Wednesday, February 12, 2014


News Clips For The Day

FBI cracks down on laser attacks on aircraft
ByJeff Pegues CBS News February 11, 2014

WASHINGTON -- The FBI took aim Tuesday at a growing danger to aviation. It will now offer rewards for tips that help catch people who shine lasers into cockpits, which can blind pilots just as they're trying to land.

What has become a serious problem for pilots in the air has now landed in the hands of the FBI. People shining lasers into cockpits have become a chronic nuisance that law enforcement fears could lead to a major aviation disaster.

Commercial pilot Robert Hamilton says in the last nine years, he has been "lasered" five times -- one time with 67 passengers on board his Canadair plane.
"You can suffer from flash blindness, after imaging, retinal burning," Hamilton says. "The retinal burning that we experienced lasted for several hours afterward."

Dangerous increase in laser attacks on airliners
The FBI issued a warning that there has been a dramatic increase in laser attacks on commercial airliners in the New York area.

The FBI is targeting 12 major U.S. cities where a law enforcement source says there have been a high number of reported incidents. A $10,000 reward is being offered for information leading to an arrest.

Since 2005, the FBI and FAA have been tracking laser strikes. In that time, there has been a more than 1,000 percent increase in the number of incidents. Last year, almost 4,000 laser strikes against aircraft were reported -- that's almost 11 incidents a day.

"The solution is for people to stop doing this," Hamilton says. "It is not a prank, and secondly, if you see someone shining a laser at an aircraft, please report it."
If you get caught, it's a felony punishable by up to five years in jail. There haven’t been any fatalities tied to laser incidents, but the concern is there will be if they don't stop.


http://mostpowerfullasers.com/most-powerful-handheld-lasers_014.htm

3.W 445nm lasers kits on sale $179 camouflage
 Camo cree laser host kit
You pick the power and color  3W 445nm or 3.5w 445nm Blue Beamor 1w 638nm to 650nm Red laser uses 2-16340 batteries
Shipping Out of the USA must Pay to have shipped comes with Insurance

Contact Rick Trent
ricktrent4@yahoo.com
423-839-4739 before 8 PM Eastern Time  
Upgrade to copper module $30

Do Not Point Lasers at Planes or Helicopters! they might Shoot Back !!!




This laser is a little bit pricey for a poor teenager unless he has a little business selling drugs on the side. For wealthy people it's absolutely cheap. I wonder how many parents would consent to buy one of these for their son. Why are these things allowed to be sold without a license, or at all to anyone who is under 21? No one really needs a laser. I think we need a law here. Maybe the FBI's reward will help some, but I imagine this is the kind of thing that a delinquent teenager would love to have, and I don't think most of them would tell on their peers, especially if they are allowed to play with it themselves or they are members of a gang.




Not all cutthroat politicians are the same – CBS
By John Dickerson CBS News February 12, 2014

Let us now praise ruthless men. And women. The two most talked-about potential presidential candidates in 2016 are enduring public examinations of their ruthlessness. In New Jersey federal investigators, the legislature, and the press are looking at whether Gov. Chris Christie knew aides in his office sought to punish a local official for not supporting their boss by closing portions of the George Washington Bridge. At the same time, Hillary Clinton is going through one of the periodic public checkups she has enjoyed since emerging on the national stage in 1992. A new book, HRC, describes a carefully tended Clinton enemies list where the couple kept track of those who had abandoned or betrayed them. The private diaries of a close confidante, first reported on by the Washington Free Beacon, describe first lady Hillary Clinton’s desire to punish everyone from anonymous leakers to an Arkansas publisher during her husband’s presidency.

Partisans react to these developments predictably; your opponent’s penchant for ruthlessness is a sign of his or her low character. That’s wrong. Ruthlessness is a necessary political skill, particularly for presidents. The task is to make an assessment about whether a particular politician uses it effectively or not. There are limits to ruthlessness—abuse of power and crippling vindictiveness—but we shouldn’t mistake signs of the trait as necessary proof a politician is locked into its excesses. 

Politics is a profession so clouded with self-love, self-dealing, and greed that in some cases the only way you can make progress is if you use a pickax. That means knowing how to use intimidation and retribution—and recognizing that every tool of the office can be a weapon if you hold it right. In presidential campaigns some voters are uncomfortable with politicians who show an aptitude for arm-twisting. That, in turn, leads to a lot of wasted time as politicians pretend that they are not skilled in the activities required for the job that they’re trying so hard to get. It gets circular fast: You deceive to prove that you are not deceptive. 

Democratic strategist James Carville once famously compared Hillary Clinton with President Obama by suggesting the former first lady had more guts than the president, though Carville referred to a part of the anatomy physiologically unavailable to a female candidate. Reading Diane Blair’s journals you see what Carville was talking about. “HC still in despair that nobody in WH tough and mean enough,” writes the political science professor, a longtime Arkansas friend of the Clintons, who died in 2000 and whose papers were donated to the University of Arkansas. “Most people in this town have no pain threshold,” she quotes Clinton as saying in another entry. When something is blocked in the White House, “HC urging hard ball.” Hillary Clinton spends the weekend reorganizing the White House, planning firings and punishing leakers, but Blair says it ultimately frustrates the first lady because her husband won’t pull the trigger.

These are stories about events more than 20 years ago, but they read with potency because they offer an intimate portrait of a figure who has worked hard to shield herself from penetrating insights.

If voters are ambivalent about toughness in their politicians, they are particularly so about it in female politicians. One of the benefits of the Diane Blair documents is that they offer us a historical marker for national attitudes about women and power in the early 1990s before Clinton became the most influential American female politician of her time. “What voters find slick in Bill Clinton, they find ruthless in Hillary,” reads a strategy memo in the files from the 1992 campaign. “While voters genuinely admire Hillary Clinton’s intelligence and tenacity, they are uncomfortable with these traits in a woman. She needs to project a softer side—some humor, some informality.” 

As first lady, Clinton was a “pioneer in an anachronistic role,” as Blair put it. More than 20 years later, Clinton may still have less room to appear tough than a male candidate. But the question about Clinton’s toughness isn’t limited to public perceptions about it. Now the question is, when does ruthlessness cross the line beyond its utilitarian benefits and into something more damaging?

Presidents need to be self-confident but not arrogant, focused but not living in a bubble, wise but not too professorial, a leader but not a tyrant. The Christie and Clinton stories offer us an opportunity to examine where ruthlessness should begin and end in the most powerful office in the land.

In New Jersey the ruthlessness of the Christie operation bled over into its abuse of power, but so far there is no connection between Christie and his aides. In the Blair documents, Clinton is ruthless in conversation in a way that we never have seen with Christie. It’s gripping reading, but it’s more figurative than real; Clinton couldn’t abuse power because as first lady she had none. Furthermore, the machismo displayed in private conversations with a friend requires a caveat. It’s possible that Clinton, powerless and under siege, talked tougher on the phone precisely because she couldn’t follow through in real life. 

Abuse of power is not the only downside of ruthlessness. The danger is that it can lead to an all-consuming vindictiveness. There is nothing wrong per se with an enemies list of the kind reported in HRC. In a business of leverage and power, it’s almost a best practice. Bill Clinton raised money for Sen. Claire McCaskill, and then she said she wouldn’t let him near her daughter. She also endorsed Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic primary. That would seem to be the kind of offense so glaring you wouldn’t need a cheat sheet to remember it. But politics can get confusing. McCaskill has already endorsed Hillary for president in 2016. But there were also lesser officeholders who caused offense who occupied the enemies list spreadsheet, and in ensuing elections for attorney general and Congress, Bill Clinton campaigned in Democratic primaries against candidates who had backed Obama against his wife.
Tending to a list of enemies and ingrates can become a problem if imagining and carrying out retribution become the focus of too many hours in the day. You lose the theme of your office. Before Richard Nixon graduated to abusing power, he was consumed with his political enemies.

So if the question for Christie is whether the culture of easy retribution fostered the excesses of the George Washington Bridge scandal, the question for Clinton is whether the constant attention to allies and enemies can ever become an overwhelming distraction.

It hasn’t in some of Clinton’s relationships. She does not hold grudges when they become impractical, the best example of that being her reconciliation with Barack Obama and her constant and unwavering loyalty to him. She developed a relationship with Gen. David Petraeus, even though she essentially accused him of misleading the country about the Iraq war. In the Blair documents, Clinton even seems to offer a kind word for former Sen. Al D’Amato, whom she nevertheless loathed for his attacks during the investigations into the Clintons’ Whitewater investments.

If you spend all your time erecting battlements, it becomes a prison. This is where President Obama’s Hawaii demeanor helps him, say those who have worked for him. He doesn’t become consumed with combat. One thing that is clear from the Blair documents is that the Clinton White House was a near-constant state of chaotic confrontation. According to Blair, the weight of that siege, and maintaining the constant mask that they weren’t bothered by it at all, is what Hillary says led her husband to have an affair with Monica Lewinsky.

But Blair’s notes are from a time capsule: They capture part of Clinton’s worldview from almost 20 years ago, when she responded to the pressure cooker with off-key comments about having chosen a career instead of baking cookies and countered truthful reports by saying they were the product of a vast right-wing conspiracy. She has had two distinct careers since then, in the Senate and the State Department, which show no evidence of the debilitating embattlement that consumed those early Clinton years. But those periods are also obscured, particularly the events leading up to and after the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, so there’s still much to be assessed.

Ruthless is not a word associated with Barack Obama’s style of politics. Many of his supporters wish he were tougher with Republicans. As Dan Balz reports in Collision 2012, when Obama’s pollsters held focus groups, they kept hearing people talk about Lyndon Johnson. Voters wanted Obama to embody a little of LBJ’s bareknuckle grit because they thought it would make him more effective with Congress. As former Defense Secretary Robert Gates writes, Obama, like Bush before him, was “neither particularly liked nor feared. Accordingly, neither had many allies in Congress who were willing to go beyond party loyalty, self-interest, or policy agreement in supporting them."

President Obama’s 2008 message of progress through cooperation is not available to candidates in 2016. Instead, the intense partisanship of the day means a successful candidate is likely to have more success convincing voters that cooperation will come through strength and steel. In that case, Clinton, will be making an implicit claim that she is tougher than the man whom she seeks to replace. It will be another pioneering role. 




“If you spend all your time erecting battlements, it becomes a prison.” That's really a quotation to remember. These new diaries will be published and become best sellers, of course. I personally find Hillary Clinton to be as much an emotional and “soft” personality as she can be “ruthless.” I think she is capable of considerable anger, but is not heartless. She is very much “a woman,” despite her strength. I think many people are as entranced by her personality as they are turned off. She is highly competent when it comes to carrying out government office, and that in the end will, I think, be the factor that decides whether the people will elect her as president of the US.




Belgium poised to legalize euthanasia for teens
AP February 12, 2014

BRUSSELS -- Belgium, one of the very few countries where euthanasia is legal, is expected to take the unprecedented step this week of abolishing age restrictions on who can ask to be put to death -- extending the right to children for the first time.

The legislation appears to have wide support in the largely liberal country. But it has also aroused intense opposition from foes -- including a list of pediatricians -- and everyday people who have staged noisy street protests, fearing that vulnerable children will be talked into making a final, irreversible choice.

Backers like Dr. Gerland van Berlaer, a prominent Brussels pediatrician, believe it is the merciful thing to do. The law will be specific enough that it will only apply to the handful of teenage boys and girls who are in advanced stages of cancer or other terminal illnesses and suffering unbearable pain, he said.

Under current law, they must let nature take its course or wait until they turn 18 and can ask to be euthanized.

"We are talking about children that are really at the end of their life. It's not that they have months or years to go. Their life will end anyway," said Van Berlaer, chief of clinic in the pediatric critical care unit of University Hospital Brussels. "The question they ask us is: 'Don't make me go in a terrible, horrifying way, let me go now while I am still a human being and while I still have my dignity.'"

 The Belgian Senate voted 50-17 on Dec. 12 to amend the country's 2002 law on euthanasia so that it would apply to minors, but only under certain additional conditions. Those include parental consent and a requirement that any minor desiring euthanasia demonstrate a "capacity for discernment" to a psychiatrist and psychologist.

The House of Representatives, the other chamber of Parliament, is scheduled to debate on Wednesday whether to agree to the changes, and vote on them Thursday. Passage is widely expected.

King Philippe, Belgium's constitutional head of state, must sign the legislation for it to go into effect. So far, the 53-year-old monarch and father of four has not taken a public position, but spokesman Pierre De Bauw said that is not unusual. "We never give any comment on any piece of legislation being discussed in Parliament," De Bauw said Tuesday.

Though one opinion poll found 75 percent of Belgians in favor, there has been a vocal opposition.

"We are opening a door that nobody will be able to close," Andre Leonard, the archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels and chairman of the Episcopal Conference of Belgium, told The Associated Press. "There is a risk of very serious consequences in the long term for society and the meaning we give to life, death and the freedom of human beings."

 Etienne Dujardin, 29, a notary employee and father, has been among those staging protests as the debate in the House of Representatives nears. He doesn't believe safeguards proposed under the new law are watertight enough to protect youngsters who may be incapacitated by disease.

"If you take three psychiatrists, one of them will end up approving (euthanasia)," Dujardin said.  "In the name of promoting freedom for children, we're letting someone else decide."

This week, an "open letter" carrying the names of 160 Belgian pediatricians was issued to argue against the new law, claiming there is no urgent need for it and that modern medicine is capable of soothing the pain of even the sickest children.
The doctors also said there was no objective way of providing that children possess the "discernment" to know what euthanasia means.

Van Berlaer, 45, was not one of the signatories.  Very sick children who are surrounded by other ill and dying people are not like other youngsters, and mature too quickly, he said. They may look on as friends or neighbors in their ward die because they can no longer breathe or swallow, and come to realize what lies ahead for them.

In such cases, Van Berlaer said, a child may want to say goodbye to classmates and family, and ask if he or she can stop living.

"The thing is that it is an ultimate act of humanity and even love for the patients, minors in this case, that we at least listen to this question and think about why they would ask such a difficult thing," Van Berlaer said. "And it will never be easy, even if the law changes now, things won't be easier."

By his estimate, only a handful of Belgian children, all in the teenage years, would be able each year to make use of the lifting of age restrictions. "If there is still a possible medical treatment, they will not be allowed to ask for euthanasia," the Brussels pediatrician said.

The discernment clause, he said, should bar the law from applying to young children.
Dr. Marc Van Hoey, a general practitioner who is president of the Right to Die Association in the region of Flanders, also is in favor of the legislation. Euthanasia, he said, sometimes becomes the kindest and most caring option.

 "I've seen quite a lot of persons dying in -- how do you say in proper English -- agony?" said Van Hoey. "If you see somebody who died in pain, you see his face completely with a kind of expression where you see the pain on the face.
"I never saw that when I gave someone euthanasia he or she asked for," the doctor said.

Besides Belgium, the only other countries to have legalized euthanasia are the Netherlands and Luxembourg, said Kenneth Chambaere, a sociologist and member of the End-of-Life Care research group at the Free University Brussels and University of Ghent.

In Luxembourg, a patient must be 18. In the Netherlands, children between 12 and 15 may be euthanized with parents' permission, while those who are 16 or 17 must notify their parents beforehand.




I can see wanting to avail myself of legalized euthanasia if I were in agony or a situation of abject helplessness like some dementia patients. It is no accident that the countries who have legalized it are predominantly very liberal, which is not true of this country. I can see and empathize with the arguments on both sides of the issue. I do believe in euthanizing a beloved pet when they are in pain or too weak to move around and eat anymore. To me it's the only kind thing to do.





Mexico state of Sonora bans naming kids "Facebook," among other things, to prevent bullying – CBS
AP February 12, 2014

HERMOSILLO, Mexico -- Parents in the Mexican state of Sonora will no longer be allowed to name their children "Facebook," ''Rambo" or 59 other now banned given names.

The names have been found at least once in state registries. And the list could grow because officials are still checking the state's 132 newborn registries, Sonora state Civil Registry director Cristina Ramirez said Tuesday.

The law banning a list of 61 odd or offensive names took effect Monday. It seeks to protect children from being bullied, Ramirez said.

"The law is very clear because it prohibits giving children names that are derogatory or that don't have any meaning and that can lead to bullying," she said.
Ramirez said that in the town of Navojoa a boy was recently named "Juan Calzon," or "Juan Panties," and a girl was named "Lady Di."

Other odd names include a girl called "Marciana," or "Martian," and a boy called "Circuncision," or "Circumcision."

Sonora is across the border from the U.S. state of Arizona.




This reminds me of the song “A Boy Named Sue,” written by Shel Silverstein and sung by Johnny Cash, the story of how a man became so big and tough because his name made him have to fight daily on the playground. The worst case in real life was when Texas Governor Jim Hogg named his daughter Ima Hogg. Some of the made up names that parents saddle their children with are almost as bad, because they are totally unfamiliar and meaningless. I think children should have a graceful, responsible-sounding name because it adds to their confidence, self-esteem and good citizenship. Naming a girl “Love” or something similar sounds like the name an exotic dancer would give herself as a stage name. Think about it, parents! Be kind.




­

Kansas Mayor Says Sustainability Is About Community, Not Politics
by NPR Staff
February 09, 2014

­ In Washington, the debate over what to do about climate change is split largely down party lines. But it hasn't always been that way.

Republican Sen. John McCain campaigned on the issue in his presidential runs. "Climate change is real," he said in 2007. "The Earth is warming, and it is the result of greenhouse gas emissions."

Climate change was on the country's mind that spring in part because deadly storms were ripping through the Midwest. The worst tornado came on the night of May 4, 2007, and struck Greensburg, Kan. It was the most intense tornado during a season that was the worst in 50 years.

The event caused one resident to run for office and turn the city green. His approach differs from that of some fellow Republicans; in fact, he's working with the White House on a climate change task force.

Facing Disaster
Bob Dixson vividly remembers the night the tornado hit Greensburg.
"We lost everything, my wife and I, as did everyone in town," Dixson tells NPR's Arun Rath. "Our home was sucked off the top of the foundation. ... We were in the basement and it took everything. What we had left was the clothes we had on our back."
In total, 11 people died and 95 percent of the town was destroyed. In the aftermath of the storm, some people said the town itself was one of the casualties.

Dixson didn't think so. Instead of despairing, he ran for mayor and promised to rebuild the town. He planned to attack climate change head-on and make Greensburg a safe, sustainable city.

Dixson, a Republican, won the mayoral election in a landslide. Now halfway through his second term, Dixson has delivered: Greensburg has a new hospital and a new school built using sustainable architecture. There are wind turbines and solar panels all over town. He says he had to get past the idea that being "green" was a liberal principle.

"When we drilled down closer to it ... we realized our heritage and ancestors were based on those sustainable, green principles," he says. "If you take care of the land, it will take care of you."

Dixson says the hardships Greensburg experienced helped the community band together and overcome the partisan divide on the issue. But, he says, without a strong community, all of that sustainability doesn't matter.
As far as being at odds with some other Republicans, Dixson says these decisions should be about the constituents.

"We perceive certain things when we hear 'Republican' or 'Democrat' — preconceived ideas of what Republicans or Democrats think on issues — when in fact, it should come down to what do we as citizens think on these issues," he says. "It's about us as a society surviving and the ability to endure, and that's what true sustainability is."

The Fight In Congress
President Obama has made it clear that he intends to set strict limits on power plant emissions through the Environmental Protection Agency. Republicans in Congress have made it clear that they want to find a way to stop that.

The EPA, however, is working under the Clean Air Act and therefore doesn't need Congress to authorize those new rules, according to NPR White House correspondent Scott Horsley.

"But the critics in Congress will try to challenge that," Horsley says. "More importantly, the EPA authority is being challenged in the Supreme Court." The court is set to hear arguments later this month.

One of the legislators leading the fight against regulating power plants is Rep. Ed Whitfield, a Republican from Kentucky. He says climate change shouldn't give the government a pass to hit power companies with overly strict regulations.

"We have legislation that's been reported out of the Energy and Commerce Committee that basically says to EPA, 'When you set the emissions standards, you have to set a standard that has been adequately demonstrated in the marketplace,' " Whitfield tells NPR.

Whitfield's proposal would prevent the EPA from setting drastically lower emissions standards for coal-fired power plants. He says the president's plan to limit carbon emissions is rash and will hurt the economy.

­ "He is moving quickly to transform the way electricity can be produced in America at a time when we do not have enough renewable power to come close to meeting the requirements," he says.

Seeding Change
In addition to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the president's plan includes being better prepared for disasters like floods, drought, wildfires and the spread of invasive species.

That part of the plan is already moving forward, with support from Congress. Wednesday, the White House rolled out its blueprint for so-called climate hubs.
"These will be national research centers that will focus on helping farmers and ranchers in rural communities to cope with climate change," NPR's Horsley says.
Dixson, Greensburg's mayor, is one of the local leaders on the president's task force for climate preparedness. He's hoping Greensburg's approach can be instructive to other communities across the country as they brace for more extreme weather.




"It's about us as a society surviving and the ability to endure, and that's what true sustainability is." Dixson talks here like he has a true conviction about the need for change. Whitfield, on the other hand, says “When you set the emissions standards, you have to set a standard that has been adequately demonstrated in the marketplace." Why is it that so many Republicans who are arguing any subject at all always sound like an Economics 101 textbook? The issues in this matter are scientific and science should lead the actions that Congress will take.

We don't have time for the country to prove that “the marketplace” is not going to be challenged; businessmen will say they can't afford to make changes to their power plant procedures, but every time we go to war in another country the marketplace is challenged. The country survives that kind of challenges. They will probably raise the citizen's electric bills in response. That should make them happy, I think.