Friday, June 13, 2014


News Clips For The Day


Is College Worth It? New Documentary Weighs Costs of Higher Ed --NBC
BY NONA WILLIS ARONOWITZ
First published June 12th 2014

Filmmaker Andrew Rossi’s new documentary, “Ivory Tower,” attempts to answer a question that’s on the minds of many debt-ridden, unemployed graduates: Is college a racket? The result is a scathing and dizzyingly thorough critique of the “time bomb” that is American higher education.

Rossi takes viewers from the gothic gates of Harvard to the vast bacchanal of Arizona State to plucky Silicon Valley startups that threaten to upend the very idea of the classic campus experience. The film tethers these diverse institutions to the same worsening problems: ballooning tuition costs driven by the “arms race” of providing luxury facilities to student-consumers; predatory loan systems burying students in debt; and the endangerment of a useful, worthwhile college degree in an era of job scarcity and rampant inequality.

The many characters and experts in "Ivory Tower," which opens Friday, all agree on one thing: higher education in this country is broken, and we may be reaching a tipping point very soon.

“Ivory Tower” comes on the heels of Obama’s executive order extending student debt relief and Elizabeth Warren’s doomed Senate bill that would have allowed student loan refinancing. When you started the film, what was the political climate like compared to now? Do you think anything has shifted at all in the public consciousness about higher education?

I started this film in 2011, right when student loan debt was on track to hit a trillion dollars, and when Peter Thiel was rolling out his fellowship that offers students $100,000 to drop out of college. Occupy Wall Street, and [its offshoot] Occupy Student Debt was starting to happen. The conversation surrounding traditional four-year college was extremely negative. I wanted to bring cameras on the ground at a range of universities to provide audiences with some narrative evidence about what colleges can do well and what seems to be broken.

The sense of outrage about tuition costs, increasing at a rate that far exceeds any other thing in our economy, as well as the sense that students graduating with debt are really paralyzed from making certain life choices, has really reached a fever pitch. And I think people are starting to listen. I was at the White House yesterday when President Obama was conducting a Q&A and discussing this issue in what I thought was a poignant and open-ended forum. Unfortunately, Warren’s legislation didn’t make it through the Senate, which was somewhat expected.

But I do feel heartened that this conversation about higher education—about its value and importance, but also its unsustainable business model—is becoming a bigger part of what parents and prospective students are thinking about.

Let’s talk about the film’s central question: Is college worth it, both financially and philosophically? The answer many of the characters give seemed to be “no”—especially Silicon Valley types like Thiel, who challenge the very idea that one needs professors in an age where so much information is at our fingertips. What do you think? Is that four-year gold standard worth it?

We did present alternatives to the classic, four-year, brick-and-mortar experience—community college, start-ups like UnCollege and MOOCs [massive open online courses]. But philosophically, I absolutely think the four-year experience is worth it. As [Columbia University professor] Andy DelBanco says in the film, the idea of college from the beginning was to provide education that was really modeled after the sermon, to inspire young minds to live a life that’s more meaningful. I agree that this bridge between adolescence and adulthood, college in its ideal form, is a wonderful opportunity for young people to know themselves better and gain a skill set.

While we made this film, the MOOCs emerged first as a potential savior and then proved to be just one part of the answer and certainly not a substitute for human interaction and instruction. So I 100 percent think the traditional [student-professor] relationship is a good thing. The problem is, it’s just becoming too expensive. And student loan debt is, in many cases, eradicating many of the benefits that students are supposed to get after they graduate.

If we had a healthy economy, $25,000 in student loans wouldn’t be a bad investment. It’s just that the job market is bad, and the alternative without a degree is worse, right?

Absolutely. Unemployment and underemployment are the key reasons why certain characters in the film started with a manageable amount of debt—let’s say $25,000—that quickly spiraled out of control because the student didn’t have a job to start making payments. The entire system that governs student loans is built in a way that hurts the loanholder.

So in the face of these realities, how should students choose colleges—by the kind of education they’ll get, or by the likelihood that they’ll get a job?

Any potential school should be evaluated not by its ranking on some prestigious list, but by completion rates, average student loan debt, and employment statistics. It could very well be that a regional, in-state school has a great program in a specific discipline even though the school itself isn’t considered one of the top schools nationally or is not highly ranked in U.S. News and World Report. Students shouldn’t base their decisions on which school has the better-performing football team or the more exciting party atmosphere.

The film showcases a fairly shocking statistic: that 68 percent of students at public universities fail to graduate in four years, and 44 percent fail to graduate in six years. To what extent is this about students caring about the wrong things—partying, sports—and to what extent is it because many low-income students have to work to pay for college?

It’s a very troubling statistic. If 44 percent of students can’t graduate in six years—that’s not a failure rate we would accept in any other industry. [The reasons] depend on where you are. Universities [with a party reputation] like Arizona State University have students who are unable to keep up with the party lifestyle, don’t have enough money to do all the things that the wealthier out-of-state students are doing, and fall behind in their work because they’re not focusing enough on academic rigor. They think, “Well, I’m not going to get the grades I need to finish on time, so I’ll just drop out because this whole enterprise isn’t working for me.” And there’s not enough of a safety net on campus to catch them.

Other students are juggling 40-hour work weeks because school is too expensive and thus they drop out. In that case, the university is failing the people whose mission it is to educate. That dropout rate complicates the very powerful statistic that those who do go to college have median lifetime earnings of a million dollars more than those who don’t go. Fantastic—we applaud education as an engine to social mobility. But that statistic becomes irrelevant to those people who can’t juggle it all. And they may be stuck with loans, anyway.

“Ivory Tower” discusses lots of solutions, but the underlying message is that the government needs to invest more money in public education like it did with the Higher Education Act of 1965. Is this still possible? In the film, California governor Jerry Brown seemed to think it was a lost cause, which is why he pursued MOOCs as public policy.

Student activists have a real voice and they’re trying to directly reach politicians. In the film, you see students marching on the state house in Sacramento, California. You see students marching at the headquarters of Sallie Mae. Student activism has a real voice There are groups like Higher Ed, Not Debt that are active on social media and are gaining a large following. And I think they hope to push this issue beyond the campus walls and to state and federal government.

You cover a lot of ground in an hour and a half. Is there anything that ended up on the cutting room floor that you wish you could have expanded on more?

If there were one argument that I wish I could have fleshed out, it’s the insight that [Georgetown professor] Anthony Carnevale has—how college can actually result in greater inequality in our society. Getting that college degree is now such a prerequisite for jobs in the middle class that those who are not able to get a BA, or those who go to open-access schools and don’t get the same quality education that wealthier white students get, are participating in a two-tiered system that worsens a broader problem of inequality in our society. But I've seen some writers take up that discussion after seeing the film, so I'm glad it seems to be a conversation starter.



https://www.amctheatres.com/movies/ivory-tower
Now Playing

Synopsis – Ivory Tower
As tuition rates spiral beyond reach and student loan debt passes $1 trillion (more than credit card debt), IVORY TOWER asks: Is college worth the cost? From the halls of Harvard, to public colleges in financial crisis, to Silicon Valley, filmmaker Andrew Rossi (PAGE ONE: INSIDE THE NEW YORK TIMES) assembles an urgent portrait of a great American institution at the breaking point. Through profiles at Arizona State, Cooper Union, and Sebastian Thrun's Udacity--among several others--IVORY TOWER reveals how colleges in the United States, long regarded as leaders in higher education, came to embrace a business model that often promotes expansion over quality learning. But along the way we also find unique programs, from Stanford to the free desert school Deep Springs to the historically black all women's college Spelman, where the potential for life-changing college experiences endure. Ultimately, IVORY TOWER asks, What price will society pay if higher education cannot revolutionize college as we know it and evolve a sustainable economic model?





“Is college a racket? ...ballooning tuition costs driven by the “arms race” of providing luxury facilities to student-consumers; predatory loan systems burying students in debt; and the endangerment of a useful, worthwhile college degree in an era of job scarcity and rampant inequality....Filmmaker Andrew Rossi’s new documentary, “Ivory Tower,” is one that I would like to watch. “I wanted to bring cameras on the ground at a range of universities to provide audiences with some narrative evidence about what colleges can do well and what seems to be broken.”

Aronowitz says, “...this bridge between adolescence and adulthood, college in its ideal form, is a wonderful opportunity for young people to know themselves better and gain a skill set....So I 100 percent think the traditional [student-professor] relationship is a good thing. The problem is, it’s just becoming too expensive. ” In addition to the extreme rise in the overall cost for attending a four year college and getting a BA or BS degree, the problem is that the job market is still depressed, and too often the degree doesn't translate into better jobs in the real world. As the article said, the graduate may end up waiting on tables after all.

Still, without a degree of some kind, many employers won't hire the applicant, and to me this is unfair. I think there is a belief among many employers that an applicant with a college degree is at least intelligent, has good basic skills, and perhaps more highly developed social skills. Most often the traditional four year degree doesn't teach job skills per se, however, unless the degree pursued is very specifically related in some way. If the student takes a degree that is aimed specifically at a particular job category such as nursing, teaching, paralegal, accounting, business, writing, editing, or computer technology instead of English, sociology or history, that student has a better chance of getting work within his or her field. The classic four year degree does indeed round the scholar out in many ways and improve overall knowledge and understanding, however, and it does teach thinking skills. The best fit for fully utilizing the four year degree in English or history is teaching in high school. Unfortunately, the high schools have been horrible places to work in too many cases for about twenty years.

Economic problems, too much participation in the social life of the college rather than studying, and the need to work full time while attending courses are often the problems today which are causing 44% of students to fail to graduate in six years. The average Joe the Plumber has traditionally been known to struggle with scheduling and fatigue while taking a few courses at a time and graduating in more than six years. Unfortunately, most young people with parents who can afford to help out financially are now having to take this route due to the high and rising cost of books and tuition. For some it is a disappointment, if their social class is an issue. For the “working poor,” however, taking eight years to graduate is not such a shock and is worth the patience and the cost; and going to a state run college with poor to lower middle class peers is not embarrassing.

Many private colleges, though without the truly superior academic qualifications of Harvard or Duke, are still much more expensive than the state colleges, and to me that is not worth the price for the average student who will not be trying for med school or the law. If the student chooses a degree that prepares him or her for a profession of some sort, if they attend a good state run school, if they persist in their studies while working at a job, and if they keep a good grade point average, then that four year degree is very much worth the investment. The recent trend to say that it isn't is too broad a generalization, in my opinion, and to a certain kind of student who has a strong desire to learn widely and use his mind, nothing does that for you like a brick and mortar four year college and if possible graduate work. No “canned” relationship with a professor over the internet can have the interpersonal feedback or the stimulus of the other student's comments, and those things contribute greatly to student learning. I would hate to see the college education become again for “gentlemen” (read “wealthy”) only. In order to have a viable democracy, we need a broadly educated populace, and high school alone tends to fail in that goal, though anyone can – if they will – “read” college level materials, as Abraham Lincoln “read the law.”

All that said, I think the federal and state governments should work with the state colleges to reduce their costs, supply full scholarships, give better terms on loans and continue to base student aid on need rather than strictly high school grades and high test scores. Wasting scholarships on the children of the wealthy is unfair. The truly average student needs a chance to try to develop himself to the fullest, too.





Iraq Needs U.S. Support to Fight 'Terrorist Threat': Ambassador
— Erik Ortiz
First published June 13th 2014

Iraq is under an immediate “terrorist threat,” and the United States must step in and help to find a political solution before the situation deteriorates further, Iraq’s ambassador to the U.S. said on Friday.

Lukman Faily, speaking with MSNBC host Chuck Todd, reaffirmed that Iraq is asking the U.S. for help with counterterrorism intelligence and military training — and to lead air strikes against the insurgency.

“This is where the United States has experience,” Faily said, “and we can see now they have the will.”

He did not specify, however, whether he thought American troops on the ground would also be necessary.

Iraq appears on the brink of dissolving into a sectarian civil war after Sunni insurgents overran the country’s second-largest city, Mosul, earlier this week. Other towns have fallen to the rebels, as they’ve reportedly vowed to march on Baghdad and dismantle the Shiite-led government.

Faily said the international community needs to be concerned about staving off the growing violence.

“It’s not called an Iraqi uprising, it’s a called a terrorist threat attacking Iraq,” he said, adding the situation is “not just an internal Iraqi dispute.”

Todd pressed Faily about whether the U.S. should have withdrawn troops from the war-torn country at the end of 2011 and whether current Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is at least partially to blame for appearing to marginalize Sunnis from the government.

Faily responded that elections in April were fair and the country has a legitimate democracy. The best way to resolve the crisis, he added, will be through talks.

“There is no other way but a political solution,” Faily said.




Iraq is asking for US help with intelligence, training and air strikes in the fight against ISIS, which is an outside terrorist organization rather than a local Sunni rebellion. MSNBC host Chuck Todd asked Faily if al-Malike is partly to blame for his treatment of the Sunnis and Faily responded that “elections in April were fair and the country has a legitimate democracy. The best way to resolve the crisis, he added, will be through talks.” This terrorist group has said that its goals are to establish the Sunni religion and Sharia law throughout the area, so I wonder if they will be willing to talk to al-Malike's government.

Religious fanaticism is on the rise across the Middle East and other parts of the world. If the countries in question were more wealthy and culturally advanced, I think this extreme thinking would not succeed with the people, and the governments would be able to balance the power situation between groups. Minorities have to be given a voice and have the ability to advance themselves in the society. People who are comfortable financially and well educated, even in Islamic countries, are less likely to make jihad and repression of women the hallmarks of their faith. As it is, I am afraid the fate for Western democracy in those places is very problematic, and will remain so for the foreseeable future. I hope not, of course. I hate to say it, but if Saddam Hussein had not been toppled from power and killed, Iraq would not be a failed state as it is today. Also, of course, all Islamic governments should offer balanced policies for Sunni and Shiite groups. An established state religion is one of the most dangerous aspects of so many world governments. If people have good food to eat, medical care, education and freedom of thought and religion they are many times happier and less likely to support a hardline government of any kind, For some reason, many governments have failed to learn that lesson.





Were dinosaurs warm or cold-blooded? More like lukewarm, scientists say --CBS
By CHARLES Q. CHOI LIVESCIENCE.COM June 13, 2014

Dinosaurs may not have been cold-blooded like modern reptiles or warm-blooded like mammals and birds -- instead, they may have dominated the planet for 135 million years with blood that ran neither hot nor cold, but was a kind of in-between that's rare nowadays, researchers say.

Modern reptiles such as lizards, snakes and turtles are cold-blooded or ectothermic, meaning their body temperatures depend on their environments. Birds and mammals, on the other hand, are warm-blooded, meaning they control their own body temperatures, attempting to keep them at a safe constant -- in the case of humans, at about 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit (37 degrees Celsius).
Dinosaurs are classified as reptiles, and so for many years scientists thought the beasts were cold-blooded, with slow metabolisms that forced them to lumber across the landscape. However, birds are modern-day dinosaurs and warm-blooded, with fast metabolic rates that give them active lifestyles, raising the question of whether or not their extinct dinosaur relatives were also warm-blooded. [Avian Ancestors: Dinosaurs That Learned to Fly (Images)]

Animal metabolism

To help solve this decades-old mystery, researchers developed a new method for analyzing the metabolism of extinct animals. They found "dinosaurs do not fit comfortably into either the cold-blooded or warm-blooded camp -- they genuinely explored a middle way," said lead study author John Grady, a theoretical ecologist at the University of New Mexico.

Scientists often seek to deduce the metabolisms of extinct animals by looking at the rates at which their bones grow. The method resembles cutting into a tree and looking at the thickness of the rings of wood within, which can reveal how well or poorly that tree grew any given year. Similarly, looking at the way bone is deposited in layers in fossils reveals how quickly or slowly that animal might have grown.

Grady and his colleagues not only looked at growth rings in fossils, but also sought to estimate their metabolic rates by looking at changes in body size as animals grew from birth to adults. The researchers looked at a broad spectrum of animals encompassing both extinct and living species, including cold- and warm-blooded creatures, as well as dinosaurs.

The scientists found growth rate to be a good indicator of metabolic rates in living animals, ranging from sharks to birds. In general, warm-blooded mammals that grow about 10 times faster than cold-blooded reptiles also metabolize about 10 times faster.

When the researchers examined how fast dinosaurs grew, they found that the animals resembled neither mammals nor modern reptiles, and were neither ectotherms nor endotherms. Instead, dinosaurs occupied a middle ground, making them so-called "mesotherms."

Modern mesotherms

Today, such energetically intermediate animals are uncommon, but they do exist. For instance, the great white shark, tuna and leatherback sea turtle are mesotherms, as is the echidna, an egg-laying mammal from Australia. Like mammals, mesotherms generate enough heat to keep their blood warmer than their environment, but like modern reptiles, they do not maintain a constant body temperature. [See Photos of Echidna and Other Bizarre Monotremes]

"For instance, tuna body temperature declines when they dive into deep, colder waters, but it always stays above the surrounding water," Grady told Live Science.

Body size may play a role in mesothermy, because larger animals can conserve heat more easily. "For instance, leatherback sea turtles are mesotherms, but smaller green sea turtles are not," Grady said. However, mesothermy does not depend just on large size. "Mako sharks are mesotherms, but whale sharks are regular ectotherms," Grady said.

Endotherms can boost their metabolisms to warm up -- "for instance, we shiver when cold, which generates heat," Grady said. "Mesotherms have adaptations to conserve heat, but they do not burn fat or shiver to warm up. Unlike us, they don't boost their metabolic rate to stay warm."
Some animals are what are known as gigantotherms, meaning they are just so massive that they maintain heat even though they do not actively control their body temperature.

"Gigantotherms like crocodiles rely on basking to heat up, so they are not mesotherms," Grady said. "Gigantotherms are slower to heat up and cool down, but if they rely on external heat sources like the sun, then they are not mesotherms. In general, mesotherms produce more heat than gigantotherms and have different mechanisms for conserving it."

Advantages of being a mesotherm

Mesothermy would have permitted dinosaurs to move, grow and reproduce faster than their cold-blooded reptilian relatives, making the dinosaurs more dangerous predators and more elusive prey. This may explain why dinosaurs dominated the world until their extinction about 65 million years ago, Grady suggested.

At the same time, dinosaurs' lower metabolic rates compared to mammals allowed them to get by on less food. This may have permitted the enormous bulk that many dinosaur species attained. "For instance, it is doubtful that a lion the size ofT. rex would be able to eat enough wildebeests or elephants without starving to death," Grady said. "With their lower food demands, however, a real T. rex was able to get by just fine."

All in all, Grady suspected that where direct competition occurs, warm-blooded endotherms suppress mesotherms, mesotherms suppress active but cold-blooded ectotherms, and active ectotherms suppress more lethergic sit-and-wait ectotherms.

Although mesothermy appears widespread among dinosaurs, not every dinosaur was necessarily a mesotherm, Grady said. "Dinosaurs were a big and diverse bunch, and some may have been endotherms or ectotherms," he said. "In particular, feathered dinosaurs are a bit of a mystery. What do you call a metabolically intermediate animal covered in feathers? Is it like the mesothermic echidna? Or just a low-power endotherm?"

The first bird, Archaeopteryx, "was more like a regular dinosaur than any living bird," Grady said. "It grew to maturity in about two years. In contrast, a similarly sized hawk grows in about six weeks, almost 20 times faster. Despite feathers and the ability to take flight, the first birds were not the active, hot-blooded fliers their descendants came to be."

These findings could help shed light on how warm-blooded animals such as humans evolved.

"The origins of endothermy in mammals and birds are unclear," Grady said. Studying the growth rates of the ancestors of birds and mammals "will shed light on these mysterious creatures."

The scientists detailed their findings in the June 13 issue of the journal Science.

Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.




“Scientists often seek to deduce the metabolisms of extinct animals by looking at the rates at which their bones grow. … In general, warm-blooded mammals that grow about 10 times faster than cold-blooded reptiles also metabolize about 10 times faster.” The dinosaurs are thought now to have been mesotherms, and there are a few living animals that also are – “the great white shark, tuna and leatherback sea turtle are mesotherms, as is the echidna, an egg laying mammal. Increased body size may make an animal hold its heat better and therefore be a mesotherm or endotherm, while the mammals and birds are able to shiver when cold – in other words generate heat by movement – and are more physically active in general. They also have to eat more to maintain heat and activity level, but they are faster on their feet, and therefore able to chase down and subdue prey to keep up their body heat and energy. I imagine this new thinking about dinosaurs is linked to the present day belief that birds are the modern day descendents of dinosaurs, and that the dinos probably were faster and more intelligent than was once thought.

“Big Bird,” the six foot tall funny-looking bird of The Muppets is, I think, an idea derived from the feathered dinosaurs which have been found in China and some other places. Of course, there is also the ostrich and a couple of other living birds that resemble a dinosaur. The cassowary is the most like a dinosaur, even having a hollow crown of bone on top of its head like some dinosaurs did, and it, like the ostrich, is capable of eviscerating a fully grown human with its claw-like nails by kicking the unfortunate human who trespassed on their territory.





Cleric to Iraqis: If you can fight, defend your country
CBS/AP June 13, 2014

BAGHDAD -- A representative for Iraq's top Shiite cleric on Friday urged Iraqis to defend their country as militants who have seized large swaths of the nation's Sunni heartland captured two towns in an ethnically mixed province northeast of Baghdad.

Neighboring Shiite powerhouse Iran signaled its willingness to confront the growing threat from this week's militant blitz, which the United Nations estimates has claimed hundreds of lives.

The fighters inspired by al Qaeda already hold the major cities of Mosul and Tikrit.

CBS News correspondent Holly Williams reports from the Kurdish-controlled city of Erbil in northern Iraq that a cell phone video showed the Islamic militants putting on a show of force in Mosul, parading vehicles captured from Iraq's military through the country's second biggest city.

A fighter using a loudspeaker urged the people to join the militant group "to liberate Baghdad and Jerusalem." The black banners of the al-Qaeda-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) adorned many of the captured vehicles. Some in the crowd shouted "God is with you" to the fighters.

CBS News will be covering the latest developments extensively tonight on the "CBS Evening News," with Williams in Erbil, Clarissa Ward in Baghdad and Elizabeth Palmer in Damascus, Syria.

The fresh gains by insurgents, spearheaded by fighters from ISIS, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, come as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Shiite-led government struggles to form a coherent response after militants overran Mosul, Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit and smaller communities, as well as military and police bases - often after meeting little resistance from state security forces.

The fast-moving rebellion, which also draws support from former Saddam-era figures and other disaffected Sunnis, has emerged as the biggest threat to Iraq's stability since the U.S. withdrawal at the end of 2011. It has pushed the nation closer to a precipice that could partition it into Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish zones.

Rupert Colville, the spokesman for the U.N. human rights office, told journalists in Geneva that the number of people killed in recent days may run into the hundreds, and that the number of wounded could approach 1,000.

He said top U.N. rights official Navi Pillay plans to issue a statement later Friday expressing alarm at the rapid deterioration of security in Iraq, and said the office has received reports that Iraqi army soldiers as well as 17 civilians in a single street in Mosul had been rounded up and killed by militants.

The assault also threatens to embroil Iraq more deeply in a wider regional conflict feeding off the chaos caused by the civil war in neighboring Syria.

Iran's official IRNA news agency reported Friday that former members of Tehran's powerful Revolutionary Guard have announced their readiness to fight in Iraq against the Islamic State, while Iranian state television quoted President Hassan Rouhani as saying his country will do all it can to fight terrorism next door.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran will apply all its efforts on the international and regional levels to confront terrorism," the report said Rouhani told al-Maliki by phone.

Iran has built close political and economic ties with postwar Iraq, and many influential Iraqi Shiites have lived for stretches of time in the Islamic Republic. Iran earlier this week halted flights to Baghdad because of security concerns and said it was intensifying security measures along its borders.

Shiite cleric Sheik Abdul-Mahdi al-Karbalaie told worshippers Friday it is a civic duty to confront the threat facing Iraq. He represents Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most revered Shiite spiritual leader in Iraq.

"Citizens who can carry weapons and fight the terrorists in defense of their country, its people and its holy sites should volunteer and join the security forces," al-Karbalaie said.

Police officials said militants driving in machine gun-mounted pickups entered the two newly conquered towns in Diyala province late Thursday - Jalula, 80 miles northeast of Baghdad, and Sadiyah, 60 miles north of the Iraqi capital. Iraqi soldiers abandoned their posts there without any resistance, they said.

Residents of Jalula said the gunmen issued an ultimatum to the Iraqi soldiers not to resist and give up their weapons in exchange for safe passage out. After seizing the town, the gunmen announced through loudspeakers that they have come to rescue residents from injustice and that none would be hurt.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to journalists, and the residents declined to give their names because of fears for their safety.

The Islamic State has vowed to march on Baghdad, but with its large Shiite population, the capital would be a far more difficult target.

So far, the militants have stuck to the Sunni heartland and former Sunni insurgent strongholds where people are already alienated by al-Maliki's government over allegations of discrimination and mistreatment. The militants also would likely meet far stronger resistance, not only from government forces but by Shiite militias.

Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and the Asaib Ahl al-Haq Shiite militia vowed to defend Shiite holy sites, raising the specter of street clashes and sectarian killings.

Still, Baghdad authorities have tightened security around the capital and residents are stocking up on essentials. Hundreds of young men crowded in front of the main army recruiting center in Baghdad on Thursday after authorities urged Iraqis to help battle the insurgents.

Trumpeting their victory, the Islamic militants also declared they would impose shariah law in Mosul, which they captured on Tuesday, and other areas they seized.

In northern Iraq, Kurdish security forces have moved to fill the power vacuum caused by the retreating Iraqi forces - taking over an air base and other posts abandoned by the military in the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk.

Three planeloads of Americans were being evacuated from a major Iraqi air base in Sunni territory north of Baghdad, U.S. officials said Thursday, and Germany urged its citizens to immediately leave parts of Iraq, including Baghdad.

President Obama said Iraq will need more help from the United States, but he did not specify what it would be willing to provide. Senior U.S. officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter by name said Washington is considering whether to conduct drone missions in Iraq.

The White House says Mr. Obama is considering every option except American ground troops.

The advances by the Sunni militants are a heavy defeat for al-Maliki. His Shiite-dominated political bloc came first in April parliamentary elections - the first since the U.S. military withdrawal in 2011 - but failed to gain a majority, forcing him to try to build a governing coalition.

"We do have a stake in making sure that these jihadists are not getting a permanent foothold in either Iraq or Syria, for that matter," Mr. Obama said in Washington.

Al-Maliki and other Iraqi leaders have pleaded with the Obama administration for more than a year for additional help to combat the growing insurgency.




“A representative for Iraq's top Shiite cleric on Friday urged Iraqis to defend their country,” this happening as Iraqi police and army have been laying down their arms and surrendering. “Iraqi army soldiers as well as 17 civilians in a single street in Mosul had been rounded up and killed by militants.” If the militants are going to slaughter their captives, why should a soldier give up? He may as well fight and bring some of the enemy down with him. Since the Imam called for recruits, “hundreds” of young men have shown up to join the army, and Kurdish security forces have taken over several abandoned sites. The US is considering options other than ground troops in Iraq, and President Obama said “'We do have a stake in making sure that these jihadists are not getting a permanent foothold in either Iraq or Syria, for that matter,'”

“Iran's official IRNA news agency reported Friday that former members of Tehran's powerful Revolutionary Guard have announced their readiness to fight in Iraq against the Islamic State, while Iranian state television quoted President Hassan Rouhani as saying his country will do all it can to fight terrorism next door.” I'm glad to see that. I hope we won't see the US deeply involved in the war in Iraq again, and I do see president Rouhani as being more liberal than his predecessors. Iran, too, has maintained a more law-abiding populace and government, which seems to me to be more advanced. “Iran has built close political and economic ties with postwar Iraq, and many influential Iraqi Shiites have lived for stretches of time in the Islamic Republic.”






NORAD: Fighter jets scrambled after Russian bombers spotted off California
CBS NEWS June 13, 2014

Authorities say two F-22 fighter jets were scrambled after a pair of Russian bombers were spotted 50 miles off the coast of California earlier this week, Reuters reported, citing a NORAD spokesperson.

Major Beth Smith, of North American Aerospace Defense Command, said that the long-range Russian bombers never officially entered U.S. airspace when two NORAD fighter jets made visual contact with them.

The incident occurred about five hours after four Russian bombers and a refueling tanker were seen entering the so-called Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), airspace that extends about 200 miles from the U.S. coast. The Russian aircraft left the ADIZ after being identified by two fighters from the Alaskan NORAD region, Smith said.

Smith said the Russian planes' flight appeared to be part of a routine training mission, which Russian aircraft have carried out dozens of times in recent years in the ADIZ.




The Russian planes may have been merely doing military exercises, or maybe Putin wanted to raddle us. Russia is, after all, very close to Alaska, and they can quickly be within the 200 mile zone. They could have been spying on us, too. I am not worried about this. Putin is a very rational man. He's just a scoundrel.






Cops: Youths plotting Tenn. school attack studied Columbine
By CRIMESIDER STAFF CBS NEWS June 13, 2014

HAWKINS COUNTY, Tenn. - Authorities say the two male juveniles arrested for allegedly conspiring to commit a mass shooting at an eastern Tennessee high school made journals detailing the planned attack, reports CBS affiliate WVLT.

Hawkins County Sheriff Ronnie Lawson said Friday the student suspects - whose names and ages have not been released - studied the 1999 Columbine shootings while plotting a violent rampage at Volunteer High School in Hawkins County, Tenn., according to the station.

The juveniles face conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and other charges,the station reports.

Lawson said investigators found school floor plans, guns, firecrackers and gunpowder at the home of one of the students. The sheriff said that, in September 2013, videos of both suspects were posted online featuring the boys holding and firing various guns. They also reportedly show dry ice or Drano-style bottle bombs being exploded at different locations in Hawkins County. One video reportedly shows a gasoline bomb being constructed and detonated.

Assistant District Attorney Ryan Blackwell said Thursday that a detention hearing was held for the boys and that it is possible the case could be transferred to adult court.




Hawkins County Sheriff Ronnie Lawson has arrested two teenagers for “conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and other charges,” after finding school floor plans, guns, gun powder and fireworks at a student's home. They made a video while shooting and holding guns and showed bottle bombs which they had made being exploded. They may be charged in adult court, though at present they are due in juvenile court. So many would be bombers and terrorists publicize their activities on the Internet, probably to make themselves feel big and powerful. It is up to authorities to find these things and arrest them before they make a move, as the Sheriff did in this case. Good for Sheriff Lawson. I do think kids who do this kind of thing should be tried as adults. When a crime is too severe, the juvenile courts aren't appropriate.





McDonald's Murder Sparks Chinese Cult Crackdown
BEIJING June 13, 2014
By WENYAN DENG

In the wake of a brutal murder by members of a religious sect, the Chinese government is renewing its crackdown on cults.

State-run publications, such as the Xinhua News Agency, are producing a steady stream of articles alarming citizens to the dangers of religious cults, known in Chinese as “xiejiao,” which in English means “evil religions.”

Xinhua reports that the government has handed out four-year prison terms to 59 of the 1,500 cult members arrested since 2012. These 59 individuals were charged with “using religious organizations to disrupt the legal system.”

But human rights advocates and mainstream religious leaders in China see this latest anti-cult campaign as a reflection of the government’s broader fear of organized religion, especially groups it cannot control. Teng Biao, a defense lawyer and dissident, tells ABC News that the recent campaign is “inextricably connected with the repression against religions in general” because “religious belief is an assault on the government’s official atheist position.”

The killing that sparked this campaign was particularly violent and grabbed national attention. On May 28, six members of a religious sect entered a McDonald’s restaurant in Zhaoyuan on a recruiting mission. A young Chinese mother, Wu Shuoyan, was inside waiting for her 7-year-old son and husband to arrive. The group approached her, asking for her number. When she refused, members of the group beat her to death with fists, chairs, and a metal mop.

The religious sect calls itself “Church of Almighty God,” known in Chinese as “Quannengshen,” which translates as, “All-powerful Spirit.” It was banned by the government in 1995, but now is believed to have over a million members in China, with many from rural areas.

The group is well known for its unorthodox and inflammatory behaviors. Arrests started in 2012 after members of the sect organized outdoor prayer meetings and disseminated pamphlets asserting that joining the sect would save believers from the impending apocalypse on Dec. 21, the date many eschatological groups believe to be doomsday.

Some observers see the government’s new campaign as another round of efforts to counter unsanctioned belief groups. Cao Nanlai, associate professor at People’s University in Beijing, told The Los Angeles Times that, over the past five years, the crack down on unsanctioned sects was not very visible, but is now “a big issue and has become a top priority for government officials.”




“But human rights advocates and mainstream religious leaders in China see this latest anti-cult campaign as a reflection of the government’s broader fear of organized religion, especially groups it cannot control.” Called “Church Of Almighty God,” the group now has around a million members, especially in rural areas. The murder was brutal, as the six cult members beat a young woman to death for refusing to give them her telephone number. Its activities are called “unorthodox and inflammatory behaviors,” and include open air prayer meetings and giving out pamphlets about the coming doomsday. The government is believed to be stepping up its crackdown on such sects. “Teng Biao, a defense lawyer and dissident, tells ABC News that the recent campaign is 'inextricably connected with the repression against religions in general' because 'religious belief is an assault on the government’s official atheist position.'”

In the US we tend to let a religious group go on with its beliefs and activities until they break laws or become outright terrorists, which is partly why we have some of the bombings and shootings that occur so frequently here. The FBI knew about them, but did nothing to stop them. There are at least a couple of “churches” in the US that are anti-Jewish, anti-black and anti-government, and that is the center of their “doctrine,” though they justify it as being “Christian.” There are verses in the Bible that have been used to justify slavery, the innate “inferiority” of black people, and of course there's always the phrase “the Jews killed Jesus.” Jesus would never sanction such a group. To me they shouldn't have government protection or tax free status, as they are not “religions” but merely hate groups,political activists or in so many cases, merely scams. Their goal is often to raise millions of dollars for their leaders. Likewise some groups are claiming to heal the sick, and they actively interfere with people with illnesses going to a real medical doctor. I sympathize with the Communist government for closing down radical terrorist groups and harmful scams. To me they are a cancer on society. Religion in general is not a rational way of thinking, unfortunately, and too often simply promotes enmity between groups, thus sometimes violence, as in this case. I don't mean by that that the government should do away with all religions, as Biao is afraid they are doing, but I don't think hate groups should be allowed to become politically powerful or commit flagrant crimes. I sympathize with China on this one.