Military says North Korea Has 'Powerful Modern Weapons'

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) - North Korea is armed with "powerful modern
weapons" capable of defeating the United States, a top military chief in
Pyongyang said Wednesday amid increased speculation abroad about the
nation's missile arsenal and nuclear ambitions.

Vice Marshal Ri Yong Ho emphasized the importance of strengthening the
military to defend North Korea against threats it sees from the United
States and South Korea. He called his nation a nuclear and military
power and praised new leader Kim Jong Un, believed to be in his late
20s, as a "military strategist" who has been giving the army guidance
for years.

"The Korean People's Army is armed with powerful modern weapons ... that
can defeat the (U.S.) imperialists at a single blow," he told party and
military officials, using familiar descriptions of the country's
rivals...

http://news.yahoo.com/history-shows-nkorean-pattern-wait-then-attack-112646404.html

http://news.yahoo.com/military-says-nkorea-powerful-modern-weapons-080600136.html

Why Afghanistan's Intelligence Agency Has a Major Blind Spot

"In the NDS or the military it should be really difficult to get a
promotion, you shouldn't get it overnight. You must work hard. But in
the NDS someone will join today and tomorrow he will be a major. They
just make fake papers and everything. Even if the guy is illiterate, he
will become a major in the NDS," says a former NDS officer who asked to
be referred to as Gul Kaka because he is not authorized to speak with
the media. "If they become higher ranking, they get more power, money,
cars, and everything. They are misusing this."

NDS officials say that the leadership is aware of the problems and is
taking steps to create a more diverse staff. Even those who have voiced
complaints, say that there are signs of progress, but add that it will
take time.

Zubair Babakarkhail contributed to this report...

http://news.yahoo.com/why-afghanistans-intelligence-agency-major-blind-spot-152628224.html

In The Near Future Most Will hardly Have A Sense Of Identity

Balance is key, and when you live in a world where we're taught to
pretend what is true is not, well then you're living in a world where
what is wrong is called right.

Women should have the same opportunities as men and the same rights, but
they are still women, and men are still men... Why is this too much to
understand? Why take away a persons' identity even when it comes to
their sex? This is not going to work out like those who encourage this
were imagining.

http://shine.yahoo.com/team-mom/kids-raised-gender-neutral-society-sweden-thinks-033400030.html

Growing Faster than any religious faith in the U.S.

Only between 1.5 and 4 percent of Americans admit to so-called "hard
atheism," the conviction that no higher power exists. But a much larger
share of the American public (19 percent) spurns organized religion in
favor of a nondefined skepticism about faith. This group, sometimes
collectively labeled the "Nones," is growing faster than any religious
faith in the U.S. About two thirds of Nones say they are former
believers; 24 percent are lapsed Catholics and 29 percent once
identified with other Christian denominations. David Silverman,
president of American Atheists, claims these Nones as members of his
tribe. "If you don't have a belief in God, you're an atheist," he said.
"It doesn't matter what you call yourself."

Why are so many people leaving religion?

It's primarily a backlash against the religious Right, say political
scientists Robert Putnam and David Campbell. In their book, American
Grace, they argue that the religious Right's politicization of faith in
the 1990s turned younger, socially liberal Christians away from
churches, even as conservatives became more zealous. The dropouts were
turned off by churches' Old Testament condemnation of homosexuals,
premarital sex, contraception, and abortion. The Catholic Church's sex
scandals also prompted millions to equate religion with moralistic
hypocrisy. "While the Republican base has become ever more committed to
mixing religion and politics," Putnam and Campbell write, "the rest of
the country has been moving in the opposite direction." As society
becomes more secular, researchers say, doubters are more confident about
identifying themselves as nonbelievers. "The collapse of institutional
religion in the first 10 years of this century [has] freed so many
people to say they don't really care," said author Diana Butler Bass...

Read more here-
http://news.yahoo.com/rise-atheism-america-110700315.html

Not Very Threatening...

The White House released a statement condemning the launch, saying:
"Despite the failure of its attempted missile launch, North Korea's
provocative action threatens regional security, violates international
law and contravenes its own recent commitments."

President Obama has been prepared to engage with North Korea in a constructive manner, the statement said, but he also insists that the
country live up to its earlier commitments and international obligations.

In response to the launch, Washington announced it was suspending plans to contribute food aid to the North in exchange for a rollback of its
nuclear programs.

Japan's Defense Minister Naiki Tanaka said, "We have confirmed that a certain flying object has been launched and fell after flying for just
over a minute." He did not say what exactly was launched...


http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/04/12/north-korea-reportedly-launches-rocket/

US educational failures pose national security threat

A new report finds that the United States' education system is putting
the country's national security at risk.

The independent study, sponsored by The Council on Foreign Relations,
finds K-12 school systems across the country are failing to adequately
prepare kids to grow up and protect the U.S.

"For starters, we don't have nearly enough people who are capable in the
STEM fields: science, technology, engineering and math," said former
Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, a member of the council's
task force that wrote the report, titled "U.S. Education Reform and
National Security."

"When we think about the modern world of defense," Spellings said, "the
fact that we don't have people who are capable to do this work is
scary."

In addition to skills needed to defend ourselves in war, the study found
American schools fail to teach students skills needed to avoid
conflicts.

"We don't have people who know and understand foreign languages and
other cultures," said Spelling, pointing out that U.S. children are
ranked No. 17 in the world for language skills. "On any given day, there
are hundreds of (job) vacancies for people who speak Pashtu and Arabic,
and Mandarin and on and on."

The Council on Foreign Relations report was chaired by former Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice and former New York City Department of
Education Chancellor Joel Klein...


It states America's educational failures pose five distinct threats to
national security:

- Threats to economic growth and competitiveness

- U.S. physical safety

- Intellectual property

- U.S. global awareness

- U.S. unity and cohesion
Read more:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/04/12/report-warns-us-educational-failures-pose-national-security-threat/

A motivating way to stay in shape and reach ones goals.

Please check out the following site and play the game.

http://slimkicker.com/ 

The Heart of Humanity At The Core

Sometimes people do go through too much in this world, more than can be
handled... Sometimes the world and humanity will literally suck the last
ounce of hope from a person. This article makes one think, and this
should be shared with others.

We'll never know how this couple was feeling up to the day they took
their lives, but I can only imagine their despair was more than most
people will ever know.

" And even after it was proven that the parents nor the grandparents
abused the baby, social services still filed an objection against the
grandparents getting custody of their grandchild ! For no other reason
then vindictiveness because they were proven wrong and caused the
collapse of a family with their faulty investigation."

JG (Yahoo User)

http://news.yahoo.com/rare-disease-mimics-child-abuse-tears-family-apart-210441467--abc-news-health.html

Sad Facts About Our Nation

People say they want the truth, but do they really?

If Bill Gates gave every single penny of his fortune to the U.S. government, it would only cover the U.S. budget deficit for about 15 days.

The United States has more government debt per capita than Greece, Portugal, Italy, Ireland or Spain.




In the middle of the last century, the United States was #1 in the world in GDP per capita. Today, the United States is #13 in GDP per capita.

In 2011, our trade deficit with China was more than 49,000 times larger
than it was back in 1985.

One out of every seven Americans has at least 10 credit cards.

The United States puts a higher percentage of its population in prison
than any other nation on earth does.

There are more unemployed workers in the United States than there are
people living in the entire nation of Greece.

Sadly, more than 52 percent of all children that live in Cleveland, Ohio
are living in poverty.

Back in 1950, more than 80 percent of all men in the United States had
jobs. Today, less than 65 percent of all men in the United States have
jobs.

According to author Paul Osterman, about 20 percent of all U.S. adults
are currently working jobs that pay poverty-level wages.

In the United States as a whole, one out of every four children is on
food stamps.

The United States has a teen pregnancy rate of 22 percent - the highest
in the world. New Zealand is number two at 14 percent.

The United States has the highest divorce rate on the globe by a wide
margin. Puerto Rico is number two. Perhaps Puerto Rico really would
fit in as the 51st state.

More people have been diagnosed with mental disorders in the United
States than in any other nation on earth.

The U.S. national debt is now more than 22 times larger than it was when
Jimmy Carter became president.


I love my nation and the blessings she has to offer us but if the truth
is not shared then how can we improve for our children's future to be
even better than ours?

A Historical Find Like No Other Or A Hoax?

The group claims that carbon dating proves the relics are 4,800 years
old, meaning they date to around the same time the ark was said to be
afloat. Mt. Ararat has long been suspected as the final resting place of
the craft by evangelicals and literalists hoping to validate biblical
stories.

"The significance of this find is that for the first time in history the
discovery of Noah's Ark is well documented and revealed to the worldwide
community," Aalten said at a press conference announcing the find.
Citing the many details that match historical accounts of the Ark, he
believes it to be a legitimate archaeological discovery.

"There's a tremendous amount of solid evidence that the structure found
on Mount Ararat in Eastern Turkey is the legendary Ark of Noah," said
Aalten.

Local Turkish officials will ask the central government in Ankara to
apply for UNESCO World Heritage status so the site can be protected
while a major archaeological dig is conducted.

Read more:
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/04/27/noahs-ark-found-turkey-ararat/
#ixzz1rA6lRpcM

A catastrophic flood on Earth is spoken of in many ancient cultures: in
Sumerian, Babylonian, Greek, Hindu, Gallic, Scandinavian and Chinese
legends. Some even predate the Old Testament.
The odd thing, Zimansky says, is that even though there are written
accounts of the flood in all these cultures, archaeologists have yet to
find evidence of it.

If you take the Bible literally, Zimansky says, "this ark is going to be
deposited in an archaeological context which would be a flood stratum.
And it's not going to be a little flood stratum. It's going to cover the
entire Earth. Well, no such flood stratum exists."

And that's where Morris disagrees with archaeologists like Zimansky.

"It all depends on your presupposition," says Morris. "I think they're
looking at it through the wrong glasses."

Morris says a great flood would shape the landscape of the entire planet
- carving out crevices like the Grand Canyon, even separating huge
masses of land like the African and South American continents.
"Everything on earth gives evidence of the flood," Morris says.

That is why he is convinced something is up there on Mt. Ararat. He says
there have been hundreds accounts from eyewitnesses saying they saw what
looked like a big ship. Some of those accounts, he says, are from pilots
who flew over the area during World War II. Considerable amounts of
military data and ground-penetrating imaging have reported showing a
shape of something manmade on the mountain.

Taylor is also convinced Noah's Ark is there, because of the Ararat
anomaly's shape and size. "The boat-shaped Ararat anomaly and Noah's Ark
both have a 6-to-1 length-to-width ratio," he says.

The Ark, depending on how you measure a cubit, could be anywhere from
450 to 600 feet long. The anomaly is 1,200 feet. But, Porcher says,
scientists have debated for years the length of a cubit, which is
thought to be the length of a man's forearm between the elbow and the
tip of his finger. But whose elbow?

The Bible talks of "the Nephilim" (Genesis 6:1-4) being in the world at
that time. The Nephilim were giants or a very large race. If a cubit was
measured by the length of a very large man's forearm, Porcher says that
would mean "the ark was much larger than previously thought."

(Homo heidelbergensis; According to Professor Lee R. Berger of the
University of Witwatersrand, numerous fossil bones indicate some
populations of Heidelbergensis were "giants" routinely over 2.13 m (7
ft) tall and inhabited South Africa between 0.5 million and 300,000
years ago. They lived alongside Homo sapiens and Neanderthals.)

Many experts have concluded from examining the photos that the images
are of rock formations that strongly resemble the boat described in
Genesis.

Whatever it is, it convinces Morris, and countless others, to keep
returning to Mt. Ararat, hoping to find what their faith tells them can
be found.

Read more:
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/04/30/noahs-ark-hoax-claim-doesnt-deter-believers/


























 

Oath of Enlistment

"I, (Name), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend
the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and
domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and
that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and
the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations
and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God."

This Marine could have expressed his views and even shared his
frustrations with friends or a counselor in the Marine Corps. Where he
crossed the line was when he said how would not follow the orders of the
Commander and Chief. He swore in and gave his oath, and he surely knew
better.

Please read more here-
http://news.yahoo.com/marine-argue-free-speech-case-hearing-084156859.html

Al-Qaeda sites go silent in possible cyber attack

Al-Qaeda's main Internet sites have gone silent for more than a week in
an unprecedented blackout that is most likely the result of a cyber
attack, analysts said Tuesday.

"All of them essentially went down" as of March 23, said Aaron Zelin, a
researcher at the politics department at Brandeis University.

No one has claimed credit for the blackout, which bore all the signs of
a cyber attack, analysts and former US officials said, as the forums
usually post messages announcing a temporary interruption if they close
the sites themselves.

The digital sabotage could have been carried out by any number of
governments or private hackers, said James Lewis, director of the
technology and public policy program at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies.

"There are some many potential suspects," Lewis told AFP.

The long silence at the sites suggested Al-Qaeda was having difficulty
getting service restored and was no longer as capable in the cyber
realm.

"It's not a good sign for them that they can't straighten this out more
quickly," Lewis said. "It could be seen as sign of decline."

US officials have already concluded Al-Qaeda has been steadily weakened
since the attacks of September 11, 2001, and traffic on the group's
online forums has declined in the past few years.

The number of Internet forums has declined from up to 13 in 2008 to no
more than seven before last week's blackout, Zelin said.

Read more at the following site
http://news.yahoo.com/al-qaeda-sites-silent-possible-cyber-attack-181920529.html;

Country's Biggest Spy Center

The NSA Is Building the Country's Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You
Say)

Watch as your freedoms in America start to gradually decline.

Please read the following post;
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/all/1    

Our ancestors used fire a million years ago

NEW YORK (AP) - When did our ancestors first use fire? That's been a
long-running debate, and now a new study concludes the earliest firm
evidence comes from about 1 million years ago in a South African cave.

The ash and burnt bone samples found there suggest fires frequently
burned in that spot, researchers said Monday.

Over the years, some experts have cited evidence of fire from as long as
1.5 million years ago, and some have argued it was used even earlier, a
key step toward evolution of a larger brain.

...The ancestors probably brought burning material from natural blazes
into the cave to establish the fires, said Michael Chazan of the
University of Toronto, a study author. Stone tools at the site suggest
the ancestors were Homo erectus, a species known from as early as about
2 million years ago.

The scientists didn't find signs of fire preparation, like a hearth or a
deep pit. But Berna said it's unlikely the fires were simply natural
blazes, such as from lightning strikes.

That's because the evidence shows repeated fires burned deep inside the
cave, he said. The cave entrance is almost 100 feet away, and because of
changes in the cave over the past 1 million years, the entrance was
apparently even farther away when the fires burned, he said.

...Berna and colleagues describe animal bones that show discoloring and
a chemical signature of being heated. They also report microscopic bits
of ash in excavated dirt from the cave, indicating burning of light
material like leaves, grasses and twigs. And they found evidence of
heating in samples of fractured stone.

Several lines of evidence suggest the material was heated within the
cave rather than blown or washed in from outside.

It's not clear what the fires were used for. While the burnt bones
suggest cooking, the ancestors might have eaten the meat raw and tossed
the bones into the fire, Berna noted. Other possible uses might be
warmth, light and protection from wild animals, he said.

Berna said researchers will return to the Wonderwerk cave this summer
and pursue hints that fires were used there even earlier than their
paper suggests.
Online:

Journal website: http://www.pnas.org

Wonderwerk Cave information: http://bit.ly/H4sDS4

Diary of America

"Sure must be a great consolation to the poor people who lost their
stock in the late crash to know that it has fallen in the hands of Mr.
Rockefeller, who will take care of it and see it has a good home and
never be allowed to wander around unprotected again. There is one rule
that works in every calamity. Be it pestilence, war, or famine, the rich
get richer and poor get poorer. The poor even help arrange it."

By Will Rogers