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By Brian Todd and Dugald McConnell
You could easily skip by it in an archive search: a project titled "A Study of Lunar Research Flights." Its nickname is even more low-brow: "Project A-119."
But the reality was much more explosive.
It was a top-secret plan, developed by the U.S. Air Force, to look at the possibility of detonating a nuclear device on the moon.
It was hatched in 1958 - a time when the United States and the Soviet Union were locked in a nuclear arms race that would last decades and drive the two superpowers to the verge of nuclear war. The Soviets had also just launched Sputnik 1, the world's first satellite. The U.S. was falling behind in the space race, and needed a big splash.
"People were worried very much by (first human in space Soviet cosmonaut Yuri) Gagarin and Sputnik and the very great accomplishments of the Soviet Union in those days, and in comparison, the United States was feared to be looking puny. So this was a concept to sort of reassure people that the United States could maintain a mutually-assured deterrence, and therefore avoid any huge conflagration on the Earth," said physicist Leonard Reiffel, who led the project.
Reiffel, now 85, spoke to CNN at his home in Chicago. A 1959 report Reiffel wrote on the project, declassified many years ago, was obtained online by CNN.
According to Reiffel's report, "The motivation for such a detonation is clearly threefold: scientific, military and political."
The military considerations were frightening. The report said a nuclear detonation on the moon could yield information "...concerning the capability of nuclear weapons for space warfare." Reiffel said that in military circles at the time, there was "discussion of the moon as military high ground."
That included talk of having nuclear launch sites on the moon, he said. The thinking, according to Reiffel, was that if the Soviets hit the United States with nuclear weapons first and wiped out the U.S. ability to strike back, the U.S. could launch warheads from the moon.
"These are horrendous concepts," Reiffel said, "and they are hopefully going to remain in the realm of science fiction for the rest of eternity."
The basic plan, Reiffel explained, was for an intercontinental ballistic missile to be launched from an undisclosed location, travel some 240,000 miles to the moon, and detonate on impact. Various news reports since 1958 have said project leaders considered using an atom bomb the same size as "Little Boy," the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, near the end of World War II.
Reiffel, who was cited for that information in those reports, now says he wasn't in on those discussions.
Contrary to some reports, Reiffel told CNN, the device would not have "blown up" the moon. "Absolutely not. It would have been microscopic, so to speak. It would have been, I think, essentially invisible from the Earth, even with a good telescope."
Reiffel had some brilliant minds on his team. One of them was an up-and-coming graduate student named Carl Sagan. Sagan went on to become one of the world's most renowned astronomers, creating the book and popular TV series "Cosmos."
But after working on the moon program, Reiffel said, Sagan violated security when he mentioned the still-classified project on a job application. "He did formally break the classification status of the project", Reiffel said of Sagan, who subsequently died in 1996.
Sagan's widow, Ann Druyan, told CNN she's not sure if Sagan ever broke the classification, but if he did, she said, it wasn't intentional. "I can't imagine he would have done that knowingly," Druyan said.
By 1959, Project A-119 was drawing more concern than excitement.
"We didn't want to clutter up the natural radioactivities of the moon with additional bits of radioactivity from the Earth," Reiffel said. The project was abandoned.
Project planners also weren't sure of the reliability of the weapons, and feared the public backlash in the U.S. would be significant," Reiffel said.
"It disappeared in the files of the Pentagon", he said of the project. "They come up with what I believe was the right answer."
Contacted by CNN, the Air Force would not comment on Project A-119.
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subset: commoncrawl


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This past week, there was another palindrome granted to us by the calendar gods (Do geese see god?)
Barring the creation of the immortality pill (Will you please get on this, Eli Lilly!), this will likely be the last 11-11-11 we will experience in our lifetimes. (Of course, at the rate I'm going, if I do happen to make it to November 11, 2111, I'll just about be finished with my degree and the back yard).
This type of timekeeping symmetry is just what I needed to rouse me back to the keyboard to share updates on some of the "DD" posts for the non-palindromic past.
I promise you'll hear from me again before 12-12-12.
I'm giving tours at Warner Bros. these days. One of the places I like to point out (especially if I have a graying group along for the ride), is the intersection between the Mill building and Stage 16. This was the place where Pink Floyd's iconic 1975 Wish You Were Here album cover was taken over 35 years ago.
As part of a new Why Pink Floyd? marketing campaign, last week EMI re-released WYWH as both a 5-disc "Immersion" edition and in a 2-disc "Experience" format.
Speaking of Pink Floyd, 1973's Dark Side of the Moon passed a major cultural milestone this past June when it charted on Billboard for the 1000th week!
Speaking of milestones, Deadwrite's Dailies will pass 75,000 views for the year sometime in the next day or so. Thanks to everyone who has stopped by for a peek.
It's a bit after the fact, but October 12 was the 40th anniversary of the passing of rockabilly legend Gene Vincent, who is buried in Newhall's Eternal Valley Cemetery. My family and I pass by this cemetery a couple of times a day driving on the Antelope Freeway and often call out a "personal Hi Gene" to the late legend.
I learned an interesting fact around the time of the anniversary. I had always thought that Gene had died at the Henry Mayo Hospital in Newhall back in 1971. It turns out, that hospital hadn't been built yet, and thanks to some great investigative work from my friends Chris Bouyer and Tony Newhall, the real location was found to be what was then the Inter-Valley Community Hospital at 21704 Golden Triangle Road in Saugus. The place is known today at the Hillside Professional Center (and it looks kinda creepy).
I don't know if you caught this or not, but President Obama recently authorized the deployment of a small contingent of troops to Uganda to help fight a brutal guerrilla force known as the Lord's Resistance Army. The LRA, under the leadership of Joseph Kony, has been carrying out a campaign or murder, dismemberment, and kidnapping in central Africa for decades.
This was welcome news to African activists all over the world, including our friend The West Wing actress Melissa Fitzgerald, who has been campaigning for the citizens of Uganda for years. Well done.
BTW – Congrats to the late, great cowboy hero Roy Rogers, who would have turned 100 on November 5.
Twenty years ago on November 7, Magic Johnson made the stunning announcement that he had the HIV virus. Magic, glad you're still with us and going strong!
So long to the Western Black Rhino, which was due to poaching, was declared extinct last week. (When are we actually going to learn to live on this planet?)
On a personal note, my second book will hit the shelves tomorrow. It's called Griffith Park and was co-authored with Hollywood historian Marc Wanamaker. The book covers the story of L.A.'s "Central Park," with tons of photos of some of the hundreds of films that have been shot there. Keep watch for details of upcoming lectures and book signings.


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LONDON – Gary McKinnon, a Briton with Asperger's Syndrome, became an icon for legal campaigners after battling for a decade against his extradition to the United States for hacking into military computers.
On Tuesday, interior minister Theresa May finally said Britain would block the 46-year-old's extradition — sparing him up to 60 years in jail for what US prosecutors have called "the biggest military computer hack of all time".
McKinnon was arrested at his flat in London in 2002 after breaching dozens of Pentagon and NASA computers, leaving 300 machines at a naval air station unusable just after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
Gangly, with gaunt features and a mop of curly brown hair, McKinnon was not surprised to find officers from Britain's hi-tech crime unit at his door.
He had made little effort to cover his digital tracks, even using his own email address when breaking into US government systems.
"I almost wanted to be caught, because it was ruining me," he told the BBC.
"I'd stopped washing at one point. I wasn't looking after myself. I wasn't eating properly. I was sitting around the house in my dressing gown, doing this all night."
McKinnon has never denied the hacking, which the US says caused $800,000 (615,000 euros) worth of damage.
But he denies his intentions were malicious — he says he was simply looking for classified documents about UFOs.
"I was on a moral crusade," he told the BBC in 2009.
"I was convinced, and there was good evidence to show, that certain secretive parts of the American government intelligence agencies did have access to crashed extra-terrestrial technology which could, in these days, save us in the form of a free, clean, pollution-free energy."
"I didn't think about jail sentences at the time," he added.
Born in the Scottish city of Glasgow, McKinnon left school at 17 and became a hairdresser, before gaining a qualification in computing in the early 1990s.
He began working in the industry and by the end of the decade was using his hacking skills to pursue his growing obsession with alien spacecraft.
McKinnon used commercially-available software to explore the US military computing system, and found many machines lacking adequate protection.
He apparently left cyber notes warning the US government of their poor security — as well as a message comparing US foreign policy to state-sponsored terrorism.
"To a young man with Asperger's syndrome, telling the truth as he saw it was as natural as getting out of bed in the morning," McKinnon's mother Janis Sharp said in an open letter to May and Prime Minister David Cameron in September.
"His crime was tapping on a keyboard in his bedroom in north London in search of information on aliens from outer space," added Sharp, who has campaigned vigorously for her son over the last decade.
On Tuesday, she thanked May "from the bottom of my heart" for allowing McKinnon to stay in Britain on human rights grounds, after psychiatrists warned there was a high risk of him attempting suicide in the United States.
McKinnon was diagnosed with Asperger's, a form of autism, in 2007, after an autism expert watched him in a television interview and contacted McKinnon's lawyer.
Asperger's sufferers often become obsessed with certain activities or interests, as well as having difficulties in social interaction.
"Mr McKinnon is accused of serious crimes, but there is also no doubt that he is seriously ill," May told parliament as she announced the decision. After a ten-year saga that has seen McKinnon lose appeals in both Britain's House of Lords and the European Court of Human Rights, the hacker has become a symbol for campaigners seeking to overhaul the British-US extradition treaty.


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Wolf Blitzer delivers the most important breaking news and political, international, and national security stories of the day. Tune to The Situation Room weekdays 5-7pm ET on CNN.
Last October, a massive cyber attack hit the American military's websites, and some think Iran was behind it. CNN's Brian Todd reports on the threat of all-out cyber war between the U.S. and Iran.
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Great apes are our closest relatives, and they are constantly surprising us with their human-like abilities and tendencies; here at Ars, we've seen studies showing that they plan ahead, they engage in wars over territory, and they respond to being tickled, just to name a few. Now, a new study in PNAS adds to the growing list of ways in which great apes are similar to us: they value a good night's sleep, and they have the technological know-how to build pretty impressive beds from some very basic materials.
Many species of great ape, including chimpanzees, gorillas, bonobos, and orangutans, build nests in the forest canopy. Generally, these nests are slept in for just one night, then abandoned. The nests are thought to benefit the apes in several ways: sleeping above the ground reduces disturbances, protects them from predators, leaves them less vulnerable to mosquitoes and other pests, and generally increases the quality of their sleep. However, we know very little about how these nests are actually constructed. To figure out how much skill goes into nest-building, a group of scientists studied nests made by Sumatran orangutans in Indonesia.
The orangutans' nests are generally built between 11 and 20 meters off the ground, and are built entirely from branches, sticks, and leaves. Since female orangutans average more than 38 kilograms, the nests have to be pretty sturdy. So how do the apes build nests that are not only comfortable, but robust as well?
It turns out that orangutans follow a similar pattern of construction for all their nests. After choosing a horizontal branch or branches to build the nest on, the apes bend particular branches inwards and weave them together. Smaller, broken branches are then layered on top of this basic structure and woven into a sort of "mattress." Then, leafy branches are added as a lining. Finally, depending on the individual and the nest, roofs or leafy pillows are sometimes added.
While the steps seem simple, it's the way the branches are chosen and manipulated that makes an ape's nest an impressive technological feat. Some of the branches that the orangutans use are living, and are difficult to break cleanly (if you've ever tried to bend and break a green branch, you probably appreciate the difficulty of this task). To skirt this difficulty, and to take advantage of these particular branches' strength, the orangutans use them as the main structural elements of the nests, bending them in toward the middle of the nests and weaving them together (you can see a short clip of this process here).
Sticks that are easier to break cleanly are used in the lining of the nest, and in other parts of the structure where strength is less vital. The researchers found that the structural support branches are four times more rigid and four times stronger than the branches used for the mattress. From these results, it seems that orangutans are choosing branches with certain structural qualities for different parts of the nests.
The orangutans' construction skills enable the center of the nest to be more flexible, or "compliant," than its edges. In fact, the nests are amazingly stretchy: the center of a nest is able to flex more than one meter downwards to accommodate a heavy ape. Around the rim, where strength is more important than flexibility, the nest has much less give.
Previous studies have shown that there is a genetic component to nest-making; that is, without any guidance from other apes, an individual will build nests. However, young apes that are exposed to other nest-building adults are much more efficient builders and tend to create stronger nests. This information cements the idea that apes are making conscious decisions about the construction of their nests.
Some researchers suggest that the knowledge and technological innovation involved in great ape nests may be a precursor to tool use in these species, since both skills require higher order cognition and representational thinking. It may be no coincidence that birds—the consummate nest-builders—are also among the best tool users in the animal kingdom.
PNAS, 2012. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1200902109 (About DOIs).
Listing image by Photograph by PNAS


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Tag Archives: Dolores
In Memoriam: Dolores O'Riordan
Posted on January 17, 2018 by jbstubley
In the work of Dolores O'Riordan – The Cranberries lead singer who died earlier this week – we see the realisation of creativity towards social change. The band had many popular songs, but none more so than their 1994 hit 'Zombie'. … Continue reading →
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Centre for Social Poetry, Cranberries, Dolores, In Memoriam, John Stubley, O'Riordan, Social Poetry, Zombie | 1 Comment


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Normally I would only ever serve savoury snacks to accompany a martini, but there have been a small number of exceptions. I don't have a sweet tooth but some of you might, so this is for you.
I made some umami tuna steaks for a friend for dinner (thank you Laura Santtini for the recipe). We had a martini as an apéritif before the meal but then wanted another one after we had eaten as well… I guess as a digestif.
After the umami flavour of dinner, my friend asked for something sweet to follow. I rarely eat dessert but I had one or two sweet items to hand – although they were perhaps a little unconventional, not just as a pudding, but also as a martini accompaniment.
And some cherry sherbet. Which looks a little bit like cocaine.
But let's be honest, if you're drinking martinis, who needs drugs?
On another occasion I dipped some maraschino cherries in some Tobermory dark chocolate which went nicely as a digestif accompaniment.
I do NOT approve of this but some of my friends do…
Cape gooseberries make a nice, subtle citrus accompaniment. I would actually consider serving them alongside savoury martini snacks.
Lots of lychees can also work.
Especially if served as part of a lychee martini.
This sweet popcorn went quite nicely with an after-dinner espresso martini.
Here is a late-night martini I served with some chocolate-covered almonds.
Here is some homemade Scottish tablet, referred to by some of my friends in England as "sugar heroin". It's not particularly healthy but it tastes amazing and is a nice pick-me-up after a meal.
Even someone like me likes the odd bit of chocolate in the evening, especially during the winter months. Here is a small selection of rough pieces served on a cold, rainy night in Scotland.
Finally, how can you beat this Italian classic? The affogato (which means 'drowned') combines ice cream drenched in an espresso, in this case served perfectly in a martini glass.
Thank you Italy for taking us, once again, to the next level.


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The New York Attorney General's Office
Fraud in the Telemarketing of Investments
Fraud in the Telemarketing of Investments
"You've got to understand," said the voice on the other end of the telephone. "Typically, I don't make these type of calls. I've got people to do that. I've got 11 years in this business and worked my way up to senior vice president with 400 clients and $40 million dollars under management. I don't need this account, but I want it."
The caller was attempting to close a deal for an unknown micro-cap stock by trotting out some of his most impressive facts. But it was all a lie. In fact, he had been on the job for less than a month and was reading from a script supplied by his employer.
"Perhaps a return of 100 percent in 20 minutes sounds a bit unrealistic," the scam artist continued. "But that's exactly how all our initial public offerings trade. We did three deals last year yielding collectively 34 points within the first ten days of trading. That's a fact! All I ask for is your vote of confidence this one time. I won't let you down."
Taken from an actual script seized by state securities examiners in February 1997 from a small brokerage firm, these words sum up the danger faced today by investors who purchase shares of stock in unknown companies over the phone from people they don't know. Although the companies are all small, the dishonest way the stock is manipulated and sold has a large impact.
Unfortunately, far too many investors are falling for the lure of this latest trend in boiler room scams. And the telemarketers, playing upon people's desire for ever-greater financial returns, have been running away with millions of dollars of hard-earned-money.
Among the victims: An elderly New York woman was convinced to buy $14,000 worth of high risk stock. Her broker proceeded to make unauthorized trades and left the firm as her account dwindled to nothing. The firm, and the broker, never returned her calls. A Connecticut senior citizen who was swindled out of $40,000 and suffered a stroke that his wife claims was directly tied to the loss. A Utah man in his forties who lost $11,000 through the payment of commissions after being promised that his transactions would be commission-free. A 78-year-old Missouri man who purchased $6,000 of stock, then was charged with $24,000 in six unauthorized trades, leaving him with $350.
New York And 19 States Take Action
In response to a growing pattern of investor complaints against dozens of small, brokerage firms with headquarters in the metropolitan New York area, the Board of Directors of the North American Securities Administrators Association, Inc. (NASAA) authorized a special project in late fall 1996. The mission of the special project was clear: To address the problem of fraudulent sales practices in the micro-cap marketplace.
In January 1997, NASAA created a strike force comprised of representatives from 12 states, including the New York Attorney General's Office. The strike force was divided into five teams, each targeting the headquarters of a particular firm. In addition, branch offices in Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Indiana were also scheduled for coordinated audits.
In late February, the teams struck without warning. As a result of this sweep, as well as the on-going investigation by the Attorney General's Office, on May 29, 1997, the Attorney General and 19 other states took action. As part of the biggest nationwide crackdown ever by state securities regulators against telemarketers that sell small-cap stocks to investors over the phone, the Attorney General's Office filed enforcement actions against two firms, Investors Associates and First United Equities Corp., and 9 individuals. In total, 20 states filed over 30 enforcement actions.
The February examinations of the firms also revealed four systematic abuses, including:
Evasion of broker-dealer registration requirements. Stockbrokers and the firms that employ them are required to register in the state in which they do business. This requirement serves an important purpose: To allow state securities officials to monitor the activities of the firms in order to insure compliance with laws designed to protect investors. When a broker-dealer or its representative is not registered, that's a sure sign that something is wrong. Most of the firms, however, were found to be employing unregistered agents which is also a violation of National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) rules. Other requirements triggered by registration include keeping proper books and records and supervision of employees. But, one firm, for example, kept no customer or trading records at its principal office and claimed that its branches were franchises in order to evade state securities laws.
Failure to report investor complaints. Most of the offices failed to have centralized procedures for handling and reporting customer complaints. At several firms, complaints were found stuffed in customer complaint files, inquiry files, correspondent files, and stock jacket files. One branch office had reported only one complaint to the NASD since July 1, 1996, yet over 90 complaints were recovered at their office. Another firm had no complaints on file with the NASD, but state officials found over 300 complaints throughout the office.
The following pattern of abuse emerged:
After receiving a complaint of an unauthorized trade, the broker called the investor and convinced that person to hold onto the trade. The investor was requested to fax a note that indicated the unauthorized trade was accepted. If the investor later changed his or her mind, the broker claimed otherwise. Records of unreported settlements were documented as "clerical errors" without any back-up documentation.
Abusive cold calling practices. All of the firms and branches relied on high-pressure, scripted telephone "cold calling" practices. Many were classic "boiler room" operations with long tables and up to seven phone stations per table. At one firm, all the cold callers were on the first floor without any supervision. They "qualified" clients by determining their market assets and interest in the stocks that the firm was pushing. Average pay for cold callers is $200 per week.
Clients of several companies were able to recall and identify unregistered cold callers, but had no recollection of speaking or trading with the licensed registered representative who allegedly signed off on the accounts. At one office there was a score board listing stocks, customers, and other production information. Nobody at the firm could explain its use or the information listed on the board. A broker told an examiner that he made 250 calls on a good day; 70 on a bad day. All of his calls had been previously "qualified" by an unregistered cold caller.
Sales practice abuses. Unauthorized trading was rampant at all of the firms. Firm and branch records were falsified. Customer account forms were marked with the number of the registered rep whom the clients insist they had never spoken to or traded with. Failure to execute sell orders (no commission is paid on a sell order and there is no market until the next victim is found), unsuitable recommendations, and other unethical practices were common customer complaints. At one firm, a review of a thousand customer accounts showed that all of the clients had bought only one or two stocks stocks that only that particular firm was selling to the public. At a time when the Dow Jones Industrial Average was being driven by the S&P 500, these firms' clients were investing solely in never heard of micro-cap companies.
A Changed Marketplace
In the late-seventies and early 1980s, so-called "penny stock" frauds were rampant in Colorado and Utah until state securities officials moved in and shut them down. Although the scams of today are similar to the swindles of that earlier time, there are significant differences. The most obvious difference is the marketplace itself.
Today, there are far more mid-income investors than ever. Products are more sophisticated and choices have multiplied. Due to the growth of 401(k) plans and other self-directed retirement programs and fears about the future of Social Security, people are encouraged to be more "aggressive" in their investments. The marketers of the most legitimate firms down to bottom-dwelling perpetrators of fraud are singing the same siren song: "You've got to be in the market or you're going to be left behind." The message is everywhere. It's hard to pick up a magazine or watch television or listen to the radio without hearing advertisements for mutual funds or other securities products.
To Avoid Becoming A Victim...
1. Ask your state securities agency for help. When you are contacted by a broker or financial advisor, particularly if you do not know this person or have not heard of the firm, you must call your state securities agency in order to learn more about the caller and the firm. The simplest inquiry is to ask if they are registered to do business in your state. But you should also ask about the record of the firm and its representative. Are there any past disciplinary events? Are they subject to past complaints? The majority of this information is available if you only ask.
2. Ask questions. Even if everything checks out with the state, don't rely on a company's glossy brochure. You need to ask about the investments themselves. Where is the company traded? Is it listed in the stock tables printed in your local newspaper so you can follow your investment? Investigate its trading history. Make phone calls. Find out more about it. Ask the salesperson — who is making a market in the stock? Who else is buying in your area? Is the salesperson's firm making a market in this company? The reason you want to ask is that they might be the only market maker. And they might be using cold calling techniques to create demand for a stock that insiders will sell when the price is driven high enough.
3. Send copies of your complaints to regulators. When you have problems with a firm, you must send a copy of your complaint to your state securities regulator as well as the NASD. Examiners in the February sweep found hundreds of complaints that individual investors wrote to the firms that were never passed on to regulators. If you call to inquire about a firm, and a previous customer's complaint never made it into the system, you won't be protected. So never forget to send a copy of your complaint to the regulators as well.
For Help and Additional Information
It is highly advisable to check out a broker, brokerage firm or financial advisor before you make an investment by writing to:
The New York Attorney General's Office
Investor Protection Bureau
28 Liberty Street, 15th Floor
New York, NY 10005
or call (212) 416-8200
If you suspect that you have already been a victim of investment fraud, call or write to us as soon as possible.
You can also call the North American Securities Administrators Association at (202) 737-0900. In the U.S., NASAA is the national voice of the 50 state securities agencies responsible for investor protection.


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Off to Latitude this weekend? DiS is. Hope you've got your tickets, too, because the three-dayer's sold out as of now.
The 20,000-capacity festival - held in Suffolk - features a wealth of actually-quite-good-really acts. Here are just some of our picks if you're off there on Friday.
Obelisk Arena: Friday: Midlake, Two Gallants, The Kissaway Trail, Wilco; Saturday: The Good The Bad & The Queen, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Bat For Lashes, Herman Dune, Annuals; Sunday: Arcade Fire, Jarvis Cocker (pictured), The National, Au Revoir Simone
Uncut Arena: Friday: Patrick Wolf, Maps, Fields; Saturday: Seasick Steve, Loney dear, Elvis Perkins; Sunday: Camera Obscura, Gruff Rhys, The Strange Death Of Liberal England
Sunrise Arena: Friday: Alberta Cross, Emmy The Great, The Lionheart Brothers; Saturday: Wheat, Make Model, Stephanie Dosen; Sunday: Howling Bells, Final Fantasy, The Silent League, Paris Motel, Wild Beasts
Huw Stephens Introducing... The Lake Stage: Friday: George Pringle, Metronomy, TANAOU, I Was A Cub Scout; Saturday: Friendly Fires, Taxi Taxi, Monkey Swallows The Universe; Sunday: Blood Red Shoes, Eugene McGuinness
Also of note: Youthmovies and Jonquil's collaborative performance, a special soundtrack show to a mash-up of their favourite, er, movies of their youth. And loads of other stuff. Click here to look at the full-line-up poster!


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The Longshots2008 Drama | Comedy | Family
When Curtis Plummer, a down on his luck former high school football star, takes the only job he can find--babysitting his misfit niece Jasmine--he discovers that she has the skills that once made him a great quarterback. The only place these two opposites get along is on the field, so Curtis is determined to turn Jasmine into the star of the local team, The Minden Browns, and get his own stride back by becoming the coach. The boys on the team don't want her but when this girl quarterback shows them she's got the skills, she'll turn their whole world upside down.


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Join us and contact hundreds of thousands of members! It is anonymous!


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NOTE: Each product in the set can be engraved with the same group of any characters you want.
A Doll is a little friend for babies and toddlers
Our dolls are specially designed with the right size and kids loving expression on face. Perfect for babies to hug, to take it anywhere he/she goes and to accompany to sleep. Helps kids grow empathy, safety, and love through childhood.
Personalization with name & birthday
Original Design
All dolls are uniquely designed by our in-house specialized team, with deep research of babies' need from 0-3 years old. They come with smiley, sleeping and playful face with various color, help babies to develop recognition ability and have a tight sleep.
Craft with care
With 27cm(10.63 inches) in height, it's just the right size for babies to crab and hug. As they will be by our babies all time, the whole body of dolls are made with extreme soft material and no a single sharp object on it. The stitching is tight and strong in order to undertake our babies' brandish of objects.
About OUOZZZ
OUOZZZ is a world of dolls without borders and races, in which there is only infinite love. They are beautiful, comfortable, happy and warm. We believe that creating a "profoundly connected childhood" when children grow up, will largely ensure a happy and healthy childhood. Not only that, but we also hope to spread the seeds of happiness to more people by replicating the best moments of our children.
Safety always comes first when it comes to toys for kids. We proudly completed tests involving requirement for health, safety and environment, such as EN71, ASTM F963, EU-CE. We use high quality polyester fibers, soft plush and high elastic PP cotton, so our dolls can maintain warm, soft, non-toxic and odor-free.
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We offer worldwide delivery to door. The estimated shipping time before delivery will be 15-30 calendar days.
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'Endless Wreckage': Blizzard Triggers Huge Canadian Traffic Pileup
A quick moving blizzard plowed through the central Canadian plains province of Alberta this week, triggering a massive vehicle pileup on Thursday; scores of motorists were stranded near the provincial capital of Edmonton.
A car crash in the town of Leduc, on the main road between Edmonton and Calgary further south, turned into an enormous pileup of more than one hundred cars, tractor trailers, a bus and at least one truck filled with cattle. At first, emergency responders believed as many as 300 people were hurt, but the Edmonton Journal says that number was substantially lowered to about 100 people with minor to moderate injuries. Most people were treated at the scene, when authorities could finally reach them, but 22 people needed to be hospitalized.
The blizzard was so blinding that Edmonton police briefly closed the entire highway that rings the city, called Anthony Henday Drive. Derek Fildebrandt was on a bus near the freeway, enroute to an Edmonton conference, when he got stuck in the wreck and tweeted his adventures:
Fildebrandt told the National Post as he slowly passed through the huge accident scene, there were damaged vehicles every 200 yards or so: "It was just endless wreckage."
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Old-fashioned Boiled Cider Pie is a delightful Fall treat. This pie has a smooth and delicate filling with a mild apple flavor and (even though it contains no milk) a lovely custard-like texture.
This recipe is from a 1905 cookbook published by a church in Berwick, Pennsylvania. I found the cookbook last summer when I was visiting the area in Central Pennsylvania where I had lived as a child. My husband and I were to meet someone for lunch – but we finished a visit with another friend earlier than anticipated. So when we saw that a tiny country church was holding a rummage sale, we decided to stop in to fill the time.
There was a sign which said, "Donate whatever you think the items you select are worth." I was immediately drawn to the book table. There were lots of colorful cookbooks from the 1960s and 70s on the tabke. But then I noticed an a small dog-eared cookbook with pages browned by age. I gently flipped through the book. Several pages were missing. But I could tell that it was old, really old; and that it was a church cookbook compiled by women in the nearby by town of Berwick. My heart beat a little faster. I really wanted this book.
But there was no price. I was to donate whatever I thought it was worth. I dug into my wallet, and pulled out a $1 bill, a $5 bill, and a couple 20's.
I picked up the 1905 Berwick cookbook, and another small pamphlet from the 1930s that contained recipes. I handed the church member serving as cashier $6 for the two items. She said, "Some of the other cookbooks are nicer, are you sure you want these?"
I said, "I like old cookbooks" and walked out to the car. The woman obviously felt like I paid more than enough for the items I bought. Yet I've felt a little guilty ever since. To me, the hundred-year-old cookbook was a find worth much more than what I paid. Should I have made a larger donation?
Here's the original recipe:
And, here's the recipe updated for modern cooks:
Boiled Cider Pie
2 cups cider
1 egg
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 tablespoons flour
2 cups water
2 8-inch (small) pie shells or 1 9-inch deep-dish pie shell
Put the cider in a saucepan, and bring to a boil using medium heat. Reduce heat and boil gently until it is reduced to approximately 1/2 cup (about 45 minutes). Stir frequently. Remove from heat. Set aside.
Preheat oven to 350° F. Put egg in mixing bowl and beat until smooth. Add sugar and flour; stir until combined. Then stir in the water and boiled cider. Put in pic shell and place in oven. Bake until the top is lightly browned, and the filling does not move in waves. (This pie takes a long time to bake. Start checking it after 45 minutes, but don't be surprised it it takes more than 1 1/2 hours for the filling to thicken.) Remove from oven. Cool pie before serving.


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White House eyes new trade authority, Asia-Pacific trade deal
President Barack Obama's administration on Friday said it would work with Congress on legislation considered critical for negotiations of U.S. trade agreements as it tries to wrap up talks on an Asia-Pacific free trade pact this year.
"To facilitate the conclusion, approval, and implementation of market-opening negotiating efforts, we will also work with Congress on Trade Promotion Authority," the U.S. Trade Representative's office said in its annual report on the president's trade agenda.
"Such authority will guide current and future negotiations, and will thus support a jobs-focused trade agenda moving forward," the report said.
Trade promotion authority, also known as TPA or "fast track" trade legislation, allow the White House to submit deals to Congress for straight up-or-down votes without any amendments.
It has long been considered essential for negotiating new trade agreements, but the Obama administration has gone four years without pushing for renewal of law, which expired in 2007.
Congress last approved a TPA bill in 2002, following a bitter fight. Republicans, who generally favor free trade, passed the bill over the objections of Democrats, many of whom blame past trade agreements for U.S. job losses.
The Obama administration, even without TPA, has pursued the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement between the United States and 10 other countries in Asia-Pacific region.
But it is generally believed other countries will not make hard trade-offs needed to reach a deal with the United States unless they are confident Congress will not change the pact.
USTR, in the annual report on Friday, said negotiators are striving to complete negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership "this year."
Other top trade goals for 2013 including launching talks with the European Union on a free trade agreement and separate negotiations with the EU and more than a dozen other countries aimed at tearing down barriers to trade in services sectors like banking and telecommunications.
(Reporting by Doug Palmer; Editing by Vicki Allen)


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NEW YORK, June 30, 2013 — -- A rush transcript of "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" airing on Sunday morning, June 30, 2013 on ABC News is below. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Good morning. Welcome to "This Week." Traitor or hero? High stakes standoff with America's most wanted fugitive.
DIANE SAWYER, ABC NEWS ANCHOR: Where is he hiding tonight?
STEPHANOPOULOS: Our ABC News exclusive with the other fugitive stoking Edward Snowden's defiance, the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange.
Making history: the Supreme Court's landmark decision on same-sex marriage. But with the fight is far from over, leaders from both sides are here. Is this the start of a new culture war? Our powerhouse roundtable weighs in.
And a lone star in Texas shoots straight into the national spotlight. Right here this Sunday morning.
ANNOUNCER: This Week with George Stephanopoulos. Reporting from ABC News headquarters, George Stephanopoulos.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So much to get to in one of the newsiest weeks of the year. And we begin with what has become an emotional mission to South Africa for President Obama. Honoring at every stop his personal hero Nelson Mandela. ABC's Byron Pitts is there in Johannesburg. Good morning, Byron.
BYRON PITTS, ABC NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, George.
Moving is right. We're outside Mr. Mandela's home where the steady stream of the concerned and the curious continues today. The former South African president is still listed in critical but stable condition. As for President Obama, today he visited Robben Island and an infamous prison where Mandela spent much of his 27 years behind bars.
Later in Cape Town, he meets with Bishop Desmond Tutu to shine a light on AIDS awareness here.
Yesterday, the president met privately with members of Mr. Mandela's family to offer words of comfort.
At every public event here in South Africa, the president made the point that as a young man he was inspired by Nelson Mandela to live his dreams.
George, this evening, the president will overnight in Cape Town. Tomorrow, he continues his tour of Africa when he makes the stop in the capital of Tanzania -- George.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Thanks, Byron.
Now to our exclusive interview with Julian Assange. He's standing by from his safe room at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. First, our chief justice correspondent Pierre Thomas has more on Assange and the assistance WikiLeaks is providing to NSA leaker Edward Snowden.
Good morning, Pierre.
PIERRE THOMAS, ABC NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, George.
WikiLeaks officials were with Snowden when he fled from Hong Kong to Russia, and they have provided him with legal guidance. Assange is said to be pressing Ecuadorian officials to grant Snowden's request for asylum. Some say it's the latest provocation of the U.S.
JULIAN ASSANGE, WIKILEAKS FOUNDER: He has long been a prickly thorn in the side of the U.S. government. But who is Julian Assange? Hacker? Activist? A journalist? Or a fugitive criminal?
We've exposed the world's secret.
THOMAS: He is the mastermind behind WikiLeaks which has published the secrets of nations, and is now at the heart of a global debate over the public's right to know.
SAWYER: The WikiLeaks organization published hundreds more internal government documents.
THOMAS: Assange has embarrassed the powerful, and revealed top secret information about U.S. and other government activities.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are a bunch of bodies laying there.
THOMAS: But at what cost?
HILLARY CLINTON, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: It puts people's lives in danger, threatens our national security.
THOMAS: Now the man who has on a crusade to expose what he believes is wrongdoing faces accusations of his own.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have no right to arrest Julian Assange.
THOMAS: For more than a year, he's been holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London where he sought refuge to avoid possible criminal charges.
And today, WikiLeaks and Assange are standing shoulder to shoulder with the perhaps the most damaging leaker of them all, Edward Snowden, the fugitive former government contractor who went public with top secret information about some of the crown jewels of the intelligence community.
THOMAS: Some U.S. officials say make no mistake, these are -- these leaks have serious consequences that the terrorists are changing the way they communicate, because of these disclosures -- George.
STEPHANOPOULOS: OK, Pierre. Thanks. Let's talk now to Julian Assange from the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Joined here in New York by Jesselyn Radack, a former whistle-blower from the Justice Department who disclosed details of post-9/11 interrogation practices, now with the government accountability project. Welcome to you both.
And Mr. Assange, let me begin with you. Thank you for joining us.
What can you tell us about where Edward Snowden is right now and where he's expected to go?
ASSANGE: Thank you, George.
I wish I could answer these questions of yours in more detail.
The situation now with Edward Snowden is very sensitive one. It's a matter of international diplomatic negotiations. So, there's little that I can productively say about what is happening directly.
But look, let's pull back a bit. Why is it that Mr. Snowden is not in the United States? He should feel that he should be afforded justice in the United States. But his situation is very similar to a situation that I face and that my staff face where we have been sucked into a grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, that's where the charges for Mr. Snowden came from, Alexandria, Virginia.
What do we know about that district? It's six kilometers from the center of Washington, D.C., the jury pool is made up of the CIA, Pentagon, et cetera. In the legal community in the United States, it's known as the rocket docket because of the lack of scrutiny procedures have there. There's a 99 percent chance that -- a 99.97 percent chance that if you're a target of the grand jury you'll be indicted. And a 99 percent that if you're indicted by a grand jury you will be convicted.
So this is not a situation -- ignoring all the political rhetoric which has been terrible over the past two weeks, where Mr. Snowden can feel that he would be afforded justice in the United States.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But is there any country right now that would Mr. Snowden asylum?
ASSANGE: Well, under U.N. conventions, Mr. Snowden has the right to appeal to nearly every country for asylum. Of course, asylum decision is always a mixture of the political and the legal. And I think there are several countries where it is politically possible for Mr. Snowden to receive asylum, and many countries, of course, where he's legally entitled to that kind of protection.
It's -- no one is alleging that any of his acts are anything other than political, that he has acted in a manner to draw attention to a very serious problem in the United States where without the will of congress, without the will of the American population, we now have a state within a state, we have the transnational surveillance apparatus. Glenn Greenwald just last night spoke about the new technology to evolve out of the National Security Agency is going to attempt to intercept 1 billion mobile phone calls a day.
No one signed up for this, Obama does not have a mandate for that. No one has a mandate for that.
STEPHANOPOULOS: With respect, Mr. Assange, many people have said that this...
ASSANGE: ...taken for a ride.
STEPHANOPOULOS: ...far more than political, including Secretary of State John Kerry. He spoke out on this earlier this week saying that Snowden's revelations are putting people at risk. Take a look.
JOHN KERRY, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: People may die as a consequence of what this man did. It is possible the United States will be attacked because terrorists may now know how to protect themselves in some way or another that they didn't know before.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Does that concern you at all?
ASSANGE: Well, look, we have heard this rhetoric. I myself was subject to precisely this rhetoric two, three years ago. And it all proved to be false. We had this terrible discussion about -- which even exists in some of the tabloid press today -- about WikiLeaks causing harm, but not a single U.S. government official, no one from the Pentagon, no one from any government says that any of our revelations in the past six years has caused anyone to come to physical harm.
And the revelations by Snowden, I mean, these are even more abstract than the nature of the war crimes.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Have you spoken to Mr. Snowden -- are you confident he is safe right now.
ASSANGE: ...we have been publishing.
Our legal people have been in contact with Mr. Snowden. I can't say anything about the present situation. But, you know, the United States canceled his passport. Joseph Biden, the day before yesterday, personally called the President Correa trying to pressure him. That's not acceptable.
Asylum is a right that we all have. It's an international right. The United States has been founded largely on accepting political refugees from other countries and has prospered by it.
Mr. Snowden has that right. Ideally he should be able to return to the United States. Unfortunately, that's not the world that we live in and hopefully another country will give him the justice that he deserves.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Edward Snowden's father has spoken out. He fears that you and WikiLeaks are manipulating his son. He said that, quote, "I think WikiLeaks, their focus isn't necessarily the constitution of the United States, that's a concern for me." How do you respond to Edward Snowden's father?
ASSANGE: Well, he didn't say that. He said might be. Mr. Snowden's father as a parent, of course he is worried in this situation, every father would be worried in this situation. We have established contact with Mr. Snowden's father's lawyer to put some of his concerns to rest.
But, I mean, this isn't a situation that, you know, WikiLeaks is in charge of, if you like. This is a matter for states at a very serious level to understand and sort out and behave responsibly. Because I've had some experience in the past, with publishing, with attacks and political rhetoric from the United States with asylum and so on.
And I have personal sympathy for Mr. Snowden. We did what we could and we'll continue to do what we can to try and--
STEPHANOPOULOS: But you have put yourself in the middle of it.
ASSANGE: -- and help him through.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And I want to ask a further question on that. Glenn Greenwald has said that no matter what happens to Snowden, his secrets, the secrets that he's taken, will get out. How? And does Wikileaks have possession of those secrets right now?
ASSANGE: Look, there is no stopping the publishing process at this stage. Great care has been taken to make sure that Mr. Snowden can't be pressured by any state to stop the publication process. I mean, the United States, by canceling his passport, has left him for the moment marooned in Russia. Is that really a great outcome by the State Department? Is that really what it wanted to do? I think that every citizen has the right to their citizenship. To take someone's principal component of citizenship, their passport, away from them is a disgrace. Mr. Snowden has not been convicted of anything. There are no international warrants out for his arrest. To take a passport from a young man in a difficult situation like that is a disgrace.
He is a hero. He has told the people of the world and the United States that there is mass unlawful interception of their communications, far beyond anything that happened under Nixon. Obama can't just turn around like Nixon did and said, it's OK, if the president does it, if the president authorizes it--
STEPHANOPOULOS: That's not what he's saying, sir. He has also broken the law. Let me bring that now to Jesselyn Radack, who is also here with me right now. Julian Assange mentioned Edward Snowden's father, who has also written -- his attorney has written a letter to Eric Holder, the attorney general, saying that he believes that his son would be willing to come back to the United States if he would not be detained or imprisoned prior to trial, if he would not be subject to a gag order, if he would be tried in the venue of his choosing. Do you think it would make sense for Snowden to return under those circumstances?
RADACK: I actually don't. I have represented people like Thomas Drake, who was an NSA whistle-blower, who actually did go through every conceivable internal channel possible, including his boss, the inspector general of his agency, the Defense Department inspector general and two congressional committees, and the U.S. turned around and prosecuted him. And did so for espionage and threatened to tie him up for the rest of his life in jail. I think Snowden's outlook is bleak here, and instead of focusing on Snowden and shooting the messenger, we should really focus on the crimes of the NSA. Because whatever laws Snowden may or may not have broken, they are infinitesimally small compared to the two major surveillance laws and the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution that the NSA's violated.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But these surveillance programs, as the president has pointed out, were passed by the Congress, are overseen by a court.
RADACK: Well, both of those are incorrect. Congress has not been fully informed. Only the--
STEPHANOPOULOS: They passed the laws, there is oversight, or there is (inaudible).
RADACK: OK, but there is a secret interpretation of Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which nobody knows, except for the Intel Committee of Congress, and even they say that they think most Americans would be appalled by that. And to say that it's been approved by the courts is a misnomer, because it gives the impression that federal courts have approved this, when in reality, it's the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which has rubber-stamped every single--
STEPHANOPOULOS: Which is a federal court.
RADACK: No, it is a secret court set up at the Justice Department that has federal judges on it. But last year, it approved 2,000 out of 2,000 applications. They hear only the government's side, and they have never -- they have rejected an application one time since 1978.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Let me bring this back to Julian Assange. Back in 2010, an email that was revealed from you by Bart Gellman in "Time" magazine, said that you hoped the revelations from Wikileaks would bring about, quote, "the total annihilation of the current U.S. regime." Is that still your goal, and what did you mean by that?
ASSANGE: I did not say that and there is no such email. That is simply false.
STEPHANOPOULOS: It's quoted in "Time" magazine in December 2010.
ASSANGE: Yes. Well, I mean, "Time" magazine. But this is -- it's very interesting that you raised such a thing like that. We are in a situation where we have these extraordinary revelations that are causing great embarrassment to a new national security state that is arising in the U.S. It's not just the U.S. Similar national security states are rising in other countries, but it is trying to evade democratic will. It's treating Congress like a bunch of fools. And we saw Clapper up there lying, bald-face lying to Congress. We have secret interpretations of the law. What does the law mean if there are secret interpretations in secret courts?
We have Bradley Manning's trial starting -- continuing tomorrow. A young man, a good man, as far as anyone can tell, motivations are entirely political as far as anyone argues. The same with Snowden. Being put through this meat grinder, where a new precedent is trying to be set, which is communicating with the press is committing espionage. And it's not just a precedent that is trying to be set on these whistle-blowers. It's a precedent that's trying to be set on journalists and politicians as well. We saw that in the case of--
STEPHANOPOULOS: Meantime, Mr. Assange, meantime, you're being--
ASSANGE: -- James Rosen.
STEPHANOPOULOS: -- safe harbored (ph) by the Ecuadorian government. That -- the Correa administration has been admonished by human rights organizations for restricting press freedoms, prosecuting journalists. The Inter American Press Association calls its new media law, quote, "the most serious setback for freedom of the press in the recent history of Latin America." So does it make you uncomfortable to be harbored by a government that goes after journalists, and do you see a double standard there?
ASSANGE: Well, these accusations are largely blown up. There are of course all sorts of problems in any particular country. But why are they even spoken about? What has happened here is a mass revelation of illegal transnational spying by the National Security Agency, the collection of the communications records of every single person in the United States, laying out the entire community structure of the United States. And these sort of attempts are merely a mechanism to try and shift ground. But you know, going to CPJ, the Committee to Protect Journalists in New York, they list the number of journalists in Ecuadorian prisons -- zero. And it has been zero for a very long time. It's 48 in Turkey. So we've got to keep things in some kind of perspective (ph). There is no allegation that Ecuador--
STEPHANOPOULOS: Finally--
ASSANGE: -- no allegation that Ecuador is involved in a mass transnational surveillance or assassination programs and so on.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Julian Assange, Jesselyn Radack, thanks very much for joining me this morning.
RADACK: Thank you.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Our powerhouse roundtable is coming right up, with historic decisions from the Supreme Court this week and more. Stay with us.
TERRY MORAN, ABC NEWS: The Defense of Marriage Act, which -- a federal law defining marriage as the union of one man, one woman, only denied all federal benefits to gay couples, that has been ruled unconstitutional.
STEPHANOPOULOS: History at the Supreme Court this week on gay marriage, and now the fight to define marriage moves back to the states and the courts again. Leading the campaign is our next guest, Brian Brown from the National Organization of Marriage, and Chad Griffin, the president of the Human Rights Campaign, also led the organization that sparked the court challenge to Proposition 8 in California. And Chad, let me begin with you. Congratulations on your victory at the Supreme Court. So what is next for you?
STEPHANOPOULOS: History at the Supreme Court this week on gay marriage, and now the fight to define marriage moves back to the states and the courts again. Leading the campaign is our next guest, Brian Brown from the National Organization of Marriage, and Chad Griffin, the president of the Human Rights Campaign, also led the organization that sparked the court challenge to Proposition 8 in California. And Chad, let me begin with you. Congratulations on your victory at the Supreme Court. So what is next for you? Will your organizations try to bring lawsuits challenging the gay marriage bans in more than 30 states? And given what we heard from the court this week, do you expect to succeed?
GRIFFIN: Look, there is no question this was a historic week for equality in this country, and American values really did win. With the erasing of the Proposition 8, same-sex couples in the state of California started getting married on Friday. And now that DOMA has been erased from the books thanks to that historic decision, those couples across the country who are legally married, their relationships and their families will be recognized as such.
At the same time while we celebrate, we have to acknowledge that there are 37 states in this country that still don't have equality. And our job is to work harder than we have fought before to bring equality, full equality to every single state in this country. And that's exactly what we start doing now.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But is that by repealing the bans or challenging them in court?
GRIFFIN: We'll fight this battle on all fronts, George. We'll fight at the ballot box where there are opportunities, we'll fight at the state legislature, and ultimately this will come back to our federal courts.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And do you think you'll win there?
GRIFFIN: I have all expectation that we will. Look, 30 percent of American, thanks to these decision, now live in states with marriage equality. It's going to be very difficult to deny equal rights to those who live in other states when the next case ultimately reaches the court.
STEPHANOPOULOS: In the meantime, you have got this decision where everyone legally married in a state now will get federal benefits if they continue to live in that state. Kind of a gray area if someone legally married, say, in the state of Massachusetts move to the state of Alabama. There seems to be particular problems with Social Security and veterans benefits.
So what is it going to take to make sure that as I know you would like it to see every legally married couple in the United States, same sex, gets the federal benefits?
GRIFFIN: Yeah, absolutely. There is no reason to deny those benefits, those rights and privileges and protections that come with marriage to any family, George, to any family in this country whether they live in Hope, Arkansas, or in New York City.
And so we have got to work, and this administration has been doing a lot already, to ensure implementation of this decision. The president said in his view a marriage is a marriage. And I hope and expect that very soon legally married couples, regardless of where they reside, will receive all benefits.
Now there are some issues that congress might to address. And there's currently a piece of legislation called the Respect for Marriage Act that fully rescinds the parts that are remaining of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act. And I expect the congress will move on that and put into place real permanence so that families across this country can have the protections that they deserve under the law.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Finally, Brian Brown is coming up. And I want to get your response to some thing he said to the New York Times on Saturday. He says they're going to move to roll back legal gay marriage wherever it exists. And went on to give this quote to the New York Times, "ultimately, as Lincoln said, we can't have a country half slave and half free."
Your response?
GRIFFIN: George, look, there is no question. This country has always moved historically, whether it was women's rights, or the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s to today. We have always moved to greater inclusion and treating all of our citizens equally under the law. So that a young person today living in Fresno, California or Hope, Arkansas, can grow up with those same dreams, hopes and aspirations as anyone else.
At the end of the day, you have ask yourself two questions, who is harmed by receiving marriage equality coming to this country? I have asked my friends in those marriage states, my straight friends, and I can't find a single couple whose straight marriage has been harmed when the gay couple down the street got married.
The other question you have to ask yourself is who benefits? Who benefits? It's what's Justice Kennedy wrote about. Those kids, thousands upon thousands of kids today who are raised by same-sex parents, all this does is give them the same rights, protections and privileges as a straight child being raised by straight parents.
So, we have to move with great speed and great urgency to ensure that families across this country have equal protection under the law. And we're well on our way. We're not there yet, but we're well on our way.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Chad Griffin, thanks very much.
Let's bring in Brian Brown right now.
You just heard those questions asked by Chad Griffin. Let's take the first one, who is harmed by legalizing same-sex marriage?
BROWN: Well, we just saw who was harmed, the rule of law is harmed and all those millions of voters in the state of California who stood up and said we know the truth about the marriage. We know that marriage is the union of a man and woman. They are harmed when the courts are used to say they don't have a right to be represented. And that's what the court did.
Chad talks about American values. Is it an American value to deprive those people in California who stood up and voted to protect marriage as a union of a man and woman from their right to be heard? And the court did not do what Ted Olson and David Boies and Chad Griffin wanted it to do. It did not create a right out of thin air to redefine marriage throughout this country.
What it did do was rob the proponents of proposition 8 after they have seen utter lawlessness with Governor Brown and the attorney general refusing to defend the law, not giving them a defense. The court said, well, the proponents don't have standing. It did not say that there was a constitutional right to redefine marriage.
And I will caution you that this could be used -- this precedent is horrific for our republic, it could be used in states, say, that were moving forward with a law to make sure that voting rights are respected. If the governor and attorney general don't to want defend that law, you've just gutted the initiative and referendum process. This is not an American value.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Justice Scalia seemed more concerned by what the decision is going to do to those state laws and constitutions banning same-sex marriage. Here's what he said in his dissent. He said the majority arms well -- every challenger to a state law restricting marriage to its traditional definition.
He seems almost certain that if these bans are challenged, they're going to go down.
BROWN: Well, I don't think that that is inevitable. What Justice Scalia is pointing to is the absolute travesty of Kennedy's decision in the DOMA case, which really is incoherent. He doesn't even lay out the basis of what his legal reasoning is. And what Scalia is saying is that, because Kennedy says something that is patently untrue, that your former boss and all of Congress were somehow motivated by animus when they -- when President Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act and Congress passed it, saying that this -- that this truth, that marriage is the union of a man and a woman is motivated by animus and discrimination, leads to discrimination against those of us who know that there's something unique and special about husbands and wives, mothers and fathers coming together in marriage.
And that's why he's pointing to the future. There's no doubt there will be an attempt to use the decision that strikes down only section three of DOMA. Section two still stands. States have the right to define marriage as they see fit. But that that will be used in the future.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So, quickly, where's your next victory?
BROWN: Well, I think there's a hard fight in Illinois going on where we've seen the African American legislators and pastors, Democrats standing up and saying we don't want marriage redefined.
In Indiana, there will be a second vote on a state constitutional amendment to protect marriage. And there will be a lot of attempts to use this decision to redefine marriage in other states. And we will stand for the truth wherever it is, and again, in California, although the ninth circuit has lawlessly not waited the 25 days to allow the proponents to have a hearing, there now is an emergency application to the Supreme Court to, again, respect the rule of law. And that is not what is happening right now.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And we will see how the fight plays out. Brian Brown, thanks very much.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Let's bring in our roundtable right now. I'm joined by my colleague ABC anchor Terry Moran our Supreme Court expert, Peggy Noonan of the Wall Street Journal; ABC News special correspondent political analyst, newly mustached Matthew Dowd.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And Congresswoman Donna Edwards, Democrat of Maryland.
And Terry, let me begin with you. You heard some discussion there of the decision, particularly on the DOMA case. And I was struck, most of all, by the sweep of Justice Kennedy's opinion. And I want to show one part of it. He said "the federal statute is invalid for no legitimate purpose overcomes the purpose and effect to disparage and to injure those whom the state, by its marriage laws, sought to protect in personhood and dignity."
No legitimate purpose. How does a ban survive that?
MORAN: Those are the three most important words in this ruling. The court said congress could have absolutely no reason, there's no reason the congress could possibly have to could treat gay married couples differently from straight married couples. The court could have just said congress overstepped its bounds, shouldn't tell every state what marriage is, let the states decide. But Justice Kennedy opinion goes further. He picked up the most powerful, the irresistible force in the constitution, that principle of equality, and in the broadest and most ringing terms, he framed the claims of gay Americans in that. That's going to be hard to stop for those who don't approve of this decision.
PEGGY NOONAN, WALL STREET JOURNAL: I think it was a pretty emotionally written and almost emotionally charged decision.
Here's the problem, while the Kennedy decision seems to make a lot of -- of suggestions about federalism and that the states can decide, the fact is because Kennedy posits as the logic of his decision that one can be against same-sex marriage only for reasons essentially of bigotry and wanting to cause injury, if that is so, as this thing now gets played out in 37 states, Chad Griffins of the Human Rights Campaign said, you asked him, are we going to go referendum, legislative, the courts, he said whatever it takes.
It is very hard to believe that any court in any state won't look at the Kennedy decision and say the court has spoken. To be against same-sex marriage, for traditional marriage is unkind by definition and not constitutionally supported.
To me, there are many people among conservatives who think, you know what, this seemed OK in some respects, but in fact we're back to Roe versus Wade. It is the nationalization of this decision.
STEPHANOPOULOS: That's what seemed to set off Justice Scalia. I want to bring this to you, Congresswoman Edwards, because he said basically the court would do whatever it could get away with.
And I have to say, I personally look at Justice Kennedy's opinion, sort of agree with the sentiment behind it, agree with the morality behind it. If I were to vote on DOMA, I would probably vote -- I would vote against is as well.
But it seemed that Justice Scalia's logic was kind of unassailable when he said Edith Windsor brought this case, the government said we're not going to fight it. What are we doing here?
EDWARDS: Well, I mean, There were plenty of people, both through the amicus process and others who put the argument forward. I mean, and the court could have come to a different conclusion had it wanted to. I mean, I think it's almost three strikes and you're out. DOMA, Prop 8, and the next to go are the state bans. And I think that's appropriate.
Look, we have a debate in our state, I mean, I'm from a state that passed marriage equality on the ballot, but still within some communities, within some of our African-American communities and churches, it's a really difficult issue.
But this is about what states do, what the federal government does with respect to its citizens, doesn't impact at all what churches and faith communities do within the confines of their church.
STEPHANOPOULOS: How does this play out, Matthew?
MATTHEW DOWD, ABC NEWS POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, to me, this is the court actually trying to catch up to where America is in the 21st century.
And if you look at the series of court decisions over the last week and a half, conservatives are mad at this one and this series of ones; liberals were mad at the other series of ones related to the Voting Rights Act and affirmative action, could be -- could be angry about it.
But the country has already decided this issue. The country has already decided about gay marriage. Whether the states will catch up and how long --
STEPHANOPOULOS: Even though there's 37 states where it is banned?
DOWD: No, so let me give you an example of this.
In the 1960s, the court made a decision that bans on interracial marriage would no longer exist. Twenty percent of the country was only for that at that time.
Today more than a majority of the country is for gay marriage. So the court is actually trying to catch up to where the country is in the midst of this. I think what the court is dealing with is the ghosts of our past, trying to hold themselves in some tradition, and they're trying to make a balancing act but trying to catch up to the 21st century America.
MORAN: But they are letting the country's conversations continue. They didn't nationalize all of gay marriage. And the reason that it didn't happen, Justice Kennedy clearly wanted to take the Prop 8 case.
MORAN: Exactly, he would have had to have done a dizzying about-face to run away from the language that he used in the DOMA case. It was only the judicial restraint of three liberals, Ginsburg, Kagan and Breyer, who said no, let's not decide this. Let's let the conversation continue.
STEPHANOPOULOS: It is on -- I wonder how the conversation is going to continue from here. Let me bring this to you, Peggy, because I'm kind of torn here. You know, you can see the heat behind it with Brian Brown and Chad Griffin.
On the other hand, you also get the sense that a whole lot of people would just as soon have this conversation go away, not be part of politics.
NOONAN: That's true, but I feel like the process now in 37 states -- that's a whole lot of states -- will in effect be a little shorter, more truncated, more strangled than it otherwise would have been on issues like this.
We forget as a culture a certain amount of patience, a certain amount of ease, talk about it, think about it, vote, leave it up to the people. It's always better when the people vote.
When you get something like a jump ahead on Roe, whatever you think of Roe versus Wade, that'll cause trouble and tension forever. So I'm a little disappointed we're not going the other route.
STEPHANOPOULOS: How does it play in 2016 --
DOWD: Well, that's (inaudible) point. So, again, the court is actually way further behind of where the country is. This isn't Roe versus Wade; this isn't interracial marriage. The majority of the country supports gay marriage in a definition of marriage between a -- it's broader than it has been, between a man and a woman.
I think this makes 2016 unbelievably important, because who that -- there's a number of justices, as Terry knows, that are at that age that they are going to probably retire or something -- you know, something awful could happen if -- whoever is elected president in 2016 is probably going to have at least two, if not three court justices.
And as we saw in these decisions, these 5-4 decisions on a series of things, one change or two changes in that, to me, 2016 becomes extremely important.
STEPHANOPOULOS: No question about it. But if a ban comes to this court, the ban, I think goes down.
DOWD: It goes down. Goes down.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Agreed.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Let's move to race and the big questions this week about affirmative action and the Voting Rights Act. It seems like affirmative action lives to fight another day, maybe hanging on by a thread. The Voting Rights Act apparently gutted by the Supreme Court.
EDWARDS: It was gutted, in my opinion. I mean, I think that what the court did was basically said that there's no way to enforce these strong provisions in Section 5 that apply to these pre-clearance states.
And I think that that's a problem. I think the Congress is really going to have to come back, set up a formula.
What's amazing to me is that the court didn't even give notice to the fact that 15,000 pages of legislative history underpin the last authorization of the Voting Rights Act. And so I think, you know, it's problematic.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But it was based on very old data, Peggy Noonan.
NOONAN: It was. It was based on a law firm, '64, '65. I think the court's decision suggests that it is not fair -- roughly every -- it is not unfair to roughly every half-century; look at the realities around you, compare them to the realities when the law was made, see where you are.
If there seems to be justification, an argument for lifting a part of the act, then they can legitimately do it.
It seems to me, however, this is -- the Voting Rights Act is actually voting rights legislation always. And it's not the Supreme Court's job, it is the Congress' job to work this out.
EDWARDS: In 2006, the Congress did its job by, you know, two years of legislative hearings, 21 legislative hearings on the Voting Rights Act reauthorization, 15,000 pages of documents, testimony from experts. And just because a law has been in place for a long time doesn't mean it's not a good one.
NOONAN: Understood, but I think you can fairly argue that some progress has been made since the 1960s.
EDWARDS: Look at last elections, and we have seen time after time where state after state, jurisdiction after jurisdiction, tries to put in place barriers. Are they the overt barriers that went in place in 1964? Not necessarily, but they are still barriers to voting for African-Americans.
DOWD: To me, it's trapped. We're still trapped. We're still trapped in a time that in the states it didn't exist.
Virginia is a perfect example. Virginia was one of those states, nine states that was selected out for special scrutiny. Virginia today is not Virginia when it was in 1965. And Virginia was carried by the president twice, an African-American candidate.
To me, the restrictions on voting rights are much different today than they were then. And I think Congress and the president should deal with it. This is not a 13-state, a 15-state problem. This is a 51-state problem and (inaudible).
STEPHANOPOULOS: Terry, you get the last word. Hard to see it happening in this Congress.
MORAN: It is. The Voting Rights Act is probably the most successful law every passed in this country. It was an American democracy--
MORAN: It changed American democracy. We have a different country because of the Voting Rights Act. The Congress did decide that even though the formula was old, they found that in those states, voting rights violations are -- run at a higher rate than in other states. And they made a political decision to do this.
This was a very activist decision. But there's no question that the Supreme Court has declared what the law is. And we will find out. The court said, no George Wallace, no need for this. We'll find that out, because the states are going to very rapidly test that.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Have to take a quick break. When we come back, we turn to the immigration bill passed by the Senate this week. But will it hit a brick wall in the House? Analysis of the policy and the politics when we come back.


text:
OTTAWA — Canada's economy posted a job surge last month of 81,100 net new positions, the bulk of which were part time, in the services sector and picked up by young people.
Statistics Canada said in a report Friday that even with the increase the August unemployment rate stayed at 5.7 per cent as more people looked for work. The jobless rate remained near its four-decade low.
The overall monthly gain — the biggest since Canada added 106,500 jobs in April — came as wage growth decelerated.
Average hourly wage growth, year-over-year, for all employees was 3.1 per cent last month, down from a 4.5 per cent pace in July that was the strongest monthly reading since January 2009.
Economists had expected an addition of 15,000 jobs and an unemployment rate of 5.7 per cent, according to the financial markets data firm Refinitiv.
Compared with a year earlier, the numbers show Canada added 471,300 jobs — the majority of which were full time — for an increase of 2.5 per cent. The number of hours worked, year-over-year, were up 1.2 per cent.
The new jobs in August included a boost of 94,300 jobs in the private sector and a rush of 73,300 new positions in services industries, the agency said in its latest labour force survey. Job creation in services was concentrated in areas such as finance, insurance, real estate, retail and education.
The report says 57,200 of the new jobs were part time and 42,000 of the positions were held by young workers aged 15 to 24 years old, almost all of whom were women. The number of summer students, who planned to return to school after working between May and August, rose five per cent compared to 2018.
By province, the biggest employment increases were in Ontario and Quebec, while Manitoba, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick saw smaller gains.
Andy Blatchford, The Canadian Press


text:
VERSIONversion 0.006
package Foo;
use namespace::sweep;
use Some::Module qw(some_function);
sub my_method {
my $foo = some_function();
package main;
Foo->my_method; # ok
Foo->some_function; # ERROR!
DESCRIPTIONBecause Perl methods are just regular subroutines, it's difficult to tell what's a method and what's just an imported function. As a result, imported functions can be called as methods on your objects. This pragma will delete imported functions from your class's symbol table, thereby ensuring that your interface is as you specified it. However, code inside your module will still be able to use the imported functions without any problems.
ARGUMENTSThe following arguments may be passed on the "use" line:
- -cleanee
If you want to clean a different class than the one importing this pragma, you can
specify it with this flag. Otherwise, the importing class is assumed.
package Foo; use namespace::sweep -cleanee => 'Bar' # sweep up Bar.pm
- -also
This lets you provide a mechanism to specify other subs to sweep up that would not
normally be caught. (For example, private helper subs in your module's class that
should not be called as methods.)
package Foo; use namespace::sweep -also => '_helper'; # sweep up single sub use namespace::sweep -also => [qw/foo bar baz/]; # list of subs use namespace::sweep -also => qr/^secret_/; # subs matching regex
You can also specify a subroutine reference which will receive the symbol name as $_. If the sub returns true, the symbol will be swept.
# sweep up those rude four-letter subs use namespace::sweep -also => sub { return 1 if length $_ == 4 }
You can also combine these methods into an array reference:
use namespace::sweep -also => [ 'string', sub { 1 if /$pat/ and $_ !~ /$other/ }, qr/^foo_.+/ ];
RATIONALEThis pragma was written to address some problems with the excellent namespace::autoclean. In particular, namespace::autoclean will remove special symbols that are installed by overload, so you can't use namespace::autoclean on objects that overload Perl operators.
Additionally, namespace::autoclean relies on Class::MOP to figure out the list of methods provided by your class. This pragma does not depend on Class::MOP or Moose, so you can use it for non-Moose classes without worrying about heavy dependencies.
However, if your class has a Moose (or Moose-compatible) "meta" object, then that will be used to find e.g. methods from composed roles that should not be deleted.
In most cases, namespace::sweep should work as a drop-in replacement for namespace::autoclean. Upon release, this pragma passes all of namespace::autoclean's tests, in addition to its own.
CAVEATSThis is an early release and there are bound to be a few hiccups along the way.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThanks Florian Ragwitz and Tomas Doran for writing and maintaining namespace::autoclean.
Thanks to Toby Inkster for submitting some better code for finding "meta" objects.
AUTHORMike Friedman <[email protected]>
COPYRIGHT AND LICENSEThis software is copyright (c) 2011 by Mike Friedman.
This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.