Public safety, gun safety not mutually exclusive
by Kevin Foley - Marietta Daily Journal
Wayne LaPierre made the most of his two media appearances following the mass murder in Newtown, Conn. The NRA spokesman told Americans to buy more guns, which just happen to be the products sold by the companies his outfit represents.
He called for arming every teacher and putting armed police in the nation's 98,000 public schools. That's a potential windfall for the gun and ammunition industries.
LaPierre made his exploitative sales pitch even as the babies of Sandy Hook School were being laid to rest. It was a macabre spectacle that ignored the gun debate's central question.
What about public safety?
Gun control debate a national threat?
It has been over three weeks since the tragic incident at Sandy Hook Elementary took place in Newton, Connecticut. Right after the shooting, Americans across the country cried out for stricter gun laws to prevent another heartbreaking event. On the other hand, though, some people argue that if teachers were allowed to carry guns at school this could have all been prevented. But according to a study by Texas A&M University, when "Stand Your Ground" laws are passed homicide cases increase. Neil McCabe, a senior write for Human Events Online, sounds off.
Excerpts:
"In American, we don't pre-punish crime. It's already against the law to kill people - homicide. If you look at Kennesaw, GA, a place where every household is required to own a firearm… you saw break-ins, and those kinds of things, violent crime, drop precipitously…"
"Criminals don't go to places where they think there are going to be armed citizens…"
GUN-GRABBING LEGISLATION SWEEPS NATION
by BEN SHAPIRO - Breitbart.com
Remember when the left pretended they liked the Second Amendment? That's passé. Today, Democrats around the country are preparing for a big gun grab, the likes of which the Republic has never before seen. In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has actually publicly pitched all-out gun confiscation (or alternatively, forced gun buybacks), is now preparing grandiose new legislation designed to strip New Yorkers of "assault weapons," as well as restrict the size of magazines. In the only provision actually designed to reduce crime, Cuomo will also propose harsher penalties for using a gun in the commission of a crime.
Cuomo recognizes that what's he's doing is politically divisive. But in today's America, he also recognizes that he'll be rewarded by the media for cramming down political divisive gun control, even if it does nothing to stop violence. "It's a very divisive topic," said Cuomo. "There's a lot of energy on both sides. Some people are vehemently against, some people think we're out of our minds for not passing it … Gun control is highly political, politically contentious situation. It is polarizing."
Needed: 'Well-regulated militia' — and guns
by Kevin Foley - Marietta Daily Journal
BOZEMAN, Mont. — "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed," it says here in my copy of the Constitution.
Let's put that statement into context: The year is 1783. "Arms" are single shot, muzzle loaded pistols and muskets. Militias — citizen soldiers armed with these weapons — played a crucial role in the fight for liberty.
Obama Weighs Executive Order on Guns as NRA, Wal-Mart Join Talks Biden Vows Action on Guns as NRA, Wal-Mart to Join Talks
By Lisa Lerer & Julie Bykowicz - Bloomberg.com
President Barack Obama will consider using executive orders among the steps to curb gun violence following last month's mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary school, Vice President Joe Biden said.
"The president and I are determined to take action," Biden said at the start of a meeting with gun-control advocates and representatives of victims. He didn't specify what administrative measure Obama might take.
BIDEN: OBAMA WILL BYPASS CONGRESS FOR GUN CONTROL
by BEN SHAPIRO - Breitbart.com
Vice President Joe Biden, who has been charged by President Obama with running the task force to prevent situations like the Sandy Hook massacre, announced that he wouldn't be raising legislative solutions at all.
Instead, he said that President Obama might simply declare his preferred gun policy the law of the nation.
Talking to the drooling press, Biden announced, "The president is going to act. There are executive orders, there's executive action that can be taken. We haven't decided what that is yet. But we're compiling it all with the help of the attorney general and the rest of the cabinet members as well as legislative action that we believe is required."
Personal experience shouldn't drive policy
by Bill Maxwell - Marietta Daily Journal
Elected officials and other leaders who have the power to make life-and-death decisions for the rest of us should be guided by a commitment to objectivity when they make policy.
Too many, however, including U.S. presidents, ignore or reject objective information that is available to them. They turn to personal relations, personal experiences, political loyalties and raw emotion for answers and for justifications to act.
Bill Clinton crashes CES to talk politics and the Internet The former president speaks briefly about technology and a lot about hot-button issues like gun control
By James Niccolai - Computerworld.com
IDG News Service - Former President Bill Clinton made a surprise appearance at the International CES on Wednesday, where he talked a little about technology and a lot about hot-button political issues like the environment and gun control.
Clinton was greeted by rousing applause when he appeared toward the end of Samsung's CES keynote, and at the end of his speech a portion of the audience gave him a standing ovation.
Concealed weapons everywhere could trigger some problems
by Don McKee - Marietta Daily Journal
Folks in Cobb County are getting armed in record numbers after the mid-December massacre of 26 people including 20 children at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., by a lone gunman.
The rate of applications last month for permits to carry concealed weapons reached numbers unprecedented so far as probate court officials can recall. There were 1,212 applications in December — almost double the 642 in December 2011, Probate Judge Kelli Wolk told the Marietta Daily Journal. Of that number, 843 followed the Dec. 14 Newton massacre.
Libyan Gun Control Policies
Left Guards Unarmed at U.S. Compound in Benghazi
By Terence P. Jeffrey - CNSNews.com
(CNSNews.com) - The gun control policies of the post-Gaddafi government in Libya delayed the arming of bodyguards for U.S. diplomats in that country and left the local guard force hired to watch over the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi unarmed, according to internal State Department memos and written testimony by the State Department officer who was in charge of the department's security in Libya until six weeks before the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attacks.
"Our long term security plan in Libya was to recruit and deploy an armed, locally hired Libyan bodyguard unit," State Department Regional Security Officer Eric Nordstrom told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in written testimony.
Gun-control crowd using Gabby Giffords as a mascot
By Charles Hurt - WashingtonTimes.com
What does it tell you when a new group founded to clamp down on gun-ownership rights announces its formation by trotting out the celebrity victim of a crazed gunman?
It means the group does not really wish to have a serious and open discussion about the complex and troubling factors that have led to the explosions of mass violence we have seen in recent years committed by increasingly unstable, psychopathic outcasts.
Here Is a List of -All the Assholes Handsome Law-Abiding Citizens Who Own Guns- Some People in New York City
By John Cook - Gawker.com
Last month, the Journal News sparked a firestorm of protest when it published a mappable database of every licensed gun owner in Westchester and Rockland counties, north of New York City. The paper obtained the data—which New York state law explicitly and unambiguously demands be made public—through open records requests. The reaction was swift and furious—gun rights and privacy advocates published the names and addresses of the paper's editors in retaliation, and the paper (ironically) hired armed guards to protect against threats.
One weird reaction came from TV wraith Ann Coulter, who told Fox News' Sean Hannity last week: "If we're producing lists of gun permit owners, I want them for Manhattan. I want to know how many rich liberals with their body guards have gun permits." You're in luck, Ann. I happened to have just such a list in my filing cabinet. Here it is.
US suffers far more violent deaths than any other wealthy nation It's not the frequency of the attacks that stands out --
it's the lethality
BY KEVIN FREKING, ASSOCIATED PRESS - Salon.com
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States suffers far more violent deaths than any other wealthy nation, due in part to the widespread possession of firearms and the practice of storing them at home in a place that is often unlocked, according to a report released Wednesday by two of the nation's leading health research institutions.
Gun violence is just one of many factors contributing to lower U.S. life expectancy, but the finding took on urgency because the report comes less than a month after the shooting deaths of 26 people at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.
Central Banks Ease Future Liquidity Standards
for Globe's Big Banks
BY BILL WITHERELL - FinancialSense.com
International banks had reason to celebrate Monday when they received a somewhat unexpected New Year's gift from their regulators. The central bank governors and heads of supervision that oversee the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision agreed to a very substantial softening of prospective global liquidity standards. This development is bullish for the international banks and for the global economy and markets.
These standards, first drafted in 2010 in the wake of the global financial crisis, are an important part of the so-called Basel III accord and have the objective of assuring that major banks have sufficient liquidity to weather future financial storms. Over the past two years, banks have argued strenuously that the draft standards were too strict, probably unworkable, and certain to have significant negative effects on banks' willingness to lend and hence on economic growth. The regulators have now responded to those concerns, but the extent to which they have loosened the standards was unexpected.
White House won't fully rule out $1 trillion coin idea
By Robert Schroeder - MarketWatch.com
White House press secretary Jay Carney laughed on Wednesday when he was asked about the idea to mint a $1 trillion coin as a way of getting around the U.S. debt ceiling. But he didn't entirely take it off the table.
"The only option," Carney told reporters, is for Congress to "do its job" and raise the debt limit.
The Trillion Dollar Coin – This Is How Money Dies
BY TIM IACONO - FinancialSense.com
….Anyway, the basic argument in favor of creating such a coin is that, though it's absurd, it's equally as absurd as the GOP holding the nation hostage to the debt ceiling since the new debt that requires the raising of said ceiling is simply covering expenses that have already been authorized by Congress.
That's a nice argument and, sadly, we seem to have reached a new level of absurdity in the nation's capital when it comes to budget matters, but it misses more important points about trust and the nature of money.
Paul Krugman as Pontius Pilate
And maybe the next U.S. Treasury Secretary.
By ANDREW B. WILSON - Spectator.org
I join Hollywood actor Danny Glover in urging the president to appoint a truly robust progressive — the New York Times columnist and former economist Paul Krugman — as the next U.S. Treasury Secretary. Nothing would do more to cement the confederacy of dunces that the president is gathering around him as his second-term cabinet.
In an April 24, 2012 New York Times blog post one wag titled "Why I Don't Write About Israel," Krugman, who is Jewish, played the part of Pontius Pilate in publicly washing his hands of any sense of personal responsibility, or any real remorse, for the calamity that will surely follow for the Israeli people if Iran or Hamas succeed in getting their hands on nuclear weapons. This is how the professional gadfly and author of The Conscience of a Liberal explains his craven and disingenuous silence on Israel/Palestine:
Obama to tap Lew for Treasury
By Susan Crabtree-The Washington Times
President Obama will nominate White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew to replace outgoing Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner this week, according to multiple reports Wednesday that cited sources familiar with the nomination process.
The long-expected move would force Mr. Obama to find a new chief of staff, which would be the first part of a major reshuffling of White House staff.
Who Is Jack Lew, Obama's Nominee for Treasury Secretary? The current White House chief of staff is a bookish, private man, but he's also an outspoken liberal with a mind for the intricacies of numbers and budgets
By David Graham - TheAtlantic.com
President Obama will nominate Jacob Lew to be the next Treasury secretary, replacing Tim Geithner, who's retiring. The nomination has long been expected: Lew is a budget whiz and a close confidant of the president who has served for the past year as White House chief of staff. Here's your cheat sheet on the man who's likely to take over the Treasury.
JACK LEW BAGGED $950,000 BONUS
AFTER CITIGROUP BAILOUT
by WYNTON HALL - Breitbart.com
In the wake of the financial meltdown, President Barack Obama derided Wall Street bonuses as "obscene," calling them examples of "fat cats who are getting awarded for their failure."
But now, Mr. Obama has announced that he will nominate as his next Treasury secretary Jack Lew, a man who in 2009 bagged a $950,000 bonus after his bank, Citigroup, received billions in a taxpayer-funded bailout.
Chinese Government Ignores Appeals
To Halt Investment Fraud, Says SEC
By Teresa Rivas - Barron's
American investors have lost billions of dollars to investment scams in China, but that nation's government appears uninterested in stopping the frauds, according to the Security and Exchange Commission.
In an interview with ABC News, outgoing Chairman Mary Schapiro said that Chinese officials have rebuffed U.S. calls to work together to quash the scams, which she termed one of the biggest runs of alleged investment swindles in recent memory.
CIB busts fake investment group, bring fraud charges
China Post news staff
TAIPEI, Taiwan -- The Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) cracked down an investment group and its ringleader surnamed Zhao (趙) over charges of fraud, the CIB said.
The group had been attracting capital from unsuspecting victims during the period between October and December of 2011, who then fell prey to the promises of high-yield returns for their investment in the booming biotechnology and DNA testing industry, according to a CIB press release.
The Eurozone's Agenda in 2013
By Edmond Alphandery - Project-Syndicate.org
PARIS – European Union leaders concluded 2012 with a landmark agreement that places all eurozone banks under a single supervisor. But the difficult negotiations that led to the agreement eclipsed European Council President Herman Van Rompuy's recent report, Towards a Genuine Economic and Monetary Union, which calls for unity far beyond a banking union. Although "no door was closed," in the words of European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, EU leaders have clearly refused, at least for now, to hold a serious discussion about deeper integration.
JPMorgan Will Contribute $2 Billion to U.S. Home Lending Accord
By Dawn Kopecki - Bloomberg.com
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), the largest U.S. bank, will pay borrowers $2 billion in the form of mortgage relief and direct cash payments to settle home-loan abuse claims with regulators.
The bank will make a cash payment of $753 million and set aside $1.2 billion toward foreclosure prevention efforts as part of an $8.5 billion deal with 10 banks and their regulators announced Jan. 7, JPMorgan said in a regulatory filing today.
California Cities Sue Banks Over Libor Rates, Law Firm Says
By Karen Gullo - Bloomberg.com
Eight California counties and public entities sued UBS AG (UBSN), Barclays Plc (BARC) and 20 other banks alleging they lost millions of dollars because the financial institutions manipulated the benchmark Libor rate.
The plaintiffs claim they were cheated out of higher interest payments on investments such asinterest-rate swaps and corporate bonds tied to Libor.
When Will Interest Rates Rise Again?
BY CLIF DROKE - FinancialSense.com
Recently I was asked a question that I suspect has been on many investors' minds. Here's the question: "Is it possible that the bond market will be the market to tumble into 2014, and as it does, the general market decline is mitigated by the rotation of money out of bonds and into stocks?"
Here's my answer: Anything is possible in today's upside-down world. As my late friend and mentor Bud Kress used to ask, "Does anything surprise you anymore?" But I'd have to say here – and I firmly believe Bud would echo this sentiment – if there's any validity to the 120-year Kress cycle, a sustainable rising interest rate trend isn't likely until after October 2014.
Municipal Bonds' Treatment
in Jeopardy With Debt Ceiling: Taxes
By Stephen Joyce - Bloomberg.com
A reprieve the $3.7 trillion municipal bond market received in the U.S. budget agreement last week may be only temporary.
The deal extended several types of narrowly focused bond- related activities, such as funding school renovations or paying for construction projects in New York near the area of Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. It revised the alternative minimum tax, and without that, some types of bonds could have been unattractive to tens of millions of taxpayers. It didn't eliminate the tax exemption on municipal bond income, an idea contemplated by lawmakers.
Morgan Stanley Said to Cut 1,600 Investment-Banking Jobs
By Michael J. Moore - Bloomberg.com
Morgan Stanley, the sixth-largest U.S. bank by assets, plans to eliminate about 1,600 jobs from its investment bank and support staff in coming weeks, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said.
The cuts total about 6 percent of the New York-based company's institutional securities group, which includes investment banking and trading units, and support staff, the person said, asking not to be identified because the decision hasn't been made public. About half the reductions will be in the U.S., the person said.
Fast-Food Worker Hours Cut, New Health Care Law Blamed
By Lauren Squires - WOWT.com
A fast-food chain is slashing employee hours so franchise owners don't have to pay health benefits. Around 100 local Wendy's workers have learned their hours are being cut. A spokesperson says a new health care law is to blame.
"Thirty-six to 37 hours a week." That's how many hours T.J. Growbeck works at the 84th and Giles Wendy's restaurant. The money he earns helps him pay for the basics, but that's not the case for all his co-workers. "There are some people doing it trying to get by."
USDA declares drought disaster in much of Wheat Belt
(Reuters) - The government declared much of the central and southern Wheat Belt a natural disaster area on Wednesday due to persistent drought that imperils this year's winter wheat harvest.
In its first disaster declaration of the new year, the Agriculture Department made growers in large portions of four major wheat-growing states - Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas - eligible for low-interest emergency loans.
The four states grew one-third of the U.S. wheat crop last year. Kansas was the No. 1 state at 382 million bushels.
New data show 1 in 4 children on food stamps in FY 2011
By Caroline May - DailyCaller.com
One in four children in America participated in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps, in fiscal year 2011, according to data from the United States Department of Agriculture and U.S. Census Bureau.
The USDA's "Characteristics of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Households: Fiscal Year 2011" shows that in 2011, 19.9 million children, or people under 18, received food stamp benefits.
Groupthink America Why has everything turned out so wrong?
By LISA FABRIZIO - Spectator.org
Recent events in our nation have baffled those of the conservative stripe; none more so than the decisions made by our fellow Americans this past November. The reelection of Barack Obama, seemingly trailing in the polls up to the last days, was the most frustrating; but there were others that were even more disturbing. For the first time, voters in several states endorsed laws permitting homosexual marriage while others approved the recreational use of marijuana.
The reelection of President Obama in the face of high unemployment, low housing values and general economic misery can perhaps be explained away as another triumph for the cult of popularity, but what of the rest? How to explain these abrupt turnabouts in the attitudes of Americans? Has the electorate really and truly taken a turn to the left; and if so, why? One answer may lie in cyberspace.
Gerald Celente - Lew Rockwell Show - January 4, 2013
Gerald Celente talks to Lew Rockwell about economic crises, wars, and some good developments.
Now the Government Wants to Track and Tax Your Mileage
BY KEITH FITZ-GERALD - MoneyMorning.com
I love Oregon so much I gladly put up with its hypocritical governor, its out of control budget, its quirky liberal tendencies, its high personal income taxes, its hopelessly anti-business environment, and its progressive health care system.
But here's where I have to put my foot down: Oregon officials are now proposing a special per- mile tax on "gas-sipping" drivers.
Frustrated by the drop in tax revenue collected at the pump as drivers shift to more fuel- efficient hybrids and pure electric cars, Oregon legislators now want to make up the difference by sticking it to anyone who's willing to pay more for energy efficiency.
Little Canada man videotaped sheriff's deputies,
and got charged for it
By Emily Gurnon - TwinCities.com
Andrew Henderson watched as Ramsey County sheriff's deputies frisked a bloody-faced man outside his Little Canada apartment building. Paramedics then loaded the man, a stranger to Henderson, into an ambulance.
Henderson, 28, took out his small handheld video camera and began recording. It's something he does regularly with law enforcement.
But what happened next was different. The deputy, Jacqueline Muellner, approached him and snatched the camera from his hand, Henderson said.
"The tax issue is finished. Over. Completed. That's behind us."
— Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell
"The hard fact is that nothing could have arrested what actually happened…"
— British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain on the Nazi invasion of Austria
"Our affairs have come to such a pass that there is no escape without running risks."
So said a resolute Winston Churchill as, still out of favor with his own Conservative government, he stood up in the House of Commons in March of 1938 to protest the government's passive response to the occupation and annexation of Austria by Adolf Hitler's Germany. Or, as it is known to history, the "Anschluss."
$1 million donations wanted for Obama inauguration
By JACK GILLUM, NEDRA PICKLER
AND STEPHEN BRAUN, AP - CNSNews.com
WASHINGTON (AP) — Planners of President Barack Obama's second inauguration are soliciting high-dollar contributions up to $1 million to help pay for the celebration in exchange for special access.
The changes are part of a continuing erosion of Obama's pledge to keep donors and special interests at arm's length of his presidency. He has abandoned the policy from his first inauguration to accept donations up to only $50,000 from individuals, announcing last month that he would take unlimited contributions from individuals and corporations.
Is Obama pulling another Rick Warren? Four years ago, Obama enraged liberals at his inauguration --
this year's benediction choice could be bad too
BY ALEX SEITZ-WALD - Salon.com
In 2008, a newly-elected progressive president threw a bone to the evangelical community that was still deeply suspicious of him by picking pastor Rick Warren to give the benediction at his inauguration. The choice for the ceremony — which was otherwise populated by civil rights leaders and social justice heros — turned out to be a faux pas.
Progressive activists, who had just worked hard to elect Barack Obama, were "deeply disappointed" with the choice of a pastor who had a long record fighting against homosexuality and abortion rights. "How the hell did Rick Warren get inauguration tickets?" Salon's then-Washington Correspondent Mike Madden asked in December of 2008.
Rick Warren admits membership in good standing
in Council on Foreign Relations – CFR MEGAPASTOR RICK WARREN'S DAMASCUS ROAD EXPERIENCE
by Joseph Farah - WND.com (11.20.2006)
WASHINGTON – Rick Warren, the superstar mega-church pastor and bestselling author of "The Purpose Driven Life," had a Damascus Road experience last week – and like Saul of Tarsus, one of the after-effects appears to be blindness.
Warren went to Syria and could find no persecution of Christians. He could find no persecution of Jews. He could find no evidence of extremism. He could find no evidence of the sponsorship of terrorism.
The Illuminati's Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)
Builds a global spirituality (One World religion) Occult theocracy
By Texe Marrs
Having temporarily failed to usher in its new global order by military force, the Illuminati has now decided to unleash a far greater power in pursuit of its wicked, dictatorial goals: The power of Global Spirituality.
To achieve this, the Illuminati's premier political and economic organ, the socialistic, pro-Zionist Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), has elevated to membership two key operatives, two men who are at the helm of America's most influential Christian evangelical groups. I refer to Pastor Rick Warren, Saddleback Community Church in California, and Dr. Richard Land, reigning religious potentate and poobah of the massive Southern Baptist Convention.
Muzzling Military Chaplains Obama forces them to bow to his agenda.
By GEORGE NEUMAYR - Spectator.org
One of the items on Obama's second term agenda is to root out traditionally Christian chaplains from the military. He sees them as bigots unworthy of conscience protections. Like Chick-fil-A, they don't uphold Obama's "values."
Obama's mouthpieces in the military have already blurted this out. In 2010, Admiral Michael Mullen told a Christian chaplain who opposed the repeal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy that "If you cannot get in line, resign your commission." That same year Lieutenant General Thomas P. Bostick, the Army's deputy chief of staff in charge of personnel, said military members who dissent from Obama's gay rights agenda should "get out."
The World in 2030
By Joseph S. Nye - Project-Syndicate.org
CAMBRIDGE – What will the world look like two decades from now? Obviously, nobody knows, but some things are more likely than others. Companies and governments have to make informed guesses, because some of their investments today will last longer than 20 years. In December, the United States National Intelligence Council (NIC) published its guess: Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds (PDF).
Microsoft will pull trigger on emergency IE patch Uptick in attacks, bypasses of recommended workarounds will force Microsoft to fix flaw criminals already using to hijack Windows PCs
By Gregg Keizer - Computerworld.com
Computerworld - Microsoft will issue an emergency update to patch a vulnerability in Internet Explorer (IE) in the next two weeks to fix a flaw criminals have been using for more than a month, researchers said Tuesday.
The company will move on the IE6, IE7 and IE8 bug before the next regularly-scheduled Patch Tuesday because of increasing attacks and proof that temporary workarounds can be circumvented.
Intel CTO says we're watching rebirth of the PC We're just years away from phones, PCs, cars acting like colleagues, says Justin Rattner
By Sharon Gaudin - Computerworld.com
Computerworld - LAS VEGAS -- Intel Chief Technology Officer Justin Rattner says we're watching the transformation of the PC.
Rattner, who is attending the International CES show, said the traditional PC couldn't survive in the age of the gadget. He said we're in the midst of the rebirth of the PC.
"It's absolutely a time of dramatic change," Rattner told Computerworld. "I think what we're watching is the transformation of the PC into an Internet device. It was demanded of the PC. You could not be a classical PC in the age of the smartphone and the tablet and these other Internet-connected devices. The PC is the last to be unleashed from the traditional tethers that kept it a PC and not truly an Internet device."
6 reasons not to buy a smartphone
By Sheyna Steiner - Bankrate.com
Smartphones are taking over the cellphone market. In the first quarter of 2012, 44 percent of the U.S. population had smartphones, according to research by Google and Ipsos MediaCT released in May 2012.
Are smartphone holdouts behind-the-times Luddites, or are there actually good reasons to resist the siren song of technology? After all, purposely forgoing a smartphone when it's time to get a new phone is a tough sell. "I think the reasons for not getting a smartphone are getting pretty few and far between," says Scott Stein, a senior editor at CNET.com.
Is now the time to draw the line in the sand and say no to 24/7 connectivity and nearly all of the information in the world literally in your pocket? Where will it end?
Only you can decide. Here are a few considerations.
CES 2013: Five technologies Apple users should watch
By Jonny Evans - Computerworld.com
CES 2013: Apple [AAPL] isn't at the show, but there's a selection of new solutions in discussion at or around the show that may get picked up by Cupertino's I/O execs who have been seen prowling the exhibition floor. These include better wireless, more responsive displays, and much more.
….The company also has a series of patents detailing ways in which fingerprint or iris scanning may be used to secure its devices. While these focus on phones, I can't help but feel such protection might also be invaluable on Macs, particularly laptops. Of course, news that Intel's new processors are already capable of support for facial recognition systems adds a little grist to the Mac rumor wish list/unicorn hunt.
NFC remains a euphemistic term which could more accurately be used to describe expectation of Apple's future adventures in the development of payment systems. Pass Book is the current iteration, but it's pretty clear NFC hasn't changed the world, even where it is available. Why?
People are resistant to migrate to virtual currency; and are also concerned at the security implications of having their entire life stashed inside a mobile device.
With this in mind, security needs to be sufficiently robust to convince customers that payment systems are safe to use.
The Second Nuclear Age
By Paul Bracken - Project-Syndicate.org
NEW HAVEN – North Korea's launch of a long-range missile in mid-December was followed by a flurry of global condemnation that was almost comical in its predictability and impotence. But the launch underscored a larger reality that can no longer be ignored: the world has entered a second nuclear age. The atomic bomb has returned for a second act, a post-Cold War encore. This larger pattern needs to be understood if it is to be managed.
The contours of the second nuclear age are still taking shape. But the next few years will be especially perilous, because newness itself creates dangers as rules and red lines are redefined. This took at least ten years in the first nuclear age, and this time may be no different.
In Spanish, they say Dime con quien andas y te dire quien eres - "Tell me with whom you walk and I will tell you who you are."
When United States President Barack Obama walked into the East Room in the White House on Monday evening with former Nebraska senator Chuck Hagel, his nominee for defense secretary, that was the thought that came to mind. It was a short walk, which nonetheless had precipitated in its anticipation much animated debate in the Washington circuit.
Hagel is an extraordinary person for the US president to walk with at this point in America's trajectory as the world's lone superpower with a military budget that outstrips the rest of the world combined.
Islam 'Helped to Shape' CIA Nominee John Brennan's World View
By Patrick Goodenough - CNSNews.com
(CNSNews.com) – As a college student in the 1970s, John Brennan, President Obama's nominee for CIA director, traveled in Indonesia where – he recalled in a speech in New York in 2010 – "despite my long hair, my earring and my obvious American appearance, I was welcomed throughout that country, in a way that is a reflection of the tremendous warmth of Islamic cultures and societies."
Brennan's Feb. 13, 2010 address to a meeting at the Islamic Center at New York University, facilitated by the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), provided an insight into his views on Islam, a faith which he said during the speech had "helped to shape my own world view."
