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Election Day Reads: Four More Years!Posted: November 6, 2012 Filed under: 2012 elections, 2012 presidential campaign, Mitt Romney, morning reads, Patriot Act, U.S. Economy, U.S. Politics, Women's Rights | Tags: drones, election day, Joe Biden, Osama bin Laden, pathological liars, Paul Ryan, race baiting, Racism, Ralph Reed, War on Terror 84 Comments
Good Morning!!
The big day is finally here. I voted In Massachusetts by absentee ballot shortly after I got to Indiana. I voted for Barack Obama and Joe Biden for President and Vice President, and for Elizabeth Warren for Senator. I voted for my long-time Representative Ed Markey. I also voted in favor of ballot questions on legalizing physician assisted suicide and medical marijuana in Massachusetts.
In 2008, I didn't care much for Barack Obama, because I didn't think he had any real ideology and I didn't trust him to stand up to the Republicans. But I have to admit that he accomplished some good things in his first term.
I still have plenty of problems with President Obama's policies. I think he should have fought harder for a bigger stimulus and for a public health care option. I think the President should have made a much more serious effort to deal with the foreclosure crisis, prosecute the banksters who brought down our economy, and create jobs through government investment.
I strongly disapprove of Obama's support for the Patriot Act and for his use of drones to assassinate suspected "terrorists"–along with many innocent civilians–in several foreign countries. I'm glad he found Osama bin Laden, but I think he should have been arrested and put on trial instead of being summarily executed.
On the other hand, the stimulus–though not large enough–did help state and local governments save and create jobs. I think the auto bailout was absolutely necessary and it seems to have saved and created jobs for many U.S. workers. I appreciate that President Obama reversed Don't Ask Don't Tell and came out in support of same-sex marriage. I believe that this president has grown in office and that he now recognizes that the Republicans in Congress are never going to compromise with him.
I also think President Obama did a very smart thing in appointed Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State and giving full control over the State Department. Many of Obama's advisers didn't want him to appoint Hillary, but he did it anyway. I respect that Obama has asked for Bill Clinton's help during the past couple of years and has wholeheartedly thanked him for his efforts.
We now face a choice between a President who kept us out of another Great Depression, managed to pass a health care law that is at least a step in the right direction, and appears to have grown in office, and a man who is a pathological liar and race baiter who represents the top 1%–the people who got us into the financial crisis in the first place; who conceals his highly suspect finances and potential conflicts of interest; who refuses to spell out what he would do if elected, who treats the electorate with utter disrespect, and who clearly has no understanding of or interest in what it is like to be poor, or even middle class. We do know that, if elected, Mitt Romney would appoint Supreme Court Justices who would very likely overturn Roe v. Wade, the Voting Rights Act, and other important progressive court decisions.
Obama must be reelected or our country will be be in deep deep trouble.
If Obama wins reelection, I think we must continue to be eternally vigilant. I strongly suspect that he will push for what he calls a "grand bargain," which is really a "great betrayal." We cannot let his desire to "reach across the aisle" lead him to accede to the Republicans' austerity agenda and trade away the social safety net that allows so many elderly, disabled, and poor people to live with some kind of dignity.
Just in my lifetime, the American people have lived through many difficult times politically. Our rights were threatened and curtailed in the McCarthy era, we faced the murder of President John F. Kennedy, and later the murders of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy. We dealt with Watergate, Iran Contra, and 9/11. For the past thirty years we've faced increasing income inequality and reduced opportunities for upward mobility. Our rights have been threatened anew by fundamentalist crazies and by Bush's "war on terror."
Democracy isn't easy. It's very hard, as we have seen in the past week watching people in Ohio and Florida struggling to exercise their rights to vote and over the past couple of years as we watched Republican legislatures try restrict voting rights and take away women's control over their own bodies and their health care choices.
But we can't quit. We must fight on to make this country a place we can be proud of and a place where our children and grandchildren can have decent lives. We have to try. If Obama is reelected, we have a chance. If Romney wins, we go back to the Bush years–on steroids.
I've gone on a rant now and taken up a lot of space in this post, but I wanted to express how I feel about this election. Over the past four years, I've realized that we really can't have perfection–only progress, if we work at it. President Obama has made some progress, and in a second term, he can be pushed to make more. I'm glad I decided to vote for him.
I do have some news items for you.
Unfortunately, the areas that were hardest hit by Hurricane Sandy last week are facing a nor'easter this week.
Storm-savaged New Yorkers still drying out and rebuilding their lives after the fury of Hurricane Sandy face another nightmare barreling up the East Coast — an angry nor'easter packing winds of 55 mph hour that's expected to pummel the area on Wednesday.
Forecasters say the latest assault from Mother Nature — while not nearly as ferocious or crippling as the Oct. 29 superstorm — is expected to bring renewed coastal flooding to parts of the city and the New Jersey shore, where Sandy obliterated protective sand dunes and age-old natural beach defenses.
New power outages could strike still-ravaged swaths of Staten Island, the Bronx and Westchester — and possibly "undo" some of the repairs Con Ed has made to its battered system, said John Miksad, the utility's senior vice president of electric operations….
Meteorologists expect howling winds whipping up to 3 inches of rain along the Northeastern shoreline late Wednesday afternoon. Then it may get worse: Forecasters also fear a bone-chilling cold by Thursday morning that could bring several inches of snow to New York, New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania.
Dana Millbank says that a new Romney has suddenly emerged in the final days of the campaign. What number incarnation is this?
As he made his closing appeal to voters on the final day before the election, Mitt Romney sounded as though, at any moment, he might burst into a song from the musical "Annie."
"Tomorrow's a moment to look into the future and imagine what we can do," he said.
"Tomorrow, we get to work rebuilding our country, restoring our confidence and renewing our conviction."
"Tomorrow, on November 6th, we come together for a better future."
"Tomorrow is a new beginning. Tomorrow we begin a new tomorrow."
As usual, Romney is talking ragtime–making no sense whatsoever. Either he really believes he'll win the election, or he's just blabbering aimlessly waiting for his dream to die. The death stench must be unbearable for anyone who gets close to him.
Still, despite Millbank's claims, the mean Romney still lives on. His campaign is making robocalls calling President Obama a 'Threat To Our Religious Freedom.' Here's the transcript of the call:
Christians who are thinking about voting for Obama should remember what he said about people of faith: "They … cling to guns or religion." And remember when Obama forced Christian organizations to provide insurance coverage that was contrary to their religious beliefs?
That's the real Barack Obama. That's the real threat to our religious freedom. Mitt Romney understands the importance of faith and family. That's why so many leaders of the Christian community are supporting Romney.
They know we can't underestimate the threat Barack Obama poses to our faith, our values, our freedom.
So once again, Romney is playing the race card, suggesting that Obama is not a real American and that he's lying about his religious beliefs.
Paul Ryan expressed something similar on a conference call with members of Ralph Reed's Faith and Freedom Coalition:
Representative Paul D. Ryan accused President Obama on Sunday of taking the country down a path that compromised Judeo-Christian values and the traditions of Western civilization….
"It's a dangerous path," Mr. Ryan said, describing Mr. Obama's policies. "It's a path that grows government, restricts freedom and liberty and compromises those values, those Judeo-Christian, Western civilization values that made us such a great and exceptional nation in the first place."'
A spokesman for Mr. Ryan, Michael Steel, said, "He was talking about issues like religious liberty and Obamacare – topics he has mentioned frequently during the campaign."
Sigh… if only we could be rid of Ryan tomorrow, but I suppose he'll be back in Congress if Romney loses.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie refused to appear at a campaign event with Mitt Romney on Sunday.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who was effusive in his praise of President Barack Obama when the two leaders toured damage from Hurricane Sandy last week, turned down a request by Mitt Romney to appear with him at a rally on Sunday night in Pennsylvania, The Huffington Post has learned.
Christie's decision will only add to questions among Republicans about what the governor — who is up for reelection a year from now — is thinking, and why he went out of his way to heap praise on the president, and then refused to appear with Romney.
The Romney rally was held at a farm in Morrisville, Pa., not more than 20 minutes from Trenton, the New Jersey capital. The physical proximity of the event to New Jersey only added to questions in the Romney campaign about why Christie chose not to come.
"You can't tell me he couldn't have gone over there for a night rally," a Romney campaign source told HuffPost.
Meanwhile Christie's new BFF Barack Obama made Christie's dream come true: Chris Christie moved to tears by hug from Bruce Springsteen.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said on Monday that he was moved to tears by recent interactions with singer Bruce Springsteen, who hugged the governor at a benefit concert for victims of Hurricane Sandy on Friday and spoke with Christie by phone on Monday while flying aboard Air Force One with President Obama.
Christie, a Republican, is an ardent fan of Springsteen, a noted liberal who was traveling with the president to Columbus, Ohio, after playing at an Obama rally in Madison, Wis. Christie said during a press briefing that Obama called during the flight to discuss New Jersey's recovery from Sandy and then handed the phone to Springsteen.
"[Obama] told me in times of real difficulty, he thought that the only thing better than one Jersey guy were two Jersey guys, and he put Bruce Springsteen on the phone," Christie said.
"Bruce said to me how proud he was of his state and how proud he was of the people of this state and how tough they are," Christie added. "And he'll be back to the Jersey Shore soon."
I can't help but be happy for the guy. Will he be running against Hillary Clinton in 2016? Who knows? I just hope that sometime tonight we'll know whether we'll have an Obama second term or two pathological liars running the country back into the ditch.
Now what are you reading and blogging about today?
84 Comments on "Election Day Reads: Four More Years!"
"But we can't quit. We must fight on to make this country a place we can be proud of and a place where our children and grandchildren can have decent lives. We have to try. If Obama is reelected, we have a chance. If Romney wins, we go back to the Bush years–on steroids."
Preach it Sister.
Great post and just what I needed to get me going this morning
You voted correctly, and analyze the national situation pretty correctly too. Good post.
BB, the evolution of your feelings and thoughts about Obama mirror my own. In his second term, I hope Obama will continue to build on the positive accomplishments of the last four years. FORWARD!!!
Thanks for rewinding the Forward video this morning Beata….It's better than a cup of coffee.
Brilliant essay bb!
You have summarized perfectly exactly what I feel. A much needed boost to carry me through the next 24 hours.
Believe it or not some of us here have been together now going on 4 years of "cyber friendships".
Time marches on as they say!
Wow, you're right Pat – we have been 'hangin out' together for more than four years!
Here I am with a new knee and survived Sandy – we are so lucky – there is devastation all around us here in northern NJ. We were over a week with no power, phone, Internet, or TV. It was really cold. We're grateful to be alive.
So now let's all get out there and vote!
Joanelle, it sounds like you have been through a terrible ordeal. You sound in amazingly good spirits considering everything! Hoping for better days ahead for you and your loved ones. (( HUGS ))
Has everyone read Pierce's post from Pompano Beach. Once again, brilliant & sobering, dissecting "participatory democracy". http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/election-day-2012-14483643
The comment from Weldon Berger hit home for me & echos bb point of "keep fighting." Here's just a piece of it, near the end of his comment:
Nobody has a minute to celebrate. If President Obama wins, he wants to get his Grand Bargain done before the end of the year because otherwise the Bush tax cuts expire and the deficit con gets swamped beneath a surge of new revenue. That means everybody who votes for him owes everybody else their best effort to get in the way. You don't get to talk about holding his feet to the fire; you have to build a fire and put his feet in it. Because if you don't, if you count on Harry Reid to stand up to him, you get to watch a Democratic president put the knife to the New Deal under your imprimatur.
SD has been my "go to" website for all the election news. I've been so well informed by both the posters and commenters and I thank you all for that. Now though, I'm really looking forward to the election being done. I've been so anxious because of the dirty tricks from the Right, yet I'd rather know about it than bury my head and hide.
BB, wonderful post and I agree you and all the ones in the comments.. I also want all of you to know you have keep me sane although sometimes it may not have been evident 🙂 I am going to vote 10:00 today, I feel certain of no line because of where I live. It is raining lightly and just to keep myself calm I'm wearing a hoodie. 🙂
I'll be honest, if Romney were to be elected, I don't know what the hell he would do…….that's the problem with him, you don't know what the hell he will do.
With Obama I can say I know what he will do, because he has be greatest support in the way of Bill Clinton leading him all the way.
He'd do nothing – he'd just step back and let the same fools who screwed up Bush's two terms take the helm
Sunny but cold this morning in central Indiana. Some minor problems reported at the polls in Indianapolis and its suburbs but otherwise a-okay here as far as I know. I'm hoping for a big upset in the Mike Pence-John Gregg Governor's race. Pence is a loony-tunes wingnut who has been masquerading as a regular "Joe Hoosier" during the campaign. I hope people aren't buying his act. I still predict Joe Donnelly will defeat Richard Mourdock in the Senate race. I also think Obama may do better than expected here. Political robo-calls are illegal in Indiana so poll numbers have been scarce.
Great post, Bostonboomer. Thank you.


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Decorating your home with accents of natural stone and metal doesn't have to cost a fortune. A combination of knowing where to shop and when to fake it makes it easy to get the look you love, and Modern Bohemian Lifestyle shows you how.
One of the projects on the video below shows how Christine Kobzeff turned a $1 slab of marble from a Habitat for Humanity ReStore into a gorgeous display tray for a desk or dresser.
Kobzeff uses a hammer to shape the marble, breaking off unwanted edging with the head and prying away leftover residue — in her case, old caulking and shims — with the claw.
To create a "more rugged look," Kobzeff uses a ball-peen hammer to knock off the tops of the edges. She alternates this technique with sanding to get the edges exactly the way she wants them. Finally, she polishes the marble with 400-grit wet-dry sandpaper.
Kobzeff wanted a look that implied a solid "gold nugget" with white marble interior, so she uses a gold leaf rub-on metallic finish on the edges. She brushes two coats of the finish onto the sides, then uses her finger to apply the color slightly over the edge to create the impression of a gold "crust."
With bumpers on the bottom, the polished marble with gold edges becomes a gorgeous accent tray, perfect for a desk, dresser or vanity.
The video demonstrates every step in the process and includes several other ways to use metallic finishes as accents in your home.

subset: commoncrawl


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Outside groups go to war over Hillary Clinton book
NEW YORK — As if Hillary Clinton's book tour isn't already indistinguishable from a presidential campaign, outside groups are facing off to argue over her diplomatic record as she depicts it in Hard Choices, her State Department memoir.
On one side is America Rising, a Republican PAC and rapid-response operation — which is putting out an e-book rebuttal called Failed Choices — and the GOP, which sent out a "briefing book" this week to its supporters, disputing Clinton's writings on the Benghazi attack that killed American diplomats and the U.S. relationship with Russia during her tenure as secretary of State.
On the other side is Correct the Record, part of the American Bridge political action committee, which sent out a memo Monday identifying and rebutting Republican criticisms of the book, including Clinton's account of the Benghazi attack that killed American diplomats. "The right wing falsely equates every hard choice to a bad choice,'' director Isaac Wright says in the memo.
Both sides try to influence news stories, offer surrogates to attack or defend Clinton in radio and TV interviews, and use social media to spread their messages. And for both sides, Clinton's book tour is a dry run for the presidential race she has said she is considering.
"The prospect of Hillary Clinton's candidacy certainly employs a lot of people on both sides,'' says John Hudak, a campaigns expert at the Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. Independent political spending groups and full-time messaging operations mean that "a Clinton book tour, a Clinton anything tour, and then eventually what I assume will be a campaign, definitely motivates a lot of people to respond.''
Clinton began signing copies of her book Tuesday morning at a bookstore in Manhattan where the first buyer lined up on Monday afternoon. A "Hillary Bus" from the grass-roots recruiting group Ready for Hillary was scheduled to pull up as well. The event is the first of at least a dozen she has scheduled to promote the book, and in addition she is sitting for multiple TV and print interviews.
In her book appearances and interviews, Clinton can show herself as rested and healthy and talk about what she wants to discuss, Hudak says. "If she's effective … she's going to control the narrative about herself from now until the day she announces. You can't buy that.''
Not if the GOP can help it. In addition to the briefing book, party spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski says the RNC has staff dedicated to rebutting Clinton's memoir, booking surrogates for interviews about Clinton's record, and "bracketing" her appearances — that is, trying to earn media coverage of their criticisms before and after Clinton appearances. "We need to make sure voters have the opposing viewpoint,'' she says.
Correct the Record, a project founded by David Brock (once a fierce critic of the Clintons), exists solely to rebut criticism of Democrats — particularly Hillary Clinton, says spokeswoman Adrienne Elrod. Correct the Record uses social media and surrogates to defend Clinton in media interviews. "There's no secret that this is all amped up a little more'' with the publication of Hard Choices, she says.
"Both sides benefit'' from Clinton's book tour, says political scientist Larry Sabato. Clinton's opposition, the GOP, keeps itself in the news even though Republicans don't have an obvious front runner for 2016. "Both sides are running a shadow campaign two years early.''
If Clinton runs for the presidency — and ''there's just no one out there who thinks she isn't running,'' Sabato says — the months of foreign policy discussion during her book tour will fade.
"It's rare, unless there is an ongoing, hot, unpopular war, that foreign policy takes center stage'' in a presidential campaign, says Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center on Politics.
What will have an impact on her potential candidacy are the many interviews she will give, Sabato says. Publisher Simon & Schuster says it has already sold 1 million copies to book retailers — a lot for a political book — but 6 million people watched Clinton's interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer on Monday, according to preliminary Nielsen ratings.
Those interviews have already created the first "gaffe" cycle. Clinton was widely panned for telling Sawyer that she and her husband took lucrative speaking gigs because they were "dead broke" after leaving the White House and needed to make money to pay their mortgages. She appeared on ABC Tuesday morning and backpedaled, saying the Clinton's were "blessed" but they understood the economic struggles of regular American families.


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Harvey Guión as Scrooge (left) and Roderick Sanford as Jacob Marley in
"A Christmas Carol" at Zach Theatre.
As we get into the holiday season I just couldn't resist this image of Rod as Marley. The costume is incredible. This is NOT a "dinner theater" version of the Dickens play but a rock infested, high energy, fun play for everyone.
I shot this from about fifteen rows away from the stage with a Nikon D810 and the ancient (but wonderful) Nikon 80-200mm f2.8 zoom. That lens is nice enough at 3.5 to keep me from wanting to spend +$2,000 on the 70-200mm VR2 lens.
You've got to love the hair...
Shot during dress rehearsal with audience in house.
The D810 is quiet enough as long as you aren't sitting
right next to someone or right behind someone...


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Frazier case sets statewide precedent under new law
The decision by prosecutors to charge four school administrators with failing to report suspected child abuse sets a statewide precedent for law enforcement officials who — despite a recent push to crack down on such crimes — have prosecuted few cases in Florida.
Child advocates say those arrested Thursday appear to be the first school officials in Florida charged under a state law that took effect in October, following the sexual molestation scandal at Penn State University. The law expanded who is responsible for reporting suspected child abuse and stiffened the penalties for non-reporting.
The circumstances surrounding the Manatee County case, in which administrators face a third-degree felony for not reporting alleged misdemeanors committed by a high school assistant football coach, highlights state lawmakers' attempts to create a zero-hesitation approach for all complaints or concerns related to the safety of a child.
The state has charged former assistant coach Rod Frazier with seven counts of battery in response to allegations of lewd behavior toward Manatee High students and staff.
Now, prosecutors also have charged former Assistant Superintendent Bob Gagnon, former Manatee High School assistant principals Gregg Faller and Matthew Kane and former school investigator Debra Horne with a felony count of failing to report child abuse.
Gagnon, Faller and Kane have also been charged with lying to police, a misdemeanor, and a misdemeanor count of failure to report.
Since October, failure to report is a third-degree felony in Florida. The charge carries a possible $5,000 fine or jail time for those convicted of not reporting suspicions.
Teachers have always been required by law to report suspected abuse. But the new law stresses that all citizens are required to report, even if they are unsure their suspicions are true.
It's an obligation that has been hard to impose, and not historically enforced by the state.
"We had processes in place," said state Sen. Nancy Detert, who worked on some portions of the tougher law. "But when people are not implementing the process, you need a stronger process."
Some experts say the problem lies with the charge, which is hard to prosecute. Cases can turn into he-said, she-said situations and it can be hard for the state to come up with evidence about what an individual did or did not know.
"The person is well within his right to say, 'I didn't have enough information to report,'" Kate Bohl, a law professor at Stetson University, told the Herald-Tribune earlier this year.
Other state leaders say the problem is rooted in a lack of enforcement, not the difficulty of prosecution. Detert said she doesn't think failure to report is difficult to prosecute. But, she said, renewed vigilance is needed in a post-Penn State world.
"Earlier, reporting generally meant abuse by parents, observing children with constant physical impairments," she said. "We didn't think that the teachers themselves would be the offenders."
'Reporting is critical'
Howard Talenfeld has seen plenty of abuse cases in a decades-long career as a children's rights attorney and trial lawyer. But the Fort Lauderdale attorney can't recall a conviction for failure to report in the state of Florida — even in cases where knowledge of abuse was documented in court records.
"In my 20-something year career, I am not familiar with a single prosecution for a person who failed to report," Talenfeld said. "I've never heard of one."
A Department of Families and Children spokeswoman also could not recall any prosecutions. While that does not mean there have been no convictions for failure to report charges in Florida, tracking individuals who are charged and then convicted of the crime is difficult.
According to federal data, roughly 50,000 child abuse victims were tracked in Florida in 2011.
But the Florida Department of Law Enforcement only cites 204 arrests for failure to report child abuse from 2003 to 2012, a department spokesperson said. Six charges have been leveled in 2013. The FDLE does not track convictions.
The Florida State Court System does. Sort of.
Local courts are not required to report detailed criminal data, said PJ Stockdale, a statistics consultant at the Florida Office of the State Courts. And about eight Florida counties do not report that data to the state at all.
The state court system has tracked 79 cases of failure to report felony convictions since 2003, but cannot yet provide figures for this year.
Other evidence shows that it is uncommon for charges to stick, or the state to opt to prosecute. Last November, police arrested an Osceola County woman for burning the face of a child in her care with a cigarette and her husband for failing to report child abuse when he witnessed it.
But four months later, the State Attorney's Office dropped the charges, saying the case was not suitable for prosecution, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
Nationally, even cases with sufficient evidence do not usually lead to jail time.
In 2011, USA Today reviewed 222 national cases of failure to report child abuse. Only 102 resulted in convictions and just 14 ended in jail time.
Other media reports indicate that trend applies to cases involving school personnel.
Recently, more than 10 school administrators in Kane County, Ill., avoided prosecution for not reporting a band teacher's sexual liaisons with two female students. Instead, the state asked the school district to sign a five-year contract to train staff in reporting abuse.
Last fall, a San Jose, Calif., principal received two years of probation after being convicted of failing to respond to reports that a teacher had performed a sex act on an eight-year-old.
"This sends the message that reporting is critical," Talenfeld said. "Prosecutors need to be aware of the importance of the law; so do investigators. This is the only way we can ensure children are safe."


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You seemed to enjoy our first Facebook illustration contest, so we decided to put Gizmodo's contributing illustrator Sam Spratt to work again. This time, he'll make one of you a Halloween portrait. Here's how you can be the lucky zombie/vampire/ghoul/random-creature-of-the-night:
All you have to do is head over and join our official Facebook page and drop a comment on the "Comment here for a chance to win a Sam Spratt Zombified Portrait of yourself!" thread there (Here's a direct link to that thread). Your comment serves as an entry into a random drawing for the prize. We'll choose the winner at 6:00pm EST on Thursday and contact him or her via Facebook.
THE FINE PRINT: Standard contest rules apply. We've turned the comments off on this post so that people who can't read instructions don't get confused about where to comment. (Hint: Not here, but on Facebook. FACEBOOK!) Please note that our artist can and will deny any requests to be painted as a sparkling vampire from Twilight. You've been warned!
To keep up with Sam Spratt and all of his latest work (including a glimpse at the creation of Zombified Gizmodo writer, Matt Buchanan), be sure to become a fan of his Facebook Artist's Page


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Tanka, Rictameter and Pleaides
My Line, Quack-Quack
My posterior
must make it look like the ducks.
It's superior
The curtain cost to much bucks.
Laughing a magnetic flux.
Means not walking like ducks.
For the man is superior
It is exspensive so don't spend your bucks.
It's my time please raise the curtain
I'm laughing that's certain.
My part is not
Maybe the part that I play
Might make me famous someday
My posterior hurts but I need the bucks,
Moreover my part is one of the ducks.
Making believe and this is for certain
Means I have to do good in front of the curtain.
My performance is baffling but will keep you all laughing.


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By Mike Ratliff
Go in through the narrow gate; because wide is the gate and broad is the way leading to destruction and many are those going in through it. How narrow the gate and how hard is the way that leads to life and few are the ones finding it! (a personal translation of Matthew 7:13,14 from the Greek text)
Εἰσέλθετε διὰ τῆς στενῆς πύλης· ὅτι πλατεῖα ἡ πύλη καὶ εὐρύχωρος ἡ ὁδὸς ἡ ἀπάγουσα εἰς τὴν ἀπώλειαν, καὶ πολλοί εἰσιν οἱ εἰσερχόμενοι δι᾿ αὐτῆς. ὅτι στενὴ ἡ πύλη καὶ τεθλιμμένη ἡ ὁδὸς ἡ ἀπάγουσα εἰς τὴν ζωήν, καὶ ὀλίγοι εἰσὶν οἱ εὑρίσκοντες αὐτήν. (Matthew 7:13,14 GNT)
It has been said that no prophet preached about Hell as much as our Lord Jesus Christ. It is also true that His preaching would be considered "divisive" and "offensive" in today's politically correct culture. However, I seriously doubt that if preaching the truth or hurting someone's feelings or offending someone's "sensibilities" were the issue with our Lord it would make any difference. He would not hesitate to preach the truth because in God's truth is life. In man-made truth is only death. Consider the passage at the top of this post. The lie that has taken over our society is that it is a sin to be narrow-minded. We must be as broad and as accepting as possible. We must be all-inclusive in all things to the point of madness. From this our enemy has sown the lies such as "There are many roads to heaven," and since God is a good God He must also me a "fair God" so "eventually everyone will be saved." The problems with this are that this "god" is a creation of these people's wishful thinking not The God, our God, the Creator of all things. Also, in His Word, our Lord Jesus taught exactly the opposite of this as the passage above clearly says.
The word I translated from Matthew 7:13 as "way" is ὁδὸς or hodos, "a way, road, highway, or street in their many possible forms."
Nearly half (46x) the occurrences of this word are figurative in meaning, focusing on the course one takes in life. Jesus speaks of the "road" to life: the gate that leas to it is small, and the "road" itself is small, while the "way" to destruction is through a wide gate and the "way" itself is broad. Many go to destruction; few travel to life (Mt. 7:13-14). There are thus, in life. only two possible roads to travel; there is no third option! Ultimately Jesus is "the way (Jn 14:6: Acts 18:25-26; Heb. 10"20) to life as God intends it to be lived. He is also the one who will "guide our feet into the path of peace" (Lk. 1:79; cf. Rom. 3:17). – Mounce's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old & New Testament Words, page 779.
Jesus said to him; I am the way and the truth and the life; not one come to the Father except through me. (a personal translation of John 14:6 from the Greek text)
There is the way to life. Jesus made that very clear. This is the narrow gate that leads to the hard way that leads to life (emphasis added). If you listen to popular preaching in our time you will never hear this. No, you will hear things like Jesus loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life and all you have to do is make some sort of decision, find that vision God has for you, exhibit audacious faith, and God will then bless you with abundant living. Well, that isn't what Jesus says here at all. He says that the gate to salvation is narrow. This is the Greek word στενῆς the genitive singular form of στενός or stenos. Genitive is similar to the English possessive case, however, here we are seeing that Matthew, inspired by God, is using the word for "narrow" to give special meaning to the head noun, which, here, is "gate." The word describes a gate that is constricted and precise, which is exactly what true salvation by faith through Christ alone is. This is God's way that leads to life eternal. The wide gate is the exact opposite. It includes all religions of works and self-righteousness, with no single way (Acts 4:12), but leads to Hell, not Heaven (emphasis added).
Notice also that the narrow gate leads to the hard way that leads to life eternal. What is this talking about? Jesus pulled no punches. He always emphasized the difficulty of following Him (Matthew 10:38; 16:24; John 15:18, 19, 16:1-3; cf. Acts 14:22). Genuine salvation is by grace alone, but it is not easy. It calls for knowledge of the truth, repentance, submission to Christ as Lord, and a willingness to obey His will and Word. Notice that I preceded all of that by say salvation is by grace alone. This obedience is only possible for us by this grace as well. Our Lord said in John 15:1-5, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." (ESV)
Notice especially the part I put in italics. There are some who claim that those of us who teach that salvation is according to the Sovereignty of God and what is called Lordship salvation are preaching a damnable heresy and works righteousness. They are biblically ignorant. I preach and teach only what God's Word says. We are completely incapable of any good work unless we abide in Christ by His grace and through that He enables us to obey Him. No one is saved unless they turn in repentance to Him as Lord according the faith given to them by God at their quickening. (Ephesians 2:8,9). Remember we do not make Jesus Lord, He is Lord (emphasis added). What did our Lord say about that in John 14:6 above? How about this passage:
"Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? (Matthew 16:24-26 ESV)
This is a description of what Lordship salvation is. We must follow Jesus as Lord or He is not our Lord for He also said (emphasis added):
And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 10:38-39 ESV)
(emphasis added).
Soli Deo Gloria!
(HT: Possessing the Treasure)


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Here's a confession – I never go Christmas shopping. Ever. I do always have good intentions to buy gifts early, wrap them nicely and write a sweet card wishing everyone the best for the Holiday Season… but it never happens. Usually, my sister will shop for family and friends. She is ultra organized, actually shops throughout the year places the gifts in a large box so that come December everyone has a very nice gift from her… and usually from me too as I always ask her to "add my name" to the card she writes… Sometimes, if it's someone she doesn't know, at the last minute I've been known to panic shop, tell people "close your eyes and put your hands out" and then place an unwrapped gift in their hands. It's a bad habit which I intend to break this year.
So, to kick off the Christmas season, I've decided to introduce a series called "All They Want For Christmas!". The intention is to come up with food ideas for Christmas gifts that I think friends and family would want.
The first recipe in the series I call the Practically Perfect Chocolate Christmas Cookie – it's a chocolate cookie made with dark lindt chocolate, studded with fruit and nut, in this case, cranberries and pistachios – the two of which I associate with the holiday season. These cookies are crisp on the outside but maintain that fudge like centre – just the way a perfect cookie should be!
Recipe (makes 15 pieces)
- 125 grams lindt chocolate, 70% cocoa, chopped
- 75 grams flour
- 30 grams dutch processed cocoa powder
- 50 grams butter
- 120 grams brown sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 egg
- 40 grams unsalted pistachios
- 40 grams dried cranberries
- Melt the chocolate by placing it in a microwave safe bowl and heating the chocolate for around 45 seconds at 15 second intervals. Allow to cool slightly.
- In the meantime, cream the sugar and the butter until pale and then add the egg.
- In a separate bowl, mix the flour, cocoa powder and baking soda.
- Add the dry ingredients to the batter, a third at a time.
- Next, add the melted chocolate and mix well.
- Fold in the cranberries and pistachios and place in the fridge for around 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 160c (fan forced) and bake the cookies in batches for around 15 minutes. Half way through the baking process, remove the cookies from the oven and press them to flatten slightly with a spatula and then return them to the oven.
- Allow to cool.
Note: The cookies will last for 3 days in an airtight container.


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How to approach conversation when it's time to evaluate driving capabilities in an elderly relative, friend
Dealing with a relative or friend who wants to continue to drive -- but shouldn't -- is a dilemma many people would rather not face, but more and more do.
Dealing with a relative or friend who wants to continue to drive -- but shouldn't -- is a dilemma many people would rather not face, but more and more do.
It's a sensitive issue that thrusts adult offspring into something of a parental stance when they begin to notice diminishing physical or mental capabilities that affect their parents' driving.
"It's tough," said Jerry Vein, AARP regional coordinator for northeast North Dakota. "It's something that people don't want to talk about."
Vein, retired from the Grand Forks Fire Department, has been involved in safety issues for more than 40 years.
Through AARP, he offers a course, called "We need to talk," which is aimed at helping people "start that conversation way ahead of time," he said. "It shouldn't be started when they need to quit."
Loss of driving skills due to failing eyesight, physical deficiencies and the onset of dementia -- "for example, they can't find home" -- can signal the need for change, said Myron Bender, a safe driving course instructor for AARP, Grand Forks.
If this occurs, those who are involved "probably should be thinking about alternative modes of transportation," he said.
Difficult transition
But reaching that decision and acting on it are often tough on families and relationships.
"It can be a smooth transition and, in other cases, it's a difficult transition," Bender said.
Research shows most older drivers who are having difficulty operating a motor vehicle would prefer to be approached by their spouse, adult children or doctor, he said.
"It's very hard for them to give up driving," said Brenda Pauley-Colter, supervisor in the physical medicine and therapy services department at Altru Health System.
What makes it so difficult is "these are the people who looked after us," she said. "Now, it's flipped. The child is in more of a caretaker role.
"They're faced with, 'if my parent isn't going to drive, I'm going to have to get them to their appointments.' The burden shifts to the child."
Drivers who must forfeit their keys face "loss of freedom and self-esteem," Vein said.
"In North Dakota, you can't do anything without driving," especially in rural areas, although in the Grand Cities, the bus system, cabs and Dial-a-Ride offer alternatives.
Special challenges
Advanced age brings an array of health issues that can affect driving. Eyesight begins to decline around age 40, Bender said. Reaction time becomes slower. "With poor reaction time, nine out of 10 times you'll have a rear-end collision."
Older people may have trouble turning their heads to check for blind spots, a deficit that can compromise one's ability to safely change lanes, merge into traffic and back out of a parking spot.
He recommends drivers park the car front-forward in paired spaces, "so you can drive ahead to leave," eliminating the need to back out.Left turns can be hazardous for elderly drivers, he said. Those who are leery can opt to make three right turns instead. Oftentimes, seniors are taking prescription drugs that may affect their ability to drive and increase risk of accidents and injury. "Anytime they change medications, they need to observe how they drive," he said.
Human error
In the vast majority of accidents, human error -- not mechanical malfunction or problems with the roadways -- is to blame, Bender said. "Ninety percent of crashes are due to human failure." For people in their 70s and 80s, most crashes occur at intersections, Vein said.
Common misconceptions about older drivers persist. For example, the belief that older drivers are bad drivers is not true, Bender said. "As a group, mature drivers are relatively safe drivers."
Vein agrees. "On average, seniors are pretty safe drivers," he said. "They're cautious. They take their time." Statistics indicate older drivers have high safety belt use and few citations for speeding, reckless driving or alcohol-related charges. However, older drivers, especially after age 75, have a higher risk of being involved in a collision for every mile they drive. The rate of risk is nearly equal to that of drivers age 16 to 24.
When involved in a crash, drivers older than 65 have a higher rate of death compared to other drivers mostly because of their inability to withstand the physical trauma that often occurs with age, according to new research by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.
"Their fatality rate, at age 75 and up, goes up dramatically," Bender said.
Yet, more people ages 65 and older are involved in motor vehicle accidents than any other age group, said Brenda Pauley-Colter, supervisor of physical medicine and therapy services at Altru Health System of Grand Forks that offers a driver evaluation program for seniors.
That may be linked to the fact that they don't drive as often, she said. "They lose cognitive ability." Also, the idea that, at some age "everyone will have to stop driving" is a myth, Bender said. "Driving has nothing to do with age. It has to do with health and ability."
That has led to an emphasis on physical fitness, he said.
"If an older person is having trouble maneuvering and walking, they probably will have difficulty with driving too."
Evaluating fitness to drive
Therapists at Altru Health System's physical medicine and therapy services department evaluate older drivers to provide "very objective and concrete information" which the physician can use to decide whether or not the person should continue to drive.
An increasing number of drivers are being referred for evaluation, said Pauley-Colter.
"People are living longer and wanting to drive longer," she said. Also family concerns are prompting more referrals.
In their evaluation, occupational therapists do a physical examination, checking for range of motion, strength-testing, endurance, cognition and vision status.
If the patient "passes," the evaluation continues with a driving test for which an occupational therapist joins the driver in a specially equipped car.
Occupational therapists on her staff sometimes see people more than once, Pauley-Colter said. Patients may be given activities they can practice, such as techniques to compensate for lack of strength or to better focus their attention, and return later for re-evaluation.
Vision problems constitute one of the leading factors that prompt evaluation, she said. People often don't notice deterioration in their eyesight. "We get used to our vision getting worse," she said. Also, memory affects driving capability and cognition affects one's ability to pay attention and not become distracted.
"Driving is a routine activity, it's innate," she said. "But once it becomes not innate, you can have distractibility."
People can seek evaluation on their own at Altru, but she said her department prefers referral by a physician who can follow up on information that's provided.
Concerns related to driving can lead into other health issues, such as memory loss, that a physician should address, she said.
"Ultimately, it comes down to the doctor" to make the decision about driving. No reports on patient evaluations are given to the state, she said. Whether it's about an elderly person's ability to live alone, needing more help or quitting driving, the role she and her colleagues play is "to help with determining whether it's time to have those conversations."
Safe-driving course
For those mature drivers who want to maintain and improve their driving knowledge and skills, AARP offers safe driving courses that cover strategies to compensate for any physical deficiencies, Bender said.
In North Dakota, AARP offers about 35 such courses every year. In Grand Forks, the four-hour class is presented the first Wednesday of the month at the Grand Forks Senior Center.
The curriculum is "very well-researched" by the national Highway Safety Administration office as well as medical and pharmaceutical societies, Bender said.
Those who complete it receive a three-year certificate for a discount on auto insurance.
"Most companies give a 5 percent discount," he said. Minnesota state law mandates a 10 percent discount.
The course covers strategies to maintain confidence behind the wheel such as defensive driving; new traffic laws and rules of the road; how to deal with aggressive drivers; and much more.
"I tell people in my class, 'I'm here to help you hang on to your car keys as long as it's safe to do so. But when you endanger others, we need to look at alternatives.'"


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Sunday, August 15, 2010
Baked Cranberry-Apple Oatmeal...
While most of the work is taken care of in the oven, there is a bit of prep work to get this Baked Cranberry-Apple Oatmeal ready. We are using a mix of oats here, the tiny steel cut pellets and old-fashioned rolled, however the former need a quick pre-soak to be softened as they are quite crunchy! The nuggets are steeped in a hot mixture of apple cider (juice is fine too) and water, along with a big knob of butter. Once those oats have lost some of their rugged exterior, the rest of the dry ingredients are stirred in - the regular oats, a chopped apple (we went in the tart direction, using a crisp Granny Smith), dried cranberries, crystallized ginger, cinnamon, baking powder, fresh grated nutmeg and for an alluring whisper of spice, a touch of cardamom. Whew! I know it seems like a fair amount of ingredients for just oatmeal, but stick with us - it'll be worth it!
To gather all those ingredients and hold them together, an egg, milk and a few drops of vanilla are swirled together and join the moistened oats. Bake this until the oats have absorbed the liquids and the center is set and just firm to the touch. If you serve this hot right out of the oven, it will be fairly spoon-able, almost pudding-like in texture, but if you let it cool for just a few minutes, you will be left with a firmer, slice-able oatmeal (cut-able into shapes, too!), which you can either enjoy as-is or with a splash or two of milk as we did.
With the apple cider and brown sugar, I did find this to be fairly sweet (though Jeff thought it was just right), so if you don't groove on a bunch of sweetness in your oatmeal, think about dropping a tablespoon or two off the brown sugar. This stores well in the refrigerator or the freezer, and can be quickly warmed back up with a zap in the microwave. Or if you're feeling adventurous and frisky, take a slice of the chilled oatmeal and instead of heating it in the microwave, brown the slab in a skillet with melted butter and top it off with a scoop of creamy vanilla ice cream!
Being fairly versatile, feel free to experiment to your hearts content - for blueberry oatmeal, drop the apricots and switch out the diced apple for 2 cups of fresh blueberries. Fancy bananas? Exchange the apples for the same amount of diced banana and toss in a half cup of chopped, toasted walnuts for the apricots. Want to go one step further with that theme and make a Banana Split oatmeal? Add the bananas and walnuts, then stir in a handful of bittersweet chips just before pouring the mix into the pan.
6 comments:
Looks delicious - love all the flavours you've used.ReplyDelete
My whole family enjoys oatmeal... with the start of school just a few days away this is the perfect good start to the day!ReplyDelete
now ts my kind of food i loveee oatmealReplyDelete
I love baked oatmeal. So convenient as you say and incredibly easy to customize. That looks gorgeous and like a little preview of fall.ReplyDelete
As a side note, I'm not sure if you have/had my blog in your RSS reader, but if so you may need to update the feed. I didn't realize when I switched over to feedburner that my old subscribers would no longer be updated so just wanted to send out the FYI. I have the link to the new feed at the top of my blog. :-)
Katie - Thank you!ReplyDelete
Kim - It took Jeff awhile to warm up to oatmeal, but he finally did a few years ago.
TIF - Great!
Kelly - Thanks for the update!
This looks really good. Love the presentation!!ReplyDelete


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2013 Republic of Texas Triathlon
2013 Republic of Texas Triathlon Festival, Corpus Christi, TX. All photos © 2013 by Tom Marek and MultiSport Photography. All Rights Reserved. Permission required for commercial use. Email email@example.com for permissions or acceptable use information. Personal use on blogs, personal websites and other personal public displays requires photo credit.Read More


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Last week I promised that today we'd take PBX in a Flash out for a spin. So I set up a trunk with a peer, created some user accounts, configured some softphones, and made some calls. I don't have anything dramatic to report; it all worked routinely. I didn't have a chance to test the auto-provisioning scripts, so as soon as I get some hardphones to play with I'll plug them in and report back.
While the FreePBX Web interface is nice and decently organized, you might
find yourself staring at some of the pages and wondering what to do. Check out
the FreePBX
Administration Guide for help.
You'll be running into password-protected pages every time you turn around, it seems, so remember your console scripts for managing these:
passwd-maint set master maint password for web GUI passwd-amp set password for wwwadmin passwd-meetme set password for Web MeetMe only passwd set root password for console login
Run help-pbx at your root login on the server to see all of your custom commands.
What happened to sweet 16?
Happy birthday PBX in a Flash! It turned 21 on December 5, 2007. 21 days, that
is, and the Gang of Four that run the PBX in a Flash show have been busier than
Santa's elves. In honor of the occasion, they have released version 1.1. This
is not such an earth-shaking update that you need to dash out and get it, but
it won't hurt anything if you do.
Good stuff about PBX in a Flash
No review would be complete with some good cop/bad cop comparisons. So here are mine, starting with the good stuff.
Updates are as easy as falling over, and upgrading Asterisk on PBX in a Flash
(which we will henceforward refer to as PiaF) brings a smile to my face. On
other all-in-one Asterisk-based PBXs, upgrades are difficult and vexing. For
PiaF, just download and run the update-source
script, then follow the nice, complete instructions. Two good side effects
of PiaF's method of compiling sources on the fly are you can get the latest,
greatest release any time you want, and if you have problems with Digium hardware,
you'll get better treatment from their support staff. Users of pre-compiled
Asterisk binaries sometimes have to employ a bit of extra insistence to get
I think it is the custom scripts that are going to set PiaF apart. The Whole Disk Backup script is an ingenious hack that runs Mondo Rescue at scheduled intervals. With a Mondo whole-disk backup you'll experience minimal downtime from a hardware failure, because you'll be able to perform a bare-metal restore with ease, and you'll have all of your settings and data. Depending, of course, on how recent your backup is. For example, if you run the backup script nightly you'll never lose more than a few hours' data.
You have a number of options for backups storage: a USB Flash storage device, an FTP server, or a Samba share. The backup is stored as an .iso, which you must burn to a CD or DVD. Then boot the system with your new disk and in a short time you're up and running again.
Not so good stuff
While PiaF is a fine piece of work, it nonetheless has a few rough edges. The
documentation is still a work in progress, but even though it's incomplete and
rather disorganized, it's still more than you'll find for most similar projects.
The scripts download site is especially messy; you have to dig to find the actual
scripts to download. (Try here.)
Lads, I know you're busier than one-armed cat herders, but a few more hyperlinks
would be nice!
The forums are active and full of helpful information. However, those who are into instant gratification will be sorely tested, because getting posting privileges requires manual intervention by the forum moderators. You can search and read them all you want to, but it may take a day to get your full privileges.
PiaF comes with two iptables control scripts: enable-iptables and disable-iptables. These load and flush the default iptables rules, which you can see in /etc/sysconfig/iptables. Something went wonky when I tried it, and I lost network connectivity. PiaF does warn you when you run help-pbx:
enable-iptables Turn on IPTABLES (You need to configure it!)
Which I've been procrastinating about, because I can't stand the horrid over-complicated
Red Hat method of creating and using iptables rules, so I always rip
out all the default guff and write my own nice clean sensible, comprehensible
iptables scripts.
The other one isn't really PiaF's fault—I forgot to immediately yum upgrade CentOS, so when I finally remembered I was in a hurry, and it wanted to download 180+ MB of files. Oops.
While we're on the subject of the PBX in a Flash site and forums: there is
a prominent warning in the installation manual that you need to use the Firefox
Web browser to access your Web server administration panel. This seems to hold
true for the various PBX in a Flash Web sites, too—NerdVittles.com,
the PBX-in-a-Flash
forum, and especially the script
download site are all happier in Firefox.
A2Billing and Text-to-Speech
Next week we'll wrap up our little PiaF series with a test-drive of the A2Billing module, which you can use to become your own VoIP mogul, and the Text-to-Speech engine, which the devs claim works out of the box.
Nerd Vittles
Edith Piaf. Treat yourself.


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Former senator gets Gordon Parks award
Staff Writer
Topeka Capital-Journal
FORT SCOTT — Former U.S. Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker will receive the Gordon Parks Choice of Weapons award in October.
The Wichita Eagle reports (http://bit.ly/18YbiIe ) the former Republican senator will be honored during a community dinner and tribute Oct. 4 during the 10th annual Gordon Parks Celebration in Fort Scott.
Gordon Parks is Fort Scott's most famous native son. Parks, a noted photographer, writer, poet, musician and filmmaker, died in 2006.
Kassebaum Baker became the first female senator from Kansas in 1978 when she was elected to the first of three six-year terms. She was also instrumental in helping create the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve.


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Enhanced audio with music, sound affects and professional actors.
"The Men" is the 43rd book in the series of beginning readers from ReadingTeacher.com.
New Sound in Book 43:
New Words in Book 43:
bad, him, men, be
The 80 books in the series use systematic phonics to ensure that your beginning readers will get a great start in reading proficiency.
The books begin at a very simple level and gradually introduce new sounds and words until students have mastered all 44 phonemes (sounds) in the English language.
The books should be read in order, because the sounds and words in each book build upon those learned in previous books. It is important that students master each book before moving on to the next.
Each new word throughout the program is repeated at least 5 times in the book in which it first appears and 5 more times in the next 10 books.
Story Summary:
Mit and Mat play in the fresh snow and then make snowmen. When the sun comes out, the snowmen begin to melt. Mit and Mat are unhappy, but their snowmen are saved when more snow begins to fall.


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I at last had the chance to see Steven Spielberg's Lincoln this weekend, so I can finally join the small army of scholars and other commentators who have chosen to share their thoughts on this film. Simply as cinema, it was enjoyable with excellent performances, especially Daniel Day Lewis in the title role. My only complaint about the film as a movie was it lasted about twenty minutes too long. The film centered on Abraham Lincoln's final lobbying push in early 1865 to pass the 13th Amendment (legally ending slavery) in the U.S. House of Representatives, which it depicts colorfully but more-or-less accurately. Lincoln should have ended with the final triumph of the amendment passing in the House. Instead, the film goes on for twenty minutes after that covering briefly in turn the fall of Richmond, Lee's surrender at Appomattox, Lincoln's assassination, ending a bit awkwardly with Daniel Day Lewis re-enacting an excerpt from Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address. I am sure Steven Spielberg had good reasons in his own mind for organizing the film the way he did, but my main concern is not Lincoln as cinema, but Lincoln as history.
The Lincoln establishment among historians, that see their mission as defending and bolstering the 16th President's reputation, have embraced the film, and little wonder, since Lincoln presents Abraham Lincoln in a highly positive light. The film clearly depicts him as the Great Emancipator, the indispensable man in the passage of the 13th Amendment and the final end of slavery in the United States. Steven Spielberg also clearly courted these scholars, hiring as a consultant, Harold Holzer, dean of the Lincoln establishment (to be fair to Holzer he has written about what he considers historically accurate in the film and what is not). Spielberg also gave "based on" credit to Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals, and also used her as a consultant, even though the movie's subject is only about nine pages in Goodwin's book. Recently, Holzer and Goodwin even joined Spielberg on stage at the celebration of the 149th anniversary of the delivery of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.
Yet the acclaim of the film among scholars has not been universal. Eric Foner, of Columbia University, perhaps the most distinguished academic historian of the Civil War era, has pointed out on CNN that emancipation in the United States was a much more complex historical process than Lincoln would suggest (hat tip to Albert Mackey for bringing Foner's remarks to my attention), a criticism that many academic historians (including this one) would agree with.
Kate Masur, of Northwestern University, also took the film to task in a New York Times op-ed essay, asserting Spielberg in Lincoln depicted African Americans too passively. She writes:
It's disappointing that in a movie devoted to explaining the abolition of slavery in the United States, African-American characters do almost nothing but passively wait for white men to liberate them. For some 30 years, historians have been demonstrating that slaves were crucial agents in their emancipation; however imperfectly, Ken Burns's 1990 documentary "The Civil War" brought aspects of that interpretation to the American public. Yet Mr. Spielberg's "Lincoln" gives us only faithful servants, patiently waiting for the day of Jubilee.
This is not mere nit-picking. Mr. Spielberg's "Lincoln" helps perpetuate the notion that African Americans have offered little of substance to their own liberation. While the film largely avoids the noxious stereotypes of subservient African-Americans for which movies like "Gone With the Wind" have become notorious, it reinforces, even if inadvertently, the outdated assumption that white men are the primary movers of history and the main sources of social progress.
Kate Masur represents the reaction to Lincoln of decades of scholarship aimed at revising the interpretation of African Americans in the Civil War era from an acquiescent race waiting to be freed by white Americans to active and important players in their own liberation. This scholarship began with historians inspired by the civil rights struggle of the 1960s to recover the history of black people in the Civil War and American history more generally. My mentor, Ira Berlin, and his associates at the Freedmen and Southern Society Project at the University of Maryland played a heroic ground-breaking role in this scholarship, sifting through mountains of federal records to find those relevant to emancipation. Other scholars joined the effort with other works, and Masur's An Example for All The Land: Emancipation and the Struggle over Equality in Washington, D.C. (2010) is a more recent specimen of what detractors incorrectly call the "self-emancipation thesis."
Yet as Kate Masur correctly asserts this scholarship has had a tough time making its way into popular culture. Masur mentions Ken Burns' documentary series on PBS in 1990 as a partial exception. I also would add Glory (1989), which told the story of the 54th Massachusetts, as another. I will not speculate as to why this scholarship has not caught on more with Hollywood and other dream merchants, except to say that Americans, like the rest of the human race, generally want to feel good about themselves and their nation's past, and revisionist scholarship on the Civil War while often revealing hard truths about American history does not tend to produce many inspiring, feel-good stories.
This is not to say the revisionist scholarship itself is without fault. In recent years, one historiographical thread that has developed is the recovery of nineteenth-century black political activism. Perhaps the most seminal work in this regard is Steven Hahn's A Nation Under Our Feet (2003), which explores the rise of an African-American politics in the South from emancipation through to the Great Migration of African Americans to the North that started during World War I, and how it contributed to later forms of black political consciousness.
Other scholars have followed Hahn's lead looking at black political activism in the nineteenth-century United States. For example, I am presently reading for a book review, David S. Cecelski's The Fire of Freedom: Abraham Galloway and the Slaves' Civil War (2012). It is a fascinating exploration on black political activism in North Carolina during the Civil War anchored by the story of Abraham Galloway, an escaped slave who returned to his home state during the conflict where he became an important African-American leader, powerful enough to deny the Union army the military service of black men there until he was satisfied they would be fighting for the freedom of their race and not merely for the preservation of the Union.
Yet as influential as Galloway and other black activists were at that moment when they held the keys to black enlistment in the Union Army in North Carolina, David S. Cecelski too often is left to speculate about the exact nature of Galloway's activities simply because of the lack of historical sources. Or to assert the historical significance of events that have remained obscure probably because their historical significance in the bigger picture of American history was questionable to begin with. That is, while Kate Masur in her New York Times op-ed is quite right to question seeing African Americans as passive players in their own liberation, it is equally legitimate to question the limits of their influence as historical actors.
Hence, if Steven Spielberg can be criticized for largely ignoring African Americans as active and influential in emancipation during the Civil War (although this was certainly not the case with his depiction Elizabeth Keckley, Mary Lincoln's black seamstress, whom he shows lobbying Lincoln with forceful dignity), the burden falls on to Kate Masur, David S. Cecelski, Steve Hahn, and other scholars of black political activism in the nineteenth century to suggest specifically ways that Spielberg might have rewritten his script to portray African American more actively in the context of the film. That is, if they had been the historical consultants instead of Harold Holzer or Doris Kearns Goodwin how would they have advised Spielberg? How during the five week or so period portrayed by Lincoln did African Americans make a difference in pushing the 13th Amendment to ratification in the U.S. House of Representatives? How might Steven Spielberg have translated this to the screen?
Certainly, it also is legitimate to probe the degree of Abraham Lincoln's power over emancipation even as the influence of black political activism on the same issue also is questioned. If I have a personal bone to pick with Steven Spielberg, it is like Eric Foner to complain about the over simplification of the process of emancipation in Lincoln. While the story of the 13th Amendment in the House of Representatives is an interesting and significant moment in slavery's end in the United States, and effectively dramaticized by Spielberg, it was just a chapter of a much larger story that Civil War Emancipation has been seeking to describe one post at a time for nearly two years now. One in which Abraham Lincoln was a major player, but was just as often pulled along by events beyond his control as he was able to influence them.
If I had been Steven Spielberg's historical consultant, I might have advised him to drop the last twenty minutes of the film, which are not really relevant to its main story and exist as an awkward postscript, instead ending with the passage of the 13th Amendment (an inspirational, feel-good moment in Lincoln if there ever was one). Those twenty minutes could have been devoted to some sort of dramatic montage at the beginning of the film depicting the key events in emancipation up to January 1865 to put into historical context the story of Abraham Lincoln and the ignoble methods he and others employed in favor of the noble end of getting the 13th Amendment through Congress. This would have started the film much better from a historical perspective than the gory battle sequence that opens the film at present, followed by the awkward scene of Lincoln chatting with soldiers where they recite to him the text of the Gettysburg Address, something that other historians have pointed out would be far-fetched since this speech did not gain its present illustrious reputation until after the Civil War.
Still, I must confess to enjoying Lincoln. For all its faults it is one of the better Hollywood films on the American Civil War in quite a while, its predecessors generally having set the bar rather low (Gods and Generals comes in mind in that regard). For its laughable historical errors and marginalization of African Americans (which is not quite as bad as Masur would suggest), by calling the nation's attention to the Civil War during the conflict's sesquicentennial and by focusing on emancipation however imperfectly Steven Spielberg has done a valuable public service. While I doubt I would use Lincoln in a Civil War history class, neither would I tell my students it was not worth seeing.


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Chris Pine was photographed holding hands leaving a Hollywood club the other night. Her name is Amanda Frances. She's a swimsuit model. According to US Weekly, even though Pine recently confirmed that he's single, a source says that:
"(Chris) is very attracted to her."
Look at those shorts!
As for how serious they are, the source continues:
"They are having a good time. He's very excited about his career right now, too."
Not surprisingly, shortly after these photos hit the internet, Amanda tweeted this:
Thanks for confirming that, honey. Otherwise we would have totally just assumed you spent the whole night reading to each other.
Amanda also made sure there was no doubt of her identity that she's the girl in the photos by retweeting subsequent compliments from people posting that the girl with Chris "got the body I'd love to have". So noted.


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Three-bangers! They're everywhere these days, from Ford Foci to experimental BMW mid-engined sports cars. And the three-cylinder engine in the BMW i8 also ends up in a somewhat unlikely place: the 2014 Mini Cooper. Zounds!
At the Detroit Auto Show on Monday morning, I spoke to some product folks about the embiggened-but-supposedly-still-fun 2015 Cooper. It's more BMW than ever before; the Cooper and Cooper S ditch the old PSA-sourced mill for turbocharged 1.5-liter and 2.0-liter three- and four-cylinder motors developed by the Bavarians.
I know what you're thinking. And the answer is no, the 2.0-liter turbo four is not the same engine as the one you get in the BMW 328i and 320i, among others. It's an entirely new engine that will see duty in future BMWs, presumably ones that ride on the Mini's new front-drive UKL platform.
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As for the 1.5-liter three, it's already destined for a car with a Roundel badge, and that's the BMW i8, according to the Mini folks. This was reported by Autoweek and other outlets last year, but it's not something you hear about too often. In the Cooper, the three produces 134 horsepower and 162 pound-feet of torque at just 1,250 RPM. Not bad.
But in the i8, that three gets beefed up to put out 231 horsepower and 236 pound-feet of torque. The i8 also gets a boost from an electric motor that bumps its total power way up to 362 horsepower and 420 pound-feet of torque.
If it's good enough for the i8, it must be pretty good. This could be the engine to get if you're in the market for the next Cooper.


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08/01/2013 - Spain's enforcement of its foreign bribery laws has been extremely low, with not a single prosecution out of only seven investigations in 13 years since joining the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention. Spain must vigorously pursue foreign bribery allegations and strengthen its legal framework for fighting bribery by addressing gaps in its Penal Code, says a new OECD report.
The OECD Working Group on Bribery has just completed its report on Spain's implementation of the Convention of Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions and related instruments. The report calls on Spain to complete the reform of its Penal Code by consolidating or harmonizing its separate offences for the bribery of foreign public officials and for the bribery of European officials, and by removing the exception for State-owned enterprises in the Penal Code's framework for holding companies liable for foreign bribery.
The Working Group recommends that Spain:
The report also highlighted positive aspects of Spain's efforts to fight foreign bribery, in particular, the 2010 reform of the Penal Code, which introduced Spain's first corporate liability regime and an improved offence for the bribery of non-European officials. The Working Group welcomed the 2007 reform expressly establishing the competence of the ACPO over serious foreign bribery offences, and thus reinforcing its specialisation, as recommended in Phase 2. The Group also commended Spain for clarifying auditors' obligation to report suspicions of foreign bribery to competent authorities.
The Working Group on Bribery – made up of the 34 OECD Member countries plus Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Colombia, Russia and South Africa – adopted Spain's report in its third phase of monitoring implementation of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention.
The Report, available here, lists all the recommendations of the Working Group to Spain on pages 73-78, and includes an overview of recent enforcement actions and specific legal, policy and institutional features of Spain's framework for fighting foreign bribery. The report recommends a written follow-up report by Spain in one year on progress enforcing its foreign bribery offences, to help the Working Group decide whether a further evaluation is necessary.
As with other Working Group members, Spain will submit a written report to the Working Group within two years on steps it has taken to implement the new recommendations. This report will also be made publicly available.
For further information, journalists are invited to contact Mary Crane-Charef, OECD Anti-Corruption Division Communications Coordinator, e-mail firstname.lastname@example.com; (33) 1 45 24 97 04. For more information on OECD's work to fight corruption, please visit www.oecd.org/daf/nocorruption.
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Today's News: Our Take - Ratings: Dads, Brooklyn Nine-Nine Premieres Boost Fox
Dads and Brooklyn Nine-Nine kicked off Fox's new comedy blockTuesday with solid debuts.
Proving that there's no such thing as bad publicity, the controversialDads bowed to 5.6 million viewers and a 2.1 in the adults 18-to-49 demographic, up 24 percent from Raising Hope's premiere in the slot last year. Brooklyn Nine-Nine, one of TVGuide.com users' most-anticipated new comedies, followed with 6 million viewers and a 2.5, improving 19 percent from Ben & Kate's series premiere a year ago.
Add new fall shows to your Watchlist now!
Lead-out New Girl (5.6 million, 2.9) rose a tenth for its Season 3 premiere, but The Mindy Project (4 million, 1.9) dropped half a point from its series premiere last year. The Season 2 premiere, however, was available online early.
On NBC, Million Second Quiz (5.2 million, 1.1) inched up from Monday's episode and America's Got Talent (10.9 million, 2.4) grew a tenth.
View original Ratings: Dads, Brooklyn Nine-Nine Premieres Boost Fox at TVGuide.com
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