.

I think the tweaks are good, he said. Through my investigations, I hear people look up (sex offenders) all the time.

The site includes a radius-search function that allows the user to enter an address and establish a search radius of half-mile, one mile, three miles or five miles, acting State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan said in a news release.

People can also search for offenders who live or attend school within the designated radius. The site returns a listing and map of offenders.

The site has a Soundex feature that takes a name entered by the user and provides a list of individuals with that name and with similar-sounding names, according to the news release.

This means that even if a user misspells the name of an offender in the system, the new site will be more likely to make a match and provide information about the offender, Noonan said.

Other upgrades: The upgraded site features geocoding and Google mapping of offender addresses. The site continues to provide the most current photographs of offenders.

As part of the upgrade, the system is now retaining each new photograph of offenders, which will be dated and displayed on the offenders page.

Residents can also submit anonymous tips regarding where offenders live.

Noonan said State Police hope to add an electronic community notification feature to the website that will allow users to receive public notifications about Megans Law offenders through e-mail or text messages using the states AlertPA system.

Action by the General Assembly would be required before such a feature can be enabled, he said.

Pennsylvanias Megans Law requires State Police to create and maintain a registry of people who live, work or attend school in the state and who have either been convicted of, entered a guilty plea or adjudicated delinquent of certain sexual offenses in the state.

The website is pameganslaw.state.pa.us.

Reach Amanda Dolasinski at 505-5434 or adolasinski@yorkdispatch.com. Read more at www.ydr.com

 

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The Rise of Conservative America

Amplify’d from www.ktfministry.org

The Rise of Conservative America · February 25, 2011

The mid-term elections in the United States greatly increased the power of conservative legislators and governors. No where is this more obvious than in the battles over abortions.

Pro-life advocates are clearly energized by the new conservative political environment, and are mounting aggressive legislative campaigns to limit abortions.

Lawmakers are drafting more restrictive regulations, bills that would ban most abortions at 20 weeks after conceptions, and that would curb insurance, often reintroducing measures that had been vetoed by previous governors but now have their support.

Governors of 29 states are “now considered to be solidly anti-abortion, compared with 21 last year.” “In 15 states, compared with 10 last year, both the legislature and the governor are anti-abortion…” It appears “rather likely that more measures would pass this year than in 2010, which anti-abortion advocates considered a banner year, with more than 30 restrictive laws adopted in at least nine states.”

Pro-life advocates hope to achieve gains in as many states as possible in measures that include Banning abortions earlier in pregnancy, in some cases restricting them within the second trimester; Pressing women to view ultrasounds; Banning any abortion coverage by insurance companies in the new health insurance exchanges under the Obama administration health plan, etc.

The politics of abortion have changed profoundly in some larger states including Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

The general popular trend in the U.S. is toward more conservative agendas. Perhaps a liberal administration has energized the conservative forces that are now poised to make gains in key conservative agendas. But this trend deserves to be watched carefully by students of prophecy. It will obviously be a conservative agenda that would likely press for religious laws. While faithful followers of Jesus would likely be thankful for more restrictive abortion laws, the potential for legislative initiatives in conscience areas related to worship should be carefully monitored.

NY Times Article Read more at www.ktfministry.org

 

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Amplify’d from info-wars.org

Charges initiated against Pope for crimes against humanity

by Infowars Ireland

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent The Irish Times February 23, 2011

TWO GERMAN lawyers have initiated charges against Pope Benedict XVI at the International Criminal Court, alleging crimes against humanity.

Christian Sailer and Gert-Joachim Hetzel, based at Marktheidenfeld in the Pope’s home state of Bavaria, last week submitted a 16,500-word document to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court at the Hague, Dr Luis Moreno Ocampo.

Their charges concern “three worldwide crimes which until now have not been denounced . . . (as) the traditional reverence toward ‘ecclesiastical authority’ has clouded the sense of right and wrong”.

They claim the Pope “is responsible for the preservation and leadership of a worldwide totalitarian regime of coercion which subjugates its members with terrifying and health-endangering threats”.

They allege he is also responsible for “the adherence to a fatal forbiddance of the use of condoms, even when the danger of HIV-Aids infection exists” and for “the establishment and maintenance of a worldwide system of cover-up of the sexual crimes committed by Catholic priests and their preferential treatment, which aids and abets ever new crimes”. Read more…

Related posts: ICC to investigate Kenya crimes news.bbc.co.uk The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor says he will... ‘Pope will force Brady to resign’ By John Cooney, Ruth Gledhill and Jill Sherman www.independent.ie Saturday... UN steps in to charge Israel with war crimes The United Nations has moved to set up a commission... International arrest warrants have been requested for George W. Bush, Richard (Dick) Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Condoleeza Rice and Alberto Gonzales english.pravda.ru International arrest warrants have been requested for George W.... Pope warns about dangers of internet www.breakingnews.ie 24 April 2010 The Pope said today that the... United Nations impose sanctions on Gaddafi PressTv Sun Feb 27, 2011 The UN Security Council has... Ignoring child rape scandals, pope says faith means not being ‘intimidated’ by ‘petty gossip’ By Stephen C. Webster rawstory.com March 28th, 2010 Marking the... Pope walks out over criticism of Israel Pope Benedict XVI has responded to a Palestinian chief judge... Pope knew priest was paedophile but allowed him to continue with ministry Richard Owen The Times March 13, 2010 The Pope was... Bush Crimes: Murder Trumps Torture Says Bugliosi The legendary Los Angeles County prosecutor and top selling true... Read more at info-wars.org

 

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Amplify’d from www.infowars.com

Government Promises to Cut Social Security

Infowars.com February 26, 2011

It’s official, national austerity measures are here!  As Wisconsin protesters fill the streets because of lost rights and benefits to workers, the nation is gearing up to face similar losses with social security being cut.  Comedian George Carlin warned us that this day would come (note video contains obscene language):

“Now they’re coming for your social security money … they want it back so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street.” — George Carlin.

The debate has moved from whether or not to cut social security, to how many cuts, how much, and when they’ll start.  Threatened with the prospect of a government shutdown, Democrats are pushing for compromise by agreeing to cut social security to avert a manufactured “shutdown” disaster.

For years the government has had no problem raiding the surplus in the social security fund to pay for wars, bank bailouts, General Motors, and a slew of other unfunded giveaways.  Yet, now, as they claim bankruptcy, they seek to take even more from the program.

The federal government DOES NOT fund Social Security!  Social Security funds the federal government.

Since the Johnson Administration of the ’60s, the S.S. fund has been plundered and the surplus from the fund used to finance wars and the daily operations of the federal government. This came as a result of Johnson declaring that these surplus funds would be added to the general fund.  Once there, the funds could be used for anything and everything.

Now, seniors and future generations that had nothing to do with creating the national debt and massive shortfalls in social security are going to pay the price.  Seniors have already had cost of living increases to their SS checks frozen for the last two years.  This has been especially painful given the double-digit inflation to necessary goods like food and energy, and services like healthcare. It seems the government is going to take and take until the people push back and say that enough is enough.  Again, the people are not at fault and yet they are being treated like tax slaves to bailout the slave masters.  It doesn’t matter whether you believe in cutting entitlement programs or not.  The overall equation for the average citizen has tipped so far in the favor of the elites who orchestrated this mess, that it’s time to draw the line in the sand.

The perceived debt problems will not be solved by cutting social security while the wars continue and the banks get a blank check from the taxpayer.  If we aren’t ready to fight for their deserved benefits now, then we may deserve the absolute looting that is occurring.

This post first appeared on the Activist Post website. Read more at www.infowars.com

 

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Social Justice Secretariat / Secretariado para la Justicia Social

Secretariado para la Justicia Social Social Justice Secretariat

La misión de nuestra oficina es sostener y animar a jesuitas y colaboradores en su trabajo por la justicia y la paz en el mundo entero. The mission of our office is to support and encourage Jesuits and collaborators in their work for justice and peace in the world.



Flash News News Flash

◦SJES ◦ SJES

(Feb-07-2011) (Feb-07-2011)

El nuevo número de Promotio Iustitiae, la revista trimestral del Secretariado para la Justicia Social y la Ecología , se publicará en los próximos días. The new issue of Promotio Iustitiae, the quarterly magazine of the Secretariat for Social Justice and Ecology, was published in the coming days. Haga clic aquí para acceder PJ 105: sjweb.info/sjs/pjnew Click here for PJ 105: sjweb.info / sjs / pjnew





◦Sudán ◦ Sudan

(Feb-07-2011) (Feb-07-2011)

Los primeros resultados del referéndum en Sudán del Sur indican que la región será un estado independiente. La Compañía de Jesús está presente en las dos partes del país con un Centro de Espiritualidad Ignaciana en Jartum y dos comunidades en Rumbek y Wau, donde hace poco los jesuitas han abierto un instituto de enseñanza secundaria . Los jesuitas enseñan en Juba, la capital de Sudán del Sur y el Servicio Jesuita a Refugiados trabaja en el campo de Lobone . En diciembre el provincial pidió a los jesuitas que no se fueran del país , a pesar de las tensiones antes del referéndum, como "parte de nuestra llamada a testimoniar la misión recibida por el Señor y de nuestra entrega al pueblo de Dios en Sudán del Sur." The first results of the referendum in South Sudan indicate that the region will be an independent state. The Society of Jesus is present in both parts of the country with a Center for Ignatian Spirituality in two communities in Khartoum and Rumbek and Wau, where recently, Jesuits opened a secondary school. The Jesuits taught in Juba, the capital of Southern Sudan and the Jesuit Refugee Service works in the field of Lobone. In December, the province asked the Jesuits who refused to leave the country, Despite the tensions before the referendum, as part of our call to witness the mission received from the Lord and our God delivered the people of South Sudan. "



Headlines Headlines

◦ Narrativa: Luísa Fernandes, Equipo Itinerante, Amazonía, Brasil (Feb-2011) ◦ Narrative: Luísa Fernandes, Itinerant Team, Amazonia, Brazil (Feb-2011)

El Padre Christophe Six SJ viajó para el Amazonas en septiembre de 2005, concretamente para la Región Brasil Amazonía de la Co... Christophe Six SJ Father traveled to the Amazon in September 2005 specifically for the Brazilian Amazon Region of Co. ..



Fuente Source

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