...And now for a world government

"I have never believed that there is a secret United Nations plot to take over the US. I have never seen black helicopters hovering in the sky above Montana. But, for the first time in my life, I think the formation of some sort of world government is plausible.

A “world government” would involve much more than co-operation between nations. It would be an entity with state-like characteristics, backed by a body of laws. The European Union has already set up a continental government for 27 countries, which could be a model. The EU has a supreme court, a currency, thousands of pages of law, a large civil service and the ability to deploy military force.

So could the European model go global? There are three reasons for thinking that it might."...more:

Microsoft wants to get under your skin • The Register

Microsoft's HealthVault, the medical records database, is to be integrated with VeriMed's human-embedded RFID tags, allowing doctors to access the medical records of unconscious patients with a quick scan of the arm.

VeriMed consists of an RFID tag that is embedded in the arm of a hopefully willing participant, and responds with a 16-digital identity code when queried at 134KHz. This code can then be used to identify the person through VeriChip's website, and will soon be able to link to their medical records as stored on Microsoft's HealthVault system.

"VeriMed adds an exciting RFID-based option for HealthVault users trying to keep themselves and their families safe," says Sean Nolan, the chief architect for HealthVault, quoted in RFID Journal. If you're excited about the idea of being electronically indexed then this is probably the technology for you.

Not that the future of VeriMed is in any way certain, despite the Microsoft link. The company's parent, VeriChip, has already tried to sell off the human-implanting part of the business as punters prove remarkably reluctant to be serial-numbered. Should the business fail entirely, a connection to HealthVault could be the best hope for the poor souls who've already succumbed to having chips embedded in their arms. ®...source

Behavioral screening -- the future of airport security? - CNN.com

TEL AVIV, Israel (CNN) -- Keep your shoes and belts on: Waiting in long airport security lines to pass through metal detectors may soon be a thing of the past.

Security experts say focus is shifting from analyzing the content of carry-ons to analyzing the content of passengers' intentions and emotions.

"We are seeing a needed paradigm shift when it comes to security," says Omer Laviv, CEO of ATHENA GS3, an Israeli-based security company.

"This 'brain-fingerprinting,' or technology which checks for behavioral intent, is much more developed than we think."

Nowhere is the need for cutting-edge security more acute than Israel, which faces constant security threats. For this reason, Israel has become a leader in developing security technology.

Several Israeli-based technology companies are developing detection systems that pick up signs of emotional strain, a psychological red flag that a passenger may intend to commit an act of terror. Speedier and less intrusive than metal detectors, these systems may eventually restore some efficiency to the airplane boarding process.

One firm, WeCU (pronounced "We See You") Technologies, employs a combination of infra-red technology, remote sensors and imagers, and flashing of subliminal images, such as a photo of Osama bin Laden. Developers say the combination of these technologies can detect a person's reaction to certain stimuli by reading body temperature, heart rate and respiration, signals a terrorist unwittingly emits before he plans to commit an attack....more

Hungarian Sausage Commercial

U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011

"The U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 trained to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe, according to Pentagon officials.

The long-planned shift in the Defense Department's role in homeland security was recently backed with funding and troop commitments after years of prodding by Congress and outside experts, defense analysts said.

There are critics of the change, in the military and among civil liberties groups and libertarians who express concern that the new homeland emphasis threatens to strain the military and possibly undermine the Posse Comitatus Act, a 130-year-old federal law restricting the military's role in domestic law enforcement."...more

A Microchip to Track HIV/AIDS?- US News and World Report

Leaders in Indonesia's Papua province say they support a bill that would require some people with HIV/AIDS to get a microchip implant, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. The bill—which targets 'sexually aggressive' patients—is part of extensive efforts to monitor the disease. Lawmakers say they hope the microchips will enable them to track and punish people who deliberately infect other people with HIV/AIDS. The bill is expected to pass, and it could become law next month" ...source

It's the Educated vs. People Easily Fooled by Propaganda

Millions of Americans live in a non-reality-based belief system informed by childish clichés - they can barely differentiate between lies and truth

We live in two Americas. One America, now the minority, functions in a print-based, literate world. It can cope with complexity and has the intellectual tools to separate illusion from truth. The other America, which constitutes the majority, exists in a non-reality-based belief system. This America, dependent on skillfully manipulated images for information, has severed itself from the literate, print-based culture. It cannot differentiate between lies and truth. It is informed by simplistic, childish narratives and cliches. It is thrown into confusion by ambiguity, nuance and self-reflection. This divide, more than race, class or gender, more than rural or urban, believer or nonbeliever, red state or blue state, has split the country into radically distinct, unbridgeable and antagonistic entities. ...More

THE CONSERVATIVE MALAISE

I suspect that the malaise that has afflicted the conservative movement is not simply due to the defeat of John McCain and Sarah Palin. I think that their despondency goes much deeper than an electoral defeat. My hunch is that their depression is much more owing to a sense of serious discomfort arising from the knowledge that Democrat Barack Obama is about to acquire all the omnipotent powers that conservatives relinquished to President Bush as part of his “war on terrorism.”

The power to arrest people, including Americans, as “enemy combatants.” Indefinite detention. Torture. Isolation and sensory deprivation. Rendition. Military tribunals. Denial of due process and trial by jury. Suspension of habeas corpus. Secret judicial proceedings. Use of hearsay and tortured testimony. Warrantless searches. Signing statements. Spying on Americans. The power to ignore constitutional and statutory constraints on presidential power. The power to invade and occupy foreign countries with no congressional declaration of war.

Conservatives were willing to let President Bush acquire and exercise all those dictatorial powers because, they said, national security depended on it. The terrorists were everywhere, they said, and they hate America for its freedom and values, not because of the U.S. government’s foreign policy. The war would last for decades, perhaps even forever. We have no choice, conservatives said, but to vest the president with full power to wage this war until we kill them all.

Whenever libertarians and some liberals defended civil liberties and the Bill of Rights during the past 8 years, conservatives went on the attack. We were just soft on terrorism, cowards, pacifists, unpatriotic, even treasonous, they said.

The conservatives know that they have boxed themselves in. Can they now argue that the war on terrorism is over when they previously said it would last for decades? Can they now argue that the president should not be trusted with such omnipotent powers? Can they now argue that such powers are unconstitutional? Can they now argue that national security no longer turns on the president’s wielding of such powers?

No, in their hearts conservatives know that they must now argue that President Obama, the man they are convinced is coming to take away their guns, increase their taxes, spend more money than even President Bush, has ties to terrorists, has a Muslim name, and is friends with a radical Christian preacher, should wield all the same dictatorial powers that they relinquished to President Bush.

No wonder conservatives are suffering from malaise, despondency, and depression Jacob G. Hornberger, The Future of Freedom Foundation

Vatican evolution congress to exclude creationism, intelligent design

Speakers invited to attend a Vatican-sponsored congress on the evolution debate will not include proponents of creationism and intelligent design, organizers said.

The Pontifical Council for Culture, Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University and the University of Notre Dame in Indiana are organizing an international conference in Rome March 3-7 2009 as one of a series of events marking the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's "The Origin of Species."

Jesuit Father Marc Leclerc, a philosophy professor at the Gregorian, told Catholic News Service Sept. 16 that organizers "wanted to create a conference that was strictly scientific" and that discussed rational philosophy and theology along with the latest scientific discoveries.

He said arguments "that cannot be critically defined as being science, or philosophy or theology did not seem feasible to include in a dialogue at this level and, therefore, for this reason we did not think to invite" supporters of creationism and intelligent design....more

The Real Truth Concerning How The Earth Is Ruled

It truly amazes me when people continue to think in terms of Democrat, Republican or left-wing and right-wing. Why? Both carefully created polarities are financed, controlled and operated by the same oligarchical globalist order which has been patiently constructing and deconstructing nations, states, wars, famines, stock market rises and crashes for quite some centuries now. The modern twentieth and twenty-first century organs of this group are known to anyone who cares to do even the most basic research on the subject. The plans for global dictatorship have already been well-documented by a number of important white papers from organizations such as The Council on Foreign Relations, The Tri-Lateral Commission, The Club of Rome, The International Monetary Fund, The World Bank, The Lucis Trust, and other similar organizations.
The ultimate goal is the creation of a one-world government and religious system sustained and supported by a uniform monetary base. ...more

The New World Order revealed - Video

Shoppers to use fingerprints or eye scans to pay for goods - Telegraph

The futuristic systems, like those used
by Tom Cruise in the science fiction film Minority Report, are being
developed by scientists for Barclaycard.

The company has announced it is investing a seven-figure sum in "contactless payment" technology.

This allows customers to use everyday items they carry around with them
- such as mobile phones, key fobs or even their eyes or fingerprints -
to make payments.

It means shoppers will no longer have to rely on cards.

Barclaycard, which is part of Barclays, has already introduced a
new-style cash machine in the United Arab Emirates enabling people to
use their fingerprints to withdraw money and shoppers in the UK may
soon be able to use the same technology.

Antony Jenkins, chief executive of Barclaycard, said: "It's possible
we'll see an end to plastic in the next five to 10 years with new
technologies to take its place emerging now. It could turn out to be
one of the shortest lived payment methods in history, going from being
ubiquitous to a museum piece in the same way as the video cassette."

Barclaycard also aims to have one million customers upgraded to its
contactless payment system OnePulse by the end of the year. OnePulse
enables people to buy items for less than £10 by touching their card
against a sensor, without even having to take it out of their wallet.
It can also be used as an Oyster card on London transport.

Barclaycard said people may soon be able to hover their mobile over the
price label of an item in a shop, confirm their purchase and take it
away without having to go to a checkout or get a receipt.

Mr Jenkins said: "If I had said to you 10 years ago that you couldn't
pay with a cheque at the supermarket, you wouldn't have believed me.
That is now the reality, and we see plastic cards going the same way
eventually." ...Source

Fears over possible genetic profiling from birth

A BRAVE NEW WORLD OF GENETIC profiling in which humans will be categorized at birth according to health and likelihood of illness could lead to widespread discrimination by the government, the NHS, big business and insurance companies.

Experts are now clashing over whether genetic profiling is something to be feared, with some warning that techniques used to identify medical complaints before they take hold are ripe for abuse, and others saying there is nothing to worry about.

"Genetic profiling will be used to categorise people, to sort and
select, to create profiles of types and to predict and pre-empt - and
all that leads to discrimination," said Dr David Murakami Wood, a
research fellow in surveillance at Newcastle University.
advertisement

"Our
bodies and our DNA are some of the last things we hold private. My
first reaction is forget about privacy', but we should still fight for
our privacy because the fight for our communications and personal data
is already lost. At the moment our genetic privacy still exists.

"It
is more special than our financial data because it is the essence of
who we are and what our bodies are and I believe the line has to be
drawn here. Once our individual genetic information is out there, all
bets are off. It will be out of our control... more

The microchipped licence will tell all

There is a new and developing twist in the movement to microchip humanity. This one is called the "enhanced driver's licence." British Columbia is currently trying it out with 500 volunteers and someday the microchip may show up as integral to all driver's licences. If you don't have a driver's licence you may be included in the microchipped club with a microchipped identification card issued to everyone. The enhanced driver's licence is being tested in B. C., with Ontario watching from the wings.

The new twist is that each of these driver's licences will broadcast a number which, when picked up with an appropriate receiver, will translate into a screenload of data about you with access to everything from your birth date to what you had for breakfast at the local greasy spoon. The present design gives the chips a broadcast range of 10 metres.

This has come to the fore as a way of easing border-crossing issues between Canada and the United States. As you cruise up to the gate the border guard will not even need to have you stop. He will have your number before you even get to the gate and can decide to stop you or just give you the wave if he determines that you are one of the good guys. ...more

DARPA plans soldier-tagging system for US troops

DARPA, the Pentagon boffinry outfit which bestrides the tech world like some mighty, erratic robot colossus with a frikkin laser beam on its head, has made a new move. The plan is to electronically tag US combat soldiers in a similar fashion to criminals under judicial restraint, the idea being that the troops can then be swiftly found and rescued if they get into trouble.

DARPA calls the plan "Individual Force Protection System", and it intends to have it taken forward by monster US defence contractor Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). Apparently in DARPA's view, "SAIC is the only known source in the case of a follow-on requirement with the in-depth knowledge and experience with the Individual Force Protection System"....more

Naomi Wolf - US Finalizing 10 Steps To Fascism -Vid

Technological Enslavement Is All Around Us

The technological enslavement grid is getting increasingly more insane and most people don’t even care. Apparently most people and Americans especially like being slaves just as long as they are told that they are free. First off, we have Mothers Against Drunk Driving an organization with a long track record of endorsing anti-freedom policies advocating that breathalyzers should be included in every automobile by 2012 under the guise of drunk driving prevention. Microsoft, Google, EBay among others have helped found an organization called the Information Card Foundation whose goal is to create a driver’s license styled identification card that will be required for users to go online. The U.S. Senate is set to pass a bank bailout bill that will include a provision in the legislation that will require almost all online financial transactions to be reported to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Artificially intelligent surveillance cameras are being developed and they even want to forcibly implant microchips in prisoners. There is no question that this system the establishment is setting up represents nothing short of total enslavement and despotism. ...more

U.S. School District to Begin Microchipping Students

A Rhode Island school district has announced a pilot program to monitor student movements by means of radio frequency identification (RFID) chips implanted in their schoolbags.

The Middletown School District, in partnership with MAP Information Technology Corp., has launched a pilot program to implant RFID chips into the schoolbags of 80 children at the Aquidneck School. Each chip would be programmed with a student identification number, and would be read by an external device installed in one of two school buses. The buses would also be fitted with global positioning system (GPS) devices. ...more

Microchipping humans? Part 2

SOUTHWEST FLORIDA - WINK News told you about a project underway right now to microchip people. So far, it's geared toward Alzheimer's patients who might wander away, but as reporter Maggie Crane uncovered, more than just patients are choosing to microchip themselves.

She went to West Palm Beach, where what sounds like science fiction has now become science fact. A perfectly healthy 38-year-old man has decided to get chipped, and after hearing about the new tracking technology, a local family tells WINK News they'd like to microchip their mother....more

Apocalypse Now? Floods, Tornadoes, Locusts

In the beginning, God created heaven and Earth, and he saw that it was good. So begins the Book of Genesis, the dramatic opener of the Old Testament.

But things went downhill from there.

God's wrath seems at work these days, as the heavens and Earth have unleashed earthquakes in China, a cyclone in Burma, killer tornadoes and record floods across the U.S. and even a plague of locusts (cicadas) in New England.

In Cedar Rapids, Iowa today, floodwaters forced the evacuation of a downtown hospital after residents of more than 3,000 homes fled for higher ground. A railroad bridge collapsed, and 100 city blocks were underwater.

"We're just kind of at God's mercy right now, so hopefully people that never prayed before this, it might be a good time to start," Linn County Sheriff Don Zeller said this week as record floods hit the Midwest. "We're going to need a lot of prayers and people are going to need a lot of patience and understanding."

By the final Book of Revelation in the New Testament, the Earth suffers "Seven Plagues" -- from disease to "intense heat" and drought, then finally a shower of deadly hailstones.

And then comes the Apocalypse, the final judgment of man and destruction of the world by fire.

Biblical imagery is all over the news these days  even including a story last week of a New York baby being enwrapped by a snake in its crib, harking back to evil lurking in the Garden of Eden.

[There was a practical explanation: the non-poisonous snake had embedded itself in a mattress shipped by Toys 'R' Us from California.]

Most theologians and scientists don't take seriously warnings that the end of the world is nigh. But many reputable scholars do lend some credence to the notion that the world is in for some kind of disaster, be it meteorological, ecological or geopolitical.

ABC News will air a dramatic two-hour broadcast in September, Earth 2100, bringing the greatest minds across the globe together to tell us what we must do to survive the next century. And what may happen if we don't....more

Christian Theologians Prepare for Extraterrestrial Life

Little green men might shock the secular public. But the Catholic Church would welcome them as brothers.

That's what Vatican chief astronomer and papal science adviser Gabriel Funes explained in a recent article in L'Osservatore Romano, the newsletter of the Vatican Observatory (translated here). His conclusion might surprise nonbelievers. After all, isn't this the same church that imprisoned Galileo for saying that the Earth revolves around the sun? Doesn't the Bible say that God created man -- not little green men -- in his image?

Indeed, many observers assert that aliens would be bad for believers. Jill Tarter, director of the Center for SETI Research, once wrote that finding intelligent other-worldly life "will be inconsistent with the existence of God or at least organized religions." But such predictions tend to come from outside Christianity. From within, theologians have debated the implications of alien contact for centuries. And if one already believes in angels, no great leap of faith is required to accept the possibility of other extraterrestrial intelligences.

Since God created the universe, theologians say, he would have created aliens, too. And far from being weakened by contact, Christianity would adapt. Its doctrines would be interpreted anew, the aliens greeted with open -- and not necessarily Bible-bearing -- arms.

"The main question is, 'Would religion survive this contact?'" said NASA chief historian Steven J. Dick, author of The Biological Universe. "Religion hasn't gone away after Copernican theory, after Darwin. They've found ways to adapt, and they'll find a way if this happens, too," Dick says. ...more

Bush 'may convert to Catholicism' -

President George Bush was given such a splendid welcome by Pope Benedict XVI yesterday that rumours started flying that the President, like Tony Blair before him, was on the verge of converting to Catholicism.

It was a Vatican visit such as no other head of state has ever enjoyed. Instead of greeting him, like all previous high-ranking visitors, in the papal library of the Apostolic Palace, the Pope took Mr Bush round the medieval St John's Tower then gave him a tour of the Vatican gardens, culminating in a brief open-air concert by the Sistine Chapel Choir.

The Pope waited for the President at the entrance of the tower. As he arrived, the President was overheard gushing "What an honour" as the two men disappeared for a half-hour tête-à-tête, details of which have not been made public.

The special reception was seen as a return of favours for the magnificent party thrown for the Pope two months ago when he turned 81 during his US tour, attended by up to 9,000 guests. But yesterday the Vatican was seething at rumours that there was much more to it than protocol: George Bush,lifelong Methodist, was about to convert.

The notion was given extra mileage by the fact that the President's brother Jeb, the former governor of Florida, converted to Catholicism on marrying his wife Columba, a Mexican.

The Vatican differs from the White House on immigration and the death penalty but on other issues including stem cell research, gay marriage and abortion there has been, as the Catholic daily L'Avvenire put it, "total harmony."

Cardinal Pio Laghi, the papal envoy to the White House, said: "Bush believes in the values of the Church and his brother is a convert." ...source- The Independent

Got you, under the skin - Telegraph

Old people will be implanted with microchips to remind them to take their medicine, according to a vision of the future conjured up by Ofcom, the communications regulating quango.

It won't end at that. We already see cats and dogs verified as rabies-free by chips implanted beneath their skin.

For humans it might sound quite handy to be reminded by an implant to take one's library book back or to send a birthday card to a niece. But what if the taste of the medicine is less welcome and the computer chip keeps buzzing away until you've swallowed it all?

In one of the more nannyish Scandinavian states, there used to be a system making it impossible to buy alcohol unless one's income tax was paid up to date. Such an arrangement would be child's play to a well-programmed implant.

So unless state ID schemes are resisted today, tomorrow you'll have had your chips....source

Army Yanks 'Voice-To-Skull Devices'

The Army's very strange webpage on "Voice-to-Skull" weapons has been removed. It was strange it was there, and it's even stranger it's gone. If you Google it, you'll see the entry for "Voice-to-Skull device," but, if you click on the website, the link is dead.

The entry, still available on the Federation of American Scientists' website reads:

Nonlethal weapon which includes (1) a neuro-electromagnetic device which uses microwave transmission of sound into the skull of persons or animals by way of pulse-modulated microwave radiation; and (2) a silent sound device which can transmit sound into the skull of person or animals. NOTE: The sound modulation may be voice or audio subliminal messages. One application of V2K is use as an electronic scarecrow to frighten birds in the vicinity of airports.

The U.K.-based group Christians Against Mental Slavery first noted the change (they also have a permanent screenshot of the page). A representative of the group tells me they contacted the Webmaster, who would only tell them the entry was "permanently removed."

The image above is one person's self-styled depiction of how a "voice-to-skull" weapon might work. source Wired.com

Another interesting read from Wired.com is The Voice of God Weapon Returns

Multinationals make billions in profit out of growing global food crisis - Green Living, Environment

Giant agribusinesses are enjoying soaring earnings and profits out of the world food crisis which is driving millions of people towards starvation, The Independent on Sunday can reveal. And speculation is helping to drive the prices of basic foodstuffs out of the reach of the hungry.

The prices of wheat, corn and rice have soared over the past year driving the world's poor – who already spend about 80 per cent of their income on food – into hunger and destitution.

The World Bank says that 100 million more people are facing severe hunger. Yet some of the world's richest food companies are making record profits.... more

Go-ahead signalled for animal-human embryos -

British scientists will be allowed to create part-human, part-animal embryos for research into potentially life-saving medical treatments, the Government signalled yesterday.

Caroline Flint, the health minister, is considering removing a ban on such work from a draft bill that will form the basis for new laws on fertility treatment and embryo research.

Two teams of British researchers have applied for permission to create "cybrid" embryos that would be around 99.9 per cent human and 0.1 per cent rabbit, cow, pig, sheep or goat to produce embryonic stem cells – the body's building blocks that grow into all other types of cells.

They want to use the stem cells to understand and provide new treatments for diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, cystic fibrosis, motor neurone disease and Huntington's. ...more

IBM joins Lockheed Martin on FBI Next Generation Identification Program

Lockheed Martin and IBM will join together to develop and maintain the Next Generation Identification system for the FBI. NGI is the new multi-modal, state-of–the-art biometrics system that will be used by state, local and federal authorities.

The NGI system will now also include palm prints, iris and facial recognition capabilities in addition to fingerprints. Lockheed Martin will provide program oversight as well as biometric and large systems development. As a subcontractor, IBM will provide information technology services, as well as specific software and hardware to be used in the NGI system.

IBM had previously protested the contract award to Lockheed. It wasn't immediately know if the computing giant dropped its protest bid with this announcement....source

Check out this eyeopening video: "IBM and the Holocaust"

Mad Scientists (transhumanism)

Attack of the killer ravens: Flocks are suddenly slaughtering lambs - what is going on?

High in the darkening sky, a flock of enormous ravens swoop and swirl - narrow black wings stretched wide, heads protruding forward and huge hairy beaks scything through the air.

Every few minutes they let out deep, throaty, honking calls as they soar effortlessly, circling around until, finally, they spot their prey and swoop.

But forget dormice, voles or even small furry rabbits; these sinister looking birds are feasting on something far larger - newborn lambs....more

Invisible 'Radio' Tattoos Could Identify Soldiers

Somark Innovations announced biocompatible RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) ink, which can be used to tattoo cattle and laboratory rats and can be read through animal hair.

It might even be used on humans eventually.

This is a passive RFID technology that contains no metals; the tattoos themselves can be colored or invisible.

Cows first

The Somark ID System creates a "biocompatible ink tatoo with chipless RFID functionality."

The RFID ink tatoo does not require line of sight to be read, as is the case with other RFID devices (making them better than a barcode for some applications).

RFID ink tattoos also solve the annoying problem of ear tag retention. Conventional RFID ear tags sell for about $2.25; about 60-90 percent of them eventually fall off. Also, Somark claims that the biocompatible RFID ink system will improve readability rates as well.

Humans next?...more

Could Soldiers Be Prosecuted for Thought Crime?

The Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is funding a number of technologies that tap into the brain's ability to detect threats before the conscious mind is able to process the information. Already, there is Pentagon-sponsored work on using the brain's pattern detection capabilities for enhanced goggles and super-fast satellite imagery analysis. What happens, however, when the Pentagon ultimately uses this enhanced capability for targeting weapons?

This question has led Stephen White to write a fascinating article exploring the implications of a soldiers' legal culpability for weapons that may someday tap into this "pre-conscious" brain activity. Like the Minority Report notion of "pre-crime," where someone is convicted for contemplating a criminal act they haven't yet acted upon, this article raises the intriguing question of whether a soldier could be convicted for the mistake made by a pre-conscious brain wave....more

Return of the Watchers

Have you had an UFO experience or abduction? Do need you need an answer to this experience? Then listen to what pastor Chris Ward has to say on this subject. It might help you out.
Audio files: Part 1 Part 2

Interspecies blends walk razor's edge

Science and technology continue to stretch the conventionally acceptable boundaries for research, especially in genetic engineering. Bioethicists sometimes allude to the “yuck factor,” wherein the description of a research study lying at – or beyond – these boundaries may generate revulsion or disgust among the public.

Researchers at Newcastle University in England recently announced they had successfully replaced the original DNA in eggs taken from cow ovaries with human DNA, producing human-cow embryos that survived for three days. Electrical impulses were used to stimulate division of the cells in the embryos, and these stem cells then were harvested.

The long-term objective of this research is to develop a method to supply human embryonic stem cells that can be used in the development of drug therapies and for the treatment of such diseases as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s but without the need to rely upon the relatively scarce human eggs that are gathered from fertility treatments.

The chimera of Greek mythology, as described in Homer’s “Iliad,” was a creature with the head of a lion, the tail of a serpent and the body of a goat. By blending cells and embryos from two animals, interspecies chimeras have been artificially produced, such as the geep spawned in 1984 by uniting the embryos of a sheep and a goat. Such an animal has four parents, because each of its individual cells retains the characteristics of either one species or the other, with two distinct sets of these cells forming the organism....more

Microchipping humans? Part 1

SOUTHWEST FLORIDA - We've microchipped our pets for years for fear of them getting lost, but right now a project is underway in Florida to microchip people.

The FDA-approved microchip is about the size of a grain of rice. So far, the microchip project is geared toward patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease. The idea is that the chip, using a radio frequency, is trackable if the person goes missing, but some fear the microchip is "big brother" -- inserted right under your skin.

George Orwell's "1984" instilled images of "big brother," the idea that someone, somewhere is always watching us. Fast forward nearly a quarter century and some fear the pervasive, invasive surveillance that is "big brother" has become reality. Microchips, usually put in our pets, are now being used in people...read more

Wheat Crop Failures Could be Total, Experts Warn

"On top of record-breaking rice prices and corn through the roof on ethanol demand, wheat is now rusting in the fields across Africa.

Officials fear near total crop losses, and the fungus, known as Ug99, is spreading.

Wheat prices have been soaring this week on top of already high prices, and futures contracts spiked, too, on panic buying.

Experts fear the cost of bread could soon follow the path of rice, the price of which has triggered riots in some countries and prompted countries to cut off exports."

David Kotok, chairman and chief investment officer of Cumberland Advisors, said the deadly fungus, Puccinia graminis, is now spreading through some areas of the globe where "crop losses are expected to reach 100 percent.”

Losses in Africa are already at 70 percent of the crop, Kotok said.

"The economic losses expected from this fungus are now in the many billions and growing. Worse, there is an intensifying fear of exacerbated food shortages in poor and emerging countries of the world,” Kotok told investors in a research note.

"The ramifications are serious. Food rioting continues to expand around the world. We saw the most recent in Johannesburg.

"So far this unrest has been directed at rising prices. Actual shortages are still to come.” ...read more

New York City becoming like third world dictatorship, police units to patrol city subways with submachine guns and dogs!

"NYPD cops armed with rifles, submachine guns, body armor and bomb-sniffing dogs will start patrolling the city's subways on Thursday - a first for mass transit in the United States.

Teams of six officers and a dog will patrol subway platforms and trains in 12-hour shifts.

The TORCH teams are being paid for by $151 million from the feds announced in February.

Similarly equipped NYPD units, known as Hercules teams, have patrolled Wall Street and other aboveground icons as part of the NYPD response to the World Trade Center attacks.

'The TORCH teams are Hercules teams with a MetroCard,' a police source said." ...source

Face scans for air passengers to begin in UK this summer

Airline passengers are to be screened with facial recognition technology rather than checks by passport officers, in an attempt to improve security and ease congestion, the Guardian can reveal.

From summer, unmanned clearance gates will be phased in to scan passengers' faces and match the image to the record on the computer chip in their biometric passports.

Border security officials believe the machines can do a better job than humans of screening passports and preventing identity fraud. The pilot project will be open to UK and EU citizens holding new biometric passports.

But there is concern that passengers will react badly to being rejected by an automated gate. To ensure no one on a police watch list is incorrectly let through, the technology will err on the side of caution and is likely to generate a small number of "false negatives" - innocent passengers rejected because the machines cannot match their appearance to the records.

They may be redirected into conventional passport queues, or officers may be authorised to override automatic gates following additional checks.

Ministers are eager to set up trials in time for the summer holiday rush, but have yet to decide how many airports will take part. If successful, the technology will be extended to all UK airports.
...read more

VeriChip goes consumer with its implantable RFID chips; Would you buy? |

"VeriChip said Tuesday it will begin pitching its implantable RFID chips directly to consumers in a move that aims to link doctors directly to personal health records. verichip.png

VeriChip said it will launch a direct-to-consumer marketing campaign in South Florida on April 28. The general idea appears to be to woo a bunch of retirees to implant an RFID chip (right) and connect the information with personal health records. VeriChip will pitch its wares through HEARx hearing aid stores in the Palm Beach area."... read more

ZENIT - Bush Says He Sees God in Eyes of Pope

"WASHINGTON, D.C., APRIL 13, 2008 (Zenit.org).- U.S. President George Bush said that when he looks into Benedict XVI's eyes, he sees God.

The president made this affirmation Friday when he answered the last question posed him during an interview with Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) anchor Raymond Arroyo.

Arroyo noted that Bush is planning an all-out welcome for the Pope, who arrives in the United States on Tuesday for a five-day visit. Most notably, Bush will go to the airport to receive the Holy Father, a courtesy he has never extended to any visiting leader.

The president says he plans to do this 'because [the Pope] is a really important figure in a lot of ways. One, he speaks for millions. Two, he doesn't come as a politician; he comes as a man of faith. And, three, that I so subscribe to his notion that [...] there's right and wrong in life, that moral relativism has a danger of undermining the capacity to have more hopeful and free societies, that I want to honor his convictions, as well.'

The Holy Father, Bush said, 'represents and stands for some values that I think are important for the health of the country, and when he comes to America, millions of my fellow citizens will be hanging on his every word. And that's why it's important.'" ...source



President Bush Sees GOD in Eyes of Pope Video



Popes claiming to be God on Earth

"The Pope is not simply the representative of Jesus Christ. On the contrary, he is Jesus Christ Himself, under the veil of the flesh, and who by means of a being common to humanity continues His ministry amongst men ... Does the Pope speak? It is Jesus Christ Who is speaking. Does he teach? It is Jesus Christ Who teaches. Does he confer grace or pronounce an anathema? It is Jesus Christ Himself Who is pronouncing the anathema and conferring the grace. Hence consequently, when one speaks of the Pope, it is not necessary to examine, but to obey: there must be no limiting the bounds of the command, in order to suit the purpose of the individual whose obedience is demanded: there must be no cavilling at the declared will of the Pope, and so invest it with quite another than that which he has put upon it: no preconceived opinions must be brought to bear upon it: no rights must be set up against the rights of the Holy Father to teach and command; his decisions are not to be criticized, or his ordinances disputed. Therefore by Divine ordination, all, no matter how august the person may be — whether he wear a crown or be invested with the purple, or be clothed in the sacred vestments: all must be subject to Him Who has had all things put under Him." -Evangelical Christendom, January 1, 1895, pg. 15, published in London by J. S. Phillips.

"Your Papers Please" Registered traveler goes international

The Homeland Security Department today published notice it will begin testing an International Registered Traveler program at three airports starting June 10 to expedite airport clearances for prescreened travelers.

Initially, the pilot program is available only to U.S. citizens and permanent residents. The eventual goal is to coordinate with other international trusted traveler programs around the globe to allow pre-screened, low-risk foreign visitors to participate as well, according to the notice published today in the Federal Register. .Read more

THE UNITED STATES: REPLICATING THE SLAVE ECONOMY OF THE OLD SOUTH & LEAVING AVERAGE CITIZENS TO SINK INTO POVERTY - By S.R. Shearer

America is once again beginning to shed jobs - and it's doing so on a massive scale. Moreover, the jobs that remain are being relentlessly "down-waged" - creating in the process a growing class of "WORKING POOR" that's unprecedented insofar as the experience of most modern Americans is concerned.

All this lends a certain awful credibility to the saying of the rider of the Black Horse of the Apocalypse, a terrible personage in whose hands is a pair of balances, and out from whose lips issues a fearful warning:

"A measure of wheat for a penny [literally - denarius, a Roman coin which represented a WHOLE DAY'S wages], and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine." (Revelation 6:6)

NOTE: The meaning of this is that the condition of man at the "end of the age" will be reduced to such that he will have to labor a whole day simply to buy a loaf of bread or three measures of barley. But the second part of the saying ["... and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine ..."] means that the destitution of these days will not extend to what might be called a "global elite of worthies" who have evidently allied themselves with the anti-Christ - only the rich in the ancient world could afford oil and wine.

The inexorable press of the American economic system in the direction of Revelation 6:6 augurs ill for all those Christians in the United States who want to hold onto the "Good-Life" and Christ at the same time. ,,, read more

Transportation Lab Seeks Radical Change “tunnel of truth”at Airport Checkpoints

LOS ANGELES — Transportation Security Laboratory Director Susan Hallowell would like to see the day when airline passengers no longer have to take their shoes off after standing in a long line at airport security checkpoints.

To that end, she would like to combine the line and an array of sensors into what she calls a “tunnel of truth.”

The concept — with the somewhat Orwellian name — would have passengers stand on a conveyor belt moving under an archway as various sensors scan them for weapons, bombs or other prohibited items. By the time they step out of the tunnel, they have been thoroughly checked out, she said at a homeland security science and technology conference sponsored by the National Defense Industrial Association.

“You’re in line anyway … why not enclose that in a little glass thing and do your analysis there?” she asked. The lab has given a grant to Penn State University to study the concept, she added.

The lab, located in Atlantic City, N.J., is responsible for testing current screening devices and developing new technologies for both airports and for other public transportation.

Among the new technologies that could be placed in the tunnels are backscatter X-ray machines, which peer underneath clothes, and passive and active millimeter wave sensors that can see the outlines of concealed metal objects. These technologies are already being used in pilot programs.

Puffer machines are also in use and dislodge molecules from the residue gathered during the manufacture of explosives. The human body also gives off a heat signature, and sensors could follow the thermal plume coming off the body as the passenger moves through the tunnel, she noted. Actual bombs, if they are hidden on the body, give off their own heat signatures, and could be detected as well.

Before the concept can move forward, the laboratory will have to perfect all the sub-systems that would go into the so-called tunnel, she said. Meanwhile, the lab continues to test machines designed to check shoes for explosives without passengers having to take them off. So far, it has not found an acceptable solution.
“We’re still working on shoes. We’re not there yet,” she said.
Source

Lockheed Secures Contract to Expand "Big Brother" Biometric Database

The FBI yesterday announced the award of a $1 billion, 10-year contract to Lockheed Martin to develop what is expected to be the world's largest crime-fighting computer database of biometric information, including fingerprints, palm prints, iris patterns and face images.

Under its contract to build Next Generation Identification, the Bethesda contractor will expand on the FBI's electronic database of 55 million sets of fingerprints and criminal histories used by law enforcement and other authorities. The aim is to make the query and results process quicker, more flexible and more accurate.

Lockheed built and maintains the fingerprint database.

"NGI will give us bigger, better, faster capabilities and lead us into the future," said Thomas E. Bush III, assistant director of the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services Division.

The system will not expand the categories of people whose prints are collected: known criminals, known or suspected terrorists, or foreign visitors to the United States who have been convicted of a crime or an immigration violation, Bush said. But additional types of biometric data, such as iris scans and face images, will be collected from criminals and terrorists. The system also separately houses 17 million civilian fingerprints, mostly of federal employees who have undergone background checks.

To enable global sharing of data, NGI is to be built to technical standards shared by the departments of Homeland Security, Defense and State, as well as by Britain, Canada and other countries, Bush said. The FBI also hopes to offer a service allowing employers to store employees' prints, subject to state privacy laws, so that if employees are ever arrested, the employer would be notified.

Beginning this year, Lockheed will conduct a series of "biometric bake-offs" to evaluate the work of biometric firms who will be competing to develop various elements of the system and the maturity of the technologies. It will first expand the FBI's fingerprint processing capability and add palm print processing capability, officials said.

"We're excited to move to the next generation with the FBI," said Judy Marks, president of Lockheed Martin Transportation and Security Solutions, a business unit of Lockheed.

By adding new biometric tools and applying them together, "the system will be able to enhance its accuracy and virtually eliminate the chance of mistaken identities," said Walter Hamilton, chairman of the International Biometric Industry Association.

Privacy advocates said that the work is proceeding before the technologies have been proven. "Congress needs to do a better job of assessing how taxpayer dollars are being spent, particularly on programs that impact the privacy rights of Americans," said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center washingtonpost.com

Privacy concerns mount amid the 'microchipping of America'

...In 2006, IBM Corp. received patent approval for an invention it called "Identification and tracking of persons using RFID-tagged items." One stated purpose: to collect information about people that could be "used to monitor the movement of the person through the store or other areas."

After somebody enters a store, a sniffer "scans all identifiable RFID tags carried on the person" and correlates the tag information with sales records to determine the individual's "exact identity." A device known as a "person tracking unit" then assigns a tracking number to the shopper "to monitor the movement of the person through the store or other areas."

Another patent, obtained in 2003 by NCR Corp., details how camouflaged sensors and cameras would record customers' wanderings through a store, film their facial expressions at displays, and time — to the second — how long shoppers hold and study items.

Why? Such monitoring "allows one to draw valuable inferences about the behavior of large numbers of shoppers," the patent states.

Then there's a 2001 patent application from Procter & Gamble Co.: "Systems and methods for tracking consumers in a store environment." It lays out an idea to use heat sensors to track and record "where a consumer is looking, i.e., which way she is facing, whether she is bending over or crouching down to look at a lower shelf."

The documents "raise the hair on the back of your neck," said Liz McIntyre, co-author of "Spychips," a book that is critical of the industry. "The industry has long promised it would never use this technology to track people. But these patent records clearly suggest otherwise."...read more

Microchips Everywhere: a Future Vision

Here's a vision of the not-so-distant future:

_Microchips with antennas will be embedded in virtually everything you buy, wear, drive and read, allowing retailers and law enforcement to track consumer items _ and, by extension, consumers _ wherever they go, from a distance.

_A seamless, global network of electronic "sniffers" will scan radio tags in myriad public settings, identifying people and their tastes instantly so that customized ads, "live spam," may be beamed at them.

_In "Smart Homes," sensors built into walls, floors and appliances will inventory possessions, record eating habits, monitor medicine cabinets _ all the while, silently reporting data to marketers eager for a peek into the occupants' private lives.

Science fiction?

In truth, much of the radio frequency identification technology that enables objects and people to be tagged and tracked wirelessly already exists _ and new and potentially intrusive uses of it are being patented, perfected and deployed.

Some of the world's largest corporations are vested in the success of RFID technology, which couples highly miniaturized computers with radio antennas to broadcast information about sales and buyers to company databases.

Already, microchips are turning up in some computer printers, car keys and tires, on shampoo bottles and department store clothing tags. They're also in library books and "contactless" payment cards (such as American Express' "Blue" and ExxonMobil's "Speedpass.")

Companies say the RFID tags improve supply-chain efficiency, cut theft, and guarantee that brand-name products are authentic, not counterfeit. At a store, RFID doorways could scan your purchases automatically as you leave, eliminating tedious checkouts.
...read more

Invisible RFID Ink Safe For Cattle And People, Company Says -- RFID Ink

A startup company developing chipless RFID ink has tested its product on cattle and laboratory rats.

Somark Innovations announced this week that it successfully tested biocompatible RFID ink, which can be read through animal hairs. The passive RFID technology could be used to identify and track cows to reduce financial losses from Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (mad cow disease) scares. Somark, which formed in 2005, is located at the Center for Emerging Technologies in St. Louis. The company is raising Series A equity financing and plans to license the technology to secondary markets, which could include laboratory animals, dogs, cats, prime cuts of meat, and military personnel.

Chief scientist Ramos Mays said the tests provide a true proof-of-principle and mitigate most of the technological risks in terms of the product's performance. "This proves the ability to create a synthetic biometric or fake fingerprint with biocompatible, chipless RFID ink and read it through hair," he said.

Co-founder Mark Pydynowski said during an interview Wednesday that the ink doesn't contain any metals and can be either invisible or colored. He declined to say what is in the ink, but said he's certain that it is 100% biocompatible and chemically inert. He also said it is safe for people and animals.

The process developed by Somark involves a geometric array of micro-needles and a reusable applicator with a one-time-use ink capsule. Pydynowski said it takes five to 10 seconds to "stamp or tattoo" an animal, and there is no need to remove the fur. The ink remains in the dermal layer, and a reader can detect it from 4 feet away.

"Conceptually, you can think of it in the same way that visible light is reflected by mirrors," he said, adding that the actual process is slightly different and proprietary.

The amount of information contained in the ink depends on the surface area available, he said. The U.S. Department of Agriculture calls for a 15-digit number to track cattle. The first three digits are "840" for the U.S. country code. The remaining digits are unique identifiers. The numbers would link to a database containing more information.

"It can say where it has been, who it has talked to, who it has eaten with, and who else it has been in contact with," Pydynowski said.

Ranchers and others in the agricultural industry can choose a covert stamping system, which would make it impossible for cattle thieves to tell which animals have been marked and easy for those checking for stolen cattle to determine a cow's source. Pydynowski said the technology is an improvement over ear tags, which can be detached from cows and other products.

The technology could verify that cuts of meat originated in a hormone-free environment, Pydynowski said, adding that consumers would destroy the system by breaking down the ink when chewing the meat. In other words, Big Brother wouldn't know whether someone ate a Big Mac or a filet mignon, according to Pydynowski's explanation. However, the government and agricultural producers and retailers could track e-coli outbreaks in spinach, he said.

The ink also could be used to track and rescue soldiers, Pydynowski said.

"It could help identify friends or foes, prevent friendly fire, and help save soldiers' lives," he said. "It's a very scary proposition when you're dealing with humans, but with military personnel, we're talking about saving soldiers' lives and it may be something worthwhile."

Invisible RFID Ink Safe For Cattle And People, Company Says -- RFID Ink -- InformationWeek

Prisoners 'to be chipped like dogs'

Ministers are planning to implant "machine-readable" microchips under the skin of thousands of offenders as part of an expansion of the electronic tagging scheme that would create more space in British jails.

Amid concerns about the security of existing tagging systems and prison overcrowding, the Ministry of Justice is investigating the use of satellite and radio-wave technology to monitor criminals.

But, instead of being contained in bracelets worn around the ankle, the tiny chips would be surgically inserted under the skin of offenders in the community, to help enforce home curfews. The radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, as long as two grains of rice, are able to carry scanable personal information about individuals, including their identities, address and offending record ...read more

Closing the Door on Civil Liberties

American society is closing down. In “The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot,” scholar Naomi Wolf lists the 10 steps to a closed society and examines the similarities between Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini and the Bush administration in the context of shutting down a society:

10. Manipulate a real or imagined threat: Stalin claimed that “sleeper cells” of capitalists were surrounding Soviet citizens. In the last six years, our leaders have claimed that “sleeper cells” of terrorists are surrounding Americans.

9. Create a secret prison system: How do Lenin’s secret prison system, Mussolini’s confino and Hitler’s study of Mussolini affect us? Why should we worry if brown people and Muslims are held and tortured in Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and other secret prisons?

“I invite you to name a society that created a secret prison system outside the rule of law where torture takes place that didn’t sooner or later turn the abuse against its own citizens,” Wolf says.

When a democracy closes down, individuals with whom the mainstream public doesn’t identify are tortured first. Then the line between a real terrorist and a mere critic becomes blurred. It doesn’t matter whether you’re white or black, Republican or Democrat, or citizen or foreign national; the president can call anyone an “enemy combatant,” and the government can take you to prison, deny your right to a lawyer and torture you on the president’s say-so.

Andrew Meyer, a student at the University of Florida, was tasered by police after asking why President George W. Bush hasn’t been impeached at a lecture. This is scary because the University of Florida is answerable to the Board of Regents, which is answerable to the state legislature, which has close ties to Florida Governor Jeb Bush. In Nazi Germany, politician Joseph Goebbels pioneered the tactic of using state legislatures to put pressure on university boards of regents to control professors and students critical of Hitler.

8. Create a paramilitary force: Blackwater is a paramilitary corporation with close ties to the White House. The corporation has been in the news for allegedly massacring 17 Iraqi civilians.

But Blackwater is now on Main Street: Blackwater was invited by the Transportation Security Administration to patrol the streets of New Orleans and received orders from Bush to patrol the streets at any time during a “disaster”—which Bush can arbitrarily declare.

It doesn’t matter whether we have the essential institutions of a civil society if citizens are too intimidated to push back. Remember, Italy was a working democracy when Mussolini sent the blackshirt paramilitary to intimidate civilians.

7. Create a surveillance apparatus aimed at ordinary citizens: In East Germany, only 10 percent of the people had a stasi file, but everyone thought they had one. This worked, states Wolf, because the state doesn’t need to watch everyone if we all think that we’re being watched.

Eight hundred thousand American citizens (including staffers from the American Civil Liberties Union, members of the anti-war group Code Pink, decorated war heroes against the Iraq invasion, professors at Columbia University, UC Berkeley, Harvard and UCLA and scholar Richard Murphy at Princeton University) are on Bush’s Watch List and are not allowed to leave the country. Wolf is on the Watch List, and her e-mail and text messages are monitored by the state.

Twenty thousand American citizens are added to the Watch List each month. In February 2008, these citizens will have to apply to the state to leave the country.

6. Arbitrarily detain and release citizens: That’s why we now have interrogation rooms at airports, Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib.

5. Infiltrate citizens’ groups: Police officers and FBI agents in Seattle spy on peaceful environmental groups without reason and put them under house arrest without due process.

4. Target individuals: Stalin targeted key individuals like newspaper editors to make examples of them in the third Moscow show trial. Homeland Security now seizes CBS journalists in Iraq and tortures them in U.S.-run prisons. David Horowitz’s book “The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America” blacklists individual professors to intimidate all professors critical of the state.

3. Recast criticism as espionage: The Espionage Act is now used to round up anti-war critics, journalists and outspoken clergy members without warrants.

2. Recast critics as traitors: Witness the words “anti-American,” “traitors” and “pro-terrorists.”

1. Subvert the rule of law: Due to the Defense Authorization Act, the president now has the power to declare anyone an “enemy combatant” and lock us in a 10-by-12 foot navy brig cell for three years without access to a lawyer.

A closing society, argues Wolf, still holds elections; they’re just corrupt. There is still a judiciary; it’s just not free. There are still academics; they just watch what they say. There are still newspapers; they just know how far they can go. Go to americanfreedomcampaign.org to find out what to do.

Nathan Tumazi is a third-year international studies major. He can be reached at ntumazi@uci.edu.
New University Online

FBI wants instant access to British identity data

Americans seek international database to carry iris, palm and finger prints

Senior British police officials are talking to the FBI about an international database to hunt for major criminals and terrorists.

The US-initiated programme, "Server in the Sky", would take cooperation between the police forces way beyond the current faxing of fingerprints across the Atlantic. Allies in the "war against terror" - the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand - have formed a working group, the International Information Consortium, to plan their strategy.
...read more

Britain Planning to Implant "Machine-Readable" Microchips in Prisoners

Britain is planning to implant "machine-readable" microchips - like those used on pets - under the skin of thousands of offenders as part of an expansion of electronic tagging.

Because of concerns about the security of existing tagging systems and prison overcrowding, the British Ministry of Justice is investigating the use of satellite and radio-wave technology to monitor criminals.

But, instead of being contained in bracelets worn around the ankle, the tiny chips would be surgically inserted under the skin of offenders in the community, to help enforce home curfews.

The "radio frequency identification" tags, as long as two grains of rice, can carry information about individuals, including identities, address and offending record.

The tags, labelled "spychips" by privacy campaigners, are used to track dogs, cats, cattle and airport luggage, but there is no record of the technology being used to monitor people.

A senior Ministry of Justice official said the department hoped to go even further, by extending the geographical range of the internal chips through a link-up with satellite-tracking similar to the system used to trace stolen vehicles.


"All options are on the table, and this is one we would like to pursue."

The move is in line with a proposal from the Association of Chief Police Officers that electronic chips should be surgically implanted into convicted paedophiles and sex offenders to track them more easily, preventing them from going near "forbidden" zones such as primary schools.

"We've wanted to take advantage of this technology for years, because it seems a sensible solution to the problems we are facing," a senior minister said. "Its time has come."

The Independent on Sunday reports that ministers have been assessing the merits of cutting-edge technology that would make it virtually impossible for individuals to remove their tags.

The tags, injected into the back of the arm, consist of a glass capsule holding a computer chip, a copper antenna and a "capacitor" to transmit data stored on the chip when prompted by an electromagnetic reader.

Details of the scheme provoked an angry response from probation officers and civil-rights groups.

"If the Home Office doesn't understand why implanting a chip in someone is worse than an ankle bracelet, they don't need a human-rights lawyer; they need a common-sense bypass," said Shami Chakrabarti, director of the Liberty rights group. "Degrading offenders in this way will do nothing for their rehabilitation."

Britain has been forced to review sentencing policy amid serious overcrowding in the nation's jails, after the prison population soared from 60,000 in 1997 to 80,000 today.

New Zealand has also faced a jump in prison numbers. A Ministry of Justice forecast last year showed the average monthly prison population was expected to go from 7656 in June 2006 to 9028 in June 2014.

However a Department of Corrections spokeswoman said last night that it had not looked at the British scheme and had no plans to do so in the foreseeable future....source

National ID: Another step to totalitarianism

In this age of terrorism and out-of-control illegal immigration, it is a growing belief by many Americans that we must all be regulated, restricted, licensed, registered, directed, checked, inspected, measured, numbered, counted, stamped, authorized, fined, harassed, disarmed, exploited and taxed in the name of protection. Trouble is, that outlook is just plain wrong, and it isn't freedom.

According to a report from the London-based Privacy International, "Privacy is being extinguished in country after country." The report also noted that privacy was improving in the former communist states of Eastern Europe, but it is worsening across Western Europe and the United States. According to the report, of 47 countries surveyed, Malaysia, Russia and communist China ranked worst, but Great Britain and the United States also fell into the lowest-performing group of "endemic surveillance societies."

As technology develops, data banks of personal information are being collected on everything from medical records, to financial and employment histories, to school records, to buying habits at the supermarket. The government is building data banks on farm animals. Our cars have little black boxes that record data on our driving habits. In addition, the uses of video cameras, computer chips and biometric screening to monitor our activities are growing rapidly.

Step by step, using a wide variety of good excuses, Americans are allowing themselves to be fingerprinted, their eyes scanned, computer chips inserted under their skin, providing DNA, and more....read more

Some Food For Thought, "Have Christians Already Accepted The Mark Of The Beast?"

Christians throughout church history have debated the nuances of Eschatology. These debates will doubtless last until Jesus Himself decides to end them. Until then, the theological battles extolling or condemning premillennialism or postmillennialism, pre-tribulation Rapture or post-tribulation Rapture, etc., will continue. To be sure, this column is not an attempt to resolve or even argue these interpretations of Scripture. Let every man be persuaded in his own heart. Personally, I don't think it's worth arguing about.

Whether a Christian is premillennial or postmillennial, whether he or she believes in the pre-tribulation Rapture or not is immaterial to our responsibilities. We Christians have a duty to be the "salt" and "light" of society until Jesus returns--whenever that is. And, frankly, the time of His return is His business, not ours. If we would concentrate on those matters that truly belong to us, we would be much more effective. Arguing and battling between Christians over the nuances of Eschatology only serves to advance the cause of the Enemy. It is counterproductive and fruitless to anything worthwhile.

That being said, a brief reference to the belief that a literal antichrist is yet to come is in order. Accepting this interpretation of the Book of Revelation, there will come in the days of "great tribulation" a Western World leader, known as the antichrist, or beast. Christians accepting this interpretation believe that the antichrist will unite the Western World, mainly Europe and the United States, and will implement a satanic despotism.

Part of the antichrist's reign upon the Western World (called, by some, The Revived Roman Empire) will be the demand that everyone accept "the mark of the beast" in his hand or forehead. Of course, the number Scripture uses is 666. Everyone who does not accept this mark will be deemed to be an outlaw: unable to buy or sell, or contract normal daily business of any kind. However, acceptance of the mark will also mean rejection of God and salvation.

Premillennialists believe they will be "raptured" to Heaven before these events take place. Some believe the church will go through the "great tribulation," while most postillennialists don't believe in a literal "tribulation" at all, but believe these Scriptures are related to other events altogether.

Regardless of how one interprets the Book of Revelation, I think most all believers will accept the Apostle John's warning that the spirit of antichrist is already in the world. (I John 2:18; 4:3) Can we not readily agree that anything that resembles antichrist is a form of antichrist?

Accordingly, did not the German church have an obligation to resist Adolph Hitler? Of course they did. However, at the end of the day, out of over 14,000 pastors and church congregations in Germany at the time, only 800 properly discerned the evil Hitler for who he was and openly opposed him. The rest not only tolerated him, but openly praised him, promoted him, and punished anyone who failed to do the same.

Yet, Hitler definitely personified the spirit of antichrist. While publicly professing to be a Christian, he privately disdained Christians and was caught up in secret societies and the occult. He was driven to lead Germany into preemptive wars of aggression. He cast off Germany's republican form of government and consolidated power unto himself. He implemented a total surveillance society in the name of national security. He was so completely accepted and adored by Germany's churchmen that German congregations were told that in order to be good Christians they had to be good Nazis and that to support any other political party than Hitler's was to fight against God. He enacted strict gun control laws. Why did Germany's pastors and Christians not recognize Hitler for who he was?

Can we not say that, in their own way, Germany's pastors and churches accepted the mark of the beast? Sure they did. No, Hitler was not THE antichrist, but he certainly exemplified the spirit of antichrist. As such, he deserved to be resisted.

However, before we become too judgmental toward the Christians of 1930's Germany, we should look in the mirror. Are not many Christians in these United States behaving in the exact same manner? Have not many of us already embraced the spirit of antichrist? And if so, have we not, in our own way, already accepted the mark of the beast? Sure we have.

Many pastors and Christians embrace the authoritarian policies of one George W. Bush with the same enthusiasm and blind loyalty as Germans did Hitler. For example, according to White House insiders, while publicly embracing conservative Christians, the White House is privately said to have nothing but disdain for Christians. Mr. Bush acknowledged being a member of Skull & Bones, a secret society with a dark history. Others have reported that he is a member of Bohemian Grove, which, according to some, is an occultist society of the most sinister variety. Yet, all of this is rejected out of hand by most Christians today.

Plus, George W. Bush (as did Adolph Hitler) has led America into a preemptive and aggressive war against a foreign nation without provocation. Now, there is even talk at the White House of expanding the war in Iraq with attacks against Iran and Syria, and maybe even Pakistan. In addition, he is in the process of turning America into a Hitlerian surveillance society where our every move, phone call, and email are being monitored by federal police agencies.

Yet, conservative Christians are still so infatuated with President Bush that they actually believe that anyone who resists the President is resisting God. They further believe that if anyone votes for any candidate who is not a Republican (Bush's party), they are fighting against God. They gladly surrender their constitutional liberties and safeguards. They enthusiastically support an unconstitutional war in Iraq and would no doubt support expanding the war to wherever Bush decided. They happily cede Bush the power to tap their phones, read their emails, or open their mail (without warrant or court order, no less).

Regardless of one's politics or religion, the spirit of Big Brother, the spirit of military aggression, the spirit of occultism, the spirit of a police state mentality, the spirit of deception are all part of the spirit of antichrist.

Therefore, whether one identifies himself as a premillennialist or a postmillennialist or anything in between; whether we believe in a Rapture or not; no matter what our understanding of Eschatology might be, every Christian has a duty to "resist the devil" in any form in which he reveals himself. And that certainly means that any political leader, regardless of party, who embodies or exemplifies the spirit of antichrist, must be resisted. Anything less means to accept, in a way, the mark of the beast....Source

Chuck Baldwin -- We Desperately Need The "Confessing Church"

By Pastor Chuck Baldwin

January 4, 2008

NewsWithViews.com

If the reader has not already done so, I again urge you to read the book, Hitler's Cross, which was written by Erwin Lutzer and published by Moody Press. This book should be "required reading" for every pastor and Christian layman in America. In his book, Lutzer focuses on the attitudes and actions of Germany's pastors and churches during the rise and reign of the Third Reich. It is a masterpiece.

For those of us living in a country and time far removed from Hitler's Germany, it is hard to comprehend how that nation's Christians--and especially its ministers--could have been so thoroughly taken in by old Adolf. We assume such an event could never happen again--especially to us. However, to any honest observer of history, the conditions of the Church in America today are eerily similar to those of the Church in Nazi Germany.

For one thing, as did the Church in Nazi Germany, the Church in America has become infatuated with Big Government. Historically, patriotism in the United States meant love for God, love for family, and love for freedom and independence. Today, however, Christians of all persuasions have come to accept and even embrace the Nanny State, complete with its intrinsic obsession with an omnipotent federal bureaucracy that exercises perpetual surveillance and absolute control over every area of our lives.

For example, according to today's Republican Presidential candidates (with the exception of Ron Paul), patriotism demands that we click our heels to the Department of Homeland Security and that we enthusiastically support aggressive, preemptive war. This is exactly the kind of redefinition of patriotism used so brilliantly by Hitler and his fellow propagandists. Yes, Martha, it appears that history really does repeat itself.

When Ron Paul was asked about Mike Huckabee's overt usage of a cross for a campaign advertisement, he quoted Sinclair Lewis as saying, "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross." Many Christians railed against Dr. Paul for making this comment. However, the truth is, Ron Paul (himself a committed Christian) is one hundred percent right! (To see how Hitler used this same tactic, I invite readers to note the photograph of the German Fuhrer in Lutzer's book, on page 75, which shows Hitler coming out of church with a large emblem of the Cross directly over his head. This photo was used extensively by Hitler during his political campaigns.) ...read more