Dvorak News Blog

Christian Party wants public register for women who have abortions

By Eideard Monday July 20, 2009

Rival political parties in Sweden are split over the prospect of establishing a registry of women who have had abortions, party officials said.

Christian Democrats favor reporting the identities of women who have had abortions but the Moderate, Centre and Liberal parties oppose the move on integrity grounds, the Swedish News Agency reported.

Integrity from theocrats?

Anders Milton, who was commissioned by the government to investigate the issue, suggested inclusion of personal identification numbers of women who had an abortion because he said it would help in follow-up of complications and improve prevention.

“The register always awakes feelings of unease, but I definitely think the idea is worth a try,” Chatrine Palsson Ahlgren, Christian Democrat Member of Parliament said to the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper.

Gee. They could even make it mandatory for these women to sew little patches on their coats. It worked before.

Nigerian Kings Happy Because ‘Expert’ Interwebitube Users Still Open Spam Emails

By Uncle Dave Monday July 20, 2009

9 Comments

A new study showed appallingly that one in six users responded to an email posing as spam.

The study was conducted by the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group, an anti-spam trade organization, and shows just how gullible many everyday users are. It surveyed 800 people and found that many responded to the clearly questionable emails. Its conclusion is that with spam comprising an estimated 85 to 90 percent of email traffic, these kinds of users are helping to sustain “a booming spam-driven underground economy.”

The study found that many believe themselves to be internet experts, but few really are. Two-third of those surveyed said they were “very” or “somewhat” experienced with Internet security. However, only one third avoided posting their email address online — an easy entry for spammers, and only one in four used a different email address for submissions that might be shared with spammers.

Two-thirds believed they could identify spam based on the sender’s name, forty-five percent by the subject line, and 22 percent said “visual indicators” clued them into whether an email was spam. A mere 3 percent looked at the time the email was sent — one easy way to identify spam.

Those clicking on the study’s Cialis or Michael Jackson emails made a variety of excuses for their behavior. Approximately 17 percent claimed it was a mistake. Another 12 percent said the subject or service interested them. The responses become more humorous from there with 13 percent unable to explain what compelled them to click and respond and 6 percent saying they “wanted to see what would happen.”

Surprise! TARP Money Used For Other Than Specified Purposes

By Uncle Dave Monday July 20, 2009

17 Comments

Many of the banks that got federal aid to support increased lending have instead used some of the money to make investments, repay debts or buy other banks, according to a new report from the special inspector general overseeing the government’s financial rescue program.

The report, which will be published Monday, surveyed 360 banks that got money through the end of January and found that 110 had invested at least some of it, that 52 had repaid debts and that 15 had used funds to buy other banks.

Roughly 80 percent of respondents, or 300 banks, also said at least some of the money had supported new lending.

The report by special inspector general Neil Barofsky calls on the Treasury Department to require regular, more detailed information from banks about their use of federal aid provided under the Troubled Asset Relief Program. The Treasury has refused to collect such information.
[…]
In a written response, the Treasury again rejected that call. Officials have taken the view that the exact use of the federal aid cannot be tracked because money given to a bank is like water poured into an ocean.

On the other side, we’re up to 57 banks that have been shut down. While not a bank while doing some bank-ish things, at least we no longer need to worry about CIT. Hooray! The stock market will go up today!

No Agenda #114 Now On Cage Match

By KD Martin Monday July 20, 2009

4 Comments

09.07.19 Sunday – Episode #114

Click image to go to No Agenda.

John and Adam discuss the news of the day from an International Perspective

Queue / Cue / Q the closing credits — We hope you enjoy the show!

Running time: approx. 90 mins.

I’ll be president of Europe if you give me the power Sez Blair

By John C Dvorak Sunday July 19, 2009

18 Comments

I’ll be president of Europe if you give me the power – Blair | The Guardian — WTF??

Tony Blair has been holding discussions with some of his oldest allies on how he could mount a campaign later this year to become full-time president of the EU council, the prestigious new job characterised as “president of Europe”. Blair, currently the Middle East envoy for the US, Russia, EU and the UN, has told friends he has made no final decision, but is increasingly willing to put himself forward for the job if it comes with real powers to intervene in defence and trade affairs.

Pic of the Day Dept.

By hhopper Sunday July 19, 2009

21 Comments

OK. This is just wrong on so many levels…

By Uncle Dave Sunday July 19, 2009

22 Comments

A Sunday CATcerto, Featuring Nora on Piano

By McCullough Sunday July 19, 2009

17 Comments

Wow, if that doesn’t move you, may I suggest prune juice?

Cops Bust Neighborhood Lemonade Stand on a Tip From Suspicious Neighbor… Good Job!!!!!

By McCullough Sunday July 19, 2009

38 Comments

lemonadestand

“Lock em’ up and throw away the key!!”

The call came in at 7:06 p.m. Juveniles, seven of them, on a quiet residential street, selling an uncontrolled substance: lemonade. A neighbor had dimed them out, and a Haverford Township police officer responded in a hurry. When he arrived at the two-story brick house on Maryland Avenue, he dutifully informed Dana Kleinschmidt, mother of four of the reputed offenders, who included 5-year-old triplets, that they were violating the law. They were selling lemonade without a permit.

Kleinschmidt was nonplussed. She told the children to cease and desist, but the law was news to her – and evidently to the rest of the township’s police department.

“We all sold lemonade when we were kids,” said John F. Viola, the deputy chief of police. “We all went, like, who calls [police] on kids?” As it turns out, according to Viola, the officer’s visit was a misunderstanding that finally was left to Sgt. Joe Hagan to straighten out.

For 12 years, Hagan acknowledged, he has patrolled the streets of Haverford buying lemonade, paying the kids a buck and surreptitiously not drinking it. It never occurred to him that he was aiding and abetting law-breakers. Legality became an issue on July 10, when William Nickerson called to complain that neighborhood children were peddling the stuff. Nickerson said they were going house-to-house ringing doorbells, and he didn’t think they were being properly supervised by adults. “I’m not being Scrooge,” he said.

The responding officer – who was unavailable, whom Viola would not identify, and whose name and badge number were blacked out of the police report – invoked a township ordinance against vending without a permit. What the officer didn’t realize, Viola said, is that the law doesn’t apply to anyone younger than 16.

“The police officer would have no way of knowing this on the street,” Viola said. “He acts on information he has available.”

There is just no shortage of “stupid” in this country.

Mexican police arrested –- connected with killings of Federal officers

By Eideard Sunday July 19, 2009

10 Comments

Daylife/Getty Images used by permission

Mexico has 36,000 troops deployed in the war against drug gangs

A federal judge ordered 10 municipal police officers arrested in connection with the slayings of 12 off-duty federal agents in southwestern Mexico, the attorney general’s office said.

The recent spate of violence was sparked by the arrest of high-ranking drug cartel member Arnoldo Rueda Medina.

The federal officers’ bodies were found Tuesday on a remote highway in Michoacan state, where at least 18 federal agents and two soldiers have been killed since July 11 due to drug-related violence…

The officers arrested are on the police force in the city of Arteaga.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon, whose home state is Michoacan, responded to the violence by dispatching 1,000 federal police officers to the area. The infusion, which more than tripled the number of federal police officers patrolling Michoacan, angered Michoacan Gov. Leonel Godoy Rangel. He called it an occupation and said he had not been consulted.

Authorities said Wednesday they were searching for the governor’s half-brother, who they say is a top-ranking member of La Familia Michoacana drug cartel. The cartel is blamed for most of the recent violence in the state.

The governor has publicly urged his brother to surrender.

Uh, his brother hasn’t surrendered.

You Can’t Sue Swine Flu Vaccine Makers If Anything Goes Wrong

By Uncle Dave Sunday July 19, 2009

24 Comments

Swine flu manufacturers have now been granted legal immunity in case something goes wrong that causes side effects associated with the vaccine. Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services signed a document making federal officials and vaccine makers immune from lawsuits related to any ill effects from the swine flu vaccine.

Fears about the effects of a novel swine flu vaccine have sparked much discussion. A swine flu outbreak among soldiers at Fort Dix, N.J in 1974 resulted in vaccinations that caused side effects including Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a condition that causes paralysis. The result was thousands of lawsuits.
[…]
Five pharmaceutical companies are manufacturing swine flu vaccine. The drugs are not as profitable as some, like cancer drugs, but immunity from legal action provides incentive to vaccine makers.

Paul Pennock, a New York plaintiffs attorney on medical liability cases spoke out about the immunity granted to swine flu vaccine makers, saying “If you’re going to ask people to do this for the common good, then let’s make sure for the common good that these people will be taken care of if something goes wrong.”

You knew this was coming.

Feds Finally Admit Chipped Passports Aren’t Secure — Of Course, Your Fault If Data Is Stolen

By Uncle Dave Sunday July 19, 2009

33 Comments

You must use this new system, you’ll be jailed you if you tamper with it, but it’s not their problem if Granny, who has no clue what RFID means, much less how to protect herself, has her identity stolen. She should have known better.

To protect against skimming and eavesdropping attacks, federal and state officials recommend that Americans keep their e-passports tightly shut and store their RFID-tagged passport cards and enhanced driver’s licenses in “radio-opaque” sleeves.

That’s because experiments have shown that the e-passport begins transmitting some data when opened even a half inch, and chipped passport cards and EDLs can be read from varying distances depending on reader technology.
[…]
Gigi Zenk, a spokeswoman for the Washington state Department of Licensing, says the envelope her state offers with the enhanced driver’s license “ensures that nothing can scan it at all.” But that wasn’t what researchers from the University of Washington and RSA Laboratories, a data security company in Bedford, Mass., found last year while testing the data security of the cards. The PASS card “is readable under certain circumstances in a crumpled sleeve,” though not in a well maintained sleeve, the researchers wrote in a report. Another test on the enhanced driver’s license demonstrated that even when the sleeve was in pristine condition, a clandestine reader could skim data from the license at a distance of a half yard.

Will Americans consistently keep their enhanced driver’s licenses in the protective sleeves and maintain those sleeves in perfect shape – even as driver’s licenses are pulled out for countless tasks, from registering in hotels to buying alcohol? The report’s answer: “It is uncertain … ”

And when the sleeves come off, “you’re essentially saying to the world, ‘Come and read what’s in my wallet,'” says Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, D.C. By obliging Americans to use these sleeves, he says, the government has, in effect, shifted the burden of privacy protection to the citizen.

Swine Flu Ambulance Appears in Italy

By John C Dvorak Saturday July 18, 2009

4 Comments

Submitted by John Ciullo who says: My Daughter Bethany was in Florence in May and took a picture of this ambulance and thought it was odd. However after I got her interested in NoAgenda we realize it is the Swine Flu Ambulance. People will see this rushing around town and panic to get the flu shot before they are taken away in it.