My guess is that the recent TJX data breach will prove to be the largest on record. Several sources are already reporting data from this breach is being used to commit fraud. The Boston Globe is reporting: The Massachusetts Bankers Association said yesterday that several banks reported fraud linked to debit and credit card numbers [...]

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They just don’t get it. Yesterday I noted how DC’s mayor admitted his city has both the strictest gun control laws and close to the highest crime rate in the country. Now, folks in the UK are complaining of their high (and once again increasing) severe gun crimes. Both governments ban handguns completely. Odd thing: [...]

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Quasi-News and Commentary by Wordworks2001 Risk Factors for Coronary Artery Disease in Patients With Elevated High-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol In a January 1, Journal of Cardiology story, it was concluded that patients with high HDL and CAD had a similar or lower prevalence of traditional CAD risk factors compared with patients with normal HDL levels and [...]

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Back in November, the National Registry of Environmental Professionals asked 793 of their members from 47 states some questions about global warming; its existence and causes, public policy response, and how it affects their jobs. Here’s the existence and causes section. The existence of global warming today 82 percent of professionals report they think global [...]

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Imagine the headlines 17,000 killed last year. Widespread kidnappings. Car bombs and IED’s killing policemen. State officials killed by “insurgents”. Militant rightists killing those associated with the insurgents. It’s Bush’s fault. Nah, it’s merely the normal headlines from Colombia…whose civil war has been going on since the 1950′s, but rarely gets publicity. As Strategy Page [...]

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Reports of Bird flu cases are starting to increase lately. Recent news include reports of drug resistant cases in Egypt, culls of chickens in Japan and South Korea, rumors of either birdflu or SARS in SE China. But the real problem is Indonesia, where corruption and lack of a public health infrastructure is keeping infected [...]

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The teen pop princess is all grown up and getting ready to release her 4th album, titled Dignity, which is due out in April. Hilary was recently on ‘KIIS FIM’ and spoke about her new album ‘Dignity’. Here’s how it went down: On the music: “The record is really like a dance record. I did the [...]

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Senator John Kerry announced yesterday that he will not be seeking the democratic presidential nomination in the upcoming 2008 election.  Up to this point, Kerry had been ambiguous about his decision to run and has been one of a large number democrats being watched as presidential hopefuls.     Sen. Kerry has been openly opposed to [...]

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The barbarians may or may not be at the gates, but the barbarians are certainly lose within them. The evils of racial prejudice, of fear of the other, are alive and well.  The charging of a former Ku Klux Klan member in the kidnapping and murder of two black Mississippi teenagers more than forty years [...]

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The U.S. government announced an additional package of $8 billion in foreign aid to be delivered to Afghanistan. Three-quarters of the aid will be for security forces, with the remaining $2 billion for reconstruction following the fall of the Taliban. To date, Washington already has delivered $14.2 billion in foreign aid to Afghanistan. Secretary Rice [...]

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Allison Quets is the woman who had revoked her consent for the adoption of her twins, Tyler and Holly Quets, and then after an intense legal battle, had taken them across the border to Canada. She’s since returned to the US, and is currently awaiting judgement from the NC courts. Allison Quets had Hyperemesis, a [...]

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Increasing the minimum wage has been a hot topic in Congress. The House recently authorized a bare-bones bill that simply increases the minimum wage over a period of time. The Senate then took up that legislation. On analysis, GOP members of the Senate Finance Committee pushed hard for a bill that would lessen the financial [...]

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Lebanese authorities believe that several fugitives wanted by Lebanese authorities are hiding in the Palestinian refugee camp. Lebanon is refusing to remove the army from the area until certain people sought by the Lebanese authorities and believed to be in the refugee camp are released.

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 Thousands of foreign oil workers are leaving in fear of being kidnapped by both the so called Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) and other sea pirates terrorizing the multinational oil companies operating in the Niger Delta of Nigeria. Gunmen kidnapped three Chinese oil workers on Thursday in the Niger Delta state [...]

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No one wants the government rifling through his or her bank accounts. The FBI has no business perusing your grocery lists. The right of privacy is clear in this country. With very few exceptions, the government has no reason to mandate that you tell them about your finances, your relationships, or your personal health. That [...]

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In my signature below appear some group lists reflecting my concerns. They run more or less on their own, as I do not moderate and only intervene to remove the occasional spammer. To one of them, Israel_Palestine, I post a variety of reports from a wide range of sources — more than 70 links on [...]

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Several European states were shocked to discover that several European states tolerated and even actively assisted the EVIL United States with its EVIL practice of rendition; you know, secretly detaining EVIL as well as non-EVIL terrorist suspects only to let the non-EVIL ones go again. And several of these same shocked European states were even [...]

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From The Gathering Storm Blog There’s been much talk of Mark Steyn’s new book America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It and his warning of the use of demographic jihad against the non-Muslim world. But there is another warning he gives in his book that has gone, so far, unnoticed – [...]

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[Being something of a skeptic about money donations by interested parties, I can't help but worry about what J. Raymond Jones, Harlem Democratic leader in the late 1950s and 1960s, used to warn us about "getting off the plantation."  Too often Harlem pols were 'purchased' by interested parties.  Ray made a point of bringing in [...]

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The Pakistani Government is really feeling the pressure over its support of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Over this past few months, there has been a been sustained push on Pakistan. On every occasion, the Afghanistani Government has been pushing Pakistan to do more to prevent the attacks from the Taliban residing on their side of [...]

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[I well recall this (subject heading) aphorism from my military training days.  I wonder what fun a terrorist might have with one of these toys -- or with a good mirror system?  And so it goes with the "military-industrial complex" -- so named in Eisenhower's final cautionary speech.  What next, I wonder?  Ed Kent] …………………… [...]

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The New Zealand police have defended their choice to charge a policeman with dangerous driving after being caught on a hidden speed camera at around 65 kilometres over the legal speed limit. Sergeant Gregory Arthur Smith was charged with dangerous driving after he responded to a priority one emergency, which requires immediate police attention. Sergeant [...]

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As I post this, it is apparent that several Republican Senators are supporting a non-binding resolution that will express no support of president Bush’s new direction in Iraq and will directly denounce the raising of troop levels in Baghdad. The non-binding resolution sponsored by Senators Chuck Hagel (R, Neb), Joe Biden (D, Del.) and Carl [...]

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Even as the Senate is falling all over itself to seem like they are being stern with president Bush, even as they are puffing themselves up as populists and hearing “the people’s ” dislike of the war, the Armed Services committee voted unanimously to approve the nomination of Army Lieutenant General David Petraeus to command [...]

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[Seeds for Peace works to bring together kids from both sides of conflict situations so that they can get to know each other as persons: http://www.seedsofpeace.org/site/PageServer This ordinarily helps, as teens are likely to be attracted to each other -- as the story below intimates. I recall making peace with my life long best friend [...]

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