Free Republic

One likely target is the nation's old, behemoth state-owned enterprises, many controlled by a clique of elite families. The enterprises still hold sway in the economy, heavily subsidized and benefiting from monopolistic pricing. Also expected to come under scrutiny is an archaic residential registration system known as hukou, which prevents tens of millions of people from moving to cities with the best jobs and schools. For all the hype about the China "miracle," economists note there are other countries that achieved huge spurts of growth in the 20th century — among them Japan and Brazil — by pouring investment into...

My sustainment of my children comes through INTENSE INTIMACY not just lament and prayer for there is a difference between Mary at my feet and those that knew me from a distance . Do you see I AM your lap of Pure Joy and Breakthrough and it is in my presence that you receive your breakthrough. So see that you break through all distractions to me for they are a wall of resistance to all the blessings already laid at my feet for you to discern and receive. Luke 10:38-42 38 Now while they were on their way, it occurred...

Brazil and Germany want the UN General Assembly to adopt a draft resolution to end mass surveillance, as German public figures call for Edward Snowden to receive asylum. The two countries say that the mass surveillance on the scale revealed by the Snowden leaks “constitutes a highly intrusive act,” reports the BBC. The resolution, which calls for the right to privacy, is set for a vote at the end of the month. It says countries must protect the right to privacy as guaranteed under international law. …

The wife of a kidnapped soccer star was left horrified after discovering her husband’s severed head on her doorstep. Brazilian Joao Rodrigo Silva Santos was last seen getting into a car earlier this week and his wife and police became concerned for his welfare after he failed to return home.... His head was found inside his own backpack with the eyes and tongue removed.

It's well known that the dinosaurs were wiped out 66 million years ago when a meteor hit what is now southern Mexico but evidence is accumulating that the biggest extinction of all, 252.3m years ago, at the end of the Permian period, was also triggered by an impact that changed the climate. While the idea that an impact caused the Permian extinction has been around for a while, what's been missing is a suitable crater to confirm it. Associate Professor Eric Tohver of the University of Western Australia's School of Earth and Environment believes he has found the impact crater...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - From Saudi Arabia to Israel, traditional U.S. allies in the Middle East are beginning to ask: Is America turning its back on us? President Barack Obama's diplomatic overtures to old foe Iran and his last-minute refusal to attack Syria have officials in Israel, the Gulf countries and Turkey wondering if Washington is deliberately neglecting them to avoid being dragged into a Middle East facing deeper sectarian strife and concerns that Tehran may be seeking a nuclear bomb. Media reports that the U.S. National Security Agency may have spied on the leaders of Germany, Mexico and Brazil have...

A Brazilian testicular cancer awareness group has created a mascot for the cause that is beyond disturbing. Say hello to Mr. Balls, or “Senhor Testiculo”, the wide-eyed, dual-toothed, rosy-cheeked, mole-sporting scrotum that will cause a lifetime of nightmares for anyone who lays eyes on him. The little curly hairs are an especially nice touch.

Brazil and Germany today joined forces to press for the adoption of a U.N. General Resolution that promotes the right of privacy on the internet, marking the first major international effort to restrain the National Security Agency's intrusions into the online communications of foreigners, according to diplomatic sources familiar with the push. The effort follows a German claim that the American spy agency may have tapped the private telephone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and dozens of other world leaders. It also comes about one month after Brazilian leader Dilma Rousseff denounced NSA espionage against her country as "a breach...

Homeland Security: More Insecurity for Christians? By Julio Severo President Barack Obama on Friday nominated Jeh C. Johnson as the new secretary of Homeland Security, because of his “deep understanding of the threats and challenges facing the United States.” He credited Johnson with helping design and implement policies to repeal the ban on openly gay service members in the U.S. military, according to an Associated Press story. Obviously, the main propaganda of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will be what has always been: to fight terrorism — in a way that expands Islam! Since the 9/11 Islamic terrorist...

Stardate 20021005.2128 (On Screen): As I think many of my readers know, I used to work for Qualcomm designing cell phones. Qualcomm is the company which invented CDMA, and made it practical, and made it into a market success, and it now dominates the American market, where Verizon and Sprint both use it. There are two other nationwide cellular systems: AT&T currently uses IS-136 TDMA, which is obsolete and has no upgrade path. Cingular uses GSM, a more sophisticated form of TDMA from Europe. And right now I'm basking in the evil glow of a major case of schadenfreude. The...

IRGC and the spiritual vacuum of Latin American leftists The following is a glimpse of the kind of thing I often see while researching the activities of the IRGC (writ large) in Latin America. Communism fails to provide for the spiritual needs of leftwing political activists, and the Islamic Republic of Iran seems to have done a pretty good job of inserting themselves and the Khomeinist version of Shiism into that void. (Either that or the IRI is throwing lots of money around and the leftists are whores, which is certainly possible, but for the moment I'll take the more...

A fire ravaged Copersucar's sugar terminal in Brazil on Friday, paralyzing operations of the world's biggest sugar trader and putting 10 million tonnes of export capacity offline for six months or more. The fire hit all of Copersucar's warehouses at the Santos port, igniting 180,000 tonnes of sugar - roughly 10 percent of Brazil's monthly sugar exports - and driving prices of the sweetener to a one-year high on global markets.

More than two and a half years after President Barack Obama delivered a speech in Brasilia, Brazil, to reveal that he had unilaterally ordered the U.S. military to intervene in Libya’s civil war in order “to protect Libyan civilians” and enforce “the writ of the international community,” Obama says Libya still needs “a representative and inclusive government” that can provide its people with “basic security.” “Today I authorized the Armed Forces of the United States to begin a limited military action in Libya in support of an international effort to protect Libyan civilians,” Obama said in his March 19, 2011...

(Reuters) - Brazil is pushing ahead with a planned $1 billion purchase of anti-aircraft missile batteries from Russia in a deal that will cement a strategic defence partnership between the two BRICS nations, the Brazilian Defence Ministry said on Wednesday. Brazilian officials said they expect to sign a contract by the middle of 2014 for short- to medium-range surface-to-air Pantsir S1 missile batteries and Igla-S shoulder-held missiles. In December, Brazil bought 12 Mi-35 attack helicopters - a type dubbed the 'flying tank' - in its first purchase from Russia of military hardware. The rising Latin American power has traditionally obtained...

MOSCOW, October 14 (RIA Novosti) – A Russian military delegation about to visit Brazil will offer joint development of a fifth-generation combat aircraft “of the type” of its own most newest fighter to Brazilian defense officials, a member of the delegation told RIA Novosti Monday. The proposal appears to be in support of an unsolicited offer by Russia’s combat aircraft maker Sukhoi of its Su-35 fighter, that has been struck off Brazil’s shortlist for its air force’s F-X2 tender for the purchase of 36 fighter jets worth $4 billion. Russia is still hoping to sell the Su-35s or similar aircraft...

Dramatic video shows a Brazilian biker being held up at gunpoint before an undercover cop shoots his attacker down so he can't escape. The terrifying scene reportedly went down in Sao Paulo at 3 p.m. Saturday - caught on the victim's helmet cam - and starts with him driving his Honda Hornet down the street.

A tale of two aerospace companies One of Israel's earliest startups, Israel Aerospace Industries, failed to fulfill its potential or rival its peers. Long before Israel became world-renowned as the “Startup Nation,” the country was already home to a highly successful startup: Israel Aircraft Industries (now called Israel Aerospace Industries), which shot up like a meteor in a few years, from a small aircraft overhaul and maintenance shop to a major player in the aerospace industry. Initially encouraged by David Ben-Gurion and Shimon Peres, staffed by talented Israeli aeronautical engineers, and led by an ambitious and active management, IAI accomplished...

A Charismatic Response to “The Growing Crisis Behind Brazil’s Evangelical Success Story” Julio Severo addresses misconceptions and missed targets on article by Brazilian Presbyterian theologian By Julio Severo In his The Gospel Coalition blog, Brazilian Calvinist theologian Augustus Nicodemus Gomes Lopes said, “When Paulo Romeiro wrote ‘Evangelicals in Crisis’ in the mid-1990s, a book that has remained a bestseller among Brazilian evangelicals, he addressed just one of the many ways in which evangelicalism had collapsed in Brazil, namely, its inability to halt the spread of prosperity theology.” (Link: http://archive.is/hjNXb) He mentions “Prosperity Theology” three times. Strangely, Liberation Theology and its Protestant...

Julio Severo Interviews Brazilian Congressman Marco Feliciano: How Massive Homosexualist Opposition Has Skyrocketed His Name into Fame, Making Him the Most Prominent Evangelical Politician in Brazil By Julio Severo Marco Feliciano has become the most prominent evangelical leader in Brazilian politics. His fame came involuntarily. As a Congressman, he was appointed chairman of the Human Rights Committee in the Brazilian House of Representatives last March. Immediately, all the Brazilian Left began a massive campaign against his appointment. Artists, politicians and even ministers in the socialist administration of President Dilma Rousseff wanted him out of this committee chairmanship. Marco Feliciano...

I can't hear her right now...anyone know if she is ripping the Clown?