Changing Stores For Trans-People Just Backfired BIG TIME On Target

This would normally seem like a social experiment that was conjured up in a liberal college classroom, but it is now an unfortunate reality and tragic sign of the times. Target has bowed down to a small minority of whiners who want to blur the line between boys and girls, making everyone and everything equal, so gender-confused people don’t get their feelings hurt. While they made a few people happy, the majority are not. Christians are fighting back and defending what is right, by responding en mass to Rev. Franklin Graham’s battle cry to believers.

Following Target’s recent announcement that they are “moving away from gender-based signs” in their children’s toy department, bedding, home decor, and more, the son of Rev. Billy Graham has come out with a request for all his fellow Christians and/or patriots to take action. Target’s progressive decision was way off target, as it was made in an effort to prevent guests or their families from feeling “frustrated or limited by the way things are presented,” the retailer’s official statement read in part. Now, the store will feel the frustration for that absurd decision.

Changes in stores are effective immediately and customers will start seeing them over the next few months, as liberalism reigns supreme in one of America’s favorite stores. At the bequest of Franklin Graham, he’s urging all who morally disagree with this ridiculous new corporate policy to boycott the stores.

The religious leader posted his strong position on the matter on Facebook, stating, “I think Target may be forgetting who has made their stores strong. It’s not gender-neutral people out there – it’s working American families, fathers and mothers with boys and girls they love.”

Then he delved right into God’s word on the issue, noting that in the Book of Matthew that God created just two clearly different genders, male and female. There is no in between or combination of the two — you’re either one or the other, and it’s okay for a sign to state that in a store.

Target has stuck it to their most dedicated customers to appease a group that doesn’t frequent the suburban stores the way families do. For that, Graham is urging every Christian to call the store and complain about their un-American policy, the Political Insider reported.

His request didn’t go unnoticed. Over 100,000 Americans “liked” Graham’s post, and many will respond to the retailer as the Reverend suggested they do. No company should be given our hard-earned money, made in a country built on Christian values, when they represent ideas that we strongly disagree with. That is like feeding the hand that flips you off.

So, will you put your money where your beliefs are, by not spending it at a store that goes directly against what is moral and right? As much as I love Target, they missed the mark on this one, and I will shop for my traditional family, created by a man and a woman, somewhere else.

Via: Mad World News

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Target to phase out gender-based signs

ONE LESS STORE TO SHOP AT.

Target announced plans Friday to start phasing out gender-based signs in its department stores.

The retailer said it’s responding to questions customers have raised about signs that offer product suggestions based on gender.

“In some cases, like apparel, where there are fit and sizing differences, it makes sense,” the company said in a news release on its website. “In others, it may not.”

Signs in the kids’ bedding area, for example, will no longer feature suggestions for boys or girls, just kids. In the Toy aisles, Target said it plans to remove the pink, blue, yellow and green paper on the back walls of store shelves that's now used to reference gender.

“You’ll see these changes start to happen over the next few months,” the company said.

The news from Target comes as transgender people appear to be gaining ground in the fight for equality.  

In July, the Defense Department said it’s beginning the process to lift the ban on open service for transgender troops and introduced legislation to add gender identity and sexual orientation to federal statutes, which now only prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. 

Via: The Hill

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Target: Customers’ encrypted PINs were obtained

ATLANTA — Target says that customers’ encrypted PIN data was removed during the data breach that occurred earlier this month.

The company issued a statement Friday that additional forensic work has shown that encrypted PIN data was removed along with customers’ names and card numbers. But Target says it believes the PIN numbers are still safe because the information was strongly encrypted. It says the PIN can only be decrypted when received by its independent payment processor.

Via: Chicago Sun-Times

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Menendez: Make stores responsible

Following the Target hacking, he said firms must be accountable for stolen information.

JERSEY CITY, N.J. Sen. Robert Menendez wants the federal government to hold companies accountable when their customers' financial information is stolen.

The New Jersey Democrat is taking on the topic after last week's revelation that information about 40 million Target customer accounts had been stolen.

At a news conference Thursday outside a Target store in Jersey City, Menendez said he wanted to make sure retailers are "putting their customers ahead of profits." He announced that he had requested details from the Federal Trade Commission on whether it can fine firms for security breaches and whether laws should be changed to protect consumer data.

"We need to know if the FTC has the teeth to hold retailers who failed to protect consumers' information accountable," Menendez said.

The senator said he "has a feeling" that the agency will not be able to levy fines or penalties against companies. When a data breach occurred at Marshalls and T.J. Maxx in 2006, the FTC wasn't able to fine the stores' parent company as part of a settlement agreement.

"Our country's consumers depend upon safe and secure transactions, and especially at this crucial time of year, our country's retailers must commit to fulfilling that expectation," Menendez wrote to FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez.

Menendez said he wanted the FTC to recommend if further legislative action is needed to help protect consumers against having their financial information stolen.

Via: Philly.com

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Target hackers stole encrypted bank PINs, could make fraudulent withdrawls

BOSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) — The hackers who attacked Target Corp and compromised up to 40 million credit cards and debit cards also managed to steal encrypted personal identification numbers (PINs), according to a senior payments executive familiar with the situation.

One major U.S. bank fears that the thieves would be able to crack the encryption code and make fraudulent withdrawals from consumer bank accounts, said the executive, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the data breach is still under investigation.

Target spokeswoman Molly Snyder said “no unencrypted PIN data was accessed” and there was no evidence that PIN data has been “compromised.” She confirmed that some “encrypted data” was stolen, but declined to say if that included encrypted PINs.

“We continue to have no reason to believe that PIN data, whether encrypted or unencrypted, was compromised. And we have not been made aware of any such issue in communications with financial institutions to date,” Snyder said by email. “We are very early in an ongoing forensic and criminal investigation.”

The No. 3 U.S. retailer said last week that hackers stole data from as many as 40 million cards used at Target stores during the first three weeks of the holiday shopping season, making it the second-largest data breach in U.S. retail history.

Target has not said how its systems were compromised, though it described the operation as “sophisticated.” The U.S. Secret Service and the Justice Department are investigating. Officials with both agencies have declined comment on the investigations.

The attack could end up costing hundreds of millions of dollars, but it is unclear so far who will bear the expense.

While bank customers are typically not liable for losses because of fraudulent activity on their credit and debit cards, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Santander Bank said they have lowered limits on how much cash customers can take out of teller machines and spend at stores.

Via: Daily Caller

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Hiding the Hacking at HealthCare.gov

Christmas shoppers were stunned to learn last Thursday that computer hackers had made off with the names and other personal info of some 40 million Target customers. Some of the pilfered information is reportedly being sold on the black market, prompting JP Morgan Chase to limit purchases and cash withdrawals on debit cards owned by recent Target shoppers.

But at least Target informed its customers of the security breach, as it is required by federal law to do. HealthCare.gov faces no such requirement; it need never notify customers that their personal information has been hacked or possibly compromised. The Department of Health and Human Services was specifically asked to include a notification requirement in the rules it designed for the health-care exchanges, but HHS declined.

The Federal Register tells the tale about what happened on March 27, 2012, at a meeting on the issue.

At that meeting, two commenters asked HHS to ensure the exchanges would promptly notify affected enrollees in the event of a data breach or unauthorized access to the exchange’s databases. One commenter suggested that a full investigation be launched each time such a breach occurred, with the goal of holding hackers legally and financially accountable for breaking into the website.

Via: NRO

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Obama's Second-Term Agenda: Poison for Suburban Women

RadNet, the country's largest imaging and diagnostic company, comments in its most recent investor presentation that mammogram volumes have been adversely affected by the weak economy and a "government taskforce changing the recommended age from 40+ to 50+."

The government taskforce comment is meaningful.  It means that during President Obama's first term, an HHS-supported advisory board recommended that women's health care be rationed.  This is the same entity that more recently recommended that men do without the PSA test, the standard prostate cancer screening procedure.  Admittedly, this is a different HHS-supported independent advisory board, but maybe Mitt Romney was on to something when he voiced concern about ObamaCare rationing our health care through its own IPAB.

RadNet's comment about government's negative impact on mammogram volumes certainly clears the fog created by the Obama campaign's relentless suggestion of a Republican "war on women."  Seen in this light, President Obama's "war on women" scare tactics are a smokescreen, particularly if women have already had their mammograms rationed.

Although both presidential campaigns seek the support of suburban women, President Obama is not talking to them.  He is talking to Planned Parenthood customers.  Suburban women are typically economically established, educated heads of households.  They are typically involved in schools, church, and community.  Not to state the obvious, but they also live in the suburbs, which are incidentally where Target stores sell birth control for nine dollars a month. 

On the contrary, Planned Parenthood's customer base is young and urban -- 75 percent of abortions are by teens and twenty-somethings.  As someone who mentioned the abortion giant five times in one debate and as a regular Planned Parenthood benefactor, the president knows that suburban women are not Planned Parenthood regulars.  Still unanswered is what, if anything, the president will do for suburban women.

Via: American Thinker

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