http://www.pakalertpress.com/2012/12/05/revealed-the-presidents-223million-doomsday-plane-that-protects-him-against-nuclear-war-asteroids-and-terror-attacks/         

Revealed: The President’s $223million ‘doomsday’ plane that protects him against nuclear war, asteroids and terror attacks

truther December 5, 2012 1

[Translate]

---

It can withstand a nuclear bomb, asteroid blasts and terror attacks while staying airborne for days without refueling: It’s the president’s $223 million ‘doomsday’ plane and it’s on standby 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, ready to launch at a minute’s notice. 

The United States’ so-called Doomsday plane is a jumbo jet on steroids, set apart from other Boeing 747′s by its radiation-protected shell, 67 antennae and satellite dishes that can communicate with anyone on the ground, advanced heating and cooling systems and loads of other high-tech top-secret gear. 

In the case of a national disaster, the plane’s four turbofan jet engine can fly for days without refueling and it can reach speeds of up to 620 miles per hour, whereas commercial planes can only fly up to 580 miles per hour.

Doomsday plan: The federal government‘s Doomsday plane is set apart from other Boeing 747′s by its radiation-protected shell, 67 antennae and satellite dishes and loads of other high-tech gear

Perhaps the most surprising fact about the ‘doomsday’ plane is its age. The aircraft was built more than 30 years ago in the 1980s, and still retains much of its technology from that era. 

‘In the event of a disaster low tech can be very advantageous,’ a tech sergeant told the Discovery Channel, which is airing a special on America’s ‘doomsday’ plans this week. ‘The higher the tech, the more electronics. [When] you rely on more parts, it’s more susceptible to breaking.’

The plane has been modified and updated over the years with advances in technology.

Governing from the air: The plane’s 67 antennae and satellite dishes located on the aircraft’s crown allow the president to communicate with anyone on the ground

Lt. Col. David Gaskill, who oversees the day-to-day operations of the president’s Doomsday plane, told U.S. Strategic Command in 2010 it is the ‘most technologically advanced airborne system in the world.’

The plane, which was last airborne during the terror attacks on 9/11, is designed to launch within five minutes in the case of a surprise alarm. Specially-trained technicians sleep near the plane in case of emergency. 

But the Doomsday aircraft is only one slice of the United States’ plans for protecting high-ranking officials in the case of a national emergency.

Quick launch: The plane, which was last airborne during the terror attacks on 9/11, is designed to launch within five minutes in the case of a surprise alarm

The federal government also has a top-secret underground complex called ‘Mount Weather’ located 64 miles from Washington, D.C. in Virginia. 

Buried 300 feet underground, the massive complex features 20 multistory buildings, water reservoirs, a sewage treatment plant, a hospital, a crematorium and a television studio where the president can keep the American people apprised of what’s going on.

The compound has enough supplies to last 200 personnel a month, but enough bunks for 2,000 people.

Old aircraft: The plane was built more than 30 years ago, but has been updated with newer technology over the years

Former president Ronald Reagan made the country’s doomsday plan a top priority during his administration. 

Reagan put his chief of staff, Donald Rumsfield, and then-congressman Dick Cheney in charge of his ‘continuity of government’ plan.

Rumsfeld and Reagan role-played doomsday scenarios as top level officials.

‘We would have a scenario that was a nuclear war,’ Jim Wink, who oversaw the role-playing and preparation, told the Discovery Channel. ‘Washington, D.C. would get wiped out. The president of the United States would be killed and the senior candidate out there would become the president.’

Planning: The Air Force has a a strategic command center dedicated to emergency preparation in Omaha, which houses four Boeing 747s designed to allow the president to govern from the air

Wink said top-level cabinet officials would be secluded for up to three days during the exercises.

‘The way the exercises were carried out was in the utmost secrecy and they would tell no one — not even tell their wives — where they would be,’ said national security expert James Mann.

The annual budget for the U.S. doomsday plan is between $5 billion and $6 billion dollars.

Much of the country’s emergency preparation falls to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, which also handles natural disasters, such as Superstorm Sandy.

Plan B: The federal government also has a top-secret underground complex called ‘Mount Weather’ located 64 miles from Washington, D.C. in Virginia

Roughly 30 percent of FEMA head Craig Fugate’s job is dealing with the secret continuity programs, according to U.S. News and World Report.

The U.S. Air Force is also a key part of the plan. The Air Force has a a strategic command center dedicated to emergency preparation at its at Offutt Air Force base near Omaha, which houses four Boeing 747s designed to allow the president to govern from the air.

Video: Get an inside look at the federal government’s Doomsday plane

Source

Daily Mail

http://www.pakalertpress.com/2012/12/05/after-hurricane-sandy-discovery-channel-reveals-governments-preparations-for-doomsday-scenario/                

After Hurricane Sandy, Discovery Channel Reveals Government’s Preparations For Doomsday Scenario

truther December 5, 2012 0

[Translate]

---

Elizabeth Flock | USNews

On the heels of super storm Sandy, the Discovery Channel aired a documentary  delving into the government’s top-secret plans and facilities set up for a Doomsday scenario.

At one time, these plans almost singularly existed with the possibility of a nuclear attack by the Soviet Union in mind. Today, the threat of a terror attack like 9/11, a cyber attack from abroad, an attack on the power grid or an extraordinary natural disaster have all been added to the list.

Among the experts Discovery tapped for “America’s Doomsday Plan” is Marc Ambinder, author of the soon-to-be released “Deep State: Inside the Government Secrecy Industry.” As a political and national security reporter he has often written for various outlets about “Continuity Of Government“—the name for the procedures the U.S. government has in place so it can continue to operate during a catastrophic event. The plans include securing the president and other high-level officials in a plane or in bunkers, and ensuring government agencies can continue to operate through a set of command centers.

“I’m incredibly fascinated by this, not just because it’s a secret,” says Ambinder. “But it’s also an incredibly important part of history that we know little about. And what we do know is shrouded in conspiracy theories.”

Many of these theories hinge on the belief the government’s Doomsday scenario includes plans for an extralegal, military government that would take over in times of chaos, as well as suspend the Constitution. Ambinder says he found no evidence of this, but concedes many details remain classified. Skepticism is rife, too, because of the plan’s estimated annual budget of $5-6 billion, despite being designed for a very rare event.

The documentary, which premieredon the Discovery Channel, also sheds light for the first time on details of the Doomsday plan under past administrations. During the Reagan administration, for example, new bunkers were opened up for the president and secret exercises ramped up for his cabinet members. Much of the focus at that time, says Ambinder, was on “what would happen with the nuclear codes.”

“America’s Doomsday Plan” also delves into modern-dayDoomsday scenarios, something the Federal Emergency Management Agency is deeply invested in. According to Ambinder, 30 percent of FEMA head Craig Tugate’s job is dealing with the secret continuity programs. The other 70 percent, of course, is spent handling emergencies like the recent superstorm. But because FEMA does both jobs, there is a level of crossover.

“What FEMA is using in the Tri-state area [now] would be what they would do in the event of a major emergency,” says Ambinder. “The sexy part of [FEMA] is the part you don’t see all the time. It’s this parallel world” that exists, he says.

Part of that world is a secretive FEMA operations center in Virgina called Mount Weather. It is one of several relocation sites intended for top level military officials during a catastrophe. The center includes a high frequency radio system designed for communication between public safety agencies and states during a disaster.

The U.S. Air Force is also a key part of the Doomsday plan, with a strategic command center housed at Offutt Air Force base near Omaha. The base is home to four Boeing 747s designed to allow the president to command from air during a time of catastrophe. The primary Doomsday plane is “tricked out to weather the apocalypse” and “has everything senior leadership would need to defend America from the air,” according to the documentary.

That doesn’t mean all the technology the Doomsday plane uses is brand new. Instead, much of the plane’s technology is straight out of the 1980s. “You walk into some of these places and you see huge telephones that look like lunch boxes,” says Ambinder. Modern-day technology, the film notes, can be more susceptible to hacking or breaking than older technology can.

Those involved in the Continuity of Government plan have defended the program against its critics. In 2010, Lt. Col. David Gaskill, who oversees the day-to-day operations of president’s Doomsday plane, told U.S. Strategic Command it is the “most technologically advanced airborne system in the world.”

Interviews featured in the documentary are no different. Damon Penn, assistant administrator for national continuity programs at FEMA, tells the film in closing: “As a private citizen I sleep very well comfortably at night knowing that our way of life is preserved.”

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/12/paint-it-black-how-syria-methodically-erased-itself-from-the-net/          

Updated: Paint it black—How Syria methodically erased itself from the 'Net

Now over (for the moment) Syria's blackout was carefully planned, with no leaks.

by Sean Gallagher - Dec 1 2012, 1:52pm EST

Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad's regime has cut the country's connection to the Internet, and has shut down much of the country's other telecommunications infrastructure as fighting continues near Damascus.

james_gordon_losangeles

Update: At 14:32 UTC (11:32 Eastern Time today), Syrian networks started to re-establish connections with the Internet. In an e-mail to Ars, CloudFlare CEO Matthew Prince said, that "beginning this morning we began to see the country's network come back online. We have confirmed that the BGP routes have been reestablished and we are seeing Web requests again to CloudFlare's network from both wired and mobile devices."
Just after noon Damascus time on Thursday, the government-owned Syrian Telecommunications Establishment essentially deleted the whole country from the Internet's routing tables, blocking all inbound and outbound network traffic. Rather than the result of terrorist attacks, as the government claimed on state television, the blackout was a well-rehearsed and deliberate act intended to deny connection to Syria's citizens and the opposition forces currently trying to topple the regime of President Bashar Al-Assad.
Five Syrian networks, identified by their IP address prefixes, were reachable over the network connections of Indian telecom provider Tata Communications until late Thursday. The Syrian government's previous network monitoring company, BGPMon, reported that the country was 100 percent offline by 1:45 AM Damascus time Friday morning, until 4:30 PM on December 1 when connections were restored. There were also reports of widespread landline and cellular phone service outages.
That didn't mean that there was no way for Syrian citizens to connect to the outside world. And the US State Department provided communications equipment to "dozens" of local councils in areas of Syria no longer under government control in order to bypass Syria's government-controlled networks.
But the Internet blackout in Syria was much more complete than the similar government-directed blocking of communications by former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak's regime in January. That's probably because the Assad regime has been honing its network warfare skills for some time and preparing a plan for a complete network shutdown—staging two dress-rehearsals just in the last week.

Enlarge / An Arbor Networks graphic showing the sudden drop-off in network traffic from Syria on Thursday as the country essentially erased itself from network routing tables.

Enlarge / By comparison, the Egyptian government's Internet blackout in January still allowed some traffic to reach the Internet.

Creating a chokepoint

Syria has been moving toward consolidating its network traffic since the summer of this year, increasingly shifting its network routes as sanctions from the US and European Union blocked western telecommunications companies from continuing to do business with Syria. Since August, the Syrian Telecommunications Establishment has also tried to reduce its reliance on Ankara-based Turk Telecom as tensions have risen between the Turkish and Syrian governments.
Turk Telecom has still handled a very small percentage of Syria's traffic over its terrestrial cable link, but the vast majority of Syria's network routes were being handled via undersea cable links from Tartous, Syria to Lebanon and by Hong Kong based PCCW. "Almost all [of Syria's network traffic] was via PCCW delivered out of Europe," said Tom Paseka, a lead network engineer for CloudFlare, in an exchange of emails with Ars Technica. Tata Communications and Telecom Italia also continued to provide some small amount of network connectivity as well, though many of the IP addresses served by Tata were actually hosted outside of Syria.
That centralization of the nation's Internet traffic gave the Assad regime a much greater level of control over communications with the outside world. And it took place as the government—which already has used deep packet inspection technology to track citizens' use of the Internet—began to use its control over the national Internet infrastructure as a weapon. In May it was discovered that government agents were using servers in Damascus (hosted through Tata Communications) as part of an effort to install malware on dissident's computers to monitor their Internet activities.
In July, the Syrian Telecommunications Establishment changed routing tables, causing (either accidentally or deliberately) a 40-minute long nationwide Internet outage. But otherwise, Syria's Internet traffic remained relatively stable despite the violence and upheaval within the country—until this week, which began with two network blackouts lasting about 15 minutes each, according to traffic data from multiple content delivery networks and network monitoring companies.
On the first occasion—Sunday, November 25—network traffic from Syria dropped to about 13 percent of its normal levels, according to CloudFlare CEO Matthew Prince. The second outage, on November 27, resulted in an even more significant drop, with traffic reduced to 0.2 percent of its usual levels. These now appear to have been test runs to prepare for a full-blown shutdown of the country's Internet presence.

Enlarge / Cloudflare's traffic analysis for Syrian IP addresses shows two brief interruptions of traffic earlier this week, on November 25 and 27.

Pulling the noose tight

At noon Damascus time on Thursday, the Syrian Telecommunications Establishment began another shutdown. First, the routing advertisements being sent for Syria's networks over the Border Gateway Protocol via PCCW were withdrawn, and then each of the other connections was shut down in succession. A CloudFlare network engineer recorded the changes in routing advertisements as they disappeared:

Syria disappears from routing maps as it shuts down its routers connecting to PCCW and others, as recorded by CloudFlare's logs.

When asked if there was any sign that Syria's routers updated the routing maps themselves or if they simply shut routers off, Paseka told Ars, "We are unable to tell as we are a few hops removed. All we can tell is the routes were withdrawn. It's likely they shut down the BGP neighbors"—the routers that were set to peer with each of the networks. In just a few moments, everything within Syria was cut off, including the government's own networks.
Since the shutdown, a number of organizations have been advertising phone numbers that Syrian citizens can dial with modems to connect to the Internet and circumvent the government's shutdown. The Electronic Frontier Foundation posted phone numbers for dial-up Internet access through the Internet collective Telecomix. And in a post to Google+, a Google spokesperson announced that the Speak2Tweet service the company created with Twitter during the Egyptian Internet blackout was available to Syrians lucky enough to still have landline or cellular phone service. The service turns voice mail messages left at one of Google's phone numbers into audio files hosted on Google and linked in a Twitter post.
But it appeared that few Syrian citizens had access to working landlines or cell phones to use any of these services. Furthermore, the Syrian government has already demonstrated that it tracks satellite communications. A British reporter and French photojournalist were killed in Homs in February after the Syrian military "'locked on' to their satellite phone signals and attacked the buildings from which they were coming," the Telegraph reported.
That means that citizens trying to circumvent the blackout—whether the government admits to it being under their control or not—may place themselves at even greater risk of surveillance and detection. As the pressure on the Assad regime builds, that risk may be more than most citizens—no matter what their status or wealth—are willing to take on.

http://www.pakalertpress.com/2012/12/05/coming-3-trillion-tax-increase-on-middle-class/          

Coming: ‘$3 trillion tax increase on middle class’

truther December 5, 2012 3

[Translate]

---

Jerome R. Corsi

Getting Republicans to agree to a tax increase on “the rich” is not the ultimate aim of the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress, says noted tax activist Grover Norquist.

“This is just the first act of a two- or three-act play,” Norquist said in an exclusive interview with WND.

Norquist, president and founder of Americans for Tax Reform, said the first act “is to get congressional Republicans to put their fingerprints on what amounts to a minor tax increase.”

“After raising taxes on the rich a little bit, the Democrats will come back for serious tax revenue,” he said.

“In acts two and three, the Democrats will come back for the real money – an energy tax and a value-added tax that will impact everybody, especially the middle class.”

Norquist insisted Democrats in Congress and the establishment press are playing an elaborate game designed to blame Republicans for budget deficits and keep serious discussion of spending cuts and entitlement reform off the table.

“Congressional Democrats know raising taxes on the rich will not produce enough tax revenue to reduce significantly the trillion-dollar annual budget deficits being run by the Obama White House,” he said.

“The reason the Democrats scream ‘tax the rich, tax the rich,’ is because they are going to pivot very soon to place a 3 trillion-dollar tax increase on the middle class, and they want ringing in the public’s ears that there wouldn’t have had to do this if the Republicans in Congress had acted right away to place a decent size tax on the rich.”

Norquist believes the Democrat strategy risks a tax revolt.

“The size of Tea Party Two is going to dwarf Tea Party One,” he predicted.

Norquist contends Obama is “overstating his mandate.”

“Four years ago, he was convinced he was king,” Norquist said. “He took a 70-percent approval down to 50 percent and lost a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives in the process. Now, Obama starts at 52 percent and he is going not only to spend too much but also too tax too much.”

Nevertheless, in the current “fiscal cliff” negotiations regarding the expiration of the Bush tax cuts, Norquist has been criticized in the establishment press as a hindrance to reaching an agreement.

At the center of criticism is the anti-tax pledge that Norquist has persuaded 95 percent of Republican lawmakers to sign.

“Attacking me and the anti-tax pledge is the same old tactic the Democrats used two years ago in the debate over the debt ceiling,” he said.

The difference this time, however, is that Democrats “have no intention, whatsoever, in seriously talking about spending restraint.”

“So this time,” he said, “it becomes even more important to misdirect the attention of the American people, to say the only reason Republicans preventing a grand bargain by opposing tax increases is because Grover Norquist is telling Republicans what to do.”

In a front page article last Tuesday, Washington Post reporter Aaron Blake claimed Norquist and his anti-tax pledge are “in danger of becoming Washington relics as more and more defectors inch toward accepting tax increases” to avoid going over the fiscal cliff.

“Week after week, Democratic leaders have bashed Republicans for pledging fealty to Norquist rather than working independently,” Blake wrote.

Norquist dismissed such statements as an attempt to misdirect the attention of the American public from the real issue at hand: runaway federal spending, not a failure to raise taxes.

He doesn’t see any evidence his anti-tax pledge is losing its potency. The Washington Post article, he noted, produced as evidence a claim House Majority Leader Eric Cantor had suggested that the anti-tax pledge would not dictate GOP strategy on the fiscal cliff.

“So we get this headline, ‘Cantor Denounces Pledge,’ but that’s not what Cantor said,” Norquist countered. “What Cantor really said was that even without the pledge, the Republicans in Congress would be against raising taxes. Why? Because raising taxes would be bad for the economy.”

Norquist argued Republicans in Congress learned it is risky to increase taxes when President George H. W. Bush went down to defeat in 1992 after violating his “read my lips” pledge.

He insists the anti-tax pledge he promotes through Americans for Tax Reform is not the real issue in the fiscal cliff debate.

“If I became a Buddhist monk, it wouldn’t change anything,” he said, arguing it’s a pledge congressional Republicans make to voters, not to him.

“Republicans in Congress would still be against raising taxes because raising taxes never works,” he said.

Democrats are playing a game of three-card monte, Norquist asserted.

“Because the Democrats in Congress have no intention of talking about entitlement reform,” he said, “the liberal press rolls out the usual list of Republican compromisers who will say raising taxes would be acceptable if the Democrats engage in spending cuts the Democrats have no intention of ever making.”

Norquist predicts Congress will not raise taxes to avoid going over the fiscal cliff, because the Republican majority in the House is the last line of defense.

“The Republicans in House of Representatives are survivors,” he said. “The Democrats have already thrown at them everything you can imagine, and the Republicans in the House are still a majority, serving in districts that will not be redrawn for another 10 years. The Republicans in the House can defend themselves against everything the Democrats throw against them.”

Norquist suggested in the final analysis, the House Republicans could simply pass the plan proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., proving to the American public that federal budget deficits can be reduced without raising taxes on the rich.

The Ryan plan was passed by the House April 15 by a vote of 235 to 193, with no votes from Democrats. The Democrat-controlled Senate voted it down a month later, 57–40. The bill sought to reduce the 10-year federal deficit by capping discretionary spending and dismantling Obamacare.

http://aol.sportingnews.com/nascar/story/2012-12-04/nascar-highest-paid-drivers-salaries-race-earnings-dale-earnhardt-jr-jeff-gordon           

NASCAR's highest-paid drivers make their money from a variety of sources

Published Tuesday, Dec 4, 2012 at 3:43 pm EST Last updated 2 hours and 25 minutes ago

Bob Pockrass Sporting News

Sprint Cup drivers put their lives on the line every time they step into a racecar.
That’s why they bow their heads in prayer before each race and cherish a kiss from their wife or girlfriend seconds before they strap on their helmet.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is considered NASCAR's highest paid driver at roughly $28 million a year, according to various sources. (AP Photo)

Then they go out and participate in one of the most dangerous professions in sports.
MORE: Are NASCAR drivers underpaid? | How to fire a driver | Should Stewart run Indy?
They do it for the love of speed and competition.
And for the money.
In most cases, a lot of money.
A full-time Sprint Cup driver can earn anywhere from $1 million to more than $20 million a year in salary, purse winnings and from other sources, depending on their contract.
Like most sports, a large pay disparity exists between the top stars and unproven rookies or veterans stuck with struggling teams.
But unlike most sports, no union contract dictates when and how drivers can sign new contracts or renegotiate new deals. NASCAR drivers are considered subcontractors, so they can be involved in contract negotiations or potential new deals — or potential firings — at any time.
Though their income typically pales in comparison to top athletes in other sports, those who play the game right can make millions, says agent Cary Agajanian, who has represented drivers for nearly 20 years.
“The drivers are being fairly paid — I don’t think they’re overpaid; I don’t think they’re underpaid,” he says.
“The system, because it’s such an entrepreneurial or capitalist system, a supply-and-demand system, it works. It completely works that guys negotiate and bargain and the teams have decided how much they can pay a driver and it fits in their budget.”

Where the money comes from

Drivers make their money in three primary areas — salary, percentage of race winnings and bonuses. Those at the top of the sport can significantly supplement their income with merchandise sales and personal endorsements.
NASCAR’s highest paid driver is believed to be Dale Earnhardt Jr., who, according to Sports Illustrated, made $28.1 million — $4.1 million in salary and earnings and $24 million in endorsements — in 2011. Forbes estimated his earnings at $28.2 million for June 2011-July 2012 but had a very different split — $13.2 million in winnings and $15 million in endorsements.
Insiders shake their heads at suggestions that any driver currently in the sport makes more than $10 million in endorsements. Rarely does any endorsement deal eclipse a half-million unless it’s a major endorsement for someone like Earnhardt, the sport’s most popular driver, sources in the sport say.
According to interviews with drivers, agents and a look at various NASCAR contracts, a driver who wins a NASCAR Cup championship likely makes between $12 million and $20 million that season.
In 2012, Cup champion Brad Keselowski earned $6.23 million in race winnings, $150,000 in special awards and $5.73 million from the season-ending point fund for a total of $12.1 million. So if he received 40-50 percent of that, he likely earned $5-6 million in racing winnings, plus his salary (probably between $3-6 million) and maybe another million in other bonuses and merchandise sales to likely eclipse more than $10 million in his championship year.
A driver who makes the Chase for the Sprint Cup and finishes in the top 10 in the points standings likely will earn around $10 million. Drivers who finish 11th-20th in the standings typically earn about $5-8 million, depending on their base salaries. A driver near the back of the pack likely still will clear a few million.
Compare that to the highest paid players in other sports, where salaries, not including endorsements, are known. Alex Rodriguez gets $30 million before endorsements. The top-paid hockey player, Brad Richards of the New York Rangers, earns $12 million, according to USA Today. Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers will make $27.8 million this season. NFL quarterback Drew Brees is set to make $40 million, according to The Associated Press.
Just like ugly holdouts or disputable trades in other sports, NASCAR driver contracts can cause a stir and a driver’s livelihood occasionally hangs in the balance when their contract is up.
Carl Edwards was in the headlines throughout 2011 when he flirted with a move to Joe Gibbs Racing before re-signing with Roush Fenway Racing. This year, Roush teammate Matt Kenseth made the move, signing a contract with Gibbs that ended his 13-year tenure with Roush after the 2012 season.
Earnhardt, arguably the sport’s biggest star, shocked the NASCAR world in 2007 when he decided to leave his family’s Dale Earnhardt Inc. team — a move that led to the organization’s demise — and signed a long-term deal with Hendrick Motorsports, a deal he has since renegotiated.
Such moves can be tricky and get ugly.
Clint Bowyer had negotiated a sponsorship deal with 5-Hour Energy last year but couldn’t convince team owner Richard Childress to keep him at the salary he wanted. Instead, he took the sponsorship to Michael Waltrip Racing, a team that needed Bowyer’s star power more than Richard Childress Racing and was willing to make it work.
“We knew what our financial model was, and Clint knew where he needed to be, and we just couldn't never come together to make it work," Childress said at the time. "We had the car completely sponsored, but it just didn't work out."
Rob Kauffman, co-owner of MWR, made it work for his team, adding a third car for Bowyer. He liked that the sponsor was an up-and-coming company with a product that aligned well with NASCAR and a driver who could win races. So while RCR wouldn’t do the deal, MWR did.
“Those are the kind of calculated risks you take as a business person,” Kauffman said. “We’re in a different position — Richard is a champion. He’s forgotten more about NASCAR than I know. … They were just in a different place.
“For us to be able to compete with guys that have been in the business for decades is hard.”
Bowyer made it pay off for MWR, winning three races, making the Chase and finishing second in the final standings in 2012. And he brought in more than $5.5 million in race winnings for himself and the team.

Negotiating the deal

Sports is a performance-based business. And compared to team sports, NASCAR drivers know that better than other athletes.
The top drivers get paid handsomely just to strap into their cars, while those trying to prove themselves typically rely on performance-based incentives.
Base driver salaries typically range from $500,000 to $10 million annually, according to those familiar with contracts, with some of the top drivers possibly even eclipsing $10 million a year. In 2008, Robby Gordon was coming off a season in which he finished 26th in the Cup standings and agreed to sell his team to owner George Gillett. His salary would have been a $3 million base if the deal had not fallen through.
A top-10 driver likely earns at least $5 million in base salary, according to Chad Warpula, the former in-house attorney at Dale Earnhardt Inc. and a current partner at K&L Gates, which represents several race teams and a few drivers.
Obviously, the better a driver performs, the more money the driver can attract in base salary.
Sometimes a team will base the salary of a driver on the team’s sponsorship. Roger Penske said at the beginning of the year that sponsorships for top teams currently bring in $12-15 million, although it is believed that top drivers can attract more sponsor dollars. The SportsBusiness Journal, a sister publication to Sporting News, estimates NAPA’s newest three-year deal with MWR and Martin Truex Jr. at $16 million a year.
Drivers typically command between 30 and 50 percent of what the sponsor pays the team, with the more the sponsor pays, the more that can go to the driver. The base costs to field a team doesn’t increase and generally ranges from $7-10 million.
“I feel like every driver should be paid based on the sponsorship,” four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon says. “That’s a little bit more of how mine is done. … In my case, I know I’m getting a percentage and (exactly) what percentage I’m getting of the sponsorship.”
Virtually every driver — with the exception of stars such as Edwards, Denny Hamlin, Kasey Kahne and Jimmie Johnson — took a pay cut if he signed a deal in the last three years, when the downturn in the economy has led to a decline in sponsors and reduction in the price sponsors will pay.
“I think in general everybody out there right now has taken a pay cut, no different than the cost of a seat in the grandstands is down,” Ryan Newman said after signing a new deal with Stewart-Haas Racing in September.
Teams now complete deals knowing they have the sponsorship to cover the costs. Only a highly marketable, highly talented driver, such as Kahne, can sign a contract as he did with Hendrick Motorsports — he signed a contract in April 2010 that did not go into effect until 2012.
“Starting in 2008, and definitely today, you see a big change in the industry where the teams are unwilling to sign those fixed amount contracts and put a little more risk on the drivers,” Warpula said. “Now you’re seeing more contracts that say, ‘You get a percentage of the sponsorship dollars.’
“That protects the team if the sponsorship goes away or goes down, they’re not stuck with a contract they can’t afford to pay. Psychologically, it aligns the driver with the team in making sure they deliver the best product to the sponsor.”
Jeff Gordon says that’s the way it should be.
“It’s in my best interest to do the best I can, be the best spokesperson I can because the better I do on the track and off the track for my sponsors, the better I’ll do financially as well,” he said. “When the economy hits, it affects the team, with sponsors cutting back. It should affect me, too. I shouldn’t be oblivious to that.”
A team might have to go beyond what it has locked in for sponsorship, however, if a driver can command more money on the open market.
“Car owners deserve to do well,” said Rod Moskowitz, whose Fuel Sports Management represents drivers Kahne, Hamlin, Kenseth and Jamie McMurray. “They are exceptionally dedicated and committed to their massive operations. Car owners should be rewarded for their performance, which includes making a profit.
“At the same time, the driver wants to be paid his market value. He wants to be rewarded based upon his performance.”
With fewer Cup rides to go around, team owners sit in the drivers seat as far as contract negotiations.
“There are a lot fewer teams around and a lot more teams with multiple cars so there are much fewer people to negotiate with,” Agajanaian said. “That has reduced the negotiating strength of a driver.
“There’s no question that has changed the playing field.”
It has changed across the board. Two-time Nationwide Series champion Ricky Stenhouse Jr. likely will earn much less as a rookie next season than Joey Logano when he entered the sport in 2008.
“It costs $10 million-plus to put the car on the track when it’s all-in, excluding the driver’s salary, so that’s a significant expense and I think the younger drivers are seeing lower salaries than they saw five to 10 years ago,” Warpula said.
How about the length of driver contracts? Typically it depends on the length of the sponsorship. Most deals cover two to three years, although top drivers such as Earnhardt Jr. can attract five-year deals.
“You want to keep your agreement where it’s long enough to have good stability with the team but short enough where if market conditions change, both the car owner and the driver can re-visit the arrangement,” Moskowitz said.

Percentage of winnings

Look at a NASCAR box score after a race, and it lists pretty much all the essential data. Where a driver starts and finishes and how many laps completed can give fans an idea of how the driver performed.
And then, at the end of the line, is how much money the driver “earned” for that event.
That amount doesn’t really tell how much a driver really made for the race.
Drivers typically get 40 to 50 percent of their race winnings. The team owner gets the other 50-60 percent, with a small percentage going for team bonuses.
Keselowski earned $12,106,255 in race winnings (before the team split) and point-fund bonuses for winning the Sprint Cup championship this year — Tony Stewart earned $12,633,171 for winning the 2011 title — while fifth-place Greg Biffle earned $7,416,099. Stewart, thanks to one more race win than Biffle and contingency awards, actually earned $7,932,181 this year despite finishing ninth in the standings.
Earnhardt, who finished last in the 12-driver Chase, earned $5,816,567 but because he missed two races with a concussion actually ranked 15th in overall winnings. Kyle Busch, who didn't make the Chase but had 13 top-five finishes — more than eight of the 12 Chase drivers — was eighth overall in winnings at $7,202,891.
Aric Almirola, who finished 20th in the standings, earned $5,132,521 in race winnings, while 30th-place David Gilliland totaled $3,494,350.
Sometimes a driver’s percentage of winnings goes up depending on where he finishes in the final standings. According to his 2009 contract with Red Bull Racing, Scott Speed was to receive 40 percent of his winnings if he finished worse than 20th in the standings, 45 percent for 11th-20th and 50 percent for a top-10 finish. Warpula said the standard on most current driver contracts is 40 percent, with an increase to 50 percent for a race win.
Drivers with underfunded or less competitive teams make less money as far as percentage of winnings because the team needs to race off the money it generates week to week rather than sponsorship.
Kevin Conway, who brought his sponsorship to the underfunded Front Row Motorsports team in 2009 and earned 10 percent of the sponsorship ($540,000 for the $5.4 million deal) — the standard 10 percent cut for someone who brokers a sponsorship — had his percentage of race winnings at 15 percent if he finished outside the top 20, 30 percent from 11th-20th, 35 percent for sixth-10th and 45 percent for a top-five finish.

Bonuses

Drivers typically get bonuses for where they finish in a race and in the final season standings. Making the 12-driver Chase usually elicits a bonus — partly because it could kick in a clause in the sponsor’s contract for extra money going to the team.
When Sterling Marlin drove for Ginn Racing in the mid-2000s, his bonus structure included $5,000 for each pole, $10,000 for every top-10 finish, $25,000 for every top-five and $50,000 for a win.
He had a $500,000 bonus clause for winning the Sprint Cup championship, $250,000 for finishing second through fifth, $150,000 for sixth-10th, $100,000 for 11th-15th and $50,000 for 16th-20th.
The more experienced drivers generally can negotiate better bonus structures.
“There’s some drivers in here that have enough success and enough following that they get to write the terms,” driver Jeff Burton says. “And then some of them are pretty equal. It just depends on the situation.
“If you’re a young team without a lot of success and you’re trying to do a deal with a driver that has won a lot of races, that is going to look a little different than if you did it with a young guy that has an upside.”

Additional revenue sources

Drivers often get 33 percent of the apparel and merchandise profits that bear their likenesses (with the team and sponsor also getting 33 percent), although sometimes it’s 30 percent as the team takes a little more as an administrative fee. Some drivers, if the sponsor does not take a cut, will get 40-45 percent.
While the most popular drivers on the circuit can earn more than $500,000 in merchandise sales, only a driver such as Earnhardt could crack more than $1 million a year in merchandise royalties, according to sources familiar with merchandise contracts and royalties.
Drivers can also supplement their income in several ways.
Many will drive in other series, such as the Nationwide Series or Camping World Truck Series, if their Cup team owner allows it. Typically a Cup driver gets paid a guaranteed rate to run a truck or Nationwide race, likely from $10,000 to $30,000, plus a percentage of the race winnings.
Though NASCAR limits the purse money for Cup drivers who compete in those series, a star driver like Kyle Busch can still earn almost $1 million for racing part-time in those divisions. Busch, who won 21 Nationwide and truck races in 2010 and has 64 victories in those series in the past five years, likely earns much more.
Some drivers can also attract personal endorsements, which could include a spot on a driver’s uniform or the car. Those endorsements could pay a driver anywhere from $25,000-$250,000, depending on the number of appearances.
Most average drivers would earn between $250,000 to $750,000 for endorsements, with a driver who consistently wins races earning between $1 million and $2.5 million. The top three or four endorsers might reach $5 million, according to sources.
According to multiple sources, estimates by Forbes of Jimmie Johnson and Stewart making $7 million in endorsements while Jeff Gordon makes $10 million and Earnhardt Jr. makes $15 million are “laughable.” Rarely does any endorsement deal crack $500,000. There are other items drivers can get — such as NASCAR licenses, garage passes, seats on a team plane, personal vehicles, insurance and other travel expenses — that might be worth another $100,000-$150,000.
And, of course, driver contracts and salaries change depending on performance.
Jeff Gordon said when he first started out as a Cup driver in 1993, he made $1 million in base salary and more than a million in bonuses.
Hendrick renegotiated Gordon’s contract before it was even up.
Gordon, who won three Cup championships from 1995-98, didn’t even need to hold out to get a new contract.
“It was a very good, very fair deal and made me have to keep working hard at it but yet get paid very well,” Gordon said. “When sponsorships are good, it’s good for me. When we win races, win championships, it’s even better.
“That’s the way it should be. It should be performance-based, that should be a critical part of it. … (All the drivers) make money off their performance. Because if they don’t perform, they’re going to be gone.”

The UN asks for control over the world’s Internet

http://rt.com/usa/news/un-internet-itu-packet-385/             

The UN asks for control over the world’s Internet

Get short URL

email story to a friend print version

Published: 06 December, 2012, 02:15

TAGS:

AFP Photo / Emmanuel Dunand

Members of the United Nation’s International Telecommunications Union (ITU) have agreed to work towards implementing a standard for the Internet that would allow for eavesdropping on a worldwide scale.
At a conference in Dubai this week, the ITU members decided to adopt the Y.2770 standard for deep packet inspection, a top-secret proposal by way of China that will allow telecom companies across the world to more easily dig through data passed across the Web.
According to the UN, implementing deep-packet inspection, or DPI, on such a global scale will allow authorities to more easily detect the transferring and sharing of copyrighted materials and other protected files by finding a way for administrators to analyze the payload of online transmissions, not just the header data that is normally identified and interpreted.
“It is standard procedure to route packets based on their headers, after all it is the part of the packet that contains information on the packet's intended destination,” writes The Inquirer’s Lawrence Lati, “but by inspecting the contents of each packet ISPs, governments and anyone else can look at sensitive data. While users can mitigate risks by encrypting data, given enough resources encryption can be foiled.”
Tim Berners-Lee, a British computer scientist widely regarded as the ‘Father of the Internet,’ spoke out against proposed DPI implementation on such a grandiose scale during an address earlier this year at the World Wide Web Consortium.
"Somebody clamps a deep packet inspection thing on your cable which reads every packet and reassembles the web pages, cataloguing them against your name, address and telephone number either to be given to the government when they ask for it or to be sold to the highest bidder – that's a really serious breach of privacy,” he said.
Blogger Arthur Herman writes this week for Fox News online that the goal of the delegates at the ITU “is to grab control of the World Wide Web away from the United States, and hand it to a UN body of bureaucrats.”
“It’ll be the biggest power grab in the UN’s history, as well as a perversion of its power,” he warns.
The ITU’s secretary general, Dr. Hamadoun I. Toure, has dismissed critics who have called the proposed DPI model invasive, penning an op-ed this week where he insists his organization’s meeting in Dubai poses “no threat to free speech.”
“It is our chance to chart a globally-agreed roadmap to connect the unconnected, while ensuring there is investment to create the infrastructure needed for the exponential growth in voice, video and data traffic,” Dr. Toure claims of the conference, adding that it presents the UN with “a golden opportunity to provide affordable connectivity for all, including the billions of people worldwide who cannot yet go online.”
Despite his explanation, though, some nation-states and big-name businesses remain opposed to the proposal. The ITU’s conference this week has been held behind closed doors, and representatives with online service providers Google, Facebook and Twitter have been barred from attending.
In a report published this week by CNet, tech journalist Declan McCullagh cites a Korean document that describes the confidential Y.2770 standard as being able to identify "embedded digital watermarks in MP3 data," discover "copyright protected audio content," find "Jabber messages with Spanish text," or "identify uploading BitTorrent users."
On Wednesday, the US House of Representatives unanimously passed a Senate resolution that asks for the American government to oppose any efforts by the United Nations to control the Internet.

http://www.henrymakow.com/was_michael_jackson_another_il.html      

Was Michael Jackson another Illuminati Slave?

July 5, 2009
          

by "Charles" (A Reader)

Approximately forty years ago, the Jackson family appeared on the Ed Sullivan show and released the first of many albums for Motown records.  What made the Jackson 5 special was their lead singer, pint-sized Michael Jackson.

Even at the tender age of ten Michael Jackson had an ebullient joy and charisma  that was palpable and contagious on both TV and radio.  Later, at the age of 21, he broke from his family and began a successful solo career.  F. Scott Fitzgerald said American lives have no second acts.  And for child entertainers trying to extend their success into adulthood, that is doubly so.  Michael Jackson proved Fitzgerald wrong.  But at what price?

  A series of articles on the blog Aangirfan [aangirfan.blogspot.com] explores the possibility that Michael Jackson was yet another Illuminati sex slave.  In one article, "Michael Jackson 5.0," the blogger writes:  "There has been speculation that the CIA has used its MK-ULTRA brainwashing on many celebrities, including Madonna, Curt Cobain, Britney Spears, Elvis and Michael Jackson.  Jermaine Jackson has suggested that his father may have arranged for Michael to be used by older men.  He tells how his father had Michael join late-night hotel room meetings with "important business people."

Jermaine wondered whether "something happened" to Michael at those sessions.  He said he sensed something was wrong because Michael would be sick for days after.  "What was Joseph doing?" Jermaine wrote.  Michael Jackson said himself that his father beat him.

MK-ULTRA SLAVE

Former Illuminati slave Kathleen Sullivan adds from the Rigorous Intuition blog [rigourousintuition.blogspot.com]:  "I've been tracking Michael Jackson via the news for about 10 years now. For reasons I will not get into in a public forum, I can state that I have absolutely no doubt that he's an MK-ULTRA variety slave, possibly introduced by his father into their bizarre "system" of spooks, commercialized pedophilia and more.

 "My father introduced me to organized criminal pedophilia from early childhood on. Like Michael, I developed many altered states of consciousness to cope with the horrors I experienced and encountered. "I also have no doubt that he would have been terribly abused as a child, even if he hadn't "allegedly" been given to others as a child to sexually service them. There's no other explanation for his obsession with being with children, in public and privately - especially in bed!

  "During my past internship at a state hospital, I talked with a forensics expert who is very familiar with pedophilia. He said that one class of pedophiles are psychologically "stuck" at a certain age on the inside, regardless of their physical age. Therefore, they choose children to sexually "mate" with who are the same internal age and see themselves as EQUALS with those children in every way. And if this kind of pedophile is a male who was sexually abused by adult males in childhood, he will most likely unconsciously reenact what was done to him, with the next generation of males who are the age he was then.

  "I didn't see the tiniest bit of love or concern in his father's face for him when he seemingly came to the rescue when Michael was put on trial (again). I think daddy dearest simply took over to ensure that Michael didn't say the wrong things in public or in court."

 Another article on the Aangirfan blog, "Michael Jackson and the CIA," recounts a brief mention of the Jackson family from Brice Taylor's memoirs Thanks for the Memories:
 "Brice Taylor relates that she and Michael Jackson and members of the Jackson family accompanied Bob Hope to a location where they were filming up-and- coming talent for TV.  Reportedly Bob Hope sponsored the young Jackson boys.  Brice Taylor writes: "Their father brought the boys in and I remembered seeing them taken into a side room where bright lights were on. "They all had to drop their pants and before their performance a big man raped each one of them in a lineup."

 Reportedly, Brice Taylor and the Jacksons were victims of CIA mind control.

 Yet another dispatch offers:   "On the cover of the ... 'Dangerous' Album, the Freemasonic symbol of the one eye can be found as well as a picture of a bald headed man well known to the Occult (Satanists) as Alistair Crowley."

 The blog frequently cross references an article from the Timboucher website [timboucher.com], Michael Jackson, Mind Control Victim? The article notes that MJ had his own 'personal magician' by the name of Majestic Magnificent.  "I know it's a pretty far-out leap for most "normal" people, but could Majestic Magnificent be more than just a "magician" - could he also be some sort of CIA Monarch mind-control handler for Jackson?"   [Tim Boucher has several interesting articles worth reading on MJ and the occult such as Michael Jackson's Bloodbath.]

 Michael had his children wear masks in public to 'protect' them.  They were not even allowed to see their own faces in a mirror at home!  Could this be a clue about Illuminati mirror programming which Michael himself experienced and now was trying to prevent from ever happening to his children? 

Michael Jackson's march to superstardom may have been stage-managed by the occult politics of the MK-ULTRA program.  His talent alone was not enough. The road to the top may have necessitated sexual abuse at the hands of connected powerful adults while still a child.   He may have been passed up the paedophile food chain in order to receive the backing, marketing and exposure that made him a household name.  He may have been made more pliable by MK-ULTRA training which involved tremendous psychological and physical trauma.  The fallout from this revealed itself in all the strange and inexplicable behavior.  He changed his face trying to put distance between him and his past.  But he never could escape The Man in the Mirror.

In Michael Jackson, the illuminati demonstrated their power to make and break our entertainment idols, to choose our idols for us and to influence and control the popular culture through their change agents. Our idols tell us how to act.  We emulate them so that we, too, can be cool, sophisticated, androgynous slaves.  This is how the common man finds his place in the New World Order.

Moscow Times Predicts U.S. Collapse

http://beforeitsnews.com/obama/2012/12/moscow-times-predicts-u-s-collapse-2446102.html          

Moscow Times Predicts U.S. Collapse

Tuesday, December 4, 2012 15:37

Share

inShare1

0

Advertisement

Back in 1998 a top professor, Igor Panarin the “dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s academy for future diplomats” predicted the breakup of the United States. Later, The Wall Street Journal reported, “he was joined by enthusiastic support from the Russian media.” Now the Moscow Times is reporting the U.S. is about to collapse, just as predicted, and the fault is massive mismanagement of the economy by some states and the Obama administration.

Reaction to re-election of Obama

The Moscow Times notes that petitions for secession erupted after the November 6th elections. More than 500,000 people from all 50 states signed petitions seeking peaceful secession from the United States.

Although they note no one in the U.S. takes the petitions seriously (except perhaps a minority), they argue Russia should not take it seriously either.

Michael Bohm, the opinion page editor of The Moscow Times, also rejects the prediction of Professor Igor Panarin.

And although the petitions to the White House caused a flurry of reaction from some of the mainstream press, many bloggers mocked the petitions or attacked them with venemous editorials.

Yet the press, the Russian editor, and the bloggers have all missed one crucial thing: the groundwork for real secession has already been laid—or is in the process of being laid—by as many as 14 states. Some have already implemented the process.

First step already taken by several states

The very first step toward a future state secession is not a petition signed by a small percentage of the citizens from that state.

The first step is to authorize, recognize, and issue currency apart from the U.S. dollar and for the state legislature to declare it legal currency in that state. At least two states have done so, issuing legal currency backed by gold and silver, as of this writing.

No state can secede without first issuing its own currency.

Dollar will not necessarily collapse if some states secede

Bohm raises the possibility that if the U.S. breaks up, the dollar will likely collapse and that will pull Russia down as it holds almost half of its foreign currency reserves in U.S. Treasury Bonds. In fact, he argues, the entire global economy would melt down.

Would it? Probably not. Bohm sets up a straw man and then attacks it. In reality only a handful of states would likely secede and America would not “split into six parts.”

Extrapolating on a secession, only eight to 10 states seceding is enough to cause the federal governmental structure to splinter and fall into near collapse. Those states would be going on “strike” against a rogue government that has seized the reins of power and steered the Republic into political and economic disaster, and a Constitutional crises arising from the Second and Tenth Amendments.

Despite the fact that perhaps only 20 percent of the states secede while the majority stays in the Union, the tail can wag the dog in this case and those 10 states will have significant leverage and can exert a great deal of pressure on the centralized government.

The Balkanization of America? Not likely

What states are likely to secede?

If secession ever becomes a reality, the states likely to secede are those that will be hurt the most by the coming restrictions on the energy sector: coal, natural gas and petroleum production. Under this secenario the state most likely to vote for secession first would be North Dakota—it’s almost a given if the Obama administration’s EPA moves to outlaw fracking. The EPA has been making noises about doing that and garnering studies slanted to “prove” oil fracking is polluting groundwater, harming the environment overall, and may even be triggering earthquakes.

North Dakota is in a prime spot for secession geographically. It’s a border state neighboring Canada and it can fly its aircraft in and out and make trade agreements with the government of Canada.

Being able to outmaneuver the federal government is critical if a state secession is to succeed. The only states that can easily secede would be the ones that border the continental U.S., and Alaska and Hawaii.

States that support Obama are not likely to secede, and neither are landlocked states unless one of the border states lies next to them and has already seceded.

That scenario allows for as many as 10 or more states to secede.

Secession mechanism

Bohm erroneously believes (as do many Americans) that the U.S. Constitution does not provide for secession. He, along with others believe the federal government is like the old-time Mafia: you can join, but the only way you can leave is in a casket.

He writes: “In reality, there is no mechanism in the U.S. Constitution for a state to secede from the Union. When South Carolina and 10 other states tried to secede in 1860 and 1861, President Abraham Lincoln sent federal troops into the Confederacy. After four years of civil war and the deaths of more than 600,000 Americans, the U.S. restored its territorial integrity in 1865.”

Because Abraham Lincoln violated States’ Rights does not mean that states have lost the power to exercise their rights. In fact almost up to the Civil War (or War Between the States), it was assumed by most in Washington, D.C. (including elected officials) that states had a right to secede if they found it necessary. It was one of the safety valves of the Republic and a protection against a tyrannical central government.

The right to secede was recognized up through the 1850s as being in the Second and Tenth Amendments to the Constitution.

Bohm, an editor for The Moscow Times can be forgiven, as he is a Russian, afterall. But there is not an excuse for any American to be so ignorant.

Professor Igor Panarin sticks by his prediction

Other opinions

“Meanwhile, Alexander Oskin, chairman of the Press Distributors’ Association, a Moscow-based trade group for publishers and the mass media, told Vzglyad.ru that the online petition movement is the first massive separatist movement in the U.S. since the Civil War. Oskin also believes that the U.S. will collapse in the same way that the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia did,” Bohm writes.

Igor Panarin remains steadfast in his prediction, even though 2010 has come and gone. Many in the Russian media are leaning toward the same viewpoint.

They may be right. If Washington continues to ratchet up regulations, taxes and redistribution of wealth schemes; if Congress and the Executive Branch attack wealth, production, business and producers, secession may come.

It only depends on how much pain certain states are willing to bear and for how long.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/these-two-traps-are-absolutely-destroying-the-next-generation-of-young-men-in-america.html            

These Two Traps Are Absolutely Destroying The Next Generation Of Young Men In America

Michael Snyder
American Dream
June 2, 2012
Have you ever noticed that our young girls seem to be far ahead of our young boys and that our young women seem to be much more “together” than our young men are?  Have you ever noticed how many young American men almost seem like zombies and find even the most basic human interactions extremely awkward?  Well, this didn’t happen by accident.  Researchers are finding that there are two traps in particular that are absolutely destroying the next generation of young men in America.  One is video game addiction and the other is pornography.  In the old days, the parks and ball fields of America would be flooded with young boys after school was done for the day, but now our parks and our ball fields are very quiet.  So where did all the boys go?  Well, they are all sitting at home staring into computer screens.  Yes, there are also young girls and young women that are addicted to these things, but the truth is that these addictions are far more prevalent among young men.  Unfortunately, it is not going to be easy to reverse the damage that is being done to the next generation of young men in America, and that is very frightening.
These days, most parents don’t consider video game addiction to be a major crisis.  Many parents are just glad to have something that will keep their children occupied and out of their hair.
But the truth is that video game addiction is very serious.  One study discovered that 88 percent of all Americans between the ages of 8 and 18 play video games, and that approximately four times as many boys are addicted to video games as girls are.
If you are raising boys right now you probably know exactly what I am talking about.  Most boys are absolutely obsessed with video games these days.
Trust me, I know.
I was one of them.
When I was a young man I would play video games for endless hours.
I would often spend entire days playing games like Starcraft and John Madden football.
Once in a while I would stay up all night playing video games.
I was really, really good at them but the rest of my life suffered.
Not that there is anything fundamentally wrong with video games.  They can be a lot of fun, but when it becomes an addiction that can be extremely damaging.
Today, the average boy spends 13 hours every single week playing video games.
That is an astounding number.
Unfortunately, the second trap that we are going to talk about is almost certainly doing even more damage to our young men.
The Internet has improved our lives in a lot of ways, but one of the very negative things that it has done is that it has unleashed a giant flood of filth into our homes.
Our young men have more access to sexual content than ever before, and this is having some horrific consequences.
The following example comes from a recent Daily Mail article….

A boy of 12 who raped a nine-year-old girl after watching hard-core pornography online was spared jail yesterday as his lawyer warned of a generation of children growing up with a ‘skewed view’ on sex.
The schoolboy, who is now 14, told police he had raped the little girl because he wanted to ‘feel grown up’ after watching porn online.
In a disturbing case that has raised fresh concerns about the sexualisation of children, the teenager had unrestricted access to the web and was able to freely look at sexually explicit material.

Sadly, the United States is the pornography capital of the world.  An astounding 30 percent of all Internet traffic now goes to pornography websites, and the U.S. produces more pornography than any other nation has in the history of the world.
Many American men are so addicted to it that they cannot even wait to get home to look at it.  One survey discovered that 25 percent of all employees that have Internet access in America visit sex websites while they are at work.
In a recent article for CNN, psychologist Philip Zimbardo and Nikita Duncan discussed some of the consequences that this obsession with video games and pornography is having on our society….

The consequences could be dramatic: The excessive use of video games and online porn in pursuit of the next thing is creating a generation of risk-averse guys who are unable (and unwilling) to navigate the complexities and risks inherent to real-life relationships, school and employment.
Stories about this degeneration are rampant: In 2005, Seungseob Lee, a South Korean man, went into cardiac arrest after playing “StarCraft” for nearly 50 continuous hours. In 2009, MTV’s “True Life” highlighted the story of a man named Adam whose wife kicked him out of their home — they have four kids together — because he couldn’t stop watching porn.
Norwegian mass murder suspect Anders Behring Breivik reported during his trial that he prepared his mind and body for his marksman-focused shooting of 77 people by playing “World of Warcraft” for a year and then “Call of Duty” for 16 hours a day.

Zimbardo and Duncan have written a new book entitled “The Demise of Guys: Why Boys Are Struggling And What We Can Do About It” in which they present some absolutely startling research.  A recent Business Insider article summarized some of the key points from the book….

-In 2011, young men’s SAT scores were the worst they had been in 40 years.
-Even Hollywood has caught on: films like Failure to Launch, Knocked Up and Jackass mock the ineptitude of this generation.
-Boys account for 70 percent of D’s and F’s given at school.
-Research shows guys aren’t interested in being husbands, fathers or the head of the household.
-Boys are four to five times more likely than girls to have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Two-thirds of students in special education programs are guys.
-The average boy spends 13 hours a week playing video games. The average girl spends 5. The average young American will spend 10,000 hours playing video games by age 21. That’s twice the time it takes to earn a bachelor’s degree.
-The average high school boy spends two hours watching porn every week. Men can’t escape porn: 13,500 full-length commercial porn films were released in 2011, compared with 600 Hollywood films.
-Researchers claim that internet pornography is hurting young boys’ ability to form meaningful romantic relationships because they objectify their partner.
-It’s predicted that 60 percent of bachelor’s degrees will go to women by 2016.

Are you starting to get the picture?
Clearly something has gone very, very wrong.
When these sex-obsessed boys grow up, they become sex-obsessed men.
Just check out what ABC News discovered was going on over at the SEC….

One senior attorney at SEC headquarters in Washington spent up to eight hours a day accessing Internet porn, according to the report, which has yet to be released. When he filled all the space on his government computer with pornographic images, he downloaded more to CDs and DVDs that accumulated in boxes in his offices.
An SEC accountant attempted to access porn websites 1,800 times in a two-week period and had 600 pornographic images on her computer hard drive.
Another SEC accountant used his SEC-issued computer to upload his own sexually explicit videos onto porn websites he joined.
And another SEC accountant attempted to access porn sites 16,000 times in a single month.

Those that are chosen to work at the SEC are supposed to be among our finest young men and women.
So if this kind of thing is going on over at the SEC, what is happening in the rest of society?
And just look at the U.S. Secret Service.  It made global headlines recently when it was discovered that a whole bunch of agents were consorting with prostitutes.
We are very, very messed up as a nation.
And we now have an entire generation of young men that don’t know how to act like men.
In fact, we are rapidly becoming a nation of slobs that do not even have the capability of handling adult responsibilities.
Sadly, at this point young men in the 25 to 34 age bracket are nearly twice as likely to live with their parents as young women the same age are….

The number of adult children who live with their parents, especially young males, has soared since the economy started heading south. Among males age 25 to 34, 19% live with their parents today, a 5 percentage point increase from 2005, according to Census data released Thursday. Meanwhile, 10% of women in that age group live at home, up from 8% six years ago.

So what can be done to fix this?
Well, unfortunately there is not an easy solution to this problem.
How in the world are we going to convince millions upon millions of young men to spend less time playing video games and watching pornography?
Sadly, the truth is that this problem is getting a little bit worse every single day.
So we are headed for big, big trouble as a nation.
What are your thoughts on all of this?  Please feel free to post a comment with your opinion below….