Friday, January 18, 2013

the second coming?


The Mark of the Beast - James Arribito



Mark of the Beast - James Arribito - Documentary





ReligiousMatrixTV 


Published on Jul 13, 2012


The Mark of the Beast is a controversial matter, and there are many misconceptions of this subject.


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Happy Sabbath



Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

Genesis 2:1-3.

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Mayors hail Hillary Clinton for 2016




The goodwill for Clinton can be traced to how she handled the aftermath of her 2008 run. | AP Photo


By KEVIN ROBILLARD | 1/18/13 6:55 AM EST


Even before President Barack Obama starts his second term, some of the nation’s Democratic mayors have come close to settling on his successor: Hillary Clinton.

Mayors interviewed by POLITICO at the U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting in Washington, D.C., were effusive about the secretary of state, although some waved off questions about 2016. While few were ready to commit to her candidacy before she has even left Foggy Bottom, their praise leaves little doubt about Clinton’s level of support from local officials.


And of course, Clinton needs to decide to run before she can get an endorsement.

“She says she’s too tired to run,” said Frank Ortis, the Democratic mayor of Pembroke Pines, Fla. “I’ve known the first lady for a long time, the secretary. And if that’s her choice, God love her, she’s done so much. She’s traveled more than anyone. But I do love her as a leader. If she were to run, I would support her. I just think she’s so tired.”

Clinton also earned praise from the mayor of the second-largest city in an early primary state.

“She would be a very fine candidate,” said Joe Riley Jr. of Charleston, S.C., the nation’s longest-serving mayor, having been in office since 1975. “Always you wait to see who the candidates are, but I’m a great admirer of Secretary Clinton. She’s been a fabulous secretary of state. Amazing.”

Riley endorsed President Barack Obama in the 2008 primary.

The praise of Clinton from the mayoral ranks matches her early support from rank-and-file Democrats. A December ABC/Washington Post poll found 57 percent of Americans want her to run in 2016. An overwhelming 61 percent of Democrats said Clinton was their top choice in a Public Policy Polling survey the same month.

Much of the goodwill for Clinton can be traced to that unsuccessful 2008 run — which gave her the opportunity to meet mayors from across the nation — and how she handled its aftermath.

“She has served with great distinction,” Gary, Ind., Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson said. “She took a hit [four years ago] when she did not get the nomination, but did she it with such grace and dignity, that it would be hard for her not to be picked. I would be glad to support her.”

Mayor Raul Salinas of Laredo, Texas, endorsed Clinton in 2008, during a campaign in which she visited the border city of 200,000.

“I think with her background, her vast experience, I mean, she is an all-around, well-seasoned, somebody that would do an outstanding, a remarkable, I don’t have enough adjectives to say, she would be a brilliant president,” Salinas said. “I think she’s wonderful, she’s wonderful. Look what she’s done in her capacity, the confidence the president has in her; she has done an amazing job.”

He added later: “When you open up the dictionary and see ‘statesman,’ you see Hillary Rodham Clinton on that stage.”

But Salinas called POLITICO later to praise another potential 2016 contender who had just addressed the mayors: Vice President Joe Biden.

“I think it’s kind of premature, we have to make sure, the president, he just started his second term, it’s a long time down the road,” he said. “We have a good core of people that would be able to lead this country. [I also] can’t take anything away from Vice President Joe Biden. Wow, the experience he has, a good working relationship with local people.”

Katie Glueck contributed to this report.


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Inside Hillary Clinton's security bubble





CBS

Published on Sep 22, 2011


In her first three years serving as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton has traveled more than 600,000 miles to 87 countries, visiting some of the world's most dangerous places. Jim Axelrod reports on the security team in charge of keeping her safe.


Category

Nearly 10 Percent of the 113th U.S. Congress Hail From Jesuit Institutions


10 January 2013





Among the 535 members of the 113th U.S. Congress that were sworn in on January 3, 52 are alumni of Jesuit colleges and universities, comprising almost 10 percent of the entire Congress. There are 11 Jesuit alumni serving in the Senate and 41 in the House of Representatives.

Congressman John Boehner (R-OH, Xavier University, Cincinnati, alumnus) is serving his second term as Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Congressman Steny Hoyer (D-MD, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., alumnus) continues to serve as the House Minority Whip. In the Senate, Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL, Georgetown University alumnus) continues his service as the Assistant Majority Leader.

Of the 52 alumni, nine were elected in 2012. Of the newly-elected alumni, Representative Juan C. Vargas (D-CA, Fordham University, N.Y., alumnus) was once a Jesuit in studies for the priesthood before leaving the Society.

There are currently 14 Jesuit institutions represented by alumni in the U.S. Congress. Georgetown University has the most alumni with a total of 21, followed by Boston College with 7 and Fordham University with 5. The College of the Holy Cross (Worcester, Mass.) has 4, Creighton University (Omaha, Neb.) has 3 and Loyola University Chicago, Saint Peter’s University (Jersey City, N.J.) and University of Detroit Mercy all have two alumni represented. The remaining schools with alumni in Congress are Loyola University Maryland, Marquette University (Milwaukee), Saint Joseph’s University (Philadelphia), Santa Clara University (Santa Clara, Calif.), Wheeling Jesuit University (Wheeling, W.V.) and Xavier University.

“We are proud that nearly 10 percent of Congress are alumni of Jesuit colleges and universities,” said Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU) President Jesuit Father Gregory Lucey. “We are grateful for their leadership, and we look forward to strengthening the excellent working relationships we have already established with those in Congress and forging ties with new members of the 113th Congress.”

President Barack Obama has also appointed several Jesuit college and university alumni to serve in key leadership positions. Members of the Obama administration from AJCU institutions include Department of Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta (Santa Clara University); Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet A. Napolitano (Santa Clara University); and White House Chief of Staff Jacob Lew (Georgetown University).

To download the full list of Jesuit alumni in the 113th U.S. Congress, click here. [Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities]


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The great deceiver will make it appear that Christ has come



“As the crowning act in the great drama of deception, Satan himself will impersonate Christ. The church has long professed to look to the Saviour’s advent as the consummation of her hopes. Now the great deceiver will make it appear that Christ has come. In different parts of the earth, Satan will manifest himself among men as a majestic being of dazzling brightness, resembling the description of the Son of God given by John in the Revelation. (Rev. 1:13-15).”

Last Day Events, p.163

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On Not Loving the World



15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.


1 John 2:15-17



Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.


James 4:4

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Thursday, January 17, 2013

Jack Lew's Life Shaped by Faith and Service


Treasury Pick Learned Value of Both Shul and Government



GETTY IMAGES
Faith and Service: Jack Lew’s faith drives his commitment to public service. So does his trust in government.


By Nathan Guttman
Published January 17, 2013, issue of January 25, 2013.


Related
Jack Lew and the Power of Shabbat
Jack Lew's Really Bad John Hancock
What's Jack Lew Eating at the Inauguration?
Jack Lew's Shabbat Helper



WASHINGTON — On a muggy evening last August, Rabbi Efrem Goldberg walked into a kosher restaurant in Boca Raton, Fla., only to spot White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew having dinner at a corner table. Goldberg approached Lew, who was in town for a series of events for President Obama’s re-election campaign, and asked him to meet with a group of teenagers from his Orthodox synagogue.

Lew agreed. But in the meeting the next morning, he spoke about neither the president’s policies nor the upcoming elections. Rather, Lew chose to focus on how observant Jews — like the teenagers and himself — can easily take up public service without giving up their beliefs, without having to compromise.

“He said we need to show people working with us that it is a privilege to work with an Orthodox Jew, not the other way around,” Goldberg recalled. He added that Lew made clear how observant Jews should recognize that “every time you need time to be off, someone else needs to cover for you. Don’t take that lightly, and don’t feel entitled.”

Lew has become the standard-bearer for integration of observant Jews in the highly demanding world of top-level politics and government service. Stories of Lew’s shutting down his telephone for the Sabbath or getting the White House cafeteria to add kosher sandwiches to the menu have become a part of Washington’s folklore.

For the first Orthodox Jew to assume a Cabinet position, Jewish values and family history go beyond a decent pastrami on rye. They helped shape a worldview that puts equal opportunity and the social safety net front and center. If confirmed as expected by the Senate, those are the values Lew will take with him as he becomes America’s next Treasury secretary.

“The idea that you have the responsibility to help those who are less fortunate is something that resonated in Jack’s commitment both in the political attitude and in his religious approach,” said Ari Weiss, a close friend of Lew.

Lew’s passionate — critics might say knee-jerk — devotion to the social safety net has at time been controversial, notably when he played a key role in trying to resolve the so-called “fiscal cliff” stand-off between the White House and Congressional Republicans.






Read more: http://forward.com/articles/169402/jack-lews-life-shaped-by-faith-and-service/?p=all#ixzz2IIIQW3wh


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Georgetown Law Alumnus Jacob "Jack" Lew (L'83) Nominated as Treasury Secretary


January 10, 2013 —

Jacob "Jack" Lew (L'83)

President Barack Obama has nominated White House Chief of Staff Jacob “Jack” Lew (L’83) to be the next Secretary of the United States Department of the Treasury. The nomination is subject to confirmation by the U.S. Senate.

“I would like to extend my warmest congratulations to Jack Lew,” said Georgetown Law Dean William M. Treanor. “Jack’s leadership and distinguished achievements exemplify Georgetown Law’s commitment to public service.”

Admired by both parties for his budgetary prowess, Lew began his career in Washington in the 1970s. As a principal domestic policy adviser to Speaker of the House Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill Jr., he served as assistant director and later executive director of the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee.

Lew was special assistant to President Clinton in 1993 and 1994 before joining the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). He served as executive associate director, associate director for legislative affairs and deputy director before Clinton nominated him OMB director in 1998. He served in this capacity through the remainder of Clinton’s second term, and President Obama nominated him to this position again in 2010. Before returning to OMB, Lew was the chief operating officer at the State Department while serving as the first deputy secretary of state for management and resources.

In 2012, Obama named Lew White House Chief of Staff.


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Sunday farce hour?


OPINION



Why is a long-running beacon of religious radio programming being banished by BBC bosses?

by David BakerPosted: Thursday, January 17, 2013, 11:05 (GMT)

PA


Broadcast since 1940, not even the blitzkrieg of Nazi bombs on London was able to stop Sunday Half Hour – a mix of hymns and prayer – going out on air to bring spiritual comfort and uplift at the end of a Sunday week by week.

Now, however, the authorities at Radio 2 have decided to shift its start time from 8.30pm in the evening to an earlier slot – fourteen-and-a-half hours earlier in fact, namely 6.00am. That’s right – you didn’t mis-read that: from Sunday 20th January, the show is transferring to six o’clock in the morning, albeit in an extended 60-minute version.

At this point I should declare a personal interest: at the end of a busy Sunday of church ministry I often head out for a run, which in winter means driving somewhere with enough street light in order to see where I am jogging. I’ve caught Sunday Half Hour off and on, but it was only in the run-up to Christmas that I became particularly fond of it: the show’s latest host, Diane Louise Jordan, has a warm and engaging style, and the radiance of her own Christian faith shines clearly through.

When she mentioned in passing the fact that the show was being extended to an hour I assumed her talent as a gifted broadcaster was being recognised. But I must admit that when I heard the rest of the news – that it was being shifted back to its new early morning slot – my ears nearly fell off in disbelief.

Now in fairness to the BBC it must be admitted that they do have something of an argument to justify the change. For one thing, the audience for Sunday Half Hour is now only 246,000 – just half what it was a decade ago. And, in fact, the number of those listening to Radio 2 at 6.00am in the morning is apparently double that figure – namely 520,000. So it could be argued that the new, double-length programme will actually be broadcasting to double the audience.

While this may be good in theory at least, it assumes that all the existing half million listeners at that time will stick with the new show they are being offered. But, more importantly, it completely overlooks what have surely been two of the primary functions of Sunday Half Hour – firstly, to bring religious worship to many senior and housebound listeners unable to travel out to church; and, secondly, to round off what little remains of Britain’s Christian Sunday with at least a nod in the direction of God.

In relation to its particular audience, it would seem highly unlikely that this specific demographic are the segment of population most likely to be either able or wanting to use the BBC i-player function to catch up on the new early morning broadcast later on in the day.

And in relation to the timing – well, as Quentin Letts put it in the Daily Mail, the change “ignores the programme’s aesthetic fit with eventide, its echo with the Anglican tradition of Evensong”.

Combined with other changes, the result is that, according to The Independent, Radio 2’s “faith programming is being reduced by half an hour each Sunday”.

An online petition at www.ipetitions.competition/save-sunday-half-hour/ is hoping to repeat the success of a previous campaign to save Choral Evensong, which the BBC unsuccessfully tried to move away from Wednesdays on Radio 3. Or, as someone else has suggested, perhaps Classic FM may scent a superb opportunity...



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Corporate Profits Soar as Executives Attack Obama Policy


By David J. Lynch - Jan 17, 2013 12:00 AM ET



Tom Donohue, the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, last week said higher taxes and a “flood of new regulations” will damage an already subpar economy. “In many ways, we’re going backwards,” he said.

Such complaints, echoed by corporate executives throughout President Barack Obama’s first term, obscure one fact: American business has never had it so good.



U.S. President Barack Obama. Leigh Vogel/WireImage



U.S. corporations’ after-tax profits have grown by 171 percent under Obama, more than under any president since World War II, and are now at their highest level relative to the size of the economy since the government began keeping records in 1947, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Profits are more than twice as high as their peak during President Ronald Reagan’s administration and more than 50 percent greater than during the late-1990s Internet boom, measured by the size of the economy.

Business leaders cite low labor costs in an era of high unemployment, the Federal Reserve’s easy-money policies, and their own management savvy for the profit boom. Prosperity has come in spite of the president, not because of him, they say.

“I don’t think he deserves any credit,” John Engler, president of the Business Roundtable, a Washington-based association of chief executive officers, said in an interview.

Economists disagree. In a February 2012 survey, 80 percent of senior economics professors said unemployment was lower at the end of 2010 than it would have been without Obama’s stimulus spending. A July 2010 study by Alan Blinder, former Federal Reserve vice chairman, and Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics, said the stimulus, bank rescues and Fed policy “probably averted what could have been called Great Depression 2.0.”


Political Confrontations

Extending the climb in corporate profits this year is expected to grow more challenging as labor costs rise with increased hiring. CEOs say they also face uncertainty over new health-care rules and taxes. Washington’s repetitive political confrontations threaten to further lengthen their odds.

For four years, American business has seen the Democratic president as a tax-and-spend advocate of big government who was intent on imposing red tape. Some criticized him for a lack of experience in business.

In the presidential campaign, business groups spent millions of dollars on Republican candidates in a bid to unseat Obama. Former General Electric Co. CEO Jack Welch even accused the White House of manipulating unemployment data for political advantage.
‘Clumsy Instrument’

Still, executives dislike the prospect of economic volatility even more than they dislike the president. So they’ve become reluctant White House allies in the current battle over raising the nation’s $16.4 trillion borrowing limit, which the government could hit as early as next month.

“We don’t want to reach the point where our government, in some fashion, is unable to make interest payments or is unable to pay our vendors,” said Engler, a former Republican governor of Michigan. He called the debt limit “a clumsy instrument” to force spending discipline.

Donohue told Bloomberg Television on Jan. 10 that defaulting on the U.S. debt would be a “mistake” and that lawmakers should refrain from using the borrowing limit to push for cutbacks in programs.

Bond investors, who would suffer most directly if the government defaulted on its debt, aren’t worried. The yield on the 10-year note, a benchmark for everything from mortgages to corporate borrowing costs, is lower now than on Aug. 5, 2011, when Standard & Poor’s downgraded the U.S. during the last debt ceiling showdown. The yield on 10-year Treasuries was 1.82 percent as of 5 p.m. in New York yesterday.


Denting Confidence

Business leaders say a prolonged political showdown could dent consumer confidence or unsettle equity investors. In 2011, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (SPX) fell almost 17 percent in the 11 trading sessions following the breakdown of debt-reduction talks between the White House and congressional Republicans. The Conference Board’s consumer confidence readingdropped to its lowest level in more than two years.

Washington dysfunction threatens to scuttle a period of high profitability and rising share prices. Across the economy, corporations in their third-quarter earnings reports posted stellar profits.Caterpillar Inc. (CAT)’s earnings-per-share rose more than 32 percent from the same period the previous year while Yahoo Inc.’s grew 67 percent.

The S&P 500 index has risen more than 80 percent since Obama was sworn in on Jan. 20, 2009, as of yesterday. That’s the biggest gain under any president since at least World War II.


Slowing Growth

The debt-limit fight comes as the economy likely is growing at an annual rate of just 1.5 percent in the first quarter, although it will expand 2 percent during the year, according to the median forecast of 91 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. At a Jan. 14 news conference, the president called default a “self- inflicted wound” that could trigger a new recession and called on Republicans “to pay America’s bills on time.”

“Investors around the world will ask if the United States of America is in fact a safe bet,” Obama said. “Markets could go haywire, interest rates would spike for anybody who borrows money.”

Many companies, including small businesses, say the White House itself is casting a cloud on the economy.

They complain about excessive regulation and a tax-first, cut-spending-later approach to deficit reduction. The administration has completed only one-third of the 447 regulations mandated by the Dodd-Frank financial regulation act, Donohue said in a Jan. 10 speech in Washington.


‘Extraordinary Confusion’

Provisions of Obama’s health-care law, which is intended to expand insurance coverage to tens of millions of Americans, are creating “extraordinary confusion” for businesses, he said.

A monthly index of business sentiment maintained by the National Federation of Independent Business, was at 88 in December, a low level that, prior to the financial crisis, wasn’t seen since the 1980 recession.

William Dunkelberg, NFIB’s chief economist, said the group’s members anticipate a “pretty lousy first half of 2013.”

Corporations are holding more than $1.7 trillion in liquid assets, reflecting uncertainty over future policies. They’re investing in capital projects only 80 percent of their available internal funds, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Though that figure is up about one-third from late-2009, that ratio has been below 80 percent only once since the end of 1958.

“We’re in the curious position where businesses are net savers,” said Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics Ltd. “This net saving is a problem. It’s because businesses are too cautious.”

Amy Brundage, a White House spokeswoman, didn’t return an e-mail asking for comment.
Spending More

Since the end of 2009, corporations have been gradually putting more money to work. Liquid assets as a percentage of total corporate assets, which peaked at 6.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009, fell to 5.5 percent of assets by the third quarter of last year, the latest Federal Reserve data available.

That’s still above the 5.2 percent average over the past 20 years, though below the 5.9 percent Bush administration high in 2005’s fourth quarter.

Companies survived the “searing experience” of the financial crisis by becoming more efficient, Engler said. More than four years of the Federal Reserve’s near-zero interest rates also opened the door for companies to pay off high-cost borrowings. Last year, U.S. corporations issued more than $1.5 trillion in debt, up from $1.2 trillion the year before.


Labor Costs

In recent years, high unemployment kept labor costs in check while output surpassed pre-crisis levels. Employee compensation rose 7 percent from the end of 2008 through the third quarter of last year. That was less than half the increase registered in either of President George W. Bush’s terms. Workers’ compensation is claiming a 54 percent share of the economy, down from 59 percent as recently as 2001 and the lowest mark since March 1955.

Through 2011, profits rose in tandem with the jobless rate. Over the past year, as the unemployment rate fell, earnings continued to climb, a trend that may be losing steam.

“It’s a maturing earnings cycle, which is going to be decelerating in 2013,” says Stephen Wood, chief markets strategist for Russell Investments with $159 billion in assets under management.

To contact the reporter on this story: David J. Lynch in Washington at dlynch27@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Cesca Antonelli at fantonelli@bloomberg.net


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Vatican criticizes European religious freedom ruling



Alessandro Speciale | Jan 16, 2013

VATICAN CITY (RNS) The Vatican on Wednesday (Jan. 16) criticized a ruling from the European Court of Human Rights that affirms employers’ right to limit the expression of religious beliefs in the workplace when it conflicts with equality laws.

In an interview with Vatican Radio, Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, the Vatican’s foreign minister, said that on “morally controversial subjects, such as abortion or homosexuality,” people have the right to defend their freedom of conscience.

In what has been hailed as a landmark ruling, the European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday rejected three out of four appeals filed by Christians who had been fired or disciplined by their employers for behaviors connected to their faith.

The cases included a registrar who was disciplined for refusing to officiate the civil partnership of a same-sex couple, and a counselor who was sacked for denying sex therapy to gays.

The Strasbourg-based court also rejected the appeal of a nurse who had refused to remove a crucifix during work, while upholding the right of a British Airways hostess who had been disciplined for wearing a small cross on her uniform.

Mamberti didn’t comment on the specific cases. But he said that the court’s rulings show how complex the issues of freedom of conscience and religion have become in a European society marked by the increase of religious diversity and “the corresponding hardening of secularism.”

In this context, Mamberti added, societies face the risk of a “moral relativism” that threatens to “undermine the foundations of individual freedom of conscience and religion.”

Mamberti said the Catholic Church’s role on these issues is to “defend individual freedoms of conscience and religion in all circumstances, even in the face of the ‘dictatorship of relativism.’”


Source

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16/01/2013 22:20:41: romereports Vatican renews religious freedom, autonomy claims following rulings


Leon Panetta to Pope Benedict: ‘Pray for me’


Correction: Correction: An earlier version of this story misreported that Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta had his first papal audience as a teenager while visiting Rome with his parents.



Jacquelyn Martin/AP - Pope Benedict XVI greets U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta after the pontiff's weekly general audience in Paul VI Hall at the Vatican on Jan. 16, 2013.


By Craig Whitlock, Published: January 16


VATICAN CITY — Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta took a break Wednesday from war planning and leading the world’s most powerful military to pay his respects to Pope Benedict XVI, a champion of peace.

Panetta, an observant Catholic who proudly wears his Italian American heritage on his sleeve, beamed as he sat in a front row reserved for VIPs during the pope’s weekly general audience in a Vatican auditorium.

After listening to a papal address in several languages, Panetta and three of his military aides lined up, along with dozens of other Catholics, to meet Benedict and receive his blessing.

Afterward, Panetta said the pontiff told him, “Thank you for helping to keep the world safe.”

The Pentagon chief said he replied, “Pray for me.”

Panetta’s aides said it was his third papal audience. The first took place when he came to Rome as President Bill Clinton’s chief of staff and met with Pope John Paul II. He met with John Paul again when the pope visited Washington.

Panetta, 74, is visiting European capitals to meet with NATO allies during what he has said is “likely” to be his last international trip as defense secretary. President Obama hasnominated former senator Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) to succeed Panetta at the Pentagon.

It is the secretary’s second visit to Italy since he took up his post in July 2011. Three months into the job, he stopped briefly in Naples to meet with NATO military commanders. But Panetta first came to Italy as a teenager in the 1950s, when he visited with his parents — who had both emigrated from southern Italy and later settled near Monterey, Calif., where they ran an Italian restaurant.

In 2011, while meeting with U.S. troops in Italy, he cracked wise about the United States’ covert drone program, and then, on a more serious note, explained how his family history influenced his decision to enter public service.

“I used to ask my parents, ‘Why did you make the decision to travel all those miles to come to a strange country?’ ” he told the troops. “They had very little money. They had very little education. They had very few skills. No language ability. And suddenly pick up, leave the comfort of family — obviously a poor area in Italy at the time — but pick up and go all that way to a strange country. Why would you do that?

“My father said the reason that they did it was because he and my mother believed that they could give their children a better life in America. And I think that’s the American dream.”


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Pope greets US defense secretary following general audience




Pope greets U.S. defense secretary following general audience



romereports


Published on Jan 16, 2013


http://en.romereports.com

On his week-long tour through European capitals, U.S. Department of Defense Secretary Leon Panetta stopped at the Vatican to meet Benedict XVI.


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Conspiracy Of Silence (The Franklin Scandal)







Uploaded on Nov 11, 2011


Conspiracy of Silence was a documentary about child trafficking in the U.S. that was to be shown in the United Kingdom, but it was suppressed by the Discovery Channel. However, a rough-cut of the documentary was leaked..this is the leaked version.

The book "The Franklin Scandal" by Nick Bryant deals with the same pedophile ring. The Franklin Scandal is the story of a nationwide pedophile ring that pandered children to a cabal of the rich and powerful. The ring's pimps were a pair of political powerbrokers who had access to the highest levels of our government. Nebraska legislators nearly exposed the ring in 1990, but its unveiling had the potential to produce seismic political aftershocks.The legislators' efforts resulted in rash of mysterious deaths and the overpowering corruption of federal and local law enforcement, including the FBI, Secret Service, and Justice Department, effecting an immaculate cover-up of the trafficking network.




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Whole Foods Founder John Mackey: Obamacare Is Fascist, Not Socialist



Wednesday, 16 Jan 2013 04:17 PM

By Michael Mullins


Having made a controversial statement comparing Obamacare to socialism in 2009, Whole Food's Founder John Mackey told National Public Radio that the massive healthcare overhaul is "more like fascism."

In an interview that airs Wednesday in two parts, Mackey, a self-described libertarian, was asked by NPR's Steve Inskeep to revisit his 2009 assertion that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is socialist.

Mackey responded, "Technically speaking, it's more like fascism. Socialism is where the government owns the means of production. In fascism, the government doesn't own the means of production, but they do control it — and that's what's happening with our health care programs and these reforms."

Mackey first voiced his views about President Barack Obama's signature healthcare policies in an August 2009 Wall Street Journal op-ed.

"While we clearly need health-care reform, the last thing our country needs is a massive new health-care entitlement that will create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits and move us much closer to a government takeover of our health-care system," he wrote.

Mackey began the editorial with a former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's quote: "The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money."

Mackey's strong opposition to Obama's original legislation is surprising to many, considering Whole Foods is a favorite among Democrats, many of who support the legislation. Whole Foods' popularity among liberals is largely due to their role in making the food chain's organic foods mainstream.

This isn't the first time an executive of a large franchise has publicly admitted political or social beliefs. Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy caused quite a stir this summer when he spoke out against gay marriage and asserted that his company supports traditional, "biblical families."

Despite his objection to Obamacare, Mackey says he will work with the administration on another major issue that first lady Michelle Obama has made her pet project – the effort to reform the American diet in the fight against obesity.

"People in America are addicted to sugar, and to fat and to salt," Mackey told NPR, adding that the addiction holds us back as a nation. "Food is intensely pleasurable, and people are afraid that if they change the way they eat, they'll stop having pleasure," concluded Mackey.

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Source: http://www.newsmax.com/TheWire/whole-foods-obamacare-fascist-socialist/2013/01/16/id/471765

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The BBC Exposed






corbettreport

Published on Jan 11, 2013


SHOW NOTES AND MP3: http://www.corbettreport.com/?p=6599

Corbett Report Podcast #253

For much of its 80 year existence, the BBC has been criticized by those who believe it to be an insidious mixture of political and cultural power, and now in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal, the British public is once again outraged at their national broadcaster. Join us today on The Corbett Report as we examine the history, function, and institutional biases of the BBC, and how the British people are rising up against the Big Brother Corporation.



Wednesday, January 16, 2013

NYC school bus drivers strike over job security


1:04p.m. EST January 16, 2013

Most city public school students walk or take public transit, but 54,000 special needs kids rely on school buses.



(Photo: Mark Lennihan, AP)


STORY HIGHLIGHTS
It's the drivers' first strike in more than three decades
Most city students walk or take public transportation
54,000 special needs students rely on the school buses



NEW YORK (AP) — More than 8,000 New York City school bus drivers and aides went on strike over job protection Wednesday morning, leaving some 152,000 students, many disabled, trying to find other ways to get to school.

Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott said the strike started at 6 a.m. Wednesday. About 200 bus drivers and bus matrons, who help kids on and off buses, were assembled on picket lines in the Queens section of the city.

"The first days will be extremely chaotic," Walcott told 1010 WINS radio. "It hasn't happened in New York City in over 33 years."

The union did not immediately return calls and emails seeking comment.

Matthew Mosca said his 5-year-old daughter, Ella, usually takes the bus from their home on Manhattan's East Side.

On Wednesday, they took a taxi.

"It's an inconvenience but I support the strike," Mosca said.

On Staten Island, parent Alicia Vuscemi had more scrambling to do, with kids at three different schools. Her son attends school in Brooklyn, and she got a pleasant surprise when his bus arrived. "I was still trying to figure out how he was going to get there," she said.

But she was concerned at the prospect of a lengthy strike. "Is it really going to last a while?" Vuscemi said.

Wednesday's walkout was by the largest bus drivers' union; some bus routes served by other unions were operating.

Most of the city's roughly 1.1 million public school students take public transportation or walk to school.

Those who rely on the buses include 54,000 special education students and others who live far from schools or transportation.

Parents have made plans to use subways, carpools and other alternatives, hitting slippery roads as sleet turned to rain around the city and temperatures were at or above freezing.

The city has put its contracts with private bus companies up for bid, aiming to cut costs. The Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union says drivers could suddenly lose their jobs when contracts expire in June.

The city plans to distribute transit cards to students who could take buses and subways and to reimburse parents who would have to drive or take taxis.

"We will get our children to school," Walcott said.

To do that, some parents had pieced together a patchwork of plans, such as a driving one child to one school and arranging a carpool to take a sibling to another school.

The union announced Monday it would strike amid a complicated dispute.

The city doesn't directly hire the bus drivers and matrons, who work for private companies that have city contracts. The workers make an average of about $35,000 a year, with a driver starting at $14 an hour and potentially making as much as $29 an hour over time, according to union President Michael Cordiello.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said the city must seek competitive bids to save money.

The union sought job protections for current drivers in the new contracts. The city said that the state's highest court, the Court of Appeals, has barred it from including such provisions because of competitive bidding laws; the union said that's not so.

Asked if the city is prepared to go as long as the last school bus strike in 1979 which lasted 14 weeks, Walcott said on WINS Radio, "This will go however long it goes. We have systems in place to support our parents and students."

Walcott, who was making the rounds of radio and television news shows Wednesday morning, told WNBC-TV there were no talks scheduled.

"We're not negotiating. They want us to do something illegal. We can't do that at all. We're always open for communication ... It's not our responsibility and job to negotiate. They work for private companies."

Asked if the city planned to take the striking union to court, Bloomberg told Fox 5 New: "I don't think it's time to do that" and characterized the union's actions as illegal.

"How is it illegal to provide the most experienced drivers and matrons in the school buses?" Cordiello asked Tuesday.

The contracts expire June 30.




Striking bus drivers and their supporters walk a picket line in front of a bus depot on Jan. 16 in New York City. Eight thousand school bus drivers are striking over job protection, leaving 152,000 public school students and their parents to find another way to get to school. Seth Wenig, AP



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Clinton named Father of the Year



Former President Bill Clinton delivers remarks during the Samsung key note address at the 2013 International CES, a trade show of consumer electronics, at the Venetian in Las Vegas, Nevada on January 9, 2012. UPI/Molly Riley
License photo


Updated Jan. 10, 2013 at 2:25 PMPublished: Jan. 10, 2013 at 1:07 PM





Former President Bill Clinton walks his daughter Chelsea Clinton down the aisle during her wedding to Marc Mezvinsky on Saturday, July 31, 2010 in Rhinebeck, New York. Chelsea wed her longtime boyfriend at a Beaux Arts riverside estate called Astor Courts. Photo released by President Clinton's office. (One Time Editorial Use Only) UPI/Genevieve de Manio/HO



NEW YORK, Jan. 10 (UPI) -- The National Father's Day Council has named former President Bill Clinton as its 2013 "Father of the Year."

The group cited Clinton's work as president and with the William J. Clinton Foundation since he left the White House in 2001. It also mentioned the Clinton Global Initiative and his position as U.N. Special Envoy to Haiti after the country had been battered by hurricanes and the devastating 2010 earthquake.

"With the profound generosity, leadership and tireless dedication to both his public office and many philanthropic organizations, President Clinton exemplifies the attributes that we celebrate through the father of the year award," said Dan Orwig, head of the Father's Day Committee.

The group did not mention the sex scandals that dogged Clinton during the 1992 campaign and in the White House.

Clinton and his wife, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have a home in Chappaqua, N.Y. Chelsea Clinton, their only child, married Marc Mezvinsky, the son of two former members of Congress, in 2010.

The award is to be presented June 13 in New York. Previous recipients include Gen. Colin Powell, Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Presidents Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan.


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Dozens held after Islamists attack Algerian gas field



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By Lamine Chikhi

ALGIERS | Wed Jan 16, 2013 12:01pm EST

(Reuters) - Islamist militants attacked a gas field in Algeria on Wednesday, claiming to have kidnapped up to 41 foreigners including seven Americans in a dawn raid in retaliation for France's intervention in Mali, according to regional media reports.

The raiders were also reported to have killed three people, including a Briton and a French national.

An al Qaeda affiliated group said the raid had been carried out because of Algeria's decision to allow France to use its air space for attacks against Islamists in Mali, where French forces have been in action against al Qaeda-linked militants since last week.

The attack in southern Algeria also raised fears that the French action in Mali could prompt further Islamist revenge attacks on Western targets in Africa, where al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) operates across borders in the Sahara desert, and in Europe.

AQIM said it had carried out Wednesday's raid on the In Amenas gas facility in Algeria, Mauritania's ANI news agency reported.

The Algerian interior ministry said: "A terrorist group, heavily armed and using three vehicles, launched an attack this Wednesday at 5 a.m. against a Sonatrach base in Tigantourine, near In Amenas, about 100 km (60 miles) from the Algerian and Libyan border."

The gas field is operated by a joint venture including BP, Norwegian oil firm Statoil and Algerian state company Sonatrach.

ARMED MEN

BP said armed men were still occupying facilities at the gas field.

"The site was attacked and occupied by a group of unidentified armed people at about 0500 UK time. Contact with the site is extremely difficult, but we understand that armed individuals are still occupying the In Amenas operations site," it said.

Algeria's official APS news agency said a Briton and an Algerian security guard had been killed and seven people were injured. A French national was also killed in the attack, a local source said.

Also among those reported kidnapped by various sources were five Japanese nationals working for the Japanese engineering firm JGC Corp, a French national, an Irishman, a Norwegian and a number of Britons.

A member of an Islamist group styling itself the "Blood Battalion" was quoted by Mauritanian media as saying that five of the hostages were being held at the gas facility and 36 were in a housing area. APS said the Islamist raiders had freed Algerians working at the gas facility.

"The operation was in response to the blatant interference by Algeria and the opening of its air space to French aircraft to bomb northern Mali," the Islamist spokesman told Mauritania's ANI news agency.

ANI, which has regular direct contact with Islamists, said that fighters under the command of Mokhtar Belmokhtar were holding the foreigners.

Belmokhtar for years commanded al Qaeda fighters in the Sahara before setting up his own armed Islamist group late last year after an apparent fallout with other militant leaders.

The Algerian army was in the area of the gas facility, according to French and Algerian sources.

SECURITY IMPLICATIONS

The attack was the first time in years that Islamist militants are known to have launched an attack on an Algerian energy facility.

The attack could have implications for security across the whole of Algeria's energy sector, which supplies about a quarter of Europe's natural gas imports and exports millions of barrels of crude oil each year.

Such an attack would require a large and heavily-armed insurgent force with a degree of freedom to move around -- all elements that al Qaeda has not previously had.

However, the conflict in neighboring Libya in 2011 changed the balance of force. Security experts say al Qaeda was able to obtain arms, including heavy weapons, from the looted arsenals of former leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Statoil, a minority shareholder in the gas venture, said it had 17 employees at the plant and four of them had been evacuated. The company declined to comment on the other 13.

The five Japanese work for the engineering firm JGC Corporation, Jiji news agency reported, quoting company officials. JGC has a deal with Sonatrach-BP-Statoil Association for work in gas production at In Amenas.

A reporter for Japan's NHK television managed to call a JGC worker in Algeria.

The worker said he got a phone call from a colleague at the gas field. "It was around 6 a.m. this morning. He said that he had been hearing gunshots for about 20 minutes. I wasn't able to get through to him since."

French troops launched their first ground operation against Islamist rebels in Mali on Wednesday in an action to dislodge from a strategic town al Qaeda-linked fighters who have resisted six days of air strikes.

(Additional reporting by Catherine Bremer and John Irish in Paris, Laurent Prieur in Nouakchott, Andrew Osborn in London, Balazs Koranyi in Oslo, Antoni Slodkowski in Tokyo, Raissa Kasolowsky in Abu Dhabi and Christian Lowe in Warsaw; Editing by Giles Elgood)


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Obama's gun control announcement




WATCH: President Obama's Gun Control Announcement Jan. 16, 2013


NewHotSport

Published on Jan 16, 2013


Obama Has Signed 23 executive orders relating to this issue today.

He also will ask Congress to pass laws, including ones that would:

-- require universal background checks (background checks on anyone who would buy a gun, whether in stores or at auctions and conventions)

-- restore a ban on "military-style assault weapons"

-- ban gun magazines with capacities of more than 10 rounds

-- tougher penalties on people who sell guns to people who aren't allowed to have guns

Here, according to the White House, are what the 23 executive actions will do, without congressional approval:

1. "Issue a presidential memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system."

2. "Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system."

3. "Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system."

4. "Direct the attorney general to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks."

5. "Propose rulemaking to give law enforcement the ability to run a full background check on an individual before returning a seized gun."

6. "Publish a letter from ATF to federally licensed gun dealers providing guidance on how to run background checks for private sellers."

7. "Launch a national safe and responsible gun ownership campaign."

8. "Review safety standards for gun locks and gun safes (Consumer Product Safety Commission)."

9. "Issue a presidential Memorandum to require federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations."

10. "Release a DOJ report analyzing information on lost and stolen guns and make it widely available to law enforcement."

11. "Nominate an ATF director."

12. "Provide law enforcement, first responders, and school officials with proper training for active shooter situations."

13. "Maximize enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime."

14. "Issue a presidential memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence."

15. "Direct the attorney general to issue a report on the availability and most effective use of new gun safety technologies and challenge the private sector to develop innovative technologies."

16. "Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes."

17. "Release a letter to health care providers clarifying that no federal law prohibits them from reporting threats of violence to law enforcement authorities."

18. "Provide incentives for schools to hire school resource officers."

19. "Develop model emergency response plans for schools, houses of worship and institutions of higher education."

20. "Release a letter to state health officials clarifying the scope of mental health services that Medicaid plans must cover."

21. "Finalize regulations clarifying essential health benefits and parity requirements within ACA exchanges."

22. "Commit to finalizing mental health parity regulations."

23. "Launch a national dialogue led by Secretaries Sebelius and Duncan on mental health."

Obama says he acknowledges that Americans have certain unalienable rights, but with those rights come responsibilities, and that Americans are "responsible for each other." These rights - including those to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness - were denied to victims of high profile shooting such as those at Virginia Tech last decade and the December 14 shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.

"Let's do the right thing ... for (shooting victims) and for the country that we love so much. Thank you. I'm going to sign these orders," he said.

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Related:





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The time of Jacob's trouble




1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,

2 Thus speaketh the Lord God of Israel, saying, Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book.

3 For, lo, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the Lord: and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.

4 And these are the words that the Lord spake concerning Israel and concerning Judah.

5 For thus saith the Lord; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace.

6 Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness?

7 Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble, but he shall be saved out of it.

8 For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him:

9 But they shall serve the Lord their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them.

10 Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the Lord; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid.

11 For I am with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee: though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet I will not make a full end of thee: but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished.

12 For thus saith the Lord, Thy bruise is incurable, and thy wound is grievous.

13 There is none to plead thy cause, that thou mayest be bound up: thou hast no healing medicines.

14 All thy lovers have forgotten thee; they seek thee not; for I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the multitude of thine iniquity; because thy sins were increased.

15 Why criest thou for thine affliction? thy sorrow is incurable for the multitude of thine iniquity: because thy sins were increased, I have done these things unto thee.

16 Therefore all they that devour thee shall be devoured; and all thine adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity; and they that spoil thee shall be a spoil, and all that prey upon thee will I give for a prey.

17 For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord; because they called thee an Outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after.

18 Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will bring again the captivity of Jacob's tents, and have mercy on his dwellingplaces; and the city shall be builded upon her own heap, and the palace shall remain after the manner thereof.

19 And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of them that make merry: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small.

20 Their children also shall be as aforetime, and their congregation shall be established before me, and I will punish all that oppress them.

21 And their nobles shall be of themselves, and their governor shall proceed from the midst of them; and I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach unto me: for who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me? saith the Lord.

22 And ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.

23 Behold, the whirlwind of the Lord goeth forth with fury, a continuing whirlwind: it shall fall with pain upon the head of the wicked.

24 The fierce anger of the Lord shall not return, until he hath done it, and until he have performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it.


Jeremiah 30
King James Version (KJV)



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Facebook loses 1.4 million active users in U.S.


Jan. 15, 2013, 5:24 p.m. EST

The social network may be reaching a saturation point


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Maybe people got tired of their friends and family over the holidays, or perhaps they resolved to do a digital detox for the New Year. Either way, Facebook has been a bit quieter lately.

Shutterstock.com


The number of Americans using Facebook fell by nearly 1.4 million in early December, according to new data from social media monitoring company SocialBakers. While Facebook FB -2.74% has more than 167 million users in the U.S. and 1 billion worldwide, the recent drop in monthly active users is still akin to losing the entire population of San Antonio, Texas. “Facebook is possibly getting to a point where the less engaged part of the audience doesn’t visit every 30 days,” says SocialBakers CEO Jan Rezab.

Why the fall off? The increased advertising on the site and new experimental fees may be grating on some users’ nerves, experts say. Earlier this month, for example, Facebook tested charging users (with fees peaking at $100 within the U.S.) to send a message to someone outside their “friends” list. And in October, it rolled out the option to promote posts to more friends for a $7 fee. “There seems to be a change every other week,” says K. Jason Krafsky, who co-wrote the book “Facebook and Your Marriage.”

With a 54% share of the market in the U.S., some tech experts say Facebook’s growth was bound to start slowing. In fact, its market share may actually be closer to 80%, when you remove users under 13 years of age (not allowed by Facebook) and those over 65 (not big social networkers), Rezab says. “For Facebook, we don’t see a massive user growth opportunity driving the company’s financial results,” says Rick Summer, an analyst at Morningstar, so the company will continue pushing new features instead. (Facebook did not respond to requests for comment.)



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Of course, people come and go on Facebook, just as they gain and lose interest with anything in real life. “In the New Year, a number of people take a break from social, and others decide it’s a time suck, so remove their accounts all together,” says independent social media analyst Jennifer P. Brown. Brown says six people in her network quit Facebook in 2013 and she herself took a break from social media this month. Brown says she grew tired of the “vitriol” surrounding the current gun-control debate after the school shooting in Newtown, Conn.

“Students and teachers are headed back to school, and they might not need as much of their digital friendships now that they can interact more in person,” says Jason Keath, founder and CEO of SocialFresh.com, a social media training company. Others seem to have given up on Facebook completely. Brian Smith, a San Francisco-based environmental campaigner, for one, deleted his account, choosing instead to use Google+ for sports and international news, and Twitter for politics. “Facebook felt like a never-ending high school reunion,” he says.


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