Researching Options

Guest post written by Derick Burks

We’ve been researching ADT Security Sale City for the house because my wife and I are considering allowing the kids to come home alone in the afternoons. I know it’s not that big of a deal to a lot of people but to us it’s a huge decision – my wife has been a stay at home mom until the last 2 years and having the kids come home to a house that’s empty makes us both really nervous.

 I know it’s not a problem for most kids and that nothing bad will happen but you know, what if something comes up and they’re in bad shape somehow? Will they know how to protect themselves if that kind of situation arises? I’ve thought about having my momcome over and watch them in the afternoons but they’re at an age now when they need to learn that I trust them and that I think they’re capable of being alone at the house. I know the first thunderstorm that comes up will scare them to death!

Leon Panetta: "Iran not devloping nukes"

(Via RawStory)U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta let slip on Sunday the big open secret that Washington war hawks don’t want widely known: Iran is not developing nuclear weapons.

Appearing on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday, Panetta admitted that despite all the rhetoric, Iran is not pursuing the ability to split atoms with weapons, saying it is instead pursuing “a nuclear capability.”

That “capability” falls in line with what Iran has said for years: that it is developing nuclear energy facilities, not nuclear weapons.

“I think the pressure of the sanctions, the diplomatic pressures from everywhere, Europe, the United States, elsewhere, it’s working to put pressure on them,” Panetta explained on Sunday. “To make them understand that they cannot continue to do what they’re doing. Are they trying to develop a nuclear weapon? No. But we know that they’re trying to develop a nuclear capability, and that’s what concerns us. And our red line to Iran is, do not develop a nuclear weapon. That’s a red line for us.”

Republicans have been beating the drums of war in recent weeks as tensions in the Iranian gulf have soared. Iran has threatened to shut down the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil transport hub crucial to global industry, if U.S. warships return to monitor their activities.

Iran said it was planning to hold military exercises in the Strait of Hormuz in the coming weeks, and prior wargames saw the Iranians test missiles that are designed to sink warships.

President Barack Obama recently agreed to fresh sanctions on Iran targeting the country’s central bank, in hopes of slowing down their nuclear program. The European Union was also considering fresh sanctions, and details were expected later in January. The U.N., as well, has sanctioned Iran repeatedly over its nuclear program.

Iran said recently that it had created the country’s first ever nuclear fuel rod made from domestic uranium enriched at their own facilities.

Nuclear fuel enrichment is much different from enrichment for weapons. Most commercial nuclear reactors use lightly enriched uranium, which is between 3-5 percent enriched. Weapons-grade uranium must be enriched to approximately 85 percent or more of a key radioactive isotope for it to be usable in an atomic bomb.
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(BBC)Russian blogger Navalny unmasks 'Kremlin' photo smear

(Via BBC)The Russian blogger leading Russia's vote-rigging protests has accused supporters of Vladimir Putin of seeking to smear him with a fake photo.

Alexei Navalny proved that a picture in a newspaper distributed by Putin supporters was a forgery when he published the original on his blog.
The faked photo shows Mr Navalny alongside fugitive Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky, who lives in London.
Protesters fear the March presidential vote may be rigged to favour Mr Putin.
Currently prime minister, he is standing for re-election after serving two previous terms as president.
Alleged fraud at parliamentary elections in December sparked the biggest anti-government rallies seen in Moscow since Soviet times.
Mr Navalny, a lawyer who campaigns against corruption, was a key speaker at the last rally, on 24 December, which drew an estimated 100,000 people.
Stolen photo

The original photo shows Alexei Navalny (right) with Mikhail Prokhorov

Young activists sporting blue rain jackets marked "Vladimir Putin" were spotted handing out newspapers containing the forged photo in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg.
The photo shows Mr Navalny and Mr Berezovsky standing beside each other, smiling for the camera, with the caption: "Alexei Navalny has never made any secret of the fact that the oligarch Boris Berezovsky gives him money to fight Putin."
Russia has been trying for years to extradite Mr Berezovsky, who was granted political asylum in the UK in 2003. He is wanted on fraud charges, which he denies.
In a blog posting which led with the words "News from [Vladimir] Putin's electoral campaign", Mr Navalny published the original photo, sent to him months earlier by photographer Alexei Yushenkov as a souvenir.
Taken on 25 May in the offices of Russian radio station Moscow Echo, the snap shows the blogger alongside Mikhail Prokhorov, a Russian billionaire who has since declared himself a candidate in the March election.

One of the pastiche photos shows Alexei Navalny (right) with Josef Stalin

On his own blog, Mr Yushenkov confirmed that the photo had never been published because of its poor quality and he surmised that it had been stolen when Mr Navalny's email account was hacked last year.
Russian bloggers have been posting their own parodies of the fake photo, some of which were published on Mr Navalny's blog.
The photozhabas, as digitally altered images are known in Russian internet slang, show the blogger posing with everyone from Soviet dictator Josef Stalin to Bender, the robot in the cartoon Futurama.
In another development, the Urals editor of popular Russian newspaper Argumenty i Fakty has denied any link to the doctored photograph.
Dmitry Bondarev told the BBC's Russian Service that his publication had no connection to the other paper, which bears the name "Argumenty i Fakty - Urals Digest" and looks similar.
A note on the paper with the fake photo, which is reportedly a special edition praising Mr Putin and trashing the opposition, says that it was compiled by the All-Russia Popular Front - a political coalition launched by Mr Putin in May.
According to Yekaterinburg blogger nuclOid, 80,000 copies were printed