Julia Scheeres 
A Canadian artist has implanted microchips in her hands in a quest to explore the relationship between identity and technology in an era when life is increasingly regulated by gadgets and machines.
The creation of a biochip that can be implanted into people to transmit their personal information has been fantasy fodder for technophiles as well as being an Orwellian omen for others.
These are some of the issues Nancy Nisbet hopes to explore.
"I am expecting the merger between human and machines to proceed whether we want it to or not," said Nisbet. "If I adopt it and make it my own, I will have a better understanding of this type of technology and the potential threats and benefits it represents."
Nisbet, 34, purchased the chips from a veterinary clinic -- they are commonly used to identify livestock and pets. And after several rejections, she finally found a doctor willing to implant them in her body. (Microchips haven't been approved for human use in either the United States or Canada.)
Her chips, which emit a read-only 134-kilohertz frequency that is read by a scanner, contain a 12-digit alphanumeric ID. They were injected into the back of her ...   more »

Ellen Messmer, Network World
A U.S. government plan to use long-range RFID technology as part of a border-crossing security initiative is coming under intensified fire by an industry group.
Beginning Jan. 31, 2008, a valid driver's license won't be enough for travelers to pass between the United States and Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda, under new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) rules. A standard government passport will be required, or a birth certificate with driver's license. But as an alternative, DHS is moving forward with a pilot program that has states adding long-range RFID technology to driver's licenses.
The idea is to have U.S. border guards with RFID readers quickly read a traveler's RFID-enhanced driver's license remotely and make a face check and watch for any posted security red flags pulled up by a database.
But the RFID technology is coming under fire from some, including the industry group Smart Card Alliance, which says long-range RFID is a bad idea in terms of security and operational efficiency.
"Long-range RFID is meant for tracking packages in a warehouse," says Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance, which has been tracking the laws and technology proposals for what DHS ...   more »

Pro-border security advocates are warning that the new North Carolina driver's license is a dangerous first step toward a "North American Union" driving permit.
The Tar Heel State recently introduced a license that includes a hologram on its reverse side.
The problem: Critics object that the hologram portrays the entire North American continent, not just the United States. Moreover, they say it looks just like the map of North American used as the logo on the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America Web site (www.spp.gov).
The SPP supports enhanced regulatory cooperation and the promotion of cross-border trade among the United States, Mexico, and Canada.
Those who object to the North American Union and related projects like the NAFTA Super Highway say it will compromise American sovereignty, exacerbate border-security concerns, and ultimately lead to economic hardships for U.S. citizens.
Groups opposed to illegal immigration worry that a North American driver's license could ultimately enable a citizen of Mexico, Canada, or the United States to travel freely anywhere on the Continent.
William Gheen, who heads the Raleigh, N.C.-based Americans for Legal Immigration political action committee, says the new license is “‘North American Union' ready.”
Gheen says he’ll protest the ...   more »

Building 'free trade gateway' between Asia, North America
By Jerome R. Corsi
Canada is developing Pacific ports to compete with the U.S. ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, as well as with the Mexican ports of Manzanillo and Lazaro Cardenas, in an attempt to draw a substantial market share of the millions of containers expected to flow into North America in the coming decades from China and the Far East.
To attract Chinese container traffic, the Canadian government has launched a major ports-rail-truck-airport transportation infrastructure designed to build its version of the emerging NAFTA Superhighway.
In October 2006, the Canadian minority government under the direction of Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper launched the Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative, or APGCI, as a key component of Canada's national transportation policy.
The idea is to prepare deep-water Pacific Ocean ports on Canada's West Coast to facilitate the import of millions of multi-modal containers from China as a "free trade gateway" between Asia and North America.
WND reported Mexico plans to extend the Trans-Texas Corridor south in what government officials in Mexico are calling a "Trans North America Corridor."
According to Transport Canada, Canada's equivalent to the U.S. Department of Transportation, rail ...   more »

Alabama city informing lawmakers of efforts to revive Cold War system 
An Alabama city is briefing members of Congress and Capitol Hill staffers today on its plan to prepare citizens to survive a nuclear attack, including revitalization of fallout shelters.
Two Huntsville emergency management officials will meet with Rep. Charles Dent, R-Pa, the Huntsville Times reported.
WND also has learned the briefing will include Sen. Arlen Specter R-Pa., and Homeland Security staffers for Rep. Dave Reichert R-Wash., Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., and possibly others.
Dent, a member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, requested the meeting with John Russell, director of Huntsville/Madison County Emergency Management Agency, and Kirk Paradise, the agency's emergency plans coordinator.
The Huntsville paper said the briefing will highlight the city's revitalization of its fallout shelter system, the training of responders on radiological safety and its use of radiological monitoring and detection equipment, including government vehicles equipped with detection devices.
Paradise recently presented Huntsville's community shelter plans at a national symposium. He also published articles on the subject in several trade journals.
The Wall Street Journal republished an article Friday from the Washington Monthly titled "U.S. Unprepared for an Urban Nuclear Attack."
The article cited former ...   more »

Why almost half of voters polled say
they'd support a God-denier for president
The signs are everywhere. Many of America's top-selling books right now are angry, in-your-face, atheist manifestos. Judges try to outdo each other in banning references to God like the Ten Commandments and the "Under God" phrase in the Pledge of Allegiance. And nearly half of Americans, according to a recent Gallup poll, would be willing to vote for an atheist for president of the United States of America – a nation founded by devout Christians.
In its groundbreaking September edition, titled "THE RISE OF ATHEIST AMERICA," WND's monthly Whistleblower magazine provides a powerfully eye-opening analysis of what's really behind the current atheist phenomenon.  
"This is atheism's moment," brags David Steinberger, CEO of Perseus Books, celebrating the tremendous success of anti-God bestsellers like "God is Not Great: Why Religion Poisons Everything" by journalist Christopher Hitchens and "The God Delusion" by Oxford evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. "Mr. Hitchens has written the category killer," he says, "and we're excited about having the next book." That's right – this fall the publishing world will further cash in on the anti-God juggernaut with the release of "The Pocket Atheist," featuring the ...   more »

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday lashed out at his Western foes which demand Iran halt its sensitive nuclear activities, saying they were "racing to hell".
"The Iranian people have climbed over difficult mountain passes on their path of progress. The enemies need to step aside from our path and give up their satanic ideas," he said, according to the semi-official Mehr news agency.
"One or two countries are refusing to accept that Iran is now mastering nuclear technology ... Some countries are racing towards hell. But this makes us sad and, for the good of their people, we will resist."
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, reiterated on Sunday that Tehran was not seeking to manufacture atomic weapons.
"While the Iranian people do not have nuclear weapons and do not wish to acquire these deadly arms, the people are respected because their grandeur is based on their beliefs and their will," he told a group of Revolutionary Guards chiefs.
The UN Security Council has issued two sanctions resolutions against Tehran for its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment, a key part of an atomic programme that the United States alleges is aimed at making nuclear weapons.
The United States and European ...   more »

By Pastor Chuck Baldwin
First, I need to correct something I said in my last column. In the column, I referred to Alan Stang's book "Not Holier Than Thou," in which he points out that President Bush has appointed numerous known homosexuals to high public office, just as did his predecessor, Bill Clinton. I included in that list former Massachusetts Governor Paul Cellucci, who was appointed as U.S. Ambassador to Canada. I misquoted Alan Stang in that statement. Cellucci is not homosexual. However, his record as governor is extremely "pro-homosexual," which is the way I should have worded it. I apologize for the error.
Now, to the sixth anniversary of the attacks on the Twin Towers and Pentagon building.
Contrary to the claims of President Bush, the United States is not only just as vulnerable to terrorist attacks as it was in 2001, it is more vulnerable. This is due directly to the blunders and negligence of the Bush administration.
For one thing, the U.S. borders and ports remain wide open. There has been no serious effort on behalf of the federal government to thwart the invasion (and that is exactly what it is) of illegal aliens across our southern ...   more »

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Behind the walls of federal prisons nationwide, chaplains have been quietly carrying out a systematic purge of religious books and materials that were once available to prisoners in chapel libraries.
The chaplains were directed by the Bureau of Prisons to clear the shelves of any books, tapes, CDs and videos that are not on a list of approved resources. In some prisons, the chaplains have recently dismantled libraries that had thousands of texts collected over decades, bought by the prisons, or donated by churches and religious groups.
Some inmates are outraged. Two of them, a Christian and an Orthodox Jew, in a federal prison camp in upstate New York, filed a class-action lawsuit last month claiming the bureau’s actions violate their rights to the free exercise of religion as guaranteed by the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
Traci Billingsley, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Prisons, said the agency was acting in response to a 2004 report by the Office of the Inspector General in the Justice Department. The report recommended steps that prisons should take, in light of the Sept. 11 attacks, to avoid becoming recruiting grounds for militant Islamic and other religious ...   more »