A few days ago I received a Walmart card good for up to $400.  Got it registered, but don't think I will use it as I don't like making monthly payments.  Then I received a letter from PayPal that said I had asked for $188.11 credit to shop at Walmart.  Fortunately, they refused me.  I called one credit check company who said they would notify the other two and my account now has an "Alert" on it, and none will take any action of sending a credit report until they call me.

I called Walmart and cancelled the card.

I do my shopping on line and wonder if I should also notify anyone else I shop with, like Chewys for my cat food; Montgomery Ward; Penneys; Overstock.  And I pay my bills with my credit card by calling their 800 numbers - telephone, Montgomery Ward, other bills.

An octogenarian Belgian couple has chosen to end their lives through assisted suicide rather than risk the chance of dying alone. Their children have reportedly backed their decision.


http://rt.com/news/191280-assisted-suicide-belgium-couple/


 Francis, 89, and Anne, 86, neither of whom are terminally ill, have received the full support of their three adult children, who say they would be unable to care for either parent if they were to be widowed, the Daily Mail reports.

Do you beleive the Bible is historically accurate? Does it matter to you if it's not?

US forces who bombed Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters in Syria also targeted a separate armed group plotting an imminent attack against US and Western forces, the US defence ministry has said.

Arab allies Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates took part in the strikes, which started early on Tuesday, it added.

Eight US airstrikes were aimed at the Khorasan group which is made up of experienced al-Qaeda operatives, the Pentagon said in a statement.

"The United States has also taken action to disrupt the imminent attack plotting against the United States and Western interests conducted by a network of seasoned al-Qaeda veterans - sometimes referred to as the Khorasan Group - who have established a safe haven in Syria to develop external attacks, construct and test improvised explosive devices and recruit Westerners to conduct operations," the statement said.

The US military used fighter jets as well as remotely piloted aircraft and Tomahawk missiles to conduct 14 strikes against ISIL.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/09/us-begins-bombing-isil-positions-syria-201492313622252650.html

Pope in Albania urges Muslims to condemn extremism
TIRANA, Albania — Pope Francis has called on moderate Muslims and all religious leaders to condemn Islamic extremists who “pervert” religion to justify violence, as he visited Albania and held it up as a model for interfaith harmony.

One of the highlights of Francis’ visit was a meeting Sunday with representatives of Albania’s Muslim, Orthodox and Catholic communities, which all suffered persecution under communism but now live and work together peacefully.

Francis said religious intolerance was an “insidious enemy” particularly alive in parts of the world today. He urged all believers to “firmly refute as false” any perversion of religion for the sake of violence.

He said: “To kill in the name of God is a grave sacrilege. To discriminate in the name of God is inhuman.”

http://www.usatoday.com/videos/news/nation/2014/09/21/16007785/


Good for the Pope.  It is important that all religious leaders speak out against killing and discrimination, don't you think?  In this time where some want to hate and kill all Muslims - isn't it great that a leader says otherwise?

Main purpose would be to run visual studio and an instance of SQL. It would also be used for everyday business purpose where mobility is key. Thin and light.

Been looking at Dell Inspiron 7000, Lenovo Y series, HP Elitebook 850. Budget around $1200-1500.

A blogger in ‘poor psychological condition’ has been sentenced to death after being found guilty of insulting the Prophet Mohammad on Facebook.

According to an ‘informed source’, speaking to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Soheil Arabi, 30, had kept eight Facebook pages under different names and admitted to posting material insulting to the Prophet on these pages.

Mr Arabi, who was arrested along with his wife in November last year by agents from the Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), is said to have written the “material without thinking and in poor psychological condition”.

Branch 75 of Tehran’s Criminal Court, under Judge Khorasani, found Mr Arabi guilty of insulting the Prophet, or “sabb al-nabi”, on 30 August.

Article 262 of the Islamic Penal Code states insulting the Prophet carries a punishment of death, however, article 264 of the Penal Code says if a suspect claims to have said the insulting words in anger, in quoting someone, or by mistake, his death sentence will be converted to 74 lashes.

The anonymous source claims: “Unfortunately, despite this Article and the explanations provided, the judges issued the death sentence.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iranian-blogger-found-guilty-of-insulting-prophet-mohammad-on-facebook-sentenced-to-death-9741572.html

Savages...killing people sent to help them.  And, Obama is sending our troops to help these people?

Eight dead in attack on Ebola team in Guinea. ‘Killed in cold blood.’

The bodies of eight people, including several health workers and three journalists, have been found days after they were attacked while distributing information about Ebola in a Guinean village near the city of Nzerekore, according to Reuters.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/18/us-health-ebbola-guinea-idUSKBN0HD2JE20140918

"The eight bodies were found in the village latrine," Albert Damantang Camara, a spokesman for Guinea's government, told Reuters on Thursday. "Three of them had their throats slit."

When the delegation arrived on Tuesday to do disinfection work and educate people about preventing Ebola, angry and fearful residents began throwing rocks and beating people in the group with clubs according to the Los Angeles Times, which cited Guinean radio reports. The delegation, which included one local politician, fled into the bush to escape the attackers.
http://www.latimes.com/world/africa/la-fg-attack-ebola-guinea-outreach-20140918-story.html
One journalist who managed to escape told reporters that she could hear the people looking for her while she hid, according to the BBC.

On Thursday, the bodies were found in the septic tank of a primary school in the village, according to Camara. They had been "killed in cold blood by the villagers," he added, according to the BBC.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-29256443

Throughout this epidemic, public health officials have battled widespread fear and even doubts that the virus exists at all. The deadly attack illustrates the danger that health workers face as they try to spread information about the virus in an effort to control the deadliest Ebola outbreak in history.

 http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2014/09/18/missing-health-workers-in-guinea-were-educating-villagers-about-ebola-when-they-were-attacked/

If so why is Obummer arming Syrian rebels? This is basically a direct act of war and obvious terrorism.

Why aren't we hearing more about this case?   Why is everyone so afraid to speak the truth...from media, to our own government?  Obama strangely silent on this, and our pathetic media?  They are more worried about Ferguson, even this Ray Rice scandal, but God forbid....we mention domestic terrorism.  Just doesn't fit in with Obama's agenda.

Brendan Tevlin's murder evidence that 'domestic terrorism is already here,' says radio host (AUDIO)

A New York radio personality is calling for increased attention to the June murder of a 19-year-old Livingston man, calling it evidence that “domestic terrorism is already here.”

Todd Pettengill, host of WPLJ’s “The Todd Show”, discussed the death of Brendan Tevlin for more than eight minutes this morning, asking why the case has not received more attention despite the alleged murderer’s admissions that he killed Tevlin as an act of vengeance for U.S. military actions in the Middle East.

“It was in fact an act of jihad, perpetrated by a fellow American who sympathized more with those who want to annihilate us than with his own country and its people,” he said.

Essex County authorities have charged 29-year-old Ali Muhammad Brown with killing Tevlin in a West Orange intersection on June 25. Since being taken into custody on July 18, he has confessed to the murder, along with three others in Washington state, saying they were carried out as retribution for innocent lives lost in Iraq, Syria and other parts of the Islamic world.

Pettengil criticized President Barack Obama and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder for not referencing the case in recent addresses and downplaying the level of threat radical Islamists currently living in America could pose.

http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/2014/09/radio_host_livingston_teens_murder_evidence_that_domestic_terrorism_is_already_here.html

Canada is preparing to send military advisers into Iraq to help in the fight against ISIS. As a meeting of NATO leaders convened in Britain, the organization is facing no shortage of crises and a challenge from two of its dominant partners to confront a virulent new form of Islamic extremism in the Middle East — a challenge that Canada [is]taking its own steps to address. The move is expected to be a Canadian initiative, not part of a wider NATO mission.

On Thursday, U.S. President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron called on the 28-member military alliance to deal with the emerging threat posed by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. They also promised to protect the tiny Baltic states from possible Russian aggression.

"We meet here at a solemn moment for our alliance and the security of our nations," Cameron said at the opening of the summit, being held on a rolling golf resort in this sea-side Welsh community. "We meet at a crucial time in the history of our alliance. The world faces many dangerous and evolving threats and it is absolutely clear that NATO is as vital to our future as it has been in our past."
http://news.ca.msn.com/world/canada-to-send-military-advisers-to-counter-isis-in-iraq

Does Individual honesty and or Personal Intellectual Integrity play any part in your Religious belief System?

There seems to be many religious people around here who don't mind breaking a few Biblical commandments, especially the one concerning false witness/ lying.
What may be the most ironic is, it is the non-believers who are calling them on it!

"Do as I say, but Not what I do!"  seems to have replaced the, "Do unto others as You would have done to You".

Has out-right lying/ bearing false witness become a part of your religion?

so I applied to a new role within the company. I tell my boss I'm about to apply and he's extremely supportive. He immediately tells me he'll write a reccomendation letter and forward it on to the proper people. This was July 25th. I get an email that same day from the director of HR telling me that I have a phone interview with the VP for the new role on Monday, the 28th. I eagerly accept and make sure I'm all set for Monday. Monday rolls around and the VP doesn't call. I send an email asking "do we need to reschedule? I never recieved a phone call." The vp responds and says he couldn't find my phone number He now has my phone number because it was in my email signature. HR says they will reschedule. So about 3 days ago I get a new invite for a phone screen today. VP calls me about 2 minutes after he should and says "oh I have a phone call with a customer. I'll call you back at noon" I say "ok i understand"

it's now 12:25 and still no call. What the fuck is going on god damn it.

Most faiths refer to some type of individual judgement, be it from the Creator, or some other source.

Not sure how many refer to God also judging the nations.  The Bible does (both Old and New), and I think the Koran does.

Psalm 2 in the Bible refers to this judgement, among other passages.  So does Psalm 9.  Below iit is being applied to the United States.   Romans chapter 1 comes to mind also.

The nations have sunk down in the pit which they have made;" Psalm 9:15a, NASB

I don't know what better commentary there could be on the world right now than this verse. The nations have literally sunk into a pit! Our nation is far from what it was even fifteen years ago in terms of morality.

Television offers scores of channels which have desensitized us to violence and sexual immorality.

Life has been devalued to the point that late-term abortions are performed and it is now acceptable to kill a child while it's being born.

It will not be long and the same devaluation of life that has been placed on the innocent unborn will be applied to the elderly and disabled.

While men and women gorge themselves on Internet pornography, family life has disintegrated to the point that over fifty percent of children live in homes without a father.

Without a moral compass, once righteous, free nations will lose political discernment and fall prey to the power of enemies hell-bent on their subjection or destruction.

Yet, those who dare raise a voice of warning or dissent are marginalized or demonized.

The Bible warns that the pit the nations have dug, they will fall into and this will be the undoing of our society.

There is a moral line, after which a civilization passes, that will cause it to self-destruct. We must realize God's judgment is often poured out silently. He gives a society over to its evil desires and it cannibalizes itself. It sinks down into the pit it has dug.

As the pit is dug deeper, the window of escape narrows until there is no possibility of turning back, in the will of God, consequences begin to march the society and/or the civilization to destruction.

What can we do? We can continue to make our voice heard and resist growing callous to sin. We must stay hot-hearted in our love and devotion to our Lord Jesus and take strong, courageous stands for the truth. We must gather together to pray. And we must pray, and when we have prayed, we must pray and pray more.

The Lord promises:

"…if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14 

U.S. conducts airstrikes on ISIS militants in Iraq
By Tom Cohen and Ben Brumfield, CNN
updated 1:28 PM EDT, Fri August 8, 2014

Washington (CNN) -- Two U.S. F/A-18 jet fighters bombed artillery of Sunni Islamic extremists in Iraq on Friday, escalating America's military involvement more than two years after President Barack Obama brought home forces from the country.

Obama authorized "targeted airstrikes" if needed to protect U.S. personnel from fighters with ISIS, which calls itself the Islamic State. The U.S. military also could use airstrikes to prevent what officials warn could be a genocide of minority groups by the ISIS fighters.

Meanwhile, a senior Kurdish official told CNN that ISIS militants captured Iraq's largest hydroelectric dam, just north of Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city. According to the official, the militant fighters have been using U.S.-made weapons seized from the Iraqi army, including M1 Abrams tanks.

There had been conflicting reports about who controlled the dam on the Tigris River, with heavy fighting under way between ISIS fighters and Kurdish forces, known as Peshmerga. U.S. officials have warned that a failure of the dam would catastrophic, resulting in flooding all the way to Baghdad.

In other fighting, an Iraqi airstrike killed 45 ISIS fighters and injured 60 Friday in the northern town of Sinjar, the country's state-run National Media Center said.

Sinjar is the town that ISIS raided last weekend, causing members of the Yazidi minority there to flee into surrounding mountains without food, water or shelter and prompting concerns of a potential genocide.

Technically a not for profit rental does generate some income, though the net income is negative after all the deductions. So does that make it a property held for the production of income (in Federal income tax context)?

http://www.aol.com/article/2014/07/30/donut-cheesesteak-burger-debuts/20939129/?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000058

Donut cheesesteak burger debuts:

A local Philadelphia burger joint called 'PYT' has debuted what looks like a heart attack on a plate: The
Donut Cheesesteak Burger. PYT is no stranger to strange and quirky burgers such as the 'Doh! Nut' to the 'Firebird Chicken Sriracha, and the owner said he really thinks this one will be a hit.
 Its all rather unbelievable! I would be sick for a week if I even tried to eat anything on their menu. http://pytburger.com/

For example, when I left, which is about 10 years ago, my school was about 27k/year. Now it's close to 37k. And my school is nowhere near the top schools. Employment compensation (at least in my field) hardly increased.
No wonder students are running into trouble with student loans everywhere.

HRW released a report [link] that shows, in part, that just about every single high-profile domestic terrorism plot was crafted from the ground up by the FBI.  http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/usterrorism0714_ForUpload_0_0_0.pdf

All of the high-profile domestic terrorism plots of the last decade, with four exceptions, were actually FBI sting operations—plots conducted with the direct involvement of law enforcement informants or agents, including plots that were proposed or led by informants. According to multiple studies, nearly 50 percent of the more than 500 federal counterterrorism convictions resulted from informant-based cases; almost 30 percent of those cases were sting operations in which the informant played an active role in the underlying plot.

Of those 4 exceptions, two were not prevented. They were the LAX shooting and the Boston bombing. By my count, that means that the FBI is only able to stop 50% of actual domestic terrorism plots. All of the other high profile cases don't count because they were created by the FBI.


And before you go thinking they simply tricked bad guys who would have done bad things in the absence of the FBI's guiding hand, consider that the report notes that the FBI preyed on individuals that were deemed weak.

Although an FBI agent even told Ferdaus’ father his son “obviously” had mental health problems, the FBI targeted him for a sting operation, sending an informant into Ferdaus’ mosque. Together, the FBI informant and Ferdaus devised a plan to attack the Pentagon and US Capitol, with the FBI providing fake weaponry and funding Ferdaus’ travel. Yet Ferdaus was mentally and physically deteriorating as the fake plot unfolded, suffering weight loss so severe his cheek bones protruded, loss of bladder control that left him wearing diapers, and depression and seizures so bad his father quit his job to care for Ferdaus. He was eventually sentenced on material support for terrorism and explosives charges to 17 years in prison with an additional 10 years of supervised release.

The FBI often made shit up all together instead of merely providing their victims with the means to carry out their "crimes."

    In many of the sting operations we examined, informants and undercover agents carefully laid out an ideological basis for a proposed terrorist attack, and then provided investigative targets with a range of options and the weapons necessary to carry out the attack. Instead of beginning a sting at the point where the target had expressed an interest in engaging in illegal conduct, many terrorism sting operations that we investigated facilitated or invented the target’s willingness to act before presenting the tangible opportunity to do so. In this way, the FBI may have created terrorists out of law-abiding individuals.

If their target was non-compliant, then he'd face enhanced interrogation until he confessed.

Abu Ali, a US citizen, was swept up in a mass arrest campaign in Saudi Arabia in 2003. Ali alleged being whipped, denied food, and threatened with amputation, and ultimately provided a confession he says was false to Saudi interrogators.

[...]

Uzair Paracha was held in solitary confinement for nearly two years before he was convicted on charges of material support. Nine months after his arrest and while he was refusing to take a plea deal, the federal government moved Paracha to a harsh regime of solitary confinement pursuant to Special Administrative Measures (SAMs)—special restrictions on his contact with others imposed on the grounds of protecting national security or preventing disclosure of classified material—ostensibly due to ties with Al-Qaeda. For a time, Paracha was only permitted to speak to prison guards.

As Tim Cushing put it https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140722/14463127971/report-all-four-high-profile-domestic-terrorism-plots-last-decade-were-crafted-ground-up-fbi.shtml :

    The FBI took a man whose main hobbies were "watching cartoons" and "playing Pokemon," a man who a forensic psychologist described (during the trial) as "highly susceptible to the suggestions of others" and fashioned him into a supposed terrorist. The planned subway bombing never happened, thanks to the FBI's keenly-honed ability to capture terrorists it created. Arrested with the would-be subway bomber was his "co-conspirator," a high school dropout with drug problems and clinically-diagnosed paranoid schizophrenia.

Fox News - RedEye
CNN - For major news events
MSNBC - For pure Regime propaganda
Other - Because sure, why not.