Just when did they start this black Friday stuff anyway? I don't recall it even back in the 80's

If I went back to the 60's - I remember the Friday after Thanksgiving back in Corry, PA as being the first day of the holiday season - the stores would be all lit up - Santa Claus would make an appearance - the downtown Christmas lights would be switched on and there would be a celebratory, happy holiday mood permeating the town. Now it's like Thanksgiving is over and the devil gains his power.

Christie leads possible 2016 GOP contenders in CNN/ORC poll

Source: CNN



Washington (CNN) – A new national poll indicates, that for the first time, there may be an early frontrunner in the race for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.

And according to a CNN/ORC International survey, if Hillary Clinton decides against making another bid for the White House, Vice President Joe Biden would be the initial favorite to capture the Democratic nomination.

The poll, released Friday morning, indicates that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, fresh off his Garden State re-election landslide victory and widespread national media attention, jumped to the top of the pack of potential contenders for the GOP nomination.

Twenty-four percent of Republicans and independents who lean towards the GOP questioned in the survey say they'd be likely to support Christie for the Republican nomination, up seven percentage points from a CNN poll in early September. Back then, Christie and Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the House Budget chairman and the 2012 Republican vice presidential nominee, were virtually tied at the top of the GOP list, with Christie at 17% and Ryan at 16%.


Read more: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/11/29/christie-leads-possible-2016-gop-contenders-in-cnnorc-poll/

Over all how do you feel about Pope Francis?

To the extent you were political as a kid - were your politics then similar to what they are today?

I have had an interesting experience on Facebook connecting in the past year with people I knew from my elementary or junior high days which would have been in the mid to late 60's. With a couple of exception people who I remember as being more or less liberal politically then are for the most part liberal politically now. People who I remember as politically right-wing then are for the most part politically right wing now. An elementary school friend who was the first person to ever tell me about this wonderful governor from California named Ronald Reagan is now a gun tooting right-wing extremist who lives in a trailer park in Eastern Georgia. Conversely people I new from the same mid to late 60's era who identified with Bobby Kennedy or Eugene McCarthy or Hubert Humphrey or LBJ are for the most part liberal Democrats today. I wonder if this is most peoples experience?









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Suspecting NSA spying, Microsoft to ramp up efforts to encrypt its Internet traffic

Source: Washington Post

Microsoft is moving toward a major new effort to encrypt its Internet traffic after concluding that the National Security Agency may have broken into its global communications systems, said people familiar with the emerging plans.

Suspicions at Microsoft, while building for several months, sharpened in October when it was reported that the NSA was intercepting traffic inside the private networks of Google and Yahoo, two industry rivals with similar global infrastructures, said people with direct knowledge of the company’s deliberations. They said top Microsoft executives are meeting this week to decide what encryption initiatives to deploy and how quickly.

Documents obtained from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden suggest — though do not prove — that the company is right to be concerned. Two previously unreleased slides that describe operations against Google and Yahoo include references to Microsoft’s Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger services. A separate NSA e-mail mentions Microsoft Passport, a Web-based service formerly offered by Microsoft, as a possible target of that same surveillance project, called MUSCULAR, which was first disclosed by The Post last month.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/microsoft-suspecting-nsa-spying-to-ramp-up-efforts-to-encrypt-its-internet-traffic/2013/11/26/44236b48-56a9-11e3-8304-caf30787c0a9_story.html

Pope Francis denounces ‘trickle-down’ economic theories in critique of inequality

Source: Washington Post


Pope Francis: Acts of humility:?The new prelate is rewriting the rules in his first year at the Vatican. Here are a few of Francis’s symbolic moves and statements.


By Zachary A. Goldfarb and Michelle Boorstein, E-mail the writers

Pope Francis on Tuesday sharply criticized growing economic inequality and unfettered markets in a lengthy paper outlining a populist philosophy that he says will guide his papacy as he pushes the Catholic Church to reach out more, particularly to the disenfranchised.

Using sharply worded phrases, Francis decried an “idolatry of money” and warned it would lead to “a new tyranny.” And he invoked language with particular resonance in the United States, attacking an economic theory that discourages taxation and regulation and which most affiliate with conservatives.

It’s the “boldness and explicitness” of the pope’s new writing that makes it so newsworthy, said Michael Sean Winters, a fellow at Catholic University’s Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies.

Yet while previous popes discussed the disenfranchised, they didn’t single out the issue the way Francis has. He has not only done so with his words, but in his actions, such as paying his own hotel bill in person or affectionately embracing a man disfigured by disease.

Experts see Francis as trying to reframe economic justice not just a matter of duty but as a way of connecting better to God.

READ THE DOCUMENT/

http://www.scribd.com/doc/187329248/Pope-Francis-s-Nov-24-2013-Evangelii-Gaudium

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/pope-francis-denounces-trickle-down-economic-theories-in-critique-of-inequality/2013/11/26/e17ffe4e-56b6-11e3-8304-caf30787c0a9_story.html

I personally believe Oswald acted alone. But a lot of mainsteam and very sensible people don't see

it that way. . There is no other conspiracy theory that has a solid majority of Americans believing it along with several senior government officials of that era including Robert Kennedy and probably LBJ who did in fact believe there was a conspiracy. I personally think they were wrong. But this conspiracy theory is not even remotely comparable to 9/11 truthers or UFO's or Area 51 or people who think the moon landing was filmed in a studio. The fact those of us who do accept the Warren Commission conclusion are in the minority and those who believe there was a conspiracy are in the overwhelming majority. Even among academics, government officials and journalist belief in a conspiracy surrounding the JFK assassination is completely mainstream.

Saudi Arabia Cautiously Welcomes Iran Nuclear Deal

Source: VOA


FILE - Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah


VOA News

November 25, 2013


Saudi Arabia has joined other Gulf Arab states in cautiously welcoming a nuclear deal reached by their regional rival Iran and a group of world powers.

In a statement issued Monday, the Saudi government said the agreement "could be" a first step toward a comprehensive solution to the Iranian nuclear dispute, "provided there is goodwill."

Under the deal signed in Geneva on Sunday, Iran agreed to limit or freeze parts of its nuclear program for six months in return for the six world powers easing some sanctions on the Iranian economy.

Monday's Saudi statement said the Geneva agreement should be followed by a comprehensive solution that "leads to the removal of weapons of mass destruction, especially nuclear, from the Middle East." Riyadh also called for unspecified further steps to "guarantee a right of all states in the region to use nuclear power peacefully."

Four other Gulf states also issued statements expressing hope that the Iran nuclear deal will safeguard regional peace and stability. Those nations include Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
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Read more: http://www.voanews.com/content/saudi-arabia-cautiously-welcomes-irans-nuclear-deal/1797132.html

Qatar, Kuwait Praise Iran Nuclear Deal

Source: VOA


VOA News

November 25, 2013


Qatar and Kuwait have joined the nations praising the nuclear agreement struck between Iran and a group of world powers, while Israel continues to criticize the deal.

Qatar's foreign ministry welcomed the deal in a statement released late Sunday, characterizing it as a step toward ensuring peace and security in the region. Qatar also called for making the Middle East a "nuclear-weapon-free zone."

Kuwait also welcomed the agreement, with Foreign Undersecretary Khaled Al-Jarallah telling the state-run KUNA news agency that he hoped it would lead to a permanent deal to defuse tension and ensure regional security.

Two other Gulf states have given cautious welcome to the Geneva agreement, as the United Arab Emirates expressed hope that it will lead to a permanent deal that preserves stability in the region and protects it from nuclear proliferation and Bahrain said it hopes there will be an end to "fear" in the region

Read more: http://www.voanews.com/content/qatar-kuwait-praise-iran-nuclear-deal/1796916.html

Arab States Show Cautious Optimism on Nuclear Deal - Saudis Voice Fears That Iran Will Press Influen

Source: Wall Street Journal


By Ellen Knickmeyer


Updated Nov. 24, 2013 4:48 p.m. ET

RIYADH—Saudi Arabia maintained a pointed silence Sunday on the new nuclear pact between world powers and Saudi Arabia's top rival, Iran, while other Gulf and Arab states gave a cautious welcome to a deal hoped to ease tensions in a region bloodied by proxy battles between Shiite Iran and Sunni Arab states.

Saudi political commentators voiced persistent fears that Iran would now see itself as freed to advance on other, non-nuclear fronts against its Middle East rivals.

By early Monday in the Middle East, most of the region's Muslim powers—Turkey, Egypt, and at least four of the six wealthy Arab Gulf countries—had issued statements expressing support for the deal. The United Arab Emirates., a commerce-minded nation that traditionally has thrived on doing business with both Iran and Arab states, welcomed the deal as one it hoped would protect the region "from the tension and danger of nuclear proliferation," the emirates' council of ministers said.


In a kingdom where diplomats often joke they are reduced to studying state news agency photos like Kremlinologists studying Soviet May Day parades, a gathering in Riyadh of the rulers of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar on Saturday was variously interpreted by Gulf newspapers and social media as a sign of Arab Gulf states showing unity on the eve of the Iran nuclear accord—or Kuwait trying to mediate a spat between Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Arab Gulf states hope a solid deal barring Iran from developing a nuclear-weapons program "will take away competition…for an arms race" in the region, said Jamal Khashoggi, a veteran political commentator and journalist in Saudi Arabia.


Read more: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304791704579217144286380058