Sunday 10-31-10

When you hear the word "halloween" what images appear? What "spirit" is invoked at the whisper of Halloween? Halloween openly promotes death, devils, witches and flagrant "appearances of evil" (1 Thess. 5:22). Halloween leaves most people scratching their heads questioning, "How and where did Halloween come from"? This article unearths the hellish tomb of Halloween to exhume its sinister "covenant with death and hell."

Halloween began over 2,000 years ago among the Celts and their pagan priests called the Druids. The Druids are, without question, history?s king of the occult. Witchcraft, Satanism, paganism and virtually all facets of the occult acquire instruction from the Druids. From the popular jack-o?-lantern, trick-or-treat, costumes, to the pranks, ghoulish ghosts, demons, goblins and witches ? Halloween owes its morbid birth to the Druids.

Halloween—the day itself is of Druidic origin. (Myers, Robert J. Celebrations: The Complete Book of American Holidays, p. 258)

The mystic rites and ceremonies with which Hallow?en was originally observed had their origin among the Druids. . . (Douglas, George William. The American Book of Days, p. 566)

The Druids celebrated two special nights of the year: Beltane and Samhain. Beltane took place on May 1 and marked the birth of summer. Samhain occurred on November 1 and signified the death of summer. Samhain, a night celebrating death and hell, was the Druids most important ritual. It was a terrifying night of human sacrifices. And it was the original Halloween.

The Druids believed, during Samhain, the mystic veil separating the dead from the living opened. The Druids taught these roaming spirits loosed on Samhain went searching for a body to possess. The frightened Celts would masquerade as demons, evil spirits and ghosts, hoping to convince the roaming evil spirits, they were another evil spirit, and leave them alone. The Celts also prepared meals as "treats" to appease the evil spirits from "tricks" or malicious acts; hence our custom of "trick or treat." The Druids performed horrifying human sacrifices and other vile rituals during Samhain. Let there be no doubt—Samhain night was a terrifying "covenant with death, and with hell." And let there be no doubt ? Samhain was the original Halloween night.

All histories of Halloween inevitably wind back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. . . (Skal, David J. Death Makes a Holiday: The Cultural History of Halloween, p. 20)

Halloween had its origins in the festival of Samhain among the Celts of ancient Britain and Ireland. (Encyclopedia Britannica 2005 "Halloween")

Halloween can be traced directly back to Samhain, the ancient Celtic harvest festival honoring the Lord of the Dead. (Thompson, Sue Ellen. Holiday Symbols and Customs, p. 251)

The rituals of the Druids reek from the deepest hell. Their most repulsive activities involve their human sacrifices of children on the night of Samhain or Halloween.

First-born sacrifices are mentioned in a poem in the Dindshenchas, which records that children were sacrificed each Samhain . . . (Rogers, Nicholas. Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night, p. 17)

Halloween. That was the eve of Samhain . . . firstborn children were sacrificed. . . Samhain eve was a night of dread and danger. (National Geographic. May 1977, pp. 625-626)

The Druids would drink their victim?s blood and eat their flesh.

They [Druids] sacrificed victims by shooting them with arrows, impaling them on stakes, stabbing them, slitting their throats over cauldrons (and then drinking the blood). . . (Guiley, Rosemary Ellen. Harper?s Encyclopedia of Mystical & Paranormal Experience, p. 167)

Therefore we cannot too highly appreciate our debt to the Romans for having put an end to this monstrous cult, whereby to murder a man was an act of the greatest devoutness, and to eat his flesh most beneficial. (Pliny, Natural History, xxx, 13)

The Druids "counted it an honourable thing" to eat their father?s flesh and perform incest with their mothers and sisters.

. . . since they are man-eaters as well as heavy eaters, and since, further, they count it an honourable thing, when their fathers die, to devour them, and openly to have intercourse, not only with the other women, but also with their mothers and sisters;. . . (Strabo, Geography)

May I remind you, this is what occurred on the original Halloween night! Today, Halloween lives and breathes with the foul stench of the diabolical Druids.

The Druids also celebrated the festival of Beltane. The word Beltane (Beltaine, Beltinne, Beltain, Beiltein) literally means the "fires of Bel." Bel is the same god called Baal, found over 80 times in the King James Bible. The Lord condemns Baal worship probably more than any other false "god."

. . . then the Druids lit the Baal-Tinne, the holy, goodly fire of Baal. (Wilde, Lady Francesca Speranza. Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of Ireland)

The god whom the Druids worshipped was Baal, as the blazing Baal-fires show, and . . . children were offered in sacrifice to Baal. (Hislop, Alexander. The Two Babylons, p. 232)

? HALLOWEEN: BAAL WORSHIP ?

The original Halloween was a hellish night of Baal worship and child sacrifice. And most of our current Halloween customs derived directly from Baal rituals!

On November first was Samhain [Halloween] . . . Fires were built as a thanksgiving to Baal. . . (Kelley, Ruth Edna, The Book of Hallowe'en, Lothrop, Lee and Shepard Co. Boston, 1919)

The mystic rites and ceremonies with which Hallow?en was originally observed had their origin among the Druids . . . ancient Baal festivals from which many of the Hallow?en customs are derived. (Douglas, George William. The American Book of Days, p. 569)

Baal is also a synonym for the devil. (Burns, Cathy. Masonic and Occult Symbols Illustrated, p. 327)


Halloween glorifies death in worship to Baal or the devil!

The Druid festival of Samhain was a celebration of death. Strutting its hellish death images of skulls, skeletons, ghosts, demons, devils and incarnate evil ? today?s Halloween glorifies Death. David Skal titled his history of Halloween—Death Makes a Holiday:

The grand marshal of the Halloween parade is, and always has been, Death. (Skal, David J. Death Makes a Holiday: The Cultural History of Halloween, p. 18)

Halloween can be traced directly back to Samhain, the ancient Celtic harvest festival honoring the Lord of the Dead. (Thompson, Sue Ellen. Holiday Symbols and Customs, p. 251)

The Devil glorifies death. Hebrews 2:14 says, ". . . that through death he [Jesus] might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;" Proverbs 8:36 says all they that hate the Lord ". . . love death." Revelation 6:8 says the rider of the antichrist?s pale horse, ". . . and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him."

? THE ORDINATION OF HALLOWEEN ?

Understanding the hellish history of Halloween—why in the world did decent people so embrace it? What magic "trick" transformed rancid Samhain into the giddy Halloween?

As the Catholic missionaries swarmed Britain and Ireland seeking the mass conversion to Catholicism their orders from Pope Gregory in 601 A.D. was to cunningly convert the Druid rituals into Catholic rituals. The Catholics converted the ritual of Samhain into the festival of All Saint?s Day, a day of celebration and prayer to dead "Saints."

Halloween begins well over 2,000 years ago in the British Isles. Here, we find the holiday stripped to its most essential element: a night when Celtic tribes communed with the spirits of the ancestral dead. These grand and glorious pagan celebrations were assimilated by the Catholic church. . . Rather than extinguish old customs, the church leaders provided Christian versions of them: from the Middles Ages on, All Saints? Day and All Souls? Day replaced the ancient Celtic celebrations of the dead. (Bannatyne, Lesley Pratt, Halloween: An American Holiday, an American History, Facts on File, Inc., New York, 1990 p. x)

The Catholic festival of All Saints Day was also known as All Hallows Day, with the word "hallow" replacing "saints." The day before All Hallows Day (October 31) was recognized as All Hallows Eve. Eventually, All Hallows Eve became Hallows Eve; hallow?even; hallow?en and ultimately today?s Halloween.

All Saints' Day perpetuated the pagan Samhain of November Eve. (Bonwick, James, Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions, Dorset Press, 1984 (1986ed), p.87)

Many traditional beliefs and customs associated with Samhain . . . continued to be practiced on 31 October, known as the Eve of All Saints, the Eve of All Hallows, or Hallows Even. It is the glossing of the name Hallow Even that has given us the name Hallowe?en. (Santino, Jack editor, Halloween and Other Festivals of Death and Life, The University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, TN 1994 p. xvi)

In 835, Pope Gregory IV "blessed" All Saint?s Day as a sacred "day of obligation," consequently on that day, the Catholic Church officially "ordained" Halloween. Halloween owes its very life and breath to the "blessing" of the Catholic Church. Samhain would have breathed its last breath many years ago if not for the "ordination" of the Catholic Church.

Few holidays have a stranger or more paradoxical history than Halloween. Technically, it is the vigil of All Saints Day, observed by Roman Catholics . . . Halloween has clear connections with the rites of the druidic priests. . . (Douglas, George William, revised by Helene Douglas Compton, The American Book of Days, The H.W. Wilson Company, New York, 1948, p. 741)

A perverse and blasphemous twist to Halloween concerns the name "Halloween." The word "hallow" means "holy, sanctify or consecrate." The popular Lord?s Prayer in Matthew 6:9 begins with, ". . . Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. . ." The label "hallow" belongs to God the Father—Hallowed be thy name. Halloween was a night sacrificing young children to the worship of Baal. It is no accident that the name of history?s most hellish night, glorifying "death and hell," wears God the Father?s holy name of "hallow." The blasphemous name of "Halloween" clearly bears the fingerprints of Lucifer as found in Isaiah 14:12, ". . . I will be like the most High."


? THE OCCULT & HALLOWEEN ?

While Halloween masquerades as childish fun and frolic, it?s serious business in the occult world. Witchcraft, Wicca, Satanism and paganism believe, on the night of Halloween, devils and spirits are unleashed. They perform their most hideous and potent rituals on the night of Halloween.

Samhain: This is the "Witch?s New Year" and the primary Sabbat from which all others flow. (RavenWolf, Silver. Teen Witch, p. 42)

Halloween is one of the four major Sabbats celebrated by the modern Witch, and it is by far the most popular and important of the eight that are observed. . . Witches regard Halloween as their New Year?s Eve, celebrating it with sacred rituals. . . (Dunwich, Gerina. The Pagan Book of Halloween, p. 120)

Halloween is also among Satanism?s most cherished days. Anton LaVey, founder of The Church of Satan and author of The Satanic Bible writes:

After one's own birthday, the two major Satanic holidays are Walpurgisnacht (May 1st) and Halloween. (LaVey, Anton Szandor. The Satanic Bible, p. 96)

Satanic High Priestess Blanche Barton, on The Church of Satan web site, praises Halloween:

It [Halloween] gives even the most mundane people the opportunity to taste wickedness for one night. They have a chance to dance with the Devil . . . I see Satanists all over the world meeting in small groups this night and Hallowe?ens 500 years hence, to raise a glass to the Infernal Hosts. . .

The Satanic Calendar decrees for Halloween: "One of the two most important nights of the year. . . Blood and sexual rituals. Sexual association with demons. Animal and human sacrifice—male or female." (www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/hardtruth/satanic_calendar.htm)

Former occultist Johanna Michaelsen reveals, "Halloween is also a prime recruiting season for Satanists." (Michaelsen, Johanna. Like Lambs to the Slaughter, p. 192)


? THE ORNAMENTS OF HALLOWEEN ?

The ornaments decorating Halloween came directly from the Druids and the occult.

The popular associations of Halloween are derived from ancient Celtic and Druid pagan religious customs. (Mather, George A. and Larry A. Nichols. Dictionary of Cults, Sects, Religions and the Occult, p. 237)

Samhain was a vital part of Celtic culture, its rituals were passed from generation to generation through the oral tradition of the Druids. The genesis of many of America?s Halloween traditions can be found in these ancient celebrations . . . (Bannatyne, Lesley Pratt, Halloween: An American Holiday, an American History, Facts on File, Inc., New York, 1990 p. 6)

WITCHES are the reigning Queen of Halloween. If you?ve been lullabied by the gospel of Halloween that witches are harmless folks, wake up, witches worship the devil:

In many instances, according to the confessions of the witches, besides their direct worship of the devil, they were obliged to show their abhorrence of the faith they had deserted by trampling on the cross, and blaspheming the saints, and by other profanations. (Spence, Lewis. An Encyclopedia of Occultism, p. 433)

The witches held a party at Hallowe?en and the women . . . sold their soul to the devil, would put a stick in their beds anointed with the fat of murdered babies. . .(Douglas, George William. The American Book of Days, p. 569)

Although witches vigorously protest they have no dealings with the devil, under the heading, "A Witch?s God," the popular witch?s training manual, Witchcraft: Theory and Practice, plainly states:

A Witch?s God. . . He is . . . Lord of the Underworld [Hell] . . . He is named . . . Baphomet . . . Lucifer . . . Baal. . . (Angeles, Ly de. Witchcraft: Theory and Practice, p. 60)

The Lord God?s judgment upon witches should not be taken lightly.

Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. Exodus 22:18

JACK-O?-LANTERN: If Witches are the Queen of Halloween, the smiling jack-o?-lantern is the King. The demonic jack-o?-lantern leaves most historians baffled tracing its spooky origin. One popular tale, tells of Jack who tricked the devil in a deal for his soul. But the origin of the jack-o?-lantern is much more sinister. It arrives from the Druid?s ghastly reverence of the severed human head! They proudly decorated their houses and temples with bloody severed heads. The Druids believed the head housed the soul, hence the light or candle in the skull. The original jack-o?-lantern was not a pumpkin or turnip, but a severed human head!

Trophy, charm, or ornament, the human head figured prominently in Celtic life. Warriors hung enemy heads on their houses as a show of prowess, and Druids, believing that the head harbored the soul, placed skulls in sanctuaries to ward off evil. (National Geographic, May 1977, p. 603)

. . . they hang the heads of their enemies from the necks of their horses, and, when they have brought them home, nail the spectacle to the entrances of their homes. . .(Strabo, Geography)

It is believed that faces, rather than other images or symbols, were originally carved onto the pumpkin because they gave the jack-o?-lantern the look of a head. The Celts of ancient times believed that the head was the most sacred part of the human body, for it housed a person?s immortal soul. (Dunwich, Gerina. The Pagan Book of Halloween, p. 32)

. . . the jack-o?-lantern is generally presented in its traditional form as a festive euphemism for the death?s-head, the triangular nose hole and rictus grin being the "dead" giveaways. (Skal, David J. Death Makes a Holiday: The Cultural History of Halloween, p. 38)

Carved and illuminated by a candle, they are symbolic of death and the spirit world. (Thompson, Sue Ellen. Holiday Symbols and Customs, p. 256)

TRICK OR TREAT is another Druid inspired custom.

Every year on Halloween, many children throughout the world dress up in costumes and go door to door in a ritual known as trick or treating . . . unaware that their innocent masquerade is actually the remnants of a Druidic religious practice from times most ancient. (Dunwich, Gerina. The Pagan Book of Halloween, p. 11)

Whatever the wrinkles, the root assumption is the same: trick or treat had its beginning in the Celtic dawn. (Santino, Jack. Halloween and Other Festivals of Death and Life, p. 82)

MASKS & COSTUMES: Masks and costumes carry a long history in the occult and demon possession. Masks are contacts to the spirit world to invite the spirit to "possess" them.

In rituals, a person wearing a mask of a god or spirit often feels possessed by the supernatural being. . . (World Book 2005, p. 263)

The person wearing the mask feels internally transformed and takes on temporarily the qualities of the god or demon represented by the mask. (Biedermann, Hans. Dictionary of Symbolism, p. 218)

BAT: "One of the animal shapes commonly used by these demons (or "familiars," as they were often called) was the bat. Bats and their blood were also used in the casting of spells (especially those of black magick), the brewing of potions. . ." (Dunwich, Gerina. The Pagan Book of Halloween, p. 29)

OWL: "On Halloween night, demons in the form of owls were said to have traveled with Witches and their cats . . . some were even believed to be Witches in disguise. . . (Interestingly, the owl was called a strix by the Romans?a word that means "Witch.")" (Dunwich, Gerina. The Pagan Book of Halloween, p. 43)

"BLACK CATS were associated with darkness and death . . . they embodied demons who performed the witches? task of maleficia against their neighbors. . . Black cats are said to be the devil himself." (Guiley, Rosemary Ellen. The Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft, p. 49)

APPLES: "The practice of bobbing for apples at a Halloween party comes form our Pagan ancestors, who highly valued apple magick." (RavenWolf, Silver. Teen Witch, p. 42)

SKULL: "An interesting symbol, the skull . . . It is prominent in Witchcraft and Demon worship as a celebration of death." (Burns, Cathy. Masonic and Occult Symbols Illustrated, p. 388)

? THE OBSCENE IN HALLOWEEN ?

Halloween has always wallowed in the obscene. Its horrid history is paved with vandalism, destruction and wickedness. The sickening depravity of razor blades in apples and poisoned candies of the 1970?s was a clear testimony to the evil of Halloween.

Some say that Halloween brings out the evil side of human nature in certain individuals. The number of vandalism acts committed each year on Halloween certainly seems to support this. . . (Dunwich, Gerina. The Pagan Book of Halloween, p. 23)

Halloween has always been a night of perversion and inversion—a night where misrule rules and decadence masquerades as decency. Halloween?s "best kept secret" is its romantic love affair with homosexuals. Halloween was the golden key that unlocked the homosexual?s closet of perversion. Halloween?s spirit of inversion, bestowed the homosexuals one utopian night to publicly flaunt their decadence and perversion.

It is an opportunity to act out one?s desires or fantasies. . . Halloween is unquestionably a night of inversion. (Rogers, Nicholas. Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night, p. 137)

Halloween has always been a night of misrule and the outrageous. In recent years, it has been adopted by the gay community in America. . . (Morgan, Sheena. The Real Halloween, p. 42)

The Halloween machine turns the world upside down. One?s identity can be discarded with impunity. Men dress as women, and vice versa. Authority can be mocked and circumvented. (Skal, David J. Death Makes a Holiday: The Cultural History of Halloween p. 17)

Halloween has done more for the current acceptance of homosexuality than any other event. Years of huge homosexual Halloween street parades of gaudy perversion and decadence in New York?s Greenwich Village, Washington, D.C,?s Georgetown, New Orleans?s French Quarter and the infamous Castro Street in San Francisco almost single handily detonated the current homosexual explosion.

Greenwich Village has a long, albeit erratic, history of impromptu Halloween celebrations, and there is undoubtedly a link between the recent emergence of such carnivalesque celebrations and the increasingly public nature of gay culture. . . (Santino, Jack. Halloween and Other Festivals of Death and Life, p. 194)

Yet it has been the gay community that has most flamboyantly exploited Halloween?s potential as a transgressive festival . . . Indeed, it is the gay community that has been arguably more responsible for Halloween?s adult rejuvenation. (Rogers, Nicholas. Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night, p. 132)

For gay people, Halloween is a moment of utopian wishfulness . . . (Santino, Jack. Halloween and Other Festivals of Death and Life, p. 211)

? THE OMEN OF HALLOWEN ?

While many deem Halloween as harmless fun and fantasy, Halloween subtlety disarms our (and especially our children) discernment of witches and the occult. Halloween?s magic potion of "fun and frolic" transformed witches, demons, devils and evil incarnate into "fine folks." Over 1.2 million practicing and proud witches live in America. Witchcraft currently is the fastest growing religion in America. At some time, nearly every little girl becomes a witch on Halloween. Witch RavenWolf delights when a vulnerable little girl dresses as a witch on Halloween:

Today, just about every little girl in our society, at one time or another, has chosen to costume herself as a Witch. . . If you choose a Witch?s costume this Halloween . . . Hold your head up and wear your Witch?s garb proudly in their honor. (RavenWolf, Silver. Halloween: Customs, Recipes & Spells, p. 64)

Occult historian Jean Markale discloses Halloween bids more than childish dress-up. It is a pagan "initiatory journey" guided by someone [Satan] "hidden in the shadows," and none "return from Halloween innocent":

The passage into the world of Halloween is truly an initiatory journey. One does not return from it an innocent. But making the journey alone does not mean there was no guide, no initiator, someone who prompted the quest and who, sometimes hidden in the shadows, watches over the comings and goings of the neophyte through this labyrinth that is the Other World. (Markale, Jean. The Pagan Mysteries of Halloween, p. 127)

Dr. David Enoch, former senior consultant psychiatrist at the Royal Liverpool Hospital and the University of Liverpool, states:

Halloween practices open the door to the occult and can introduce forces into people?s lives that they do not understand and often cannot combat. . . (Parker, Russ. Battling the Occult, p. 35)

? OPPORTUNITIES OF HALLOWEEN ?

Halloween is the soul winner?s dream. Rather than going to a wicked rock concert, or Mardi Gras, or a parade to witness ? on Halloween they come to you! On Halloween lost children (and parents!) come to your door for a treat! Give them a real treat ? the gospel of Jesus Christ! As you hand them some candy, give them a tract.

The frightful night of Halloween can be a fruitful night for Bible believing churches! Parents are looking for a safe alternative to Halloween. Have a real "Fall Harvest"! Advertise it; build it up; put some time and prayer into it! Encourage kids to dress up as "Bible characters." Have games and goodies for the kids. And here?s the harvest part: Provide some tables and refreshments for the parents. Have some covert "soul winners" quietly mingle among the parents to converse and tell them of the wonderful Lord Jesus!

Some may object such tactics on Halloween as "partaker of his evil deeds" (2 John 1:11), but Christian friend, Satan is "the god of this world" (2 Cor. 4:4); and "the whole world lieth in wickedness" (1 John 5:19) ? not just the one night of Halloween! Our days of the week wear the names of pagan gods: Moon-day, Zues-day, Woden?s-day. Thor?s-day, Freyja-day, Saturn-day, Sun-day. Ever look on that dollar bill displaying the satanic all-seeing "eye of Lucifer" in the pyramid? This earth is the devil?s turf (Luke 4:6). You can?t escape his wicked influence. But as David took Goliath?s own sword and cut his head off (1 Sam. 17:51), we can take one of Satan?s "swords" and cut some souls from hell.

Use this Halloween as an opportunity for the Lord Jesus.

". . . The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;"

Matthew 9:37

"And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire. . ."
Jude 1:23



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Friend, I want to ask you the most important question you'll ever answer:


Have you ever received Jesus Christ as your Savior?

Not joining a church, not religion, not baptism, not good works, not sacraments — but trusted Jesus Christ and Him alone, as your Savior. If not, Friend you could be — one year, one month, one hour, one minute, one heartbeat — away from eternity in a lake of fire!
Revelation 20:15 says, "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."

Friend, God does not want you to go to hell. 2 Peter 3:9 says, "The Lord is. . . not willing that any should perish. . ." Jesus loved you so much He died on a rugged cross, to pay for YOUR sin, and to keep YOU out of hell! Revelation 1:5 says, ". . . Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood."

Friend, don't EXIT this message, until you MAKE SURE you've received Jesus Christ!

I assure you — if you die without Jesus Christ — it'll be the biggest mistake you'll ever make!



DO NOT TAKE THE CHANCE!

Friend, If you've never been saved, don't wait another minute!

FRIEND, YOU CAN BE SAVED THIS VERY MINUTE!


It's simple to be saved ...


Know you're a sinner.


"As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:" Romans 3:10
"... for there is no difference. For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;" Romans 3:23



That Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay for your sins.

"Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, ..." 1 Peter 2:24
"... Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood," Revelation 1:5



And the best way you know how, simply trust Him, and Him alone as your personal Savior.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16


WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE SAVED?

Pray this prayer, and mean it with all your heart.
Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, and unless you save me I am lost forever. I thank you for dying for me at Calvary. I come to you now, the best way I know how, and ask you to save me. I now receive you as my Savior. In Jesus Christ name, Amen.

http://www.biblebelievers.com/watkins_halloween/halloween.html

Baby killed as family jumps from Paris window after 'devil sighting'

Ababy died when a family of 12 leapt from their second floor balcony in Paris claiming they were fleeing the devil.

Eight more were injured, some seriously, in the tragedy when they jumped 20ft into a car park in Paris suburb of La Verriere.

The baffling incident occurred when a wife woke to see her husband moving about naked in the room, police said.

She began screaming 'it's the devil! it's the devil!', and the man ran into the other room where 11 others adults and children were watching television. One woman grabbed a knife and stabbed the man before others pushed him out through the front door.

When the man forced his way back in, they all began screamed in terror and leapt from the balcony screaming 'Jesus! Jesus!'

The naked man also leapt from the balcony, detectives said.

A four-month old baby died in his mother's arms, while a two-year-old was critically injured in yesterday’s incident.

Police said they had found no evidence of hallucinogenic drugs or unusual religious rituals.

Versailles assistant prosecutor Odile Faivre added: “A wife in the next room saw her husband moving around naked and began screaming that he was the devil.

“In the confusion following this apparent case of mistaken identity, the naked man's sister-in-law stabbed him in the hand and he was ejected through the front door of the flat.

“When he attempted to get back in, panic erupted and the other occupants of the flat fled by jumping out of the window.

“A number of points surrounding this incident remain to be cleared up,” Mr Faivre said.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/eleven-people-jump-from-paris-window-after-devil-sighting-14985331.html

Saturday 10-30-10

Another Fifth Columnist at work? Who knows, but know it is four military buildings.

Shots fired at Marine Corps Museum

TRIANGLE, Va. - Shots were fired at the Marine Corps Museum in Triangle -- the fourth time someone has fired at military-related buildings in the last few weeks.
No one has been hurt in the shootings, and the FBI urged the unknown gunman to surrender before someone is hurt.

"We appreciate that he is struggling right now," FBI spokeswoman Katherine Schweit said Friday. "This guy hasn't hurt anybody. We don't think he wants to. We're hoping that he'll turn himself in."

The FBI's evidence team and the Prince William County Police are on the scene investigating.

Police are on their hands and knees searching for evidence on the grounds of the museum. Police also are searching for evidence off northbound Interstate 95.

The FBI will hold a news conference at 11:30 a.m. at its field office in D.C.

Prince William County Police spokeswoman First Sgt. Kim Chinn says multiple shots were fired sometime after the museum closed Thursday night.

The FBI says it was called to the scene early Friday.

The museum is closed, but First Lt. Brian Villard with the Marine Corps base at Quantico tells WTOP they hope to reopen the museum as soon as possible.

"That's our goal, as soon as investigators are through with the scene the museum will reopen," Villard says.

Villard would not comment on any changes to security except to say, "the security of our staff and visitors is our first priority."

A Pentagon spokesman says security has not been changed at the Pentagon. There are no changes to military protocol for the U.S. Army Military District of Washington. Individual facilities are allowed to ramp up security if they believe it is necessary.

Authorities have connected all four shootings. Two of them occurred at the museum, one at the Pentagon and one at a Marine Corps recruiting station in Chantilly, Va. The same gun was used in the first three shootings.

Investigators haven't determined a motive or identified a suspect.

Security for the Marine Corp Marathon on Sunday will be beefed up and the course has changed.

Police presence across the region is expected to be more visible, in light of the recent shootings and huge rallies this weekend in the District.

"We are aware of events that have occurred in the D.C. Metropolitan area. We take all threats seriously and we continue to remain vigilant. However, the Metropolitan Police Department will not discuss certain aspects of operational preparedness for security reasons," said Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier.

While they did not comment directly on Friday's report of shots fired, Rep. Gerry Connolly and his challenger in the 11th Congressional District Keith Fimian both agreed Americans needs to remain vigilant against recurrent attacks on U.S. soil.

"We don't know whether it's a foreign threat or whether it's a domestic threat. It could be a crazed gunman who has decided to target our military," said Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., on The Politics Program with Mark Plotkin on WTOP.

"Many people want to see us done in," said Fimian, who was also on the show. "We have to be ever vigilant."

http://wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=2098485

Friday 10-29-10

Police buying Taser Cams for stun gun accountability
When West Melbourne, Fla., police officer Ken Wells subdued Zak Anthony King with a Taser earlier this month, the takedown of the naked 18-year-old jogger was recorded on a camera mounted to the officer's weapon.
The grainy black-and-white video captured in raw detail how the officer used the Taser. The department released it to the news media to show the shooting was justified. The video made its way to YouTube, where more than 90,000 had viewed various postings of it as of Wednesday.

"The officer used the proper tools, and the video backed it up," said Cmdr. Steve Wilkinson, internal affairs investigator for the West Melbourne Police Department.

More than 2,400 law enforcement agencies across the U.S. have bought 45,000 of the $400 video camera attachments that Taser International started selling in 2006, says Steve Tuttle, spokesman for the Scottsdale, Ariz., company. Sales have been brisk in the past six months, he says, as agencies look to provide accountability for the department, he said.

The Taser Cam is activated as soon as the officer unholsters the Taser and turns off the safety, Tuttle says. There is no way to deactivate the camera without disabling the gun, he says.

"Video is going to help the officer," Tuttle said. "And if you don't record it, the kid down the street with a cellphone is going to use it."

440 deaths claimed

Tasers are used by law enforcement as an alternative to deadly force, Tuttle said. The gun releases two darts with wires that attach to the subject's body and deliver up to 50,000 volts of electricity, he said.

The use of stun guns has been controversial for years, especially in cases where the subject died after being shocked, says Curt Goering, chief operating officer for Amnesty International.

Goering says there are 440 people he knows of who have died after being shocked with such devices since the human rights organization started accumulating those statistics in 2001. The organization has asked for a moratorium on stun gun use until medical effects can be studied further, he says.

Taser International disputes those numbers.

"Amnesty International continues to promote a number for Taser-related deaths that is not only misleading and inaccurate, but also unsupported by medical or academic science," Tuttle says. Medical examiners have attributed Tasers as a contributing factor in fewer than 50 of those deaths, he said.

"In many of these cases, numerous causes, drug overdoses, pre-existing medical conditions, blunt trauma and other factors have also been listed," Tuttle said.

Despite his opposition to the use of stun guns, Goering says the use of video cameras is a positive development.

"If the recordings are closely monitored and studied and acted on by law enforcement agencies, it could be a tool to ensure accountability in cases of abuse," Goering says.

John Burris, a San Francisco civil rights lawyer who specializes in police misconduct cases, says he has represented clients where the use of a Taser or other stun gun was not captured on camera, and believes a video recording of those events would have resolved any uncertainty.

Taser loaned the cameras to police departments in major cities including Houston and Las Vegas in 2006 and 2007 to test them, Tuttle says.

The Las Vegas Metro Police Department bought 1,061 cameras in 2008 with a federal grant so that every patrol officer had one on, says Officer Marcus Martin, departmental spokesman and a Master Taser Instructor.

The videos have backed up contentious situations many times, Martin says. In one case, a suspect on PCP was stunned with a Taser several times before police subdued him.

"Without the video, the officer would be in trouble because of the long usage, which can be perceived as a misuse of force," Martin says. "The officer was clearly exonerated because you could see the altercation."

Nearly 13,000 of the agencies that have Tasers have not yet bought the cameras, Tuttle says. That number includes the Houston Police Department, which is one of the largest purchasers of the stun guns. Houston was one of the first departments to try the cameras, says Kirk Munden, executive assistant chief for field operations. After two trial runs, the department took a pass.

"The primary reason we didn't buy them was the expense," Munden says. It would have cost $2 million to equip all 4,000 officers with the cameras, he says.

Video can cut both ways

Though a Taser Cam in Las Vegas helped prove an officer's innocence, the cameras have also had the opposite result. An officer in Eugene, Ore., responded to a trespassing call and used his Taser on a college student in the student's apartment, says Lt. Doug Mozan, Eugene's daytime watch commander. Police Chief Pete Kerns said the action was justified because the officer believed he was in danger and that the student could have had a weapon, Mozan said. But a review of the video showed no weapon, and the Civilian Review Board ruled the officer misused it, according to minutes of the February meeting where the case was reviewed.

That review might have had a different outcome had the video camera been rolling sooner, Mozan says, but the camera only activates when the safety switch is off. He also says it was limiting in that the camera only records what the Taser is pointing at.

Still, Mozan says, he supports their use.

"Cameras only add to the quality of evidence and transparency in law enforcement," Mozan says.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-10-28-tasercams28_ST_N.htm

Bushmaster recall

http://www.bushmaster.com/pdf/ACR-Web-Notification.pdf


Virginia man allegedly backed fake DC bomb plot

WASHINGTON (AP) - For more than six months, 34-year-old Farooque Ahmed went quietly about his business: casing Washington-area subway stations, sketching diagrams and shooting video, sizing up how best to kill the most people, police say.

Rolling suitcases filled with explosives would be better than backpacks, he allegedly told others, and rush hour would be the best time to strike.

The Pakistani-born Virginian thought he was working for al-Qaida operatives, according to the FBI. In fact, the plot was a ruse: The information went to people working on behalf of the U.S. government, according to a federal law enforcement official.

Ahmed, a naturalized citizen, was arrested Wednesday, the latest alleged example of homegrown terrorism.

His hearing in Alexandria Federal Court will be held Friday at 2 p.m.

"You never know who lives around you," said Margaret Petney, who lives on the same block as Ahmed in Ashburn, Va., outside Washington.

Last week, a Hawaii man was arrested and accused of making false statements to the FBI about his plans to attend terrorist training in Pakistan. In August, a Virginia man was caught trying to leave the country to go fight with an al-Qaida-affiliated group in Somalia. And in May, Faisal Shazhad, a naturalized citizen from Pakistan, tried to set off a car bomb at a bustling street corner in New York.

The FBI stressed that in the latest case, the public never was in danger. FBI agents were monitoring Ahmed's activities throughout the sting, the agency said.

Nonetheless, U.S. Attorney Neil MacBride said it was "chilling that a man from Ashburn is accused of casing rail stations with the goal of killing as many Metro riders as possible through simultaneous bomb attacks."

Chilling, especially, for Washington-area commuters, who live with the memory of the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon.

"As I look around, I think about how vulnerable we are," said 45-year-old McCarthy Council, who lives near the Pentagon City Metro station. "I'm just going to stay off the Metro system for now."

But Mary Brereton, 55, a personal trainer who lives in nearby Alexandria, Va., said she was more worried about the safety record of Metro's subway trains than the potential for a terrorist attack.

"Who was it who said, 'If we live in fear every day, then 9/11 was a success?'" she said. "You just can't."

Ahmed, bearded and wearing glasses, made a brief court appearance Wednesday in federal court in Alexandria. He didn't enter a plea and was ordered held without bond. He said he couldn't afford a lawyer. He faces up to 50 years in prison if convicted.

In a nine-page indictment, federal investigators alleged that, starting in April, Ahmed met several times with people he believed were al-Qaida operatives. He told them "he might be ready to travel overseas to conduct jihad in January 2011" after completing a hajj to Saudi Arabia he planned for November of this year, the document states. Date by date, the document lays out Ahmed's alleged activities and meetings in support of the fake bomb plot to be carried out in 2011.

According to the indictment:

_Ahmed took video of four northern Virginia subway stations _ Arlington Cemetery, Courthouse, Pentagon City and Crystal City, which is near the Pentagon _ and monitored security at a hotel in the District of Columbia. In a series of meetings at hotels in northern Virginia, Ahmed provided the videos to someone he believed was part of a terrorist organization and said he wanted to donate $10,000 to help the overseas fight and collect donations in a way "that would not raise red flags."

_In a Sept. 28 meeting in a Herndon, Va., hotel, Ahmed suggested that terror operatives use rolling suitcases instead of backpacks to blow up the subway. During that same meeting, Ahmed said he wanted to kill as many military personnel as possible and suggested an additional attack on a Crystal City subway station.

The indictment alleges he also handed over diagrams of the Arlington subway stations and gave suggestions about where to put explosives on trains to kill the most people in simultaneous attacks.

At the White House, press secretary Robert Gibbs said President Barack Obama was aware of the investigation before Ahmed was arrested. Gibbs also offered assurances that the public was never in danger. There are no indications Ahmed was connected with larger terrorist groups like al-Qaida, according to a U.S. counterterrorism official, who requested anonymity to discuss an intelligence matter.

Andrew Ames, a spokesman for the FBI Washington field office, declined to comment on how authorities learned about Ahmed. The Washington Post quoted an unidentified administration official as saying Ahmed drew the attention of law enforcement officials by seeking to obtain unspecified materials.

The FBI has made several cases with agents working undercover: Last year, authorities arrested a Jordanian national after he tried to detonate what he thought was a bomb outside a Dallas skyscraper. In an unrelated case, authorities in Springfield, Ill., arrested a man after he tried to set off what he thought were explosives in a van outside a federal courthouse. In both cases, decoy devices were provided to the men by FBI agents posing as al-Qaida operatives.

A LinkedIn page that was created for Farooque Ahmed identifies him as a network planning engineer with a bachelor's degree in computer science from the City College of New York in 2003, during the same period that other records showed he had been living in New York. In Reston, Va., Ericsson Federal Inc. issued a statement confirming that Ahmed had done contract work for the company.

A check of legal records for Ahmed found several traffic offenses in Virginia, including speeding.

Law enforcement officials searched the brick town house where Ahmed lives on Wednesday.

Neighbor Petney said Ahmed moved in about a year and a half ago with his wife and young child, and that they wore traditional Muslim clothing.

Ahmed's wife, Sahar, joined the Hip Muslim Moms, a support group for women with children under 5 years old, and brought her young son to play dates with other mothers, said group organizer Esraa Bani. She had moved to the area and was looking for a mothers group when she joined. She was very quiet and kept to herself.

Petney observed that "they didn't seem to be too friendly with anybody."

http://wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=2095662

Bad Driver? In Debt? Proposed NYC Law Would Ban You From Owning a Gun
New York City residents who want to own a gun may soon be denied permits if they are litterbugs, if they are bad drivers, or if they have fallen behind on a few bills.

Under proposed revisions to the police department's handgun, rifle and shotgun permit procedures, the NYPD can reject gun license applicants for a number of reasons, including:

If they have been arrested or convicted of almost any "violation," in any state; having a "poor driving history"; having been fired for "circumstances that demonstrate lack of good judgment"; having "failed to pay legally required debts"; being deemed to lack "good moral character"; or if any other information demonstrates "other good cause for the denial of the permit."

Critics say many of the restrictions are vague, have nothing to do with one's fitness to own a gun and are unconstitutional.

Supporters say the new restrictions will make gun purchasing more efficient and don't give the NYPD any more power than it already has.

In District of Columbia v. Heller the Court found that a District of Columbia law banning the possession of handguns in the home was invalid due to the rights conferred by the Second Amendment; in McDonald v. City of Chicago, Ill., the Court applied that right equally to the States," the report says.

As result, Councilman Peter F. Vallone Jr., chairman of the Public Safety Committee, introduced a proposal to lower the city's fees for gun permits to ones that more accurately reflect what the city spends to issue them.

"Now the fees are going to be much less and they're going to have a relationship to the amount of administrative costs that are involved, and in that way it will withstand the Constitution and the court challenge that most people expect will be coming down the road," Vallone told FoxNews.com.

The current $340 fee for all pistol licenses would be lowered to $70 for a premises license and $110 for a carry license. Rifle and shotgun permits would drop from $140 to $65. Costs for license renewals would also be significantly reduced.

With the lower fees, the New York Police Department also introduced revisions to the police department's gun permit procedures, which, unlike Vallone's bill, need only approval from the mayor's office, not the City Council.

"Although I do have oversight capability and I can have a hearing on it, I don't have any formal say in it," Vallone said.

Councilmember Dan Halloran says those revisions are intended to give the police more power to deny licenses, which could counter a possible spike in gun ownership triggered by the lower fees.

But Halloran and Vallone say the proposed restrictions give the NYPD so much authority that they violate the Second Amendment.

"The disqualification categories are downright scary. They're completely open to interpretation and they really don't measure anybody's fitness to own a gun," Halloran told FoxNews.com.

He pointed to a restriction stating applicants can be denied if they've "been arrested, indicted or convicted for a crime or violation, except minor traffic violations."

"So now the city can deny a permit for a building code violation, a sanitation ticket for failing to sweep the sidewalk … an array of non-criminal acts," Halloran said.

Another troublesome restriction, Halloran said, is one that allows permit denial if "the applicant has failed to pay legally required debts such as child support, taxes, fines or penalties imposed by governmental authorities."

"So people who are in foreclosure, or have credit card judgments, maybe filed bankruptcy, can now be legally denied," he said.

Applicants can also be denied, under the new restrictions, if they've "been terminated from employment under circumstances that demonstrate lack of good judgment or lack of good moral character."

"It seems to me it's more of an application to be pope than to be a gun owner," Vallone said. "I don't know anyone who would pass this thing. Anyone who has ever tried marijuana or has a bad driving history, lost a job regarding a lack of judgment – those are ridiculous criteria for gun ownership."

But Jason Post, a spokesman for Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office, said nothing in the proposal gives police a power they don't already have.

"The revisions will make the application process more efficient and give more clarity to applicants for gun licenses," Post told FoxNews.com in an e-mail.

Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, agreed, saying the changes appear to be a "fleshing out" of existing gun restrictions, and not an expansion of them.

"I think it's a good faith attempt by New York City authorities to make sure that their restrictions comply with the Constitution standards that the Supreme Court's adopted over the last two years," he told FoxNews.com.

While some restrictions, like paying legally required debts, may seem irrelevant to critics, Helmke says they are not.

"Child support, taxes, fines and governmental penalties I think are legitimate things. Basically, if someone's not complying with what the government requires of somebody, that's usually a sign that you can't trust them to follow the rules with something like a gun," he said.

As for whether the rule could apply to failure to pay a cable TV bill, as Halloran implied, Helmke said, "I think he's stretching it there."

Halloran said the biggest problem is that the rules are open to that kind of interpretation, and he pointed to the clause that reads that applicants can be denied for failure "to provide information requested by the License Division or required by this chapter" or "other information demonstrates an unwillingness to abide by the law, a lack of candor towards lawful authorities, a lack of concern for the safety of oneself and/or other persons and/or for public safety, and/or other good cause for the denial of the license," as the most obvious example.

"Could this be any more vague and open ended?" he asked. "Ask yourself, would any other constitutional right be subject to such vagaries? Imagine these requirements put to be eligible to vote, to have a lawyer, to be secure in your person or possessions, your right to a jury."

Former federal prosecutor and constitutional law expert Douglas Burns said that while the Heller and McDonald cases allow guns to be regulated closely, New York's proposal has some legal issues.

"If left unchanged, I think there could be some problems in court with it," Burns told FoxNews.com in an e-mail.

With a few adjustments, though, the proposal could be made to stand up in court, he said.

"I think like any proposed amendments, it has to be fine-tuned -- you can't leave in "violations other than traffic" because under NYS law a violation is not a criminal offense, so I think that's a problem. Also, as I said, the debt payment and job-firing language has to be fine-tuned; it is too broad.... I think the legislator does raise some valid concerns."

The council is due to vote on the price changes, which are expected to pass, and to advise the police department on the restriction changes Wednesday.

Should the department decide to go forward with the proposed changes, Vallone says he is "seriously considering having an oversight hearing on this topic"

The NYPD did not respond to a request for comment.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/10/23/nyc-proposal-renders-bad-drivers-debtors-unfit-guns/

Thursday 10-28-10

More political Junk, another surprise voter fraud, unbelievable lol



Nevada voting machines automatically checking Harry Reid's name; voting machine technicians are SEIU membersBy: Mark Hemingway
Commentary Staff Writer
10/26/10 6:12 PM EDT
Clark County is where three quarters of Nevada's residents and live and where Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's son Rory is a county commissioner. Rory is also a Democratic candidate for governor.

Since early voting started, there have been credible reports that voting machines in Clark County, Nevada are automatically checking Harry Reid's name on the ballot:

Voter Joyce Ferrara said when they went to vote for Republican Sharron Angle, her Democratic opponent, Sen. Harry Reid's name was already checked.

Ferrara said she wasn't alone in her voting experience. She said her husband and several others voting at the same time all had the same thing happen.

"Something's not right," Ferrara said. "One person that's a fluke. Two, that's strange. But several within a five minute period of time -- that's wrong."

Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax said there is no voter fraud, although the issues do come up because the touch-screens are sensitive. For that reason, a person may not want to have their fingers linger too long on the screen after they make a selection at any time.

Now there's absolutely no independently verified evidence of chicanery with the voting machines (yet), but it is worth noting that the voting machine technicians in Clark County are members of the Service Employees International Union. The SEIU spent $63 million in elections in 2008 and is planning on spending $44 million more this election cycle -- nearly all of that on Democrats. White House political director Patrick Gaspard is formerly the SEIU's top lobbyist, and former SEIU president Andy Stern was the most frequent visitor to the White House last year.

Just in Nevada, the SEIU has given a lot to groups that are heavily vested in the state -- in just one prominent example, the SEIU gave $500,000 to the Patriot Majority PAC, which has spent $1.3 million against Reid's opponent Sharron Angle. They've and have dropped large sums directly on candidates:

NV-3
Joe Heck (R)
Oppose
$140,000.00

NV-3
Dina Titus (D)
Support
$344,984.00

NV-Senate
Sharron E. Angle (R)
Oppose
$225,000.00


Now the county voting technicians aren't unique here -- many of Clark County's employees are also represented by the SEIU. But it is worth mentioning, the SEIU is hyperpoliticized and has seen its fair share of corruption. (It certainly seems more questionable than Diebold, the voting machine manufacturer with Republican ties that was at the center of many conspiracy theories on the left during the Bush administration.)

Unions increasingly have a major financial stake in election outcomes, both as a matter of their own election expenditures, and as a function of what they stand to gain if their legislative agenda is enacted. Should they really be responsible for tabulating the votes? That's certainly something voters ought to think long and hard about.

Below is Clark County's SEIU contract -- On Page 75, in Appendix A, voting machine technicians are listed as positions represented by SEIU.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Voting-machines-in-Clark-County-Nevada-automatically-checking-Harry-Reids-name-Voting-machine-technicians-are-members-of-SEIU-105815608.html

Electromagnetic pulse impact far and wide One EMP burst and the world goes dark
The sky erupts. Cities darken, food spoils and homes fall silent. Civilization collapses.
End-of-the-world novel? A video game? Or could such a scenario loom in America's future?

There is talk of catastrophe ahead, depending on whom you believe, because of the threat of an electromagnetic pulse triggered by either a supersized solar storm or terrorist A-bomb, both capable of disabling the electric grid that powers modern life.

Electromagnetic pulses (EMP) are oversized outbursts of atmospheric electricity. Whether powered by geomagnetic storms or by nuclear blasts, their resultant intense magnetic fields can induce ground currents strong enough to burn out power lines and electrical equipment across state lines.

The threat has even become political fodder, drawing warnings from former House speaker Newt Gingrich, a likely presidential contender.

"We are not today hardened against this," he told a Heritage Foundation audience last year. "It is an enormous catastrophic threat."

Meanwhile, in Congress, a "Grid Act" bill aimed at the threat awaits Senate action, having passed in the House of Representatives.

Fear is evident. With the sun's 11-year solar cycle ramping up for its stormy maximum in 2012, and nuclear concerns swirling about Iran and North Korea, a drumbeat of reports and blue-ribbon panels center on electromagnetic pulse scenarios.

"We're taking this seriously," says Ed Legge of the Edison Electric Institute in Washington, which represents utilities. He points to a North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) report in June, conducted with the Energy Department, that found pulse threats to the grid "may be much greater than anticipated."

There are "some important reasons for concern," says physicist Yousaf Butt of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass. "But there is also a lot of fluff."

At risk are the more than 200,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines that cross North America, supplying 1,800 utilities the power for TVs, lights, refrigerators and air conditioners in homes, and for the businesses, hospitals and police stations that take care of us all.

"The electric grid's vulnerability to cyber and to other attacks is one of the single greatest threats to our national security," Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said in June as he introduced the bill to the House of Representatives.

Markey and others point to the August 2003 blackout that struck states from Michigan to Massachusetts, and southeastern Canada, as a sign of the grid's vulnerability. Triggered by high-voltage lines stretched by heat until they sagged onto overgrown tree branches, the two-day blackout shut down 100 power plants, cut juice to about 55 million people and cost $6 billion, says the 2004 U.S.-Canada Power System Outage Task Force.

Despite the costs, most of them from lost work, a National Center for Environmental Health report in 2005 found "minimal" death or injuries tied directly to the 2003 blackout — a few people died in carbon monoxide poisonings as a result of generators running in their homes or from fires started from candles. But the effects were pervasive: Television and radio stations went off the air in Detroit, traffic lights and train lines stopped running in New York, turning Manhattan into the world's largest pedestrian mall, and water had to be boiled after water mains lost pressure in Cleveland.

Simple physics, big worry

The electromagnetic pulse threat is a function of simple physics: Electromagnetic pulses and geomagnetic storms can alter Earth's magnetic field. Changing magnetic fields in the atmosphere, in turn, can trigger surging currents in power lines.

"It is a well-understood phenomenon," says Butt, who this year reviewed geomagnetic and nuke blast worries in The Space Review.

Two historic incidents often figure in the discussion:

• On July 9, 1962, the Atomic Energy Commission and the Defense Atomic Support Agency detonated the Starfish Prime, a 1.4-megaton H-bomb test at an altitude of 250 miles, some 900 miles southwest of Hawaii over the Pacific Ocean. The pulse shorted out streetlights in Oahu.

• On March 9, 1989, the sun spat a million-mile-wide blast of high-temperature charged solar gas straight at the Earth. The "coronal mass ejection" struck the planet three days later, triggering a geomagnetic storm that made the northern lights visible in Texas. The storm also induced currents in Quebec's power grid that knocked out power for 6 million people in Canada and the USA for at least nine hours.

"A lot of the questions are what steps does it make sense to take," Legge says. "We could effectively gold-plate every component in the system, but the cost would mean that people can't afford the rates that would result to pay for it."

"The high-altitude nuclear-weapon-generated electromagnetic pulse is one of a small number of threats that has the potential to hold our society seriously at risk," concluded a 2008 EMP Commission report headed by William Graham, a former science adviser to President Reagan.

The terror effect

In the nuclear scenario, the detonation of an atomic bomb anywhere from 25 to 500 miles high electrifies, or ionizes, the atmosphere about 25 miles up, triggering a series of electromagnetic pulses. The pulse's reach varies with the size of the bomb, the height of its blast and design.

Gingrich last year cited the EMP Commission report in warning, "One weapon of this kind that went off over Omaha would eliminate most of the electrical production in the United States."

But some take issue with that.

"You would really need something the size of a Soviet H-bomb to have effects that cross many states," Butt says. The massive Starfish Prime blast, he notes, was at least 70 times more powerful than the atomic bomb detonated over Hiroshima in 1945, and it may have blown out streetlights but it left the grid in Hawaii intact.

One complication for rogue nations or terrorists contemplating a high-altitude nuclear blast is that such an attack requires a missile to take the weapon at least 25 miles high to trigger the electromagnetic pulse. For nations, such a launch would invite massive nuclear retaliation from the USA's current stockpile of 5,000 warheads, many of them riding in submarines far from any pulse effects.

Any nation giving a terror group an atomic weapon and missile would face retaliation, Butt and others note, as nuclear forensics capabilities at the U.S. national labs would quickly trace the origins of the bomb, Butt says. "It would be suicide."

Super solar storm

On the solar front, the big fear is a solar super storm, a large, fast, coronal mass ejection with a magnetic field that lines up with an orientation perfectly opposite the Earth's own magnetic field, says solar physicist Bruce Tsurutani of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Tsuritani and other solar physicists view such an event as inevitable in the next 10 to 100 years.

"It has to be the perfect storm," Tsuratani says.

"We are almost guaranteed a very large solar storm at some point, but we are talking about a risk over decades," Butt says. Three power grids gird the continental U.S. — one crossing 39 Eastern states, one for 11 Western states and one for Texas.

Solutions?

In June, national security analyst Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists described congressional debate over power-grid security as "a somewhat jarring mix of prudent anticipation and extravagant doomsday warnings."

Although the physics underlying the geomagnetic and nuclear pulses are fundamentally the same, they have different solutions. A geomagnetic storm essentially produces a long-building surge dangerous to power lines and large transformers. A nuclear blast produces three waves of pulses.

Limiting the risk from the geomagnetic-storm-type threat involves stockpiling large transformers and installing dampers, essentially lightning rods, to dump surges into the ground from the grid. Even if such steps cost billions, the numbers come out looking reasonable compared with the $119 billion that a 2005 Electric Power Research Institute report estimated was the total nationwide cost of normal blackouts every year.

"EMP is one of a small number of threats that can hold our society at risk of catastrophic consequences," Graham testified to a congressional committee last year, endorsing such mitigation steps.

Stephen Younger, former head of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, last year argued against the catastrophic scenarios in his book, The Bomb, suggesting the effects of a pulse would be more random, temporary and limited than Graham and others suggest.

The June NERC report essentially calls for more study of the problem, warning of excessive costs to harden too much equipment against the nuclear risk. "If there are nuclear bombs exploding, we have lots of really, really big problems besides the power grid," Legge says.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2010-10-26-emp_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

Does this suprise anyone? It will be tied to the shooting of the Marine Corp recurting station, recently. It will not surprise me when it is tied back to a wantabee Muslim also. Just like the Beltway snipers.

FBI: Pentagon, museum shootings linked to same gun
WASHINGTON - Shots fired at both the Pentagon and Museum of the Marine Corps came from the same weapon, the FBI says.
The agency also is looking into whether another shooting Monday night at a Marine Corps recruiting station in a storefront off Lee Highway in Chantilly, Va. is related.

Marines who work there discovered the shooting Tuesday morning, the FBI said. Investigators are conducting ballistics tests to determine whether the recruiting station shooting is related to the previous incidents.

Investigators were at the station "trying to link anything they can to what has already been proven," FBI spokeswoman Lindsay Godwin said.

The station was unoccupied and under renovation. Like the other two shooting sites, it is near a major roadway.

No one was injured in each of the incidents. FBI officials say they will not be releasing the type of gun used or the caliber of the ammunition in the incidents "to preserve the integrity of investigative efforts."

Steven Calvery, director of the civilian Pentagon Force Protection Agency, has said the gun used in the Pentagon shooting likely was a high-velocity rifle.

Security at the Pentagon has not been elevated since news of the latest shooting. Though all three shootings have targeted offices with links to the military, Godwin said the FBI has not issued any specific advisories or warnings to recruiting stations or other military buildings.

Calvery initially described the Pentagon incident as "a random event." Tuesday, Pentagon protection agency spokesman Chris Layman said that initial description was preliminary, though officials still don't believe there is a specific threat against the Pentagon.

"We are still trying to pursue as many leads as possible," Layman said, adding that he did not have any details on the type of gun used.

Calvery told reporters that a number of his officers reported hearing five to seven shots fired at about 4:55 a.m. Oct. 19 near the south parking lot of the Pentagon, which faces I-395.

A search of the structure found fragments of two bullets still embedded in two windows on the third and fourth floors. The bullets had shattered but did not penetrate the windows, which were part of unoccupied offices that are being renovated.

Bullet holes also were discovered in windows at the museum, which is associated with the Quantico Marine Base about 30 miles south of the Pentagon.

A cleaning crew at the museum called police when they noticed the holes in a part of the building that faces Interstate 95.

A spokeswoman for the museum said it appeared to have been hit by at least 10 rounds -- five that struck glass and five marks on metal panels. Not all the bullets penetrated the glass, she said.

The museum did not receive any kind of threatening communication or messages before discovering the bullet scars. None of the museum's artifacts was hit.

In early March, a gunman opened fire at a Pentagon security checkpoint, wounding two police officers. John Patrick Bedell, 36, of Hollister, Calif., was shot by police and died hours later.

Anyone with information about the recent incidents can call Crime Solvers at (866) 411-8477 or text "TIP187" plus a message to CRIMES/274637.

http://wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=2094292

Pentagon: Equipment outage at Wyo. nuke site
WASHINGTON (AP) - An equipment failure disrupted communication between 50 nuclear missiles and the launch control center at Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming over the weekend, although the Air Force never lost the ability to launch the missiles.

Air Force spokesman Lt. Col. Todd Vician said the break occurred early Saturday and lasted less than one hour. The White House was briefed about the failure Tuesday morning.

There was no evidence of foul play, officials said Tuesday.

The Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles are part of the 319th Missile Squadron stockpiled at Warren Air Force Base near Cheyenne, where 150 ICBMs are located. The failure affected 50 of them, or one-ninth of the U.S. arsenal. ICBMs at Air Force bases in Montana and North Dakota were not affected.

The equipment failure disrupted "communication between the control center and the missiles, but during that time they were still able to monitor the security of the affected missiles," Vician said. "The missiles were always protected. We have multiple redundancies and security features, and control features."

The launch control center computers communicate through an underground cable, but Vician could not confirm the cable was the source of the problem.

Vician said base personnel inspected all 50 missile sites and found no evidence of damage.

One military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the incident publicly, said the equipment in the launch control center has been the subject of unspecified communications problems in the past.

The White House referred questions to the Pentagon.

The failure was first reported by The Atlantic on the magazine's website.

The communications failure is the latest in a series of nuclear mishaps that have plagued the Air Force in recent years.

In August 2007, an Air Force B-52 bomber was mistakenly armed with six nuclear-tipped cruise missiles and flown from Minot Air Force Base, N.D., to Barksdale Air Force Base, La. At the time, the pilot and crew were unaware they had nuclear arms aboard.

Then, in March 2008, the Pentagon disclosed the mistaken shipment to Taiwan of four electrical fuses for ballistic missile warheads and launched a broad investigation into the military's handling of nuclear related materials.

An internal report asserted that slippage in the Air Force's nuclear standards was a problem that has been identified but not effectively addressed for more than a decade. Those findings led to Defense Secretary Robert Gates' decision to fire Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne and Gen. Michael Moseley, the Air Force chief of staff.

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=116&sid=2094898

Wednesday 10-27-10

Enormous Ring is Developing on the Sun


What is this strange ring that has been developing on the Sun during 16-Oct?

Sunspot 1112, located in the southeast quadrant, has been the source of a giant filament that is currently stretching 400,000 km across the surface of the Sun.

However, today, there appears to be development of a enormous circular ring which looks to be linking with the huge magnetic filament of sunspot 1112. Most of today's various wavelength images of the Sun all show this feature over at the SDO (Solar Dynamics Observatory) - NASA website.

SpaceWeather.com today reports,

A vast filament of magnetism is cutting across the Sun's southern hemisphere today. A bright 'hot spot' just north of the filament's midpoint is UV radiation from sunspot 1112. The proximity is no coincidence; the filament appears to be rooted in the sunspot below. If sunspot flares, it could cause the entire structure to erupt. This active region merits watching...

What concerns me is that if indeed this is a huge magnetic filament nearly encircling the entire Sun, it is now currently directly facing the Earth. If sunspot 1112 does erupt, could the entire filament explode into a massive CME?

This particular phenomenon will be all over in a few days as it rotates around the Sun, but it serves to remind us that there are more and more events happening on the Sun as we transit into the next solar cycle maximum (peaking ~ 2012 into 2013).

CME is short for coronal mass ejection, a plasma made up of mostly electrons and protons. Basically, it is electromagnetic radiation that is ejected from active regions of the sun.

CMEs directed at Earth can interfere with radio communications, harm satellites, and even damage electrical power transmission circuits and infrastructure, potentially causing widespread power grid failure (only an extremely powerful CME could bring down the grid)

18-Oct-2010, A total of five “B” and “C” -class solar flares ignited today from sunspot region 1112, a high number but fairly small in intensity, not enough to ignite the filament.

Image of sunspot region 1112 during 18-Oct-2010 as it continues to rotate towards the south east rim of the sun.

19-Oct-2010, Partial Filament Eruption! (Not Earth directed...)

There have been 6 updates since the initial report. Link HERE to the original article and updates.

21-Oct-2010, Parting image of sunspot 1112... on the edge

Sunspots revolve around the surface of the sun from left to right. One revolution on the surface takes about 25 days (about 12 days on the Earth-facing side and about 12 days on the far side). So, if this particular sunspot 1112 survives the trip around the back side of the sun, we may see it again sometime around 2-Nov. That would be interesting...

26-Oct-2010, Have you seen sunspot 1117 lately? It has tripled in size during the last few days and is currently directly facing Earth.

http://beforeitsnews.com/story/218/366/Enormous_Ring_is_Developing_on_the_Su

Gas prices rise, breaking pre-election pattern
Gasoline prices haven't gotten much attention amid all the other bad economic news for Democrats heading into a final week of campaigning, but the price per gallon has climbed nearly 15 cents since Labor Day - a surprising jump, given that prices usually plummet before an election.

The cost of a gallon of gas has eclipsed the $3 mark in several parts of the country and clocks in nationally at $2.82, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). That's up from $2.68 on Sept. 6, and overall about $1 higher than the week of Jan. 26, 2009, when President Obama took office and the per-gallon price was $1.81.

Analysts say the surge in pump prices defies historical trends that call for a drop-off after the Labor Day holiday, which signals the end of the summer driving season and the traditional dip ahead of the November election season.
"We're puzzled by it," said John B. Townsend II, a spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic. "It's becoming increasingly expensive, and the great anomaly is that never happens before an election - prices always fall."

Nearly 70 percent of the cost of gas is determined by the global price for a barrel of crude oil, which currently is priced at $81, according to the EIA, and experts say there aren't many levers the president can pull to change prices dramatically in the short term.

Still, that doesn't mean it couldn't hurt politically - particularly on top of a 9.6 percent national unemployment rate that's a millstone around the neck of Democratic incumbents across the country.

Even though the issue has been out of the news, 56 percent of Americans say gas prices are "extremely important," according to a mid-October Associated Press-GfK poll that also found 29 percent rated prices at the pump as "moderately important" while 15 percent said they're of little or no importance. Americans are split in their assessment of how Mr. Obama is handling gas prices, with 49 percent approving and 49 percent disapproving of his performance, that same survey found. Among likely voters, just 46 percent approve of his track record on gas prices and 51 percent disapprove.

That could be because voters are used to pre-election price drops.

In 2008, prices plummeted nearly 80 cents between Labor Day and the week of Oct. 20, and in 2006, they fell by about 50 cents over the same period. In 2007 and 2009, by contrast, prices held about steady.

Mr. Obama, a vocal advocate for clean-energy technologies, has routinely stressed the need to transition the U.S. to a renewable-energy-use pattern as a means to improve the environment and also seize on new business opportunities in the burgeoning sector. He pushed for home weatherization credits in the stimulus package, and his Environmental Protection Agency has issued tighter fuel-economy standards, for example.

It's not clear if the Obama administration is considering any short-term fixes to rising gas prices. A spokeswoman for the Interior Department, which manages federal lands that would be leased for oil exploration, said that question isn't under the purview of the agency, and an Energy Department spokeswoman referred questions to the EPA, which did not return a message seeking comment.

Former President George W. Bush faced strong criticism and anemic approval ratings on his handling of the situation as gas prices eclipsed the $3 mark, reaching $4 in June 2008 before he and Congress lifted moratoriums on expanding offshore drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf. Supporters said lifting presidential and congressional moratoriums sent a signal to markets that in turn led to a sharp decline in prices.

In Mr. Obama's case, analysts said it's too soon to see any fallout from the BP oil spill or the new offshore drilling moratorium Mr. Obama imposed and then lifted. Instead, they attributed the rise in the cost of crude oil - and thus the price of gas - to strong demand from Chinese and other Asian economies that are showing stronger signs of rebounding from the recession than the U.S., where demand has fallen amid continued unemployment.

"The product impacts in the Gulf Coast from [the BP] incident are probably more in the five-to-ten-year time period," said Laurie Falter, an oil industry economist for the EIA, which collects and analyzes energy data. "If it's going to have an effect, it's going to be on investment going forward, and that's a slower time scale."

Free-market critics of Mr. Obama's energy policies say it's only a matter of time before consumers start to feel the pinch.

Daniel Kish, senior vice president for policy at the Institute for Energy Research, an industry-backed think tank, said Mr. Obama's decision in early April to open up some new areas for oil and gas exploration while canceling a slew of Alaskan lease sales will decrease domestic oil supplies and increase U.S. imports of oil.

"Their view is the best way to reduce consumption [of fossil fuels] is to make it more expensive, and then people will use alternatives, which they consider to be morally superior," Mr. Kish said. "The long-term consequences of this are going to be pretty significant. We're not going to stop using oil, we're just going to use less of our own oil and more of somebody else's."

Mr. Obama appears to have accepted the political reality that a "cap-and-trade" approach to global warming is not likely to happen, telling National Journal in an interview published Monday that he'll instead work on "more bite-sized pieces" like renewable energy standards.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/oct/25/gas-prices-rise-breaking-pattern/

To bad they had no way to protect themselves

3 men posing as ATF agents break into home, kill resident
Three men posing as agents of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives kicked their way into a home in Whistler, killed a 31-year-old man and held four others at gunpoint early Wednesday, Prichard police said.

The three men searched the home for money before leaving with a flat screen television, police said.

The victim was identified as Taurus Terrell Russell, according to Prichard spokeswoman Latoya Veal. She said Russell was shot once in the middle torso and was pronounced dead at the scene when rescue workers arrived about 3 a.m.

The incident took place on Stile Avenue, which runs west off St. Stephens Road two blocks north of Bear Fork Road, Veal said.

While Veal did not identify the address, neighbors said the incident took place at 1702 Stile Ave. They said police and an ambulance remained at the home until well past dawn.

The house is a single-story brick residence next to a driveway leading to Prichard Memorial Gardens, which is behind the home. Neighbors said Russell lived at the home with a woman and their two sons, the oldest of whom is 10.

According to Veal, a third child was also present when the men came into the home by kicking in a door.

Veal said none of the other four people in the home was physically harmed during the attack.

No arrests had been made as of Wednesday night. The three men were described as black, wearing all black clothing with their faces covered. No one saw a car leaving the scene, Veal said. 


Without going into specifics, Veal did say police believe Russell’s attackers targeted him.

“We do not believe it is a random act,” she said.

A neighbor, Dwana Philon, said Russell was a friendly man who spent many of his days around the house and was seen regularly bringing his two sons home from school.

“He minded his business and his children,” she said.

“My son, who is 13, would play ball with his son,” Philon said, gesturing toward a basketball goal next to a gold Saturn parked in the driveway of Russell’s home.

Philon said she could not recall any serious incidents ever happening on Stile Avenue, a tree-lined street of mostly well-kept single-story homes, many with fenced-in yards and at least two with reinforced iron fencing and security gates.

“Our children double-check our doors every night before we go to bed,” she said. “But this is a family street, where people get together and talk on the porch.”

Veal agreed with Philon’s assessment of the neighborhood. “It is a rather quiet area. I cannot remember writing a release about a major crime in that neighborhood since I’ve been here,” she said.

Online court records show that Russell had some past scrapes with the law. According to the records, Russell was given six months probation after pleading guilty to second-degree marijuana possession after a 1998 arrest.

Two other drug-related offenses in 2004 were nol prossed, according to the records.

Veal said anyone who has information that can solve Russell’s killing should call Prichard police at 251-452-2211.

http://blog.al.com/live/2010/10/3_men_posing_as_atf_agents_bre.html

Tuesday 10-26-10

'Saturday Night Live' demands to see Obama's birth certificate
The ongoing issue of President Obama's refusal to release his long-form, hospital-generated birth certificate got a comedic jolt in the arm last night during the opening sketch of "Saturday Night Live," which featured a call for Obama to finally make it public.

The NBC program premiered a skit in which Obama, portrayed by comedian Fred Armisen, was campaigning in Las Vegas this weekend for Sen. Harry Reid, played by Paul Brittain.

"Neither of us is very popular in this state," Reid confided in the president before addressing a crowd of supporters in the parody.

"I thought I was," responded Obama.

"It would really help if I could put some distance between us," muttered Reid, alluding to Obama's plummeting popularity and not wishing to be dragged down.

**********

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=219321

.375 Caliber Bullet Space Pen
Real rifle shell houses pen that writes upside down and underwater.



Overview:
The rugged Fisher .375 Caliber Bullet Pen is built to look like a .375 caliber rifle round. In fact, the cap is actually made from an authentic H&H .375 magnum shell. When opened, the pen fits back into the cap, giving you a balanced and sturdy writing instrument.

The ink cartridge used within all Fisher pens, including the .375 Caliber Bullet Pen, was designed for use in the zero gravity environment of space. The pressurized ink cartridge allows the pen to write at any angle, underwater, and even upside down. The specialized thixotropic ink writes three times longer than standard ink, in extreme temperatures, and even on top of grease and oil.


Features & specs:
•Dimensions: 4" long (closed), 4.5" (opened)
•Cap is made from an authentic .375 magnum rifle shell
•Made in the USA
•Writes upside down, underwater, and in extreme temperatures
•Lacquered brass finish
•Manufacturer's unconditional lifetime guarantee
http://www.vat19.com/dvds/375-caliber-bullet-space-pen-fisher.cfm

Tax Official Threatens to Shut Down Kids‘ Pumpkin Stand For Lacking ’Proper Permit’
Jacob Charais, 6, and his little sister Sami-Lou, 4, sit in front of their pumpkin stand at their home in Lewiston, Idaho on Friday, Oct. 22, 2010. (Photo: Kyle Mills / Lewiston Tribune)

LEWISTON, Idaho (The Blaze/AP) — An Idaho family that operates a roadside pumpkin stand is scared out of its gourd after a state tax collector showed up and tried to squash the business.

The Lewiston Tribune reports the Idaho
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/tax-off ... er-permit/

Monday 10-25-10

Bees' tiny brains beat computers, study finds
Bees can solve complex mathematical problems which keep computers busy for days, research has shown.

The insects learn to fly the shortest route between flowers discovered in random order, effectively solving the "travelling salesman problem" , said scientists at Royal Holloway, University of London.

The conundrum involves finding the shortest route that allows a travelling salesman to call at all the locations he has to visit. Computers solve the problem by comparing the length of all possible routes and choosing the one that is shortest.

Bees manage to reach the same solution using a brain the size of a grass seed.

Dr Nigel Raine, from Royal Holloway's school of biological sciences, said: "Foraging bees solve travelling salesman problems every day. They visit flowers at multiple locations and, because bees use lots of energy to fly, they find a route which keeps flying to a minimum."

Using computer-controlled artificial flowers to test bee behaviour, his wanted to know whether the insects would follow a simple route defined by the order in which they found the flowers, or look for the shortest route.

After exploring the location of the flowers, the bees quickly learned to fly the best route for saving time and energy.

The research, due to appear this week in the journal The American Naturalist, has implications for the human world. Modern living depends on networks such as traffic flows, internet information and business supply chains.

"Despite their tiny brains bees are capable of extraordinary feats of behaviour," said Raine. "We need to understand how they can solve the travelling salesman problem without a computer."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/24/bees-route-finding-problems

Cholera outbreak reaches Haitian capital
Fears that Haiti faces fresh disaster, less than a year after January’s earthquake, grew on Sunday as a cholera outbreak spread to the capital.

Five deaths have been reported in Port-au-Prince. The epidemic broke about a week ago in the Artibonite region, claiming more than 250 lives by Sunday. According to the government, more than 3,000 cases have been identified.

With panic and confusion spreading among Haiti’s population, aid agencies were bracing themselves for more cases, although the government attempted to allay concerns.

“We have registered a diminishing in numbers of deaths and of hospitalised people in the most critical areas . . . The tendency is that it is stabilising, without being able to say that we have reached a peak,” said Gabriel Thimothe, director-general of Haiti’s health department.

Haiti has been spared a direct hit during this year’s hurricane season. But even so, an outbreak of the disease has been feared since the January 12 earthquake.

Many of the 1.3m Haitians living in the 1,300 overcrowded camps in and around Port-au-Prince are vulnerable to the infection, and cannot afford the means to contain it.

The sudden outbreak of acute diarrhoea in the rural Artibonite region, north of Port au Prince, was identified last week. Although the area was not badly affected by the earthquake, many Haitians who lost their homes in the capital fled to camps or relatives’ homes in the countryside.

The outbreak comes just after a United Nations expert declared Haiti still to be in crisis. “Nine months after the earthquake, Haiti is still living through a profound humanitarian crisis that affects the human rights of those displaced by the disaster,” said Walter Kaelin, UN representative for internally displaced persons, last week.

Observers have been critical of the slow pace at which money, pledged at a UN-backed donor conference, has arrived.

The cholera outbreak could pose a logistical challenge for presidential elections due to be held on November 28, with some people recommending that rallies be suspended.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d910f0e0-dfab-11df-bed9-00144feabdc0.html

Body scanners unveiled at JFK Airport; Homeland Security Sect. Janet Napolitano doesn't volunteer
Airline passengers might want to consider a trip to the gym before heading to the airport now that high-tech body scanners have been unveiled at Kennedy Airport.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano yesterday hailed them as an important breakthrough for airport security and the fight against terrorism.

Yet when it came to testing the devices - which produce chalky, naked X-ray images of passengers - she turned the floor over to some brave volunteers.

"These machines represent an important way to stay ahead of the ever-evolving threat that faces the aviation industry," Napolitano said.

About 300 of the Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) machines are operational already at 62 airports across the country, and 450 will be in place by the end of the year, officials said.

JFK will have a "substantial" number, but officials would not reveal the exact figure.

Machines will be installed at Newark and LaGuardia airports within weeks.

The machines work by projecting low-level X-ray beams at the passenger's body to produce an image.

Any nonmetal objects hidden on the passenger's body that wouldn't be detected by the old-style scanners are easily spotted.

Going through one is optional for all travelers, but Napolitano hoped to ease any fears that airport staff would use them to leer at passengers.

"Those who read the images are not actually physically at the gate, so they cannot associate an image with an individual person at all," she said.

"And the machines are set so that no image is retained."

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/10/22/2010-10-22_body_scanners_unveiled_at_jfk_airport_homeland_security_sect_janet_napolitano_do.html

Man Fired for Wearing Bush Sweatshirt at Obama Rally
(USC) -- Don't try wearing a Bush hat or sweatshirt at an Obama rally.

Duane Hammond says it's what got him fired. Hammond is a union stagehand who was part of the crew that built the platform for the Obama event on campus.

He came to work early this morning wearing clothing that says "George H. W. Bush". Hammond's son is in the Navy, currently serving on the aircraft carrier U.S.S. George H. W. Bush.

Hammond says he was not trying to make a political statement. He says he got the sweatshirt and hat during a visit to the aircraft carrier on Family Day. The back of his sweatshirt has a large drawing of the ship.

He says he wore it to show how proud he is of his son.
That didn't go over well with his union supervisor. Hammond says he was told to take off the sweatshirt, or he would have to go home.

He refused. They told him he was fired from the job.

http://blogs.ktla.com/news_custom_eric/2010/10/man-fired-for-wearing-bush-sweatshirt-at-obama-rally.html