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Not all accessories shown or described herein are standard equipment or even available as options. Some features and options may not be available when a boat is built for outside North America and/or has CE Certification. Options and features are subject to change without notice. Not all model-year boats may contain all the features or meet the specifications described herein. Confirm availability of all accessories and equipment with an authorized Sea Ray dealer prior to purchase.
Interactivity is purpose-built into our 310 Sundancer, from its reversible double helm seat and fold-down sun pad to its convertible dinette/V-berth and dinette/double bunk. The standard cabin features maple wood flooring and fine wood-finished cabinets. The innovative Axius joystick-control system is optional.Key Features
1 Willow Street
Hyannis, MA 02601
United States


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Q-Snap Frames
Q-Snap frames are a stitcher's dream! Made of pvc tubing, they have four half-pipes that snap over your fabric and the tubed frame. They are incredibly lightweight, hold fabrics nice and tight, and best of all: the round tube won't crimp your fabric. Originally designed for quilters, they now offer hand-held sizes for embroidery and cross-stitch. I also think this model is especially easy for little hands to use!
✓ Light as a feather
✓ Holds fabric supertight
✓ Won't crimp fabric
✓ Easy to hold

subset: commoncrawl


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Whoops! Sorry bout that folks. A publishing error this morning meant Sunday Comics didn't roll out in its usual slot. Here they are—don't worry, we didn't do anything truly stupid like cancel the feature. Enjoy.
Brentalfloss the Comic by Brent Black, Andrew Dobson and Dan Roth.
Published Feb. 28.
Read more of Brentalfloss the Comic.
Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik.
Published Feb. 27.
Read more of Penny Arcade.
Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich.
Published Feb. 25.
Read more of Awkward Zombie.
Manly Guys Doing Manly Things by Kelly Turnbull.
Published Feb. 25.
Read more of Manly Guys Doing Manly Things.
Brawl In The Family by Matthew Taranto.
Published Feb. 26.
Read more of Brawl In The Family.
Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira.
Published Feb. 25.
Read more of Nerf NOW!!
Virtual Shackles by Jeremy Vinar and Mike Fahmie.
Published Feb. 27.
Read more of Virtual Shackles.
Corpse Run by Alex Di Stasi.
Published Feb. 28.
Read more of Corpse Run.
Nerd Rage by Andy Kluthe.
Published March 1.
Read more of Nerd Rage.


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The Hyperboreans in Greek mythology lived to the far north of Greece in a land called Hyperborea, which means beyond the North Wind or Boreas, have been linked by a number of writers with the Atlanteans.
Researchers have variously identified this land of Hyperborea with Iceland, the British Isles and the North Sea. Like many classical references and later commentators there is no clear consensus on a precise location.*Hecataeus of Abdera, a 4th century BC Greek historian, noted that the Hyperboreans were located "in the lands of the Celts, in the ocean, (where) there is an island not smaller than Sicily."*
Diodorus Siculus described Hyperborea as a northern island with a temple to which the god returns every nineteen years. This was initially thought by many to be a reference to England's Stonehenge, but the renowned Aubrey Burl considered Stonehenge to be 500 miles too far south and instead proposed the Hebridean island of Lewis home to the famous Callanish megalithic site, which includes the ability to record the return of the stars to the same position every nineteen years(c).
Olof Rudbeck's over-enthusiastic nationalism not only brought him to associate Atlantis with Sweden, but also linked the writings of Homer and other classical writers with the prehistory of his homeland. This inevitably led hime to declare ancient Sweden as Hyperborea. David King outlines how Rudbeck came to this conclusion [530.71].
Jürgen Spanuth based his Atlantis theory[0015] on an unambiguous identification of the Atlanteans with the Hyperboreans of the Baltic region, specifically nominating Jutland, part of today's Denmark, as the land of the Hyperboreans [p.88].
The renowned Flemish cartographer, Gerardus Mercator (1512-1594), showed a large archipelago near the North Pole on one of his charts. This inclusion by him and other cartographers of the period stemmed from a now lost book by an English Franciscan friar entitled Inventio Fortunatae (The Discovery of the Fortunate Isle).
Based on ancient maps and the work of other researchers such as Emilio Spedicato, Stuart L. Harris has proposed(e) that Hyperborea was also known as Atland to the Frisians. He further suggests that this land disappeared in 2194 BC as noted in the controversial Oera Linda Book, and that today's Faroe Islands are its remnants.
It also appears that in the 18th century the Russian Empress Catherine II organised an expedition in an attempt to find Hyperborea in the vicinity of the North Pole, in a pathetic attempt to discover 'the elixir of eternal youth" allegedly invented by the Hyperboreans. She was apparently captivated by the descriptions of the classical writers who related that the Hyperboreans lived in total happiness for a thousand years.
J.G. Bennett has opted for a Hyperborean origin for the Indo-European culture, a claim that has resonances with the Nazi claim that Hyperborea has been the ancestral home of the 'master race'.
It was reported in 2006(a) that a Russian scientist, Valery Dyemin, inspired by the work of Jean-Sylvain Bailly and William Fairfield Warren was attempting to prove the reality of Hyperborea in the Arctic region. Another Russian, Sergey Teleguin has also attributed a North Pole origin for both the Maya and the Indo-Europeans(b).
An extensive internet article outlines the mythology associated with Hyperborea and recent efforts to determine its location(d).
(a) https://english.pravda.ru/science/mysteries/29-11-2006/85697-paradise-0/
(b) https://mayanarchaeology.tripod.com/id23.html
(c) https://humansarefree.com/2014/12/a-hyperborean-temple-stone-circles-of.html
(d) https://earth-chronicles.com/histori/mysterious-hyperborea.html
(e) https://www.academia.edu/36044603/Identification_of_Hyperborea_with_Atland_and_Frisland
*(f) History, 3a.264. F.7.5.*
Pillars of Heracles
The Pillars of Heracles is the name given by Plato to describe a maritime boundary marker of the ancient Greek world. According to his text, Atlantis lay just beyond or just before this boundary. However, strictly speaking, Plato does not call them 'pillars' but refers to them as stelai (pronounced "stee-lie") and its singular Stele (pronounced "stee-lee") which are the Greek words for stone slabs used as boundary or commemorative markers, not a reference to supportive columns. Rhys Carpenter favours the idea that the term when applied to the Strait of Gibraltar was used with the sense of boundary markers, indicating "the limits of the Inner Sea that, for the Greeks, was the navigable world."[221.156]
According to Aristotle, the Pillars of Heracles were also known by the earlier name of 'Pillars of Briareus'. Plutarch places Briareus near Ogygia, from which we can assume that the Pillars of Heracles are close to Ogygia. Since Malta has been identified as Ogygia, it was not unreasonable, to conclude, as some do, that the Pillars were probably in the region of the Maltese Islands.
However, Ogygia has also been identified with one of the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic by Felice Vinci[019.3], who then proposed that the Pillars of Heracles had also been located in that archipelago. John Larsen has made similar suggestions.
Furthermore, Aristotle also wrote that "outside the pillars of Heracles the sea is shallow owing to the mud, but calm, for it lies in a hollow." This is not a description of the Atlantic that we know, which is not shallow, calm or lying in a hollow and which he refers to as a sea not an ocean.
Classical writers frequently refer to the Pillars without being in anyway specific regarding their location. Rosario Vieni has suggested that the Symplegades, at the Bosporus, encountered by Homer's Argonauts were precursors of the Pillars of Heracles, although Vieni settled on the Strait of Sicily as their location[1177], before Sergio Frau adopted the same location.
However, there is little doubt that during the last centuries BC 'the Pillars' referred almost exclusively to the Strait of Gibraltar. The online encyclopaedia Wikipedia notes that Pillars were, in earlier times, identified with the Strait of Sicily, but from the time of Erastosthenes (c. 250 BC) the term was used to refer to the Strait of Gibraltar, reflecting the expansion of Greek maritime knowledge.
I consider it highly relevant that no writer prior to Eratosthenes had referred to the Pillars of Heracles being located at Gibraltar. It is not unreasonable to conclude that this silence reflects the lack of knowledge possessed by the ancient Greeks regarding the western Mediterranean, which only improved gradually, as their colonising and trading expanded westward.
Federico Bardanzellu locates them on the island of Motya off the west coast of Sicily(h). This view is hotly disputed.
Alessio Toscano has suggested that the Pillars were situated at the Strait of Otranto and that Plato's 'Atlantic' was in fact the Adriatic Sea. A more distant location was proposed by Chechelnitsky who placed the 'Pillars' at the Bering Strait between the Chukchi and Seward peninsulas in Russia and the USA respectively.
It always seemed to me that when the Greeks began their expansion westward, they did so hugging the northern shores of the Mediterranean. Understandably, they would have taken the shortest route from the Greek mainland to the heel of Italy and later on to Sicily. As they progressed with their colonisation, new limits were set, and in time, exceeded. I suggest that these limits were each in turn designated the 'Pillars of Heracles' as they expanded further. I speculate that Capo Colonna (Cape of the Column) in Calabria may have been one of those boundaries. Interestingly, 18th century maps shown up to five islands near the cape that are no longer visible(g), suggesting the possibility that in ancient times they could have been even more extensive, creating a strait that might have matched Plato's description. On the other hand, the Strait of Messina was one of the locations recorded as the site of the 'Pillars' and considering that mariners at that time preferred to stay close to the coast, I would opt for the Strait of Messina rather than the more frequently proposed Strait of Sicily.
An extensive collection of classical references to the 'Pillars' is to be found on the Internet(j).
However, the poet Pindar in the Third Nemean Ode would appear to have treated the Pillars as a metaphor for the limit of established Greek geographical knowledge (Olympian 3.43-45), a boundary that was never static. In 1778, Jean-Silvain Bailly was certain that the Pillars of Hercules were just "a name that denotes limits or boundaries." [926.v2/293]
Dag Øistein Endsjø, a Norweigan professor, has added the use of the 'Pillars' as a metaphor to include the limits of human endeavour(d) and quotes the classicist, James S. Romm in support(e). My own view is that where the term may have initially referred to physical pillars, over time a metaphorical usage became the norm.
Paulino Zamarro has mapped 13 locations(f) identified as the 'Pillars' by classical authors (see map below) and expands on this further in his book[024]. He identified Pori, a rocky islet north of the Greek island of Antikythera, as the location of the Pillars of Herakles.
The Pillars are assumed by some to refer to the Rock of Gibraltar in Europe and to Mt. Acha or Jebel Musain, which are near Ceuta in Morocco. Others prefer to accept them as a physical pair of pillars set up outside a temple.
The idea that geographical terms can radically change their location over time is illustrated by the name (H)esperia, which means 'evening land' or as we might say 'land of the setting sun', was originally used by Greeks to indicate Italy and later employed by Roman writers as a designation for Spain. It could be argued that the Greek use of this appellation could be an indication that when introduced they were not too sure what lay beyond Italy.
Herodotus (Hist. Bk II.44) refers to Heracles as a god of the Egyptians 'from time immemorial'. He also visited a temple of Heracles in Tyre with two pillars, one of gold and the other emerald. According to the priests there it had stood for two thousand three hundred years or from approximately 2700 BC.
Heracles is clearly the Greek counterpart of the Phoenician god Melqart, who was the principal god of the Phoenician city of Tyre. Melqart was brought to the most successful Tyrian colony, Carthage and subsequently further west, where at least three temples dedicated to Melqart have been identified in ancient Spain, Gades, Ebusus, and Carthago Nova. Across the Strait in Morocco, the ancient Phoenician city of Lixus also has a temple to Melqart.
Gades (Cadiz) was originally named Gadir (walled city). It has been generally accepted that it was founded around 1100 BC, although hard evidence does not prove a date earlier than the 9th century BC. It is today regarded as the most ancient functioning city in Western Europe.
Pairs of free standing columns were apparently important in Phoenician temples and are also to be found in Egyptian temples as well as being part of Solomon's temple (built by Phoenician craftsmen). Consequently the pillars of Melqart temple in Gades are considered by some to be the origin of the reference to the Pillars of Melqart and later of Heracles (by the Greeks) and Hercules (by the Romans) as applied to the Strait of Gibraltar.
Spanuth dismisses those who have identified the red and white cliffs of Heligoland as the Pillars of Heracles, decrying the idea as a fallacy. He explains that "Natural rock formations were not what was originally meant by the Pillars of Heracles. Those at the Straits of Gibraltar were not, as one so often reads, the rocks to the north and south of the Straits, but two man-made pillars which stood before the temple of Heracles at Gades (present-day Cádiz) about 100 km north of the Straits."
The Pillars of Heracles usually play a critical part in the construction of any theory relating to the location of Atlantis. Even the authors of theories that have placed Plato's island civilisation in such diverse locations as Antarctica, the North Sea or the South China Sea, have felt obliged to include an explanation for the 'Pillars' within the framework of their particular hypothesis.
There is one location clue in Plato's text (Tim.24e) that is often overlooked, namely, that the island of Atlantis was situated close to the Pillars of Heracles. Although it can be argued that Plato's island was immediately before or after the Pillars, the text clearly implies proximity. This was pointed out by W.K.C. Guthrie in volume 5 of A History of Greek Philosophy [946.245] and independently endorsed by Joseph Warren Wells in The Book on Atlantis[783].
A number of alternative locations have been identified as being referred to in ancient times as the Pillars of Heracles. Robert Schoch[454] writes "This distinctive name, taken from the most powerful hero of Greek mythology, was given to a number of ancient sites known in modern times by quite different appellations". The Greeks, however, used the name Pillars of Heracles to mark other sites besides Gibraltar, some outside the Mediterranean – namely, the Canary Islands in the Atlantic and the Strait of Kerch dividing the Black Sea from the Sea of Azov – and even more inside – specifically, the Strait of Bonafaccio between Corsica and Sardinia, the Strait of Messina between mainland Italy and Sicily, the Greek Peleponnese, the mountainous coast of Tunisia, and the Nile Delta.
Arguably the most unusual suggestion this year has come fro Marco Goti in his book, The Island of Plato[1430] in which he identified the 'Pillars' in the Atlantic, being the basalt columns of the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland in the west and their counterpart in Scotland's Isle of Staffa in the east! However, this idea is not original, having been first mooted nearly seventy years ago by W.C. Beaumont(n).
Perhaps the first 'modern' writer to propose the eastern Mediterranean as the location for the 'Pillars' was Russian, Avraam Norov. He considered them to have been shrines drawing on both Greek and Arabic sources for his ideas.
G. Galanopoulos and E. Bacon suggest[263] that the Pillars of Heracles were possibly associated with Melos, one of the Cyclades or Cape Maléa, the eastern promontory of the Gulf of Laconia. Both James Mavor and Rodney Castleden defend this view, which continues to have some support(p).?
Zangger quotes[483] the 4th century AD. Roman writer Servius, "Columnas Herculis legimus et in Ponto et in Hispania. (through the Columns of Herakles we go within the Black Sea as well as in Spain)".
Tacitus, the renowned Latin historian, in chapter 34 of Germania, clearly states that it was believed that the Pillars of Hercules were located near the Rhine in the territory of the Frisians.
Olof Rudbeck opted for a location further east in the Baltic at the Øresund strait between Sweden and Denmark.
Strabo, the Greek historian and geographer, records that Alexander the Great built an altar and 'Pillars of Heracles' at the eastern limit of his Empire. Pliny the Elder noted that in Sogdiana in modern Uzbekistan there was reputed to be an altar and 'Pillars of Heracles'. Aristotle in de Mundo describes the north coast of Europe on the edge of a vast sea, beyond the Celts and the Scythians up to Sinus Gallicus and the Pillars of Heracles!
Ulrich Hofmann combines the Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax with the writings of Herodotus to build a credible argument for placing Atlantis in North Africa in Lake Tritonis, now occupied by the Chotts of modern Algeria and Tunisia. Consequently, Hoffmann places the Pillars at the Gulf of Gabés, which would put Malta to the east of them. He also argues that the Pillars were part of Atlantis rather than separate from it.
George Sarantitis presented a paper to the 2008 Atlantis Conference in which he also argued that the Pillars had been situated in the Gulf of Gabes[750.403]. He cites Strabo among others to highlight the multiplicity of locations that have been attributed to Pillars in ancient times.
Scylax of Caryanda describes(a) in his Periplus, a guide to the Mediterranean, the Maltese Islands as lying to the east of the Pillars of Heracles. The opinions of Hofmann and Sarantitis would certainly support this view.
Anton Mifsud argues that had the Pillars been located at Gibraltar the islands to the east would have been the Balearics. Mifsud also points out that the 1st century BC writer, Apollonius Rhodius, located the Strait of Heracles in ancient Syrtis Minor, now the Gulf of Gabés. Delisle de Sales placed the 'Pillars' not too far away at the Gulf of Tunis, the gateway to Carthage. Mifsud has now revised his opinion and in a December 2017 illustrated article(o) has identified the Maltese promontory of Ras ir-Raheb near Rabat, with its two enormous limestone columns as the Pillars of Herakles. This headland had originally been topped by a Temple of Herakles, confirmed by archaeologist, Professor Nicholas Vella.
Sergio Frau, in his recent book[302], published in Italy, insists that the Pillars were in fact located in the Strait of Sicily. He sees this location as according with the writings of Homer and Hesiod. He discusses in detail the reference by Herodotus to an island to the west of the Pillars, suggesting that the world 'ocean' had a different meaning than today and pointing out that elsewhere Herodotus refers to Sardinia as the largest island in the world. Following this lead Frau concluded that Atlantis was in fact located in Sardinia. Frau commented that Eratosthenes, circa 200 BC, was the first geographer to place the Pillars of Heracles at Gibraltar. He also quotes the earlier geographer Dicaearchus whose comments appear to also support a location near Malta. Antonio Usai , in his critique of Frau's book has opted for the Pillars having been between the coast of Tunisia and the islands of Kerkennah.
It should be noted that many of the other known 'Pillars of Heracles' existed in the Eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea. This is possibly because until the middle of the 1st millennium BC the Greeks were, generally speaking, restricted to this region. It would appear that for the ancient Greeks, the Pillars of Heracles marked straits or promontories at the limits of their known world. These boundaries were extended further and further as their maritime capabilities improved. In the Late Bronze Age the Bosporus in the east and probably the Strait of Sicily in the west confined the Greeks. It was only shortly before Solon's trip to Egypt that the Greek colony of Massilia (modern Marseilles) was founded and so, at last, the western limit of the Mediterranean was brought within the reach of Greek ships. Obviously as their range extended so too did the location of new Pillars and possibly led to the decline in the usage of the title at former boundaries, leaving us today with only the Strait of Gibraltar to carry the name.
Even Nikolai Zhirov, a proponent of an Atlantic Atlantis, accepted that they were other locations considered to have been designated Pillars of Herakles, both within and beyond Gibraltar, as shown on a map of half a century ago in his well-regarded book [458.86].
P. Rambling has placed the 'Pillars' on Insula Herculis, now a small sunken island immediately south of Tyre(k).
Nevertheless, Thorwald C. Franke maintains that the westward shift of the 'Pillars' to Gibraltar occurred hundreds of years before Solon. He expanded on this at the 2008 Atlantis Conference[750] and in his 2006 book on Herodotus[300].
Even Arthur C. Clarke suggested that there was evidence that the early Greeks did not originally refer to the Strait of Gibraltar as the Pillars of Heracles. Clarke did not cite his sources, but expressed a personal preference for the Strait of Messina.
Fundamentalist Atlantology, as proclaimed by the 'prophet' Donnelly in the 19th century, will accept no explanation other than that Plato was referring to 'Pillars' near Gibraltar. Certainly, it is perfectly clear that Plato MAY have been referring to the Strait of Gibraltar, but it is also clear that this was not the only location with that designation in ancient times. Consequently, if any of the alternatives mentioned above enable the construction of a new credible Atlantis location hypothesis, then it deserves careful rational consideration.
In 1913, Nicolae Densusianu proposed a location for the Pillars on the Danube, in ancient Dacia, modern Romania. Ranko Jakovljevic has recently expressed the view that the nearby Iron Gates section of the Danube in Serbia was the location of Atlantis. A paper presented to the 2008 Atlantis Conference by Ticleanu, Constantin & Nicolescu[750.375] has the 'Pillars' at the Iron Gates but place Atlantis a little further west on what is now the Pannonian Plain.
The late Arysio dos Santos claims[320] claimed that "there was only one real pair of pillars: the ones that flank Sunda Strait in Indonesia", in keeping with his Indonesian location for Atlantis. However, he does list (p.130) nine sites designated by ancient authorities as having been locations of 'Pillars', reinforcing the idea that the term was not exclusively applied to just one site.
Even more exotic locations such as Chott-el-Djerid in Tunisia, Bab-el-Mandeb(b) at the mouth of the Red Sea, the Strait of Hormuz(i) at the entrance to the Persian Gulf and even the Palk Strait between Sri Lanka and India have all been suggested at some stage as the 'Pillars'.
George H. Cooper offered[236] an even more outrageous solution when he wrote that Stonehenge in England were the original Pillars of Heracles. In 2018, David L. Hildebrandt published Atlantis – The Awakening [1602], in which he has endeavoured to do just that with a mass of material that he claims supports the idea of Atlantis in Britain and Stonehenge as the remnants of the Temple of Poseidon. He suggests that the the five trilithons represent the five sets of male twins, an idea voiced by Jürgen Spanuth and more recently by Dieter Braasch.
Sometimes, in ancient Greek literature, this phrase refers to the strait between Sicily and the southern tip of Italy (a place which the Greeks did know well, having established colonies in Sicily and southern Italy). An indication of the level of confusion that existed in early geography and cartography is the fact that some ancient maps & texts mark the Mediterranean region west of the Strait of Sicily as "the Atlantic Ocean" and even state that Tyrrhenia is in the 'Atlantic'!
Finally, my own conclusion regarding the location of the 'Pillars' referred to by Plato/Solon, is that a careful reading of Plato's text shows clearly that they were located in the Central or Western Mediterranean. I base this view on (i) Critias 108 which states that the Atlantean war was between those that lived outside the Pillars of Heracles and those that lived within them and (ii) Critias 114 which declares that Atlantis held sway over the Western Mediterranean as far as Tyrrhenia in the north and up to the borders of Egypt in the south. Consequently, we can assume that west of Tyrrhenia and of Egypt were beyond the Pillars of Heracles. Depending on the exact location of the ancient borders of Tyrrhenia and Egypt, the Pillars could have been situated between Malta and Crete. This interpretation opens up the possibility of Malta, Sicily or Sardinia as prime candidates for the location of Atlantis, my preference being at the Strait of Messina between Sicily and mainland Italy.>My principal reason being that a strait is defined as "a naturally formed, narrow, typically navigable waterway that connects two larger bodies of water." The Strait of Sicily is 145 km wide and cannot be realistically considered a strait. On the other hand the Strait of Messina, which at its narrowest is 3.1 km wide, fits the bill perfectly. Andis Kaulins is similarly inclined to favour the Central Mediterranean, also with the Strait of Messina as his prime candidate(q).
Plato's comments make little sense, if he was describing an attack by people outside the Pillars located at Gibraltar on those inside the Pillars, since at least half of the coastal territory, in both Europe and Africa, east of Gibraltar was already conquered. However, if the Pillars were located somewhere much further east, his comments make greater sense.
The Schoppes, in support of their Black Sea location for Atlantis, maintain that the Pillars were situated at the Bosporus and not Gibraltar. They contend "the maintained misinterpretation results from the fact that Herakles went to Iberia. At late Hellenistic and at Roman times Iberia was Spain. However, this leads to inconsistencies: After putting up the Pillars (supposed to be Gibraltar) Herakles put together a fleet to go to Iberia, he was still there!" The Schoppes point out that in the distant past 'Iberia related to the land of an ethnic group to the east of the Black Sea.
In spite of all this two writers, R. McQuillen and Hossam Aboulfotouh, have suggested the vicinity of Canopus, situated in the west of the Nile Delta, as the location of the 'Pillars'.
Luana Monte, a supporter of the Minoan Hypothesis has also proposed[0485] a location at the mouth of the Nile Delta where the recently rediscovered sunken city of Herakleoin was situated. This identification appears to have been made in order to keep the Minoan Empire west of the 'Pillars'.
Even more bizarre is the suggestion(c) that the 'Pillars' were in fact two bright stars in the western sky at the end of the last Age of Libra around 12,500 BC.
What is clear from all of the above is that the term Pillars of Heracles was, without doubt, applied to a variety of locations but Plato's reference MIGHT relate to Gibraltar although equally strong if not stronger cases can be made for other sites at earlier dates. It is also plausible that at some point it also became a metaphor for any geographical limit.
Neville Chipulina, a Gibraltarian, has an interesting article(m) on the 'history' of the Pillars of Hercules and its association with Gibraltar.
Apart from any connection with Atlantis, it has been suggested that the vertical lines in the US dollar $ign (and by extention the Bitcoin logo) represent the Pillars of Heracles!(l)
(a) https://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/archaeology/people/shipley/pseudo-skylax
(b) https://www.grahamhancock.com/underworld/DrSunilAtlantis.php
(c) https://dailygrail.com/blogs/Charles-Pope/2011/8/Atlantis-Above-and-Below-Part-3
(d) https://www.gunnzone.org/constructs/endsjo.htm (Link broken 2019)
(e) https://books.google.ie/books/about/The_Edges_of_the_Earth_in_Ancient_Though.html?id=UOTxOcI_YJgC&redir_esc=y
(f) https://www.atlantidaegeo.com/c_hercules.html
(g) https://classics.mit.edu?Aristotle/meteorology.2.ii.html
(h) https://www.museodeidolmen.it/popomare.html
(i) https://middle-east.mavericsa.co.za/history.html
(j) https://shebtiw.wordpress.com/the-sea/the-pillars-of-hercules/
(k) https://redefiningatlantis.blogspot.ie/search/label/Heracles
(l) https://www.pravda-tv.com/2016/07/atlantis-die-dollar-note-und-die-saeulen-des-herakles/
(m) https://gibraltar-intro.blogspot.ie/2015/10/bc-pillars-of-hercules-if-ordinary.html
(n) https://www.theflatearthsociety.org/library/pamphlets/Is%20Britain%20the%20Lost%20Atlantis.pdf
(o) https://www.academia.edu/35505631/THE_PILLARS_OF_HERCULES_MYTH_OR_REALITY?auto=download&campaign=weekly_digest
(p) https://stillcurrent.wordpress.com/2016/04/05/atlantis-maybe-not-so-lost/
>(q) https://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi60.htm<


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Google's Nexus devices tend to stand in a league of their own, thanks both to their pure Android software experiences and market-disrupting price models. With its new Nexus 10 tablet, available November 13, Google is expanding its reach into the realm of 10-in. tablets.
The Nexus 10 is a bit different from Google's past efforts. The tablet, manufactured by Samsung, enters a realm that's already crowded with noteworthy contenders -- and its price, while certainly low, is nowhere near as eye-catching as what we saw with the recent Nexus 7 and Nexus 4 devices.
Google's Nexus 10 tablet
The Nexus 10 will be sold directly by Google for $399 for a 16GB version or $499 for a 32GB model. So what's it like to use, and is it worth the cost? I've spent the past several days living with the tablet to find out.
Body and display
In terms of design, the Nexus 10 feels very much like a Samsung tablet: The device has a plastic-based construction that comes across as more utilitarian than premium. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it's a significant difference from the sleek and metal-centric approach used by products like Asus's Transformer Pad Infinity and Apple's iPad. (Of course, the iPad is more expensive, with a 16GB model costing $499. The Transformer Pad has a higher starting price, too, but it's actually in line with the Nexus 10's higher-end offering: $499 for a 32GB tablet.)
The Nexus 10's casing has a rubberized sort of feel that's pleasant to the touch; the tablet is easy to hold and never feels like it's slipping out of your hands. At 1.3 lb. and a 0.35-in. thickness, the device is relatively light and thin, too -- more so even than Apple's latest offering, which comes in at 1.44 lb. and 0.37 in.
The Nexus 10's best physical attribute, however, is its face. The tablet boasts a striking 2560-x-1600-pixel, 10.1-in. display with 300ppi, making it the highest resolution screen on any tablet today -- the kind of resolution you'd typically see on a 30-in. computer monitor. The iPad, for comparison, has a resolution of 2048 x 1536 with 264ppi.
The Corning Gorilla Glass 2 screen is every bit as sharp as you'd expect: Colors pop and details shine with a level of clarity that simply delights the eye. Watching HD videos -- movies, in particular -- is just an awesome experience on this device, particularly when you factor in its dual front-facing stereo speakers, which provide the best on-board audio of any tablet I've used.
The only negative is the Nexus 10's built-in autobrightness feature, which I found to be rather erratic: Regardless of where I used the tablet, the screen's brightness would randomly fluctuate every 30 seconds or so, even when I was holding the device perfectly still in stable lighting conditions. This seems to be a consistent issue with Samsung-made mobile products.
The Nexus 10's speakers are built into a plastic bezel that surrounds the display and extends seamlessly onto the device's sides and back. The left side of the unit houses a 3.5mm headphone jack along with a micro-USB port. That's right, folks: The Nexus 10, unlike most tablets, actually charges via a standard micro-USB connector instead of a proprietary alternative. (Hallelujah!).
The tablet has a power button and volume rocker directly next to each other on the far left of its top edge. That placement is somewhat unusual; the side of a device is a far more common spot for volume control. It's a minor detail, for sure, but even after a week of using the Nexus 10, I find it feels slightly unnatural to press left or right instead of up or down on the volume rocker to adjust the sound level.
On the right of the tablet, you have a dedicated micro-HDMI port -- no special adapter or connector required there, either. The device's bottom, meanwhile, has a magnetic charging port, presumably for future docking accessories.
The Nexus 10's back is a single piece of hard plastic, save for an inch-and-a-half-tall panel of removable material surrounding the camera at the top. The removable panel is another very Samsung-like touch; it's thin, flimsy, and feels like it'd be all too easy to snap in half. I was actually worried I was going to break it when I first peeled it off my device (thankfully, I did not).
Why would you even peel the panel off in the first place, you might be wondering? Unlike many Samsung-made phones, the panel doesn't give you access to the device's battery or other interiors. It does, however, serve as a placeholder for an optional cover accessory; Google sent me a bright red cover to try out.
Once attached, the cover flips around the top of the device to protect the screen. It also serves as an easy on-off switch: With the help of a hidden magnet, the cover automatically activates the Nexus 10's display when you lift it up and puts it to sleep when you place it back down. It's a nice touch that -- particularly with the way it integrates naturally into the tablet's form -- makes the product feel more complete.
(Google says the covers will be sold directly through its Google Play Store but has yet to release any info about their pricing or when they'll be available.)
Under the hood
Google's Nexus 10 is powered by a 1.7GHz Samsung Exynos 5250 dual-core processor along with 2GB of RAM. It's easy to get caught up in specs like the number of cores when talking about tablets (quad-core is quickly becoming par for the course these days), but it's important to remember that those numbers alone don't determine a device's performance.
The experience of using the Nexus 10, in fact, is more consistently smooth and snappy than what I've experienced with most other 10-in. Android tablets -- including those with quad-core chips. Navigating through the home screens is fast and fluid, apps load instantly and multitasking feels effortless. Web browsing is a breeze, too, even with numerous tabs open in the Chrome browser. There's nothing to complain about in terms of performance here; the Nexus 10 absolutely delivers.
The Nexus 10 packs a 9000mAh battery that promises nine hours of nonstop video streaming, seven hours of continuous Web browsing and 500 hours of standby time. I found the tablet's stamina to be top-notch; even with moderate to heavy use, I was often able to go a solid few days between charges.
One area where the Nexus 10 falls short is in storage: The tablet's internal space is limited to either 16GB or 32GB. Once you factor in system files and all that fun stuff, even on the 32GB device, you're left with only about 27GB to 28GB of actual usable space -- and the device does not have an SD card slot for external storage. As with its Nexus 4, Google is clearly putting the focus on cloud storage and Web-based streaming, but that kind of configuration isn't going to work for everyone.
The Nexus 10 has two cameras: a front-facing 1.9-megapixel, 720p camera for vanity pics and video chat; and a rear-facing 5-megapixel, 1080p camera for stills and general recordings. When it comes to still pictures, the cameras are okay but not great; they'll get the job done, but you'll get far better quality from pretty much any current high-end smartphone camera. (Does anyone actually take photos on a tablet, anyway?)
Google's Nexus 10 supports near-field communication (NFC) for contact-free sharing and services, including Google Wallet, which comes preloaded on the device. Contrary to some reports, the tablet does not support the new Miracast wireless display-sharing protocol announced for the Nexus 4.
The Nexus 10 is currently available as a Wi-Fi-based device; at this point, Google has not announced any plans for a 3G- or 4G-capable version.
The software
Like with all of Google's Nexus devices, the software is what really sets the Nexus 10 apart from the competition. The Nexus 10 ships with a pure stock version of Google's new Android 4.2 operating system. That means you get the actual software Google's Android team created -- no cluttered and messy manufacturer-added interfaces and no mountains of bloatware glued onto the system.
The Nexus 10 ships with a pure stock version of Google's new Android 4.2 operating system.
The result is a fast, fluid and visually consistent user interface that's a pleasure to use. Equally important, it's a guarantee of fast and frequent future upgrades: While most Android tablets are dependent on their manufacturers for OS upgrades, Nexus devices receive their software directly from Google, typically within a week or two of a new release. That's a sharp contrast to the agonizing wait-and-see game owners of manufacturer-controlled tablets commonly face.
Android 4.2 brings a new but familiar look to the 10-in. tablet form: Instead of the tablet-specific UI introduced with Android 3.0 and carried over ever since, the Nexus 10 utilizes a setup that's more similar to what you find on an Android phone. It's very much like the UI used on the Nexus 7, only with a few additional tweaks designed to take advantage of the larger screen space.
At the top of the home screen, you have a persistent Google search bar that provides access to both the Google Now intelligent assistant tool and the Jelly Bean Voice Search feature. At the bottom, you have a Favorites Tray with eight customizable icons and a permanent shortcut to the app drawer. Beneath the tray is a black bar with virtual navigation buttons that let you move back, return home or switch apps from anywhere in the system; the buttons remain centered in that bar regardless of how you're holding the tablet.
Then there are the notifications: While previous Android tablets have displayed notifications as tiles in the lower-right corner of the screen, the Nexus 10 instead uses a variation of the standard top-of-screen setup. The main notifications pulldown is accessed by swiping down on the left side of the screen. Swiping down on the right, meanwhile, brings down a separate "quick settings" panel -- a new feature of Android 4.2 that provides quick access to basic system settings.
Even as someone who's used Android tablets since their earliest incarnations, I've found the new 10-in. tablet UI easy to use and adapt to. It feels completely natural to move from an Android phone to a 7-in. tablet to a 10-in. device -- and that platform-wide consistency is very much Google's goal with this UI change. From a perspective of platform growth and accessibility, that makes perfect sense.
The one area where I'm not completely sold is on the placement of the virtual navigation buttons. Those are buttons you frequently access while using a device -- and when holding a 10-in. tablet in landscape mode with two hands, their centered orientation makes them rather difficult to reach. I get why they're centered from a conceptual standpoint, but it'd sure be nice if there were a way for the user to reposition them to the left or right side of the screen for more ergonomic access.
Interface aside, Android 4.2 now supports multiple user accounts on tablets. Google says the feature will let each user maintain separate home screen setups and app collections as well as access to his own Google-related services like email and storage.
Multiuser support was not yet available on the prerelease software on my review device, so I wasn't able to test it. Google says it'll be added via an over-the-air update on the day the tablet launches; I'll revisit it in my blog once I've had the chance to check it out.
Android 4.2 introduces a slew of other new features, such as a redesigned Camera app, a new system keyboard with slide-to-type support and a powerful multilayered security system. There are also some improvements to the Gmail app and signs of subtle polish sprinkled throughout the UI.
I went into great detail about the various new features in my Nexus 4 review earlier this week. Rather than repeating myself here, I'll point you there for additional information.
What about the apps?
Before I wrap up, there's one elephant in the room that needs to be addressed: the apps. Android is frequently criticized for the lack of apps that are optimized for the tablet form, particularly in comparison to Apple's iOS platform.
So how real of a problem is it? Well, it's all relative. In terms of objective measurements, Google doesn't release numbers about the percentage of "tablet apps" vs. "phone apps" within its Play Store. Android apps aren't really classified separately like that in the first place; rather, apps that are properly coded to Android 4.x design standards can scale up from one form to another without issue. (Very few Android apps have separate phone and tablet editions.) If they're designed well, they'll also incorporate additional UI elements -- multiple on-screen columns, for example -- when a larger screen size is detected.
Based on personal experience and anecdotal evidence, I'd say it's probably fair to conclude that iOS has more apps that are optimized for the tablet form at this point. It's also fair to say that Android's collection of tablet-optimized apps is rapidly expanding -- and there's no shortage of sharp-looking selections to be found.
Pretty much all of Google's applications -- Gmail, Maps, Google Docs/Drive, YouTube, Google Calendar, Google+ and so forth -- look fantastic on a 10-in. device, as you'd expect. Popular note-taking apps like Evernote and Springpad are fully optimized for the large-screen form, as are video-streaming apps like Netflix and Hulu Plus. You can find plenty of tablet-friendly office suites, communication tools, multimedia programs, reference utilities and news and weather applications, too, not to mention resizable, interactive widgets that live and function right on your tablet's home screen.
At a Glance
GooglePrice: $399 (16GB), $499 (32GB)Pros: Unaltered Google Android 4.2 software; guaranteed fast and frequent future upgrades; fantastic HD display; good stereo speakers; excellent performance; outstanding battery lifeCons: Limited internal storage; no option for external storage; less premium form than some high-end tablets
There's still progress to be made, of course -- some popular programs like Flipboard are still inexplicably unavailable on 10-in. Android tablets -- but as a platform, Android today is anything but the barren wasteland of "scaled-up phone apps" some companies paint it to be.
The bigger issue, if you ask me, is discoverability: While Google does have a section of its Play Store dedicated to " featured apps for tablets," that really isn't enough. The company would be wise to start letting developers flag apps that are fully optimized for the large-screen form and then allow users to filter their searches based on that designation. While the vast majority of Android apps will run on tablets and look okay, apps that are optimized for the form obviously provide a better experience -- and it should be easy for users to find them.
Bottom line
Google's Nexus 10 is a standout tablet with a lot of good things going for it. It has a gorgeous HD display with superb front-facing stereo speakers, excellent performance and outstanding battery life. It also runs pure Google Android software and is guaranteed to receive future OS upgrades as soon as they're released.
The device does have very limited on-board storage, though, with no option to add extra space via an SD card. It also has a plastic-based body that looks and feels less premium than some of the competition.
But if you can stomach the storage -- and don't mind the unassuming design -- the Nexus 10 offers tremendous value at a relatively low cost. For anyone looking for a solid 10-in. tablet with a great all-around user experience, it's a tough act to beat.
JR Raphael is a Computerworld contributing editor and the author of the Android Power blog. For more Android tips and insights, follow him on Google+, Twitter, or Facebook.
Read more about smartphones in Computerworld's Smartphones Topic Center.


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Undergrad Researchers Win With Efficient Lighting Proposal
Physics Honor Society Team Designing Test Equipment to Help Create Improved LED Systems
Undergraduate students from the UT Dallas chapter of the Society of Physics Students have earned a national award for their proposal to create high-efficiency devices for displays and lighting.
They were one of only nine research groups in the country selected to receive the Sigma Pi Sigma Undergraduate Research Award, which comes with about $2,000 in research funds.
The project included undergraduate students Jonny Bursa, Roxanne Lee, Christine Liou, An-Ting Liu, Armand Halbert, Omar Hasan and Anthony Phung; graduate student Clint Naquin; physics technician David Taylor; and the SPS faculty advisor, Assistant Professor Jason Slinker.
"Our team of eight students drafted this proposal and we were incredibly pleased they were chosen," said Dr. Jason Slinker, assistant professor of physics and faculty advisor on the project. "It really shows the quality of their work and the caliber of students we have at UT Dallas."
The research project will focus on creating test equipment for light emitting diode or LEDs with more energy-efficient lighting sources. The team created the proposal complete with a cost-benefit analysis and an estimate of funds to complete the research.
"The main innovation of this project is to use conventional optical scanners to track the light output changes of LEDs with time," said Omar Hasan, an electrical engineering major. "Our hypothesis is that, unlike conventional photodetectors, which only return information on emitted light intensity, the scanner will also simultaneously track color changes occurring in the LEDs."
Exhibition of Excellence
in Undergraduate Research
The Office of Undergraduate Education and the Office of Research have organized an exhibition on Thursday, March 29, to recognize the work of undergraduate researchers. All events will be in the Clark Center lobby:
11 a.m.-12 p.m. — Undergraduate researcher student panel
12-1 p.m. — Celebration of the inaugural issue of The Exley, UT Dallas' undergraduate research journal
2-4:30 p.m. — Undergraduate research poster contest
The undergraduates participating in the project span a wide range of majors including physics, computer science, electrical engineering, biology, and biochemistry. Biology student Wei-Ting Liou said he became involved in drafting the proposal after taking a biophysics course taught by Slinker.
"I was interested in doing research, so I asked him if I could get involved with any kind of project," Liou said. "We all wrote a portion of the proposal and that kind of collaboration really brought us all together."
Sigma Pi Sigma, the National Physics Honor Society, award program provides support to local chapter activities.
"This was the first science award I have ever received so it was really exciting," Liou added.
Now that the student researchers have received the award, they are executing the work — designing and building the driving circuits, writing software for automated testing, and investigating scanner and photo technology.
"We hope to have an initial prototype tester complete by the end of March or early April. The award support runs through December, at which time we will submit a final report to SPS," Slinker said. "The award will also provide an additional supplement for the students to present their work at a conference."
Media Contact: The Office of Media Relations, UT Dallas, (972) 883-2155, [email protected].


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Guests: Joan Walsh, Bill Press, Sally Kohn, Michael Blozen, Errol Louis,
David Cay Johnston
ED SCHULTZ, HOST: Good evening, Americans. And welcome to THE ED SHOW tonight from New York.
Well, today, Speaker Nancy Pelosi formally requested an ethics investigation of her own. Tonight, "The New York Times" reports that 15 minutes before the press conference yesterday, Anthony Weiner told leader Pelosi in no uncertain terms that he was not going to resign his seat. End of discussion, he said.
Well, we're still going to discuss it here on THE ED SHOW. Let's get to work.
JAMES CARVILLE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: They are really mad at him.
You can just see former Speaker Pelosi is furious.
SCHULTZ (voice-over): Democrats are mad. Republicans are licking their chops. Anthony Weiner refuses to budge.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He would instant message me every day.
SCHULTZ: As Weiner's women continue to come out of the woodwork, accusations from a porn star that he helped coach her on hiding their activity. Tonight, we'll find out what his constituents think about all of this.
And the GOP 2012? Tim Pawlenty's new plan to shaft the middle class is out. And Michele Bachmann hired a new campaign manager who is already taking shots at Sarah Palin.
SCHULTZ: Good to have you with us tonight. Lots to talk about.
Americans who pay attention to politics know Congressman Anthony Weiner of New York as one of these tough, liberal fighters for the middle class. And that's why they revere him so much. Now, the rest of America knows Weiner as a public servant who sent smutty pictures to young women that are so bad.
Weiner is the butt of the joke of every late night comedian stunt out there and right wing talk show host who actually have a strangle on the airwaves across America. He's getting beat up pretty good.
Last night, I called for the congressman to take one for the team and step aside and resign. Many of you in our poll, 65 percent of you disagreed with what I said. We'll get to that.
Weiner is very popular among liberals. And many believe he really could have been next in line to be the mayor of New York, which I'm told he really wanted. Now, even some New Yorkers are having second thoughts. We'll show you some brand new poll numbers later in the program.
Weiner's lies, you have to admit, are going to be a distraction for the Democrats, and I don't think they can afford that before the 2012 election. Too much is at stake.
This isn't about Weiner. It's about the agenda. It's about the liberal agenda. It's about the Democratic Party saving face and credibility.
Conservatives love to use stories like Weiner's to paint the entire party as corrupt.
RUSH LIMBAUGH, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Weiner is the face of Democrats
Democrat family values. He is the epitome of a Democrat culture of corruption, the Democrat culture of erection.
He is wrong on policy. He is an admitted liar. He used his orifice in Congress to conduct his lurid e-perversions. The guy's got it all.
SCHULTZ: Now, as usual, the Drugster is completely wrong on his facts. But Weiner has handed Rush basically the gun on the smut talk.
None of the Democrats are running to the cameras even tonight to defend Congressman Weiner. In fact, Harry Reid did the opposite.
SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MAJORITY LEADER: I know Congressman Weiner.
I wish there was some way I can defend him, but I can't.
REPORTER: What advice would you give if he asked you?
REID: Call somebody else.
SCHULTZ: Call somebody else. The evidence of Weiner's honky-tonk actions will keep on growing until he steps aside. That was my position last night. It's my position again tonight. This story is going to continue to drip.
And on Monday, Weiner gave, I thought, a very weak answer when asked about phone sex.
REPORTER: Did you have phone sex with these women? Did you ever have an affair with one of these women?
REP. ANTHONY WEINER (D), NEW YORK: I've never—as I said in my statement, I never met any of these women.
REPORTER: Did you have phone sex?
WEINER: I never was in the same room with them. I never had any physical relationship whatsoever.
I am reluctant to, for their privacy and since their names are coming out, of characterizing our exchanges except that they were consensual.
SCHULTZ: And here comes the drip I'm talking about. Today, a Vegas black jack dealer named Lisa Weiss—well, she came forward and admitted having a nine-month sexting relationship with the congressman. Weiss told "Radar Online" the congressman used a government telephone to have phone sex with her. She said, "I gave him my number and he called me from his office and we proceeded to talk dirty for about 30 minutes."
Another woman in the Weiner scandal is a porn star, Ginger Lee. Today, TMZ reported Weiner gave the porn star—get this—detailed instructions on how to lie about the relationship and cover it up, and, at one point, offered to have someone on his professional P.R. team give Ginger some advice on how to navigate through all of this.
Now, folks, if either one of these stories proved to be true, Weiner -
well, he's going to get hammered by the House Ethics Committee and hand conservatives what they have been waiting for for a long time—a great sex scandal going into 2012 and a talk about morality. I know they do it, too, but it's the campaign season.
Now, I want to be very clear tonight. I am not trying to be a member of the moral police squad on this story. But the fact is, if Weiner used his time, energy, and resources to help a porn star, along with phone sex from his congressional office, I think this violates the public trust. He wasn't hired to do that.
Weiner has portrayed his trust with the constituents and he basically has used the media to flat out lie.
REPORTER: I'd love to get an answer.
WEINER: That would be reasonable. You do the questions, I do the answers and this jack ass interrupts me. How about that?
The objective of the person who is doing the mischief is to try to distract me from what I'm doing.
You know I can't say with certitude. My system was hacked. Pictures can be manipulated. Pictures can be dropped in and inserted.
This has turned into this kind of international whodunit. What it really is was I think a prank. I'm treating it like a prank.
Well, let's remember this Twitter picture in question is a hack or a prank that someone posted on my Twitter page with someone else's name in it.
The photograph doesn't look familiar to me, but a lot of people who have been looking at this stuff on our behalf are cautioning me that, you know, stuff gets manipulated.
SCHULTZ: Weiner didn't tell a white lie, not one of those little ones. He used a coordinated media campaign to cover up a lifestyle.
Now I would venture to say that I think Americans really aren't into somebody else's phone sex and really don't care about how this is all minutiaed—if you know what I mean? But I think Americans do care and I care about being used and being lied to repeatedly.
Now, all of us who do cable shows, I can't speak for anybody else, but when we come on the air, we want to bring you the truth. We bring you opinion. We can't have our own set of facts. And we trust people to come on the air and tell the truth.
And he violated that trust with the very people that he used for promotion. And I have an ethical problem with that.
The fact of the matter is the trust—it is in a big way been disgraced by Congressman Weiner. And the fact that he told Nancy Pelosi, Democratic leader, 15 minutes before the press conference yesterday, that in no uncertain terms that he was going to give up his seat, he continued to have a game plan. And I'm struggling with that, as well.
Game plan for what? He was not going to step up and say, "I'm ready to do restitution."
Now, if constituents are OK with that—that's fine. What are their standards?
This story undoubtedly is lowering the bar and that's unfortunate.
Get your cell phones out; I want to know what you think. I'll ask the same question tonight that I asked you last night, given today's new developments. Should Anthony Weiner resign? Text A for yes, text B for no to 622639, and you can always go to our new blog at Ed.MSNBC.com. We'll bring you the results later on in the show.
And I don't want to be a member of the gotcha or get you police or moral police squad, and I do want the e-mailers to my radio show to know this—that I have been very consistent. I called for the resignation of John Edwards to step out of the race when it first came up back in 2006. David Vitter, John Ensign—I even said on the 6:00 show before I moved to this time slot, that I thought that Charlie Rangel should resign. You can't cheat on your taxes and hold credibility, in my opinion.
So, this isn't about going out and getting Anthony Weiner. Weiner has been a staunch supporter for Democrats and fighters for the left. It's a sad, sad story.
Joining me tonight on the panel is Joan Walsh, editor at large for Salon.com; Sally Kohn, founder of MovementVision.org; and nationally syndicated talk show host, Bill Press.
Joan, we'll start with you tonight. Thanks for joining us.
JOAN WALSH, SALON.COM: Sure.
SCHULTZ: "The New York Times" is reporting that Weiner told Nancy Pelosi he would not resign only 15 minutes before his press conference. Do you think Weiner will ever resign? Is this—is this just part of his overall plan that he will never give in? What do you think?
WALSH: I don't know. You know, I don't think that's clear yet. He obviously tried to dig his heels in and say that it wasn't him. He tried that strategy. He lied.
And I agree with you, Ed. You know, the lying is what disturbs me.
He implicated a lot of us.
I defend—I gave him the benefit of the doubt. Let's just say that.
You know, I look kind of stupid.
But on the other hand, this was—this was brought to light for political reasons.
SCHULTZ: Why do you look stupid? Why do you say that?
WALSH: Oh, because I gave him the benefit of the doubt publicly and, you know, pointed to the—you know, the motivations of the people who were bringing this to light, which was to destroy him. And, you know, it's all kind of creepy and he lied and that's the worst thing.
But, on the other hand, you know, this is—this is private business.
You know, I'm not his wife. She has reasons to be upset.
But if we really lower the bar, as you referred to, to this level where you can't accuse him of hypocrisy, he's not a family values moralizer. You can't accuse him yet of breaking the law. I'll get back to that.
At this point, I'm not going to join a call for him to resign—
WALSH: -- because I don't think we have all the facts. I'm proud of Nancy Pelosi for saying she's going to investigate him. That's where Democrats are different because we take --
SCHULTZ: This investigation is going to tell us whether his system was hacked or not. And so, that all is going to come out.
Bill Press, do you feel any different about it tonight with new developments that have come out? Using his phone, allegedly in his office, helping the porn star trying to navigate through this with a P.R. help offering that? What about that, Bill?
BILL PRESS, BILL PRESS SHOW: First of all, Ed, look, I admire you for sticking to your guns. I'm going to stick to mine. No, I don't think he should resign.
A couple points, real quickly, right? We do not know he did anything illegal. Nobody has suggested that.
WALSH: Right.
PRESS: But he did do anything illegal.
SCHULTZ: But he did lie.
PRESS: He lied. Absolutely, he lied.
SCHULTZ: Repeatedly.
PRESS: He lied repeatedly. He lied to his wife. He lied to us. He lied to his colleagues. And that is totally unacceptable. I point it out.
Others have lied. Lying in Washington, D.C is not a cause for losing your job or else this would be a ghost town.
SCHULTZ: Well, that takes us to the next level. Andrew Breitbart claims that he's got an X-rated picture—
PRESS: Well—
SCHULTZ: -- of Weiner, and he's using it as insurance.
PRESS: Right.
SCHULTZ: Here is what he said on the "Today" show this morning.
PRESS: Got it.
MATT LAUER, TODAY SHOW: So, would you use that photo to protect these women?
ANDREW BREITBART, BLOGGER: You know, I'm not thinking of it that way. But I vernacular it in my possession and I guarantee you, he would use this against me and the people on the left side of the blogosphere would have used this against me. I could have put that out there and his career would have been over today.
SCHULTZ: Sally Kohn, what do you make of that?
SALLY KOHN, MOVEMENTVISION.ORG: Look, this isn't about judging Anthony Weiner. This is about judging what's in the best interests of the country. And the fact of the matter is he's becoming the Tiger Woods of politics.
I mean, look, the number one thing that Democrats have to do in this country is restore trust in government. And you can't get the American people to believe in the political system if you don't give them leaders that they can believe in.
SCHULTZ: But, Bill Press, if it's true that there is an x-rated picture out there, you've got a congressman who has sent an x-rated picture through the Internet. I mean, you don't think that's grounds for dismissal in the arena of public opinion?
PRESS: Hey, Ed, wait, wait. We're playing right wing politics here now. Of course.
SCHULTZ: No, Bill, I'm not—no. We are not playing right wing politics.
Bill, hold on. Hold on. You've done these shows. You know how this works. This is not right wing politics.
This is absolute. There are absolutes. This man is now being accused of sending out pornography on the Internet. He is also a—repeatedly been a liar on all of these talk shows, Bill. This has nothing to do with left and right at this point.
PRESS: Ed, have you seen the x-rated picture? Are you going to show it tonight? Have you seen it?
SCHULTZ: I'm asking you if that is a game-changer if that is true.
PRESS: Well, I was trying to answer the question. Ed, yes, if that is out there, if that comes out there, he is gone. He is absolutely gone.
But we don't know that yet. We don't know that he used government resources yet on his cell phone, Ed.
SCHULTZ: But you know who does that, Bill?
PRESS: And I don't think we ought to let the right wing set the agenda here and listen to Rush Limbaugh and think that --
SCHULTZ: Excuse me?
PRESS: -- Anthony Weiner is the face of the Democratic Party.
SCHULTZ: I'm embarrassed that you compare me to Rush Limbaugh, number one.
PRESS: I'm not, Ed. I'm not doing that.
SCHULTZ: I just want to say—I want to say this: there is one person that knows if there is a picture out there and it's not Andrew Breitbart. It's Anthony Weiner. And he needs to step up and if he knows that there is a picture out there that's even more evidence and more damaging to the American governmental process and it's very damaging to the Democrats, and that's exactly why Harry Reid is not going to step up ands support him.
Your thoughts, Joan Walsh.
WALSH: Well, yes. I mean, I do think that photo is probably a game-changer. But again, Ed, I would never accuse you of being a right winger. I'm just saying, you know, if we let the other side keep taking scalps, that determines who our leaders are.
SCHULTZ: The right wing isn't taking a scalp. Anthony Weiner has been driving this bus. You folks are in denial.
KOHN: I have to say, I think that, you know, the most horrifying thing about this entire story is we have infinitely more important things to be focused on as a country.
WALSH: Yes.
KOHN: And like it or not this is a distraction. He is going to be an albatross around the neck of the Democratic Party.
And more importantly, look, he's supposed to be doing the important work of the American people who elect these men and women. And, unfortunately, more often, men than women, and can't—we can't afford this distraction, not even one distraction. Not even one member of this office to be distracted. They have more important things to do.
WALSH: No one has proven that he neglected his duties.
Look, you know, I'm with Bill. I call for an investigation. I think that's great. We'll see what they find.
But at this point to say that we can know he—that he neglected his duties, we can't. There's no evidence of that. That he used his congressional phone, maybe he did. They can find that out and they will look into it.
I'm just very uncomfortable. Look, if we adhere to this standard, Bill Clinton would never have been president and I happen to think Bill Clinton was a pretty good president.
PRESS: I want to pick up on that, Ed, if I can for just a second. Listen, I've been thinking about Bill Clinton through this whole thing. I heard all these arguments, all the same arguments being made.
WALSH: All of them.
SCHULTZ: And I think Bill Clinton got impeached.
PRESS: That he's an embarrassment. He's the face of the party. I took the position at the time.
SCHULTZ: I think Bill Clinton was impeached. Let's not redo history here.
PRESS: Talking about whether he should have resigned. People are calling him to resign. I don't think he should have. I'm glad he didn't. He is stronger today than he ever was before.
PRESS: -- calling for his resignation. That's all.
KOHN: I think it was wrong then. It's wrong now. We have too many public officials who are allowing to abuse—particularly male public officials who are allowing to abuse their positions and not holding up the candle. Look, we need to be a party of integrity.
SCHULTZ: And let me be very clear—I don't think the American people in my opinion care about the sexting or care about the phone sex.
What they care about is the lying and what they care about is what these
public officials—this one in particular was doing on company time. I
mean, if, in fact, he was involved in this, and more is going to come out -
and he knows it, he knows it, there is one person that knows the story here and that's Anthony Weiner.
And I think for him to tell Nancy Pelosi under no uncertain terms he is going to be the judge, jury, executioner in all of this after all that he's been through, I think that is really continuing to game the system.
WALSH: But he's not the judge, jury, and executioner. There are other people who will have a stay about his fate as we learn more.
And, look, Ed, I agree with you on one thing—if he's done more, if there are things that the country will be rightfully very concerned about, he is the only one who knows and if that's true, he should resign. But if what we know is out there and we're going to, you know, let this moral outrage determine what people should do, again, I come back to Bill Clinton.
WALSH: And Bill Clinton, at least they had the—at least they could say he lied under oath. That was their cover.
SCHULTZ: All right. Joan Walsh, Sally Kohn, and Bill Press—great to have all of you on tonight. I appreciate it so much.
Remember to answer tonight's question there at the bottom of the screen. I want to know what you think.
New polling shows there are vastly different opinions on Congressman Weiner's behavior among New Yorkers. I'll talk with someone from his district and find out his opinion on the congressman to see if it's changed.
And 10 years ago today—I guess we should celebrate this—George W. Bush performed the magic trick. He took billions in surplus and turned it into trillions of debt. Ten years later, we're still paying for the Bush tax cuts.
It's all coming up. Stay with us.
SCHULTZ: What about New Yorkers? I think you'd get New Yorkers to agree on the color of the sky some days. So, unsurprisingly, opinions are split when it comes to the political future of Anthony Weiner.
First, you have a poll by Survey USA that asks New York City residents if Congressman Weiner should resign or stay in office. Forty-six percent said he should quit, while 41 percent said he should stay in office, 13 percent were unsure.
Now, compare that to a new poll from Marist College asking registered New York City voters the very same question -- 51 percent said he should stay and only 30 percent said he should step down, 18 percent don't know.
In both polls, interestingly enough, women were less inclined to see the congressman resign than men, 42 percent to 50 percent the first poll, and 28 percent to 33 percent in the Marist poll, which surveyed registered voters. That poll also asked voters if they want Anthony Weiner to run for mayor of the city of New York, 56 percent said no.
But the real test of the congressman is going to come from his district, a constituent from Queens, New York, joins me next to say whether or not he still supports the congressman.
Stay with us.
SCHULTZ: No doubt countless politicians have survived scandals and ultimately it comes down to the voters. What are they going to put up with? Will they forgive their elected official even if they don't forget what he or she has done? Are the transgressions of today over shadowed by the accomplishments of the past?
According to at least one constituent in Weiner's district, the answer is no. The sign reading "Resign pervert Weiner" was taped to the window of the congressman's Brooklyn office, but no one in the district agrees. Not everyone in the district agrees.
Here are some comments from other Weiner constituents.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People make mistakes. People do silly things like that. This is what technology has gotten. This is what it brings out in people, sexting and pictures and things like that. He does a good job. Let him do his job.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think he should resign. It's personal business between him and his wife. That's what I think.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Resign for that? No. I think he is one of the most effective, decent congressmen out there. That's why this thing probably blew up.
SCHULTZ: Joining me tonight, another constituent who feels the same way, Michael Blozen is with us tonight. He is a resident of Queens, New York, who lives in Congressman Weiner's district.
Great to have you with us.
MICHAEL BLOZEN, WEINER CONSTITUENT: Thank you, Ed.
SCHULTZ: One thing about New Yorkers, I can tell you from being in the Midwest for many years—New Yorkers are brutally honest.
BLOZEN: Yes, sir.
SCHULTZ: Where do you stand on the congressman?
BLOZEN: I voted for—well, let me go back.
Number one, I forgave Kennedy and his brother, and I voted for Clinton, even after his scandals, and I would vote for representative Weiner again. He is one of the strongest and clearest voices we have on progressive issues. If we'd lose him we lose leverage in the Congress. We can't afford to do that.
In addition, he's got seniority and he really does represent our views on a number of issues.
SCHULTZ: How do you feel New Yorkers in his district will finally come down on this issue? Do you think that the majority of people feel the way you do about this?
BLOZEN: I hope so because I think people should separate their personal lives from their professional lives. If he did this while on government time, well, don't our senators and congressmen work 24 hours a day?
And if he used a government BlackBerry—well, didn't Governor Christie just use the helicopter? And he paid that money back? So, let Congressman Weiner pay the money back.
But I don't think those should be things that yank him out because the Republicans speaking with one voice as they do so well should be able to get away with this.
SCHULTZ: Was there any violation of the public trust in your opinion?
BLOZEN: No. I believe personal lives are personal.
SCHULTZ: But he did a media tour, continually lying trying to get the media off the story.
BLOZEN: Yes, he did.
SCHULTZ: And then announcing he is not going to answer any more questions. What about that?
BLOZEN: Yes, he did and it was a lie. There was no doubt about it.
And he lied repeatedly and he had a strategy to lie.
But it was about a personal matter. It was something he wanted concealed. And in our 24-hour news environment nothing is concealable and he made the double mistake of thinking he'd get away with hiding it.
SCHULTZ: What if there is, as Breitbart claims there is, an x-rated photo there? I mean, there is one person that would know that, I made that comment the last segment about—it would be Anthony Weiner.
BLOZEN: It's bad, but it's still personal.
SCHULTZ: It's personal?
BLOZEN: It's personal. Did he send it to all his constituents? No.
Did he put it on a public web page? No. It was personal.
SCHULTZ: Do you view this as normal behavior?
BLOZEN: No. It's aberrant. He's got a problem. He's got a problem.
He's not being satisfied somewhere in his life, but that's a personal
I didn't vote for him for his sex life or that kind of thing. I voted for him for his views on women's right to choose, on the environment, on education, on saving Social Security, on Medicare, on Medicaid. I just went through the process with my mother who passed away. The forms are tremendous.
Why do the Republicans have us back biting each other when the richest people are taking all the tax cuts?
SCHULTZ: I don't disagree with that. But the fact of the matter is, this isn't left or right or blue, green, center, whatever. This is about a man's character, is it not? And you put your trust in this man to do what? Tell the truth.
BLOZEN: He's my congressman.
SCHULTZ: Well, isn't that—don't you expect the truth out of your congressman?
BLOZEN: Yes, I do.
SCHULTZ: Don't you think when he goes on a media tour—
BLOZEN: Yes.
SCHULTZ: -- and now he is using on company time to offer P.R. services for a porn star to navigate through this?
BLOZEN: I don't like it, but it was a compounded error when he was trying to cover up his tracks on a matter that was and remains fundamentally personal. This is between him and his wife.
SCHULTZ: No really?
BLOZEN: She should have the biggest problem more than anybody.
SCHULTZ: But you see, that's part of the story that I don't think many people are interested in. Seriously. Because, you know, they've got to work their situation out.
But can you really sit here tonight and tell me that you think that Congressman Weiner was focused on doing the people's work? This is not a simple indiscretion. This is a pattern of behavior and a pattern of lying to the people.
BLOZEN: For the last two weeks or ten days, yes. It was a pattern of lying.
SCHULTZ: Any restitution at all? Saying he is sorry and going back to work is just fine?
BLOZEN: Fine him. You know, chastise him publicly. But throw him out of office? No. He is one of the strongest representatives we have.
SCHULTZ: Now, you mentioned about all the different things that Anthony Weiner has supported and that's why you voted for him. So, obviously, you want to defeat the right wing as an American. I mean, you're a Democrat, a liberal out there.
BLOZEN: Actually, I'm a registered Republican.
SCHULTZ: Well, that's not good.
BLOZEN: Well, there is a reason. New York City always votes Democratic down the line and if you want to have any leverage in a primary, vote Republican.
SCHULTZ: OK. The point I'm trying to make here is that isn't this
politically going to hurt the Democrats? All of this swirling around 2012
isn't there too much at stake?
BLOZEN: Ed, aren't people like you and Rachel Maddow and everybody else on MSNBC fanning the flames of this fire?
SCHULTZ: No, no. This is what Americans are focused on in my judgment. And I have a show and this is what I think they're focused on.
This is—I have been consistent all along on stuff like this when it happens to elected officials. I think if we can't get the truth out of politicians, then what do we have for a government? Hell, no wonder we got deficits. No wonder we went to war on a lie.
I criticized Bush for lying. I criticized Cheney for lying. I mean, the list goes on and on.
But we sit here and say, well, he's a Democrat, he's a liberal, so we got to leave him alone. I'm not down that road.
BLOZEN: I didn't say that. My distinction is that these are matters personal not public.
SCHULTZ: I think, is your vote personal?
BLOZEN: Yes.
BLOZEN: Nobody knows my vote unless I give them—unless I tell them publicly what it is.
SCHULTZ: Michael Blozen, good to have you with us. Appreciate you coming in. And thanks for watching the program.
BLOZEN: I do religiously.
SCHULTZ: The inside political game for Congressman Anthony Weiner. It could get far worse. Fellow Democrats are getting bullied into giving up routine campaign contributions from Congressman Weiner. That's a distinction that needs to be made here. Stay with us.
SCHULTZ: Welcome back to THE ED SHOW. There is another chapter to this story. Democratic Congresswoman Betty Sutton of Ohio will give campaign money she received from Congressman Anthony Weiner to charity. That is 1,000 dollars. It's fairly common for lawmakers to give their colleagues donations from their own Political Action Committees or their own campaign committees.
And Congresswoman Sutton's reelection campaign had 1,000 dollars from Anthony Weiner. But the National Republican Campaign Committee put out this statement this morning: "Congresswoman Sutton now faces a choice between returning the scandal tainted donation she has received from Congressman Weiner or silently condoning her colleague's lewd and bizarre behavior that could lead to a potential ethics violation."
Give me a break. Then the Ohio Republican Party decided to pile on. They said in a statement "the longer Betty Sutton holds on to Anthony Weiner's 1,000 dollars, the more apparent it is that she publicly condones his disgusting behavior."
Aren't they the judgment police? Now you know my opinion, of course, about Congressman Weiner. I've said that I think he should step aside for the good of the party, good of the order, and he violated the public trust. But there is nothing tainted about campaign contributions from Congressman Weiner.
That's ridiculous. Outrageous, in fact. The routine donation had nothing to do with the mess that Congressman Weiner now finds himself in, but Republicans have jumped all over this to bully Democrats. And a second Democrat has caved.
Democratic Congressman Tim Waltz of Minnesota has now donated to charity 3,000 dollars that he received from Congressman Weiner. I guess it's all part of the drift of the story.
Next, the political headache for Congressman Weiner could even get worse. He may be redistricted out of office. Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, well, he left his state with a six billion dollar deficit but he wants us to believe that he can balance the federal budget using what? Google?
Details coming up in Psycho Talk.
SCHULTZ: Welcome back to THE ED SHOW. Thanks for watching tonight. Well before Congressman Anthony Weiner got himself in this mess, he said he thought redistricting for the state of New York should remain in the hands of elected officials. In fact, he said he was against nonpartisan redistricting. He said "I'm concerned about the idea of having nonpartisan redistricting when we have states like Texas that are doing the same partisan things imaginable to eliminate Democratic seats."
So here's the problem. Anthony Weiner may now find himself the target of some very interesting redistricting in the state of New York. Following the latest Census, two New York congressional seats are going to be eliminated.
Let's bring in the host of New York One's "Inside City Hall," Errol Louis. Good to have you with us.
ERROL LOUIS, NEW YORK ONE: Good to see you.
SCHULTZ: Is this a real possible reality here that he could be out of Congress based on this issue?
LOUIS: Very possible. It was talked about today. The first redistricting meeting happened to take place today, as a matter or fact. And that is all the buzz in the political class. What will happen?
There is—there are going to be two seats lost, more than any other states, Ohio and New York losing two seats. Normally, you'd lose one upstate, one downstate. That is just some local politics here, New York state politics.
What is the downstate seat going to be? Well, he's got a target on his back. He's got some cards to play. He's got an ample campaign kitty that's not going to get used. He's got about four million dollars he was going to use to run for mayor.
He can now use that to make some friends, if you will, in the state legislature, spread some of that money around. He may have the Clintons still in his corner. Let's not forget, his mentor is the senior senator here, Chuck Schumer.
So they can't just run roughshod over him. But there is a real question as to whether or not he can survive this process.
SCHULTZ: Survive the process. Is he running out of Democratic allies? Do you think that there will be state legislators who will protect him and do everything they can to make sure that he doesn't get redistricted?
LOUIS: I think he's going to go and make some friends. Again, he's got a—he's raised a lot of money. I don't know how much more he can raise. His donors are still I think—we've yet to hear from them about whether or not they're going to stick with him.
But, no, there are a lot of state politicians that he has made friends with. This guy has been in politics for his whole adult life.
SCHULTZ: Errol, there are conflicting reports out there—or poll numbers that are conflicting about whether he should stay or go. Where do you think this—
LOUIS: You showed ours, the New York One/Marist College Poll. I think it's about right. About 52 percent say that he ought to run for reelection. But 56 percent say don't run for mayor. So they're saying, no higher office for you right now. But, you know, you should go ahead and run.
By the way, running doesn't mean you win. I was interested to see your last guest. But the reality is the voters—and there is no shortage of ambitious politicians in the ninth district.
SCHULTZ: That is an interesting comment. Weiner is acting like he's the only one that can serve. He is doing everything he can to save his job. There's no question about that. And there is no restitution here other than saying that I'm sorry. And there needs to be more than that, in my opinion.
But is there anything else that can come out that could change the situation?
LOUIS: Well, I imagine. You've talked about the drip, drip, drip. Yes, the reality is you parse that long press conference yesterday, he said a number of things that don't really quite square with the facts as we seem to know them. And an investigation by a hostile ethics panel, which is what he's going to get in the House, who knows what they're going to find?
They're not going to limit themselves to what he wants them to look at.
SCHULTZ: This opens up I think, Errol, a whole Pandora's box of conversation and questions and expectations that we have of elected officials. Is it OK for representatives to be distracted by sexual nonsense like this? I mean, is this where we are in America?
SCHULTZ: You know, there seem to be varying—you know, just from the folks that you had on, there seems to be a wide range of opinion. There are people who will be directly affected by him being distracted.
Some of them are saying I don't particularly care.
Seems a little hard to believe, but that's their guy. They hired him.
And if they want to fire him, I guess it's going to be their call.
SCHULTZ: Miss you on the radio, guy. Errol Louis, great to have you with us. Thanks so much.
Tim Pawlenty is trying to get some presidential buzz going with a tax cut that costs more than the Bush tax cuts. And he wants us to Google our way to balancing the budget. You know where that puts him. Right in the zone.
SCHULTZ: Welcome back to THE ED SHOW. OK everybody, buckle your seat belts. It's time for the Bachmann 2012 ride to start. Michele Bachmann hasn't officially announced that she is running, but I think we can count her in.
You see, she's participating in a presidential debate next week in New Hampshire. And she has hired Republican strategist Ed Rollins, who ran Mike Huckabee's campaign in 2008. Rollins is already hard at work. He went on radio today and took some shots at Sarah Palin for being a quitter. Then he tried to make his new boss sound Reagan-esque.
ED ROLLINS, ADVISER TO REP. MICHELE BACHMANN: She's a great, great communicator. And I would say in this race right today, she is probably the best communicator now that Mike Huckabee is not in there.
SCHULTZ: I don't deny Bachmann is a good communicator. She knows what she wants to say. Her message is very clear. But I do have a problem with what it is.
I agree that she has the potential to be the Republican nominee. She does. Even former Obama spokesman Bill Burton thinks that Bachmann has a shot. He says the Republican nominee will be either Romney, Bachmann, or Tim Pawlenty.
Among those three, Bachmann seems to have the wing nut vote locked up. Tim Pawlenty is trying to catch up. His economic plan would eliminate the entire federal government. And that puts him in Psycho Talk next.
SCHULTZ: And in Psycho Talk tonight, 2012 hopeful Tim Pawlenty says he has a better deal for the American economy. Remember now, this is the guy who left Minnesota with a 6.2 billion dollar budget deficit at the end of his tenure as governor.
He has no credibility on the economy, in my opinion. But he took a crack at it anyway today in Chicago. He wants to slash taxes by 7.8 dollars trillion over the next ten years. That's three times the cost of the Bush tax cuts.
Pawlenty has a plan to make up for the lost revenue.
TIM PAWLENTY, REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT: We can start by what I call the Google test. If you can find a service or a good available on Google or the Internet, then the federal government probably doesn't need to be providing that good or service.
SCHULTZ: That's a dandy, isn't it? Pawlenty wants to eliminate everything that can be Googled. Well, you can Google things like retirement, or senior citizens, and of course healthcare. So if Pawlenty had his way, Social Security, Medicare, well they'd be gone. Of course, the Republicans, they want to get rid of those anyway.
But T-Paw's plan goes much further than that, because you can also Google things like defense contractors, private investigators, and security firms. That would kind of screw things up for the righties, wouldn't it? Which would rule out military spending, the FBI, and law enforcement.
Dude, it's the 21st century. You can find anything on the Internet.
Haven't you been watching the news?
If you get rid of everything you can Google, you'd be president of nothing. So Tim Pawlenty is saying he wants to use a Google test to balance the budget is truly unbalanced Psycho Talk.
He promised us jobs and economic growth. Instead, George W. Bush gave us tax cuts. Well, ten years later, we're going to take a look at what could have been, next.
GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We recognize loud and clear the surplus is not the government's money. The surplus is the people's money. And we ought to trust them with their own money.
SCHULTZ: Yeah. Now we're playing with China's money. Ten years ago today, George W. Bush looked the American people in the eye and promised us his tax cut would do big things for the country. He promised us the same with another round of tax cuts in 2003.
Well, instead, with a stroke of his pen, Mr. Bush took that budget surplus and turned it into a mountain of debt, 2.5 trillion to be exact.
Bush claimed the cuts would drive economic growth, create jobs. But what
followed, question mark,
The "New York Times" asked last November, quote, "the decade with the slowest average annual growth since World War II. That statement is true even if you forget about the great recession and simply look at 2001 through 2007."
But it didn't have to be this way, folks. Think Progress, they did the math. They said for the same price as the Bush tax cuts, we could have sent tens of millions of students to college, retrofitted every household in America with the capacity to generate alternative energy, hired millions of firefighters, police officers, given kids health care coverage, or put millions more teachers into the classrooms."
Pretty steep price to pay if you ask me. Now to be fair, the Bush tax cuts, well, they did help out roughly one percent of the country. One patriotic millionaire told the "Huffington Post" that the Bush tax cuts allowed him to build a dance floor in his house. Yet another says that he was able to buy a bigger boat.
Quote, "the problem is it was built in Italy."
Joining me now is Pulitzer Prize winning journalist David Cay Johnston. He's the author of "Free Lunch, How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense and Stick You With The Bill."
He's a columnist for "Tax Notes." Welcome, Mr. Johnston. Great to have you with us tonight.
So we've already endured a decade of stagnant growth. What's going to happen if these Bush tax cuts get extended even further, as it might happen in 2012?
DAVID CAY JOHNSTON, "TAX NOTES": Well, very simply, we'll have a worsening of the conditions we have. We'll have more and more debt being taken on by the federal government and we won't be meeting basic human needs and services that we have.
We already have food borne illness rates in this country that are significantly higher than in any of the other modern countries. We're firing school teachers left and right. At the same time we're doing this and cutting taxes, Ed, we continue to be giving away money in various incentives and gifts to billionaires and monopolists all over the country.
So if we continue down this road, there will be fewer jobs, less wealth, and we'll all be much worse off.
SCHULTZ: Well, Tim Pawlenty is out there saying that he wants to go even further. Is that even possible?
JOHNSTON: You know, I chuckled as I listened to you talk about that, Ed, because apparently he doesn't understand that all Google does is connect you to something. It doesn't do anything. So when he connects you -- when Google connects you to a library or a government place that does business, all it's doing is telling you—helping you find it. They're not doing any work. They're just connecting you together.
And I marvel that he does not grasp this fundamental about what Google is about.
SCHULTZ: Ten years after the fact, what is the single biggest failure of these Bush tax cuts in your opinion?
JOHNSTON: Oh, it's the destruction of jobs all over the place. President Bush—candidate Bush said that if we elected him instead of that other guy, we'd be better off than we were in the year 2000. Well, incomes are down 2.7 trillion dollars for the eight years of his administration and worse since then.
It's continued on a downward path as the tax cuts have continued. The government—federal income tax revenues are down a third from 2001, when the Bush tax cuts started, to today when you look at them per American. A one-third fall.
And at the same time, of course, we're continuing to not have the money for the things that will create wealth in the future: research, education, public health, infrastructure.
SCHULTZ: So 2012 is all about priority and what the American people want. David Cay Johnston, thanks for your time tonight. Appreciate it.
Coming up, back to the scandal surrounding Congressman Anthony Weiner.
This is THE ED SHOW. Stay with us. I'll have a comment.
SCHULTZ: And finally tonight, I want to finish where we started this evening. Sometimes in this business, we come across stories that we take absolutely no joy or pleasure in covering. In the Anthony Weiner ordeal certainly fits that category for this broadcaster.
There is nothing worse than kicking somebody when they're down. I know. I've been there. Piling on, convicting someone in the arena of public opinion. But in an open society and a democracy, I guess you could say the rocks go with the farm. The territory can get rough.
That's why they call it public service. They call it for a reason. It's about you, the people, what we deserve and what we expect. And many times our expectations are not met. Every night on this program, I call out politicians and opinion makers for pushing ideas, policies that I don't think benefit middle classers and American workers in this country, the American middle class.
Most of the time, I'm getting after Republicans. I think for the most part they're not looking out for you. And when they lie about the consequences of the policies they're pushing, I call them out on it and have been very consistent on that.
But the Weiner story is all about trust and responsibility. And like I said, I don't get any joy or pleasure getting after that story and him. I agree with most of his positions. His fight for single payer health care on the House floor was absolutely outstanding in 2009 for American families.
But he stuck his fingers in his eye on the American public with all the lies that he told last week repeatedly. No one is throwing the congressman under the bus. He's been driving the bus, one interview after another, booking himself on shows.
Everyone's going to render judgement on some level, whether it be moral, ethical, and what is now socially acceptable behavior. This I think lowers the bar.
At the end of the day, without being a member of the moral police force in this country, we're going to decide what we want from our elected officials. And I don't care who it is. An elected official taking the taxpayer dollars along with a pension and healthcare benefits, that's part of the rocks on the farm. It's part of the good life. And I don't think it's too much for any of us who pay taxes and abide by the laws to ask for and expect the truth from elected officials. That may be a reach today, but at least we can keep reaching. I hope the congressman gets through this and I hope we get through it.
Tonight in our survey, I asked you, given today's developments, should Anthony Weiner resign? 29 percent of you say yes. 71 percent of you said no. That's THE ED SHOW. I'm Ed Schultz. "THE LAST WORD" with Lawrence O'Donnell starts right now. We'll see you back here tomorrow night.
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Triple and Quads
Kings Manor has 18 Triple Rooms and 2 Quad Rooms.
In each of our modern en suite bedrooms you will find each room with flat-screen Sony Bravia TVs with Freeview and selected satellite channels, free Wi-Fi,direct-dial telephone, hair dryer, hospitality tray and all of our rooms are non-smoking.
All triple rooms can be configured with either 3 full size single beds ( 2 meters by 1 meter) or one queen sized double and a full sized single. Please make sure that we are aware of your preference when booking. It is possible to fit a baby cot in some triple rooms.
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text:
- Professor of English and Cinema Studies
- Director, Cinema Studies
- BA, Oberlin College, 1971
- MA, University of Chicago, 1972
- PhD, University of Chicago, 1976
I teach courses in the English department and the Cinema Studies and Comparative Literature Programs. I've written about horror/gothic literature and vampires, and I have a long-standing interest in popular culture. In addition to horror stories, I'm interested in science fiction, fantasy, and detective stories. On the other hand, I'm quite happy working with what is called high art—the work of writers such as Henry James, William Faulkner, and Wallace Stevens.
I'm currently working on two projects: a book on history and film called Imagining History and an essay on wonder in the 1933 and 2005 versions of "King Kong" called "The Ape in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction." In addition to the courses I regularly teach, I am developing two courses I intend to teach in the near future. One, on television, will focus on the relation of the way narrative is used and transformed by the medium of television, and the other will focus on the effect and subject of "strangeness" in cinema.
What brings all of this together for me is my interest in the relations among pleasure, imagination, and value.
Contemporary Literary Theory: Post-Modernity and Imagination
American Literature, Movies, and Culture in the 1930s: Art and Social Value
Imagining History
The Sense of Time and Place
In the Circles of Fear and Desire: A Study of Gothic Fantasy
Vampire Legends in Contemporary American Culture: What Becomes a Legend Most