BOOKS I WOULD LIKE TO READ

A friend set me her reviews of these books, she said they were very good and she thought I would like to read them. My reading list is so long I don’t know when I would have a chance to get to them. I read a sample of “Never to love by Mary Ann Carmen” and from what I read she was right, I would very much like to read it. I’ve read Matt & Brooklyn: Book 2 of “Again for the First Time series”and enjoyed it very much, it’s the only book I’ve read by Raven St. Pierrer, so I think I will like the other one as well. I read more Historical Romances now, especially those in the medieval period. Actually I love to read anything from the medieval period. I’m fascinated with Ancient history. Hopefully I’ll be able tu add these book to my list soon.

Mary Ann Carman – Clan Hewit Trilogy

Book 1 & Book 2

Never To Love  (book 1) 

Ciannait yearns for undying love, but she vows revenge for her father’s murder. Battles rage across the Ireland as she learns this is a difficult task. A witch and healer, will Ciannait end up Never To Love? Ordered home by the king, Lorcan is honor bound to follow his father’s command to wed, though his heart is still in battle. When he meets Ciannait he’s torn between his honor and his heart’s desire. Ciannait and Lorcan look for answers to the puzzle, but their search leads them into a battle of good versus evil. The struggle between her vow of revenge and her passionate love forces vital decisions.

https://www.overdrive.com/media/2026689/never-to-love/sample-embed

All Will Be Well (book 2)

Kieran must recover his family lands from the Sasannaich. Taking Juliana to wife is the only way. His father made deals with the English king before his passing, leaving Kieran no choice. Kieran doesn’t trust Juliana, and she’s not too sure she trusts him either, every approach meets with resistance. Touching, however lightly, makes her tremble, and Juliana is unaware of how she makes Kieran’s heart soar each time she looks at him. Juliana travels the path of her dreams, until the enemy crashes into her life. Forced by the king to wed. Truth and freedom make unlikely bed partners. Independence is what Juliana dreams of but when the enemy enters and everything changes. Kieran’s an untrustworthy barbarian from across the Channel, where her brother fights. His charming brogue, and sparkling emerald eyes cause Juliana’s resolve to start slipping. Mistrust and hostility, intertwine with their personal dreams and nightmares from their past to build a web of deception that threatens to tear them apart before they’ve ever had a chance to find love.

https://www.overdrive.com/media/2170347/all-will-be-well/sample-embed

  Tina Martin-The Accidental Series -1 thru 4

Accidental Deception

The Accidental Series-1

Carter Williams stumbles upon a homeless woman, Shayla Kline, in Uptown Charlotte while on his way to work. Completely out of character for the usually self-centered bachelor, he stops to help her and puts his life on hold to spend a few nights with the stranger in the hospital. That’s when he makes a life-changing discovery – Shayla was the fiancée of Jacob, his estranged brother. His brother who hated him. His brother who committed suicide. His brother who, despite the animosity between them, wrote him a suicide note asking him to take care of Shayla. Feeling guilty for Shayla’s current state, Carter moves her into his home with the goal of helping her get back on her feet. The last thing he expected was to fall in love. Now, Carter wages an internal war within himself with his own morals – morals that tells him he should be loyal to his brother by not pursuing Shayla. But it’s hard to walk away from the only woman who has ever touched his heart.

Accidental Heartbreak

The Accidental Series-2

Two months ago, Carter made the decision to cut ties with Shayla Kline, a woman who he nursed back to health. A woman – the only woman – he’d ever fallen in love with. Shayla is convinced that Carter doesn’t love her. And there is no way she can force herself to stay where she’s not wanted, even after he makes a pop up visit to her job and takes her out to dinner. Having had enough of his mind games, she decides to leave Charlotte, North Carolina and move to Norfolk, Virginia where she has a new job lined up and ready to make a fresh start. With the help of her new boss, Donovan Sharper, she does just that. Carter worries constantly about Shayla being away. He knows if he’s going to win her back, he has to tell her about how he really feels for her. Still, he doesn’t have the courage to reveal that Jacob was his brother. He knows that sooner or later he will have to tell her, but he loves her too much to break her heart yet again. That is until his secret begins to eat away at him and makes him feel so horribly guilty, he can hardly function. He knows he must tell her about Jacob. The problem is, he doesn’t know if she’ll forgive him for keeping this secret.

Accidental Lovers

The Accidental Series-3

Carter’s secrets have finally caught up to him and for the first time in his life, he finds himself at a woman’s mercy – a woman he’s madly in love with. And since Shayla needs time to sort out her own feelings since finding out Carter’s true identity, Carter leaves their home to give her some much needed space. Maybe space for Shayla is not a good thing, especially with the way she’s feeling – betrayed and heartbroken. Shayla now finds herself in the midst of a convoluted mess. She knew being with a man like Carter wouldn’t be easy, but she didn’t know it would be this hard. And there are still secrets yet to be revealed that will make her see her relationship with Carter in a new light – that may even save their rocky marriage. That is, if she doesn’t allow herself to be distracted by her ex boss.

What Donovan Wants

The Accidental Series-4

Donovan Sharper is left torn and defeated after being turned down by Shayla Kline, the only woman to touch his heart since the death of his wife five years ago. Worried about her son’s current state of depression, his mother urges him to go on a cruise to get away from his hectic life as a workaholic and single father. During his vacation, he meets Kamila Jenkins – a fun-loving, younger woman who forces him to let go of his frustration and live a little. Donovan can admit he enjoys the time he spends with Kamila, but can he let go of his feelings for Shayla to make his heart available again? Or will he let Kamila slip away?

Raven St. Pierre- Again for the First Time Books 1 & 2

Again for the First Time: Book 1

An “Again for the First Time” standalone

“Marry me” were the last words Luke thought he’d say to a perfect stranger. Then again, Lissette never dreamed she’d actually say “yes”.
But she did…
The odds are against them from the start of their less than conventional marriage, but the couple quickly realizes that their newfound love is absolutely worth the risk.

http://forum.mobilism.org/viewtopic.php?f=1292&t=999581&hilit=raven+st.+pierre

Matt & Brooklyn: Book 2

An “Again for the First Time” standalone

Matteo Valente is an up-and-coming filmmaker whose award-winning documentary put him on the map two short years ago. It was that very documentary that also led him to the beautiful, intriguingly elusive Brooklyn James. From the moment he laid eyes on her through the lens of his camera, he couldn’t shake the feeling that their meeting was no mistake. Their connection was instant, but Brook has been hell-bent on keeping him in the dreaded “friend zone” while she chases after her own dream. When Matt pays a surprise visit to Brook the day she graduates with her master’s degree, she is forced to take a second look. “Come with me” were not the words she expected to hear as Matt prepared to leave town again. The invitation to spend a week in L.A. left her breathless, but there were so many reasons to turn him down; so many scenarios that could ruin their close friendship, but… at the risk of regretting it later… she said yes.

Michelle N. Onuorah – Remember Me

Kristen Tyverson lives the ideal life. Happily married, with three children, she has worked her way to becoming one of the most successful reporters in the country. While reporting on conditions in Afghanistan, she is severely injured during a bombing. For months, she is presumed dead, and her family mourns her passing, unaware that she has survived. When she is found alive, it is revealed that she has no recollection of the past 10 years of her life. Her husband, her children, her career: all a mystery to her. Grateful to have his wife back and determined to hold their family together, Mark Tyverson makes it his mission to win his wife’s heart again — regardless of whether she remembers him or not. Remember Me is a story that traces the hard work of piecing back a life torn apart by memory loss. It explores the hardship both the victim faces as well as those around her, robbed of the person they know when she is robbed of the memories she had. Will Kristen, Mark, and their three children be able to rise to the challenge?

**Please note there is occasional cursing and various references to sexuality and spirituality within this work of fiction. Reader discretion is advised.**

Michelle N. Onuorah – Jane

Orphaned.
Neglected.
Hurt and abused.

Jane Daugherty has survived what can only be described as the childhood from hell. After years of mental, physical, and sexual abuse, she has become a fiercely independent young woman – closed off from human connection. Unable to trust people or in their ability to be kind, she has vowed to build a new life for herself so that she never has to rely on others again. At 24-years-old, she is fulfilling this vow, successfully working as the youngest tenure-track professor at the University of New York.

Brilliant and remarkably accomplished, Jane’s life takes an unexpected turn when she is reunited with the childhood friend she protected in foster care. Alexa Masterson introduces Jane to the family that adopted her, a family that includes her older brother, Aiden Masterson. Instantly drawn to each other, Aiden and Jane embark on a relationship that will either destroy them both or shape them into the man and woman they were always meant to be. Can what started as lust transform into love? And what will bring about the transformation that they ultimately need?

**Please note there is occasional cursing, mild violence, and unapologetic references to sexuality and spirituality within this work of fiction. Reader discretion is advised.**

T.R. Ragan – Faith McMann Trilogy 1

Furious

Faith McMann comes home to a nightmare: her husband is killed and her son and daughter are taken. Although the intruders leave her for dead, she survives. Crippling grief and fear for her children make life unbearable. Until her anguish turns to anger…and she trades victimhood for vengeance.

Frustrated with the law’s efforts, she takes action to rescue her children—and wreaks havoc on the brutal criminals who tore them from her. With her family and newfound allies at her side, Faith descends into the hellish underworld of human trafficking, determined to make those who prey on the innocent pray for mercy.

The forces she’s up against have already proven that their ruthlessness knows no bounds. And there’s nothing they won’t do to turn Faith’s crusade into a suicide mission. But they’re about to learn that nothing is more dangerous than a mother fighting for her children—especially one who’s earned the nickname Furious.

 NANCY MORSE – Beloved Betrayer

A deathbed confession sends Gareth de Trevaine from Normandy to England to claim the heritage stolen from him at birth. The love that ignites between Gareth and Rowan de Haviland, the strong-willed daughter of a Norman lord, is instant and powerful, but he dare not reveal his identity as the son of her family’s avowed enemy and risk losing her love. When his true name is revealed, jealous rivals resort to murder to prevent him from taking his rightful place as Lord of Thornby Castle and threaten to expose him as a supporter of Henry Plantaganet, Duke of Normandy, who is on the march to claim the British throne. To save Gareth from the king’s dungeon Rowan consents to marry his ruthless cousin, a man she despises. Abducted on her wedding day, she is carried off to Gareth’s castle in Normandy and forced to wait on him as his servant. Can Gareth fight his burning desire for the lovely Norman maiden who deceived him? Can Rowan pierce the heart that has hardened against her and win back the knight she was forced to betray in the name of love?

Aleen Malcolm-Cameron Trilogy

   1-The Taming                          2-Ride Out The Storm           3-The Daughters of Cameron

   

 

Cameron #1-The Taming: AS WILD AS THE WHIPPING SEA WIND… was Cameron — beautiful, innocent, shameless; a spark of Scotland’s blazing past.

Cameron #2-Ride Out The Storm: RECKLESS IN THE FACE OF DANGER…
Cameron plunged through the night, no longer a child, not yet a woman, coal-black hair flying, emerald eyes blazing, her lithe body at one with the raging elements and the speeding stride of her bold black stallion.
SHAMLESS IN HER DESIRE…
for Alex, her proud Highland warrior, yet willing to play the lady for his sake, she returned to Glen Aucht to find their ancestral halls, their very marriage bed usurped by the hated English.
Rebellious, blind to risk, Cameron would strike out at insult and injury. She would flee Scotland for a savage New World–defying the man who claimed her–the man who would follow and find her, who swore to tame her, and with her Ride Out the Storm.

Cameron #3-The Daughters of Cameron: Passion Was Their Legacy
Behind them lay the American wilderness ravaged by war, gripped by savagery. Before them rose Scotland’s stormy cliffs and the promise of reclaiming their proud ancestral estate, their bold heritage.
Sultry, sun-kissed Kestrel and exquisite raven-haired Rue. Together they had seen what no woman was meant to see and steeled themselves to trust no one. Only men as strong as Nick Mackay, as fearless as the dark pirate Hawk, could hope to penetrate the proud fortress of their hearts.
For in their blood raced the fiery spirit of the Black Cameron, legendary Highland beauty. Like their mother before them, they were untamed, reckless in danger, destined to love one man and one man only–rapturously, passionately, and forever.
This is the final book in the Cameron Trilogy. Preceded by “The Taming” and “Ride Out the Storm”

Devlyn Tremayne                         Children of the Mist

                  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Michelle N. Onuorah

Sign the petition: Challenge Hillary Clinton to commit to never cutting Social Security benefits | Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC)

Subject: Will you issue this challenge to Hillary Clinton?All Democratic presidential candidates need to promise never to cut Social Security — but so far, Hillary Clinton hasn’t made that promise.In recent months, Clinton has been campaigning as someone who will fight for economic goals like debt-free college and Wall Street reform. But she’s leaving the Democratic Party vulnerable by not addressing Social Security cuts.Once she does, the Party can move on to a national discussion about how to expand benefits to meet the needs of our grandparents and veterans.Can you sign the petition urging Hillary Clinton to promise never to cut Social Security benefits?Click here: http://act.boldprogressives.org/survey/NoSocialSecurityCuts2016/?sp_ref=172851540.219.149208.e.471113.2&source=email-sp

Source: Sign the petition: Challenge Hillary Clinton to commit to never cutting Social Security benefits | Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC)

 

It would seem like this wouldn’t be a problem for her, or any of the candidates. Is she that set against Social Security benefits? I know many people who really need their benefits. Maybe because she will never need the benefits she doesn’t care!

Now take the next step to victory

We need your SUPPORT

I was surprised to say the least when I first started hearing about this problem. I have a young daughter, a couple of neices and a few friends who use these products (or use to). You may also have someone special or just someone you know who uses this product, so let’s help any way we can. we can start by signing a petition.

https://www.change.org/p/tell-procter-and-gamble-to-make-safer-tampons-and-pads-for-all-women-and-detoxthebox?recruiter=27323063&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink

Petitioning Procter & Gamble

Tell Procter and Gamble to Make Safer Tampons and Pads For All Women and #DETOXTHEBOX

Beauty Lies Truth United States

Two years ago, Women’s Voices For The Earth commissioned laboratory testing of Always brand pads and found that the products emit potential carcinogens, reproductive and developmental toxins. Feminine products are considered “medical devices” and ingredients do not have to be listed on the label or disclosed by the manufacturers. Millions of women use these products every month, and we have major concerns about undisclosed chemicals entering the most absorptive parts of our bodies.

Today we are asking P&G to set new standards for the safety of these products. More specifically, we want the company to disclose the full list of ingredients and materials used to make Tampax tampons and Always pads. P&G promises leadership, ownership, integrity and trust, yet full ingredient lists for Tamax and Always products are not available. As a result, women all over the world are unknowingly exposing their bodies to unidentified compounds that may be harmful to our health. As P&G customers, we have the right to assess the products based on our own standards of health and safety.

This is a sensitive subject. No one ever talks about periods. Let’s start the conversation with P&G and demand safer feminine products for all women!

Sign this petition

https://www.change.org/p/tell-procter-and-gamble-to-make-safer-tampons-and-pads-for-all-women-and-detoxthebox?utm_source=action_alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=438542&alert_id=xQxwykIDtr_YZIqXV83rOcZwspfW%2F%2FurV%2BDD99aucJ%2FpcInombByIfnELBU8IJY89LnBMBLYH64

A New Series I’ve Been Reading (very entertaining – At times I laughed out loud)

These are the first interracial romances I’ve read. The series was recommended by a friend, because I was looking for something new and different to read. I do read historical romances from time to time, but I don’t usually read contemporary romances. I must say I’ve enjoyed the series so far and can’t wait until the third and last book of this series.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25661470-black-love-white-lies

Black Love White Lies by Genesis Woods

Published June 3rd 2015 by Blake Karrington Presents

Audrielle Freeman hasn’t really been dealt a fair hand when it comes to love. She’s still optimistic that true love will happen for her one day.
Cairo Broussard wasn’t looking for love, but at the same time, was open for it to happen if it came.

Black love is a very strong and powerful thing, but with white lies in the mix, who knows what will happen?

 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27465632-black-love-white-lies-2

Black Love White Lies 2: A BWWM Romance by Genesis Woods

Published November 4th 2015 by Blake Karrington Presents

Audrielle never imagined the next time she came face to face with Cairo, he’d have some news that would literally tear her heart into a million pieces.
Cairo can’t wait for the unholy matrimony agreement he and Alex have to be over.

When lies are still being told, truths are still being hidden, and devious schemes are brought into fruition, can the love Cairo and Audrielle have for each other get past it all, or is it to late to try and save something that might not want to be saved?

Their is nothing like a really good book

Let us Keep reading folks

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28601551-black-love-white-lies-3

Black Love White Lies 3: A BWWM Romance by Genesis Woods

Published January 18th 2016 by Blake Karrington Presents

Audrielle and Cairo are back for one last ride. With Alex still hell bent on getting what she believes is rightfully hers, will she finally succeed at killing two birds with one stone by keeping Audri away from Cai and getting her hands on that inheritance money or will love prevail for your favorite couple and leave them with a happy ending? Find out what happens when black love is not that easy to destroy and white lies are finally revealed.

(Well the third book in the series wasn’t anywhere as good as the other two. I felt let down, I expected better. That’s what’s wrong with a lot of series by the time they get to the final book or final books, they have said everything worth saying or should I say written everything worth writing, and the end is full of fluff and filler.That is not to say the whole book was bad, because it wasn’t. Some of it was very good. It just wasn’t as good as the others. )

)

THIS IS SOMETHING ALL INTERNET USERS NEED TO BE AWARE OF!

Sneak Attack on Net Neutrality Picks Up Steam in the House
Amy Kroin
June 17, 2015
Net NeutralityThe FCC and Media Policy
“Maybe every so often we can be on the side of the American people,” Rep. Jose Serrano said, “and not corporations.”

Those are fighting words — but unfortunately the House majority doesn’t seem to be heeding them. Not when it comes to Net Neutrality.

This afternoon the House appropriations committee voted against two amendments — one from Serrano, one from Rep. Nita Lowey — to remove anti-Net Neutrality language from a must-pass government-funding package.

The anti-Net Neutrality provisions — buried deep within this 158-page bill — would strip the FCC of the money it needs to enforce its open Internet protections. The provisions would also prevent the rules from remaining in effect until after the court cases challenging them have been decided — a process that could take years.

“You’re not supposed to legislate in an appropriations bill,” Serrano said, noting that a federal court had already rejected an attempt from the cable, phone and wireless lobbies to delay implementation of the rules.

But in spite of the overwhelming support for the open Internet— support that spans the political spectrum — some members of Congress are determined to destroy the historic FCC protections that millions of people lobbied for.

“Blocking Net Neutrality means blocking the open Internet,” Serrano said. “My colleagues are trying to give corporations more freedom … while putting more restrictions on individual citizens.”

Indeed, members of Congress who are in the pocket of the big Internet service providers don’t care about listening to the public on this matter. They don’t care about the process the FCC followed to allow public comment on its proposal. They simply want to shut down the open Internet and carve it up into fast and slow lanes.

In the run-up to the vote a coalition of more than 60 digital rights and social justice groups urged the chairman and ranking member of the House appropriations committee to remove the anti-Net Neutrality riders (only the ranking member — Rep. Lowey, a longtime Net Neutrality proponent — listened).

Among the letter’s signers are the Free Press Action Fund, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Media Justice, ColorOfChange.org, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Media Action Grassroots Network, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute, Public Knowledge and Writers Guild of America West. Other signers include the American Library Association, the Association of Free Community Papers and Etsy.

The funding package is inching closer to a vote before the full House, but there’s still time for members to remove the anti-Net Neutrality provisions. Call Congress before it’s too late.

Save Net Neutrality

Hey Everyone We Really Need This!

Petitioning Chairman, Federal Communications Commission Tom Wheeler

This petition will be delivered to:

Chairman, Federal Communications Commission

Tom Wheeler

Student Net Alliance

The open Internet is in peril – a federal appeals court just struck down Net Neutrality and sided with giant corporations like Verizon who want to control how we experience the Internet. Now, Internet service providers like Verizon can block content they disagree with or slow down access to websites who can’t afford to pay what corporations can for higher speeds. But we can still stop this.

The FCC has the power to protect Net Neutrality by reclassifying broadband as a telecommunications service. Doing so will give them the power to reinstate the Net Neutrality protections taken away by Verizon. It’s absolutely necessary that they do this because net neutrality is the basis for what has made the Internet a place where what you know is more valuable than whom you know.

Net Neutrality is incredibly important to the Student Net Alliance because it allows the free flow of ideas to shape our education. An open Internet provides one of the purest forms of democracy today, allowing students to access a limitless supply of information, for relatively low cost and with great ease. When those invaluable avenues for education and social interaction are threatened by entrenched corporations acting as gatekeepers in pursuit of profit, the Student Net Alliance (SNA) mobilizes students, educators, and alumni worldwide to defend the Internet as a tool for everyone to use with equal caliber.

We can’t stand idly by while the Internet is sold to the highest bidder. Join us in asking the FCC to reclassify broadband as a telecommunications service.

HAPPY NEW YEAR ( I know I’m late)

Well I have a new (used) computer, hopefully this one will last long enough for me to get the computer I really want!

I haven’t posted in a really long time. Much longer than I’ve been without a PC.

I had a chance to catch up on some of my reading nothing heavy or educational, just some things I have on my Kindle.

I finally got around to baking a cobblet. I always bake cakes, cookies and biscuts I hardly ever bake pies or cobblets.

Now that I’ve retired I’m teaching myself to bake bread, develope pictures (the old fashioned way-dark room and all) and all the other little things I’ve wanted to learn how to do over the years, when I was to busy working and raising childern. I can also finish my search for free things on the net.

Here are a few sites you readers might like

http://www.gutenberg.org/      (all free –   public domain)      Project Gutenberg is concerned about a new secret international treaty, the Trans-Pacific Partnership. This will extend copyright term protection worldwide, thus halting the growth of the public domain. To learn more, and join Project Gutenberg in speaking out against this treaty, visit The Internet Archive  (you might want to read this)

http://www.freebookspot.es,  http://free-online-novels.com/romance.html ,   http://www.shelleymunro.com     (some of her stuff is free) ,  http://free-online-novels.com,           http://newfreebooks.com/ , http://e-library.net/           (some are free),    http://www.lipsticknboots.com ,  http://www.feedbooks.com/ ,   http://educhoices.org/  , http://www.online-literature.com ,   http://www.publicbookshelf.com  (read online only)    ,   http://www.freebook-s.com,      http://www.magnoliahill.com ,    http://www.trinitymoon.com,        http://manybooks.net,  http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/Free-eBooks/379003078,    http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/20-best-websites-to-download-free-e-books/,  [this link gives you a list of sites for free ebooks, some of them might be on my list. The site itself is great, it’s not a free book site but it has plenty of information about many things you might find interesting, as I did.]

More next time  Enjoy!

This Tuesday, February 11th, is The Day We Fight Back (against mass surveillance)

THE FACTS

• The NSA “has secretly broken into the main communications links that connect Yahoo and Google data centers around the world.”— THE NEW YORK TIMES
• The NSA collected “almost 3 billion pieces of intelligence from US computer networks” in one month in 2013.— THE GUARDIAN

• The NSA is collecting the content and metadata ofemails, web activity, chats, social networks, and everything else as part of what it calls “upstream” collection.— THE WASHINGTON POST
• The NSA “is harvesting hundreds of millions of contact lists from personal e-mail and instant messaging accounts around the world, many of them belonging to Americans.”— THE WASHINGTON POST

• The NSA “is gathering nearly 5 billion records a day on the whereabouts of cellphones around the world.”— THE WASHINGTON POST
• The NSA “is searching the contents of vast amounts of Americans’ e-mail and text communications into and out of the country.”— THE NEW YORK TIMES

What the revelations mean for you.

By EWEN MACASKILL and GABRIEL DANCE
Produced by FEILDING CAGE and GREG CHEN
Published on November 1, 2013

When Edward Snowden met journalists in his cramped room in Hong Kong’s Mira hotel in June, his mission was ambitious. Amid the clutter of laundry, meal trays and his four laptops, he wanted to start a debate about mass surveillance.

He succeeded beyond anything the journalists or Snowden himself ever imagined. His disclosures about the NSA resonated with Americans from day one. But they also exploded round the world.

For some, like Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, it is a vitally important issue, one of the biggest of our time: nothing less than the defence of democracy in the digital age.

Zoe Lofgren

US congresswoman

But the intelligence agencies dismiss such claims, arguing that their programs are constitutional, and subject to rigorous congressional and judicial oversight. Secrecy, they say, is essential to meet their overriding aim of protecting the public from terrorist attacks.

Stewart Baker

Former NSA general counsel

The debate has raged across time zones: from the US and Latin America to Europe and to Asia. Barack Obama cancelled a trip to Moscow in protest at Russian president Vladimir Putin’s protection of Snowden. Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff cancelled a state visit to Washington in protest at the US spying on her. Bolivian president Evo Morales’s plane was forced down in Vienna amid suspicion that Snowden was being smuggled out of Russia.

In Germany, a “livid” Angela Merkel accused the US of spying on her, igniting a furore that has seen the White House concede that new constraints on the NSA’s activities may be necessary. Meanwhile, in Britain, prime minister David Cameron accused the Guardian of damaging national security by publishing the revelations, warning that if it did not “demonstrate some social responsibility it would be very difficult for government to stand back and not to act”.

Caught in a net

by Nadja Popovich and Greg Chen

US internet companies, their co-operation with the NSA exposed bySnowden’s documents, fear a worldwide consumer backlash, and claim they were forced into co-operation by the law.

RON WYDEN

Democratic US senator

JAMES CLAPPER

US director of national intelligence

EDWARD SNOWDEN

Computer analyst and whistleblower

ANGELA MERKEL

German chancellor

MARISSA MAYER

Yahoo CEO

Much of the NSA’s defence is that the public should be unconcerned, summed up by the dictum: “If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.” But civil liberties groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union warn that surveillance goes well beyond what Congress intended and what the US constitution allows.

Chris Soghoian

Principal technologist, ACLU

Cell phones, laptops, Facebook, Skype, chat-rooms: all allow the NSA to build what it calls ‘a pattern of life’, a detailed profile of a target and anyone associated with them.

And the number of people caught up in this dragnet can be huge.

Three degrees of separation

by Kenton Powell and Greg Chen

You don’t need to be talking to a terror suspect to have your communications data analysed by the NSA. The agency is allowed to travel “three hops” from its targets — who could be people who talk to people who talk to people who talk to you. Facebook, where the typical user has 190 friends, shows how three degrees of separation gets you to a network bigger than the population of Colorado. How many people are three “hops” from you?

Faced with growing public and political concern over the quantities of data it is collecting, the NSA has sought to reassure people, arguing that it collected only a tiny proportion of the world’s internet traffic, roughly equivalent to a “dime on a basketball court”. But in reality, that is still a huge amount of data. The Library of Congress, one of the biggest libraries in the world, gathers 5 terabytes a month. The NSA sucks up much, much more.

Since you began reading this, the NSA has selected

69.6

terabytes

of data for review. That’s about
17,811 two-hour HD movies.

The NSA say it needs all this data to help prevent another terrorist attack like 9/11. In order to find the needle in the haystack, they argue, they need access to the whole haystack.

The first Snowden document to be published by the Guardian was a secret court order showing that the NSA was collecting the telephone records of millions of US customers of Verizon, one of America’s largest telecoms providers.

Thank You To

THE GUARDIAN

As you can see I’m not really good at this, I haven’t even been on the net looking for more free stuff and most of the time I don’t have a lot to say. 

Oh! but I love to read and will read almost anything.  Lately I’ve been reading historical romances, some of them are really good. When I was a teenager I wouldn’t go anywhere near a romance book. Would you beleive that except for ” My Darling, My Hamburger” ( which I read for my sister so I could do her bookreport for her) and Love Story by Erich Segal, when I was17. I never read another romance novel until I was 40 years old. My favorite authors use to be Robert Ludlum (All time favorite), Stephen King, Dean R. Koontz (who is now just plain Dean Koontz) Ramsey Campbell, Robin Cook, and V.C. Andrews in that order. I stopped reading Robert Ludlum because he pass away. The first book I read by Robert Ludlum was “The Bourne Identity” way back in 1981, after that I read everything he wrote except “The Road To Omaha”  I didn’t read that one because I thought it was like “The Road to Gandolfo” , which I didn’t like. I still haven’t read it, but maybe I should give it a try. I surely won’t be reading anything else written by a ghost writer or Eric Van Lustbader. Eric Van Lustbader did a pretty good job with “The Sunset Warrior cycle”, “The Maroc series” (my favorite) “The Ninja”, and “The Miko” . In my opinon he should have continued with those. I don’t know how Eric Van Lustbader got the job to continue the Jason Bourne novels, his writing doesn’t come anywhere close to Robert Ludlums writing. Robert Ludlums writing is vastly superior. It’s been awhile since I reread any of his books, so I guess I can start to read them now without remembering to much. 

well thats it for now haha! nothing else to say right now

 

Free stuff

Hello everyone,

How is 2014 treating you all? I’ve been really busy lately so I haven’t had much time to write on my blog or to find much more free stuff. I did happen upon few sites with free ebooks. Mind you these are not illegal sites. Wattpad  is a really cool site the ebooks on this site are from up and coming writers some of there ebooks are really good( I think I’m going to love this site). As many of you know there are many sites that have free ebooks, to name a few … There’s Smashworld, and  www.obooko.com just to name a few. And lets not forget Amazon.com  if you have a Kindle or kindle app. It seems like I kind of  got stuck on free ebooks. But then I love to read.

Here is a site for one (1) month free subscription- read all you like

http://www.scribd.com/g/fhizq

of course  it’s 8.99 after the first free month unless you cancel