Source:http://paragshahtennis.blogspot.com/2013/06/wimbledon-preview-of-mens-draw.html
Wimbledon: Preview Of the Men's Draw. Images
wimbledon day one men s draw preview the pristine lawns of wimbledon ...
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wimbledon men s draw day two preview as the final half of the men s ...
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... Getty Images) Busted Racquet previews the men's draw at Wimbledon 2012
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Busted Racquet previews the men's draw at Wimbledon 2012
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The media is in a frenzy over the Edward Snowden - NSA story. Snowden revealed Confidential NSA Security information that he swore an oath he would never divulge. Those that agree with Snowden call him a Whistleblower and Hero. Those that disagree with him call him a Traitor who deserted our Country and a Domestic Terrorist who is endangering the lives of Americans. The information on this story is varied, depending on the media outlet. What is amazing is, this is a bi-partisan story. Republicans and Democrats are for and against Snowden's actions. Michael Moore is siding with Glenn Beck. Mike Rodgers (Republican Chairman of House Intelligence Committee) is siding with President Obama.I decided to do some research so I could decide for myself how I felt about this issue. I created this timeline to allow you, my readers to see, in a nutshell, the Life of Edward Snowden. In compiling this information, I found Questions the Media is NOT asking. I am very curious WHY they are not asking these questions. (see end of this article for questions)Edward Snowden was born in 1983 in North Carolina. At age 9, his family moved to Maryland, a community comprised of Federal and CIA employees. Snowden was a non-achiever. He dropped out of High School in 10th grade. His parents had a difficult marriage and divorced when Snowden was 18. His Dad moved to Pennsylvania. His mom stayed in Maryland. Snowden moved to his own apartment near his mom. His mom paid the rent. Snowden loved video games and took some Community College courses. He also practiced karate. At 19, he was hired as the on-line tech for Ryuhana Press which specialized in on-line anime art. He joined several IT forums. In May 2004, when he was 21, he decided to join the Army. He wanted to be in the Green Beret and go to Iraq. He failed training and the Army discharged him in September 2004. He claimed he broke both of his legs, but the Army said there's no record of it.He moved back to his Maryland community and was hired as a Security Guard at the University of Maryland -- which has affiliations with the CIA. And, because of his computer skills, was hired as a tech for CIA Network Security. From 2007 - 2009, the CIA sent him to Geneva, again as a tech in Network Security. Snowden said he became disillusioned about the government invading people's privacy and quit. It was around this time that he bragged on-line about how his computer skills enabled him to get high paying jobs even with his limited education. Later in 2009, he worked as an NSA Military Contractor with Dell in Japan. He also commented on line that he loved travel and he loved Japan. In on-line forums he continued to complain about government invading privacy, yet at the same time, bragging about his travel, salary and lack of education/no Student Loans. In January, 2013, he contacted Laura Poitras who was well known for her documentary about the famous government whistle-blower "Daniel Ellsberg." Low achiever Snowden fancied himself another Daniel Ellsberg. News reports also indicate that in February, 2013 Snowden met with Glenn Greenwald from the Guardian. After these meetings, Snowden left his contractor job at Dell and in April, 2013, he joined Booz, Allen, Hamilton. In early May, Snowden copied 3 laptops full and several thumb drives full of Top Secret Confidential files. Then, on May 20, he flew to Hong Kong to meet with Glenn Greenwald who was the first reporter to cover the story.Now here's an interesting side note: Back in 2010, Greenwald wrote an article titled: "Mike McConnell, the WashPost & the dangers of sleazy corporatism." In this article, he wrote about Booz, Allen and "a political culture drowning in hidden conflicts of interests, exploitation of political office for profit, and a rapidly eroding wall separating the public and private spheres."Another interesting side note: In December, 2012, just one month before Snowden went to Poitras and Greenwald, a group of high-profile journalists and free-speech activists launched the "Freedom of the Press Foundation." Here is where this story gets really interesting: Both Poitras and Greenwald are FOUNDING MEMBERS. Daniel Ellsberg is ALSO a Founding Member.Now here is where my Questions come in: "Why Did Edward Snowden Leave NSA Contractor Dell and start working for Booz, Allen?" "Were there better Confidential/Security Secrets at Booz, Allen than he had at Dell?""Was there a better story created by secrets revealed at Booz, Allen?""How did Snowden get hired so quickly into Booz, Allen?" "Did someone provide him contacts? References?" "Did someone coach him to do this?""Who influenced him to do this and why?""Is Edward Snowden being used?" "Is he a pawn?""Why isn't the media asking these questions?"I don't have an agenda and I don't have the answers to these questions. Right now, I'm just CURIOUS why these obvious questions are not being asked by anyone.
A quiet day at Wimbledonyesterday. Djokovic looks unbeatable.Today will largely be spent getting ready for prize-day-at-school tomorrow, costume chosen and inspected for moth-holes, meals planned and shopped-for. I am becoming increasingly leaden-footed.On the other hand, I keep turning up on Zite these days. The knitting content of individual blog-entries seems irrelevant, and readership numbers seem unaffected.KnittingFranklinliked my early reference to gauge.I finished the straight underarm-to-shoulder part of the back of Relax2, and now have but to shape the shoulders and neck.I also cast on a Mind the Gap sock, but twisted the stiches or something – there was a hole in the top edge, so I frogged and we’ll start again. I think I’ll look out a Londontube map – after Northern-Line-black I’m not sure I can identify any of the colours for certain.
Alexander is 38 and lives in Ridgewood, NY.Click here for Alexander's website.Click here for more.
"You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor[a] and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,[b] 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet your brethren[c] only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors[d] do so? 48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect." Matthew 5:43-48 Last night, Cahnman's Musings was on the ground at the Texas State Capitol. We arrived at 5:45 pm and left shortly before 1 am. We were right outside the Texas Senate chamber when the closing events took place.One observation stands out: heartbreaking spiritual deception.The pro-life movement does a disservice to ourselves if we portray last night's mob as mind-numbed robots; they weren't. That mob was thousands of individuals acting together out of their own free will. And that's much, much worse.The root cause of last night's activities was spiritual deception over sex. Regular readers know this is a topic we've discussed extensively. In March 2012, we outlined the problem. Last November, we identified a solution. As we wrote:Free stuff is the symptom, promiscuity is the disease. People voted to maintain their sex lives. Substitute 'abortion' for 'free stuff' and 'showed up at the Capitol' for 'voted' and you've got a fitting description of last night's crowd.And that's heartbreaking.There's only one solution, and that's prayer. A critical mass of (mostly, but not exclusively, younger) Texans believe the United States Constitution endows them with a right to consequence free sex. They've bought the lie of 'sexual freedom' hook, line, and sinker. And that's tragic. But last night's events were a political manifestation of a spiritual problem, and it requires a spiritual solution.
Source: ThinkProgressPer ThinkProgress, the soon-to-be president of the NRA has even more radical views than his predecessor. I think the hysterical mistrust of the Federal Government that has infected the South since the founding of our country has spread throughout the country and we are fighting what I would term a 'Civil Cold War' that is nation-wide in scope. Our segregation is less geographic than ever and more maintained by news sources, pastimes, religions, and other more portable markers.
At her news conference on Sunday, as Wimbledon's defending champion Serena Williams responded to questions regarding her controversial comments in a Rolling Stone magazine. The interest was more about Serena's recent comments in the article as well as Maria Sharapova's surprisingly forceful verbal response in reaction to her comments.In response to the stir created by the article No.1 ranked tennis player Serena, said that it had not been easy. Serena also said, And I feel like I really wanted to say: I apologize for everything that was said in that article." Serena previously issued a statement apologizing for recent comments made about a 16 year old rape victim in the Steubenville, Ohio case.On Sunday, Serena said that she approached Sharapova who is ranked No.3 to try and smooth things over. Serena said she extended an apology to Sharapova at a pre-tournament player's party Thursday. However, Thursday's interaction and apology did nothing to end the matter because Sharapova delivered comments of her own on Saturday.Sharapova said "If she wants to talk about something personal, maybe she should talk about her relationship and her boyfriend that was married and is getting a divorce and has kids."Serena decided not to react to to Sharapova's verbal swipe 24 hours after, instead saying, "I was definitely told of (Sharapova's) comments. I definitely like to keep my personal life personal. I think it would be inappropriate for me to comment on it."Wimbledon Championships begins on Monday 24th June.
This year’s honorees were actor Alan Cumming, fashion designer Valentino (he was unable to attend so Iman accepted the award on his behalf), and entertainer Jennifer Lopez. Nearly $1 million was raised for HIV and AIDS research from the event’s festivities. 
James Gandolfini.Such incredibly sad news about actor James Gandolfini who has died of a suspected heart-attack at the age of just 51 while on holiday in Italy. Only a couple of weeks ago Pam Corkery and I were talking on The Two (Newstalk ZB Friday and Sunday evenings from 8pm) about how The Sopranos had just been voted the best written TV show of all time, a show I always liked a great deal and Pam always loved.Gandolfini played mob boss Tony Soprano from 1999 to 2007 and the thing that struck me today was not only how young he was, but how young he must've been when he took on what became one of the most iconic roles in American television history. Doesn't 37 seem young to play a mob boss? But Gandolfini always had a presence, whether intimidating or vulnerable.News of Gandolfini's death is extra tragic when you learn he leaves behind not only a teenage son from his first marriage, but a wife of five years and a baby girl who hasn't even celebrated her first birthday. As far as tributes go, the creator of The Sopranos David Chase has today called his friend a genius, saying that, "a great deal of that genius resided in those sad eyes."So with that in mind, here is a song for James Gandolfini, a truly beautiful buried treasure of a Bruce Springsteen* song. Recorded in 1990 and staggeringly left off both of Springsteen's underbought, simultaneously released 1992 albums Human Touch and Lucky Town, this is one of my favourite of his ballads. Sad, beautiful and a potential hit, this is Sad Eyes.*The other Springsteen connection to Gandolfini is indeed a major one. Playing the character Silvio on The Sopranos was none other than E Street Band member / Springsteen confidant Steven Van Zandt. Van Zandt, along with the late Clarence Clemons were / are amongst Springsteen's absolute closest friends. Van Zandt (whose spine-tingling mandolin work during Land Of Hope And Dreams live at Western Springs, Auckland 2003 is permanently etched into my brain) has paid tribute on Twitter to Gandolfini, saying: "I've lost a brother and a best friend. The world has lost one of the greatest actors of all time."
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Government surveillance and jihad Andrew McCarthy, who prosecuted the 1993 World Trade Center bombing case, has a way of cutting through the fog. His most recent column in National Review Online addresses the current controversy over government surveillance. It’s well worth taking the time to carefully read it. The National-Security Right Goes Silent On the NSA, the dog will not bark. By Andrew C. McCarthy http://www.nationalreview.com/article/351128/national-security-right-goes-silent-andrew-c-mccarthy 
ANDREW C. MCCARTHY The jihad rages on, but the War on Terror is over. There is no longer a national-security consensus — no longer the political support for wartime defense measures, much less offensive combat operations. While the enemy continues to fight, our will to break the enemy’s will has vanished. After a contentious week, that much is clear. The controversy swirling around shadowy intelligence programs hasn’t gotten to the bottom of those programs, but it tells us everything we need to know about . . . us. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s dog that did not bark is a metaphor worn out by journalists. This week, though, the lack of a bark was loud and clear: The bark of the national-security Right defending the wartime powers of the presidency. For a variety of reasons, many of the protagonists have developed amnesia about how we came to have the programs now provoking all the cavil: the debates over the PATRIOT Act and FISA (the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act). After a series of attacks through the Nineties, the 9/11 atrocities destroyed the World Trade Center, struck the Pentagon, and killed nearly 3,000 Americans. In the savage clarity, our nation finally realized that what I’ve called “kinetic Islam” — a combination of militant jihadists and their sharia-supremacist enablers — was at war with the United States. The PATRIOT Act was a product of our vigorous and persuasive contention, on the national-security right, that the challenge was an enemy force, not a criminal-justice problem. That challenge demanded a national war-footing, not judicial due process. It was precisely this contention, moreover, that beat back the Left’s effort to intrude the judiciary into the collection of foreign intelligence — constitutionally, a paradigm executive function — when FISA was overhauled in 2008. In fits and starts over the years, progressives and libertarians have aligned against the war, for different reasons. Hardwired to find American fault in every dispute, the Left is sympathetic to Islamic supremacism’s indictment against the United States, if not its barbaric methods. Libertarians have been wary because war inexorably enhances the power of the state at the expense of liberty — Big Government is more to be feared than the jihad. That this fear is overstated does not mean it is frivolous. It is real, and has been stoked to a fare-thee-well by the “War on Terror.” The label itself betrays our cravenness. Unwilling to name the enemy for fear of giving offense, the government framed the challenge not as an aggressor but as an aggressive tactic. It encouraged Americans to go on with their lives as normal (lest “the terrorists win”). Necessarily, this ensured that the public would notice the war only in the government’s defense measures against the tactic. These were thus certain to become more onerous; after all, that was how politicians too timid to say “Islam” or “jihad” proved they were tough on . . . er . . . “violent extremism.” But these defense measures, erosions of liberty and privacy, could be abided only as long as the public felt profoundly threatened. That feeling would certainly not last, no matter how long we had troops on faraway battlefields, if the public was not (a) invested in victory over our enemies; (b) persuaded that being molested at the airport and similar indignities had something to do with achieving victory; and (c) convinced that the lack of similar-scale attacks in the years after 9/11 was due to the defense measures. The most compelling claim against the war effort, argued jointly by progressives and libertarians, was that there was no conceivable conclusion to a war of this nature. Wars against traditional enemies end when the enemy — usually, a nation-state — surrenders or strikes a treaty. But how can a war against a tactic end? Consequently, the argument went, the War on Terror would go on indefinitely, and with it the metastasizing security state. This argument is now muted on the Left. Bush-deranged progressives turn out to be quite comfortable with a security state as long as one of their own is running it. But for libertarians, the argument has grown ever more heated. Nothing, not even war, happens in a vacuum. Over the last six years, as libertarian angst churned over surveillance, detention, military commissions, and drone attacks, the progressive-lite GOP establishment gave way to hardcore Obama statism. As a result, libertarians, quite appropriately, have become a hugely influential opposition faction. They are a big part of the Tea Party’s energy, and the Tea Party is the dynamo of the Right. Increasingly, as the Right’s ne plus ultra has become stopping Big Government’s advance, conservatives and Republicans have been more willing to overlook libertarian objections to adhesive security measures — sometimes, even to see a good deal of sense in them. [CONTINUE READING ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ACT for America P.O. Box 12765 Pensacola, FL 32591 www.actforamerica.org ACT for America is an issues advocacy organization dedicated to effectively organizing and mobilizing the most powerful grassroots citizen action network in America, a grassroots network committed to informed and coordinated civic action that will lead to public policies that promote America’s national security and the defense of American democratic values against the assault of radical Islam. We are only as strong as our supporters, and your volunteer and financial support is essential to our success. 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