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UPDATE 2-Iran parliament may halt Ahmadinejad economic policy
* Parliament to consider suspending subsidy reform
* MPs blame rising inflation, collapse of rial
* Parliament to question ministers, possibly Ahmadinejad
* President offers no solution to rial drop in speech
* Money changers refusing to sell dollars
By Yeganeh Torbati
DUBAI, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Iran's parliament voted on Sunday to consider suspending plans for further reform of the country's food and fuel subsidies, with legislators citing economic pain caused by the plunge of the rial currency.
Subsidy reform has been a centrepiece of the economic policies of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, so parliament's vote was a political blow to the president at a time when he faces growing public discontent over the rial's slide.
Of 240 members of parliament present, 179 voted to consider whether to halt the second phase of subsidy reform, according to the Iranian Labour News Agency. It did not say when the decision would be made.
The reform aims to ease pressure on state finances by cutting tens of billions of dollars from the amount which the government pays to subsidise low consumer prices for food and fuel, while offsetting the impact on Iran's poorest citizens by giving them monthly cash payments.
"In conditions in which the inflation rate is increasing and the currency market is in disorder, the second phase of this law must be stopped," said Gholamreza Mesbahi-Moghaddam, head of parliament's budget and planning committee and author of the motion, according to parliamentary news agency Icana.
The government introduced the first stage of subsidy reform in late 2010. At the time, Ahmadinejad called it the "biggest economic plan of the past 50 years".
But domestic critics including many members of parliament say the reform has contributed to soaring inflation, which is officially running at around 25 percent, and charge that the plan has been used by Ahmadinejad for his own political benefit, because he can control welfare payments under the scheme.
Parliament's vote on Sunday was a fresh sign that Western sanctions against Iran, imposed over its disputed nuclear programme, are having a fundamental impact on its economy.
Last week police clashed in Tehran with protesters who were angered by the collapse of the rial, which lost a third of its value against the U.S. dollar over 10 days as the sanctions cut the country's ability to earn hard currency from oil exports.
Ahmadinejad's term as president ends in mid-2013 but some analysts think Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei could remove him before then if public discontent continues to worsen.
Jafar Qaderi, spokesman for a parliamentary committee formed to support producers of goods, told Icana the committee would call central bank governor Mahmoud Bahmani and the industry and oil ministers for questioning about the rial crisis on Monday.
Parliament members also want to summon Ahmadinejad for questioning about the rial, but their request must still be approved by a parliamentary supervisory board.
In a speech on Saturday, Ahmadinejad referred to the currency crisis but did not offer solutions.
"Messing up the market...and the efforts by some to undermine the morale of the people are devilish acts," he said, according to Fars news agency.
The rial's drop is pushing down living standards. Although Iranians say there are no significant shortages of daily necessities, imported goods, including food and some medicines, have rocketed in price or become difficult to find.
"The situation is getting really bad in Iran because of our currency," said Saleh, a 48-year-old Iranian sailor whose wooden dhow was visiting Dubai to trade. He declined to give his full name because of the political sensitivity of his remarks.
A 40 kg (88 lb) bag of imported Indian basmati rice, which cost around 800,000 rials in Iran three months ago, now costs 1.7 million (roughly $45 at latest exchange rates), he said.
"People are frustrated, I'm frustrated. I have problems taking care of my family now. Food is expensive but we have no choice but to buy it," said the father of four.
The government has tried to boost the rial by pressuring dealers to trade at certain rates and by arresting money changers whom it blames for speculating against the currency.
Tehran's prosecutor, Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi, said 30 "main suspects" had been arrested for meddling in the currency market. They were found with large amounts of foreign exchange and gold coins bought illegally, Dowlatabadi said, adding that more arrests were expected, according to Fars.
But so far official pressure seems to have backfired. Many money changers in Tehran are not willing to trade at state-set rates and too frightened to trade at black market rates.
This is depriving many Iranians of access to hard currency they want for overseas travel and foreign study, and to protect their savings against inflation. The Iranian Students' News Agency said dealers in Tehran's Ferdowsi Avenue and Istanbul intersection were not selling dollars at any rate on Sunday.
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- Digg this | <urn:uuid:3f975f5c-fcab-4af1-b9f4-14f371976958> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/07/iran-economy-idUSL6E8L72X120121007?type=marketsNews&feedType=RSS&feedName=marketsNews&rpc=72 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970221 | 1,074 | 1.539063 | 2 |
It depends on what you want to do. If you're just screwing around, there a few possibilities, some of them even free, like Audacity (free recording program). If you're actually planning on making real music
, then here's some advice:
Firstly, assuming you want to get into this semi-seriouisly, you'll need a recording interface. Don't use the crappy built-in soundcard on your computer (Realtek, for instance). Those things are ok for listening to music, but weren't designed for recording. So, you'll get cracks and pops and latency and a generally awful sound. An interface is something that usually plugs into your computer via USB or firewire and acts as a soundcard (for recording and playback).
You can spend thousands on an interface, depending on how many features you want, but if you're looking for a budget one, M-Audio, Presonus and a few other companies make interfaces that are in the $100-$200 range and are GREAT quality for home recording. I use a Presonus Inspire, myself that I paid $200 for - and, BTW, it came with Cubase LE, a lite version of Cubase. A lot of companies bundle their products with the lite versions of recording software as a perk so you buy their products. So, you pay $200 bucks or so and you get the interface and the software. Not a bad deal!
Secondly, again, assuming you're into this somewhat seriously - get a pair of monitors. Listening to your music and mixing it on computer speakers and other stuff is not a good idea. When I first got into recording, I made this mistake and I always wondered why my music sounded awful whenever I burned it to a CD and brought it somewhere else. Well, the reason is this: computer speakers aren't flat; they color the sound by adding bass/ treble, etc. They make exisiting music sound good.
Monitors on the other hand are completely flat. That's what you want when you mix, so you get the most accurate representation of what your music sounds like. That way, when you mix, it'll ALWAYS sound that way (or extremely close to that) whether you play it in the car, CD player, etc.
I bought my Samson monitors for about $200 as well, but I'm sure you can find them cheaper. People are always selling these recording interfaces and monitors, etc. on Craigslist, too. So, you might be able to save even more money there by check it out where you live.
I won't get into microphones and the whole guitar amp modeler vs. real tube amp debate yet. | <urn:uuid:ba0f2160-ca6f-4b88-845c-ce07d3964201> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=2658.msg1406071 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967605 | 555 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Without this capacity to be of the heart with someone else, all perceivable commonalities are merely illusion.
Growing up, from maybe the age of 12 or so, every once in a while a girlfriend and I would make a list of all the qualities we dreamed of for our perfect man. Girls do this sort of thing. We would hope, or we’d heard some where, that if you write it out, it would help manifest this person into your life.
We also made lists of all the boys we’d ever kissed or hoped to kiss, conducted numerological compatibility tests with the letters of our names, and helped each other devise (often complex, sometimes absurd) strategies to get the boys we liked to ask us out.
But despite all our mental deliberations, projections and daydreams about our potential true loves and soul mates, I eventually learned the truth about what it means to connect with another person.
The people in your life that are your true loves, soul mates, and partners (in romance, friendship, creative endeavors or whatever), are the ones with whom you share a resonance of heart.
Although it can be nurtured and nourished so that it may grow, it is something that is as natural and fundamental as the heart itself. The heart (as I understand it) is the gateway of the soul’s expression of itself. And, despite our earthly and even spiritual entanglements, the soul is of “Divine” essence–pure and transcendental. When we really connect with another person, it is this source of our being that is communicating…or… “communing”.
All the other things on our lists of what we want in a partner, collaborator or friend are only external factors. For it is only love that binds us to another person. Without this capacity to be of the heart with someone else, all perceivable commonalities are merely illusion.
We never know what kind of person will touch us. They may appear to not be our style, or have very different religious or political beliefs, social, ethnic or cultural background, social status, education, projects, hobbies, causes or past-times.
The factors that make up these aspects of a person’s identity are not necessarily a reflection of who they are inside. Or there are many reasons that a person chooses to identify with some things over others.
People and their motivations are complex. Whatever is driving them, if they are not connected to the heart of their own being, if they are not kind and compassionate, loving and respectful of themselves, of others and of life in general, no true commonality, or communion, is possible.
The old Bob Dylan song “Gotta Serve Somebody” comes to mind now so I’ll go with it…
You may be an ambassador to England or France
You may like to gamble, you might like to dance
You may be the heavyweight champion of the world
You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody
Call it serving God, if you want, but if you’re not allowing for the love of your own heart to guide you, it will be pretty hard not just to be yourself, but to really be with someone else. This doesn’t even mean that you have to call your life sacred. But only that you live it that way. | <urn:uuid:3c0829e5-e03f-4187-b66d-6dbf51e9d827> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://livingtuned.com/?p=1640 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943454 | 743 | 1.726563 | 2 |
: You Can Thank The Health Care Industry For The Economic Recovery
Since the recession hit in late 2007, a huge proportion of the new jobs have been in the health sector—hospitals, doctors’ offices and nursing homes. All along, those jobs have been rising at a steady clip, while jobs in all other sectors have seen more dismal performance. ... If health care jobs had just held steady, the unemployment rate would be a full point higher. If they had taken a dive with the rest of the economy, the current unemployment rate would be 10.8 percent, according to an analysis from the Altarum Institute, which track health employment trends (Sanger-Katz, 1/31). | <urn:uuid:f80d92ce-8d78-4116-9398-985681cdb161> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Daily-Reports/2013/February/01/health-care-jobs.aspx?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+khn%2Ffulltext+%28All+Kaiser+Health+News+%28Full+Text%29%29 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950706 | 143 | 1.695313 | 2 |
A Utah high school is changing its mascot because the local school board finds it derogatory.
Corner Canyon High School won’t be the Cougars.
In slang, of course, a “cougar” can mean an older woman seeking romance with a younger man, with a connotation of promiscuity.
The high school in Draper won’t open until 2013 but students voted recently on a school name and mascot and colors. Cougars got the most votes. After all, it’s the Brigham Young mascot.
But the school board, as school boards like to do, got nervous:
Some parents and patrons emailed and called board members, saying they were uncomfortable with the idea that their daughters on the drill team and as cheer-leading squad would be called Cougars — a slang reference for mature women who attract younger men.
Other parents and students said they did not want to share a mascot with BYU …
Ultimately, the board chose to be unique, (district spokeswoman Jennifer) Toomer-Cook said, and chose a mascot that would be the only one of its kind it the state. There are three high schools in the state with cougars as mascots, including Kearns High.
So what mascot going to get the boot next? | <urn:uuid:4a73b731-bf1e-4f3e-9592-cf6381bebeac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.seattlepi.com/hottopics/2012/01/20/byu-mascot-too-offensive-for-utah-high-school/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972443 | 264 | 1.726563 | 2 |
CGMS Online Montessori Training &
Montessori Teacher Training Certificates
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Are you looking for a reputable yet convenient way to become a certified teacher? The CGMS Full Certificate teacher training programs are accredited and well regarded. Both our Elementary and Primary Full Certificate blended low-residency programs offer you world class and respected training with just one or two short residencies.
Our affordable program offers numerous payment plans to make sure that paying for our program is as painless as our convenient training. If our various payment plans don't work for you, we are always willing to discuss your particular needs.
Founded in 2006, The Center for Guided Montessori Studies (CGMS) offers very comprehensive online learning courses which incorporate cutting edge web-based and video technologies to provide quality online Montessori training at a distance. CGMS offers both teacher training certificate programs and continuing education for experienced Montessori teachers.
CGMS offers both Primary (3-6) and Elementary (6-12) teacher training and certification. We invite you to explore our site to discover how CGMS has revolutionized teacher training. Or, you may contact us to request more information or to learn how to apply.
The course includes a full year practicum experience at an authentic Montessori school that meets CGMS standards for authenticity. We also provide our Montessori Online Training materials to training programs that wish to supplement face-to-face weekend seminars with a distance learning component.
On this site you will find samples of our Montessori videos, our training curriculum information, an enrollment form for our Montessori teacher training, answers to common questions and much more. If you would like a brochure, please let us know, and also feel free to add yourself to our mailing list. | <urn:uuid:e3e78bb8-782f-40df-9cd1-c46392fb23fd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://guidedstudies.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942333 | 375 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Standard & Poor's on Tuesday improved California's bond outlook from stable to positive, a sign the state might be poised for a credit-rating upgrade if the Legislature continues to make spending cuts and tax revenue meets projections.
Although California still faces a $9.2 billion deficit, the credit rating agency said the state has corrected a significant portion of its budget imbalance.
"We are revising the outlook because, barring any other credit deterioration, (we) think the state is poised for credit improvement - and potentially a higher rating - pending its ability to better align its cash performance and budget assumptions," S&P analyst Gabriel Petek said in a statement.
The agency's report says a higher rating is contingent on sufficiently credible solutions to the state's $9.2 billion deficit. That would include automatic spending cuts that are not subject to changes after the November election, if voters reject Gov. Jerry Brown's tax hikes.
Brown has proposed a mix of cuts and temporary tax hikes but Democrats who control the Legislature are opposed to more cuts.
If the state can reach a balanced budget by the summer, California's low credit rating might be turning a corner.
The last time the rating agency gave California a positive outlook was June 2007, when it had an A-plus rating. It now has a rating of A-minus. California's outlook improved from negative to stable last July after the last budget was passed.
Revenues, however, remain a concern. Last week, the state controller's office released its latest monthly report showing tax collections came in $528 million below the January projections in the governor's proposed budget.
"Our rating is still near the bottom when compared to other states," Senate Republican Leader Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar, said in a statement. "While this is movement in the right direction, Californians should delay celebration until we're closer to the top than the bottom."
The Associated Press | <urn:uuid:ddd436a0-c2a8-4722-ae3f-35770b4581c8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/feb/14/sp-improves-california-bond-outlook-to-positive/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96104 | 390 | 1.5 | 2 |
Summer arrives on Catalina Island with the Flying Fish Festival. It flaps its fins from May 31 through June 3, 2012.
CALIFORNIA/CATALINA: Truth? No one isn't going to say it isn't totally rockin' to live in a state with so much coastline. Let us rephrase that: so much photogenic coastline. Our state is, in parts, very paradise-like. But California, as sandy and as seashelly as she may be in parts, is no island. We happen to be joined to Arizona and Nevada and Oregon and the rest of North America, meaning that if you head for the eastern edge of our state? Spoiler alert: You won't find shoreline. But we are lucky to call a number of islands our own including Catalina Island, which is up there for most-visited honors (probably close with Alcatraz Island, we'd imagine). So when Catalina decides to welcome summer, we take notice, not simply because of its island status but because the postcard-sweet place has been perfecting summer for so long. And helping the island out? The flying fish.
DO THEY REALLY FLY? Nope, they don't, but how they zip out of the water and flap their fins definitely gives the impression. Meaning people love to go out on boats and see the nocturnal show. Meaning that Catalina Island throws an annual party just to fete those famous fish. The 2012 festival runs from May 31 through June 3, meaning that it hits just at the start of the flying fish sightings. (The watery wonders don't make appearances year-round; the flying fish season basically follows summertime, from late May through September.) There will be a lot of breezy to-dos over the four days, if you want to make a full thing of it (we like beach bingo and the boat building competition). And make sure to buy a ticket on a nighttime boat that heads out expressly to find the fish; you don't want to visit the island and miss that. Flap flap flap. | <urn:uuid:01f22fed-5f20-400c-93ad-b705fec44d04> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nbclosangeles.com/blogs/worth-the-drive/Summer-Starts-on-Catalina-Island-151969375.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963844 | 428 | 1.53125 | 2 |
The Illinois Association of Realtors (IAR) said Monday that the median price it reported for home sales in Chicago was inflated in May, and mistakes in its reports may go back more than three years, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Errors in the reports can wrongly inflate consumer confidence in a housing market that has been under pressure to recover for more than four years. It also can undermine the authority of the real estate organizations that compile and publish the statistics. Media outlets report that data as part of regular coverage of the housing industry because it provides a pulse of the market.
The IAR is meeting with Midwest Real Estate Data to investigate its reports on the city's housing market since February 2008, when the state group began reporting, at the request of the Chicago Association of Realtors, city-specific data. | <urn:uuid:ee9d1b7d-e779-4d5c-b8ae-085a598584a4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.housingzone.com/print/sales/realty-trade-group-reported-inflated-home-prices-chicago | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970692 | 168 | 1.539063 | 2 |
The UK Government has been accused of deliberately concealing the extent of opposition to reform of a key disability benefit. Independent analysis undertaken by a team of disability campaigners has claimed that consultation on the future of the Disability Living Allowance was thick with criticism from disabled people’s organisations, charities and individuals, but many of these concerns were concealed.
The research team analysed 500 responses to the consultation on the future of Disability Living Allowance (DLA), after requested them under the Freedom of Information Act. The resulting report, dubbed the Spartacus report, claims to reveal the true level of disquiet towards disability reforms. The report details what researchers describe as “overwhelming opposition” to replacing DLA with a new Personal Independence Payment (PIP). The Government plans to cut spending on DLA/PIP by 20 percent.
“They reveal aspects of DLA reform were strongly criticised in consultation responses from disabled people’s organisations, charities and individuals. Notably 98% of respondents objected to the qualifying period for benefits being raised from three months to six months, 99% of respondents objected to Disability Living Allowance no longer being used as a qualification for other benefits and 92% opposed removing the lowest rate of support for disabled people,” reported The Herald Scotland.
“Looks as if the government’s been found out lying and misleading the people on the subject of disability allowances,” tweeted Stephen Fry.
You’re busted! A hard-hitting blog posting on Diary of a Benefit Scrounger insisted that Spartacus shows that “[t]he Government broke its own code of consultation over the DLA reform. The Government has entirely misrepresented the views submitted as part of the consultation, giving a partial and biased view. The Government claim that DLA must be reformed as claims has risen 30% in 8 years – we find that these statistics are entirely misleading and give a ‘distorted view.’ There is overwhelming opposition to the new benefit, Personal Independence Payments.”
“We believe reform must be measured, responsible and transparent, based on available evidence and designed with disabled people at the heart of decision-making. We urge members of the House of Lords to take note of this research and the strength of opposition. It is not too late for them to halt these reforms,” commented Sue Marsh, author of the blog Diary of A Benefit Scrounger, who helped co-ordinate the report.
Government response. A spokeswoman for the DWP, quoted in Herald Scotland, said the Spartacus report was a selective analysis of consultation responses, which had looked at 500 responses out of more than 5500 submitted on the Government’s proposals. She added, “Disability Living Allowance is an outdated benefit with the majority of people getting it for life without checks to see if their condition has changed. This has led to hundreds of millions of pounds in overpayments.”
Government buried findings. “Disabled people will be hurt by the government’s reforms. It is in everyone’s interest to help this fight,” insisted Alex Hearn on the LeftFootForward blog, who said the Spartacus report “shows the extent of the government’s suppression of evidence around the issue. The Department for Work and Pensions held a public consultation on the issue, but then proceeded to bury much of the findings.”
More on the UK economy | <urn:uuid:bc1530ea-f8c0-4dfb-b71a-ab5f90ee783a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.periscopepost.com/2012/01/spartacus-report-government-buried-opposition-to-disability-living-allowance-reform/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950818 | 704 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Washington • Voters didn't always get the straight goods when President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney made their case for foreign policy and national security leadership Monday night before their last super-sized audience of the campaign. A few of their detours into domestic issues were problematic too.
A look at some of their statements and how they compare with the facts:
Romney on Syria • "What I'm afraid of is we've watched over the past year or so, first the president saying, 'Well, we'll let the U.N. deal with it.' And Assad excuse me, Kofi Annan came in and said we're going to try to have a cease-fire. That didn't work. Then it went to the Russians and said, 'Let's see if you can do something.' We should be playing the leadership role there."
Obama • "We are playing the leadership role."
The facts • Under Obama, the United States has taken a lead in trying to organize Syria's splintered opposition, even if the U.S. isn't interested in military intervention or providing direct arms support to the rebels. The administration has organized dozens of meetings in Turkey and the Middle East aimed at rallying Syria's political groups and rebel formations to agree on a common vision for a democratic future after Syrian President Bashar Assad is defeated. And Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton brought dozens of nations together as part of the Friends of Syria group to combine aid efforts to Syria's opposition and help it win the support of as many as Syrians as possible. The U.S. also is involved in vetting recipients of military aid from America's Arab allies like Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Romney is partly right in pointing out Obama's failure to win U.N. support for international action in Syria. But the Friends of Syria group has helped bring in hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid and other forms of assistance to Syrian civilians and the political opposition.
In trying to describe the strategic importance of seeing Assad defeated, Romney stumbled in saying Syria was Iran's "route to the sea." Iran has a large southern coastline with access to the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. It has no land border with Syria.
Romney • Said that when he was Massachusetts governor, high-school students who graduated in the top quarter "got a four-year, tuition-free ride at any Massachusetts public institution of higher learning."
Obama • "That happened before you came into office."
Romney • "That was actually mine, actually, Mr. President. You got that fact wrong."
The facts • Romney was right. The John and Abigail Adams scholarship program began in 2004 when he was governor.
Romney • "In the 2000 debates, there was no mention of terrorism."
The facts • There was passing mention of terrorism in the 2000 debates. In the Oct. 17, 2000, debate between Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush, Gore talked about his work in Congress to "deal with the problems of terrorism and these new weapons of mass destruction." And in the vice presidential debate, Democrat Joe Lieberman defended the Clinton administration's record of preparing the armed forces to "meet the threats of the new generation of tomorrow, of weapons of mass destruction, of ballistic missiles, terrorism, cyber warfare." Romney's larger point, that the U.S. did not anticipate anything on the scale of terrorist threat that existed, is supported by the light attention paid to the subject in the debates.
Obama • "What I would not have had done was left 10,000 troops in Iraq that would tie us down. And that certainly would not help us in the Middle East."
The facts • Obama was suggesting that he had never favored keeping U.S. troops in Iraq beyond the December 2011 withdrawal deadline that the Bush administration had negotiated with the Iraqi government. Actually, the Obama administration tried for many months to win Iraqi agreement to keeping several thousand American troops there beyond 2011 to continue training and advising the Iraqi armed forces. The talks broke down over a disagreement on legal immunity for U.S. troops. | <urn:uuid:b968aa6d-0db0-42ff-b1da-fdab9ea48dc6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://archive.sltrib.com/printfriendly.php?id=55129796&itype=cmsid | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976056 | 826 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Fast & Delicious
For lunch today I made one of my favorite dishes. It has all of the elements that I love in a meal: it's delicious, easy to make, and very nutritious. The basic ingredients are shrimp, peas, broccoli, garlic (yes, garlic again!), olive oil and lemon juice. It only takes about 15 minutes to make. It's also a great "take-to-work" meal as you can store it in the fridge and it reheat it in a microwave in less than 2 minutes.
I love the taste of shrimp and broccoli together! And broccoli is a true nutritional powerhouse. It is a great source of folate and vitamin C, and it also provides beta carotene, riboflavin, potassium, and iron. I am often asked about the effect of cooking on broccoli. Because broccoli contains "water soluble" vitamins, you don't want to boil it as a lot of the nutritional value can be lost in the boiling process. However, steaming leaves more of the nutrients in the food, and by cooking broccoli this way the carotenoids become more bioavailable (i.e. are more easily absorbed by the body). | <urn:uuid:1b632926-3ec3-4a18-a46f-6da49db54d35> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.self.com/blogs/flash/2008/11/fast-delicious.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952154 | 241 | 1.554688 | 2 |
We’ll learn next week what Mayor Gray plans to do about the affordable housing shortage in the District of Columbia.
We know he’s promised a one-time $100 million investment, but we’ll need his budget proposals to learn where the money would go — and if that’s all he’ll commit to.
The latest annual rental housing (un)affordability report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition provides a useful set of figures indicating needs in the District, as well as in each state and the nation as a whole.
If they don’t create a sense of urgency, I don’t know what will.
As I explained last year, NLIHC uses several set of figures — most of them drawn from federal sources — to arrive at what it calls a housing wage. This is the amount a renter would have to earn to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment, plus basic utilities in each jurisdiction.
The cost of the apartment is the U.S. Housing and Urban Development’s fair market rent estimate. The standard for affordability is the usual 30% of gross income.
NLIHC also does some calculations based on the applicable minimum wage — $8.25 in the District — and the average wage of renters in each jurisdiction.
Not surprisingly, the two-bedroom apartment is way out of reach for low-wage workers in the District — considerably further out of reach than for low-wage workers nationwide.
The same is apparently true for many other D.C. renters, since their average wage falls shorter as well.
Here first are the big picture numbers.
- A household would have to have earnings totaling $4,707 a month — $56,480 a year — to afford the two-bedroom apartment in the District.
- Assuming full-time, year round work, this translates into a housing wage of $27.15 an hour — a higher housing wage than for any state except Hawaii, though somewhat lower than for any of the top 10 metro areas, according to dcist .
- The average renter wage here is $102 less per month than what would make the apartment affordable — an annual shortfall of $1,224.
And now the truly bad news figures for low-income District residents.
- The two-bedroom apartment costs $607 a month more than would be affordable for an extremely low-income household, i.e., one whose income is at or below 30% of the median for the area.*
- The apartment costs $983 a month more than a full-time minimum wage worker can afford.
- So s/he would have to work 132 hours a week, every week to afford it — or live with three other full-time minimum wage workers and another working part-time.
- This is 28 hours a week more than what NLIHC calculates for minimum wage workers nationwide, though it uses the lower federal minimum for them.
- For residents who depend on Supplemental Security Income, the apartment costs a mind-blowing $1,199 more than would be affordable.
The story in the District is in many ways like the story NLIHC tells for the nation as a whole. The number of renter households has increased. Vacant apartments are scarce, creating the usual supply-demand pressure on costs.
But the supply side is also affected by the upscaling of once-affordable rental housing — and the fact that most new construction is also for fairly well-off households that, at least for now, prefer renting to owning.
This is how the free market works. It’s why we need public investments to create and preserve housing that’s affordable for low-income households.
And why we need vouchers that will enable others to live in market-rate units without spending more than half their income for rent, as nearly two-thirds of extremely low-income households in the District do.
The District has the revenues to make living in this high-cost city affordable for residents who haven’t shared in the prosperity those revenues indicate — that’s in fact made rents even less affordable for them.
It will have to choose to make ongoing commitments — and to target a very significant portion to its lowest-income residents who are homeless now or at high risk because they really can’t afford the rent they’re paying.
The Mayor says he’s worried that his One City will become “a city of only ‘haves’.” Let’s see what he does to make it more genuinely “inclusive” of the have-nots.
* According to the estimate NLIHC uses, this would be a maximum of $32,190. | <urn:uuid:b9f08ef6-aa45-4e04-ada3-687f2b9839e4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://povertyandpolicy.wordpress.com/category/budget/page/2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955442 | 985 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Let's open the Word of God to the second chapter of the gospel of Mark, as we continue our wonderful spiritual adventure, living, as it were, with our Lord Jesus Christ, being with Him as if we were among His disciples, experiencing the things that they experienced through the eyes of Mark. Each of the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, is intended to present to us not only the events of the life of Jesus but the reality of His identity. It is not merely a story of a man and His activities, it's a story of the God/Man and His ministry and His purpose. Each of the gospel writers, all four of them, is concerned that we understand who Jesus Christ is and the ringing and repeated messages that He is God in human flesh.
There's no mistaking that in the gospel of Mark. In chapter 1 and verse 1, He is introduced to us as Jesus Christ, the Son of God. In chapter 1 and verse 3, He is identified as the Lord. In chapter 1 verses 7 and 8, He is described as the coming One who is mightier than John the Baptist and of Him, John says, “I am not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of His sandals.” In that same text He is identified as the one who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. In chapter 1 and verse 11, God the Father calls Him, “My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” In chapter 1 and verse 14, He is the preacher of the gospel of God. He is the Kingdom offerer who presents the Kingdom of salvation to all who repent and believe. In chapter 1 verse 24, even the demons weigh in on His identity, referring to Him as the Holy One of God.
It is clear already from these opening two chapters that the Holy One of God, the Son of God, the Lord is the one who has power and authority over demons, power and authority over temptation, power and authority over Satan, power and authority over disease, and even power and authority to forgive sin. How important this is if He is to be the Savior that He be able to overpower all the effects of fallenness in the world, overpowering Satan, overpowering demons, overpowering disease, even overpowering death and overpowering sin. And so, Mark has unmistakably identified Him as God in human flesh, the true Savior and Redeemer.
In our text, verses 23 to 28 which concludes chapter 2, He is identified by another title. It comes in verse 28, “So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” He has already been referred to as the Son of Man which certainly refers to His humanity but also is a messianic title drawn from Daniel 7:13. But here I want you to look at the title, “Lord of the Sabbath...Lord of the Sabbath.”
This may not seem like a significant title when given all the others that have come before, but in terms of His relationship to the Pharisees and the scribes, His archenemies, and the architects of the apostate Judaism that dominated the nation, this was the most troublesome of all His claims.
To call Himself “the Lord of the Sabbath” was to them an outrage beyond comprehension. They were very well aware of the fact that God had ordained the Sabbath. It is Genesis chapter 2 which begins with the statement, “Having created everything in six days, on the seventh day, God rested,” and then “God ordained the Sabbath and blessed it and sanctified it.”
Clearly then, from Genesis 2 and verse 3, the Sabbath was ordained by God. It is God Himself who is the Lord of the Sabbath, Lord meaning sovereign. It is God Himself who is the sovereign over the Sabbath who rules over the Sabbath, who defines the Sabbath.
Furthermore, it was God who wrote with His own fiery finger in the tablets of stone in Exodus 20 verses 8 to 11, “Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy,” and then went on to further designate what that Sabbath should be given to. It was God Himself who reiterated the Sabbath in Exodus 31 verses 12 to 17 and it was God who repeated the Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy 5 in the re-giving of the Law on the borders of the land of Canaan after the wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. It was always God who laid out the Sabbath law.
To claim then to be Lord of the Sabbath was essentially to claim to be God. And anyone who does that is either God or a blasphemer of the rankest kind. And there really is no middle ground. You cannot say of Jesus that He was a good teacher who got a little bit carried away with certain things, He is either God as He claimed to be, or He is the supreme blasphemer. You don't have any option in the middle.
Now when Jesus called Himself “Lord of the Sabbath,” He struck the severest blow at the Pharisaic system because the Pharisaic system, the system of works, merit, self-righteousness, achievement, attainment, of spiritual relationship with God through ceremony and ritual and external law-keeping found its focal point in the Sabbath. Every seventh day of the week was the main day for Pharisaic religion. When Jesus then ignored, disdained the Sabbath, He put Himself in direct conflict with the Jewish leaders at the most sensitive point. We're going to see that in this section at the end of chapter 2 and also in the first six verses of chapter 3. Both of these incidents are back-to-back illustrations of Jesus' utter disregard for Judaism's treatment of the Sabbath. Matthew, Mark and Luke present both of them back to back in the same way. They likely happened on sequential Sabbaths.
But before we look at verse 23 in this text, I want you to back up...I want you to back up in time to John chapter 5...John chapter 5, before Jesus took on the Sabbath conflict in Galilee which is recorded in Matthew, Mark, and Luke and we'll look at Mark's account of it. This is the first time Mark mentions Sabbath conflict.
He had already established His attitude toward the Sabbath in Jerusalem. Chapter 5 of the gospel of John begins, “After these things there was a feast of the Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.” You always go up to Jerusalem even though it's down on a map, it's up geographically. This is at some time right in the middle of His Galilean ministry, Jesus went to Jerusalem. Remember, there were some critical festivals and feasts that occurred during the year and everybody migrated, everybody did a pilgrimage for those events. This is one of those feasts, very likely the Feast of Tabernacles. And so Jesus goes to Jerusalem, leaves His Galilean ministry with everybody else, does the journey to Jerusalem to celebrate this feast that would last about a week.
Now having arrived in Jerusalem, He heads for a showdown with the Pharisees and the scribes, with the Jewish leaders, including really the Sadducees and the whole Sanhedrin, the ruling council. From this point on, the hostility reaches a fever pitch because He takes on their Sabbath. It unfolds pretty simply. “In Jerusalem,” verse 2 says, “by the sheep gate there was a pool, in the Hebrew the name was Bethesda, it had five porches, or five porticoes.” And sick people, blind people, lame people, and withered people were lying there. Some texts have the next section, some leave it out. It may not have been in the original, but there was a superstition that if you could get into the water, occasionally an angel would trouble the water, you could get into the water first you'd get healed. There's no indication that that was reality but that was what people thought...that somehow an angel would stir the water and if you were the first one in, you would be healed.
Well, verse 5, a man was there who had been ill for 38 years...38 years. Now if you have been ill for 38 years, all your body is essentially atrophied. He's lying there, that's how ill he is. He had been there a long time in that condition. “He said to him, ‘Do you wish to get well?' The sick man answered Him, ‘Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I'm coming another steps down before me. I can't ever be the first one in, I can't make it.' Jesus said to him, ‘Pick up...get up, pick up your pallet, or your bed, and walk.' Immediately the man became well,” in the sense that Jesus always made people well, there's no rehabilitation, there's no need for the muscles to kind of restrengthen its total complete comprehensive. “The man became well, picked up his pallet, began to walk.”
Now here's the problem. “Now it was the Sabbath on that day.” The Sabbath ran from sundown Friday night, sundown Saturday night. That was the sacred time, it was the Sabbath. So the Jews respond in their compassion less merciless way, verse 10, this would be the Pharisees and the scribes and those who would adhere to their views, saying to the man who was cured, “It is the Sabbath and it is not permissible for you to carry your pallet.” I mean, have you have ever heard of insensitivity? Thirty-eight years the man has been ill and he finally could get up and walk and carry his bed and you make an issue out of the fact that it's the Sabbath and you're not supposed to be carrying something?
“But he answered them, ‘He who made me well was the one who said to me, “Pick up your pallet and walk.”'” The point he's making is, “Look, if this man has power over disease, then He has an authority beyond yours. And when He said walk, I walked.” The man who healed didn't even know who it was because Jesus slipped away while there was a crowd in the place.
Now go down to verse 16, here's the problem. “For this reason the Jews were persecuting Jesus because He was doing these things on the Sabbath.” Wow! How horrible to heal somebody on the Sabbath. Sabbatarian tradition was their domain and they were fanatical, I mean fanatical about it...way beyond Scripture. Scripture gives no restrictions for the Sabbath other than you don't work, and that was a mercy. But they invented endless, impossible rules, restraints, restrictions for Sabbath conduct and they made every one of those rules as restrictive as possible. And the idea was that the more deprivations you have, the more holy you become. And then they guarded their rules fiercely, demanding that every person in the whole nation observe them all. This is the hill they would die on...even the Sadducees who were their theological enemies and adversaries, generally, really they hated each other, but the Sadducees yielded to the Pharisees on the Sabbath issues. They did it because they just couldn't take the heat and they did it for the sake of peace and to maintain and safeguard their reputation as spiritual men. They complied, even the Sadducee high priest complied, everybody complied with the forced restraints of Sabbatarianism. So ultra activists, Sabbatarian legalism became the defining religious emblem of spiritual virtue in Israel. And Jesus rejected it all. He would never conform to the conditions of men to manmade rules that had replaced the Law of God.
He says that to them in Matthew 15. “You have substituted conditions of men for the Law of God.” So this event, John 5, hits the Pharisees and scribes at the heart of their system. They're callous, they're compassionless, they are brutal, the are merciless toward people suffering. They are fanatical about their self-righteous rules. This is what Jesus had in mind, by the way, when He said in Matthew 11:28 and following, He said this, “Come unto Me all you who labor and who are heavy laden.” He wasn't talking about people who were doing physical labor. He was talking about people who were under the burden of an oppressive, restrictive, Sabbatarian legalism from which you could get no relief, from which you never were delivered from a guilty conscience. “Come unto Me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you...what?...rest. Take My yoke, learn of Me. My yoke is easy, My burden is light.”
Massive difference between grace and the legalistic system. Matthew 23, He says, “You bind heavy burdens on people and never lift a finger to help them carry them.” They lived under fanatical, fanatical need to adhere to endless rules down to the minutia which they never could do and thus they were never free from the burden of their own guilt and lack of achievement.
So Jesus defied their Sabbath manmade rules and because of this, verse 16 says, the Jews were persecuting Jesus since He was doing these things on the Sabbath and this is what He said in response, “Sorry, guys, please forgive Me,” is that what He said? No, “My Father is working until now and I Myself am working. God and I, we decide what to do on the Sabbath, not you.”
Well, that was an outrage bey9ond t he prior outrage. Verse 18 says, “For this reason, therefore, the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him.” They had already been seeking to kill Him, now they were seeking all the more to kill Him because He not only was breaking the Sabbath but also was calling God His own Father making Himself equal with God. When He gets back to Galilee after the week in Jerusalem and the travel back, He then claims to be God again by saying, “I am Lord of the Sabbath.” This was an absolute confrontation of their entire religious system which found its focal point in Sabbath observance.
Now John 5 is the first Sabbath confrontation, and the Lord does not back down. In fact, in verse 18 it says they were seeking all the more to kill Him because He was making Himself equal with God. You know what He then does in verse 19 clear to the end of the chapter? He affirms that He is God. He doesn't do any bridge building. He doesn't look for common ground with false religion. In fact, in verse 34 it says, “The testimony which I receive is not from man, but I say these things that you may be saved.” He acknowledges that they are religious but unsaved...like all people in false religions.
Well after that short festival visit to Jerusalem, He returns to Galilee. So let's return with Him back to Mark chapter 2. He goes back to Galilee, believe me, what happened on that Sabbath in Jerusalem had traveled back with Him, probably got back before Him. And He's going to confront that same issue in Galilee, verse 23. “It happened that He was passing through the grain fields on the Sabbath and His disciples began to make their way along while picking the heads of grain.”
The Pharisees were saying to Him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath? And He said to them, ‘Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions became hungry? How he entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest and ate the consecrated bread, which is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests, and he also gave it to those who were with Him?' Jesus said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.' So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
You see, Jesus was always choosing people...always forcing people to choose between His gospel of humility, repentance, grace and faith and the damning religion of Judaism full of pride, self-righteousness, merit and works. Choose Judaism or choose the gospel, there's no common ground. Choose the old wineskins, the old worn-out cloth, or the new wine and the new material...the choice is still the same, still the same.
Now you need to know a little bit about how fanatical they were about the Sabbath so that you can understand this. The word “Sabbath” comes from sabbaton, its root is the verb “to cease.” The double beta like the double B in Sabbath is an intensified form, so it's a complete cessation. It was God who defined Sabbath in Genesis 2:3, He ceased completely from the work of creation. And so, Sabbath came to refer to that day when people ceased working. That's all the Old Testament says. It simply says you're not to work. It doesn't give any particular detailed minute prescriptions, you're not to work, you're to rest. It's to be a day of joy, it's made for man, a day of rest, recuperation, restoration, worship.
But the hypocritical Pharisees and scribes had developed all kinds of things to make Sabbath worse than every other day because of its unbelievable restraints. Edersheim in his classic work, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, has done some marvelous work in researching this and going back and digging it out of the Talmud. The Talmud comes after Christ some time but picks up and codifies all the laws that have long existed in Judaism. For example, you couldn't travel more than three thousand feet...some say you can't go more than nineteen hundred and ninety-nine steps, if you take the two thousandth step, you've violated Sabbath. This would be from Friday when the sun goes down till Saturday when it goes down. The only way you can go further than that is if you put some food nineteen hundred and ninety-nine steps away on Friday before Sabbath and once you got to the food, you'll get another nineteen hundred and ninety-nine steps. You either go further to come back.
Now wherever there were narrow streets, according to the Talmud, you could lay a piece of wood or a piece of rope over the entrance to the street between the dwellings on each side and you could make the street like the entrance to a house so you could go another three thousand feet or nineteen hundred and ninety-nine steps beyond that.
By the way, in the Talmudthere are 24 chapters of Sabbath laws. There are 24 chapters of Sabbath laws and one rabbi said he spent two and a half years studying one chapter to figure out all the minutia, things like you could lift something up and put something down, but only from certain places to certain places. You could lift it up in a public place and put it down in a private place, or you could lift it up in a private place and put it down in a public place, or you could lift it up in a wide place and put it in a legally free place and on and on and on.
No burden could be carried that weighed more than a dried fig, or half a fig carried two times. If you put an olive in your mouth and rejected it because it was bad, you couldn't put a whole one in the next time because the palate had tasted the flavor of a whole olive. If you threw an object in the air and caught it with the other hand, it was a sin. If you caught it in the same hand, it wasn't. If a person was in one place and he reached out his arm for food and the Sabbath overtook him, he would have to drop the food and not return his arm, or he would be carrying a burden and that would be sin. A tailor couldn't carry his needle. The scribe couldn't carry his pen. A pupil couldn't carry his books. No clothing could be examined lest somehow you find a lice and inadvertently kill it. Wool couldn't be dyed. Nothing could be sold. Nothing could be bought. Nothing could be washed. A letter could not be sent even if it was sent via a heathen. No fire could be lit. Cold water could be poured on warm, but warm couldn't be poured on cold. An egg could not be boiled even if all you did was put it in the sand.
If you've been to Israel, you know there are times in the year when the sand is so hot you could boil an egg. That was not allowed. You could not bathe for fear when the water fell off of you it might wash the floor. If a candle was lit, you couldn't put it out. If it wasn't lit, you couldn't light it. Chairs couldn't be moved because they might make a rut. Women couldn't look in a glass or they might find a white hair and be tempted to pull it out. Women couldn't wear jewelry because jewelry weighs more than a dried fig. A radish couldn't be left in salt because it would make it a pickle and that's work. No more grain could be pickled than you could put in a lamb's mouth. It goes on and on.
Laws about wine, honey, milk, spitting, writing, getting dirt off your clothes, you could use only enough ink for two letters, not two written letters, two alphabetic letters. You could have a wad in your ear but you wouldn't put false teeth in your mouth.
What was forbidden? Sowing, plowing, reaping, binding sheaves, threshing, winnowing, sifting, grinding, kneading, baking, washing wool, beating wool, dying wool, spinning wool, putting on a weaver's beam, making threads, weaving threads, separating threads, making a knot, untying a knot, sewing two stitches...on and on and on. You talk about heavy laden...the system was oppressive and it was all unscriptural and horribly ungodly and brutally unkind.
Now with that in the background, let's look at the story. The Sabbath incident... “It happened that He was passing through the grain fields on the Sabbath and His disciples began to make their way along while picking the heads of grain.” That's the key, it's a Sabbath incident.
By the way, the Pharisees are following Him, so they don't make an issue about Him walking beyond three thousand feet, or nineteen hundred and ninety-nine steps because they're there too. So they were dogging His steps everywhere He went. They conveniently don't mention this because they would have been in violation of it as well. But then again, they knew they were in violation of a whole lot of other things.
What they do focus on is by their own standards a severe violation. They were going through sown fields, literally, sown fields is what Luke calls them, maybe wheat or barley. The grain is ripe which makes it presumably spring or summer. In the Jordan Valley, grain ripens in the Valley from April to August, harvest may have been very near. The fields are laid out in strips with paths crisscrossing the strips. The roads are not distinguishable from the paths through the field. There aren't thoroughfares, highways, big roads, everybody goes through the land walking through the fields and that's the way it's always been.
And so, in Deuteronomy 23:25 God makes a wonderful provision for travelers. When you enter your neighbor's standing grain, then you may pluck the head with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle in your neighbor's standing grain. Obviously, you can't just harvest the grain and haul it off, but when you're traveling through his fields, have at it. Take what's there. This would be true of any kind of food in a reasonable, sensible way to stave off your hunger, you're welcome to what is there. So the Old Testament provides for that and it doesn't restrict it to six days a week, it simply says you can do it. The Old Testament never restricts how far a person can walk, how far they can go, how heavy the burden they can carry. It simply calls them to stop working and rest and spend the day worshiping God with no other narrowing restrictions.
So His disciples are doing exactly what the Old Testament allowed them to do. His disciples making their way along while picking the heads of grain. Luke adds they were then rubbing them in their hands. They pick off the heads of grain, rub the heads of grain so they could get the inside fruit from the husk and the shell. Matthew adds they did it because they were hungry. This, of course, was perfectly within the purposes of God and the revelation of God in the Old Testament, but in direct violation of the religious rules manmade which dominated that legalistic culture.
So you have then the Sabbath incident. It leads to the scornful indictment in verse 24, the Pharisees now always dogging His steps, always there, were saying to Him...Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath? They were saying repeatedly, they were haranguing Jesus and His disciples. It wasn't just one statement, it was a repeated charge. And, in fact, Luke tells us they said, “And why do you do it also?” There they were ready to protect their hypocritical external religion with no thought for the provision of the Old Testament, no thought for the hunger of the followers of Jesus. They're scrutinizing Jesus. They're wanting to indict Him because of His violation of their ridiculous manmade rules.
Now this is what the Talmudsaid. If you roll wheat in your hands to remove the husks, it is sifting and that is forbidden. If you rub the heads of wheat, it is threshing and it is forbidden. If you clean off the shell, it is sifting and that is forbidden. If you throw the chaff into the air, that is winnowing, it is forbidden.
So just in picking and rolling and rubbing and discarding, they had been reaping, threshing, sifting, grinding, winnowing and preparing food. And their real question, the real underlying question is...why do You and Your disciples live in such overt, open defiance of our religion? Why do You challenge our religion? Why do You challenge our authority?
It is an implied threat. It is not a legitimate question, they don't want an answer. It is a scornful indictment, implying a threat.
Jesus responds with a scriptural illustration in verse 25. “He said to them,” He said this a lot, I think He really...He said this to dig in to them, “Have you never read....” That must have just galled them. There was nothing in the Old Testament they hadn't read, nothing. But He says that a lot. You'll find that through the synoptic gospels where He says, “Have you never read....Do you not know the scriptures?” I mean, this was galling to them. But they did read it but without any understanding. Their interpretations were esoteric, mystical, convoluted, allegorical like rabbinic interpretations of the Old Testament have always been through history and they still are today. If you want to get a convoluted interpretation of the Old Testament, listen to a rabbi. You never do get it, do you? It's a biting indictment to suggest to them that they don't know what Scripture means, but they don't. “Didn't you ever read the story about David and what he did when he was in need when he was hungry and he and his companions?” The story is in 1 Samuel 21, don't have time to go to it but you can read it yourself. David was fleeing south from Gibeah because Saul was after him. Saul wanted to kill him.
He came, according to 1 Samuel 21:1 to Nob...N-o-b, that's about a mile north of Jerusalem. That's where the tabernacle was located. And he had no food and he was hungry. There he met the priest named Ahimelech and he asks the priest for food. Fleeing for his life, those who were with him, they were all hungry and he asks him for food. He asked him for at least five loaves of bread but was told by the priest that none was available.
Verse 4 of 1 Samuel 21 says, “And the priest answered David and said, “There's no common bread on hand.” I don't have any bread. “But...he said, interestingly, this priest, Ahimelech, “There is holy bread.” Holy bread? What is holy bread? And then he said, “If only the young men had kept themselves from women.”
In other words, I'm willing to let you have the holy bread if your men have been holy. They be confirmed in verse 5 they were holy, in that sense they were clean. Verse 6, “The priest gave him consecrated bread for there was no bread there but the bread of presence...it's called the bread of the presence, presence meaning God, the ever-present one, which was removed from before the Lord in order to put hot bread in its place.”
Let me tell you how that worked. Every Sabbath...every Sabbath, hot bread was brought inside the tabernacle to a golden table. Twelve loaves of hot bread were placed on a golden table inside the tabernacle in the presence of God, symbolizing the need for the twelve tribes to have fellowship with God.
The following Sabbath, the bread that had sat there for a week would be removed and more hot bread would be brought in to keep that symbol fresh. According to Leviticus 24 verses 5 to 9, this is called the bread of the presence. There were two rows, two piles of these twelve loaves. The old bread on the Sabbath when it was removed was to be eaten by priests only.
Now that was the provision that God had made. Verse 26 tells us what happened from Mark's record of what Jesus said. “David and his companions show up...as 1 Samuel 21 says. They enter the house of God, the tabernacle in the time of Abiathar the high priest.” The actual priest at the time was Ahimelech, but he was soon replaced and Abiathar had a lengthy priesthood during the time of David. So he is the one whose priesthood dominates that era. And they ate the consecrated bread which it is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests, and he also gave it to those who were with him. The priest was very, very wise. He understood that no ceremony should survive while some person dies. Ceremony is ceremony, ritual is symbolic. You don't save a ceremony and lose a person. It has its place, but mercy triumphs over ritual and ceremony.
This priest understood what anybody would understand, that's common sense. Nothing is as valuable as a life. It perhaps was actually a Sabbath when the old bread was coming out, and that's why he could say, “I could give this to you.”
So here on a Sabbath, not only were they eating bread but they were eating the bread that was symbolic of the twelve tribes before God and it was to be eaten only by priests. But all symbols are done away with when it comes to human need. Necessity always overrules ritual.
By the way, David was the king in exile. He was the true king, the nation had rejected him. If he had been in his rightful place as king, he and his men wouldn't have needed to eat this bread. And Jesus, the great Son of David, had been rejected by His nation and if they had received Him and He had been properly acknowledged as King, He wouldn't be eating grain in a field like a poor traveler, either.
Ceremony, ritual, tradition never stands in the way of mercy, kindness, goodness, necessity. But the Pharisees didn't care about that. They found people with burdens and did nothing to relieve them. They were furious that Jesus healed a man who had been sick for 38 years. They violated love. They violated mercy. They violated compassion. They had no concept of grace. And when Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful. For they shall obtain mercy,” He set Himself directly against them.
Here's the point. If David could be allowed by a priest to violate a divine symbol, perhaps on a Sabbath, then the disciples could be allowed by the Son of God to violate an unbiblical regulation on a Sabbath. It's that greater to lesser. If they could violate a divine prescription, certainly I can violate a human prescription. Their whole system is unbiblical, it is ungodly.
And then in verse 27 you have the sovereign interpreter of the Sabbath. The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. The Sabbath was made for rest and blessing and joy and mercy and compassion and the meeting of needs, there wouldn't be a better day in the week to heal somebody. There wouldn't be a better day in the week to provide food than the Sabbath.
And then Jesus dropped the bomb of all bombs on their self-righteous minds in verse 28, “So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” “I am,” He says, “the sovereign ruler over the Sabbath.” The Son of Man, again the messianic title, the Lord of he Sabbath, a stinging, impossible blasphemy to them. But He is the Lord of the Sabbath because He is God. I am the sovereign of this day. I designed this day. I am the Creator. Doesn't John say that at the beginning of his gospel? Everything made was made by Him, and without Him was anything made, so it was He who ceased to work, it was He who rested. It was He who ordained this day to be blessed and separated from work. I am the sovereign of this day. I am the interpreter of the will of God for this day. You do not rule the Sabbath. You do not set the standards of behavior for the Sabbath, I do. I interpret God's will and God's Word. Yes Jesus is the interpreter of God's will. He is the interpreter of God's Word. He is the interpreter of God's Law, not men. That is why, dear friends, we relentlessly follow the teaching revealed in Scripture and do not go beyond it. Jesus is narrow, narrow, narrow.
I very often am accused of that and I am very grateful for that accusation. I'm so thankful that people see me as narrow. I just hope they see Jesus as narrow, I'm following Him. I just read over the weekend a new book I wrote called The Jesus You Can't Ignore.It's not quite out yet, it will be out in a few weeks. The Jesus you can't ignore is this narrow confrontational Jesus who attacks false religious leaders, doesn't build bridges to them.
He assaults them and their corrupt systems. The gospel of grace, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel of God is something completely distinct from and separate from all offerings of false religion. He is Lord of the Sabbath. That claim over their pinnacle day which was the most defining feature of their religious system set Him in a place where they could not be satisfied until He was murdered. He dispenses grace and they dispensed brutal, merciless law. Hebrews 4:16 says, “Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
Our Lord, we come this morning to You, so grateful for that grace, so grateful for that mercy, grateful for the gentleness and meekness and tenderness and kindness and love which You show toward us as unworthy sinners and by which You forgive us of our sins and make us Your children. We thank You that we're not bound up, caught up in some obsessively relentlessly brutal legalistic system trying to earn our way to heaven, but we have been delivered from that and we have found a yoke that is easy and a burden that is light in our Savior. We thank You that salvation comes by faith, grace. This is the ringing, repeated, constant message of the New Testament unmistakably. This is the good news to weary, burdened, guilty sinners, stop all the self-effort, come to the cross, embrace grace, the gift of salvation comes if you repent and believe in Christ. May we proclaim it far and wide, even as our Lord did. May we have the strength and the courage to confront the error, never build a bridge to error, never look for common ground with those who preach a damning and deadly message. May we be as narrow as Jesus and just as loving. Help us to find that beautiful balance of meekness and gentleness and compassion and mercy and tenderness that flows right from Your heart, O God, through Your Son, through Your Spirit through us and at the same time hold tenaciously and even to fight for the truthfulness of the gospel that alone can save. We thank You again for another glimpse of the glory of Christ, we pray in His name. Amen
You may reproduce this Grace to You content for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Grace to You's Copyright Policy (http://www.gty.org/connect/copyright). | <urn:uuid:6a83f0af-06f1-48b2-9d72-b342a1284e77> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gty.org/resources/print/sermons/41-11 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98338 | 7,917 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Credit Charles D. Humphrey / CDC Public Health Image Library ID 10708
Think you're safe from norovirus, the nasty bug behind the stomach flu, if you steer clear of someone who has it?
Think again. Researchers in Oregon investigating an outbreak of stomach flu among some young soccer players learned the virus can hitch a ride on those reusable plastic bags many of us have gotten accustomed to carrying to and from the store.
Kimberly Lankford, personal finance writer for Kiplinger.com and Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine, talks to David Greene about the shifting market for long-term-care insurance, and if it is still worth buying.
Copyright 2012 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.
The stakes are high in the U.S. Supreme Court's consideration of the 2010 health law, as countless commentators have observed. In some circles, however, the gambling metaphor has been pushed to its logical conclusion. | <urn:uuid:da0b609a-3916-4238-8e51-5bfdf748f94d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kunc.org/term/health?page=341 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946832 | 201 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Tom Swift and His Airship/chapter8
WINNING A PRIZE
"Well, Tom, what happened?" asked Mr. Sharp, as he saw the trio running away. "Looks as if you had had an exciting time here."
"No, those fellows had all the excitement," declared Ned. "We had the fun." And the two lads proceeded to relate what had taken place.
"Tried to damage the airship, eh?" asked Mr. Sharp. "I wish I'd caught them at it, the scoundrels! But perhaps you handled them as well as I could have done."
"I guess so," assented Tom. "I must see if they did cut any of the wires."
But the young inventor and his chum had acted too quickly, and it was found that nothing had been done to the Red Cloud.
A little later the airship was taken out of the shed, and made ready for a trip. The gas ascension was first used, and Ned and Mr. Swift were passengers with Tom and Mr. Sharp. The machine went about a thousand feet up in the air, and then was sent in various directions, to the no small delight of a large crowd that gathered in the meadow back of the swift property; for it only required the sight of the airship looming its bulk above the fence and buildings, to attract a throng. It is safe to say this time, however, that Andy Foger and his cronies were not in the audience. They were probably too busy removing the soot and red paint.
Although it was the first time Mr. Swift had ever been in an airship, he evinced no great astonishment. In fact he seemed to be thinking deeply, and on some subject not connected with aeronautics. Tom noticed the abstraction of his father, and shook his head. Clearly the aged inventor was not his usual self.
As for Ned Newton his delight knew no bounds, At first he was a bit apprehensive as the big ship went higher and higher, and swung about, but he soon lost his fear, and enjoyed the experience as much as did Tom. The young inventor was busy helping Mr. Sharp manage the machinery, rudders-planes and motor.
A flight of several miles was made, and Tom was wishing they might pay another visit to the Rocksmond Seminary, but Mr. Sharp, after completing several evolutions, designed to test the steering qualities of the craft, put back home.
"We'll land in the meadow and try rising by the planes alone," he said. In this evolution it was deemed best for Mr. Swift and Ned to alight, as there was no telling just how the craft would behave. Tom's father was very willing to get out, but Ned would have remained in, only for the desire of his friend.
With the two propellers whirring at a tremendous speed, and all the gas out of the aluminum container, the Red Cloud shot forward, running over the level ground of the meadow, where a starting course had been laid out.
"Clear the track!" cried Mr. Sharp, as he saw the crowd closing up in front of him. The men, boys, several girls and women made a living lane. Through this shot the craft, and then, when sufficient momentum had been obtained, Tom, at a command from the aeronaut, pulled the lever of the elevation rudder. Up into the air shot the nose of the Red Cloud as the wind struck the slanting surface of the planes, and, a moment later it was sailing high above the heads of the throng.
"That's the stuff!" cried Mr. Sharp. "It works as well that way as it does with the gas!"
Higher and higher it went, and then, coming to a level keel, the craft was sent here and there, darting about like a bird, and going about in huge circles.
"Start the gas machine, and we'll come to rest in the air," said the balloonist, and Tom did so. As the powerful vapor filled the container the ship acquired a bouyancy, and there was no need of going at high speed in order to sustain it. The propellers were stopped, and the Red Cloud floated two thousand feet in the air, only a little distance below some fleecy, white masses from which she took her name. The demonstration was a great success. The gas was again allowed to escape, the propellers set in motion, and purely as an aeroplane, the ship was again sent forward. By means of the planes and rudders a perfect landing was made in the meadow, a short distance from where the start had been made. The crowd cheered the plucky youth and Mr. Sharp.
"Now I'm ready to go on a long trip any time you are, Tom," said the aeronaut that night.
"We'll fit up the car and get ready," agreed the youth. "How about you, dad?"
"Me? Oh, well—er—that is, you see; well, I'll think about it," and Mr. Swift went to his own room, carrying with him a package of papers, containing intricate calculations.
Tom shook his head, but said nothing. He could not understand his father's conduct.
Work was started the next day on fitting up the car, or cabin, of the airship, so that several persons could live, eat and sleep in it for two weeks, if necessary. The third day after this task had been commenced the mail brought an unusual communication to Tom and Mr. Sharp. It was from an aero club of Blakeville, a city distant about a hundred miles, and stated that a competition for aeroplanes and dirigible balloons was to be held in the course of two weeks. The affair was designed to further interest in the sport, and also to demonstrate what progress had been made in the art of conquering the air. Prizes were to be given, and the inventors of the Red Cloud, the achievements of which the committee of arrangements had heard, were invited to compete.
"Shall we go in for it, Tom?" asked the balloonist.
"I'm willing if you are."
"Then let's do it. We'll see how our craft shows up alongside of others. I know something of this club. It is all right, but the carnival is likely to be a small one. Once I gave a balloon exhibition for them. The managers are all right. Well, we'll have a try at it. Won't do us any harm to win a prize. Then for a long trip!"
As it was not necessary to have the car, or cabin, completely fitted up in order to compete for the prize, work in that direction was suspended for the time being, and more attention was paid to the engine, the planes and rudders. Some changes were made and, a week later the Red Cloud departed for Blakeville. As the rules of the contest required three passengers, Ned Newton was taken along, Mr. Swift having arranged with the bank president so that the lad could have a few days off.
The Red Cloud arrived at the carnival grounds in the evening, having been delayed on the trip by a broken cog wheel, which was mended in mid-air. As the three navigators approached, they saw a small machine flying around the grounds.
"Look!" cried Ned excitedly. "What a small airship."
"That's a monoplane," declared Tom, who was getting to be quite an expert.
"Yes, the same kind that was used to cross the English Channel," interjected Mr. Sharp. "They're too uncertain for my purposes, though they are all right under certain conditions."
Hardly had he spoken than a puff of wind caused the daring manipulator of the monoplane to swerve to one side. He had to make a quick descent—so rapid was it, in fact, that the tips of one of his planes was smashed.
"It'll take him a day to repair that," commented the aeronaut dryly.
The Red Cloud created a sensation as she slowly settled down in front of the big tent assigned to her. Tom's craft was easily the best one at the carnival, so far, though the managers said other machines were on the way.
The exhibition opened the next day, but no flights were to be attempted until the day following. Two more crafts arrived, a large triplane, and a dirigible balloon. There were many visitors to the ground, and Tom, Ned and Mr. Sharp were kept busy answering questions put by those who crowded into their tent. Toward the close of the day a fussy little Frenchman entered, and, making his way to where Tom stood, asked:
"Air you ze ownair of zis machine?"
"One of them," replied the lad.
"Ha! Sacre! Zen I challenge you to a race. I have a monoplane zat is ze swiftest evaire! One thousand francs will I wager you, zat I can fly higher and farther zan you."
"Shall we take him up, Mr. Sharp?" asked Tom.
"We'll race with him, after we get through with the club entries," decided the aeronaut, "but not for money. It's against my principles, and I don't believe your father would like it. Racing for prizes is a different thing."
"Well, we will devote ze money to charity," conceded the Frenchman. This was a different matter, and one to which Mr. Sharp did not object, so it was arranged that a trial should take place after the regular affairs.
That night was spent in getting the Red Cloud in shape for the contests of the next day. She was "groomed" until every wire was taut and every cog, lever and valve working perfectly. Ned Newton helped all he could. So much has appeared in the newspapers of the races at Blakeville that I will not devote much space here to them. Suffice it to say that the Red Cloud easily distanced the big dirigible from which much was expected. It was a closer contest with the large triplane, but Tom's airship won, and was given the prize, a fine silver cup.
As the carnival was a small one, no other craft in a class with the Red Cloud had been entered, so Tom and Mr. Sharp had to be content with the one race they won. There were other contests among monoplanes and biplanes, and the little Frenchman won two races.
"Now for ze affaire wis ze monstaire balloon of ze rouge color!" he cried, as he alighted from his monoplane while an assistant filled the gasolene tank. "I will in circles go around you, up and down, zis side zen ze ozzer, and presto! I am back at ze starting place, before you have begun. Zen charity shall be ze richair!"
"All right, wait and see," said Tom, easily. But, though he showed much confidence he asked Mr. Sharp in private, just before the impromptu contest: "Do you think we can beat him?"
"Well," said the aeronaut, shrugging his shoulders, "you can't tell much about the air. His machine certainly goes very fast, but too much wind will be the undoing of him, while it will only help us. And I think," he added, "that we're going to get a breeze."
It was arranged that the Red Cloud would start from the ground, without the use of the gas, so as to make the machines more even. At the signal off they started, the motors making a great racket. The monoplane with the little Frenchman in the seat got up first.
"Ah, ha!" he cried gaily, "I leave you in ze rear! Catch me if you can!"
"Don't let him beat us," implored Ned.
"Can't you speed her up any more?" inquired Tom of Mr. Sharp.
The aeronaut nodded grimly, and turned more gasolene into the twenty-cylindered engine. Like a flash the Red Cloud darted forward. But the Frenchman also increased his speed and did, actually, at first, circle around the bigger machine, for his affair was much lighter. But when he tried to repeat that feat he found that he was being left behind.
"That's the stuff! We're winning!" yelled Tom, Ned joining in the shout.
Then came a puff of wind. The monoplane had to descend, for it was in danger of turning turtle. Still the navigator was not going to give up. He flew along at a lower level. Then Mr. Sharp opened up the Red Cloud's engine at full speed, and it was the big machine which now sailed around the other.
"I protest! I protest!" cried the Frenchman, above the explosions of his motor. "Ze wind is too strong for me!"
Mr. Sharp said nothing, but, with a queer smile on his face he sent the airship down toward the earth. A moment later he was directly under the monoplane. Then, quickly rising, he fairly caught the Frenchman's machine on top of a square platform of the gas container, the bicycle wheels of the monoplane resting on the flat surface. And, so swiftly did the Red Cloud fly along that it carried the monoplane with it, to the chagrin of the French navigator.
"A trick! A trick!" he cried. "Eet is not fair!"
Then, dropping down, Mr. Sharp allowed the monoplane to proceed under its own power, while he raced on to the finish mark, winning, of course, by a large margin.
"Ha! A trick! I race you to-morrow and again to-morrow!" cried the beaten Frenchman as he alighted.
"No, thanks," answered Tom. "We've had enough. I guess charity will be satisfied."
The little Frenchman was a good loser, and paid over the money, which was given to the Blakeville Hospital, the institution receiving it gladly.
At the request of the carnival committee, Mr. Sharp and Tom gave an exhibition of high and long flights the next day, and created no little astonishment by their daring feats.
"Well, I think we have reason to be proud of our ship," remarked Mr. Sharp that night. "We won the first contest we were ever in, and beat that speedy monoplane, which was no small thing to do, as they are very fast."
"But wait until we go on our trip," added Tom, as he looked at the cup they had won. He little realized what danger they were to meet with in the flight that was before them. | <urn:uuid:70d8dcb1-0fa6-40d4-85ba-59848649f8c7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Tom_Swift_and_His_Airship/chapter8 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988882 | 3,101 | 1.71875 | 2 |
This work is licensed under a Attribution Creative Commons license
Just received an email from MediACT about the regression in democracy under the Lee Myung-bak regime, in particular the Grand National Party's (GNP) and conservative newspapers' attempt to take-over of public broadcasting and the replacement of major broadcasting networks' executives with pro-government figure. MediACT, South Korea’s first public media center, has become one of the victims of the regression, as the Korean Film Council has decided to dismantle the media center and force its staff to resign as of February 1. To support SaveMediact petition, please visit petition online.
Below are the background of the current situation in South Korea (copied from petition online)
The world has watched as South Korea has moved from dictatorship toward democracy, over the last half a century at great cost. However, democracy, including incredible advances made in the culture and media sectors, has suffered serious damage in South Korea under the Lee Myung-bak regime. This damage has been inflected by way of unilateral passage of new media and news laws, the Grand National Party's (GNP) and conservative newspapers' attempt to take-over of public broadcasting and the evening news in particular, and the replacement of major broadcasting networks' executives with pro-government figure. Furthermore, a principle of checks-and-balances among the executive, the legislative, and the judicial branches of the government has been repeatedly violated and weakened the legitimacy of democratic governance.
South Korea in the past two years has been witness to the use of the Public Prosecutor's Office to detain and question journalists critical of the government, infringing on the professional autonomy of rank-and-file reporters and threatening the development of a free and independent press. In addition, the National Tax Service has been used to mobilize politically-motivated institutional audits, while various ministries have been involved in the revocation of NGO licenses and contracts, forced personnel changes, budget cuts, imposition of a real name registration system, pressing of charges of national security violations, and investigations into family members of media movement activists and cultural sector leaders that have been classified as "Born in the Time of DJ (Kim Dae-jung), and Raised by Roh Moo-hyun."
During the past year there have been several forced resignations and/or illegal firings, many of which the Seoul Administrative Court has determined have been illegal but not reversible. While the list is extensive and include the massive personnel and budget cuts at both South Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the NHRCK that violates the latter's autonomy outlined and protected under Article 10 of the Constitution, notable incidents include:
* Arts Council Korea (ARKO) Chief Executive Officer and Chairman Kim Jung-heun
* National Museum of Contemporary Art Director Kim Yoon-soo
* Korean National University of Arts President Hwang Ji-woo
* KBS President Jung Yun-joo
* KBS Director Shin Tae-seop
* National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) Chairperson Ahn Kyung-whan
There have also been:
* many resignations made under political protest of four MBC Board of Directors members and media personality Kim Je-dong
* the parachute appointment of the YTN president
* the defunding of Migrant Worker TV
* the defunding of the Seoul Human Rights Film Festival hosted by Sarangbang
* defunding of RTV (national public access satellite cable channel/ a must-carry channel that launched in 2007)
* an attack on Article 38 of the Broadcast Law stipulating that funds are to be used for supporting viewer-produced programs and providing broadcast access to those otherwise excluded from the mainstream
* shut-down of Indie-Space
These and numerous other instances that suggest consequences of a democracy that is taking backward steps in South Korea have been drawing international attention, including from:
* Experts serving on the United Nations (UN) Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR)
* Reporters without Borders (Reporters sans frontieres, RSF) (According to its 2009 World Press Freedom index, South Korea has dropped 30 places in the past year under President Lee)
* Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
* Amnesty International
* International Coordinating Committee (ICC) of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection Human Rights
* Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions
* Asia Human Rights Commission & a Statement From Professors In North America Concerned About Korean Democracy.
In addition to calls being made to KOFIC at (02)958-7521 or 02-9587-526 and emails being sent to email@example.com.
We now join those concerned over the regression of democracy in South Korea that has now taken the form of an attack on Mediact, South Korea’s first public media center that has since its founding represented South Korea internationally as a leader in communication rights and democracy, media literacy, intellectual property rights, and public interest media.
Since 2002, Mediact has stewarded a contract to support independent film and video makers, media policy development, lifelong media education and public access. For seven years, it has provided an infrastructure focusing on the potential of creating a public media sector based on both shifting technological possibilities of access to the media and ongoing political democratization processes taking place in South Korea.
Mediact’s facilities are funded by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC), what is supposed to be an autonomous organization funded by the central government to promote Korean cinema within the country and overseas, and an independent activist organization managed by the Association of Korean Independent Film & Video (KIFV). We are highly alarmed by the new KOFIC Chairman's recent decision to dismantle Mediact and force its staff to resign as of February 1.
As Mediact’s counterparts in the international community, we have been long inspired by Mediact’s visionary leadership in the areas of media policy, media education, media production and communication rights. We, the undersigned, urge the government of President Lee Myung-bak to recognize its responsibility for the democracy that has regressed and reorient itself as a government that respects the people's sovereignty and South Korea's continued leadership in media and communication rights. We ask KOFIC together with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to reverse this decision immediately.
This work is licensed under a Attribution Creative Commons license | <urn:uuid:8c9e0504-c956-461e-b402-b2c9b06311bb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://interlocals.net/?q=node/331 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941238 | 1,338 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Having read the GOP's foreign-policy platform, with its slashing critique of the president, I can say this: A Romney foreign policy would likely wind up looking much like Obama's. Despite a call for another "American century" in which we possess the "strongest military and strongest economy," a President Romney would soon confront the realities of today's world.
For starters, a hefty part of the GOP's foreign-policy platform, and its call for global leadership, focuses on boosting the size and weaponry of the military. Indeed, Romney wants to jack up defense spending even while slashing taxes. That dream will soon fade if he reaches the White House. The numbers simply will not add up.
The biggest threat to the defense budget comes from possible across-the-board defense cuts that will be triggered if the two parties can't agree on how to slash the deficit. The onus is on Republicans, who voted for the automatic cuts and have refused to consider a compromise with Democrats that could avoid them.
Even if a bipartisan miracle occurs, and a compromise is agreed to, the economy won't sustain the kind of defense budget Republicans dream of. President Romney would be forced to make the same calculations as did Obama: how to protect U.S. security and sustain America's global leadership in an era of budgetary restraint.
There are hints that some of the platform's authors recognize the problem. The document ignores Iraq, and hardly mentions Afghanistan (except to
In other words, some Republicans conclude, as Obama did, that we can't indefinitely maintain a large fighting force in foreign countries.
That same collision with reality is likely to temper other GOP foreign-policy dreams.
On fighting terrorism, the platform bizarrely chides Obama for dropping the phrase global war on terror and attacks his "weak" response to international terrorism. His decision to green-light the operation that killed Osama bin Laden barely elicits a snide comment. Yet Romney would no doubt find himself following the same antiterrorist policy as Obama's -- using drones and special forces -- because so few good options exist.
And then there's Iran, and the effort to halt Tehran's suspected nuclear enrichment program. The platform denounces Obama's "failed engagement policy" with Iran, leaving out any mention of the draconian international sanctions imposed on Tehran under U.S. pressure.
Despite his bellicose rhetoric about military options, a President Romney would soon hear from Pentagon brass that the costs of a military strike on Iran's enrichment sites would be high, and might not even stop Iran's nuclear program. He'd also hear that if Israel attacks Tehran on its own (encouraged by Republican leaders), this would further inflame an unstable region, while practically guaranteeing Iran would go for a bomb.
In other words, Romney would face the same roster of bad choices that confront Obama. He'd learn that the threat of an Islamist takeover of nuclear-armed Pakistan is far more dangerous than the uncertain likelihood of an Iranian nuclear breakout. (Pakistan is hardly mentioned in the Republican platform, except for the bromide that we should "expect" the Pakistan government to sever connections with insurgents. Good luck!)
Romney would also learn that there are no good options when it comes to the Syrian revolt against President Bashar al-Assad. (Indeed, while denouncing Obama for not doing more, his top foreign-policy aides have said in Tampa that Romney isn't ready to support calls for establishing a no-fly zone inside Syria.)
And as for Israel -- for which the Republican platform pledges "unequivocal support" -- a Romney White House would also be faced with the tragic realities that Obama confronted.
Obama, too, offered unequivocal support to Israel. He envisioned two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, side by side, with secure borders -- as the Republican platform specifies. But here's what the platform ignores: Any prospect of a two-state solution is being foreclosed by Jewish settlements that divide the occupied West Bank into cantons. Even if the Mideast stabilizes, and new Arab leaders seek peace, the two-state option will no longer exist.
Republicans castigated Obama for trying (unsuccessfully) to persuade Israel that its settlement policy was self-destructive. But a Romney presidency would have to deal with the repercussions of a policy that locks Israelis and Palestinians into one state.
The bottom line: It's easy to talk tough, and channel the ghost of Ronald Reagan, when writing a foreign-policy platform. But once in the White House, Republicans would find that -- in these straitened times -- it's much tougher to project American power, and takes more careful calculation.
One can debate how best to project U.S. leadership in such times. My guess is that Romney would find himself following Obama's lead far more than he anticipates, or would like.
Trudy Rubin is a columnist and editorial-board member for the Philadelphia Inquirer. She may be reached at email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:7696f539-b425-4578-9e98-64814895b0a5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.twincities.com/opinion/ci_21445477/gop-foreign-policy-shows-its-easy-talk-tough?source=rss | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955213 | 1,021 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Checking Permissions Before Installing Android Apps is Always a Good Idea
mobilesecurity.com [San Francisco, CA] When a celebrity releases an app, it might be reasonable for them to expect to become a target for cybercriminals. So when they actively encourage others to mess with their code, you know it won’t be long before something makes the news. It’s almost as though being in the public eye isn’t enough for them, they’re setting themselves up intentionally to create a little extra PR. Of course here at mobilesecurity.com we’re not nearly so cynical.
Barely a day goes by without a celebrity twitter account getting hacked (Justin Bieber – you are not alone), fake photos of naked pop stars turning up on a gossip site, or perhaps genuine sex videos of celebrities appear on video-sharing sites, posted by a jealous and angry ex-boyfriend. However, the latest celeb-related hacking news doesn’t involve social media or dodgy photos and videos – it’s the news that Bjork’s app Biophilia has now been ported to Android OS, but with a catch.
When Bjork released her music-sharing and rating app for iTunes, there was a minor grumble from the masses, pointing out that these days it’s considered de rigueur for apps to be released on Android and iOS concurrently – or at least to have a plan in place for offering your app to users of both major mobile operating systems. Bjork’s response to questions was to set a challenge for ‘pirates’ to create their own Android edition.
Android developers duly obliged – but rather than simply write an app that mirrored the features and functions of Bjork’s iTunes app, they added functionality that gave access to parts of the phone you weren’t expecting. So whilst it might seem we’re going over old ground here at mobilesecurity.com, it would be remiss of us not to remind you that apps require permissions. But more importantly, they require you to agree to those permissions.
If you’re installing a golf game that wants access to your contacts or to know the status of your phone - think twice. If you’re installing an app from a celebrity that has several versions in your app market, then you might want to check who the genuine developer of the app is. | <urn:uuid:8d7a2877-d9fe-481a-9bf8-8dd413a6c685> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mobilesecurity.com/articles/224-checking-permissions-before-installing-android-apps-is-always-a-good-idea | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937808 | 505 | 1.679688 | 2 |
The Crocodile pictured above is one shot by Steve Curle as a ‘problem animal’ which had been attacking and killing fully grown cows. Steve works with local Zimbabwe communities and National Parks assisting with problem animal control (PAC). Many of the crocs he shoots are known man-eaters and some of the largest crocs in the world.
While Steve does not hunt professionally, he has a long hunting background and has come to know these creatures intimately, and believes that man-eaters behave differently to other crocs and while bold, will be extremely wary of any approach by hunters.
This giant crocodile was shot in the extreme north of Zimbabwe on the border with Mozambique and unfortunately, circumstances did not allow for a measurement. However, several estimates have put it at over 16 feet long. | <urn:uuid:43f85d3d-f2d8-4b1f-b0bd-23d6aad0501a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thecrawlstreetjournal.com/2012/04/20/monster-croc/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970521 | 166 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Only one Supreme Court Justice seemed keen on overturning Indiana's voter identification law, Los Angeles Times reporter David Savage noted in a January 9 article at latimes.com. That would be liberal Clinton appointee Ruth Bader Ginsburg. But while Savage noted that "conservatives [were] leading the way," in questioning the validity of the Indiana Democrats' complaint about the law, he failed to note Ginsburg's ideological leanings. Nor did he suggest she's out on a far-left limb since none of other liberal colleagues shared her concerns:
It's bound to be overlooked by the media at-large in large part due to the Iowa caucuses, but a court ruling that burdens the U.S. Navy with yet another environmentally-driven restriction was handed down from a federal district court judge yesterday. That judge, the Hon. Florence-Marie Cooper, is a Clinton appointee, a fact unreported by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's Robert McClure (emphasis mine):
A federal judge forbade the Navy on Thursday from using a powerful form of sonar within 12 miles of the California coast and slapped other restrictions on naval war exercises in a ruling that could have repercussions in the Pacific Northwest.
U.S. District Judge Florence Marie-Cooper [sic] said noise from the Navy's midfrequency sonar far outstrips levels at which federal rules require ear protection for humans on the job. Whales' hearing is extremely sensitive.
"The court is persuaded that the (protection) scheme proposed by the Navy is grossly inadequate to protect marine mammals from debilitating levels of sonar exposure," Marie-Cooper wrote in her ruling.
The Navy offered to reduce the sonar's intensity when whales approached within about 1,100 yards and power down further before shutting the sonar off when the creatures got within 200 yards. The judge ordered sonar shut off when marine mammals are within 2,200 yards.
Wednesday night's CNN/YouTube presidential debate for the Republican candidates largely lived up to its promise to be a debate fitting for Republican voters as the vast majority of the questions used were asked from a conservative point of view. But the GOP debate's slant toward conservative questions was less than the July 23 CNN/YouTube Democratic debate's slant toward liberal questions. On Wednesday, out of a total of 34 video questions presented, conservative questions outnumbered liberal questions by 14 to 8, with the remaining questions ideologically ambiguous or neutral. During the Democratic debate, out of a total of 38 video questions, the slant toward liberal questions came in at 17 liberal to 6 conservative, with the remainder ambiguous or neutral.
Teasing a story about the Supreme Court agreeing to hear an appeal concerning the Washington, D.C. handgun gun and whether it violates the 2nd Amendment's protection of an individual's right to keep and bear arms, CBSNews.com employed an ominous-looking graphic on its home page.
Pictured at right is the CBS/AP graphic showing in the foreground a right hand grasping a handgun, with an outline of the continental United States overlaid atop an American flag. Superimposed on the map and flag are the concentric circles of a shooting target. The corresponding story can be found here.
By contrast, ABCNews.com chose for its front page and story a graphic depicting a handgun beneath the seal of the United States Supreme Court (shown below the fold):
CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux, while moderating the second half of the Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas on Thursday night, added her own "two cents" to a question she fielded from an "undecided voter." After the voter asked the nominees what qualifications a Supreme Court nominee should possess, Malveaux directed the question to Senator Christopher Dodd, and added whether or not he would "require nominees to support abortion rights."
LaShannon Spencer, who was identified as a member of the First African Methodist Church, asked the question near the top of the 10 pm Eastern hour. She highlighted how health care and the Iraq war had, in her view, dominated the questions during past debates. "We constantly hear health care questions, and questions pertaining to the war. But we don't hear questions pertaining to the Supreme Court justice or education. My question is, if you are elected president, what qualities must the appointee possess?"
"Thank God for CSPAN," Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas declares in his recently released memoirs entitled: "My Grandfather's Son."
Without the "gavel to gavel" coverage made available through an alternative media source Thomas tells readers he may not have had the opportunity to present himself to the American people in a compelling and straightforward manner.
Press coverage of his highly charged confirmation hearing before the U.S. Senate 16 years ago was very weighted in favor of his critics, especially Anita Hill, the Supreme Court Justice recalls in his book.
Thomas contends Hill was in fact a "left-winger" who was permitted to serve up a false image of herself in testimony, thanks in no small part to a compliant media.
Sunny Hostin, a legal analyst for CNN’s "American Morning," demonstrated that she could not give an objective analysis on the legality of the death penalty during a segment on Wednesday’s show. Hostin, in a response to a question asked by co-host Kiran Chetry on the future of capitol punishment in the U.S., answered, "I think, as a society, perhaps, now we're moving towards the fact that, perhaps, killing by the state is not humane at all."
This "curious" reply, which came 21 minutes into the 7 am hour of "American Morning," wasn’t the only one Hostin made during the segment. Earlier, Hostin said that "people really are suffering" during lethal injection executions.
Saturday's lead editorial in the New York Times celebrated Al Gore's Nobel Peace Prize for his work on "global warming," "A Prize for Mr. Gore and Science." Before the praise, the Times stopped to spout misstatements on Gore's effort to overturn the 2000 election results.
"One can generate a lot of heartburn thinking about all of the things that would be better about this country and the world if the Supreme Court had done the right thing and ruled for Al Gore instead of George W. Bush in 2000. Mr. Gore certainly hasn't let his disappointment stop him from putting the time since to very good use.
But the Supreme Court "ruling for Al Gore" would not have automatically put Gore in the White House, as the paper assumes. Gore asked for a statewide manual recount -- which the Times's own comprehensive report shows Bush would have won.
The principle that there is a presumption of innocence in favor of the accused is the undoubted law, axiomatic and elementary, and its enforcement lies at the foundation of the administration of our criminal law -- U.S. Supreme Court, Coffin v. United States .
Was [there] enough evidence to find that they were not guilty? -- ABC News, Matter of Martin Lee Anderson .
Forget that musty old 19th-century Supreme Court stuff. According to ABC, there's a new legal standard in criminal cases; at least those in which the MSM is rooting for a conviction. Henceforth, the presumption of innocence is abolished. There shall be a presumption of guilt, and the burden will be on the accused to produce enough evidence to acquit himself.
Reacting to the not-guilty verdicts in the Florida boot camp case involving the death of a 14-year old African-American boy, CNN anchor Don Lemon found the result "surprising." And both he and CNN reporter Susan Candiotti made clear that they bought into the prosecution's portrayal of the videotape of the incident.
Just before the verdicts came down, there was this exchange [emphasis added].
DON LEMON: How much of a role did this tape play into [sic] this trial?
SUSAN CANDIOTTI: Oh huge. This is the main evidence, isn't it? And as one of the prosecutors said, "there might not be sound on this tape, but it is screaming at you, 'why didn't someone do something?'"
Former ABC reporter Michel Martin has a history of one-sided bashing of Clarence Thomas. In 1994, the reporter then known as Michel McQueen helmed a 60-minute special on the ABC prime-time magazine Turning Point highlighting women who charged Anita Hill was right and Clarence Thomas was wrong. Pro-Thomas colleagues at the EEOC were not interviewed.
Outraged now at the new Clarence Thomas autobiography My Grandfather’s Son, Martin used her new forum, the National Public Radio talk show Tell Me More, to interview Angela Wright, a disgruntled employee that Thomas fired, who then denigrated him on NPR as "a mean-spirited, nasty, you know, fairly unstable person" who carried around "his self-loathing and his hatred for anything black or civil rights-oriented or affirmative action." She claimed that the Democrats never wanted her to testify. But the actual record from the hearing clearly shows that Sen. Joe Biden read a letter to Wright saying he would honor her request if she wished to testify, and then attached a statement from Wright saying "From Angela Wright, 'I agree the admission of the transcript of my interview and that of Miss Jourdain's in the record without rebuttal at the hearing represents my position and is completely satisfactory to me.'"
In its October 9 editorial, the Toledo Blade condemns Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas for his ongoing "savaging" of Anita Hill.
In a decidedly one-sided article, Hill is hailed as a hero for coming forward with her unsubstantiated sexual harassment allegations in 1991 against then-nominee Thomas. According to the Blade:
The Thomas confirmation hearings were painful to watch, but they were also important because they blew away the veil of complacency over sexual harassment. Women - and even some men - were empowered by Ms. Hill's testimony to step forward and file complaints and lawsuits against sexist practices that permeated the workplace and other areas of society.
Following ABC’s lead and sixteen years of puffball precedent, a CNN camera crew with an unidentified reporter caught up with Anita Hill in New York City and threw softball questions at her. The interview aired on Tuesday’s "The Situation Room," at the bottom of the 5 pm Eastern hour. The "unidentified male" used the term "painful" in two of his questions to describe Hill’s past in the Clarence Thomas saga. For example, "Do you think your experience, as painful as it was, changed the society and its approach to this particular issue?" I guess that’s the kind of "withering scrutiny from the press" Robin Roberts was referring to on Tuesday’s "Good Morning America."
The full transcript of the Anita Hill interview from Tuesday’s "The Situation Room:"
Is "The View’s" Joy Behar comparing Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to O.J. Simpson? With a comment on the October 2 edition of the women’s chat show, it sounded like it. The "Hot Topic" discussion involved Justice Thomas’ new book "My Grandfather’s Son" and Anita Hill’s sexual harassment allegations. In that context, Joy Behar offered the following snarky remark.
"Why is he writing this book? He won basically the round. He’s the Supreme Court Justice for life. He should write a book, ‘If I Harassed Her.’"
Presumably she was alluding to O.J. Simpson’s book, "If I Did It." Joy’s comments amused even the show’s "conservative" Elisabeth Hasselbeck.
According to CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, the election of a Republican president in 2008 will bring a certain end to Roe v. Wade.
Toobin has made the rounds promoting his new book, The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court. In a recent Time.com article (a straight question-and-answer account of his interview), Toobin stated the following:
Time.com: Your book strongly suggests that personalities and personal views are more important than case law.
Apparently the media is only interested in secret surveillance programs when they are conducted by the United States government against enemies of this country. When similar measures are used by the City of New York to track employees, the press collectively yawns. Based on cell-phone GPS tracking records, administrative Judge Tynia Richard in New York has recommended that a city employee be fired for leaving work early. Fair enough. However, there are a few questions I would like to raise in regards to this decicion. Firstly, the employee in question, one Mark Halpin, was issued a city phone without being told that it contained a GPS system that would be used to track his movements. This sounds suspiciously like covert surveillance to me. Secondly, it turns out that Halpin often showed up for for work as many as two hours earlier than his shift began. However, the judge did not take that into account. According to the New York Post,
Halpin questioned the reliability of the data and argued that his privacy was invaded, since officials tracked him when he wasn't at work.
To those who may not be familiar with the case, this is essentially a test case as to whether the United States government has the legal authority to perform secret surveillance on anyone. The plaintiff is a Muslim organization called Al-Haramain that has been linked to a variety of Muslim terrorist organizations and has been shuttered in many countires for its unabashed laundering of money to said terrorists. Even the United Nations has placed Al-Haramain on its list of banned organizations.
On Monday's MSNBC Live with Dan Abrams, host and MSNBC general manager Abrams opened his show lambasting Karl Rove, tagging him the "Constitutional Crippler" for accusing judges of "bending the law" while Rove, Abrams contended, was doing much the same. Abrams: "If Karl Rove had been a professional wrestler, they might have called him 'the Constitutional Crippler.' Abrams further accused Rove of "hypocrisy" and of "shifting rules to accommodate his political objectives" as the MSNBC general manager declared that he would "not shed a tear" at Rove's departure.
Notoriously left-wing New York Times court reporter Linda Greenhouse, famous for her 2006 rant against Republicans, "religious fundamentalism," and illegal immigration opponents has apparently learned from her mistake.
No, she hasn't decided that someone with such fervently liberal positions needs a conservative counterpart on the beat. Instead, she decided that television cameras need to be banned from her public appearances:
For Supreme Court buffs who watch C-SPAN, yesterday morning was one of disappointment. A promising panel discussion, “Covering the Court(s): Reporters on the Supreme Court Beat,” that included a bevy of court reporting superstars -- like Charles Lane from The Washington Post and Dahlia Lithwick from Slate -- was to be televised. But, at the last minute, the plug was pulled on the C-SPAN cameras because the queen bee of Supreme Court reporters, Linda Greenhouse of The New York Times refused to join the panel if the event was going to be covered by the wonky news channel.
In his recent blog ("Making Headlines: The Law, Summer 2007"), CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen describes his midsummer night's dream of legal headlines he would "like to see, but probably won't." In the tradition of another more-famous CBS employee, Cohen lists his "top ten" legal headlines - a wish list with an obvious liberal slant.
Here are some of Cohen's headlines, along with the necessary translation.
When liberals aren't taunting conservatives with death wishes, they will often, under a guise of concern, talk of how hopefully this brush with fate will give the conservative a more humane, compassionate, less restrictive outlook on life (i.e., become a Democrat).
There's an undercurrent of that in New York Times Supreme Court reporter Linda Greenhouse's "Supreme Court Memo," "Uncertainty Now in a Golden Youth's Trajectory," on Chief Justice John Roberts' seizure. Greenhouse evidently hoped that Roberts' brush with fallibility will soften the whiz-kid conservative's heart.
In a sympathetic story, reporter Russ Buettner relayed the plight of local property owners fighting abuse of eminent domain -- the taking of private property for public use -- by local governments. Such "takings" were made infamous by Kelo vs. New London, the controversial 2005 Supreme Court decision which found that the city of New London, Conn., was within its rights to condemn private property and hand it to a development corporation under the control of the city government, a decision that enraged left and right alike.
Liberals love to decry the Bush administration's alleged undermining of the rule of law. The lead editorial in today's New York Times, for example, demands Congress "not capitulate in the White House’s attempt to rob it of its constitutional powers."
But ironically, just below the editorial appears a column by one Jean Edward Smith brazenly entitled "Stacking the Court." Far from condemning the possibility, the author, a Marshall University professor, endorses the prospect as a means of coercing the Supreme Court into issuing rulings more to his, and his fellow liberals', liking.
Threatens Smith, with all the subtlety of a mobster telling a mark he'd hate to see anything happen to his kids:
If the current five-man majority persists in thumbing its nose at popular values, the election of a Democratic president and Congress could provide a corrective. It requires only a majority vote in both houses to add a justice or two. Chief Justice John Roberts and his conservative colleagues might do well to bear in mind that the roll call of presidents who have used this option includes not just Roosevelt but also Adams, Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln and Grant.
The recent additions of Justices Jonathan Roberts and Samuel Alito have admittedly changed the balance of power in the Supreme Court. It was inevitable that the Court would take a conservative turn. Equally inevitable was the media's hysterical reaction.
A narrow decision on partial birth abortion was described as reversing the precedent of Roe vs. Wade. A school zoning decision was touted by irresponsible commentators as having overturned Brown v. Board of Education. These decisions, and others, have led to personal attacks upon Roberts and Alito, as well as public pleas from legal analysts to the Court's new swing vote Justice Kennedy to "moderate" his position.
Last August, a federal judge ruled that it was unconstitutional to monitor overseas conversations with suspected terrorists. On August 18, 2006, ABC’s "Good Morning America" treated the decision as a monumental event. However, Saturday’s GMA greeted the overturning of that decision by a federal appeals judge with a solitary 13 second news brief.
In contrast, reporter Jessica Yellin described the original ruling last August as a "stinging setback" and the program highlighted a professor who said it could ultimately lead to President Bush’s impeachment. Yellin, who colorfully described the decision as "essentially accus[ing] the President of acting like a king,"also highlighted this comment about Bush from George Washington University professor Jonathan Turley:
Jonathan Turley: "He could be impeached. And people should not be underestimating that."
The following was submitted by Jason Aslinger, a private practice attorney in Greenville, Ohio. Portions in bold below are the added emphasized of NB managing editor Ken Shepherd. It's a long post but it's worth the read:
In the wake of last week’s Supreme Court decision regarding racial
integration in public schools, the media have gone out of their way to
obscure the facts for the purpose of advancing its familiar political
agenda, not to mention skipped over giving readers a glimpse of the concurring opinions of Justices Thomas and Kennedy, both of which shed light on the case's significance to the average American.
In a prior NewsBusters post, I called out MSNBC's Keith
Olbermann for his false and race-baiting claim that the Supreme Court
had “overturned” the landmark decision of Brown v. Board of Education.
The subsequent commentary by the media has at least been more clever,
but no less false. Undoubtedly, the press and “expert commentators”
have calculated that the general public would not check their factual
(and political) conclusions by reading the Court’s 185-page opinion.
Without knowing the specific facts, the media distortions can not be
fully appreciated. Below we'll take a look at the facts of the case as well as the reasoning from the justices, reasoning that all too often is glossed over if not outright ignored in the media.
The storyline. That's the thing. Feed the storyline.
The media has been just enthralled with the idea that the removal of political appointees, and their replacement with other political appointees, somehow constitutes a grand scandal, since it's a Republican adminstration that did it. The storyline was promoted again in a Reuters piece on Friday.
An assistant attorney general at the Justice Department announced her resignation on Friday, becoming the seventh official to quit the department since the Democratic-led Congress launched an investigation in March into the firing of nine federal prosecutors. Rachel Brand, assistant attorney general for legal policy, said she would step down on July 9. No reason was given.
Sounds pretty suspicious, doesn't it? Pretty sinister? Just more fuel on the fire that is the scandal of the President exercising his power to appoint and remove federal prosecutors.
When it comes to the First Amendment, too many people in this country have a distorted sense of what that document actually means.
This is especially true of the liberal elite media which construe the First Amendment in the following manner: 1) Congress shall not make any attempt to censor or diminish the rights of any media outlet--except those dominated by the right. 2) Congress shall not restrict flag burning or any form of pornography. 3) Religious people do not have the right to express their religion in public. 4) Political speech is equal to money and therefore can be censored at whim.
To those who doubt that, take a gander at this recent Kansas City Star editorial, denouncing the new John Roberts court:
result, made clear in rulings handed down this week and earlier, is
empowerment for the powerful and callousness toward individuals.
On Saturday's NBC Nightly News, correspondent Pete Williams presented a one-sided look at the Supreme Court's "shift to the right," conveying complaints by liberals over recent court rulings, but without showing any conservatives who supported some of the court's recent right-leaning decisions. Williams began his piece by quoting liberal Justice Stephen Breyer's complaint that "It's not often in the law that so few have so quickly changed so much," before playing a soundbite of the ACLU's Steven Shapiro: "Civil liberties and civil rights took a beating virtually across the board from race to religion to abortion to speech to the basic right to come into court and sue when you've been a victim of discrimination." Williams also found that Chief Justice John Roberts "has turned out to be more conservative than even some of the court's liberals thought he would be." (Transcript follows) | <urn:uuid:c5cd240a-16a0-47d8-bade-47d4f55342a8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://newsbusters.org/issues/appointments/judiciary?page=13 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964512 | 4,858 | 1.734375 | 2 |
China holds aces as US loses face
AMID chaos on Wall Street, the question looms who wins? Increasingly, eyes are flickering towards China.
"They were subject to some lecturing from the West about issues they had with their own investment banks and securities companies (in recent years), and now the shoe really is on the other foot," said Andrew Godwin, a Melbourne University Asian finance law specialist.
Compared with the anarchy in the deregulated and debt-ridden US financial system, China's more tightly controlled market and high rate of savings are looking good.
"I think China will have a bit more leverage because the model in the US hasn't worked," Mr Godwin said. "That might give China a bit more confidence in going down its own track and not being so influenced by the views of the West."
Not that Beijing is immune from the turmoil. China has an enormous stake in the US economy and is estimated to hold about $US1 trillion ($A1.25 trillion) in Treasury bills. It also sends vast amounts of goods to America.
"It means the Chinese are looking at some potentially large financial losses," said Mark Thirlwell, director of the Lowy Institute's international economy program. He sees the US Government's bail-out package in many ways as a strategy to calm restless investors abroad.
"When you had the bail-out for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, one of the beneficiaries of that bail-out was the Chinese," he said.
China is deeply entwined in the current crisis, which was built on cheap debt and an expectation housing prices would always rise. And much of the money flooded in from China.
That raises a big question about how America pulls itself out of this mess, according to Geoffrey Garrett of the US Studies Centre in Sydney.
"As American public debt increases, will the Chinese central bank and the Chinese Government be willing to buy dollars and keep interest rates low?" he said. "Or will they charge a big interest rate premium now and push up rates in the US?"
The answer is not yet clear. But Professor Garrett sees a more difficult political question in the short term. "If you were a savvy Chinese investor at the moment, you wouldn't want to buy Treasury bills, you'd want to buy distressed assets," he said.
"The willingness of Americans to be bailed out by China is the big question. It becomes very politically sensitive when it is buying an American firm, when China is buying up the United States at rock-bottom prices."
Mr Thirlwell said the Wall Street collapse had been a substantial blow to US prestige.
"One of the soft-power attributes the US has been resting on is the dynamism of the US economy, the successful and aggressive nature of Wall Street," he said. "And that reputation is now in tatters."
It all points to what might be an uncomfortable shift in the centre of global power, with China calling the shots.
How the world turns. | <urn:uuid:b6d019b5-92c6-4ffd-8004-60b4864db698> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theage.com.au/business/china-holds-aces-as-us-loses-face-20081001-4s0l.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974838 | 614 | 1.75 | 2 |
The results of a months-long investigation into the reversal of post-traumatic stress disorder diagnoses at Madigan Army Medical Center are being kept confidential.
Earlier this month, Army Secretary John McHugh told reporters at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state that the Madigan findings would not be disclosed.
Days later, the Army denied Freedom of Information Act requests for documents related to the controversy made by three Seattle-area news organizations.
George Wright, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon, told NBC News that “concerns brought up in the Madigan matter will be addressed” in a separate forthcoming report by the Army's Task Force on Behavioral Health.
Wright said he had not viewed that document, which is an Army-wide review of mental health diagnoses as far back as 2001, and could not comment on what information it would include about the Madigan inquiry.
The Madigan investigation, completed last fall, sought to determine whether or not a team of forensic psychiatrists inappropriately changed soldiers’ PTSD diagnoses, perhaps to save the federal government money.
In a memo obtained last year by the Seattle Times, a Madigan Army Medical Center psychiatrist gave a presentation to colleagues in September 2011 in which he noted that a soldier medically retired with a PTSD diagnosis would collect $1.5 million in disability payments over his or her lifetime. The psychiatrist warned his colleagues against “rubber stamping” a PTSD diagnosis.
Around the same time, several soldiers screened at Madigan complained that their PTSD diagnoses had been switched to conditions like anxiety disorder, which could have affected their medical retirement rating and the amount of their disability payments.
A subsequent review of 431 Madigan cases — some of which had been overturned — led to PTSD diagnoses for 150 soldiers by last October, according to the office of Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.
Murray pushed for the investigation into the PTSD diagnoses at Madigan — an Army hospital in Tacoma, Wash., that serves soldiers stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord — but has yet to see its findings.
The Madigan investigation was reported by the Seattle Times in January 2012. In May, McHugh announced the Army-wide review, which is said to contain 24 findings and 47 recommendations, and now according to Wright, details related to Madigan. Murray is scheduled to be briefed on the review in the next few weeks, Matt McAlvanah, a spokesman for the senator, told NBC News.
Last year, Seattle-area news organizations asked to see documents related to the inquiry through Freedom of Information Act requests.
Patricia Murphy, a reporter at KUOW Puget Sound Public Radio, said the Army denied the station’s attempts to obtain information and subsequently denied an appeal. The Army described the Madigan documents as “pre-decisional,” a legal privilege extended to documents that influence new rules and regulations. In a letter to the station, the Army said this designation is meant to “protect the quality of agency decisions by encouraging frank and open discussions of agency policy.”
Murphy said she understood that the documents might contain sensitive government and patient information, but was hopeful the Army could strike a balance for transparency. “We don’t care about the names,” Murphy told NBC News. “We care about the reasons they were doing this and whether or not this was a cultural issue at Madigan.”
The Army has said that Madigan was the only Army hospital to employ a team of forensic psychiatrists who vetted PTSD diagnoses and said it had stopped that practice.
Last February, it announced that the hospital’s commander, Col. Dallas Homas, was reassigned during the inquiry. The Army reinstated Homas several months later after finding that he did not "exert any undue influence on PTSD diagnoses." The Army provided that document to KUOW in response to a FOIA request.
The Army also issued new guidelines for PTSD screening last April, discouraging staff from using testing to identify patients who might be "malingering" or faking their symptoms, an approach some soldiers claimed was utilized at Madigan.
Despite these corrective actions, critics of the decision to withhold the Madigan findings say that transparency is key to restoring trust in the Army’s ability to accurately diagnosis and treat PTSD.
Tom Tarantino, chief policy director of the advocacy organization Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and a former Army captain, said that keeping the report confidential reflected a “shocking amount of tone deafness.”
“I don’t want anybody to release information that violates HIPAA, privacy or endangers national security, but there has to be some sort of accountability,” Tarantino said. He also fears that withholding the findings sends the wrong signal to soldiers who worry that the problems at Madigan could be widespread and might not seek mental health care as a result.
“You have to actually show patterns of behavior and convince people that you’re willing to change.”
Wright said the Army wanted to make public its report on behavioral health “as soon as possible,” but that it was weighing the feasibility of the recommendations and how to implement them.
“We expect that work to be completed shortly,” he said, “and then we will be able to share not only the findings, but the way ahead.”
Rebecca Ruiz is a reporter based in the Bay Area.
- Home from war, troops face 'white-knuckled' first month
- Soldier Hard's hip-hop lyrics reveal PTSD's rough edges
- Hundreds of thousands of veteran spur free benefits | <urn:uuid:7f94ba3a-dbfd-458d-9374-a46d1b0e9f12> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/28/17106411-army-withholding-findings-of-madigan-ptsd-probe?lite&ocid=msnhp&pos=5 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968319 | 1,163 | 1.515625 | 2 |
In this 27-minute presentation, Dr. Jared A. Ball discusses the role of mainstream media as a colonial propaganda tool for psychological warfare. The presentation was delivered on March 26, 2011, at the National Conference on the Other Wars in Washington, D.C., an event organized by The Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations (BIBC).
About the Speaker
Dr. Jared A. Ball is the father of two brilliant and adorable daughters, Maisi (5) and Marley (3), and the fortunate husband of Nelisbeth Y. Ball. After that he is an assistant professor of communication studies at Morgan State University where his research interests include the interaction between colonialism, mass media theory and history, as well as, the development of alternative/underground journalism and cultural expression as mechanisms of social movements and political organization. Ball is a columnist with, and produces a weekly radio column for, BlackAgendaReport.com. He is producer and host of the “Legacy Edition of We Ourselves” which airs Fridays 10a-11a (EST) on Washington, DC’s WPFW 89.3 FM Pacifica Radio and is also the founder and producer of FreeMix Radio: The Original Mixtape Radio Show, an emancipatory journalistic political mixtape. He is a former editor of and current peer reviewer for the first academic journal dedicated to hip-hop, The Global Journal of Hip-Hop Culture from Words, Beats and Life, Inc., has been a board member of the International Association for Hip-Hop Education, and has served as a Communications Fellow for the Green Institute. Ball is also the author of the forthcoming book I Mix What I Like: A Mixtape Manifesto (Spring 2011/AK Press). He can be found online at voxunion.com. | <urn:uuid:2024c0e9-6581-4fd2-94bb-ebaa5a644fba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://intercontinentalcry.org/colonialism-and-media-psychological-war/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940448 | 372 | 1.757813 | 2 |
There are a wide range of cloud computing services that can be crucial tools for businesses in the midst of growing rapidly, but also need to remain conscious about spending.
To get some insights on what business owners should know when choosing cloud-based tools, we turned to tech coach Peter Bell, Senior Vice President of Engineering at General Assembly, an organization specializing in education in business and entrepreneurship.
Below is a slightly-edited transcript of our conversation:
What is the most important thing most business owners should know about cloud computing?
Cloud computing is becoming the default option for companies large and small. It's usually quicker, cheaper, more secure and allows you to focus on building your business — not installing and configuring servers and software. For a long time people were concerned about the security of cloud computing platforms, but most of them are actually now much more secure than anything you're likely to be able to set up on your own.
What are some examples of cloud computing services that business owners should consider?
Start with Google. If you want to set up an email account for your company, Google apps for business is an inexpensive offering that allows you to set up email, calendaring, and document sharing for your team. The email is easy to set up and use, the calendaring is simple, but workable, and you can easily share documents both within the company and with external consultants and vendors.
As your company grows to between 50 and 100 employees you'll start to run into some of the limitations of the system in terms of administrative and security capabilities, but it's a great way to get started.
You probably also want to check out Dropbox for sharing files. Their "team" version is perfect for growing businesses.
Most of the other offerings depend on what you need to do.
SalesForce.com is probably the best CRM for most small-to-medium sized businesses, but if you're smaller or have simpler needs you should also check out Highrise from 37 signals. There are also passable online accounting offerings like Quickbooks Online or Freshbooks if you have simpler requirements and mainly care about invoicing.
What if your company decides to write your own software?
Even if you have developers and are writing custom software, instead of renting servers, you should consider cloud based hosting. Amazon S3 — for storing and serving static files — and EC2 — for computing power — are the industry standards, but if you can, check out providers like Heroku that make it even easier for your developers to set up a robust staging and production environment for your applications.
What are some of the limitations of cloud computing?
The main limitation is that because someone else is controlling the software and the hardware, there are limits to how much control you have over configuration. With Software-as-a-Service offerings like Google apps for business, if you don't like the way the administrative setting work, you have to move your entire company to a new email hosting provider — you can't just get the code changed to meet your exact needs.
And even with cloud hosting of your own software, there are some optimizations you won't be able to perform with some of the cloud hosting providers that you could with your own server.
The other common limitation is that depending on the provider, the quality of customer support is not always great. If you call up SalesForce with a problem they'll take care of you, but if you have an issue with Google apps, you're pretty well stuck with checking the internet for similar issues.
However, generally the limitations of cloud computing are a small price to pay for the huge savings in cost, complexity and time to market. It's OK to outgrow a system once in a while. That's a quality problem to have. | <urn:uuid:c9075de3-b02a-46a3-baa0-5aa0d5793d12> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.businessinsider.com/tech-coach-tells-us-what-companies-should-know-about-cloud-computing-services-2012-8 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956152 | 768 | 1.632813 | 2 |
President of Associated Universities, Inc. and Research Professor at Johns Hopkins University
Riccardo Giacconi is an astronomer with a long history and expertise in deep surveys. Giacconi was the principal investigator (PI) of the program which discovered the first X-ray stars and the X-ray background in the 1960s and conceived of and led the implementation of the Uhuru and Einstein X-ray Observatories in the 1970s. He is the PI for the ultradeep survey with Chandra -- the "Chandra Deep Field South" -- that has already obtained the deepest X-ray exposures to date with a million-second observation. He is also participating in the follow-up optical work in this field with HST and VLT. He is an expert in the analysis and interpretation of astronomical data.
Dr. Giacconi has held chairs at Harvard University, Milano University, and Johns Hopkins University. He has held positions as Associate Director for High Energy Astrophysics at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, first Director of the Space Telescope Science Institute, and Director General of the European Southern Observatory. He is currently President of Associated Universities, Inc., and a Research Professor at Johns Hopkins University.Chandra Chronicles: Riccardo Giacconi: A High-Energy Visonary Wins Nobel Prize (10/08/02)
[ Press Index ] [ Interviews ] | <urn:uuid:91789c94-c49a-41bb-8aef-fc8e409c596b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/bios/giacconi_bio.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937569 | 285 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Stefany Anne Golberg:
One apartment filled with dinosaurs is the talk of the town. But a city filled with them is a disaster.
Cities can't be managed, and that's what keeps them so vibrant.
We spend all this time thinking about cities in terms of their local details, their restaurants and museums and weather. I had this hunch that there was something more, that every city was also shaped by a set of hidden laws.
I don't know anything about this city or even where it is or its history, but I can tell you all about it. And the reason I can do that is because every city is really the same.
Sometimes, I look out at nature and I think, Everything here is obeying my conjecture. It's a wonderfully narcissistic feeling.
In the city's labyrinth, invisibility can quickly trump visibility.
Rulers of cities have always had an interest in visibility, both in representing their power and in controlling people by seeing them.
It would be tempting to say that if Le Corbusier embraced an emphatic, even ominous type of visibility, Jacobs insisted on the power of the invisible, the nooks and crannies, the intimate spaces of homes and private lives. But the truth is that Jacobs argued for a different kind of visibility, that of active life in neighborhoods and on busy, pedestrian-friendly streets.
Anonymity is, perhaps, the most universal experience of invisibility within the modern city.
Not to find one's way in a city may well be uninteresting and banal. It requires ignorance -- nothing more. But to lose oneself in a city -- as one loses oneself in a forest -- that calls for quite a different schooling. It is a particular and poignant form of freedom to walk a vibrant urban quarter without aim and with openness to all, unobserved, invisible, or more precisely, caught in the shifting, kinetic exchange of sights and sensations ...
The captains of industry also had ambitions to endow the pursuit of profit with noble purpose. The architecture of commercial buildings often reached for monumentality through the use of rich materials and traditional architectural elements. Department stores, those quintessential sites of the emerging urban consumer society, wrapped their truck and barter in layers of ornament and allegory. Philadelphia's Wanamaker's building, now a Macy's, features a towering pipe organ in a multistory atrium -- a Vatican of commerce indeed!
As rich in poetry and lore as had been the unreconstructed area on the Left Bank centered around the place Maubert and the place de la Contrescarpe that was forcibly gentrified in the 1960s, the real tragedy was the destruction of Les Halles, the ancient marketplace in the center of the city.
Les Halles had been a vital connection to the cycle of nature, a living embodiment of the chain of production and consumption, a tremendous social equalizer, a place where the jobless could always find pickup work and the hungry could scrounge for discarded but perfectly acceptable food, a hub with its own culture and customs varnished by nearly a millennium of use. It was often called the "soul" of Paris as well as its "stomach," and it was destroyed impersonally, by administrative decree, and eventually replaced by a nightmarish pit of a shopping mall that appears to have been designed for maximum alienation.
The fact is that Washington is and always has been irretrievably bogged down in process. And process doesn't generally make for electrifying prose -- unless you're a fan of the novels of C. P. Snow, which describe the intestinal workings of inner-sanctum power struggles conducted by micro-megalomaniacs.
At IBM, a senior vice-president once described the managerial hierarchy as "a giant pool of peanut butter we have to swim through."
Nassim Taleb, on the world in 2036:
The great top-down nation-state will be only cosmetically alive, weakened by deficits, politicians' misalignment of interests and the magnification of errors by centralised systems. The pre-modernist robust model of city-states and statelings will prevail, with obsessive fiscal prudence. | <urn:uuid:16168260-4070-424f-ad75-d70d6d55b50a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.memestreams.net/users/pnw/blogid10460926 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965196 | 866 | 1.726563 | 2 |
The Biscuit Eater
Starring Billy Lee, Cordell Hickman, Richard Lane, Lester Matthews,
Directed by Stuart Heisler
Runtime: 81 min.
Two little boys have faith in a dog they name Promise, so much faith that
they enter him in the championship trials for bird dogs. The favorite is
Georgia Boy bred and trained by the boys' fathers. And if Georgia Boy
doesn't win, the fathers may both lose their jobs.
The biscuit eater is a 1940 movie based on a novel by James H. Street. It is one of the best movies for children and family audiences. It deals with the subject of two boys, one white and one black who train a dog into a champion bird dog. This movie, the biscuit eater was remade in 1972. The movie was directed by Stuart Heisler and it is a touching and emotional adventure film. A 12-year-old boy, Lonnie who is the son of a dog trainer, wants to train his dog into a champion, but is not very successful. The dog would rather play around. Lonnie’s father, Harvey quite worried as his new boss, Mr. Ames seems more interested in horses than canines. He is afraid of losing his job. Harvey persuades Mr. Ames to delay the auction of the dogs until he can test one of his champion dogs in the field trials. Mr. Ames agrees and gives Harvey’s little son, Lonnie a runt from the litters. Lonnie and his friend, Text train the dog, whom they have named as “Promise.” The dog is very naughty. He jumps two fences and continues to raid the henhouse to eat eggs. Lonnie calls him a “biscuit eater” as he hunts only to eat food. Harvey tells Text’s father, Sermon to get rid of the dog. Sermon leaves the dog near the swamp for Echo, but both the boys trade the dog for a jug. They then care for the dog at Text’s house. Lonnie decides to train his dog into a champion so that he can gain everyone’s approval. The dog performs well until his only opponent is the other dog, Georgia Boy who is trained by Harvey. Text is warned by his father that if Promise wins the event, Harvey might lose his job. Thus, Lonnie insults Promise into losing by calling him a “biscuit eater.” Promise runs away thus allowing Georgia Boy to be the winner. Lonnie is upset but the dog returns the same night. Sermon unknowingly shoots Promise who thinks he is a stray dog. Promise dies in Lonnie’s arms but his lineage continues in his mate’s puppies. Finally, Lonnie and his fther end up sadder but wiser.
The movie runs for a duration of 82 minutes and can be viewed in black and white. It was distributed by Paramount Pictures. The biscuit eater is a warm unpretentious movie which turned out to be a surprise hit and one of the best movies made about dogs. It also depicts the relations between two young boys who ignore their racial difference and work towards a common goal. It is also noted to be the first talking feature film that was picturized entirely in Albany.
The movie, the biscuit eater stars the following actors as:
- Billy Lee……Lonnie McNeil
- Cordell Hickman……Text
- Richard Lane……Harvey McNeil
- Lester Matthews……Mr. Ames
- Helene Millard……Mrs. McNeil
- Snowflake……First and second Thessalonians
- Tiverton Invader……Promise, the dog
- William Russell……Field Judge
- Earl Johnson……Field Judge | <urn:uuid:590e0061-0618-4eb5-b136-8fb6bbe2e81a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lovingtheclassics.com/the-biscuit-eater-1940.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971913 | 778 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Life After Weight Loss Surgery
The majority of weight-loss occurs during the first year after surgery. Although this time is usually very rewarding, it can also be a time of frustration. Follow-up and consultation with your surgeon and bariatric team will be essential to address any concerns or problems you may have. Treatment is a combination of surgery, diet therapy, exercise and fundamental changes in behavior. Success depends on determination to change behaviors and make a commitment to lifelong follow-up. Persons who enjoy long-term success after bariatric surgery have incorporated exercise and a low-fat/low-sugar nutrition plan into their daily lives.
Our clinic provides long-term follow-up and care to all of our patients after surgery. All surgical patients are usually seen around one week after surgery. Gastric bypass patients are then typically seen at 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months after surgery and then yearly. Lap-Band patients are typically seen at 4-6 weeks after surgery. Future follow-ups vary depending upon the need for adjustments. Lap-Band patients are typically seen every 6 weeks for the first 6 months, then every 3 months for the first 2 years, then yearly.
For more information, contact the Weight Loss Clinic at 717-336-6578. | <urn:uuid:aa6bf2f2-5239-4369-86e1-94ffffd82336> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ephratahospital.org/Services/OutpatientServices/WeightManagementServices/LifeAfterWeightLossSurgery/tabid/319/Default.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948504 | 260 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Over a month has passed since Superstorm Sandy ravaged the east coast and left many communities flooded, without power, some were even left in ruins. Some of the more severely impacted areas, such as Long Beach, N.Y. and Rockaway Beach, N.Y., have gained the attention of the national news media and disaster relief efforts such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency and ragtag efforts like Occupy Sandy, many smaller, but still greatly affected communities have fallen by the wayside. Continue reading
Saturday was a perfect fall day for hard cider – sunny, nearly 70 degrees, good company and hardly a cloud in the sky.
More than 700 people came out to the Peconic Bay Winery in Cutchogue, N.Y. to guzzle hard cider and craft beer at the sold-out Pour The Core hard cider festival on Oct. 20. Grapevines surrounded the tents and the tables, creating an intimate green space.
“Everyone is enjoying dozens of ciders from around the world, a lot of them from New York State,” said Jim Silver, the General Manager of the Peconic Bay Winery, which hosted the event. The hard cider festival is the first on Long Island, Silver said.
A day filled with apple pies, apple carvings, and even apple-curry soup, the 23rd Annual Long Island Apple Festival in East Setauket was a place to discover local organizations and celebrate one of the season’s favorite fruits: the apple.
Surrounded by apple trees over 100 years old, families from the area and outward were immediately met with the sight of freshly baked apple pies, which were soon to be judged and auctioned off. An “everyman” judge was even chosen out of the festival-goers to help choose the winning pie.
When I went searching for a “compelling” story and gallery combo, I didn’t think I would find any that weren’t about politics or the national conventions, let alone one that hit so close to home. | <urn:uuid:d85ce03e-14e0-46a4-935f-d4edd1fcf28a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.journographica.com/classblogs/tag/new-york/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964415 | 422 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Frequently Asked Questions
France Specific Questions
Please visit the Exodus Travel Guide to France where you can find out what plugs they use, as well as more detailed Country information in the menu on the left of the page.
Cross Country Skiing Specific Questions
For XC skiing, generally warm and comfy should be the rules!
The important thing is to wear layers: when you wear several layers you stay warmer because the air can circulate between them (so always better than one t-shirt and one big jumper for instance); the other advantage of layers is that you can adjust what you wear to the temperature. So it might be cold in the shade, but when in the sun and moving around, you may want to wear just a long-sleeved t-shirt (you need to have your arms covered to as it is easy to get ‘snow burn’ if you fall on uncovered arms).
Traditional downhill ski clothing is usually too warm for this type of skiing, particularly in the Alps where temperatures can be warmer. We recommend a long-sleeved thermal base layer and a windstopper fleece, or an ordinary fleece and a light weight waterproof. We also recommend that you wear thermals or tops made from wicking fabric: they keep you warm and dry a lot quicker than synthetic materials. If you’re sweating and it is really cold outside, you need clothes that’ll dry quickly; otherwise, once your body cools down, you’ll be really cold from having a wet t-shirt.
Trousers need to be windproof, but jeans and lightweight cotton ones are not suitable. For colder days and a buff or scarf is useful and it is good to have a hat that covers your ears, and both thin and thicker gloves (downhill skiing gloves are usually too bulky). Walking socks are generally best for warmth and comfort in cross-country ski boots. Finally, don’t forget your sunglasses and sun cream!
Rachel George - European Operations
Our Winter Grading system: Many of our holidays are aimed at beginners and are designed for people of just average fitness. All necessary instruction and equipment is included. Snowshoeing, dogsledding and snowmobiling are easy to pick up and require no previous experience. Cross-country skiing will involve more intensive instruction, and our groups are carefully graded to ensure participants have similar levels of experience.
It is important to choose a holiday appropriate to your fitness and experience levels. Of course some are tougher than others and the activity profile section gives more detail about what to expect. All of our cross-country skiing holidays use the grading systems below.
Cross-country ski grades
2 Intermediates (suitable for confident beginners)
2+ Intermediates (not suitable for beginners)
NB: The cross-country grades are listed against the departure dates on the holiday dates and prices pages so you can check which is the best week to travel with the correct grade for your ability.
Cross-country skiing or Nordic skiing is becoming one of the most popular winter sports. Using longer, thinner and lighter skis than downhill, with bindings that let you lift your heel, we explore the winter landscapes away from the confines of the alpine pistes. Cross-country skiing can be undertaken on prepared tracks (loipe) or off-track, allowing the group to explore the winter landscape.
Tom Wilkinson - Product Manager
Winter Activities Specific Questions
Our leaders will do their utmost to ensure the personal safety and security of our clients,but all winter activities do bring a risk of physical injury. Beginners to certain activities such as cross-country skiing or ski-touring will inevitably fall over many times; usually the falls are minor and are regarded as part of the fun, but occasionally more serious injuries (such as broken bones) occur. On all mountain winter holidays we have to take extra care for our clients’ safety. Where there is a risk of avalanche, falling on slopes or dangers due to the cold, our guides are extra cautious. If the guide considers situations to be above a reasonable level of risk, activities may have to be cancelled. However, please note that we can never completely eliminate all risks.
For more information on the different types of winter trips that we do, please have a look at our Winter Activies programme online.
Not Found What You're Looking For?
All the staff at Exodus share a passion for adventure travel, and are always happy to answer any questions you may have. You can find an expert for the area you are interested in here and can contact them to get further information. If you don't see your specific country listed, please email firstname.lastname@example.org and they will get the answers you need! | <urn:uuid:85c99a6b-956b-4ebf-8523-0cd25c906e74> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.exodus.co.uk/holidays/cyp/faq | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93415 | 975 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Why do we need a voting strategy? What does it mean to have a voting strategy? Doesn’t a voting strategy imply that we are trying to protect ourselves against something? Is that the right attitude that a citizen should have towards her elected officials? I’ll get back to this question in a minute.
The other day, Governor Christie announced mandatory gas rationing. Brooke asked me what did that mean and how did it work as we were driving to Philadelphia. I explained how the license plate scheme worked and told her about the time in the early 70′s when I was younger than she is now when we did gas rationing on a national basis. I couldn’t remember why we had to do it. Was it a Saudi oil embargo? That was the year Detroit invented locking gas caps to prevent your neighbor from siphoning gas from your tank in the middle of the night. It was the year that we had extended daylight savings time well into the winter and we trudged to school in the dark and watched the sun come up during second period.
Back then, the so-called experts and scientists told us that there would only be enough oil to maintain our modern lifestyle for another 50 years or so. We had about 200 years of coal in the ground but it was dirty fuel. There was a real sense of urgency for a few years to make cars smaller, and resentment from the driving public about having to give up the big American highway boats for tiny Japanese death traps.
Then Ronald Reagan chased the malaise away and suddenly there was an oil glut in the 80s and people forgot. And the CAFE standards got stuck and the cars got big again until the 2000′s when you could write your Hummer off your taxes as a business expense and fuel efficiency was measured in gallons per mile.
But some things make an impression on young minds and gas rationing made an impression on mine, as did Watergate and the end of the Vietnam War. I never trusted Ronald Reagan or George Bush Sr. How could a country forget so quickly? Or maybe it was just one party.
But 2007-2008 dispelled the notion that the forgetfulness was confined to just one party. By that time, I had taken my passion for politics to the next level, writing for DailyKos about various and sundry things, including the differences between American and European infrastructure. I was making trips to Europe on a more frequent basis and noticing how much easier it was to get around without a car. The trains were fast and plentiful, the urban transit systems state of the art, especially in France. And even though I resolved to take public transit in any American city I visited, I found it hard. Americans do not know how hard we have made our own lives.
In Chicago 2007, I got to ask Hillary Clinton a question at her break out session at YearlyKos and my number one question was about public transit and infrastructure. And she had an answer with multiple paragraphs and sub-headings and funding mechanisms. And her emphasis was going to be on better broadband. Last week, I tried to imagine what life would have been like post Sandy if we had had better broadband and how we tend to see our internet connection as a commodity instead of a public utility and a part of our infrastructure.
I’ve tried to reason my way through my voting strategy in the past couple of days and I think I am just burned out from playing this game of strategy. The last week has shown me how badly this country has suffered under the people who we trust with our safety, infrastructure and future. While Europe and other developed countries like South Korea learned from the oil embargo of the 70s to reconfigure the way they lived in such a way as to be less dependent on foreign oil, we ignored all that and trapped ourselves in a mid 20th century infrastructure. It’s no longer modern. It’s decaying- rapidly. We may still see the USA in our Chevrolet but the landscape is starting to look like the rural south in 1965 with broken powerlines, poor telecommunication, bad roads and a clear separation between the rich and the poor. And there doesn’t seem to be a reasonable strategy behind our public utilities investments of the past several years. In 2009, PSEG spent millions and millions of dollars affixing solar panels to the overhead power line poles. How much chaos and disruption last week might have been avoided if the power companies had used that money to bury the power lines and concentrate the solar panels on unused public land, like the acres of unused property in my own township that used to be an old Army depot? Where was the thought and strategy behind the design?
In the last couple of days, I have read the consternation of the left as they see the evangelicals and other right wing followers get behind their Mormon. It’s as if the left has forgotten all of the studies by Bob Altemeyer and lessons learned from John Dean about the nature of the authoritarian follower. But it’s even weirder than that because although the right has made it a badge of honor to decouple cause from effect, ignore evidence and discourage reasoned thinking in its followers so that the world looks to them like a violent, chaotic place, I never thought I would see the same sort of behavior rising in the left. The left indulges in its own form of wishful thinking. It started five years ago. It suspended its disbelief and trusted its most dearly held beliefs to the candidate who stubbornly refused to materialize for it until after the election. They refused to understand his nature even as he ignored them. They don’t seem to get that he is the agent of the people they blame for the destruction of the past four years. They have decoupled evidence from reality. Somehow, it’s all going to work out even when all of the signs say that it will not. They ignore the pleadings from their natural allies to wake up and fight back. How are they different from the people in Kansas they are always holding up as examples of voting against their own best interests?
There’s a peculiar strand of selfishness embedded in American culture. It’s not enough to succeed. The success must come at the expense of other people. We love the rascals who exploit us. And religion is of a harsh Calvinist variety. The work ethic is praised above all else to the point where we don’t feel worthy of decent wages and dignity even if we work until we drop or snap.
The other day, JerseyJeffersonian said something that caught my attention in the comment section of my rant on the gouging of the telecomms in the Sandy impacted area. I had called ourselves consumers and said how unfair it was that consumers were always being exploited, as if we were crops whose disposable income must be harvested instead of human beings. (S)He said:
Ah, you said the magic word…”consumer”. I, for one, knew that the Republic was in dire straits when Our Exalted Leaders found the term, “consumer”, to be an adequate substitute for “citizen”. This was a tell, as they say at the poker table. When in the past you were referred to as a “citizen”, you were somebody who had reason to expect that your interests might be respected and addressed by THEM in their capacity as our representatives. But when they began preferentially to denominate us as “consumers”? Well, we had been identified as mere clients of their true masters.
In its own right, this should be seen as indicative that Our Exalted Leaders have decided that civil society is a archaism – “quaint” They might call it – and that servicing the needs of the Free Market is now the imperative for them. In that light, our appeals to our representatives for help and redress have become the moral equivalent of praying to a saint for intercession with the Almighty. Hmm.
This Weltanschauung is quite appropriate in a world where government, far from answering to the “citizenry”, is there to deliver us all up to the tender mercies of the Corporatocracy through the craven assistance of a captured government. Elected officials, legislative or executive, financed in their electoral campaigns by the rich and powerful; civil servants in regulatory agencies cowed or corrupted through the power of the so-called regulated to call the shots with the active connivance of their agencies’ politically-appointed leaders; judges selected by legislators and executives who are made men of the Corporatocracy, and therefore pre-disposed to pick Federalist Society hacks for positions on the bench to avoid the inconvenience of having their cabal brought up short by people who take their oath to defend the Constitution seriously.
I’ve never liked the term corporatacracy because I think it ignores the proper role of the corporation and how it can benefit stakeholders as well as shareholders but otherwise, JerseyJeffersonian’s point is very good. Americans have been “delivered up” to the forces who exploit. Those forces do it without any strategy of their own and without much thought to the industries or segments of society that they are destroying. They do it because they can. Inevitably, they are sowing the seeds of their own destruction because amassing great fortunes does not equal innovation or creativity. It merely impoverishes the very people who need to buy their stuff and makes it harder for people with life saving technology and good ideas to be funded and their work respected.
But it’s worse than that. I missed the visual impact of the news last week, mostly because I was living part of it, but what I heard on the radio disturbed me greatly. I heard Mike Bloomberg give a couple of “everything is under control” press conferences and then leave the people of Lower Manhattan to their own devices as he planned a marathon and fretted over how to get the bankers back to Wall Street. There was something of a Scrooge-esque “they had better die and decrease the surplus population” attitude about his ability to tolerate so much misery in much of his city. If Jonathan Swift were alive today, he’d feel right at home.
Wasn’t it Mike Bloomberg who sicced the police on Occupy Wall Street? Wasn’t it Bloomberg who rolled his eyes at those protestors and tolerated them as if they were minor irritants? And didn’t he and Barack Obama brutally suppress them?
Is the whole of Manhattan one big private space now? And if that’s true, doesn’t that reduce the “citizen” to a “vassal” who has no rights on private property? Who owns the city now? Does ownership give the wealthy and well connected the right to do what they like to suit themselves and the privilege to ignore the plight of other people?
Anyway, I’m rambling. At the present time, the “very serious people” seem to be bogarting the microphone about denying us the benefits we pre-paid. There may be a crisis on the horizon regarding Medicare but it’s solvable, just like other countries have solved their health care problems. The answer is to force cost cutting measures on the providers. But the providers belong to the class who believe there are no limits to what they should be able to harvest from their consumers and government has abandoned any efforts to see that citizens are protected from injustice and exploitation.
But the government is not some abstract entity. It’s not the faceless bureaucratic borg that tells us “resistance is useless”. The government is *us*, or it should be. It’s trite to go on about the founders and the constitution and all that patriotic crap and I’m not going to indulge in it now. But at the core of that exercise in self-government is the idea of self-government. If you’re going to do it, you have to put away the notions of strategy and protecting yourself from your elected officials’ bad ideas and kowtowing to the rich and well connected.
If you want to govern yourself, you need to stop accepting bad government. It really is that simple. You need to say, “enough”. Enough of the excuses and the pandering and the enormous amounts of money wasted in elections. You need to say, “I believe in certain unalienable rights” and that those rights belong to all citizens. You need to say that it doesn’t benefit any of us for one group of people to be above the law and unaccountable to the rest of us. You need to say that it is unjust to throw people into prison without trial indefinitely and to use that threat to suppress political speech. You need to say that you are not afraid to defy the party structures. You need to be able to take their power away when they refuse to work for you and the common good. You need to say that the abandonment of any citizen to their fate after a catastrophic natural disaster is unacceptable. You need to say that an injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere. We can not permit unaccountability.
Well, at least I can’t.
I don’t have a strategy this year. All I have is a vote. And I refuse to give my vote to either party candidate, especially the one that masqueraded as a Democrat four years but who now has been unmasqued as the hand of the 1%. I am not afraid of what will happen if he loses. Indeed, we have more to fear for what might happen if he wins. But I have to put fear aside and vote for my values, not strategy. So, this year, I am voting for Rocky Anderson. In less than a year, the Justice party has formed out of the void. I want justice for all citizens and that is what I am going to work for from now on. I’ll vote for the people who I think can advance that goal. This year, that means down ticket Democrats. But as new emergent parties start fielding downticket candidates in the future, the Democrats won’t be able to count on my vote.
I’m through with chiding the people who got us into this mess of 8 years of bad government on top of the 8 preceding years. I’m not really interested in hearing their condescending lectures on climate change in the wake of Sandy even if I agree with them. It’s a bit like blaming the victims and not terribly helpful when their houses are a wreck and it’s freezing outside. And based on my limited term in public politics I am less likely to pay attention to people who sermonize than those who recognize the problem and have a list of practical, visionary and possible solutions. Besides, it sounds like Democratic operatives are trying to tap into the zeitgeist of a younger generation who is keenly aware of climate change, using the misery of Hurricane Sandy to nudge them to the polls to vote for Obama. It’s political opportunism by exploiting the devastating visual imagery and it’s sick. They offer us no solutions. We knew 40 years ago that this day would come and we failed to prepare. The time for playing Stratego is over.
One more thing: The Democratic party loyalists who are getting on Matt Stoller’s case because he refuses to compromise his values for the party that betrayed him should be ashamed of themselves. They’re sacrificing their principles to a party that can’t or won’t deliver and they’re cowards. There are many areas where Matt and I disagree but I’m glad that we’re finally working for the same goals. I don’t know what the heck the rest of you are working for. | <urn:uuid:c6759726-fc41-487c-91d6-527090b7897e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://riverdaughter.wordpress.com/2012/11/05/my-voting-strategy-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97341 | 3,291 | 1.6875 | 2 |
The Coming of Post-Industrial Society: A Venture in Social Forecasting
by Daniel Bell
Basic Books, 507 pp., $12.50
Many students of modern society have argued, usually in more or less open opposition to socialist theories, that changes in technology, the rise of new classes, the divorce between ownership and control of property, the shift from production of goods to production of services, and the growth of bureaucracy have created, in effect, a new form of society, to which the old debates about capitalism and socialism are increasingly irrelevant. The central features of this new society are usually seen to be the ascendancy of technique, the subordination of the market to bureaucratic controls, and the growing influence of scientific and technical elites. In addition, many theorists and publicists argue that these characteristics can be found in both the advanced capitalist and socialist countries; in other words that considerations of bureaucratic efficiency increasingly override ideological considerations, just as they override national and local variations, producing a homogeneous global civilization based on technological rationality.
Daniel Bell’s concept of post-industrial society, to which he has now given what is intended to be a magisterial and authoritative restatement, belongs in a long line of social thought developed by such theorists as Veblen, the early Walter Lippmann, James Burnham, John Kenneth Galbraith, David Bazelon, and Milovan Djilas. If this new book strikes the reader as not particularly original, it is because so many writers, including Daniel Bell himself in essays written over the last fifteen years, long ago made its central ideas familiar.
The Coming of Post-Industrial Society is a compendious summation rather than an attempt to break new ground. It deserves attention precisely because it promises to offer an ambitious and sweeping synthesis—a synthesis, moreover, written by a sociologist who is highly conscious not only of his immediate predecessors but of his nineteenth-century forebears as well. At a time when most academic sociologists busy themselves with trivial problems of behavioral and quantitative analysis, Bell has written a work that regards itself as standing in the grand sociological tradition of Marx and Weber. Bell hopes to rescue this tradition and bring it up to date. “My purpose,” he says at the outset, “is to restore some of the informing power of older modes of social analysis” (p. 10).
Although Bell follows Weber rather than Marx in stressing bureaucratic rationality as the key to modern society, he remains fascinated by—one might almost say fixated on—Marxian categories. Like many other commentators on Marx, he is tempted by the possibility that the “informing power” of Marxism can be restored by finding contemporary equivalents for the leading terms in the Marxian equation. Here as elsewhere, unfortunately, this procedure results in twisting Marxian terms unrecognizably out of shape. Thus Bell argues at one point, following the lead of that deep thinker Herman Kahn, that “military technology has supplanted the ‘mode of production,’ in Marx’s use of the term, as a major determinant of social structure” (p. 356). This formulation begs the question of whether military technology is not itself determined, or at least heavily … | <urn:uuid:c33dd835-df67-47e1-9962-bb7286bca64d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1973/oct/18/take-me-to-your-leader/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939383 | 665 | 1.648438 | 2 |
MM talking about warrior king i would like to suggest you to make an profile about the last Emperor of Bizantium Constantine XI because i think that him is a very good example of the features of a good medieval monarch and is almost lost in the history books. Hi from Argentina.
Yes, unfortunately for Constantine XI, he was one of those monarchs who deserved better subjects.
I wonder if that Pope who died in combat (not the Warrior Pope Julius II, but an another one I can't remember the name of), counts as a "Warrior King". He's so far the only Pontiff who died in battle.
I just went through your archives and it was Pope Lucius II. Warrior-King indeed. So was Julius II. Times change indeed.
Thank you, i will wait the profile about Constantine XI anxiously the new post. Pd: I agree with your opinion about the Unions of workers althought we cannot do anything about it. Hi from Argentina. | <urn:uuid:51530dcb-66a8-4b07-9262-54825c82421a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://madmonarchist.blogspot.com/2011/02/mad-motivation_7605.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977261 | 201 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. 36: Acts, Part I, tr. by John King, [1847-50], at sacred-texts.com
Acts 4: 5-12
5. And it came to pass, that the next day their rulers, and elders, and scribes, were gathered together at Jerusalem. 6. And Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and so many as were of the kindred of the priests, 7. And when they had set them before them, they asked them, In what power, or in what name, have ye done that? 8. Then Peter, being filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel, 9. If we be judged this day for healing the man which was lame, by what means he is made whole: 10. Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ of. Nazareth, whom ye have crucified, whom God hath raised up from the dead, this man standeth before you whole. 11. This is the stone which was refused of you the builders; it is placed in the head of the corner. 12. Neither is there salvation in any other. Neither is there any other name given under heaven unto men, wherein we must be saved.
5. It is a thing worthy to be noted in this place, that the wicked do omit no subtilty that they may blot out the gospel and the name of Christ, and yet do they not obtain that which they hoped for; because God doth make their counsels frustrate. For they make an assembly, wherein they do all things so tyrannously, that yet, notwithstanding, lust beareth a show of right, and liberty is driven far away, and at length the truth may seem to be condemned by good right. But the Lord bringeth upon them a sudden fear, so that they dare not do that which they can, and which they do most of all desire. Whatsoever the apostles shall bring in defense of their cause, that shall remain buried and shut up with the walls, where there is none which doth bear them any favor. And therefore there is no place left for the truth. Yet we see how the Lord bringeth their counsel to nought, whilst that being kept back with fear of the people, they stay themselves and bridle their fury, to the end they may avoid envy. But I marvel much why Luke doth make Annas the highest priest in this place, seeing that it appeareth by Josephus, that this honor was not taken from Caiaphas until Vitellius had entered Jerusalem to bear rule, after that Pilate was commanded to depart unto Rome. All men grant that the Lord was crucified in the eighteenth year of Tiberius. And that empire [the reign of Tiberius] did continue four years longer. And it must needs be, that there were three years complete, after the death of Christ, before Pilate was put from the office of the pro-consul. For when Tiberius was dead he came to Rome; so that Caiaphas was high priest yet three years after the death of Christ. Wherefore it is to be thought, that that whereof Luke speaketh in this place did not happen immediately after the resurrection of Christ; although the doubt cannot thus be answered. 204 For Josephus reporteth, that Jonathas was chosen into the place of Caiaphas; but because this Jonathas was the son of Annas, it is a thing not unlike to be true, that the son was called by the name of the father; as Caiaphas also had two names; for they did also call him Joseph.
7. In what power They do yet seem to have some zeal of God. For they feign that they are careful that the honor due unto God may not be given to any other. Name is taken in this place for authority. In sum, they deal as if they were most earnest defenders and maintainers of God’s glory. In the mean season, their importunateness is wonderful, in that they go about to drive the apostles to make denial, by asking many questions concerning a manifest matter, and to wring out by fear some other thing than they had confessed. But God doth bring their crafty wiliness to nought, and maketh them hear that which they would not.
8. Peter, being filled with the Holy Ghost It is not without great cause that Luke addeth this, to the end we may know that Peter spake not with such a majesty of himself. And surely, seeing he had denied his Master, Christ, being afraid at the voice of a silly woman, (Mt 26:70,) he should have utterly fainted in such an assembly, when he did only behold their pomp, unless he had been upholden by the power of the Spirit. He had great need of wisdom and strength. 205 He excelleth in both these so much, that his answer is indeed divine. He is another manner of man here than he was before. Furthermore, this profiteth us two manner of ways. For this title, or commendation, is of no small force to set forth the doctrine which shall follow immediately, when it is said that it came from the Holy God, [Spirit.] And we are taught to crave at the hands of the Lord the Spirit of wisdom and strength, when we make profession of our faith, to direct our hearts and minds. The fullness of the Spirit is taken for a large and no common measure.
9. If we be judged. Undoubtedly Peter layeth tyranny to the charge of the priests and the scribes, because they examine them unjustly concerning a benefit which deserveth praise, as if he and his fellow had committed some heinous offense. If, saith he, we be accused for this cause, because we have made a sick man whole. Peter hath in this place more respect unto the wicked affection of the mind than unto the very order of the question. For if, under color of a miracle, the apostles would have drawn away the people from the true and sincere worship of God, they should have been worthily called to answer for themselves; because religion doth far excel all the good things of this present life. But seeing they (having no cause at all) did wickedly make an offense of that which they ought to have honored, Peter, being supported with this confidence, doth at the first gird them wittily with a taunting preface, because they sit as judges to condemn good deeds. Yet he toucheth this point but lightly, that he may pass over unto the matter.
10. Be it known unto you. Peter might (as I have already said) have turned aside unto many starting-holes, 206 if he would not have entered the cause; 207 but because the miracle was wrought, to this end, that the name of Christ might be glorified, he descendeth by and by unto this. For he knew that he was the minister of such excellent power of God, that he might have a seal to confirm his doctrine. In the meanwhile, the wicked, will they, nil they, are enforced to hear that which they would have had buried full deep. When they have done what they can, this is all; they cause Peter to avouch and object to their faces, that wherewith they were so grieved, when it was spoken to others. And, first he maketh Christ the author of the miracle. Secondly, because it seemed to be an absurd and incredible thing, that a dead man should be endued with divine power, he testifieth that Christ is alive, because God hath raised him up from the dead, howsoever they had crucified him. So that the miracle giveth him occasion to preach the resurrection of Christ. And by this testimony Peter meant to prove that he was the true Messias. He saith that they had crucified him, not only to the end he may upbraid this unto them, that they may acknowledge their fault; but also that they may understand that they have in vain striven against God; and so, consequently, cease to rage so unluckily and with such deadly success.
11. This is the stone. He confirmeth by testimony of Scripture that it is no new thing that the ringleaders 208 of the Church, which have glorious titles given them, and have the chief room in the temple of God, have, notwithstanding, wickedly rejected Christ. Therefore he citeth a place out of the 118th Psalm, (Ps 118:22,) where David complaineth that he is rejected of the captains [leaders] of the people, and yet, notwithstanding, he boasteth that he was chosen of God to have the chief room. Moreover, he compareth the Church, or the state of the kingdom, by an usual metaphor to a building, he calleth those which have the government the masters of the work, 209 and he maketh himself the principal stone, whereon the whole building is stayed and grounded. For that is meant by the head of the corner. Therefore, this is David’s comfort, that howsoever the captains have rejected him, so that they would not grant him even the basest place, yet did not their wicked and ungodly endeavors hinder him from being extolled by God unto the highest degree of honor. But that was shadowed in David which God would have perfectly expressed in the Messias. Therefore Peter dealeth very aptly when as he citeth this testimony, as being spoken before of Christ, as they knew full well that it did agree properly to him. Now we know to what end Peter did cite the Psalm; to wit, lest the elders and priests being unadvisedly puffed up with their honor, should take to themselves authority and liberty to allow or disallow whatsoever they would. For it is evident that the stone refused by the chief builders is placed by God’s own hand in the chief place, that it may support the whole house.
Furthermore, this happeneth not once only, but it must be fulfilled daily; at least it must seem no new thing if the chief builders do even now reject Christ. Whereby the vain boasting of the Pope is plainly refuted, who maketh his boast of the bare title, that he may usurp whatsoever is Christ’s. Admit we grant to the Pope and his horned beasts that which they desire, to wit, that they are appointed to be ordinary pastors of the Church, they can go no farther at length than to be called chief builders with Annas and Caiaphas. And it is evident what account ought to be made of this title, which they think is sufficient to mix heaven and earth together. Now let us gather out of this place some things which are worth the noting. Forasmuch as they are called master-builders who have government of the Church, the name itself putteth them in mind of their duty. Therefore, let them give themselves wholly to the building of the temple of God. And because all men do not their duty faithfully as they ought, let them see what is the best manner of building aright, to wit, let them retain Christ for the foundation; that done, let them not mix straw and stubble in this building, but let them make the whole building of pure doctrine; as Paul teacheth in 1Co 3:12. Whereas God is said to have extolled Christ, who was rejected of the builders, this ought to comfort us, when as we see even the pastors of the Church, or, at least, those which are in great honor, wickedly rebel against Christ, that they may banish him. For we may safely set light by those visors which they object against us; so that we need not fear to give Christ that humor which God doth give to him. But if he wink for a time, yet doth he laugh at the boldness of his enemies from on high, whilst they rage and fret upon earth. Furthermore, though their conspiracies be strong and well guarded with all aids, yet must we always assure ourselves of this, that Christ’s honor shall remain safe and sound. And let the fruit of this confidence ensue also, that we be valiant and without fear in maintaining the kingdom of Christ, whereof God will be an invincible defender, as he himself affirmeth.
We have already spoken of Peter’s constancy, in that one simple man, having such envious judges, and yet having but one partner in the present danger, showeth no token at all of fear, but doth freely confess in that raging and furious company, that thing which he knew would be received with most contrary minds. And whereas he sharply upbraideth unto them that wickedness which they had committed, we must let [seek] from hence a rule of speech when we have to deal with the open enemies of the truth. For we must beware of two faults on this behalf, that we seem not to flatter by keeping silence or winking; for that were treacherous silence, whereby the truth should be betrayed. Again, that we be not puffed up with wantonness, or immoderate heat as men’s minds do oftentimes break out more than they ought in contention. Therefore, let us use gravity in this point, yet such as is moderate; let us chide freely, yet without all heat of railing. We see that Peter did observe this order. For at the first he giveth an honorable title; when he is once come to the matter he inveigheth sharply against them; neither could such ungodliness as theirs was be concealed. Those which shall follow this example shall not only have Peter to be their guide, but also the Spirit of God.
12. Neither is there salvation in any other. He passeth from the species [salvation] unto the genus, [or more particular,] and he goeth from the corporal benefit unto perfect health, [or general.] And assuredly Christ had showed this one token of his grace, to the end he might be known to be the only author of life. We must consider this in all the benefits of God, to wit, that he is the fountain of salvation. And he meant to prick and sting the priests with this sentence, when as he saith that there is salvation in none other save only in Christ, whom they went about to put quite out of remembrance. 210 As if he should say, that they are twice damned who did not only refuse the salvation offered them by God, but endeavor to bring the same to nought, and did take from all the people the fruit and use thereof. And although he seemeth to speak unto deaf men, yet doth he preach of the grace of Christ, if peradventure some can abide to hear; if not, that they may at least be deprived of all excuse by this testimony.
Neither is there any other name He expoundeth the sentence next going before. Salvation (saith he) is in Christ alone, because God hath decreed that it should be so. For by name he meaneth the cause or mean, as if he should have said, forasmuch as salvation is in God’s power only, he will not have the same to be common to us by any other means than if we ask it of Christ alone. Whereas he saith under heaven, they do commonly refer it unto creatures, as if he should say, that the force and power to save is given to Christ alone. Notwithstanding, I do rather think that this was added, because men cannot ascend into heaven, that they may come unto God. Therefore, seeing we are so far from the kingdom of God, it is needful that God do not only invite us unto himself, but that reaching out his hand he offer salvation unto us, that we may enjoy the same. Peter teacheth in this place, that he hath done that in Christ, because he came down into the earth for this cause, that he might bring salvation with him, Neither is that contrary to this doctrine, that Christ is ascended above all heavens, (Eph 4:10.) For he took upon him our flesh once for this cause, that he might be a continual pledge of our adoption. He hath reconciled the Father to us for ever by the sacrifice of his death: by his resurrection he hath purchased for us eternal life. And he is present with us now also, that he may make us partakers of the fruit of eternal redemption; but the revealing of salvation is handled in this place, and we know that the same was so revealed in Christ, that we need not any longer to say, “Who shall ascend into heaven?” (Ro 10:6.) And if so be this doctrine were deeply imprinted in the minds of all men, then should so many controversies concerning the causes of salvation be soon at an end, wherewith the Church is so much troubled. The Papists confess with us, that salvation is in God alone, but by and by they forge to themselves infinite ways to attain unto the same. But Peter calleth us back unto Christ alone. They dare not altogether deny that we have salvation given us by Christ; but whilst they feign so many helps, they leave him scarce the hundredth part of salvation. But they were to seek for salvation at the hands of Christ wholly; for when Peter excludeth plainly all other means, he placeth perfect salvation in Christ alone, and not some part thereof only. So that they are far from understanding this doctrine.
“Quanquam nec sic quidem soluta erit tota difficultas,” although not even in this way will the whole difficulty be solved.
“Fortitudine et prudentia,” prudence and fortitude.
“Si noluisset causam ingredi,” if he had been unwilling to enter upon the cause.
“Architectos,” the architects.
“Extinguere,” to extinguish or annihilate. | <urn:uuid:fd238a3a-9a46-405f-bb56-ba82d3ab3168> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/calvin/cc36/cc36034.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979335 | 3,774 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Know Your Numbers
A CardioTabs' Customer Story
Dave had a heart attack when he was only 42 years old and triple bypass surgery at 51. He is now a 64 year-old grandfather of three with a fourth on the way. He recently retired and is now pursuing his lifelong dream: he’s a full-time college student getting the teaching degree he always wanted. Dave will celebrate his 36th Father’s Day this weekend and he looks forward to many more.
Dave regularly tracks his own blood pressure and keeps track of his weight, but there are some other important numbers for Dave (and all of us) to know. Becky Captain, Nurse Practitioner, Clinical Lipid Specialist and manager of the CardioWellness Clinic, shares Heart-Healthy Numbers to Know for Men’s Health Month.
Don’t know your numbers? If you haven’t had an annual physical this year, it’s time to schedule one. If you have, your physician’s office should have your numbers for you.
This health, fitness and nutritional information is designed for educational purposes only. You should not rely on this information as a substitute for, nor does it replace, professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. If you have any concerns or questions about your health you should always consult with a physician or other health-care professional. Do not disregard, avoid or delay obtaining medical or health related advice from your health-care professional because of something you may have read on this site. The use of any information provided on this site is solely at your own risk.
Developments in medical research may impact the health, fitness and nutritional advice that appears here. No assurance can be given that the advice contained will always include the most findings or development with respect to the particular material.
If you are in the United States and think you are having a medical or health emergency, call your health care professional, or 911, immediately. | <urn:uuid:88150e36-8ee8-426f-982a-368e7792b728> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cardiotabs.com/heart-healthy-resource-center/know-your-numbers.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966089 | 403 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Artists wielding hammers, glue guns and paintbrushes are transforming San Pedro's cavernous Warehouse No. 10.
By this weekend, the 1944 wood-frame building will become Crafted at the Port of Los Angeles, a monster venue billed as an arts and crafts mecca. It's envisioned as holding 500 micro-businesses and drawing 500,000 visitors a year.
"I'm really excited," said artist Raychel Huff, who was patching wall space last week on her Fruition jewelry-and-ceramics booth space. "I'm loving the light."
The venue officially opens at 10:30 a.m. Friday with 100 artists who will be ready to sell. After that, Crafted will be open Fridays through Sundays each weekend.
Little has been done to alter the vintage
Once the companion Warehouse No. 9 is finished, it will give artists 135,000 square feet of display space. In between is an outdoor courtyard where live music and other entertainment is planned.
Along with the arrival of the USS Iowa battleship, Crafted is considered a cornerstone in the Port of Los Angeles' emerging waterfront.
"We realized there's a real interest in the country right now in homemade arts and crafts," said Kathryn McDermott, deputy executive director of the port's business development group. "This was such a unique idea."
With both the Iowa and Crafted, the port is now developing the "critical mass"
And interest has been high among local residents to find a way to keep the old warehouses - which held everything from automobiles to bolts of cotton in the past - intact and given a new purpose.
Inside Warehouse No. 10, there's no air-conditioning - but there are 18-foot-span "Big Ass" (yes, it's a brand name) ceiling fans that look powerful enough to sweep your hair straight up on end. Aside from plumbing and electrical updates - and a new roof and concrete floor - the warehouse looks much the same as it probably did in the 1940s.
"It's part of our green philosophy to tread lightly, to leave the building essentially as we found it," said Alison Marik Zeno, executive director and partner in the Crafted team.
"You could never re-create the quality of a building like this," she said.
Other team members are Wayne Blank, founder and brainchild behind Bergamot Station, and Howard Robinson, who handles the real estate end.
They have agreed with the port to spend $5 million rehabbing both buildings, a benchmark they're fast approaching, Zeno said.
"We've put our money where our mouth is,"
The building makes use of passive lighting - natural light streaming in from the clerestory windows provides an authentic and minimalist setting setting. The exterior had to be newly sided for weatherproofing. It's also been painted with a color called "Peace Yellow."
Mementoes from the past have been found nestled in the 70-year-old patina Douglas fir interior walls, including empty liquor and beer bottles dating back to the 1940s and '50s.
Stenciled wall designations and random painted phrases - like "Beware of Sentry Dogs" - will be kept as is.
"We use contrast to our advantage," Zeno said, noting that newly created art will be housed in such a historical building.
And it now seems like some kind of "crazy kizmet," Zeno said, that the World War II ship the USS Iowa will share the waterfront spotlight with Crafted housed in a Navy-built warehouse.
"None of that was planned when we started talking about this," she said.
While the pricey Bergamot gallery was the inspiration, Crafted won't be "Bergamot South," Zeno said.
Crafted will be the largest permanent arts and crafts venue in the region and will offer high quality goods - artists have to apply and be accepted for spaces - but it also will have a populist feel, she said.
"We've set the bar pretty high but the artisans who applied blew us out of the water," Zeno said.
Everything must be made by hand using U.S. materials.
"I hope one day this replaces many trips to the mall," Zeno said, noting that most everything - linens, paper goods, handbags, paintings, jewelry, specialty and gourmet foods, ceramics and graphic design showpieces - will be sold at Crafted once it's fully built out.
She's still looking for someone who makes custom surfboards or skateboards.
Admission is free and the weekend hours also will feature live entertainment, food and demonstrations.
Many people have asked Zeno why something like this doesn't already exist, she said.
For artists who have signed an initial six-month lease, Crafted offers a permanent display, saving money - along with wear and tear - over traveling to craft shows throughout the year.
"This is the perfect environment for people who are looking for something different," said Mary Edwards, who with Peter Solomon is setting up their 7-11 Miracle Co. booth. Their Santa Monica company features potions in tiny amulets worn as jewelry.
While many artists are local, others come from Riverside, San Diego and other outlying regions in Southern California.
"I had to put my preconceived (about San Pedro) notions on hold," acknowledged Amy Steelman of Riverside, who's setting up her Dogwood and Poppy jewelry booth at Crafted and only came to San Pedro as a teenager to visit an uncle.
Now, she said, the town is growing on her. Many are surprised by the spruced-up appearance of the nearby Cabrillo Marina and are fascinated by the gigantic container ships moving through the harbor.
"It is so charming," Steelman said. "I love finding sweet little places."
"I already know some people looking for (local) housing," Zeno said.
Deborah Ammar, who does assemblage art, already lives in San Pedro and rode her bike to the warehouse last week to help her husband set up her work space.
Noting the boom in artsy e-commerce websites like Etsy, Zeno said the special touch with Crafted is that customers can talk directly to the artisans.
"I love interacting with my customers," Steelman said.
Ali Heiss of Diamond Bar - who makes jewelry under the name Amarilo - was busy putting together a booth she was sharing with fellow artisan Brianna Kenyon of Burbank, who runs Pooka Queen Hats.
"I love being surrounded by other crafters," Heiss said.
And the building?
"It's so beautiful," Heiss said, a smile spreading across her face as she stretched both arms upward. "I love the space."
Follow Donna Littlejohn on Twitter at http://twitter.com/donnalittlejohn
Want to go?
What: Grand opening of Crafted at the Port of Los Angeles
Where: 112 E. 22nd St., San Pedro
When: 10:30 a.m. Friday; regular hours will be 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sundays year-round.
Highlights: Music, food trucks, pony rides
Information: Admission free. 818-216-2963, www.craftedportla.com/ | <urn:uuid:37dda579-46b9-4359-9774-e9197f2e38c6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailybreeze.com/education/ci_20943504/transformed-warehouse-reopen-crafted-at-port-los-angeles?source=pkg | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96703 | 1,544 | 1.546875 | 2 |
COLUMN: Election 2012: Which way is the religious vote tilting?
Are voters with different religious affiliations drawn to Obama versus Romney? Do they have different religious coalitions behind them?
There are differences, and they are similar to the differences we saw in the Obama-McCain matchup four years ago, according to the new survey by the Public Religion Research Institute.
Obama draws almost all of the support of Black Protestant voters — 97 percent say they back him, compared to only 3 percent who support Romney. Obama also draws heavy support from the religiously unaffiliated. Almost three-quarters of this group (73 percent) support the president; 22 percent are backing the former governor.
In contrast, Romney’s chief support comes from white evangelical Protestants. Three-quarters give him their support, compared to 20 percent who support Obama.
The candidates pretty much split the other two religious voting blocks: white mainline Protestants and Catholics. Romney gets a bit more support from each of these groups, but it’s a slim margin.
Did you expect these patterns?
What surprised you?
Does religion influence your choice of candidate? | <urn:uuid:b6dae958-453c-44f1-9834-fecda1e72ed6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://annarbor.com/lifestyles/election-2012-which-way-is-the-religious-vote-tilting/?cmpid=mlive-@mlive-living-a2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952501 | 233 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Utility regulators have loosened strict investment restrictions on money set aside for the eventual dismantling of California’s two nuclear plants.
In a ruling published Wednesday, the California Public Utilities Commission approved the use of derivative instruments, junk bonds and more extensive stock market and foreign equity investments.
The decision more than doubles the investment management fee cap. The utilities commission stopped short of endorsing the use of private equity, hedge funds, commodities and real estate instruments, but said it might reconsider if plant licenses are extended.
The San Onofre and Diablo Canyon nuclear plants, like most U.S. nuclear facilities, accumulate decommissioning funds over their operating life to cope with the decades-long process of removing reactors and reducing residual radioactivity under federal oversight.
Unprecedented equipment failures at the idled San Onofre nuclear plant have raised the prospect that its multibillion-dollar decommissioning trusts may need to be tapped sooner than anticipated. The plant has been offline for a year as of Jan. 31, with no firm restart date for either of two reactors.
Matt Freedman, staff attorney at The Utility Reform Network, had cautioned regulators against allowing more volatile investments.
Unlike an individual retirement account tied to a person’s age, nuclear plants may need to cash out their trust funds decades ahead of time if a plant breaks down or is no longer economically viable, he explained.
“We’ve just seen a situation where a plant (San Onofre) went down unexpectedly and may never come back,” Freedman said Thursday. “This is a scenario we have to take into account.”
The investments review was an unusual addition to the routine examination of trust balances and contributions conducted every three years by the California Public Utilities Commission.
It was ordered by commissioner Timothy Simon, whose prior work as an attorney in the financial services industry prompted additional questions.
“There were concerns that maybe he was trying to steer these investments to these types of firms that he used to work for,” Freedman said.
Simon left the commission on Dec. 31 as his six-year term expired. The utility commission had no contact information for Simon.
At current value, California’s combined trust funds for Diablo Canyon and San Onofre would cover about 90 percent of projected decommissioning costs.
San Onofre operator Southern California Edison estimates the cost for the eventual decommissioning of the sidelined Unit 2 and Unit 3 reactors at $4.12 billion. Decommissioning work is still under way at the original Unit 1 reactor, which ceased operation in 1992.
Edison and minority plant owner San Diego Gas & Electric oversee separate trust funds for the eventual decommissioning of San Onofre.
San Diego Gas & Electric has requested increased annual nuclear trust contributions of $16.4 million from its customers in San Diego and northern Orange counties, starting in 2014. Challenges to the increase have been filed with the utilities commission.
Operating licenses expire in 2022 at San Onofre in North County and 2024 at Diablo Canyon in San Luis Obispo County. The plants’ operators can seek a 20-year extension from nuclear safety regulators. | <urn:uuid:89900fde-82ad-4dda-b5ce-a8ce7d47fe2b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/feb/01/tp-higher-fees-risks-okd-for-nuke-trust/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944979 | 653 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Who’s picking up the tab for the tea party?
The tea party movement may have genuine grassroots. But just beneath the surface are professional fund-raisers, foundations, and political action committees – some of which have been around for years – pushing a conservative-libertarian agenda.
(Page 2 of 2)
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Another major source of tea party funding is the Tea Party Express, which poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into the successful GOP primary senate campaigns of Christine O’Donnell in Delaware and Joe Miller in Alaska.
Based in Sacramento, Calif., the Tea Party Express is run by Sal Russo, a Republican fund raiser and public relations guru who began his career working for Ronald Reagan. Russo is also the chief strategist for “Our Country Deserves Better,” a PAC formed to defeat Obama in the 2008 presidential election.
“As a pivotal player in the ‘tea party’ movement, Russo has helped drive its cause by raising millions of dollars and crafting caustic ads about its opponents,” reports the Los Angeles Times. “There's no question that Tea Party Express, the political action committee Russo runs out of his Sacramento-based firm, is the advertising muscle behind the tea party insurgency.... As the only tea party group making significant advertising buys, Tea Party Express has become one of the most potent forces in the protest movement.”
Millions from the Tea Party Express
Our Country Deserves Better, which launched the first Tea Party Express bus tour last year, raised and spent just over $1 million in the 2008 campaign year. So far in 2010, it’s raised and spent more than $5 million. Large chunks of that went to the GOP primary campaigns of tea party favorites Christine O’Donnell ($237,000) and Joe Miller (nearly $600,000).
The problem for those trying to ferret out where the money comes from – and for Obama and Democrats as they seek to toughen campaign finance reporting in the wake of the Citizens United court decision – is that it’s getting harder to do so.
“Federal campaign spending by groups other than candidates and parties this election cycle has far outpaced similar spending from the last midterm election and could rival the 2008 presidential campaign,” the New York Times reports. “But with recent decisions by the Supreme Court and the Federal Elections Commission, it has become harder to know whose dollars they are.”
This chart shows that the percentage of such groups involved in “electioneering communications” and reporting the names of their donors has dropped from 98 percent in 2004 to 32 percent this year.
The tea party may have sturdy, spreading grassroots. But there’s plenty of special-interest money behind it as well. | <urn:uuid:2e50da26-523d-4811-bc0f-1398022bf2f4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Elections/2010/0919/Who-s-picking-up-the-tab-for-the-tea-party/(page)/2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959521 | 573 | 1.53125 | 2 |
By Dennis Crouch
ClearValue v. Pearl River Polymers (Fed. Cir. 2012) (Opinion by Judge Moore, joined by Judges PROST and SCHALL)
This case presents a classic law school hypothetical of an invention that is anticipated but likely not obvious. According to the appellate panel, the prior art fully discloses and enables the invention but also teaches that the proposed invention is impractical and does not work well. As discussed below, however, the anticipation holding itself is somewhat controversial because it is based upon the conclusion that a broad range disclosure found in the prior art ("less than 150 ppm") anticipates the narrower range found in the claims ("less than 50 ppm").
A jury found ClearValue’s patent valid and infringed and the district court denied the defendants motions to set the patent verdict aside. On appeal the Federal Circuit reversed based upon the appellate court's own factual finding that a single prior art reference teaches and enables each element of the asserted patent claim.
Background: The patent at issue is directed to a process for clarifying water using a flocculated suspension of aluminum along with high molecular weight quarternized polymers. The listed inventor, Richard Haase continues to be an owner of the patent and also CEO of ClearValue. Haase has filed more than 50 water purification and energy related patents and is also a graduate of the University of Missouri (ChemE + Mathematics + Economics). The defendant, Pearl River was once ClearValue’s customer but later began making its own version of the patented process. ClearValue and Haase sued for patent infringement and for trade secret violation (for using the process without authority even before he filed for patent protection).
Anticipation versus Obviousness: The appeal focused on anticipation. Pearl River argued that all of the elements of CV's asserted claim were previously disclosed in U.S. Patent No. 4,800,039 (Hassick). The jury found otherwise. As a matter of procedure, a jury's verdict must be supported by "substantial evidence." If not, it must be set aside either by the district court or on appeal. At trial, the defendants had presented their case that Hassick taught each element of the claimed invention while the plaintiffs pointed only to "teaching away" found in patent. Unfortunately for the plaintiffs, "teaching away" is legally irrelevant to the question of anticipation. See Celeritas Techs., Ltd. v. Rockwell Int'l Corp., 150 F.3d 1354, 1361 (Fed. Cir. 1998). Rather, under 35 U.S.C. § 102 a claim will be anticipated and therefore invalid if a single prior art reference describes "each and every claim limitation and enable[s] one of skill in the art to practice an embodiment of the claimed invention without undue experimentation." Quoting Am. Calcar, Inc. v. Am. Honda Motor Corp., 651 F.3d 1318, 1341 (Fed. Cir. 2011).
Genus Species Anticipation: The only gap in the prior art disclosure was that Hassick generally disclosed "low-alkalinity systems (i.e., 150 ppm or less)" and "alkalinity of between 60-70 ppm" while the asserted patent claimed "alkalinity less than or equal to 50 ppm." In its 2006 Atofina decision, the Federal Circuit addressed a similar genus-species situation involving a narrow claimed temperature range and a broader temperature range found in the prior art. Atofina v. Great Lakes Chem. Corp., 441 F.3d 991 (Fed. Cir. 2006). In Atofina, the court held that a broad genus range disclosure in the prior art did not anticipate the narrow species range claimed. There, both the hypothetical “person having skill in the art” (PHOSITA) and the patentee agreed that there was something special or “critical” about the claimed temperature range. The court distinguished this case from Atofina based upon its factual conclusion that “there is no allegation of criticality or any evidence demonstrating any difference across the range.” Based upon the logical analysis that the narrow range is not critically different from the broad range, the Federal Circuit held that the claimed narrow range was fully disclosed by the broad range and therefore is unpatentable.
Comment – Whither Obviousness: Interesting notion: The mechanism that the court used to distinguish this case from Atofina are very much akin to obviousness principles — looking essentially for synergy or unexpected results that make the narrow range qualitatively different from the broad range. It seems to me, however, that if these obviousness principles can be used to extend the anticipatory scope of prior art, then other obviousness principles (such as teaching away) should also be relevant.
Trade Secret Negated by Prior Art?: The Texas jury found Pearl River liable for trade secret misappropriations. However, the district court rejected that conclusion based upon an implicit admission by ClearValue that all of the elements of the alleged trade secret were publicly known at the time and found in the Hassick reference. On appeal, the Federal Circuit affirmed without further analyzing the extent that public availability of knowledge in the form of a third-party prior art document is sufficient to disqualify the knowledge as a trade secret. I am not an expert on Texas trade secret law, but the at least the Restatement of Torts is clear that a trade secret “may be a device or process which is clearly anticipated in the prior art.” | <urn:uuid:7d62e198-565e-43da-8c91-74216b8bc0bc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/obviousness/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942002 | 1,142 | 1.523438 | 2 |
A Public Health Stranger in the Land of Medical Care
Sunday, March 14, 2010
I received excellent treatment from my physiotherapist for my upper back pain and was able to complete the hot 168km Bike Rally 2010. Physiotherapists in Singapore are like physical therapists in the U.S., however they are not yet licensed professionals though acupuncturists are. They are working with the government to change their status.
My physiotherapist, Sylvia Ho, co-founder of Core Concepts Physiotherapy Centre, was trained in Australia where she earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees. She prefers to use manipulative therapy and massage to ultrasound or electrical stimulation machines. She believes my discomfort came from a major change in my ergonomics related to my daily use of 2 computers at new desks and subsequent poor posture. My upper back and neck pain improved more with each visit, exercises she recommended I do at home, and changing my computer posture.
Core Concepts charges about $56 for each therapy session that lasts about 30 minutes and consists of intensive manipulation and massage. Physiotherapists employ hands-on techniques that try to remove blockages, loosen and stretch muscles and joints, and improve posture.
After my first visit, I submitted the bill to my Singapore insurer, which I have through my employer. Soon thereafter, I received an email asking me for the original copy of my written referral. This was news to me. For my U.S. insurer, no written referral is required, so it had not occurred to me that I would need one in Singapore. That was a mistaken assumption and I should have known better.
I told the insurance company the truth: that my physician told me to see a physiotherapist. They responded that they still needed the original written referral. So I contacted the physician via email. He did not respond. One week later, I called his office. They said they would email me the referral. They did not. I called a week later and tried again. This third attempt proved successful. They emailed me a scanned copy of the handwritten referral from the doctor and I received the original in the mail a few days later. However, I did notice one potential problem: there was no date on the referral.
Nonetheless, I filled out the on-line medical claim submission forms and submitted the “certified original” referral and bills. I was told they pay about $35 maximum for each physiotherapy visit.
I should hear within a few weeks.
Meanwhile, I tried to learn more about the “Sixth Best System in the World.” Keep in mind: No system is perfect.
I was interested to learn that at least some of Singapore’s hospitals publish their bed charges and the Ministry of Health publishes the mean costs for certain diagnoses at some hospitals.
Standard Ward Class C - $21- 9 bedded room, natural ventilation
Standard Ward Class B2 - $56 - 6 bedded room, individual ceiling fans, semi-automatic bed
Standard Ward Class B2+ -$84 - 5 bedded room, air-conditioned, attached bath and toilet
Standard Ward Class B1 - $130 - 4 bedded room, all of above, TV, phone, choice of meals
Standard Ward Class A1 - $215 - Single room, all of above, toiletries, fully automated bed, optional sleeper unit
Upgraded Ward Class A1+ = $243- All of above, plus mini-safe, fridge
The charges listed above are what the patient will pay out-of-pocket for their beds exclusive of any care. “Out-of-pocket,” however means that the patient can use a Flexible Spending Account or a Medical Savings Account (Medisave), into which their employer and/or they are required to put a minimum amount. As of December 2008, the average Singaporean had about $10,000 in their Medisave account. They can also use the accounts of the close relatives and dependents in some circumstances.
While this seems complicated to me, most Singaporeans seem to understand how it works. They also have to pay “out-of-pocket” for some expensive therapies including chemotherapy and HIV drugs. How much? I’ll find out and report on it in Part III. | <urn:uuid:d2b43623-ff0e-43cc-9955-4fab8c3eb5fb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ithaca.edu/fleff/blogs/public_health_spaces/tags/singapore_health_system/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971607 | 891 | 1.5 | 2 |
From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...Those of you who have traveled the backroads and byways of the Mediterranean are probably familiar with this salad. I learned of it ten years ago while paging through an article written by Paula Wolfert, a respected food writer and teacher with expertise in the food of the region. The recipe was unusual enough to catch my eye and simple enough to hold my attention. While I love to serve the salad with grilled meat or fish, I also like to incorporate it as an ingredient in other recipes that will be featured later in the week. Its main ingredient is fresh curly parsley. Lots of it. The parsley leaves are removed from the stems and torn into tiny bits. It's really important that no short cuts be taken with this step. Large clumps and stems will spoil this salad and make it quite ordinary. Once you have about four cups of shredded parsley flakes they are combined will olives and shallots and tossed with the simplest of oil and vinegar dressings. The resulting salad is delicious when it's made with really fresh parsley. It's not worth your while to make it with parsley of an uncertain age. Older parsley is tough and the salad will taste like rabbit fodder. It's also important not to dress the salad until just before serving. The salad becomes compacted if it sits too long after the oil and vinegar have been added. I first made this out of curiosity, but what began as an experiment has become a regular feature of my summer table despite its pains and pitfalls. I know that many of you share my passion for the unusual, so I decided to post this recipe despite its simplicity. I really think you'll like it. Here's the recipe.
Flaked Parsley Salad with Black Olives and Cheese...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite, inspired by Paula Wolfert
1/4 pound very fresh curly parsley, washed and thoroughly dried
1/2 cup (about 24) Kalamata olives, rinsed, drained pitted and slivered
1/4 cup minced shallots or red onion
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1/4 cup coarsely grated Pecorino-Romano cheese
1) Remove parsley from stems. Discard stems and tear each leaf into tiny bits. You should have four cups of loosely packed parsley flakes.
2) Combine parsley, olives, shallots, Worcestershire, oil, vinegar in a medium bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste. Toss gently to combine. Transfer to a serving bowl and sprinkle with cheese. Yield: 6 servings.
You might also enjoy these recipes:
Corn and Radish Salad - One Perfect Bite
Mediterranean Radish Salad - One Perfect Bite
Asparagus and White Bean Salad - One Perfect Bite
Moroccan Carrot Salad - The Perfect Pantry
Feta and Watermelon Salad - Girlichef
Heirloom Tomato Salad - Chef Tom's Blog
Spicy Lentil, Radish and Parsley Salad - Cook Sister
Greek-Style Zucchini Salad - Closet Cooking | <urn:uuid:105a2c82-0f17-4150-ab85-2ecf81f41e45> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://oneperfectbite.blogspot.com/2010/07/flaked-parsley-salad-with-black-olives.html?showComment=1279656121391 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94159 | 662 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Bill Keep has been researching and participating in prosecutions of pyramid scheme businesses since the 1990s, when he was faculty at the University of Kentucky. Keep and Peter Vander Nat, an economist at the Federal Trade Commission, are the authors of the only academic paper published about mathematically identifying pyramid schemes.
The paper was referenced in hedge fund manager Bill Ackman's three-hour presentation on his accusations that Herbalife, which sells fitness and weight loss products, is a pyramid scheme. Ackman's accusations and subsequent short sell sent Herbalife stocks plummeting in December.
While Keep has not taken a position on the Herbalife issue, he is excited that the work done by Vander Nat and himself is being recognized.
"My first thought was, 'Finally we're going to get some attention paid to how multi-level marketing firms may operate.' I want to be careful, because my first thought was not 'Oh great, they finally caught Herbalife, because it's a pyramid scheme.' That was not my first reaction," Keep said. He added that he didn't know if Herbalife is a pyramid scheme but said, "I know what data I would need to prove it, one way or another."
Keep said there are several clear-cut ways to determine whether a company is a pyramid scheme, based on previous rulings in court. The first is how heavily the company relies on recruitment for compensation and upfront investment of new distributors. Another is claims being made about the product being sold are untrue. Finally, if the company has few outside customers, it is likely a pyramid scheme.
Keep said that he's refrained from advising investors on multi-level marketing firms in case he's called to testify as an expert witness when pyramid charges are brought. He's already testified in cases in Florida and Kentucky.
He also said pyramid schemes have been able to capitalize on opportunities in the past 30 years because the average household income has been flat or declining, "and that creates an unmet need." He said pyramids often advertise their most successful members to recruits, telling new distributors they too can have additional income, travel opportunities and other perks.
Keep said that, while not all multi-level marketing firms are pyramid schemes, the industry has been under regulated.
"There have been enough pyramid schemes posing as legitimate multi-level marketing firms that we should be concerned that they may continue to exist," he said. | <urn:uuid:4454ee6c-b53b-4184-a6a2-82d101ef1c4a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.njbiz.com/article/20130110/NJBIZ01/130119980/0/view/TCNJ-dean-keeps-eye-on-Herbalife-kerfuffle | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978046 | 490 | 1.695313 | 2 |
They Walk Among Us
I jerked when Raven touched my hand with his fingers. I shot him a glance, and saw sympathy in his gaze.
::It’s hard to find out your parents weren’t who you thought them to be.::
“No, that isn’t it,” I protested.
He tilted his head to study me. ::If that wasn’t the problem, what was?::
“It was the fact everyone lied to us, or at least, the governments lied to us. They told us your were coming to take over our planet. You weren’t interested in negotiating or anything like that. You were only interested in hostile takeovers.” I shook my head, and sighed. “We’re trained to believe everything our government says. Why would they lie to us for their own personal gains?”
::I don’t know much about my own history and what my people were really like, but I do know we were taught from an early age to always question things. Our adults and leaders expect us to doubt them. It leads to better understanding and more intelligent Opalites.::
“Yeah, well, at times I think the earthly governments want their people to be as dumb as possible, so they don’t have to work as hard coming up with good lies.” I studied the liquid in my mug. “Anyway, as I began to learn more about the Opalites, from any source I could find, I discovered other things our government was doing to keep us under control. Other ways they were lying and exerting their power.”
Raven stood, and moved toward the refrigerator. I watched him open it, and peer inside before he shot me a glance over his shoulder.
::I have a feeling this is going to take a while. Why don’t I make us lunch while you tell me about the rebels?::
I had to share more with Raven, but I couldn’t share too much. The rebellion had so many different branches. It wasn’t just about rescuing people the government wanted to make disappear or capture. There were members who were trying to get the truth out to the people, no matter the consequences. We all knew the risks we took, and our lives were the price we would pay if we were caught.
“We run a type of Underground Railroad for people the government wants. Sort of like what the abolitionists did during slavery in our country. That was over two hundred years ago, but the idea is still the same. We help those who don’t have power or freedom to get away from those who do.”
I didn’t have a problem telling Raven that, since it was obvious we did that. He hummed in encouragement as he heated up some water for pasta, and opened a can of spaghetti sauce.
::How did you get recruited? What made you decide to take action instead of simply accepting what you were told?::
Sadness filled my heart at the thought of Killian, my first love. Raven must have caught the wave of sorrow, because he set the spoon down, and walked over to me. I looked up into his eyes, and he leaned down to brush a kiss over my cheek.
::I’m sorry, and you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. I can tell it’s a painful memory for you.::
“It’s not that I don’t want to tell you. I just haven’t really talked about it before. I don’t have a lot of close friends. Mostly because I don’t want them to get swept up in something dangerous.” “Thank you though.”
Raven dipped his head in acknowledgement before returning to the stove. I watched as he moved around the room, a low level hum of attraction building between us. Repeating all the reasons why I shouldn’t indulge my desires didn’t seem to work on keeping my hands from wanting to run over his body, and learn all the places that made him gasp.
“Killian was my roommate my freshman year at the university. He was bright, and beautiful. Everything about him practically screamed happiness and joy. He was a history and political science double major, so he was learning all about the government and how it’d evolved over the centuries.”
I laughed and took a sip of tea.
“I won’t bore you with all the details. I learned more than I ever wanted to know from him. I fell in love with him, but he wasn’t interested in me as a boyfriend. We became best friends, and, as the year progressed, I watched as all the joy seemed to drain out of him. I couldn’t get him to tell me why or what was wrong. He’d taken to spending hours in the library, researching his papers, or so he told me.”
Guilt swamped me like it always did when I thought of Killian.
“Maybe if I had known more at the time, I could have seen the danger, but I was young, and still wasn’t totally sure about what I believed in. One night, we were sleeping in our dorm, and the door burst in. There were all these men in suits, yelling at us to stay down. They shot me with some kind of drug to paralyze me while they ransacked our room.”
I closed my eyes, and breathed, trying to tamp down on the terror threatening to steal me away from the present, and throw me back to that night.
“I heard Killian yell, screaming at them to stop, but they didn’t. I wasn’t knocked out or anything like that, but I couldn’t move. All I could do was watch as they beat him bloody. He kept protesting about not doing anything wrong, and it being his right to know things. By the time the chaos ended, and I could finally move, they were gone. Along with Killian and all of his research.”
Opening my eyes, I found Raven crouched next to me, his hand resting on my knees. He reached out with the other one, and wiped the tears off my cheek.
::You never heard from him again.::
I shrugged. “Authorities found his body in the river, downstream from one of the bridges on campus. The official story was he committed suicide because he was failing his classes.”
::That wasn’t true?::
“Killian was a genius. There was no way he failed any class in his entire life, and if he did, he wouldn’t have killed himself over it. He would have gotten mad, and studied harder the next time. They killed him for what he found out, and I vowed to discover what the government wanted hidden so badly, they would kill an unknown college student to keep it secret.” | <urn:uuid:7525445d-ace4-4da7-a3ab-d3200b6a2e47> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tachase.blogspot.com/2011/11/they-walk-among-us_22.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.991293 | 1,487 | 1.554688 | 2 |
The MLP industry has an unusually attractive record of growth over the last 17 years. The Alerian MLP index has grown from 100 in 1996 to 409 and the comparable index with reinvested income has risen to 1280. The large difference between the 2 indices shows that these growth securities are viewed primarily as yield securities.
I have written many articles about Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP) and Enbridge Energy Partners (EEP), 2 large MLPs, which have companion corporations, Kinder Morgan Management (KMR) and Enbridge Management (EEQ). These corporations allow investors to share in growth of the MLP business while receiving dividends and avoid complicated tax issues associated with K-1 tax forms issued by MLPs. But one disadvantage for some investors is that these corporations pay stock dividends, so they are not appropriate for investors looking for investment income. Now there is a new comparable MLP corporation which provides dividends with income and some tax advantages.
LINE had an IPO for a second company 2 weeks ago, LinnCo (LNCO), a companion corporation to the partnership, that gives an investment choice in this growing business. The offering of 34 million shares raised $1.2 billion for Linn Energy. Proceeds give the company greater access to capital to pursue the acquisition growth strategy. Each share of LNCO is backed by one unit of LINE. Presently, the units pay an annual distribution of $2.90 which generates a dividend of $2.84 (net of reserves for corporate income tax) for each share of LNCO. The Q3 distribution and dividend were declared this week and will be paid in November. The quarterly distribution from LINE has increased from 40¢ in 2006 to 72.5¢ presently. The LNCO dividend should be increased the same as for the distribution.
The LINE distribution has been 100% free of taxes, but that creates tax hassle and additional recording keeping. LNCO pays dividends that will generate a 1099 instead of form K-1. The company expects that up to 60% of the dividends will be taxable and classified as qualified dividends (assuming qualified dividend tax rates remain next year).
LINE is an upstream natural gas and crude oil producer that acquires long life energy properties for more production. LINE takes out long-term hedges (4-6 years) to protect cash flow which allows for upside potential. Since 2003 it has acquired 54 properties for $10 billion. The business grew 30% in 2011 and the company estimates 20% growth in 2012. In less than a decade it has become the 8th largest MLP. LINE investments are shown below (including Wyoming's Jonah Field which was acquired 3 months ago for over $1 billion).
LINE just announced it earned $89.8 million in Q3, or 45¢ per unit which topped the 26¢ estimate. Last year, adjusted profit excluding items, was $78.6 million. Average daily production in Q3 doubled over 2011. Revenue was $460 million, up from $295 million a year ago and it compares with $550 million that analysts expected. Additionally there was a $430 million loss due to losses from commodity derivatives intended to reduce fluctuations in cash flow. As a reminder, distributions are paid from distributable cash flow which is higher than net income because it includes non-cash items such as depreciation.
Now there are more ways to share in MLP income and growth without tax hassle. For years, KMR and EEQ provided stocks to track growth of units. Currently they have implied yields of about 7%. Now LNCO is available and at $38.80 it provides a 7.3% yield, one of the highest available from any MLP and it's paid with money. High income is taxed at low rates and dividends are expected to grow. Capital appreciation is a bonus. For traditional MLP investors who like high yields with tax advantages, MLP units can be purchased. In a low interest rate environment lasting for at least 2 years, the choice seems easy.
Disclosure: I am long EEQ. | <urn:uuid:24596324-b5cb-4035-b4b8-9286ad31525f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://seekingalpha.com/article/955331-now-there-are-3-mlps-with-companion-corporations-paying-dividends | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964335 | 824 | 1.570313 | 2 |
While lawyers were debating in the state capital, school officials in Calhoun County began to question whether the bill would conflict with federal court orders that have bound local school systems since the end of segregation.
“I’m fairly certain a federal court order would take precedence over state law,” said Joan Frazier, superintendent of Anniston City Schools.
Frazier and school officials across the state have spent the past few days trying to figure out what the Alabama Accountability Act, passed last week, would mean for their schools.
The bill began life as a school flexibility measure, backed by many school administrators. As originally written, the bill allowed schools to enter into “flexibility contracts” that would allow them to opt out of some statewide regulations in pursuit of educational goals.
The bill’s length more than doubled in the hours before its final passage, as Republican leaders in the Senate — including Sen. Del Marsh of Anniston and Sen. Gerald Dial of Lineville — added wording that would provide a tax credit of up to $7,500 for parents of students zoned for “failing” schools. Families would get the tax credit if they pulled out of those schools and enrolled in private schools, or transferred to other public schools.
School officials, school policy advocates and even the bill’s Senate supporters say they’re still not sure how many schools would qualify as “failing” under the bill’s rules, or how much the bill would cost.
“You won’t know the cost of this for a year or so down the road,” said Marsh, president pro tempore of the Senate.
Marsh and other advocates of the bill say it will liberate students stuck in poor-quality public schools. But the eleventh-hour rewrite of the bill has angered even some of the bill’s original supporters and led to accusations that the bill was passed in violation of legislative rules.
The Alabama Education Association, the state’s largest teacher’s association, filed suit against the bill Tuesday, seeking to block Bentley from signing the bill. The AEA argued that the bill’s last-minute rewrite violated legislative rules and the state’s open meetings act.
In testimony in a Montgomery courtroom Tuesday, Sen. Quinton Ross, D-Montgomery, testified that he was one of six members of a conference committee tasked Thursday with reconciling the House and Senate versions of the 9-page School Flexibility Act, which had passed both chambers.
Ross testified that the conference committee went into recess as soon as it met. The four Republican members of the committee, including Marsh and Dial, left the meeting and returned with a 27-page bill now called the Alabama Accountability Act, Ross testified.
“They were passing out a totally different piece of legislation,” Ross said.
Lawyers for the state attorney general’s office argued that the court didn’t have jurisdiction over the rules of the Legislature, and said that lawmakers have the power to dispense with their own rules.
“Passing the act is in essence a suspension of the rules, or setting the rule aside,” said Margaret Fleming, chief of the constitutional defense division of the attorney general’s office.
“The argument that you’re making is that rules don’t mean anything,” Judge Charles Price said. Before the hearing Price restricted the Legislature from sending the bill to Bentley for approval. That ruling is in effect, lawyers in the case said, until an evidentiary hearing at 8:30 a.m. today.
Dial said he’s received a summons to appear in that court proceeding. He said he never broke the state’s Open Meetings Act, and helped rewrite the bill to address critics’ concerns.
“I wanted to make sure it didn’t do away with tenure or create charter schools,” he said.
Bentley made it clear that he’d sign the bill at the earliest opportunity.
“If the bill comes across to me today, and there’s no restraining order, I’ll sign it,” Bentley said Tuesday.
Bentley said the virtues of the school-flexibility provisions in the bill were getting lost in the debate over the tax credits. He said he did not yet know how much the tax credits would cost the state in lost tax revenue.
School administrators’ groups have offered widely different estimates of the bill’s cost to the state — from $35 million to $367 million. One reason the bill’s cost is so hard to estimate is that it’s still unclear which districts are considered “failing” and who would qualify for tax credits.
Anniston High School would seem to be on the “failing” list, which would include schools that have been part of the state’s application for federal School Improvement Grants.
But Frazier, the Anniston school superintendent, said it still wasn’t clear that the bill would affect any Anniston school.
Marsh said late Tuesday that he didn’t know whether any Anniston schools would be on the “failing” list.
“I’ve asked the state Department of Education for a list, and I’m still waiting,” he said.
The Alabama Department of Education released a statement Monday asking for the standards for failing schools to be clarified.
The bill would allow students to transfer out of failing schools and go to private schools — or to go to a public school if that school can take them. Frazier said Tuesday morning that she was open to allowing Anniston students to “flex out” of her school system if that’s what the law demands.
“We won’t stand in the way,” she said.
She later called The Star to say that public-to-public school transfers might not be possible after all. Like many Alabama school districts, Anniston’s schools are still bound by a court order issued to end segregation.
“Under the court order, if you live in Anniston and you go to a public school, you go to the school you’re zoned for,” she said.
Jon Paul Campbell, superintendent of Jacksonville City Schools, said he, too, thought court orders would create complications for student transfers. He said his school system might take students from other districts, though budget cutbacks have made it hard to deal with sudden surges in the student population.
“We haven’t even had textbook money to speak of for about seven years,” he said. He said the loss of income tax revenue due to the tax credits would make the budget situation worse.
Piedmont City Schools superintendent Matt Akin said his system might have room for as many as 100 or 200 new students. But students from other districts are already accepted in Piedmont.
“We have open enrollment,” he said. “We already have students from other counties.”
One Anniston private school headmaster welcomed the bill’s passage.
“It took me by surprise as much as it did the Democrats, only my surprise was pleasant,” said Bob Phillips, headmaster of Faith Christian School. Phillips said his school could accept an additional 100 students from public schools.
Rep. Barbara Boyd, D-Anniston, said the way the bill was passed was “unscrupulous,” and said the bill would lead to both private and public schools trying to recruit strong athletes away from Anniston and other high-poverty schools.
Marsh said the goal was to create competition that would improve the state’s schools. Over time, he said, that competition would bring down the bill’s cost.
“The goal is to get all these failing schools out of failed status,” he said. “Then there won’t be any tax credits.”
Capitol & statewide correspondent: 256-294-4193. On Twitter @TLockette_Star. | <urn:uuid:6d63d5b8-0196-44a0-b26b-121140154b2f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://annistonstar.com/view/full_story/21887353/article-Judge-delays-signing-of-school-tax-credit-bill--question-raised-over-fed-vs--state-jurisdiction?instance=home_lead_story | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975638 | 1,694 | 1.601563 | 2 |
From Concord New Hampshire today, Mitt Romney remarked on what Obama should say tonight…
ROMNEY: “I actually think it will be interesting to listen to the President tonight. What I’d like him to do is report on his promises but there are forgotten promises and forgotten people. Over the last four years, the President has said that he was going to create jobs for the American people and that hasn’t happened. He said he would cut the deficit in half and that hasn’t happened. He said that incomes would rise and instead incomes have gone down. And I think this is a time not for him not to start restating new promises but to report on the promises he made. I think he wants a promises reset. We want a report on the promises he made. And that means let’s hear some numbers. Let’s hear 16. Sixteen trillion dollars of debt. This is very different than the promise he made. Let’s hear the number 47. 47 million people in this country on food stamps. When he took office, 33 million people were on food stamps. Let’s understand why it was he’s been unsuccessful in helping alleviate poverty in this country. Why so many people have fallen from the middle class into poverty under this president. Let’s have him explain to the American people the 50 percent number. Why 50 percent of college graduates can’t find work or work that is consistent with their college degree. The President needs to report tonight on his promises rather than try and reset a whole series of new promises that he also won’t be able to keep.”
Any chance we’ll hear those things from Obama?
This is what we’re going to hear:
Follow Jayde Wyatt on Twitter @YayforSummer | <urn:uuid:815b4af1-0c73-4484-bff9-ba3d007995e2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mittromneycentral.com/page/30/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979369 | 376 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Colorado Denies Petition to Expand Crossbow Use
GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colo. - The Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission unanimously approved mountain lion harvest quotas for the upcoming lion season in the state at the Commission's September meeting in Glenwood Springs.
During Friday's morning session, the Parks and Wildlife Commission also denied a citizen petition requesting that crossbows be approved for use during archery seasons. Commissioners also approved changes to falconry regulations to make it easier for non-resident falconers to participate in falconry events in Colorado.
The meeting was held at The Hotel Denver in Glenwood Springs.
Each year, the commission approves lion quotas, which establish the maximum allowable of harvest for lions in each game management unit. The commission established a statewide quota of 630 for the 2012-2013 season, an increase of 12 over last year. That includes an increase of up to four additional lions in the Hayman burn area where newly introduced bighorn sheep are being impacted by lion predation. Quotas were adjusted in 13 different other areas of the state. The 2012-2013 season begins on Nov. 21 and runs through March 31, 2013.
In other business, commissioners denied a citizen petition to the Parks and Wildlife Commission requesting approval of the use of crossbows during Colorado's archery season. Currently crossbows are only allowed during the big-game rifle seasons. Bob Goode of Buena Vista, who submitted the petition, argued that allowing crossbows during archery season could help to recruit new hunters. Several members of the Colorado Bowhunters Association testified against the proposal. Staff from Colorado Parks and Wildlife testified that the current structure, harvest and participation in the existing archery season seem to be functioning properly and, on those grounds, staff did not see any biological or management basis for the change.
Commissioners also approved a change in falconry regulations to reduce the paperwork necessary for falconers from outside of Colorado to participate in competitive events in Colorado. Birds brought into the state for these competitions will still require a health certificate from a veterinarian before being brought into the state in order to protect the health of native species.
The Commission also began work to implement House Bill 12-1330, which allows individuals with license suspensions of at least 10 years to petition the Commission for reinstatement but only after serving half of their suspension or 15 years of a lifetime suspension. Commissioners discussed a proposed administrative process that will require people requesting reinstatement to submit a package of information, including a letter explaining why the petitioner is unlikely to violate wildlife statutes in the future. Under the draft regulations, individuals who are considered and approved for reinstatement will be required to pay a $300 reinstatement fee, successfully complete a hunter education course and perform 40 hours of service on a Colorado Parks and Wildlife-approved project. The Commission will review the draft regulation for final approval at a future meeting. Individuals whose hunting and fishing license privileges are suspended in Colorado are also prohibited from hunting or fishing in 37 other states under the Interstate Wildlife Violator Compact.
Commissioners also received an update on the future cost of non-resident hunting licenses in Colorado. The cost of non-resident hunting licenses are set by Colorado law in accordance with the annual Denver-Boulder Consumer Price Index. The current CPI would increase the cost of most non-resident big game licenses by $5 to $10 in 2013. The new rates will be considered for approval by the Commission at its November meeting in Yuma.
The Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission is an 11-member group appointed by the governor to provide public oversight for state parks, wildlife and outdoor recreation in Colorado. The Commission meets monthly and travels to communities around the state to facilitate public participation in its processes. The Commission will meet in Durango in early October, Yuma in November and Colorado Springs in December. For more information on the upcoming meeting schedule or how to listen to live online broadcasts of meetings, please see the Commission web page: http://wildlife.state.co.us/ParksWildlifeCommission/Pages/Commission.aspx.
Get Notified Of New Posts | <urn:uuid:f4dafe76-323a-471b-a68b-c786688f48d8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bowhunting.com/publisher/hunting-news/2012/9/11/colorado-denies-petition-to-expand-crossbow-use | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941768 | 830 | 1.695313 | 2 |
How do two children end up being placed in the home of a convicted sex offender, namely the man who molested their mother?
This is the question it took the ABC weeks and a series of emails and phone calls to get the Department for Child Protection to answer, and still the details are sketchy.
The situation is this.
An eight-year-old boy and his three-year-old sister are unable to be cared for by their mother. So they are placed in their grandparents home.
In 2007, the grandfather is denied a Working with Children Check card because he has a conviction of sexually abusing his daughter.
The Department for Child Protection moves in and removes the children… but just two months later, the Children’s Court overrules the move and awards the grandparents a Parenting Order.
The opposition child protection spokeswoman Sue Ellery says it appears the Department was working against itself.
“It’s completely inconsistent to me that one part of the child protection system deems this man unfit to either work in a paid position or to volunteer with children and the other part of the child protection system deems it appropriate for these children to have daily access and supervision from this man,” Ms Ellery said.
The Department says the only avenue it had was to request a protection order from the court, so it could conduct regular visits to monitor their safety.
It maintains the children were never at any risk and that the grandfather was considered low risk.
But the National Chairwoman of Adults Surviving Child Abuse Cathy Kezelman says regular checks are not enough.
“As we know, the crime of child sexual abuse is a silent crime that occurs in secrecy and in private,” she said.
“So doing checks that come and go can not actually know what’s going on in that household from moment to moment.”
Ms Ellery says under no circumstances should the children have been placed in the home of a sex offender in the first place.
“A man who committed incest with his own daughter ought not be in a position where he has close household access to his grandchildren,” Ms Ellery said.
When the ABC first contacted the Department about the issue in late March, we were told that the children were safe and were being monitored.
After further questioning, the Department, in a statement, said it was “currently reviewing the case to determine whether it needs to return to the Children’s Court to seek care and protection orders for the children which would bring them under the guardianship of the Department”.
Ms Ellery says the process had taken far too long. She says she raised concerns about it when she was the minister in 2007.
“I certainly had concerns that I discussed with the director general of the department and with various staff including local staff that a man who had a conviction of child abuse against his own daughter was to be given close, domestic access to his own grandchildren, one of whom was a girl.”
The Department has refused to be interviewed over the matter and insisted on responding to questions via email.
The minister Robyn McSweeney declined twice to be interviewed, but after the story ran on ABC radio and television, she broke her silence.
“I won’t defend the indefensible. There is no way that I would condone any child being placed with a known sex offender,” Ms McSweeney said.
And she was quick to point the blame on the opposition.
“I am the first minister to take the children away from this situation.”
And the court also copped some of the blame.
“The department applied for a care and protection order and the courts decided to put the children back with the grandparents.”
“I’m not very impressed with a court system that puts children back in the home of a known sex offender.”
But, the Department won’t confirm it’s role in the court cases and whether its officers representing the children were supporting or opposing their placement into their grandparents home.
Ms Ellery says those questions must be answered.
Questions were asked as to what the government had been doing to rectify the situation since the children were returned to the home in 2007.
While the initial responses from the Department said the children were safe, the minister later said they’d been busy compiling evidence.
“I had to make damn sure that we had enough ironclad evidence that the department had enough ironclad evidence to go back to court,” Ms McSweeney said.
“And it’s ludicrous that you have to gather evidence to go back to court.”
But Ms Ellery claims the Department was handed evidence in November last year from a community member concerned about the treatment the children were receiving.
A letter from the community members dated November 17, 2009, states they were “horrified with the screaming and shouting from (the grandfather) directed at at the children… and constant crying from the girl.”
It also raised concerns that the children were often left alone in the home with their grandfather, a known paedophile.
The Department responded on November 26, advising them the grandfather “had been assessed as low risk by multiple qualified and experienced professionals, including clinical psychologists and forensic clinical psychologist.”
The letter goes on to say “that there is no further action required from DCP in regards to their concerns… and the DCP will continue to monitor the children…”
The children were removed from the home last week.
In a statement the Department said: “While in no immediate danger, it was clear that the placement was unsustainable due to the level of care being received by the children and the future risk as the children aged, evidenced by (the grandfather’s) previous convictions.”
The children are now in temporary foster care and the Department must go back to court to get permanent custody of them… but the minister can’t guarantee the court won’t return them to the home again.
Ms McSweeney told a news conference she would look into the circumstances, but the Opposition has called for something much tougher.
“There must be an external, independent inquiry into the circumstances that led the department to reach the conclusion, it now appears on numerous occasions, that this was a safe placement,” Ms Ellery said.
“The minister needs to satisfy the West Australian public that the Department argued strongly that this man should not have the kind of access that he had to his grandchildren and that the department has subsequently taken every every possible legal action to ensure that this man does not have ongoing, close household access to these children.” | <urn:uuid:1fc5461e-67bb-449a-8a2f-53a16a743d46> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://silverscorpio.com/tag/children/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985272 | 1,392 | 1.710938 | 2 |
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -
More and more fund firms are hawking mutual funds that are liquid and open to ordinary investors but that use hedge fund techniques, such as selling stocks short and using borrowed money to boost returns.
Are they worthwhile investments?
As with traditional hedge funds -- or any investment, for that matter -- the answer depends on who's managing the funds, how much they cost and how much risk you're willing to take.
Like traditional hedge funds, these mutual funds use things like short-selling, commodities and options to give investors an alternative to straight-up stock or bond funds -- the twist being that you, the average investor, can get in on the action without having to plop down the $500,000 or $1 million you'd need to get into a hedge fund.
Here's how a handful of these funds performed in 2005.
Manager: Gateway Investment Advisers
The Gateway Fund invests in stocks and sells index call options. It's designed to give investors higher returns than fixed income investments while reducing the volatility of stock funds.
While the fund mainly invests in equities, according to its prospectus, its volatility has historically been closer to things like bonds. Its expense ratio is 0.97 percent of the fund's assets. The fund's minimum investment is $1,000.
The fund has netted returns of 4.7 percent through Dec. 9. Over a 10-year period ending Dec. 1, 2004, the fund produced returns after taxes of 4.52 percent.
Fund: Diamond Hill Focus Long/Short
Manager: Diamond Hill Investments
As its name implies, the Diamond Hill Focus Long/Short fund bets on stocks its managers like and against those seen as overvalued.
According to a Morningstar profile, the fund has generated average returns of 8 percent a year, a performance Morningstar's analysts called "better than most of its rivals, and it easily trumps its benchmark Russell 3000 Index's 1.9 percent average annual loss."
But the fund's performance has been more volatile than that of similar funds and it takes risks most mutual funds avoid, according to Morningstar. It's also pretty expensive: the fund levies a 5 percent sales charge and its expense ratio is about 1.75 percent of funds assets.
Hmm... high fees, higher than average risk, but higher than average returns? Sounds like this mutual fund is more of a hedge fund than many hedge funds these days. The fund has returned 19.12 percent this year through Dec. 9.
Fund: Hussman Strategic Growth
Manager: Hussman Funds
Portfolio manager John Hussman describes the fund as a "risk-managed growth fund." The fund invests in common stocks but uses options and futures to boost returns.
"What I try to do is always be fully invested in stocks," he said, while hedging against fluctuations in the broader market.
Hussman doesn't short stocks, nor does he borrow money to enhance returns, but in a strong market may use "leverage"-type techniques such as buying call options on individual stocks or market indices. In falling markets, he'll sell short.
The fund's expense ratio comes out to 1.15 percent of the fund's assets; the minimum investment is about $1,000.
The fund has netted returns of 4.95 percent through Dec. 9. If you'd invested since the fund's inception in July 2000, you'd have doubled your investment.
Fund: Pimco Commodity RealReturn Strategy
While not billed as a hedge-like mutual fund, the fund gives retail investors exposure to commodity markets by investing in a basket of futures. It benefited this year in particular from the energy market.
While commodity funds are more volatile that more traditional investments, they can produce stellar returns. Some investment advisers recommend using such funds as a small part of a balanced portfolio.
Returns? 21.25 percent through Dec. 9. The fund has doubled since opening in June 2002.
Invest with care
While some of these funds have indeed outperformed appropriate benchmarks, some charge higher-than-average fees to cover trading costs and other expenses.
If you want to invest, do your homework. Discuss your plan with a financial adviser. Some hedge-like mutual funds only accept investments directed through financial advisers anyway.
Hussman recommends paying close attention to fees. And he warns that because they don't follow typical long-only mutual fund strategies, their returns will not always be correlated to the broader market.
While that can be a comfort when the market's sinking, "if you want a risk-managed fund to participate in every short-term rally, you're just going to get frustrated as heck," he said.
He also recommends evaluating a fund through a full market cycle to see how a fund behaves in both bull and bear markets.
Finally, Jeff Joseph, managing director of Rydex, which several weeks ago launched two hedge-like mutual funds for retail investors, recommends making sure you get the right mix of alternative investments in your portfolio.
"The idea of a 10 to 20 percent alternative, non-correlated investment in a portfolio is pretty standard," he said, adding that as the space becomes more popular, investors will have more options to choose from.
7 star mutual funds: click here.
Stocks face rough road in 2006: more here. | <urn:uuid:8ce2d16e-ea50-43d7-b7ce-8ff2d95d4c88> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://money.cnn.com/2005/12/15/markets/mutual_hedge/index.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955758 | 1,103 | 1.554688 | 2 |
I was working on a different question and I found that I couldn't actually find anywhere that shows that God actually tests us.
Psalms 26:2 (NIV)
Test me, LORD, and try me, examine my heart and my mind;
Clearly, asking for tests is acceptable, per the Psalm above. Also, it seems that God allows us to be tested:
Job 1:12 (NIV)
The LORD said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.” Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.
Another verse that shows that God allows temptation:
1 Corinthians 10:13 (NIV)
No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.
Does God ever intentionally put things in our way himself to allow us to be tested (as the Psalms says)? Or does God merely allow Satan to give us trials and temptations?
Also, what does the mainstream Protestant doctrines say towards this end?
I'd really like Biblical support for any answer, please. | <urn:uuid:50ef0a3e-65e4-4665-97eb-56b898fbcada> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/3239/does-god-test-us | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960927 | 272 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Soccer has picked up popularity here in the US in the last couple decades, but if a World Series, Super Bowl, or NBA championship game was on at the same time as a World Cup final game, I think a lot more TVs in the USA would be tuned to the former (even if the USA team actually made it to the finals in the World cup, though it might be a close thing then).
"Please give us a simple answer, so that we don't have to think, because if we think, we might find answers that don't fit the way we want the world to be."
~ Terry Pratchett in Nation
Is there any particular reason why the World Series is called the World Series? That one has always bugged me.
Disclaimer. (1) Whilst I will help you sometimes, if I feel like it, and my advice in relation to your actual question will be of good quality: my posts are to be taken with a pinch of salt. I will be sarcastic, deploy irony and include obscure cultural references for my own amusement without warning.
(2) You will gain nothing from complaining, and if you try to argue with me then you will not win. No matter how noble your battle seems, I am still better than you, don't be an hero.
Originally Posted by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_series
The term "World Series" (short for "World's Championship Series") was first used in the 1880s, when baseball existed at a highly-skilled level only in the USA and international travel was rare. The traditional term "World Series" continues to be used for the Major League Baseball championship.
Back from the game, a 2-2 draw. I hate draws, that's my only gripe with soccer/football in general. But, my son finally scored his first goal this year so it's all good. My main gripe with MLS is that they don't run their season in conjunction with the rest of the world. Makes it tough during World Cup and other international competions. | <urn:uuid:abee97de-23cd-4d72-bae3-0652802877bf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.webdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?35251-Avatars&p=656447 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960982 | 425 | 1.5 | 2 |
27-3 Dream Homes Issue
This time of year, the oven is certainly not our friend. When we see the words “pre-heat,” we flip the page in the cookbook, right?
Written by Bakersfield Magazine
The sounds of a quick snap, swift movements of a flawlessly executed play, and thunderous roars from the crowd swirl above Griffith Field. Mingled together, they produce breathable adrenaline and it pumps through the stadium. Every father, mother, uncle, grandparent, and sibling is infected. It could be any Friday night during football season at BHS, or it could be every Friday night.
You see, Driller pride isn’t just an expression, it’s a motto; it’s a lifestyle. Something you live and breathe...
Countless movies and TV shows have tried to capture the prestige and drama of high school football; the legendary coaches, star players who’ll do anything to win, championship games. But before these images were plastered on big and small screens alike, they were here in Bakersfield—and had been for a long time.
And while they certainly are popular, these films and shows can never do justice to the history created, traditions formed, and emotions felt for Bakersfield’s oldest high school, because prior to the building of East High in 1938, there wasn’t a single person who didn’t know someone who went to Bakersfield High. It was the only place for high school football. Of course, it hasn’t always been known as BHS. Upon it’s founding in 1893, it was Kern County High and from 1915 to 1945 it was Kern County Union High School.
Name changes (and mascot changes) aside, football has remained a constant source of pride for our city, and Driller legends have lived on...both on and off the field.
Rick Van Horne is someone who’s known that pride for years. Van Horne’s father played for BHS, he played himself, and his son played as well. But Van Horne’s knowledge came from the hours and hours of research he did into the depths of BHS football history, which culminated in the publication of a book, Friday Night Heroes.
According to Van Horne, BHS is unique in many ways and that has made for an outstanding football program.
“For a while BHS was the biggest high school in the state; from 1937 to 1965,” he said. In that regard alone, BHS had a larger selection to choose from for its all-star football team. It may be why today, with 689 wins, BHS is in a heated competition with Long Beach over the most wins in California, is ranked number one in state championships with seven, and holds the record for undefeated seasons with 22. Of course, it could also just be that Driller pride running deep and inspiring our kids to throw farther, run faster, and tackle harder.
“You were selecting from the cream of the crop,” Van Horne continued.
As Van Horne discovered, BHS really became known as the football team to beat in the ‘20s.
“From 1920 to ‘27 we took the state championship every year,” he explained. “Because of that, BHS’s fan base goes back generations.”
Van Horne even elaborated on the totally unique coaching history at BHS. In the 100-plus years, there have been only eight coaches.
“My son had an opportunity to meet his grandfather’s football coach on the field,” Van Horne said. Where else do you hear of that happening? It’s moments like these that add to the legacy of BHS football. Guys like Frank Gifford and Jeff Siemon called BHS home and they brought that legacy to the national forefront. However, many players still call Bakersfield home and continue to keep the Driller pride alive.
Even before BHS was BHS, Dr. Romain Clerou was passing the pigskin around. At 95 years young, this local doctor certainly has his fair share of football memories.
“I played because it was fun,” he said, a smile creeping to his face. You couldn’t get a more straightforward answer. But at his age, what else would you expect?
Clerou played guard on the Jack Frost Sandab team when BHS was still Kern County Union High School, went on to play guard for Bakersfield College for two years, and was inducted into the BHS Football Hall of Fame in 2007. And while he may have played hard and helped his team to an undefeated season his senior year, it was his contributions to BHS football after returning from World War II that helped earn him a spot in that esteemed hall of fame: Clerou became a team physician.
From 1946 to the late ‘80s, he kept the Drillers in prime playing condition. During that time, Clerou did notice a change in the kids playing.
“Kids started getting much bigger. Could have been better nutrition,” he mused, a chuckle escaping his lips. “I was 150 pounds playing back then. Now I couldn’t even be the water boy with that weight.”
Even though it’s been more than 70 years since he last played football, this alum, known fondly as “Doc,” still relishes the good ol’ days on the field.
“That school has been involved in football for over 100 years,” Clerou explained, “so of course it’s going to create tradition.”
Pat Preston’s football career at BHS was a tradition with a capital T. Preston’s father played football at BHS and Preston and his four brothers played.
“Even my wife was a Driller. So was my father-in-law. And my son played, too,” Preston explained. Currently the principal at Liberty High School, Preston keeps a few mementos of his BHS glory days in his office. Preston played linebacker and tight end for four years until his graduation in ‘66.
Some of the mementos, however, are just old relics (like game posters) from the generations before him. Not only did Preston play, he returned to coach for nine years, for the seasons between ‘88 to ‘96.
“You hear stories like mine all the time in this town,” he said. Because of the longevity of BHS in the community and the size of the school, you’re going to have a lot of graduates, especially football alums, keeping Driller energy high.
“That Driller pride goes with you wherever you go,” he commented. “Because in those days, even as a teenager, you understood the tradition and you were proud to be a part of it.”
And that pride only helped the Drillers with record-breaking wins.
“Those teams coming up against us weren’t just playing our team, they were playing our tradition,” Preston explained. That attitude seemed to spread fear in those teams on the other side of the field from our formidable Drillers.
“It was BHS. The name alone was an intimidation factor,” laughed Marshall Dillard. Dillard graduated from BHS in 1983 after playing running back for all four years.
“The best thing was the friendships,” he said. Dillard was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2006.
“I thought it was a prank,” he explained. “They kept trying to contact me to tell me I was being inducted, but I didn’t think it was real.”
For Dillard, a lot of the pride he continues to feel for his days on Griffith field come down to a nostalgia factor.
“I still have a lot of pride and I continued to follow their seasons after I graduated. Once I moved back into town, it was fairly common for me to attend games.
“Anyone who grew up in Bakersfield knew someone who went to BHS. You can connect with almost any family in town because someone’s family member went there. That’s what keeps everyone so connected to that high school.”
And after coaching the Drillers for 33 years, Paul Briggs (though he currently lives in Santa Ana) will forever be connected to BHS.
“Back then, there was no TV to distract people. And at the time, we were producing an awful lot of good players and so an awful lot of interest was paid to BHS football,” Briggs said, now 90.
“My first year, we won the championship, and sure we had our problems, but you just have to ride them out.
“I never believed in having football dominate these kids’ lives, but for a while we had six football teams playing, and there were 4,800 students when the college was still on the campus, so it seemed to take over,” Briggs laughed.
“Coaching has changed a bit since I retired, but the game stayed the same...you still have four quarters to kick the hell out of the other team.”
Briggs has lectured around the country and says the Drillers are widely known outside of our community as being a beacon of high school football success.
“[Frank] Gifford was the one who coined the phrase ‘Keep the fame and the name Drillers’ and that was heard by millions,” Briggs mused. “So there is bound to be a mystique surrounding the name.”
Which is why students today continue to fuel the Driller fire.
Zack Shanklin wore his jersey with pride as an offensive tackle during his four years at BHS. Shanklin, who graduated in ‘02 knew he was going to play football.
“It was assumed,” he laughed. “My older brother played, so I knew how good the program at BHS was.”
In fact, Shanklin’s senior year also happened to be coach Tim Hartnett’s last season. Hartnett was only the sixth head coach in BHS history and that year (2002) they were undefeated and won the Valley Championship. That’s definitely Shanklin’s favorite memory.
“Football really taught us how to manage our lives, and that hard work pays off,” he explained. And the history and legends of BHS football added to the heightened emotions that the new crop of young men had for their sport.
“It’s never been a weak program,” Shanklin said, “and when you’re winning everyone wants to be a part of it, so everyone is at the games supporting you, which only helps you win more.”
In its over 100 years at BHS, football has been a way for families to connect, it’s given way to legendary players, and it continues to live on in the minds and hearts of every player whose graced the field under those Friday night lights and whose families still bleed blue and white. After all, there’s a reason so many people tout the phrase “Once a Driller, always a Driller.”
--vintage photos courtesy of BHS Archives
Article appeared in our 26-2 Issue - June 2009 | <urn:uuid:8ff89c77-9ac5-4a65-bce1-2adc04fc259e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bakersfieldmagazine.net/features/man-issue/37-once-a-driller-always-a-driller | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985313 | 2,437 | 1.5 | 2 |
The 2012 election season has been a legal and emotional rollercoaster in Ohio. First, there was the court battle over early voting. Then, there was debate over how -- or if -- faulty ballots should be counted.
This week, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals enjoined a district court's order requiring the state to count provisional ballots cast in the wrong precinct or polling location, The Associated Press reports.
Ohio requires provisional ballots to be cast in the correct precinct and with a completed voter affirmation. Some Ohio polling places serve voters from several precincts, but the law does not make an exception wrong-precinct and deficient-affirmation ballots caused by poll-worker error. Last month, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals said the state couldn't do that, affirming a district court ruling that Ohio can't simply cast off the nonconforming votes.
In that opinion, the appellate court noted that a district court order from August did not require the counting of wrong-place/wrong-precinct ballots, but the court expressed no view on whether the refusal to count such ballots imposed an unconstitutional burden on voters. On October 17, voting rights advocates filed a renewed motion for a preliminary injunction in the district court that would mandate the counting of wrong place/wrong precinct ballots, reiterating a request made in their original motion for a preliminary injunction that was not included in the August order.
The district court granted the renewed motion on October 27 after a hearing. The state unsuccessfully moved for a stay of the preliminary injunction during the hearing, prompting an emergency appeal to the Sixth Circuit.
The Sixth Circuit stayed the district court's wrong place/wrong precinct injunction, noting that Ohio demonstrated a high likelihood of success on their appeal of the October 27 injunction, as well as irreparable harm to Ohio absent a stay, irreparable harm to others if the stay is granted, and the public interest in granting the stay.
Barring further court action, that means that an Ohio voter must vote at the correct poll for his vote to count.
- SEIU, et al. v. Jon Husted, et al. (Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals)
- Counties Sue on Voting Rights Act (FindLaw's DC Circuit Blog)
- Northeast Ohio Coalition For Homeless v. Jon Husted (Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals)
- Is 'Vote Satan' Theft a Sign of Hate Crime? (FindLaw's Legally Weird) | <urn:uuid:6f29326f-0b46-47d9-af32-ae22d9a28553> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.findlaw.com/sixth_circuit/2012/11/sixth-circuit-ohio-voters-must-find-the-correct-polling-place.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954433 | 495 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Northwest Yeshiva High School grad Oren Kaufman, who graduated from Yeshiva University this past May, returned to YU this fall. He participated in the Presidential Fellowship and University Leadership Program, created by university president Richard Joel to identify top graduates and keep them connected to their alma mater.
Oren explained from his office at the New York City school that fellows in the program are placed in various departments of the school's administration. For most of them it is their first exposure to this side of an academic institution.
'It's an amazing experience,' said Oren, one of 14 fellows selected, 'especially coming from the perspective of a former student. As a student you see a one-dimensional aspect of the university and it's sort of negative.'
Kaufman says students would often complain that the university didn't do enough and ask why they didn't do more. But now he sees that the administration does a tremendous amount.
'From my perspective now, the university is very active and they really are trying to make a lot of changes.'
Among the benefits of the fellowship is working in a business environment. A psychology major, Oren was once interested in industrial psychology, but now he is drawn to Jewish communal work, particularly in development and fundraising.
'Part of this fellowship is leadership training in the Jewish communal environment,' he told me. 'That has sparked my interest in that, and also in business.'
As part of their leadership training, the presidential fellows attended the United Jewish Communities' general assembly in Toronto early this month. That made a big impression.
'It was unbelievable to be exposed to every single type of Judaism,' he reports. 'To see people express their Judaism in so many different ways. Everyone is committed in a very serious way.
'It was inspirational and motivational and it gave me an increased interest and desire to have a career in Jewish communal service.'
After completing the 12-month program, Kaufman hopes to return to graduate school to study business. Meanwhile, he is busy working full days in YU's Office of Institutional Advancement, which deals with alumni affairs, fundraising and community affairs.
'Every day is fun and exciting,' says Oren, who also attends weekly leadership seminars and completes reading assignments for the program. 'It's a tremendous opportunity to work on projects that provide value to alumni.'
Most of these programs are in the New York area, where most of the alumni reside, but there are plans for events in other parts of the country.
Kaufman was able to return to Seattle this summer, where he worked as a counselor at Bikur Cholim Machzikay Hadath's Camp Kol Rena and he was also able to visit during Sukkot. He would like to return to Seattle to live one day, but for now school will take him elsewhere. Also, he pointed out, for an Orthodox young person, social opportunities in New York are much greater than in Seattle.
'I have a strong connection,' he says, 'and I try to maintain contact with my high school.'
He says that his graduating class as a whole was very committed to returning to ' or staying in ' the Seattle area, with its growing Jewish (and Orthodox) community.
Oren is the son of Stuart Kaufman of Seattle and Chana Rubin of Beersheva, Israel.
' ' '
Kathy and Steve Berman were recently recognized by Jewish Family Service for facilitating a unique $250,000 allocation to Jewish food bank programs nationwide.
Steve, named Washington State's top litigator by the National Law Journal in 2000, is widely known as a class action litigator in high-profile cases involving the Washington Public Power Supply System, Exxon Valdez oil spill, Michael Milken, Enron, tobacco companies and Visa/Mastercard.
In 2004 he won a legal settlement involving manufacturing violations of Jewish dietary laws. The settlement stipulated that a portion of the proceeds, in the amount of $250,000, should benefit Jewish food banks around the country.
Kathy recently stepped down from the JFS board of directors after serving nine years. During that time, the agency benefited greatly from her 15 years of experience with Microsoft in the fields of human resources, executive recruitment and international marketing. She is currently director of human resources for an Eastside investment firm.
The allocation was directed, at the Berman's discretion, to the Association of Jewish Family and Children's Services for distribution to member agencies operating food banks in their communities. Locally, JFS received $55,000 to purchase a long-needed new van for its food bank program. The van will greatly increase the ability of the emergency services department to pick of large donations of food and will also support delivery of food to home-bound clients. The distribution will fund two years' worth of fuel and maintenance for the van and also purchased $6,000 of food.
The Bermans recently endowed and established the Environmental Law Clinic at the University of Washington.
' ' '
Everybody needs a hug. Spotted at the University Village QFC: A well-dressed woman picked up one of the large, plush teddy bears on display in the floral department and pressing it to her face, gave it a long squeeze. Then she put it back and proceeded to her car with her groceries. | <urn:uuid:cecebed2-5283-4511-9c06-3d893906e2e8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jtnews.net/index.php?/columnists/item/77/C7/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972938 | 1,089 | 1.515625 | 2 |
The following is a guest post from one of our readers in Iceland, Neil Holdsworth. Neil has been updating me via email regarding a Chinese investor who is seeking to purchase a massive amount of land in Iceland and the controversies that have been attendant to that. When he asked me why I don’t write a post about it, I asked him the same question and the below is the result.
As has been reported extensively elsewhere, China has taken an interest in Iceland as a potential location for a deep sea port on arctic shipping routes and as a future source of fresh water. Though China has not shown signs of embarking on an Africa-style resource grab in Iceland, it obviously has a long term strategic interest in the country. It is proposing to develop what will be by far the biggest embassy in Reykjavik, raising eyebrows among the country’s 320,000 inhabitants.
Despite Iceland’s being part of the European Economic Area, investment opportunities for outsiders here are limited. However, the tourism industry is open to foreign investment and a number of successful tourism related businesses are seeking finance for expansion. Financing is nearly impossible to obtain in Iceland because of its banking problems (there are mostly no new loans, only old loans being renegotiated and written off). For this reason and others, the government is keen to attract foreign investors in this sector.
Instead of buying into relatively safe and established companies, this China group is trying to do something much more symbolic and grand. China wants to come to Iceland’s rescue, but on China’s own terms and in its own way — buying no less than 0.3% of the land mass of the country and unveiling a vision of a new Chinese sponsored tourism in the country. China-based investors are proposing two huge hotels, a new airline, golf courses to be built in the mountains, horse riding, and hot air balloon rides. And all of this is going to happen year round.
This vision for Iceland makes little commercial sense and is very unlikely to work, mainly because for about 80% of the time in Iceland, the weather is so miserable you can’t go outside for more than a few minutes at a time. What probably started as a genuine and good natured attempt to invest in an area of the economy in which Icelanders are desperate for investors, has descended into a fiasco. Everyone wants to know why the Chinese investors need 300 square kilometers of land for a hotel, and Mr. Nubo, who is heading up the investment from the China side, has no convincing answer.
Mr. Nubo is saying the controversy is making him think about taking his money elsewhere. Iceland’s interior minister (from whom approval of the deal is necessary) has responded to the effect that he is more interested in looking at speeding up the approval times for residency permits, than in dealing with Mr Nubo, who can wait in line with everyone else.
Though buying up 300 square kilometres of overgrazed wilderness does not confer rights to build a Chinese military base in the Icelandic countryside, there are some people here [in Iceland] who seem to believe that. Even if Mr. Nubo and his group buy the land, Iceland will still require they secure planning permission and pass Environmental Impact tests, for whatever it is they want to do with it. Whatever Mr Nubo’s motivations for his project, this episode does demonstrate how suspicious people are of China, and of how little soft power China actually has, particularly in the West.
Indeed, the most believable analysis I have heard of the project itself is that China wanted to help Iceland out and so it sent over a property developer/poet/cat lover/arctic explorer with connections to the Icelandic Social Democratic party to invest in the one area of Iceland’s economy where foreign investment is tolerated. Despite this, it has all backfired spectacularly. As someone who lives part-time in Iceland and who is cautiously optimistic about China’s role in the world, I’d suggest that if China wants to use FDI as a way of building up good will among Icelanders, it consider building a brewery in my town of Flateyri would achieve a lot more (and cost much less) than golf courses and five star hotels.
11-26-2011 Update. Iceland has rejected Mr. Nubo Huang’s purchase of this land, saying that it is incompatible with Icelandic laws. An article on this can be found here. | <urn:uuid:f0765656-a4d0-4bc9-a0dc-0fd1246b239a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.chinalawblog.com/2011/10/china_fdi_in_iceland_soft_power_done_hardly_well_at_all.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972758 | 922 | 1.546875 | 2 |
U.S. President George W. Bush said Monday he looks forward to welcoming newly-elected Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Washington. Speaking with reporters in the Oval Office, the President said, "I look forward to welcoming him here to Washington if he chooses to come here." It was an invitation that was never offered to the late Yasser Arafat. The President said that he is "heartened by the elections" in the Palestinian Authority. He also said that it is important for Israel to follow through with the planned Disengagement from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Bush said, "It is essential that Israel keep a vision of two states living side by side in peace, and that, as the Palestinians begin to develop the institutions of a state, that the Israeli government support the development of those institutions and recognize that it is essential that there be a viable economy, that there be a viable health care system, that people be allowed to start building a society that meets their hopes and needs." | <urn:uuid:aea2b41a-7779-44b6-8fba-e0ce2d69e4ef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/1519/Default.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978941 | 202 | 1.5 | 2 |
Stanley Clarke was born June 30, 1951 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Starting out on violin, then cello, he would eventually take up the bass, with his first experiences on the musical landscape leading him towards rock and R&B. At the same time, Clarke expanded his palette, graduating from the Philadelphia Music Academy.
Heading off to try his luck in New York in 1970, it didn't take long for the bassist to find gigs. His formidable skill twinned with an undeniable melodic sense, his playing would soon win over such veteran jazzmen as Gil Evans, Horace Silver, Art Blakey, Stan Getz and Pharaoh Sanders.
Return to Forever
In 1971, Clarke met pianist Chick Corea by chance at one of his many engagements. The two musicians would soon bond in Return to Forever, the landmark jazz fusion group that would score hits throughout the decade with a handful of albums including Where Have I Known You Before (1974) and Romantic Warrior (1976).
During that era, Clarke set aside the double bass to work mainly on electric bass. He developed a very funky percussive style-slap-pioneered by Larry Graham, who kept things groovy as a member of Sly & the Family Stone. Clarke would also push a new approach, moving his instrument front and centre onstage as a lead rather than support player.
Solo and with others
Alongside his membership in RtF, Clarke launched a series of albums as a bandleader. Children of Forever (1973), Stanley Clarke (1974), Journey to Love (1975) and School Days (1976) would allow him to showcase his talents as a composer as well as an instrumentalist.
Following the dissolution of Return to Forever in 1977, the bassist tackled projects that would take him beyond the boundaries of jazz fusion. He accompanied Rolling Stones Keith Richards and Ron Wood as part of The New Barbarians tour, played on Paul McCartney's Tug of War album and tried out funk in a collaboration with George Duke, The Clarke/Duke Project.
Beginning in the mid-1980s, Clarke expanded his repertoire to include music for the big and small screens. After composing the music for hit TV show Pee Wee's Playhouse, for which he received an Emmy nomination in 1985, the musician composed the original soundtracks for films including Boys n the Hood, What's Love Got to Do With It, Passenger 57, Poetic Justice and Little Big League.
At the Festival
In 1986, the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal welcomed the musician and his Stanley Clarke Band. He would not return for nine more years, alongside violinist Jean Luc Ponty and guitarist Al Di Meola for the project Rite of Strings. During the interval, Clarke would release several albums under his name-among them, a critically-acclaimed jazzy project, If This Bass Could Only Talk (1988)-and collaborate with musicians from various backgrounds, including Stewart Copeland, former drummer in The Police, with his group Animal Collective.
In 2004, Clarke returned to the Festival with Ponty and Di Meola to once again present Rite of Strings-with the chemistry of the three players very much intact. The following year, Clarke and Ponty once again appeared in a trio, this time with banjoist Béla Fleck.
The Return to Forever reunion led to a tour including a date in Place des Arts in 2008. Three years later they were back, with Clarke celebrated his 60th birthday by receiving the Miles Davis Award.
The legendary bassist was one of two guests artist headlining the prestigious 2012 Invitation series 2012. He performed with his Stanley Clarke Band, accompanied by the Harlem String Quartet, in a duo with Japanese pianist Hiromi and in a trio with standard bearers Marcus Miller and Victor Wooten. | <urn:uuid:9f07c063-86f9-4a0b-a646-93ced32d0882> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.montrealjazzfest.com/artists/artist.aspx?id=489 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972346 | 783 | 1.640625 | 2 |
That is the question, as the housing market's decline accellerates, commodity prices soar, consumer confidence crashes, and the question of what to do about it seems to stump just about everyone.
President Bush said this morning there'll be no recession, and rejected calls from governors around the country for a second stimulus package that would focus on (job-creating) infrastructure and transit improvements. And Treasury Secretary Paulson says the Bush Administration does not support a taxpayer funded bailout of the mortgage banking industry/overwhelmed borrowers. Here's the quote: (bookmark it) "I don't think I've seen any scenario where the American taxpayer needs to be stepping in with more taxpayer dollars." And to think it was just a few months ago that Secretary Paulson, his boss President Bush and Fed Chairman Bernanke all said raising the portfolio caps of giant mortgage Government Sponsored Enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would not happen, at least not without significant regulatory reform. Ahem. More on the GSEs below.
First, the whole "what to do about the crashing housing market" thing. There are lots of proposals circulating on Capitol Hill, and the first one up has as its centerpiece something known as "cramdowns." I guess the poetic name comes from the fact that it involves lenders having modifications of loans crammed down their throats. Tanta is for them, which is probably all you need to know. But the Bush Administration says this is a lender bailout. Which is rather puzzling considering the Mortgage Bankers Association is against it. Housing expert Elizabeth Warren might be on to something when she guesses the bankers' opposition might be related to a hope that a much bigger bailout could be coming.
And what form would that take, you ask? Check this out: both Alan Blinder, who was on President Clinton's Council of Economic Advisors, and analysts at the American Enterprise Institute are advocating re-creating a 1933-era program to buy mortgage debt from banks and re-lend it to borrowers facing foreclosure, with taxpayer-backed guarantees. The agency was called HOLC, the Home Owners Loan Corporation. Setting aside for a moment the fact that Alan Blinder and the AEI agreeing on something is a bit of a scary development, here's what both are ignoring: by 1933, home prices had already fallen 30% nationwide from 1925 peaks. NOW, prices need to fall ANOTHER 30% to get back to levels that held for generations in this country (median home price = 3X median income). Bank of America and Credit Suisse are also floating a bailout scenario: make no mistake, it's a bailout geared to LENDERS, not borrowers.
But hey, why wouldn't banks be looking for a helping hand from taxpayers: bank failures are coming.. which we've talked about in this space and Chairman Bernanke affirmed today. I guess we could have taken the hint from the WSJ confirming that the FDIC is hiring retirees to handle a coming increase in workload. At least there's one growth industry out there. Oh here's another hint: bank earnings fell 83.5% in Q4 from the prior year.
And an interesting Marketwatch story that you can file under: those who refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
Now to those GSEs. On the same day Fannie Mae reported horrible 2007 results (a $3.6B loss in Q4), they also announced that regulators were suddenly allowing Fannie and Freddie Mac to lift their portfolio caps and expand their business. This on the heels of the stimulus package which raised conforming loan limits. Flashback for some background: Yves Smith as NakedCapitalism did his usual bang-up job of getting to the heart of the matter back in October. Moody's expects FNM to lose a lot of money in coming months. Bloomberg's Jonathan Weil looks at Fannie Mae's precarious position. And blogger Mike Mish Shedlock looks at systemic risk at Fannie.
And speaking of systemic risk, economist and NYU professor Nouriel Roubini testified on Capitol Hill yesterday, and if you want to ponder the downside risks to the global financial system, take a look. (Hat Tip: finance professional with integrity Scott Gerstein.)
But since we like to get all points of view around here, here's businessman Sam Zell, who unloaded his real estate empire at the top tick, saying the real problem with the economy is that the Democrats are talking it down.
One last topic: the announcement this week that the agency that guarantees pension funds is reaching for yield by putting more if its assets in the equity markets. If that makes you feel uneasy, try this on for size: the GAO says pension plans investments in hedge funds have grown from $3.2B in 2001 to $50.5B in 2006. And this might not be the worst idea ever, but it's up there: the 401K debit card.
And hey if you really want to understand the mortgage crisis, and don't mind bad language, here's your primer, right here.
Confidential to my buddy Tom Lea. See ya tomorrow. | <urn:uuid:bd757a51-2bbd-4959-954c-aebc99bc4109> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dailynightly.nbcnews.com/_news/2008/02/28/4373413-nuthin-but-net-to-bail-or-not-to-bail | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96258 | 1,047 | 1.773438 | 2 |
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Vine Busters clear a path through a pristine preserve
Charles Kraus swung a three-foot long machete into a tangle of vines, which never had a chance.
Mr. Kraus, along with a dozen other volunteers, was clearing a path just off south Midway Road opposite Dickerson Creek Saturday morning. Their work would allow public access to one of Shelter Island’s newer pieces of open space preservation, about six unspoiled acres of woods flanking a marsh. The path they cleared snaked a hundred yards or so back from the road to a slight rise overlooking Fresh Pond.
Dubbed “Turkem’s Rest Preserve,” Saturday’s path clearing was organized by Shelter Island’s Vine Busters, a volunteer organization founded to combat invasive plant species that ruin woods and trails.
The Turkem’s Rest woods had certainly been invaded, especially by bittersweet vines thick as rope, but Saturday morning the primary goal was making the path passable for the public. For the past few weeks Peter Vielbig, chairman of the town’s Community Preservation Advisory Committee (CPAC), had come with a chain saw to do the heavy work of clearing downed trees from the path, said Tim Purtell, a Vine Buster volunteer.
Purchased jointly with Suffolk County in 2006, Turkem’s Rest was formerly the Sposato property. Almost half of the six acres is tidal wetlands. It has a history of aboriginal people living on or near there 3,000 years ago. The previous owners had commissioned an archeological survey in 1999, and found that a Native American, called “the Turkey Man,” (hence the property’s name) lived in the woods, along the marsh and on the banks of Fresh Pond.
This property will be “unimproved,” according to the town’s management plan. It has, the management plan states, “extensive encroachment by vines and undergrowth.”
The volunteers used silky saws, machetes and strong arms and backs to clear the path Saturday. Mr. Kraus, a member of the CPAC, said the goal was for every member of the committee to take stewardship of a property to help maintain it.
Turkem’s Rest has a maintenance budget of $500 to be used, for example, when a downed tree has to be cleared from the path by the Highway Department. The rest of the work is done by volunteers.
Mr. Purtell gave a tour of the property, walking back into the woods. He pointed out stunted holly trees, their green, spiky leaves glistening in the morning sunshine. Strangled by vines, when they are freed the ivy trees should flourish and grow, Mr. Purtell said.
Someone said the vines themselves were beautiful. “Beautiful and deadly,” Mr. Purtell said
Ahead was a glint of light and motion through the trees: Fresh Pond rippling with the breeze with geese just breaking the surface into flight. | <urn:uuid:953bb361-b90e-467a-9900-c0d721ac0b51> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://shelterislandreporter.timesreview.com/2013/03/19184/vine-busters-clear-a-path-through-a-pristine-preserve/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95905 | 688 | 1.820313 | 2 |
“Hard days are the best, because if you can push through hard days you can do anything.” – Gabby Douglas
Olympic inspiration at it’s best.
When I watched an interview with America’s newest golden girl Gabby Douglas after she became the first African-American all-around Olympic champion and the first US gymnast to earn the team gold in the same games, and her her say that quote I was full of emotion. Her story is motivating, her talent is undeniable, and her smile is simply contagious.
I’m not going to retell her story – it’s everywhere – but I do want to share one of the many things about this girl that moves me.
Champions are human. If she and her family didn’t talk about it openly we would never know that earlier this year this same 16 year-old girl was homesick, miserable and ready to quit. In her time of weakness her family supporter her. When she wanted to stop she pushed through. Months later she’s the best in the world. Imagine if she made a different choice? How many times do we give up too easily and stifle our greatness? We all have challenging moments – even champions – but it’s how we deal with them that separates us.
As a mother of two athletic kids, I love that they’re hearing this story and pray that it resonates within them – not just in sports, but in academics and anything else they choose to pursue in life. I think there’s a misconception amongst kids (and many adults, too) that if they’ve found their passion they’ll love every minute of it. Unfortunately, that’s not true. Hard-work, determination and, yes, challenges are all part of any journey.
Winks & Smiles, | <urn:uuid:f568f973-fb12-4d3f-9d94-b7c023a6a5d8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.runwifeyrun.com/olympic-inspiration-golden-girl-gabby-douglas/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973135 | 387 | 1.78125 | 2 |
A Mission Statement For Your Family Is Wise Move
OCEAN CITY -- Last week, we looked at three suggestions on creating a family mission statement, courtesy of Stacy Allred, director of the Wealth Structuring Group at Merrill Lynch.
Also known as a family constitution, strategic plan or code of conduct, such a statement can be valuable first steps toward uniting everyone in a family around goals and the actions needed to make them a reality. Here are some more ideas to consider.
Keep it focused. Work together to summarize the values and goals you've defined in a crisp and memorable statement — ideally a single sentence or short paragraph. Ultimately, you're looking to create a statement general enough to be timeless, yet specific enough to apply to real-life issues. If you have more ground to cover, the overarching statement can be supplemented with a list of supporting values or guidelines. For example, wealthier families may want to make provisions for resolving conflicts among heirs to an estate, while families with a business may include a framework for distributing profits and making major decisions.
Check your authenticity. Just as sometimes happens with companies, it's all too easy for a family to create a feel-good mission statement that simply gathers dust on the wall. To be effective, your statement needs to be authentic, Allred says. In other words, don't just craft a statement because it sounds nice. "It needs to be in your words and language — to sound like you — and to be something you really believe in," she notes. "It can be a stretch, something you aspire to, but it should reflect values you are currently living and striving for."
Keep it front and center. Whether you frame and mount your mission statement or simply post it on the refrigerator, it's important to have it on hand. "This is a dynamic document — you should be reading it and using it," Allred says. She suggests reviewing your family's statement when weighing life-altering decisions, such as a job change or major financial investment. "It should not just sit on the shelf."
Put it into action. The "use it or lose it" maxim applies here — to realize the goals you've had in creating your mission statement, you'll need to make it part of your planning and decision making on a regular basis. Beyond the statement of the mission itself, it can also assist in creating a list of values or a governance procedure that can help you adhere to the statement. For example, a family whose mission statement centers on making education a priority for future generations can then, with the help of a financial advisor, create further, more specific guidance toward making savings and investing decisions. It also helps to get in the habit of asking yourself how the plans that you're making — a career change, an investment decision, community involvement — fit your values. Some families even hold brief weekly meetings to discuss issues of concern to individual family members, using their mission statement and attendant guidance in counseling one another.
Revisit and revise annually. Even if you're not holding weekly meetings, plan to get together annually as a family to discuss the mission and gauge family members' success in achieving their goals.(A Merrill Lynch Wealth Management Advisor, who can be reached at 410-213-8520.) | <urn:uuid:da9ac1c6-0134-4575-96ca-f473099c0543> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mdcoastdispatch.com/articles/2012/08/03/Money-Sense/A-Mission-Statement-For-Your-Family-Is-Wise-Move | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945437 | 662 | 1.523438 | 2 |
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 7.8 percent last month, dropping below 8 percent for the first time in nearly four years. The rate declined because more people found work, a trend that helps President Barack Obama and could have an impact on undecided voters in the final month before the presidential election.
Both campaigns were watching the monthly reports closely, but neither appeared to react publicly in the first few minutes after Friday's news.
The Labor Department said employers added 114,000 jobs in September. The economy also created 86,000 more jobs in July and August than first estimated. Wages rose in September and more people started looking for work.
The revisions show employers added 146,000 jobs per month from July through September, up from 67,000 in the previous three months.
The unemployment rate fell from 8.1 percent in August, matching its level in January 2009, when Obama took office.
The decline could help Obama, who is coming off a disappointing debate performance against Republican challenger Mitt Romney.
Stock futures rose modestly after the report. Dow Jones industrial average futures, up 30 points just before the report came out, were up 45 points after it was released.
The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note climbed to 1.73 percent from 1.68 percent just before the report, a sign that investors were more willing to embrace risk and move money from bonds into stocks.
The job market has been improving, sluggishly but steadily. Jobs have been added for 24 straight months. There are now 325,000 more than when Obama took office.
The September gains were led by the health care industry, which added 44,000 jobs -- the most since February. Transportation and warehousing also showed large gains. The revisions showed that governments actually added 63,000 jobs in July and August, compared with earlier estimates that showed losses.
Still, many of the jobs added last month were part time. The number of people with part-time jobs who wanted full-time work rose 7.5 percent to 8.6 million. | <urn:uuid:829e5380-2148-4f36-822b-55ef27c54875> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kvue.com/news/US-jobless-rate-falls-to-78-percent-44-month-low-172814711.html?ref=prev | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980416 | 427 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Strain, who began to focus on Civil War art in the late 1980s, said he uses two- to three-hair brushes and a jeweler's magnifying glass to add nuances to every painting that are difficult to notice with the naked eye. Strain, a Texas resident and a Tennessee native, said an unrelenting attention to detail is the reason most of his paintings are finished in three months.
Strain said that meticulousness also must apply to historical facts to appease the most finicky analysts.
"You really have to be a historian, not just a great artist, because you have to back it up," he said. "People will ask you why you did certain things."
Strain spent nearly four hours signing prints of his latest work, "The Old Railroad Wrecker." The painting depicts an 1862 scene of Jackson and Lt. Col. Turner Ashby planning strategy as Confederate soldiers destroy nearby railroad tracks.
Strain said Jackson was well-known for destroying tracks to the supplies to enemy forces dependent on the routes.
A majority of Strain's works focus on officers from the Confederacy because its military leaders, including Jackson and Gen. Robert E. Lee, were generally more identifiable, vibrant characters.
Strain said focusing on Civil War themes allowed him to include two of his long-standing passions in his profession - painting and history.
"To be able to portray American historical events and bring them to life adds a lot to people's understanding of it," he said. "I think it brings people closer to the characters, like baseball cards do."
Several collectors getting last-minute autographs from Strain said his paintings are, by far, the best Civil War works they have seen.
"They're so vivid and clear that they tell a whole story," said Laurie Rushbrook of Martinsburg, W.Va. Rushbrook has been collecting Strain's works for about three years.
Steve Barnisky of Shepherdstown, W.Va., said he owns prints of 54 of Strain's estimated 60 works and will not part with doubles.
"I'm not trying to buy them up and sell them on eBay. I just like everything he puts out," he said. | <urn:uuid:624e15d3-ad26-4a33-93f7-2518f4e35aab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.herald-mail.com/2004-08-16/news/25020634_1_civil-war-paintings-mort-kunstler | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982797 | 451 | 1.820313 | 2 |
JJSR 29 DON’T SPEND #STARTUP MONEY ON ANYTHING UNTIL YOU HAVE TO, BUT WHEN THE TIME COMES, DON’T BE CHINTZY… #PLAYTOWIN
This is a rule I have always lived by since starting my first business.
Before then, I lived by a different rule. My pre-business mantra was don’t buy it unless you absolutely have to, and when you feel like you absolutely have to, then buy the most inexpensive form of whatever it is that you need.
I probably need to include a little bit of background for this to make sense. When my dad was only 14, he kicked his dad out of the house for being a mean drunk. That meant my dad also had to get an after-school, full-time job to help support his family. So he worked at a gas station. He also had a job cleaning out the spittoons in the bar where his mom was a waitress. The point is that my dad values a buck and he shared those values with my five younger siblings and me.
My father’s actual career was serving as a military pilot, and then serving several stints as a pilot who was either striking or flying at Continental Airlines. We always had food. My parents always made sure we felt like we had nice Christmases and birthdays, but we certainly weren’t rolling in it. I had heard my dad say over and over again that no pair of shoes should ever cost more than 25 dollars. We were middle class, but with ups and downs. Our financial pressure and stress came mostly from the financial uncertainty and drastic changes of the airline.
I saw how hard my dad worked. And while he was a trained pilot, he’d often say that he’d shovel manure all day if that was what it took to provide for his family. The last thing I was going to do was cause more pressure by asking for expensive things, even though I knew dad would give me the shirt off his back and get us kids anything we wanted. My mom was always willing to do anything to ensure we were comfortable and would fit in at school. They were awesome that way, but I understood the consequences. Even with six kids my mom would get jobs at delis or department stores so we could have nice clothes. They both killed it and we were happy, but the financial pressure was real, as it always has been for most families.
As the oldest, I felt an extra sense of responsibility towards my family. Because my father flew either in the airlines or as the commanding officer in his Marine Corps C-130 squadron, he was on the road a decent amount of time. He always told me, “You are the oldest. You are the man of the house when I’m gone.” I took it to heart. As I began to learn about personal finance, I took an interest in understanding all of the bills and credit card statements that came to the house. I quickly identified the required payments per month plus extra allocations matched to interest rates to get us out of debt in the earliest possible way. Then I would present the information and my proposed plan to my dad.
When we moved to Houston the summer before my senior year of high school, my dad had just gotten his job back with Continental and my parents decided to build a house in the cheapest housing market in the country. They were so excited—we all were. Believe it or not, I had saved up $30,000 at that point from some acting that I had done. In fact, one commercial for Kellogg’s Honey Smacks paid me $50,000 for three days work. (I’ve been asked a million times to show it, so here it is… check it out and if sales of Honey Smacks go up, I’ll know I still look good next to Diggem’ The Frog!) But anyhow, I had some money and I volunteered to give it to my parents so they could put in a family pool. We all absolutely LOVED it. That was my first experience with understanding that money, when used correctly, can be extremely rewarding. I was never prouder to that point in my life.
I never owned a car until after I was engaged to get married. When I was a student at BYU and needed to get somewhere, I either bummed a ride from my buddies or used the public buses. When dating, I always picked activities that we could walk to or I would borrow a car from a friend.
When we started my first company, we started in my basement apartment and my co-founder’s studio apartment. Finally we moved into an office space and crammed six people into about 100 square feet. It smelled, but it was awesome. When it was time to get a bigger space, we almost didn’t move because the new space seemed too nice. However, when we reached 30 people, we still had one unisex bathroom. We also had one printer and the whole product team had to yell “Printing!” beforehand. Everyone had to save his or her work because the breaker would inevitably trip. But the office was nice-looking. In retrospect, it was probably the minimum we could have gotten away with while still closing customers. People need to see a little bit of success to trust that you know what you are doing. It made people think we were more successful than we deserved, and that helped us get to the next level.
I then bought a nicer car to look a little more like the CEO. I decided to get a used Audi A8 for $26,000. Before the Audi, I drove a Maxima. I loved my Maxima; it was really fast. But when I hired my VP Sales (who ended up taking us from $6 million in sales to $400 million in sales), he later told me that if I had been driving a Maxima, he would have never taken the job, no way, no how. He would have inferred that we were not successful. I guess if we were Facebook and I was driving the Maxima, he might have taken the job, but we weren’t. We were trying to make a buck and trying to compete against 80 VC-backed competitors. I’m glad I bought that Audi and did it up right.
We are now moving into a new office at Domo because we no longer fit where we are and we’re not all under one roof. We are not picking the nicest office park, but we fit. When we move in, I’m not replacing the carpet. I WANT the stains on the carpet. We haven’t made it yet as a company. When we do, then I’ll get the carpet replaced. Until then, it will serve as a great reminder that we need to keep being scrappy. But we do have amazing employees, and I paid for the best people because that is an area I cannot afford to go cheap — and we’ve done it up right. | <urn:uuid:c0377023-3c2e-458a-b5cf-8f9f78b3ca72> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.joshjames.com/2012/04/dont-spend-money/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.991574 | 1,468 | 1.609375 | 2 |
“Interviews, documentation, and the customer satisfaction survey lead to the conclusion that OIR operates effectively with a small staff. Those, moreover, who do business with OIR and know its operations, with very few exceptions, experience a high degree of satisfaction in their dealings with the OIR staff. Of its activity areas, OIR appears to perform most successfully supplying mandated reports to state agencies, administering its various tasks, and providing management information to units of the university.
The two areas of activity that generate the most comment and suggestions are the master planning process and devising measures of organizational effectiveness. Regarding the master planning process, this evaluation confirms the findings of OIR's June 1997 assessment. Upper levels of university administration find the process most useful, yet timeliness of the planning document has proved to be a general concern. Lower levels of administration do not find guidance in the plan or that it directly accommodates their initiatives. In truth many of the concerns expressed about the master planning process do not lie with OIR but with the administration of the process by divisions, colleges, and departments
Similarly, upper level administrators are likely to see benchmarking and other measures of effectiveness as useful or potentially useful, but lower level administrators tend either to be unaware of their use or to see them as potentially threatening. Some comments about performance measures reflect a lack of awareness, at the departmental level, of how existing evaluation processes may address external review requirements. Many of the same respondents are unsure of the nature of university-wide performance measures.”
1) Maintain its capacity to perform the mandated reporting functions in exemplary, efficient fashion.
2) Maintain its capacity to coordinate and promulgate the university Master Plan.
3) Maintain its capacity to facilitate and distribute various measures of effectiveness for the university, its subunits, and, specifically, the Division of Administration and Finance.
4) Maintain its capacity to generate accurate reports of information important to management decision making.
5) Maintain its capacity to meet its mission effectively and efficiently.
6) Maintain its strong, cooperative relationships with other offices and divisions that facilitate its several activities so they may continue to be achieved in an exemplary, timely fashion.
7) Clarify and focus, in consultation with higher levels of administration and in light of limited resources, its mission within the growing and changing needs of the university by
a) reexamining the primary functions and responsibilities of OIR,
b) identifying the primary customers that OIR is to serve.
c) reviewing specific OIR activities, such as the facilities inventory, to determine if they may be more effectively administered by other units of the university.
d) Status: OIR’s Mission Statement was revised in 1999-2000
e) Status: The responsibility for updating of the university’s facilities inventory is currently being shared with Resource Planning.
8) Clarify in all communications the source of initiatives (e.g., SCHEV, the legislature, local administration) OIR is undertaking and the role OIR plays in advancing their implementation.
a) Status: This is being accomplished through the quarterly newsletter and in conversations with JMU staff as needed.
9) Continue to raise the profile of OIR's informational services within the university community, especially awareness of its web site offerings.
a) Status: OIR send periodic email messages to various groups about the web site. OIR annually does a mini-evaluation of its services. In October 2000 OIR instituted a quarterly newsletter to all JMU staff.
10) Examine the kinds of managerial information those below the vice-president level need and determine whether these are kinds of information OIR can or should provide.
a) Status: Informal conversations have been held with various offices. OIR also coordinates the Data Analysis Team that has developed the specifications for common downloads of information for decision-making across multiple divisions.
11) Continue to pursue the recommendations of OIR's June 1997 evaluation of the planning process.
a) Status: OIR is working very closely with the Division of Institutional Effectiveness staff to revise the planning process. The web-based planning process should effectively address many of these concerns. Another evaluation of the planning process will occur within the next 12 | <urn:uuid:955bed1e-74c4-45cd-9945-43755acf3b16> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jmu.edu/instresrch/oirreviews/program_review_executive_summary.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934395 | 869 | 1.5 | 2 |
By not admitting errors, the US President avoids criticism and the appearance of weakness, writes Dana Milbank.
In deciding to back an independent review of the intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, President George Bush is acknowledging what he cannot say publicly: that something was seriously wrong with the allegations he used to take the United States to war in Iraq.
Almost everybody in a position to know has agreed that a huge mistake has been made. "We were almost all wrong," David Kay, the former chief US weapons inspector in Iraq, testified last week.
Republican Trent Lott, a member of the Intelligence Committee, said on Sunday: "In this case, there's no question there was an intelligence failure, in some form or another."
"Clearly this is not the immediate threat many assumed before the war" is how Charles Duelfer, Dr Kay's replacement, put it a few months ago when he noted "the apparent absence of existing weapons stocks".
The White House said on Sunday that Mr Bush would sign an executive order to establish the review. But the President and top White House officials remain resolutely agnostic in their public utterances. "I want to know the facts," Mr Bush said on Friday, not admitting to any flaw in the weapons allegations. "And I want to know exactly. I want to compare what the ISG (Iraq Survey Group) finds with what we thought was going in."
Why the reluctance to say what appears increasingly obvious? The tactic may appear to be obtuse, but there is a real strategy behind the Bush response - and one that has been used before, to great effect.
Bush aides have learned that admitting error projects weakness and invites more abuse. Conversely, by postponing an acknowledgement - possibly beyond election day - the White House is generating a fog of uncertainty around Dr Kay's findings, and potentially softening a harsh public judgement.
Of course, Mr Bush and his top aides are aware - and acknowledge as much in private - that Dr Kay's remarks have dispelled hope that the intelligence might prove correct. While some in the White House favour having Mr Bush admit publicly that the intelligence was flawed, a high-ranking Republican source said such a step was not yet contemplated.
Instead, for the White House, agreeing to an external review - which Dr Kay advocates - amounts to a tacit acknowledgement of reality without an admission of error. Indeed, having a commission could postpone Mr Bush's need to admit error indefinitely; in that sense, it is something of a tactical retreat.
Nobody expects any hard conclusions to be reached before the November 2 election - either by congressional probes or an independent inquiry - on what went wrong with the intelligence.
Republican Porter Goss, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and a former CIA case officer, said partisan politics would make it impossible to get any real work done before the election.
Mr Bush has lately found many of his rationales for the war being challenged. Just as Dr Kay has undermined the WMD rationale, a report published by the Army War College challenged the notion that the war in Iraq was part of the overall war on terrorism, and Human Rights Watch has disputed Mr Bush's notion that the Iraq war was a humanitarian mission.
Vice-President Dick Cheney has implicitly acknowledged that the war has not spurred peace in the Middle East, saying peace is not possible while Yasser Arafat remains in power.
To all of these challenges, though, there is a simple solution for Mr Bush. If the on-the-ground situation improves in Iraq, with violence abating and US troops returning home, Americans will almost certainly forgive any flaws in the rationale for going to war.
- Washington Post
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Copyright © 2004. The Age Company Ltd
|advertise | contact us| | <urn:uuid:f82e3d90-5f27-481a-9838-16f3effe90d1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/02/02/1075570358705.html?from=storyrhs | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96662 | 800 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Let it rain - enjoying Southeast Asias wet season
It's the rainy season in Southeast Asia. Don't worry, it probably won’t rain all the time – probably just in the afternoon (admittedly, rather a lot). Even though the rainy season gets a bad reputation, chances are you'll get sunny, dry mornings and some unexpected bonuses:
Cooler temperatures: in a lot of Asia, the rain drops the mercury and provides some sweet relief from the heat. You may get wet, but you won't melt.
Fewer tourists: you don't often get a chance to feel alone in Asia. If getting a bit of space is what you're after, the rainy season is your best bet.
Lower prices: more splashing of the water, less splashing of the cash. Fewer travellers and lighter demand on accommodation and services means lower prices.
Greener greenery: every cliché you've ever heard about the lush greens of the tropics is true. You really haven't seen green till you've seen green in the tropical wet season.
Easier storm-chasing: There's actually no chasing to be done. Just hunker down somewhere dry with a view (bars are good for this) and watch nature work her magic. Watching tropical storms roll in is pretty spectacular.
Better photos: lightning, dramatic colour changes, dark storm clouds - these are the ingredients of photos way cooler than the blue-skies-and-fluffy-white-clouds kind.
Great excuses: there's nothing like a bit of torrential rain for an excuse to just do nothing. Lie in bed and listen to the rain. Sit under a deck and watch it. Read. Play cards. Be on holiday. Don't feel guilty about not exploring that cave or climbing that mountain.
Funnier sights: sit back and watch those who don't let the rain ruin their parade – plastic-poncho-clad school kids balancing umbrellas on bicycles; hundreds of brollie-wielding pedestrians passing one another in the street without causing injury (more photo opps).
More excuses: if you get caught out, and get stuck at a shelter or a bar (oops) while the storm hits, chances are you won’t be alone, and if ever there were a legitimate time to engage in a conversation with a stranger (maybe start with the weather)...
Try out a trip in the wet season. You'll be in for a treat.
So, where will you watch the rain from? | <urn:uuid:d60301cf-a776-45cf-abaa-bec2202788e0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jetstar.com/us/en/planning-and-booking/where-we-go/destination-information/tips-and-articles?location=Singapore&ID=%7B11350573-80E7-4BDE-A04D-D75E3E31F23A%7D | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932372 | 520 | 1.640625 | 2 |
As seen in the Nov. 27, 2007 Tomahawk Leader:
Judging by the numbers from a recent health-screening day, Sacred Heart Hospital Foundation’s claim to be making a difference in Tomahawk’s health and wellness is very true – nearly 300 community members attended this year’s event.
On Saturday, Oct. 20, the local foundation sponsored free Community Health Screenings. This event, one of the foundation’s 2007 projects, provided preventive health services and information for area residents. Following are results from some of the screenings – and, as you review them, just stop to think about the differences that could be made:
•171 diabetes screens identified 21 individuals as pre-diabetic and 10 tested positive for the disease. Participants received recommendations for next steps from Ministry Diabetes Services.
•Of the 94 PSA prostate screens, nine were abnormal and three had no prior family history.
•224 cholesterol tests were collected of which 93 were abnormal (41 percent).
•227 kidney function tests were collected; 82 were abnormal (36 percent).
•Dermatologist Dr. Chila screened 54 individuals for skin cancer. Four suspected carcinoma, 24 pre-malignant keratosis and two other malignancies were identified.
•37 breast physical exams were conducted with one recommendation for follow-up.
•40 body composition analyses were completed with suggestions made by Ministry Rehabilitation Services to those that fell outside the healthy range.
•Of the 29 hearing tests conducted, six passed and 23 were referred for follow up.
•Colorectal kits distributed that day also have identified numerous individuals needing follow-up examinations.
“These results, along with the wonderful feedback we received from participants, tell us we are offering a much needed service to our community,” says Debbie Gessler, foundation vice chairperson. “Many shared that, if not for the foundation, they would not have been able to have these tests performed either due to no insurance, high deductibles or due to non-coverage by their insurance carrier.”
This annual event, sponsored by Sacred Heart Hospital Foundation, in cooperation with Sacred Heart Hospital, Ministry Medical Group and Ministry Health Care, is planned to be held on Saturday, Oct. 18 next year. For more information about the screenings or other foundation activities, contact Susan Cronick at 453-7770.
(Editor's Note: Also look for the link to Sacred Heart Hospital/Ministry Health on our Town Square Business Directory: www.traveltomahawk.com) | <urn:uuid:c8dc0c69-c159-4f23-a65c-7645b5feac25> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tomahawkleader.com/messageboard/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=549&p=5695 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964964 | 527 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Genius is Enologix taste quality analytics inside your company. I like to distribute quality analysis to everyone making decisions about vineyard, blend and bottle. So I created an application to do that. My winemaking application focuses people in the company on the traditional style, taste quality and aging potential that supports your higher prices. Now when I am gone, my customers can work logistically, to predict the outcome before conducting the winemaking. Put my genius inside your company for times when your looking to predict bottled wine taste quality. Today.
California wine industry is evolving into a mighty luxury wine producer.
We teach that old school or new school, the most important school understands how the power of brands is linked to the [lands'] quality. Old school is "Grand Cru, Premier Cru, Village". Today's school may be "100-point", "90-point", "85-point."
Marketing Lesson One: The price of American wines is linked to 100-point scores embraced by consumers and buyers.
Task One: Obtain a profit by embracing the consumers’ advocates; all other roads are more costly in every sense. I’ve spoken to my customers’ marketing people; almost every time, it comes down to the quality of the critics’ compliments—100-point scores. New or old school, the most important school understands no marketing department can support higher prices. They can only move boxes.
Marketing Lesson Two: Marketing is not getting more than one deserves; which what wine buyers want to avoid.
Case History: Apple replaces marketing with quality. ‘When you hear marketers talk about Apple, you hear about emotive benefits associated with the brand: the cool design aesthetic, the imagery in the advertising of community evoked by seeing people you respect with Apple products. This glosses over the product's most important trait: quality of the functionality. Using an Apple product feels so natural, so intuitive, and so transparent, that sometimes, even people paid to know what makes products work miss the cause of their addiction to Apple products. It's the natural, intuitive transparency of the technology with the our lives. The superlative product experience comes from an unusual combination of human and technical understanding, and it creates the foundation of all the other positive aspects of the brand.’
Task Two: Obtain a profit by scaling quality.
To scale taste quality in the Napa Valley, wine companies are using our application to distribute taste quality metrics to predict outcomes before making the wine, nothing else makes sense but to embrace Enologix genius. | <urn:uuid:802c5c2d-8006-4054-81ca-cb54e3d81f22> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.enologix.com/DEMO.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941546 | 528 | 1.625 | 2 |
Justice Thomas and the Conservative Hypocrisy
Posted by The Situationist Staff on May 4, 2007
Kevin Merida and Michael Fletcher, both journalists with The Washington Post, are on tour with their new biography of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas: Supreme Discomfort: The Divided Soul of Clarence Thomas. The book’s webiste includes this brief overview :
Kevin Merida and Michael Fletcher . . . crafted a haunting portrait of an isolated and bitter man, savagely reviled by much of the black community, not entirely comfortable in white society, internally wounded by his passage from a broken family and rural poverty in Georgia to elite educational institutions to the pinnacle of judicial power. He has clearly never recovered from the searing experience of his Senate confirmation hearings and the “he said/she said” drama of the accusations of sexual harassment by Anita Hill.
Supreme Discomfort tracks the personal odyssey of perhaps the least understood man in Washington, from his poor childhood in Pin Point and Savannah, Georgia, to his educational experiences in a Catholic seminary and Holy Cross, to his law school years at Yale during the black power era, to his rise within the Republican political establishment. It offers a window into a man who straddles two different worlds and is uneasy in both—and whose divided personality and conservative political philosophy will deeply influence American life for years to come.
Both interviews highlight themes of the book involving complexities, tensions, even hypocrisies in the life and policy positions of Justice Thomas.
Translated into the language of this blog, some of those tensions and hypocrisies involved Justice Thomas’s focus on his own situational impediments (and victim status) while admonishing African Americans to turn in their victim mentality in exchange for a “no-excuses” disposition. On the other side of the coin is Thomas’s weak memory of the the numerous ways in which he was situationally advantaged by affirmative action policies in the past while eagerly cutting back those policies today.
Such tensions were the subject of the following op-ed by Situationist Contributors Adam Benforado and Jon Hanson, originally published in the Baltimore Sun in December of 2005:
* * *
The Conservative Hypocrisy
When it comes to Supreme Court nominees, conservatives are in agreement: Situation matters.
Pundits on the right shouted down Harriet E. Miers over concerns that her evangelical backbone would whither under Washington winds. Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. stepped into her spot seeming of far more stalwart vertebrae, but as his backers have stressed recently, he is a creature of situation as well.
Responding to liberal criticism over a 1985 document in which Judge Alito championed the position “that the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion,” conservatives quickly pointed out that the assertion was made in the context of an “advocate seeking a job” and thus could offer no insight into how Judge Alito would behave as a justice confronting an actual abortion case.
What makes all of this confusing is that conservatives are more or less devoted to a legal system and a policymaking approach that assumes situational influence is, in the vast majority of circumstances, trivial and irrelevant. Get the government out of our lives so that we can be “free to choose,” the argument goes. Unchain markets so that people can pursue their own ends as they see fit.
According to those extremely influential policy scripts, the consumer is sovereign and the outcomes of market transactions are good – no matter the nutritional content of the food, no matter the racial composition of the neighborhood, no matter the annual interest rate of the credit card, no matter the distribution of wealth. People choose freely and have no one but themselves to blame for any adverse consequences.
As Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas – dubbed “America’s leading conservative” by The Weekly Standard – wrote in his essay “Personal Responsibility,” in the 1999-2000 Regent University Law Review, “Success (as well as failure) is the result of one’s own talents, morals, decisions and actions.”
Many of the most basic conservative policy scripts in our ownership society are thus built on a conception of the person as independent and autonomous – the stuff of individualism and personal responsibility. The environment isn’t the problem; focus on the bad acts of a bad actor.
The poor, the overweight, the unemployed, the discriminated-against need to stop blaming others; they need to get to the gym, get to work and get busy. Just do it. The law owes them little more than a few more options and the knowledge that they will bear the consequences of, and full liability for, their choices. The situation is given and immaterial. Just ignore it. Again quoting Justice Thomas’ essay, there needs to be “much less of an emphasis on victimage.”
Similarly, when it comes to proper judging, the right approach is to “apply the law” and “stick to the Constitution” as originally written, as if the document has a clear disposition. Conservatives urge judges to ignore the context and focus on the plain meaning of the words. To venture beyond the “plain meaning” is to engage in politics. Situational considerations are to be shunned.
“But, again, the right does sometimes underscore the importance of situation. According to the conservative narrative, the situational force that is most harmful and significant is that of the “intellectual class” and the institutions where its ideas are developed, employed and advanced.
Elite academic institutions, by this reckoning, are a danger. The New York Times is a menace. And the Supreme Court, too, poses a threat. As Robert H. Bork put it in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, “the left-liberal liberationist” ideology promoted by such groups is leading to “moral anarchy.” The liberal intelligentsia that has seduced so many justices is, with those justices’ help, deeply influencing our lives. As a result, according to Mr. Bork, “the struggle over the Supreme Court is not just about law; it is about the future of our culture.” We are, by this account, being victimized by a victim culture.
Hence, the same individuals who are eager to point out how Supreme Court justices are vulnerable to situational manipulation – who suggest that our country is being destroyed because of the powerful influence of liberal elites over our culture and, in turn, our culture over us – are otherwise adamant in denying the role of situation in the lives of consumers, workers, voters, parents, criminals and any justices who happen to be strict constructionists. Situation, in their view, is critical in some contexts and irrelevant in others.
In the end, it should trouble us that those who lament the malleability of judicial behavior to situational forces are simultaneously calling for judges who will, for the most part, ignore the importance of situation.
Acknowledging the truth – that we humans, even the most autonomous among us, are situationally pliant – only when it serves our interests is nothing new, but it is deeply distorting. And it is particularly harmful when we acknowledge it only for the most highly educated, politically connected and powerful members of our country, leaving the weak, the forgotten and the voiceless to fend for themselves through “free choice.” | <urn:uuid:949ccbaf-47c6-472d-917a-68892a1ae628> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thesituationist.wordpress.com/2007/05/04/justice-thomas-and-the-conservative-hypocrisy/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=134bd2d71b | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952963 | 1,531 | 1.835938 | 2 |
The Census Bureau reported the seasonally adjusted homeownership rate remained unchanged at 65.6 percent during the second quarter of 2012, hovering at a 15-year low for the 2nd consecutive quarter. The performance across household head age groups was mixed as the under 35 and 55-64 cohorts saw homeownership rates decline compared to the first quarter of 2012. By contrast, homeownership rates improved for the three remaining age groups, with the largest gain observed for householders between the ages of 35 and 44.
Aside from the householders aged 65 years and over, homeownership rates among the other age groups remain appreciably lower in comparison to the same period a year ago and significantly lower than their peak levels observed in the mid-2000s. The largest decline overall has been observed in the 35-44 age group, where the homeownership rate has tumbled nearly 9 percentage points.
The ongoing large decline in homeownership among younger cohorts is worrisome; however, since the 45-54 and 55-64 age groups account for nearly half of all owner-occupied households combined, fluctuations in homeownership among these two age groups will likely have more visibly significant impacts on overall homeownership rates. Fortunately, as economic conditions continue to improve and members of these two older age groups begin to form new households (or re-constitute former as they move out of combined living arrangements), they should tend towards buying rather than renting.
In addition to the homeownership rate, this report also examines trends in the vacant housing stock. The rental vacancy rate declined for the third consecutive quarter, falling to 8.6%–the lowest reading in a decade. Other sources, such as NAHB’s own Multifamily Vacancy Index, reveal a similar downward trend in apartment vacancies. The homeowner vacancy rate has fallen steadily in each of the last six quarters, declining to a reading of 2.1%. | <urn:uuid:a0cb8f52-8a0a-45d0-809c-f5c56f9c32b6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://eyeonhousing.wordpress.com/2012/07/30/homeownership-rate-holds-steady-during-second-quarter/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975796 | 379 | 1.65625 | 2 |
After a warm - no hot - March, we've returned to seasonal temperatures in the Upper Peninsula and northeastern Wisconsin.
Warm days are followed by cool nights.
It won't be long, though, before Mother Nature strings a series of seasonal warm, sunny days together in the Dickinson County area.
Spring weather warms the earth back to life. People venture outdoors again. That's the beauty of changing seasons.
There are song birds looking in the grass for insects, chipmunks scurrying here and there, and squirrels scrambling from tree branch to bird feeder, and back.
Soon, the familiar summer sounds of lawn mowers and tillers will fill the air.
The lawns are getting greener, and it won't be long before gardeners will be planting their vegetables and flowers.
Adding to the beauty of the area are the members of the Northwoods Garden Club. The Iron Mountain-Kingsford-based organization spreads cheer by planting flowers throughout the community.
Remember those petunias at the Dickinson County Courthouse, Kingsford City Hall, Gazebo Garden on Woodward Avenue, the Dickinson County Library and along Chapin Pit?
This is the group that has assumed responsibility for planting and caring for those wonderful flowers.
Their efforts have generated a sense of pride throughout the community.
Their petunia plantings have sprouted seeds of thought in the minds of others. Suddenly, neighbors though out Iron Mountain-Kingsford are sprucing up their homes, yards, and gardens.
The red-shirted members of the Northwoods Garden Club are ready to launch their flower power campaign in Iron Mountain-Kingsford again this spring.
As soon as the danger of frost is gone, they'll be plotting their strategy.
Their mission again includes the courthouse, library, Kingsford City Hall, gazebo, Chapin Pit and other areas.
This group of a dozen or so community-minded individuals cannot do it alone, however.
Mother Nature provides the sunshine for free but it costs lots of greenbacks for the thousands of petunias and other bright colorful flowers the club uses.
This is where club members need help. They need community donations to help pay for the flowers.
This is one of the best deals in town.
Think of it.
We donate the flowers, and they plant them and water them for everyone to enjoy.
Show your community pride and appreciation by supporting the flower plantings with a tax-free donation.
Check out the coupon on page 2-B of today's Daily News.
Send your donation today to:
Northwoods Garden Club
C/O Dianna Jamar, Treasurer
P.O. Box 104
Iron Mountain MI | <urn:uuid:b6edb58b-28dc-43a6-89eb-f4ccc85aa028> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ironmountaindailynews.com/page/content.detail/id/534607/Support-local-flower-plantings.html?nav=5004 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934953 | 560 | 1.757813 | 2 |
OPINION: 40 years too many for abortionAn abortionist acts out the violence in the womb to end the baby’s life.
By: SONJA VANERDEWYK, Guest columnist
Gun violence is the hot topic lately, although this is a misnomer. Physical violence occurs when individuals or groups act out using any type of object to cause harm to others. It is not the “instrument or object” alone that causes the violence, but the person(s) who use them to perpetrate the act(s).
The individual or group is the problem, not the gun or object. So it is with abortion — an abortionist acts out the violence in the womb to end the baby’s life.
Today marks the 40th Anniversary of Supreme Court decisions of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, both of which led to the legalization of abortion up to birth. Unlike most anniversaries that are joyous, this one conjures up feelings of mourning in remembering the 55 million-plus babies who have been killed since 1973.
These precious babies account for more casualties than all of the American wars combined since the revolution! Where is the outrage and disgust of this violence in our country? Are not these littlest ones deserving of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
The biggest abortion provider in the United States is Planned Parenthood. In its 2011-2012 annual report, it lauded the murdering of over 333,964 babies — it is big business. One baby every 94 seconds is killed at a Planned Parenthood facility. According to a January National Right to Life Committee Inc. report, this “represents an income of at least $150.6 million. Collectively, the organization showed nearly $1.2 billion in revenues with more than 45 percent of that ($542.4 million) coming in the form of Government Health Services Grants and Reimbursements.” Total number of daily U.S. abortions is over 3,400 when including all abortion facilities. The mother’s womb is the most violent place yet too many turn a blind eye.
Hypocrisy best describes our government that calls it double homicide if someone murders a pregnant woman but it’s legal to have abortions. President Obama is the most pro-abortion president ever. We mourn the loss of the precious lives at Sandy Hook Elementary, but stand in denial at the bigger picture.
The president was recently quoted in regards to that tragedy saying, “They had their entire lives ahead of them — birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own.” Yes, Mr. President, the 55 million plus aborted babies had their entire lives ahead of them as well. Not only does the president support federal funding of abortion with our tax dollars but he sponsored legislation in Chicago, as a senator, to deny babies resuscitative efforts if they would survive an abortion. Our mainstream media fails to report the facts. None of these children had the right to choose. Where’s the citizen outrage?
We now see our government impose the HHS (aka, health care) mandate, which mandates everyone to have health insurance and says that employers must provide birth control coverage (regardless of the views of the employers), including abortifacients.
These pills are prescribed to cause an abortion and the mandate forces businesses and individuals to violate their consciences. Our taxpayer money is used to support such programs. Where are our rights to religious freedom guaranteed under the Constitution?
There are millions of women struggling with the after affects of abortion: physical pain and complications, infertility, guilt, suicide, addictions, depression, nightmares, shame.
Fathers are childless, families broken by the loss of loved ones, they need healing. If it is legal, does it make it right? Slavery was legal, too. Is it right?
Pause today to reflect, and pray. Then, take action and demand that this violence must stop. Together, let’s end the largest American holocaust. Forty years is too many.
Sonja VanErdewyk, of Mitchell, is president of Mitchell Area Right to Life. | <urn:uuid:803c1c63-c53e-47be-935b-e56924160f01> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mitchellrepublic.com/event/article/id/75155/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949604 | 858 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Bill would allow religious institutions damaged by Sandy access to FEMA funding
In a rare showing of bipartisanship in Washington, a bill that would allow religious institutions damaged by Hurricane Sandy to access FEMA money breezed through the House of Representatives. YNN's Washington, D.C. bureau reporter Michael Scotto has the story.
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WASHINGTON, D.C. -- When Hurricane Sandy struck New York, it didn't spare religious institutions. But as they try to rebuild and help the community around them, they find themselves ineligible for federal disaster money, a situation Congress is now trying to fix with legislation.
“It basically helps provide funding for houses of worship that have suffered and have been taking care of our constituents in New York,” Queens Representative Grace Meng said.
On Wednesday, the House passed a bill that would add religious institutions to the list of not for profits eligible for FEMA grants. It passed with bipartisan support, 354 to 72.
Those who voted no cited constitutional concerns related to the separation of church and state, including Congressman Jerry Nadler who said, “This bill would direct federal taxpayer dollars to the reconstruction of houses of worship. The idea that taxpayer money can be used to build a religious sanctuary or an altar has consistently been held unconstitutional.”
Staten Island Congressman Michael Grimm disagreed.
“It's faith neutral,” Grimm said. “It has nothing to do with influence or policy or religion, in and of itself. This really has to do with physical structures just being treated fairly.”
Supporters also say that federal money has gone to rebuild religious institutions in the past, including churches damaged after the Oklahoma City bombing.
The bill still needs to make it past the Senate. But Congressman Grimm says that shouldn't be a problem. After all, it got bipartisan support in the House. | <urn:uuid:bc14d86b-4b0c-4ee7-9cd8-5cf27e60d399> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://capitalregion.ynn.com/content/politics/638985/bill-would-allow-religious-institutions-damaged-by-sandy-access-to-fema-funding/?ap=1&MP4 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955478 | 404 | 1.601563 | 2 |
We created Pandora to put the Music Genome Project directly in your hands
It’s a new kind of radio –
stations that play only music you like
Born and raised in Glendale, AZ, Robbins (born Martin David Robertson, September 26, 1925; died December 8, 1982) was exposed to music at an early age. His mother's father was "Texas" Bob Heckle, a former medicine show man who told his grandson cowboy stories and tales of the traveling show. Robbins became enraptured by the cowboy tales and, once he became a teenager, worked on his older brother's ranch outside of Phoenix, concentrating more on his cowboy duties than his studies. Indeed, he never graduated from high school, and by his late teens, he started turning petty crimes while living as a hobo. In 1943, he joined the U.S. Navy to fight in World War II, and while he was in the service, he learned how to play guitar and developed a taste for Hawaiian music. Robbins left the Navy in 1947, returning to Glendale, where he began to sing in local clubs and radio stations. Often, he performed under the name "Jack Robinson" in an attempt to disguise his endeavors from his disapproving mother. Within three years, he had developed a strong reputation throughout Arizona and was appearing regularly on a Mesa radio station and had his own television show, Western Caravan, in Phoenix. By that time, he had settled on the stage name of Marty Robbins.
Robbins landed a recording contract with Columbia in 1951 with the assistance of Little Jimmy Dickens, who had been a fan ever since appearing on Western Caravan. Early in 1952, Robbins released his first single, "Love Me or Leave Me Alone." It wasn't a success and neither was its follow-up, "Crying 'Cause I Love You," but "I'll Go On Alone" soared to number one in January 1953. Following its blockbuster success, Robbins signed a publishing deal with Acuff-Rose and joined the Grand Ole Opry. "I Couldn't Keep From Crying" kept him in the Top Ten in spring 1953, but his two 1954 singles -- "Pretty Words" and "Call Me Up (And I'll Come Calling on You)" -- stalled on the charts. A couple of rock & roll covers, "That's All Right" and "Maybellene," returned him to the country Top Ten in 1955, but it wasn't until "Singing the Blues" shot to number one in fall 1956 that Robbins' career was truly launched. Staying at number one for a remarkable 13 weeks, "Singing the Blues" established Robbins as a star, but its progress on the pop charts was impeded by Guy Mitchell's cover, which was released shortly after Robbins' original and quickly leapfrogged to number one. The process repeated itself on "Knee Deep in the Blues," which went to number three on the country charts but didn't even appear on the pop charts due to Mitchell's hastily released cover. To head off such competition, Robbins decided to record with easy listening conductor Ray Conniff for his next singles. It was a crafty move and one that kept him commercially viable during the peak of rock & roll. The first of these collaborations, "A White Sport Coat (And a Pink Carnation)," became a huge hit, spending five weeks at the top of the country charts in spring 1957 and peaking at number two on the pop charts, giving him his long-awaited breakthrough record.
After "A White Sport Coat (And a Pink Carnation)," Robbins was a regular fixation on both the pop and country charts until the mid-'60s. The Burt Bacharach and Hal David composition "The Story of My Life" returned Robbins to the number one country slot in early 1957 (number 15 pop), while "Just Married," "Stairway of Love," and "She Was Only Seventeen (He Was One Year More)" kept him in teen-pop territory, as well as the upper reaches of the charts, throughout 1958. In addition to his pop records, Robbins recorded rockabilly singles and Hawaiian albums that earned their own audience. During that time, he began a couple of business ventures of his own, including a booking agency and a record label called Robbins. He also ventured into movies, appearing in the Westerns Raiders of Old California (1957) and Badge of Marshal Brennan (1958), where he played a Mexican named Felipe. The films not only demonstrated Robbins' love for Western myths and legends, but they signalled the shift in musical direction he was about to take. Over the course of 1958 and 1959, he recorded a number of cowboy and western songs, and the first of these -- "The Hanging Tree," the theme to the Gary Cooper film of the same name -- became a hit in spring 1959. However, the song just set the stage for Robbins' signature song and biggest western hit, "El Paso." Released in the summer, the single spent six months on the country charts, including seven weeks at number one, while hitting the top of the pop charts. A full album of western songs, Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs, became equally successful, reaching number six on the pop charts, and by the mid-'60s, it had gone platinum.
"El Paso" began a very successful decade for Robbins. "Big Iron," another western song, followed its predecessor to the Top Ten of the country charts in 1960, but it wasn't until 1961 that he had another huge hit in the form of "Don't Worry." Fueled by a fuzz-toned guitar (the first country record to feature such an effect), "Don't Worry" spent ten weeks at number one and crossed over to number three on the pop charts. The following year, "Devil Woman" became nearly as successful, spending eight weeks at number one; it was followed by another number one, "Ruby Ann." Between "Don't Worry" and "Devil Woman," he had a number of smaller hits, most notably the Top Ten "It's Your World," and for the rest of the decade, his biggest hits alternated with more moderate successes. With his career sailing along, Robbins began exploring racecar driving in 1962, initially driving in dirt-track racing competitions before competing in the famous NASCAR race. However, car racing was just a hobby, and he continued to have hits in 1963, including the number one "Begging to You." The following year, he starred in the film Ballad of a Gunfighter, which was based on songs from his classic album.
Robbins' chart success continued throughout 1964, before suddenly dipping after he took Gordon Lightfoot's "Ribbon of Darkness" to number one in spring 1965. For the remainder of the year and much of the next, his singles failed to crack the Top Ten, and he concentrated on filming a television series called The Drifter, which was based on a character he had created. He also acted frequently, including the Nashville exploitation films Country Music Caravan, The Nashville Story, and Tennessee Jamboree and the stock-car drama Hell on Wheels. Though "The Shoe Goes on the Other Foot Tonight" reached number three in 1966, it wasn't until "Tonight Carmen" reached number one on the country charts in 1967 that his career picked up considerably. During the next two years, he regularly hit the Top Ten with country-pop songs like "I Walk Alone" and "It's a Sin." Robbins suffered from a heart attack while on tour in August 1969, which led to a bypass operation in 1970. Despite his brush with death, he continued to record, tour, and act. Early in 1970, "My Woman My Woman My Wife" became his last major crossover hit, reaching number one on the country charts and 42 on the pop charts and eventually earning a Grammy award.
Robbins left Columbia Records in 1972, spending the next three years at Decca/MCA. Though "Walking Piece of Heaven," "Love Me," and "Twentieth Century Drifter" all reached the Top Ten, most of his singles were unenthusiastically received. Nevertheless, he sustained his popularity through concerts and film appearances, including the Lee Marvin movie A Man and a Train and Guns of a Stranger. In March 1974, Robbins became the last performer to play at the Ryman Auditorium, the original location of the Grand Ole Opry; a week later, he was the first to play at the new Grand Ole Opry House. The honors and tributes to Robbins continued to roll out during the mid-'70s, as he was inducted into Nashville Songwriters International Hall of Fame in 1975. That same year, he returned to Columbia Records, and over 1976 and 1977 he had his last sustained string of Top Ten hits, with "El Paso City" and "Among My Souvenirs" reaching number one. Following this two-year burst of success, Robbins settled into a series of minor hits for the next four years. In October 1982, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Two months later, he suffered his third major heart attack (his second arrived in early 1981), and although he had surgery, he died on December 8. In the wake of his death, his theme song to Clint Eastwood's movie Honky Tonk Man was released and climbed to number ten. Robbins left behind an immense legacy, including no less than 94 charting country hits and a body of recorded worked that proved how eclectic country music could be. ~ Hank Davis, Rovi | <urn:uuid:1ebd3a8a-b0b1-4573-8dfc-f19a8c3d4107> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pandora.com/marty-robbins/essential-marty-robbins | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984533 | 1,968 | 1.757813 | 2 |
An address to the Southwestern Ontario Right to Life Annual Banquet, March 27, 2006.
Dedicated to the memory of John Muggeridge.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Professor Peter Singer, a Professor of—what did you expect?—“ethics” at Princeton University, claims that there are two characteristics, rationality and self-consciousness, that must co-exist to make one a “person.”
Now since animals, like whales and dolphins, dogs and cats, etc., are both rational and self-conscious, they should be held to be “persons,” according to Prof. Singer, and their lives legally protected; but since the unborn, and the recently-born, and people with cognitive impairments like Alzheimer’s disease, are not self-conscious or fully rational, they are not “persons” and their lives can be aborted or euthanized without legal restriction or moral compunction.
What do you think of that?
Professors have been known sometimes to say batty things; that is half the charm of the absent-minded Professor. But Dr. Peter Singer is an influential bio-ethicist; he holds an endowed Chair at Princeton University; and his views are heard with respect in the high councils of the medical profession and of Government.
My former employer, Western University, has not yet seen fit to confer an honourary degree on Dr. Singer, but given that Western gave Canada’s most notorious abortionist, Dr. Henry Morgentaler, an honourary degree last June, perhaps it is only a matter of time. Or perhaps it is bootless to ascribe logic or consistency of purpose to such a pitiful spectacle as what the postmodern University, like Western, has become.
The cruelty and absurdity of what Professor Singer advocates would have been self-evident to our fathers and grandparents, most of whom did not have the dubious privilege of a University education. But today Peter Singer’s comments are taken seriously. Why is that?
In part, it is because we live in a credulous age. In part because, as the Terry Schiavo case demonstrated, there are individuals and organizations who want to bring an end to lives of people who they consider a public burden. In part, it is because we have turned our backs on the Judeo-Christian principles upon which Western civilization was founded.
Tonight, I want to speak to you about one of those principles, the concept of “Honour.” And what, you may ask, has honour to do with the pro-life movement? Well, a great deal, as I hope to demonstrate.
I confess that when I began to research my subject, my heart sank; I discovered that the University Library, which boasts well over a million titles, has precisely three dealing with honour. The London Public Library has one. That piqued my curiousity more. Why is so little said or written about honour? Is honour even relevant today? What does it mean? Those are some specific questions I should like to consider.
The most famous answer to the question: “What is honour?” is, I suppose, Falstaff’s answer (in Henry IV, Part 1). Falstaff, lovable rogue and villain, must press an army, and he recruits the dregs of society—vagabonds and knaves, tapsters and thieves, prodigals and villains, “the cankers of a calm world,” Prince Hal calls them. When Prince Hal remonstrates: “I did never see such pitiful rascals,” Falstaff replies: “Tut, tut, mortal men, Hal, mortal men. Fit to stuff a cannon.”
Now this, I submit, is precisely what the pro-life movement is made up of: mortal, fallible, men and women, ordinary erring people, fit to stuff a cannon, or fit to stuff an envelope, fit to join a life chain, fit to write a protest letter. Nothing remarkable, not many heroes, just ordinary people whose common sense and morality tells them that creatures made in the image and likeness of God are entitled to be treated with dignity and respect from conception to natural death.
In Shakespeare’s play, when the noise of battle can be heard, Falstaff confesses that he would like to run away and hide, but “. . . honour pricks me on.” Then follows his famous soliloquy on the meaning of honour:
Yea, but how if honour prick me off when I come on? How then? Can honour set a leg? No. Or an arm? No. Or take away the grief of a wound? No. Honour hath no skill in surgery then? No. What is honour? A word. What is in that word honour? Air—a trim reckoning! Who hath it? He that died a’ Wednesday. Doth he feel it? No. Doth he hear it? No. ‘Tis insensible then? Yea, to the dead. But will it not live with the living? No. Why? Detraction will not suffer it. Therefore I’ll none of it. Honour is a mere scutcheon—and so ends my catechism.
This delightful but cynical, you might say “postmodern” view of honour, is prevalent today in Canada.
Now those of you who have studied English literature will know that William Shakespeare was steeped in the Bible. The Bible considers honour to be much more than Falstaff’s “mere scutcheon.”
In fact, unlike the library catalogue which turns up so few references to honour, the Bible overflows with it; more than 50 references in the Old Testament, at least 35 in the New Testament, not counting 15 or so additional references to “honourable.” That fact gave me my first clue as to what “honour” means. It means honouring God.
The Oxford English Dictionary includes “reverence” and “veneration” as synonyms for the word “honour.” These words are applied almost exclusively to the worship of God.
For those of us in this post-Christian era who retain a vestigial memory of Scripture, some of the biblical references are familiar. “Honour thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the earth.” Or, God’s promise to Israel in the first book of Samuel: “Them that honour me, I will honour.” Or the Psalmist’s hymn of wonder and praise: “When I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast made: what is man that thou art mindful of him; and the son of man that thou visitest him? . . . Thou hast crowned him with glory and honour . . . .” Or this saying of Jesus, comforting to anyone who pontificates: “A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country . . . .” And, finally, in the last book of the Bible, the Revelation that came to Saint John on the island of Patmos, when he dreamt of a second coming of the Lord, when men shall bow before Him, and He shall receive “blessing and honour and power for evermore.”
In the Bible, “honour” sometimes refers to the regard in which God is to be held; at other times, it refers to the inner state of a person, an honourable man, someone who discerns a just balance between one’s obligations to God and one’s duties to one’s fellow men. So honour originates with honouring God; He is the Creator and preserver of life, the final moral judge who will reveal all hearts aright. But honour extends to our obligations as human beings to our fellow citizens.
Let me give an example. Thomas More [1478-1545] was a man who honoured God. He was the most powerful man in King Henry VIII’s government, knighted for his exemplary service to King and country. But when King Henry insisted on marrying young Anne Boleyn and divorcing his wife, Catherine, and when the King demanded that Sir Thomas More swear to the Act of Succession, More refused. He declined to speak publicly against his Sovereign, but nor would he swear the required oath. Robert Bolt’s moving play A Man for All Seasons dramatizes the struggle between More, who insisted on remaining silent, and the King, who demanded More’s acquiescence if not public support.
Now why did the King insist that Thomas More declare himself in favour of the King’s remarriage? Well, precisely because More was known to be the most honourable man in the realm. If More approved of the King’s divorce and remarriage, everyone would think that it must be right.
Sometimes I think this is the most important role the pro-life movement has played—to be a silent witness to honour the right; we are often mocked, sometimes reviled, always it seems ignored, but we bear a constant witness that even in these dark times not everyone looked the other way when the unborn and the vulnerable were left unprotected.
After a sham trial, Thomas More was sentenced to death and executed on July 6, 1545. As he ascended the gallows, More told the expectant crowd that he died “. . . the King’s loyal servant, but God’s servant first.” Now that is honour.
Two centuries later, an English vicar named Frederick Faber (1814-1863) thought of Thomas More and wrote a hymn to honour, a hymn that became one of the best known hymns of Christendom, although now banned from most Protestant hymnals as “sexist”:
Faith of our fathers, living still
In spite of dungeon, fire and sword,
O how our hearts beat high with joy
Whene’r we hear that glorious word!
Faith of our fathers, holy faith,
We will be true to Thee till death.
Pro-lifers are people committed to the faith of our fathers, a faith that says the King’s law is entitled to respect, but we are God’s servants first.
Here a brief biographical explanation. I came to the pro-life movement at its beginning. In 1968 Justice Minister Pierre Trudeau had introduced Criminal Code amendments which, among other changes, were to allow legal abortions. Abortions became legal if three physicians on a hospital therapeutic abortion committee were prepared to certify in writing that continuation of a pregnancy would endanger a woman’s life or health.
In 1970, the first full year of legalized abortion, there were 11,000 legal abortions. Despite modern medical advances reducing the risks of pregnancy, within a decade that figure had risen to over 100,000 abortions in Canadian hospitals. Then, in its Morgentaler decision on January 28, 1988, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the Criminal Code restrictions entirely, as being contrary to Canada’s newly-minted Charter of Rights—another Trudeau legacy. Since 1988 Canada has been unique among countries in the Western world in having no law on abortion.
As abortion was legalized and flourished, the Canadian pro-life movement sprang up, and for 4 decades it has spanned all political parties, all religious denominations, all distinctions of class and race.
My first involvement came in 1970 when I moved from Toronto to Ottawa to teach law at Carleton University. At a dinner party one evening a young woman asked me what I did and I said I taught law, including Civil Liberties. “Good,” she said, “you can teach the Civil Liberties position on abortion.” “Oh, and what’s that?” I asked her. “You know,” she replied, “a woman’s right to control her own body.” Now this woman was a school teacher, and when I realized that this was the depth of her understanding, and this was what she was telling elementary school students, I knew I had to get involved in pro-life advocacy. In those early days I had the privilege of working with many of the founders of Canadian pro-life; people like Dr. Heather Morris; Joe Borowski; Dr. Morris Schumiatcher; Ursala Appolini and Gwen Landolt; Dr. Barry de Veber and Dr. Harley Smythe; George Grant and John Muggeridge; and Father Alphonse de Valk.
And that honourable roll-call brings me to the second meaning of honour—honouring life.
Here again, the Bible is our sourcebook; it says: “I have set before you this day life and death; choose life” (Deuteronomy). “See,” says the prophet Isaiah, “I will not forget you . . . I have carved you on the palm of my hand.” The Psalmist says: “In God’s favour is life; . . . weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” And Jesus said: “I am come that you might have life, and have it more abundantly.” From the first page of Genesis to the last page of Revelations, the Bible says “Honour life.” The prolife movement has sought to do that.
Yet another aspect of honour is the honour of one’s country. But today this raises a question: what if one’s country is no longer worthy of honour?
Whether Canadian law is any longer worthy of respect is a large and disturbing question; I have spent much time in recent years writing on this topic and I will not attempt here to summarize my conclusions. Let me say just this: Canada’s lack of protection of the unborn is the legacy of several Liberal Prime Ministers—Pierre Trudeau, John Turner, Jean Chretien, and Paul Martin—each one of whom was a professed Roman Catholic. Yet the greatest man of our generation, the late Pope John Paul II—a bright and shining light indeed—in his encyclical, Evangelium Vitae, The Gospel of Life, wrote that a Christian must not respect laws, or even comply with laws which are contrary to God’s law.
I was born in Canada and, with only occasional forays abroad, I have lived here all my life. Yet I understand Canada less and less and feel ever more a stranger here. Canada for me has become a foreign country in many ways.
A country where Linda Gibbons is repeatedly imprisoned because she prays within 40 meters of an abortuary, but where the abortionist who practices his grisly craft there, Dr. Henry Morgentaler, is honoured by Western University. Canada has become a virtual one party state where the most significant decisions are taken not by members of parliament, whom we elect, but by unelected judges. A country where the Queen’s representative is chosen from the CBC’s chattering classes, people congenitally hostile to monarchical government. I could go on, but you get my point.
I do not say such things to undermine your patriotism, although I agree with Dr. Johnson that blind, unthinking patriotism is “…the last refuge of the scoundrel.” Rather, I say these things because, if we are to honour our country, we must be vigilant when we see the bedrock principles of our country, democratic accountability, parliamentary supremacy, and the rule of law, undermined. C. S. Lewis put it this way in his book The Abolition of Man: “We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.”
The best example of honouring one’s country is the soldier. So let me ask: What is the present condition of Canada’s military? Do we any longer have armed forces capable of bringing honour to our country, or have our armed forces been systematically demoralized and deconstructed? One has only to ask the question to answer it. In his poem, “The Soldier’s Return,” Robert Burns writes:
For gold the merchant ploughs the main,
The farmer ploughs the manor;
But glory is the soldier’s prize
The soldier’s wealth is honour!
The brave, poor soldier ne’er despise,
Nor count him as a stranger:
Remember he’s his country’s stay
In day and hour of danger.
An illustration of honouring one’s country comes to us across 26 centuries. Six centuries before Christ, the Romans were at war with the Etruscans. When the Etruscans marched on Rome, the Romans were greatly outnumbered. A messenger came to the capital to tell the Romans that thousands of Etruscan soldiers would soon be at the bridge over the Tiber River. One old man, Horatius, much too old for military service, went out and found two friends, and the three of them buckled on old, rusted armour, took up their ancient spears, and went out to stand on the bridge. They thought they might delay the Etruscan army long enough for Roman citizens to hew down the pillars on which that bridge stood. And that is exactly what they did. Was it heroic? Well, twenty four hundred years later, the English poet and historian Thomas Macaulay, recalled what they did in this verse:
Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the gate;
“To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers
For his country and his gods?”
I sometimes think of pro-lifers as like Horatius standing on the crumbling bridge that is Canada, a bridge from which the foundations have been hacked away, determined to bear witness to the truth; for its own sake, for God’s sake, for honour’s sake, and yes, for Canada’s sake.
Now through most of my years in the pro-life movement, I confess that I have been deeply pessimistic about our chances of changing anything; from the initial legislation in 1968, through the petition of one million signatures in the 70s, to the 1988 Supreme Court Morgentaler decision, to the Court’s lowering the age of sexual consent in the 90s, right up to last June when Western University went ahead, despite widespread alumni protests, to honour an abortionist, the Canadian pro-life story is one of unbroken parliamentary and judicial defeats. Again and again we lose; yet your presence tonight is proof that we are not defeated.
Recently, however, and rather to my surprise, I have become more optimistic about the pro-life future. There are three reasons for this: First, thanks to ultrasound, sonography, and other medical advances in fetal imaging and treatment, no rational person can any longer deny the humanity of the unborn. In the early days, abortion advocates used to say that a fetus was just a blob of tissue, so abortion had no greater moral significance than, say, an appendectomy. Medical advances mean that those days, and those arguments, are gone forever.
Second, several recent studies suggest that the younger generation (those under 30) are more opposed to abortion than their parents were. At least in the United States, where anti-consensus thinking is not yet a crime or a human rights violation, young women, particularly, seem to be more strongly pro-life than we had any right to hope.
Third, history suggests that systems constructed entirely upon lies cannot stand forever; the pro-abortion State must contort itself in ever more bizarre and despotic ways in order to sustain the abortion related lies. I retain a perhaps naïve belief that at some moment, and without much forewarning, the whole edifice of abortion lies, like the Berlin wall, will crumble and fall down before our eyes.
The fourth kind of honour that I want to mention is the honour of the regiment. This kind of honour is unique to military and para-military organizations and it consists of pride in past accomplishments and esprit d’corps.
As an outsider who never served in the military, it would be presumptuous of me to hold forth about something I have not experienced. But we do experience a measure of this with battles in the pro-life movement.
Let me tell you one true story that illustrates this kind of honour, a story from the first world war related by Walter McPeak.
Two members of the same regiment had fought in the trenches of France. During an attempted advance one man was struck by a German bullet. In the trench, the other man asked his commanding officer for permission to venture out into no man’s land to recover the body; at first the officer refused, saying that his friend was almost certainly dead and he would be risking his own life to no purpose. But the first soldier persisted, and the officer finally consented. So over the top the soldier went, and just as he reached his comrade, the wounded man died. Somehow that soldier made it back to the trench but without the body. “You see,” the commanding officer said, “You risked your life for nothing.” “No,” replied the soldier, “he was conscious when I got there and he said: ‘Tom, I knew you would come, I knew you would come.’ Then he died. I did what he expected of me and that is reward enough.”
In the pro-life movement, we seek to bear witness to the truth because God expects that of us, and we expect it of ourselves, and that is reward enough.
Now I began tonight by talking about Falstaff’s cynical view of honour; but, you know, William Shakespeare contains universes within himself. In his play King Henry V, the year is 1515. The young King stands upon French soil on St. Crispin’s day, to prepare his men for battle. Do you know any words on honour more rousing than these?
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered,
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.
For he today that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap, whiles any speaks,
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.
The final kind of honour I wish to mention—and you can see now that honour is a protean concept—is honour of tradition. That is not a popular notion today. We are a society that deifies change and worships the new. We forget that we do not exist only in the present moment. We have a past—and we owe ancestral obligations to those who sacrificed for us, just as we owe obligations to the future, to our children and children’s children.
That wise old warrior, G. K. Chesterton, had a wonderful phrase for this: He called it “the democracy of the dead.” In his classic work, Orthodoxy, Chesterton wrote: “Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about. All democrats object to men being disqualified by the accident of birth; tradition objects to them being disqualified by the accident of death.”
I have an illustration of this drawn from the milieu in which I spent most of my working life—the University. During the 1960s, that era when everything seemed up for grabs, the Dean of a Canadian University decided that it was time to shake up his very traditional Philosophy Department. Enough of a stale curriculum full of ancients like Plato and Aristotle and Saint Thomas Aquinas—those who today are derisively called DWEMS (Dead White European Males). Full of the democratic enthusiasms of the moment, the Dean decided to poll the students, and he sent each a letter asking whom they would choose to study. Imagine his surprise when many letters came back from students saying they would like to study Plato and Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas. The Dean called a meeting and said to the student representatives: “Look, why are you being un-cooperative? Don’t you want to venture out on something new?” And one student replied: “Yes, Sir, we are interested in new things, but how can we test something new until we know what was truly great in the past?”
For the rest of his career that Dean would relate that story whenever some young Turk wanted to do away with long-standing tradition.
In the year 1900 the British Antarctic explorer, Ernest Shackleton placed this advertisement in the London Times: “Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success. Ernest Shackleton.”
Shackleton later said that it seemed to him as if “. . . every man in Great Britain were determined to accompany me, so great was the response.” And those few that did accompany him were rewarded with the honour that flows from self-sacrifice and integrity.
So what have I said to you tonight?
I have suggested several different meanings of honour, and I have tried to give an illustration of each. Honour of God; honour of life; honour of Country; honour of the Regiment; and honour of tradition.
In the end, all of these kinds of honour depend upon integrity. If there is no honour at the heart’s core, there can be no other kind of honour. Pericles, the 4th century orator, general and statesman who presided over the “golden age” of Athens, in his Funeral Oration said: “It is only the love of honour that never grows old; and honour it is, not gain as some would have it, that rejoices the heart of age and helplessness.”
For the better part of half a century, the pro-life movement has stood honourably and has stood for honour: for the defence of human life; the honour of God; the honour of country and tradition. It has stood up for the weak and undefended.
I am honoured to be part of the pro-life movement, and I am honoured to have been your guest and to have been able to say this to you tonight.
Ian Hunter is Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Law at the University of Western Ontario. He is the author of Three Faces of the Law: A Christian Perspective, and of biographies of Malcolm Muggeridge, Hesketh Pearson, and Robert Burns. | <urn:uuid:20e6739c-a0c7-453e-be67-d09459cb9b2e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.humanlifereview.com/index.php/archives/30-2006-spring/54-honoring-life | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96625 | 5,744 | 1.804688 | 2 |
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- Please refer to the admission web site for information on applying to Le Moyne College. Please refer to our financial aid site for instructions on application process for financial aid. You will be required to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) | <urn:uuid:7c06bb41-da8e-4ffc-a424-1a3213773b21> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lemoyne.edu/FinancialAid/NetPriceCalculator/tabid/2566/Default.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931337 | 542 | 1.5625 | 2 |
It’s likely that we won’t see a ton of fake mobile games in the Android Market (Google Play) in the future. Nope, Google won’t introduce an app review process, but developers should now be more wary, since they could end-up paying for their deeds.
According to a BBC report, an unnamed Latvian developer who posted fake versions of popular games on the Android Market has been fined 50,000 GBP and told to repay 28,000 GBP to victims, marking the first of its kind fine in the mobile industry.
It’s important to note that the mentioned developer (we don’t have its name) has not only used infringed on the respective companies’ intellectual property, but has also hidden a malware in the software.
The apps in question were designed to look like legitimate versions of games like Angry Birds, Assassin’s Creed and Cut the Rope. However, after downloading these fake titles, customers weren’t able to open them up and were instead forced to sign up to a premium SMS line that charged 5 GBP per message received.
All of the fake apps were promptly removed from the Android Market… | <urn:uuid:f7df1f4d-c622-44d9-a417-b5d45e60c46b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.intomobile.com/2012/05/28/developer-fake-angry-birds-and-cut-rope-android-fined-50000-gbp/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959809 | 247 | 1.53125 | 2 |
John Bowles discusses his career at REO Motor Car Company and Diamond REO Trucks, Inc.
John Bowles talks about his career at REO Motor Car Company/Diamond-Reo Trucks, Inc, in Lansing, MI, from 1938 to 1971. Bowles says that he came to Lansing from Indiana in 1931 searching for work and was happy to finally land a good paying job at REO in 1938. He describes the various jobs he held in the plant, struggling to fill military truck orders, the inspection process, the early novelty of women working in the plant, war production, and trying to diversify in the post-war era by manufacturing lawnmowers. He says that working at REO was truly a family affair and that, in fact, most employees had relatives working along side of them in the plant. The interviewers are Shirley Bradley and Lisa Fine.Recorded as part of the "REO Memories" oral history project. | <urn:uuid:a9430824-2cc1-4ec3-b2bf-30b67f7771d0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lib.msu.edu/branches/vvl/autotown/detail.jsp?id=140 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977289 | 194 | 1.75 | 2 |
"Caroline or Change", acrylic and ink on paper, 15" x 20"
I was commissioned by SpotCo to create posters for a series of Tony Kushner plays being performed at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. Tony Kushner is best known for the two-part masterwork, Angels in America, which was also produced by HBO as a six-hour television event directed by Mike Nichols. I worked with art director Amanda Spielman on this project. The image above is for "Caroline or Change". Synopsis: "Louisiana, 1963: A nation reeling from the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement and the Kennedy assassination. Caroline, a black maid, and Noah, the son of the Jewish family she works for, struggle to find an identity for their friendship. Through their intimate story, this beautiful new musical portrays the changing rhythms of a nation. Tony Kushner and composer Jeanine Tesori have created a story that addresses contemporary questions of culture, community, race and class through the lens and musical pulse of the 1960s."
SKETCHES for Caroline or Change
"Tiny Kushner", mixed media
This image was for a one night performance of five short plays by Tony Kushner, titled "Tiny Kushner". I went through a number of sketches, trying to get all of the elements of the disparate plays into one image. The various plays deal with issues of war, racism, sex, etc.
Poster for Tiny Kushner
Sketches for "Tiny Kushner"
Poster for new Kushner play
The final assignment was for a new play that Tony Kushner was writing specifically for the Guthrie Theatre. I was basically given the title of the play to work with because, at the time, the story had not been completed. I tried a number of ideas which I've added below. In the end, the title was so long that the designer's typographic solution made more sense for the poster. The first play, Caroline or Change, opens on April 18th in Minneapolis.
Sketches for "The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism & Socialism with a key to the Scriptures" | <urn:uuid:42034038-c630-4795-802a-085a4380adb6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.drawger.com/edel/?section=articles&article_id=7344&start_date=1235883600&end_date=1238558400 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963049 | 426 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Created for Making Future Magic, BERG together with Dentsu London have come up with this quite wonderful movie combining iPad and light painting. The team first created software models in Cinema4D. These were then rendered as cross sections, like a virtual CAT scan, making a series of outlines of slices of each form. These are then played back on the surface of the iPad as movies together with dragged iPad through the air to extrude shapes captured in long exposure photographs. Each 3D form is itself a single frame of a 3D animation, so each long exposure still is only a single image in a composite stop frame animation.
We use photographic and animation techniques that were developed to draw moving 3-dimensional typography and objects with an iPad. In dark environments, we play movies on the surface of the iPad that extrude 3-d light forms as they move through the exposure. Multiple exposures with slightly different movies make up the stop-frame animation.
Of course, having a dedicated iPad app to do the process would be a fantastic but knowing the copy-of-a-copy app culture of the AppStore, rest assured someone has already started working on it.
Posted on: 15/09/2010
Posted in: iPad | <urn:uuid:f4c28b7a-79c3-4883-9d37-1935d43cfd2d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.creativeapplications.net/ipad/making-future-magic-ipad/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955869 | 250 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011 | 2 a.m.
It’s a scene that plays out thousands of times a day on the Strip: Tourists rip open hotel room soaps, pop open complimentary bottles of shampoo, conditioner and body wash, and use them once or twice. Then they leave, and the amenities sit half-full on a bathroom counter.
Not so long ago, those soaps and shampoos were thrown away. Now, they’re being recycled to help save lives.
A number of Strip resorts have partnered with the nonprofit group Clean the World to collect partially used hotel room toiletries and recycle them for use by people in need in the United States and abroad. Recycled soaps and shampoos have been sent to Las Vegas homes for pregnant teens, homeless shelters in New York City, Houston and Chicago and impoverished villages overseas. They have helped hundreds of thousands of Haitians struggling in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake and, more recently, scores of Filipinos left homeless by typhoons and flooding.
The program works like this: Housekeepers gather used soaps, shampoos and body washes and drop them off at central collection bins set up at each property. Once the bins are filled (usually after about a week and with more than 10,000 products), a Clean the World driver picks them up and delivers them to a recycling center on South Valley View Boulevard.
Las Vegas is Clean the World’s Western distribution hub, an unsurprising fact given the city is the hotel capital of the world and home to about 150,000 hotel rooms.
For almost a year, the local Clean the World recycling center has been housed in a small warehouse in an industrial park behind the Strip. Four-foot-tall cardboard boxes scribbled with resort names — Rio, Caesars, Wynn, Venetian — line its walls and overflow with millions of bars of soaps sorted by shape and color. The scent of perfume is unmistakable. Three workers, all men who were homeless at one time, collect, sort and clean the goods.
In a few months, the facility will move. Early next year, Clean the World plans to relocate to a bigger warehouse down the street, with more technologically advanced equipment and space to grow. The expansion was made possible by a $150,000 donation from the Caesars Foundation. Since 2010, Caesars has committed $250,000 to the cause. The casino company is also the largest contributor of soaps and shampoos to Clean the World, which obtains its operational funding through donations and grants.
“It’s just incredible to see what simple day-to-day actions can do to save someone’s life,” said Gwen Migita, Caesars Entertainment’s corporate director of sustainability and community engagement.
At the recycling plant, staff and volunteers take potato peelers to the tiny bars of soap and scrape them to remove dirt, hair and other debris. The bars are doused with a bleach-and-water mixture, then cooked at 280 degrees for two minutes to kill any bacteria. They are sent through the equivalent of a giant meat grinder to chop them up into small granules, then pass through a press and cutter. The result is sanitized soap.
The Las Vegas facility has processed 30,976 pounds of soap and 18,564 pounds of bottled amenities from the Strip since the first of the year. The plant also collects thousands of additional tons of hygiene products from hotels across the Western United States.
The local warehouse is one of four Clean the World facilities in North America. The others are in Vancouver, Toronto and Orlando.
“We take so much for granted here in America,” said Bob McAbee, the group’s Las Vegas facility manager. “Many people have $1 and have to choose whether to eat or bathe. It’s a tough choice to make. We want to eliminate that choice.”
Five million people, mostly women and children, die every year because of improper hygiene, according to Clean the World. Simple hand washing with soap can reduce that number by millions since it helps prevent diarrheal diseases and acute respiratory infection, two of the top killers.
Since it was founded in 2009, Clean the World has distributed almost 11 million bars of soap to people in more than 45 countries. The effort also has kept 1.2 million pounds of trash out of landfills.
“The response from people is just amazing,” McAbee said. “The housekeepers are tickled because in many cases they are helping their home countries. Hotel guests want to help, and the properties are just jumping on board.” | <urn:uuid:4aa5d620-25a8-438b-a10b-0edf6afefa19> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011/dec/13/how-used-soap-shampoo-las-vegas-hotels-can-save-li/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949296 | 977 | 1.710938 | 2 |
When asked about the Mars Center for Science and Technology, Anson M. Beard, Jr., a Wheaton trustee since 1971, doesn’t mince words. “It’s about time,” he says. “You can’t have a first-rate liberal arts institution without a significant commitment to the sciences.”
He has contributed to that commitment and expressed his interest in sustainability and Wheaton’s future by establishing The Beard Family Green Roof and The Anson M. Beard, Jr., Courtyard at the new science center. Green roofs—which are partially or completely covered with vegetation, a growing medium and a waterproof barrier—last longer than conventional roofs. They also reduce energy costs because they provide natural insulation, absorb storm water, and lessen the need for expensive drainage systems. And they are also places of beauty to be enjoyed by people and wildlife. Beard sees the roof as a win-win situation for the college: cutting-edge technology and beauty combined with greater durability and cost savings.
Elected a life trustee in 2008 in recognition of his service and philanthropic commitment to the college, Beard considers his dedication payback to an institution that helped define him. “Wheaton believed in me before I believed in me,” says the Yale alumnus and former managing director of Morgan Stanley. He became involved in the life of the college through his former wife, Jean Jones Beard ’65.
“I’m interested in Wheaton being a top-notch liberal arts college. And we’re doing that. Since coeducation, Wheaton has not only survived but thrived.” Beard is particularly impressed with the number of prestigious awards that Wheaton students have received in the past decade—Fulbrights, Rhodes scholarships, Marshalls and Watsons. “The science center is another major piece to complete the puzzle,” he says.
Back to Faces and spaces | <urn:uuid:b97f6328-4dd4-45f4-b4fc-2fdbcb5d4209> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wheatoncollege.edu/quarterly/2011/12/03/anson-beard-jr/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972102 | 402 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Backlash over ban on laser pointers
AMATEUR astronomers, teachers and surveyors will have to justify carrying lasers under new bans aimed at avoiding "mass murder" if aircraft are targeted.
The Premier, Morris Iemma, warned that all high-powered lasers would soon be classified as prohibited weapons and carrying any kind of laser - even harmless classroom pointers - without a good reason could result in two years' jail or a $5000 fine.
Critics said the new laws were impractical and accused the Government of failing to back its tough talk with resources for enforcement.
Lasers have become a serious problem for aircraft in Sydney. In the most recent incident, a beam was pointed at an ambulance helicopter at the weekend.
Mr Iemma said banning hand-held lasers would "stop the potential for mass murder".
"I cannot underestimate the … catastrophic consequences if a plane is brought down by one of these fools, these idiots, these reckless individuals who want to use these high-powered hand-held lasers and think it's a joke."
Previously police needed to prove a laser had been used improperly in order to prosecute. Under the new laws they would be able to frisk people for lasers and ask why they carried them.
The laws will affect professions such as teachers, surveyors and astronomers. If questioned by police, they must prove they need a laser pointer or face two years' jail. Anyone who carries a high-powered laser faces 14 years in jail.
Earlier this year, six planes landing at Sydney Airport were diverted to a different runway because of laser attacks. Last year, a helicopter carrying a critically ill brain surgery patient could not land after the pilot was targeted by a beam.
Catching the culprits can be expensive: late last year, police used two helicopters as well as ground officers in a fruitless search for a laser in Bondi.
The Federal Government recently banned the importation of high-powered lasers.
The president of the Australian Optical Society, Professor Hans Bachor, said the blanket ban was an overreaction. "You can't point [low-powered lasers] at any aircraft over a distance - the effect wouldn't be big enough," he said.
The laws could create a headache for police and the public, he said.
The Opposition's police spokesman, Mike Gallacher, described the announcement as a media stunt. Only enforcement would determine how effective the new laws would be, yet the Government was not offering police any extra money.
Outlawing a legal object would also be difficult, he said.
"I suspect it will be much like most of the State Government's quick-fix, media-driven solutions aimed at grabbing a headline rather than fixing a problem."
But the acting president of the Australian and International Pilots Association, Mike Glynn, welcomed the ban, saying the problem had become serious over the past two years. "It's not an overreaction - there's real potential to cause a problem."
Bob Lipscombe, the deputy president of the NSW Teachers Federation, said enforcement of the new bans should focus on people who posed a threat. "We don't think teachers would pose a threat," he said.
John O'Byrne, from the Astronomical Society of Australia, hoped police would be reasonable. "Our understanding is that the intent is clearly not to inhibit legitimate use of lasers."
send photos, videos & tip-offs to 0424 SMS SMH (+61 424 767 764), or us. | <urn:uuid:71848732-351f-4779-8c1e-5f7c89b7fe73> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/backlash-over-ban-on-laser-pointers/2008/04/21/1208742851975.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967201 | 715 | 1.789063 | 2 |
“Jim was not known for being precious about his puppets; he viewed them as tools,” says Toronto puppeteer Frank Meschkuleit who worked on Fraggle Rock. “And yet he brought a magic to it that I don’t think has been repeated since he passed. ... It just doesn’t seem to have the warmth it used to.”
The Muppets’ magic went further still when they hit prime time: The arrival of The Muppet Show in 1976 introduced to North America the idea that puppets were a popular entertainment for adults too.
That breakthrough should not be underestimated.
“No TV station in the States would back it; he had to go to England to get it produced,” Anthony says. “It was looked at as being very avant-garde, very risky by the American TV establishment.”
And yet the characters could hardly have been safer. “ The Muppet Show was always positive,” Stroumboulopoulos recalls, citing Kermit as his first role model as a TV host. “There were problems backstage, but they were always overcome.”
Indeed, the Muppets’ niceness was so pronounced it actually encouraged other puppeteers to push in the opposite direction. Most obviously, the 2003 Broadway musical Avenue Q and its Muppet-like puppets and the 1989 cult film Meet the Feebles, with its misanthropic animal creatures, both derived their humour from introducing the icons of childhood into a nasty adult world of ambivalence and disappointment.
More subtly, the complex themes favoured by art puppeteers such as Burkett or Calgary’s Old Trout Puppet Workshop, which invents a new style of puppet for each show, contradict the Muppet-inspired notion that puppets are family entertainment. It can be uphill work: Old Trout Judd Palmer recalls that his company once tried to revive Punch and Judy, but parents would bring their kids to the show and then complain about the violence.
“I guess that is taking a stand against the niceness of the Muppets but I wouldn’t do it now,” he said. “You are banging your head against a wall.”
Not that the Muppets, who are rumoured to behave lewdly the minute the camera is turned off, would necessarily be opposed to pushing the envelope. The original characters were purchased by the Walt Disney Company in 2004, but since Henson’s death in 1990 his children have supervised his legacy; in particular his youngest, Heather Henson, has greatly encouraged the adult puppetry movement by organizing puppetry festivals and supporting Puppet Slam, an online network of underground puppet artists.
Meanwhile, the Disney-owned Muppets can count on the fond memories of a generation raised on Sesame Street, as well as a dose of geek chic, to bring audiences flocking. Jason Segel, co-writer and star of the new film, established his credentials with his turn as a nerdy, jilted puppeteer in the 2008 comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall, operating a Muppet-like Dracula character who sings a song of lost love. With The Muppets he turns to pure nostalgia, sending human characters off to dig Kermit out of his lonely mansion and rescue Fozzie from a seedy Vegas bar where he performs with Muppet knock-offs so they can restore the franchise to its former glory. Shouldn’t be too hard to do: The Muppets’ star has never stopped shining.
PUPPETRY ON STAGE Canada has an enviable reputation for live puppetry. Here’s what’s coming up:
Ronnie Burkett Burkett and his marionettes are currently in the midst of a national tour, performing Penny Plain, an apocalyptic drawing-room comedy about a blind woman waiting for the world to end. The show is now at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre until Dec. 17, and opens at Toronto’s Factory Theatre on Jan. 20.
Puppetmongers Toronto’s Puppetmongers, a.k.a. Ann and David Powell, make their annual holiday appearance for children at Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre beginning Dec. 14. This year they perform Bed and Breakfast, an update of the Princess and the Pea fairy tale set in a miniature Edwardian mansion full of wily servants and real electrical light.
Old Trout Puppet Workshop Calgary’s Old Trout Puppet Workshop is currently working on Ignorance, a show with puppets made from stones, sticks and leather that explores the idea that puppetry dates back to the days of the caveman. It will receive a world premiere at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre on Feb. 28, but in the meantime the company is still accepting suggestions about how to write the script and build the puppets at www.theoldtrouts.org/ignorance.
Editor's note: Jason Segel is a star and co-writer of the film The Muppets. James Bobin is the director. Mr. Segel also wrote and starred in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Incorrect information appeared online and in print on Saturday. | <urn:uuid:d901a803-b66c-45e4-8e9e-a918849a0a11> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/film/why-we-still-love-the-muppets-and-always-will/article4200923/?page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97082 | 1,081 | 1.65625 | 2 |
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Half Dome cables day use permits for the 2013 hiking season will be available for reservation starting today, March 1, through Sunday, March 31, Yosemite National Park officials announced.
Permits to hike to the top of Half Dome are required. Reservations will be distributed via a lottery system. Successful parties will be notified in early April.
A maximum of 300 hikers will be allowed on the Half Dome cables per day.
Reservations for the permits can be made online at www.recreation.govor by calling 1-877-444-6777.
Approximately 50 subsequent daily permits will be available each day by lottery during the hiking season. These permits are made available based on the average number of no-shows and cancellations from the pre-season lottery.
The permits must be applied for two days in advance of the desired hiking date. Reservations for the two-day in advance permits can also be made through www.recreation.gov.
Hiking to the top of Half Dome is one of the most popular hikes in Yosemite National Park. The iconic granite monolith, at 8,842 feet above sea level, attracts people from all over the world who attempt to climb to the summit.
Most visitors ascend Half Dome via the cables, which are typically in place from mid-May through mid-October. Most visitors begin and end their hike at Happy Isles in Yosemite Valley.
It is an approximately 17-mile, round-trip journey.
June Lake Loop prescribed burning
The Mono Lake Ranger District of the Inyo National Forest is planning to implement a prescribed fire project for habitat improvement and hazardous fuels reduction over the next several weeks, west of U.S. Hwy 395 and east of Grant Lake.
The burn patches will be located in the more remote areas of the June Lake Loop, away from structures.
The project is expected to last several days, weather permitting.
Smoke may be visible from June Lake and Lee Vining but is expected to drift away. | <urn:uuid:686edf02-9067-471c-8f39-f0c81391df88> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mammothtimes.com/content/half-dome-day-use-permits-available | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944256 | 418 | 1.5 | 2 |
the Church on the Hill
by Dan Coburn
Pastor, Emmanuel Baptist Church
Wouldn’t it be nice if there was an Old Testament outline we could refer to? Something we could look at and scan and sound like we were knowledgeable and learned, without actually spending all the time going through the whole Old Testament? Well there is. It is the 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews, where God gives us a litany of Old Testament Heroes, and with the pride of a loving father, cries out for us to “look at them”. “Emulate them”.
You might know this passage of Scripture better as “the Faith chapter”. Verse 1 gives us the biblical definition of faith – “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”. Then we take a stroll down the hallowed halls of “herodom” and see just who God chose, and how He used them, and I cannot help but be dumbfounded by the fact that none of these were who I would have chosen. And it’s not just me; remember the first king of Israel? His name was Saul. He wasn’t Gods man, but rather the peoples. And do you remember why “the People” chose him? Because he was handsome - charismatic, and was “head and shoulders above the rest”. That means he was tall. “Everyone else has a king – we want one too”. That’s how man thinks. But God chooses barbarians. People the “religious world” will surely reject. Ex-Loggers.
This is really good news for us. Don’t you see? God doesn’t want you to be conformed to some world view of what a Christian should be. Are you different? Maybe even a little weird? God wants to take the you that He made, and use you mightily on His behalf. You can read the whole 11th chapter of Hebrews, and see all the things God accomplished through these folks, but pause at the 39th verse and recognize that All of them obtained a good report with God through what? Faith. Here is the kicker; God had promised each and every one of them something, and though they lived their whole lives like it was already given them, the fact is None of them received the promise in their lifetime. How did they do that? Faith.
Are you somewhat intrigued but not quite sure it is applicable in your life? Then stay tuned next week when we look at one character and see through him that we (even we) can be used of God in a mighty way. | <urn:uuid:7fcc0ddf-75cd-4629-9e43-e11058f7ac18> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cottonwoodchronicle.com/2007/020807/pastorscolumn.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972722 | 559 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Watchdog Organizations Give Sheriff Baca Shot At Redemption
“If the sheriff commits himself to a process to structural change and true change of personnel, the sheriff can achieve the type of change we suggested," said Miriam Krinsky, the executive director of the Jail Commission at the Citizens’ Commission on Jail Violence.
Changes aim to increase the number of supervisors watching deputies and dishonest deputies will be dismissed rather than suspended, according to the L.A. Times.
The ACLU, which demanded Baca’s resignation in 2011, is also giving Baca another opportunity to change the way deputies treat inmates.
“This week’s indication that the LASD intends to follow the Commission’s recommendations is a welcome departure from its tired mantra… However, we have heard about his intentions to turn things around in the past, with little to show for it. So, we intend to watch closely to make sure he keeps his eye on the ball and lives up to his commitment,” the ACLU’s website said.
Nicole Nishida, public information officer for the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department, said that because Baca is cooperating, no one is asking for his resignation, despite the alleged abuses.
“He agreed to all the suggestions of the Citizens' Commission and already implemented 20 of the 63 changes,” Nishida said.
The Citizen’s Commission realizes that a new sheriff would have little or no intimate knowledge of the current prison system in Los Angeles and would need to start from scratch. Instead of replacing Baca, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors appointed an independent monitor to oversee changes.
“These are changes that are achievable and can be and should be accomplished. The sheriff should be given the opportunity to achieve these changes by recognizing, that at the end of the day, if he fails to do so it will be up the voters to hold him accountable,” said Krinsky.
The ACLU and Citizens' Commission can call for his resignation, but since Baca is an elected official, he has to be removed from office by a popular vote.
Reach Staff Reporter Katherine Ostrowski here. | <urn:uuid:0a57ca5c-8a13-4a9b-b01e-85b84aa7bcc1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.neontommy.com/news/2012/10/watchdog-organizations-give-sheriff-baca-shot-redemption | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958934 | 449 | 1.515625 | 2 |
There was a classic chicken-or-the-egg moment in Washington State’s Clark County last year when officials learned about the million dollars heading their way for additional home energy upgrades. What comes first, weatherization training or jobs?
“We knew the Stimulus funds were coming…but there was not a huge workforce available,” says Todd Oldham, executive director for the continuing education at Clark College in Vancouver, Wash. “So we began to explore.”
In a joint effort, Clark College, the county’s community services agency, the workforce development council and a local weatherization business decided to go with the egg.
They came up with an on-the-job training program, which is facilitated by the Southwest Washington Workforce Development Council. Richart Family, Inc., a weatherization service based in Vancouver, did the hiring and Clark College trained the workers.
“This is an example of a regional approach to weatherization,” Oldham says. “This was a success and has been a result of a lot community interaction.”
Richart Family has hired 25 new workers since last September to help with the infusion of weatherization work in the southwestern part of Washington. Half of those workers were from the construction and manufacturing businesses and had no weatherization experience.
Travis Top, 29, of Vancouver, was part of the first round of people to get hired and go through the training at Clark College, where they received Building Performance Institute (BPI) Energy Analyst and BPI Shell certifications after 12 weeks of classroom time and field training.
His hunt for a job ended at Worksource, a career center for unemployed and dislocated workers, where he found out about the training program. He now makes more than $25 an hour at Richart Family.
After Top was laid off from his job making eco-friendly soaps in 2008, he spent almost two years searching for work at other manufacturing businesses without any luck. “They wanted to pay me $10 an hour,” says Top. “But with a family, a wife and four kids, that is just not worth it to me.”
For five months at Richart Family, he helped the company weatherize homes, acting like an apprentice before he received his BPI certifications.
“Before I took the class, I was weatherizing homes, and I didn’t understand why—all the stuff did not click,” says Top. “Now that I went to the classes, I know why I am doing my job…It’s the knowledge.”
Top says he weatherizes about two or three homes a week.
By August, Clark College hopes to have trained a total of 43 students who are either new hires or existing employees at Richart Family.
“In less than six months, a large majority of the twelve disadvantaged worker new hires have evolved into highly effective, fully employable weatherization workers making living wage and now carrying certifications,” said Mike Richart, an executive with Richart Family. “A true success story in anyone’s book.” | <urn:uuid:db8dd165-252d-4cfd-9dae-3ef20cbefa5b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://energy.gov/articles/clark-county-develops-job-weatherization-training-program | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976078 | 653 | 1.773438 | 2 |
|NATIONAL PARKS QUICKLINKS|
Backpacker Magazine – BACKPACKER.com Online Exclusive
This vegetarian burger recipe will suit your palate and clean-up the environment.
Whether at home or in the backcountry, there's one weed everyone can recognize from 40 paces: dandelion. Land mangers across the country are trying to stem this little yellow monster that spreads like wildfire, due in part because it's so darn cute. You just can't help but pick the wiry white heads that look like a perm gone bad and blow the puffy parachute seeds.
One Pennsylvania man may have found a way to slow down the yellow scourge in the backcountry, one flower at a time. Frank Cetera, of Slippery Rock, makes dandelion burgers on his backpacking trips.
Admittedly, he isn't trying to clean up the environment. "I saw it as using a wild resource common to everyone's environment," says the 28-year-old Cetera. "I like to try new and different things and I like to cook." He saw the dandelion burger recipe in a newsletter and adapted it to backpacking by using lightweight ingredients. The recipe calls for a cup of dandelion blossoms. No blossoms, no seeds, no weeds.
While dandelion burgers may not be the entire answer to the noxious weed problem organizations like Student Conservation Association, The Nature Conservancy, and the Bureau of Land Management are trying to fight, it does answer the grumbling in your stomach. | <urn:uuid:05a9f714-65a0-4c0f-83d5-878a8a73a0e0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.backpacker.com/august_2000_food_recipes/skills/1536 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933081 | 320 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Libyan Oil Protests Highlights Broader Problems
Protestors in the former Libyan capital of Benghazi this week demonstrated in front of the Arabian Gulf Oil Co. to demand more transparency. The demonstrators said they were frustrated with how the interim government was spending money, highlighting the growing frustration among post-revolutionary youth in the Middle East. The protests over corruption coincided with one of Libya’s first international oil and natural gas expos since the Gadhafi era ended last year. British and U.S. officials were among those whose visit to Libya happened to coincide with the exhibition, raising questions over just what’s at stake in the wake of the Arab Spring.
Only a few dozen protesters showed up to protest in front of the steps to the Arabian Gulf Oil Co. in the eastern city of Benghazi. But their voices may be part of the pent up frustration among Arab youth angry that, despite regime change, 1.6 million barrels of Libyan crude oil hasn’t changed things very much for them. A few hundred miles to the west, major delegates descended on Tripoli for the first oil and natural gas exhibition since Gadhafi’s regime collapsed last year. Exhibition organizers note that $100 billion in unfrozen assets mean good things for the country’s redevelopment. Attendees will have the chance, organizers say, to learn how the game is played in the new Libya.
But is anything new? Before the crisis began in Libya, the British government was in the hot seat for allegedly making shady deals with the Gadhafi regime in exchange for an exploration deal for BP. Now, in turns out, British Foreign Minister for the Middle East Alistair Burt is on his way home following a two-day visit to Tripoli. Though his itinerary said nothing of the oil and gas exhibition, the timing is certainly convenient. In London, meanwhile, law firm Leigh Day Co. is investigating allegations British officials were involved in the rendition of Libyan military commander Abdel Hakim Belhadj. The law firm states, among other things, that former British intelligence chief Mark Allen left MI6 in 2004 to join BP, where he later helped land contracts in Libya. Meanwhile, Italian energy company Eni is under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly bribing Libyan officials. But that did little to discourage U.S. Assistant Secretary for Economic and Business Affairs Jose Fernandez from giving a keynote address at the oil and gas exhibition.
A vegetable merchant in Tunisia, Mohamed Bouazizi, self-immolated in December 2010, sparking what’s become known as the Arab Spring. Two years before that, Egyptians rioted in the streets over the price of bread. Now, it appears not much has changed. Egyptians are still frustrated, violence in Bahrain continued unabated and Libyans are still upset with their government. Re-establishing formal relationships with post-revolutionary governments is vital for the global economy, especially when it comes to global commodities like oil and natural gas. But trickle-down economic principles aside, revolutions are about change. In the oil-rich Middle East, however, it appears that so far, the only thing that’s changed is the names of the ministers involved.
By. Daniel J. Graeber of Oilprice.com
Short URL: http://refinerynews.com/?p=28488 | <urn:uuid:6a72c7b5-d771-455b-a30f-466f39298795> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://refinerynews.com/libyan-oil-protests-highlights-broader-problems/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965989 | 687 | 1.507813 | 2 |
going back to what hacked had said, i think it has something to do with the .self file also wich is used to install another os. what if the self installer is re-written to include data so that using the otheros.bld file bootlader will trigger a ps2 elf file from a ps2 virtual memory card using the ps2 system data... emulating a ps2 of some sort with ps3 access... something along those lines.
Well I have some news, it doesnt directly involve using an exploit in the ps2 area but, I am in contact sometimes with some homebrew developers who have created their own way of loading ps3 isos (they also hinted they are close to exposing a way to have full access to the RSX from otherOS). They are not releasing anything of their own, but they did tell me how it works (sort of):
Exposing the RSX to linux will not be useful without a driver for it. Is there already a linux Nvidia driver for a similar graphics card that could possibly be tweaked? As far as loading ISOs, I could only see a custom linux otherOS.bld being useful if the XMB area is accessible.
What do we know about the otherOS.self? I think everybody is correct saying that it seems like a good place for an exploit. Essentially, the otherOS in the system menu is what would write the value to the flash to tell it to but linux, right? If we could find a way to install our own version, we could have it boot custom code without leaving the XMB. Unless there are checks that automatically switch on the security just by picking something other than the gameOS.
Hi. Noob here. Isn't possible to "cloak" an ISO as PKG and transfer using proxyserver? At least for the smaller ones. (4Gb limit) I know that's a pretty basic idea but anybody tried?
Theoretically, yes, that is a good idea, but no because going back to my last comment, WE DO NOT KNOW HOW THE PKG FORMAT IS MADE NOR HOW TO TAKE THEM APART, and we will not now for some time, most likely not till another exploit is found, and we can get at the file from the inside.
from what i've read the otheros.bld idea is the best by far, and the most logical. it would be nice though to be told if we are on the right track and then concentrate our efforts, instead of chasing our collective tails. as well what are the fundamental differences between a dev kit and retail ?
i will try and look at otheros.bld later and see if anything stands out.
Dev kits emulate (a ps3 in this case) in order to build the drivers, programs, etc needed to run the game or whatever. DK's usually have examples of codes with them to encourage production of programs using that platform (ps3), or something along those lines. A dev kit isn't a console as such but more like a set of development tools. Think of it more like a toolbox rather than the eg. desk you built with them.
Another simple idea that maybe has already been told. Is it possible to boot otheros then unmount the bluray drive and mount a dummy drive based on the iso image at the place of the bluray drive ? and maybe try to reboot in xmb mode ? (but i think it won't be as simple, xmb should reload all drivers at it startup).
Sorry for my bad english im french ^^ Good luck to you all guys, this thread is very interesting and one of the smartest thread of the ps3 scene, keep up the good work ! | <urn:uuid:a34d093a-bfb6-4403-9ed8-7583a63441c6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ps3news.com/forums/ps3-hacks-jailbreak/ps3-iso-loader-progression-dev-chat-only-63317-8.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959135 | 770 | 1.640625 | 2 |
The approach game is one of the most important and most difficult in the game of golf. When chipping, the player must lift the ball to the green and stop it when it hits. A 'soft touch' is required for a better approach game. You should also tighten your stance, so your feet are together, and then bring them almost parallel to the ball. Open the club, face the ball and bend your knees. You can adjust the height of your back-swing, but do not adjust the speed of your swing. Using these tips will soften your shot and keep you from stuttering or chopping the swing. For more information on perfecting your game, contact a golf course or golf professional in your area. | <urn:uuid:d125101e-5a31-491a-8c3f-7ce0bfbb28e8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.abc4.com/guides/outdoor/golftips/story/Chipping-and-pitching/naMB-Bc_n0a07ULTv0_dOw.cspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948725 | 145 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Sisli Nisantasi Information
Istanbul’s large Sisli district is a popular residential area for Istanbul’s middle and upper classes.
Many come to Sisli to shop, either at the local markets or at the colossal Cevahir shopping mall. Sisli’s central location and wealth of English language schools, secondary schools and university preparation colleges also makes it a popular place to study.
Sisli is also home to two well known Jewish sites: the Italian Jewish Cemetery and the Bet Israel Synagogue.
The Nisantasi quarter, with its narrow streets, charming art nouveau architecture and upmarket boutiques, cafes, bars and restaurants, is home to a large concentration of highly educated and wealthy residents. Although the district was used as a hunting ground during the days of the Ottoman Empire, high street brands such as Dior and Versace have now taken over.
Nearby in Harbiye is the popular Military Museum which provides an extensive military history of Turkey and hosts life Janissary Band shows.
Sisli can be easily reached from most parts of Istanbul; it has its own metro and metrobus stops at Sisli-Mecidiyekoy, and frequent buses and minibuses pass through.
Bosphorus © Yildirim Incealemd...
New Mosque © Yildirim Incealem...
"One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things " - Henry Miller | <urn:uuid:2f27a398-0c12-4244-917e-f707914b9145> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mydestination.com/istanbul/regionalinfo/6115578/sisli-nisantasi | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938235 | 315 | 1.578125 | 2 |
I’ve been playing with Maltego now for just a few weeks on some very complex business intelligence projects I have going on, and I have to tell you, I am STUNNED by how much information I develop every time I have the opportunity to run new data through it! In fact, I understand that several national intelligence agencies and various law enforcement units are using Maltego to great success as well.
For those of you who have never heard of Maltego before, let me give you an idea what this tool can do. From the publisher’s website at http://Paterva.com:
“The unique perspective that Maltego offers to both network and resource based entities is the aggregation of information posted all over the internet – whether it’s the current configuration of a router poised on the edge of your network or the current whereabouts of your Vice President on his international visits, Maltego can locate, aggregate and visualize this information.
What does Maltego do?
Maltego is a program that can be used to determine the relationships and real world links between:
- Groups of people (social networks)
- Web sites
- Internet infrastructure such as: Domains, DNS Names, Netblocks, IP Addresses, etc.
- Documents and files
These entities are all linked using open source intelligence and provides you with a graphical interface that makes seeing these relationships instant and accurate – making it possible to see hidden connections, even if they are three or four degrees of separation away.
What can Maltego do for me?
Maltego can be used for the information gathering phase of all security related work. It will save you time and will allow you to work more accurately and smarter.
Maltego aids you in your thinking process by visually demonstrating interconnected links between searched items.
Maltego provide you with a much more powerful search, giving you smarter results.
If access to “hidden” information determines your success, Maltego can help you discover it.“
For me, the beauty is in being able to run large lists of people, websites and companies through the visualizer and find hidden connections between them all! The real power is that I can input all kids of data into it: People, Email Addresses, Websites, Company Names, Dates and Times of Events, Addresses, Telephone Numbers, Business Networks, etc. etc. and it magically finds ways to correlate all of this disparate data in VERY interesting and eye-opening ways.
I’m seriously not kidding! I would go as far to say that Maltego is changing the way I conduct Corporate and Economic Intelligence assignments altogether.
“Maltego lets just about anybody do the kind of data mining that in the past only fraud investors, government specialists and hackers typically could do.”
Perhaps The Ethical Hacker Network said it best “”Maltego, is an open source intelligence and forensics application. It allows for the mining and gathering of information as well as the representation of this information in a meaningful way. Coupled with its graphing libraries, Maltego, allows you to identify key relationships between information and identify previously unknown relationships between them. It is a must-have tool in the forensics, security and intelligence fields!“
TEHN also has a great set of instructions (though a bit dated now that v.3 was released) and actual case studies on Maltego’s practical applications at http://www.ethicalhacker.net/content/view/202/24/
Essentially, this is data-mining and data-correlation (finding the connection) which is the basis for the Intelligence Development Cycle!
Rick Gurley of Risk Management Research & Investments, Inc., a private investigation agency in Columbia, MO, has always been the guy I call when I not only want to add a new technology or forensics tool to my repertoire, but to understand its application as well. Adopting Maltego has been no different and he was kind enough to create this extremely useful video for me and then allow me to pass it along to all of you. It covers all of the basics of setting up and understanding the Maltego interface and how to work with some hidden features. This 15 minute video will save you weeks of banging your head against the wall trying to get the software working and moving in the right direction, should you decide to start using this powerful intelligence and networking analysis tool, too.
The video is actually best viewed in high definition on YouTube and at a larger screen size than I can include on this page, so click on the video and you will be taken to YouTube.
Thanks for the tutorial, Rick! | <urn:uuid:9e3ccd9f-5eef-4560-99ed-ed4513d6d6eb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pursuitmag.com/video-maltego-a-fascinating-open-source-and-network-intelligence-tool/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936394 | 976 | 1.625 | 2 |
This panorama of a burned area at the former George Air Force Base was taken just after sunset. My fingers were so cold that I could barely press the shutter button. Nine hand-held vertical images were stitched together in Photoshop CS5 using the cylindrical setting in Photomerge. The tripod mounted panoramas that I took on this trip went together quite easily, but this hand-held image presented a more difficult stitching challenge for Photoshop. The yellow line in the road required multiple adjustments on layer masks and some minor use of Free Transform to line up properly. 15-20 minutes worth of work and it’s good enough for web presentation, but would the file would require more exacting work to be print ready. Had I taken this image on a tripod with a leveling base and nodal slide, the post-processing would likely have been much more straightforward. Lesson learned. | <urn:uuid:6abc1c85-4487-484f-845e-0fb558d025d2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.joereifer.com/words/2011/02/25/panorama-burned-buildings-at-the-former-george-afb/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970128 | 181 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Everyone's Doing the Apple Tax Dance
Apple employs several complex strategies to minimize the amount it pays in taxes, according to a recent report that detailed some of the company's techniques. However, such practices are common in large corporations. Apple responded by pointing out it obeys all tax codes and laws, mentioning also the tax revenue it does generate and the jobs it creates.
Apple is employing several legal tax strategies to take its record-setting profit levels even higher, according to a recent New York Times article.
For example, the company's business doesn't just operate out of Cupertino, Calif., where the corporate tax rate is 8.84 percent. Apple has an office in Reno, Nev., where it can manage investments at a zero percent corporate tax rate, according to the report.
The company also takes advantage of lower overseas rates. When customers in Europe, Africa or the Middle East make an iTunes purchase, the sale is reportedly funneled through an Apple subsidiary in Luxembourg. Since a downloadable item is taxed differently than something tangible that can't be counted in inventory, it's not taxed the same way a computer or automobile would be.
Apple was one of the pioneers in identifying those strategies regarding e-commerce, according to the report.
In addition, the company has allocated about 70 percent of its profits overseas in countries in which it can take advantage of lower tax rates. One example cited in the report, known as the "Double Irish With a Dutch Sandwich," has accountants route profits through Irish subsidiaries and the Netherlands, and then to the Caribbean.
The Times claims that Apple was one of the first companies to use that strategy, and it has since been imitated by hundreds of other corporations.
The strategies are paying off, according to a recent tax study cited in the article. The company saved US$2.4 billion last year, according to a study by Martin Sullivan, a former Treasury Department economist. Apple paid a 9.8 percent tax rate on its earnings last year.
Apple didn't respond to our requests for comment on the story. It did respond directly to the New York Times, though, stating that it complies with all tax codes and accounting rules. For example, the company said, in the first fiscal half of 2012, it's already generated nearly $5 billion in state and federal income taxes. Apple also asserted it had created 500,000 jobs for United States workers.
Not Alone in the Game
Although the ways in which Apple apparently avoids paying high tax rates may seem complex, Anthony Infanti, tax law professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, told the E-Commerce Times that the practice is far from unusual.
"Apple is certainly not alone in engaging in this type of activity, and nothing in the story surprised me when I read it," he said.
Especially for a company raking in as much profit as Apple and some of its competitors in the tech market, different tax strategies are just a part of doing business, said Reuven Avi-Yonah, professor of law and director of the International Tax LLM program at the University of Michigan.
"Most U.S. tech companies engage in similar tax planning," Avi-Yonah told the E-Commerce Times. "Google has a very similar structure to the one described in the New York Times article."
However, that does not necessarily make the behavior right, the University of Pittsburgh's Infanti said.
"The larger problem is that such behavior -- and the defense that everyone is engaging in it -- only erodes respect for our tax system, which relies to a great extend on taxpayer self-assessment," said Infanti. "When those with means are able to lower their taxes by engaging in what is often artificial, entirely tax-motivated behavior, everyone loses respect for the tax system."
Tech Tax Needs to Catch Up
One way to start rebuilding faith in the system, Infanti said, is to make sure the law is caught up with e-commerce business practices, since many were written with more traditional brick-and-mortar companies in mind.
"The tax laws have generally lagged in catching up with the rapid advance of technology and how it is disseminated," said Infanti.
Intellectual property laws also make it easy for companies like Apple to get around certain traditional methods of taxation, according to Daniel Shaviro, professor of taxation at the New York University School of Law.
"Intellectual property, which underlies the success of a company such as Apple, is harder to source," he told the E-Commerce Times. "So tech companies can readily arrange things so that, even in full compliance with existing laws, huge portions of their taxable income are treated as earned in offshore tax haven subsidiaries where little or nothing is actually happening in economic terms."
The tax experts that spoke to The New York Times agreed the laws were outdated, but they didn't foresee a quick or easy fix to the tax system, or at least not until after November.
"I hope tax legislation can be enacted after the election," said Avi-Yonah. | <urn:uuid:6aa1b20e-6aab-4155-beaf-b4951e986f6a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.macnewsworld.com/rsstory/74986.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973056 | 1,044 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Why is WikiLeaks so focused on defending Bradley Manning?
Manning is alleged to be one of our sources, regardless of whether those allegations are true or not. He has now sat in various U.S. military prisons for the past 600 days as a result of what we published. So we feel that we owe him a duty of care. I have heard from people close to his defense that it is their view that the abuse of him was in order to get him to testify against us.
I understand that you believe the Justice Department has been attending the hearing, to see how it impacts their investigation into WikiLeaks.
There are three gray-faced men who always show up. They're so furtive: They refuse to identify themselves, or to even make eye contact with our lawyers. They go into the classified hearings when everyone else is kicked out. One of them, we have discovered, is a prosecutor for the Department of Justice on the WikiLeaks investigation. I believe they are there to make sure that the government, in presenting its case against Manning, did not reveal information that was critical to its investigation into us.
In diplomatic cables, the investigation into WikiLeaks by the U.S. government has been called "unprecedented both in its scale and nature." How much do you know about it? Since last September, a secret grand jury was empaneled in Alexandria, Virginia. There is no defense counsel. There are four prosecutors, according to witnesses who have been forced to testify before the grand jury. The jury itself is taken from the local area, and Alexandria has the highest density of government and military contractors anywhere in the United States. It is a place where the U.S. government chooses to conduct all national-security grand juries and trials because of that makeup of the jury pool.
The investigation has involved most of the U.S. intelligence apparatus, the FBI, the State Department, the United States Army. It has subpoenaed the records of most of my U.S. friends or acquaintances. Under what are called Patriot Act production orders, the government has also asked for their Twitter records, Google accounts and individual ISPs. The laws which they're working toward an indictment on are the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986.
And they're going after Manning, who is facing a life sentence, to get him to say that you're a spy?
To be another chess piece on the board in the attack on us. The U.S. government is trying to redefine what have been long-accepted journalistic methods. If the Pentagon is to have its way, it will be the end of national-security journalism in the United States.
They're trying to interpret the Espionage Act to say that any two-way communication with a source is a collaboration with a source, and is therefore a conspiracy to commit espionage where classified information is involved. The Pentagon, in fact, issued a public demand to us that we not only destroy everything we had ever published or were ever going to publish in relation to the U.S. government, but that we also stop "soliciting" information from U.S. government employees. The Espionage Act itself does not mention solicitation, but they're trying to create a new legal precedent that includes a journalist simply asking a source to communicate information. A few years ago, for example, the CIA destroyed its waterboarding interrogation videos. In the Manning hearing, prosecutors described how we had a most-wanted list, which included those interrogation videos if they still existed.
The WikiLeaks site had a "most-wanted" list of stories you were eager to get?
This list was not put together by us. We asked for nominations from human rights activists and journalists from around the world of the information they most wanted, and we put that on a list. The prosecution in the Manning hearing has been attempting to use that list as evidence of our solicitation of information that is likely to be classified, and therefore our complicity in espionage, if we received such information.
From a journalist's perspective, a list like that would be the equivalent of a normal editorial meeting where you list the crown jewels of stories you'd love to get.
So if you're going to jail, then Bob Woodward's going to jail.
Individuals like Sy Hersh and Dana Priest and Bob Woodward constantly say to their sources, "Hey, what about this, have you heard anything about it? I heard that there's been an airstrike in Afghanistan that's killed a bunch of civilians – do you have any more details, and can you prove them with paper?" And all those would be defined as conspiracy to commit espionage under the Pentagon's interpretation.
Given the broader implications, it's surprising that you haven't received much support from what you call the "Anglo-American press." In fact, The New York Times and The Guardian, both of which collaborated with you on releasing some of the documents, have done their best to distance themselves from you.
The Times ran in the face of fire; it abandoned us once the heat started from the U.S. administration. In doing so, it also abandoned itself, and it abandoned all journalists working on national-security journalism in the United States.
What the Times was concerned about is being swept up in the government's investigation. If Bradley Manning or another U.S. government employee had collaborated with us to provide us with classified information, and we, in turn, collaborated with the Times to provide it to the world, then the argument would run that the Times had been involved in a conspiracy with us to commit espionage. This is something that the Times was deeply concerned about. It said to us that we should never refer to the Times as a partner – that was their legal advice.
Bill Keller, the former editor of the Times, wrote a widely read and lengthy piece that attacked you personally. In it, he says four or five times that "WikiLeaks is a source, they are not a partner."
Keller was trying to save his own skin from the espionage investigation in two ways. First, on a legal technicality, by claiming that there was no collaboration, only a passive relationship between journalist and source. And second, by distancing themselves from us by attacking me personally, using all the standard tabloid character-assassination attacks. Many journalists at the Times have approached me to say how embarrassed they were at the lowering of the tone by doing that. Keller also came out and said how pleased the White House was with them that they had not run WikiLeaks material the White House had asked them not to. It is one thing to do that, and it's another thing to proudly proclaim it. Why did Keller feel the need to tell the world how pleased the White House was with him? For the same reason he felt the need to describe how dirty my socks were. It is not to convey the facts – rather, it is to convey a political alignment. You heard this explicitly: Keller said, "Julian Assange may or may not be a journalist, but he's not my kind of journalist." My immediate reaction is, "Thank God I'm not Bill Keller's type of journalist."
The publishing mindset at WikiLeaks, it's fair to say, is radically different than that of the mainstream press. Where a newspaper that received 500,000 documents might release 20, you released all of them.
Cablegate is 3,000 volumes of material. It is the greatest intellectual treasure to have entered into the public record in modern times. The Times released just over 100 cables. There are over 251,000 cables in Cablegate. So our approach is quite different to that of the Times. The Times in its security arrangements was only concerned with preventing The Washington Post from finding out what it was doing. But it told the U.S. government every single cable that it wanted to publish.
And in return, the Times has basically portrayed you as a pariah, despite being responsible for getting them all this incredible material, as well as setting up an innovative organization to gather and process all the leaked data.
Absolutely no honor or gratitude. I don't wish to make light of the difficulties the Times faces in working in the United States, but I do think it could have managed those difficulties in a more honorable way.
After the Afghan war diaries came out, the Times ran a hostile profile of Bradley Manning that psychologized him into being a sad, mad fag, and can only be described as a tabloid piece. Then, when we published the Iraq War logs, we discovered details about the deaths of more than 100,000 civilians, and details of the torture of more than 1,000 people. Every other paper ran the story. The United Nations and a number of countries investigated the allegations, and even the U.S. military's own internal documents referred to the abuses as torture. Yet the Times refused to use the word "torture" at all. Instead, they ran a sleazy hit piece against me on the front page that was factually inaccurate. It said, for instance, that I had been charged with sexual abuse when I had not, and that 12 people had defected from our organization when we had suspended one. I don't mind taking a hit, but it must be factually accurate. For the Times to descend into a tabloid hit piece on the front page when we had just exposed the deaths of more than 100,000 civilians was not commensurate.
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