News Commentary

News Report No. 3
[our highlights]

$8.5 Billion Skype Deal presents a puzzle. (1)

Skype, the biggest acquisition in Microsoft's history, will ultimately be judged by whether Microsoft can weave the product deeply into its vast product portfolio, providing a superior experience on products as various as Windows PCs and Xboxes.

In that regard, Tony Bates, who was previously the chief executive of Skype and became president after the deal, and his Microsoft colleagues have not yet delivered, reports Nick Wingfield of The New York Times.

miguel de Portugal comments: Frankly, the only "puzzle" that we see is how come a company who was built on providing free video long distance calls worldwide is worth $8.5 billion.

We must get busy and start actively marketing the already mentioned beach front property in Arizona; obviously there is a market for the unbelievable. With this kind of naiveté we will offer two products: Beach from property facing the Atlantic Ocean and Beach front property facing the Pacific Ocean. Who knows, we may open up some parcels facing the Gulf of Mexico!

________________________
(1) New York Times Reports

May 30th, 2012 [Memorial of St. Joan of Arc (victim of religious fanaticism and ecclesiastical ignorance)]

News Report No. 1
[our highlights]

"The Holy See was directly involved in the disappearance of 15-year-old Emanuela Orlandi in 1983", according to a contentious accusation by the Catholic Church's leading exorcist. The Rev. Gabriele Amorth claimed that the girl's kidnapping was a "crime of a sexual nature."(1)

"Parties were organized, with a Vatican gendarme acting as the 'recruiter' of the girls," Amorth told La Stampa, according to a translation by The Telegraph. "The network involved diplomatic personnel from a foreign embassy to the Holy See. I believe Emanuela ended up a victim of this circle."

miguel de Portugal comments: Considering the high profile and position of Rev. Amorth, such accusation carries considerable weight. Let us pray that the poor man does not become another dangling decoration, this time, to some Roman bridge. (2)

_________________
(1) News Source
(2) A technique already used before

News Report No. 2
[our highlights]

"I confess: I'm one of the whistleblowers - We're doing it to defend the Pope" (1a)(1b)

The Vatileaks story, an informer speaks out: "There's a group of us: the real brains behind it are cardinals, then there are monsignors, secretaries, small fry."

"The valet is just a delivery boy that somebody wants to set up."

"Vatican intelligence has security systems more advanced than anything the CIA has... but cardinals are still in the habit of writing their messages by hand and dictating them." "It's open warfare, with everyone against everyone else."

miguel de Portugal comments: As we were saying....

_______________
(1a) English translation of Italian News
(1b) Original Italian version

May 29th, 2012

News Report No. 1
[our highlights]

The Spanish newspaper ABC, of definite and confirmed center-right leaning, published on their last Saturday edition (1a) (1b) a ranking of the sixteen banks which have received the most governmental financial help in the European Union and the United States.

The line up indicates that Germany, leads with 5 banks which required public funds, the United States is next with 4, the United Kingdom follows with 3 and Spain, Belgium Ireland and Holland follow with one bank each. The total amount used from public funds to bail out the financial system was a "mere" 470.3 trillion US Dollars.

With the intent of demonstrating, in yet a different way, how the general public is being lied to and fleeced, we have processed those numbers and others provided by allegedly credible institutions, like the IMF, who make the fleecing of those who can afford it the least, possible.

Using the above quoted bail out numbers and the official Gross National Product per capita for each nation (2) involved, we have come up with a new figure:

The number of citizens of each nation who must contribute their statistical share of the Gross National Product to bail out the financial system plundered by white collar criminals.

United Kingdom ---   3.6 million people contributed their statistical share of the Gross National Product of one year to bail out the financial system.
United States -------   2.8
Germany -----------    2.8
Spain    -----------    1.0
Belgium   -----------    0.3
Ireland -----------    0.3
Holland -----------    0.3

It even looks worse when one uses the per capita figure of the work force and not of the entire population.

Using the United States figures, as an example: 6.9 million members of the US work force (as opposed to the 2.8 million members of the general population) contributed their full share of the Gross National Product of one year to bail out the financial system.

But there is more to the disinformation that continues to be distributed by the media worldwide. Remember when we recently spoke about Spain being attacked mercilessly without reason? Look at the numbers above. The UK is 3.6 times worse than Spain while Germany and the US are 2.8 worse than Spain by those standards.

But there is even more. Remember that Ireland (and now Greece) seems to always be used as an example of what state to avoid financially? It turns out that Ireland is in as good a shape as Belgium and Holland which are used in the European Union as examples.

Brethren, we are not economists but we can use our brains and a calculators!

____________________
(1a) Spain's ABC, Saturday, May 26, 2012. page 33 . Numbers published in Euros.
(1b) We used a conversion rate of 1.30 US Dollar per 1.00 Euro
(2) Source

News Report No. 2
[our highlights]

Miami Police shoot, kill man eating another man's face. (1)

Miami police are still tight-lipped about the man they shot and killed on the MacArthur Causeway Saturday afternoon, but new details back claims they had no choice: the naked man they shot was trying to chew the face off another naked man, and refused to obey police orders to stop his grisly meal.

Surveillance video taken from security cameras at the nearby Miami Herald building show a police officer arrive on the scene, appear to be startled by the spectacle of two naked men lying on the street, and draw his service weapon. It appears that the officer shot one of the men, but it was difficult to tell in the video.

The bizarre shooting happened shortly after 2 p.m., when police responded to a 911 call about two naked men fighting on a bike path along the Causeway, which was packed with traffic on a busy holiday weekend.

miguel de Portugal comments: If one uses this as yet another example of far gone the "civilized" world is, the Kings and Queens of Denial will tell you: No; you hear more about these things now because the Internet. It has always been like that.

Remember, brethren, one can take a horse to the water but cannot make him drink. In Evangelical terms we could say: We can bring light to the people but we cannot make them see.

Jesus taught us how to handle such situations through Mark, Matthew and Luke. Using Mark as the example:

And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you; going forth from thence, shake off the dust from your feet for a testimony to them. [Mark 6:11]

If Jesus would be walking amongst us today as He did 2000 years ago, He would have summarized it thus: Upon encountering those in denial... just move on!

________________
(1) News Report

May 28th, 2012

News Update @ 11:40 AM EST

Asteroid 2012 KP 24, a smallish rock about 25 meters (80 feet) across, will pass pretty close to the Earth on May 28, buzzing us at a distance of about ~~30,000 kilometers (18,000 miles)~~ 51,000 kilometers (32,000 miles) [Note: the numbers at JPL have updated, making the pass a bit farther out than the numbers I originally used]. That’s close as passes go, but still a clean miss.

Closest approach is at about 15:00 UTC (11:00 a.m. Eastern US time) on May 28. ~~It’ll actually pass Earth closer than our geosynchronous satellites!~~

News Report No. 1
[our highlights]

Vatican in chaos after butler arrested for leaks. (1)

The Vatican's inquisition into the source of leaked documents has yielded its first target with the arrest of the pope's butler, but the investigation is continuing into a scandal that has embarrassed the Holy See by revealing evidence of internal power struggles, intrigue and corruption in the highest levels of the Catholic Church governance.

The detention of butler Paolo Gabriele, one of the few members of the papal household, capped one of the most convulsive weeks in recent Vatican history and threw the Holy See into chaos as it enters a critical phase in its efforts to show the world it's serious about complying with international norms on financial transparency.

The tumult began with the publication last weekend of a book of leaked Vatican documents including correspondence, notes and memos to the pope and his private secretary. It peaked with the inglorious ouster on Thursday of the president of the Vatican bank. And it concluded with confirmation Saturday that Pope Benedict XVI's own butler was the alleged mole feeding documents to Italian journalists in an apparent bid to discredit the pontiff's No. 2.

Bertone, 77, has been blamed for a series of gaffes and management problems that have plagued Benedict's papacy and, according to the leaked documents, generated a not inconsiderable amount of ill will directed at him from other Vatican officials.

"If you wrote this in fiction you wouldn't believe it," said Carl Anderson (who heads the Knights of Columbus), a member of the board of the Vatican bank which contributed to the whirlwind with its no-confidence vote in its president, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi. "No editor would let you put it in a novel."

The Vatican bank, known as the Institute for Religious Works, issued a scathing denunciation of Gotti Tedeschi in a memorandum obtained Saturday by The Associated Press. In it the bank, or IOR by its Italian initials, explained its reasons for ousting Gotti Tedeschi...."

Gotti Tedeschi was also accused by the board of leaking documents himself: The IOR memorandum said he "failed to provide any formal explanation for the dissemination of documents last known" to be in his possession.

Vatican documents leaked to the media in recent months alleged corruption in Vatican finance as well as internal bickering over the Holy See's efforts to comply with international norms to fight money laundering and terror financing.

The Vatileaks scandal began in January when Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi broadcast letters from the former No. 2 Vatican administrator to the pope in which he begged not to be transferred for having exposed alleged corruption that cost the Holy See millions of Euros in higher contract prices. The prelate, Monsignor Carlo Maria Vigano, is now the Vatican's U.S. ambassador.

miguel de Portugal comments: Let us take a very close look at the story as it is coming out of Viper City.

(a) The object of the leaked Vatican documents seems to be to discredit Bertone, Ratzinger's alleged enemy within the Vatican ruling group.
(b) The President of the Vatican Bank, Gotti Tedeschi, was discharged for a long list of improper behavior according to a document issued by the Bank itself. Who leaked such confidential document to AP? Tedeschi himself? Hardly although he "was also accused by the board of leaking documents himself" .
(c) Another "victim", Monsignor Carlo Maria Vigano, is "punished" by being given the Ambassadorship of the Vatican in the U.S. (the biggest diplomatic "plum" in the Vatican's State Department) head quartered at Washington, D.C., the most powerful Opus Dei enclave in the world.

It seems that we are witnessing the Vatican version of the 9-11 events. May those who have Eras, hear, and Eyes, see!
____________________
(1) Full News Report

News Report No. 2
[our highlights]

The CBS 3 I- News Team has learned that a Catholic priest who was removed from the ministry over sex abuse allegations now holds a sensitive security post at Philadelphia International Airport. (1)

The security checkpoint between Terminals D and E is a busy place where thousands of people – including lots of kids – pass through every day.

Until 2002, Harkins was a Catholic priest working at churches across South Jersey. But the Diocese of Camden removed him from ministry because it found he sexually abused two young girls. Now, in a new lawsuit, a third woman is claiming she also is one of Harkins' victims.

miguel de Portugal comments: The issue here is not that he was a Catholic priest - he could have been a Tibetan monk on a Tele-Evangelist just as well. The issue here is that an individual with that confirmed background should never be placed in such a sensitive security post.

________________
(1) News Report

News Report No. 3
[our highlights]

U.S. efforts fail to curtail trade in Afghan Opium. (1)

For years, American officials have struggled to curb Afghanistan’s opium industry, rewriting strategy every few seasons and pouring in more than $6 billion over the past decade to combat the poppies that help finance the insurgency and fuel corruption.

It is a measure of the problem’s complexity that officials can find little comfort even in the news this month that blight and bad weather are slashing this year’s poppy harvest in the south. They know from past seasons that blight years lead to skyrocketing opium prices and even greater planting efforts to come.

"Now I am desperate, what can I do?" said Mohammed Amin, a poppy farmer in Tirin Kot in Oruzgan Province, who harvested only one kilogram of opium poppy this year compared with 15 last year. "I don’t have any cash now to start another business, and if I grow any other crops, I cannot make a profit."

The seemingly unbreakable allure of poppy profits - for producers and traffickers, government officials and Taliban commanders alike - has kept fighting opium at the heart of efforts to improve security. It drove Richard C. Holbrooke, later the special envoy to Afghanistan, to write in 2008: "Breaking the narco-state in Afghanistan is essential, or all else will fail."

miguel de Portugal comments: We cannot curtail trade in Afghan opium and we really expect to stop the Taliban and Al-Qaeda & Co. activities there and beyond? Are we really that stupid to believe such idiocy? Maybe we really are and truly deserve the consequences associated with such state.

The only way to stop drug trade - and we really mean the only way - is to reduce the drive to its consumption. That can only be achieved in a spiritually healthy society. Not apparently healthy but really healthy.

But, who is going to do it? Opus Dei's Holy Pope and Saintly King? They cannot even positively influence the morals of their home country - Spain - and they think that they are going to save the world. An idea/concept as pathetic as its founder.

Come Lord Jesus and sweep away, forever, all that needs to be swept away before we completely destroy what is left of YOUR Creation - us included!

_______________________
(1) News Report

May 27th, 2012 [Feast of Pentecost]

News Report No. 1
[our highlights]

Asteroid 2012 KP 24, a smallish rock about 25 meters (80 feet) across, will pass pretty close to the Earth on May 28, buzzing us at a distance of about 30,000 kilometers (18,000 miles). That's close as passes go, but still a clean miss.(1)

Closest approach is at about 15:00 UTC (11:00 a.m. Eastern US time) on Monday, May 28. It will actually pass Earth closer than our geosynchronous satellites!

At closest approach, it will whiz by at about 13 km/sec (30,000 mph). I will note I calculated most of these numbers based on the JPL site linked above, and they may be refined over the next day or two.

It was discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey (as so many near-Earth asteroids are) on the evening of May 23/24.

miguel de Portugal comments:

First: Notice the lead time astronomers had before the close encounter - barely 96 hours. It is always a good idea to be "Ready to go" because we assure you - humanity will have less notice than that when "the other shoe drops". (The first shoe was during Noah's time...)

Second: God continues to "Tweet" those who have Eyes to see and Ears to hear. The "official time of the world" has been taken, by convention, as UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) (2) We are told that the "Closest approach is at about 15:00 UTC (11:00 a.m. Eastern US time)".

15:00 UTC is translated to 3 P.M. which just happens to be the Hour of Mercy.

THREE O'CLOCK IN THE AFTERNOON THE HOUR OF GREAT MERCY

"I remind you, My daughter, that as often as you hear the clock strike the third hour, immerse yourself completely in My mercy, adoring and glorifying it; invite its omnipotence for the whole world, and particularly for poor sinners; for at that moment mercy was opened wide for every soul. In this hour you can obtain everything for yourself and for others for the asking; it was the hour of grace for the whole world - mercy triumphed over justice." Our Lord, speaking to Sister Faustina Kowalska in 1938, told her (No.1572 of Sister Faustina's Diary (3)

We pray that those who need to notice such providential match across the entire world, do notice it and act upon it. Is this our last chance to appeal for His Mercy and be heard? (4) ~

As the Holy Spirit of God descends anew upon each one of you on this Feast of Pentecost seek the answer to that question.

______________________
(1) News Report
(2) Coordinated Universal Time
(3) Sister Faustina's Diary now available on-line
(4) This statement refers to the world globally and not on a personal basis. For example: Is this the last chance given to man to reduce - on a global basis - the level of suffering that awaits humanity?

May 26th, 2012

News Report No. 1
[our highlights]

Dragon capsule on course for space station arrival. (1)

The privately bankrolled Dragon capsule approached the International Space Station for a historic docking Friday after sailing through a practice rendezvous the day before.

The unmanned SpaceX Dragon was right on track to deliver a half-ton of supplies and become the first commercial vessel to visit the space station.

"It's a great view," Dutch space station astronaut Andre Kuipers said as the Dragon drew to within 900 feet, its strobe light flashing. "The solar panels are nicely lit."

miguel de Portugal comments: Our Good Lord continues to "Tweet" His followers.

___________________
(1) News Report

Pope Benedict XVI has already appointed a commission of cardinals to investigate the "Vatileaks" scandal, which erupted earlier this year with the publication of leaked memos alleging corruption and mismanagement in Holy See affairs and internal squabbles over its efforts to comply with international anti-money laundering norms.

May 19th, 2012

News Report from m de P

No more than three hours after we had published the news of May 16th regarding the ease with which your home or office Wi-Fi system can be hacked by "thy neighbor", we found out that it was even easier than we already knew.

It seems that - at least in Spain - anyone with a Smartphone with the Android operating system can crack "thy neighbor's" Wi-Fi system password in less than 30 seconds.

Upon inquiring, we also found out that it is not a special Application one has to download from cyberspace. No; the pirate Application is "a standard" in said phones.

News Report No. 2
[submitted by Mr. WO]

Opus Dei linked US Bishop accused of sex abuse.

Bishop Michael Bransfield (1) of the Diocese of Wheeling, WV, has been accused by more then one victim of abusing teen aged boys. And seemingly he was a serial abuser, though a very sophisticated one.

That his diocese is the home of dire poverty, coal mines and moonshine is misleading because Bransfield is intricately linked with both OD and with (many) other clerical abusers. Linked to a nexus of civil and clerical authority; of wealth and raw power.

He came from the Philadelphia Archdiocese, which is currently the focus of a massive ongoing investigation of abuse, going back many decades.

Cardinal Krol who ordained him was OD linked, and concealed many incidents of abuse. Lansdale High School where Bransfield taught was notorious for its priest abuser faculty members.

He was 'rewarded' by being assigned to the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC (the virtual 'cathedral' for the US). And became its long time Rector. (2) The bishop of DC who approved this assignment was Cardinal William Wakefield Baum, who was known as "Lady Wakefield" by clerical insiders (3). His successors Hickey and McCarrick were of equal 'character'.

If one reads down the linked chart (4), plus related links one will learn all one needs to know about this. Note his very high connections with Ecclesiastical Masonry. Especially the Papal Foundation (5).

We are not dealing with random "little mistakes". But the appearance of intentional connivance and conspiracy to abuse and 'share' youths as sex toys. A literal hornet's nest of sexual predators, in the guise of false 'piety'.

Postscript: You will also find what the Papal Foundation does with its riches is curious. It all goes for 'bricks & mortar' projects, not in direct aid to the poor. Note especially.... Haiti. (6)

_______________________
(1) Source
(2) During Bransfield's tenure at the National Basilica, the Knights of Columbus (and other OD linked entities & individual donors) literally poured millions of dollars into extravagant new art works, etc. While the poor of Washington, DC continued to suffer, unaided.
(3) As noted by psychologist and clerical sex abuse expert, AW Richard Sipe.
(4) Source
(5) Source (Most on the list of Trustees seem to be linked to OD. This One is quite interesting.)
(6) Source

May 18th, 2012

News Report No. 1
[our highlights]

A turbulent priest goes on the warpath against the 'bad masters' of the Italian Catholic Church. (1)

Italy has just witnessed a quite extraordinary outburst of rudeness from one of the country’s most prominent Catholics. A leading Opus Dei priest has described a monk regarded by some as a new Francis of Assisi as "substantially atheist” and a "prophet of the end of Catholicism". And he has accused a clutch of clerics, including a senior Vatican cardinal, of being "bad masters" leading the faithful astray.

Who is this turbulent priest? Step forward Msgr. Antonio Livi, former dean of the faculty of philosophy at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome. He was once a pupil of the celebrated French Thomist Étienne Gilson and today is a visiting professor at the University of Navarra in Spain. Mgr Livi is a formidable scholar and a Catholic philosopher of the first rank.

That makes his attack on Fr Enzo Bianchi, prior of the ecumenical Monastic Community of Bose near Turin, all the more wounding. This is what he said about Fr Bianchi: "Catholics consider him a master of spirituality, a new St Francis of Assisi able to re-propose to the Christians of today the Gospel sine glossa. But the scripture in his speeches is not the Word of God preserved and interpreted by the Church but only a rhetorical device for his propaganda in favour of a humanism that is nominally Christian but substantially atheist."

miguel de Portugal comments: As everyone knows - "we are no fans of Opus Dei" - and, in addition, we are certainly not impressed by the many titles and positions held/occupied by the attacking Opus Dei priest, Msgr. Antonio Livi.

However, all we had to do was to take a look at the face of "victimized" priest, Bianchi, to know that this time, for the wrong reasons (Opus Dei hates competition), the Opus Dei prelate is correct in his evaluation of Bianchi.

For different photographs of Bianchi Click Here.
.
______________
(1) Source

May 17th, 2012

News Report No. 1
[our highlights]

A Russian Tycoon and his soon-to-be Facebook fortune. (1)

In Wednesday's New York Times, Andrew E. Kramer tells the story of Alisher B. Usmanov, a Russian steel tycoon who made an ambitious bet on Facebook in 2009, in the midst of the global recession. With a less than $900 million investment in Facebook through two Russian entities, Mr. Usmanov and his business associates stand to make more than $6 billion in Facebooks initial public offering, based on the price range for the stock set by Facebooks bankers.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's chief executive and founder, turned to the Russian investors when other sources of financing had slowed. Mr. Usmanov and his associates were willing to make the investment without getting any voting rights or seats on the board, important conditions for the independent-minded Mr. Zuckerberg. They also agreed to have no say in the sites policies on privacy or political organizing.

The precise details of the Russian ownership in Facebook are difficult to assess.

miguel de Portugal comments: Anyone in the investment field who believes the above story at face value should reconsider it. That literally incredible and simply unbelievable information - giving $900 millions with no strings attached to any venture, specially with the Russian mentality - may be a clue to the inexplicable mystery of the simply incredible success of Facebook.

We are sure that more dots-to-be-connected will begin showing up accompanied with the Heavenly instructions on how to connect them.

_______________________
(1) News Report

News Report No. 2

'Ring of Fire' eclipse visible from China to Texas. (1)

Sunrises and sunsets often dazzle, but they'll have a special ring to them in a few days for people in the western United States and eastern Asia: The moon will slide across the sun, blocking everything but a blazing halo of light.

It's been almost two decades since a "ring of fire" eclipse was visible in the continental United States. To celebrate the end of that drought, nearly three dozen national parks in the path of the eclipse will host viewing parties.

The solar spectacle is first seen in eastern Asia at dawn Monday, local time. Weather permitting, millions of early risers in southern China, northern Taiwan and southeast Japan will be able to catch the ring eclipse. Then it creeps across the Pacific with the western U.S. viewing the tail end.

The late day sun will transform into a glowing ring in southwest Oregon, Northern California, central Nevada, southern Utah, northern Arizona and New Mexico and finally the Texas Panhandle where it will occur at sunset on Sunday. For 3 ½ hours, the eclipse follows an 8,500-mile path. Viewing, from beginning to end, lasts about two hours. The ring phenomenon lasts as long as 5 minutes depending on location.

Technical details from NASA's News Service (2)

miguel de Portugal comments: I take it's visibility in Texas as a personal wink from God.

_____________________
(1) Regular Media News
(2) NASA's News Service

News Report No. 3
[our highlights]

"There Are No Doctrinal Obstacles to Reconciliation" (1)

Opus Dei Bishop, Msgr Ignacio Arrieta, the Secretary of the Papal Council for Legal Texts, has stated that there are no doctrinal obstacles for the reconciliation of the Society of St. Pius X. "I think that we have clarified the doctrinal problems, bringing them in writing to paper, even when they are not simple. The real problem as it seems to me is that the division, the human distance, it goes back to the year of 1988."

Msgr. Arrieta, a Spanish Curial Bishop belongs to Opus Dei, and spoke last Monday on the 7th of May in Louvain-la-Neuve in Belgium, according to the Belgian newspaper La Libre Belgique. Among other themes which Msgr Arrieta were the canon law questions related to the reception of Anglicans into the Catholic Church, who were seeking full union with Rome and the case of the former scandal Bishop Vangluwe of Bruges.

Msgr. Arrieta is directly connected to with the reconciliation discussion of the Holy See with the Society. He is personally involved with the canonical regulation and with that the future canonical status of the Society.

The Spanish Bishop has been Secretary of the Papal Council for Legal Texsts since 2008. In February of 2012 he administered the lower orders and that of subdeacon to the Society of St. Peter in Wigratzbad.

________________
(1) News Report

May 16th, 2012

News Report from m de P

We have found out that it has become a common (and an easy) practice - at least where we are now located - to, in an undetected manner, hack "on thy neighbor's" internet connection and navigate in "thy neighbor's name".

It has become popular to have high speed cable internet access in homes but "everyone at home" wants access at the same time as well as anywhere in the house, but there is only one cable...

Not to worry! There is a device now that connects to the single cable coming into your house (or office, of course) and then emits a wireless signal that may be accessed by all household members anywhere in the house and office. All you need is a code - a lengthy string of numbers - so that each computer of the household may be able to connect. That unique confidential number, of course, is given to the legitimate suscriber by your Internet Service Provider, thu you feel secure.

Unfortunately "thy neighbor" is now able to easily crack the code, so to speak, and hack into your internet connection. You may say: "Well, we should not be greedy.... we should share with those in need. After all, we have so much Internet capacity that we would not even notice "ol' granny", next door, checking the latest obituaries on line."

There is one minor problem with that logic. If "thy neighbor" is using your internet connection for illegal activities: (a) buying/selling drugs; (b) terrorism; (c) pornography - adult or child; (d) hacking into Defense Department computers; etc., etc., the disclosed "guilty party" is not "thy neighbor".... it is the household who has legitimately contracted said internet connection.

Let us express it another way: An hateful "thy neighbor", which could include an official who wants to get you out of the way por political reasons, can set you up as a criminal "of his choice" by hacking into your connection, do whatever evil he wills (in your name, of course!) and just wait until you get picked up by the authorities.

Even if the legal system works well, it may a while before you can recover your already well soiled life and reputation.

The word from here is: Be very, very careful on how you set up your internet access system at home or in the office.

Oh, yes. The above is "no theory". We have seen it!

News Report No. 2
[our highlights]

Lightning hits French president's plane, none hurt. (1)

Socialist Francois Hollande took over as France's president Tuesday and jetted off to Berlin hours later for talks on Europe's debt crisis — only to have his plane struck by lightning. No one was hurt.

It was a startling beginning for a man who promised to be a more "normal" president, and less flashy than his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy, who was ousted by voters after a single term for his handling of a stagnant economy plagued by joblessness.

After a succession of rain-drenched and pomp-filled ceremonial inauguration events, Hollande took off in a Falcon 7X aircraft for Berlin. The plane was hit by lightning shortly afterward, and returned to the Villacoublay air base outside Paris as a precaution for inspection, Defense Ministry spokesman Gerard Gachet said.

miguel de Portugal comments: Believe it or not, there may just be a loud and clear message in that event.

In Norse mythology, Thor is a hammer-wielding god associated with thunder, lightning, storms... Thor is a prominently mentioned god throughout the recorded history of the Germanic peoples, from the Roman occupation of regions of Germania.

Into the modern period, Thor continued to be acknowledged in rural folklore throughout Germanic regions. (2)

It seems that Mr. Hollande may have a hard time in dealing with Germanic Mrs. Merkel.

____________
(1) News Report
(2) Thor, the god of thunder, lightning, storm

May 15th, 2012

News Report

The Portuguese and Spanish media reported that last May 13th the crowds at the Sanctuary of Fatima even exceeded the crowds of the times when a Pope has visited the Sanctuary.

The Sanctuary authorities conclude that such turn out was the result of the most grave financial crisis Portugal is going through.

Moral of the story: The megaphone that God uses for the deaf to hear - Pain - continues to work like the proverbial charm.

The problem is - as humanity has shown to God over and over again - that once the volume is turned down people drift away from God again and straight into the road to perdition. That is why, symbolically speaking, this time the volume will continue to increase until the ear drum is punctured and then people will only be able to hear God speaking to their torn-with-pain hearts.

May 14th, 2012

News Report
[highlights by sender]

We have received the following communication from a close cooperator and we are reproducing exactly as we received it. It is a perfect example that the core "values", if we can call them that, of the ruling members of the Roman Catholic Church Administration have not changed.

I visited Mark Mattett's site to see what he was saying now, as a supporter of B16.

At the top of his site was a link to this 10-minute video for a boys' camp in Canada, Arcatheos, which aims to provide a boot camp/rite of passage experience for its attendees. I viewed the film, and it mixes shots of the celebration of the Mass (?) with scenes of medieval-style military training.

Embracing Hope TV » Blog Archive » Arcatheos

It looks like training for wanna-be Crusaders.

From this site, I went to the home page for the camp itself:

Arcatheos Boys' Camp

then I went to the "about us" page:

About Us

where I saw this:

========================

Previously known as Camp Rivendell, the vision for Arcātheos was founded in the year 2003. This camp has quickly grown into one of the most exciting boys’ camps in North America. After all… what boy can resist the chance to draw his sword, or fire water-balloons by catapult, against a menacing horde of evil villains? Everything at camp is tailored to inspire a friendship with Christ, and gives boys an opportunity to encounter the great strength of their Catholic faith. In addition to all the action, there is a rigorous set of training objectives the boys undertake, which can be explored further in the formation pages of this website. The sister camp to Arcātheos is Captivenia, which means "captivating grace,", and is open to Catholic girls.

The camp is a unique apostolate in its own right, and is proud to be affiliated with the ConQuest Boys’ Clubs, and Mission Network. These are both initiatives of Regnum Christi, which is an apostolic movement at the service of the Church. This movement has been officially recognized by the Holy See. The camp is located 45 minutes S.W. of Calgary Alberta, on the incredibly scenic Britton Ranch, thanks to the generosity of Bill and Linda Britton. In keeping with the rustic medieval theme, the boys get to sleep in large tents on individual cots which are provided.

The dads who attend help make this the epic journey it is today. These men play an essential element by making it exciting, safe, and full of surprises. We are not set up to mirror the traditional style of a father & son camp. Rather, we enlist the dads as an extension of the adult leadership from the moment they arrive. Although there is time for fathers to check up on how their son is doing, the majority of time may be spent preparing theatrical scenes, ambushes, teaching wilderness skills, mentoring, serving the boys, and dressing up with the villains to battle their sons. The feedback from the men, in regard to their ability to personally add to the camp through their efforts, has been quite positive.

========================

Sender's comment: I would have thought that no parent would let their children anywhere near a Legionaries/Regnum Christi enterprise ... but all of this seems to be current news.

May 13th, 2012 [95th Anniversary of First Apparition in Fatima]

News Report No. 1
[our highlights]

Sheriff's deputies secretly attached a GPS tracker to the truck of a vocal local government critic who they feared was planning to kidnap her son - and then tried and failed to retrieve it for four months. (1)

Stacy Lynne found the device on her SUV earlier this month after growing suspicious that deputies were following her. Lynne has repeatedly tangled with the sheriff's office and Fort Collins city officials over a variety of issues, including what she believes is a U.N. plot to take over local government and a child-custody battle that led to her arrest.

She looked for and discovered the tracker after several incidents in which she returned to her truck to find police nearby and thought they might have been following her.

As it turns out, they were.

miguel de Portugal comments: We are giving the Sheriff's office the benefit of the doubt. We read that they "...tried and failed to retrieve it for four months."

Granted, it was illegal to install it in the first place but they may have realized the legal consequences to such behavior, repented and tried to remove it.

The purpose of our publishing this is as a reminder that such devices exists and are used illegally. Trust me, I know; we can write the proverbial book about "official stalking".

______________
(1) News Report

News Report No. 2
[our highlights]

Egypt funeral turns happy after dead man awakes. (1)

The funeral of a 28 year-old waiter in southern Egypt turned into a celebration when he woke up after being declared dead.

Hospital officials had pronounced dead Hamdi Hafez al-Nubi, who came from the village of Naga al-Simman in the southern province of Luxor, after he suffered a heart attack while working.

His family says grieving relatives took him home and, according to Islamic tradition, washed his body and prepared him for burial Friday evening.

A doctor sent to sign the death certificate found it strange that his body was warm. At closer observation she discovered he was still alive. His mother fainted upon hearing the good news.

miguel de Portugal comments: Just a reminder that there some good news left in this world. Few, but still refreshing. Just to meditate upon how good his mother and the rest of the family felt, makes me feel very good.

___________________
(1) News Report

May 12th, 2012

News Report No. 1
[our highlights]

According to NaturalNews' Health Ranger...

As the impending Fukushima disaster frighteningly illustrates, the human race is on the verge of being decimated by what I call "scientific suicide."

In the name of "science," our world is being destroyed... and the fate of the human race is gravely threatened.

In what I'm calling the most important warning I've ever published, today I'm calling for a return to the Precautionary Principle and a halt to all nuclear power, GMOs, nanotechnology and other high-risk technologies until we can determine their long-term risk to the very survival of the human race. (1)

miguel de Portugal comments: This poor man, like the majority of well intentioned but disoriented individuals, think that something - outside of God - will stop our race into the abyss. The consequence is, of course, they are preparing for it in the wrong way, by buying surviving equipment and supplies, instead of the right way. (2)

Sad but true.

We have done what we could, in the Name of God, since 1991. Those who have not heard yet the "voice clamoring from the desert" is because God did not Will it. He knows best.

May God have Mercy on His Elect!

________________________
(1) NaturalNews issues warning
(2)
Pray! Pray! Pray! and then Pray some more!
What can we do? Part 1 and Part 2
Physical preparation for the initial shock: Part 1 and Part 2

May 11th, 2012

News Report No. 1
[our highlights]

Syrian opposition signs deal with Cuban counterpart. (1)

The opposition Syrian National Council has signed a partnership deal with Miami-based opponents of Cuba's communist regime, which both sides said was aimed at fighting dictatorship in their countries.

The agreement was signed on Tuesday at a Miami hotel, officials said, noting that it constituted the creation of a united front and an exchange of ideas to boost democracy and respect for individual freedoms in Syria and Cuba.

The Assembly of the Cuban Resistance (ARC), and the SNC said in a joint declaration that "the people want the overthrow of the dictatorial regimes of [President Bashar] al-Assad and [Raul] Castro."

The statement said the agreement also targeted political, diplomatic, logistical and humanitarian co-operation against the rulers in their countries.

"We are fighting for the same ideal, which is none other than the respect of the fundamental rights of the peoples of Syria and Cuba," said Sylvia Iriondo, head of Mothers and Women Against Repression in Cuba, an ARC-affiliated group.

Comments: Never mind that most of the Miami-based opponents of Cuba's communist regime are heavily influenced by the Opus Dei Roman Catholicism and that the Syrian rebels are heavily influenced by Al Qaeda and Hamas mentality. To wit:

Sunni Islamist groups such as Al-Qaeda and Hizb ut-Tahrir have voiced their support for the Syrian opposition. Hamas prime minister of Gaza, Ismail Haniya, expressed his support for "the Syrian people who seek freedom, democracy and reform", but Hamas leader Salah al-Bardaweel added that this does not mean severance of ties with the Assad government.

American officials believe that Al-Qaeda in Iraq has joined the opposition and has conducted bomb attacks against government forces. Leader of Al-Qaeda Ayman al-Zawahiri stated: "Wounded Syria is still bleeding day after day, and the butcher [Bashar Assad] isn't deterred and doesn't stop," and "However, the resistance of our people in Syria is escalating and growing despite all the pains, sacrifices and blood."

When asked if the United States would arm the opposition, Hillary Clinton expressed fears that such weapons could fall into the hands of Al-Qaeda or Hamas, organizations she believes now support the opposition.

On 5 March, U.S. Senator and former Republican Presidential candidate John McCain said that America should bomb the Assad government, support the Syrian opposition, and defend civilians from government attacks.

One commander from the Free Syrian Army indicated that this is a religious Islamic struggle against a secular government. He claimed that: "For the first time, we are able to proclaim the word of God throughout this land." Although he also stated that they were fighting for all of Syria's religions and sects: Christian, Muslim, Alawite, Sunni, Druze, Shia. Alawites who have taken refugee in Lebanon have told journalists that they were offered money by the Syrian government to spread sectarianism through chants and graffiti. (2)

All according to plan (3):

Step 1: The whole world, country by country is brought into great turmoil. Propitiated by political, financial, ethnic or religious confrontations or whatever is the best means in each country to achieve the desired purpose: Generalized chaos.

In Summary: "Bring the world up to its boiling point". [Does this "ring a bell"?]

.... and only a few are the wiser.
________________________
(1) Source
(2) Source
(3) The Plan

Meanwhile, in the Financial Front....

News Report No. 2
[our highlights]

The Fed clears China's first US bank takeover. (1)

The United States opened its banking market to China's biggest bank ICBC, for the first time clearing a takeover of a US bank by a Chinese state-controlled company.

Just days after high-level US-China economic talks in Beijing, the Federal Reserve approved an application from Industrial and Commercial Bank of China to buy a majority stake in the US subsidiary of Bank of East Asia.

The transaction will make ICBC the first Chinese state-controlled bank to acquire retail bank branches in the United States. ICBC has been the most aggressive of China's "big four" banks in expanding abroad.

Outside China, it operates subsidiary banks in Asian countries and has branches in a number of countries including Germany, Japan and Singapore.

Comments: Are they really necessary?

____________________
(1) Source

May 10th, 2012

News Report No. 1

Minnesota Archdiocese is spending $ 650,000 in the political campaign to pass a Constitutional Amendment to establish that marriage is to be only between a man and a woman. (1)

Contributor's (Mrs. MLMcK) comments: They are spending $650,000 against gay marriage? If they are going political then they should be taxed. I can sure think of numerous ways they could be spending that money for the good of the people.

At the present time I know no one who is gay. I used to know many at my work places. This really bothers me they are wasting their money this way.

miguel de Portugal comments: Will someone tell the Minnesota Archdiocese, not to mention President Obama, that by Biblical definition, a marriage is only to be entered into by and between two individuals of the opposite sex?

No legislature nor Presidential announcement can change that. They may call a Civil Union - with which we agee -whatever they wish to label it as, but it is not a marriage. Period! How about spending the $650,000 to try to patch up the absolute abysmal Evangelization these betrayers of Christ have done during the last 1,600 years?

Regarding taxing religious institutions - years ago we wrote about that to key political figures. As we recall, we proposed that all money paid out by the Roman Catholic Church as part of the sexual abuse scandal should have been taxed as ordinary income with no deductions allowed.

Amazingly enough, in "Opus Dei Spain" they are beginning to pass laws to tax Church property not directly involved in the cult itself (like churches, cathedrals, etc. which would remain tax exempt.)

____________________
(1) News Report

News Report No. 2

Last Monday, South Korean customs officials made the horrifying announcement that they had confiscated over 17 thousand capsules stuffed with the dried, powdered flesh of babies. (1)

The pills, smuggled in from the northeastern China, are taken as a general tonic and stamina booster.

The BBC reports that a customs official told the Korea Times, "It was confirmed those capsules contain materials harmful to the human body, such as super bacteria. We need to take tougher measures to protect public health." No one has come forward to admit to becoming sick, but then, why would anyone willingly admit to consuming the ghoulish elixir?

Baby pills are perhaps the most shocking product used for medicinal purposes, but they are by no means the only one. The World Wildlife Foundation reports that the demand for tiger bone and rhino horn for use in some traditional Chinese medicines has pushed species close to extinction. The use of bile from the gall bladders of bears has also decimated bear populations in Asia.

miguel de Portugal comments: As we do not tire of reminding one and all: We have given God no other choice than to allow upon humanity what will make what we know as Noah's Flood look like child's play.

Just hours before we typed these lines we found out that a School for Prostitutes has opened in Spain and that there is a waiting list already!!

____________________
(1) News Report

May 9th, 2012

News Report No. 1
[our highlights]

Worker jumps into vat of acid to save colleague. (1)

A New Jersey roofer jumped into a vat of nitric acid solution to save a co-worker who had fallen 40 feet into the tank, fire officials said.

Rob Nuckols, 51, was working on the ground floor Monday morning at Swepco Tube LLC when his colleague Martin Davis plunged through a roof and into the vat of diluted acid and became fully submerged, officials said.

He jumped into the vat and was waist-high while he and three others pulled Davis out, Clifton Fire Chief Vince Colavitti told The Record of Woodland Park. The vat contained a 40 to 70 percent nitric acid solution used for cleaning metal tubing.

Rescue workers arrived after five minutes, cut Davis out of his clothes and sprayed him with water to limit burns, Colavitti said. Nuckols had already rinsed himself off.

Davis is in critical condition with a broken rib, punctured lung, and burns on his legs and side, a relative said.

Nuckols was treated for burns on his legs and abdomen. The three other roofers were taken to hospitals but there was no sign that they were seriously injured.

The men were working for Gar Con Enterprises of Flemington. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration said it was investigating and looking into both companies.

miguel de Portugal comments: Now, that is refreshing! No, no! Not the dip into the nitric acid vat. We are referring to the act of true Christian heroism taking place in a world submerged in a "vat of hedonism".
___________
(1) News Report

News Report No. 2
[our highlights]

Crisis? What crisis? (1)

Given the sluggish recovery and a strapped consumer, you’d expect to see corporate America trudging along, not racing for glory. In fact, the Fortune 500 are thriving as a group. Unlike the U.S. economy, they’ve shown quicksilver agility, rapidly shifting their product mix and producing more goods at little new cost. This nimbleness belies the immense size of these companies and, frequently, their advanced age.

The Fortune 500 generated a total of $824.5 billion in earnings last year, up 16.4% over 2010. That beats the previous record of $785 billion, set in 2006 during a roaring economy. The 2011 profits are outsized based on two key historical metrics. They represent 7% of total sales, vs. an average of 5.14% over the 58-year history of the Fortune 500. Companies are also garnering exceptional returns on their capital. The 500 achieved a return-on-equity of 14.3%, far above the historical norm of 12%.

miguel de Portugal comments: Are we in a parallel Universe or are the Fortune 500 companies operating in a parallel Universe?

______________
(1) News Report

May 8th, 2012

News Report No. 1
[our highlights]

The US Military wants To 'Microchip' troops. (1)

DARPA is at it again. This time, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has announced plans to create nanochips for monitoring troops health on the battlefield. Kate Knibbs at Mobiledia reports the sensors are targeted at preventing illness and disease, the two causes of most troops medical evacuations.

What seems like a simple way of cutting costs and increasing efficiency has some people concerned that this is the first step in a "computer chips for all" scenario.

Bob Unruh, at WND, reports one of those opponents, Katherine Albrecht, co-author of Spychips says "It's never going to happen that the government at gunpoint says, 'You're going to have a tracking chip. It's always in incremental steps. If you can put a microchip in someone that doesn’t track them … everybody looks and says, 'Come on, it’ll be interesting seeing where we go.'"

She said it was expected that captive audiences, such as prisoners and troops, would be the first subjected to the requirement, which would make it easier for the general populace to accept it as well. "It's interesting," she said. "I'm stunned how this younger generation is OK. They don't see the problem. … 'Why wouldn't everyone want to be tracked?'"

But she said Americans will have to decide to say no to incremental advances, or by the time officials finally roll out the idea of chips for all, whether they want them or not, it will be too late to decide. "The analogy that I draw is [that of a train], and if I'm in California and I do not want to wind up in New City, every stop brings me closer," she said. "At some point I have to get off the train."

DARPA is calling the effort "a truly disruptive innovation," that could help the U.S. fight healthier and more efficiently than its adversaries.

miguel de Portugal comments: There is no stopping this train. Only God can stop it, and He will! The problem started at the train station when humanity got on the Hell Express. In the Hell Express, as opposed to the fabled Orient Express, one's soul is murdered; not only your body.... and we were warned about that by The Word Himself:

And fear ye not them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him that can destroy both soul and body in hell. [Matthew 10:28]

The only option that we have is to get off the Hell Express before it gets to its destination and that is only possible with and through God.

No. Science and progress are not bad on themselves. The problem is the "Wanna be" (2) syndrome of man. Pathetic man is determined to be like God; he is determined to build his own Tower of Babel to get to Heaven. Then, he directs all scientific progress to that end. The result is a First Class Ticket in the Hell Express.

For example. We just heard on the news about a new computer program developed by INTERPOL and which is now in use in Spain. With that program, anyone on line downloading and/or trading child pornography is detected and located on a map as if with a GPS. If that detection occurs a certain number of times (allowing for trick links who cause unsuspecting internet users to open an child pornography page), the authorities move in and arrest the individual.

Well, we give a standing-on-the-chair ovation for that particular use for that program, but, unfortunately, we all know that soon it will be used for criminal (civil and political) activities in order to control others. The "Wanna be" God complex will rear its ugly and deadly head again.

______________________
(1) Business Insider Reports
(2) "Wanna be" pseudo-despective Americanism for the phrase "Wants to be like"

News Report No. 2
[our highlights]

Another Conservative Catholic group - this time Communion and Liberation - gripped by scandal. (1)

For a long time it was Opus Dei, and then, even before massive sex scandals exploded around their founder, it was the Legionaries of Christ. Today, at least in Italy, it now seems Communion and Liberation's turn to be the conservative Catholic group generating the most controversy, the sexiest news headlines, and the greatest volume of conspiracy theories.

That's likely a special source of heartburn for Pope Benedict XVI, for whom Communion and Liberation has always been his personal favorite among the new movements in the Catholic church.

It's also a colossal case of bad timing, since a beatification cause for the group's founder, the late Italian Fr. Luigi Giussani, was recently opened and endorsed by the bishops of Lombardy, the region where the cause is based.

Contributor's comments: Religion, false piety, real power, and real corruption ... they inevitably seem to go together.

It looks as if the Opus Dei rivals are falling hard due to scandal (first the Legionaries of Christ, now Communion and Liberation), leaving for now Opus Dei as the "last man standing" among the cults within the church.

________________
(1) For the full news report highlighted by its contributor Click Here

May 7th, 2012

News Reports No. 1

It seems that we have found out why the Roman Catholic Church in Cuba is so pliable to the Castro regime, to the extent to have encouraged negative behavior towards Catholic dissidents, even when they were using prayerful means.

In an interview (1) with a former Cuban intelligence officer - now in Miami, of course! - the Cuban Patriarch, Cardinal Jaime Ortega has been "outed" in a very graphic and detailed way. That is precisely the information the Cuban authorities use to blackmail him.

The Cuban government found out because it seems that Ortega's black lover was an undercover agent. The governement must have hours upon hours of videotapes on the poor man, who fell like the proverbial ton of bricks, engaged with his lover.

We are happy to see the Opus Dei operations ensnared, but feel very sorry for the man who fell into satan's trap.

This explains why a confirmed Opus Dei church - that of Cuba - has been so gentle with a ferocious communist dictatorship.

As Jesus said: For there is nothing hid, which shall not be made manifest: neither was it made secret, but that it may come abroad. [Mark 4:22]

____________________
(1) Interview in Spanish

News Report No. 2
[our highlights]

Who's who? Obama, Romney projecting mirror image.(1)

He's a smug, Harvard-trained elitist who doesn't get how regular Americans are struggling these days. More extreme than he lets on, he's keeping his true agenda hidden until after Election Day. He's clueless about fixing the economy, over his head on foreign policy. Who is he?

Your answer will help decide the next president.

Is it Barack Obama, as seen by Mitt Romney? Or Romney, the way Obama depicts him? For all their liberal versus conservative differences, when the two presidential contenders describe each other, they sound like they're ragging on the same flawed guy. Or mirror images of that guy.

miguel de Portugal comments: As we have said before - Once Clinton's job of delaying the establishment of the New World Order was completed (2), it does not matter who occupies the White House. The "Masters" have gone from "string pulling" to "wire pulling".

We can have Popeye or the Mad Hatter in the Oval Office - since the year 2000 it no longer matters.

___________________
(1) News Report
(2) The Ten Year Delay

____________________
(1) Do not ask us "Why?" because, at this time, I do not know, but that it will mark a "Before" and "After" in our race to the abysm, it certainly will!

News Report No. 2
[our highlights]

Russian General threatens 'Pre-emptive' attacks. (1)

A senior Russian general threatened on Wednesday pre-emptive attacks on missile-defense sites in Poland and elsewhere in Eastern Europe in the event of a crisis, underscoring the Kremlin's opposition to the Obama administration's plans and further undermining relations between the countries.

While Russian officials have said previously that the antimissile sites could become targets in the event of war, the threat of a pre-emptive attack was new.

miguel de Portugal comments: Where there is smoke, there is fire. There is absolutely nothing obvious, to the general public, for such a threat upgrade but.... if they did, there must be a real reason which escapes most.

_________________
(1) News Report

May 5th, 2012 [First Saturday of the Month]

News Report No. 1
[our highlights]

Best Buy employee wrongly 'Outed' Denver man. (1)

A heterosexual man in Denver claims that a Best Buy employee wrongly "outed" him on Facebook after he left his phone for repair. Rich Dewberry said he brought in his mobile device to get fixed and was given a new phone. Shortly afterward, his Facebook status read, "I am gay, I'm coming out."

"The phone just started ringing constantly after that from [an] ex-spouse to friends," he told ABC's Denver affiliate, KMGH. Dewberry said he was logged into his Facebook account on the phone he left with the store.

"I feel I have been humiliated. My reputation has been tarnished," he said. "Just having to explain it to certain people that I haven't been in contact for a while," he said. "I feel I shouldn't have to do that."

Dewberry filed a complaint with the store, which told him the employee was fired, he said. Best Buy provided a statement to KMGH: "Each year, every employee of Best Buy is asked to review and sign our Code of Ethics, which includes details on how they are expected to handle customer information."

Dewberry told KMGH he is exploring his legal options with an attorney. The company did not return a request for comment.

miguel de Portugal comments: Now, imagine what can be done with hacked pass words to any account on any social network. Damage could be inflicted upon innocent citizens; damage from which they could never fully recover. There is no doubt: The privacy issue, or the lack thereof, is already well out of control and requires careful attention.

The Best Buy employee was fired - So what? Did that reverse the damage done? No! Will it stop other unbalanced employees from doing the same or equivalent? No!

Legal incentives should be given to Best Buy and other organizations - including social networks - to take the necessary steps to minimize the chances for something like that to happen. But, ultimately, the responsibility to minimize the vulnerability of our privacy is ours.
_________________
(1) News Report

News Report No. 2
[our highlights]

AP apologizes for firing reporter over World War II scoop. (1)

In World War II's final moments in Europe, Associated Press correspondent Edward Kennedy gave his news agency perhaps the biggest scoop in its history. He reported, a full day ahead of the competition, that the Germans had surrendered unconditionally at a former schoolhouse in Reims, France.

For this, he was publicly rebuked by the AP, and then quietly fired. The problem: Kennedy had defied military censors to get the story out. British Prime
Minister Winston Churchill and President Harry Truman had agreed to suppress news of the capitulation for a day, in order to allow Russian dictator Josef Stalin to stage a second surrender ceremony in Berlin. Kennedy was also accused of breaking a pledge that he and 16 other journalists had made to keep the surrender a secret for a time, as a condition of being allowed to witness it firsthand.

miguel de Portugal comments: Once again we see how the news are manipulated to satisfy political agendas and then, later on, admitted to as "if nothing of importance really happened."

__________________
(1) News Report

May 4th, 2012 [First Friday of the Month]

News Report
[our highlights]

'The time is finished': Religious sect erects billboards in Toronto ahead of the 'transformation'. (1)

Doris Rosado watches her teenage daughters, Ninette and Kiara Mongrut, get the numbers "666" tattooed on their wrists, beaming with pride. The number typically conjures up biblical symbolism tied to the Antichrist, but this St. Catharines, Ontarion (Canada), family belongs to a obscure Christian sect for which "666" is a positive symbol of their group's messianic leader.

"They wanted to do it," Ms. Rosado, 45, said at the St. Catharines tattoo parlour where her daughters were inked. "But now it's more important because we're counting down… I'm so proud."

For this family, and other members of Growing in Grace International, these tattoos are a way of demonstrating their faith as true believers of Jose de Luis de Jesus - who they fervently believe is the second coming of Jesus Christ - before a day of reckoning they believe will wipe out most of humanity.

The group, which they say has branches in five Canadian cities and members in more than 130 countries, believes that on June 30 (or July 1 across the international dateline), their Texas-based leader and his followers will be transformed, said Alex Poessy, the group’s bishop in Canada.

To spread the word, Growing in Grace put up billboards in Toronto this week featuring Mr. de Jesus.

"That day, the body of Jose de Luis de Jesus, who is a human like you and me, his flesh is going to be immortal…. He’s going to be living forever. And that will happen to him, but also his followers."

miguel de Portugal comments: What is disturbing, but very typical, is not the claim made by that demonic entity - Jose Luis (2) - but how easily people are led astray. Through this tiny window (1) you will be able to see just a tiny fraction of the billions who will be led astray by the same one who is moving Jose de Luis, using other vehicles, of course.

Have they noticed that on June 30th we honor the First Martyrs of the Roman Church?

_________________
(1) A Must See Canadian News Report

(2) According to Wikipedia:

José Luis de Jesús Miranda (born April 22, 1946 in Ponce, Puerto Rico) is the founder and leader of Creciendo en Gracia (Growing In Grace International Ministry, Inc.), based in Miami, Florida. He claims to be both Jesus Christ returned and the Antichrist, and exhibits a "666" tattoo on his forearm. He has referred to himself as "Jesucristo Hombre" which translates to "The Man Christ Jesus".

In early 2007 he claimed that he was the Antichrist. He states that the term is appropriate because people are no longer to follow the "Jewish teachings" of Jesus of Nazareth, but rather to follow the Apostle Paul's teachings through De Jesús. According to De Jesús, "Antichrist" means "no longer following Jesus of Nazareth as he lived in the days of his flesh".

Most recently, followers have shown their support by getting "666" tattoos on their bodies. "666", de Jesús says, is not a sign of the Devil (he preaches that the Devil was destroyed), but the number of the Antichrist. A gallery of followers tattooed with the number of his name, 666, may be seen on his official website.

May 3rd, 2012

News Report
[our highlights]

The leader of Ireland's 4 million Catholics, Cardinal Sean Brady, faced renewed pressure to resign Wednesday after a BBC documentary accused him of helping to cover up child abuse committed by a notorious pedophile priest in the 1970s. (1)

Brady already has admitted he took written testimony in 1975 from two abused teenage boys and gave the report to his bishop, not the police. The revelations became public after victims sued Brady and the church for damages and won confidential settlements.

One of those now-adult children, Brendan Boland, told the BBC he also alerted Brady to five other children being abused by the same priest, but Brady didn't tell their parents of the danger. The priest, Brendan Smyth, spent two more decades abusing children in Ireland and the United States before being imprisoned.

Boland said his own father had not been allowed in the room when Brady questioned him about Smyth's sexual assaults, contradicting Brady's claim that his father was present. Brady had the 14-year-old boy sign an oath of secrecy - a measure that the church insists was designed to protect the boy, not the church.

miguel de Portugal comments: This problem simply will not go away because the lying and deceit has been so great that it automatically fuels the crisis.

Didn't the One Whom they claim to represent say:

If you continue in my word, you shall be my disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. [John 8: 31-32]

They will never free themselves from the fall out of this scandal and it may even increase further if the sexual abuse issue by religious authorities in Portugal and Spain is ever "uncorked".

_______________
(1) News Report

May 2nd, 2012

News Report No. 1
[our highlights]

Key witness to RFK assassination says Sirhan Sirhan didn't act alone. (1)

A key witness to the 1968 assassination of Robert F. Kennedy has retracted her official statements in the case and now claims that convicted assassin Sirhan Sirhan did not act alone.

Nina Rhodes-Hughes, 78, tells CNN that the FBI "twisted" her original statements to authorities. In recent court filings led by California Attorney General Kamala Harris, state prosecutors argue that even if there were a second gunman on the scene, Sirhan is still guilty of murder.

"What has to come out is that there was another shooter to my right," Rhodes told CNN. "The truth has got to be told. No more cover-ups."

miguel de Portugal comments: As we have said before - the RFK assassination, like all the other obvious geo-political plots, will never be "solved". Even if someone showed up with true videotapes of the conspirators planning the assassination of JFK, RFK and Martin Luther King as well as the, Surprise!, Surprise!, 9-11 events, they will not be accepted. You'll hear the clamor of: Photo Shop! Photo Shop! (that is, claiming that they are manipulated videos as opposed to real videos).

Brethren, let us admit to the fact that most of the First World citizens are in perpetual State of Denial; a state that only God can, and will break. Those of the Second World are too busy trying to get to the First World status, State of Denial included; and those of the Third World are too hungry to even think about anything but where is their next meal coming from.
________________
(1) News Report

News Report No. 2
[our highlights]

Supreme Court moves to center of presidential race. (1)

The Supreme Court, suddenly at the heart of presidential politics, is preparing what could be blockbuster rulings on health care and immigration shortly before the fall election.

The court, sometimes an afterthought in presidential elections, is throwing a new element of uncertainty into the campaign taking shape between President Barack Obama and presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney.

Sharply divided between four conservatives, four liberals and one conservative-leaning swing justice, the court already is viewed as being nearly as partisan as Congress. Within weeks it will rule on the contentious 2010 Democratic-crafted health care overhaul and a Republican-backed Arizona law that's seen as a model for cracking down on illegal immigrants.

Obama sometimes seems to be running against the court, or at least its conservative members. Whether that will sway voters in November is unclear. The public receives far less information and visual imagery of the Supreme Court than it does of the White House and Congress.

miguel de Portugal comments: Why I am not surprised......? [Just a rhetorical question, of course, considering the the Opus Dei controls it.]

__________________
(1) News Report

News Report No. 3
[our highlights]

Child-pornography offenders are now the focus of an intense debate within the legal community. (1)

Their crimes are so loathsome that some hardened courtroom veterans recoil at viewing the evidence. Yet child-pornography offenders are now the focus of an intense debate within the legal community as to whether the federal sentences they face have become, in many cases, too severe.

By the end of this year, after a review dating to 2009, the U.S. Sentencing Commission plans to release a report that's likely to propose changes to the sentencing guidelines that it oversees. It's a daunting task, given the polarized viewpoints that the commission is weighing.

On one side of the debate, many federal judges and public defenders say repeated moves by Congress to toughen the penalties over the past 25 years have badly skewed the guidelines, to the point where offenders who possess and distribute child pornography can go to prison for longer than those who actually rape or sexually abuse a child.

"They need to be taught how much pain they inflict and a greater term of imprisonment will teach them that, (and) will comfort victims seeking justice," the victim said. "I don't believe that short periods of imprisonment will accomplish these things."

Once completed, the Sentencing Commission report will be submitted to Congress, which could shelve it or incorporate its recommendations into new legislation.

miguel de Portugal comments: On this one, as the Americanism goes: "I am from Missouri" (the Show Me State). I'll believe it when I see it!

____________________
(1) News Report

May 1st, 2012

News Report
[our highlights]

Unmanned drones are patrolling US-Canada border in eastern Washington. (1)

The U.S. government's unmanned drones patrolling the U.S. - Canadian border are venturing into Washington state's airspace.

In testimony before a U.S. Senate panel this week, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said northern border surveillance using unmanned aerial aircraft now expands from North Dakota to eastern Washington.

The two 10,000-pound Predator-B unmanned aircrafts based in Grand Forks, N.D., have a 950-mile coverage range and "they do enter Washington airspace, in the vicinity of Spokane," said Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman Gina Gray on Thursday.

The unmanned aircrafts "can stay in the air for up to 20 hours at a time, something no other aircraft in the federal inventory can do," Gray said. "In this manner it is a force multiplier, providing aerial surveillance support for border agents by investigating sensor activity in remote areas to distinguish between real or perceived threats, allowing the boots on the ground force to best allocate their resources and efforts."

Since 2005, the Department of Homeland Security has deployed a handful of drones around the country, with some based in Arizona, Florida, North Dakota, and Texas - with more planned for the future. Operations out of North Dakota first began in 2011.

miguel de Portugal comments: Soon we will be viewing the Drone Traffic Report in the morning news right after the regular freeway Traffic Reports.

_____________
(1) News Report

The M+G+R Foundation

News Commentary

May 2012