The Pope says sexual abuse in Catholic Church ‘remains a mystery’
Author: The Horror Report
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A graduation message resounding throughout the nation
“Across the country no fewer than 3.2 million seniors are graduating about now from more than 37,000 high schools. That’s 37,000 valedictorians … 37,000 class presidents … 92,000 harmonizing altos … 340,000 swaggering jocks … 2,185,967 pairs of Uggs. Even if you’re one in a million, on a planet of 6.8 billion that means there are nearly 7,000 people just like you. You’ve been pampered, cosseted, doted upon, helmeted, bubble wrapped … feted and fawned over and called sweetie pie. You see, if everyone is special, then no one is. If everyone gets a trophy, trophies become meaningless. … We have of late, we Americans, to our detriment, come to love accolades more than genuine achievement. The fulfilling life, the distinctive life, the relevant life is an achievement. to do whatever you do for no reason other than you love it and believe in its importance. The sweetest joys of life, then, come only with the recognition that you’re not special. Because everyone is.”
— David McCullough Jr, a Boston-area high school teacher, addressing a crowd of graduating seniors this week in a “you’re not special” themed graduation speech -
News worth noting
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Wednesday radar: What we are watching
Strange times we live in. A strange planet we inhabit. May as well enjoy the fleeting view.
Meanwhile here are the pieces of information of importance today:- New supercomputer virus “Flame”.. Israel hints it created it
- Hoax or not? A call from an unnamed man in 1986 reported that the Space Shuttle would blow it.. this premonition call came in two days before Challenger exploded on live TV
- FORBES asks a question in a published story on Fukushima: “Should we hide” radiation from the public..
- Facebook had a bad day yesterday on the stock market.. watching the numbers today
- A big Greek bank has a big and dire warning on the Euro
- Constantly paying attention to this story, it has some major implications across Europe and the world too
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The evolving drone wars: How Obama redefined ‘civilian’
Yesterday Earth Informer reported about the New York TIMES story on President Obama and how he has a secret kill list. Today, we offer this food for thought on the ever changing definitions of ‘combatants’ and ‘civilians’ in the new drone wars taking place across the world: Yet another report describes an upcoming book written by Daniel Klaidman, KILL OR CAPTURE, and reveals how the President dealt with civilians casualties from his earliest days in office.President Obama wanted to dissuade detractors and critics, plus limit the impact that drone strikes could have on his Administration. Early in his term, a drone strike killed woman and children in Pakistan. Even though it appeared he aggressively asked what the procedures were for defining targets, all reports indicate that he not only continued the practice of drone strikes but also broadened how the U.S. would define ‘civilian.’MSNBC reports on Klaidman’s book on the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, someone who was taken off the President’s kill list and rubbed out:According to Klaidman, Obama let it be known that he would consider allowing civilian deaths if it meant killing the U.S.-Yemeni cleric. “Bring it to me and let me decide in the reality of the moment rather than in the abstract,” an aide recalls him saying.
Drone strikes are set to continue. And KILL OR CAPTURE may be one of the biggest political books of the summer.The story yesterday on the kill list and now this today on how civilians are defined have major moral and political implications. It is how we, as a people, now fight our wars and define our enemies. It showcases what we are able to ‘live with’ in order to get the bad guy of the day. It also has implications on the homefront. If you haven’t noticed recently, news organizations en masse have finally been reporting on how drones are going to be used by police in the skies above you, and me, and all of us, here in the United States.If the term of civilian could be broadened by a chief executive, could civilian also eventually be broadened by a police chief? By an FBI head.. by a CIA diretor…?The drones will be watching. Cameras on and glaring down below.. if you have a fence that protects you from your neighbor because you like to sunbath nude, the drone will enjoy the view.The future of the drones may be that they are armed. And if they are armed they can strike just as they do in Pakistan and Afghanistan. And if a few civilians die to get a target… will a future generation care?Moral questions…The type that no one is comfortable asking. -
GOOGLE PURPOSELY STOLE PRIVATE INFORMATION FOR YEARS AND COVERED IT UP
This news comes from across the pond—but if it is happening in the UK why would it not be happening in the US of A?
The accusations are that Google deliberately harvested private data on British citizens for years. According to the report, they downloaded photographs and emails, documents, and messages. The Street View cars collected as they drove.A private company spying. Interesting. Because if you paint the picture just a little differently, it could mean even war! Think if foreign spies for another nation were driving around America stealing your data? Imagine if, say, North Korea had cars to do it. Or maybe a Chinese car.. with the Chinese flag. Driving around and spying on you!It would mean war. The government would condemn. The media would go headline-crazy.But in this situation, when a private company did it, everyone is silent.The noise of crickets in the vast wilderness of the online world.. well, that noise today is deafening. The international media is the only place to turn to find out just what exactly Google has been doing.Just Google it. -
If you have thousands of followers, maybe you may want to start purging
And here I thought the forty or so people a day I block on Twitter were real. -
A must read from the New York TIMES on Obama’s kill list
President Richard Nixon was heavily criticized in media and pop culture in the 1970s when news broke that he had a secret enemy’s list. Who was on it? Journalists.. religious leaders.. maybe sometimes even his own staff and people within his own Administration.Fast forward to the challenging post-9/11 world: President Obama scrapped the enemy’s list and replaced it with a secret “kill list.”There is a fascinating glimpse from the TIMES on President Obama and how evolution: From the chatter of anti-Patriot Act and anti-war in the Senate, to a hawk in office, a killer of Osama Bin Laden, and the man who approves lethal action and doesn’t look back. The money quote:In interviews with The New York Times, three dozen of his current and former advisers described Mr. Obama’s evolution since taking on the role, without precedent in presidential history, of personally overseeing the shadow war with Al Qaeda.They describe a paradoxical leader who shunned the legislative deal-making required to close the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, but approves lethal action without hand-wringing. While he was adamant about narrowing the fight and improving relations with the Muslim world, he has followed the metastasizing enemy into new and dangerous lands. When he applies his lawyering skills to counterterrorism, it is usually to enable, not constrain, his ferocious campaign against Al Qaeda — even when it comes to killing an American cleric in Yemen, a decision that Mr. Obama told colleagues was “an easy one.”Sensing another irony: Those who favored Obama’s 2008 campaign for the presidency because his language put him in stark opposition to eight years of Bush also have a test of their principles and will: Will they vote to reelect a man who campaigned against most things he ended up doing on the terror and homeland security front?Sure, the political question is fun to ask.But the more important question may be this: What role should the United States have, should there be a kill list, and should one chief executive single handedly get to decide who goes on that list and who gets rubbed out? Those are big questions. It would be fun to hear Candidate Obama debate President Obama on those points. -
Strong start to hurricane season
It snowed in October–before winter.
It was near 90 across much of the nation in March–before spring.
We just saw the strongest tropical cyclone to hit the United States before June 1–Beryl.… harbingers of things to come?
Earth changes?
Or should we just adjust the calenders… ?