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Florida Spends $45K on ‘Incredibly Offensive and Invasive’ Survey of Women’s Sex Lives

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The state of Florida has spent roughly $45,000 on a study of the sex lives of its residents, offering the participants $10 CVS gift cards in return for their answers.

The South Florida Sun Sentinel reported Sunday that the Department of Health sent surveys to 4,100 women between the target ages of 18 and 24, which officials say will help them understand women’s need for family-planning services.

The 12-page questionnaire, sent out in September and October, reportedly had 46 questions. They included, according to the Sun Sentinel:

• How did you feel emotionally when you had unprotected sex — were you trying to get pregnant, were you in the “heat of the moment and just went with the flow,” or did you find the man attractive and “thought it would be nice to have a baby with him?” Did you feel “powerless”? Or was it that you “felt emotionally connected with your partner during sex”?

• How old were you when you first had sex? Last time you had sex with a man, did you do anything to keep from getting pregnant? If not, why not?

Read more from this story HERE.

Video Report: Texas Student Successfully Defies ‘Total Surveillance State,’ Citing ‘Mark of the Beast’

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The idea of being tracked wherever one goes by a government computer chip may sound like something out of Science Fiction dystopia films like “V for Vendetta” or “Total Recall,” but apparently, it’s actually happening. And at least one Texas high school student has embarked on a mission to stop it.

Meet Andrea Hernandez, a sophomore at Texas’ John Jay High School Science and Engineering Academy, and a resistor against a new program there that enables the school to track its pupils:

The proposed “tracking” method would require students to wear badges containing Radio Frequency Initiation (RFID) chips, and then track the chips embedded in the badges, presumably as a means of ensuring students don’t play hooky or go off-campus without permission, etc.

But Hernandez refuses to play along with the badges, even braving the threat of expulsion to do so. Why? Because she believes they’re Satanic, according to the blog God Discussion:

“. . . Hernandez is claiming religious principles for refusing to carry her ID card, stating that she believes it is satanic, specifically calling it the “mark of the beast,” in reference to one of the interpretations of Christian biblical prophecy as outlined in the apocalyptic book, Revelation.”

Read more from this story HERE.

New Obamacare Tax Form Mandates Americans Report Personal Health ID Info to IRS

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photo credit: majunznkWhen Obamacare’s individual mandate takes effect in 2014, all Americans who file income tax returns must complete an additional IRS tax form. The new form will require disclosure of a taxpayer’s personal identifying health information in order to determine compliance with the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate.

As confirmed by IRS testimony to the tax-writing House Committee on Ways and Means, “taxpayers will file their tax returns reporting their health insurance coverage, and/or making a payment”.

So why will the Obama IRS require your personal identifying health information?

Simply put, there is no way for the IRS to enforce Obamacare’s individual mandate without such an invasive reporting scheme. Every January, health insurance companies across America will send out tax documents to each insured individual. This tax document—a copy of which will be furnished to the IRS—must contain sufficient information for taxpayers to prove that they purchased qualifying health insurance under Obamacare.

This new tax information document must, at a minimum, contain: the name and health insurance identification number of the taxpayer; the name and tax identification number of the health insurance company; the number of months the taxpayer was covered by this insurance plan; and whether or not the plan was purchased in one of Obamacare’s “exchanges.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Facial Recognition Technology Prohibits Smiling on New Jersey Driver’s Licenses

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If you’re headed to the New Jersey Department of Motor Vehicles, you’d better not put on a happy face.

The Garden State’s DMV has banned smiling during license photos so that their new facial-scanning software can identify drivers more easily.

But the ban, which took effect in January, has many drivers scowling, complaining that they’re entitled to pose how they wish.

‘Your picture means a lot; it’s who you are,’ said Velvet McNeil, 38, of Sicklerville, N.J., to the Philadelphia Daily News.

‘Why should we all look like androids, looking mopey? I know there are some people who don’t have good driver’s licenses, but I actually keep all mine.’

Read more from this story HERE.

FBI Launches $1 Billion Biometric ID System Using Nationwide Array of Cameras, Receivers

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The US Federal Bureau of Investigation has begun rolling out its new $1 billion biometric Next Generation Identification (NGI) system. In essence, NGI is a nationwide database of mugshots, iris scans, DNA records, voice samples, and other biometrics, that will help the FBI identify and catch criminals — but it is how this biometric data is captured, through a nationwide network of cameras and photo databases, that is raising the eyebrows of privacy advocates.

Until now, the FBI relied on IAFIS, a national fingerprint database that has long been due an overhaul. Over the last few months, the FBI has been pilot testing a facial recognition system — and soon, detectives will also be able to search the system for other biometrics such as DNA records and iris scans. In theory, this should result in much faster positive identifications of criminals and fewer unsolved cases.

According to New Scientist, facial recognition systems have reached the point where they can match a single face from a pool of 1.6 million mugshots/passport photos with 92% accuracy, in under 1.2 seconds [PDF]. In the case of automated, biometric border controls where your face and corresponding mugshot are well lit, the accuracy approaches 100%. Likewise, where DNA or iris records exist, it’s a very expedient way of accurately identifying suspects…

Imagine if the NGI had full access to every driving license and passport photo in the country — and DNA records kept by doctors, and iris scans kept by businesses. The FBI’s NGI, if the right checks and balances aren’t in place, could very easily become a tool that decimates civilian privacy and freedom.

Read more from this story HERE.

Scientists Successfully ‘Hack’ Brain To Obtain Private Data

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Photo credit: ssoosay

It sounds like something out of the movie “Johnny Mnemonic,” but scientists have successfully been able to “hack” a brain with a device that’s easily available on the open market.

Researchers from the University of California and University of Oxford in Geneva figured out a way to pluck sensitive information from a person’s head, such as PIN numbers and bank information.

The scientists took an off-the-shelf Emotiv brain-computer interface, a device that costs around $299, which allows users to interact with their computers by thought.

The scientists then sat their subjects in front of a computer screen and showed them images of banks, people, and PIN numbers. They then tracked the readings coming off of the brain, specifically the P300 signal.

The P300 signal is typically given off when a person recognizes something meaningful, such as someone or something they interact with on a regular basis.

Read more from this story HERE.

Medicine Now Can Be Tracked by Microchips

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Photo credit: ninasaurusrex

Pills for anything from the common cold to diabetes or cancer can be embedded with tiny ingestible chips that keep track of whether a patient is taking their medicine on time.

The digital feedback technology, devised by Redwood City, California-based Proteus Digital Health Inc, can also prompt patients to take their medicine and even ask them to take a walk if they have been inactive for too long.

“Overall, people only take their medications half of the time … adherence is a really big issue across all treatments,” Eric Topol, chief academic officer of Scripps Health, a non-profit medical service provider, told Reuters.

Some patients might not like their pill-taking being tracked but the system can help manage patients’ complicated medicine routines, such as diabetes or heart conditions.

“This is a way to have a “friend” helping look after me, since my doctor can’t be there most of the time,” said Kelly Close, a diabetes patient and the founder of diaTribe, a newsletter for people with diabetes. She has not yet used the pill.

Read more from this story HERE.

We must fight the emerging drone culture

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Photo credit: An Honorable German

As instruments of war, pilotless aircraft have already become essential. The Washington Post reported last year that more than 50 countries had developed or purchased drones to use in surveillance — and that many of those nations were working to weaponize the aircraft. Deadly missiles fired from drones are among the most effective U.S. weapons against the Taliban and al Qaida.

There has been far too little discussion of the moral calculus involved in using flying robots as tools of assassination. At the very least, the whole thing should leave us uneasy. Collateral damage — the killing of innocents — can be minimized but not eliminated. And even if only “bad” people are killed, this isn’t war as we’ve traditionally understood it. Drone attacks are more like state-sponsored homicide.

But similar complaints were raised when tanks replaced horses on the battlefield, and nothing stopped the mechanization of war. Drones allow governments to achieve military objectives without putting the lives of soldiers, sailors and pilots at risk. Robots do not bleed and do not vote, so they will do much of the fighting for us.

The thing about drones, though, is that the technology required to deploy them is nowhere near as daunting as is needed, say, to develop nuclear weapons. As they become more commonplace in the arsenals of the world, we will surely begin seeing them used by “rogue” nations — or even by nonstate actors such as terrorists and drug smugglers.

If Colombian cartels are able to build dope-smuggling submarines, when will Mexican crime lords begin sending up surveillance drones to identify unpatrolled sectors of the U.S. border? Soon, I reckon, if it’s not already happening.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama demands Romney’s tax returns; why hasn’t Romney demanded Barry’s college records?

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White House spokesman Jay Carney dismissed Donald Trump’s position earlier this week that should Obama keep insisting Mitt Romney release his tax returns, Romney should demand that Barry Soetoro, Barrack Hussein Obama, or whatever his name is, first make his college records public information.

Of course, rather than address the issue at hand, the administration consciously chose to launch into an Alinsky style personal attack on Trump. Carney called the suggestion “preposterous,” dismissing Trump as the “guy who insisted that he didn’t believe the president was born in the United States.”

Never mind that the current White House occupant signed an Executive Order hiding every last one of his personal documents from public view on his first day in office. For “the most transparent administration in history,” transparency is meant for everyone else, not themselves.

In typical Progressive “do as I say, not as I do” fashion, the White House has launched repeated attacks on the presumptive GOP presidential nominee over questions about the timing of his departure from private equity firm Bain Capital. One campaign spokeswoman even suggested that Romney committed a felony.

The White House and fellow Democrats keep insisting that several companies filed for bankruptcy and/or shipped jobs overseas under Romney’s Bain leadership. They’re obviously trying to create the theme that Romney only wants to help fellow millionaires, not working people.

Romney has maintained he is not responsible for many of those decisions because they took place after he took a leave of absence in February 1999 to oversee the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Winter Games. According to recently released documents, regulatory filings show that Romney was still in charge of Bain through 2002. However, Bain officials, including Democrats, say that he was not involved with the company’s day-to-day operations during that time.

The White House is also criticizing Romney for setting up offshore bank accounts and refusing to release additional information concerning his personal fortune, estimated to be as much as $250 million.

Romney countered this week that, “John McCain ran for president and released two years of tax returns. John Kerry ran for president, and his wife, who has hundreds of millions of dollars, she never released her tax returns. Somehow this wasn’t an issue. The Obama people keep on wanting more and more and more, more things to pick through, more things for their opposition research to try and make a mountain out of and distort and to be dishonest about.”

But Progressives keep insisting that Romney’s supposed secrecy goes to the “trust factor.” This is the absolute height of hypocrisy. When it comes to secrecy and the trust factor, how on earth can policy wonks who insist on hiding the Oval Office occupant’s entire past claim even a sliver of the moral high ground? Perhaps Progressives need a lesson on how trust is a two way street. They should start with answering the following:

Why was the “Affordable Care Act” passed without Congress reading it first?

Why weren’t the New Black Panthers prosecuted for the voter intimidation that was clearly documented?

Why did the NLRB sue Boeing?

Why has the administration stifled the production of cheap energy through EPA regulations and denial of permits?

Why has the administration abandoned national border security while suing States attempting to enforce federal law and granting blanket protection from prosecution for breaking immigration laws to millions of illegal aliens?

Why is the administration suing States that passed Voter ID laws intended solely to protect the integrity of America’s voting process?

Why has the counting of American votes in the November 2012 election been outsourced to a Spanish company?

Why does the White House continue insisting that average, everyday Americans are not being taxed by the “Affordable Care Act” when enforcement of the “penalty” falls to the IRS?

When did the IRS suddenly leave the Department of Treasury and move to the Department of Health and Human Services?

Why did so many millions of taxpayer dollars go to green energy companies whose executives just happened to have been big time Progressive bundlers for the 2008 Democratic presidential campaign?

Where is the justification for using Executive Privilege to hide the truth about Operation Fast and Furious which resulted in the murder of American Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry?

The White House calling for transparency from the Mitt Romney campaign might make more sense if Obama practiced what his administration has preached. But he has not. “The most transparent administration in history” has practiced anything but transparency. The American people won’t suffer this level of horrendous duplicity much longer.

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Michael Fell is a former MCA recording artist from the seminal punk rock era who toured America from coast to coast. Today, he’s a leading voice in the L.A. Tea Party movement, active since the February 2009 inception. Mr. Fell currently chairs the Westwood Tea Party, is a founding member of the L.A. Metro Tea Party Coalition, serves as the Vice Chairman of the Westside Republicans Club in L.A. CA, and is an elected Republican delegate to the L.A. 47th AD Central Committee. He’s been Campaign Manager for a primary winning Congressional candidate, as well as Santa Monica and L.A. City Council candidates. Mr. Fell is a contributing writer for https://conservativedailynews.com/, https://rightwingnews.com/, https://www.hollywoodrepublican.net/, https://beforeitsnews.com, https://www.redcounty.com/, https://www.uspatriotpac.com and, https://westsiderepublicans.com/. His opinions on today’s news events and political climate can be found on his blog: https://mjfellright.wordpress.com/

Photo credit: Chude

Democrats demand that Romney release taxes but refuse to release their own

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Members of Congress are demanding that U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney give full disclosure of all of his tax returns, but most are refusing to publicize their own.

The presumptive presidential nominee has disclosed his 2010 tax return and 2011 tax return estimate, but refuses to publicize any more. His refusal is generating critical responses from Congressional members, who claim his secrecy makes him unfit to run for president.

However most members of Congress do not think that this same level of transparency should apply to them. While senators and representatives are required to publicize their sources of income, they are not required to disclose their tax returns, which contain additional financial data like spousal income.

McClatchy has asked all 535 members of Congress for full disclosure of their tax returns, but only 17 have complied.

Among those who refused are Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Harry Reid – both of which have heavily criticized Romney for his limited transparency.

Read more from this story HERE.

Photo credit: dannymac15_1999