Beyond The Broken Spectrum

These days people have a variety of online gaming content to choose from, from facebook apps, to sites like pogo.com, online poker websites, and of course games like World of Warcraft that have entire worlds for you to explore. None of these games that are browser based are as in depth as say a game like World of Warcraft, but on the upside they’re free and require no downloads, since in order play games like World of Warcraft you have to pay a monthly fee and download software. Many people are looking for fun games that are free and requires no downloads. Most free browser based games aren’t going to provide you with that much in-depth content like a game such as World of Warcraft would. A free browser based game that requires critical in depth thinking that presents the player with a unique, challenging environment that includes not just the single player, but all players to create a unique political environment, is hard to find. Might I suggest Endless Revolution.

With the ability to build your own country from the ground up, you get to choose what sort of nation you will be. You can choose between 8 governments, each of which give various bonuses such as production bonuses in various areas of production, market discounts, offensive and defensive military bonuses, land exploration bonuses, among other bonuses. From there you choose what type of economy your country has, ranging from military industrial complex, to energy or food producer, or you can get into the financial business, with various strategies involved with each one. This is done by gaining land and building buildings on the unbuilt land, all of which have different effects. This is all done with a turn based system where you are allowed to build so many buildings per turn, with your building per turn amount increasing as your land increases. Turns are received once every ten minutes.

Within the game are stages ranging from 1 to 4, with each stage giving more advanced government bonuses. All countries start out at stage one and are required to meet certain criteria before being able to “stage up”. Also within the game are public and private markets on which a variety of items can be bought and sold including land, military units, special forces, food, energy, population, and missiles. You also have the ability to create your own union and recruit other players into it or join an existing union by contacting them through the ingame message system or in the game’s forums.

The game is centered around land, requiring it to be explored for or gained by attacking other countries through “landgrabs”. Another way to gain land after exploring or attacking someone successfully for land is to use the reclaim function, which is an ability of your country’s commandos. The amount of unclaimed land you have is based on how much land you have explored, and also how much unclaimed land you have gotten from landgrabs. This consumes quite a bit of resources though, and should be used strategically.

Since attacking for land is one of the most common ways to kill your enemy, war can also be a good way to gain more land and become stronger. By waging a successful war, you can come out on top with twice as much land or more than what you started with, which will give you an advantage over other countries both in production bonuses and at the end of the round, when you will be buying a lot of military from your private market, which refills based on how much land you have. Be mindful of your actions though, as war isn’t always good for your nation or your union’s public relations with other unions as it can bring future wars and other problems. The game’s community consists of many aggressive players that can be counted on to go to war most rounds. Though many of the players are aggressive, most are happy to help with strategy advice and general game mechanics as they like to see good competition thrive.

The game runs on a time frame of generally about 42 days, after which the countries are wiped out and the game is started over again. Visit Endless Revolution for details.

By Robert Tracinski

In early October, I covered a breaking story about evidence of corruption in the basic temperature records maintained by key scientific advocates of the theory of man-made global warming. Global warming “skeptics” had unearthed evidence that scientists at the Hadley Climatic Research Unit at Britain’s University of East Anglia had cherry-picked data to manufacture a “hockey stick” graph showing a dramatic-but illusory-runaway warming trend in the late 20th century.

But now newer and much broader evidence has emerged that looks like it will break that scandal wide open. Pundits have already named it “Climategate.”

Story at Real Clear Politics

Nearly 100,000 passengers were pulled aside by TSA behavior watchers last year, and it remains to be proven whether you can spot terrorists by the looks on their faces.

Here’s a question to ponder the next time you’re taking off your shoes at airport security: Can you spot terrorists by the look on their faces?

For the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the answer is yes. For the past few years, airports across the country have been using what many call “behavioral surveillance” to weed out potential hijackers among us, by covertly examining travelers’ facial expressions and body language as they go through security. Unlike those airport employees who herd us along as we remove our shoes and relinquish all liquids over three ounces (with dubious results), this new program, named “Screening Passengers by Observational Techniques,” or “SPOT,” is carried out by TSA employees who have been trained to monitor travelers’ faces and movements. As Americans head out of town this holiday season, more than 3,000 “Behavior Detection Officers” will be at 161 airports nationwide, watching our every move.

Story at AlterNet

By Gary North at LewRockwell.com

Loretta was singing about kicking the bucket. Kicking the can is what people do before they kick the bucket. It is also what Congress does before Treasury bills kick the bucket.

It has become clear to millions of voters around the world that their national governments have not offered statistically viable solutions to the looming budget deficits. These deficits threaten to consume more than the future revenues available to the various national governments to fulfill their long-term promises and welfare programs for oldsters.

Central bankers can call this to a halt at any time by ceasing to purchase assets. This would stabilize the monetary base, at least until banks started failing, thereby contracting M1. This would produce a depression. Politicians say they want solutions to the budget deficit problem, but the political price is the replacement of incumbents by newly elected politicians who campaigned on a call for an end to the depression.

Everybody wants to go to heaven: stable money, rising employment, and economic growth. But nobody wants to walk through the valley of the shadow of death: Great Depression 2.

So, Congress refuses to face squarely the projected costs of these promises. Economists tell us that there is still time to fund these programs, if we begin now. They have told us this every year since the early 1970s. All that needs to be done is for Congress to fund these future expenditures. But Congress does nothing. On the contrary, it increases the amount of unfunded liabilities. These are now in the range of $80 trillion. (more…)

The statements of a Belgian man believed to be in a coma for 23 years, but recently discovered to be conscious, are poignant, but experts say they may not be his words at all.

Rom Houben’s account of his ordeal, repeated in scores of news stories since appearing Saturday in Der Spiegel, appears to be delivered with assistance from an aide who helps guide his finger to letters on a flat computer keyboard. Called “facilitated communication,” that technique has been widely discredited, and is not considered scientifically valid.

“If facilitated communication is part of this, and it appears to be, then I don’t trust it,” said Arthur Caplan, director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Bioethics. “I’m not saying the whole thing is a hoax, but somebody ought to be checking this in greater detail. Any time facilitated communication of any sort is involved, red flags fly.”

Facilitated communication came to prominence in the late 1970s after an Australian teacher reportedly used it to communicate with 12 children rendered speechless by cerebral palsy and other disorders. Over the next two decades, it gained some adherents in patient and medical communities, but failed to produce consistent results in controlled, scientific settings. Wired

The message of Henry Hazlitt’s The Conquest of Poverty is that his subject could have been dealt with in the past tense if it weren’t for the pernicious doctrine that “the state knows best.”

Alas! the tendency to hand problems of income “distribution” over to politicians whose only real skill is the accumulation of votes has prevented the West from utilizing the great productive strength that is to be found in the principle of voluntary association. So the cure for poverty is still in the future.

Just how far are we from getting government off our backs? Mr. Hazlitt is not a total pessimist; he believes in the power of education. Mere verbal demonstration, however, is not an infallible schoolteacher; the collaboration of events is needed to make education effective.

Mises Institute

Navy SEALs have secretly captured one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq — the alleged mastermind of the murder and mutilation of four Blackwater USA security guards in Fallujah in 2004. And three of the SEALs who captured him are now facing criminal charges, sources told FoxNews.com.

The three, all members of the Navy’s elite commando unit, have refused non-judicial punishment — called an admiral’s mast — and have requested a trial by court-martial.

Ahmed Hashim Abed, whom the military code-named “Objective Amber,” told investigators he was punched by his captors — and he had the bloody lip to prove it. Fox News

This is a conversation I had today with a fellow marijuana activist that has been spouting off a lot of unsubstantiated claims about several leaders in NORML. Me being the open minded person I am, took the time and effort to try and understand what this guy was talking about and if his claims had any merit. I came away from this conversation with a pretty good idea in mind about these two people. I’ll let you make up your own minds about them. (more…)

Quote: “I will promise you this, that if we have not gotten our troops out by the time I am president, it is the first thing I will do. I will get our troops home. We will bring an end to this war. You can take that to the bank.”

President Obama to announce 30-35,000 troop increase in Afghanistan.

As the number of problem U.S. banks swells to the hundreds, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is increasingly hard-pressed to fill in the gaps where institutions have put depositor’s funds at risk.

Unfortunately, a dire prediction made by government officials in early 2009 has come true: the FDIC’s deposit insurance fund is now broke, according to published reports.

“The deposit insurance fund dropped by $18.6 billion during the third quarter of 2009 to negative $8.2 billion, as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. set aside $21.7 billion in provisions for additional bank failures,” The Wall Street Journal reported. “This is the second time in the agency’s history that the balance has fallen into negative territory.”

Article at The Raw Story

The Muppets perform Queen’s legendary song, Bohemian Rhapsody.

With the health care debate preoccupying the mainstream media, it has gone virtually unreported that the Barack Obama administration is quietly supporting renewal of provisions of the George W. Bush-era USA PATRIOT Act that civil libertarians say infringe on basic freedoms.

And it is reportedly doing so over the objections of some prominent Democrats.

When a panicky Congress passed the act 45 days after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, three contentious parts of the law were scheduled to expire at the end of next month, and opponents of these sections have been pushing Congress to substitute new provisions with substantially strengthened civil liberties protections.

But with the apparent approval of the Obama White House and a number of Republicans – and over the objections of liberal Senate Democrats including Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and Dick Durbin of Illinois – the Senate Judiciary Committee has voted to extend the three provisions with only minor changes.

Article at AntiWar.com

City council members in Marietta, Ga., will consider changing the oath of office that the city’s police officers take so that recruits can swear to uphold the law without saying the phrase “so help me God.”

This article can be found at Fox News

Lets examine this article, shall we?

Det. Gwen Lewis, a police spokeswoman, said no complaints have been received recently regarding the five-sentence oath the Marietta Police Department last adopted in August 2001. To her knowledge, she said, no would-be officer has ever objected to saying “so help me God” as part of the oath.

Alright, so this oath isn’t very old, only having been in effect for 8 years. Its not some sort of long standing tradition so I’d say such a challenge to the policy would easily have merit. Not to mention that some people would prefer not to mix government and religion. She also states that to her knowledge, no one has ever objected, however that’s not a very solid statement since we don’t know just how good her knowledge is. Its also very possible that some recruits would object, but likely didn’t out of fear of reprisal.

The councilman that brought up the subject during the Public Safety Committee meeting says that he does not object to the phrase, but as the city’s deputy assistant district attorney, he had encountered problems with individuals doing so in legal proceedings. I’m glad to see a fair-minded person involved with this, concerned with solving potential problems. We need more people like this working for us in government.

“I don’t think anybody should be forced to say anything,” he said. “I just don’t know what the alternative would be.”

He also says the phrase should not be removed, but did say that there could be problems with the oath if a police recruit is an atheist or not religious. Bravo, nice to see someone at least thinking of others.

But another councilman, Anthony Coleman, who chairs Marietta’s Public Safety Committee and works as a pastor at a church in Mableton, Ga., said he “adamantly” opposes any change to the oath.

“I just see no justification, I don’t care if the person is an atheist,” he said. “We’re a Christian nation.”

Its sad to see such a hateful person in such a position of power. He doesn’t care what you think, you must conform to what he thinks and he will use government power to force you to his will. This is one of the worst kind of politician scum, drunk on power and perfectly willing to impose his beliefs on others. Its not just religion here, its every aspect of what he thinks.

Say if this guy were to believe that drinking alcohol is a sin and should not be consumed, if he could, he would use his power to make laws throwing people in jail for consuming alcohol. If he were to believe that getting a divorce should be illegal, he would try to impose his will. If he thought that everyone should should believe in a certain religion or no religion, banning all others, he would try to impose his will if he got the chance. I’m not saying he believes any of this, but he is the typical statist politician that believes he has the right to legislate his own version of “morality.”

He also says the oft repeated “we’re a Christian nation” line. Some of our founders were christians, others were deists and theists and of other various beliefs. What they all had in common though was the firm belief that religion should be kept separate from government matters. This they all agreed on because of the religious persecution that many had suffered at the hands of the British government. Nowhere in or on any official piece of government property were anything pertaining to religion or a divine entity until 1866, 90 years later when the words “In God We Trust” appeared on various coins and “Under God” appeared in the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954.

Coleman said city attorney Doug Haynie has been instructed to develop language to allow any potential police officer to affirm his or her duties without swearing to God before the next committee meeting on Dec. 30.

Its good to see that at least this action is being taken. I have wonder whether or not Coleman supported the measure, as it doesn’t say in the article. I’d prefer that the motto be removed but allow recruits to say what they want, however that isn’t going to happen.

Any effort to remove the phrase will likely be fruitless, as Mayor Bill Dunaway said he’ll veto any changes proposed by the five-member council. Only a unanimous vote could override Dunaway’s veto, he said.

“In the eight years I’ve been mayor, there’s never been a problem,” he said of the oath. “I don’t think there will be any changes at all. If someone does not want to make that statement, I’m not so sure I want them on our police force.”

So atheists and non-religious people shouldn’t work in law enforcement because of their personal beliefs? That this some how makes them unfit to serve and protect people? That statement of intolerance and hatred is an embarrassment to public service. I’d go as far as to say he likely believes the same about politicians as well. He’s the same kind of politician Coleman is, only worse.

I’m glad he decided to not run for mayor again and is a lame duck. If he plans to try and attain higher office in the future, I hope his attempts are futile, because such a person is not fit to serve the good of the people. This can be seen in his clear disregard of the law, tax payer’s money, and rules of procedure.

John Quincy Adams once said that the United States does not go “abroad, in search of monsters to destroy.” We all know that ceased to be true a long time ago. Over the last hundred years or so America has identified (created) a number of monsters and in most instances has been unsuccessful in destroying them (the communist threats in Korea, Vietnam, Central America, and the Soviet Union (which destroyed itself economically), and the terrorist threats of Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda, etc.).

Our global search for monsters has resulted in a national debt which has increased from about $3 billion in 1914 to more than $12 trillion today. Our War on Monsters has cost the lives of more than 600,000 American military personnel since World War I. The world has also paid untold amounts of treasure and innocent lives in America’s offensive assault on the monsters.

Article at Campaign for Liberty