text:
Risotto is an Italian specialty more common in northern Italy, where it is so popular it is often preferred over pasta. It has a reputation of being somewhat fussy to prepare, but in reality this dish is economical, extremely versatile, and takes less than thirty minutes to complete from start to finish.
A true Italian risotto should be creamy, yet not runny, cooked to a consistency Italians call all'onda, which translates as "with waves". Although the cooking time may vary with the rice used or the temperature it is cooked over, risotto is done when each individual grain remains slightly firm to the bite. The number of recipes for risotto are endless and there are many variations on cooking technique, yet most stick true to the classic Italian method—the method I prefer. Once you are comfortable with this technique, you can experiment with any number of possible flavorings. You could eat a different risotto dish every day of the year and not run out of options.
"The gradual addition of the hot liquid is the key to getting the rice to release its starch, creating the optimal creaminess expected with a good risotto."
Almost every risotto begins with sautéing some chopped onion or other aromatic in butter, or a mixture of butter and oil, which lays the flavor base on which the rest of the recipe is built. Once the onion is tender, the rice is added and stirred until well-coated and slightly toasted with the oil. Sometimes a splash of wine is used, and once that has been absorbed, small amounts of hot broth are then added. During this period of adding liquid to the rice, it gets stirred constantly and cooked gently over a low boil. The gradual addition of the hot liquid is the key to getting the rice to release its starch, creating the optimal creaminess expected with a good risotto. The final flavoring ingredients are added in the last few minutes of the cooking process, and once it has completed cooking, the risotto is removed from the heat. A little butter, and sometimes grated parmesan, are then added to enrich the rice and help to make it even creamier.
The two primary ingredients needed for risotto are rice and broth. You should use an Italian variety of short grain rice, such as Arborio, Vialone Nano, or Carnaroli. Arborio can now be found in most American grocery stores and Italian specialty stores. Homemade broth is the preferred choice, but if time or circumstances make this impossible, chose a good quality, low sodium broth (that way you can adjust the salt level to your own taste).
Chicken, vegetable, fish and meat broths are all used depending on the other ingredients chosen for the dish. The flavoring ingredients can include almost anything, including seasonal vegetables, seafood, meat, and every combination in between.
There are other methods of preparation, including ones that are completed in the oven, or ones that require barely any stirring at all (like this one from The Food Lab), but this is the traditional method for making Italian risotto, and the one I prefer.
In spring, I'm always inspired by the vibrant, fresh ingredients available. I love to celebrate the season by preparing creamy risotto dishes showcasing such spring vegetables as asparagus, artichokes, fava beans, and sweet spring peas. (I won't eat peas at any other time of the year, but cannot get enough sweet, baby peas in the spring.) I found the first spring peas of the season at my local outdoor market recently and created this risotto dish specifically for them.
Planning this risotto dish, I decided to include spring peas, ham, and fontina cheese, all ingredients I know work well together. I added a little finely chopped basil and lemon zest to enhance and brighten the favors, and the dish turned out exactly as planned. You can serve this risotto as a first course for six, or as a main course for four.
Basic Risotto Tips:
Here are some basic tips for making traditional Italian risotto.
- Never wash the rice. The starch is essential to keeping the rice creamy.
- The best pan to use when making risotto is a high-sided, heavy bottomed one of at least 10 inches in diameter.
- Use only hot broth when cooking your risotto. Adding cool broth will prolong the cooking time.
- Prepare all the ingredients in advance, and place in easy reach in the order they will be used. You cannot stop stirring to chop ingredients as they are needed.
- To determine when you should add more liquid, lightly draw your wooden spoon across the bottom of your pot. You should be able to create an open space as you draw your spoon across.
- Add your liquid in 1/3 cup intervals, only adding more once it has been completely absorbed.
- Near the end of the cooking time, taste the rice frequently, as the cooking time can vary a few minutes each time you cook it.
- If you have run out of hot broth and your risotto seems to require a little more cooking time, add a little hot water instead.


text:
Biz Bits: Which tablet is right for you?
Tip of the Week
Purchasing a tablet computer can be a confusing process given how many have flooded the market this year. In addition to the iPad, new powerful tablets have launched including the Motorola XOOM, BlackBerry Playbook, Samsung Galaxy Tab, Dell Streak, Acer Iconia A500 and HP TouchPad. With such a large selection of tablets out there, how do you know which one is right for your specific needs and wants. Before purchasing a tablet, it's important to answer the following question, "I want my tablet to …"
- Keep me connected to friends, family members and work buddies as well as my favorite go-to news, celebrity gossip and social networking sites while I am on the go. You should zero in on a tablet with a small size for greater portability and multi-tasking computing power so you can stay connected to multiple applications at once.
- Entertain and house my favorite movies, games and music. Look for a tablet that supports HD video, greater computing power and a substantial internal storage and/or USB-supported external storage. This will ensure your entertainment looks great and you never have to worry about running out of storage for your favorite movies, music or games.
- Help manage my 9-to-5 or 9-to-whenever workload like reading and reviewing documents, spreadsheets and presentations and email. You will want a tablet with the computing power, user interface and productivity apps that facilitate the completion of your work on the go. Additionally, verify the tablet's battery life is sufficient to ensure you can power through your to do-list without worrying about running out of power before you run out of action items.
BBB Watch
As students across the country are on their way back to school, many of them will carry cellphones, iPads, iPods, laptops and other electronic devices everywhere from their dorms to their cars and their classrooms. The Better Business Bureau reminds students and their parents to talk about ways to keep electronics and personal information out of the wrong hands.
The BBB offers the following advice to students and parents on how to keep personal property and sensitive information safe at school:
Use password protections. Even if a thief steals your electronic device, having password protections could limit their access to your personal information. Avoid sharing passwords with friends or carrying them around on paper.
Keep it off the floor. No matter where you are in public - a large study hall in school, a conference, a coffee shop, or a registration desk - avoid putting your electronics on the floor. If you must put it down, place it between your feet or at least up against your leg, so that you're aware of it.
Get it out of the car. Don't leave your electronics in the car - not on the seat, not in the trunk. Parked cars are a favorite target of thieves; don't help them by leaving your property unattended.
Don't leave it "for just a minute." Your classmates seem trustworthy, so you're comfortable leaving your electronics on the table while you go outside for a break. The people at the coffee shop seem nice, so you ask them to keep an eye out while you use the restroom. Don't leave your laptop, iPad or other tablets unguarded - even for a minute.
Use bells and whistles. Depending on your security needs, an alarm can be a useful tool. Some laptop alarms sound when there's unexpected motion, or when the computer moves outside a specified range around you. Or consider a kind of "lo-jack" for your laptop: a program that reports the location of your stolen laptop once it's connected to the Internet.
Leave it at home. In some cases, school districts may have strict policies about students bringing electronic devices to campus. Be sure to find out what is allowed while on campus and in the classroom. Also, determine if you really need your electronics during school hours or if they can wait until you get home.
For more consumer safety tips, and advice on how to avoid identity theft visit www.bbb.org.
The List
According to a new Gallup poll, here are the happiest states (based on jobs, health and several other factors):
- Hawaii
- North Dakota
- Alaska
- Nebraska
- Minnesota
- Colorado
- Utah
- New Hampshire
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Vermont
- Maryland
Number to Know
8.44: Percent of homeowners who missed at least one mortgage payment in the second quarter of the year, up 0.12 from the first quarter.
Tech Talk
According to comScore, this past July set a record for most hours watching online video. Americans watched an average of 18.5 hours of video for the month.
GateHouse News Service

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Earlier this year, an article about the Iraqi Dinar Scam appeared on Forbes.com. Here's a screenshot:
First, let me go on record here: I disagree with the author's use of the word "stupid" in the title of this article. It's arrogant. Falling for a scam doesn't make you stupid; it is my deeply-held belief that everyone is vulnerable to scams. Every single one of us has some magic combination of situation, emotion and opportunity capable of leading us straight into Scamsville. My goal with this site has always been to eliminate as many of those possibilities as possible; to make your own scam-combination-lock as difficult to decipher as possible. But we've all got a tell. Somewhere. I can't emphasize this enough.
But this particular scam isn't really my focus here. Yes, the Iraqi Dinar Investment Thing is very much a scam. The fact that entities selling it have to classify their businesses as a service for collectors of exotic currency (and not as a foreign exchange investment) to get around regulations should tell you something. Now you know. Go forth and tell others.
No, my focus today is to point out one of the absurd ironies of online publishing and the keyword-based online advertisements that accompany it. Because, on the very same page as the article shown above, this advertisement appeared, plain as day:
Yep. An advertisement for a business involved in the very scam the article spends several hundred words discussing.
No, I didn't click on it. I don't trust these businesses enough to even expose my computer to their websites. So I can't give you any further details on this particular "offer," but I can assure you: it involves you paying a few thousand dollars for a mound of paper that's going to be worth the same nothing ten years from now that it's worth today.
So here's your takeaway for this Friday: for the most part, just don't click on advertisements that appear on websites, even when those websites are reputable (I mean, Forbes wasn't exactly founded a week ago, you know?). Even if the ads seem relevant to what you're reading.
In fact, lots of web browsers now have plugins available that will block banner ads from view altogether. Adblock for Google Chrome is popular. I used it in the past, but since I have to occasionally write articles on this stuff, I felt it was better for me to be able to see the ads. There was even a variant called "Catblock" at one point, which replaced ads with pictures of totally adorable cats. Which is just awesome.


text:
Good news, J.J. Abrams fans — you're getting a new (and hopefully better received) series from Abrams on NBC! It's called Revolution, and it focuses on a band of survivors making their way in a new world after all of the world's energy mysteriously disappears. And here's your very first shot of the cast standing ominously on a giant staircase. Note the bows and arrows! That trend isn't going anywhere, anytime soon!
According to TV Line, NBC has picked up this new drama series, which was also crafted by Supernatural's Eric Kripke and directed by Jon Favreau. The show stars the Mustache Dad from Twilight (actor Billy Burke) and Giancarlo Esposito from Once Upon A Time and Breaking Bad (which doesn't really bode well for Esposito's character on Once).
Can anyone guess what the secret behind the massive power outage is? Because you know there's going to be a mystery wrapped in a mystery tied with a bow with Abrams.


text:
Enhanced airport security may waste money, study says
Months after an airport screener was killed in a shooting rampage at Los Angeles International Airport, a new report concludes that adding more security measures at the nation's airports may not be worth the cost.
The study goes on to suggest that it might even make sense to relax some of the existing security tactics.
"It may be time to reduce security," said John Mueller, a professor of political science at Ohio State University who wrote the report with Mark G. Stewart, a civil engineering professor at the University of Newcastle in Australia.
Mueller and Stewart conclude that airports are not good targets for terrorists and that the odds of being killed in an airport attack are extremely long. Their study, titled "Cost-benefit analysis of airport security: Are airports too safe?," appeared in the March edition of Journal of Air Transport Management.
The study relied on cost and risk reduction numbers for LAX but were calculated before the Nov. 1 rampage by a gunman who killed Transportation Security Administration agent Gerardo Hernandez, 39, and wounded several others. Mueller said the shooting did not change his cost analysis.
The Mueller-Stewart study looked at several potential threats, including a gunman, a suitcase bomb, a truck bomb and a bomb strapped to a person. The professors also looked at the cost and effectiveness of such security measures as adding more bomb-sniffing dogs, and installing permanent vehicle search checkpoints and shatterproof glass and blast deflection walls at the airports.
Using cost-analysis computations, the study concluded that the cost of such measures would not be justified, considering they would not completely eliminate the threat.
"Moreover, if the analysis suggests that enhancement of airport security is highly questionable, it may well be time to consider if many of the security arrangements already in place to protect airports are excessive," the report said.
LAX police declined to discuss future airport security measures.
Jan Brueckner, a UC Irvine economics professor and airline industry expert, agreed that airports are not a priority target for terrorists "but some level of spending on security makes sense," he said.
Although many travelers complain about airline security, Brueckner said the current level of security at airports doesn't seem intrusive.
Airline ads may once again be allowed to feature base fare
Legislation that would let airlines advertise airfares without adding in fees and taxes has the support of — you guessed it — the nation's airline industry.
The bill introduced March 6 by Reps. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) and Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) would negate a rule adopted in 2011 by the U.S. Department of Transportation that now requires airlines to advertise the full cost of tickets, including fees and taxes.
The Transportation Department has already fined the nation's airlines thousand of dollars over the last three years for violating the "full-fare" advertising rule.
Under the new bill, dubbed the Transparent Airfares Act, airlines can advertise the base fare, with extra fees and taxes listed separately on the same print ad or with a link or pop-up window on websites.
Airlines for America, the trade group for U.S. airlines, said last week that the current federal rule is unfair because it masks how much government fees raise airfares.
"It's a misnomer to characterize the current law as a consumer protection rule when it really protects the government, not airline passengers," said Nicholas E. Calio, president and chief executive of the group.
Los Angeles to Saudi Arabia route coming soon
Saudi Arabian Airlines is scheduled to begin new service from Los Angeles International to Saudi Arabia this month, a type of development that in the past was celebrated with an elaborate ceremony on the tarmac and in the terminal.
For example, when Emirates Airline debuted daily service between LAX and Dubai in December, the airline taxied the A380 plane to the gate under a shower of water from the airport fire department's water cannons.
But with California entering the worst drought in modern times, LAX officials told Saudi Arabian Airlines that they are calling off the water cannons for the celebration of the new route.
Instead, LAX firefighters and their rigs will line up on the tarmac, with the firefighters saluting as the debut flight rolls past.
The view from Sacramento
Sign up for the California Politics newsletter to get exclusive analysis from our reporters.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.


text:
by Todd Walker
From time to time I need to repair equipment and clothing while outdoors. Finding the right tools in nature is like searching for the illusive needle in a haystack. It's much easier to spot a drinking straw. Size matters! This is a simple way to stock several kits with this essential equipment when you don't have time to make needles out of scavenged critter bones.
Here's what you'll need: Straw, needle, tread, safety-pin, and electrical tape.
If you don't have drinking straws, stop by a fast food haunt and grab a few…for free. The brown thread pictured is a heavy gauge waxed thread I've used it to repair equipment in the past. It was in a sewing box I bought at an estate sale. Great find! Dental floss would also work very well.
Steps 1: I made two straw kits. One for equipment, one for clothing. Thread the needle with about 6 feet of thread. I tie a knot in the end of the thread and pull it to the eye of the needle. This ensures that you don't have to thread the needle in less than perfect conditions in the woods. It also lessens the chance of dropping the needle in the pine needles you're standing on. Plus, you don't have to employ fine motor skills to thread a needle and tie a knot with tiny cordage.
Step 2: Insert a safety-pin about an inch into the end of the straw. Fold the end over and close it with electrical tape. I guess super glue or melting would work for closure. I like the tape. It gives more options in the field.
Step 3: Insert the threaded needle into the open end of the straw. Bend it over and tape it off.
Step 4: Wind the tread around the straw in a coil. This is your bobbin.
Once wrapped with thread, cover it with you tape.
Step 5: Make another straw sewing kit for your clothing needle. Tip: use a different color straw or label them somehow.
That's it. These are lightweight and will double as a drink stirrer when you stumble upon the moonshine still down by the creek. Hope you enjoyed.
Keep Doing the Stuff,
P.S. – You can also keep up with the Stuff we're Doing on Twitter, Pinterest, Google +, YouTube and our Facebook page… and over at the Doing the Stuff Network on Pinterest, Google +, and Facebook.
P.P.S – If you find value in our blog, Dirt Road Girl and I would appreciate your vote on Top Prepper Sites! You can vote daily by clicking here or on the image below. Check out all the other value-adding sites while you're there…
Thanks for Sharing the Stuff!
Copyright: Content on this site (unless the work of a third-party) may be shared freely in digital form, in part or whole, for non-commercial use with a link back to this site crediting the author. All links in articles must remain intact as originally posted in order to be republished. If you are interested a third-party article, please contact the author directly for republishing information.


text:
Now you can enjoy the new episode of Happy Hunting! with Cinders Vale and Rosamoo Mendelsohn and an interview with Chimo Ruby who will be talking about her new hunt for Valentine's – the Bubbly Heart Gridwide Hunt!
Rosamoo Mendelsohn of Hunt SL, our hunt reporter, rezzed a house full of hunt goodies for you to enjoy – and the house itself was a hunt item! She will be sharing all the latest hunt news with our host Cinders Vale, and some examples of the wonderful items she's found. And there'll be news of upcoming hunts too.
And you can find the details of all the hunts discussed right here.
Then Cinders will be talking to Chimo Ruby about the hunts Chimo organises – including her new hunt – The Bubbly Heart.
It's a great show packed with exciting gifts you can find across the grid – so don't miss it!


text:
Tourist Kidnappings Ravage Kenyan Resort Area
LAMU, Kenya – During high season in this Kenyan luxury resort area, foreign tourists snorkel by day and sleep in rustic dwellings with woven coconut leaves for doors. Now they're leaving town early and canceling reservations after gunmen kidnapped two Europeans and killed another in only a month.
Already, droves of workers who depend on tourism in this gorgeous but poor corner of East Africa are losing their jobs.
Hours after a French woman was abducted last weekend, eight guests checked out of Stefano Moccia's nearby hotel and hurriedly boarded a plane. Usually busy taxi boats now lay idle along the coasts. Some tourists have come despite the violence and travel warnings, but the outlook is grim.
"This season is over. That is for sure," said Stefano Moccia, who already has fired nearly half his 100 staff members in just two days. Unless business at The Majlis rebounds quickly, he says he'll have to let go most of the rest.
Nervous hotel owners like Moccia are urging Kenya's government to step up security in this area long popular with tourists and rich Kenyans. High tourist season traditionally begins here in November, but the $1,800-a-night rooms could sit empty, the white sand beaches bare of sunbathers.
"Tens of thousands of people depend on the tourism -- their livelihoods are at stake," said Dario Urbani, the marketing director of the Romantic Hotels Ltd, which owns Lamu Palace Hotel, where an American tourist also checked out right after the Saturday attack.
"Without thinking too much, tourists will say 'I don't want to risk my life by going there. The Kenyan government has to flex its muscle and chase away criminals," he added.
Tourism is a $1 billion industry and employs tens of thousands of Kenyans in a country where many people live on less than a $1 a day.
The sector has just picked up after Kenya's deadly 2007-2008 postelection violence, when photos of angry men roaming the streets with machetes forced waves of vacation cancellations.
Now, the U.S., British and French governments have issued travel warnings to their citizens after the recent abductions.
Kenyan Tourism Minister Najib Balala urged the businesses to stay open.
"When you close hotels, you create unnecessary panic," he told them at a crisis meeting held Monday in Lamu, a world heritage town with centuries-old cultures and ruins. The people here wear sarongs, Islamic hats and robes; the modes of transport on the archipelago, which is on the Indian Ocean, are donkeys and taxi boats.
Balala said ambassadors of the three governments told him that they will review the travel warnings after a month.
"It will be very hard to convince tourists that nothing will happen to them, and that Lamu is safe when they know what happened two days ago," said Joseph Koi, a tour coordinator from Lamu Holiday Solutions.
Somali gunmen have been penetrating Kenya's borders since Somalia's central government collapsed in 1991. Two decades later, Al Qaeda-linked militants wage war in the capital, and pirates hijack ships off the coast for millions of dollars in ransom.
Somali attackers have abducted Kenyans and foreigners several times in the past, but never before have they traveled around 130 kilometers from their country on speedboats to grab foreigners in their guesthouses in Lamu.
Situated on Kenya's northern coast line, the Lamu archipelago consists of several islands.
On Tuesday, the normally bustling hotels were sparely populated, as were the beautiful beaches. No navy vessels were visible this weekend to protect the luxury hotels and guesthouse along the beach.
Abdalla Fadhil, the owner of the house where the French woman was kidnapped, said tourists like houses made of mangrove poles with thatched roofs and coconut leaves.
"Tourists ran away from concrete houses, ceramic tiles and steel beams to experience this natural life," he said.
Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere said hotels and villas on the coast will be patrolled by security officers whose cell phone numbers will be made public. He said police and soldiers also will intensify border patrols to stop any infiltration. He also said surveillance planes will be also deployed.
"We require a lot of cooperation from the locals," he said, blaming some locals for sympathizing with the criminals.
Fadhil said locals may have helped Somali gunmen for money, "because many people live in poverty here." He said while residents on Manda island may earn about $3 a day from tourism, others in Lamu town scrape by on $1 a day.
On Monday, about a dozen men marched along Lamu's beachfront and called for government action against Somali pirates and al-Qaida-linked militants known as al-Shabab. They carried banners reading "Attack al-Shabab in Somalia," "Down with al-Shabab and Pirates."
"We want peace and to get peace we need a strong security force that can stop abductions in our islands," said 60-year-old Ziwa Abdalla, who said he worked as a guide for 35 years. "If tourists don't come here we will suffer, and worse our jobless people can turn to piracy."
Some are going ahead with their vacation plans, venturing out on boat excursions and safaris on the mainland.
"We're shocked by the incident, but it didn't make us leave earlier," said Peter Kelly, a 62-year-old Canadian traveling with more than 10 other tourists.
One prominent hotel was bustling with tourists Sunday night. Its owner asked an Associated Press reporter not to interview his customers. He did not want to be named, fearing it would attract negative attention to his business at a delicate time.
"We're lucky to be open," he curtly said.


text:
In October 2010, the Haitian Ministry of Health and Population announced the detection of cholera in the Artibonite Department, located north of Port-Au-Prince. After enduring a devastating earthquake in January 2010, the cholera epidemic hit like a knock-out punch.
Cholera is a diarrheal disease caused by a bacteria that spreads rapidly through contaminated water. When people get cholera, they get very sick, very fast, and the risk of death is high if left untreated. A matter of hours can make a difference.
In Haiti, cholera attacked a population with no previous exposure and therefore no immunity against the bacteria. Before this outbreak, Haiti had not been affected by cholera in over a century. Over the last two and half years, 658,053 people have contracted cholera in Haiti, and 8,120 have died.
The World Health Organization estimates that 1.4 billion people are at risk of getting cholera every year, and annually 2.8 million cases of cholera occur globally. Since cholera spreads via contaminated water, it thrives in post-disaster environments. Even in the United States, post Hurricane Katrina, emergency personnel attended to many people infected with a bacteria closely related to cholera.
The increased risk of infectious diseases is a recurrent public health concern in post-disaster situations. In the U.S., we have the infrastructure needed to detect and respond to outbreaks, to stop their spread. In Haiti, USAID is working to strengthen the Ministry of Health's capacity to detect and control infectious diseases and provide timely life-saving care. USAID is committed to assisting the Government of Haiti to combat this epidemic.
When tackling an outbreak of this magnitude, it is essential to work with key partners to leverage each other's strengths. Today, USAID became an official member of the Coalition on Water and Sanitation for the Elimination of Cholera in Hispaniola. To add to the ongoing efforts of the Pan American Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control, UNICEF and other strategic partners, USAID has pledged to support the Government of Haiti's plan to eliminate cholera from Hispaniola.
USAID's current work already contributes to this goal through many different avenues that focus on cholera prevention as well as treatment and control. Since contaminated water is the source of cholera, USAID works via its implementing partners to ensure that Haitians have access to safe drinking water at their homes, health centers and schools and makes safe water products available for water decontamination. Since the beginning of the outbreak, USAID programs have mobilized thousands of community workers throughout Haiti to conduct awareness activities that focus on hygiene and sanitation practices that help prevent cholera.
When someone falls ill of cholera, it is important to recognize signs of dehydration and have swift access to treatment. USAID trains mothers and caregivers to recognize these dangerous signs and use oral rehydration products. If medical attention is needed, USAID's extensive network of health facilities, present throughout the country, has the necessary resources and training to manage this disease.
USAID will continue to work in partnership with the Government of Haiti to improve the health of all Haitians and will coordinate extensively with members of the Coalition to leverage our efforts to eliminate cholera from Hispaniola.


text:
San Francisco Airline Memorabilia Show
The 12th semiannual "San Francisco Airline Memorabilia Show and Sale" will be held at the Grosvenor Best Western.
Aviation aficionados will be hoping to find advertising paraphernalia, posters, playing cards, timetables, pamphlets, postcards, pins, china, flatware, and glass.
Grosvenor Best Western
380 S. Airport Blvd. South San Francisco.
March 13, 2010
Hours: 9am to 3pm
Admission: $5.
Details: 650-281-4486.
Elsie said that parking (for non-guests of the hotel) should be free.


text:
It's your birthday—which means it's time to start collecting presents. Many retailers offer freebies, coupons, or discounts for those on or near their birthday. We rounded up the best birthday freebies at some major retailers and restaurants, and put them in a handy chart to consult when your b-day comes around.
This post originally appeared on DealNews.
If you're looking for freebies on your birthday, you need to be aware that many places don't offer discounts just for showing up and flashing your ID. Frequently, birthday offers come in the form of snail mail or e-mail coupons, after signing up for a store's mailing list or loyalty program. So while these offers seem free, you're really trading away your personal information for these discounts. Still, for retailers you often frequent, it's not necessarily a bad trade—and you can expect deals to pop up in your inbox even when it's not your birthday.
For the programs that don't mail coupons, you should be prepared to show your ID as proof that it really is your birthday.
Offers may vary from location to location and you may find retailers not on this list that are willing to offer you specials on your birthday. If in doubt, ask!
Apple MacBook Air Laptop
Powerful performance
The M1 chip delivers 3.5x faster performance than the previous generation all while using way less power. Get up to 18 hours of battery life.
|American Eagle Outfitters
|15% off coupon
|Sign up for AE Rewards
|Free dessert
|Sign up for their mailing list
|Free milkshake (with purchase)
|Join Arby's mailing list
|Free gift
|Join Aveda.com
|Baskin Robbins
|Free ice cream
|Sign up for their birthday club
|Ben & Jerry's
|Free ice cream
|Join the ChunkSpelunker Club
|$30 gift certificate
|Join the Chef's Table
|Boston Market
|Free dessert with meal
|Sign up for their V.I.P. club
|Buca di Beppo
|Free brownie
|Sign up for their eClub
|Buffalo Wild Wings
|Free dessert
|Sign up for their Buffalo Circle
|Caribou Coffee
|Free drink
|Sign up for their email newsletter
|Free brownie sundae
|Sign up for Chili's Email Club
|Free gift
|Join Club Cinnabon
|Cold Stone Creamery
|Buy one creation, get one free
|Join the My Cold Stone Club
|Columbia Sportswear
|20% off coupon
|Sign up for Columbia's Rewards Club
|Cracker Barrel
|Free dessert
|Tell your server
|$3 in CVS ExtraBucks
|Register online with CVS
|Dairy Queen
|Buy one Blizzard, get one free
|Join the Blizzard Fan Club
|Del Taco
|Free Premium shake
|Join the Raving Fan eClub
|Free Grand Slam breakfast
|Tell your server and show your ID
|$5 gift certificate
|Join DSW Rewards
|Dippin' Dots
|Free Dippin' Dots
|Join their fan club
|Dunkin' Donuts
|Free medium drink
|Join DDPerks
|Einstein Bros Bagels
|Free bagel
|Join their Club
|Famous Footwear
|Free gift
|Create an account
|Free sundae
|Join their BFF Club
|Free burger (with purchase)
|Sign up for Fudds Club
|Free meal
|Join the Pancake Revolution
|Jamba Juice
|Free juice or smoothie
|Sign up for Jamba Insider Rewards
|Jason's Deli
|$5 coupon
|Sign up for their Birthday Club
|Joe's Crab Shack
|Free appetizer
|Sign up for their mailing list
|Krispy Kreme
|Free donut
|Join Friends of Krispy Kreme
|Macaroni Grill
|Slice of cake
|Sign up for their newsletter
|Maggie Moo's
|Free ice cream
|Sign up for MaggiE-mail
|Marble Slab Creamery
|Free ice cream
|Sign up for Marble Mail
|Orange Julius
|Drink coupon
|Join the Julius League
|Panera Bread
|Free gift loaded on to your loyalty card
|Join MyPanera
|Free yogurt
|Join their loyalty program
|Red Lobster
|Free gift
|Join the Seafood Lovers Club
|Red Robin
|Free burger
|Join their eClub
|Free gift
|Sign up for Beauty Insiders
|Free cosmetics gift set
|Sign up for Smashbox Pretty Points Rewards
|Free creamslush, tater tots, or drink
|Sign up for MySonic
|Free drink or food plus a 15% off coupon for StarbucksStore.com
|Join My Starbucks Rewards
|Steak 'n Shake
|Free Double Steakburger
|Sign up for their eClub
|Taco Cabana
|Free flauta plate
|Sign up for their eClub
|Free yogurt
|Sign up for their eClub
|T.G.I. Friday's
|Free dessert
|Sign up for Give Me More Stripes
|Tony Roma's
|Free entree
|Join the Roma Rib Expert Club
|Free gift
|Create an ULTA account
|$1 off a combo
|Sign Up for Wendy Mail
|Waffle House
|Free waffle
|Join Waffle House Regulars
|World Market
|10% off coupon
|Join Explorer Rewards
For more details on how to get free stuff on days other than your birthday, check out this guide.
The Best Retail & Restaurant Birthday Freebies | DealNews
Elizabeth is a professional writer and a non-professional technology enthusiast, with a keen interest in how tech is changing the world we live in.
Photo by Jem (Flickr).
Want to see your work on Lifehacker? Email Andy.


text: We're firing more hilarity through the Internets, breaking down those big NFL Draft trades, the NHL and NBA playoffs, and the UFC 200-Conor McGregor drama. Plus, the Jerks remember Prince and Chyna, discuss the Dr. Strange trailer, and make merciless fun of the Hasbro movie universe! We're Those Two J.E.R.K.S.-a Jocular Enclave of Raconteurs and Knowledge-dropperS!


text:
Text Size
NASA's NPP mission will continue collecting critical climate data to help scientist unravel the mysteries of climate change. NPP is carrying five instruments on board. The biggest and most important instrument is The Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite or VIIRS. This video focuses on VIIRS and why it is so important to Earth's science.


text: Although every reasonable effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained on this site, absolute accuracy cannot be guaranteed. This site, and all information and materials appearing on it, are presented to the user "as is" without warranty of any kind, either express or implied. All vehicles are subject to prior sale. Prices include all costs to be paid by a consumer, except for licensing costs, registration fees, dealer conveyance fee, and taxes.


text:
The Facebook Timeline introduced many new elements to the social networking site. In addition to being a new and interesting visual format for Facebook, there are many privacy implications tied to the new layout. It's best to think about Timeline as two-fold: how to protect your privacy as well as how to utilize your new creative options.
Here's a breakdown that will help you best put Timeline to use. You can check out our original Timeline FAQ as well, which is more of an introduction to the basics of Timeline.
View as
The best way to truly realize how much you are sharing is to head over to your Timeline and check out the "view as" feature. The gear icon next to you Activity Log link reveals an option to let you view your Timeline as certain users. Check out what it looks like to friends and family. After that, you'll be more than motivated to head over and make a few custom friends lists and start editing how public your posts are.
Friend lists
We've written about the importance of creating custom friends lists more than once, but the Timeline has made this more important than ever. Given the fact that you are able to scroll through time and visit moments you thought were buried in the past, it's high time you get on board with lists.
For starters, you can use the Smart Lists Facebook has made: your close friends, family, co-workers, and those nearby you. But now you need to dictate what each of those groups can and can't see. Which means each time you post something or upload new information, you need to check that pull down to determine who you're sharing with. We'd advise making your close friends list include everyone you generally want to share everything with (which is how it should be) and that way you can best avoid an accidental over-share.
Past post visibility
You should also make sure to head over to your privacy settings and check out the "limit the audience for past posts" section. When Timeline hit, we immediately expressed concern over how this hurt the original Facebook generation—college kids. When the site was specifically tailored to their kind, posting "iffy" content was a little less worrisome. Now that's not the case. Unfortunately this means that anything you made public in the past is now far easier to find.
The easiest work-around is to head to this category and choose to make all past posts labeled "public" accessible to friends only.
Visuals & content
Taking care of your privacy settings is easily the most important part of the Facebook Timeline, but moving on you can focus on the more creative aspects of the new profile. There's a lot to be said for the new possibilities the site presents via the Timeline and once you've gotten through the much more serious task of locking up your information you can move on to something more fun.
Life events
The easiest way to add your past to your Timeline is via the "life event" link on your page. Sure, you can use the year toggle on the right-hand side of the page, but the auto-scroll fun won't last forever. A quicker method is to file everything you want on your Timeline under the "life events" icon.
From here you can also categorize easily, filing moments under "Family & Relationships" or "Home & Living," etc. You can customize these life events as you so choose and send them to the correct date on your Timeline.
There's something very foreign to creating these events. Up until now, Facebook has revolved around real-time, but now users are being encouraged to tell stories from their past. Dictating in the past tense is entirely new, and it sort of creates two very different experiences within one site. Using the News Feed is real-time sharing with your friends, while using and browsing Timeline is more about cataloging and reminiscing.
Cover photo
While the profile picture used to be your visual representation to the world, it's now your cover photo. It takes up far more real estate and definitely steals the focus from your own image.
There are a couple of important things to know about these photos. For starters, they are all public. Even if you have customized your settings to keep all photos visible to friends-only, everyone can see your Cover photo. So most of you will want to keep things tasteful.
Images also need to be a minimum of 720 pixels wide. And don't worry about losing your images every time you change your cover photo—they will be sorted into an album you can find under the photos tab, similarly to how it worked with profile pictures.
Featured posts
In order to get you going with Timeline, Facebook auto-selects posts it thinks deserve to be featured on your Timeline. This might mean that your Timeline is peppered with Wall posts and pictures you have no desire being prominently displayed on your page.
The only way to find out what has been featured is to meticulously comb through your Timeline. The star icon allows you to feature stories and the pencil to edit or remove them. The gear icon allows you to make them visible to a certain group.
This last part is probably the most important thing to take stock of. For those of us who began using the site when it was only populated by college kids, making some things privy to certain eyes only is crucial.
Your questions
Last time we did a Timeline FAQ was at the developer release, so there hadn't been time for most users to get their hands on the thing yet. So since it's been awhile, we thought we'd take a second to directly address some of our readers' questions in this post.
Q: "I was recently tagged in a photo, approved it, but it doesn't show up on my Timeline in 'Profile.' It usually says such and such was tagged in such and such's album, although that doesn't show up?"
A: Now the easiest way to see the photos you're tagged it is to defer to the Photos section on your Timeline. On the top you'll see your personal albums and below the images you've been tagged in. Still, there is another way you show up on the Timeline when someone has tagged you in their photo. The thing is this is likely to get buried much faster than it used to based on Timeline's chronological focus.
Now, if you were tagged in a handful of photos in December, Timeline will lump those together in an update reading something like "Tagged in X amount of photos in December." It means it's much easier to overlook, and Facebook is likely trying to encourage you to feature this data on your Timeline.
Q: Someone tags me in a photo and it comes to my Timeline, but the date is not right. How can I change the date of that photo?
A: Click on the photo in question. On the right hand side, you should see a link that says "Change Date."
Q: Why can I see old status updates from my friends on their Timelines and I can't for people I'm only subscribed to?
A: Subscriptions are a relatively new feature and means that people—including many celebrities—will opt to keep many of their posts for friends only. If you're a subscriber, you will only see updates they dictate to be public. And now, that's becoming less and less common.
Q: How do I add photos to old albums?
A: First of all, you can only have 200 pictures per album. But all you need to do is go to your Timeline, click the Photos link, choose an album and from there add more photos.
Editors' Recommendations
- It's not just you – Twitter is down for users around the world
- Meta unveils paid verification service for Instagram and Facebook users
- Reddit was hacked — here's how to set up 2FA to protect your account
- TikTok should be expelled from app stores, senator says
- Twitter will soon be a bit less irritating for many people


text:
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Kacey Musgraves knew the Country Music Association Awards nominations were Tuesday morning, but as a newcomer saw no reason to set her alarm and get up. Then her roommate started shouting.
'I had no idea I'd make history,' Musgraves said with a laugh.
Musgraves is tied with Taylor Swift as the CMA's lead nominee with six for the Nov. 6 awards in Nashville, becoming the first woman to lead the nominations in her first year as a nominee.
The 25-year-old Texas-born performer did it in a well-rounded fashion, earning nominations as a singer, songwriter and producer with album, female vocalist, new artist, single and two different song of the year entries on her ledger.
'It's really cool, I love that,' Musgraves said. 'All facets like that are equally important to me, especially the songwriting. To be recognized for all those things makes me feel good.'
The nominations were announced in New York on 'Good Morning America' and in a later news conference by Sheryl Crow and FGL.
Swift will be going for her third entertainer of the year award and was nominated for album for the multiplatinum 'Red' and female vocalist of the year.
Reigning entertainer of the year Blake Shelton and his wife, Miranda Lambert, are next with five nominations each. And Keith Urban and Florida Georgia Line have four apiece.
Lambert and Shelton will be going for their fourth consecutive wins in the male vocalist and female vocalist categories and have a chance to again share a trophy, as they did last year when their song 'Over You' won song of the year. In 2013, both share nominations in the musical event and video categories with Lambert's trio Pistol Annies for their collaboration on Shelton's song 'Boys 'Round Here.'
The CMAs have turned into something of a party recently for the couple, who have been among the show's top winners the past three years.
'It's so much fun for us each to be having individual success at the same time and we can celebrate it all together,' Lambert said in an email to The Associated Press. 'Last year was so special being recognized for our song 'Over You.' Also, the CMAs happen around my birthday. It's another reason to have a 'Randa-rita!'
Shelton and Swift are up for top honor entertainer of the year with Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan and surprise nominee George Strait, a two-time winner in the category who's being feted by CMA voters as he retires from touring.
Swift's load of nominations isn't that surprising. While sometimes a polarizing figure because of her pop music leanings, she's gotten the full attention of CMA voters in recent years. She's now up to 21 career CMA nominations and has two entertainer of the year awards among her seven wins, tying her with Barbara Mandrell as the lead female winner of the association's top honor.
Musgraves presence atop the list is something quite different, though. Her rapid ascendance comes as something of a shock. It was a year ago to the day she released her debut single, 'Merry Go 'Round' from her major label debut album, 'Same Trailer Different Park.'
The number of trophies she and Swift are up for signals something of an admission that the once deeply conservative format is opening up to new sounds and ideas in the 21st century.
Musgraves takes on divisive topics like homosexuality and other issues not often heard on country radio, yet still managed to generate hits because of her smart songwriting. Her songwriting nominations are for her own hit 'Merry Go 'Round' and Lambert's 'Mama's Broken Heart.'
The CMA's open-armed welcome for Musgraves wasn't the only nontraditional entry among nominations. Bob Dylan earns a nod with Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show as the songwriters of 'Wagon Wheel,' the Dylan song sketch that Secor updated and Darius Rucker turned into a country hit. The song also is up for single of the year.
Folk duo The Civil Wars, officially on hiatus, earned a nomination for vocal duo of the year again. Pop star and recent Nashville transplant Kelly Clarkson returns as female vocalist nominee. And rapper Nelly is up for musical event and single of the year on his 'Cruise' mashup with Florida Georgia Line, the song that keeps on giving for Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley. They're also up for vocal duo and new artist.
'You dream about just being there, and to be nominated four times is definitely a dream come true, so we're just very honored, very humbled,' Kelley said. 'Win or lose, we're going to celebrate. It's just going to be a great night.'
It should also be noted Swift and Urban wouldn't be among lead nominees without a little help from Tim McGraw. Each got three nominations apiece for their collaboration on McGraw's 'Highway Don't Care' – single, musical event and video of the year.
Carrie Underwood, McGraw, Aldean, Bryan and Little Big Town are up for three awards apiece. In another sign he's arrived, Bryan was nominated for entertainer of the year for the first time, five months after winning the same award from the rival Academy of Country Music.
Underwood's 'Blown Away,' Shelton's 'Based on a True Story' and Little Big Town's 'Tornado' are up for album of the year with Swift's 'Red' and Musgraves' 'Same Trailer.'
Should Little Big Town win, it would give producer Jay Joyce a win in that category two years in a row. He took home a trophy when Eric Church's 'Chief' won album of the year in 2012, and his work couldn't have been more different on LBT's harmony-laden 'Tornado.'
'As I producer I've always considered myself pretty versatile, but I've never worked toward that or thought about it,' Joyce said. '… People always want to pigeon hole you and put you in the box, and as a producer I think that can work against me having fun and having free reign with creativity.'
___ Associated Press writer Alicia Rancilio contributed to this report from New York.
___ Online: http://cmaworld.com


text:
Here is a very clever and funny version of Handel's Hallelujah Chorus. These "monks" have found a creative way around their vow of silence. (Kudos for all the practice hours this took to pull off!) – MoSopVodpod videos no longer available.
more about "Hallelujia Chorus! By Les Freres de S…", posted with vodpod


text:
Report casts doubt on quality of drug, device trials
In an analysis of over 40,000 clinical trials registered in a government database, researchers found that many of those studies -- looking at the effects of drugs, devices or behavioral interventions -- were small and of inconsistent quality.
Those are the studies doctor groups rely on when it comes to setting guidelines about the best evidence for preventing and treating a given disease, according to a report led by Dr. Robert Califf at the Duke Translational Medicine Institute in Durham, North Carolina.
But if the evidence comes from small groups of patients in trials with less-than-reliable methods, doctors are left without a lot to work with when developing recommendations and making decisions in everyday care.
"What's at stake for the public is, you would want your doctor to know what he or she is doing as opposed to just guessing or having an opinion," Califf told Reuters Health.
The majority of guidelines and major medical decisions, he added, aren't supported by high-quality published evidence that requires large, rigorous trials.
Separately from the new study, Califf has been involved in reviewing the work of cancer researcher Dr. Anil Potti, who resigned from Duke in late 2010 amid an investigation into his work and has had to retract or correct 16 papers.
In 1997, the United States Congress mandated researchers register trials on a website, ClinicalTrials.gov, so information about ongoing studies would be available in a single database.
The site requires information on each trial's lead researcher and collaborators, funding source and purpose.
Study organizers also report the number of people they have enrolled or expect to enroll, along with whether participants are randomly assigned to different interventions and if they and the doctors treating them are "blinded" to what type of prevention or treatment they're receiving.
Califf and his colleagues looked specifically at the records of 40,970 trials on medications, medical devices or lifestyle interventions for heart disease, cancer and mental health conditions registered on ClinicalTrials.gov between 2007 and 2010.
The majority of those trials -- 62 percent -- reported recruiting 100 or fewer patients. Two-thirds were conducted at a single research site.
Depending on the type of disease they covered, between 36 and 80 percent of studies randomly split patients between different interventions -- such as an active drug and a placebo drug.
So-called randomized controlled trials are considered the "gold standard" for determining how effective a drug or device is because they're less likely to be influenced by underlying differences between participants on various prevention or treatment regimens.
About seven percent of entries were missing information about the study's primary purpose.
Of the trials that cited a funding source, 44 percent were being supported by a drug or device company, Califf's team reported Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Nine percent were funded by the National Institutes of Health, and almost half had another funding source, typically individual academic medical centers.
That shows an opportunity for more researchers working at a single site with their own funding to join forces on larger studies that produce more clinically-useful evidence, according to Califf.
"What I am concerned about is that we organize (trials) better," he said.
Missing data a concern
Kay Dickersin from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore said the web registry is an important way to keep track of the many studies that are started but never end up getting published, sometimes because the results weren't what researchers were expecting.
She cited one case where there was plenty of unpublished data showing anti-arrhythmic drugs were potentially harmful for some patients -- but because doctors didn't have easy access to that information, they kept on prescribing them.
Patients "want to believe that the treatment that's being recommended to them is based on evidence," Dickersin, who wrote a commentary published with the study, told Reuters Health.
"If the (published) evidence is only half the story and the positive half of the story, than in fact the evidence isn't something solid, it's not a solid foundation on which a decision is being made."
Because of that, she added, the missing data in ClinicalTrials.gov is a big concern, and shows that some researchers may not appreciate the scientific importance of the records.
What's more, patients who participate in clinical trials should know if the study will ever see the light of day -- and if it's designed in a way that could inform future patient care, researchers said.
"Everyone who participates in a study should say, 'Are you planning on publishing these results and, can I get a copy of what you find?'" Dickersin said.


text:
We are adding Online service to Main Star Chinese Restaurant in Scotch Plains, NJ. You can now online order your favorite Chicken, Beef, Seafood, Fried Rice and others Chinese dishes such as Happy Family, Sesame Chicken, Hunan Beef, Mango Shrimp, Dragon and Phoenix.
We Deliver (Min. Order $10.00)(Scotch Plains, Watchung, Westfield, Fanwood.
Try Online Order Now
Located at 429 Park Ave., Scotch Plains, NJ. Our restaurant offers a wide array of fine Chinese dishes, ranging from traditional dishes such as Sesame Chicken, Orange Beef, Hapy Family to new style entrees such as Mango Shrimp, Wor Shu Duck, Double Cooked Pork.
Try our food and service today. Come in during our lunch hour (11:00 am - 3:00 pm) for a Lunch Special or during evenings for a delicious Chinese dinner. You can also online order your favorite Chinese Food for take out or delivery. Our goal at Main Star Chinese Restaurant is to provide an unforgettable dining experience for all our patrons.
love Main Star! Eat here about once a week!
Customer: Adriana Scherr
Spring Roll
Scallion Pancake
Shrimp Toast
Curry Chicken
Hunan ChickenKung Po Chicken
Szechuan Shrimp
Curry ShrimpScallop w. Broccoli
Orange Chicken
Beef Broccoli
Shrimp Lo Mein
Wor Shu Duck
Lemon Chicken
Butterfly Shrimp
Mango Chicken
Boneless SpareribsTai Ching Chicken


text:
Find information on common issues.
Ask questions and find answers from other users.
Suggest a new site feature or improvement.
Check on status of your tickets.
Start a new Seminar
Select a tag (or keyword) from the list below to browse through available resources in that category.
View more ›
ECE Tool Presentation
0.0 out of 5 stars
20 Feb 2019


text:
Rays acquire Belnome from Padres, deal Rearick
Belnome, 24, bats left-handed. In 2012, he hit .275 with five home runs and 33 RBIs in 80 games for Triple-A Tucson, where he primarily played first and second base.
Over four Minor League seasons, Belnome has a .300 average with a .414 on-base percentage, 50 home runs and 245 RBIs. In 2011, he was named a Texas League midseason All-Star. He was selected by the Padres in the 28th round of the 2008 First-Year Player Draft out of West Virginia University.
Rearick, 25, was named Best Relief Pitcher in the Rays' Minor League system for each of the past two seasons.
In 2012, he went a combined 4-4 with 22 saves and a 2.70 ERA in 50 relief appearances between Class A Charlotte and Double-A Montgomery, and was named a midseason Florida State League All-Star.


text:
What We Fight For
Plastic Reduction
Reducing the impact of plastics in the marine environments that surround us.
Ocean Protection
Defending our oceans from challenges threatening the vitality of the ecosystem.
Beach Access
Working with decision-makers to ensure full and fair beach access for all to enjoy.
The Surfrider Foundation is dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of the world's ocean, waves and beaches, for all people, through a powerful activist network.
Demand Action On Climate Change
Our ocean and coasts are at the center of the climate crisis.
Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act
The Surfrider Foundation is working with U.S. Senator Tom Udall and U.S. Representative Alan Lowenthal to pass the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act.
Stand Up For Clean Water
Please join us in asking Congress to Stand Up for Clean Water!
Land And Water Conservation Fund
Since 1964, the Land and Water Conservation Fund, often referred to as "America's best conservation program,".
Ocean Friendly Restaurants
The Surfrider Foundation's Ocean Friendly Restaurants program tackles plastic pollution at its source. One restaurant, one customer at a time.
Find Surfrider Near You
We're always looking for volunteers to help affect change locally. Join us.
Our efforts are paying off. See what we've accomplished so far:
Chapters And Student Clubs
Volunteer Hours In 2019
Show Your Support
100% of every purchase helps protect our coasts, waves and beaches.
The Surfrider Foundation is committed to fostering a just, equitable, diverse and inclusive organization for all people who protect and enjoy the world's ocean, waves and beaches.
Learn More


text:
School Supplies ESL Interactive Vocabulary Crocodile Board Game
Practice School Supplies Vocabulary with this ESL Vocabulary and Grammar Interactive Crocodile Board Game for Beginners (pencil, ruler, sharpener, pencil case, pen etc). ESL Learners and Teachers can use it to review English vocabulary and grammar or simply practice these words.
There are images and in some cases audio in these types of games. Click on the dice to roll. A random number will show up and you will advance. There are traps on the way. A question will pop up and the player must choose the correct answer or risk going back. Meeting a crocodile is ugly - you get eaten and you go back to start.
Games are great for motivating students to learn. By playing our fun educational games, students can practice and review key English vocabulary, grammar and sentences without the boredom which is usually encountered when doing paper-based gap-fill exercises. Play the game below and do not hesitate to share these resources with other learners. This is the philosophy behind our site - www.eslgamesplus.com.


text:
CBS Pulls Mike & Molly Season Finale Due to Tornado
CBS has pulled Monday's season finale of Mike & Molly in light of the tragic tornado that ripped through parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, Illinois and Iowa on Sunday.
Titled "Windy City," the Season 3 finale saw Mike (Billy Gardell) and Molly (Melissa McCarthy) confessing important news to each other as tornado descended upon Chicago.
Must-watch finales: Get the scoop on your favorite shows
"Due to the tragic events this afternoon in Oklahoma, we are pre-empting tonight's season finale of Mike & Molly, which has a related story line," a CBS spokesperson said in a statement. "A repeat broadcast of Mike & Molly will run in the time period. The season finale will be broadcast at an appropriate date."
NBC pulled a similar stunt earlier this year when a particularly violent episode of Hannibal was supposed to air days after the Boston Marathon bombings. Instead, NBC posted the hourlong episode online as a six-part web series and skipped directly from the third to the fifth episode.
So far, two men have died from the tornado.
(Full disclosure: TVGuide.com is owned by a joint venture between Lionsgate and CBS.)
View original CBS Pulls Mike & Molly Season Finale Due to Tornado at TVGuide.com
Other Links From TVGuide.com


text:
We—all of us, here with our computers and our calculators and our Moneyballs—fired Joe Morgan from ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball last year. Poor Joe now toils in the Cincinnati Reds front office, advising Walt Jocketty on which mediocre outfielder has the most hustle. ("It might be Chris Heisey, but it could be Drew Stubbs.")
Of course, the Reds' season is limping to a close, with the mighty Milwaukee Brewers having blasted Cincy into NL Central oblivion, and Morgan must find other ventures to keep himself occupied during the fall and winter. One of these ventures is, for some reason, the World's Largest Chicken Dance, at Cincinnati Oktoberfest:
Reds great and Baseball Hall of Famer Joe Morgan will lead the annual World's Largest Chicken Dance at Oktoberfest next Saturday.
Morgan, a 10-time All-Star and National League MVP in 1975 and 1976 when the Reds won back-to-back World Series titles, is the second former Red to lead the Chicken Dance, joining Joe Nuxhall, who did it in 2007.
The dance will take place at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 17, on Fountain Square.
The organizers say Morgan's leading the dance because he has so much experience. They claim to be referring to his peculiar batting stance, with his elbow bent, dropped low and flapping. But we know they mean that Morgan has a lot of experience making a fool of himself on a grand stage.
Joe Morgan to lead Oktoberfest chicken dance [Cincinnati Enquirer]


text:
Archive for May 2013
Broken City Review
They should have called it Broken Story.
They had all of the right pieces, too, or enough of them to make it work, if they had really wanted to, they could have made a classic, instead of a throwaway, a mashup, cashing in on the bored January crowd at the movies.
"Kid this ain't your night …"
They took a dive for the short money. In a year or two nobody will remember this movie was even made. It won't have its own Quizzo question. It won't even be a bad guess to a Quizzo question.
Just another one of those entries on somebody's filmography that makes you stop, and say, "What was that?" "Oh" "No wonder I never heard of it."
It didn't have to be like this.
Russell Crowe was so perfectly cast as the New York Irish reincarnation of Huey Long, you'd think they'd run him for real, maybe someplace more obviously corrupt. Chicago. He's trimmed down, too, back to looking like a tough guy. Maybe not a Kung Fu fighter, or someone you'd have ziplining out of a helicopter with a Squad Automatic Weapon, but tough. Like a cop who still beats the crap out of the occasional pimp, just to keep his hands from getting soft. Not like somebody who spent the last ten years getting up two hours early to make the donuts.
Mark Wahlberg did his thing. He is no longer part of the Funky Bunch. He is now the guy you go to when you need somebody to look really pissed off and throw a crackhead through a plate glass window. (Actually, he always was that guy, it just didn't get filmed as often in his Funky Bunch and pre-Funky Bunch days. If the world had only had smart phones and YouTube back then…). But I digress.
Someone knows something, he's too drunk or too scared or too stupid to talk. Get Wahlberg. He'll water-board the fucker, he doesn't care.
Some street-slap lowlife raped and murdered your sister, you need him gunned down. Mr. Wahlberg will make that happen. Con mucho gusto.
They need to do a literate, full production remake of Death Wish and give it to this guy.
But Wahlberg and Crowe couldn't save the movie.
Nor could Catherine Zeta Jones, though she has definitely hit a personal milestone here in her career transition from unlikeable love interest to indignant sociopath. To those who say such people can't really be indignant, I give them this performance: if even a sociopath, or a sociopathic bitch, to be more precise, ever really burned with the indignant zeal of the righteous, it was Catherine Zeta Jones in this movie.
And the Dialogue; the Dialogue needs to have a movie of its own, one that has nothing to do with this story. We should start a Kickstarter campaign to have Tom Cruise reprise his character from Rock of Ages, and give him some of the Dialogue, in something otherwise written, produced and directed by people who had nothing to do with either film. Let's give Stacee Jaxx and the Dialogue a place of their own, somewhere they belong.
Sharp, smart, even subversive, in its way, which is the only way that works, cutting against expectations. Neither Crowe nor Wahlberg would react to the currently fashionable agenda with anything but contempt. So that's how they react.
The type of dialogue that people think of when they say a movie was well written. Not Double Indemnity, or The Departed, of course, but good enough, the type of writing the typical screenwriter can't do, because he doesn't have the talent, or won't do, because he's too prissy or doesn't want to risk landing on some Hollywood queen's Do Not Hire list.
But that couldn't save it either.
Nor could the cinematography, or the music. The atmosphere was close enough to what they needed. I mean, I would have preferred more grime, razor wire, burned out cars on blocks, with everything tagged but the winos and the broken glass… hell, tag the winos too… but that's me. I've always thought of New York like that. (I don't think of New York as having, say, mime gangs. But if you're going to do All his Honor's Men, you should at least work in some rats, with the menacing music and the hired guns, maybe have them gnawing on a junkie. Local color.)
No, all of that was fine. Not Taxi Driver, but good enough. Every movie can't be Taxi Driver.
But it made no sense.
And not in the way a David Lynch movie makes no sense, because it's trying to say something about the incomprehensibility of life in the world.
No, it was just stupid. Muddled, bad, lazy writing. Nobody thought it through, they never asked the hard questions:
Would an actual person do that?
Anybody could look this up in under a minute online for free… Why would somebody kill to keep it quiet? It's not quiet now! Isn't that like killing someone to keep him from showing the world the deed to your condo?
I have no memory whatsoever of writing any of this, nobody does, maybe somebody should read it, once, before we throw it over the wall and go do that thing for the SyFy channel…
It was like the producer found a few unrelated story outlines in the trash at Alcoholics Anonymous and said to himself, This is My Movie! Why should I pay some guy to come up with this stuff? Who threw these out, they're fine; get Deborah to type them up, move some pieces around, I don't know, put it in order, a few find replaces, maybe hire some loser to do the dialogue once we start shooting. No, fuck that. They can just make it up. They're all playing themselves anyway. Tell them to go out there and talk. Be natural. As long as Crowe or Wahlberg don't actually beat somebody to death, we're good.
The story was so bad it is impossible to watch more than once without being intoxicated or so distracted that you're not watching it at all, you're just in the room while it's on.
It was one of those movies they start to make thinking they'll do something Important, Win some Awards, then abandon halfway through, because, after all, it's Costing Us Money. So Theme triumphs over Plot and Character, to the extent that Plot becomes farcical and Characters degenerate into script puppets, herking and jerking along to Make the Point of some hack who moralizes with a bullhorn. But even Theme never develops beyond the level of an Occupy slogan, and it ends up playing like the grand collaborative product of some State U op-ed writers, checking off the right boxes, to get that big shot at publishing unpaid blog entries on the Huffington Post.
Broken City Plot Analysis with Spoilers
Broken Story is about Corruption, the Biggest City kind, billions worth, and features all of the suspects that should have become usual enough to anyone with the stomach for an episode of Law and Order: the Big, Evil Corporate Land Developer, his Crony, the Crooked Irish politician, along with the other character types we've come to expect from Modern Morality Plays, the aggrieved, crusading Wife, the "idealistic" (read: weak, resentful and treacherous) son, the angry cop (or ex-cop, as here), determined to bring the system down, the Honest Liberal Politician (after all these years, he's back!); we even have the Angry, though apparently Upright enough, Black police commissioner, who hates the Politician out of Moral Pique, and thus conspires with the others to Expose him, and, as we are supposed to have it, let Justice prevail.
But their hearts aren't really in this TV hack work, so they try to make it more interesting, and that's why the movie is a frustrating waste, worth talking about; not some NBC special put together over the weekend to sell Viagra.
We begin in an intriguing moral grey area, not some shrieky SPLC scripted movie of the week. Wahlberg guns down a criminal, for vengeance, and dresses it up to look like self defense. Crowe protects him, concealing evidence that would guarantee his conviction; par self-interest, and in part because he thinks the killing was justified. Nobody cries for the victim, a rapist murderer, not Wahlberg or Crowe, only the mob, and if you're on their side, you may as well be one of the criminals. (The protestors are presented as a mass of the same filthy, chanting, hoodlums, degenerates and lunatics you would see clenching their fists at a rally for Mumia abu-Jamal. They do have the Upright Commissioner on their side, but he is hardly the moral voice of the film.)
Crowe is popular and effective. Most importantly, he doesn't suffer from hypocrisy, the lazy writer's usual vice. No, Crowe honestly respects Wahlberg, and applauds his actions, even if he is willing to use them for his own purposes later. "You, in my eyes, a hero."
We move forward seven years, and Wahlberg is an ex -cop, turned private investigator, who peeps through windows with a camera for a living. The Mayor is in a dead heat against John Lindsay, back from the dead, this time as a (closeted) homosexual… an effete, stern, liberal plutocrat, fighting, as it were, in the name of the People, against the populist, working class, Irish politician, to Do What is Right. The story is already heaving and gasping at this point, being slowly ground down under the weight of Theme and Agenda, burdens that will build as it stumbles along, and mash it into pulp long before we reach the end.
The Lindsay character, or rather the idea of New Lindsay speaking for the People, in modern Left Homosexual form, is one of the movies many absurdities. The whole thing plays like the product of a Committee, with the talented members given occasional latitude to undercut the hacks, in a constant, ultimately failed struggle to create something more than a propaganda vehicle that makes money.
Lindsay will probably be no more recognized by the public here than Huey Long; of course, the real Lindsay presided over New York's catastrophic transformation from the world of the Apartment, and Breakfast at Tiffany's… to the dystopian nightmare of Death Wish. To present such a man as the Hope for the Future, against the forces of Crony Capitalism and Exploitation…
And on it slides, faster, from the absurd to the insufferable, with the entry of Mrs. Mayor, the Puritan Adulteress, the new Face of the Good and the True, Ms. Zeta Jones. They dragged her out to give a Sermon! In Triumph! About Equality! And Freedom, to Love Whomever We Choose! Standing with a great Banner behind her, the width and height of the stage, for, of all things, the Human Rights Campaign! Not some clever stand in, no, they had to use the Thing Itself. That's How Important it was that we Get the Message!
In a different era, it would have been a cross, or a Red Star, in our time, we have that yellow equals sign.
The Pure and the True always have one of those things on the back of their Priuses, usually somewhere close to a big O.
Of course, Crowe is nowhere to be seen. If the woman wants to have her Own Private Idaho, that is very much her place, not his. He does not appear to favor the Freedom to Love Whomever We Choose.
He hires Wahlberg, as it is said, to investigate his wife's adultery, since that's the sort of thing Wahlberg does now.
While Crowe doesn't seem to believe, per se, in her adultery, which is real, he does believe in her disloyalty, which is even more real; the core of the film, the rock upon which the whole story shatters.
Wahlberg doesn't care for the Freedom to Love Whomever We Choose either, one of the many things, personality, principles, worldview, that make him a natural ally of Crowe. They read the New York Post, like the rest of New York, not the Times, like the metrosexual, transnational elite at the Human Rights Campaign.
From here the story gets… confused, slipshod… jerks and grunts… it doesn't know what to do with itself. Somebody wanted it to be Chinatown, someone wanted And Justice for All… there must have been a few votes on the Committee for All the Kings Men, and there were always the Milk people hanging around, wanting, what, Brokeback City? (No, that's just backdrop, morality posing, a distraction…).
At the end we are left with Crowe trying to thwart… his wife's effort to receive information passed by his opponent's (gay) campaign manager (her co-conspirator, not her lover!) from his Evil Developer Crony's (ungrateful, indignant, disloyal) loser son, that would reveal, and expose… Crowe's co-ownership of a corporation… something anybody would have been able to look up in the public record, something she would have seen in any tax return he filed. It wasn't even buried behind a shell. His name was on the articles of incorporation.
The "scandal" is not even about the self dealing, which is cartoonish here, as the Mayor conspiring with a Developer to tear down a… massive public housing project… while simultaneously wiping out the city's debt…
God forbid they tear down that project and put in office buildings.
We are supposed to just all go along with the idea that this would be a Bad Thing, the projects they show are a, somewhat, Happy Place, full of noble aspiring poor, more or less, not the teeming havens of criminality and parasitism such places actually are, in the non-Movie world… I suspect the people who actually suffer the consequences of these Mega-Projects being dumped in their neighborhoods would cheer if some mayor wanted to sell them all and demolish them… while the very elites represented by Catherine Zeta Jones, the Candidate, the Developer's Son, the people who put the projects there to begin with… looked out in smug self congratulation from their Upper East Side terraces, Fighting the Good Fight to keep them there (and far away from their own homes)…
And why does Marc Wahlberg even care about any of this? Why the rage, the vendetta?
Crowe manipulated him into taking pictures that revealed his wife's Source, of, the public information that she somehow suspected, but couldn't prove, and wanted so desperately to expose. (Let's leave aside the fact that this Source was his opponent's campaign manager, who had to feed this information to the mayor's wife, rather than, say, using it in the campaign… because that would be negative…) Oh, and the Mayor was blackmailing Wahlberg with concealed evidence about his vengeance killing, though (as perhaps our writing Committee didn't understand), he had already been prosecuted for that crime, and cleared, so he couldn't have been prosecuted again, making the evidence meaningless (Double Jeopardy, prohibited by the Fifth Amendment long before it became a game show concept).
That's it, really.
Did the Mayor's wife not know who Russell Crowe was when she married him?
Nothing indicates that he ever changed.
So, did Marc Wahlberg really care about the suffering Poor of the Projects? Tedious complications with his improbable, estranged, giftless wife notwithstanding, we have no reason to believe he did. He was just Angry that the Mayor hired him under false pretenses, and he delivered pictures about one thing thinking they were about something else.
There is more, but none of it matters, it only bloated the movie while making it more ridiculous.
Hack work. It would be fun to see a follow up with the Great Liberal Opponent running the city into the ground, but stories that real are strictly for comic book movies.


text:
Girls have made higher grades than boys in school for nearly a century despite the stereotype that boys do better in math and science, according to a new analysis published by the American Psychological Association.
"Although gender differences follow essentially stereotypical patterns on achievement tests in which boys typically score higher on math and science, females have the advantage on school grades regardless of the material," said lead study author Daniel Voyer, of the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, Canada.
The study "Gender Differences in Scholastic Achievement: A Meta-Analysis," was published in the APA journal Psychological Bulletin online this week.
Based on research from 1914 through 2011 that spanned more than 30 countries, the study found the differences in grades between girls and boys were largest for language courses and smallest for math and science. The female advantage in school performance in math and science did not become apparent until junior or middle school, according to the study. The degree of gender difference in grades increased from elementary to middle school, but decreased between high school and college.
"School marks reflect learning in the larger social context of the classroom and require effort and persistence over long periods of time, whereas standardized tests assess basic or specialized academic abilities and aptitudes at one point in time without social influences," Voyer said.
The researchers examined 369 samples from 308 studies, reflecting grades of 538,710 boys and 595,332 girls. Seventy percent of the samples consisted of students from the United States. Other countries or regions represented by more than one sample included Norway, Canada, Turkey, Germany, Taiwan, Malaysia, Israel, New Zealand, Australia, Sweden, Slovakia, United Kingdom Africa and Finland. Countries represented by one sample included Belgium, Czech Republic, Estonia, Mexico, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Jordan, the Netherlands, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Serbia and Slovenia.
All studies included an evaluation of gender differences in teacher-assigned grades or official grade point averages in elementary, junior/middle or high school, or undergraduate and graduate university. Studies that relied on self-report and those about special populations, such as high-risk or mentored students, were excluded. The studies also looked at variables that might affect the students' grades, such as the country where students attended school, course material, students' ages at the time the grades were obtained, the study date and racial composition of the samples.
Boy crisis debunked
The study reveals that recent claims of a "boy crisis," with boys lagging behind girls in school achievement, are not accurate because girls' grades have been consistently higher than boys' across several decades with no significant changes in recent years, the authors wrote.
"The fact that females generally perform better than their male counterparts throughout what is essentially mandatory schooling in most countries seems to be a well-kept secret, considering how little attention it has received as a global phenomenon," said co-author Susan Voyer, also of the University of New Brunswick.
As for why girls perform better in school than boys, the authors speculated that social and cultural factors could be among several possible explanations. Parents may assume boys are better at math and science so they might encourage girls to put more effort into their studies, which could lead to the slight advantage girls have in all courses, the authors wrote.
Gender differences in learning styles is another possibility. Previous research has shown girls tend to study in order to understand the materials, whereas boys emphasize performance, which indicates a focus on the final grades. "Mastery of the subject matter generally produces better marks than performance emphasis, so this could account in part for males' lower marks than females," the authors wrote.


text:
(CNN) - Sen. Ted Cruz struck a familiar refrain in a speech Wednesday, calling on Americans to defend religious liberty against the overreach of the federal government.
The freshman Republican senator from Texas cited two cases being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court fighting requirements in President Barack Obama's health care law.
[twitter-follow screen_name='politicalticker'][twitter-follow screen_name='danadavidsen']
"These are troubled times and religious liberty, the very first liberty in the bill of rights, the very first protection we have, has never been more in peril than it is right now," Cruz said to an audience at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia.
Cruz, a dominate force in the tea party-backed contingent of the Republican Party, is considering a run for president in 2016.
His speech follows a long line of White House hopefuls who have addressed the evangelical Christian university, including former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who spoke at the school six months before the 2012 elections.
In delivering the address, Cruz also joins the likes of billionaire and outspoken conservative Donald Trump, "Duck Dynasty" reality show star Willie Robertson and pop singer Justin Bieber's mom, Pattie Mallette.
Cruz pointed to the law suit brought against the federal government by the family-owned craft store Hobby Lobby over a requirement under the Affordable Care Act that certain for-profit corporations provide contraception coverage to their workers.
At issue is whether secular, private corporations can claim religious exemption from federal laws.
The senator said this case "goes to the heart of religious freedom," as does as a similar Supreme Court case involving a Catholic charity for the elderly run by nuns.
Cruz has been a prominent voice of opposition against Obamacare, holding 21-hour speech protesting any government funding for the law, leading up to October's partial government shutdown.
The conservative firebrand's ongoing crusade against the sweeping heath care law follows the close of open enrollment Tuesday, and the White House announcement that the number of Americans who signed up for insurance under the law went beyond the coveted 7 million mark.
Cruz invoked civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in calling on the audience to take a stand against infringement on religious liberty.
"We are called to action. As believers we are called to action not to sitting quietly and hiding our faith under a bushel but to stand and speak no matter what the consequence," he said.
And perhaps seeking to get some more mileage out of an April fool's joke, Cruz said those Americans standing up for religious freedom have him so inspired, "I might get an eagle tattooed on my chest."
On April 1, the senator rolled up his sleeve during a television interview to reveal a fake tattoo - a nod to some street art Cruz saw in California last month, depicting him shirtless with a large eagle inked across his chest and a cigarette hanging from his mouth.
According to Bill O'Reilly, our biggest threat is the war on Christmas. Cruz is just borrowing the idea from Billo.
once again ted cruz is caribe not latino. he also looks like chavez. he's a typical
cuban tin pot dictator
Cruz really wants everyone to share his religious views and have no one else. I think that Cruz needs to wake up and be tolerant of everyone. If a religious organization (ie house of worship) doesn't want to subscribe to certain forms of birth control or allow abortion as a part of the health insurance that is fine. A for-profit corporation doesn't get that. When does a corporation go to a house of worship and pray? I think that would be never. Owners might, but that is their personal life and should not be reflected in the corporate structure. This is one reason why I won't go to Hobby Lobby.
@Rick McDaniel
Wow, you and yours are one paranoid bunch aren't ya!
What about "Christians" trying to force their beliefs on everyone else FOR CENTURIES!
And then there are the Jews, the Hindus, the Sikhs etc etc.
Religious "Liberty" applies to ALL religions. It's in the 1st Amendment, you know, the one that comes BEFORE the 2nd.
PS...how's Rafael doin with the whole " renouncing the Canadian citizen thing"?
"You mean the same Hobby Lobby who provides retirement plans to its employees and allows its retirement plans to invest heavily (millions and millions of dollars) into the pharmaceutical companies that manufacture contraception and abortion drugs and devices and into insurance companies that provide contraception and abortion coverage to millions and millions of people? THAT Hobby Lobby? "
No, actually I think they mean the same Hobbly Lobby who had these same Health plans available to their employees which did offer and pay for these same contreceptives before the ACA went into effect and before the shyster attorney called them up and said, "Hey, did you know.... blah, blah, lawsuit, blah..."
Sure weird how the party who hates, detests, and villifies Attorneys is the first to hire them a passle whenever they lose an election, get caught using their position to punish the people they swore to protect, have a wide stance, or want to impose their religious beliefs on others....
"Islamists are trying to establish Islamic law in the U.S."
Uh, so? Isn't that the point of "religious freedom"?
Religious freedom applies to Muslims, Buddhist, the right to worship the GOP bagger himself, Aqua Buddha, etc.
It is not just a freedom to be a "chri$tian".
And since the secular law in the U.S.A. Is not based on Islam, nothing would change.
Hell, secular law in America is not based on the laws of God or Christ, otherwise, there would be no capital punishment, which violates that whole "thou shalt not kill" thingy.
I am all for separation of church and state. This Bozo Cruz doesn't get it. In 50 years if Muslims are the dominant population in the US will he still feel the same way? Does he want to be forced to have Islam mandated laws that are in conformity with the Koran?
Hobby Lobby doesn't want to give out contraceptive drugs. What is next a Jahaova Witness employer that don't believe in drugs or doctors. They believe they can cure by prayer. Maybe I thing antibiotics are bad because they can lead to drug resistant microbes. So my company should not have to cover them. When you make the argument that way you see how stupid Hobby Lobby's position is.
No thanks keep religion out of health care. Force companies to pay for all recognized drugs.
WE are granted freedom of religion, not my religion allows me to tell you how to live whether or not youe believe what I do.
If we allow ANY religion to impose it's values on everyone, even if it is "Your" religion, we are no better than the Taliban.
"poor clueless sniffit, blathering incoherently about irrelevant and unrelated nonsense to divert attention and cloud the issue with noise and drivel. and if they did as you suggested, you'd be the first one in here attacking them."
And here I thought I was even being nice about it since I left off mentioning the fact that Hobby Lobby feels no "deeply held religious" compunction with utilizing slave labor from China, where they quite famously use abortion in a widespread manner for gender selection and population control.
As to "if they did as I suggested," I'm not sure what you mean. It's laudable that they provide retirement plans for their employees. There are plenty of firms out there that will cater to special requests in terms of investment strategies for those things and will gladly avoid certain industries and corporations if you tell them you don't want any investments going in that direction. That proves the choice was more than available to Hobby Lobby to not invest in that manner...and yet still have retirement plans for employees that are simply invested elsewhere. I wasn't suggesting they should have just not provided retirement plans, nor was I suggesting that I'd criticize them for making the choice not to invest their money in corporations they supposedly disagree with. Rather, I was pointing out that their failure to be consistent highlights just how hypocritical and self-serving and full of BS they are with respect to this lawsuit.
Sure, we have to protect religious freedom, absolutely, but that can't be the main focus for conservatives anymore.
@Rick McDaniel
"There are problems with religious liberty also." I think the founding fathers would disagree with you. Liberty is difficult but it is not a "problem". It is only a problem for intolerant people like Cruz.
"Islamists are trying to establish Islamic law in the U.S." If there is a group that is trying to do this, we should not allow it because we are a country with freedom of religion..
And if Christian extremists like Cruz try to promote a Christian Theocracy, we should not allow it because we are a country with freedom of religion.
"The Government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion." — from The Treaty of Tripoli, Article 11, written during the administration of President George Washington, signed by President John Adams, and unanimously approved by the Senate in 1797
"This nation of ours was not founded on Christian principles." — John Adams
"Lighthouses are more helpful than churches."–Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanac, 1758
"Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise." – James Madison
"In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot." – Thomas Jefferson
The next time a Christian radical extremist hides behind "freedom of religion", test their honesty:
– demand religious icons on federal land and show up with a statue of Buddha
– ask for prayer in the classroom and start with "praise Allah...."
– want to swear in somewhere on the Holy Book? Show up with the Egyptian Book of the Dead
Let's see just how "free" they are!
S.B. Stein
Cruz really wants everyone to share his religious views and have no one else. I think that Cruz needs to wake up and be tolerant of everyone. If a religious organization (ie house of worship) doesn't want to subscribe to certain forms of birth control or allow abortion as a part of the health insurance that is fine. A for-profit corporation doesn't get that. When does a corporation go to a house of worship and pray? I think that would be never. Owners might, but that is their personal life and should not be reflected in the corporate structure. This is one reason why I won't go to Hobby Lobby.
Cruz is a smart man, and he doesn't believe half of the things he says. GREED. It's all about GREED. They will use any piece of red meat available to gather voters to their cause, people like Cruz are ready and willing to supply the red meat.
It's about creating a ruling class of plutocrats, but government is in the way. They see tax dollars being spent on this or that, and they feel that it is their personal money being spent and want to put an end to it. They want "their money" back, but the federal government is in the way. They want to make the rules, but the federal government is in their way. It always comes back to GREED.
""Islamists are trying to establish Islamic law in the U.S." "
Christians are trying to establish Christian law in the U.S.
Now...guess which proposition is easier to defend with concrete proof. Guess.
anonymous – Oh really? Sniffit is spot on. HL's retirement plan shouldn't invest in those companies if they REALLY believed in what their lawsuit says.
the money is not theirs at that point you idiots. the money is placed into a fiduciary account that is controlled by others for the benefit of the people who own the pension fund. by law it is not company property to be played with and robbed as the government has done with social security. besides, those companies you take issue with also produce other drugs. why are the rabid lefties in here always looking to target and attack businesses? it is all you ever do.
this is all about forcing others to pay for abortion drugs. people can go buy them themselves and pay for them no problem. where is it the government's job to force them to pay these drugs?
Hypocrite burying the Republican Party with far right pandering...worse not out of conviction but greed for donations from the same givers that the Bush Backers wooed and ignored as 'flat earthers' he is as sincere as the great entertainer 'Rush' and i don't mean that great band.Us true Republicans on fiscal policy and illeagle immigration enforcement abhor this anti-
"We are called to action. As believers we are called to action not to sitting quietly and hiding our faith under a bushel but to stand and speak no matter what the consequence," he said."
Well, OK. But here's the deal. Luckily I still have the freedom to change the channel and not have to sit quietly watching those "hiding their faith under a bushel" speak their religious mantra each and every Sunday morning on national (and local) TV.
Well, not just Sunday anymore, eh?
So ... give me all you got, Ted Cruz. My T.V. remote against your soapbox ... deal?
Oh those poor, put upon "Christians" terrified that they're no longer an 800 pound gorilla, they're only a 700 pound one.