Public Library Pornography

No cabe duda. A lo bueno llamaran malo y a lo malo bueno. La nación se hunde cada vez mas en esta terrible crisis. 

 

Posted by Jim_Daly on Apr 27, 2011 11:15:18 AM

Have you ever been to the New York City Public Library?

It's been in the national news this week after its spokesperson announced they'll be making pornography available to any and all of its patrons. This comes as a shock on many levels, especially since adults and children share the same space inside its walls.

This national landmark sits at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. Even if your travels haven't brought you there, you've probably seen it on television or in the movies. Blockbuster hits like Spiderman and Ghostbusters featured the distinctive building, including the two giant stone lions that rest on either side of its main entrance.

For the last one hundred years, through every storm and every season, they've been sitting there, two lions at rest, silently guarding and welcoming the world to its doors.

Their names are Patience and Fortitude.

Tourists often wonder how those statues got their nicknames. The answer to that question, I think, brings us back to the current controversy regarding public funding of pornography.

The lions were originally named Leo Aster and Leo Lenox after the library’s founders, Jon Jacob Astor and James Lenox. But it was the city’s mayor, Fiorello LaGuardia, who renamed the lions, believing New Yorkers needed two main things, patience and fortitude, if they were to survive the Great Depression.

Metaphorically speaking, these lions embodied what the human psyche so desperately craved (and still does) – strength, sturdiness, stability and a willingness to look up even when everything in the world seems to have been turned upside down.

Public libraries have always represented the nation's highest ideals. Any citizen with a card and curiosity can, by walking inside, step into another world, thousands of miles or even centuries away. The best and brightest societies have always read early and often. They read about the sacred and the secular. They read about heroes and heartache, about wars and peace. They read to make sense of the seemingly senseless. They read about the past, present and future. They read about virtue and honor. They read about these things because they know they’re lacking them; they instinctively know their hearts have a hole – and by reading, they hope to fill it and be inspired to become something more.

But the decision this week by library officials to allow unfettered access to pornography is tantamount to social malpractice. It distorts the very ideals of the public library system – which is to build and train up its people to do good and mighty things.

Libraries were created to host students in search of answers, preachers, teachers, authors, playwrights, lawyers and researchers of every stripe in search of a story, a fact or mere inspiration.  And dreamers. Lots of dreamers. Children investigating careers, explorers and adventurers plotting and planning trips around the world, even brides in search of the perfect dress. And the always steady stream of women and men trying to solve a problem, fix what’s broken, heal a hurt and make the world better and brighter than they found it.

Public libraries were not designed or intended to distribute or provide pornography to any curious citizen with a card.

It was Emerson who once wrote that “patience and fortitude conquer all things” – and indeed, for the most part, they do. In the context of the New York Public Library, these lions are characterized as peaceful because they've long represented good things. They have no prey; they practice patience because for one hundred years, those who have walked past them are curious and come in peace. But now another ravenous lion is on the loose behind them, up the stairs and inside the New York City Library, prowling and lurking to try and devour its victims – at taxpayer’s expense!

That lion is the scourge of pornography in any and all forms. And it is the antithesis of everything that the God who made us all represents.

Can sanity and common sense not prevail to rid our public space of such harmful material?  Ask the little boy or little girl who will be harmed by predators who are lurking, seeking their prey in this place.

Poll: Majority of Egyptians want to end peace with Israel

The Pew Research Center recently published a report about Egyptian attitudes towards Jews and Israel. 56% of respondents were in favor of annulling the 1979 Israeli Egyptian peace treaty. The current leader of Egypt's interim government Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi were the most popular of the Egyptian leaders shortly followed by the chief of the Arab League Amr Moussa. Only 41% of the respondents believed that the upcoming election would be free and fair, while 75% were positive towards the Muslim Brotherhood.

Iran hit by another cyberattack

Iran hit by another cyberattack

Military officials in Iran confirmed on Monday that the Islamic Republic's renegade nuclear program has been hit by a new computer virus attack. The virus, named "Stars" comes even as Teheran's nuclear facilities are still grappling with problems caused by the "Stuxnet" worm, an attack widely accredited to the US and Israel. Analysts have warned that the attacks could lead to Iranian retaliation against Western websites and networks, even as the number of industrial 'accidents' in Iran being blamed on sabotage, both cyber and the old fashioned kind, continues to rise. Nearly a dozen natural gas pipeline explosions have occurred in Iran in the last 18 months. In related news, Kuwaiti newspaper al Kabas reported on Sunday that GCC countries are growing increasingly alarmed at the apparent warming of relations between Iran and the transitional government in Egypt.

AGENDA: Grinding America Down (Trailer) from Copybook Heading Productions LLC on Vimeo.

Estonia EU Should Forge Ahead with Electronic ID, Says Estonian Minister

 Estonians reckon that if the Internet had a hometown, it would be located somewhere within the borders of their electronically advanced Baltic state.

Estonia made the headlines in 2000, an e-lifetime ago, when it introduced a ‘paperless government’. Since then, the 1.3 million strong nation has remained a pioneer among EU member states when it comes to the e-society.

Estonian parents check the academic progress of their children online. Estonia’s e-police are just a click a way from knowing whether the car you are driving has valid insurance or is due for a road safety test. Doctors write electronic prescriptions. And would-be entrepreneurs can electronically register a new business in under 20 minutes.

Meanwhile Estonians no longer “go” to the bank at all; they “log on” to it. Only tourists buy paper tickets for the public transport system (everyone else does it via the internet and the use of their obligatory electronic ID card or their mobile phone). And all can vote electronically.

Economy Minister Johan Parts, previously Estonia’s prime minister, brushes off concerns that further advances with the internet and e-society could lead to jobless recovery – unemployment in Estonia’s running at over 17 percent – as technological progresses while not bringing a wealth of jobs with it.

“E-society and all these services make government effective, make government transparent and they bring citizens closer and we can’t say that these initiatives should stop because they are more efficient and we are maybe losing jobs – that cannot be an argument.”

“It is much easier to be successful in the global arena when you are working on IT or all the things relating to e-issues than physical exports,” he said, noting that re-training graduates to give them the specialist IT skills required for a well-functioning e-society is one of the biggest problems.

The other area of concern is cybersecurity. In 2007, Estonia had the dubious honor of becoming the first country in the world to be subject to a cyber attack, widely suspected to have been orchestrated by Russia. Since then, the University of Tartu and Tallinn University of Technology offer a master’s degree in cyber-defense. This year, a special government agency will be established to deal with cyber-security.
To get to this point, the legal infrastructure (allowing for e-signatures, e-commerce and privacy) has to be set up as well as an environment where e-identification that can be used across all member states.

“We have to make possible that e-ID is accepted in all countries in the same way. This means if you have Estonian e-identification you can do everything in Germany, in Portugal, in Italy, in Finland.

“That is not the case for now. It needs a very real action plan.”

- www.euobserver.com, 5/04/2011
 
While there is opposition against the electronic Personal Identification Card (ID), the success will overrule it eventually.

Although ID cards are fully accepted by the majority of Europeans, electronic ID cards seem to be only in the testing arena at this time.  Doubtless, the older generation will oppose such cards while the younger ones will easily accept this modern convenience of personal identification.

Is there an alternative way?  The answer is no. Whether we call it an electronic ID, a printed paper ID, or as is required in the United States, a driver’s license ID, the various systems all will meet in the end. A modern society cannot function in a civilized manner without a workable identification system. Without proper ID, there is no bank loan, utility service, access to the educational system, healthcare and innumerable other social conveniences—all cannot be utilized without an ID. In the end, as all Bible believers know, this will lead to the final virtually perfect identity system, which is called the mark of the beast.  

TWO-FACED RUSSIA

A Russian-made anti-tank missile hit a school bus in Israel last Thursday, demonstrating that Russian weapons have made their way into the hands of Hamas. Russia is also once again loading nuclear fuel into the reactor at Iran's Bushehr Power Plant on the Persian Gulf. Iran and Russia are cooperating on development of both nuclear power and oil and natural gas resources. Russia's top leaders met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the end of March as an attempt to strengthen Israel-Russian relations, yet Russia has long proved willing to cooperate with Israel's enemies.

Russian Missiles To Syria:
Relations between Israel and Russia grew tense last week when a Kornet, a Russian-made anti-tank missile, hit an Israeli school bus. The Kornet is only manufactured inside Russia, which means that the missiles from Russia itself are reaching terrorist groups like Hamas. Russia has been openly willing to sell missiles to Syria, even though those weapons can and have been taken up by Hezbollah contrary to Syrian agreements. Israel believes the Kornet was smuggled from Hezbollah into the Gaza strip where Hamas made use of it.

Israel is calling the bombing of a children's school bus a war crime.

Russian Cooperation With Iran:
Russia started reloading fuel rods at the Bushehr Power Plant on April 8, according to Russia's Atomstroyexport company . The rods were removed in February due to a breakdown in one of the reactor's cooling pumps. Now that the reactor has been cleaned up and inspected, 163 fuel rods are being reloaded as part of the energy cooperation between Iran and Russia.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) approved the agreement between Russia and Iran, in which Russia initially operates the plant and both supplies the plant with fuel and removes all the spent fuel so that it cannot be used to make a nuclear weapon. The agreement only has Russia running the plan and removing the spent fuel for a couple of years, however. Eventually, Iran will take control of the plant and the spent fuel.

Iran has repeatedly said that it will abide by the IAEA protocol on running the plant, including allowing inspectors so that the plant can be run safely.

IAEA Nuclear Installation Safety Director Philippe Jamet said,"They look at the training programs - how the operators are trained to cope with accidents on simulators, and so on. And, we also look at the qualifications of people to perform maintenance. And also, the preparation of the plant for possible emergencies."

Will the IAEA inspectors make sure that none of the spent fuel is squirrelled away to make a nuclear weapon of one kind or another?

Russian natural gas company Gazprom announced last week that it is working with Iran to find ways to cooperate more closely on energy. Gazprom chief Alexei Miller met with Iranian Deputy Vice President for Economic Affairs Ali Agha Mohammad in Moscow.

"The parties discussed the opportunities for Russia and Iran to develop cooperation in the oil and gas industry," the Russian company said in a statement. "Special attention was paid to the global energy market trends and the issues of strategic partnership within the Gas Exporting Countries Forum activities."

Russia and Iran have the first and second spots, respectively, in holding the world's largest natural gas reserves.

Russia and Israel:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at the end of March. Russia has shown an effort to heal ties with Israel and was one of the first countries to condemn the bus bombing in Jerusalem that injured 39 people and killed one British woman. However, Russia's plans to sell Syria a shipment of missiles and to continue cooperation with Iran caused tension. Netanyahu urged Russia to be wise regarding Iran and reminded Russia of the terrorist threat that it too faced.

"If the Tehran regime manages to create nuclear weapons, it will never fall," he told Russian reporters. "If this happens, no one -- neither you (Russia) nor anyone else -- will be safe from threats, blackmail and attacks," Netanyahu added.

The bombing of a Minsk subway station in the former Soviet republic of Belarus on April 11 is a strong reminder to Russia of the constant terrorist threat in the region. While the motive of the Belarus bombing is still unknown, Moscow has experienced bombings in its subway system as recently as last year. Russia is fully aware of what it is to be threatened by terrorism.

Despite its friendly face toward Israel, however, Russia's willingness to do business with the countries most hostile to Israel demonstrates that Russia has no real loyalties to anybody – except to Russia.

Related Links:

• Bushehr Nuclear Plant Being Reloaded With Fuel: Russian Contractor »
  - Tehran Times
• Russia, Iran Explore Energy Ties »
  - UPI
• Tel Aviv - Israel Claims Russian Missile Hit School Bus »
  - Vos Iz Neias
• Netanyahu plays up Iran threat in Russia »
  - AFP
• Iran's Bushehr Nuclear Plant to Open With International Oversight »
  - Voice Of America
• Belarus Tightens Security After Subway Blast »
  - The New York Times