ARTICLES - HOT OFF THE FAGGOT

Do You Have Your Green Pass? Bunkers Being Built Nationwide

Amplify’d from theintelhub.com

Do You Have Your Green Pass? Bunkers Being Built Nationwide

The Intel Hub

By Alex Thomas and Shepard Ambellas

Feb. 27, 2011

According to a video that just surfaced on Youtube, the government and/or private entities and/or agencies could potentially be gearing up for a massive disaster of great proportions.

Add in the fact that FEMA has ordered 140 million packets of food, body bags, and blankets it seems clear that at the very least our government believes a disaster is set to happen.

Apparently a company called American Reassurance Communities is offering citizens the ability to purchase your green pass for $75,000.00 a year, retaining your very own underground condo in underground communities worldwide.

You can even bring your friends or family along for a cool $50,000.00 per person a year extra.

What type disaster could they be preparing for?

This is a conversation with a guy that installs bunkers nationwide. He confirms a lot of the doubts we had……I hope people are preparing because, preparation for something to come that doesn’t is still better than sitting back and not heeding the warning. One love!

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Paedophile Flew 17-year-old Virginia Roberts to Meet Prince Andrew

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Paedophile Flew 17-year-old Virginia Roberts to Meet Prince Andrew

AFP Photo

AAP

February 27th, 2011



  • Roberts was “given” to Epstein’s friends

  • Men were in 40s to 60s, “including royalty”

  • Pictures shows Roberts with Prince Andrew

  • No suggestion of a relationship between them



AN AUSTRALIAN mother of three has revealed herself as the women at the centre of international under-age sex allegations linked to convicted billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein.


American Epstein, a registered sex offender who has been jailed for soliciting underage prostitutes, was pictured in British media last week with his friend the Duke of York, Prince Andrew.

Virginia Roberts, now 27, and living in Australia, says she met Prince Andrew three times while working as Epstein’s personal masseuse.


“They included a well-known businessman (whose pregnant wife was asleep in the next room), a world-renowned scientist, a respected liberal politician and foreign head of state.”

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A New Economic Order

Amplify’d from endrtimes.blogspot.com


A New Economic Order

We have learned that the Jesuits are in control of the following secret societies and more:

The Sovereign Military Order of Malta

Scottish-Rite Shriner Freemasonry

The Order of the Illuminati

The Knights of Columbus

The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan

B'nai B'rith

The Nation of Islam and its private army called "The Fruit of Islam"

The Mafia Commission

Opus Dei along with a host of lesser Brotherhoods.......



NOTE: And we have already learned that these secret societies are dedicated to establish a One World Order for the Pope. Now if the Pope is at the head, that means that these societies are going to push the Popes agenda. What is the Popes economic agenda?

Do you remember what the Hegelian Principle was? ,The Hegelian Principle was formulated by George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, German philosopher. It is a process intended to produce Oneness of Mind through a process of 1) thesis: embodying a particular view or position; 2) antithesis: providing an opposing or contrary position; and 3) synthesis: which reconciles the two previous positions and then becomes the basis of a new thesis…in accordance with the laws of dialectical materialism (Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary). In theory, through a continual process of evolution, Oneness of Mind is achieved. This process can also be used to 1) create crisis, 2) opposition to crisis, to 3) effect the wanted solution.
Communism ( Thesis) took property away and made it the states property. Capitalism (Antithesis) says that the property belongs to the individual and nobody can take it away. Now we must have a Synthesis. This Synthesis is going to be some were in the middle and will be in the name of fairness.

The Economic Thought of the Catholic Church
Quote: ...Thomas Aquinas, wrote no treatise on economics, but his thinking, based on that of Aristotle, is foundational for understanding the economic thought of the Roman Catholic Church-State.
Henry William Spiegel, The Growth of Economic Thought. 1983, p 57.


Thomas also said:

Quote: Roman Catholic economic thought, as developed by the popes in their encyclicals and by Roman Church-State councils, has been a contributer to.......
1.) Feudalism and guild socialism in Europe during the Middle Ages;

2.) fasscism in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Croatia, and Latin America in the twentieth century;

3.) Nazism in German in the twentieth century;

4.) interventionism and the redistributive state in the west, including the United States in the twentieth century; and

5.) liberation theology in Latin America and Africa in the twentieth century.



......Thomas Aquinas discussion of private property. P. 30

....the possession of all things in common is the natural law. Thomas wrote: "...'the possession of all thimgs in common and universal freedom' are said to be the natural law because, to wit, the distinction of possessions and slavery were not brought in by nature, but devised by human reason for the benefit of human life."

Summa Theologiae. ii-ii, 5th artical.

NOTE: What does this mean? That all property is for common good.


Community of Goods
Quote:

The community of goods, wrote Thomas, is ascribed the natural law, not that the natural law dictates that all things should be possessed in common and that nothing should be possessed as one's own, but because the division of possessions is not according to natural law, but rather arose from human agreement, which belongs to positive law... Hence the ownership of possessions is not contraryto natural law, but an addition thereto devised by human reason.

Summa Theologiae. ii-ii, 2nd artical.

Thomas wrote:

...Hence, whatever certain people have in superabundance is due, by natural law, to the purpose of succoring the poor.

Summa Theologiae. ii-ii, 7th artical.


NOTE: He is saying that yes you can have material possessions, but what ever you have in abundance must be given to the poor. Ok lets read on.

Because goods of some are due to others by the natural law, there is no sin if the poor take the goods of their neighbors. Thomas wrote: "In case of need, all things are common property, so that there would seem to be no sin in taking another's property, for need has made it common."

Summa Theologiae. ii-ii, 7th artical.

NOTE: Wait isn't this stealing

Not only is such taking of another's property not a sin, it is not even a crime, according to Thomas:

..........it is lawful for a man to succor his own need by means of another's property by taking it either openly or secretly; nor is this, properly speaking, theft and robbery....It is not theft, properly speaking, to take secretly and use another's property in case of extreme need: because that which he takes for the support of his life becomes his own property by reson of that need...In a case of a like need man may also take secretly another's property in order to succor his neighbor in need.

Summa Theologiae. ii-ii, 7th artical.

NOTE: Wow, so if your neighbor needs a tv or car and you have three he can come take one. Or if you have a 4 bedroom house and your not using one he can break in and live there and you can't kick him or her out. Why? Because the man had a need and the need made it common. InAfrica this a law, but it is not being implamented because the situation is not right. But what if you open the borders and allow millions of poor people who have a "need" to enter. We need to wake up America.

Need!

Quote: The Roman Catholic doctrine of private property is echoed in the nineteenth century Communist slogan, "From each according to his ability; to each according to his need."
The Universal Destination of Goods
John Paul II's expression of it in his 1987 encyclical On Social Conern:

It is nessessary to state once more the characteristic principle of Christian social doctrine: the goods of the world are originally meant for all. The right to private property is valid and necessary, but it does not nullify the value of this principle. Private property, in fact, is under a "social mortgage," which means that it has an intrinsically social function, based upon and justified precisely by the principle of universal destination of goods.

John Paul II, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, On Social Concern, (1987), 42.


NOTE: Yes the Pope is saying that private property is valid, but it is void in the concern of need. So if you are growing fruit on your private property and some one with a need (hunger) come and steals your fruit you cant do anything about it.


Paul VI made the point quite clear in his 1967 encyclical On the Progress of People:

....each man has therefor a right to find in the world what is necessary for himself. The recent Council [Vatican II] reminded us of this: "God intended the earth and all that it contains for the use of every human being and people. Thus, as all men follow justice and unite in charity, created goods should abound for them on a resonable basis." All other rights whatsoever, including those of property and of free commerce are to be subordinated to this principle.

Paul VI, Populorum Progressio, On the Progress of People, (1967), p 22.


Gandium et Spes, the Vatican II Constitution that John Paul II quoted, explained at greater length:

....If one is in extreme necessity he has the right to procure for himself what he needs out of the riches of others. Since there are so many people prostrate with hunger in the world, this Sacred Council urges all, both individuals and governments, to remember the aphorism of the Fathers, "Feed the man dying of hunger, because if you have not fed him, you have killed him.

The second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (1965), 69

Therefor because private property is immoral, all men - individuals and governments - have the moral obligation to redistribute goods held unjustly by property owners

p.40

Redistribution of Goods
Quote:

..."all goods" includes not just the goods found in nature but manufactured goods as well. John Paul II declared that all men must have "...access to those goods which are intended for common use: both the goods of nature and manufactured goods."

John Paul II, Laborem Exercens (1981), 46.


Who is pushing the Pope's agenda for redistribution?

Go to source below to see a video:

Source: http://babylonmysteryreligion.com/New%20Economic%20Order/New%20Economic%20Order.htm
. .
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A Time To Protest

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A Time To Protest

A Time To Protest--When there are men in the church who love riches more than righteousness, and who stand ready to take advantage of their fellow-men by unjust dealings, shall we make no protest? And when men standing in the position of leaders and teachers work under the power of spiritualistic ideas and sophistries, shall we keep silent, for fear of injuring their influence, while souls are being beguiled? Satan will use every advantage that he can obtain to cause souls to become clouded and perplexed in regard to the work of the church, in regard to the word of God, and in regard to the words of warning which He has given through the testimonies of His Spirit, to guard His little flock from the subtleties of the enemy.--Manuscript 72, 1904, p. 6.

Christian Leadership, p.62.
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Prophecy Being Fulfilled

Amplify’d from www.prophesyagain.com

Prophecy Being Fulfilled

The time is fast coming when the controlling power of the labor unions will be very oppressive. Again and again the Lord has instructed that our people are to take their families away from the cities, into the country, where they can raise their own provisions; for in the future the problem of buying and selling will be a very serious one. We should now begin to heed the instruction given us over and over again: Get out of the cities into rural districts, where the houses are not crowded closely together, and where you will be free from the interference of enemies.--Letter 5, 1904.  {2SM 141.1}

              Avoid Party Strifes

     Men have confederated to oppose the Lord of hosts. These confederacies will continue until Christ shall leave His place of intercession before the mercy seat, and shall put on the garments of vengeance. Satanic agencies are in every city, busily organizing into parties those opposed to the law of God. Professed saints and avowed unbelievers take their stand with these parties. This is no time for the people of God to be weaklings. We cannot afford to be off

our guard for a moment.--Testimonies, vol. 8, p. 42 (1904).  {2SM 141.2} 

     The trades unions will be one of the agencies that will bring upon this earth a time of trouble such as has not been since the world began.--Letter 200, 1903.  {2SM 142.1}

    Conflicts Between Trade Confederacies and

                      Labor Unions

     The work of the people of God is to prepare for the events of the future, which will soon come upon them with blinding force. In the world gigantic monopolies will be formed. Men will bind themselves together in unions that will wrap them in the folds of the enemy. A few men will combine to grasp all the means to be obtained in certain lines of business. Trades unions will be formed, and those who refuse to join these unions will be marked men.--Letter 26, 1903.  {2SM 142.2}

             Preparing for the Issue

     The trades unions and confederacies of the world are a snare. Keep out of them, and away from them, brethren. Have nothing to do with them. Because of these unions and confederacies, it will soon be very difficult for our institutions to carry on their work in the cities. My warning is: Keep out of the cities. Build no sanitariums in the cities. Educate our people to get out of the cities into the country, where they can obtain a small piece of land, and make a home for themselves and their children....  {2SM 142.3} 

     Our restaurants must be in the cities; for otherwise the workers in these restaurants could not reach the people and teach them the principles of right living. And for the present we shall have to occupy meetinghouses in the cities. But erelong there will be such strife and confusion in the cities, that those who wish to leave them will not be able. We must be preparing for these issues. This is the light that is given me.--General Conference Bulletin, April 6, 1903.

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The English Prince and the Underage Prostitute-in-Training

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Max Read


The English Prince and the Underage Prostitute-in-TrainingWhat a nice picture of a young lady meeting real British royalty! Only, the 17-year-old girl standing next to England's Prince Andrew in this picture was, at the time, an "erotic masseuse" being sexually exploited by billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The girl in the photo, Virginia Roberts, is also "Jane Doe 102," who alleges that she was "sexually exploited by [Epstein's] adult male peers, including royalty, politicians, academicians, businessmen and/or professional and personal acquaintances." Of all the creepy, terrible things Epstein is supposed to have done, Roberts' are among the worst:


Epstein paid her $200 for what he called the ‘erotic massage' and told her to return the next day. She spent the next four years with Epstein, for three of which she was under Florida's age of consent – 18.


‘Basically, I was training to be a prostitute for him and his friends who shared his interest in young girls,' she says.


That stage of his alleged abuse started after two years when he asked her to fly to his Caribbean island and make a friend of his ‘feel how you make me feel'.


She says she was given to men, aged from their 40s to their 60s, either on the island or on Epstein's New Mexico ranch.


Epstein, a vindictive, creepy jerk with an egg-shaped penis and a penchant for young girls, is friends with a lot of powerful people—Bill Clinton, for example. And Prince Andrew.

Though the Daily Mail writes that "there is no suggestion that there was ever any sexual contact between her and the prince," it's... not great to see Andrew with his arm around an underage girl who was being sexually exploited at the time. And stories like this don't make it any less unsettling:


[Epstein confidante Ghislaine] Maxwell had given him the prince a Spitting Image puppet of himself and another member of Epstein's entourage, Johanna Sjoberg, was sitting on his knee.


Miss Sjoberg, who was 21, herself described the incident to the Mail on Sunday three years ago. She said Miss Maxwell made Virginia sit on Andrew's other knee and then she ‘put the puppet's hand on Virginia's breast, then Andrew put his hand on my breast'.


She added: ‘It was a great joke. Everybody laughed.' The ‘joke' earned Virginia $400 from Epstein.


That happened in 2001; four years later, Epstein was arrested and charged. He recently completed his term of house arrest. Roberts is now a mother of three living in Australia. And Prince Andrew's got a big family wedding coming up! Maybe Epstein will go? He and Andrew still hang out—as recently as December, according to the Mail. Roberts, however, is unlikely to receive an invite.

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That Soldier Wooing You Over Facebook Probably Isn’t Real

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That Soldier Wooing You Over Facebook Probably Isn’t Real








Max Read


That Soldier Wooing You Over Facebook Probably Isn't RealIs a handsome young soldier currently professing his love to you on Facebook? He might be real! But probably, he's not. Especially if he's asking you to send him money. The AP reports that the fake-Facebook-soldier (or whatever the snappy conman name is) is "becoming an all-too-common ruse," in one case costing a victim $25,000. It is not a particularly sophisticated ruse, however:


The impersonator using [Army Sgt. James] Hursey's photos portrayed himself as a soldier named "Sergent (sic) Mark Johnson." The fake followed the same steps every time: Send a friend request, immediately express undying love and affection, and ask for money.


The fake's cover was blown, though: Janice Robinson, 53, of Orlando, Fla., knew something wasn't right when the man professed his love to her and signed every message with, "Johnson cares." She had begun talking to him thinking he was one of several people named Mark Johnson that she knew.


"Many scams originate in foreign countries," according to an Army spokesman, which explains the "Johnson cares" thing. But don't be lulled into a false sense of security just because your military beau speaks perfect English!

[AP]

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Good News: Global Warming Can Be Cured by ‘Small Nuclear War’

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good news








Max Read


Global Warming Can Be Cured by 'Small Nuclear War'How can we fix global warming? (Assuming it's not a plot hatched by public employee unions to force sharia law on the U.S.) One solution, promoted egghead "scientists," would be to stop driving cars and focus on renewable energy sources. But new computer models suggest a much easier, and far more fun, solution: A nuclear war!

It doesn't even need to be a big nuclear war. A "small" nuclear war (India and Pakistan, I'm looking at you!), according to NASA researchers, "could spark 'unprecedented' global cooling." Now, of course, "widespread famine and disease would likely follow, experts speculate," but, hey, you can't make a global-cooling omelette without breaking a few widespread-famine eggs, right?

According to the fancy science computer models, we'd be talking an average drop of 2.25 degrees Fahrenheit (and as much as 7.2 degrees in extreme locations). The cooling would continue for at least ten years—and when it starts warming up again, who says we can't throw another little nuclear holocaust? Plus, listen to how fun it sounds:


"Examples similar to the crop failures and famines experienced following the Mount Tambora eruption in 1815 could be widespread and last several years," [research physical scientist Luke Oman] added. That Indonesian volcano ushered in "the year without summer," a time of famines and unrest.


All these changes would also alter circulation patterns in the tropical atmosphere, reducing precipitation by 10 percent globally for one to four years, the scientists said.... In addition, researcher Michael Mills, of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, found large decreases in the protective ozone layer, leading to much more ultraviolet radiation reaching Earth's surface and harming the environment and people.


"The main message from our work," NASA's Oman said, "would be that even a regional nuclear conflict would have global consequences."


Global consequences... for good! Where do we sign up?

[NatGeo via Drudge, who helpfully places "global warming" between quotation marks]

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Guy Finds Out Online Girlfriend Doesn’t Exist After Sending Her $200,000

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Adrian Chen


Over the past two years a 48-year-old guy in Naperville, Illinois sent $200,000 to his online girlfriend's bank accounts in Nigeria, Malaysia and the U.S. When the guy contacted the police to report she'd been kidnapped in London, the officer revealed that he'd been scammed. Never send money to Nigeria.
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Arizona State Senator Gets immunity In Domestic Violence Case

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Arizona State Senator Gets immunity In Domestic Violence Case








Adrian Chen


Arizona State Senator Gets immunity In Domestic Violence CaseRepublican Arizona state senator Scott Bundgaard avoided a night in jail because of a law which grants lawmakers immunity while the legislature is in session. He and his girlfriend, Aubry Ballard, got in a fight in their car on the side of the road after a "Dancing with the Stars" fundraiser last weekend. According to Bundgaard, Ballard got upset after accusing him of "inappropriately touching" his partner in the event. Cops showed up and found marks suggesting violence on both Bundgaard and Ballard, but only arrested Ballard. Bungaard got to use his official state legislature Get Out of Jail Free card.

This has got to be one of the craziest laws in the state of Arizona, which is known for many crazy laws! Why would they even have a law like this? Maybe it's some archaic frontier logic: "Ma'am, us legislators gotta break the law before we make the laws." (According to his campaign website, Bungaard is "endorsed by Sherriff Joe Arpaio," so this actually could be possible!) If I were an Arizona state legislator, I'd spend the majority of my time stealing packs of gum from gas stations, sticking my tongue out at the attendent while saying Neener neener neener. Whatchya gonna do about it? I got immunity, biyatch. Alas, this is why I will never be an Arizona state legislator. [CNN]

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North Korea Threatens to Turn Seoul Into a ‘Sea of Flames’ (Again)

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Adrian Chen


North Korea Threatens to Turn Seoul Into a 'Sea of Flames' (Again)In advance of joint U.S.-South Korea military drills this week, North Korea has released a statement today threatening to 'mercilessly' attack both countries. But now they're just recycling their old threats:


It accused South Korea and the U.S. of plotting to topple the North's communist government. It said if provoked, North Korea would start a "full-scale" war, take "merciless counteraction" and turn Seoul into a "sea of flames."


Really? That old "sea of flames" chestnut, again? It was just a few months ago North Korea threatened to turn Seoul into a "sea of flames" if they didn't turn down the music they were blaring across the border in retaliation for the North sinking their Warship. It's like North Korea is just going through the motions of being unhinged. Time was, the whole world thrilled to hear what crazy shit North Korea had come up with now, but they've turned into the Stones absently playing "Sympathy for the Devil" for the 1,000,000th time.

[AP; Image via AP]

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The Craigslist Congressman and the Crossdressing Prostitute

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Remy Stern


The Craigslist Congressman and the Crossdressing ProstituteChris Lee's resignation from the House on Feb. 9 may be the quickest political downfall in history: It came just three hours after Gawker published a photo of Lee standing in the mirror shirtless, along with a story about how the married congressman dabbled in a little online dating on Craigslist.

Lee's sudden exit took many people by surprise. Hadn't other members of Congress admitted to worse than an unconsummated, PG-13 flirtation and managed to stay in office? It turns out Lee may have had good reason to step out of the spotlight so quickly: It wasn't just women that the Craigslist Congressman was hunting for on the Internet.

In the past two weeks, two D.C.-area transgender women contacted us, each with a separate story about exchanging emails with the ex-congressman. One sent us an ad that Lee allegedly posted on Craigslist in search of trans women; the other sent us a never-before-seen photo that she says Lee sent her after they started chatting by email. Taken together, they present a possible explanation to those who have wondered why such a tame "sex scandal" forced Lee's hand so quickly.

Fiona's Story

The Craigslist Congressman and the Crossdressing ProstituteThe first woman who reached out to us was a pre-op transgender woman from Arlington, Virginia who we'll call Fiona.

Fiona told us she replied to an ad that appeared in the "casual encounters" section of Craigslist in mid-January. She used Craigslist's "e-mail this posting to a friend" link to send the ad to herself, she explained, so even though the ad no longer appears on the site, she was able to forward us a copy:


Sexy Classy guy for passable TS/CD - m4t - 39 (Cap Hill)

Date: 2011-01-14, 8:55PM EST



New to area. Very fit classy, successful guy. 39, 6ft 190lbs, blond/blue. smooth hard body. Looking for a sexy ts/cd that i can spoil. I promise not to disappoint.


The Craigslist Congressman and the Crossdressing ProstituteCraigslist personals are removed within seven days of posting, so there's no way to verify what the ad exactly looked like.

But Google does cache index pages on Craigslist, and we were able to confirm that an ad with precisely the same headline was posted on the evening of January 14, which is convincing evidence that the ad is genuine.

Revealingly, the headline and ad itself contain many elements from Lee's first known Craigslist flirtation, including the words "fit" and "classy." It dates to the same evening Lee exchanged emails with the woman we told you about two weeks ago. And it even featured Lee's infamous shirtless Blackberry picture, albeit cropped to hide Lee's face. Yes, that's right: a member of Congress posted a personal ad seeking transsexuals and crossdressers and even included a picture of himself, all without thinking twice, apparently.

Fiona's case was both similar to and utterly unlike Lee's first dalliance, the woman whose story we shared with you earlier this month. "It was quite interesting when I realized the other one was black and 34, because I am black and 34." Unlike the other subject of Lee's interest, however, Fiona was not born a woman.

When we spoke to Fiona by phone, she sounded entirely genuine. She told us that she'd corresponded with Lee by email several times and he told her that he'd dated a transsexual woman while "in college in California." (Lee went to business school at Chapman University in Orange, Calif.) Fiona said she found out who Lee was much the same way the other Craigslist correspondent did. "I copied and pasted his email into Facebook, and that's when his picture of him and his wife and his little boy showed up. Then I clicked on the link and realized he was a politician from New York, and I was like OMG."

She emailed him a few more times before telling him in an email on January 21 that she knew who he really was. He never replied, Fiona says.

The Craigslist Congressman and the Crossdressing ProstituteInterestingly, it was late in the afternoon on Jan. 21 that Lee sent an email to his staff informing them that his Gmail account may have been hacked. A copy of the email was provided to Gawker by Lee's spokesman two weeks ago when we first started asking questions.

We pressed Fiona for more evidence of their online flirtation. She said she would retrieve her emails and forward them as soon as she had time. But as the days went by, Fiona grew increasingly nervous. She was worried about being unmasked. And after corresponding with us for more than a week, Fiona went silent.

Holly's Story

The Craigslist Congressman and the Crossdressing ProstituteThe other person who contacted us shortly after our story was published was a transvestite who lives and works in Washington, D.C. We'll call her Holly.

The first thing Holly sent us was a never-before-seen picture of Chris Lee's now-familiar torso and red Blackberry. She edited the picture to obscure the Congressman's face, however, and printed her email address over his chest. (We have covered up the address in the photo above.) If we wanted to publish the unedited image, Holly explained, we'd have to pay her for it.

It didn't take very long to determine that Holly was a prostitute. We found a profile for her on an escort website which featured the same email address that she'd used to contact us. When we asked about her chosen line of work, Holly confirmed it. She was a working girl, she explained, and a man using Lee's email address had responded to a "Trans for Men" ad she'd posted on Craigslist.

We exchanged emails with Holly for more than a week in an effort to get her to share the email exchanges she had with Lee as well as the photos he sent her, including an unedited version of the picture she sent us at the outset. But even after we agreed to pay her the amount she'd requested for the material, she had trouble deciding if she wanted to follow through. "I kinda feel sorry for him at the moment," she wrote in one of her last emails to us before disappearing much like Fiona.

But while we never had a chance to review her emails with Lee and the photos that Lee allegedly sent her, the one, obscured photo she did send clearly resembles the Craigslist Congressman. The man in the photo has the same physique and is standing in the same pose. And he's holding the same red Blackberry, although the photo was clearly taken in a different setting and he's wearing different pants.

The Craigslist Congressman and the Crossdressing ProstituteHow did this transvestite hooker get a picture of the shirtless Congressman? It's conceivable she misrepresented herself online to acquire the pictures, or that someone else sent them to her. But that wouldn't explain how two separate transwomen approached us with similar—but not identical—stories. And it wouldn't explain the Craiglist ad that was posted January, three weeks before news of Lee's Craigslist shenanigans first went public, which seems both authentic and written in Lee's style.

Lee has been in seclusion since images of him flexing his bicep in front of a bathroom mirror traveled across the world. He's yet to speak out publicly about the incident, except to say in his letter of resignation that he made "profound mistakes" and "regret[s] the harm that my actions have caused my family, my staff and my constituents."

But if Lee was using the Internet to meet up with transgender women, it now makes a lot more sense why he would have decided to resign so quickly: Lee may have thought if he quit the House immediately, he'd be able to avoid having his "secret" exposed and spare himself any further embarrassment. No such luck.

Previously

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Religion’s role in politics discussed at symposium

Religion’s role in politics discussed at symposium

Danny Summers

When Air Force Academy Senior Staff Chaplain Col. Robert Bruno arrived at the base in 2009, he was surprised to discover that the crossroads between religion and politics was not being addressed among the 4,500 cadets and the faculty.

So Bruno jumped at the chance to organize a panel for the academy’s 18th Annual National Character and Leadership Symposium.

“I was the Joint Staff Chaplain at the Pentagon and this is an issue we began addressing back in 2006,” Bruno said. “We worked at the strategic level with the Army, Navy and Air Force. This can’t be ignored.”
Bruno facilitated the Religion, Respect and Global Security Panel Feb. 25 at Arnold Hall. More than 200 cadets were on hand, as well as other military personnel and a few local residents. The four-person panel included Dr. Chris Seiple, president for the institute for Global Engagement; Dr. Pauletta Otis, professor of security studies, Command and Staff College, U.S. Marine Corps University; Ms. Asra Nomani, author, women’s rights activist and Muslim; and Dr. Carlos Bertha, associate professor of philosophy at the academy and self-described atheist.

The panel discussed their views on the implications of the religious-political dichotomy in relation to global security, the difference between tolerance and respect, the damage done by the perception of active disrespect, and how to navigate these challenging times.

“It’s time to prepare our future officer corps to handle the issue of religion,” Bruno said. “We are here today to have a discussion that is robust and healthy, and with respect and civility.”

The panel members spoke for about 30 minutes and then took questions from the audience. Most of what was said centered on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as issues involving radical Muslims and changes to the Koran, the respect of culture and laws in other countries, and the role Christians play.

“We’re not a melting pot; we’re a salad bowl,” Seiple said. “I reject the idea of the clash of civilizations. That goes down the road of (political correctness). We have irreconcilable differences and we will just not tolerate each other, but we can respect each other.”

Nomani spoke from a more personal standpoint and shared details about her upbringing in a “conservative Muslim Family” in West Virginia. She talked about the Koran and how its message spoke to her as a young girl and into her adulthood. However, she got a “personal wake-up call” with the events of Sept. 11, 2001.

“I found a different Koran,” she said. “It was an interpretation of Islam that is being used to encourage and fuel the violence. And that saddens me. If we want to engage, we have to include the issues of religion and culture. Not in a Pollyanna way, but a pragmatic way.”

The symposium finished on Friday and was themed “Strength Within … Leadership Throughout.” There were 33 speakers speaking on topics ranging from earning the Medal of Honor to the experience of wounded warriors to sports.

“NCLS and our academic program — in fact, our entire Air Force Academy 4-year program — is really about learning and development,” said Brig. Gen. Dana Born, dean of faculty at the Air Force Academy in a statement. “There is a real strong link between NCLS and the academic program. We’re growing, we’re learning, we’re developing as future officers and citizens for our nation.”
Read more at www.coloradocommunitynewspapers.com
 

Mosquito-Attacking Fungus Engineered to Block Malaria

A case of athletes proboscis.

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Mosquito-Attacking Fungus Engineered to Block Malaria

By John Timmer, Ars Technica

Although public health efforts have eradicated some diseases and helped limit the impact of many others, malaria continues to present a massive public health issue. A large fraction of the world’s population lives in areas where the parasite poses a risk, and it kills a million people annually, most of them in the developing world.

The malarial parasite, Plasmodium, has proven tough to tackle for a variety of reasons. Once in a human, it manages to change the proteins that cover its surface often enough that our immune systems have trouble mounting a successful response. Unlike a bacteria or virus, the parasite is a eukaryote, just like humans, which means that it’s harder to find unique biochemical properties that would let us target it with drugs. Plasmodium has also been able to evolve resistance to the few drugs that we’ve been using to treat it. That evolution of resistance extends to its vectors, a few species of mosquitoes, which have also evolved resistance to many of the pesticides we have used to keep them in check.

All of that might seem to be enough to make tackling malaria seem like an intractable problem. But some researchers are reporting some success with a new approach to limiting its spread: engineering a mosquito parasite to attack it before it can reach humans.

The species of mosquitoes that transmit malaria are themselves vulnerable to parasites, including some forms of fungus. This has led to interest in using these fungi as a form of biological insecticide. But the fungus doesn’t always kill quickly enough, and if it did, it might end up facing the same sorts of problems that chemical insecticides do: the mosquitoes would simply evolve resistance to the fungus as well.

The solution the researchers arrived at is to use a form of fungus that doesn’t kill the mosquitoes until late in their lives, after they’ve had a chance to reproduce. This keeps them from evolving resistance, but wouldn’t keep them from spreading Plasmodium. To do that, they turned to a bit of genetic engineering, creating fungi that produce various proteins that attack the parasite.

The authors tried a variety of approaches. These parasites exit the mosquito through its salivary gland, so the authors created a modified protein that coated the glands, blocking Plasmodium’s attempts to latch on to them. They also used a fragment of an antibody that binds directly to Plasmodium’s, as well as a toxin present in scorpion venom that kills it.  They merged two of the approaches, fusing the venom protein to the one that coats the salivary gland.

To a degree, all of them worked. The fungus alone had a weak effect on the invasion of the salivary glands by Plasmodium, dropping it by 15 percent. But the engineered fungi dropped it by anywhere from 75 to 90 percent. Two of the combined approaches dropped it by 97 and 98 percent. Thus, in the presence of these modified parasites, Plasmodium had a hard time getting to where it could infect humans.

Depending on the precise timing of fungal infection, the authors estimate that it could reduce transmission by 75-90 percent if it reaches the mosquitoes within 11 days of their picking up the Plasmodium. And that’s a conservative estimate, given that this estimate was based simply on the presence or absence of the malarial parasite in the salivary glands. The levels in the fungus-infected animals were greatly reduced, which should limit transmission even further.

Although this shouldn’t select for resistant mosquitoes, it still has the potential to drive the evolution of Plasmodium that can resist the scorpion toxin. There are two reasons the authors think this might not be a huge problem. For one, the fungus can obviously express a number of toxins at the same time, which makes it much more difficult for Plasmodium to evolve a way around it. The other thing is that there are many proteins that could potentially be used to target it; this is especially appealing, given that an antibody fragment was one of the proteins used in this experiment, suggesting that it should be possible to create a large panel of interfering molecules.

The other nice thing about this approach is that this fungus (or its relatives) can attack other mosquito species, including the ones that spread Dengue fever. This is a very promising fungus.

The general approach holds promise as well, since we reported on another use of an engineered, disease-fighting pathogen already this month. There have been millions of years of evolution that help pathogens target specific species and tissues, something that we’re rarely able to do with drugs. If it’s possible to take advantage of that specificity, it can be a powerful tool.

Image: A mosquito drawing blood. (James Gathany/CDC)
Citation: “Development of Transgenic Fungi That Kill Human Malaria Parasites in Mosquitoes.” Weiguo Fang, Joel Vega-Rodríguez, Anil K. Ghosh, Marcelo Jacobs-Lorena, Angray Kang, and Raymond J. St. Leger.

Source: Ars Technica.

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