Following the FBI’s denials that an agent’s laptop was breached to grab 12 million Apple UDIDs, a small app publisher in Florida has confirmed that it was the source of the device identifiers. The CEO of Blue Toad said his company had reported the breach, which reportedly occurred in the last two weeks, to law enforcement. “We’re pretty apologetic to the people who relied on us to keep this information secure,” Chief Executive Paul Hart told NBC. Read the full story and its privacy implications here.
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Monthly Archives: September 2012
Bernard-Henri Lévy v. Abdel al-Bari Atwan on Libya intervention
Warmonger from France.
Apparently, a few months ago, at a convention organised by the notoriously right wing French Zionist Council of Jewish Organizations (CRIF), Bernard-Henri Levy announced “it is as a Jew“ that I “participated in the political adventure in Libya”, no kidding. “I would not have done it if I had not been Jewish,” added the immoral interventionist.
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White House Press Secretary: Protests not directed at the United States
Clueless. Idiot. Arrogance.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said Friday the violent protests throughout the Middle East are not directed at the United States or U.S. policy but are a response to a YouTube video:
CARNEY: We also need to understand that this is a fairly volatile situation and it is in response not to United States policy, and not to, obviously, the administration, or the American people, but it is in response to a video, a film that we have judged to be be reprehensible and disgusting. That in no way justifies any violent reaction to it, but this is not a case of protests directed at the United States writ large or at U.S. policy, this is in response to a video that is offensive to Muslims.
Egan Jones Downgrades US To AA-
Egan Jones just dropped the Friday afternoon hammer on the US again, downgrading the US for the 2nd time in as many years, from AA to AA-.
Egan Jones states the reason for the downgrade is Thursday’s QE3 announcement, which the firm states will ‘hurt the US economy and, by extension, credit quality….the increased cost of commodities will pressure profitability of businesses, and increase the costs of consumers thereby reducing consumer purchasing power. Hence, in our opinion QE3 will be detrimental to credit quality for the US‘. (Read more)
Producer Of Anti-Islam Film Was Fed Snitch
In remarks stressing that the U.S. government had “absolutely nothing to do with” the anti-Islam film that has touched off violence in the Middle East, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton yesterday sought to quash Arab concerns that the “disgusting and reprehensible” movie was somehow produced or condoned by American officials.
However, Clinton’s attempt to distance the U.S. from “Innocence of Muslims”–and, by extension, its felonious producer–may be complicated by the revelation that Nakoula Basseley Nakoula became a government informant after his 2009 arrest for bank fraud, The Smoking Gun has learned.
Though many key documents from the U.S. District Court case remain sealed, a June 2010 sentencing transcript provides an account of Nakoula’s cooperation with federal investigators in Los Angeles (and how his prison sentence was reduced as a result).
Nakoula, 55, was arrested in June 2009 for his role in a check-kiting ring that stole nearly $800,000 from six financial institutions by using stolen Social Security numbers and identities. Nakoula was named in a six-count felony indictment accusing him and unnamed “co-schemers” of perpetrating the bank fraud. (Read more)
“Rejoicing” Markets
Patrick Barron‘s letter to the Philadelphia Inquirer:
Dear Sirs:
It is a misnomer to claim that markets “rejoice” due to interventions by monetary authorities, in this case by the European Central Bank (ECB), to drive down the interest rate artificially. True, the world’s stock markets went up and the targeted interest rates did go down, but this is strictly the result of money printing and not the result of market fundamentals, such as increased profits. When a central bank intervenes to lower interest rates, it buys bonds at above market prices, which is the flip side of the interest rate; i.e., when bond prices rise, interest rates go down (and vice versa, of course). One may view this as nothing more than a counterfeiter paying more for a good than the free market price; there is no market force involved. Consequently, when bond interest rates are forced down by such action, these bonds become less attractive investment instruments. Money that would have been invested in bonds will now flow to stocks, where one may get a better yield. The resultant increase in stock prices is not some sort of rejoicing by the market, but simply arithmetic by investors who have nowhere else to go. This game of ever larger injections of funny money will come to an end when price inflation gets out of hand. Simply stopping the increase in the monetary spigot will cause the whole, corrupt house of cards to come crashing down.
Sexist remarks and wolf-whistles could become criminal offences
Salacious whistles and sexist comments may fall foul of new laws against sexual harassment to which Britain is signing up, the prime minister will announce on Thursday.
The pledge to criminalise “verbal, non-verbal or physical” sexual harassment is one of the commitments in the Council of Europe’s convention on violence against women, which David Cameron will commit to signing at a special event to mark International Women’s Day. (Read more)
The 9/11 industry
DNC goes full communist. Let’s ban corporate profit.
DNC goes full communist. Let’s ban corporate profit:
I think this also shows why Democracy is a disaster.
Democrats: Pro-Choice on Abortion. Anti-Choice on everything else.
Rothbard on Knowing Economics
“It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a ‘dismal science.’ But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance.”
Anarcho Capitalism vs Anarcho Communism
The word “anarchist” carries a lot of baggage. This picture succinctly summarizes the distinction.
Steve Jobs’ IP Flip
9/11 Hi-Jacker Passport found blocks from Ground Zero
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Criminal charges filed against German rabbi for performing circumcisions
For the first time, criminal charges have been pressed against a German rabbi for performing circumcisions, a Jewish weekly reported on Tuesday.
A doctor from Hesse filed a criminal complaint against Rabbi David Goldberg, who serves in the community of Hof, in Upper Franconia (northern Bavaria), according to the Juedische Allgemeine weekly newspaper. The chief prosecutor of Hof confirmed that charges had been filed against the rabbi. The charges are based on the controversial decision of a Cologne district court, which ruled in June that circumcisions for religious reasons constitute illegal bodily harm to newborn babies.
“I am shocked,” said Cologne Rabbi Yaron Engelmayer, co-chairman of the national umbrella group of Orthodox rabbis in Germany, in a first reaction to the report. (Read more)