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The News In Review newsletter is a service
provided
by Understand The Times that
is a compilation of the news articles
previously posted
on our site .
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August 17 - Obama: Every move you make, I'll be watching you online
Article: One World Government
The Barack Obama
administration
has announced plans to
lift a government ban on tracking visitors
to government websites, and
potentially, collect their personal data
through the use of "cookies" - an
effort some suspect may already be in
place on White House sites.
A ban on such
tracking by the federal government
on Internet users has been in place since
2000, however, the White House
Office of Management and Budget now wants to lift the
ban citing a "compelling
need."
In fact,
according to the Electronic Privacy and
Information Center, federal agencies have
already negotiated agreements and
contracts with social networking sites like
Google, YouTube, SlideShare,
Facebook, AddThis, Blist, Flickr and
VIMEO
to collect information on visitors for
federal web sites. All
of these private companies are known to have
agreements with federal
agencies, but the public has never seen
them.
According to
Obama "technology czar" Vivek
Kundra, the
"compelling need" driving this
major policy reversal is the
administration's desire to create "more
open"
government and to "enhance citizen
participation in government."
"According to the new
technology czar, there
is a 'compelling need' to do this,"
said O'Leary. "The
only compelling need I can think of is for a
failing Obama administration to
compile an enemy list of gun owners,
pro-lifers, tea-party participants,
those opposed to illegal immigration, and
anyone opposed to the Obama-Pelosi
agenda of government control over Americans'
lives."
Spy cookies
can do more
than merely recall the user names and
passwords of visitors who return to
their favorite web sites. They can
also track, retrieve and
report selected movements someone makes on
the Internet.
Through the use of cookies, the federal
government could have
the power to create an
individual profile of anyone
who visits a government website - right down
to a person's recent online
purchases, or even race, gender and income
level.
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August 16 - Catholics should imitate Mary and say 'yes' to God, Pope Benedict says
Article: Roman Catholic Church And The Last Days
Inspired by Sunday's Gospel,
Pope Benedict said, "One cannot but be
affected by this correspondence,
which revolves around the symbol of the
heavens. Mary
was ascended to the place from which her son
descended. Of course,
this language, which
is biblical, expresses in
a figurative way something one can only draw
close to through certainly far
from easy concepts."
"In turn, at the end of her earthly
existence, the
body of the Virgin Mary was assumed into
heaven by God and allowed to enter
the heavenly condition," the Pope
continued. "It is a kind of
exchange, in which God always has the
initiative, but in a sense, in which
he also needs Mary to
prepare the matter of his
sacrifice: the body and blood to be offered
on the cross as an instrument of
eternal life and in the Sacrament of the
Eucharist as spiritual food and
drink."
"What happened to Mary is also valid for
every man and woman," he expounded.
"God asks each of us to welcome him, to make
available to him our hearts,
our bodies, our entire existence, so that he
can dwell in the world.
He calls us to join
ourselves to him in the Sacrament
of the Eucharist, to form the Church
together
by the very nature of our yes, that
mysterious exchange also happens to and
in us. We are assumed
in the divinity of he who
assumed our humanity."
"The
Eucharist is the means, the instrument
of this reciprocal transformation, which has
God as the end and as a main
actor," the Holy Father
told the faithful. "He is the
head and we the members, he the vine and we
the branches.
Who eats of
this Bread and
lives in communion with Jesus, allowing
himself to be transformed by him and
in him, is saved from eternal
death. He will,
of course, die like everyone else,
participating in the mystery of the
passion and cross of Christ, but he is no
longer a slave of death and will
rise on the last day
to enjoy the eternal feast with
Mary and all the saints."
"This mystery of eternal life begins here in
the mystery of faith, hope and
love, which is celebrated in the liturgy,
especially
the Eucharist, and is expressed
through fraternal communion and in
service to our neighbor," he concluded.
"Let us pray
to the Blessed Virgin to help us nourish
ourselves in faith, with the Bread
of eternal life, to experience
already on earth the joy of
heaven."
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August 13 - Obeying Ahmadinejad like obeying God
Article: Misc.
TEHRAN -- A
senior Iranian cleric seen as
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's spiritual
mentor said
obeying the head of
government was like obeying
God, the moderate Etemad-e Melli
newspaper said on Thursday.
Firebrand
cleric Ayatollah Mohammad
Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi believes the authority of
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei comes from God, not from
the people.
"When a
president is endorsed by the vali-ye
faqih, obeying the
president is like obeying God,"
the daily quoted Mr. Mesbah-Yazdi as
saying.
Mr.
Khamenei swiftly endorsed Mr.
Ahmadinejad's re-election after the June 12
presidential vote which was
followed by the biggest anti-government
protests since the 1979 Islamic
revolution. The losing candidates say the
poll was rigged, a charge
denied by Iran's authorities, including Mr.
Khamenei,
who has accused Western powers of fomenting
the vote unrest.
Mr.
Mesbah-Yazdi has long held that
democracy and elections are incompatible
with Islam. Mr. Ahmadinejad's
allies deny the president takes orders from
the cleric, who is a
defender of the supreme leader's absolute
power.
"When a president
is ... endorsed by the supreme leader and
becomes an agent of the
leader, the leader's light is also shed on
the president,"
Mr. Mesbah-Yazdi
said.
Iran's
display of intolerance of internal
opposition has alarmed the West, which had
hoped for new talks on what
it suspects is an Iranian nuclear arms
quest. Tehran denies this.
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August 18 - Obama Flip-Flops Again on Gay Marriage
Artilce: Perilous Times
Bowing to intense
political pressure from the gay community,
the
White House has softened its support for
the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
The Justice Department (DOJ) has now
gone on record
expressing the Obama
administration's support for
repeal of the statute, Politico news
service reports.
President Obama has
said that
as a Christian, he can't
support gay marriage.
In a statement Monday
about the latest DOJ brief, he said it "makes
clear that my Administration believes that
the Act is discriminatory and
should be repealed by Congress.
I have long held that DOMA
prevents LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender) couples from being
granted equal rights and benefits.
"While we work with Congress to
repeal DOMA, my
Administration will continue to examine and
implement measures that will
help extend rights and benefits to LGBT
couples under existing law."
As for the Justice
Department, its brief reads: "This Administration
does not support DOMA as a
matter of policy, believes that it
is discriminatory, and supports its
repeal."
Obama is clearly
trying to walk a fine line: keeping the gay
community on his side, while
seeking to avoid alienating those opposed
to gay marriage.
"The
administration listened to our concerns and
removed some of the offensive
approaches," Jenny Pizer, a lawyer
for gay-rights group Lambda Legal, told the
San Francisco Chronicle
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August 20 - Lutherans adopt more open view on homosexuality
Article: Perilous Times
Leaders of the
country's largest
Lutheran denomination have moved toward a more
welcoming view of
homosexuality.
Delegates of
the Evangelical Lutheran Church
in America, meeting in Minneapolis, approved
a "social
statement on human sexuality" that
acknowledges differing views on
homosexuality. It says the ELCA is strong
enough to accommodate such
differences.
Shortly
before the vote, strong winds toppled
trees outside the convention center and
damaged the steeple of a Lutheran
church next door, prompting a speaker at the
convention to quip, "We trust
that the weather is not a commentary on our
work."
Wednesday's
vote was a
prelude to votes scheduled Friday on whether
to let people in same-sex
relationships serve as Lutheran
ministers
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August 17 - Ayatollah sees global Islamic 'Mahdi' army
Article: Wars And Rumors Of Wars
Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei
yesterday called on Muslim nations around the
world to
unite militarily in response to the imminent
coming of Islam's messianic
savior - the Mahdi.
Khamenei, through his
spokesman Ali Saeedi, specifically beckoned
the nations of Turkey, Iraq,
Lebanon, Pakistan and Afghanistan to join together
with Iran in preparation for the Mahdi's
soon coming.
The purpose of uniting
now, a report in Al Arabiya explained,
is
to fight
Israel and the U.S. - seen as the
two greatest obstacles to the coming of the
Mahdi and the age of Islamic
"justice" that would ensue.
"We have
to train
honest forces that can stop the
obstacles that may hinder the coming of the
Mahdi like the United States and
Israel," Saeedi
stated. Saeedi also emphasized that the
Iranian revolutionary guard possessed a special
religious authority to prepare the way for
the Mahdi.
According to Al-Arabiya,
Saeedi emphasized that obedience to the Ayatollah is
the same as obedience to the Mahdi or the
"guided one" - "who is the
prophesied savior of Islam."
Opening the conference
this year, was Dr. Mahdi Mostafavi, the
chairman of the Islamic Culture and
Relations Organization, who spoke against
the dangers and evils of Christian Zionism.
"Putting an end to the tyranny
and brutality" of Zionism is one of the
basic goals of Mahdism,
he explained.
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July 22 - Congress eyes biometric authentication for job eligibility
Article: Technology For A Global Monetary System
In a move likely to
worry opponents of a national ID card, some
lawmakers in Congress
are
proposing that biometrics be used
to authenticate the identity of anyone
seeking a job in the U.S.
In a move likely to heighten
concerns among opponents of a
national ID card, some lawmakers are proposing
that biometrics be used to authenticate the
identity of anyone seeking a
job in the U.S.
At a hearing by the
Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee
on Immigration, Border
Security and Citizenship, lawmakers from
both parties expressed
broad support Tuesday for strengthening
the E-Verify online employment eligibility
verification program
with biometrics.
The chairman of the
subcommittee, Sen. Charles Schumer,
(D-N.Y.), said that E-Verify
only checks whether the name, date of
birth, citizenship status and
other details provided by a job applicant
match those in official
records from the Social Security
Administration and the IRS. The
process does little to stop identity
thieves and those using
identity credentials fraudulently from
working illegally in the U.S.
"It is not
difficult for illegal workers to scam the
system," because there's
no reliable way check identities, he said.
What is needed is
a "tough, fair
and effective employment
verification system" that relies on
the use of a "non-forgeable"
biometric identifier, such as fingerprints
or palm prints and
digital photos, to authenticate the
identities of job seekers,
he said. Only with such a system is
it possible for employers to reliably
check the eligibility of new
hires, he said.
Rep. Luis
Gutierrez, (D-Ill.), urged Congress
to ignore
"naysayers" opposed to biometric
authentication. With adequate security,
privacy protections and
care, a biometric-based employment
verification system is the "only
hope" for dealing with illegal
employment, he
said.
Adding a
biometric component to the E-Verify
program
will only will further "invade
Americans' privacy and create a new
employment blacklist," the
American Civil Liberties Union
warned in testimony submitted to the
subcommittee. "From a practical
point of view, a biometric system is the
worst of both worlds," ACLU
counsel Chris Calabrese wrote. Under the
biometric ID system, individuals would
need to visit a government
agency, provide proof of identity and then
have their fingerprint or
some other biometric recorded. That
biometric would then either be
put into a database or on an ID card.
"This is a
quintessential national ID system,"
Calabrese
wrote.
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We hope the Weekly News In Review has been a
blessing to you.
Sincerely,
Ron Pierotti
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