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June 11, 2013 June 4, 2013 May 29, 2013 May 22, 2013 Judge rejects claim that Salem carpenter can't be charged over explicit digital photos BRENTWOOD - A judge rejected a Salem carpenter's argument that he should not have been charged with a crime after a 15-year-old girl scrolled through his digital camera and found sexually explicit photos of him. William Tinker, 45, is headed to trial on three felony counts of indecent exposure and lewdness for allegedly handing the girl his camera last Dec. 30 while he was working at her home in Hampstead. Tinker allegedly asked the girl if she wanted to review some of photos of the work he was doing when she found one of the photos, prosecutors said. Defense lawyer Chuck Keefe said in court papers that his client mistakenly kept photos on the camera for his girlfriend, and repeatedly apologized for the girl's finding the photos. Keefe argued that the felony charges couldn't be brought because the law was aimed for those who transmitted the photos over the Internet. "He did not send or transfer them anywhere," Keefe said in court papers. "Showing a picture to someone does not amount to 'transmitting' that picture." Judge Marguerite Wageling rejected Tinker's argument that the law only pertained to people who "transmitted" digital photos to the girl over the Internet, which is forbidden by law. "Showing an individual a photograph in person is clearly a form of conveyance of information," Wageling said in a four page decision. Prosecutors argued that Tinker's actions would be illegal whether the photos were sent over the Internet or kept on a digital camera The girl told police that after she found the first photo Tinker "held the camera in front of both of them and flipped through five more pictures," including one of his genitals on the girl's underwear, according to Assistant County Attorney Stephanie Johnson. Tinker faces up to 3½ to 7 years in state prison if he is convicted of the felony charges. His trial is scheduled for the week of Jan. 7 in Rockingham County Superior Court. READER COMMENTS: 1 - Russian national indicted over phony debit, credit cards - 0 - Nashua couple's deaths called suspicious - 24 - Hampton man indicted for distributing child porn - 0 - Mother of drowned baby gets prison time - 6 - Former Londonderry coach indicted in sex assault of two girls - 1 - Manchester resident interrupts burglary - 0 - Auburn woman struck in head with bottle of cologne - 1 - Manchester cabbie assaulted, robbed - 0 - Somersworth man said toddler fussed so he tied him in a blanket - 29 READER COMMENTS: 3 - House, Senate at standoff over vaccines, voter registration bill - 0 - Rochester parents called to court to answer for truant children - 0 - Exeter High teachers' resignations announced at meeting - 0 - Rochester woman under arrest in underage party - 0 - LeBron, Heat edge Spurs in OT, force Game 7 - 0 - Santos drives in three as Curve beat Fisher Cats in 10 - 0 - Large billboards grabbing attention on Route 101 in Epping - 2 - Pearl Street lot proposal involves student housing in Manchester - 3 - Manchester VFW posts fights to survive without poker cash - 2 Voter restrictions: Who will govern us? Nashua couple's deaths called suspicious Mother of drowned baby gets prison time - Should applicants for jobless benefits have to pass a drug test? - Total Votes: 1424

Books Of The Times Published: April 21, 1982 By Le Anne Schreiber THE JOURNALS OF SYLVIA PLATH. Foreword by Ted Hughes. Ted Hughes, consulting editor, and Frances McCul- lough, editor. Dial. 370 pages. $16.95. IT has been almost 20 years since Sylvia Plath gassed herself in a London flat and became a myth of uncertain meaning. Martyr to some. Bitch goddess to others. To most, a patron saint of pain to be placed on the dashboard of our battered notions about what it is to be a woman and a poet. For two decades we have made her memory serve our purposes. Now perhaps, with the long delayed publication of her diaries, we can begin reckoning with the woman herself. I say begin, because these journals - made available by Miss Plath's husband, the poet Ted Hughes - are a very truncated and no doubt censored version of the diaries Miss Plath began keeping as a child and continued to keep until three days before her death on Feb. 11, 1963. In his curiously impersonal Foreword, Mr. Hughes notes that this selection of entries contains only about a third of ''the whole bulk'' that is now in the Neilson Library at Smith College. Of the two notebooks that covered the last three (and most productive) years of Miss Plath's life, he writes: ''I destroyed'' one ''because I did not want her children to have to read it (in those days I regarded forgetfulness as an essential part of survival). The other disappeared.'' Still, as maddeningly incomplete as they are, these journals are a revelation. Most strikingly, where one expects morbidity, one finds instead an almost pagan relish for life. In the earliest entries here, made the summer before she entered Smith, Miss Plath writes of her ''consuming desire to mingle with road crews, sailors and soldiers, barroom regulars'' - ''I want to be able to sleep in an open field, to travel west, to walk freely at night.'' Her enemies are time - ''the mocking tick: A Life Is Passing. My Life.'' - and men, because both would rob her of experience. ''My greatest trouble,'' she writes as a college freshmen, ''is jealousy. I am jealous of men - a dangerous and subtle envy which can corrode, I imagine, any relationship. It is an envy born of the desire to be active and doing, not passive and listening.'' Her weapon against time and men will be her writing. ''I cannot live for life itself: but for the words which stay the flux.'' And: ''I will not submit to having my life fingered by my husband, enclosed in the larger circle of his activity, and nourished by tales of his actual exploits. I must have a legitimate field of my own.'' The problem is, as Miss Plath posed it to herself, ''CAN A SELFISH ECCENTRIC JEALOUS AND UNIMAGINATIVE FEMALE WRITE A DAMN THING WORTHWHILE?'' And can she mate? These are the two question that dominate these journals. One is answered when she meets Mr. Hughes during her Fulbright year in England. The spirit of grudging compromise that marked her earlier calculations about finding a husband are entirely absent from her descriptions of her ''man of black.'' Although the editing of these journals may have been self-serving, the fact remains that through six years of entries Miss Plath refers to Mr. Hughes as ''my savior,'' ''my magnificent handsome brilliant husband,'' ''my perfect male counterpart,'' ''a man whom I miraculously love as much as life'' and, most stunningly, ''the buried male muse and god-creator risen to be my mate.'' She is harder on herself, and on her writing, which she continued to regard as the justification of her existence. Her effort always is to find ''my true deep voice.'' Her fear is that it has been permanently misplaced. Jan 14, 1959: ''Something deep, plunging, is held back. Voice frozen.'' Feb. 19, 1959: ''What inner decision, what inner murder or prison break must I commit if I want to speak from my true deep voice in writing and not feel this jam-up of feeling behind a glass-dam fancy-facade of numb dumb wordage?'' She uses the diary as a whip, accusing herself of indulging in ''bland ladylike archness,'' ''archaic cutie tricks'' and ''exoticoromantico glory glory slop.'' The irony is that the voice she was looking for, the deep true voice that was not heard until the posthumous publication of the poems she had written in the last months before her death, is present in these diaries from the beginning. In a raw state, to be sure. And only fitfully. But while she was looking to D.H. Lawrence, Dylan Thomas, Theodore Roethke and, of course, Mr. Hughes, and practicing a kind of ventriloquism that made her doubt her talent and even her existence, her own voice was pouring itself out in these journals. Their publication makes one feel more keenly the loss of a woman who would have been 50 years old this fall. One last thing. Among the sundry unexpected pleasures of these diaries is a brief account of a dream in which Marilyn Monroe appears to Miss Plath as ''a kind of fairy godmother.'' Marylin Monroe gives Sylvia Plath ''an expert manicure,'' offers her advice on hairdressers and then invites her for a ''visit during the Christmas holidays, promising a new, flowering life.''

Jules, over at Jules' Book Reviews awarded me with the Let's Be Friends Award! Blogs that received the Let’s Be Friends Award are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Thanks so much for Jules for this award! It is really an honor to receive it, and I want to thank everyone who stops by here so much for finding a bit of merit in my reviews. Through my forays within the blogging world, I have met many other bloggers who have been supremely kind to me and have gotten recommendations for so many great books that I would have never discovered on my own. In addition, I have seen some really great writing out there, and I hope to be able to widen my net and meet some more wonderful people. In the spirit of this award, I would like to pass it on to: Ink Horn Platypus at A Platypus With a Book Walks Into A Bar . Marie at The Boston Bibliophile. Aarti at Book Lust Lotus at Lotus Reads. Petunia at Educating Petunia. Meghan at Medieval Bookworm. Monday, April 27, 2009 Thursday, April 23, 2009 Terrell Harris never expected that the beautiful baby sister born on that stormy March day would be different from the other children in the neighborhood, but as she ducks a flying chicken thrown at her by her sister in the supermarket isle many years later, she reflects back on her life with Irene by her side. As youngsters, the girls' parents struggled to give them the most joyful life possible. For Terrell, that meant going to the theater, taking horseback riding lessons and learning to ice skate. For Irene, things weren't that simple. Functioning at the mental level of a three year old, Irene grows up throwing dangerous tantrums and is unable to learn to read or write. Her disability forces her personality into disarray and she is in constant need of attention and affection. All the while, her loving family strives to give her the least restrictive and most fulfilling life possible, knowing that to do otherwise would be a grave disservice to the little girl who touches so many lives in the community and at home. Advised to institutionalize Irene, both her parents refuse and begin the long fight to create agencies and programs for the handicapped in their community. Their desire is to create a safe place for people like Irene to go to school, have friends and adjust to the rigors of normal life. Working tirelessly, they spearhead campaigns, speak to governors and senators and fight against the state for control of their daughter's future. In the process, they meet other parents who are going through the same situations with their handicapped children. As their parents begin to age, Terrell steps into their shoes and begins to selflessly devote herself to giving her sister a normal life. But Irene can be stubborn, and sometimes doesn't want the things that her family wants for her. And so begins the struggle between the sisters, for each has their own interpretations of the ideal life for Irene. But this is not a sorrowful story, for Irene is a natural comedian and loves to endlessly thwart those around her. Whether she is inviting the firemen over to partake of her lemonade stand, holding a secret garage sale, or stealing the show by announcing for the seventeenth time this month that it is her birthday, Irene remains engaged and engaging. She is inspired, confident and headstrong, and by some strange turn of events, she teaches those around her to live with meaning and substance, proving time and time again that one can never underestimate those who we think are different. I have to say that this is by far the best memoir I have read over the past two years. The courage and tenacity of Terrell and her family's reaction to Irene's handicap stunned and moved me. I can't imagine being as brave as these people were, and the fact that they fought to such extremes is both impressive and inspiring to say the least. Terrell makes no bones about how difficult it can be to look after Irene, and her uncompromising honesty is the glue that holds this book together. To me, Irene sounds like a card, and I laughed with glee at her antics and behaviors. I especially like her adamant refusal to change her Mickey Mouse socks, even when going to a formal event, or her sly attempts at sneaking junk food whenever she can get her hands on it. But underneath all that, there must have been some really frightening times for this family. I think back to the time when she was lost somewhere in the bus terminal, and her family didn't know if she was on a bus halfway across the country or just hidden in a bathroom playing with her dolls. I think about the times when her tantrums cause her to injure herself, or when she is violent with other people, and I marvel at the fortitude that her family shows when the unthinkable becomes the everyday. Terrell goes on to explain that her husband and children all look after Irene with the same love and attention that she has demonstrated, and that, too, warms my heart. It was angering to see how little support was given to the families of handicapped children at that time in the United States. It seems that everyone thought the best thing to do was to lock them up and forget about them, and changing this was an uphill struggle all the way. But the Harris family had other solutions. Using behavior modification, they manage to get Irene to comply with many things and they strive continuously to improve the quality of her life with new and inventive methods that others had never even thought of. Another wonderful thing about this book was the strong undercurrent of feeling running through it. Whether Terrell was tired, frustrated, elated or dejected, she never spared her truth and forthrightness, and that was something that elevated this book in to the must-read category. This is not a woman who sits around feeling sorry for herself, this is a woman who sees the path she is on,and marches straight downit with a resolute strength that many would not have. Although Irene is a handful, and sometimes her life seems a never-ending set of trials, Terrell maintains her plucky attitude and stays the course. Did I mention that in the intervening time she has made a name for herself with a weekly newspaper column? Well she has, along with raising a family, helping her parents, and lobbying for the mentally handicapped. Terrell also has an extremely humorous presence on the page, at times laugh out loud funny and at times quietly amusing. She seems to have the gift of portraying everything with just the right touch of levity. This book was written both cleverly and deeply, and there were times I wanted to laugh as well as cry. Please don't just take my word for it, go out and get this book and see for yourself! As I have said before, it is a must read in the category of memoirs, and I would highly recommend it to all types of readers. The story told within these pages is an honest and awe inspiring tale of one family's love for each other, and it was such a pleasure to read. One day I hope to get a chance to tell the author of this book how much this story touched me, and how wonderful I think she and Irene really are. A stellar read. Wednesday, April 22, 2009 Bedlam South is a tale of the Civil War. Filled with action, pathos and hope, the book explores not only the themes of the war, but gives the reader a sneak peek into the lives of the soldiers in action, the men who were broken by battle, and the people in between who were left to pick up the pieces of their once unmarred families and homes. The book is a tremendously involving account of life under the fist of war. I have one copy available to give to one lucky reader, so if you would like a chance to win a copy of this unusual and interesting book, please leave a comment here. If you would like a second entry, you can also tweet this giveaway on Twitter. Please leave a separate comment if you do. Also, please include your e-mail address so I have a way to get in contact with you, and good luck! I will draw one random winner for this contest on May 5, 2009, and will post the results on the following day. Monday, April 20, 2009 Bedlam South is a thrilling and evocative triple tale of the action and the atrocities of the Civil War as told by its participants. Zeke and Billy, two brothers enlisted in the army of northern Virginia, struggle to stay alive and connected to each other amidst the horrors that the war is inflicting upon them and the men around them. They both spend a good deal of time wondering about the safety of their family and the home they left behind. As they march across the country and get pummeled by the Union forces, they see their friends and fellow soldiers slaughtered one by one, until the day of a particularly ferocious battle when Billy goes missing among the carnage. Zeke, injured and scared, must continue the march with his unit, leaving Billy behind to a fate that he struggles to comprehend and accept. Meanwhile, the mysterious Dr. Joseph Bryarly arrives in Virginia from England, ready to become the supervisor of one of the most vile and notorious mental institutions, Richmond's Wingate Asylum. What the humble and compassionate doctor doesn't know is that the hospital has already been commandeered by the sadistic and unstable Captain Percy and his band of thugs. Without any oversight, Percy and his bandits have made the asylum a living hell for all who enter, be they the mentally afflicted, deserters, or prisoners of war. Doctor Bryarly must find a way to keep his patients and himself alive and safe from the maniac Percy, who is intent on torturing and murdering whoever gets in his way. Bridging the gap between these stories is the tale of Miss Mary Beth, a woman forced to sell her body to soldiers in order to survive. Although Mary Beth is despised by most of the town's women and adored by most of the men, she hides a secret. It is Mary Beth who will discover that her secret has the power to save Dr. Bryarly and his ragged group of patients, saving herself in the process. This was a very arresting book. The three stories told within the pages were a unique mix of topics and situations. I have read stories of war, stories of mental asylums, and stories of hard luck women before, but never all in the same book. I think that all told, the elements of the story were well integrated and ran together very smoothly. Each story held great tension and drama and seemed to flow perfectly from one section to the next. It was with mild frustration that I realized that each section was ending right at the moment I had been most anticipating, until I realized that I was actually getting back to a section that I had been engrossed in and waiting for as well. The battle sections were done in an almost academic fashion, and I thought, very well researched and accurate. Each skirmish and rout was told with substance and weight, with a full exploration of the human element as well. Although I tended to prefer Dr. Bryarly's sections over those depicting the war, I really felt that the authors honed in wonderfully on the tremendous difficulties that faced the Confederate soldiers. Through the myriad of battles, the characters extemporized on what war means to societies, families, and individuals. These astute observations were both interesting and at times distressing. The sheer magnitude of the casualties was difficult to stomach. All these men were someone's brother, father, husband or son, and it was especially hard to see beloved characters being sacrificed to the cause. The sections that revolved around Wingate Asylum were both incredibly interesting but at the same time very painful to read. The level of torture that went on behind the gates of the asylum was wrenching and terrifying, and at times I had to take small breaks from the book due to the graphic nature of some of the "treatments." At one point, a patient's head was shaved and he was forced to kneel while a caustic mixture of mustard plaster was applied to his head, face and neck. He screamed in agony as angry blisters and weeping sores broke out over the mustard-covered surfaces. At other times patients endured "therapeutic immersions" (i.e., attempted drowning), a horrible device called the "Utica crib" and many other things that turned my stomach. It is hard to say that I liked these sections, because surely I did not, but I appreciated the historical accuracy that was being reflected in them. In no way was I prepared for the brutality I faced during these scenes, but I had always been more than a little curious about the way the mentally ill had been treated in earlier times. I believe that most of these sections were accurate, as the authors indicate that they scoured several reference works regarding the treatment of the mentally ill in the last section of the book. I found the book to be very dark and at times provocative, although I think that there really could have been no other way to relate the mayhem and turbulence that permeated the societies that were reflected here. The topic was bleak and dismal, but executed in a way that was both eye-opening and heartrending. There was simply no way that I could remain uninvolved and uninterested in this story. There were, however, areas where I thought the book could have been more smooth. The early dialogue was a bit unbelievable and wooden, but this was only evident in the early sections of the book, when the authors seemed to be getting to know and grasping their characters. Also, I felt that the pace could have been a bit quicker in certain areas, but I admit, it may have been my personal experience with the shifting story lines and my preference of certain sections. My principal thoughts on this book were very positive. I think the narrative was both eclectic and informative, and although some of the main characters rubbed me the wrong way at times, I think that was an intentional construct that the authors utilized very well. There was just enough action to make the story feel pressurized without sacrificing the depth of character, and not enough coincidence to make things feel forced. There were some amazing moments in this story, and I really felt invested in most of these characters and their plights. Ultimately, this felt like a very good first novel from this writing team. The authors have just completed their second joint effort, Chiasson, which will take place in the years leading up to the Civil War, and focus on the inexorable progress towards the secession. I look forward to it as well. Tuesday, April 14, 2009 Following the Whispers - Creating a life of inner peace and acceptance from the depths of despair by Karen Walker - 172 pgs In this unflinching memoir, Karen Walker exposes the inner struggles and turmoil she faced throughout her childhood and adult life. She describes growing up in a hostile and unloving home with parents who were ill-equipped to raise a child, her traumatization after being molested by a stranger, and the eventual loss of custody of her young child. Walker painfully describes her downward spiral of shame and self-recrimination when her life not only doesn't turn out as expected, but continues to degenerate into unmanagability. Spanning many years and seasons of her life, this is an intimate and potent story of a woman who must fight the destructive tides of cruel familial opposition while still trying to hold on to her self worth. I am having a hard time reconciling myself with this book. I found the writing to be both cogent and involving, and felt that the narrative power in this book was excellent. Walker surely knows how to weave the events of her life into a story that is both hard to put down and clearly resonates with the reader, but essentially, I had a very hard time understanding the point of this book. The book used a winding technique of narrative that slowly unfolded all of the pertinent facts and information, and the author portrayed her story in a confessional and penetrating way that left me feeling both sympathetic and moved by her plights. The problem came after I had a few days to digest the book. I started to become annoyed that throughout the book she seemed to constantly victimize herself and vilify everyone that she came into contact with. Only her current husband escaped the scoundrel label that she seemed to place on everyone. Her parents, friends, ex-husband and, even more shocking, her young son seemed to be food and fuel to the great blame game that she played. She didn't seem to understand that human interaction has a great potential to be redemptive and healing instead of singularly bleak and distressing. It bothered me that she painted everyone with the "monster" paintbrush and maintained an attitude of helplessness and self woe that I found unhealthy. When she decided to basically give up the fight for custody of her son in order to have time to grow into a better person, it made me angry. The real world is not like that. In the real world, parents are overwhelmed and confused and sometimes feel taken for granted, but they don't run away from their children and their responsibilities in order to heal themselves. They continue with the daily struggle to raise and nurture their offspring, in the hopes that one day their children will lead happy and safe lives. Another thing that bothered me was the way she used her episode of molestation as a crutch in which to remain emotionally unhealthy. Several times she related that she was unable to accept happiness, or love, or feelings of adequacy due to this event. It was tiring to see her constantly use this as a means to reject other people and stubbornly remain in emotional stasis throughout the book. She had many years of therapy, yet she was never able to resolve these issues within herself, never able to forgive herself and her offender in order to heal and move on in peace. Instead she seemed to pull this episode out of the past whenever she didn't want to deal with new or uncomfortable situations. Everyone has been a victim at some time in their lives, but to constantly sit in that role and seem to relish it doesn't really impress me as creating a life of inner peace and acceptance at all. And that brings me to my next point. As a reader, I never really understood how the author grew into having a life of inner peace. Her situations eventually resolved themselves, as most do, but she never really seemed to grow or change in any way that was significant. Mostly this story struck me as a "woe is me, look how I have been wronged" tale, something that many people could tell, but something that failed to inspire the author into any self healing behaviors. I know this reaction may seem harsh, but it is hard to find compassion for a woman who abandons her child to a cruel and unloving father and constantly places herself in damaging and destructive relationships time and time again. In the end, I ultimately felt a little bad about being so engrossed in reading about someone else's unhappy life. While I was reading the book, it was almost like having a train-wreck kind of mentality, where I could not look away from all the heartache and unhappiness spreading over the pages. Later, I mused to myself that perhaps the point that the author was trying to make with the writing of this book was to gain sympathy from her audience, maybe replacing those who didn't give it to her in her real life. While I sympathize with the author's struggles, I was disappointed with her apparent lack of growth. The book's title promised an outcome which was never realized. Wednesday, April 1, 2009 The Neurology of Angels tells the story of three people and their struggles with the American health care system. Years ago, Galen Douglas lost his fiancée to a series of strokes. In a desperate attempt to heal himself of his heartache, the neurologist began to formulate a medicine that will help others avoid his fiancée's fate. When he invents a viable medicine for the treatment of ischemic stroke victims, he must face endless red tape and bureaucratic dead ends in order to get the drug into the people's hands who most desperately need it to survive. Eddy Parker is a family man, living the American dream, when unexpected events lead him into the political arena with the intention of lowering the cost of prescription drugs and health care so that it becomes affordable for everyone. Eddy, like the people he represents, has a vested interest in seeing these issues resolved. Elizabeth Rose is a pharmaceutical industry lawyer facing the task of raising a terminally ill daughter, Sera, alone, after the death of her husband. As Sera grows from toddler to young adult, the clock is relentlessly ticking for someone to find the cure for her disease. Each of these people have a critical role in the battle between the executives, the government and the politicians who govern the modern health care system. This is a tale of the industry of illness and of those who must fight against that industry in order to change lives, one at a time. This book was a very interesting peek into the major concerns of the American health care crisis that many face every day. Each avenue of the system was clearly and eloquently explored, right down to the frank information regarding the legislation that restricts citizens from purchasing drugs from other countries. The book clearly had a message, but it wasn't pushy or unreasonable in making its point. In a country where the laws and reforms are so complicated and many-faceted, this book did an incredible job of exploring the issues from each side, and even from the perspective of those caught in the middle. In one section of the book, a character is faced with the choice of paying upwards of $50,000 for one dose of a medicine that has not been approved for off label use, or going without a treatment that is preventing her from having a stroke. The thought of this happening to me or someone I care about is frightening, yet all too real. I also thought the sections regarding the practical sides of the research and development of pharmaceuticals was extremely well done. The author really encompassed all the aspects of drug development, from the discovery right down to the marketing and clinical trials. She didn't shy away from portraying the controversies that go on in this area of science and development, and I truly appreciated that. Although there were sections in the book that were heavy with scientific and political jargon, I felt that this actually added to the impact and the importance of the book, taking the story to a much more realistic and credible level. It was really impressive to read about the meshing of the medical, governmental, and personal sides of this issue in a way that fleshed out the whole picture. I think many readers will find that this book answers many questions they might have never known they had regarding the availability and cost of health care and medications. I felt that the author really delved deep creating these characters, because although this was a book with a message, her characters came across as very genuine and were easy to sympathize with. Each character wore a different face of the same issue, but they were all struggling with their beliefs, values, and morals. I particularly liked Galen. He wasn't your typical entrepreneur/scientist. I found him to be a thoughtful and caring man, generous almost to a fault. He struggled endlessly in his quest for a cure: from it's earliest conception to it's final approval, Galen never let go of the dream he had to improve and even save the lives of others. Out of all the characters in this book, I think he was the most interesting and compelling, although he did struggle with many personal issues that tormented him. Another thing I liked about this book was the way the stories of the three families intertwined. Some of the sections of the story involved a bit of coincidence, but I didn't think that it detracted from the story at all. I found the joining of all of the characters' fates was actually a brilliant move on the part of the author. It was a great way to show the how the singular players' decisions impacted people who were not necessarily in the characters' personal sphere. The best part of the book was the way the author explained and made a plot point of showing some of the alternative solutions to the real life problems that plague the health care system, particularly the inclusion of a fund that allows for bartering services in exchange for health care credits. I am not sure if this type of solution would work, or whether it is indeed feasible, but it is a very interesting idea that may one day shape the future of health care in this country. I think that this is a very important book, written at a very important time. The impact of this book will depend considerably on its number of readers, and I feel that it should be read by many, if not for its touching story then for its intelligent commentary and its unflinching and honest look at the problems facing the uphill climb in our nation's health care future. It seems that there are no easy answers here, but this story raises the types of questions that each individual needs to be asking themselves, and the questions we need to be asking those in charge of our health systems. Posted by Zibilee at 1:00 PM

David never fails to amaze me when it comes to his philosophy on life. Whether it be answers to interviewers' questions or quotes he tweets to us, it is hard at times to remember that he is only 19 years old. On top of that, he is a 19 year old guy. Now I don't want to generalize and say that all teenage guys are stupid, as my daughter believes, but most don't use all of their brain cells to there fullest. I speak from experience here as the mother of an almost 16 year old son, a leader in son's Boy Scout troop, and the former "adoptive" mother of daughter's now ex- boyfriend who is 18. Now there is a boy who is the opposite of David. Not to use any names here, I will call this boy "Just Confused". Now "JC" comes from a very sad family situation. Dad left when he found out mom was pregnant. " JC" doesn't even know what nationality his dad is, mom won't tell him. "JC" has never seen him. Mom hasn't been the best at providing for "JC". When he was in elementary school they did not have a place to live so they travelled from one friends house to another, sleeping on the floor wherever they could. "JC" was a troubled youth and consequently failed 7th grade. Saddle that with the fact that he has an early fall birthday and that makes him considerably older than all of the kids in his grade. When "JC" reached high school he and his mother moved in with his "uncle" who was soon after diagnosed with cancer. The first male influence in the boy's life would not be able to benefit him after all. "JC" met my daughter online, as seems to be the norm now, in early summer 2009. Silly girl fell for him hard. The weekend before Thanksgiving JC's "uncle" died and uncle's family came and took all of the stuff that they wanted from the house and left "JC" and his mom with little much of their own and no place to live. The semester was not over and "JC" had no where to live so we allowed him to stay with us, sleeping on a mat in our son's room. We didn't have a spare room for him to take. Mom promised that she would find a place for them to live asap and everything would be better before school resumed in January. Of course this did not happen. The holidays and winter break passed and "JC" was still sleeping on my son's bedroom floor. Now my husband is a very good Christian man but can tolerate just so much. The 18 year old bf of our daughter living with us was not easy for him. He trusted our daughter but not necessarily the boy. The fact that boy's mom was doing nothing to compensate us for the enormous amount the boy ate or the fact that she wasn't looking to take him back finally got to my husband and JC had to move out. He went to stay with a friend from school who has his own dysfunctional family. Not the best but we tried. With the new living situation JC and Amanda did not see each other very much. He said that his new "Mom" wouldn't let him come over to visit or attend church with us. Within a couple of weeks daughter and JC had broken up. He told her that he "didn't know how he felt about her any more." Amanda was crushed at first but quickly came to realize that "God is in control and if they are to be together then it will all work out." JC wanted her back a couple of days later but she was determined to take it slow. And good thing that she did because he proceeded to breakup and get back together two more times before she said enough. Not even friends any more. Just don't call me. I can't believe how strong my daughter is. At her age I was an emotional wreck when it came to boys. I wanted to do anything to please them. Not Amanda. At 18 years of age she has the strongest morals and I am so proud of her. She has listened to every Christian teaching ever presented to her and internalized the valuable material forming her into the incredible Christian woman she is today. Word to the wise boys, she is not going to do something that she knows is not right. Since Amanda broke up with JC for the final time this past weekend, she does not have a date for her senior Prom on May 15. Most girls would think that this might be the "end of the world" but not Amanda. She is going no matter what. I asked her why some other boy from her school had not asked her since it was all over Facebook that she and JC had broken up for good. She had the best answer for me. "None of the boys at my school are going to ask me because they all expect their dates to go partying afterwards and then have sex with them and they know that I'm not going to do either of those so it is pointless to ask." Wow! Just wow. I hate to tell JC this, and I might be a little biased, but he really blew it. He had the best girl that he could have ever found ready to commit to him, possibly forever, and he chased her away with doubt and jealousy. Hey David, are you available for a high school Prom on May 15 in Austin, TX? I know. Just a mom's wishful thinking.

Thursday, September 17, 2015 Reflection: Luke 7:36-50 24th Week in Ordinary Time — Luke 7:36-50 This Gospel begins with a Pharisee inviting Jesus to dinner. Jesus entered the Pharisee’s home and reclined at table. Then unexpectedly a woman appears behind Jesus. Luke writes: “She was a sinful woman.” The woman had heard that Jesus was in the city and when she found out that he was at the home of the Pharisee, she immediately went to the house and entered. The woman had brought an alabaster flask of ointment. She stood behind Jesus at his feet, weeping. The woman began to bath Jesus’ feet with her tears. She then wiped his feet with her hair and anointed them with ointment. Simon, Jesus’ host, watched all of this. And as he was watching, he also was judging Jesus and judging the woman. Finally, Simon said to himself: “If this man truly is a prophet, surely he would recognize that the woman bathing his feet and touching him is a sinner.” And most likely Simon’s disapproval was written all over his face. Jesus was well aware of what Simon was thinking. Jesus looked at Simon and gave him the familiar scenario of the two debtors who owed money to a creditor: one five hundred days’ wages and the other fifty days’ wages. Neither creditor was able to repay the debt. When the creditor realized that neither one had the money to repay him, he generously forgave their debt. Imagine the shock the debtors must have experienced at the creditor’s generosity. They must have been overwhelmed with amazement and gratitude. Then Jesus asks Simon: “Which one of these men will love him more?” Naturally Simon answered: “The one who owed the most money.” I wonder if the Pharisee truly grasped the point Jesus was making? Did he even begin to comprehend what Jesus was saying to him? Or was he so entrenched in his own belief system that what Jesus said was ludicrous to him? I wonder how we would react if this scene were reenacted in our lives? Would we also be shocked by Jesus’ actions? Would we comprehend the great gift Jesus gave to this woman? Would we criticize Jesus just as Simon did? Or would we be astonished by Jesus’ gentle loving and forgiving spirit, no matter how great the woman’s sin had been? The good news for us is that when we are the sinner, Jesus will love and forgive us just as he lovingly forgave this woman. Do we believe and trust this reality? Let us come to him and be forgiven!

The little ball of fluff seemed healthy, but hungry. Little Ball of Fluff was put in a carrier with a generous bowl of food, hay and water which the furball went right after voraciously. The little bunny seemed like it might be a Lion-head breed or Jersey Wooly by looks, or perhaps a combination. This rabbit was a sweet little creature, affectionate and seemingly grateful for the food and shelter at the moment. I checked her to see what her gender was revealing she was a female. I took a walk around my neighborhood and nearby streets to see if anyone was missing a rabbit. Behind my backyard, divided by a huge wood stockade fence, is a park with a playground, picnic area, a stream , baseball fields, tennis courts, and basketball court. Needless to say, this area covers a vast amount of land. There are some known predators in the area as well. I was trying to figure out if that is the direction the bunny may have come from. It didn't seem possible. There weren't too many rabbit owners in the area. It was so amazing to me and to my husband that this little bunny found her way to our yard. I wonder if she could smell the bunnies we had, or the food and hay. It really was quite a miracle that she found a safe haven in us out of other possibilities. Then I started thinking, that perhaps she was some type of gift, escaping a bad situation. I was quickly becoming very attached to this bunny and hoping selfishly no one would claim her. She was sweet and playful. I did bring her outside to see if my neighbor, who loved and sometimes rescued animals, had seen anyone looking for a bunny or if Little Ball of Fluff looked familiar to him. No luck. My neighbor can be talkative, but I didn't mind standing in-between our houses listening to some of his extra talking because of the sweet little bunny I was holding, cuddling and trying to make feel safe. Only through the corner of my eye, did I see a mini-van driving slowly by, but kept going. Several more talkative minutes later did the mini-van pull up to near where my neighbor and I were standing. The woman in the passengers seat rolled down her window and asked if we saw or heard anyone mention anything about a little bunny in the area. My heart sank as I walked closer and a little boy stuck his nose to the glass of the rear passenger side window. He looked very happy, opened the window and cried out, "Sable!!!". He came out and took the bunny from my hands without saying a word to me. The woman explained that they'd been looking for days and they lived far on the other side of the huge park. I informed the woman of the bunny being fed, watered and taken care of. She didn't seem to care and rolled up her window. She gave a slight look as they pulled away. As happy as I was that the little boy found his bunny, I felt saddened that the bunny was gone for I had fallen in love quickly. A thank you maybe would have helped me feel a little better too. The family's rudeness was left not as noticed because of the trust that little bunny put in trying out our home area to find safety and refuge in. It was an honor to be chosen by the Little Lost Rabbit. Please share your thoughts, stories, suggestions and comments in the comments section below! Please "like" our Facebook Page to keep up with new posts or to post more comments! Please check out the Rabbit Hop Shoppe for Bunny Related items!

A Hemet man who posed as a woman on Facebook and solicited women and teenage girls to engage in sex acts for money, including two high school students from Indio who disclosed his activities to authorities, was sentenced to more than 122 years in state prison today. Eliberto Cruz Jacobo, 46, was convicted in March of 60 felony counts, including human trafficking of a minor, inducing or persuading a minor to engage in a commercial sex act, statutory rape and possession of child pornography, involving seven underage victims. Jurors deliberated for about one day before returning guilty verdicts on all counts. Jacobo was sentenced Friday morning to an indeterminate term of 105 years to life plus a determinate term of 17 years and eight months. Prosecutors said Jacobo posed as ``Marlissa Garcia'' on Facebook and engaged in conversations with numerous women and teenage girls ranging in age from 14 to 31, suggesting they could make money as escorts. According to Deputy District Attorney Samantha Paixao, ``Marlissa Garcia'' would continue to recommend that the victims pursue prostitution, even if they said they were minors. ``There was no miscommunication between `Marlissa Garcia' and the girls in regards to what they would be doing to make money,'' Paixao told jurors in her opening statement. ``(Jacobo) actively tried to recruit young minors to engage in prostitution.'' Prosecutors said some of the victims did end up engaging in prostitution with a client known as ``Robert,'' later identified as Jacobo. Sheriff's deputies tracked the messages from ``Marlissa Garcia'' to an IP address at the defendant's home, where deputies found photos and videos on his computer of minors engaged in sex acts with Jacobo. Some of the juveniles also pointed ``Robert'' out to detectives when shown a photographic lineup of suspects, the prosecution said. ``Marlissa Garcia'' was first brought to the attention of law enforcement in November 2014 by two students at Indio's Shadow Hills High School following a school presentation on human trafficking, according to prosecutors. The girls told deputies that ``Marlissa Garcia'' had worked to recruit them on Facebook for prostitution. Jacobo was taken into custody in early 2015. At sentencing, Paixao called Jacobo a ``true predator'' that exploited the weaknesses and trust of his young victims, many of whom planned to appear at the hearing or have letters read to the court, but cancelled at the last second. Jacobo's attorney, Kimberly Allee, notified the court that she would be filing a notice of appeal. 72920 Park View Drive Palm Desert, California 92260 Viewer Hotline: 760-340-1623 Story Tips: 760-340-1623

Henry Rollins Bringing His ‘Travel Slideshow’ to Grand Junction Punk rocker, Henry Rollins, will be bringing his "Travel Slideshow" to Grand Junction. Participate in the Second Annual Lazy Man Olympics You've always dreamed of being an Olympian, but couldn't muster the ambition, right?! We have the perfect Olympics for you -- the Lazy Man Olympics. Get ready to battle it out for the gold. Nominate Your Favorite Grand Junction Teacher for ‘Teacher of the Month’ Grand Junction has some amazing teachers, and we need your help in recognizing those that go above and beyond. 11 Ways To Tell You’re From Colorado Colorado is a unique state and we love it for that. If you grew up in Colorado, these should all ring true. 3 Fun and Easy Grand Junction Hiking Trails Hiking can be strenuous and exhilarating, but it doesn’t always have to be. Hiking can also be a fun, self-paced, and family friendly activity. Hiking can be enjoyed by all ages, from young to old. Here are three family-friendly hiking trails in Grand Junction, and they all start at … Grand Junction Man Arrested for Apparently Threatening Woman with Knife A Grand Junction man was arrested for apparently threatening a woman with a knife. Grand Junction Mom + Son Hide in Closet During Break-In A Grand Junction mom and her young son had to hide in the bedroom closet after two individuals entered their house. Women Arrested After Locking Herself in Store Office The Grand Junction Police Department arrested a woman after she barricaded herself in a convenience store office Monday (Jan. 4) night. Rare Panorama Of Grand Valley From A Century Ago Ever wonder what the Grand Valley looked like before us human beings decided to bring all the cement and interstates here? Here you go. This panorama overlooks Palisade and appears to have been taken in 1908. Wanna See What Grand Mesa Looked Like In The 1950s? If you poke around Etsy long enough, you occasionally stumble across something really unique. If you love the Grand Mesa area as much as I do, you have to see this postcard that I found that dates back to the 1950's.

If you are an attractive single lady, you need to have no problem meeting the proper kind of men on the net, correct? Well, in theory this must be true, but meeting men on the internet may be an entirely unique experience with a whole new set of rules than meeting men in-person. The on line world has its own pitfalls and traps that each woman needs to be conscious of if they?re going to meet the appropriate form of men on line. Otherwise, they can expect to face the exact same results of disappointment and meeting everyone but the correct sort. But there?s hope along with an approach to meet the appropriate kind of men that in fact works. The on the internet dating world has its own set of rules and understanding of how communication and interaction between men and women works. The 1st rule is that you can?t expect men and women to be who they say they?re on the web. Most folks exaggerate their on the internet profile and put up a front. In reality, this isn?t significantly distinct than how folks behave inside the real world, face-to-face. Men and women put up fronts as being confident, successful, or even outgoing, all of the time. The distinction between the on the net and real world front, nonetheless, is that you can?t sometimes detect a front by observing a person?s actions, words and expressions. Inside the on line world, this is practically impossible to do. So folks hide behind exaggerated accomplishments, interests, features and even entirely diverse personalities. And within the on the net world, it?s very effortless to do. Because of the reality that you can?t read a person?s actions and body language, and also the other individual can?t read who you really are either, the foundation of an on line relationship is based on a lie. Since 99% of the profiles posted on-line aren?t accurate, it?s impossible to tell whether an on-line personality is really a person?s true identity. Often times, a person?s on-line profile has nothing to do with who they really are. Single ladies want only to ask several probing questions to come across out what?s verifiable according to their profile, but to get to know what an individual is really like, it takes vulnerability and honesty. When folks put up a profile which is much less than honest, it?s challenging to know what their real motive is in communicating with you. The on the net format is also the perfect environment for serial daters, since they?ve already perfected what to say to be able to strike a date with a single lady. This not only makes the honest relationship seeker harder to discover, but also casts doubt on everyone you meet on the web. Proper off the bat, as a single lady you might be suspicious of everyone, and rather than cultivating the trust needed for a successful relationship, there?s doubt and mistrust within the process. On-line, people today may possibly not be who they seem to be, and they may perhaps have motives which are unique than basically seeking a mate. Some men create a profile just for the fun of it to see what could happen, some are truly in relationships or even married and are trying to discover techniques out of their current relationship. And then you?ll find the small percentage which are looking to scam you ? the attractive single lady ? out of everything you own. With no screening process, the on the net world has often been compared to a jungle. When you are stronger than the rest and have a keen ability to survive the jungle environment, then on the internet dating may be a wonderful place to meet individuals. But if you are like most folks and do not have time to play the on the net dating game and would rather meet an additional serious relationship-minded individual, then matchmaking might be for you. Matchmaking involves screening people today and offering suggestions based on the knowledge of both folks. This knowledge isn?t based on fronts, exaggerations or false impressions; instead, they?re based on honest, open and personal revelations. The most effective approach to begin a relationship is with establishing trust from the incredibly beginning, and with matchmaking, this is already established prior to you even meet your date. So, at not fault of your own, you may perhaps not have been meeting the appropriate form of men on-line for the reason that you may perhaps have been looking inside the wrong place to begin with. Maybe it?s time to match your self with a new promising reality. To find out more about this topic, visit Single Baltic Lady

An innovative, safe and painless strategy for rejuvenating vaginal tissue can enhance your confidence and maybe even transform your life! Dr. Danovich’s revolutionary two-step boost – the FemiLift and O Shot – tightens and regenerates vaginal tissue and enhance the sexual experience for you and your partner. The procedure is even proving to be effective for treating urinary incontinence! With the O Shot, Dr. Danovich notes that upwards of 85% of her patients are reporting immediate and long-lasting vaginal improvements. B.O.O.S.T. 2.0 Dr. Danovich’s vaginal treatment is an offshoot of her renowned Blood Organic Optimizing Skin Transformation or B.O.O.S.T. approach to anti-aging. With B.O.O.S.T. your own blood is refined in order to produce a Platelet Rich Plasma (also known as PRP Therapy) that is injected into the body to stimulate the production of collagen, activate dermal connective tissues and fat cells and increase the growth of new blood vessels (angiogenesis). Dr. Danovich has discovered that when adapted for esthetic procedures, it’s a highly effective tool for anti-aging. Recently, Dr. Danovich realized that PRP could also be integrated into any number of protocols, beyond facial rejuvenation – including treatments for the hands, neck, breasts, penis and the vagina. “I saw so many patients who came in feeling depressed about aging, and requesting Botox and other procedures,” Dr. Danovich explains. “But as we talked further, in many instances, these patients revealed that what was at the root of their problem was frustration with the changes that occur for women sexually over time – changes which impact sexual function, sexual satisfaction and ultimately, their relationships with their partners.” 2 steps to a more youthful vagina and so Dr. Danovich has devised this two-part treatment: - The FemiLift: Inserting a painless, CO2 laser, Dr. Danovich applies concentrated thermal energy to the vaginal tissue. This procedure resurfaces the vagina, removes irregularities, tightens the top layer of tissue and begins to stimulate the regeneration of collagen and elastin. Another important benefit? This is the first step toward abating urinary incontinence in many instances. - The O Shot: In step two, the patient’s own liquid plasma is injected into the upper wall of the vagina and uterus. This O Shot kicks off long-term and long-lasting vaginal rejuvenation. The entire procedure is performed after the application of a topical numbing cream, and in most cases, is completed in less than 60 minutes. You feel nothing during the procedure, there is absolutely no downtime and results are instant (on the other hand, surgical vaginal reconstructions can require six to eight weeks of recovery time.) “The procedure helps tremendously with the quality of sex and the quality of individual orgasms,” Dr. Danovich notes. “Over the age of 55, the vaginal area tends to lose elasticity, and the production of the body’ natural lubrication is significantly diminished. Sex can become very uncomfortable for the woman and her partner. But once the vagina is recalibrated to behave as its ‘younger’ self with the FemiLift and O Shot, the area becomes tighter and more elastic, and the patient’s ability to self-lubricate is often restored. I’ve had patients in their 50's and 60's tell me that they feel like they’re in their 20's again! They tell me they feel so much more confident – in and out of the bedroom!”

(A Harper Brothers Novel) Author: A.M. Hargrove Length: 207 pages Publisher: A.M. Hargrove LLC Rating: 5 Stars • This novel contains mature content and it not intended for younger readers. This is the beginning of a story... the story of two people who were meant to be together. Why? Because unknown to them, they shared terrifying pasts and the cruel circumstances of their births doomed both of them to a life of hell. Two strangers ... one night ... one accidental meeting that changed their lives forever. Gabriella Martinelli, Manhattan psychiatrist had only one goal in life—to help abuse victims avoid the horrors she’d experienced herself. She worked late, volunteered, and donated her services to anyone who needed them. Life was good ... until her nightmare resurfaced. He found her, and began stalking her, and she knew he wouldn’t stop until he destroyed every ragged piece of her. Kolson Hart, Manhattan’s most eligible bachelor, was ruled by his dark past. He liked control, from the boardroom to the bedroom and didn’t care to be involved with someone whose life was just as screwed up as his was. But one look at Gabriella short-circuited everything. Want ... desire ... need ... will sometimes drive a man to do things he swore he never would. He freed her from a life of fear ... When he couldn’t even save himself. Gabriella Martinelli has is a woman who has spent her life helping people face and conquer their psychological demons, but on the day that the greatest evil from her past insinuates itself onto her present...all she wants to do is RUN! All Kolston Hart wants to do is FORGET! Forget that he is not and will never be the Golden Boy that his brother is. Forget his undeserved status as a pampered playboy. Forget the horrors of his past that drive him to succeed, drive him to live the lies, drive him to be alone. What neither of these broken souls have any way of knowing is that one chance meeting, a few light-hearted and seemingly benign exchanges, and one selfless act will entangle their lives and hearts with an all consuming passion that will result in his FREEING HER! This book offers readers quite the story! And while you may assume that you have heard this story a time or two...just wait. Yes, Kolston Hart is rich. Yes, Gabriella Meirtinelli is a damsel in distress. That however is where the similarities to anything that you have read before and FREEING HER come to a screeching halt. Gabriella has worked hard to escape the darkness of her past, and is doing her damnedest to help others do the same. When she meets the enigmatic Mr. Hart, she seems far more interested in putting distance between them, than getting "up close and personal." Kolston, it seems, has other plans, and the more that he finds out about the 'good Dr...the more he is determined to know. As circumstances and the evil that is waiting to reclaim Gaby push the two further and further into each other's lives; they find that they share an attraction too intense for either to ignore. For readers, this is the part where all the magic happens. We get to see walls come down, old scars exposed and new bonds of trust and self acceptance forged. This is also where all the panty-ripping sex is! As we any great story, the power couple that is Kolston and Gabriella prove that their broken pieces come together to form a fortress stronger than any evil that can come against them. True to his hard won "knight in shining..." status Kolston proves that he is more than willing to go the distance for his lady love with a surprise cliff hanging decision that has to be read to be... All About A.M. Hargrove One day, on her way home from work as a sales manager, A. M. Hargrove, realized her life was on fast forward and if she didn't do something soon, it would quickly be too late to write that work of fiction she had been dreaming of her whole life. So, she rolled down the passenger window of her fabulous (not) company car and tossed out her leather briefcase. Luckily, the pedestrian in the direct line of fire was a dodge ball pro and had über quick reflexes enabling him to avoid getting bashed in the head. Feeling a tad guilty about the near miss, A. M. made a speedy turn down a deserted side street before tossing her crummy, outdated piece-of-you-know-what lap top out the window. She breathed a liberating sigh of relief, picked up her cell phone, called her boss and quit her job. Grinning, she made another call to her hubs and told him of her new adventure (after making sure his heart was beating properly again). So began A. M. Hargrove's career as a YA/NA and Adult Romance writer. Her books include Kissing Fire, Edge of Disaster, Shattered Edge, the series the Guardians of Vesturon (Survival, Resurrection, Determinant, Beginnings and reEmergent), Dark Waltz, Tragically Flawed, Tragic Desires, and Exquisite Betrayal. Other than being in love with being in love, she loves chocolate, ice cream and coffee and is positive they should be added as part of the USDA food groups. (If you're wondering, it didn't happen EXACTLY that way, but….) You can also find her on Goodreads as Emerson St. Clair. Her novella series, Dirty Nights, is available and those are a little dark, a little erotic and a lot sexy!

If you’re at all like me, sometimes you have a hard time doing what would be the most logical, sensible thing. The thing that you really need to do, even though you really don’t want to. The thing you should do, to make things a little easier on yourself in the long run. I’m sure there’s some psychology behind it, and over the next few months, I might learn what’s behind that aspect of my personality. If you’re not like me in that regard, then kudos to you. Also, would you be my mentor? Last week, I had my first visit with a new therapist. It was the first time I have sat in a therapist’s office with myself as the client in 23 years. To say it’s been a long time coming is a gross understatement. Therapy is something you really hafto do on your own timetable, though, if you want a chance at it being effective. For years, I have kicked around the idea of going to counseling. For years, I have talked myself out of it. Here’s the thing: my reaction to my infertility is not abnormal. I don’t have a mental illness because I am sad about the situation. But, but… ANY chronic physical or social condition can lead to adaptive behaviors which may not be healthy. And, frankly, given my family history, I am flat-out lucky that I am doing as well as I am in life. I could be an addict. I could be unemployed. I could be homeless. I could be dead. By the Grace of God, and the force of sheer Will, I am none of those things. There’s nothing that I can say, nor nothing anyone else can say to me about my infertility that is going to magically talk my body into having a baby. There’s no amount of Looking on the Bright Side, no number of Silver Linings that can diminish that fact. So, for a long time — fifteen years, and counting — the only therapist I was interested in talking to was a woman who is at least my age, with one or more lost pregnancies, who had never had children of her own. She was the only person I felt would be qualified to tell me how to live this life. I don’t know if such a therapist exists or not. . . . . Last December, I decided that I had to do something; I had to try something. Infertility is extravagantly insidious — it leaves no facet of your life untouched. And even when things, in general, are going well, as they were with me, there’s still an imbalance… still an always off-kilter feeling. I knew that traditional talk therapy wasn’t going to do it for me. I knew that cognitive behavioral therapy wasn’t going to do it for me, because I’m not dealing with maladaptive thought processes. That left, for me, a therapy of last resort: EMDR. EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. The idea behind EMDR is that small lights, auditory stimuli, and/or physical stimuli (tapping) are used to guide the mind through the same type of reprocessing and storage that occurs naturally during REM sleep. EMDR is usually used for people living with PTSD, but has been successfully used with people living with a variety of anxiety conditions, including phobias. A key benefit of EMDR is that the patient does not have to give detailed information to anyone about the reason for the therapy; they do not have to recount, and thereby, relive, potentially causing further trauma, the experience(s) for which they are participating in the therapy. I knew that I needed a male therapist. I used the power of the Internets to locate trained EMDR providers in my area, and, perusing their websites, narrowed my candidates down to about five. I emailed each of them with a bit about myself, my interest in participating in EMDR, and my reasons for such. All of them replied fairly quickly (good job, helping professionals!), and from their replies, I was able to narrow it down to two providers. None of the five had ever heard of or had practice using EMDR for someone living with infertility. After a few emails with The Two, I chose The One. After buttoning up the sale of my house, I had the free time and money to devote to the ten- to twelve-week initial course of treatment. So, I made the appointment, and, last week, I found myself sitting on the couch across from Dr. Walt. A military veteran, Dr. Walt has an amount of experience using EMDR to help other veterans. He is compact, with keen eyes. He speaks in that ever-calm, semi-hypnotic voice of well-trained therapists. He asks me about my family relationships, making notes, and once in a while raising an eyebrow (my family tree is a clusterfuck of off-shoots and brambles, but that’s nowt to do with me; it just is, and I state the facts unemotionally). He asks me why I’m there, and what I hope to accomplish. He asks me how I chose him to be my therapist. I answer each of his questions. He listens, attentively, and then asks me, in these exact words, “Are you familiar with the concept of synchronicity?” After some time, we finished up for the day, and as I was leaving, Dr. Walt noticed my shoes. “Soccer shoes,” he says, more of a statement than a question. “Yeah, Sambas. They have ridiculously good arch support. I love them. I will probably always own a pair, from now on.” “Oh yeah? I’ll have to remember that. I have high arches. I usually wear ASICS.” “I’ve heard those are good, too. ” “It’s Latin… an abbreviation: anima sana in corpore sano which translates as ‘a healthy mind in a healthy body.'” And with that, he did it. He pushed my Nerd button. Synchronicity, indeed. See you next time, Dr. Walt. As always, I welcome your thoughtful questions and comments.

Yeah, yeah, yeah…I know Valentine’s Day was last week. And here’s what we had for dinner. A Love Loaf! See what I mean? Don’t limit this dish to once a year. Share the love on birthdays, anniversaries, Thursdays…a real meatloaf fan will appreciate this anytime! It was so good, I forgot to take a picture of it after it was cooked! But I’m sure you get the idea. My family loved it, and the leftovers were appreciated too 🙂 Love Loaf (aka Pioneer Woman’s Favorite Meatloaf) slightly adapted from The Pioneer Woman 1 cup whole milk 6 slices white bread (I used white and whole wheat) 2 pounds ground beef 3/4 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese salt and pepper 1/3 cup minced fresh parsley 4 eggs, beaten 10 slices bacon for the sauce: 1 1/2 cups ketchup 1/3 cup brown sugar 1 teaspoon dry mustard a few shakes of hot sauce Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put bread in a bowl and pour milk over it. Let soak for several minutes. Place beef, bread and milk, cheese, salt, pepper and parsley in a big bowl. Add eggs and mix with hands until well combined. Line the bottom of a broiler pan with foil, and place meat on top of the slotted part. Form in the shape of a heart. Lay bacon on top, tucking in ends. Cut pieces to fit the top part of the heart. Combine all sauce ingredients in a bowl. Cover loaf with 1/3 of the sauce. Spread evenly. Bake for 45 minutes, remove from oven and cover with another 1/3 of sauce. Bake another 15 minutes. Slice and serve with remaining sauce. Serves an army!

If there is one thing that can be said about new Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane, two months into her tenure, it is that South Africa is battling to read her. She has the nation arguing about who she really is, where she stands and what kind of Public Protector she will be in the long run. A South African public that either loved or hated Thuli Madonsela wants to make up its mind about her successor, but is being frustrated by the confused signals she is sending out. During interviews by Parliament’s ad hoc committee, she hardly put a foot wrong. She charmed MPs across party lines and, by the time the process was over, she was the only person with whom they could find common ground. The only objector was the DA, which raised questions about her possible past links with the state’s intelligence agencies. Mkhwebane has outrightly rejected this, and other parties felt the DA was being a spoilsport. Although she did not exactly shoot the lights out and tower above other candidates, interested parties inside and outside Parliament just wanted to stop the ANC’s preferred candidate, the irascible Siraj Desai, from stepping into the position. Consensus was that this would have been a huge step backwards. So Mkhwebane seemed an uncontroversial choice who would grow into the position. She was never going to be a Madonsela, and nobody was really expecting the next Public Protector to be a replica of the unflappable woman with the monotone voice. All she had to do was build on the work that Madonsela and her team had done in making the institution live up to its name. The former home affairs official was inheriting a strong set of individuals who did not roll over for the strong-headed Madonsela, but rather helped mould the institution by often locking horns with her. But then Mkhwebane decided to go out of her way to define herself as “not Thuli”. Within her first few days in office, she was making pronouncements about low staff morale and was making judgmental statements on Madonsela’s legacy. From pronouncements to actions, she seems to be obsessing about showing the world that she is a different kind of sheriff. Already premature aspersions are being cast on her, and one could argue unfairly so. She is being portrayed as someone who was planted by the powers that be to undo Madonsela’s work by tuning the office into a State Protector. A growing number of voices are now asking whether the DA was on to something after all. Someone should tell her that this gig is not about her – it is about an institution that has become a pivotal pillar of this democracy, without which we would be in a much worse state than we currently are. She should retrace the steps that the Public Protector’s office has taken back to the days of Selby Baqwa, the first person to occupy her chair. Baqwa was a respected advocate who was tapped by Nelson Mandela to establish the office in 1995. With a staff that could be counted on the fingers of two human hands and an office slightly larger than a Somali spaza shop, he began to tackle difficult complaints against a democratic government that was in its honeymoon phase and which enjoyed massive legitimacy. Initially, he trod carefully so as not to alienate, but he still managed to hit hard. His role in whitewashing the Sarafina! scandal and “managing” the arms deal multiagency investigation are blotches on his record. But those are dwarfed by his achievements in constructing the institution and giving it a profile. By the time Baqwa left office in 2002, he had earned the wrath of the ANC by taking on some of the party’s big guns. The office of the Public Protector had carved out its place in the architecture of our constitutional order. His successor had to build on this and take the work and reputation of the office to a higher place. But Lawrence Mushwana had other ideas. Plucked from the ANC’s parliamentary benches, he saw his new job as no different from his days in the party caucus, where he marched to the orders of the chief whip and the deployment committee. In his seven years in office, he almost entirely undid Baqwa’s work. Madonsela should have inherited a purring machine in 2009, but she had to recondition the engine and give the car a good panel-beating. Mushwana is spoken of with much derision, in spite of his having somewhat redeemed himself at the SA Human Rights Commission. Mkhwebane is inheriting an institution that is in a good place. South Africans trust the Public Protector’s office. The reason they trust it to tackle their day-to-day tussles with the state – some of which may seem trivial to those who only concern themselves with the macro picture – is because it has displayed fearlessness in the face of power. Many South Africans may have fallen in love with Madonsela’s persona, but, in the main, it was her work that they loved. What Mkhwebane needs to accept is that even though Madonsela has moved on, she was one of those larger-than-life leaders who will never leave the public consciousness. She will still be stopped for selfies at supermarkets and hit headlines when she gives public speeches. That’s okay. Mkhwebane will be compared with her from time to time, but she must just get on with her job of protecting the public and not obsess about living in Madonsela’s shadow. Legacy – if she is at all interested in such – will follow.

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One aspect of the South African experience of struggling for freedom, and of building a post-apartheid order, not widely known is that there were many other significant heroes and heroines who took that long walk to freedom, with and before Nelson Mandela. Oliver Tambo, who was perhaps the most important of them all, proved to be a guide for many. Walter Sisulu, whose family still participates in governance, was another. Govan Mbeki, the father of the former president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, is a less visible character but a great mentor nevertheless. There were others, too . Ahmed Kathrada, who shared a prison cell at Robben Island with Mandela, and was almost a brother to him; Durban-based Ismail Meer and his wife Fatima; Mac Maharaj, who secreted Mandela's manuscript out of Robben Island; Helen Suzman, a white woman who played a critical role in conveying messages from the prison, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, anchor of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, whose sermons provided courage even as they brought peace during a difficult period of struggle. So it can be argued that Nelson Mandela was one of many but was accepted across the spectrum of leaders as the person most suited to be the first president of post-apartheid South Africa. Many of the men and women who helped in that transition to democracy were still around when my late husband, Lakshmi Jain, was appointed as the Indian high commissioner to South Africa in 1997, in the second half of Mandela's presidency. We had the joy and privilege of striking friendships, not only with Nelson Mandela but almost all of the veterans. The conversations we had with them revealed not only the extraordinary viciousness of the earlier regime, but also the amazing stamina, brilliance and variety of the freedom fighters themselves. Their accounts of torture and resistance only added to our respect for the people of this beautiful nation. Our first exposure to the South African political process and its leaders was at the 50th national conference of the African National Congress (ANC), held at Mafikeng Stadium on December 20, 1997. Thabo Mbeki was elected on that occasion as the next presidential candidate of the ANC, even as Mandela demitted office. In a historic speech made on that occasion, Mandela described the situation in South Africa as well as outlined what the ANC should really aspire to achieve in the immediate future. Every sentence he uttered was greeted with a hugely enthusiastic response from the stadium, which was bustling with ANC cadres from all over South Africa, each province with its own colour reflected in the garments people wore. The word 'Amandla!' (power) constantly rent the air and each time it was pronounced, the crowd responded with a hearty "Awethu!" (to us). Mandela, like Gandhiji, was an extremely informal man, totally at ease with common folk. They both shared an ability to love the people and transmit that love to them. Laughter and a big round of applause greeted his words, with Mandela himself wearing a very big smile. In fact, that big smile was typical of the man and was commented upon internationally. It exuded warmth and empathy and brought a twinkle to his eyes. Every leader claims to love his or her people. But to translate this connect into reality needs an extraordinary warmth . what is called the desire to include . and Mandela had that quality in abundant measure. His unique attribute, one that makes him stand tall amongst the world's leaders, is the genuineness of his love for his people. They in turn respond in equal measure, as we saw in the messages that poured in during the weeks during which he lay critically ill at a Pretoria hospital. Having seen him at the African National Congress convention from a distance, our next encounter with him was when my husband presented his credentials as high commissioner. Mandela welcomed us warmly but could not resist observing, right to our face, how much he missed Gopal Gandhi, the earlier Indian high commissioner to South Africa. We took this remark in our stride because we could well understand what it meant to him to have somebody representing India in South Africa who was not only as gentle and thoughtful as Gopal Gandhi, but also who happened to be Mahatma Gandhi's grandson. But after the formal ceremony, during which my husband delivered a speech entitled Africa" The Continent Of Hope, Mandela smiled and said to me, "You are Graca's only friend in South Africa!" Indeed Graca Machel . whom Mandela later married . and I had worked together in an Eminent Persons Group at the United Nations that dealt with children in armed conflict. When the couple got married, we were invited to their wedding and into an inner room where the special guests and family were present. Later, when the time came for us to leave South Africa, we were invited to have tea with Mandela and Graca in their home. Nelson Mandela with Devaki and Lakshmi Jain (Courtesy: Devaki Jain). Mandela is often compared with Gandhiji, as an 'apostle of peace'. As leaders of freedom struggles, there are indeed some striking similarities between them. While Mandela is remembered for surviving his 18 years in punishing conditions on Robben Island, what is important to note is that those years proved to be the incubator for thought and action that translated eventually into one of the greatest freedom struggles the world has ever known. Gandhiji, too, had incubated his ideas with fasts and then come out with strategies like collecting a fistful of salt on the beaches of Gujarat, an act that electrified the nation. Mandela, like Gandhiji, was an extremely informal man, totally at ease with 'common folk'. They both shared an ability to love the people and transmit that love to them. Both men had clarity of mind and the ability to arrive at answers to very complex challenges by using their reason, even as they carried their constituents along. Intuition complemented by intellectual strength marks the work of both men, who excelled in evolving innovative ideas and road maps. Also, the stamina needed to withstand assault and pain was also evident. Gandhi put up with a great deal of personal pain . conflict with his son, the loss of close friends, extraordinary differences with colleagues in the movement . but his grit to march on for a larger political agenda remained undiminished. Similarly, Mandela had to reckon with the pain of conflict with Winnie Mandela, who was a real comrade. Such tension may have crushed a lesser person, but Mandela continued to stride across South Africa with his mission to rebuild the country after decades of repression. India and South Africa are certainly destiny's favoured countries for having given birth to two of the most outstanding figures in modern history.

Sarah Stealey Reed remembers a pivotal moment in her career as a contact center leader. She was an ambitious woman in an industry mostly dominated by men, and had always been advised to "act like a man." At the time, that meant: "You cannot be soft. You cannot be emotional. And you cannot be friends with staff—all of which fundamentally went against everything I was. We had high revenue, but I was also burning people out, working myself and them to death to create success," she said. "I had this manager walk into my office who said, 'We have to talk. Not everybody wants to work as hard as you. That doesn’t mean they don’t want to be successful or that they don’t love their jobs. You have to stop pushing everyone as hard as you push yourself.'" Though Reed was a senior vice president and outranked the manager, she took his advice to heart and completely changed her leadership style. She brought back in a lot of her own personality, her human-ness, and began treating employees more kindly and respectfully. The result? "Our scores did not drop. Morale went up; attrition went down." No one coaches women to "act like a man" anymore. And, globally, 60 percent of contact center managers are now women, though historically the centers were staffed with women and run by men. Though much research has been done into whether or not contact centers prefer to staff women because they are "more compliant" and "better at following rules" than men, women I talked to in contact center leadership thought they brought something entirely different to the role. Women, they noted, either because of nature or nurture, tend to be better at doing the emotional work of a contact center; they tend to be able to juggle myriad, disparate tasks (hence the male ribbing about women having so many tabs open on their computers); and they tend to think of the contact center holistically, rather than zeroing in on the numbers. No one coaches women to "act like a man" anymore. And, globally, 60 percent of contact center managers are now women. Managing the emotional hotspot Historically, male industries treated some of the "softer" aspects of managing employees—such as their emotion and vulnerability—as a distraction. But customers often call contact centers when they're upset, and employees must de-escalate the situation and be a buffer for all that emotion. If they can't, they are unlikely to be perceived as providing great service, even if they ultimately resolved the customer's issue. And as many people say, customer service is marketing. But beyond that, research shows emotional labor can take a toll, and employees bearing the brunt of it could wind up with health issues. Consequently, an organization's financial health positively correlates with its employees' emotional health. "It's a far more emotional job than people give it credit for," Reed said. "If I'm a customer calling about my cable, I may know this is not a life-or-death situation, but right now it feels like it and I'm so upset about it that I'm not handling it very well." You have to remember there's a human behind every metric," she said. "You have to look at what is going to cause people to no longer provide the best service. You have to understand why they come to work every day. What is motivating them to come to this job and be yelled at, be cursed at? It's a little bit different for everyone… You can't just be numbers-driven. You have to be trained to know when it's okay to pull people off the floor and say, 'You need to go for a walk, let's you and I go get a cup of coffee. I don't care that the phones are backed up right now.'" You have to remember there's a human behind every metric. You have to look at what is going to cause people to no longer provide the best service. Sarah Stealey Reed A rich, complex environment But emotions are only one aspect of the job. Contact centers are a hub for the relationship between the company and the customer. They're a proving ground for new technologies, including the use of social media and artificial intelligence (AI). And they have to be managed down to fractions of an hour. Lori Bocklund, founder and president of contact center technology firm Strategic Contact, is an engineer by education. She sees the world of the contact center as being full of complexity. "It's so rich," said Bocklund. "It's people, process, and technology. It's finding the right people, getting them trained on complex things, watching them grow and develop. The people side is wonderful; but there’s an awful people side, too. You have to be constantly focused on and asking: how do we make this more efficient, how do we help customers have a better experience? It's constantly evolving. It's an interesting, diverse, rich environment that's throwing tactical problems at you all day." It's an interesting, diverse, rich environment that's throwing tactical problems at you all day. "You're directly responsible for the full strategy," Reed said. "The channel mix, the amount of staffing—which requires massive calculations. There are changes in the inter-hour volume that demands pretty scientific calculations: 10 people during this half hour, 20 people during the next half hour. You need five on chat, two on social media, three on email. You're responsible for systems you're going to be utilizing and metrics you’re calculating and reporting on." Nikita Harrell, customer care center manager for Pepsi Bottling Ventures, found the same to be true. "It's a very detailed role," she said. "You have to be in tune with staff and in tune with the measurements as well." Then there's also the business of understanding the technology. More and more contact centers are trying to become omnichannel, to provide a seamless experience between the customer's physical and digital worlds. But a lot of the new tools contact centers are implementing aren't quite there yet, Bocklund said. A chatbot that uses AI, for example, can consume far more data than the old If/Then scenarios of earlier programming. Even so, she said, "You're not going to turn it on and let it run by itself and have it go great. You have to keep optimizing or, pretty quickly, it's going to run amok." Bocklund said that something women tend to bring to this scenario is the ability to juggle all the pieces and think of things more holistically. When she works with male managers, she said, they're more prone to getting caught up in what the tools can do rather than looking at the bigger picture. As a consultant responsible for helping companies adopt new technologies, she was trained in change management and learned that unless you deal with the human aspect of adopting a tool, and the habits and ways of thinking that must evolve, the tool will fail. A holistic viewpoint Harrell started out in financial services and got her brokerage license, but ended up working in a very large contact center for an investment company. She fell in love with the role and all its challenges. She’s well aware of the numbers and targets she must hit or stay within but sees a big part of her job as developing people to help them achieve their dreams. Contact centers have a reputation as a dead-end job, but the agents are everything. No matter what technology a company uses, there's no way to hit your metrics without agents showing up to work, feeling dialed in. That involves a lot of operational planning. Both Harrell and Reed said it was crucial to have incentives: contests, bonuses, or special outings. It is also essential to ensure there's a budget for training and upskilling opportunities. Someone who begins working in the contact center might begin as an agent, but then earn a scholarship to learn to code and ultimately move into a different department. It’s all about the motivation that inspires people to come to work, and then inspires them to stay. Contact centers have a reputation as a dead-end job, but the agents are everything. No matter what technology a company uses, there's no way to hit your metrics without agents showing up to work, feeling dialed in. So when Harrell hires someone new, she works to find out what their dreams are and how she can help them use their time in the contact center to move toward them. "Nobody in elementary school said, 'I want to be a contact center agent.' But whatever your dreams are, this teaches you the foundation of customer service and how to communicate," said Harrell. "Customers call in because something is out of their control," she said. "We teach the agents to be the hero. It is awesome management training in general because no matter where they go in their lives they're going to experience conflict. The important thing is how you respond to it." There's a lot of debate about whether men and women actually think differently from a biological standpoint, or whether they're just trained and shaped differently through cultural conditioning. The women I interviewed all said there are some fantastic male contact center managers who are able to handle the emotional side of the job, as well as the tactical and operational side. So maybe it's not about being male or female in this kind of role. Instead, maybe it's just that customer relationship management is, at its root, about emotional, fallible humans interacting with other emotional, fallible humans. Since we all fall into that category, managing consciously for humans, helping to guide our aspirations and emotions in the most productive directions instead of keeping them out of the workplace will benefit everybody.

My childhood Sedarim involved a slight disconnect. Perhaps yours did, too. Here we were, a big tableful of upper middle class white folks, reclining on pillows around a beautifully set dining room table, discussing our history as slaves… while Mrs. Dyer, our cleaning lady, bustled about in the kitchen, ladling out the matzoh ball soup and scrubbing the haroset-smeared dishes. A lot of us employ minority women in our homes — not just as Seder helpers, but as housecleaners, nannies and elder care providers. Many of these helpers are immigrants, just as our people once were. These women come from the Caribbean, Asia and Latin America rather than Russia and Germany, but they want the same American Dream our grandparents did. Our great-bubbes and -zeydes often began their lives as Americans working in low-wage jobs too. And unfortunately, like our ancestors who sweated in places like the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, these immigrants have very little protection from exploitation. Domestic workers are exempt from protection under most labor laws. Most of us want to treat our employees humanely, but unfortunately, that’s not universally so. Every few months a story breaks about someone holding an immigrant woman as a virtual slave, paying less than minimum wage, forcing her to work horrid hours. Two years ago, a Long Island couple held two Indonesian women as prisoners in their home, beating them, slashing them with knives, working them day and night, making them sleep in closets and never allowing them outside except to take out the garbage. And for every Grand Guignol horror story like that one, there are thousands of small-scale tales of dehumanizing, un-mensch-like employer behavior. Yes, even among Jews. That’s why Jews for Racial and Economic Justice campaigns for fairness toward domestic workers. Its program, Shalom Bayit, or “peace in the house”, is based on the notion that justice begins at home. As Jews, people who’ve historically been active in the union movement, vocal about the need for fair and safe workplaces, fierce in our pursuit of justice on behalf of oppressed people in America and throughout the world, we need to look into our own kitchens and living rooms to make sure we’re being good employers. I’ve heard too many stories of people (yes, tribe members!) trying to underpay nannies, letting them go with little notice and no severance, expecting them to be on constant call. That’s why I think it’s cool that JFREJ, in partnership with Domestic Workers United, an association of immigrant women in the home-care labor force, helped pressure the City Council to pass New York’s first legislation to protect domestic workers’ rights. Now they’re aiming to pass a Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights in the New York State Senate. These rights would include at least one day off per week; up to 12 weeks of family and medical leave; paid sick-days, vacations and holidays; a health care stipulation; advance notice of termination, and severance in accordance with number of years worked. The bill seems realistic in its scope — it doesn’t address the immigration status of domestic workers, and doesn’t require anything massively financially untenable. It seems particularly appropriate to take a hard look at our own domestic-helper-related practices when Passover rolls around. After all, this holiday wouldn’t have happened without the efforts of Shifra and Puah — two midwives, the contemporary equivalent of domestic workers — who saved Jewish male newborns. And then we have Miriam, and Pharaoh’s daughter, who had their own big roles to play in the story of Jewish liberation from slavery. So JFREJ has produced a Haggadah supplement that draws parallels between our people’s experiences in Egypt and domestic workers’ current struggles. (There’s currently a link to it from JFREJ’s home page at jfrej.org.) The supplement includes a question from a kindergartner: “What does it mean to be a slave? Is it like being the cleaning lady who doesn’t speak English?” Often, when our kids say innocent things that feel racially insensitive to us, our instinct is to hush them immediately, to brush their comments away and to bobble the teachable moment. If a kindergartner at a Seder only interacts regularly with one person of color, the one who mops his family’s floors and doesn’t speak his language, it’s no wonder he’s jumped to certain conclusions. But educating him doesn’t mean hastening to stammer, “Consuela isn’t a slave! Ha ha! Someone fill the fourth cup, fast!” You owe it to the kid and to the planet to provide a diverse picture of our country. We now have a bi-racial president from a multiracial and multicultural family. Being insular doesn’t play anymore. The issue of treating people of color respectfully as well as with economic fairness is the subject of a whole other column. But I can’t tell you how many clueless, if well-meaning, comments I’ve heard about the fundamental suited-ness of entire ethnic groups as sitters. “I’d only hire a Filipino nanny!” one acquaintance of mine gushed. (Note: People who say things like this never know they mean “Filipina.”) “They’re so caring,” my acquaintance continued. “That’s why there are so many Filipino nurses.” I’ve also heard, more than once, “Jamaicans are good nannies for boys, because they’re the best disciplinarians and they play very physically.” And “Tibetans are the gentlest by nature. They’re Buddhist so they’re very loving.” (Tibetan nannies, in certain NYC communities, are huge status symbols. They make you look gloriously enlightened. They’re like human prayer beads, or a red string bracelet with legs! And I’m told you can pay them less than you do other ethnic groups — huge bonus!) Guess what, parents? Humans are individuals. No group is “by nature” anything. Hey, stop counting your gold coins and controlling the media and listen to me. Hiring someone to take care of your children is perhaps the most important decision you make as a working parent. This person cuddles, feeds, changes and disciplines the people you love most in the universe. How can you nickel-and-dime someone who has such a vital role in your family’s functioning? How can you view a caregiver as an ethnic signifier with given personality traits, instead of as a human being? The people who take care of our children are real heroes today, and in the Passover story. Correction: The March 27 East Village Mamele column, “Domestic Workers’ Rights: A Matter of Ethics,” misstated that the Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights includes a living wage of $12 per hour. The bill does not include a living wage. It does, however, include a health care stipulation. Write to Marjorie at [email protected].

Video Update Rab Se Sona Ishq 11th January 2013 Video Watch Online 720p *HD* To begin with, Sahiba tells Daljeet that she has to tell him something very important, while Ranveer is watching them from a distance. Daljeet asks her “whats the matter?” Sahiba staring at Daljeet with eyes wide open and thinks about the FB(where the doctor tells her that your child is safe and next time you come please bring your husband) Sahiba is stammering…”Woh main…” Ranveer asks them “what are they talking about?” Sahiba quickly looks up at Ranveer. Daljeet tells him that Sahiba slipped. And tells her to take care of yourself since you just came back from the hospital. Also, she should not work in this state. Sahiba’s eyes widen as soon as he says that. Ranveer wants to talk to Sahiba and takes her to the corner. He starts off by saying that “Look, I trust you but your eyes are telling me something else. And again they have started to have something for Daljeet.” Sahiba reassures him that “Whatever I had for Daljeetji in my heart is gone just like my tears. And I was just thinking that you are with me but Daljeetji theres no one with him. Infact, sometimes I feel that because of me his whole life is ruined. But do you know something, today after seeing him it felt like someone is coming into his life. Maybe Malika likes him. Ranveer tells her that Daljeet will definitely find someone for himself as there is always someone made for everyone. And tells her to concentrate on her family. Ranveer asks Sahiba that she wanted to ask something since you called, and in the morning. Ranveer asks her is there something she wants to tell? Sahiba quickly says No, theres nothing to say. Someone calls Sahiba and she quickly responds back and excuses herself. Malika tells Daljeet that shes hungry and asks him if he wants something to eat. Daljeet nods yes. Malika goes to get it. Ranveer’s dad is talking to some sardar uncle about how he has ordered this food from Chandigarh Harry & Sharry caterers. And one plate is worth Rs.225. While Deep goes to the food and is talking about how the village people have never seen this kind of food. He is laughing and smiling how Deep is dying on the plate and tells the sardar guy that his son-in-laws family eat a lot and as long as they are here the food can never go to waste and how this is like a challenge. Deep turns around and heard what he said. Ranveer comes to his father and tells Deep to eat. Ranveer tells his father that it’s the moment of happiness so why is he behaving so weird and cant he talk normally to people instead of making statements about others. Sahiba thinking about Ranveers words. Daljeet comes behind her and calls her. He tells her that she wanted to say something. She tells him that she doesn’t have to say anything to him and she has work to do. Malika says hi to Sahiba and congratulates her since her husband received a big tender. Sahiba thanks her and asks her if she ate anything. Malika tells her that she was just about to take it for Daljeet. Sahiba asks Malika that she really likes Daljeet right? Malika says since you’ve started this topic she would like to ask her what is in her heart? And if she doesn’t have anything for Daljeet then why doesn’t she tell him. Atleast that way his life will be saved from getting ruined. “Day and night, he only talks about you and in your heart afar from love you don’t have any sympathy on him. Why don’t you agree that you love him? For the world to see, you are with your husband and family but your heart is with Daljeet. That’s why it makes a difference to you if someone else is with him.” Malika leaves and Sahiba thinks about her words. Daljeet asks Malika what happened. Malika tells him “nothing”. Your sahiba thinks there is something between us two. Daljeet says that means shes getting jealous. Malika tells him to leave it and tells him that the party is so boring and that they should leave. Daljeet says not right now because the party is about to get interesting. Ranveer taps a spoon on the glass, trying to get everyones attention “Excuse me, and thanks everyone for being here today on this moment of happiness. And there’s this saying that behind every successful man there’s a woman behind it but in my case there’s two women. One is my mother. And second is my Sahiba. Ever since I controlled my senses and wanted to become something or have become it’s all because of her. Good or bad, success is because of her and because of her. He calls the waiter and takes the glass and says this one’s for Sahiba “CHEERS! With you my first win”. And offers the glass to Sahiba. Sahiba stares at it while holding her tummy. Daljeet stops him, saying that she can’t drink this because she belongs from a good house and doesn’t drink alcohol. And takes the glass from him and says cheers. Ranveer smirks. Daljeets phone rings. Malika asks about his plan. They show a woman walking in with heels. Ranveer wants to thank one more person that changed his defeat to victory. His fathers smiling. Ranveer says that person whom he trusts more than Sahiba. His father still smiling liking an idiot :P . And says that person name is myself. And raises his glass and says CHEERS! All of a sudden someone splashes him with the glass of water, (JAZZ ENTERS THE SCENARIO). Ranveer shocked. Jazz staring at him angrily. Daljeet turns and faces them both. Jazz calls Ranveer “a bloody cheater.” She tells him that he deceived her for this girl (pointing at Sahiba) he ruined all her happiness. She won’t spare him. And if within 24 hours, He does not leave Sahiba then she will bring him on the roads. This wealth, this property, and this bloody tender is all on her name. They have all been given to Ranveer by Jazz. And now he has to choose between her or Sahiba. By tomorrow morning by 11 she will come to ask for his decision. Either you choose Jazz as your wealthy property or this girl and that roadside life. Choice is yours. Malika tells Daljeet so this was your special moment. Daljeet says CHEERS! Ranveer’s mother steps in and tells Jazz who is she to say that to her son. Jazz tells her that I am the girl whose money your son has been living and chilling with. I am the one who your son got engaged to in London. Ranveer remembers engagement with Jazz. I am the one who your daughter-in- law knows about. But maybe in India all the mothers don’t find anything wrong with their son or else you didn’t think how your Ranveer got so rich. She tells him how she met him in London as a complete Hindustani type and because of this her dad got impressed by him. Because he considered himself a true indian. While trying to be rich, her father never cared about her mother or his daughter. That’s why she was frustrated and started taking drugs and to fix herself, her dad sent Ranveer as a bodyguard. And had a 1 million dollar deal but Ranveer took advantage of this, he tried to be nice and made me fall in his love trap and trusted him more than the whole wide world. After her dads death, she gave him the whole power of attorney and he sent me to Paris. I didn’t know he would go to India and marry this Sahiba. But now, I have come back and I am going to take you back. You have 24 hrs, either choose me or my wealth or this girl. And if you choose this girl then she promises that she will make him into a beggar!!!!!!!! PRECAP: Jazz thanks Daljeet. Daljeet stares at Ranveer happily. He tells her that “Making two loved ones meet is an auspicious thing”

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Demi Moore upset over Ashton- Mila relationship Demi Moore is said to be devastated by her estranged husband’s Ashton Kutcher relationship with Mila Kunis. Kutcher was pictured recently getting cosy with his former That 70s Show co-star, although both have not yet confirmed a romance. According to Radar Online, Moore was already finding it difficult getting over the breakdown of their six-year marriage and now this new relationship has made it worse. “Demi is devastated that Ashton has moved on so quickly and is dating Mila. She is beyond heartbroken,” Stuff.co.nz quoted a friend as telling the site. “Even though Ashton cheated on her all the time, it was with random girls, it wasn’t a relationship like it is with Mila and that is what is killing Demi now. Seeing photos of him kissing another woman is too much for her to handle, it’s like having her nose rubbed in it time and time again. “Each time Demi hears about Ashton and Mila it breaks her heart. She really loved him despite the flaws in their marriage and to see him dating someone new, who is so much younger than she is, is like a knife in her heart,” the friend added. Moore is also now said to be estranged from her three daughters, who are practicing “tough love” in the hope she gets better.

Dear Rosie & Sherry, I'm dating a woman who's divorced, and I'm concerned about the baggage, and particularly the reasons why her marriage failed. When dating someone who has been divorced, at what point is it okay to ask the question, "What was the reason the marriage was terminated?" Timing can make or break a courtship, so the question you asked is very important. Prematurely asking a date about personal information will probably make them feel uncomfortable and could put the brakes on an otherwise promising relationship. We suggest that questions about the details of a date's prior marriage wait until you have gone out several times and have both started to talk about other personal matters. Some of our readers may shy away from dating someone who has been divorced, because they worry that the same problems that contributed to the end of the first marriage might affect a subsequent marriage. This narrow perspective closes one off from a large population with great potential. Marriages break up for many reasons, and often it isn't due to the "fault" of any one partner. Many divorces could have been averted if a couple had learned early on to continually nurture their relationship and develop skills in areas such as communication and conflict resolution. Many men and women learn from the mistakes of their first marriage and are able to have a much more successful relationship the second time around. Of course, there are individuals whose emotional handicaps or other problems made their first marriage extremely difficult. Don't expect this to come to light when your date explains why the first marriage failed. Few people can be objective about their own divorces, and you're most likely to receive an explanation that is your date's particular perception of the truth, peppered with some imaginative details. However, as you get to know your date better, you can put her explanation into better perspective. After a couple has dated for many weeks, varies what they do when they are together, sees each other in the presence of each other's friends and relatives, and observes how each other reacts when they are tired or under mild stress, they gain a more well-balanced understanding of each other's positive and negative qualities. If a date is challenged by personality traits that may make it difficult or impossible for them to have a stable, happy marriage, these will usually (but not always) become apparent once the couple becomes very comfortable in each other's presence. Our best advice at this point is to give a promising courtship the time it needs for the two of you to learn a great deal about each other and develop an emotional closeness. Trust in yourself to be able to put everything in perspective as time goes on. By the way, there is an excellent book that can help many engaged and married couples build stronger, happier marriages. It is called "What Did You Say? Making Yourself Understood in Marriage" by the well-known Israeli marriage counselor, Rabbi Simcha Cohen. The Hebrew version was an overnight bestseller in all sectors of Israeli society, and it is an excellent aid for interpersonal communication. It should be available in most Jewish bookstores. Rosie & Sherry

Wednesday, November 30, 2005 I thought it might be interesting to list some famous people who share (or did share) the same birth date and some who died on this date. I also listed some moments in history that happened on November 30th. November 30 Who Was Born on This Day? 1554 Philip Sidney poet, statesman, soldier d: 1586 1667 Jonathan Swift satirist d: 1745 1835 Mark Twain [Samuel Clemens] riter d: 1910 1874 Sir Winston Churchill British statesman and prime minister d: 1965 1912 Gordon [Alexander Buchanan] Parks photographer, poet, filmmaker, novelist 1922 Virginia Mayo actress 1923 Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. actor 1924 Shirley Chisholm politician, author 1924 Allan Sherman [Copelon] comedian d: 1973 1927 Richard CrennaEmmy Award-winning actor 1928 Rex Reason actor 1929 Dick Clark TV producer, host 1930 G. [George] Gordon Liddy politician, radio host 1931 Teddy [Thurman] Wilburnsinger 1931 Bill Walsh Football Hall of Famer 1932 Bob Moore instrumentalist 1935 Jack Reno country singer 1936 Abbie Hoffman activist d: 1989 1937 Robert Guillaume [Williams] Emmy Award-winning actor 1937 Ridley Scott director 1937 Paul [Noel] Stookey singer 1943 Leo Lyons musician, bassist 1944 Rob Grill musician, singer, bassist 1944 Luther Ingram musician, singer 1945 Roger Glover musician, bassist 1947 David Mamet director 1950 Craig Swan baseball 1950 Paul Westphal basketball 1952 Mandy Patinkin Tony Award-winning actor 1953 Shuggie [Johnny] Otis, Jr.musician, guitarist, bassist, harmonica player, keyboardist 1954 George McArdle musician, bass guitarist 1954 June Pointer singer 1955 Billy Idol [Broad] musician, guitarist, singer, songwriter 1955 Kevin Conroy actor 1957 John Aston musician, guitarist 1957 Richard Barbieri musician, keyboardist 1962 Bo [Vincent] Jackson baseball 1965 Ben Stiller actor, director 1970 Des’ree singer What happened this day in history? 30 B.C. - Cleopatra died. 1016 - English King Edmund II died. Known as "Ironside" for his fierce resistance to the invading Canute who eventually defeated him and became King on Edmund's death. 1700 - Eight thousand Swedish troops under King Charles XII defeated a force of at least 50,000 Russians at the Battle of Narva. At least 10,000 Russians died. The army lost 600. Charles XII died on this day in 1718 during an invasion of Norway. 1782 - The United States and Britain signed a treaty in Paris that ended the Revolutionary War. 1838 - After the French occupation of Vera Cruz three days earlier, Mexico declared war on France. 1853 - In the Crimean War, the Russian fleet attacked and destroyed the Turkish fleet and part of the harbor at the battle of Sinope. 1864 - The United States Civil War Battle of Franklin, Tennessee, took place. 1875 - Akron, Ohio's A.J. Ehrichson patented the oat-crushing machine. 1887 - In Chicago, Illinois, the first softball game was played. It was actually called indoor baseball; using a broomstick for a bat and a boxing glove for a ball. 1922 - Actress Sarah Bernhardt made her last stage appearance in the final performance of "Daniel", in Turin, Italy. 1936 - London's famed Crystal Palace was destroyed in a fire. 1939 - The Soviet Union invaded Finland. 1939 - More than 20 Russian divisions - almost half a million men - invaded Finland in the "Winter War." 1939 - On Columbia 78s, Harry James and his big band recorded "Concerto for Trumpet". 1940 - Lucille Ball and Cuban musician Desi Arnaz married. They would divorce in the 1950s, after the 1954 season run of "I Love Lucy". 1943 - On Capitol Records, Nat ‘King’ Cole and his trio recorded "Straighten Up and Fly Right", the first recording for the King Cole trio. 1947 - Only one day after the United Nations decrees Israel's right to exist, Jewish settlements are attacked. 1950 - Clover Dairy of Wilmington, Delaware offered Sealtest concentrated milk for sale. 1953 - Playwright Eugene O'Neill died in Boston, Massachusetts, at age 65. His vast collection of plays included Anna Christie, Ah! Wilderness, The Hairy Ape, Desire Under the Elms, Long Day's Journey Into Night, and Mourning Becomes Electra. O'Neill was awarded the Nobel prize of literature in 1936. His daughter, Oona, married silent film star Charlie Chaplin. He left several unpublished plays and an autobiography. O'Neill's will stipulated that these were not to be produced until 25 years after his death. 1954 - In London, England, Sir Winston Churchill celebrated his 80th birthday. The festivities were supossedly the greatest ever held for a British subject. 1954 - The first meteorite known to have struck a woman lands in Sylacauga, Alabama. 1956 - New York's Floyd Patterson became the youngest man, at 21, to win the world heavyweight boxing championship when he knocked-out light-heavyweight champ Archie Moore in the fifth round of their Chicago bou. 1958 - The Dewey - the first guided missile destroyer was launched in Bath, Maine. 1959 - Joe Foss was named American Football League commissioner and made about $30,000 a year as his salary for the job. 1962 - U Thant of Burma was elected secretary-general of the United Nations after the death of Dag Hammarskjold. 1964 - The unmanned Soviet spaceship "Zond 2" took off for Mars but communication was lost in May 1965. 1966 - Barbados gains independence from Britain. 1967 - Yemen, then Aden, gains independence from Britain. 1968 - Diana Ross and the Supremes hit t#1 on the music charts with "Love Child", a controversial song for the times. It stayed at #1 for two weeks. 1971 - As the "ABC Movie of the Week", ABC-TV presented "Brian’s Song". The story was about Chicago Bears Brian Picolo and his friendship with Gayle Sayers, who watched him die a tragic death. The movie rated a 32.9 and a 48 share. "Brian’s Song", performed by Michel Legrand, was the movie's theme. 1974 - The Eagles released their hit, "Best of My Love", but it would take until March 1, 1975 for it to hit #1 on the top 40 charts. 1977 - Eric Severied retired from CBS-TV after 38 years in television news. Among those he worked with were: Morrow, Collingwood, Trout, Cronkite, Edwards, Rather, Kuralt, Wallace, Dean and others. 1982 - The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 36.43 points, giving the fourth largest gain in the it’s 87-year history. 1986 - Ivan Lendl became the world's first tennis player to have career earnings over $10 million. 1988 - Radio Liberty, the American-financed Soviet radio station with an audience of 16 million, was opened to the airwaves on this date, along with two other radio stations. The Russians began jamming foreign radio broadcasts in the early 1950s after declaring them tools of subversion. 1989 - A bomb killed Alfred Herrhausen, the chairman of West Germany's largest bank. The Red Army Faction terrorist group claimed responsibility for the killing. 1991 - Archaeologists unearthed a statue of Pharaoh Ramses II in Akhimim, Egypt. Tuesday, November 29, 2005 This is truly a victory for religious free speech, ability to share the truth of the Bible when sharing the gospel, and freedom of association on moral matters and truth! "The U.S.-based Alliance Defense Fund, which filed friends-of-the-court briefs in support of Green, called the high court's ruling "a huge victory for religious liberty everywhere." From ADF newsletter: FROM: Alan Sears, President You Prayed and God Answered! Pastor Ake Green Acquitted of “Hate Speech” by Swedish Supreme Court! We just received word this AM that the Swedish Supreme Court – in an unanimous decision - has acquitted Pastor Ake Green of charges that he engaged in “hate speech” when he delivered a sermon on homosexual behavior to his small church. This is a MAJOR victory for religious freedom worldwide, as a loss would not only have sentenced Pastor Green to jail, but also set an international precedent that radical advocates of homosexual behavior would have attempted to use to legally silence the uncensored preaching of the Gospel around the globe. ADF Chief Counsel Benjamin Bull, who traveled to Sweden to advise Pastor Green and observe the trial, says: “This is a huge international victory for fundamental human rights, religious freedom, and freedom of speech. Voicing one’s conscience is a fundamental human right. In this contest between religious freedom and the radical homosexual agenda, religious freedom prevailed. As David slew Goliath, Ake Green slew the radical homosexual agenda in this case. We can only hope that will deter other attempts to censor Christian ministers from delivering Bible-based messages against harmful homosexual conduct. Ake Green is a hero and we are grateful for his stand and his perseverance.” ADF coordinated and funded the filing of friend-of-the-court briefs for the case as well as the translation of trial transcripts into English. Numerous international groups have used these transcripts to prepare their friend-of-the-court briefs on Green’s behalf. Thank you for your prayers – which along with God’s grace – made this pivotal victory possible! Some people may still want to label Pastor Green's comment 'hate speech' when he called homosexuality a 'deep cancer tumor' on society. His terminology may not have been pleasant. However, the medical truths and dangers of homosexuality should alarm and concern us all. Today's (and yesterday's) broadcast at Straight Talk Radio covers this in depth. From the website: Today, Straight Talk Radio concludes one of the most important subjects very few are truthfully addressing within the medical community: “The Medical Truths and Dangers of Homosexuality.” Dr. John Diggs, MD, is a Board-Certified Internal Medicine Specialist in South Hadley, Massachusetts, who has been treating homosexual individuals since the discovery of HIV/AIDS (originally known as GRIDS) in 1981 – and the increase of STDs (sexually transmitted diseases.) Dr. Diggs speaks from his first hand, professional experience, about the real mental, emotional and physical consequences of those individuals who engage in dangerous and risky homosexual behavior. Dr. John Diggs, a highly respected professional in the medical community, covers a gamut of issues that every listener can benefit from. *Warning and Disclaimer on Today’s Broadcast: Some medical language may be graphic in nature. Dr. Diggs is sensitive due to the nature of the broadcast and listening audience, however, some terms and diseases that are discussed may be troublesome for some individuals. Sunday, November 27, 2005 First, unfortunately, we have to see and face just one example of the depths of depravity permeating our world today. Then, we will see who is behind it all and why. Several weeks ago, my daughter and I watched a Lifetime movie called, "Human Trafficking." I have to admit, the horrendous treatment of women, girls (and sometimes even little boys) who are sold into sexual slavery haunted me for days. I wondered how anyone could ever be so cruel as to be involved in such a horrible, despicable industry. In my current Bible Study on the book of Genesis, we all read the following verse which described what man was like just before the flood: Genesis 7:5 - The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. I thought of that verse when I was watching Human Trafficking because it perfectly described the type of people involved in such a horrendous trade that inflicts continual pain, harm, and death on its victims. It is evil depravity at its worse! Then, I thought of the verse in the New Testament where Paul tells us that "God gave them over to their sinful lusts," (another Bible version states it as "gave them up unto.") I can better understand that verse in the context of realizing Genesis 7:5. When a person reaches the point where every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time, what else could be done for them? The terms "vile affections" include all types of sexual sin. "For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet." 28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, *sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, 30 backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, *unforgiving, unmerciful; 32 who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them. In the following excerpt from the book "Captivating," I was given some new insight about why sexual violence against women is rampant throughout the world: " It is also rampant against little girls and boys, but more than one million girls are sold into the sex trade every year! Dear God - what is to account for the systemic, often brutal, nearly universal assault on femininity? Where does this come from? Do not make the mistake of believing that "men are the enemy." Certainly men have had a hand in this, and will have a day of reckoning before their Maker. But you will not understand this story - or your story - until you begin to see the actual Forces behind this and get a grip on their motives. Where does this hatred for women, seen all over the world, come from? Why is it so diabolical? For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms. (Eph. 6:12 NLT) The assault on femininity - its long history, its utter viciousness - cannot be understood apart from the spiritual forces of evil we are warned against in the Scriptures. This is not to say that men (and women, for they, too, assault women) have no accountability in their treatment of women. Not at all. It is simply to say that no explanation for the assault upon Eve and her daughters is sufficient unless it opens our eyes to the Prince of Darkness and his special hatred of femininity. Turn your attention again to the events that took place in the Garden of Eden. Notice - who does the Evil One go after? Who does Satan single out for his move against the human race? He could have chosen Adam...but he didn't. Satan went after Eve. He set his sights on her. Have you ever wondered why? It might have been that he, like any predator, chose what he believed to be the weaker of the two. There is some truth to that. He is utterly ruthless. But we believe there is more. Why does Satan make Eve the focus of his assault on humanity? You may know that Satan was first named Lucifer, or Son of the Morning. It infers a glory, a brightness or radiance unique to him. In the days of his former glory he was appointed a guardian angel. Many believe he was the captain of the angel armies of God. The guardian of the glory of the Lord. "You were the model of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz and emerald, chrysolite, onyx and jasper, sapphire, turquoise and beryl. Your settings and mountings were made of gold; on the day you were created they were prepared. You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stone." (Ezek. 28:12-14) Perfect in beauty. That is the key. Lucifer was gorgeous. He was breathtaking. and it was his ruin. Pride entered Lucifer's heart. The angel came to believe he was being cheated somehow. He craved the worship that was being given to God for himself. He didn't merely want to play a nobel role in the Story; he wanted the Story to be about him. He wanted to be the star. He wanted the attention, the adoration for himself. ("Mirror, Mirror, on the wall...") Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. (Ezek. 28:17) Satan fell because of his beauty. Now his heart for revenge is to assault beauty. He destroys it in the natural world wherever he can. Strip mines, oil spills, fires, Chernobyl. He wreaks destruction on the glory of God in the earth like a psychopath committed to destroying great works of art. But most especially, he hates Eve. Because she is captivating, uniquely glorious, and he cannot be. She is the incarnation of the Beauty of God. More than anything else in all creation, she embodies the glory of God. She allures the world to God. He hates it with a jealousy we can only imagine. And there is more. The Evil One also hates Eve because she gives life. Women give birth, not men. Women nourish life. And they also bring life into the world soulfully, relationally, spiritually - in everything they touch. Satan was a murderer from the beginning (John 8:44). He brings death. His is a kingdom of death. Ritual sacrifices, genocide, the Holocaust, abortion - those are his ideas. And thus Eve is his greatest human threat, for she brings life. She is a lifesaver and a life giver. Eve means "life" or "life producer." "Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living" (Gen. 3:20). Put those two things together - that Eve incarnates the Beauty of God and she gives life to the world. Satan's bitter heart cannot bear it. He assaults her with a special hatred. History removes any doubt about this. Do you begin to see it? Think of the great stories - in nearly all of them, the villain goes after the Hero's true love. He turns his sights on the Beauty. Magua goes after Cora in The Last of the Mohicans. Longshanks goes after Murron in Braveheart. Commodus goes after Maximus's wife in Gladiator. The Witch attacks Sleeping Beauty. The stepsisters assault Cinderella. Satan goes after Eve. This explains an awful lot. It is not meant to scare you. Actually, it will shed so much light on your life's story, if you will let it. Most of you thought the things that have happened to you were somehow your fault - that you deserved it. If only you had been prettier or smarter or done more or pleased them, somehow it wouldn't have happened. You would have been loved. They wouldn't have hurt you. And most of you are living with the guilt that somehow it's your fault you aren't more deeply pursued now. That you do not have an essential role in a great adventure. That you have no beauty to unveil. The message of our wounds nearly always is, "This is because of you. This is what you deserve." It changes things to realize that, no, it is because you are glorious that these things happened. It is because you are a major threat to the kingdom of darkness. Because you uniquely carry the glory of God to the world. You are hated because of your beauty and power. Add on 11/28/05: Stasi (co-author)mentioned that the term that God gives Eve when she is created is ezer kenegdo. God states, "It is not good for the man to be alone, I shall make him [an ezer kenegdo]" (Gen. 2:18 Alter) Robert Alter, who has spent years translating the book of Genesis, says that this phrase is "notoriously difficult to translate." Alter gets closer when he translates it "sustainer beside him." The word ezer, is used only twenty other places in the entire Old Testament. And in every other instance the person being described is God himself, when you need him to come through for you desperately. Blessed are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD? He is your shield and helper, and your glorious sword. (Deut. 33:26,29, emphasis added) I lift up my eyes to the hills - where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. (Ps. 121:1-2, emphasis added) May the LORD answer you when you are in distress; may the name of the God of Jacob protect you. May he send you help. (Ps. 33:20, emphasis added) O house of Israel, trust in the LORD - he is their help and shield. O house of Aaron, trust in the LORD - he is their help and shield. You who fear him, trust in the LORD - he is their help and shield. (Ps. 115:9-11, emphasis added) Most of the contexts are life and death, by the way, and God is your only hope. Your ezer. If he is not there beside you...you are dead. A better translation therefore of ezer would be "lifesaver." Kenegdo means alongside, or opposite to, a counterpart. Stasi goes on to describe:"... that God calls us to a life involving frequent risks and many dangers. (Isn't that the truth!) Why else would we need him to be our ezer? You don't need a lifesaver if your mission is to be a couch potato. You need an ezer when your life is in constant danger." (Jesus told us in John 16:33 - These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you *will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.") Stasi also mentions: "That longing in the heart of a woman to share life together as a great adventrue - that comes straight from the heart of God, who also longs for this. He does not want to be an option in our lives. He does not want to be an appendage, a tagalong. Neither does any woman. God is essential. He wants us to need him - desperately. Eve is essential. She has an irreplaceable role to play. And so you'll see that women are endowed with fierce devotion, an ability to suffer great hardships, a vision to make the world a better place." Now, I have done a lot of "skipping around" in the Captivating book within these last two posts. I do want to make it clear that this beauty being described is not just physical beauty. In the "What Eve Alone Can Tell" chapter, we discover why beauty matters and it is vividly described in many different ways. Now, we will see that because every woman bears the image of God, she has a beauty to unveil. Beauty is an essence that is given to every woman at her creation. Every experience of beauty points to [eternity]. - Hans Urs von Balthasar There are powerful descriptions of what beauty is within the book. For now, I will just list them. Beauty is powerful because it matters. First, beauty speaks. (see Psalm 99:3) Beauty says "all shall be well." Beauty also invites. Recall what it is like to hear a truly beautiful piece of music. There is something profoundly healing about it. A life of beauty calls us to something higher. Beauty is transcendent. It is our most immediate experience of the eternal. Beauty says, There is a glory calling to you. And if there is a glory, there is a source of glory. Beauty is, without question, the most essential and the most misunderstood of all of God's qualities. All of these things are true for any experience of Beauty. But they are especially true when we experience the beauty of a woman - her eyes, her form, her voice, her heart, her spirit, her life. She speaks all of this far more profoundly than anything else in all creation. Knowing a woman's beauty requires an unveiling. Whatever else it means to be feminine, it is depth and mystery and complexity, with beauty as its very essence. Please don't take this wrong. Don't despair. Remember this: Every woman has a beauty to unveil. Because she bears the image of God. She doesn't have to conjure it, go get it from a salon, have plastic surgery or breast implants. No, beauty is an essence that is given to every woman at her creation. Pause for a moment and realize this. We did not say that a woman is prized only for her good looks. We did not say a woman is here merely to complete a man, and therefore a single woman is somehow missing her destiny. What we said was, first, that Eve is the crown of creation. There is something uniquely magnificent and powerful about a woman. We tried to reveal the immeasurable dignity, the holiness of your feminine heart by showing that it is God who longs for Romance; it is God who longs to be our ezer (helper, companion, help meet); it is God who reveals beauty as essential to life. You are the image bearer of this God. That is why you long for those things too. There is a radiance hidden in your heart that the world desperately needs. Did you know that the word "beauty" appears 49 times in 49 verses of the KJ Bible? Here are just a few: Psalm 27:4 - One [thing] have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple. Psalm 29:2 - Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness. Psalm 50:2 - Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined. Psalm 90:17 - And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it. Psalm 96:6 - Honour and majesty [are] before him: strength and beauty [are] in his sanctuary. Psalm 96:9 - O worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth. Again, realize that there is a radiance hidden in your heart that the world desperately needs. Don't let the enemy of our souls prevent you from revealing just who you truly are in Christ Jesus our Lord! The subtitle of the book, "Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul" is highly descriptive and inviting. Reading just 4 chapters has already revealed such valuable, ministering information to me. I can't wait to share and discuss this book with my friends! I have already discovered that what is being shared in each chapter is an unveiling of many things I have thought, felt, experienced, dreaded, hated, loved, feared, over the years. I have come to recognize the reality most of such feelings through reading God's Word over the last 15 years. However, this book is written in a way that also shows me things that I may not have experienced in my own life, but have seen occurring in the lives of many women I know. I now can see much more clearly how, and why, such things have affected other women in my life. This includes those painful, often unspoken but deeply felt times and emotions that women sometimes do not understand and cannot find the answers for. It culminates in that disturbing type of experience(s) that cause us all to ask the question, "why me?" On the positive side of the coin, the book describes and explains the tremendous experiences of love and joy (thank God) that life can bring despite our pain and suffering. We are shown the true heart of a woman, what she needs, and why she needs it. We are shown the beauty that is a woman's soul; the kind of beauty that is in every woman's soul even if it hasn't been revealed to her yet! I will admit that the first chapter may seem a bit hokey to some women; especially the "feminist type" of woman. I'm not one of them. Never have been. But I could just imagine those who are feminists rolling their eyes as they toss the book aside thinking that it only contains that typical "fairy tale" stuff of their childhood. My advice? Keep reading! Because if you don't you will probably miss out on the greatest unveiling of your own soul save that of what you'd learn through what is revealed in the Bible. This book is perfect for gift giving. My own list of women with whom I want to share this book with has already reached 10! I'm sure that even more friends/relatives who would enjoy this book will come to mind. There is also a companion book that was written for men called, Wild at Heart. Captivating includes some excerpts from it and it looks excellent as well. Here is what is written on the Captivating book jacket: "Every woman was once a little girl. And every little girl holds in her heart her most precious dreams. She longs to be swept up into a romance, to play an irreplaceable role in a great adventrue, to be the Beauty of the story. Those desires are far more than child's play. They are the secret to the feminine heart. And yet - how many women do you know who ever find that life? As the years pass by, theheart of a woman gets pushed aside, wounded, buried. She finds no romance except in novels, no adventure except on television, and she doubts very much that she will ever be the Beauty in any tale. Most women think they have to settle for a life of efficiency and duty, chores and errands, striving to be the women they "ought" to be but often feeling they have failed. Sadly, too many messages for Christian women add to the pressure. "Do these ten things, and you will be a godly woman." The effect has not been good on the feminine soul. But her heart is still there. Sometimes when she watches a movie, sometimes in the wee hours of the night, her heart begins to speak again. A thirst rises within her to find the life she was meant to live - the life she dreamed of as a little girl. The message of Captivating is this: Your heart matters more than anything else in all creation. The deisres you had a s little girl and the longings you still feel as a woman - they are telling you of the life God created you to live. He offers to ocome now as the Hero of your story, to rescue your heart and release you to live as a fully alive and feminine woman. A woman who is truly captivating." Although I haven't read it all yet, I can already sense where the story goes and how it ends. And, of course, it has to do with Jesus Christ. But as with the first few chapters I have already read, I'm sure to experience the "ah ha!" type of reaction as I see more clearly why many women are missing out on all that God intended for them to be! For my male readers here, I would like to include a brief excerpt from Wild at Heart: "But God made the masculine heart, set it within every man, and thereby offers him an invitation: Come, and live out what I meant you to be. Permit me to bypass the entire nature vs. nurture "is gender really built-in?" debate with one simple observation: Men and women are made in the image of God as men or as women. "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them" (Gen. 1:27). Now, we know God doesn't have a body, so the uniqueness can't be physical. Gender simply must be at the level of the soul, in the deep and everlasting places within us. God doesn't make generic people; he makes something very distinct - a man or a woman. In other words, there is a masculine heart and a feminine heart, which in their own ways reflect or portray to the world God's heart." Saturday, November 26, 2005 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?" (Genesis 3:1 NKJV) What is very important to note is that the serpent twisted Scripture and told a lie in his question to Eve. Notice that Eve actually corrected his lie: 2 And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.'" (Genesis 3:2-3 NKJV) But Satan, in the form of the serpent, twists Scripture again and adds another lie: 4 Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." Here we see the temptation. Instead of obeying and trusting God for all that He has provided them, Eve and Adam let the temptation overcome them and they disobeyed God and thus trusted Satan's lie. The seduction was complete. 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. Unfortunately, mankind has been falling for Satan's lies ever since. We see this over and over again throughout the history of man. In Genesis 3:12-13 we see the evidence of the very first "blame game" between Adam and Eve. Lies lead to deception, deception leads to temptation, temptation leads to sin, sin lead to division. So, where do we go to discern truth from error? There is only one place. God's Word, the Bible. Just like Satan's twisting of the Scriptures in Genesis, man has also done this. How do we discern truth from error then? The Scriptures tell us how. In Titus 1, Paul tells us how to live godly lives, and how those, such as himself, are trusted to tell others the truth actually received such truth, "3 And now at the right time he has revealed this Good News, and we announce it to everyone. It is by the command of God our Savior that I have been trusted to do this work for him." (Titus 1:3 NLT) Notice what the preceding verse says, "2 This truth gives them the confidence of eternal life, which God promised them before the world began-and he cannot lie." (Titus 1:2 NLT) God cannot lie so His Word is trustworthy and true. Paul goes on and describes how elders of the church should conduct themselves. This verse is particularly important, "9 He must have a strong and steadfast belief in the trustworthy message he was taught; then he will be able to encourage others with right teaching and show those who oppose it where they are wrong." (Titus 1:9) The trustworthy message that was taught was to teach, "Jesus Christ and Him crucified." The New Testament of the Bible reveals the awaited Messiah that was prophesied in the Old Testament. Jesus Christ fulfilled more than 300 prophecies (with more to be fulfilled at his second coming). Notice that the above verse tells us that those who oppose the "right teachings" must be exposed and shown where they are wrong. The next several verses tell us that there are many who rebel against right teaching. Verse 10 specifically warns us that these types engage in useless talk and deceive people. 10 For there are many who rebel against right teaching; they engage in useless talk and deceive people. This is especially true of those who insist on circumcision for salvation. 11 They must be silenced. By their wrong teaching, they have already turned whole families away from the truth. Such teachers only want your money. 12 One of their own men, a prophet from Crete, has said about them, "The people of Crete are all liars; they are cruel animals and lazy gluttons." 13 This is true. So rebuke them as sternly as necessary to make them strong in the faith. 14 They must stop listening to Jewish myths and the commands of people who have turned their backs on the truth. 15 Everything is pure to those whose hearts are pure. But nothing is pure to those who are corrupt and unbelieving, because their minds and consciences are defiled. 16 Such people claim they know God, but they deny him by the way they live. They are despicable and disobedient, worthless for doing anything good. (Titus 1:10-16 NLT) Or have only one wife, or be married only once; Greek reads be the husband of one wife. Notice verse 14 says that they have listened to "myths" and "commands" and have turned their backs on the truth. Paul is talking about those who appear to be believers in the church! He goes on and reveals why they have turned from the truth: 1. They are corrupt and unbelieving. 2. Their minds and consciences are defiled. 3. Such people claim to know God, but deny him by the way they live. 4. They are despicable and disobedient. 5. Worthless for doing any good. These are harsh words, are they not? The result is devastating! For verse 11 tells us that they, have already turned entire families away from the truth. Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron labeled such people as "false converts" in their book The Way of the Master. This is not a new concept. False converts existed at the time of Paul and throughout history. How do we recognize them? They are guilty of one or more of the 5 traits listed above. We have such people in the midst of our churches today. Be strong and discerning in your faith and hold onto the truth, otherwise you could be led away by such people. 1 Corinthians 2:14 - But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know [them], because they are spiritually discerned. (NKJV) 2 Timothy 3:16, 17 - All scripture [is] given by inspiration of God, and [is] profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. (NKJV) Read 1 Corinthians 1:1-31 . In verse 2, Paul addresses the people at the church of Corinth as, "those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Christ Jesus our Lord, both theirs and ours." Paul describes the true, blameless saints in these verses: 4 I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus, 5 that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, 6 even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, 7 so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Paul tells us his concern for division: 10 Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. There are not to be contentions among you: 11 For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe's household, that there are contentions among you. What are the current contentions and divisions caused by in our day and age? Many have to do with "works of the flesh." 26 For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. 27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; 28 and the *base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, 29 that no flesh should glory in His presence. 30 But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God--and righteousness and sanctification and redemption-- 31 that, as it is written, "He who glories, let him glory in the Lord." Only God gets the glory! No act of the flesh, no wisdom from man, ONLY the wisdom from God and the righteousness, sanctification and redemption through Jesus Christ!! 1 Corinthians 14:31-33 31 For you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be encouraged. 32 And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. 33 For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. 1 Corinthians 2: 6 However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, 8 which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But as it is written: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him."* 10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. 13 These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the *Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. 16 For "who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?"* But we have the mind of Christ. NU-Text reads mystery. NU-Text omits human. NU-Text omits Holy. New King James Version, ? 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission. You may still wonder, how do we know and recognize who is genuinely following God or being deceived by the "author of confusion?" Paul says it quite well in 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 (below in last paragraph). A good indicator is this: You can discern where a person is, spiritually, through the evidence of whether or not their faith appears to be in the wisdom of men or genuinely in the power of God! The evidence of a person's faith can be seen through their knowledge of, and adherance to, God's Word. The difference between recognizing those who have "turned from the truth" (see 5 examples above) and those who cling to Christ and His Word make this truly obvious when discerning such matters. 2And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the *testimony of God. 2 For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. 4 And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of *human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. Wednesday, November 23, 2005 We can be thankful about many things and to many people. But giving thanks to God with a grateful heart should be first and foremost, for when we do, it is only natural to follow that up with thankfulness for the people in our lives. Materialistic things never matter as much as the Lord and our loved ones. Just ask those who lost every material possession they had in the hurricanes named Katrina and Rita. What was most important to them? Finding their scattered loved ones alive. During the recovery efforts, it was quite understandable to learn that the survivors asked for the physical needs of water, food, and shelter. But did you know what the fourth most requested item was? Those disasters drove people towards the desire to know God and His Word. We are hearing not only of stories of survival, but also, hundreds of stories of redemption. That's what God does in the midst of tragedy. He redeems. My GodBlog friend, Charlie LeHardy has a wonderful post called A Season of Thanksgiving at his Another Think blog. In it, he shared a quote from Cicero: "Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others." - Cicero Pro Plancio 54 B.C. I have been meaning to tell Charlie that I love the name of his blog. It reminds me of the verse in Isaiah that says: "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," says the Lord. Isaiah 55:8 (NKJV) Until I started studying the Bible diligently about 15 years ago, I'd have to admit that my thoughts were hardly ever in tune with the Lord's (as revealed in the Bible) and my ways were certainly not according to His ways. It is obvious that we can never completely "arrive" at the desired destination of acquiring the complete thoughts and ways of God while here on this earth. But we gain glimpses and enormous revelation through reading His Word. A relative of mine once said to me, "you've been studying that thing [Bible] for 10 years...don't you know it yet? The answer is no. I can never reach the point of "knowing" it completely. Fellow believers, wouldn't you agree that we can never stop learning from the Word of God? It is unique in that way; unique from any and all other books in existence today. However, what can be accomplished and is of infinite value is that the more we study, the more we can then see the vast difference and transformation that the Lord has made in our own individual lives. We can look back and see the vivid evidence of God's sanctification process since that moment of being born again! We can see the transformation and sanctification of our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ; especially when they share their testimonies. How you ever noticed that no two testimonies are ever alike? There may be similarities, but no two lives are ever completely the same. That's because the Lord redeems us individually. That's what having a personal relationship with the Lord is all about. Your redemption is between God and you! He saves us "one soul at a time." Whether it happened in a stadium filled with thousands of people, at your church filled with hundreds, or when you were in your home on your knees at the side of your bed. When I prayed about this post last night, I didn't know that the Lord would show me so much! He revealed songs and Scripture to me while I was laying in bed, in the state of being half asleep and half awake. I felt prompted to wake up, get my coffee and start typing! One song's lyrics stood out in my mind this morning. We often sing it at our church during each year's season of Thanksgiving : With a grateful heart For the Holy One Because He's given Jesus Christ, His Son. And now, let the weak say I am strong Let the poor say I am rich Because of what The Lord has done for us. When I think about what the Lord has done for me, for us, at the cross it makes me weep. Jesus Christ loves us so much that he paid the price that we could not ever pay for our sins at the cross. An instrument of execution became the tool of redemption for us all. Jesus came to "make all things new." Sometimes I wonder how anyone cannot see the gifts of love, mercy, forgiveness and grace through God's provision for our salvation! But some people look at the cross of Christ very differently. In fact, I got an email message requesting prayer for an individual named "Mike" who had made a derogatory post against Christ at another message board. In it, he listed objections to how and where Christians should pray. But one paragraph was particularly sad and unsettling. He wrote the following about the cross of Christ: "Your corpse nailed to a board is disturbing, and I don't necessarily think kids should see it. Again, just saying. Worshipping it is all well and good, but don't be surprised if other people feel the same way as I do. " 1 Corinthians 1:18 - For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. 1 Corinthians 1:21 - For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Scripture informs us that the preaching of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing! But it goes even further and deeper. Many non-believers find the cross not only foolish, but also offensive. Why is that? Jesus himself clearly tells us why: John 7:7 - The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil. Without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the "natural man" cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God! 1 Corinthians 2:14 - But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know [them], because they are spiritually discerned. What Christians view as salvation, is viewed as contemptuous by the unredeemed world. Their attitude is anathema towards repentance. In order for the world to break away from such deception, Christians need to continually share the gospel of Christ. It is our duty to do so. We need to keep the unredeemed in prayer, for it is our most powerful tool against the enemy of our souls. One of my favorite contemporary Christian music groups is Mercy Me. I'd like end with the song that the Lord recalled to my mind this morning: "Here With Me" I long for your embrace Every single day To meet you in this place And see you face to face Will you show me? Reveal yourself to me Because of your mercy I fall down on my knees And I can feel your presence here with me Suddenly I'm lost within your beauty Caught up in the wonder of your touch Here in this moment I surrender to your love You're everywhere I go I am not alone You call me as your own To know you and be known You are holy And I fall down on my knees I can feel your presence here with me Suddenly I'm lost within your beauty Caught up in the wonder of your touch Here in this moment I surrender to your love I surrender to your grace I surrender to the one who took my place I can feel your presence here with me Suddenly I'm lost within your beauty Caught up in the wonder of your touch Here in this moment I surrender I surrender to your grace I surrender to the one who took my place I can feel your presence here with me Suddenly I'm lost within your beauty Caught up in the wonder of your touch Here in this moment I surrender to your love Have a happy and blessed Thanksgiving! Mercy Me music clips! Go Here for a music clip of this and other Mercy Me songs. (at site, click on "Listen to all", then scroll for song of choice) Added on Thanksgiving Day, 11/24/05 - “Remember ever, and always, that your country was founded, not by the ‘most superficial, the lightest, the most irreflective of all European races,’ but by the stern old Puritans who made the deck of the Mayflower an altar of the living God, and whose first act on touching the soil of the new world was to offer on bended knees thanksgiving to Almighty God.” - Former U.S. Senator Henry Wilson (1855-72), and Vice-President under Ulysses S. Grant (1873-75). November 24, 2005 In Abundance, Gratitude Thanksgiving arrives once again and families are gathering across the nation. The traditional Thanksgiving feast has deep roots in our nation's history when the colonists paused to thank God for sustaining them through many dangers. Those who attended the first Thanksgiving feast had tasted the pain of adversity before they tasted the abundance of the great meal.In truth, most of us have never truly been hungry--we have never known the hardships previous generations assumed to be normal. For this reason we are not as urgently thankful as we should be. Our safety, comfort and material abundance can blind us to the fact that we, just like those pilgrim colonists, depend upon the grace and provision of God.So let's remember what Thanksgiving is all about--giving thanks to God for the abundance we have received and the blessings we have enjoyed. Resist the temptation to think of this day and this feast as simply one more holiday occasion. Happy Thanksgiving from Salem Communications. Albert Mohler is the host of The Albert Mohler Program. Read Albert Mohler's blog on Crosswalk. Tuesday, November 22, 2005 I can't wait! Narnia Movie News If you haven't already heard about it, just what was the news of the day that Matt exposed on Hannity and Colmes last night? It was the fact that CNN (a.k.a. Corrupted News Network) flashed a huge "X" over the face of Vice President Dick Cheney during his speech yesterday where he excoriated the Democrats who have recently decided to ratchet up their anti-war rhetoric by spewing such hate, contempt and lies about President Bush and the decision to go to war. The liberal left haters just seem to never be able to restrain themselves from bashing and defaming anyone in the current administration. The personal attacks that have been hurled by them against our President, Vice President, Secretary of State Condi Rice, Donald Rumsfeld etc. are truly shameful! They spew lies about Dick Cheney and Halliburton. Yet, look at the liberal hypocrisy of Michael Moore, Barbra Streisand, Al Franken, Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry, Noam Chomsky, and Hilary Clinton. You tell me whether or not their lifestyles reflect their rhetoric. Personally, I am sick of each and every one of them and I hope that Peter Schweizer's book embarrasses and inflames them all! Have you noticed that Michael Moore has basically disappeared from the news limelight since this book has exposed his profits made with Halliburton and Boeing; companies that he previously viciously denounced? Hmmm....what's the matter Mikey boy...no protestations that the book is incorrect? To close my latest political rant, I must draw your attention to Doug Powers blogpost on the mystery of the big X. The end of his post is hilarious! (Note: don't get mad at me for the vulgarity written on the man's t-shirt...just thought I'd warn you.) Another good post. Another add on: "Nobody is saying we should not be having this discussion or that you cannot reexamine a decision made by the president and the Congress some years ago." "What is not legitimate -- and what I will again say is dishonest and reprehensible -- is the suggestion by some U.S. senators that the president of the United States or any member of his administration purposely misled the American people on prewar intelligence," Cheney said. Another add on: Democrats rewriting history regarding Iraq intelligence. Sunday, November 20, 2005 Here is what it said: "Bertrand Russell on public opinion" One should as a rule respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny, and is likely to interfere with happiness in all kinds of ways." This has got to be the most difficult mind game an entrepreneur must play. On the one hand, you must follow your well-honed instincts. On the other hand, you must respect public opinion, in so far as it is required to remain solvent. But I've noticed lately that rather than create a brand that some people absolutely love, most people are trying to create brands that nobody hates. Big mistake! Awhile back a friend was bemoaning the less than stellar rating he had received from an attendee at one of his seminars. One a scale of 1 - 5, he had received a lowly 1. "What's so bad about that?" I asked. "It was a [darn] 1!" he replied. "That [stinks]." "No it doesn't," I assured him. "What [stinks] is receiving a whole bunch of 3's." Today, you want to be either loved or hated. A "5" or a "1." You must discover who YOUR audience truly is and be a protagonist for something which THEY believe in and feel passionately about. And as far as the rest . . . kindly thank them for their opinions and then ignore them. As Bill Cosby once opined: "I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." (Note: I changed some inappropriate words in the quote.) That Russell quote sums up how many in the atheistic, skeptical, non-believing world think. My message board/blogging conversations with skeptics, unfortunately, often boils down to this negative opinion about Christians and God: "voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny." The rejection of the Bible as inerrant and absolute truth are causing many Christian churches and denominations to compromise the Bible and the bottom line, "politically correct" reason for this is their efforts in "trying to create brands that nobody hates." Isn't this glaringly evident in the liberal leaning churches? The last paragraph (above, in bold) is the one that stood out for me. Isn't it true that when Christians share the gospel, the recipients often either will love it or hate it? I have seen other blogs which continually mock the Lord Jesus Christ, Christianity, and religion in general. The mockers, skeptics, atheists, agnostics, followers of cults etc. have some common traits. My experience in discussions with non-believers often leads to the life and death issue. I have also found that such people have other views and experiences in common. One, is anger and/or disappointment with God; two, is mistreatment of some sort at a former church where they attended; three, is hatred for the God of the Bible; and fourth, is rejection of Jesus Christ and an attitude that "it's all just a myth". Such attitudes are often very relevant as to whether one believes in God or not and thus where a person ends up in eternity. This paragraph could apply to Christian blogging, but it is missing one key element: "You must discover who YOUR audience truly is and be a protagonist for something which THEY believe in and feel passionately about." In Christian blogging, it is often the opposite. We counter what the audience currently believes. The purpose of a blog like mine isn't so much discovering who my audience is because the people visiting can be quite diverse. The crucial point that isn't included in that quote is the fact that each Bible believing born-again Christian that visits and posts at this site absolutely share the belief in the gospel message and feel passionate about sharing it with others. We have that fact in common. This, we do, despite the rejection we might inevitably receive from visitors. Those in the "audience" who are not Christians will likely disagree with most of what is shared here. I do agree that as Christians we are to be compassionate and display the 'fruit of the Spirit' (see Galatians 5:2; Ephesians 5:9) whenever possible to those who visit. However, as we have seen, tempers can flare and people can get angry, hurt, or feel rejected no matter how loving we try to be. Sometimes even the best efforts NOT to cause hurt, angry feelings do not work. The reason is because the person is searching for compromise. Therefore, accepting what we share is outrightly rejected because it is not what the reader wants to hear. If they are looking for approval of sin, then they reject God's call for repentance. The result of this kind of dialoguing is not always "successful" for those who refuse the gospel message. In their minds, it will be viewed as failure. Let's face it, the disciples, apostles, and even Jesus himself had rejection! We will most likely continue to appear as antagonists towards them. Sharing "the truth in love" does not appear as love to those who will not accept the truth. Have you noticed that? No matter how "loving" one presents the truth, the person sharing can still be regarded as "hateful," "bigoted," "intolerant," and any other negative adjective you could think of. I think that a big reason this is so is because many do not want to face their own sin, the truth of the Bible and who Jesus is. So, in reality, they are rejecting Him and not really us. We are just the sharers of the gospel message. Whether or not one accepts it is up to God and the unsaved person. Bill Cosby's quote (above) is half correct for the part where he says, "you can't please everybody" is often very true. If our aim as Christians is to please everybody, then it is likely that this means we would be compromising something in God's Word. Staying true to God's Word in this life IS success. It's not the success that the world focuses on, but it is the success we want to adhere to while following Jesus Christ. Saturday, November 19, 2005 The transformed Christian is always prepared for every ministry opportunity he or she faces. 1. The transformed Christian stays focused on ministering to the needs of others. (See Mark 8:1-3). Making oneself more and more useful to God in ministry is key. We are to focus on the needs of others. We can become more discerning of other people. Doing so in a compassionate way is a method that 'gets us down' to where the person is 'living', so to speak, and allows us to 'feel their pain' with them. Christine's comments: I see this more as empathy than sympathy for them. Sometimes, sympathy for a person can be misconstrued. They may see the Christian believer as someone who thinks of themselves as "holier than thou." This is a common misconception of non-believers. Christians are reminded in God's Word of the fact that, "for such were some of you" so, the reality is very clear. It is ONLY because of Jesus Christ that we are washed, sanctified and justified in the sight of God the Father. No room for a "holier than thou" attitude with that fact! 1Cr 6:11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. I also think that a believer who has been transformed and saved from a certain kind of sin can often (but, of course, not only) be the one chosen to help rescue others who are wallowing from the deception of that same type of sin. Ministries that are geared to help others out of the sins of porn addiction, or alcoholism, or adultery etc. are often led by people who suffered such addictions in the past; but are now set free by Jesus. 2. The transformed Christian honors God with their resources. (See Mark 8:5-9). By the term "resources" we don't only mean money, but also knowledge, gifts, talent and time. We are to make it available to Him. Realize that even our very lives belong to Him! Christine's comments: You might be thinking, how can anybody meet this great need? The answer is to let God make up the gap. We are to do what we can with all we have as often as we can with those the Lord places in our path each day. A devout Christian friend of mine once told me, "Chris, the one person you may have influenced and led to the Lord is just as important as when Billy Graham holds a crusade to reach thousands." She said this to me when I was wondering if my posting on atheist/agnostic message boards was worthwhile. At the time, I was sharing with our Bible study group (that was meeting in my home) that an internet acquaintance who used to mock me about my faith three years ago has now accepted Christ as Lord and Savior. But that was only one person out of hundreds that probably read my posts. He re-connected with me 3 years later to tell me of his transformation. He is now a brother in Christ! You can read more about it at this blogpost. What this tells me is that we never know what "seeds have been planted" by what we share on message boards or in the blogosphere. The saving is up to God, of course, but we are to follow Jesus' command to go into all the world and share the Good News of the Gospel. Mar 16:15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. Look at the attitude of the Apostles: Acts 5:42 And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. Remember Saul's reaction when Jesus appeared before him on the road to Damascus: Acts 22:10 And I said, What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said unto me, Arise, and go into Damascus; and there it shall be told thee of all things which are appointed for thee to do. And, remember "where he came from." He was a persecutor of Christians! Acts 8:1 And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles. Act 8:2 And devout men carried Stephen [to his burial], and made great lamentation over him. Act 8:3 As for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed [them] to prison. Read the entire chapter in Acts 8 to see the transformation of Saul, to Paul. In my current Bible study, we were discussing the significance of names in the Old Testament. In the ancient Near East a person's name was intertwined with the essence of his or her being and personality. In the Bible, name-giving has great importance. A change of name (e.g. Abram to Abraham; Sarai to Sarah) is an event of major significance, symbolizing a new character and destiny. We see such significance regarding the name change of Saul to Paul here in the New Testament as well. In addition, notice that each of the patriarchs - Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - received his name from God himself. These names, as well as those of the great biblical heroes like Moses and Aaron, David and Solomon, are unique, not given to any other person in the Bible. If you are a frequent reader here, you may recall a previous post about the significance of names given in Genesis. 3. The transformed Christian commits all of their works to the Lord. When God tells you to do something, it is not always comfortable! Can anyone say Amen to that? Realize that you will have opposition. Comes with the territory! We are to work through it! The Rock church is going through opposition and persecution during the recent efforts to purchase and build at a bigger site. I have heard of this same scenario time and time again! Personally, I can't think of hearing about any church that has NOT been opposed by some politician or community when it is proposed. But the great news is this...they get built anyway. That is what trust in the Lord is showing us. Pastor Miles stated the obvious when he said, "you know you are transformed when you are scared, but you do it anyway." He concluded by saying we are to pray and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ! Don't spread you're (or anyone else's) doubt; even when the naysayers are babbling, "it can't be done" or when obstacles might be thrown in your way. The best revenge is success! Friday, November 18, 2005 Our military is in harms way, fighting an insurgency THAT WANTS us to leave Iraq to early so that they can take the country over from the newly trained Iraqi soldiers, and democratic leaders in Congress WANT THE SAME THING! One congressman (John Murtha) made a profoundly ignorant and HUGELY ILL-TIMED CALL to demand withdrawal of our troops from Iraq. He did this just one day before two mosques in Iraq were blown up with about 74 people dead and 75 people wounded. This is terribly irresponsible and insane!! And it's appalling that a man in congress thinks he knows better than our military commanders in the field! And, don't even get me started with Bill Clinton. John Gibson got it right when he said on his show, " Clinton has definitely gone off the deep end!" Go see the video at Fox News and hear the details of Clinton's stupidity in front of Arab students in an Arab country. Does this man even think before he speaks anymore? Sheesh!! Have you seen the commercial that shows several democratic leaders saying the SAME THINGS that President Bush said back in 2003 about Saddam Hussein and the need for regime change in Iraq? It then shows what they are saying today is the complete opposite of what they believed and said back then. It is so painfully evident that they are now accusing the President of lying to the American people when they obviously thought and said the same thing about the intelligence information at the time! This is outrageous, people. I hope they show this commercial over and over again to show the sad hypocrisy that is going on with this liberal, anti-war, "we hate Bush" crowd. Keep showing it until the election in 2008. The democrats will lose again. And Cindy Sheehan...STAY HOME. Let our President have a peaceful Thanksgiving at his Texas ranch. This woman has lost all credibility she had (if, she even had any in the first place) when she took up with the likes of Michael Moore and his ilk. Speaking of Moore, it's time to get back to the book review. Do As I Say (Not As I Do) by Peter Schweizer Hypocrisy has proved to be a wonderful weapon for liberals in their war against conservatives. When a pro-family politician gets caught cheating on his wife, or a conservative pundit turns out to have a bad habit or addiction, their enemies use the charge to good effect. Fair enough. But what happens when the spotlights are turned on liberals themselves? Do the supporters of progressive taxes, affirmative action, strict environmental safeguards, and unionized labor practice what they preach? In a word: NO. Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy is Hoover Fellow Peter Schweizer's hard-hitting exposé of the contradictions between the public stances and real-life behavior of prominent liberals like Hillary Clinton, Michael Moore, Al Franken, Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi, Ralph Nader, Barbra Streisand, and many more. "Much of what follows," writes Schweizer in his introduction, "will strike many people as a revelation precisely because liberal hypocrisy gets a big fat pass from the liberal press, which fails to subject prominent liberals to the kind of intense personal scrutiny that is commonly meted out to conservatives." Some of the shocking hypocrisy Peter Schweizer reveals: *"I don't own a single share of stock," Michael Moore declares. No, his tax returns show he has owned hundreds of thousands -- profiting from some of the very companies (like Halliburton and Boeing) he viciously denounces. *How Moore's working-class, "regular guy" pose is contradicted by his lavish lifestyle and prima donna behavior -- such as traveling the country in a private jet accompanied by a fleet of private SUVs and bodyguards. *Moore also relentlessly exposes those who fail to meet his standards of racial fairness and equality. So, of the 134 producers, editors, cinematographers, composers, and production coordinators Moore he hired to work on his many movies, how many do you think were black? *Hillary Clinton supports the right of thirteen-year-old girls to have abortions without parental consent -- yet she forbade thirteen-year-old Chelsea to pierce her ears and enrolled her in a school that would not distribute condoms to minors. *The Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel: ultra-left class warrior, defender of the inheritance tax -- and trust-fund heiress who fought the IRS all the way to the Supreme Court to avoid paying $2 million in estate taxes. * Princeton "ethics" professor Peter Singer crusades for euthanasia for the severely disabled and terminally ill. But when it comes to his own mother, he operates according to more humane principles (fortunately for her). *During the 2004 campaign, John Kerry complained that the "super-rich" don't pay their fair share in taxes. Care to guess what percentage of their income Kerry and his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry -- who are worth over $700 million -- are paying in taxes? *Noam Chomsky opposes private property and calls the Pentagon "the most vile institution on the face of the earth" -- yet he has made millions in contract work for the Pentagon, owns two luxurious homes, and set up an irrevocable trust to protect his assets from Uncle Sam. *Ted Kennedy favors racial set-asides on federal contracts -- but when it came to his own investment in an entire city block of Washington, DC, he got his political friends to help him waive an affirmative action set-aside. *Another of Kennedy's great causes has been support of the estate or inheritance tax. But, he has repeatedly benefited from an intricate web of trusts and private foundations that have kept most of the family pie from ever ending up in the hands of the IRS. *Kennedy has introduced dozens of pieces of legislation over the years to encourage alternative energy sources. But he helped block the Cape Wind Project -- an effort to provide clean energy for thousands of homes on Cape Cod -- because the project would be built in one of the family's favorite sailing and yachting areas. *Al Franken habitually calls conservatives "liars" and "mean and nasty" -- yet as a writer for "Saturday Night Live" he penned jokes and skits so mean-spirited they appalled even his colleagues, and he uses brazen lies for his bestselling books all the time. *Ralph Nader: how he speculates in the stocks of companies that might be influenced by his political activism. How he conceals enormous wealth and a lavish lifestyle behind a façade of pretended frugality. *Nancy Pelosi has made supporting labor unions a cornerstone of her public career. Yet the vineyards and hotels that comprise her $35 million fortune have one thing in common: they don't use union labor. *Barbra Streisand: how, on the three causes with which she seems most concerned -- poverty, environmentalism and feminism -- she engages in the very behaviors she says she deplores. Schweizer makes it clear that when it comes to the things that matter most in our lives -- protection of family, property, and privacy -- even the most outspoken liberals jettison their progressive ideas and adopt conservative principles. In short, he writes, "these do-as-I-say liberals don't trust their own ideas enough to apply them at home... Which can only make one wonder: If their liberal prescriptions don't really work for them as individuals, how can they work for the rest of us?" One more thing. Senator Kerry's home state of MA has a check-off box on its tax return form to enable people to give MORE MONEY IN TAXES if one so chooses to do so. Guess what? Kerry didn't check the box!! This extremely rich man is not willing to give more in taxes in his own home state but wants to raise taxes for all the so-called 'rich people' in the U.S. for the federal government? Talk about hypocrisy!! Thursday, November 17, 2005 Here are the five questions: 1. What makes a Christian blog different from a secular blog in the material that they cover? Why have a “Christian blog” and not a neutral blog that’s written by a Christian? What are you, as a Christian blogger, hoping to communicate to your audience? 2. What was the purpose of having a “Christian Blogosphere Convention,” especially if you could just have an online chat? 3. I’ve heard that the Christian bloggers are hoping to hold TV Evangelists and other mainstream Christians accountable through their blogs. How and why do they hope to do this? 4. What kind of effect do you think the bloggers have on the rest of Christian culture? 5. What effect do you you think Christian bloggers could have on the rest of the blogosphere? Again, hat tip to djchuang for posting these questions. His answers are excellent, too, but don't peek!! ;-) It is my hope that my friends here will answer the questions in their own words first! Wednesday, November 16, 2005 The photographs alone told the story. Boats jackstrawed like bathtub toys. Buildings ripped from their foundations. Corpses mingled with debris, bobbing in the tide. A little boy, head pulled low in sorrow, teddy bear at his feet. Katrina. “Our tsunami,” as one person put it. Time will pass on this tragedy, as it has since 9/11, and since the events of April 20, 1999, when the lives of fourteen teenagers were extinguished at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. But in one sense these things will never be old news. The question on the lips of so many is an age old query: “Where was God?” ONE WRONG ANSWER One answer is not going to work: The picture of a broken-hearted God, victimized, agonizing over events out of His control. This “finite God” view is Rabbi Harold Kushner’s answer in Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People? Evil is bigger than God whose hands are tied by the laws of nature and the will of man. Limited in power and perfection, He weeps with us at a world out of control. According to Kushner, this should bring us comfort. “God, who neither causes nor prevents tragedies, helps by inspiring people to help,” he writes.1 Clearly, the God Kushner has in mind is not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the One who brought the universe into existence with a single thought. This is not the God of the Exodus and the empty tomb. A God equally victimized by the march of evil may commiserate with other victims, but He cannot inspire or rescue. He is not worthy of praise, prayer, or trust. Nor is there any real comfort to be gained from one so impotent. ANOTHER WRONG ANSWER But what alternative is there? How can anyone believe in God in the wake of the kind of devastation and suffering wrought by Katrina and Rita? The great 20th Century British philosopher and atheist Bertrand Russell wondered how anyone could talk of God while kneeling at the bed of a dying child. It is a powerful image. Like the three-word sound byte “Where was God?” it strikes many Christians dumb. How can anyone cling to the hope of a benevolent, powerful sovereign in the face of such tragedy? They might consider Christian philosopher William Lane Craig’s response: What is the atheist Bertrand Russell going to say to that dying child – or to thousands of dead or homeless in Katrina’s wake, or to the parents of 14 murdered highschoolers in Colorado, for that matter? Too bad? Tough luck? That’s the way it goes? No happy ending, no silver lining, nothing but devastating, tragic, senseless evil? No, that also won’t work for a very important reason. In a world bereft of God, there are many ways to characterize hurricane Katrina, the devastation of 9/11, or the killings at Columbine High: unpleasant, sad, painful, even ghastly. Yet if God doesn’t exist, the one thing we can never do is call such human destruction tragic, or wanton murder wicked. If in virtue of these tragedies one concludes God doesn’t exist, then the carnage ceases to be tragic at all, if by that word we mean a genuine breach of goodness. Judgments like these require some transcendent reference point, some way of keeping score. Words like “evil” or “tragic” are parasitic on a standard of moral perfection. C.S. Lewis pointed out that a portrait is a good or bad likeness depending on how it compares with the “perfect” original. But if there is no standard, then there is no “good” or “bad.” “My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust,” Lewis reasoned. “But how had I gotten this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call something crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust?....”2 Evil is spoiled goodness. That’s Lewis’s point. We already know this. Note the words we use to describe it: unrighteousness, immorality, impurity. Evil depends on the good. Where does such goodness come from, though? This point was explored in the movie, “The Quarrel.”3 The main characters, Hersh and Chiam, were boyhood friends who separated in a dispute over God and evil. Then came the Holocaust; each thought the other had perished. After the war, they reunite by chance and immediately become embroiled once again in their boyhood quarrel. Hersh, now a rabbi, offers this challenge to the secularist Chiam: If there's nothing in the universe that's higher than human beings, then what's morality? Well, it’s a matter of opinion. I like milk; you like meat. Hitler likes to kill people; I like to save them. Who’s to say which is better? Do you begin to see the horror of this? If there is no Master of the universe, then who’s to say that Hitler did anything wrong? If there is no God, then the people that murdered your wife and kids did nothing wrong. If there is no God, it’s hard to even begin making sense of the notions of evil or moral tragedy. The events that trouble us are reduced to mere “stuff ” that happens. There are different kinds of “stuff,” to be sure, some we like (Mother Teresa), and some we don’t (Katrina & Rita), but in a universe bereft of God it’s all reduced to “stuff ” in the end. But we know better. Words like “wicked,” “tragic,” and “evil” are on the lips of everyone constantly. We cannot describe the events in New Orleans in August, 2005 without them. But the questions remain: Why didn’t God intervene? Why is He inactive – apparently impotent – when He could restrain both the winds and the wicked? This protest rings hollow, though, because we don’t really want God to end evil, not all of it. PICKING AND CHOOSING OUR MORAL TRAGEDIES Why does this question come up only with magnum tragedies – like hurricane Katrina or the Littleton massacre – or when we are personally stunned by deadly disease or financial ruin? What about the enormous mass of evil that slips by us every day unnoticed and unlamented because we are the perpetrators of the evil, not its victims? On August 30, 2005 – the same day that the failure of the first two levees submerged some New Orleans neighborhoods under 20 feet water – I wonder how many Americans were committing adultery around the country? What of the cumulative effect of the personal pain and destruction that resulted from all those individual acts of sin? What of the unplanned pregnancies (and subsequent abortions), the sexually transmitted diseases, the shame and embarrassment? On August 30, a day that left so many homeless in the Gulf states, what of the children whose homes were broken through marriages destroyed by infidelity? What of the severed trust, the emotional wounding, the sting of betrayal, the shattered families? What of the traumatized children cast emotionally adrift, destined as adults to act out the anguish of this disloyalty? One careless act of unfaithfulness leaves in its wake decades of pain and destruction and often generations of brokenness. And – to be sure – this evil was multiplied thousands of times over on the same day the levees broke in Louisiana. I saw no outcry, though, no moral indignation in the local papers or national news because God permitted this evil. Why not? Because we don’t complain when evil makes us feel better, only when it makes us feel bad. If the truth were known, we do not judge disasters based on unprejudiced moral assessment, but rather on what is painful, awkward, or inconvenient to us. We don’t ask, “Where is God?” when another’s pain brings us profit instead of loss. We don’t want God sniffing around the dark recesses of our own evil conduct. Instead, we fight intervention. We don’t really want Him stopping us from hurting others. We only cry “foul” when He doesn’t stop others from hurting us. The problem of evil is much bigger than hundreds of drowned people or thousands of homeless. It includes all the ordinary corruptions that please us, the hundreds of small vices you and I approve of every day. It entails not only what offends us, but what offends God. The answer to the question “Why doesn’t God stop the evil?” is the same answer to the question, “Why doesn’t God stop me every time I do wrong?” There is a virtuous quality to human moral choice that both dignifies us and makes serious evil possible. The rules God applies to a serial killer are the same rules He applies to you. If you want God to clean up evil, He might just say, “Okay, let’s start with you.” If you want Him to stop murderers, then you have to be just as willing to let Him stop you every time you do what is evil by His standards. And that covers a lot of ground. Most people won’t sit still for that. Sometimes the consequences of our evil actions are longlived. It’s hard to know how much has been spoiled by man’s initial rebellion. However, the prophecy that Adam would now encounter thorns and thistles is suggestive (Genesis 3:18). Ever since man has ventured forth from Eden, the world has been a dangerous place. All the forces of nature are wonderful things in their right place, but ominous foes in a world twisted by sin. WHAT SHOULD GOD DO? When people ask “Where was God?” I ask “What precisely do you expect God to do? If you were in His place, what would you do?” If you would use your power to stop evil, would you punish it or prevent it? Either choice presents you with problems. One reason God doesn’t wipe out all evil immediately is that the alternative would be worse for us. This becomes evident by asking a simple question: If God heard your prayer to eliminate evil and destroyed it all at midnight tonight, where would you be at 12:01? The discomfiting reality is that evil deeds can never be isolated from the evil doer. Our prints are on the smoking gun. Each one of us is guilty in some capacity, and we know it. That’s the problem. While reading on the Littleton shooting several years ago, I stumbled upon a refreshing bit of honesty and moral clarity by John Hewitt in a piece entitled “Seeking to Make Sense Where There Is None.” Hewitt wrote: "We would rather think of bad acts as the unfortunate consequences of discoverable and remedial social and personal conditions. Yet it is precisely the account we do not wish to believe that may best capture what happened in Littleton. The two dead members of the “Trenchcoat Mafia,” together with their fellows, may simply have chosen evil in circumstances where others choose to play football or to crave membership in the National Honor Society."4 [emphasis added] Any judicial action God would take today would pin us all under the gavel. When God wipes out evil, He’s going to do a complete job. C. S. Lewis soberly observed, “I wonder whether people who ask God to interfere openly and directly in our world quite realize what it will be like when He does....When the author walks on the stage the play is over.”5 No, God hasn’t banished evil from His kingdom – yet. The Bible describes a time when God will wipe away every tear and repair the effects of evil on the world. Men will no longer endure the ravages of wickedness or be victimized by bouts with nature. And no one will ever ask the question, “Where was God?” Until then, God has chosen a different strategy, a better plan, one that’s moral on a higher level. It’s a plan that ultimately deals with evil, but allows room for mercy as well. It’s called forgiveness. THE PATIENCE OF GOD God is waiting. Patience, not lack of goodness or lack of ability, stays God’s hand from writing the last chapter of human history. “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness,” Peter reminds us, “but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). God is patiently waiting for us to turn to Him. Suffering, tragedy, and profligate evil now function as warning signals. Like the ache of a limb out of joint, the pain of living in a broken world tells us that something is amiss. If God took away the pain, we’d never deal with the disease. And the disease will kill us, sooner or later. Why doesn’t God do something about evil? God has done something, the most profound thing imaginable. He has sent His Son to die for evil men. Because we are ultimately the source of evil, God would be entirely justified in punishing us. Yet He chose instead to exercise mercy. He took the punishment due you and I and poured it out on His Son, Jesus, so He could offer forgiveness to anyone who asks. God is not the author of evil. Neither is He incapable of responding nor unwilling to act. But His remedy for evil is not impulsive. He doesn’t obliterate us, the offenders, with one angry blow. Instead He waits. Bertrand Russell had nothing to say while kneeling at the bed of a dying child. He could have spoken of the patience and mercy of God. He ought to have mentioned the future perfection that awaits all who trust in Christ. He might have remembered that a redemptive God “causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). He should have considered the Gospel, the only source of hope for a broken world. But Russell could not. As an atheist he had surrendered those resources. We can do better. Our dilemma should not be why God allows evil. Instead, our wonder should be why He would pay such an incredible price to rescue us at all when we have rebelled so completely against Him. When this reality grabs our hearts, we will get down on our knees and ask forgiveness instead of criticizing God for not doing enough. Your partner for the truth, President, Stand to Reason 1 Rabbi Harold Kushner, When Bad Things Happen to Good People (New York: Schocken, 1981), 140, quoted in Norman Geisler and William Watkins, Worlds Apart (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1989), 203. 2 C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: Macmillan, 1952), 31. 3 “The Quarrel,” directed by Eli Cohen, released 1992. 4 John P. Hewitt, “Seeking to Make Sense Where There Is None,” Los Angeles Times, April 23, 1999, sec. B, 7. 5 Lewis, 66. Solid Ground © Gregory Koukl Stand to Reason 1438 East 33rd St. Signal Hill, CA 90755 1-800-2-REASON www.str.org [email protected] solid ground solid ground from Stand to Reason This letter may be reproduced or forwarded via e-mail without change and in its entirety for non-commercial purposes without prior permission from Stand to Reason. ©2005 Gregory Koukl

image from Lisa Congdon’s A Collection a Day For me, pregnancy was like a trip to the dark side of the moon. I had no idea where I was going. None of my friends were having babies, so I was the test pilot. Not many adventurers grow to the size of a small planet, but I was undaunted. For the first time in my life, being a woman made sense. My body was doing what it was made to do. Giddy with excitement, I figured that giving birth might be tough but lactation would be easy. I was half right. I labored for a long time before the doctor determined that my daughter was descending arm first. I felt a surge of pride. My infant was polite, reaching out to shake the doctor’s hand even while she was waiting in the birth canal. Unfortunately, this wasn’t a good time to reach out and touch someone. The doctor suggested a c-section and I readily agreed. I couldn’t very well walk around the rest of my life with my kid’s hand waving between my legs. How would I ever find a pair of jeans that had two legs and a sleeve? Heck, it’s tough to find normal jeans that fit. The c-section went smoothly, and my daughter tipped the scales at a surprising 10 pounds, one ounce. No wonder she got stuck. In all the excitement, she had a bit of water in her lungs, so she was taken to NICU to receive some antibiotics to ward off the possibility of contracting pneumonia. To be sure, childbirth was an adventure, but well worth the trip. I had a beautiful baby girl. I was exultant; I’d gotten through the hard part. Surely I didn’t need to “do” anything in order to nurse my baby. I had a massive mammaries, so I was armed and dangerous. I thought nursing would come naturally, kinda like getting my period. It seemed silly to talk to the hospital’s lactation specialist about something that seemed so intuitive. My presumption proved to be my downfall. It didn’t take long to realize that I was clueless about nursing. I kept hearing about “letdown,” but I had no idea if it was happening to me. I waddled down to the NICU and breastfed my daughter, but she was still hungry after she nursed. To complicate matters, I was discharged from the hospital before my daughter came home. I discovered that it’s difficult to nurse when your baby is ten miles away. In hindsight, I really could have used some expert advice. I was exhausted, inexperienced, and hardly producing any milk, but I couldn’t focus of solving those issues until I got my baby out of the hospital. I was overjoyed when she finally came home. I continued to nurse her, but it was like trying to squeeze water out of a rock, albeit a big floppy rock. Why hadn’t I talked to the hospital’s lactation nurse when I had the chance? Here I was, alone in the house with a hungry baby, clueless about how to get my own body to do what it was supposed to do. In desperation, I called an acquaintance who was a new mother. With great embarrassment, I asked if I could talk to her about breastfeeding. She cheerfully answered all my questions. In fact, she was the first one who really explained what letdown felt like (similar to when your leg or arm falls asleep – except you feel it in your chest). She encouraged me to nurse, pump like crazy, drink lots of water, rest, and eat. At this point, 2 weeks had passed since the c-section. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get my milk in, but it was worth a try. I rented an electric breast pump and started pumping. I was a woman on a mission. I barely managed to pump an ounce of milk at a time, but I kept at it. I ate healthy food and drank water. I napped when my daughter napped. Finally, one quiet afternoon, I put my baby to my breast. Pretty soon, it felt like my chest had fallen asleep and then suddenly my baby was gulping down loads of milk! I could even see some milk leak out of the corner of her mouth. Houston, we have letdown! How gratifying to finally succeed, after weeks of uncertainty and failure. It was a watershed moment. I realized that I had entered the sisterhood of mothers, where even the most embarrassing bodily functions are talked about openly and with humor; where women help women BE women. Welcome to the sisterhood, my friends. From Lynn Wilson of For Love of Funny. Note from Design Mom: throughout my pregnancy, I’ve been posting advice, memories and stories about pregnancy, childbirth, adoption and growing a family on Wednesdays. I just had my baby and am taking a blogging break for a week or so. I’ve received so many wonderful stories and thought it would be great to post as many as I can during this little “maternity leave.” You can find all the stories in this series by clicking here.

WORLD RECORDS: Kimbah Pengelly set a new benchmark in powerlifting at the national championships in Brisbane. She is pictured above with coach Ron Birch. Doug Eaton THE smell of chalk dust and the clanging of weights is music to the senses of powerlifter, snake lover, and upstanding solicitor Kimbah Pengelly. Ms Pengelly set two new world records at the national powerlifting championships in Brisbane last weekend, dead lifting 120kg and qualifying for the world championships in November. It was an impressive effort for a woman in her 50s who took up heavy weights again just two years ago - after an eight-year break. She stopped training with coach Ron Birch in 2005 when five months pregnant with her daughter. A career change into practising law followed. "I had to adjust to being a mother for two years, then I was studying for two years, and then did general fitness for two years," she said. "My life got exceptionally busy. "Powerlifting is not something you just pick up with no training - I needed to condition myself again after having a break." Now a Lismore solicitor - also closely involved with several community groups, including being chair of the WIRES wildlife rescue organisation - she's back with a vengeance. "Kimbah was always a very keen student of the sport," coach Ron Birch said. "I was happy to spend time with her to get her ready again. "It's a pretty big effort to come back like that after everything she's done." Mr Birch himself set four world records in his class and is also off to the world championships alongside three of their fellow teammates. One secret to their success is Ron's "power gym", in a backyard shed in Wollongbar, where heavy metal is the soundtrack of choice. "What we do is a bit noisy and messy - there's chalk flying everywhere, and bars clanging about," Mr Birch said. "We can do what we want here. "For anyone just walking in, it can be a bit intimidating." Ms Pengelly said Mr Birch motivated her to "lift and improve". "He is really an inspiration to everyone who trains there - he's a legend," she said. And there's no plan to retire. "I've got decades of lifting left in me," she declared. "I love the fact I can push myself to my limits, it helps me with all other areas of my life. "If I'm struggling with other areas (of my life), I just have to think about what I'm capable of doing physically," she said.

ARIES (March 21April 19): Here you come, dragging your exhausted but redeemed ass out of the deep, dark forest of symbols. The red-eyed monkey demons fall off your back as you straggle toward the light. Your sunken eyes see wonders they were blind to before your ordeal. Your heart rages with a wild angelic love you've never tapped into before. And as you realize the magnitude of your tough miracle, you feel glimmers of gratitude for the rude tests you had to endure. Maybe you should get totally lost in limbo more often. TAURUS (April 20May 20): On the Internet's Leonard Cohen Forum, Lizzy says she once thought that making "a joyful noise unto the Lord" was the highest expression of spiritual praise. Now she feels that whispering one's appreciation for the majesty of creation is just as valid. Diane, going a step further, suggests that even silence can be a powerful form of homagemaybe even more so than raucous celebration. My opinion? I think Diane might be right when it comes to plants and animals, with which you can achieve easy telepathic communion. But when dealing with the divine works of art known as human beings, the best way to express praise is loud and clear. Your assignment in the coming week is to do that for everyone you care about. More than ever before, you need to dispense vociferous approval and articulate adoration. GEMINI (May 21June 20): "Lord, grant that I may always desire more than I can accomplish," prayed Michelangelo. He exulted in the feeling of having too much to express. He thrived on the stimulus of his delicious frustration; he used the inspiring sting of his nagging inadequacy as a fuel for his boundless creativity. Are you willing to experiment with this approach, Gemini? Do you have the nerve to love what's imperfect about your life? Are you brave enough to laugh at the probability that your yearning will never be completely fulfilled? CANCER (June 21July 22): What were those square LED devices that suddenly appeared at random outdoor locations around nine American urban areas in January? They turned out to be the main ingredients of a silly promotional campaign for the TV show Aqua Teen Hunger Force. The citizens of New York, L. A., Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Austin, San Francisco, and Philadelphia took the prank in stride, but Boston officials saw it as a terrorist threat. Is it any coincidence that this horoscope column, "Free Will Astrology," has long appeared in newspapers published in all the above cities except Boston? I think not. It's evidence that the advice contained herein raises intelligence levels and helps users know the difference between real and imagined threats. So maybe you'll believe me when I tell you, Cancerian, that the only threat you face right now is from the part of you that thinks a certain imagined threat is real. LEO (July 23Aug. 22): Here are the blessings I wish for you in the coming week: (1) not a sudden evacuation from a pitch-dark tunnel into a blinding light, but rather a gradual transition from the frigid blackness to cool grayness to warm brightness; (2) not an eruption out of a claustrophobic squeeze into the middle of nowhere, but rather a natural evolution from an interesting limitation to an expansive possibility; (3) not a stressful rocket launch from the bottomless abyss to a scary peak, but rather an exhilarating joyride from the lower depths to the ringing heights. VIRGO (Aug. 23Sept. 22): High-level financial officials from the U.S. government recently visited their Chinese counterparts, scolding them for having a booming economy and strong currency that's threatening the American economy. Here's what Alan Abelson wrote in Barron's about the meeting: "There's something hilarious about the world's biggest debtor, whose currency is sagging, lecturing a country that runs a humongous trade surplus and boasts a cool trillion in foreign reserves." You may soon get metaphorically similar pressure, Virgo. People with a fraction of your savvy and resources may try to manipulate you into serving their aims. Politely ignore their pressure. This is a time when you should be enjoying your hard-earned goodies with pure relish, not worrying about them or defending them or trying to adjust them to fit anyone else's specifications. LIBRA (Sept. 23Oct. 22): Activists in the Pacific Northwest have sometimes resorted to extreme measures in their efforts to end the clear-cutting of old-growth forests. Among the most creative has been a woman named Dona Nieto, also known as "La Tigresa." She has on occasion planted herself half-naked in front of marauding lumberjacks bearing chainsaws and bulldozers, stopping them in their tracks with the sight of her bare breasts and regaling them with her "goddess-based, nude Buddhist guerrilla poetry." She's your role model, Libra. Let her inspire you to be original, experimental, and funny as you fight for a righteous cause that rouses your zealous idealism. It could be political in nature, as in La Tigresa's case, or it could be personal, as in lobbying a loved one for more focus and intensity. SCORPIO (Oct. 23Nov. 21): You've entered an Oscar Wildetype phase. I urge you to get a sense of how the British author's paradoxical brilliance worked so you can put yourself in a similar frame of mind. Study the following Wilde-isms. (1) "I can believe anything provided it is incredible." (2) "Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative." (3) "If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh; otherwise they'll kill you." (4) "Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess." (5) "Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much." (6) "Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul." SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22Dec. 21): Sagittarian philosopher Jonathan Zap reports that the typical adult has a mood change once every 90 minutes. According to my reading of the omens, you've been below that average for the past few weeks, lumbering along at only a few emotional shifts per day. But that will soon be history, as your hormones conspire with cosmic rhythms to send you spiraling upward to the levels usually experienced only by people in the 1318 age range: one mutation every 20 minutes or so. Don't worry. It won't last forever. And it could even be great fun if you love, respect, and celebrate your inner teenager. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22Jan. 19): "It's more fun to be the painter than the paint," mused actor George Clooney in Esquire magazine. Usually I agree. I much prefer to be a creator who shapes raw material into a beautiful artifact than the raw material itself. But for the next couple of weeks, Capricorn, I'm recommending the opposite tack for you. I think you'll have more fun being the paint than the painter. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20Feb. 18): It's not completely dumb to sell your soul to the highest bidder for a while. And it's an all-right time to entertain iffy prospects for increasing your cash flow or to work hard to make your boss rich (as long as you get a percentage). But just because it's an OK time to do these things doesn't mean you should do them. Consider this: It's an even more favorable time for you to temporarily rent your good ideas to the highest bidder, to strike a deal with proven powerhouses that you know can increase your earnings, and to work your ass off on behalf of your own dreams. PISCES (Feb. 19March 20): "The fastest way to succeed is to look as if you're playing by other people's rules," says novelist Michael Korda, "while quietly playing by your own." That strategy works for many of the happiest people I know. It ain't easy, though. You've got to figure out how to be honest and genuine even though you're constantly performing; you've got to make your life a work of art that continually allows you to reinvent your innocent enjoyment of the game you're playing. You Pisceans are probably better suited for this cagey approach than any other sign. And it's currently a favorable time to get the hang of pulling it off. Get the This Week's Top Stories Newsletter Every week we collect the latest news, music and arts stories — along with film and food reviews and the best things to do this week — so that you'll never miss Village Voice's biggest stories.

Normally, a new season of Survivor wouldn't merit any attention at all. But this season is different. This season, former Portland Trail Blazer Cliff Robinson is on the island. We've tapped Joe Swide, of the Portland Roundball Society—a blog known for recapping Trail Blazers games with lots of references to dragons, which of course makes it one of our 26 reasons to love Portland—to cover Uncle Cliffy's exploits. This is my final transmission. Cliff Robinson has been voted off Survivor. There is no justice in this world. Love is a hollow myth, the Dr. Pepper cap of life promising, "1-in-5 are winners!" to keep you coming back to buy more Dr. Pepper, when it knows that you'll never win anything. You'll only be left with a lot of empty Dr. Pepper caps to hold your tears. Jeff Probst stands before us, wearing a teal shirt with more features than any network reality television host would seem to require of a shirt. Before describing today's reward/food challenge, he tells the gathered tribes, "Drop your buffs." "Buff," of course, is the name given to the multipurpose Survivor-branded bandana/headband/tube-top worn by each contestant (Cliff always wears his as a headband, replicating the look he favored throughout his NBA career) and colored to denote tribe membership. Go watch Colors, the movie with Sean Penn and Robert Duvall; it's all in there. By dropping those buffs, the old tribal designations of "Brawn," "Brain" and "Beauty" are no more, freeing the contestants from the constrains of those superficial labels and allowing them to finally celebrate the full breadth of their individuality. Jeff Probst, Breaker of Chains and Fertilizer for the Human Spirit, instructs the contestants to blindly select new Buffs to reform into two tribes, and everyone on Cliff's former tribe stays on the same new tribe, except for Sarah, the Cliff-hating cop. Cliff, what do you think about three tribes becoming two tribes? Cliff speaks: "Well, it definitely shifts people's thought process…if they're going to continue to try to work those alliances or create new ones." Both Probst and his teal utility shirt appear contented with that answer. In the reward challenge, Cliff proves far more difficult to pry off a pole and drag across about 30 feet of sand against his will than a woman on the other tribe, and therefore Cliff's tribe wins a spread of donuts and cookies and Danishes and other treats that looks exactly like the generic array outside any sales seminar at any reasonably-priced airport hotel in America. Cliff's tribe snatch up the food and carry it off into the jungle with ravenous glee, like hyenas carrying off bloody hunks of zebra. The other tribe looks on with visible anguish, disgusted with the excesses of the wealthy, nearly to the point of violent revolution. What broken souls, all of them. After arriving back at camp and devouring their prize, the former members of Cliff's Brawn Tribe welcome their two new additions from the former Beauty Tribe, Jefra and LJ, who each look to be the latest products of Abercrombie and Fitch's ongoing eugenics program. LJ is from Massachusetts, which quickly bonds him with the Trish the Pilates Villain, who is also from Massachusetts. Trish seems to believe their Massachusetts bond will give her a shot at seducing LJ, even though that evidently has not worked with the other three million or so men who live in Massachusetts, and so, naturally, the conversation turns to twerking. LJ says, "I'd like to see Trish twerk." Cut to Cliff making a face analogous to yours if you overheard your parents talking about a life-changing experience they had in a back room at Palladium in New York City with the drummer from Judas Priest during the 1979 Hell Bent for Leather Tour. Cliff and Woo sit on the beach as the sun begins to acquaint itself with the horizon, the small waves lap softly against the sand, and the campfire crackles behind them, sending wisps of smoke over their shoulders and out to sea. Perhaps overcome by the idyllic setting, Woo reminisces on the earlier buff selection that kept his dear friend Cliff in the same tribe, "When I saw purple-purple, I was like, 'Brooooooooo—c'mon.'" Cliff cuts the emotion of the moment with a crack about being disappointed when he saw Trish was still on his tribe, then says in a narration that he's unsure about what's happening with Trish and LJ, and that "it's a must" for him to keep an eye on them. Oh Cliff, your gentle heart was never made for the spiritual brutality of this game. Trish and Jefra are walking around in the woods, getting firewood or whatever, and Jefra says to Trish, "I just get a shady feeling from Cliff." HEY JEFRA, YOU KNOW WHAT IS SHADY? YOUR LISTED OCCUPATION ON THE SURVIVOR WEBSITE IS "MISS TEEN KENTUCKY 2009" WHEN 2009 WAS FOUR YEARS AGO AND "MISS TEEN KENTUCKY" IS NOT A SALARIED POSITION, BUT PLEASE, PASS MORE JUDGEMENT ABOUT A MAN YOU MET YESTERDAY. The immunity challenge involves a battering ram and three walls and a lot of Jeff Probst shouting about the strength of wood and then at the end, the battering ram has to be fed through this sort of maze thing and Cliff's tribe loses a tight finish, sending them to the tribal council. Evil Tony, the cop from Jersey City who has spent the entire season thus far scheming and making up lies about Cliff to get him ostracized from the tribe, says it's LJ's time to go, which I guess should be encouraging for Cliff, if trust and honesty and integrity were to exist in this world, and man oh man am I souring on this show and the human race in general. Before the council, the tribe members all split off into their weird sub-groups to talk about whose life they plan to ruin. Cliff calls out the Massachusetts pair, saying, "If you get your feelings caught up in this game, that's when foolish things happen." Tell me about it, Cliff. Tell me about it. Woo tries to help out his buddy by telling his tribemates that LJ is expendable because Woo is as good as LJ on land and 10 times better in water, which I think might be a Water World reference, but I'm buried too deep in sadness to look it up. Back in her woodland lair with LJ, Trish echoes Jefra's shadiness sentiment about Cliff, then says to him, "Listen, we're from fuckin' Boston." I have no idea what that means—I'm from Portland and if I said "Listen, we're from fuckin' Portland" to someone, it would probably be related to Rasheed Wallace or sandwiches—but the horrifyingly wild look in her eye as she cocks her head back after saying it leads me to believe that she's probably talking less about Rasheed Wallace and more about the taste of human flesh. Trish tells the camera how LJ is a gentleman and gets along with people and never gives up and has it all. Again, she met him roughly two days earlier. I hate this show so much. Please let me go, CBS. Please. Trish continues, "But Cliff, he doesn't do anything. And 14 days of his entitlement is about as much as my nervous system can handle. So we're putting Cliff's name down on that ballot. And the best part about the whole thing is Cliff doesn't have one single clue. And it's really cracking me up." [Cackling.] [Really, she's cackling here. I have nothing left.] More talk about Cliff doing nothing, this time with Trish talking to Tony, whose own psychosis now pales in comparison to that of Trish, as he wonders to the camera, "I don't know if she's bipolar, schizo—I don't know what she is." I could probably take a few guesses. Which one did that girl have in The Exorcist? The last scene before tribal council is of Cliff talking to Tony about the need for tribe stability in the context of the demonic Trish, and in the middle of their conversation, the camera inexplicably zooms in on Tony running his finger over the blade of his hatchet as if he's about to just plunge it deep into Cliff's chest. Somehow, that doesn't happen. At the tribal council, Cliff subtweets Trish, I wonder if the rain is fake, Jefra votes for Cliff and says, "Cliff, you can't call the shots forever," but apparently you can be Miss Teen Kentucky forever, Trish draws a smiley face on her ballot for Cliff, and Cliff is voted off the island, granting us all a well-deserved escape from Jeff Probst, the monsters that lurk inside the pockets of his shirts, and this cesspool of humanity. Thankfully, no one gives Cliff the Jordan shrug on the way out. Cliff's last words: "When you think things are going the way you expect them to goâboom. You get blindsided.â [if gte mso 9]>

One of the highlights of my January was the arrival of a thick package in the post; opened, it contained my very own copy of I Married Adventure by Osa Johnson. Many things are pleasing about this book: as well as the fabulous title, there's the fabulous zebra print cover. Lady Traveller's Little Sister pointed out that (what with the somewhat distressed condition of the cover) it looked like some poor old zebra had been skinned expressly for the purpose (fear not, it's actually cloth). (Interestingly, according to this blog, the book is highly in demand by stylists who prize the aesthetic appeal of the zebra stripes.) (Zebra stripes were a bit of a theme with Osa.) But even better than the cover are the contents. Osa was just 16 when she met Martin Johnson; she had never been outside Kansas. He, though also from Kansas, had recently returned from a trip with the adventure writer Jack London (he won his place on London's ship The Snark by winning a letter-writing competition. Kids - pay attention!) Martin had been a keen photographer from an early age and later pioneered documentary film-making. The Johnsons spent their honeymoon in the Solomon Islands. For exercise they lugged super-heavy camera equipment uphill and ran downhill, pursued by angry natives. Martin's ambition was to film a cannibal feast; eventually they did but only narrowly escaped being served up as dessert. You'd think that would put any new bride off adventure for good, but not our Osa (little Osa, as she's often described.) After the Solomons, they spent chunks of time in Borneo and East Africa and became famous filmmakers. What I love about Osa is that she determines to be an active participant, rather than just tagging along behind Martin. Yes, she does worship her husband with a fervour that gets kind of old (or maybe he really was that wonderful?) but she's not just a passive tagger-alonger. She works - hard - to put her own stamp on their adventures. And yes, a lot of that involves creating comfortable homes for them en route - but this is no small feat of organisation, since their homes ranged from grass huts to little boats to mud cabins. She was also handy with a gun, made friends wherever they went and learned to fly (they had two planes, Osa's Ark and Spirit of Africa, both - wait for it - in animal print, one with zebra stripes, the other with giraffe spots.) I previously quoted her Christmas menu from Lake Paradise (their home in a remote part of Kenya) but now I'd like to give you Osa's thoughts relative to Lady Travellers: A woman that's too soft and sweet is like tapioca pudding - fine for them as likes it.And finally, here's a great movie clip from the 1930s that gives the Story So Far of the Johnsons: I'd marry Adventure in a heartbeat if it gave me a zebra-striped plane.

Born and raised in Stockholm, Sweden. Worked with Customer Support in the IT / Media Entertainment industry, of which I learned loads about peoples many differents behaviors – which is something I’ve found very valuable as an actor. Decided to act on my real love n’ passion and moved to Los Angeles to pursue my acting goals. Graduated an A- student at the New York Film Academy Francisco Marcano was born in La Habana, Cuba. He trained in kick-boxing and other mix martial arts in South America where he grow up ,also act and model. He moved to the USA at the age of 23 years old to work and study, getting his first role in the USA at the age of 27 in Los Angeles for a pilot call Luck for HBO network. YHVH Talent Management. #Actor #film #NewTalent Starring: Diana DiCostanzo, Sean O’Connor, Matthew Dean Wood, Stacey Lightman and Taylor Henkin The play will run October 26-28 at the Jewel Box Theatre (312 West 36th Street.) WARMTH balances out a lot of heart and modern comedic dialogue with the heartbreaking memories of one old woman’s past as one young woman tries to fix the future and, along with her friends, figure-out their identities and where they stand. – July 6, 2015 – LOS ANGELES — After a successful supporting role in the film Paul Blart Mall Cop 2 as “Ramos”, the actor Geovanni Gopradi continues with his support as an Ambassador for The Special Olympics World Games. On July 7th, 2015 the offical partner of The World Games, Toyota and in collaboration with the Mural Conservacy of Los Angeles, will unveil iconic murals to commemorate The Special Olympics World Games. Geovanni Gopradi will be attending this special event and bring awarenes to the importance of supporting the Special Olympics. The event will be held at the Los Angeles Memorial Colliseum, and the murals of Kent Twitchell, David Flores and Cryptic will be presented to local Special Olympics executives, athletes, coaches and guests. Geovanni Gopradi is an American film and television actor. He became known for his role of “Ramos” in Paul Blart Mall Cop 2. He appeared in independent films such as Lost Everything, Jarring , The Southside and television series like True Blood, Major Crimes and The Bold and the Beautiful as well as numerous national commercials.

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 Monday, December 29, 2008 Saturday, December 27, 2008 "You'll meet an intelligent, mature boy..." Mature boy...oxy moron? "Excuse me, a mature young MAN..." I could be dating a crack-head straight outta Compton, as long as he was mature. "...who will respect you for the bright young woman that you are, and you will think you're in love." Love. What a sweet thing to expect from college. Of course I notice the "think" before the "you're in love." Parents always believe their child is too young for many things, no matter HOW old they are, whether it be grasping the concept of adultery, driving in storms and pre-storms, dodge ball, and yes, even love. (I'm sure their parents do it to them, too, just in different, more adult ways, like..."You're too young to be in debt!" or "You're too young to be tired of sex!" or "You're too young to be wearing that mu-mu!") "And you will want to have sex with this young man." WHOA-HO! Taking an unexpected turn HERE! "And you should. Because sex is healthy." So what I'm getting from this is that college leads to...healthy sex? "You might do other things, too, like give blow-jobs..." WHAT!? NO! I'm naive! I'm sheltered! The birds and the what? I don't even know! Because I'm naive! And sheltered! And please, tell me more! In case you were curious, I'm not one of "those" who is awkward around their parents when talking about things like sex (probably because I'm still innocent. Maybe I should wait 'till I'm not and see how "comfortable" I feel then.) I don't know what Guide to Parenting MY parents read but it must have included a chapter on, "How To Tell Your Child Specific Details About Your Sex Life." And thank god it did! Look, you may think I'm just another little horndog, but there is LOGIC to this method, people. Look at the sluts and man-sluts of the world, and ask them if their parents were ever open to them about sex. NO, THEY WEREN'T. That's why they had to go out and do it all the time! Because they were curious. To them, sex was alien; sex was a mystery; to me, I feel as if I already know sex tips A to Z and a half, so why rush it? I know the procedure, the drill, the uh-uh-uh. Of course you can't get advice from just a couple people about something as grand as COLLEGE. So I asked my sister. "You have to be the most beautiful or you will never be happy." How utterly depressing. But then again, she's only four. NOT that four-year-olds are depressing. They're great. I love them. Maybe I just shouldn't have gone to her for College Tips. Naming Your Turds Tips, yes, but not college tips. My other sister says... "You're taking me with you." "This is college, not the Mayflower."(Thought I'd throw in a little historical allusion there. Hope you enjoyed it. It won't happen often.) "You're taking me with you." And she leaves. Hmmm. Interesting. Oh, wait, she's coming back now--- "Seriously. You're taking me with you." And she's gone. Again. Hmmm. Interesting. From what I've personally gathered about college expectations, girls seem to be mainly concerned with "The Freshmen 15," which could potentially lead to what my mother refers to as, "Cottage Cheese Thighs," and NO, that's NOT a chicken dish. Fellas on the other hand...who even knows, man. Hot chicks, probably. (No, that's not a chicken dish, either.) But before I start loading up on Ramen and waiting for Prince Mature to arrive, I've got to get into the bloody thing. (College, that is.) Apparently I'm supposed to FIND one, then fill out STUFF, then write SOMETHING. God why can't things just be SIMPLE. What is there even for me to write about? A life-changing moment? (Puberty?) A painful experience that I overcame? (Chicken pox?) Who my hero is? (Doc Brown?) I have this feeling that writing about my first lovely lady lumps and the Flux Capacitor will NOT get me into college. I remember the first time I was told what college is... "It's the only school that you get to choose...ALL...BY...YOUR...SELF." I also remember the state of awe I was in. That was back in the day when school was cool. (HOLD THE PHONE. SCHOOL IS STILL COOL.) (Just not as cool as it used to be, when we colored all day and had a different boyfriend every week without him even knowing.) And now I'm actually here. Preparing. Anticipating. Drooling. (it happens. and it happens to you, too.) And in a complete state of oblivion, for I have NO idea what to expect. (Besides man-boys and weight gain. LET'S HIGH-FIVE TO THAT ONE!) In the meantime, I plan to live it up. Last year of high school, man, have a blast! (A SAFE blast, of course.) Do it ALL! (All the LEGAL things, of course.) Because college will be here before I know it. Mature man-boys and pothead-professors, here I come! Tuesday, December 23, 2008 "Natasha! Your article is so funny we had to put it on the front page along with you picture and mini-bio!" "Natasha! Your article is so funny we decided to ditch the whole "school newspaper" idea and go with...NATASHA NEWS, featuring things only written by you!" "Natasha! Your article is so funny we decided that you don't even need to graduate from this hell hole! Get outta town with this ticket to California and make millions writing with people like Lorne Michaels and Larry David!" "Natasha! Your article is so funny I want you to marry me right now and make millions of babies with me! I can't live without your charming wit, your dazzling sense of humor, or your bodaciously smokin' bod." -Hugh Jackman, who would indeed appear at my school with a bouquet of roses after hearing about my debut article These were realistic scenarios, were they not? People like my blog, people think I'm funny, Jackman would agree to walking around my house naked from noon till six free of charge. I mean, right? Not only did I know how people would react to my article, I knew that I would write something new and fresh for my fellow peers. That's right, no material taken from my blog. Something no one had ever seen BEFORE. I SACRIFICED here, people. I went out ON A LIMB here, people. And that just made it even better, because after e-mailing (we haven't quite gotten to texting our articles, yet. one day, I'm sure.) my article to the "Senior Editor," who told me it was hilarious, (ego boost), who told me it was great for the newspaper (moral boost), who told me it made her crack up (confidence boost), had the nerve to maliciously twist my article into something that was not only new and fresh to my peers, but new and fresh to ME. (you better run, bitch boost) So what do I get? What do I see when the newspaper FINALLY comes out after MONTHS of "editing" and "formatting" and "procrastinating?" I get a fireman jumping out of a birthday cake dancing to "Macho Man" and getting all up in your mom's grill as well as other places, which instead of horrifying her seems to be delighting her and you sit there not knowing if you should call the cops or just go ahead and hire a stripper-cop to make it even. I get a surprise. A BAD SURPRISE. "I have copies of the newspaper on my desk for those of you who would like a copy." Now in my fantasy, upon hearing these words, everyone would leap from their seats and stampede over to the newspapers, punching each other out of the way screaming things like, "But I've been waiting for this day!" and "I thought this day would never come!" and "What a day, what a glorious day!" and other things with the word 'day' in them that are positive. "I guess I'll get one." The one student who got up and got one couldn't even admit that they really wanted a copy. That one student was me. As I sit reading the paper, not really reading it but just pretending to while really looking up to see if anyone is going to get a paper, I try to devise ways to persuade others to get one. I could A) laugh really loud and obnoxiously at an article on the the same page as mine... B) continue to gasp over and over while muttering common phrases of surprise GASP! I just can't believe it...GASP! Who would have thought...GASP! This can't be real...GASP!...GASP!...GASP! or C) act like it sucks. Teenagers tend to be cynical little bastards, if you didn't already know. "Who writes for this piece of shit, man? I could have shit these articles out my ass, dude! My grandma's farts are more interesting than this!" Yeah. That would probably get their attention. Especially the word "fart." That's a shoe-in. But thank da lawd I didn't do any of these things, for it was at about that time that I actually had the nerve to turn to my own article. (That one was real.) They had changed my article completely. Not only had they taken out words, they had taken out entire PARAGRAPHS. They had taken out various allusions. What's wrong with saying "Straight outta Compton?" What's wrong with saying, "sexy leg?" What's wrong with saying, "pothead professor?" (which they had changed to "crazy professor," as if 'crazy' is a synonym for 'pothead.' As if pot makes people 'crazy.' Just goes to show the naive sheltered dimwits that edit the newspaper. (aka GEEKS) (aka NERDS) (aka NUMBNUTS) My article had been turned into an appropriate for school-fair to all-non stereotypical-PG-piece of SHIT, and I was furious. Many thoughts came into my head to fix the problem, such as... A) impregnate the senior editor (not by ME you fool) B) shoot the senior editor up with heroin C) shove the school newspaper up the senior editor's ass and give her ink poisoning D) other cruel and unusual punishments involving the senior editor that have to do with things nerds, geeks, and numbnuts are against (sex. drugs. shoving things up peoples asses against their will) But until then, I guess I have to grin and bear it. All I know is I am NEVER writing for the school newspaper again, vengeance IS sweet, and if I wasn't too busy blogging I would actually have time to think OF a sweet revenge. Any suggestions? Thursday, December 18, 2008 "Mrs. Quack, is it true that you used to be a nun?" "Why yes, I was a nun for several years." "And now you're an art teacher?" "So you're not a nun anymore." "Because you teach art." "And nuns don't do that." "Not in public schools, no." "So you don't wear that thing on your head anymore that covers your hair and stuff?" "No. I still have mine, of course, but I don't wear it anymore." Why the hell not. "So you lived in a covenant?" Shit that's what it's called right? "Was it nice there?" "So...you quit being a nun, though." Look. I think it's pretty obvious that I didn't give a shit whether or not she had spaghetti and meatballs (because that's some good food right there) at her covenant or not. I just had one burning question that was stuck in my throat. Not that it would ever escape. I now knew half of the rumor was true, but I needed to know the other half. "So why did you quit?" "Well...you know...it was just time and after some time you just need to find other things and I love God." Giving someone an answer to a question that was obviously pulled right out of your ass is a good sign that the other half WAS true. I didn't even need to ask. I just knew it must be the truth. MRS. QUACK DID THE HANKY PANKY WITH THE PRIEST. Mrs. Quack wasn't only a nun on the run, she was also my art teacher. It is because of my one year of art class that I have a biased opinion towards all nuns of the world. What is this biased opinion, you ask? All nuns are evil. "YOU ALL BELONG ON THE STREETS, THAT'S WHERE YOU BELONG YOU GOOD-FOR-NOTHING HOOLIGANS! YOU...YOU...WEIRDOS WITH YOUR WEIRDO ART!" This was only one of many of her ridiculous tyrants that sporadically occurred throughout the entire year. This would be a typical Tuesday in the art room of my high school. A typical Wednesday went like this: "I love you all like you are my own children. You are all beautiful souls that God cherishes and it is obvious that you all have the inner beam of light inside your souls that will take you to Heaven and remind you to rinse the brushes when you're done painting." And then the cycle would start all over again. And oh! WHATEVER YOU DO, DON'T EVER LAUGH. "Natasha, step outside with me right now." "What did I do?" "RIGHT NOW, YOUNG LADY." Door slams. I had just thoroughly enjoyed a good laugh with a few of my fellow classmates when this quacker asks me to step outside. She looks at me. I look back at her. She squints her eyes at me. I hold my breath. She ever-so-slightly turns her head to the left, maintaining the squint of hatred. I let out a soft giggle and immediately shut my mouth. She continues to look at me. It's starting to get very awkward. Should I say something? What should I say? Anything, anything!" She removes her index finger from the tip of her lips and opens her eyes very wide, only to squint them back down again. Wide...squint...wide...squint...oh...shit... "You are HIGH as a KITE." "You heard me." "Are you serious?" "AS A KITE." "You're serious as a kite?" "YOU ARE HIGH AS A KITE." "You mean...I'm high? Like. On drugs?" "Don't you toy with ME, Ms. Ferrier. I don't want any of your mind games." "I'm not high." "I'm not high!" "You cut that little innocent act right out or I'll have you sent straight to the office." "How about I go to the office and say you're accusing me of being on drugs FOR LAUGHING." "That wasn't a normal laugh and we both know it." "Well I'm SORRY my laugh isn't up to par." "It was an abnormal laugh." "Well I'm SORRY I have an abnormal laugh. I didn't realize we all laughed the SAME way." "It was the laugh of someone ON DRUGS, Ms. Ferrier." "Lots of people have laughs that sound like they're on drugs. Some people even spit chunks of food on people's faces when they laugh. Or flatulate. I can't help how I LAUGH, for God's sake." Did that on person to offend her. Man, I'm good. "Get out of here." "Get your stuff, and GET OUT." "Oh MY GOD, this is ridiculous." Had to get one more offensive 'God' phrase in there while I still could. I wanted to say it right then and there. I now wish I would have. If there would ever be a perfect time to say it, it would have been then. If only I can one day be the rebellious bad-ass motha fucka I so greatly aspire to be. If only I could have given that woman a taste of her own medicine. I'm high, am I? WELL AT LEAST I DIDN'T DO SOME HANKY PANKY WITH MY PRIEST, BITCH. Wednesday, December 3, 2008 Let’s pretend I am the mother of a teenage girl. I’ve given her the sex talk. (“They’re only after one thing, honey.”) I’ve tried my hardest to make sure she isn’t influenced by pop culture. (Now see, in real life, honey, Julia would never end up with Richard. She is a whore who will die on the streets, disrespected AND infected, with runs in her stockings.) I’ve warned boys her age of the dangers of dating my daughter. (“Whip it out one time, Buster, and I’ll be grading it like cheese by tomorrow.”) But it’s not enough. I can’t stop little Susie from “getting it on” or “hooking it up” or “mojoing it down,” or whatever phrases these kids are using these days. I was a teenager once, myself. I do remember what it was like before these married days of, “I worked all day I don’t have the energy fine let’s just do it then I guess.” So, after much pensive thought, I have come up with a solution to this crisis. My first solution, removing all genitals from adolescents ages 13 to 17, was soon deemed ridiculous when I realized that our human race would no longer be able to continue if this were to be done. Also, there would be no sufficient way to dispose of the genitalia of millions of boys and girls across the United States. Throwing it into the ocean would only lead to it later washing up onto the shore and who knows what diseases would spread then! Silly me. My second solution was also given the boot due to the fact that shipping all teenage boys off to Switzerland and keeping all teenage girls here in America would not necessarily prevent the spread of STD’s. It’s called adapting. But forget all of those preposterous half-baked schemes. It is I, Natasha Ferrier, mother of a teenage daughter, who has come up with the most brilliant solution to date, a solution that will indeed be embraced by millions around the nation. High school students attend school Monday through Friday. From what my daughter tells me, Fridays are spent watching “educational movies” and “talking about what we learned.” From what my daughter tells me, Fridays are a joke. However, with my newly found solution, Fridays will no longer be of no benefit to the student body. Every Friday, we shall congregate all students, male and female, to some sort of large room, such as an auditorium, or perhaps a cafeteria. They will be given precisely 6 hours, one hour deducted in order to make sure no one has brought condoms or any type of “protection,” and after those hours are up, they will go home happy. It is during these 6 hours that, as my own mother would phrase it, they can “have at it” with whomever is willing. This “doing it” with numerous people will occur every Friday. You may even call it a modern “orgy.” As time progresses, the statistic will without a doubt change to: 4 in every 4 American teenage girls has an STD. When my daughter goes out on a Saturday night wearing an exceptionally low-cut top, I won’t be biting my nails thinking, “Is little Susie going to get frisky?”, “Is little Susie going to be safe?”, “Is little Susie going to have a disease-infested meal tonight?” Instead, I will be sitting at home, reclining even, thinking, “I hope my little Susie gives that Johnny that gonorrhea she contracted last Friday. That’ll show him!” So you see, as long as everyone has an STD, no one will have to fear ever getting one. You can “shake your groove thang” with whomever you wish! As a wise man once said, “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” But as I say to the teenage girls of the world, “You can beat ‘em, and then you’ll join ‘em!”

Programs for Deeper Love & Creating Relationships that Last Just Released: Preaching to Monkeys A heart-warming true story of Otto's journey to healing his relationship with his father. This book offers men hope that they really can heal their relationship with their father or son without having to give up who they are to get their love. Programs For Communicating with Love and Ease Over 100 magic words, phrases and sentence-starters to make sure you say it right every time to your partner, spouse or lover. If you are looking for better ways to express what you’re feeling and thinking and want to learn how to interpret what your partner is saying more effectively, this will help. You’ll learn how to talk with your partner (or anyone) without fear in this new step by step guide for communicating, connecting and getting the love you want. When you apply this new information, you’ll feel more understood, loved and more connected than you ever thought possible. If communication is frustrating with your spouse or partner and you find yourself repeatedly arguing over the same issues,here are 500 tips and shortcuts to make communicating easier and more open so that you can finally feel loved, appreciated and understood. Here's how to confidently create communication that's open, honest, and emotionally connected...Anytime you want, with anyone you want...This unique program contains everything you need to know to say what you mean and be listened to so that you can have more ease, connection and love in your relationships. It's made up of 5 of our best communication programs plus 4 other audios that not only are discounted but also are in one place for you to easily and effortlessly change how you and others communicate. Programs For Overcoming Jealousy, Cheating and Rebuilding Trust Learn the secrets to stopping your jealous thoughts and behaviors that are keeping you from having the love you really want. Also get expert advice on how to handle the biggest jealousy issues that pop up in relationships like your partner’s wandering eyes, dealing with a jealousy meltdown, how to find out if your partner’s cheating or not, trusting again after infidelity, and much more. Click here for more information. If trust is an issue for you or your partner, here’s how to rebuild trust in your relationship or marriage, even after an affair or infidelity. This complete package of information has been carefully chosen to give you all the information and help you’re going to need to start turning trust around and rebuilding your relationship right away. Trust Triggers are actual things you can say and do that create more trust and connection. Use these audios and Action Guide either with Relationship Trust Turnaround or by themselves to help you move toward the love and trust you’ve always wanted. If you suspect your man might be lying to you or cheating on you but you just can't prove it yet--here's how to find out for sure Click here to find out more If you're a woman who's upset because your partner is looking at or paying too much attention to other women Or if you're a man who's partner is driving you crazy with constant accusations that you're looking at other women all the time (even if you're not)? Then, here's what you can you do right now to STOP it before it drives the two of you further apart and ruins your relationship or marriage... Click here. Being cheated on in your past relationships is terrible. Still being jealous is so damaging to your relationship. These recordings from Susie and Otto's teleseminar show you what do you do about your jealousy if you've been cheated on before. Whether you've been cheated on in the past--either by your current partner or by someone in a past relationship, this breakthrough information from Susie and Otto will change your life. Click here for more info Programs if You're Considering Whether to Stay or Leave Are you considering leaving a relationship? Should You Stay or Should You Go? is a book and audios filled with compelling questions and insights to help you make that difficult relationship decision. Programs for Women Through interviews with experts on various topics about aging and sexuality, this program shows you how you can join the thousands of 50, 60 and 70 something year old women who are enjoying much more love, passion, connection and red hot sex than women half their age. Programs for Men The only program of its kind that shows men the love, attention-getting and passion-creating techniques virtually guaranteed to make your woman happy and keep her happy. With the information you’ll learn in “Light Her Up,” your woman will feel so loved by you and so connected to you that she will want to make love with you 2, 3, 5 or 10 times as much as she does now. Click here for info. The breakthrough new program that shows you exactly how to communicate with your woman in ways that will make her feel totally and completely connected to you AND open her heart, mind and body to you in ways she never has. Click here for more info... Programs for More Spark, Passion and Intimacy Whether you’re 18, 80 or anywhere in between…here’s how you can discover the secrets to creating a relationship filled with as much love, passion, intimacy, connection and incredible lovemaking as you want! These 77 tips from Susie and Otto Collins will quickly and easily show you how to turn up the heat in your relationship both in (and out of) the bedroom. To start creating more love, passion in your relationship now click here. Transformative Relationship and Life Coaching Imagine how much quicker and easier you could move through your challenges that are keeping you from having the kind of relationship, marriage or life you really want if you worked with either Susie and Otto Collins as your coach. Susie and Otto offer in-person, Skype or telephone coaching for couples, one person in the relationship or singles. This means that no matter where you live, you can still work with Susie or Otto personally to get your relationship and challenges solved and your questions answered right away.” Click here for info.

It's really the 18th, but who cares? Last night I was in Alpharetta to play doubles at Wills Park and help Todd pack some orders and didn't get back to athens until 6:30 and didn't get to sleep until after 8. I don't deal with lack of sleep well, which is a shame, but I got about 5 hours and then woke up and checked my email and suchlike nonsense before making it out to the couch, throwing in Ghostbusters (see, some of us don't need six hundred damn channels) [Editor's note: I haven't the slightest problem in the world with littering my pages with so many inside jokes that you spend all your time wondering what the hell I'm talking about], and falling asleep for another 40 minutes. Then Grace knocked on my door [Ed: Grace -- Twice in two days!] and we headed to Taco Stand for an afternoon beer. You know, really, I messed up up there. The note to grace should be in parenthesis like the other inside joke [Ed: He flatters himself by calling that last one a joke]. Alas. So I stumbled across Theo Pozzy's posting on the PDGA message board about the new player ratings page he put up, which got me all excited. So I browsed and was pleased to see I made the jump from the 900's to the 940's and feel pretty sure that'll be in the 960's or '70's by the end of the year, and that was cool. Then I was surprised to see that Lenora's world class par is 50 or so (I would've guessed 47), but maybe it's a small sample size. Then I was surprised that Rosedale's and Waterworks' were so low. Interesting. So I headed off to bed, needing to get to sleep so I can wake up early enough to do some work tomorrow before I spend 2/3 of the day doing the Lenora league, but end up reading most of my discover magazine and a good chunk of Wired (which is an odd magazine, I despise all the glossiness and ads but think they have an awful lot of interesting, well written articles) and getting excited about my frisbee golf game again (which has been touched once since early December). All of which leads to me being awake and not really working. You know, the other day when I mentioned going to the Library with Grace to hear the storytelling I really didn't tell the best part. Well, sure, I didn't really tell anything at all, but there was this woman telling us about a woman who, in the late 1800's, quilted 2, uhmm, quilts. One's in the Smithsonian and the other is in, what, the Boston museum of fine arts (or some such). And she tells us some story about their making and sale and then shows us some slides, pictures of the quilts. There are zoomed in shots of each square and this wonderful lady gets SO EXCITED about it all, I really really enjoyed that. I love to see people passionate about things. Really, the main reason I bring it up now is that it looks like the aforementioned Theo Pozzy is excited, at the least, about disc golf and actually doing what he wants to do about it. So many things are really very easy to do and take the smallest amount of effort (which seems even less if you really want to do it [Ed: Doug never worries about tense or plurality shifts, why should you? You know what he's trying to say.]), it'd be nice if more people put in that effort. Leo Kottke's coming to Athens in the fall. Did I mention that? Oh yeah, my sister's graduating this coming Monday. Did I mention that? I hope she's more excited about it than I was about mine, I have this bad habit of underplaying big events in my life...

by Sarah BruniAn offbeat love story about the adventures and mutual rescue of a young woman out of place in her hometown and a mysterious stranger who calls himself Peter Parker (and begins to cast her in the role of Spider-Man’s first sweetheart), The Night Gwen Stacy Died is about first loss, first love, and finding our real identities."A dreamy world where comic book characters and psychic visions are as $9.99A woman must leave her island home to search for her missing sister-and confront the haunted history of her family. Magdalena does not panic when she learns that her younger sister has disappeared. A free-spirit, Jadranka has always been prone to mysterious absences. But when weeks pass with no word, Magdalena leaves the isolated Croatian island where their family has always lived and sets off to $7.99LONGLISTED FOR THE ORANGE PRIZENEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE"This book moved and provoked me in ways I can't fully articulate....Extraordinary."—Anna Paquin (True Blood)A seventeen-year-old girl pieces together the mystery of her mother's life and death among the bars and bedrooms of Los Angeles in this dazzling debut novel.A raucous, drug-fueled pa...

Gifts for the Special Lady in your Life Mother’s Day tends to sneak up on us every year, but have no fear that’s why I am here! Whether it’s your wife, the mother of your kids, or your mom, they do so much for us everyday, and instead of asking them what they want, I bet you they would love to be surprised! Move aside the cliche flowers, diamond necklaces, and cashmere blankets— because for once, it’s time to buy something she’ll actually use! The gift of coffee is a gift of pure love. Brewing coffee shouldn’t cause a headache; in fact, it should be as painless as possible! The mother in your life would love nothing more than to throw on a cozy sweatshirt, grab a bag of Black Rifle Coffee Company ground coffee, and brew a full pot to enjoy. After taking in a few deep breaths of that sweet coffee aroma, she can pour a cup full of freedom into her favorite enamel mug. I’ve created a curated list of eight items that will not only surprise the lady in your life, but allow her to drink some damn delicious coffee while looking pretty fly as well! Here’s what you’ll need! BRCC women’s T-shirts: A T-shirt and jeans are a staple in a women’s wardrobe, so getting her a soft shirt that’s fitted with a great BRCC logo will ensure she’ll love this gift! BRCC Mountain Logo Sticker: Our 6” x 4” stickers are weatherproof and also designed to perfection! Grab one of these as an extra something for her water bottle, coffee mug or bumper! BRCC Logo Trucker Hat: Hats are the best! We know how hard it is to find the perfect hat that your lady wants, but here it is. The mesh on the back allows for an easy fit and the snapback is perfect for fitting over a ponytail! BRCC women’s T-shirts:Our Coffee Saves t-shirt is a best seller for men and women! Buy one for her and one for yourself to be that cute couple that matches! BRCC Mountain Logo Sweatshirt: With summer right around the corner, our lightweight sweatshirts are a perfect garment for chilly nights to pair with jean shorts! Enamel Mug: Enamel mugs are the perfect gift. The enamel will insulate your coffee and keep it warm longer! Hazelnut Coffee Rounds: Our hazelnut coffee rounds are easy to brew and so delicious. She’ll love this gift and so will you— but remember the gift is for her so she gets dibs! Classic BRCC Logo Hat: The BRCC classic hats are perfect for the lady who likes a smaller logo and a more minimalist design. Easy to wear and easy to rock— she’ll love it and look stylish. Let’s brew a delicious pot of coffee! Grab your ground BRCC beans, fill your coffee pot with water, fill your filter with 1 tbsp of ground coffee per 3 tbsp of water, brew for 3-4 minutes until your carafe is full. Drink & enjoy! Check out more gift items on our site and remember, any gift that’s a surprise for the woman in your life is a gift she will love. Give from the heart, and remember: everyone loves a big cup of coffee! GET IT BY MOTHER’S DAY: ORDER BEFORE WEDNESDAY, MAY 9TH, TO SAVE 50% ON EXPEDITED SHIPPING WITHIN THE CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES. OFFER AUTOMATICALLY APPLIED AT CHECKOUT! Tag us in your pictures so we can see how you celebrate Mother’s Day & brew your BRCC coffee!

I feel compelled to write this article about loving oneself because recently I have been wrestling with individuals close to me about the need to look after themselves and not only support their extended families. The economic situation across the world has worsened in recent years and this has impacted adversely on people’s purchasing power. People are often more resilient than they are credited for but many of us feel the need to save our people. The particular friend that inspired this article has never taken a holiday, has not been to the dentist in over 5 years, needs to have his eyes examined and frankly he needs some new attire. He claims he cannot afford these things but he works tirelessly and spends no money on himself and apparently not on his wife and children either. Many individuals who were raised in developing countries are socialised to believe that they are investments of their families and their sole purpose is to return the favour of being born. While we do owe it to our parents to ensure that they are comfortable in their old age, that responsibility often extends to siblings and relatives who expect us to show eternal gratitude for any favours they would have done for us when we were young. They gloat on the misconception that we live in the land of milk and honey; we then nurture that idea and the perception seemingly becomes reality. The fact that life may be hard for those in the so called Third World does not mean that we have it easy in the West. With adulthood comes responsibility. There is an African proverb that states: You must judge a man by the work of his hands. How then shall we judge those who are able to work but don’t? We often have to juggle our commitments and share our time and other resources between our birth family and the family we chose to create in our adult life. We don’t always get it right. Loving oneself does not assume that you do not love others. There is enough love to go around but if we fail to get the balance right we can find ourselves on a stressful, slippery slope. Why is it so difficult for you to love yourself? The poor will always be with you (The Bible – Mark 14:7) and when you experience a moment of weakness, chances are they will still be poor and unable to offer you any meaningful support. Most of us would have experienced or witnessed situations where one individual constantly bends backwards to help another but the moment that help is not forthcoming the individual becomes the worst thing on earth. You may help someone 99 times but their short memory will only allow them to remember the one time that you could not oblige. How can you consistently support others at the expense of yourself and your family unit? It is difficult, if not impossible to climb with a load on your back. You cannot climb a bid of success with your hands tied up (African Proverb). It is more sensible to climb and position yourself in a better place and then help others to climb up. Everyone cannot climb up together; you will never get to the top if you are always carrying people. If you need all that company you’re better off going for a stroll and forgetting about your goal. The argument can be made – why the top? Is it not the journey that’s important? To that I answer, yes it is, but no one enjoys a long, arduous journey. Light your candle for others to see but once they can see they should be encouraged to light their own candles. Life is about giving and taking, not just giving! There will always be people who moan at life yet if you were to give them a solid start they would squander the opportunity and be back at the church door in no time. Some individuals can find work but they refuse to do so if it’s not a job they like. The French say: Un sou est un sou (a cent is a cent – money is money)! Chances are you not in your ideal job but you persevere. There is a Jamaican proverb that says big blanket makes a man sleep late. It means that those who have easy access to ‘luxury’ can afford to be lazy. Are you providing a big blanket? I must make an exception for people who are disabled, weak, ill or elderly. Many disabled people lead fulfilling productive lives and this must be encouraged. However, many societies fail to support and create opportunities for people with disability and this reduces their chances to reach their full potential. If your family includes individuals in these categories you have no choice but to help (always seeking to empower) them. My challenge is when able-bodied people, fully capable of working and contributing to their own survival, chose to depend on handouts. Such people are often very good at emotional blackmail, expert at painting a picture that will deny you of the ability to sleep. They bear tidings of the doom and gloom that is bound to happen if you do not put your hand into your pocket and save the world. I am not impressed by these people. I recall I gave my mother some money some time ago. She used the entire sum to purchase a single dress which she wore once. I could have bought three similar dresses with that amount of money and certainly I wouldn’t be wearing them only once. Why do we think that these people are poor? I can recall some male friends telling me that the wife of one of their very affluent friends was “a bitch”. I later understood why they felt that way – the woman was trying to secure her family’s future and the friends wanted her husband to sponsor their adventures because he apparently had money. His wife sensibly controlled the purse strings and for that reason she was hated. How do we know that their family wasn’t experiencing financial challenges considering their lifestyle and aspirations? Why do we assume that they are rich because on the surface it looks that way? Do we know what goes on behind closed doors? Chances are my friends were causing stress in that relationship because of their dependency attitudes. Why should this man pay for their drinking sessions and their holidays? Are they his children? People will tug at your heartstrings if they feel they can get away with it. If you were not there they would still survive. Providing handouts does not empower people unless it helps them to get into the boat and start fishing for themselves. There is a Spanish proverb: El que no trabaje, que no coma (no bees, no honey; no work no money). An eagle will feed its young for some time but after a while she will push the eaglet out of the nest and it must learn to fend for itself for its survival. This is tough love but we must do it if we are to end this cycle of dependency. There is no shortage of people who mistake your meekness for weakness and being overly “kind” does not earn you respect. Instead of providing handouts help people to find work or to explore their enterprise skills. If you get it right they might just be there to help you should the tables turn. Surely this is more desirable than nurturing the handout culture. Help the man climbing a hill, not the one standing below it (Finnish proverb). How is this principle of loving oneself applied to the workplace? Do you take on responsibilities that might be well or even better handled by others? Do you needlessly take home volumes of work? What do you have to prove? If you are building a business you may find yourself working long hours to achieve success. After all that hard work, do take some of the rewards for yourself. No one is interested in a partner, mother or father who spends no quality time with the family. If you are generally busy, time is something that you make, not something that you have. If you chose to have a family, you must make time for them. Is it tough to love yourself? Try tough love! You may be liberated by the experience.

Get acquainted with fashion's bright new stars to add to your closet ASAP. While growing up together in Copenhagen, Cathrine Saks and Barbara Potts quickly realized that the most important investment in a woman's wardrobe is a beautiful coat. Since founded their namesake brand in 2014, Saks Potts has become the fashion girl's go-to for statement outerwear. The brand has risen to popularity for its unique and unusual aesthetic, from tie-dye puffer jackets to their infamous, responsibly sourced fur-lined "Foxy" coat, which has been seen on the likes of Cardi B and Kendall Jenner. From brand maven Jessie Andrews, Jeu Illimité is keeping French girl style alive and well. Jeu Illimité, which means unlimited game, was launched earlier last year alongside Andrews' slew of other Insta-famous brands like Bagatiba and Basic Swim. The line offers a range of elevated basics for the effortless cool girl - graphic tees, knit tops, slip dresses, and more all under a $300 price range. Her latest release, the Cherie Mini Bag, has taken social media by storm and is definitely not the last item from the line we'll be lusting after in 2019. Egyptian-inspired label SemSem is a reflection of the life experiences of its founder and creative director Abeer Al Otaiba. Otaiba, who is the wife of Yousef Al Otaiba, the Emirati Ambassador to the United States, combines her Middle Eastern influence and degree in civil engineering to create glamorous yet functional, resort-ready designs that have been worn by Tiffany Haddish, Blake Lively, and Kourtney Kardashian. In 2018, SemSem announced Albino Riganello, formerly the head designer at Givenchy, the new head of design of the mother-daughter brand. Stevie Dance, famed stylist, fashion director of POP Magazine, and consultant to Virgil Abloh's Off-White, is now adding designer to her resume. Earlier this year she launched Feel Studio, also known as FEEL, a denim brand based out of Los Angeles. The brand aims to give all the best qualities of denim in their one style, the Genuine jean, which comes in a classic denim wash and black as well as two lengths. FEEL focuses on fit and comfort for all with an extensive fit guide and testimonials so that you're guaranteed to find the perfect pair. Korean-born, London-based designer Rejina Pyo made a splash in September 2017 with her first SS18 runway show as an advocate for diversity within the fashion industry, casting women of all races and ages. Since then, she's received a nomination at the 2018 British Fashion Awards for British Emerging Talent Womenswear Award and was also placed on WWD's 40 of Tomorrow list. Pyo designs with the modern woman in mind, creating feminine and classic collections at an affordable price point. Christopher John Rogers debuted his first collection at New York Fashion Week in September 2018 while also managing his full-time day job as an associate designer at Diane von Furstenberg. A graduate of Savannah College of Art and Design's fashion program, Rogers moved to New York City in 2016 and has been named a "designer to watch" by Vogue, WWD, and The New York Times. His eclectic designs have been seen on celebrities like SZA, Tracee Ellis Ross, and Tessa Thompson. Staud's Shirley bag was one of the most Instagrammed bags of 2018, so it's no surprise its founder Sarah Staudinger landed herself on Forbes' 2019 30 under 30 List for Art & Style. The Los Angeles-based designer and her co-founder George Augusto have built Staud to a $10 million business, selling timeless garments and unique bags like the Moreau, a leather bucket bag covered in netting. Fine jewelry brand Alison Lou, founded by Alison Chemla, made its name by creating fun, emoji-inspired jewelry. In the Spring of 2018, the New York-based brand launched LOUCITE, a collection of hoop earrings made of lucite in a wide variety of colors and sizes which debuted with Emily Ratajkowski as the face of the campaign, and was later seen on celebrities like Gigi Hadid, Selena Gomez, Saorise Ronan, and more. Amina Muaddi is a formidable force in the footwear industry. She's studied at the European Institute of Design in Milan, co-founded footwear brand Oscar Tiye, designed for Alexandre Vauthier footwear, and now launched her first ever self-titled collection. The collection released to massive success, receiving Footwear New Achievement Award for Launch of the Year for 2018. Designed in Paris and produced in Italy, her shoes feature classic embellishments and martini-shaped heels that almost immediately sold out and grabbed the attention of retailers like Net-a-Porter and FWRD by Elyse Walker. The latest streetwear brand out of New York City combines fashion and activism to inspire the next generation. Debuting in December 2018, KROST partnered with March for Our Lives organization to stress fashion's responsibility to give back and create a community around their brand motto, "support your friends." Designed and produced in Los Angeles, KROST is led by founder Samuel Krost (formerly of Onia and Helmut Lang) alongside designer Scott Camaran. The brand launched with their "First Semester" collection of high-end hoodies, tees, pants, and leather goods, and a school-inspired concept shop in Soho. Since its launch in 2016, By Far has created lust-worthy accessories for its cult following of celebrities and influencers. Founders Valentina Bezuhanova, Sabina Gyosheva, and Denitsa Bumbarova, who live between Australia and Europe, bring their love for the '90's into their designs with low-heeled mules, slingbacks, pumps, and boots perfect for every day. In 2018, the brand debuted their first handbag collection also inspired by the '90's with a baguette inspired by Friends' Rachel Green. Debuting at Copenhagen Fashion Week just last fall, ROTATE is the latest Danish brand to captivate the fashion industry. The brand is a collaboration between concept shop Birger Christensen and influencers Thora Valdimars and Jeanette Friis Madsen, who aimed to create pieces that were unique but also special enough to keep in your closet forever. The collection features ultra-feminine pieces, from a hot pink dress with puffy shoulders to an embellished blazer dress, that are guaranteed to stand out anywhere. Sami Miro has been shuffling through vintage stores since she was 14 years old. The San Francisco native's enviable style is coveted by her 200,000 Instagram followers, where she can be seen wearing her unique, re-worked designs created at her atelier in Los Angeles. In 2016, she launched her self-titled brand of one-of-a-kind pieces adored by celebrities from Hailey Baldwin to Kylie Jenner. Her first ready-to-wear collection, titled EcoTerror after the radical environmentalist movement from the 1960’s, features recycled, cut and sew pieces aimed at encouraging the fashion industry to take part in the conversation on climate change.

On the Ruta 40 heading south to Mount Fitz Roy and the Perito Moreno Glacier When we left Chile and entered Argentina we witnessed the most rapid change of scenery – in matters of climate and geography. We were traveling on the road between the two countries and we could see the green color of the rich Chilean vegetation on one side and the brownish colors of the arid land of the Patagonian steppe on the other. The last time we were in Argentina was several months ago, when we traveled across the country’s northwest province of Jujuy. The distance between the country’s north and its south is a bit more than 3,500klms. Consequently there are striking differences in the culture, the climate and the scenery. In most cases, there is more of a Patagonian common identity than an Argentinian one between the people of the South regions of Latina America. We soon found ourselves riding on the famous Ruta 40, the road that connects Argentina’s North with the South which, in the past, was a difficult and challenging route. Nowadays it’s not the difficulty that it makes it unique, but the beauty of the places it crosses. Now, the green Chilean landscape had given place to the arid land of the Patagonian steppe and from the very first kilometers in this land, the memory of crossing the Atacama desert came to our minds. The enthusiasm of the new would become exhaustion due to the monotonous view, but not yet… The plan for the night was to stay in Bajo Caracoles, a place on the Ruta 40 where there was a gas station and a guesthouse for travelers. We got there after 200 kilometers with strong wind, sun and low temperature. We had heard many stories about accidents due to the strong side winds in Patagonia and we were careful. The level of unease in such conditions, depends on the driver’s experience and skills, but under all circumstances everyone should be careful of the other vehicles. In Bajo Caracoles, we asked permission to stay in our tent next to the gas station. We pitched it next to a fence to be as protected as possible from the wind but soon, a camper parked next to us and provided us with extra protection. Surprises never end in life. The woman from the couple that got off the camper greeted us…in Greek! We turned around with a face of astonishment and she immediately explained that she was German and that she used to go to Greece for holidays. She admitted that the reason she first started learning Greek was not her love for the Greek civilization but her love for a Greek. The information that added some more exclamations of surprise, was that this first love was from a city very close to Stergios’ hometown. The couple – both of them really nice people, after we spent some time talking in Greek and in English, went to sleep. Before they go, they gave us a bottle of wine to celebrate this amazing coincidence. While we were also getting ready to go to sleep, another traveler came towards us. He was a retired policeman from the UK with an endless appetite for chatter. When he started giving us advice on how to overcome the Greek socioeconomic crisis, we got so tired that we couldn’t see the time to go! We were so fed up with all the “experts” reminding us what we did so wrong or with all those looking down on us only because of our nationality. Racism has many faces after all, and some of them are well hidden behind superficial compassion. The Patagonian steppe The wind is seriously strong in Patagonia Gauchos don’t only have horses In the morning, just before we took off for our next destination, we met a group of Italian motorcyclists on an organized moto-adventure across Patagonia. When they saw the Vespa, they went crazy with excitement and since they had a professional photographer following them, they immediately asked us for some pictures. They were Italians, we were on a Vespa…Imagine, we couldn’t leave without at least a small chat first! That day we wanted to cover a distance of 400kms to the village Tres Lagos. We had read many stories about lack of fuel in Patagonia and that gas stations are sparse, so with a 7lt tank and a 10lt jerrycan, we were not sure if we could make it. However, our previous experience had taught us that there is a percentage of exaggeration in many internet information, so we started with confidence! We also acknowledge that in cases of limited time and specific itinerary, lack of fuel can be a problem, but this was definitely not the case for us. We were right for once more. We made a detour and entered the city Gobernador Gregores, where we found enough fuel to continue without the slightest problem. We arrived at Tres Lagos late in the afternoon and we spent the night – where else? – at the gas station. We had never imagined how many travelers we’d meet from that moment on. All the places we visited were crowded and as we moved on to the South it became obvious that we were in one of the most popular places of South America. Our next destination was El Chalten, a small village near to the Mount Fitz Roy. While we rode towards the famous mountain peaks, we understood why this place was so much visited. We were lucky to see the peaks of Mount Fitz Roy with not even the smallest cloud hiding them. As we were told later, many visitors leave the place disappointed for not having had the opportunity to see the magnificent view. Clouds and fog can usually hide it for days. When we arrived at El Chalten, we immediately started looking for a place to stay. It was such a little village but with so many tourists, that we had serious doubts about the accommodation. It was obvious that this place relied exclusively on tourism. We could only spot guesthouses and hotels, restaurants, bars, travel agencies etc. We did no wrong concerning the accommodation: overpriced campsites – I can’t speak of other types of accommodation, since we didn’t even check elsewhere. The first one resembled a car park and, as we were told later, it was something called a “party-campsite”. I’m not sure what it is, but I think I wouldn’t like it. The second one was so expensive that even the employee at the reception laughed when she saw our faces the moment we heard the price. We luckily found space to pitch our tent at the third one, but its facilities were poor and overpriced. What’s done is done though. We wouldn’t risk to find ourselves homeless during a 4-day holiday waiting for the New Year’s Eve. In El Chalten, we celebrated the coming of the new year twice – To clarify myself, we continue on the same year, we didn’t skip one(!), it was that we preferred to celebrate in 2 different times: the Argentinian and the Greek one! This double celebration gave us the opportunity to eat 2 dinners and drink…well, a lot! We shared a table with travelers from everywhere around the world: Australians, South Africans, New Zealanders, Belgians, Italians, Swedish, Germans, English…How many nationalities around the table! However, although there were so many people, we had a feeling of loneliness. It is always interesting to get to know other cultures, but this time we didn’t speak the same language with anyone – and I obviously don’t mean the Greek language! Both Stergios and I couldn’t stop thinking about the two Basques and the Italian guy we had spent Christmas with at Puerto Rio Tranquilo in Chile. It was mainly the 5 of us back then, but we had something important in common: the sense of sharing. This time, everyone was looking at his own plate. No one offered anything to the other and even when we finished cooking and Stergios offered our barbeque fire to another guy, he looked at him with doubt and seemed that he couldn’t believe it. Mount Fitz Roy barely visible behind the…Vespa! We found a quiet place to pitch the tent in a campsite full of tourists (El Chalten) Preparing our New Year’s Eve dinner (El Chalten) January 1st, we allowed ourselves the luxury of going to a “chocolateria” and enjoy a cup of hot chocolate along with a chocolate brownie, a triple-chocolate alfajor (delicious Argentinian candy) and in general, enough chocolate for the whole year! We said we wouldn’t leave El Chalten without one hike at least to the lake Capri. We aren’t that much into trekking – our only serious trekking was the visit to Choquequirao in Peru, so we had decided not to climb Mount Fitz Roy. However, when we got ready for the short hike, the weather completely changed. Clouds hid the mountain and it started raining. The best excuse to avoid it! The next day we left El Chalten behind us and headed to El Calafate, the town near the famous glacier Perito Moreno. The glacier was the only reason we went to El Calafate, which is a touristic place as almost everything in the region. In El Chalten, we celebrated the coming of the new year twice. One in Argentinian time and one in Greek! During the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, everything was closed and we were a bit concerned about changing money. While we were away, some things had changed in Argentina. First of all, the government. Kirchner’s opponent, Macri won the election and became president. One of the first things his government did, was a big devaluation at the country’s currency along with the abolishment of the “Blue Dollar” rate. The Blue Dollar was an unofficial rate for the US$ and whoever had US$, could change them to ARS and take almost the double (officially: 1US$=8.9ARS BUT Blue Dollar: 1US$=16ARS). This common secret didn’t exist anymore when we returned to Argentina. So, to avoid searching for unofficial “casas de cambio” – money exchange offices and the commission they’d take, we went to the national bank of Argentina to buy ARS. Our 2-hour patient waiting in the queue was rewarded with 100$ extra! The cashier made a mistake and miscalculated the amount of ARS he gave us back for the 400$ we gave him. He returned us the equivalent of 500$ and we realized it about 3 hours later, when we were about to pay the entrance fee for the Glaciers National Park. As the bank is way richer than us and clearly wanted to sponsor our trip, we thanked it and entered the Park! Being near the Perito Moreno glacier is quite an experience! We could pay again and again just to have the opportunity to see and hear the large pieces of ice collapsing into the lake Argentino making loud cracking noises! The Glaciers National Park (Parque Nacional Los Glaciares) was filled with visitors from everywhere around the world who had come to admire the 250 km2 ice formation. We parked the Vespa and followed the path to the terraces where the people can stand and watch the glacier. For several meters we were walking next to the lake and we could see big chunks of ice floating, so we were anxious to see at least one coming off the main body of ice. When we finally arrived at the end of the path and took a look at the famous glacier, we were utterly amazed! The Perito Moreno along with the other glaciers of Southern Patagonia are the world’s third largest reserve of fresh water. The unusual characteristic of this specific glacier is that it is advancing, while most glaciers worldwide are retreating and every less than a decade, a big rupture occurs due to the pressures from the weight of the ice. Of course, we had watched many videos showing large pieces of ice falling into the lake and producing big waves that hit the land. However, nothing compared to the reality. We were standing at one of the terraces gazing at the glacier when we heard a rumbling noise. Suddenly, a piece of ice had come off the main body of the glacier and fell into the lake causing other, smaller pieces to fall, producing a remarkable spectacle. We spent all day there waiting for other pieces to fall or just gazing at this wonder of nature and taking hundreds of pictures. Gazing at the Perito Moreno Glacier, waiting for a big chunk of ice to fall into the lake Breathtaking view to the Perito Moreno Glacier There was nothing else to do in El Calafate, so we hit the road again. That day, we had decided to do 160kms until a place named Tapi Aike which consists of 3 buildings: the gas station, the police station and the Highways Administration office. Most of the 160kms we did were on the Ruta 40 on a cold and windy day. The last kilometers were on unpaved road and this was the most interesting part of the route. When we arrived at Tapi Aike, we went directly to the gas station and after we filled the tank, we asked if we could pitch the tent and spent the night there. The owner of the gas station gave us an alternative that proved ideal. He told us to ask Carlos, the person in charge of the Highways Administration office. Except for the office, the Highways Administration building is the house of the person in charge and it also has room for people who may be stuck in the snow during winter or in any other case of emergency. Since there was no one in need, Carlos offered us the extra room for the night, so we didn’t have to pitch the tent in the strong Patagonian wind. We had a wonderful time there. We shared dinner with Carlos and the two police officers and we even played foosball (a generous offer from the Argentinian State) and Pro Evolution Soccer, which kept Carlos company during his 15-day shifts. Later, after some liters of mate, we all went to sleep. That night the cold wind never stopped blowing and we felt relieved that we didn’t have to sleep outside. At the Highways Administration office in Tapi Aike, hosted by Carlos. Pro Evolution Soccer included in the accommodation amenities! The gas station at Tapi Aike ENJOY THE RIDE? Make a gift to you or your friends and help us stay on the road for more… The next morning, when we said goodbye to Carlos, we didn’t know how many kilometers we’d have ahead of us. After some serious thinking, we had decided to ignore Torres del Paine, the famous National Park of Chile with the amazing mountain peaks, the lakes and the forests. Despite having taken the visit to Torres del Paine as given already from the beginning of the trip, after taking into consideration some clues, we had second thoughts about it. A few days ago we met an Argentinian family in El Calafate who gave us some tips for the Park. They told us not to act or look like tourists from the US or other places overseas, because we will be overcharged in everything. They suggested that I should speak with a heavy Argentinian accent and they even gave us info about which places to avoid due to overcrowding. All these information combined with some more we read on various sites on the internet made the idea less and less appealing. Additionally to this, we travel on a very tight budget, so we need to choose wisely between costly choices. Some months ago in Peru, we had avoided Machu-Picchu for similar reasons and we had chosen the trek to Choquequirao. Next destination: Chile, and after that, Tierra del Fuego at last! Of course, we had already been to Chile before, but the distinct geographical characteristics of the region along with the territorial conflicts between Argentina and Chile in the past, make travelers go in and out the two countries filling their passports with numerous stamps. From a small border crossing with no one but the customs officers and the border police – as everyone crosses to Torres del Paine some kilometers norther, we entered Chile. We headed directly to Puerto Natales, the small town near the end of the world. What we didn’t know yet, was that we wouldn’t stay there for long… Endless straight lines in the Patagonian steppe In every gas station we stayed, there was a dog keeping us company (Tres Lagos) “Guanacos”, the cute Patagonian cousins of llamas To be continued… - Welcome to Paraguay! (video) 22/08/2019 - Rohayhu Paraguay! (I love Paraguay!) 09/07/2019 - Our motorcycle gear 10/05/2019 - Vespa travel Brazil (video) 29/03/2019 - A breakdown, wild animals and change of direction (Brazil) 20/03/2019

If you’re new to prayer journaling, the sacred secret isn’t necessarily in what you write, it’s building a practice of doing so. Here are five paper-packed tips to help guide you in your new found penning. Last year, I wrote an open letter to my four boys on being men. This year, I write to a special young woman who’s been a divine interruption in the life of our family—especially those four boys I mentioned. You know who you are. And, while you are infinitely inimitable and beloved, there are other women who will understand or need to hear this unsolicited wisdom [my opinions are also free of charge] I’m going to speak into your life on International Women’s Day. I'm not into New Year resolutions. Mainly because they set our human flesh up for disappointment and failure and I've pretty much got that covered for life. However, these last few years I've had a word. Not a goal, not a resolute, but a single word the Lord etched on my soul. But, before I share my word, let me first reflect on 2018. Specifically, a few lessons He taught me (some of them the hard way)… One of the [most detrimental] misunderstandings of the Church today is the nature of God. Every individual, because of past experiences, personality, spiritual upbringing, and so forth develop their own “idea” or "belief" of who God is. We piecemeal ideas about what God is like and how He operates based on our encounters… I'm not into New Year resolutions. Mainly because they set our human flesh up for disappointment and failure, and I've pretty much got that covered for life. However, these last couple of years I've had a word. Not a goal, not a resolute, but a single word the Lord stamped on my soul. Last year, it was sit (link provided if you want to read it). The year prior it was white space. This year, I went more phrase-ish. You know, because one word wasn't enough and I had to raise the bar [insert sarcasm]. The phrase is this: Here I am. Three potent words I can feebly speak to Christ. I've chewed on these seven letters for a couple months now, and God has had an echo...echo...echo by way of His Word and in random conversations which caused me to latch on to this statement. We read several Here I am examples in Scripture: - Abraham spoke these three words in Genesis 22:1 and 22:11 when God was testing him with the sacrifice of his son, Isaac. - Jacob answered the angel of the Lord in Genesis 31:11 by saying, "Here I am." - Moses said it in Exodus 3:4 when God called to him from a burning bush. - The Lord called Samuel and he answered, "Here I am" (1 Samuel 3:4). However, with Here I am being a short sentence, it's easy to pin on conditions (and it was effortless for me to type these because they've been whirling around in my mind): - Here I am...as long as it's doesn't interrupt my plans. - Here I am...whenever it "feels" right. - Here I am...once I get this next thing marked off my list. - Here I am...but, please don't ______________. I know God wants a period (.) after the statement. He's not looking for a comma, ellipsis, hyphen, or any other sort of punctuation. He wants the entirety of me; and frankly, that's unnerving. When I was younger, I played the piano. I enjoyed it, but I didn't much care for performing in front of others. Any time I would have a recital, competition, or play for church, I'd almost always wear a long dress. No one paid attention (except Grandma), but I did it because my knees would shake so hard it was the only way to keep folks from seeing them rattle like a warped set of brakes. Maybe I'm a touch on the melodramatic side, but the words "here I am" rank far above my childhood performance anxieties! In hindsight, I'm grateful I had those knee-knocking experiences. I still want to throw up in my mouth a wee bit rehashing those memories, but it was an invaluable experience. If I hadn't conquered those tousled struggles, I wouldn't have the courage I do today. As Mark Twain once said, "Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear—not absence of fear." While my 2018 "Here I am" statement makes me a touch nauseated, I know God will never force Himself on me. He overflows with everlasting patience, and as He calls me out upon the waters where my feet fail (and my knees knock), His grace will abound (props to Hillsong United for those lyrics). Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and Samuel uttered those same words and served God fiercely. Don't miss this next part because what is even more comforting is what we read in Revelation 3:19-20: 19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. 20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. Jesus says "Here I am," too. They weren't just words for HIm, but a complete expression and unabridged outpouring of Himself. I love how Jesus speaks to our hearts the very same words He desires us to say. And with that, I open the door and graciously accept those knee-knocking interruptions from I AM because I know He's faithful and it'll totally be worth it. Amen. What's your word (from Him) for 2018? **Be sure to follow Divinely Interrupted on Facebook and Instagram. Invite your friends and family to come along...we'll study the book of Philippians starting January 1. Each week, we'll cover one chapter, verse-by-verse. Sign-up to receive the studies via email @ www.divinelyinterrupted.com or by using the "Sign-Up" link on the Facebook page.** This past Tuesday morning, I woke up feeling extra tired. On top of this, I was also in an unusual state of anxiousness. First, let me be clear in that stress is not my zone. I can do pressure ALL. DAY. LONG. But, stress is like a dark, graffiti-ridden neighborhood of my mind in which you don't want to live. I could tell I was stressed because I had "work dreams." You know, the kind where you dream about real life in your head and you feel like you put in an extra six hours of labor when you wake up…

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Right in the middle of it all — the marching geese, the cheerleaders, the Ferris wheel and merry-go-round, the Eiffel Tower, the “magical forest” shrouded in puffs of dry ice, the cigarette girls offering mini chocolate eclairs, the unicyclist/waiter pouring coffee from a pot balanced on top of his head (“ Est-ce que vous voulez un café?”), the fortune teller, the mountains of cakes and candies, the magnums of champagne and the parade floats helmed by a small army of gorgeous models wearing frizzy red wigs in homage to a fashion icon — Sonia Rykiel, looking quite tiny and frail in the group of revellers, could be seen giving her daughter, Nathalie, president and artistic director of the company, a thumbs-up. It was an intimate mother/daughter moment in an otherwise over-the-bigtop fashion spectacle to launch two Sonia Rykiel collaborations with H&M: lingerie (which became available in December) and a knitwear collection that is due out in stores on February 20. While the brand is beloved in Paris, it’s not as well known in North America. The partnership with H&M should change all that. “The idea behind the show was to bring out the child in everyone, to see a sparkle in their eyes,” says Nathalie, who is still recovering from the previous night’s festivities. “I left the party around 2 a.m., and when I got home I found that my daughter had invited eight friends over, so please forgive my voice — it’s nearly gone,” she whispers. But Frenchwomen are indefatigable fashion warriors, so, despite her low energy, she looks seriously chic in a black silk slip dress, high leather boots, a fur coat draped casually around her shoulders and two fabulous rings: one a giant turquoise, the other a diamond. “Rykiel is really a different kind of company,” explains Nathalie. “We’re family-owned, and we’re run by women. What interests me is the woman behind the clothes — she’s more important.” Nathalie had originally planned on becoming a doctor or a movie director, but when she was 20 years old, her mother asked her to model in a show. She agreed. “I had no confidence,” she recalls. “I dropped five kilograms in a week and ended up modelling for five seasons. Then I decided that what I really wanted to do was work behind the scenes in the company.” If you happen to wander over to Rykiel’s flagship boutique on Boulevard Saint-Germain, be prepared to experience some sticker shock. The beauty of Rykiel’s collaboration with H&M is that it marries the brand’s cheeky/sexy sensibility with H&M’s affordability. “We have always carried less-expensive items in our shops, such as candles, books and even sex toys,” says Nathalie, “but now we’re doing it on a large scale. After such a tough [economic] year, women will still be able to wear Rykiel.” Nathalie sees fashion as a balm for the spirit. “You have to fight day to day in life, especially if you’re not privileged. I wouldn’t say that I’m an optimist — you’d have to be a little bit stupid to be an optimist. But, at the same time, I have to help people dream. Fashion is a dream, and sometimes you can be a part of that dream.” For the latest in fashion, beauty and culture, sign up to receive ELLE's daily newsletter.

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(This is the second instalment of our Budding Entrepreneur Series to help upcoming or struggling Singaporean entrepreneurs.) Not everything about the Circuit Breaker (aka lockdown) has resulted in a litany of woes. Every now and then, happy and inspiring little stories have glimmered through the pandemic gloom. If you’re an inveterate foodie like me, you’ll know what I mean when I say that one of the nicest things that has happened to me during this recent Circuit Breaker has been the occasional gift of home-made cakes, biscuits and bread from a few close friends and well-wishers. One particular gift that instantly revived a particularly moribund afternoon was a decadently delicious Burnt Basque Cheesecake from a young woman entrepreneur – a baker called Amrita Dhillon – whose mother (full disclosure) I know. We had spoken casually about my fondness for baking and she had mentioned that her daughter shared my passion and I should taste her cakes one day. I said I looked forward to it and, as is the way with so many good intentions, I forgot about it until a few days later when said cheesecake arrived just in time for tea. Its deeply caramelized, almost blackened top surrounded by a flutter of parchment paper and tiny bouquet of fruits and flowers tantalizingly hid a centre the texture of smooth, firm custard and tasted so sinfully good you could tempt a saint with it. With Its over-tanned, almost burnt, mildly cracked top crust, gooey centre and lacking a biscuit base, it could be easily mistaken as a baking attempt gone wrong. But looks couldn’t be more deceiving. The sensory experience that exploded gently in my mouth was deliciously complex, like a combination of salted caramel crème brulee and burnt butter. Burnt cheesecake for the uninitiated is a cheesecake which originates in the Basque region as it name suggests, has no crust and its creamy centre resembles a slice of gorgeously gooey Camembert cheese. As all foodies know, burnt cheesecake is a trend that has been sweeping Singapore and the rest of the dessert loving world these past two years and it seems to have reached its height during this lockdown. I received three burnt beauties as gifts over the past four months but Amrita’s won hands down. In short, it was the best cheesecake I have had this year – burnt or not. But before I wax eloquent on Amrita, let me pause and ponder on a question that might be central to our post-Pandemic lives: What gives real meaning to it beyond the fleeting and indulgent creations of the lockdown period? What will make you take that flying leap across your comfort zone to give life to your dream? For some, that passion to accomplish one’s goal begins in the warm comfort of a happy childhood. For Amrita, the catalyst was the cakes her mother baked in her grandmother’s kitchen. Amrita’s baking isn’t just a hobby to pass time during the pandemic, it is her life. The 33-year old graduate of Nanyang Technological University was a successful primary school teacher with the Ministry of Education for seven years and could have continued on the upward trajectory that her career was taking her, but she gave it all up to pursue her passion – baking. “It took a lot of courage to quit a stable government job,’ she admits when I thank her for her cake, prodding her to tell me more about her business which she runs from her home. “But my family was very supportive with my decision to follow my dreams.” “My passion for baking started as a hobby in my grandmother’s kitchen when I was 14 years old. Watching my mum bake for the entire family, I realised how baking and love went hand in hand. From there, my passion grew, and soon enough, my mum got to rest as I had taken over baking for the family. I would spend hours scouring the internet and cookbooks for new recipes to try out.” As she grew older her passion galvanised her to take an even more active role in developing her baking skills. She invested in professional baking courses, including the one at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York run by the famous Julian Angel. Realising that most of her time outside of her job as a primary school teacher was devoted to baking, she took a “leap of faith,” as she puts it and with a little bit of help from family and friends, “quit my day job so that I could make baking a way of life.” The result – Amrita’s Artisan Bakeology. Amrita intends to eventually conduct her own baking classes while running her home bakery business “so that everyone has the opportunity to eat delicious cakes made fresh at home,” she says. “With all these plans and a business to run, every day brings something new and exciting and I’ve not looked back since starting!” As I take another bite of her outrageously delicious cheesecake I can’t help thinking, here’s one young woman who, because of her single-minded dedication, can have her cake and eat it too! P.S. Amrita’s cakes can be seen on her Instagram page: amritas_sg as well as on Facebook: Amrita’s Artisan Bakeology. She can also be reached at: 90610064

Myranda Trevino is one of the latest teenage mothers to be featured on the fourth season of MTV’s popular program, 16 and Pregnant. The 17 year-old high school junior learned that she would become a mother only a short time after she started dating boyfriend, Eric. After battling a lifetime of substance abuse, Trevino’s mother allowed her daughter to move in with Eric and his grandmother after they had only been dating for six months. In fact, in one of the opening scenes to the episode, the pair can be found spooning in bed as his grandmother folds clothes and vacantly warns, “When y’all get up out of that bed, y’all better make it up.” This had me thinking: This can’t be life. Since when did it become acceptable for teenagers to play house under the same roof as their parents, so that essentially they have all of the privileges of being an adult and none of the responsibilities? In my opinion, this is lazy parenting. And apparently this in fact IS life where we refuse to communicate to our children the ins and outs of contraception and sexual health, but allow them to engage in sexual activity under our own roofs, sending them conflicting messages about values. In Trevino’s case, we have a young girl from a broken home whose parents probably weren’t the most responsible people to begin with, but when other families experience a teenage pregnancy, they sometimes believe distance can be a deterrent to the teen couple’s ability to share responsibilities effectively. For this reason some parents allow the young parents to cohabitate so the baby’s life will be more cohesive since he/she will have constant access to both parents. Unfortunately, what happens more often than not is that teens see this as an excuse to play house, and act like adults in what is an unrealistic situation. In fact, on another episode of 16 and Pregnant, a 16 year-old named Lindsey confidently tells her mom about plans to move in with boyfriend Forest after the birth of the baby only to attempt to push intimidating hospital paperwork onto her mother in the hospital after the baby is born. After her mom tells her she doesn’t understand why she has to fill out paperwork if Lindsey no longer lives with her, the young woman puts up the defense, “It’s because I’m not 18, and since I am not 18 yet, legally you guys are responsible for my bills!” All of this before she goes for a full-blown tantrum and dismisses her mom from the room with an entitled, “Shut up.” And just so we’re clear, Lindsey is anxious to move into a home where Forest’s mother insists on him not working to support his child since he has to finish school. Where was she when he was making babies? Yes, it’s television, but it’s TV that’s mirroring many households across the country. There’s a reason that we call them minors. Most teenagers lack the life experience and discipline it takes to make major decisions, especially when it comes to sexual health and relationships. It’s a parent’s responsibility to enforce boundaries. When you allow teenagers to live as a couple under your roof where you pay bills, you’re essentially allowing them the perks of living “on their own” but off of you and with none of the responsibility. Many parents say they allow their teens to live together for one of three reasons: 1. They figure if their teens are going to be sexually active, they prefer it to be in a place that’s safe where parents can be reached if necessary. 2. The partner may be experiencing hardships at home, and the family steps in to provide safety and security, when the partner’s parents cannot. 3. The family believes that teen parents should raise a child as a family, and don’t want to have to deal with the challenges that come with raising children in separate homes.

Compiled by: Jack Foley Q. It's been recorded that during the course of making this movie you had a bit of fun playing practical jokes on one of your co-stars, Miss Streisand? A. Streisand! Not true. Seriously? Q. Apparently you got every one in the crew to wear badges promoting Bush to wind her up? A. Now, do you want the truth? Here's the exact truth. That story was published four or five days before we started working together. Good story! Truth, didn't happen. As a matter of fact, the few little tit-bits that were printed that publicists of the film would bring to our attention were all in that vein; in other words it was going to be a war between us. You know, we were not going to get along. And they call came out before we started shooting. Q. But it seems clear from the on-screen relationship that you did get along, so can you tell us about that? A. I'm a few years older than Barbra, I'm 67, but we started acting together in acting school about 1960, in New York. It was a school where each room had a different acting teacher, so we didn't know each other, but I did start going with her room-mate, Elaine, and she kept saying 'you know Barbra?' And I kept saying 'yes, I've seen her act, she's pretty good', and she said 'she can sing, she's a pretty good singer' and I said 'yeah'. And I learned that Barbra wouldn't sing for anyone because she didn't think singing was a serious endeavour and she wanted to be an actress, and so we never really knew each other, only through her former room-mate. And then by what I like to think of as freak accident, we both became famous at different times and for the next 35 years we would see each other on and off, mostly off. I mean I think the only time we bumped into each other was when I would see her in concert or something and I'd go back stage and say 'hi' because we had this history together simply of starting in the same acting school. It is odd, I don't understand why we haven't worked together. I did a film a couple of years ago with Gene Hackman... Gene and I were room-mates in 1958, we had never acted together until then. He introduced me to Bob Duvall; Bob Duvall and I were room-mates in about 1960. Bob and I have still never acted together. I mean, we've tried but it just didn't happen. The same is true with Barbra and I think what existed between Barbra and I - and I know you hear this shit all the time at these junkets - there was an affection between us that was genuine. I think because we had gone through this journey together, though not intimately but somehow we had both started out poor - she actually slept on an army cot at her teacher's house, who was married and had kids. She came from poor... as I did. I was on a work scholarship at that theatre studio which meant I didn't have to pay for acting classes if I cleaned the toilets. I called that a work scholarship And so we travelled this distance somehow in life and here we are, depending on what day it is, calling it the second scene of our second act, or our third act on another kind of day, but now we were going to act together. Maybe I can conclude by saying, because it is more fun to tell the truth - even though it's the last thing to be believed, by the way - is that the director said he wanted us all over each He said that the fun of it is that the De Niro character and the Blythe Danner character are the protestant stock, in terms of stereotype, that they withhold themselves emotionally, and they are held back, whereas you are the ethnic side and you let it all hang out and there are no boundaries. He said I would like you, because, in the first one, the Stiller character, whose our son, has to take everything from De Niro; De Niro constantly backs him up. And we felt that one thing, if we want to find a reason to do a sequel where you don't repeat the same things, that's not going to happen here. Not only is De Niro not going to back up the Fockers, Roz or Bernie, but we are going to try to back him up and invade his space. We are going to get to him and we worked in such a way that, for myself, I'm not trying to get to De Niro's character, I'm trying to get to Bob. I know Bob doesn't like his space invaded and the first thing I told the director I wanted to do was 'don't tell You know when we meet and shake hands, I said I wanted to feel his pecs, cos I know he works out, and I want to give him a nice kiss on the neck and I don't want him to know it's happening. And that became the comic premise. And what the director said about Barbra and myself is 'I want you guys going at it, you know, making out, anytime you want when you're with De Niro and Blythe Danner'. So Barbra and I sat down and talked about it and what we didn't want to do, and what I personally have never liked, is seeing so-called amorous situations on-screen that, to me, are always bullshit, that are faked - tongues down each others' throat, the camera pans on the ground and you see the panties and the set-up and it slowly goes up to the bed and he's on top of her, and then suddenly she's on top of him. We all know the reality of it is that there's 150 crew members there and you're pretending. So to me it's always a faux or a fake aspect of human behaviour - it doesn't happen like that in real life, unless you're very, very young and when you first start fooling around you're actually mimicking that what you saw in I'm not degrading real passion, but what we wanted was what we felt that we hadn't seen on-screen. I've been with my wife for 30 years and married for 23, so I said that the sexuality that exists between my wife and I exists in a prolonged foreplay which goes on during the day, which is a touch under the table, or a hand on the leg, not in an acutely erotic way but in an affectionate It's a look, I don't think there's just the few senses, the five senses like we used to think, I think there's something in just a look, or a smell, I love the neck, I love to just snuggle into the neck and smell her neck... And I said to Barbra that's real to me and she said 'do whatever you want', and I said 'you do to me what is real to you'. And we do like each other. And I loved every time we worked together that there was an openness, which I love doing with my wife and my daughters. I love talking about them, like 'oh you look hot' or 'you look great'. I like complimenting. And I said it Barbra, I said 'man your breasts look great today!' And she loves her breasts. She says 'really, you think so' [in her accent], and I'd say 'yeah, that's a great outfit'. That's what I would whisper to her during the scene. I'd do real stuff because I wanted it to be real. So if you didn't like the film, just know that that aspect of it was one of the most genuine aspects that existed. Look, we do grow up in a culture of compartmentalization. At least I did. Meaning sex is sex and that it's somehow compartmentalized from emotion, from feeling. Once you've realised that one is only a branch to the other, man that's an earthquake, and that's a wonderful feeling to know. I mean you grew up as a kid saying 'oh God would I love to screw her', and then to reach a point where that doesn't disappear, but you can't wait to get in bed with your wife, to go to sleep with her; you can't wait to snuggle or to cuddle, and that's what we felt was an authentic part of what we wanted to do. Aside: Shall I tell a Scot's joke? So there's a Scotsman sleeping underneath the tree (and I wish I had the right accent) and he's got a kilt on and the lassie is walking So she sees him with the kilt and thinks it's the perfect time to find out if he wears anything underneath the kilt. So she tip-toes up while he's sound asleep and she discreetly has a look and sees he's fully exposed. She's so excited that she takes a blue ribbon out of her hair and just ties a bow around it. So he wakes up in a couple of hours and stretches and then feels something odd. Looks down, lifts up his kilt and says 'I don't know where you've been but wherever it is you've got first prize'. Q. Did the theme of the film cause you to reflect on your own first meeting with the in-laws? Or did being famous help to smooth the relationship along? A. Well Lisa and I, my wife, have been together 30 years, and we've been married for 23. She's my second wife. My first wife, who was a former ballet dancer at New York City Ballet when Valentin was there, so right then I should have known we didn't have a chance, two volatile personalities, her name, she was Irish Catholic, as I imagine the Byrnes are. My wife's name was Anne Byrne. Her maiden name. And so when you ask that question, the first time I went up to their place - we lived in New York and they were from Chappaqua (which only became infamous or famous depending on your political affiliation because that's where Clinton moved, small town, Victorian you know) and I was an unemployed actor but I never figured out because I felt the hostility at the first dinner... first two dinners [laughs]... first year... two years. And I couldn't understand whether it was racial, or just that I was a bum as far as they were concerned; another unemployed actor waiting tables. Does that answer the question? Q. Did any of that inform how you were not going to be in this role? Or did it remind you of any of those moments? A. No, it didn't. I try to go from myself all the time as I don't know where else to go from. I don't believe in characters. I don't think there is such a thing as a character. I know we say my character this, my character that but I don't think it exists. It's amorphous. I think a writer writes a character, and he's writing from prototypes, imagination whatever, and he puts in certain definitive givens which the actor has the obligation to fulfil and you fulfil them as best you can. You talk with this accent, you have this limp, you dress in this way, this guy's introverted, this guy's a murderer, you know. And you find in yourself - or at least I do - the areas that somehow I can connect with in some way, or that I have some understanding of in some way. Some are very difficult and then I am simply trying to go from myself and I'm not thinking character. Smoke and mirrors, whatever, hopefully will bring my character across. And talking to someone else, like De Niro, I'm not talking to Jack Byrnes, he's doing his work, but I'm trying to get to Bob. I am really trying to dismantle Bob. I succeeded a few times in really getting beautiful blushes out of him and that's just the way I personally work. Having said that my kids say that what I did on screen has more qualities with the way I am at home than in any other film that I've done. I'm not like that all the time but that's a side of myself, a large side of myself at home behind closed doors than I'd never done in a film. And you only learn about yourself, I would imagine at my late stage, by encountering situations and then realising how you respond I have a 34-year-old daughter who got married to a flaming red-headed freckled Irish man by the name of Shamus Culligan and they had a child who is now five weeks old and I look every day hoping he's not going to have red hair like his father - but I know he's going to! And they've decided not to circumcise him and I find it all great [laughs]. It's just broadened me, I can't explain it, I'm in new territory. I can go out with Shamus and get loaded, we can talk about circumcision for hours! Is it good, is it bad? It has no effect on me. I mean I wasn't brought up religious, I have no feelings about... I mean, I don't understand it to begin with. I think that's one of the reasons why the film was successful because we are tribal ultimately, you know. It is Romeo and Juliet, we stay with our own and particularly if it's another ethnicity, it's never good enough for ours. And it's beyond me because, by this point, I think we're all mutts, we're just mixtures, aren't we? I mean I've never met a pure person who was really... I guess they exist. Q. You mentioned your age earlier, but show no signs of slowing down, but with recent roles you seem to be choosing roles where you can have fun with the A. I stopped working a few years ago because I just lost a spark that I had always had, because I love and have always loved being an actor. I loved having the chance to become something, whereas before I thought I couldn't do anything. And if I had been an unsuccessful actor I would have been a very happy unsuccessful actor for the rest of my life. I wouldn't have been happy not getting enough parts, but I would always have been happy that I was doing something, even if it was in a church for no money, because I just like it. And that stardom thing happens and you get compromised. I don't believe when people say that success doesn't corrupt them because I think success corrupts everybody. I think you get caught up in it, no matter how you fight it. It gets to you. The people do... the agents or whatever. It's 'you can't take that part, it's not a starring role. Or 'they're not paying you enough'! Or the director is no good. At first I was somewhat successful, because after The Graduate I didn't work for a year because I didn't like... I wanted to go back to off-Broadway, it unnerved me and that's the truth. And then Midnight Cowboy came along and it was a supporting part and I said 'oh, I like that, it's different from The Graduate, I'll get rid of that leading man thing with one part'. And then suddenly, one's own narcissism or whatever it is, takes over and 'hey, star', whether you like it or not, you continue to perpetuate it. So somehow it reached a point a few years ago where I didn't like the parts that were being offered, the business had changed I think since Jaws, where they carpet bombed the country with 3,000 theatres and it all became... you can't blame studios because it's just a part of the cancer that exists. I mean the average film is $65-70m, they spend that much... they're into it for $120-130m, I mean who wants to be a studio head? Figures like that can collapse them! So they're not interested in the kind of films that I and people of my generation had such... we were influenced by the French Wave and the Italian Wave after the Second World War. They were artists and doing good work and it wasn't there to be the top three of the weekend, those expressions didn't even exist. So somehow it got worse and worse and worse, I got older and I think the older you get the less access you have to the better roles, or the leading roles, because they are guys in their 20s or 30s. So unless you've got a gun or are a generic kind of star, you know, who the audience knows is going to see the same action hero every film, suddenly your age, by definition, makes you the supporting role. You are supporting the lead unless you are developing your own stuff, where you find And I thought well I'll just stop and I'll try writing, and maybe I'll start directing, and I did this very quietly. And you don't realise the time that goes by. It was like three years, or something, and my wife said, 'do you realise, you haven't done anything for three years', and I was like 'three years! Really!' And I was not aware of the depression that had set in because if you're a writer, you like to write; if you're a painter you need to paint and if you're an actor you need a job. You can't just act... you can, you walk around doing 'to be or not to be' to your dog, you know... And my wife said something to me that kind of altered me, which is the essence of your question. And it was 'why don't you throw all those rules out that you've had since the beginning? Don't worry about the script, don't worry about the part, don't worry about the budget, sometimes you think they're not spending enough money on it...' So I said 'what?' And she said 'by this point you should know whether you're going to have a creative, fulfilling experience by the director and the people you're going to work with, so why don't you just try doing that? Even if you're getting Which is basically what, say, I Heart Huckabees was. I liked David O Russell's work but I said 'yes'. I barely looked at the part. Neverland, I loved what Marc Forster did with Monster's Ball and I knew he had done it in about 18 days. He's Swiss and he grew up in the hills and he never saw a film until he was 13-years-old. And Johnny Depp is an actor I have admired for years because I had felt that he had tried to avoid stardom, that he felt that it would somehow compromise him. It felt like he was always taking sometimes edgy and non-commercial kind of roles, and I just think there's something grand about him. So the thing I was offered was a supporting part and the scenes were basically with him and I jumped and I've been having the most fulfilling time I've had since I first started getting work off Broadway. And Fockers is basically a supporting part. I would say the leads are probably Stiller and De Niro, but Barbra and I are basically supporting. Barbra only worked for 30 days, I Q. They're thinking about doing remakes of The Graduate and Tootsie? Do you think Hollywood is running out of ideas or do you welcome new takes on classic stories? A. Um, well yes, you do run out of stories after a number of years, don't you. I mean look at the movies that started when sound first came in. They were basically plays but on the screen. There's only so many stories. When we worked on Rainman, and I was in from the beginning, suddenly we woke up one day and I said - cos we were having great trouble with it - 'hey, it's Midnight Cowboy, it's the same movie, structurally, right?' Jon Voight learns what love is. Tom Cruise learns what love is. Start the movie off with both of them, let the audience understand them, and about 15 minutes into the movie, bring in Ratso Rizzo who will be the catalyst to this man, you know, and bring in Raymond in Rainman and he will be the catalyst, and both Ratso and Raymond, their arc won't be the same. So in a sense there's only so many structures, and I do think, yes, they do get eaten up - that's part of it. I think this massive kind of filmmaking where you spend this kind of money and you have to play to the demographic, and they go right through the numbers to the computers (where else are they going to go?) and they have to get that first weekend. Do you know the first performance, they can tell you what the gross is going to be basically off of Friday night. That tells them what the weekend is going to be, then they'll lose about 40% or 50%. And they're pushing it to the kids because it's the kids that go the first weekend. And how many films do you go and see now where you sit there and after five minutes 'oh I get it, this is the third act, it's just going to be two hours of the third act'. There is no first two acts, you know. The whole culture is in the crap-house. There's a line that will lead off! But you know it's not just true in movies, it's hurt the theatre. Theatre was much more satisfying when I first started coming to London but now, on Broadway as well, it's the effects and everything that dominates. It's the way it is. We're not at a good time now, I don't think, culturally. Q. But do you think The Graduate will stand up to a remake? A. There's nothing wrong with remakes. I didn't see the thing they put on the stage. But if anyone came up with a good idea there's no reason not to have a remake. I mean who's going to argue that Godfather II wasn't a great work of film? Some people prefer it to Godfather I, I mean it was magnificent. Mike Nichols was asked after The Graduate, I remember, 'what happens to these guys?' And he said 'they turn into their parents'. I was once in a conversation with Nichols a few years ago and I said, 'so if you ever did a sequel what would Benjamin be doing?' And he said 'Benjamin would probably be doing TV commercials'. So he was looking the whole opposite side of what Benjamin was supposed to represent, which was a counter-culture. It's just I think Fockers, I'm not sure whether it's a good film or bad film, but the idea is a legitimate idea to do a sequel, if you can have your comeuppance, and if you can somehow put on the screen, you know, this split in the culture, which basically comes down to intimacy as opposed to non-intimacy, which is a part of the film. In other words, aren't we more naturally intimate than not? And isn't non-intimacy not that far away from hostility? And fear, which is kind of a defence, because if we're intimate with people we don't know we can get hurt. And suddenly you have characters on-screen that are saying to you... hey, you've got a room full of people here, right here, we don't know each other, we've never seen each other before, we may never see each other again, we're grouped in here by fate - six and a half billion people on the planet and look at the common ground - we're all dying. Yes, we're here temporarily, whatever your ages are. Now to this moment I don't understand why there isn't more of that feeling with the human race. I don't follow any religion, because if we were really open to that, I mean nothing bonds us closer than that - that we're on this lifeboat together in these stormy seas, particularly today. But you were asking about sequels. Most studios, I guess, do sequels to make money. They say even if it does half as well as the first... but do I believe in it? Depends on why couldn't there be. I like the idea of Tootsie, although I've never been able to come up with it. But I love what I wanted to do in Tootsie that we weren't able to do, so for me that gives the reason for the sequel and I've played with it in my head. It stimulates me, because I'm not coming from a money point of view, I'm coming from 'oh well, I think he had one character'. I'm not going to go on and name them but there are certain actors who became famous by playing one character and then suddenly they woke up one morning and they no longer existed. They were off the map. They had no work. And I said I think that happens to this character - he's exposed and Tootsie exposes himself, and I think 25 years later, if that film started now I think he's right back teaching acting, and I think he's probably a little angry and a little bitter because he had that taste of fame and it's gone, and here he is now. I could believe that, that he still has this desire to taste it again, whatever device is set up. You know, go to this country, do it in England, they don't know. They don't remember that you faked being a woman on a soap in America 25 years ago, you know. And I start thinking of Dorothy, maybe 25 years later, maybe sounding a little bit like Margaret Thatcher, and then I think what I would love her to be and what's the most fun. And I think I would love to see her on a talk show, to be a talk show hostess. You know, Ellen DeGeneres has a talk show in America and she's very openly gay. And she's embraced by the community and she doesn't, at least so far, talk openly about her sexual preferences. So, in my feeling, I think it would be wonderful to be a heterosexual man, you know, getting away with being a gay woman and thereby finding out the commonality that exists between people, genders, no matter what their preference is. That there's more that joins them together than separates them. And there were scenes that Elaine May, who didn't want her name on the thing, but who had more to do with the success of Tootsie than any other writer, and she had ideas that Sydney Pollack, the director, didn't want. I thought we could do all the stuff in the sequel because he is a man and there's so much he doesn't know. She had a scene where I'm dressed as a Dorothy and I go to visit Jessica Lange, who thinks I'm her best friend, and she opens the door and she has her wine, and I say 'how are you?' and she says, 'oh God, I've got the heaviest period I think I've ever had' and I say 'oh that's too bad', knowing suddenly I'm in territory I don't know that much about and she continues 'do you ever get these really heavy flows' and I said 'oh yes of course', and she asks how long they ask with me and I say 'months...' [laughter] To have a show and to be pretending that not only you're a woman, but also that you're gay and to know so little about either, I love the idea.

[Book Review] Shoemoney’s Book is a Joke A week back Shoemoney hit me up to check out his book. Awesome, I needed a new book to read anyways. I was up for it. He sent me his PDF and about 2 days later I started reading it. If you know Shoemoney, he is very transparent and likes to conversate – he is passionate about what he does. In the Shoemoney book he comes off the same way, the book feels as if you are having a conversation. The first couple chapters are what you have heard about Shoemoney about his past, his Adsense check, how he use to be fat etc. He speaks about this all the time at conferences and even when you speak to him giving you a real life scenario. This is nothing out of the norm from the day to day conversation when you see Jeremy at shows or conferences. He does talk more about his past through out the book, about his dad – his entrepreneurship, how he started learning Linux, etc. Through out the book, there are small things that he doesn’t mention when you conversate with him that is told in the book. This book isn’t about making money online, but it does tell a great story about how Jeremy Schoemaker went through life and became successful. It is his life story. The best part about this book that it is easy to read, each chapter will almost reflect the last chapter you read or bring you back to a couple chapters back. Shoemoney will always mention something from the past to where he is at currently in life, as told in the book. Whether it be meeting a lady which help started his Linux coding skills or if it is about meeting someone from Google to talk about his cellphone site he created. There is a lot of references going back which reflect his current situation, from the book. There are a lot of interesting jokes or funny entries in the book as well. He talks about his circumcision and crazy sex stories in the book. The book really keeps you reading and is very easy to read. One thing I notice and you will notice is, side notes, they are everywhere in the book or it seemed they were everywhere. Again, the book feels like you are conversing with Shoemoney and going off topic is pretty normal. In the book, I think he stated his editors told him that this is a book and not a blog and Jeremy basically said to fuck off. His attitude is in the book and so is his persona, when you read the first chapter he comes off as like, who else Shoe ‘motherfucking money as he would gladly put it. Through out the book he takes chances and risks, acting as he does not care and each step puts him in a new scenario about life and how he took advantage of it and learned from it. Here are the chapters in the book. The first 5 chapters are stories you probably heard from Jeremy himself. With that said, this book remind me of another book by Seth Godin, all marketers are liars – a book about story telling and through Shoemoney’s book he mentions how stories are powerful asset to a marketer. He even points it out in the very beginning of his book. - Intros and Angles - I Am God - Used to Be Fat - Ahoy Motherfucking Misfits - Lessons from Being (Almost) Killed - Footloose Ohio - There Are Two Kinds of People and I’m the Second - Welcome to the Internet, Danny LaRusso - How to Live in a Cave - Take the Blue Pill - Ever Questing - Wells Fargo Redemption - Leaps of Faith - Parting Out and Cashing In - Buy a Good Bed, Marry a Good Woman (And Get Your Potholders at Target) - You May Address Me as Doctor Schoemaker - Holy Shit - Nothing’s Changed but My Change Throughout his book are life experiences that you can easily pickup to help with your internet marketing skills. The books is easily readable and you continue to read it because it leaves you wanting to know more and what the next joke Shoe is going to tell about his current situation or who he will tell to get lost. Very entertaining, comical, very good story, and maybe even movie worthy as he comments it in the book. Def grab a copy of the book and be entertained while gather Shoemoney’s experience through his life.

1. Two very moving additions to the coverage of the disasters in Japan. First, if you can decipher the google-translation, there’s the story of a woman who sacrificed her life to warn a village of the impending destruction here. And two, the footage that made this all very real to yours truly. If it doesn’t get you on your knees, nothing will (be sure to stick with it to the end): 2. An amusing report in the Guardian about Facebook and divorce. If ever there was an excuse to take a potshot at lawyers for having a shallow view of human nature…: A 2010 survey by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML) found that four out of five lawyers reported an increasing number of divorce cases citing evidence derived from social networking sites in the past five years, with Facebook being the market leader. Two-thirds of the lawyers surveyed said that Facebook was the “primary source” of evidence in divorce proceedings, while MySpace with 15% and Twitter with 5% lagged far behind. A spokesperson for Facebook said: “It’s ridiculous to suggest that Facebook leads to divorce. Whether you’re breaking up or just getting together, Facebook is just a way to communicate, like letters, phone calls and emails. Facebook doesn’t cause divorces, people do.” The NY Times Magazine had a similarly Zeitgeisty take on divorce this past week too, which is worth it for the candid quotes on depravity/original sin. 3. Speaking of the Zeitgeist, there’s the outrageous but evidently very real “Mother Sues Preschool For Damaging Her Daughter’s Shot at the Ivy League.” ht JD. 4. For those of you interested in the ongoing Rob Bell-univeralism saga, conference speaker Mark Galli’s review of the Bell’s Love Wins book appeared this week, and it is very much worth your time. Galli rightly places Bell in the context of Protestant liberalism, not in order to callously write him off as such, but in an attempt to discuss the heart of the matter, which as always, has to do with atonement/justification: While [Bell] writes eloquently of the cosmic scale of redemption, it’s his understanding of the personal dimension that reveals the most about his theology. The Cross is “a reminder, a sign, a glimpse, an icon that allows us to tap into our deepest longings to be part of a new creation.” And Jesus’ “giving act on the cross” shows us that “he is the source, the strength, the example, and the assurance that this pattern of death and rebirth is the way into the only kind of life that actually sustains and inspires.” This of course is the classic exemplar model of atonement—Christ’s self-giving death inspires us to live the Christian life. The emphasis is not on how that death atones for our sins or reconciles us to God. It’s about how it inspires us to change. It’s been a standard of liberal Protestantism, and is true as far as it goes. One would hope Christ’s self-giving inspires! But according to the New Testament, doesn’t it also accomplish something objective? Most Christians grasp that to demythologize one doctrine is to make the others less coherent. They recognize that a Christianity that teaches about “a God without wrath [who] brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a Cross” (H. Richard Niebuhr’s classic summary of liberalism) does not reflect the thickness of biblical revelation nor lived reality. And they see that when all is said and done, there is no painful contradiction between the love and justice of God. That in the end, not only does love win, but justice, too. Another thoughtful review of the book comes to us from Casey Hobbs, ht CH. 5. On a much lighter note, check out If You Watch It Backwards for some quality laughs. Then head over to The Onion for the ultra-close-to-home “Attempt To Meet Different Kinds Of People Thwarted By Partygoer Who Also Watches ‘Friday Night Lights,” not to mention “Pope To Ease Up On Jesus Talk.” 6. A bunch of very good news this week in the music and TV department: The Beach Boys have finally agreed to release the Smile masters! Given how litigious they are, I’ll believe it when I see it, but hey, it’s better than nothing. Secondly, Robbie Robertson has announced that his backing band for his forthcoming tour behind How To Become Clairvoyant will be none other than Dawes. A match made in, yes, heaven. And David Lynch of all people will be directing the upcoming Duran Duran webcast (whose new album, by the way, is really pretty good). Finally, NBC is renewing Community and Park & Recreation! In other words, life will still be worth living in the Fall… 7. Conference update: As of today we are less than a handful of people away from reaching capacity for meals at the conference (even taking into account “family holdback”). There is still plenty of room for the talks – walk-ins are more than welcome – but if you were planning on eating, especially eating dinner, act now! Either register on the conference site or send us an email post-haste at [email protected]. We’ll do everything we can to accommodate last-minute folks, but there you have it.

Men. Falls man charged in strip club sex assaults LaLicata, 34, could face 226 years in prison in New Berlin assaults A 34-year-old Menomonee Falls man was charged on Aug. 8 with allegedly sexually assaulting two intoxicated girls at a family-owned West Allis strip club in 2010. Dino D. LaLicata was charged in Milwaukee County Circuit Court with three counts of second-degree sexual assault and one count of perjury, for which he could face up to 226 years in prison and $310,000 in fines. According to the criminal complaint, a 20-year-old woman identified as AMS told Milwaukee Police that on June 1, 2010 she made arrangements with a group of girls to meet up with Lalicata at Shepherd's Bar in Wauwautosa. AMS told police she consumed several drinks purchased for her by Lalicata and at 1 a.m. the group decided to go to Crazy Horse, 9442 W. National Ave., West Allis. The Crazy Horse, now closed, was owned by Dominic T. Lalicata through Cugino's Entertainment LLC, according to records available through the State Department of Financial Institutions. LaLicata brought the girls into a private area of the club and continued to supply them drinks, according to the complaint. AMS told police that she blacked out at some point, but remembers LaLicata dragging her and a friend into a private room. Lalicata allegedly ordered the girls to perform oral sex on him and refused to allow them to leave, the complaint states. The woman's friend, identified in the complaint as KNH, told police that Lalicata had forced himself on AMS after she passed out, according to the complaint. She said she told Lalicata that he was raping AMS and he replied: "Where did you get this crazy girl? She is wasted." Lalicata claimed in a court deposition from November 2011 that he never went to the Crazy Horse on the night in question. However, police obtained a video recording from the Crazy Horse that shows LaLicata trying to force the girls to perform oral sex on him. LaLicata was released from custody on a $10,000 cash bond on Aug. 11. He is expected to attend a preliminary hearing on Aug. 21. Your link to the biggest stories in the suburbs delivered Thursday mornings. Enter your e-mail address above and click "Sign Up Now!" to begin receiving your e-mail newsletter Get the Newsletter! - Falls Village Board President candidates say they each would bring different experience to the role - Menomonee Falls approves preliminary layoff notices, letter to legislators on proposed state budget - Temporary burn ban lifted for Waukesha County, Menomonee Falls - Menomonee Falls Police report: March 26, 2015 - Menomonee Falls family heads up local shoe drive for Dondo Amor - Proposed bill would allow Germantown school district to start prior to Sept. 1 - Proposed bill would allow Falls school district to start prior to Sept. 1 - Falls school board to review, approve layoff notices - Menomonee Falls Police report: March 19, 2015 - Falls-based Bradley Corporation recieves nod for wellness efforts

After Jade dies she returns to re-live the last seven days of her life, helping her father to find a new life partner to replace her dead mother, helping her brother to fulfill his dreams of quitting university to work for his dad, and finally, finding closure for herself by experiencing sweet teenage romance for the first and only time. Jade is just a regular teenage girl who likes to do extreme sports. One day, she tries to impress a good-looking boy named Aidan by agreeing to do daredevil stunts on her skateboard while he films her in action for a viral video project. She ends up dying. In limbo, she meets her mom who had also died earlier in her life but was waiting in limbo to watch over her family and now, to help her on her way. She begs her mom to ask someone to give her another chance to make things right on earth so that her brother Devon and her dad aren't so devastated by her death. Eventually, she is somehow allowed to return to seven days before her death. She isn't allowed to tell anyone what lies in store for the future and after seven days, she has to agree to pass to the beyond with her mom. When Jade is transported back in time, she finds herself rollerblading with a neighborhood boy nicknamed Scratch, who is skateboarding. She knows that Scratch is going to fall and break his wrist so she asks him to skate somewhere else. Unfortunately, he ends up falling on his head and is rushed to the hospital. Jade receives a mental message from her mom saying that she isn't supposed to drastically change the events in time as the outcome is usually worse than it was before. Jade makes a list of things she wants to accomplish before the week is over and she has to return to limbo. She wants to help her dad get a girlfriend so that he can better move on with his life after she dies. She wants to help her brother achieve his dreams for the same reason. She also wants to be kissed by Aidan, her brother's friend. The next day is her birthday. She wants to use the money her grandma sent her on a family experience. Devon also gives her the skateboard that she ends up riding to her death. Everyone thinks she's acting weird. Later, she sets up an online dating profile for her dad and communicates with some of the women on the site to see if any are suitable to date her dad. Scratch comes over with a bouquet of flowers for her and she tells him about her plan to get Dad to date someone. Since Scratch's mom is also single, she thinks it might be cool if they went out on a date. Later, she makes plans to meet with Devon and Aidan at a local restaurant. She hopes it will be romantic and she can sneak a kiss with Aidan. At the restaurant, nothing really happens because her brother is around. The next day, Jade tries to convince her dad to take the day off and take her and Devon to Niagara Falls but he is too busy. She goes to Niagara Falls with Scratch, instead. There, she sees an opportunity to do skydiving. Scratch can't do it with her because he's still in a cast. She tries to convince her dad and Devon to do it. But again, her dad tells her he's too busy with work but he promises he will make time for her on Friday or when the weekend comes but she knows that by then, she won't have enough time left. Later that night, Aidan comes round her house looking for Devon. She asks Aidan to take her out for some fries and he agrees. During their date, Jade tries to flirt with Aidan but he is more interested in filming things with his camera and almost completely ignores her. She is still hopeful that he might grow to like her and she will succeed to get him to kiss her. The next day, she decides to go to her dad's workplace to help him out for the day. While she's there, she tries to convince her dad to let Devon do what he wants with his life. Apparently, her dad wants Devon to go to university but Devon isn't interested in school. She also tries to get advice from some of the female employees on how to be attractive and how to flirt with a boy. Her dad has to continue working late into the night so she gets a ride from an employee and gets dropped off at Scratch's house. Scratch's mom makes a delicious dinner and takes them out for a short hike. Jade hopes that she can get Scratch's mom and her dad to get together somehow. The next day is parent teacher conference day and the day Jade was hoping her dad would be able to meet other single parents. She gets Scratch to help her select some nice clothes for him. At the parent teacher conference, things go very well between her dad and Scratch's mom. Her dad even invites Scratch's mom to join them on their family outing on Friday. When Friday comes around, the weather is poor and her dad has to postpone their family outing because they had planned to go fishing together with Scratch and his mom. Jade is worried that time is running out for her to fulfill her last deeds before she dies on Monday. Aidan comes around again and she asks him to come with her to do indoor skydiving instead. She is excited that he agrees. When they arrive at the skydiving place, however, Aidan reveals he only intended to film her skydiving. It's too late for Jade to chicken out so she does it while Aidan films. Jade finds skydiving exhilarating. Afterwards, she kisses Aidan. It's a very awkward kiss. After the kiss, Aidan pretends it doesn't happen and they go ride a Ferris wheel.While riding the Ferris wheel, Aidan kisses her again. After his kiss, he tells her she is too young for him and he promised her brother that he wouldn't hurt her. Jade finds herself agreeing as she discovers she only had a crush on him and nothing more. She starts thinking about Scratch differently, though. After she comes back, she finally gets her dad and Devon to start talking about Devon's future. Her dad finally sees that Devon doesn't want to go to university - he wants to learn the family trade. Her dad respects this decision and Jade is overjoyed for Devon. Later on, Jade goes to a water park with Scratch. They have lots of fun together. Things get even better when Scratch ends up kissing Jade. Jade wishes she didn't have to die in a few days as she's just fallen in love with Scratch. The next day, their family goes on a family outing with Scratch and his mom. Jade's dad surprises her with a hot air balloon ride. Scratch's mom is not amused by the idea. Jade notices that her dad seems to be getting along with the lady who operates the hot air balloon. She doesn't care who her dad falls in love with, as long as he does fall in love again. Later that night, she goes on another romantic date with Scratch – they both go to the beach and play in the water and kiss. On Monday, Jade knows she's due to die again. She tells her dad about how she set up a dating profile for him online and she urges him to be serious about dating a woman and finding a new life partner. Later that afternoon, Jade again goes to the skate park. She again overhears Aidan trying to get skaters to perform some dangerous stunts while he films. This time, however, he ends up asking someone else, not her! Jade is torn – she doesn't want to die but should this other innocent boy die instead of her? While they're doing their stunt, Jade notices a car coming and it's going to hit the other boy. She rushes forward and saves his life, but the truck hits her instead. Jade wakes up in limbo with her mom, again. She tells her mom that she's just happy that this time she died a hero and she helped her dad and brother get their life going. Her mom allows her to visit her dad in his sleep one more time. She says goodbye to her sleeping dad. The story ends with her mom taking her hand and telling her that they were very lucky to live the lives they did. Best part of story, including ending: I found the premise of the story to be very tragic and bittersweet. I specifically like that the ending of the story wasn't unrealistic - Jade still had to die. But at the same time, I like that the ending was so positive about moving on to the after life with a happy heart. Best scene in story: My favorite scene was when Jade is allowed to go and visit her dad one more time to say goodbye before she must leave with her mom to the afterlife. I thought that moment was really sad but at the same time a really sweet moment between father and daughter. Opinion about the main character: I like that Jade really cared that her father and brother are alright when she passes away. She spends her seven days on earth trying to help them rather than being self-absorbed and wanting to spend all the time experiencing things for herself before she has to leave earthly life for good.

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Malcolm Gladwell hasn’t written much about American health care. But that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been thinking about it. And it sure hasn’t stopped many of his powerful ideas like “tipping point,” “outlier” and “blink” from gaining entry into the national health care debate. In his most recent book, “David and Goliath,” Gladwell reshaped our perspectives on the underdog and highlighted our tendency to over-value certain strengths. In the health care world, this concept helped expand our understanding of the role of mobile devices and big data in health care. As our nation confronts the challenges of American health care, there’s a lot we can learn from Gladwell. I recently met with him at his house for two hours on a cold, clear day in lower Manhattan. We talked about the Affordable Care Act and what physicians can do better in providing health care. We spoke about Canadian health care and America’s malpractice system. I expected him to offer insightful and novel views on these topics. He did not disappoint. In a rare sit-down interview, Malcolm Gladwell discusses American health care. On the Affordable Care Act “I have profoundly mixed feelings about the Affordable Care Act,” Gladwell started. “What I love about it is its impulse. It attempts to deal with this intractable problem in American health care life, which is that a significant portion of the population does not have access to quality medical care.” While praising the Affordable Care Act for insuring those in need of coverage, Gladwell expressed sincere concerns about whether this approach could truly solve the challenges America faces. “Part of me thinks that innovation, real innovation in health care delivery, needs to happen from the bottom to the top,” he said. “What I don’t know is whether this system encourages that kind of bottom-up innovation or discourages it.” Gladwell may be uncertain about the system’s ability to encourage bottom-up innovation, but we know one thing’s for sure: our current system rewards volume through fee-for-service payment models. And until we move to a system that focuses on value, we won’t enable the kind of bottom-up innovation Gladwell talks about. The Affordable Care Act takes us one step in the right direction. But physician leadership will be essential to effectively drive the innovation needed to transform the system. On nudging American health care “A lot of the things we identify as problematic with the delivery of care are simply features of the irrationality of the system itself,” Gladwell lamented. He cautioned that we have become too dependent on health insurance to pay for predictable medical problems. Rather, he said, the purpose of insurance should be to pay for the unexpected. In his mind, the current insurance system provides very few incentives for patients to live healthier lives or for physicians to encourage healthy living. “We aren’t, as human beings, very good at acting in our best interest,” he said. And noted that an appropriate role for government or other third parties is “to make it easier for us to act in our best interest.” Gladwell is a fan of change happening through many smaller, incremental improvements. He credits Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein’s book “Nudge” for this line of thinking. He used the auto industry as an example: “In the ‘60s, they started nudging car makers in the direction of safety,” he recalled. First, “You’ve got to equip all cars with seatbelts.” Then, “In the ‘70s, we started setting standards for fuel economy.” Finally, “The automobile industry took those (nudges) and used them to create airbags and develop hybrids.” “The automobile is a great example of how the health care system can work very well. A combination of aggressive and smart regulation and a highly competitive marketplace has combined to improve — not perfect, but improve — the quality of decisions made by consumers.” Applying this concept to health, Gladwell questioned why governments and private organizations couldn’t find more opportunities to encourage healthier behaviors. “When I go to my health club and it’s in the basement, you have to take the elevator down. And this drives me crazy. Why can’t there be a stairway? At least make it as easy to exercise as it is to not exercise. It’s in society’s interest for me to take the stairs.” Ultimately, Gladwell believes human beings need a little help. “As a society we have to push them, nudge them, in the right direction.” And just as Gladwell applied this principle to patients, I believe it also applies to how physicians provide care to their patients. Meaningful use regulations, which provide financial incentives to health care providers for the “meaningful use” of certified electronic health record (EHR) technology, will nudge physicians to incorporate and use 21st century technology. Increased payments for Five Star Medicare Advantage plans will nudge health care organizations toward a greater focus on prevention. Reduced payments for hospitals responsible for patient complications will nudge them away from medical errors. And incentives for the creation of accountable care organizations will nudge physicians and hospitals to embrace greater collaboration, coordination and integration of medical practices and clinical care. While these changes themselves will not eliminate the problems of today’s health care system, they will nudge the industry in the right direction. And the result will be better care for patients. On American vs. Canadian health care While it’s tempting to compare the failures and successes of U.S. health care with other nations, Gladwell warns that underlying societal differences make those comparisons difficult. “There are many things that are exceptional about American health care but there are two things to consider above all else,” he said. “One of them gets a lot of attention and one doesn’t get enough at all.” A lot of attention, according to Gladwell: U.S. technology. Not enough: America’s social dynamics. In terms of U.S. technology, he pointed out the complexity of evaluating its impact. On one hand, Gladwell said, technology has resulted in significant advances. On the other hand, technology has created an enormous economic burden. “If you are the technology pioneer, you’re going to generate higher costs than those that follow. Those that follow have many advantages. They can sit back and cherry pick what they like. They avoid the high cost of technology that goes in to prescription drug development. ” “That’s a case where the [U.S.] health care system has gained from medical advances but had to carry the economic burden for much of the world.” He posited that technology may be a net positive once we take all parts of the economy into consideration, but that the calculation is complex. And that’s where the second factor, the one that doesn’t get enough attention, comes into play. “Our health care system is part of the very, very peculiar social dynamics of this country, which is that we are one of the most, if not the most violent of the developed countries,” he said. “And the consequences of that violence for the health care system are considerable. For example, compared to most countries, the economic consequences of the United States caring for veterans are extraordinary and its impact on overall health care costs in America is considerable.” He noted that wars in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan or Iraq — along with a large standing army — placed a considerable financial burden on the U.S. health care system. In addition, he said poverty and violence in America have increased the nation’s health care challenges. “An interesting thing about Canada is that Canada doesn’t have the inner city problem that America does,” he said. “It does not have a very large and entrenched underclass. That’s a huge burden on the system. So, America has some distinctive features that impact health care spending in a very considerable way. When we look at the cost of American health care and blame the health care system for it, that’s not entirely fair. A lot of it is a function of who we are as a nation. We’re a country that runs up a big health care tab. We’re a country that has yet to figure out how to address the social challenges we face. As a result, the health care system carries much of the burden.” That’s why, Gladwell said, “I’ve never trusted cross-national comparisons of health care spending. It’s just not useful until you’ve normalized these differences.” There’s no doubt in my mind that we have much to learn from nations beyond our borders. Providing access to health care for all residents — and access to life-saving medical services that won’t bankrupt patients — is worth further consideration. But I agree with Gladwell that technological, social, cultural, financial, legislative and other factors make direct comparisons difficult. On America’s malpractice system Gladwell described the current malpractice tort system as poorly designed for the purpose it should serve. The function of an effective malpractice system, in his mind, should be to compensate individuals and to address the underlying causes so that we can reduce recurrence. The current system does none of this. He pointed out that most problems in medical care delivery happen as a result of failed systems, not individual errors. “The fact that only a small percentage of medical errors are dealt with in the malpractice system suggests that it’s not a system,” he said. “It deals in an incredibly inefficient way with a small percentage of the actual errors and in such a way that it does not make the performance of the overall system better. It’s not addressing why the error was made in the first place.” The solution? According to Gladwell, we should, “Compensate more of those that suffer from errors because the system doesn’t do that now. Make it a primary motivation to reduce the source of the error. That’s what a system, a proper malpractice system, looks like. And right now our system doesn’t look like that.” Often, we as physicians are blamed individually every time something goes wrong in medicine. But rarely is any one individual responsible. That’s why many physicians feel forced to practice defensive medicine: to minimize the risk of financial and reputation damage. The result is added cost without improved outcomes – and on occasion, even greater patient harm. But given today’s malpractice system, it’s hard to convince physicians to behave differently. And who can blame them? If we want to encourage system-wide improvement and address wasteful spending, we first must redesign the malpractice system, moving to one that focuses on care improvement, not individual blame. On government regulations Gladwell offered a provocative thought here, that parts of American health care may have way too much regulation and not enough wisdom, compassion and judgment. He used nursing home care as an example. “With nursing home care we have a system which is heavily regulated right down to the specifics of every minor thing you do and at the same time the quality’s not good,” he said. He pointed to one study in Australia. The country shifted away from stringent nursing home regulations toward greater training and reliance on the judgment of nursing home workers. As a result, he said, the quality of care improved. “In an environment that’s about the quality of human interaction, it’s not appropriate to have 10 volumes of incredibly specific regulations,” he said. “What you want to do is get a system where people feel involved in providing important levels of human comfort.” At the same time, Gladwell was firm that strict and detailed regulation remains essential in certain areas. “If the issue is the manufacturer of pharmaceuticals, I’m all about the twenty volumes of regulations. I don’t want people coming in having a touchy-feely conversation. No, I want every single factory investigated and inspected on a regular basis because the consequences of failure here are enormous and you need rigorous regulation, not individual discretion.” Gladwell’s focus on the human element in the midst of a challenging and expanding regulatory environment was refreshing. Yes, some aspects of care require a clearly defined processes to avoid medical error and improve quality outcomes. But when restrictions dominate how care is delivered then compassion and personal relationships erode. Unfortunately, that can lead to compromised medical care and unnecessary human suffering. On end-of-life care Gladwell provided a balanced perspective on the importance of both a rules-based and an individualized approach to patient care during this time of acceptance and choice. He believes in an approach that honors dignity: “Helping people live their lives with dignity means very, very different things at different stages of their life. If I’m 18 and I’m in a car accident, that means picking me up with a helicopter and giving me access to the greatest trauma care known to man. If I’m a soldier in Afghanistan, that means get me out of there to the best medical facility in the world. And if I’m a 40-year-old woman with breast cancer, it means providing access to the highest quality care imaginable. “But if I’m an 85-year-old bedridden person with Alzheimer’s, that means giving me nurses who are motivated and compassionate. It means allowing me to avoid aggressive and futile interventions. Maybe it’s just helping the health care system understand that there are different ways to provide people dignity.” As much as half of health care spending is estimated to be spent in the last year of life. Gladwell’s model would help people maximize their health throughout their life. Robert Pearl is a physician and CEO, The Permanente Medical Group. This article originally appeared on Forbes.com, and is reprinted with permission.

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Gerald R. "Jerry" Gachowski Gerald R. "Jerry" Gachowski was taken from his loved ones Friday June 3, 2016. He was a loving husband of Nancy Gachowski for 52 years. He was born in Utica New York and he was the son of the late Joesph and Helen Gachowski. Jerry was an Electrical Engineer. He loved his work and had a reputation for outstanding services. His legacy, both personal and proffessional, will be carried on by those whom he knew and taught. Jerry loved to be around his family and to have a good time. He was an avid golfer and fishing enthusiast. Jerry will be missed by all that had the opportunity to know and love him. Besides his wife Nancy, he is survived by his four children, Stephen Gachowski of Cranston, Beth Ann Grabowski of Arundle, Maine, Kate Turner of Indialantic, Florida and Daniel Gachowski of East Greenwich, five grandchildren whom he adored, Elias and Isable Grabowski, Mae Turner, Sarah and Lauren Gachowski. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Thursday June 9th at 11:00am in Saint Peters Catholic Church Fair Street Warwick. In Jerry's memory donations may be made to The Leonard & Adele R. Decof Family Comprehensive Cancer Center Cancer Center Patient Assistance Fund PO Box H Providence, RI 02901-9979 Dan and Nancy Caputo - 06/07/2016 We have so many wonderful memories of our two families together over the last 50 years. Our time together in Cape Cod, in Maine, Florida and Rhode Island will be remembered with love in our hearts and always with a smile. Jerry's love of his family and ours and his love of life was most evident. He fought long and hard. Jerry, never doubt that you surely laughed enough, loved enough and made a difference in the lives of others. Rest in peace dear friend, we love you. Kathy Mathuriover n - 06/07/2016 Oh Jerry, how do I say goodby to you? I have known you since I was 12. You were like my big brother. Godspeed to you my friend, rest in peace. You hold a special place in my heart. Please watch over all of us. Kathy Mathurin - 06/07/2016 Misspell of my name above.....sorry! Lee, Edna, Connor & Haley Dennis - 06/08/2016 Dear Nancy and family. To the guy who held my hand and brought me home from the fields as a child. Who's generosity seemed to have no end. Who was more than a brother in law. More than a Uncle but also our friend. We will miss Jerry and think of him often , and also probably laugh often as it seems that's all we did. Rest in peace your time here will not be forgotten. Dick & Penny Jaskoviak - 06/08/2016 Dear Nancy and Family We send our deepest sympathy and heartfelt sadness on the loss of Jerry. We have not been friends for many years, but the love of yours and Jerry's friendship has given us so very much happiness. Rest in peace dear friend. Suzanne & Bill Hinge - 06/11/2016 Nancy and Family, We had many wonderful times in getting to know your family for so many years. Jerry shared his humor and hosting abilities with us for which we are grateful. We extend our love to all of you. Maybe he will enjoy UC better up above. Prayers for all. The Morrison Family - 08/08/2016 Thinking of all of you and sending prayers. Kate - 05/06/2018 Best Father I could have ever wished for! I still cry and miss you ! Thank you for knowing what a young woman needed and taking care of me! I also thank you for loving Chuck and knowing he loves me ..He was awkward but you knew he was in love with me and ok! I miss you every day! I pray you see us and see how happy we are and how well Mae is. All your grandkid are great ! You should be so proud! Miss you and love you Feels like yesterday I got to hug you. Love Kate

Dancing with the Stars Recap: Most Memorable Year Dancing with the Stars Recap: Most Memorable Year Season 27, Week 3 Most Memorable Year is the episode where Dancing with the Stars producers have one agenda: Get Carrie Ann to cry. Multiple times, if possible. I’ll admit that I’ve cracked under the pressure in previous episodes, but I held it together during the season 27 sad stories. Except, of course, when DeMarcus starting crying. I’ll cry along with man tears any day of the week. Other than that instance, I was uncharacteristically fine. Nary a teardrop fell down my cheek when someone remembered a loved one who passed away. There wasn’t a hint of a quiver when Mary Lou stuck to her gymnast roots and held back her emotions on live television. I blame two things for my lack of blubbering. One, the fake Ryan Gosling JV troupe dancer extraordinaire distracted me with his Ryan Gosling-ness. Two, DWTS show runners added layers of thick smoke to the flashing lasers and my irritation trumped any forlorn sentiments that may have been hanging around my heart. Are these the first signs of curmudgeonry? Am I turning into Len Goodman? Mary Lou and Sasha “We Are the Champions” by Ray Chew Mary Lou’s most memorable year was when she won the individual gold medal in 1984. It was emotional for her for obvious reasons, but what America may not know is that she had a knee surgery SIX WEEKS before that moment. And it was a secret so the competition wouldn’t mentally check her out of the race. Crazy, right? I like that Mary Lou’s year was a proud moment. She physically looks amazing and the royal blue dress was gorgeous. Sasha partners her well and I appreciated the nod to her achievements with the mellow version of “We Are the Champions.” Here comes the HOWEVER… Mary Lou’s smile is infectious. It brings people joy. Yes, there are times when it’s not appropriate during choreography, but she has to learn to do something different when she’s NOT smiling. Right now she purses her lips like she’s concentrating really hard or smoking an invisible cigarette. It’s even more of a jolt when she transitions from smoker to Mary Lou smile. It gets me every time. Her dancing is so pretty and elegant. Like Len said, her hands are exquisite, forming beautiful shapes. But she can’t seem to claw her way to the top of the leaderboard and I think that’s because of her two facial expressions. She looks unsure when she purses and I think the judges consider that in her scoring. Also, I think it’s unfair that she’s performed first twice in just three weeks. Milo and Witney “Can You Do This” by Aloe Blacc Darling tall baby Milo’s favorite year is 2018. He’s literally living his best life before our eyes. He’s on this cool dancing show, he was a teenage zombie on the Disney Channel, and he’s going to graduate from high school! What better way to celebrate than with all the JV dancers at a mock graduation ceremony? Normally, I don’t approve of so many superfluous dancers, but I didn’t mind this time. Like my roommate Lara pointed out, he could be a JV troupe dancer. Everyone is on equal ground ballroom and all are having a blast. Even Witney’s tin foil silver butt ruffle was somehow charming. Milo and Witney have their choreography down. How do I know? Because they use their camera blocking time to figure out where that camera is going to be during the show and they worked it. They worked it hard. Except for that one time when Milo crawled up onto the judge’s table, flicked and kicked a bit, and then did a back flip off of it before joining his JV buddies for another few eight counts of legitimate jive. It was clean, energetic, fun, and flawless. I’m not sure what Carrie Ann meant when she said Milo had a “zombie arm,” but he took the criticism with grace. Perhaps ABC wants the viewing audience to agree that Milo is not a robot they created in the Disney vault. HE HAS FLAWS! Nancy and Val “Love Someone” by Lukas Graham It would be rude of me not to encourage you to at least head over to iTunes and give Lukas Graham a listen. His new album just came out at the song “Love Someone” is very, very sweet. It’s one that fits perfectly with Nancy’s tribute to her husband and family who are her everything. Now dancing the rumba to that song, which is the dance of love, seems weird. When I say love, I mean bedroom sexy time. Of course Val had the decency to tone the sultriness down, which I appreciate, but when you remove the rolling hip action, you’ve transitioned to eight grade slow dance. Again, this is fine. I just wish they had been given contemporary or lyrical instead of rumba. Nancy looked incredible. She has a version of the mouth syndrome that Mary Lou has, which is unfortunate. Instead of pursed, her lips remain in a straight line. This makes her look scared to me, but what do I know? The judges absolutely loved it. Or they absolutely love Val. I can’t tell the difference. Alexis and Alan “How to Save a Life” by Ray Chew I think Alexis is an extremely talented dancer. Because I’m a pseudo fan, I hopped over to her Instagram to see what she’s been posting about her time on Dancing with the Stars. And she seems to be having a blast with Alan when she’s not posting pictures of her boobs. She’s a swimsuit model. You don’t get 12.4 million followers posting sweaty rehearsal shots for weeks on end while you’re off dancing on a reality show. Famous companies don’t pay you the big bucks to peddle their gummy hair vitamins with a photo of you in a sports bra and stringy ponytail in a random LA dance studio. No m’am. That hair needs to be lusciously cascading down over your exposed breasts like a normal person. Alexis is gorgeous and on the show, she doesn’t seem pompous of full of herself. She’s struggled in life, especially when her mother passed away from cancer. The angst and turmoil she felt was easily portrayed in a lovely contemporary. There was flinging, twirls, lifts, upside down twirling, and more flips. Alan laid it on thick when he zeroed in on the ring she wears every day in honor of her mother. The judges were mesmerized by her poetic movement. I was too, but the image of her in crimson red lacy underwear standing in front of her boyfriend as he flips the camera off mentally fought with the pretty picture blossoming on my television screen. Bottom line: the girl can dance. And this show is seventy-five percent dance competition. The other twenty-five is a popularity vote. The question is: Are her fans the type who watch this show? And will they vote? Evanna and Keo “Hedwig’s Theme” by John Williams Evanna’s most memorable year was when she booked the role for Harry Potter. But the story isn’t as straight-forward as you may assume. You see, Evanna was obsessed with the book series and wrote a letter to JK Rowling. The twist is that she had an eating disorder and Evanna told JK all about it. And JK wrote back! They became pen pals of all things. Evanna told Keo that JK’s kindness made her want to live a healthy life. Isn’t that fabulous? So Evanna puts on a black dress with an unflattering cloak/cape contraption and waltzes all over that floor looking like a proper school marm. She is like a black golden stitch. Len said she was “magical,” which I will allow since she’s dancing to Harry Potter music. What I didn’t expect was a row of nines from all three judges. She was as shocked as I was I think! Joe and Jenna “You Are the Reason” by Calum Scott and Leona Lewis Bless Joe’s heart. Like Milo, he’s living his best life right now, thanks to his girlfriend who dumped him on national TV, but later shouted, “JUST KIDDING” from an ABC limo. Her name is Kendall and she is his everything. Here’s hoping they make it after all the cameras have faded off into the distance. Joe is nervous. We get this about him. Jenna slaps on some hair extensions, creates a routine where he generally stands with his hands behind his back, and makes sure he’s nice and comfortable in a set of silver pajamas. If I were a betting woman, I’d wager that a big shot of tequila was consumed moments before the emotional routine. My boy Joe still clomps around on the stage. Jenna still tries to hide his steps with thousands of laser beams and an entire canister of stage smoke. She literally dances circles around him, feeling the emotion of Calum and Leona crooning live from the stage. There was a decent first pass across the floor that you know they spent the entire week perfecting. And then it was over. Once again, the judges praised him for “finishing” and “trying so hard.” Juan Pablo and Cheryl “Ni Tú Ni Yo” by Jennifer Lopez SCORE: A perfect 30 Juan Pablo’s most memorable year was not booking the gig on Fuller House, because that wouldn’t have made sense with his samba genre. Instead, he talks about how he left Argentina to try and give the movie-making business a go. He chased his impossible dream and look at him now! Seriously. Look at him. He’s freaking fantastic! The judges say it’s one of the best sambas they’ve ever witnessed on the show. (Fast forward to 1:29 to skip the walk down Memory Lane.) John and Emma “Smile” by Ray Chew John cried man tears. Not about the time his family’s home was flooded. Not about the time he found the perfect woman to spend the rest of his life with. But when his mother died. My eyes stung a little bit for sure when he told Emma the story. So Emma decides that she’s going to serve as his mother in the waltz. His mama would be “smiling” because she loved the show and would have been thrilled to see her son dancing on it. I thought the idea was a great one, but I wish Emma hadn’t worn a dress that was so skin tight and sort of see through. Am I taking these themes too literally? Was that just me? The yellow roses flowing from the ceiling were a nice touch. I thought to myself that the new girlfriend Alicia would probably turn up at the end and she did. It was sweet, but predictable. The judges thought John’s emotions carried him away, therefore, some of the technical aspects of the dance were lost. For example, his posture hunched a little too much for a traditional waltz. He score reflected their disappointment. Bobby and Sharna “A Million Dreams” by Malachi Barton Bobby’s memorable year was 1998 when he was the first person from his family to gradate. He came from a school of hard knocks and he’s very proud that he is where he is today. And his mom would be proud, too. She passed away in her 40s from issues with alcohol and addiction. You can tell that Bobby was affected deeply by this, but he chooses joy instead of sadness. This is why we like Bobby’s enthusiasm. And this is why Sharna choreographs to that side of him. Contemporary is a very forgiving dance, meaning, there aren’t a lot of rules a strict moves that fall specifically into that category. Therefore, anything goes most of the time. Including beds on the dance floor. Bobby jumped and leaped and flew through the air, celebrating the fact that he did have a big dream and he did make that big dream come true. Incorporating a mini version of Bobby to sing the song, complete with darling glasses and tiny baby Bobby tattoos on his arm was brilliant. Bobby definitely reigned it in, yet he kept his energetic undercurrent. It was leaps and bounds better than his rouge foxtrot and random magical waltz. The judges loved it, too. Here’s what I wrote for InStyle this week. Tinashe and Brandon “2 On” by Tinashe I like that DWTS stripped down Tinashe’s own song for a sultry rumba. It was an acoustic version that you could tell she loved. And her family was about as adorable as they come. She can also rock a teeny pair of panties under a gossamer dress without it somehow feeling gross. That’s talent. Here’s the deal: I didn’t like the routine. And I blame Brandon for that. I don’t think he’s figured out how to choreograph in a smart way. I feel like he knows he has an awesome partner, so he’s trying to throw everything in along with the kitchen sink. And it just looks and feels erratic. Also, his pit stains pulled focus. The judges, however, gave high marks. DeMarcus and Lindsay “Lux Aeterna” by Clint Mansell We already discussed DeMarcus’ man tears. No, it’s not because he won the Super Bowl. It’s because his kiddos mean the world to him. And he wants to express that love by bench pressing Lindsay above his head in slow motion. What. The. What? I believe I called it in my first InStyle profile on DeMarcus, where I said he would be lifting her above his head in the upcoming weeks. He’s so freaking strong! And she must have hollow bones. Then he double twists her out of it, landing like a baby in his arms! You have to watch at least the beginning of the routine. It was quick and strong, just like an Argentine Tango, but I agree with Len that it felt more like a paso. This must be why he docked them a point, which is ridiculous. I appreciated the intensity and the power. What do you think? (Skip to 1:54) Now that we only have one show per week (PRAISE HANDS!), Tom and Erin are quick to scurry to the front of the stage so they can announce who is in jeopardy. Nancy and Tinashe are bathed in red light, but it’s Nancy who is sent home. This surprises me, since I assumed more people would vote to keep Val around for a few more weeks. Do you think the right person went home? Did Tinashe deserve to be in the bottom? Did the perfect score for Juan Pablo surprise you? Sound off in the comments section!

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Posts filed under 'This Broughton Life' The Post Office closed and reopened as a DVD shop. Then the DVD shop closed and reopened as a shop selling…well, to be honest I’m not sure what it is selling, the window display does not tempt me to cross the street let alone go through the door, but it looks like they are selling ‘gifts’. Or to put it another way, more stuff. Edinburgh’s New Street: not a ‘retail destination’ but the graffiti wall is well worth a visit While Scottish high street retailers call for a freeze in business rates to help them combat the recession and online sales revolution, Broughton Street is an interesting case study in the evolution of the local shopping centre. Gone are post office, jeweller’s, clock-makers and hardware store. But butcher, baker, bookshop and florist survive among cafes, bars, dress and craft (or gift) shops. Broughton is what the city marketing department would call a successful ‘retail destination’. Oh, dear god preserve us from marketing-speak. Part of me applauds Edinburgh city council for seeing the value of bustling neighbourhoods like Broughton and Stockbridge (where, incidentally, St Stephen street is ‘Scotland’s first retail destination to win a WorldHost award for customer service‘. No, I’m not sure what that means either but look out for WorldHost signs popping up in other Edinburgh ‘town centres’ – Bruntsfield, Morningside, West End, Grassmarket and maybe Leith Walk). Encouraging people to enjoy their neighbourhood seems a thoroughly good idea. But my soul shrinks at the very word: retail. On Scottish television last week there was a long item on the plight of the retail industry and the hope that discounts would bring crowds back to those shiny shopping malls. Watching reporters and shoppers trying to get excited about Christmas shopping in, er, shops, I had a brief out-of-planet moment. Is this where evolution has led homo sapiens: from hunter gather to farmer, from farmer to manufacturer, from manufacturers to consumer? Our purpose in life to wander the streets, arms dragged ape-like by bulging poly bags ….? Or, more likely indoors, glued to the screen, in a brave new virtual world of faceless transactions? Is this really our best hope for the future? So much for George Osborne’s talk of rebalancing Britain’s economy from consuming to making. And latest figures suggest we can’t even shop enough to lift the country back to growth. San Anton Market, Madrid: a place to eat, drink and meet friends after the shopping is done While Scotland’s retailers lobby John Swinney to freeze business rates, wouldn’t it be good if policy makers saw an opportunity to do things differently? There’s so much more than shopping to the art and craft of making a prosperous town centre. Cities, like any other environment, thrive on diversity. Good shops are good for local economies but only as part of a healthy mixture of businesses. In many European cities, visitors can explore the spcciality of the neighbourhood – lace and leather making, woodwork and weaving – and of course tourism helps to keep them going. Instead of promoting ‘retail destinations’ Edinburgh might try nurturing the distinct character and culture of different neighbourhoods. reviving and creating local workshops to display the skills of local talent. A Berlin side street, shop and cafe combined December 28th, 2012 A sunny morning and cafe tables are out on the pavement. Pigeons strut, seagulls soar and two women sip a breakfast smoothie by the bus stop. Slowly, oh so slowly, Rodney Street is gaining a sense of place. It’s always been a mystery to me why Rodney Street has taken so long to discover a new identity. Sadly, while Broughton Street blossomed, brassed up and acquired a smart urban look, Rodney Street withered and almost died. It had its own character when we first arrived. I remember pushing a pram down the hill. Past St Cuthbert’s Co-op Store to Preacher’s Patisseries of Perfection, parking the pram outside Bruce and Mary’s fish shop, emerging with newspaper-wrapped, gleaming fresh haddock to find silver coins in the pram (lucky for the new baby). Across the street a crumbling cinema (what was it called?) was demolished to create a building site that lay waste for a long time. Food shops just about held their own when William Low, Scotland’s own supermarket chain, occupied the dip by the traffic lights. Then Tesco took over and the lights went out: Co-op and chemist closed, bakers shut up shop. New life flickered from time to time and some of it survived. Bike shop, ski shop, cake maker and booze store are still going. The florist blooms. But somehow the street never held together as a shopping centre, as a ‘destination’ in marketing-speak. Generally it was somewhere people went through – not to – even though the old cinema waste-land filled with new flats and the flats grew old enough to acquire weather stains. Yet this year, while recession glooms all around, suddenly there is new life in Rodney Street. It has a lot to do with eating. Between the fast food cafe and the ski shop, there’s a sandwich bar and another cafe. But nearby there’s also a gift shop, a letting agency and a chiropractor. Long may they all last. Actually, a cinema would not go amiss. July 29th, 2011 A couple of bees are busy burying themselves in the private parts of bright pink geraniums. I have it on good authority that ladybirds often lurk among the leaves and grasses too. Oblivious to streams of noisy traffic, nature is thriving on an island of wildness in Broughton. It’s this “slice of wilderness in the city”, to quote John Frater who designed and planted the borders in Mansfield Place, that stops me on my way home from the corner shop. On a sunny evening flowering grasses catch the light. Something about the planting reminds me of similar free-flowing borders I admired in Berlin a couple of years ago. Not a stiff municipal bedding plant in sight. And right enough, when I contact Plantforms, Edinburgh garden designer John Frater tells me he spent a week on what sounds like an idyllic gardening course: the Berlin Royal Garden Academy Summer School studying gardens and public spaces in the city. In English. A day with Christian Meyer – the landscape architect who has made his mark with naturalistic plantings across Berlin and many other parts of Germany – inspired John to contact the city council when he got home. That led to the pilot scheme at Mansfield Place – “a test bed if you like” – which began last year. The aim is to show the benefits of replacing annual plants with a softer more natural scheme of perennials which last for years and, once established, need little maintenance. It’s a small but perhaps essential step for City of Edinburgh Council and with luck it will go much further. In fact this new kind of planting is beginning to appear on urban roundabouts and city borders across the UK. Under the Sustainability Charter all local authorities must demonstrate efficient use of energy and natural resources and Parks and Gardens departments are no exception. To put it bluntly, producing millions of annual bedding plants costs too much in time, energy, water, waste – and wages. Now Mansfield Place displays a fine mixture of perennial plants – geraniums, sedums, salvias, spring and summer bulbs – all weaving their way through beautiful waving grasses. The Scottish tufted hair grass Deschampsia cespitosa ‘Schottland’ is the star of the show. “Grasses are the backbone of the planting scheme all year round,” says John “They add height and a soft airyness that can be seen from a distance.” The mix of plants is good for biodiversity – birds, bees, beetles and butterflies – too. And the borders need only a monthly weeding. Room for growth: John’s picture of the newly planted border last year. So far so very good. Last year, complimentary comments to the council far outnumbered complaints. This year, as photographs show, plants are bigger and better (most of them survived the harsh winter). In fact the beds look so good I hope the council will gain confidence to let John plant up the whole of the Broughton roundabout instead of asking him to leave space for annuals (in case passers by miss those bright colours). But that’s far from the end of the story. John, whose first degree was in ecology, has also persuaded the council to allow a more ambitious environmental trial at their nursery. As you can see on his own blog, he is now busy experimenting with seed trials on a spare plot of ground. He hopes to produce a sustainable flowering perennial cover for tricky urban areas like roadside verges and woodland edges. Again there is inspiration from Germany. So this is a good news story with full marks to City of Edinburgh Parks and Gardens for letting it happen. I am looking forward to following the seed trials – and hope to book a place on one of John’s classes on garden design in autumn and early spring. (And maybe that Englische gartenschule in Berlin!) July 11th, 2011 What makes the concept of World Heritage exceptional is its universal application. World Heritage sites belong to all the peoples of the world, irrespective of the territory on which they are located UNESCO World Heritage website So who owns the New Town? The morning after blogging about the bin bags of the New Town, I am strolling along Regent Terrace enjoying the view when I find a pile of rubbish not far from the American Consulate. As it happens there’s a group of tourists right behind me, “What a mess,” says one of them, warily stepping her way round the grot. Coincidentally Ray was taking a picture of a pile of bags in Great King Street (below) demonstrating an attempt to prevent scavenging gulls ripping them open before the bin men get there. Why should I care? I don’t live in Great King Street or Regent Terrace (above) where ‘kerbside sacks’ are collected on Mondays and Thursdays. I live on the edge of the New Town (even that phrase can add a few quid to value of a property ) where wheelie bins are emptied once a week. But, at the risk of sounding obsessed, I think there are two reasons why New Town rubbish is a public issue. The first is a matter of pride. To quote UNESCO, the world heritage site belongs to all of us. Besides, Edinburgh’s World Heritage status is exploited as a tourist attraction. Tourists are encouraged to explore the elegant New Town to admire the 18th century architecture and streetscapes that had a major influence on European town planning. At present the streets don’t look so pretty on Mondays and Thursdays. The second is more serious. At a time when council tax is frozen, when council services are up for privatisation, when funding is withdrawn from support to the most vulnerable people in our city – in short, when every penny counts – then it is simply wrong to waste money on twice weekly collections plus the extra costs of clearing up after spilt bags. Oh go on, accept communal wheelie bins, they won’t look any less aesthetically pleasing than parked cars, and a whole lot better than garbage! Black canvas sacks hung on the railings in Gt King St, emails Ray, an attempt to beat the foxes and seagulls no doubt. But some residents still use bin bags. June 5th, 2011 Oh contrary Edinburgh. While the people of Leith Walk are (rightly) angry with the council for messing up their street (see comments on Ray’s recent ‘rant’) round the corner residents of the posh New Town are turning their neighbourhood into a tip all by themselves. In fact they seem determined to prevent the council from keeping their streets neat and tidy. Up the West End, according to the Evening News, householders are manning the barricades to stop the council supplying communal wheelie bins which would keep their rubbish in the right place. Good to know Auld Reekie gets priorities right: we let bankers away with daylight robbery but take to the streets to prevent the council delivering waste bins. Black bin bags are so much more acceptable in the parts of town where properties fetch an eye watering price (even during the recession). To be fair, Edinburgh New Town is not the only urban area to resist the arrival of the wheelie. A quick online search brings up newspapers across the UK making rubbish puns about community campaigns opposing the wheelie bin. Sometimes they make jokes without realising it: the Wimbledon Guardian (as read on BBC Radio 4 News Quiz) reported a local councillor protesting “It is nonsense to say we are trying to bring wheelie bins in by the back door”. In Edinburgh the argument seems to be that New Town dwellers couldn’t get the bins in by the back door or out the front door either. They simply have no room for bulky bins inside or outside their well proportioned Georgian buildings. And, oh dear, communal bins in a heritage site would be far too common. So these fine flats and houses insist on putting their rubbish out in black bags for hungry foxes and gallous gulls to rip open in search of a ready meal (imagine their disappointment on finding underwear instead) and it gets spread all over the pavement. Lovely. The May issue of the Broughton Spurtle reported a council plan to introduce a pilot scheme for waste collection – some bins, some (gull proof) bags, some communal skips. I feared my picture of the bra might become outdated before I got round to posting it but I needn’t have worried. It does look as if garbage guerrillas are intent on keeping up the fight. Its none of my business – unless of course my (frozen) council tax is helping to pay for the extra cost of picking up their rubbish each week. But I can’t help wondering what they did before the arrival of the black bags in the days when we all had dustbins. May 30th, 2011 I finally found James Grieve beneath a holly bush in the cemetery. At least I think the bare stone plinth marks the spot where he was buried but dense prickles prevented me from burrowing too deep. I left the graveyard with a new curiosity about the man who made such a mark in life. Why has his headstone disappeared? The gravestone is a symbolic resting place when you are on the biographical trail. But of course the story rarely stops there. I remember the sense of satisfaction when Ray and I found the grave of Comptom MacKenzie in a sheltered corner of Barra – a surprisingly modest stone for such a flamboyant man. In another seaside cemetery much further down the west coast, I was oddly moved to find Agnes McDouall’s name on a stone covered in moss – this was the woman whose love of gardening inspired her sons to create the sub-tropical fantasy that is now Logan Botanic Garden. In the case of James Grieve an unmarked grave seems to add an intriguing layer of mystery to the man who gave his name to an apple more than 100 years ago. His face is in the National Portrait Gallery, his name is on a plaque outside his birthplace in Peebles, James Grieve apple trees still grow in old private gardens and some new community orchards. So why is his grave unmarked? The reason for my search was a request from John Dickie of Broughton History Society to write a short biography for the latest newsletter. Kate Love, a member of the society, had rightly thought it would be interesting to feature the once celebrated nurseryman man who lived and worked in the area between 1859 and 1924. So that’s why I was wandering round Rosebank Cemetery, mobile phone in hand. Apart from anything else it was a wonderful excuse to explore a space where the robust character of Leith is carved in stone (ship masters and wine merchants, candle makers and brass founders, along with their less publicly celebrated wives, mothers, sisters and daughters. In the good old days, women were best defined by their relationships to men.) Luckily I was in no hurry; it’s not always easy to find a grave in a graveyard. And the plots on the ground were not quite as neat and orderly as they looked on the map provided by the very helpful man at Mortonhall Crematorium. I got there in the end and the story will appear in the next Broughton History Newsletter. But I feel it might be just the first episode, there could be more to come. If nothing else perhaps one day we could make it easier to find James Grieve by planting an apple tree beside that holly bush. No, neither an apple tree nor a holly bush just a terrific old tree near the Pilrig Street entrance to the cemetery. A Camperdown elm maybe? March 8th, 2011 Does Edinburgh get the kind of Tesco it deserves? I am intrigued to find that old Tesco stories on my blog still attract new comments, curiously some of them are from people who indignantly defend the supermarket but there is an encouraging majority from people who want to support local shops. Tonight I peered through the window of the old bed shop in Picardy Place which is being fitted up for the new Tesco Express. It’s still a building site but under bright lights you can see a handsome space that might have been all kinds of creative things. Or even a more imaginative kind of supermarket. It’s not so fanciful, take a look at what Tesco does in other parts of the world. A few years ago Ray and I discovered that shoppers in Prague and Budapest enjoy a distinctly different kind of Tesco experience. Perhaps it has changed now but in 2007 the newly colonial retailer was almost unrecognisable in both cities and not just because of the old communist architecture. This is the real market but Tesco was selling the same kind of sausage In Budapest, Europe’s biggest Tesco hypermarket (then run by Yorkshireman Paul Kennedy) stocked an astonishing 90% of local produce. Likewise in Prague – where Tesco occupies a rambling old Soviet department store – the Czech supermarket sells mainly Czech goods. And the busiest part of the store by far is the area selling fresh meat, chickens with heads and feet, fish, cheese and local fruit and veg. The kind of stuff Czech people buy in markets and local shops. Britain moans about EU regulations but rolls over backwards to accommodate US retailing culture: fast food, heavily packaged and laden with fats and sugars. In the rest of Europe even McDonalds looks and tastes better – Dougal discovered a McDonalds in Bratislava where they served delicious goats cheese salad, long before they decided to offer healthier options in Britain. (Other travellers make equally surprising discoveries) So I am sure Edinburgh could successfully demand more and better of supermarket chains. The increasingly dysfunctional city council hides behind planning regulations but consumers, Facebook groups and even good old fashioned voters could combine to persuade both retailers and councillors to do things differently. We could start by electing a different council next year. Meanwhile of course local residents can keep on supporting Broughton Street’s excellent independent shops where we can find almost everything we need. Központi Vásárcsarnok, the Great Market Hall in Budapest. Wouldn’t it be great to have one of these in Edinburgh? If the City Council wants to mess about with the Assembly Rooms they could at least do it in style… January 6th, 2011 Never look a gift horse? I’m wandering up Broughton Street in two minds. It seems churlish to complain about bright new shops opening so soon after the old businesses closed down. In the age of austerity too. But the old curmedgeon in me can’t help feeling it’s a shame there are so few shops selling things people need. How many gift shops can Broughton actually support? Whatever happened to places where you could buy purposeful things like string and nails and steel wool; stores with floors that creaked welcome and oozed no-nonsense smells: paraffin, jeyes fluid, linseed oil and maybe just a heady whiff of glue. When we first came here there were at least four hardware stores within walking distance, two of them in Broughton Street. There was Alec’s and a basement place on the corner where you could buy buckets and brooms and get keys cut and shoes mended (or am I rolling several shops into one). It was a long time ago, so long B&Q had not arrived in the neighbourhood, if you wanted paint and plaster board you went to Dodge City down by the Water of Leith. Alas poor Grays: will this be the most interesting display to appear in the new shop? Now they are all gone. Even Grays has turned into White Stuff. The old Edinburgh ironmonger hung on a surprisingly long time in George Street while all around banks turned into bars. Unlike the venerable Crockets – still going strong in Glasgow – Grays seemed to lose its way in the last few years: neither ironmongers, electricians, nor furniture store. But it was a comforting break between bistros and fashion chains. This is grumpy old woman stuff. The other night we went to see The Illusionist (as beautiful a film as friends said it was) and I found an unexpected nostalgia welling up inside me for the days when Patrick Thomson ruled North Bridge, when Jenners was Jenners and shops were shut on Sundays. Things change. Two months ago I wrote about the energising pop-up culture which sees opportunity in empty shops and I was really encouraged at the comments which appeared on my blog, along with news of imaginative new enterprises. One of them, Frugal in Musselburgh, has now graduated from being a temporary pop-up to a growing business in permanent premises. On Broughton Street two of three empty shops have quickly reopened as gift shops, The third is a lovely space which used to be Alec’s hardware store full of nails, timber and steel wool. I don’t suppose there is any chance a pop up ironmonger will reclaim it? November 9th, 2010 A pop-up opportunity until the next tenant comes along? The old hard-ware shop is long gone and now the bright new baby-ware shop that took its place has gone too (though only as far as the next village). I’m sorry to see empty windows and To Let signs in Broughton Street but maybe, just maybe, this is an opportunity for the kind of pop-up enterprise which turns derelict petrol stations into cinemas and transforms the top floor of a multi-storey car park into a stylish bar. Well, why ever not? Empty spaces in city centre villages like Broughton and Stockbridge – not to mention edgy towns like Leith – are crying out to be filled with here-today gone-tomorrow galleries, shops, cafes and offices. I long to see Edinburgh develop the spark of cities like Berlin where the excitement has a lot to do with the fact that café and shops have a slightly precarious DIY feel about them. Could there be signs of a new edginess in Edinburgh? I hope so. Residents of Abbeyhill have been turning their own homes into a kind of pop-up art exhibition once a year for the last four years. Against the odds, during the festival, the third annual Retreat ‘DIY pop festival’ filled Pilrig church hall with local rock bands and their fans and this weekend another home-spun community festival brings jazz to Broughton, occupying not just pubs but also the very elegant Broughton St Mary’s church with local jazz musicians and music lovers of all ages. Then there’s Dance Base coming to the old Thomas Morton Hall in Leith in October (a wonderful space sadly underused). And, come to think of it, the World Kitchen in Leith, popped up in the Drill Hall Arts Café in August and with luck we will pop up again. But that is just scratching the surface. Take a look at the excellent Pop-Up Culture blog created by Tom Lousada. How about that cinema in a derelict petrol station? Or Frank’s Café and Campari Bar on top of a multi-storey car park in Peckham with a fantastic view of the city in a space which will probably not be there for much longer than the three weeks it took to build in the first place. The thrill of these places seems to be at least partly because even when they are legal they feel like they are not and partly because you are lucky to catch them while they are there. This is a different kind of consumer society; a rebellion against the clone city: creative, local, and street-wise, endlessly inventing and re-inventing the space to meet the inspiration of the moment and allowing opportunities to a succession of imaginative enterprises. Let’s do it. Right now I am thinking of Ocean Terminal. Sadly the waterfront of Leith looks like being a monumentally wasted opportunity. But maybe not. As an Edinburgh planner once said to me, it is a pity the Ocean Terminal car parks have the best view in the whole building. Isn’t that just a pop-up restaurant waiting to happen? Pop-up art in Princes Mall during last year’s festival season September 9th, 2010 A new dawn, a new neighbour, a new kitchen Poor old house. I can almost hear it groaning through the adjoining walls as the banging and drilling, the sawing and sanding, the breaking down and tearing up begin all over again. Yet another new neighbour means new paint, new carpets, new bathroom suite and, of course, a brand new kitchen. Even though the one being ripped out was put in just three years ago. White units, so very 2007! The house next door has changed owners six times since we moved into the terrace. Admittedly we have been here a very long time – so long Abba was topping the charts with Dancing Queen (or so it says here) the month we were moving in. Come to think of it that doesn’t seem so long ago but the same year Concorde made its first trans Atlantic commercial flight and Apple launched their first computer. Those were the days … building societies insisted on deposits before lending money to young couples, people bought records and a computer was so big it would fill an ensuite bathroom (though no-one had ensuite). Just about every other house in the street was a B&B and the one next door was pretty rough. Now there are no B&B’s, even the upmarket guest houses have turned into stylish private houses and only two other families have lived here longer than us. Why do some houses seem to hold on to their occupants? Our house has changed hands only four times since it was built in 1860. Next door, people come and go with increasing regularity and with them come and go their kitchens and ensuite bathrooms. We never intended to stay in one place for so long but I like the feeling of continuity (if not the decades of clutter). Thanks to our lovely neighbour on the other side I know a little bit about the previous owners who had lived here for more than 50 years. Very intriguingly, they held bathroom parties to which guests arrived by climbing the drainpipe on the back wall – sadly the building society made us replace the old cast iron bath with claw feet but in a cupboard in the bathroom there is still a fragment of the original wallpaper. And the family left their handsome clock in the hall because it had been there so long they didn’t think it right to remove it. So our house has always been a home though property prices round us go through the roof. It was a stretch for us to buy the place during the recession of the 70s (1970s I mean); even more sobering to think that if we wanted to move into the street now we wouldn’t be able to afford our own house. I like to think that the next owners might also be looking for a home. Maybe like us they would live with the old kitchen for a year or two. In our case that included a distinctly dodgy museum piece of a gas cooker. In fact we didn’t get round to a fancy fitted kitchen until 2000. By that time Madonna topped the charts, Concorde had only three years to go. Apple of course is still going strong, even as I type. And so is the kitchen. April 13th, 2010

Who is Althouse? * View only LAW posts * Contribute * Shop AMAZON* I am so shocked...And here comes the justification brigade in 3...2...1... I hope that Mr. Sullivan can maintain an even keel with such a roiling issue. What a surprise! I wonder if Andrew will figure out the timeline on this one. No surprise here they have all their top men screwing over the economy, they'll get around to the military in due course. I find it odd that I'm finally in agreement with the homosexual political agenda. Don't ask, don't tell should finally be repealed. . . . and we should return to the status quo ante where homosexuals were properly booted from the military. Perhaps after sending more than 17,000 of our troops to the bone yards of Afghanistan, "The Won" decided it wasn't a great time to antagonise the military. Just a hunch. Wow I hope there is room under the bus. "Don't as, don't tell" is a cornerstone of the Obama administration.Don't ask Obama about anything, because he doesn't want to tell you what's going on. Obama is like Bush?Oh really. Please name one, just one, time that Bush ever questioned "don't ask, don't tell" in the slightest. Name one, just one, time that Bush suggested that we reexamine the policy. I didn't think you could. Lame tags = Althouse specialty. Actually, I'm in favor of don't ask don't tell......about a lot of things. There a things in life that I don't need to know and one of them is the sexual orientation or sexual practices of my co-workers. I am also not interested in receiving unsolicited information about many other aspects of other people's lives. Religion, bathroom practices (Titus), political persuasions.Unless we are personal friends....I'm not going to ask....and you can please shut up ....don't tell me. We would all be better off with a little discretion and respect for each other's differences. I'll never ask.I'll never tell. And I was hoping to see a whole new meaning to top brass. Shucks.BTW, under whose administration was this policy implemented? What political persuasion was that President? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm? I am of two minds here. On the one hand, I think that it is time that the military stops overtly discriminating against Gays in the military, esp. in non-intimate situations, which likely includes a significant majority of all postings. On the other hand, I really am tired of hearing about Gay this and Gay that. I really don't need to hear whether someone is Gay, Lesbian, Bi, Transgendered, etc. And from that point of view, I don't mind don't ask/don't tell. I wouldn't mind if Don't Ask, Don't Tell were repealed. The middle of a war might not be the best time to go about it, but really, when is a good time? If it's important, let's get it done, so we can get the unpleasantness out of the way and get back to killing terrorists. Basic trainees will have to come up with a new way to get sent home when they can't hack Basic, and a few MOS's won't have an easy way to avoid being stop-lossed anymore, but at the same time gay soldiers who want to stay won't be forced out either.But Obama has no credibility on this issue. Neither do the Democrats in Congress. At any time, up to last year, he could have introduced a bill to do this. He could have staked his reputation on it, he could have shepherded it through committee, made a stand, lobbied to get the 3/4 votes necessary to override a possible veto. And we don't even know that Bush would have vetoed it, because the Democrats never once bothered challenging him on the issue. Injustice to gays means nothing more to Democrats than a whip to prod well-meaning liberals to the polls. Forcing the issue may be the only solution. My father was career Army and he was pleased in how quickly African-Americans were assimilated once the issue became moot. It was a point of pride.The military needs to man up and do it themselves as it's the right thing to do. Well, Salamandyr said everything I was going to. So, um, ditto I guess. :) The Obama Administration's policy goals are emergency socialization of the USA Province of the World Governing Authority in order to smooth out any confusion and allow a quick and successful merger of Governments. The Gay Issues will not have much clout anymore in a World to be administered by UN treaty. The former Gay issues have no importance. Barney Frank will not need to be asked anything and will not have any power left by next year. BJM said... Forcing the issue may be the only solution. My father was career Army and he was pleased in how quickly African-Americans were assimilated once the issue became moot. It was a point of pride.The military needs to man up and do it themselves as it's the right thing to do.Why?The military practices "don't ask, don't tell - widely".Besides homos, recruits from W Virginia are not asked about incest, those from New Mexico are not asked about beasiality, and those from Utah about polygamy. Juris Dentist reveals all.You people just don't understand! Obama cares. He considers things.Bush never once even thought about repealing DADT but Obama will think, ponder and brood over it. He'll never change it, but his heart is in the right place!That's why he could never, ever be like Bush who never thought about anything and was just another dumb Christian gay-hater. Dust Bunny, what you describe sounds more like "don't ask, don't care" which is the correct policy.From all appearances, most of the military would be just fine lifting the ban, but it is kept in place by a small number of religious fanatics (yes, I know, U.S. style, which is nothing like Islam style) who have drawn a line in the sand before certain key fundamental points of equality before the law. Namely, military service and marriage. If they can win here, they can keep gays as second class citizens.Ultimately, Obama's saving grace is that he's a gutless chump who will always back down in the face of opposition. Otherwise, he'd really be radical. Tim wrote: If they can win here, they can keep gays as second class citizens.Homosexuals are not second class citizens. They have all the rights that anyone else has. They want to have more rights is the problem. They say you learn something new every day.I just learned that the Democratic Party kotows to a small number of religious fanatics.I have to admit.I didn’t see that one coming. "Bush never once even thought about repealing DADT but Obama will think, ponder and brood over it. He'll never change it, but his heart is in the right place"Out of curiosity, what will you say if he does change it? Name one, just one, time that Bush suggested that we reexamine the policy. I didn't think you could.Let me see if I've got this straight: the critical difference between Bush and Obama is that the former *didn't* misrepresent his position on DADT. And this is a mark against... Bush?Interesting. Minzo,Not really the point, is it? Clinton instituted it and he's not classed in with the homophobes like those awful Republicans.As for religious fanatics, I note that the late Col. Hackworth was against it, essentially, for morale reasons. I never once heard him talk about religion, though he may have been a, em, closet fanatic or something. As much as I like this blog, I have to say Ann was a lot more even-handed before Obama was elected President. Since then its been a steady stream of snarky remarks and sneering outrage- I dont think shes linked to a story or made a post that implies that Obama hasnt been a total disaster. She doesnt seem to do moderate anymore. Rev,You left out that Bush did not repeal the policies of his predecessor- just because- who was from the opposition party and agenda. The military needs to man up and do it themselves as it's the right thing to do.The military can't pick and choose which laws they have to obey. Don't Ask, Don't Tell was enacted by a solidly Democrat controlled Congress in 1993 and signed into law by a Democrat president (Clinton). Until the law if repealed, the military has no choice but to comply. Too bad academic airheads at places like Yale can't understand this. Minzo,I think Ann is more than a little contrarian. If the dominant meme is "Bush is stupid" she's going to challenge that with posts about his intelligence and accomplishments.Right now, the meme is "Obama is different." Considering the state of our nation, why would anybody think this would be at the top of the list?I think it will be repealed, but right now there are other, more important matters to consider and address. Jeremy,Considering the state of our nation, why would anyone think nationalizing health care and universal pre-K should be at the top of our to-do list? Clinton signed it into law as a stopgap.It will be repealed. If I was interested in joining the conservative movement I wouldn't know whether to start a revolution or feel safe in the fact that Obama is just like Bush. Don't Ask, Don't Tell was enacted by a solidly Democrat controlled Congress in 1993 and signed into law by a Democrat president (Clinton).I suspect this points to the reason why the Obama administration is kicking it down the road. What Congress wants, congress gets and I don't think the Dems in Congress want to be called on this. You vote for politicians knowing they won't live up to their rhetoric, that they will even equivocate on their ideals. It's still disappointing when it happends. Blake-Thats a fair point and I hadnt thought of it that way. That said, its hard to find moderate blogs out there and one reason I became a regular here during the elections was that this was one of the few blogs that took shots at both candidates and was clearly moderate and restrained. That appears to have changed now. Perhaps she is unconsciously playing to the gallery. The majority of posters here are very hostile to Obama after all and it seems that hostility is increasingly reflected in her own posts. Just my two cents. Hopey changey GI Joe. C4, come on man, you're not that obtuse, how did you formulate that response from my comment? No one should be asked about their sexual preferences. Clear enough? I think it's wrongheaded and counterproductive. Clear enough? Either we're all equal or we're not. Clear enough?I also believe gays should be allowed to marry. Clear enough?As to my original point;As long as the military dances around the issue it will diminish their moral standing in the community at large; just as segregation did in its time. The military needs to do this voluntarily, not begrudgingly, as it would serve the military better if they fully practice the ideals and principles on which this nation was founded and they ably defend. Well, it doesn't really make sense to take shots at the Reps: They're toothless at this point.O's the guy. The job description for US President is "Responsible for everything that goes wrong anywhere in the world during tenure. And sometimes after. And occasionally before."It's a crap job. Only a nut would want it. Homosexuals . . . want to have more rights is the problem.Same-sex marriage will be an extension of rights that has nothing to do with sexual appetite, so far as I can tell.Today, a gay man can marry a lesbian woman, within limits.Tomorrow, it might be the case that a straight man can marry a straight man, within limits. Blake - I don't know if either are at the "top of our to-do list," but I would assume he's trying to save massive amounts of money being spent by Americans? As for pre-K, Obama is asking for about $10 billion more per year so I don't think it's a deal breaker from the left or the right.Based on your logic any form of spending that results in future savings are out of the question?Do you pay for your health insurance or is it paid for by your employer?If you're paying for it yourself you already know it's a major hit for most Americans. Blake - "The job description for US President is 'Responsible for everything that goes wrong anywhere in the world during tenure. And sometimes after. And occasionally before'."Now you're really opening a Pandora's Box... Jeremy,You've moved from whether a policy should be at the top of the to-do list to whether it's a good one at all.Immediate economic stimulus is not going to come from universal health-care or pre-K.As for the amounts he's asking for, that's just the camel's nose under the tend, as W demonstrated clearly with his massive bailout--the ones that Mr. Change is following through on with a vengeance. Minzo - "I became a regular here during the elections was that this was one of the few blogs that took shots at both candidates and was clearly moderate and restrained.."You're kidding, right? Gays in the military is not being held back by fanatics, religious or otherwise. It's being held back because not one person who claims to support it will submit a bill to change it.It's a federal law, folks. The military can't just stop obeying it, neither Bob Gates or Barack Obama can just decide it doesn't exist anymore. What has to happen is one Democratic Congressman has to look down, notice that he has a pair, and submit a bill, then let everybody vote on it.But they won't do that, because they'd much rather blame it all on the big, bad Republicans. They care more about donations than justice. I jest not Jeremy- that was my impression-Perhaps because I'd been overly exposed to the separate extremes. What was your impression of her election coverage? blake - It would be impossible for any President to dedicate every dollar in any budget to an "immediate economic stimulus."We have what are called elected officials who are also responsible to their own specific constituents and what one calls wasteful spending, another calls important and necessary.During the election campaign, Sarah Palin made waves with her no thanks to earmarks yet Alaska is #3 in average citizen earmarks so what do you say to that?Think Alaskans will ask her to send the money back?I-don't-think-so. That said, its hard to find moderate blogs out there and one reason I became a regular here during the elections was that this was one of the few blogs that took shots at both candidates and was clearly moderate and restrained. That appears to have changed now.How is repeatedly saying that Obama is like Bush "immoderate"?If she was constantly attacking him for being a left-winger or crypto-socialist you could legitimately cite that as an example of a rightward tilt. But pointing out ways in which the Democrats and Republicans are similar? Do you see many Republicans saying Obama is like Bush? Many Democrats?For that matter, how is the "Obama is like Bush" meme an example of hostility towards Obama? Our hostess didn't dislike Bush. She doesn't dislike Obama, either. I'm pretty sure the governor of Alaska is not king. (Or queen.)What was she supposed to do, exactly? I know she wants to reject part of the stimulus--the expansion of government part--but I don't know if she actually has the mojo to stop it. I can't pretend that Obama's approach is sensible: It's not. What I think is going to happen--basing this on what I see as a parallel between the '30s and now--is that the economy's going to start to recover and then, bang, the "stimulus" will kick in a wipe out the recovery.That's just my best guess, and I hope I'm wrong. But when Obama considers FDR's actions as settled science, I get an eerie feeling that I'm not. Revenant- Perhaps I chose the wrong word there. perhaps I should have used 'balanced'. Not only are the vast majority of the stories anti-Obama but there's usually a snarky and sneering tone to them. I still like the blog, I was just giving my opinion on how I think its changed. The military needs to do this voluntarily, not begrudgingly, as it would serve the military better if they fully practice the ideals and principles on which this nation was founded and they ably defend.BJM, what you fail to understand or refuse to understand is that the Military doesn't have a choice. The US Congress passed a law and Clinton signed it into law and as such they are bound to uphold the law. The military upholds the laws and follows the Constitution. That is one of the principles that our nation was founded upon. Separation of powers. The military doesn't make the laws, the President doesn't make the laws (although he can certainly persuade and propose policy that will be come law). Congress makes the law. If you have a problem with DADT, take it up with your Congresscritter. Based on your logic any form of spending that results in future savings are out of the question?No credible path to cheaper healthcare has been offered. Then there's the uncomfortable fact that government "assistance" in an area has, in the past, always resulted in price increases: food stamps and grocery bills, health care and medical expenses, student aid and tuition costs, etc.So really this is just a matter of spending $10 billion of our money now so that we can spend even more of our money later. Obama hasn't discovered a magical way to repeal the law of supply and demand. :) Minzo - I think Ann produces headlines to get things rolling, and knowing a majority of her regulars are conservative, you can imagine what the overall coverage and response was. Bissage quipped: Tomorrow, it might be the case that a straight man can marry a straight man, within limits.Yep, and the farce of same sex "marriage" is thus exposed. Sarah Palin made waves with her no thanks to earmarksJeremy... she said no thanks to that particular earmark because of the strings attached that would not benefit the people of her State. All these so called bail-outs have some serious strings attached to them as many in private industry are now painfully finding out. The government and especially this regime doesn't do anything for free. Gift horse, mouth, look carefully. The Althouse interest in Obama stories seems to be focused on the contradictions she sees between his opportunity to be a truly great President and the easy stuff of governing that Obama has acted like he is oblivious to, or for which he is too focused on some grand strategy of reformation. Obama seems to have a Harvard Professor's noble to do list for the country, but no will to act on it. Since Althouse has been around these theoretical types at U of Wis., she probably has become allergic to their constantly missing the boat in the everyday practical duties of running an Administration. It wont get done by wishing. Maybe Obama should hire us a Manager as the everyday President, and move on to the next election campaign. Not only are the vast majority of the stories anti-Obama but there's usually a snarky and sneering tone to them.Skimming the handful of Obama stories currently on the front page of Althouse, I don't see any examples of "anti-Obama" stories. There's some snark, but there's always snark. Rev - "No credible path to cheaper healthcare has been offered."Not yet, but what's your point?Because you haven't been persuaded, don't want it, haven't seen the complete plan, that it can't possible be the correct course, can't possibly create massive savings for Americans?I've asked this before but maybe you can answer this: Why are we the only industrialized nation in the world without national health care? Are all of these other countries just plain dumb? (I also have good friends who are physicians, and especially nurses, who always tell me we need is a single payer system much like Medicare and Medicaid for everybody.)Or could it be that our insurance companies have us by the ass? Id argue the story we are commenting on falls in that category. 'Shut up, they're busy" is hardly a nuanced approach to that story. Minzo, Althouse voted for Obama. What is the point your are really trying to make? Id argue the story we are commenting on falls in that category. 'Shut up, they're busy" is hardly a nuanced approach to that story.That's the charitable explanation. The more realistic and "nuanced" explanation is that they simply lied during the campaign and don't really enough about gay rights to expend any political capital over the issue. Would you feel better if Ann had wrote that instead? Or are you really complaining about the fact that she brought it up at all? Let's see. Obama has decided not to change a policy that Clinton implemented, so it's Bush's fault. And to refresh your memory and your vocabulary, from the Merriam-Webster:nu·ance Pronunciation: \ˈnü-ˌän(t)s, ˈnyü-, -ˌäⁿs; nü-ˈ, nyü-ˈ\ Function: noun Etymology: French, from Middle French, shade of color, from nuer to make shades of color, from nue cloud, from Latin nubes; perhaps akin to Welsh nudd mist Date: 1781 1 : a subtle distinction or variation 2 : a subtle quality : nicety 3 : sensibility to, awareness of, or ability to express delicate shadings (as of meaning, feeling, or value) — nu·anced \-ˌän(t)st, -ˈän(t)st\ adjective I am sick and tired of seeing/hearing it being misused. Bunny - "Jeremy... she said no thanks to that particular earmark because of the strings attached that would not benefit the people of her State."You're talking about the "bridge to nowhere," but she only jumped on that band wagon when it became a national story and interfered with the campaign mantra.Alaska is set to receive $506.34 per capita, the highest in the nation. (Taxpayers for Common Sense, a watchdog group which tracks earmarks.) Sofa - "The more realistic and "nuanced" explanation is that they simply lied during the campaign and don't really enough about gay rights to expend any political capital over the issue."That's absolutely not the case.They've made it perfectly clear what their intentions are, but right now it appears this specific action is not quite as important as righting the economy.What is it you don't understand? Elcubanitor- wow you must be quite the life and soul of the party. If I misused the word nuance, I hereby bow humbly before you O lord Guardian of the English language. He probably doesn't understand why it just hasn't been a priority for any Democrat in the 15 years since Clinton and his Dem Congress passed it.What is it you know that ameliorates that? I've asked this before but maybe you can answer this: Why are we the only industrialized nation in the world without national health care? Are all of these other countries just plain dumb?It is the nature of the state to acquire more power over time. This inevitably and inexorably leads to totalitarianism. The Founding Fathers realized that and so did everything they could to limit the power of the state, where other countries came from more totalitarian background and so slipped into them more easily.Here's the part of the equation you leave out: I don't want your health care; I don't think much of it at all; I sure as hell don't want to pay for it, and I don't want the occasional service I do want to have its price driven through the roof by monopoly.Of course, I'm stuck paying for it. Just as I am with the substandard educational system, industry destroying unions, corrupt procurement processes for military and other areas, and for a two-party system where each party serves itself over all. Not yet, but what's your point?You said Obama was "trying to save massive amounts of money being spent by Americans?". You now concede that he doesn't actually have any idea how to do that. So that isn't why the $10 billion is being spent. QED.Why are we the only industrialized nation in the world without national health care?Argumentum ad populum fallacy.Or could it be that our insurance companies have us by the ass?The answer is simple and doesn't require paranoid conspiracy theories. Our demand for health care is growing much faster than the supply. Ergo prices are going up, as they always do when demand outstrips supply.The Obama plan is to dramatically increase the demand for health care (by helping tens of millions of additional people buy it) without doing anything at all to increase the supply. This is supposed to -- heh! -- *lower* costs. It would be funny if it wasn't so pathetic. Minzo said... Id argue the story we are commenting on falls in that category. 'Shut up, they're busy" is hardly a nuanced approach to that story.Ok. How about "Never mind, we're busy." Feel better now?You didn't notice that Althouse tends to the skeptical and contrarian? I guess "speaking truth to power was fun with Bush, but not now?" Obama is a pretty easy target right now. How can she resist? Minzo, that's not the question I asked. What is the larger point you are trying to make? They've made it perfectly clear what their intentions are, but right now it appears this specific action is not quite as important as righting the economy.What is it you don't understand?I don't understand how the two are connected, except in the way I already said. Do you really believe Congress is simply incapable of passing such a trifle of a bill? The only plausible explanation is that securing its passage would require the expenditure of political capital, and Obama simply does not care enough about that issue to spend it.You want Ann, and others presumably, do give Obame all kinds of credit for having good intentions. To excuse this failure to follow through on his promises because he says he would if he could. No dice, talk is cheap. My larger point was that Althouse seemed more balanced before the election but since then has been relentlessly anti-Obama. Others have pointed out that she tends to be contrarian and skeptical of those in power so such a shift in her approach isnt that suprising. I conceded that was a fair point but I still maintain the site has lost a lot of its balance and to my mind has suffered as a result. Thats just my two cents. Id argue the story we are commenting on falls in that category. 'Shut up, they're busy" is hardly a nuanced approach to that story.It is snarky but entirely accurate. What's the "nuance" that a "moderate" person should apply in this situation? The Obama Administration is punting on a campaign promise because they've "got a lot on [their] plates right now".If pointing out that Obama's words and deeds differ counts as "anti-Obama" then obviously Ann's going to have a lot of anti-Obama posts. You can't honestly comment on his first two months in office without noticing the wide gulf between his campaign and his Presidency. Alaska is set to receive $506.34 per capita, the highest in the nation. (Taxpayers for Common Sense, a watchdog group which tracks earmarks.)Well, THAT's just not fair. They should get more. In exchange for having their natural resources locked away from productive use that might create jobs and wealth and for the government appropriating huge swaths of their land to be preserved as pictureseque parks for the wealthy, the people of Alaska deserve better.Eye, beholder. Minzo, and how exactly would the site return to "its balance"? A little reflection will show that not everything can be at the top of one's to-do list. It's on the list, and the Obama administration is working with the relevant stakeholders to resolve the issue.And unlike Truman, who led infantry into combat, Obama like Clinton has not earned credibility and respect from active military with combat experience. Like a priest counselling married couples, he has an obstacle to overcome before people willingly take his advice. Obama is doing too much. Obama is doing too little. Take your pick. GM--You left out, "Obama is doing just the right amount, it's just all wrong."Actually, I haven't heard anyone say "Obama is doing too little." That's not what this post says at all. Obama is doing too much. Obama is doing too little. Obama is doing too much of too little. A little reflection will show that not everything can be at the top of one's to-do list. It's on the list, and the Obama administration is working with the relevant stakeholders to resolve the issue.And unlike Truman, who led infantry into combat, Obama like Clinton has not earned credibility and respect from active military with combat experience. Like a priest counselling married couples, he has an obstacle to overcome before people willingly take his advice.What a great example of how to write a lot of words yet say nothing. What does that mean, "working with the relevant stakeholders?" What is this "obstacle to overcome?" It's a Dem President with an overwhelmingly Dem Congress. The military is obliged to follow whatever laws they pass, they don't have a choice and they don't have a voice. Congress could repeal it today if they wanted to, your confused verbiage notwithstanding. DBQ, The prevailing military culture is established by tacit consent within a framework of laws, just as in the civilian world. Attitudes can be changed within the culture. The military already provides more guidance and educational material about sex than any civilian workplace. They have legal means to change attitudes if they choose to do so.Then the issue wouldn't be a political lightning rod. Bunny - "Well, THAT's just not fair. They should get more."But, but...what about the...earmarks thingie? Obama is doing too much of too little.Of course he is doing a great job of giving daiy press conferences and running for President.Oh, he is the President? Little Wheel Spin and SpinMeet the new boss If Obama has to "consult" with "the relevant stakeholders" before deciding whether or not to repeal DADT, how come he advocated repealing it before? I mean besides the obvious "he wanted the gay vote" reason, of course.For pity's sake, Congress found time to hold hearings and pass that idiotic AIG bonus tax. You're telling me THAT was a higher priority than repealing DADT? Reclaiming a tenth of a percent of the AIG bailout money via probably unconstitutional means takes a front seat to gay rights? The military already provides more guidance and educational material about sex than any civilian workplace.So your argument is that even though the law orders the military to consider gay sex to be a dishonorable and illegal activity, the military should be devoting money and resources to "educating" its membership that there's nothing wrong with gay sex?How exactly does that make any fuckin' sense at all? Here's an idea: if you want to educate the members of the military that there's nothing wrong with gay sex, maybe Congress should stop ordering the military to dismiss people who openly have gay sex. Its just crazy enough to work. I find the discussion centering on whether Obama is doing too little or too much, well, too much.As an example: I can't imagine anybody here, who was an investor in a major corporation, asking the Board of Directors to review the kind of action being taken by a CEO or President of the corporation, after such a brief period. They would be laughed out of the room.We have major problems right now and I just don't understand the intense scrutiny of literally every comment, policy suggestion or action taken or even considered by the Obama administration.And if the Republicans, who constantly say they have a better solution to our problems, really do, then they should offer them up so we have a point of comparison and can provide the same kind of examination. In the grand scheme of things, is this one minor issue really that important? I wonder, does the Army still do short arm inspections? As a veteran, I don't want gay men in the services. Lesbians, on the other hand, I'm all for. I wish we would have had a couple in my outfit. Hey I think it is great that they are holding hearings on the college football playoff's. Now that's some important shit right there. Little Wheel Spin and SpinMeet the new bossThe advantage of being 'ahem'...older. You get to see the wheel come full circle. To be able to step back and take a look at all the wheels in the machinery and the bigger picture.Sometimes that's a good and satisfactory thing...other times like now, not so much.This might be why conservatives tend to look upon progressive/liberals with some ration of pity and annoyance. Most are so young. They view the world through youthful, unrealistic, uncritical, idealism: untempered by time or experience. We have major problems right now and I just don't understand the intense scrutiny of literally every comment, policy suggestion or action taken or even considered by the Obama administration.Well, my first thought is: They're tampering in God's domain. Well, not God's, but not governments. They should be scrutinized -- also, mockery and derision should be employed.It's easier to stop the government from taking power than it is to try to get it back once it takes it.My second thought is: Compared to what? Wasn't every move of W's administration scrutinized? Sure seemed like it.And if the Republicans, who constantly say they have a better solution to our problems, really do, then they should offer them up so we have a point of comparison and can provide the same kind of examinationThe party out of power always says that, and seldom has anything. Case in point, the Dems.Their solution to Bush's out-of-control spending? Spend 10x as much! Now, really, if they'd come out and been honest about that, the races might have been a little closer. The military is obliged to follow whatever laws they pass, they don't have a choice and they don't have a voice.The military is obliged to defend the United States. If Congress passes a law which impedes achievment of their mission, ignoring it is only rational.Leadership can not rely on a naked show of authority. Weasel is as weasel does. He could have changed this with a stroke of a pen. So if he is not, what is he stroking? Where is downtownlad? We need his explanation right about now. The military is obliged to defend the United States. If Congress passes a law which impedes achievment of their mission, ignoring it is only rational.Leadership can not rely on a naked show of authority.That "naked show of authority" being elections, you mean?This might be why conservatives tend to look upon progressive/liberals with some ration of pity and annoyance. Most are so young. They view the world through youthful, unrealistic, uncritical, idealism: untempered by time or experience.Yes, where as tiresome and world-weary conservatives believe that leaders in our government would never EVER do anything wrong, so it's totally okay for them to torture and eavesdrop in secret without accountability to the courts or Congress because they only ever torture and eavesdrop on people who deserve it anyway. Naive, indeed. If Congress passes a law which impedes achievment of their mission, ignoring it is only rational.Somehow I don't think that DADT rises to the level of a nation threatening emergency. You are getting pretty dramatic here :-)So.... are you saying if Congress passes a law which pulls the military out of Iraq and they feel that it impedes their mission that they should be free to rationally ignore it and continue fighting? blake: "Wasn't every move of W's administration scrutinized? Sure seemed like it."Oh, I think you'll have a tough time selling that one.You really remember Bush being "scrutinized" like this after 60 days or so?C'mon. Yes, where as tiresome and world-weary conservatives believe that leaders in our government would never EVER do anything wrong, so it's totally okay for them to torture and eavesdrop in secret without accountability to the courts or Congress because they only ever torture and eavesdrop on people who deserve it anyway. Naive, indeed.....and I said this .....where?Actually, conservatives don't trust government to do much of anything right. Trooper: You got it! The average Democrat in a marginal congressional district is all for holding hearings on football and passing bills of attainder. Those are vote-winners. Repealing DADT might be a vote-loser, though, so its on the back-burner. A few supposedly safe Senate seats are looking shaky right now, too, so there isn't much enthusiasm among Senate Democrats either. Ann, I realize he's quite the powerful man and all, what with his wealth, influence and charitable work, but I'm pretty sure that Bill Gates probably doesn't have a major contribution to this topic. Unless of course he has required the next version of America's Army to be more inclusive. "Like a priest counselling married couples, he has an obstacle to overcome before people willingly take his advice."Oh, dear.The military is obliged to defend the United States. If Congress passes a law which impedes achievment of their mission, ignoring it is only rational.There was a whole lot of ignoring the law against having females in combat in Iraq and once the Army and Marines weren't able to pretend they weren't doing it they couldn't get away with it like before. I agree, certainly, that part of what they teach you in the military is how to function around the rules. Still, the rules are *never* ignored.Leadership can not rely on a naked show of authority.The Congress can, however, change the rules anytime they want to do so.Did Obama actually promise to repeal DADT? Or was that one of those things that he expressed in such a way that anyone would think that he agreed with them either way? He did a lot of that. walter neff said..."Weasel is as weasel does. He could have changed this with a stroke of a pen."Well, maybe.But wouldn't you rather have a President who discusses such matters with the people it most affects before grabbing the pen?He also says he wants National Health care so are you saying he's a "weasel" because he hasn't immediately signed a bill providing such? So.... are you saying if Congress passes a law which pulls the military out of Iraq and they feel that it impedes their mission that they should be free to rationally ignore it and continue fighting?No, that would be changing their mission. Let's say that animal rights advocates succeeded in passing a law putting the military on a vegan diet. Or prohibitng them from using imported oil to fuel their vehicles. You really remember Bush being "scrutinized" like this after 60 days or so?C'mon.Of course he was. It was all about how he didn't really win so he had an obligation to behave like the Democrats wanted him to, so whatever he did was groused about. That started on day one. He didn't have a *crisis* though, until 9-11, at which time even the Democrats liked him for a while. Why are we the only industrialized nation in the world without national health care? Are all of these other countries just plain dumb?Socialized health care is very, very good at spending money on routine checkups. This pleases most people, because most people are healthy most of the time, and they like being able to see doctors whenever they have a minor health issue. Being able to rush your child to the doctor for every bout of flu without having to worry about the cost is nice. With most people pleased, they vote to maintain the system.Socialized health care is also very, very good at refusing to spend money on expensive lifesaving care that didn't exist when the system was formed. This doesn't affect most people, because most people do not need such care. And since those who are shorted on it die, they don't get to vote against it after experiencing the downside of the system. Often, the members of the family don't even know that an expensive treatment that would have had a 10% chance of saving the patient's life was not available due to lack of funding. The military is obliged to defend the United States.So it is ok for them to ignore that torture ban Obama signed, if they feel they need to in order to get information out of an enemy combatant.Good to know. :) I would like a president who didn't lie about what he was going to do when he became President so he could get elected. I have not seen one in my lifetime. But that is no excuse for this one. You have to call him on it. No matter how much you shine this turd it still stinks. He lied to his gay supporters and this is just the first of many things he will screw them on. It seems like they have no where else to go. They are just going to lay back and take it. Right downtownlad? No, that would be changing their mission.You tried to change the topic.The military is obliged to defend the United States. If Congress passes a law which impedes achievment of their mission, ignoring it is only rational.If the military felt that the law to stop fighting in Iraq threatened the the safety of the United States, you feel that they should rationally ignore that law?If the military was told to ignore the civil war on our Southern Border and many of the military and their leaders (who come from those areas) felt that by standing down they were putting not only their own families in danger but possibly the security of the entire country....you would be ok with them rationally ignoring Congress's failure to pass a law or ruling to go to war and just start fighting anyway?You can't pick and chose the rules you want to uphold because you like some and don't like others. That is a very very dangerous path to go down.The correct path is to go through the processes and change the rules. And to further throw gasoline on the fire....this is what happened in California and why Prop 8 passed. People recognized that the rules/laws enacted by the people should not be back doored by a process that was not intended to make law. Separation of powers. But then a lot of black people hate gays anyway so that might be part of it. Actually, conservatives don't trust government to do much of anything right.I always laugh when I hear conservatives working in government proudly declare that government is the problem. So why are they in government!? I think gays should be able to serve in the military. To put their ass on the line. You might say. I always laugh when I hear conservatives working in government proudly declare that government is the problem. So why are they in government!?Hoping to be able to take out the trash? Remind me again why I'm an evil subhuman traitor to gays everywhere if I don't vote Democrat? A bunch of gay guys really tortured this lesbian golfer by making her bring tons of room service on the Celebrity Apprenice last night. I bet the would be great at torturing information out of terrorists. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the oath our Armed Forces take swear them to defend the Constitution, not the country itself?I know we all recognize that FLS is talking out his ass on this whole "the military doesn't have to obey the law if it wants to" thing. But I'm pretty sure his specific claim about military obligations is wrong, too. The military might be able to defend the country while ignoring the law, but it cannot defend the Constitution while ignoring a Constitutionally valid law passed by Congress and signed by the President. The military is obliged to defend the United States. If Congress passes a law which impedes achievment of their mission, ignoring it is only rational.This shows a great ignorance of the US military on your part. The biggest thing that separates the US from those "coup of the month club" countries is our long tradition of civilian control of the military. The US military is adamant about maintaining this legacy (bad movies and books like "7 Days in May" notwithstanding). When a law like DADT is passed by Congress and signed by the president, the military has no option but to obey. They may not like it but they will obey. Failure to do so would undermine civilian control of the military. This is something no rational person would want regardless of their political leaning. As long as that law is on the books, it will be obeyed. Congress could change the law at any time but for whatever reason, they won't. Don't blame the military, put the blame where it belongs. So it is ok for them to ignore that torture ban Obama signed, if they feel they need to in order to get information out of an enemy combatant.Good to know. :)That's actually a common and publicly proclaimed opinion from some of the most vocal "no torture" advocates.They readily admit that they want any person to do whatever is necessary to protect this country... they just want it to be illegal because it makes us look really bad to officially sanction such things.Granted, not brilliant sorts, but people like Matt Damon. ”Look, the best line about torture I’ve heard came from [retired CIA officer turned war-on-terrorism critic] Milt Beardon,” Damon says. “He said, `If a guy knows where a dirty bomb is hidden that’s going to go off in a Marriott, put me in a room with him and I’ll find out. But don’t codify that. Just let me break the law.’ “Which I think is right. You can’t legalize torture. But anybody would do it in that situation. You’d do it to me in that situation; you’d pull out my fingernails if you thought I knew something like that.”Gotta love it. Ya but he calls himself a "former law student".Two days?In Zimbabwe?Ya gotta wonder. Synova - "Of course he was. It was all about how he didn't really win.."It wasn't Bush being scrutinized, it was the election process. Synova - Regarding "torture":"..they just want it to be illegal because it makes us look really bad to officially sanction such things."No kidding?Torturing people "makes us look really bad"??Good grief. That's disingenuous. "Bush stole the election", they said, not "the election process was flawed." No kidding?Torturing people "makes us look really bad"??Good grief. Actually, in order for it to have any merit, we'd have to be compared to those who don't torture. Which would be...? What Larry said.Thanks, Larry, I was trying to formulate all of that as I read these comments and got to yours and realized you said it all. Elcubanito- Continuing our earlier discussion: I may be on a slippery slope once I start trying to tell Ann how to run her blog, but let me be presumptous enough to try. He's messed up in some areas granted, but is there really nothing good to say about his administration? How about the occasional story that shows Obama in a positive light? How about longer posts stating her case rather than one sentence snarky remarks? Or weighing up both sides of issues rather than presenting them as cut and dried? Steven - What do your comments have to do with my question of why we're the only industrialized country in the world without national health care?Preventive medicine, opposed to people waiting until things turn much worse, would save us billions of dollars every year.Do you consider a family taking their children in for regular check-ups abusive? Would you yourself wait if your kid was ill?How about the elderly who need regular check-ups?Is your option that we wait until the situation deteriorates into an emergency before we waste our time "spending money on routine checkups"??Right now, opposed to being able to get an appointment to address an immediate situation, those without insurance are dependent upon going to the emergency room.And the average wait time at major city hospital emergency rooms is between 8-10 hours. Would you want your kid or parent to wait that long before seeing a doctor? That's what people without insurance deal with every day. Instead of getting a reasonably inexpensive prescription for an antibiotic to treat the flu, or an injury, many wait until the problem becomes something else entirely.This is out current heal care system and it is broken. blake - Do you really think all countries torture? And even if you do, that it's okay for America to follow suit?Really? Preventive medicine, opposed to people waiting until things turn much worse, would save us billions of dollars every year.Actually, no, it doesn't. (New England Journal of Medicine) Blake - Saying Bush stole the election isn't the same as "scrutinizing" his administration's every move. It's a comment attributed to the "process" by which the man was elected. The Supreme Court also took hits, as did the Florida election commission, etc.Get real. MInzo-Yes! The world needs more dedicated Obama Brown Nosers.Only Ann must be fair and balanced because she's practically-CNN!All somewhat sorta sometime supposedly Conservative Obama voters MUST BE CRUSHED! There are some fairly obvious problems with torture:1. How do you know you are not torturing an innocent person? A lot of people supported waterboarding and other possible torture in Guantanamo because they saw these men as Al-Qaida and therefore not worthy of American legal protection. But do we know how many of the men in Guantanamo bay were genuine terrorists? Havent many of them been released without charge? Isnt there a danger of assuming a captured person is automatically a terrorist?2. If you torture a man enough, he'll tell you whatever he thinks you want to hear. You'll then have intelligence operatives running around on bogus intelligence. Again, not very helpful. Ending DADT really wouldn't be that difficult for the military. The only operational issues involved are privacy issues... which asking everyone who is to pretend they aren't gay or lesbian sort of solves. The rules are already such that no one is supposed to be having sex in public. So what's the real problem?It's privacy and an unnecessary headache for those that have to deal with whatever new rules Congress decides to give them. Can't house men and women together... how about gays and straits? Gays together? What? Can't blame anyone for simply wanting not to have to deal with that headache.Given freedom to accommodate their own needs the military would probably decide to continue to not know and not care with little more than an extra "let us know if you need a different roommate assignment" no questions asked... but in Real Life what happens is that Congress is going to get involved and say, hey, look at Britain or Israel or somewhere or other and they allow gays and lesbians but gay men, like women, are banned from this list of possible jobs and such and so and pretty soon it's not no big deal at all, it's requirements to properly identify your orientation and the commander *has* to know and the personnel office *has* to know, and you have to declare and proclaim and identify in order to avoid your commander coming foul of the law and ruining his or her career.Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't CARE might work.What are the chances Congress would give us that? Good! He DOES have a lick of sense after all.Obama is working on foreclosures, bailouts, getting the economy up and running, and Afghanistan. Now he is also in effect running GM (bad move, but he is.) Plus, he is also including in the budget bill legislation to deal with energy, education and health care.When a President tries to do too much he ends up doing none of it well. Remember Jimmy Carter and his fourteen hour days?I'm glad he finally said, 'not now' to something. Jeremy-Ya Bush fought off Gore in the Supreme Court and still managed to make more appointments of people that could-Actually pay their taxes!All while appointing less Czars.btw- Obama "created" another Czar while you were sleeping-Obama:I am designating a new Director of Recovery for Auto Communities and Workers to cut through red tape and ensure that the full resources of our federal government are leveraged to assist the workers, communities, and regions that rely on our auto industry. [Jonah Goldberg NRO] madawaskan- thats just a bunch of strawmen with no substance. I didnt say Althouse should brownose Obama and I didnt say only Ann should provide balance and I certainly didnt say conservative opinion should be crushed. It would be more useful to deal with the actual points I made. Jeremy, remind me again, what do torture and Sarah Palin's refusal or acceptance of bailout money have to do with DADT?Minzo, you will find that it has also been the case in other topics regarding the previous administration. Why should she change that for the current one? Does this administration deserve a deferent (and different) treatment? Over 135 comments on this thread and it's not even about Sara Palin! Torturing people "makes us look really bad"??I'd rather look bad than be bad.How about you, Jeremy?I think it's repulsive and disgusting to do as Damon did and proclaim that what was right and good was to make a public noise in one direction and secretly, illegally, torture when necessary.I'd rather, much, tell the world that if you mess with us we'll take you apart... and then NOT.What people like Damon and that former CIA guy I quoted him quoting want is to tell the world we won't, and then DO.It's disgusting. blake - So you use an article from a country that has national health care to make a point about why we shouldn't have national heal care?Does the article say anything about them getting rid of national heal care?Here are a few points the article did make:"Some preventive measures save money, while others do not, although they may still be worthwhile because they confer substantial health benefits relative to their cost."And "In general, whether a particular preventive measure represents good value or poor value depends on factors such as the population targeted, with measures targeting higher-risk populations typically being the most efficient."And "In the face of increasingly constrained resources, there is a realistic way of achieving better health results: conduct careful analysis to identify evidence-based opportunities for more efficient delivery of health care — whether prevention or treatment — and then restructure the system to create incentives that encourage the appropriate delivery of efficient interventions."They also said candidates oversetimate the savings attributed to preventive services...now there's a real shocker.But, the bottom line is this: If the health services are controlled and directed at specific "targets" they can produce savings. If they are not, they probably won't.Much like any other service provided via the government or private industry.And you never answered my previous question: If you child or parents are sick, would you wait until things get really bad before taking them to your doctor?Or do you already have the kind of insurance that allows you to do the most prudent thing? JeremyGet this-Bush's approval rating was higher than Obama's during that same initial 60 days even after the bitterness of Bush v. Gore. Ecuban - I was responding to something another individual mentioned. It related to earmarks.Sorry if I disrupted your "flow," but there are also comments here about plenty of other topics not relating to the DADT. blake - Do you really think all countries torture? And even if you do, that it's okay for America to follow suit?I had previously believed what Minzo stated: That it's ineffective. That would be a comforting thought.I'm not an intel expert. They tell me they got good info out of the few people they tortured. Saved American (and other) lives.Saying "no" to torture is an easy moral high ground to take. It'd be easy to say "No! Never!" Especially because I'm not going to be in that situation. So I can Monday morning QB the whole thing.But not only do I want our people able to make the right decision--even if that involves torture--I want them to be trained enough to use good judgment, and to have all of us stand behind them when they do.Zero tolerance, as discussed elsewhere, is just a cheap way of saying "I don't want to have to think about it." I won't do that. I also think it's useful, from a PR standpoint, that enemies think we're capable of anything when it comes to self-defense.Waterboarding seems relatively humane, actually. It's fast and non-permanent. I wouldn't want to undergo it--I'd cave in seconds as apparently most everyone does--but it beats having your testicles wired up to a car battery.I don't object to the debate however. I think it's fine for it to be upsetting. But I want those protecting us to not pull any punches. madawaskan - Why is that surprising to you?Were we also in the midst of one of the biggest economic meltdowns in our nation's history? blake - "Waterboarding seems relatively humane, actually. It's fast and non-permanent."Right. former law student said... A little reflection will show that not everything can be at the top of one's to-do list. It's on the list, and the Obama administration is working with the relevant stakeholders to resolve the issue.That is intelligent observation.And unlike Truman, who led infantry into combat, Obama like Clinton has not earned credibility and respect from active military with combat experience. Like a priest counselling married couples, he has an obstacle to overcome before people willingly take his advice.That is dumb. The military loved Eisenhower, who never personally saw combat. And Nixon, who was a supply officer, albeit one who saw combat...and Reagan who served on Hollywood film lots..We would be foolish to think "combat experience" is a vital prerequisite of sorts to be a US civilian leader. It would narrow the pool down to about 1.5 million since Vietnam out of 300 million citizens. And that pool includes many who never saw direct combat - and includes a considerable number unfit to lead a dog, let alone a nation.former law student said... "The military is obliged to follow whatever laws they pass, they don't have a choice and they don't have a voice."The military is obliged to defend the United States. If Congress passes a law which impedes achievment of their mission, ignoring it is only rational.Leadership can not rely on a naked show of authority.And FLS follows with another astute observation. The military cannot afford a fetishization of "Rule of Law" when it conflicts with what they see as duty and mission to defend the Nation and the whole of the Constitution, not just parts. The military is properly wary of civilian law. And the trap of following a Congress or Court trying to usurp a Commander in Chiefs constitutional duties in war.In the Civil War, the military ignored the Supreme Court, Congress, knew they were violating part of the Constitution to save the whole - and kept answering only to their generals, the Secretary of War, and Commander in Chief Lincoln. A good call, by them. MinzoWhen's the last time you petitioned CNN to up their standards? And you never answered my previous question: If you child or parents are sick, would you wait until things get really bad before taking them to your doctor?Really bad? Generally I wait until things get moderately bad. They don't usually.Then I go to urgent care.Or do you already have the kind of insurance that allows you to do the most prudent thing?Actually, day after tomorrow will be the first time in my life I have insurance. I finally managed to get the kind my parents had: catastrophic care.It's ridiculously expensive, but I think it's also no-questions-asked, so it covers pre-existing conditions.What it doesn't cover is any of the things I really want to do. Jeremy-Were we also in the midst of one of the biggest economic meltdowns in our nation's history?You really have to get yourself to the Obama/Journolist DeBrief.After getting the trillion stimulus package, and the trillion buy back US debt with US dollars deal-It is going better than Obama thought.Get back in the Loop!Your talking point are stale. The military loved Eisenhower, who never personally saw combat. And Nixon, who was a supply officer, albeit one who saw combat...and Reagan who served on Hollywood film lots..And George W. Bush, who flew fighters state-side and played hooky on guard weekends.(And as a former enlisted person might I just say that any junior officer with nothing to do who goes and does it *somewhere else* is fabulous in my book. Make-work, you know, always makes it's way downhill.) blake - "Waterboarding seems relatively humane, actually. It's fast and non-permanent."Right.Is that sarcasm? It doesn't communicate well here. Jeremy, it's called a "topic hijack". Please do use the proper term. I am extremely capable of following multiple lines of discussion at once; however, it is clear that you want to steer the conversation away from a rather thorny topic (thorny for your Messiah (PBUH) and his devotees). It's all right, carry on. blake - "Actually, day after tomorrow will be the first time in my life I have insurance."Run that by those who have chronic ailments, diabetes, etc.I'm sure they'll understand your firm stand against affordable national health care.How old are you? Jeremy-You may want to change your style... ElcubanitoKC - I didn't "hijack" anything.In response to blake at 3:26, I posted this at 3:36:blake - It would be impossible for any President to dedicate every dollar in any budget to an "immediate economic stimulus."We have what are called elected officials who are also responsible to their own specific constituents and what one calls wasteful spending, another calls important and necessary.During the election campaign, Sarah Palin made waves with her no thanks to earmarks yet Alaska is #3 in average citizen earmarks so what do you say to that? madawaskan said..."Jeremy-You may want to change your style..."You'll have to run that by my better half.She likes it as is. Is michael back? My advice is to do it right around the 2010 elections. Get your supporters fired up. Ah, Jeremy, your descent into the world of ad hominem means we're about at a close.I've never had insurance because I hate bureaucracies. I'd rather go to a doctor, pay my $50 or $200 or whatever it is, than introduce a third party into the scheme.I'd also like the option to go to a chiropractor, an acupuncturist or a Voodoo doctor, depending on what I think is best.Ask people with diabetes? My son has diabetes, let me ask him. Nope, he's not for "affordable government health care either." Dumb, dumb argument. The whole system is insane and the government--which started us on this road by making health insurance free for a portion of the population--is just making it worse. They won't just lower the cost for a few by making it a whole lost more expensive for everyone else. They'll limit what can be done based on what they feel your life is worth and they'll stifle innovation. How anyone can look at the educational system and say, "Yeah, that works out great. It only costs three times as much per student as an average private school, and teaches almost a third as well! We should have these guys run healthcare!" is beyond me. There are some fairly obvious problems with torture:1. How do you know you are not torturing an innocent person?That question applies to all military operations. How do you know the people you're bombing are hostile? How do you know the people you're shooting are a threat? The answer is that there obviously IS no way to be completely certain. You play the odds. Havent many of them been released without charge?During WW2 we held hundreds of thousands of enemy combatants for years before releasing them without charge. Does that mean holding them was a mistake? Or is it that you've confused a criminal proceeding with a war?The reason for holding these people is that we are still at war. Releasing suspected enemy troops during a war is idiotic. They end up rejoining the fight against you.Isnt there a danger of assuming a captured person is automatically a terrorist?There isn't any danger to Americans. :)2. If you torture a man enough, he'll tell you whatever he thinks you want to hear.Which is why you only use torture to obtain information you can confirm independently.Say you stole $1 million from me and hid it. I ask you where the money is and you don't tell me. I cut off your left pinky and ask again. You lie to me and tell me the money's buried behind your house. I check; it isn't. I come back, cut off your left ring finger and ask again. Eventually you get tired of losing fingers and tell me where the money actually is.It is all a matter of knowing the right kinds of questions to ask, and knowing what torture will or won't get you. Torture is THE most effective means of getting objectively quantifiable answers. It is a lousy means of answering open-ended questions like "name all the terrorists you know". blake - I just thought you hadn't had insurance because you're still young enough not to be concerned. I also went with for many, many years, but finally decided I had been pressing my luck.I also get it now because of employment, but I've paid up to $500 a month with a high deductible.As for your son and having diabetes, ask some of your "older" friends who do have it, what their policies cost.Or, better yet, ask anybody who has it, and wants insurance, if they can even get it. AJ-Something weird is up...if he starts wrestling with himself-I'm going to bitch slap him. Minzo : I still maintain the site has lost a lot of its balanceBefore the election there was McCain to kick around. Who stands against Obama now?Besides that, Obama made promises during his campaign and people made very fantastic claims about him. There's nothing wrong in pointing out his short-comings as long as they are true. If you want to feel bad, feel bad about Obama. Don't shoot the messenger because you are disappointed in our President. Minzo : There are some fairly obvious problems with torture:You forgot the biggest one! If a country behaves dishonorably it's easier to get people to perform acts of terror on it, such as suicide missions. If the health services are controlled and directed at specific "targets" they can produce savings. If they are not, they probably won't.You think insurance actuaries are bad about controlling costs and only allowing certain procedures to targeted patients and disallowing the same procedures for others? Woooh Boy...Just wait until we get government bean counters in charge of determining who is worthy of care and who is not. Personally, I wouldn't want the government doing a cost benefit analysis on my right to care or right to live.And you never answered my previous question: If you child or parents are sick, would you wait until things get really bad before taking them to your doctor?You didn't ask me, but I'll answer anyway. I would wait and wait some more. Most illnesses get better without any help from the doctor...just some common sense home remedies, bed rest and time. While I have a high deductible and very expensive policy on myself, my husband is uninsurable. We pay cash for all of his prescriptions and doctor visits. We are both self employed so there is no deep pocket sugar daddy to go to for insurance, so we do the best we can and pray that neither of us become deathly ill because we would be one big illness from being insolvent. Last January (2007) my husband had a re-occurrence of a bleeding ulcer. Other than some transfusions in our local country style doctor's office, we treated him the same way they would in the hospital. Except that it cost us just under a thousand dollars instead of hundreds of thousands of dollars.So would socialized health insurance help....maybe. But maybe not. The bean counters might look at my husband's health issues and decide that it really wouldn't be worth the trouble to treat him. Or the process of getting through the government sausage grinder might take so long that it would be moot anyway.What I do know is that there is no way on God's green earth that the government can efficiently run even a lemonade stand. We would be better of with a privately run system, perhaps subsidized with some government funding. But keep the idiot pencil pushers out of the business....please.Young people don't need health insurance as a general rule. Accident insurance, major major medical...you bet. It is a waste of money for a young person to pay for full insurance. In a government run system, just like Social Security, the burden of payment falls on those who least need the coverage to subsidize the people who do use and need coverage. The only way to lessen that burden is to ration the care for the middle aged and elderly. You like that idea? Jeremy, you asked:Are all of these other countries just plain dumb?I then explained exactly what normal human motives prevent basically intelligent people from agitating to abolish their objectively stupid, patient-killing, innovation-stifling national regimes of health care rationing.Now, true, I didn't explain why the U.S. didn't adopt an objectively stupid, patient-killing, innovation-stifling national regime of health care rationing in the first place. The reason we didn't is because socialism was never as popular in the U.S. as it was in the rest of the industrialized world. Thus, socialist policies never got off the ground here in the way they did elsewhere in the industrialized world.Now, why that was true moves us off into the realm of speculation about the culture of America, but the failure of Eugene V. Debs and Upton Sinclair to create a mass movement equivalent to the social democrats of Europe cannot be placed at the feet of Aetna or Blue Cross/Blue Shield.We can just be thankful they never did, and do our best to stop Obama from imposing an objectively stupid, patient-killing, innovation-stifling national regime of health care rationing. You forgot the biggest one! If a country behaves dishonorably it's easier to get people to perform acts of terror on it, such as suicide missions.What color is the sky on your world? Jeremy,I don't want my son's diabetes cared for at the expense of my daughters' chances for cervical cancer. (Or at the expense of a nation's freedom--even the most exaggerated numbers of uninsured place it at about 12-15% of the population.)Limitations WILL arise. They are inevitable. Some will get better care, most will get worse, and everyone will lose the freedom to make their own decisions.You and I are not on the same page, nor will we ever be: If the government could provide adequate medical care at a reasonable cost I still wouldn't want it.I wouldn't send my kids to public school even if they weren't cesspools (or, at best, petri dishes of mediocrity and political correctness). I don't agree that every child should go to school or that everyone should see a doctor.Get it? In a world where our government didn't break land-speed records in commission of tragic, poverty-creating errors, I still wouldn't want it involved. They interfere with life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. As I've written elsewhere, every noble goal of socialism can be achieved through free markets. The complement is not true: The benefits of free markets cannot be achieved under socialism.This is not a numbers game for me. Because, first of all, I'm not going to believe you: The government never makes anything cheaper. All they can do is hide the cost. (And hidden costs always lead to corruption, as a bonus.) But more importantly, there's no way it's going to be good. Special interests will get entrenched. If it ends up like our schools, we'll get doctors killing patients repeatedly, but we won't be able to fire them. We'll get massive bureaucracy with no "out". I cannot wish for this, whatever glories you say it will bring. And I observe that many Canadians come here for medical care instead of taking the free care in their country. And I think, it must be very bad there for our expensive care to be able to compete with free. If we nationalize health care, the world will suffer, not just us. blake - Do you really think all countries torture? And even if you do, that it's okay for America to follow suit?France, you know the country that the liberals love and hate to have mad at us; they torture. Their Secret Services are notorious for using extraordinary means to gain information. Ask members of the Milieu or Basque Separatists.The Italians have used torture against the Mafia and continue to do so.The Israelis use torture to get information from terrorists.The English Secret Services use various methods of torture and interrogation techniques to get information.The Spanish are no shrinking violets when it comes to torture either.Then there is China and Russia.Mexico is no stranger to unusual interrogation techniques.Cuba.Most, if not all of the Central and South American countries use torture.There is a difference however. They do not admit it or publish it in their media. They have laws about secrecy and their personnel take them very seriously. They are also very good at denying it or just saying nothing. We find out about their activities after the fact and when history books or articles are written. The world is not upset or mad at us for using torture. They laugh at us for getting caught by our own people and then fretting about it. In any case, PVB, I'm glad the U.S. doesn't do it. I'm glad the Bush administration backed off of it and the Obama administration formalized that stance.It's sad, though, that the only social liberal stands the President will take are symbolic. He opposes torture that has already ended; he promotes stem cell research that has largely been bypassed; he promises to close a prison, with no idea about what to do about the prisoners.Gay marriage, DADT, drug decriminalization -- all non-starters. One wonders if what these issues lack is reason to grow the government. Blake, 7:17 PM:Word. If you agree with socialized medicine, it means you think you yourself and all other American citizens are too stupid and delicate to spend your own money as you see fit, and need your betters to make all those hard decisions for you.It means you admit you're weak and ignorant, not an adult but a child, and you need your mummy. I think DADT should be overturned because it is inefficient. Why train people just to boot them out because of something that has nothing to do with the job?If a Major doesn't like it that he's working with a big ol' Fairy, then some Colonel should come down on the Major's head and tell him to do his job and shut up. Similarly, if the BOF is antagonizing his co-worker (in some actual way, not by just existing), the Colonel should come down on BOF's head and tell him to do his job and STFU.Just follow your orders people. Isn't that what those in the military do? (Don't know from 1st hand experience, obviously).I'm not read this whole thread, so this point may have been made already -- it seems to have morphed into a health care thread. But do we know how many of the men in Guantanamo bay were genuine terrorists? Havent many of them been released without charge?Does not folllow. Why are you assuming that simply because many have been released without charge that they are not genuine terrorists? Why are you assuming that simply because many have been released without charge that they are not genuine terrorists?So they were gay all along? Now this thread finally makes sense! MM,Then get your congresscritter to overturn the DADT. The military cannot just stop enforcing the laws that Congress has passed onto them. They are under the control of the civilians and have to abide by the laws that civilians have put in place for the military. Unless and until Bambi gets interested in overturning it for real, something not likely to come up in everyday conversation at the WH until the next election when he will need the votes of the gays, then it is strictly a moot point. The SecDef can ask him to do something about it but it is still up to the Congressmen to bring up the bill, pass the law and send it to the president for him to sign. Until that happens, then all the talk about DADT is just that - talk.What we have seen in the past few elections, since Clinton signed the law, is that the Democrats have gone to the gay populated areas such as the Village or San Fran or the UWS and have told the people that if you vote for them they will do something about DADT and gay marriage. The suckers vote for them and are then disregarded until the next election when rinse, repeat. The Dems play the gays like Lucy and Charlie Brown and the football. They have done this for about 15 years so far so why should they change now. Never mind that Bush tripled the expenditure on AIDS research and distribution of medication both here and at the source in Africa. That doesn't matter. Just hold that football for them and then pull it away when it gets close. It works, why change. dick,We do not call them dime store liberals for nothing. dick said: The military cannot just stop enforcing the laws that Congress has passed onto them. They are under the control of the civilians and have to abide by the laws that civilians have put in place for the military.True, but the military has a constitutional right to an Appeal for Redress to their Congressional representatives. One suspects that the SecDef and Joint Chiefs would not be refused if they jointly appealed to Congress to rescind DADT and CiC Obama would surely sign such a bill.There are always lawful means in a democratic society to redress injustice if we wish it so. Former Law Student:"Truman, who led infantry into combat,"was an artilleryman. Not infantry. Jeremy wrote: Alaska is set to receive $506.34 per capita, the highest in the nation. (Taxpayers for Common Sense, a watchdog group which tracks earmarks.)That's a shock! Here's another news flash: Alaska also has the lowest per acre earmark allocation of all the states! What does either measure prove? Given Alaska's tiny population and it's vast size, breaking anything down on a per capita or per acre basis is apt to produce meaningless numbers. Minzo: get your own blog.I have a host of chronic medical conditions, including cancer. The idea of nationalized health care scares the hell out of me. When my recurrence was diagnosed in 2005 I was able to go to M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston for my treatment within a few weeks. I doubt that would happen under a government-run health care plan. DADT? Don't know, don't care would be the best -- the only thing that makes me hesitate at all is I've heard some persuasive testimony for maintaining the status quo from people currently in the military. But I'm not in the military and therefore have no informed opinion. One woman I went to college with did the whole ROTC thing and declared she was lesbian (she was in the midst of a lesbian affair at the time) in her senior year. AFAIK, she never served post graduation. She got married a few years later, had kids, the whole deal. Worked out OK for her, huh? I wish I had a trombone just about now, so I could do this. Great. One more thing Sullivan can blame on the Althouse - Meade heterosexual marriage. I'll make this short and sweet:When we have a majority of people who are or have served in the military in favor of repealing DADT, then do it; until then leave it the hell alone, and stop using this as a political football.Nationalized Health Care: When anybody in favor of NHC can give me a list of 20 things that ARE NOT the government's job that the government has done well and efficiently, I might listen to the possibility of NHC. Get back to me when you have that list.Torture: I'm in favor of anything that doesn't leave a mark. Then we can have the best of both worlds- we can torture the Hell out of anybody we want, and still declare we don't torture. No marks, no proof. I have adopted a firm policy of "Don't Taste, Don't Smell" regarding my sister-in-law's cooking.If anyone wants to challenge my policy, they're going to be required to eat dinner at her place first. Jeremy, at 5:47, you said, "blake - So you use an article from a country that has national health care to make a point about why we shouldn't have national heal care?"The article blake cited at 5:34, and you quoted from, is in a US journal, written by US doctors using a study conducted in the US. The candidates mentioned are Americans. FYI, "New England" is a common term for the Northeast corner of the USA. Hector, a lifetime of socialist education has made her stupid.Just imagine the benefits of socialist cars and health care! Come on Hector, thinking New England is a foreign nation is an easy mistake to make.It is, after all, rather close to New Yorkshire. When getting screwed by socialism, you should just lie back and think of New England. "New England" is a common term for the Northeast corner of the USA.Yeah, sure. Next you'll try telling me New Mexico is part of the US. Try and try, but will you listen?Some commenters have blogs; some don't even have profiles. Minzo, for instance, has had a couple of blogs; Minega Strikes Back and Minega's World, from which we learn that he is a Rwandan in his twenties who spent time in England as a student. Old England. I've learned something about the place of torture in the history of Mozambique, just this morning, from the middle part of one of his posts. Jeremy and campy, whose profiles are "not available," could be anywhere. If they're far enough away, they wouldn't know that the New England Journal of Medicine wasn't a competitor or successor to the original England Journal of Medicine. But anyone who had read the article well enough to quote it should have been able to figure that out. And if not that, then what? Then get your congresscritter to overturn the DADT.The Lesbian who represents Madison and its surroundings has better things to do with her time, apparently. Hector - You are absolutely right.For whatever reason, I skimmed the article and thought it was based on a study in Europe.I still support national health care, but was off the mark regarding the article itself. BJM,So in the middle of a war on two fronts you think the Sec Def and JCS should appeal for the Congress to get them to implement an initative that will take a lot of planning and restructuring of the military and wonder of wonders Congress might do just that and the Pres would sign it. What a wonderful idea. They should ink that into their calendars on the next open date, about 2011 when Iraq has been drawn down and Gitmo has been closed. Personally I would rather they finished up what they are doing successfully and then deal with this but that is just me. It doesn't really matter, Hector.These people believe the government should do everything, no matter how poorly.It's the victory of "I'm right" over "we're free". One suspects that the SecDef and Joint Chiefs would not be refused if they jointly appealed to Congress to rescind DADT and CiC Obama would surely sign such a bill.Why on earth would they? They have enough warm bodies in uniform the way it is and changing the rules will just mean more work. Who asks for more work?Not *even* if public opinion across the board (including the "brass") supported it would a sane person go hat in hand to congress and say "Please, may I?"Putting this on the military is silly. The fact is that the congress-critters, the liberal Democrats with the majority in everything at the moment, aren't going to do it because it's not a winning issue for them.And if I may couple this up with nationalized health care... military health care is good, sort of, so long as you're doing expected sorts of things in expected sorts of places and you've got your unit and NCOIC and OIC handy to look out for you. There's a reason for the medical scandals associated with Walter Reed and there's a reason that it took months upon months for my husband to get his herniated disks adequately cared for, the impossibility of second opinions without manipulating the system and flying 24 hours and walking into the brain-surgeon's office at Clark Air Base, civilian MRI's in hand because the doctor at his previous assignment refused to even *look*.Sure... nationalized health care.FABULOUS idea. Post a Comment

30 January 2010 "Can you deduct that?" If you live in the USA and you've been reading this blog, you know what that question refers to. "That" is the cost of my surgery and the question refers to my tax return. Someone asked me that question and that led me to do some research. I suspected the answer was "no," but I figured it would be worth checking out. Alas, my suspicions have been confirmed. Even though someone challenged the IRS on this question a couple of years ago, their rule--or, more precisely, the way they interpret and implement their rule--hasn't changed. Actually, one transgender woman argued that the cost of her treatments was deductible under the IRS guidelines. Rhiannon O'Donnahbain, from what I understand, is still appealing the verdict that said she couldn't. The IRS claims that sex reassignment surgery (SRS) is a cosmetic procedure, and that such procedures are deductible only if it is necessary "to improve a disfigurement related to a congenital abnormality, disfiguring disease or accidental injury." (I found this in J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax, 2009-2010. Who knew that transitioning would lead me to reading stuff like that late at night, when I should be getting my beauty sleep!) Anyway...Considering what a small percentage of the population we are, those of us diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder have a "congenital abnormality," in the strictest sense of the word. That our bodies don't reflect our gender identities sounds something like a disfigurement, if you ask me. If you are among the great majority of people who never has to think about whether you are an "F" or an "M," and simply cannot imagine being anything but whichever one you were identified by, try to think of what it would be like if your genitals--indeed, your body--did not match your identity. I'm not talking about wanting to be better-looking or stronger or whatever; I am talking about what, for most people, is the most basic component of their identities--which, of course, is exactly the reason why most of you, and most of them, never have to think about it. To put SRS, and the prerequisite treatments, in the same category as liposuction, Botox treatments or breast implants (which, by the way, the IRS allowed an exotic dancer to deduct) is ludicrous. But that is what the court's decision in Ms. O'Donnabhain's case does. She says that the treatments and surgery saved her life; I would say the same for my own treatments, surgery and life. Just about any other trans person would say the same thing. In fact, of the trans people who don't transiton, nearly one in three commit suicide. That statistic includes two friends of mine. It might've included me, too. As it happened, I abused alcohol and other substances in my youth and went through a series of relationships that didn't work because, in essence, I was trying to relate as someone I wasn't. Plenty of other trans people have similar stories. If the treatments and surgery put an end to those problems, how could they not fit into the IRS, or any other, guidelines? Today I am still astounded at how decades of depression and self-loathing ended literally overnight when I started my transition and how my mental health has improved from there as a result of my surgery. Of course, that's way better and more important than any deduction the IRS will or won't allow: as far as I know, such a deduction, while good to have and a signal of fair and equal treatment under the law, is not itself a reason or purpose for living. So, for now, I can only say something like c'est la vie to not having a deduction. I don't have the time or resources to challenge that; I hope that someone else will and that future trans people will have that deduction and other things that would make us equal, under the law, to everyone else. For now, I am happy to have had the operation, and will try start the support group for transgenders 45 or older that I have discussed with Tom at SAGE, and to help Dwayne with the shelter he wants to open for homeless lesbians and trans women. Those are the sorts of things you do when you're a "lover, not a fighter," but have been forced to be an advocate and activist. So...no deduction. At least I have what I can't deduct, and the life it is giving me.

Posted on Wednesday, October 31st, 2012 by Angie Han Kevin Smith doesn’t have a lot of directorial efforts on his upcoming slate — in fact, he says he’s retiring from directing — but as a producer he’s keeping very busy indeed. One of the projects coming up for his Smodcast Pictures label is Miss December, formerly known as Calendar Girl, which is due out later this week. The Derek Lindeman-directed film explores the horrific side of romance, or perhaps it’s the romantic side of horror, through the tale of a serial killer who’s been picking off one woman per month. Waitress Ari (Jensen Bucher) becomes convinced she’ll be the next and last victim, and in an odd twist, becomes infatuated with her deadly secret admirer. Brian O’Haloran (Clerks), Corbin Bernsen, and Gilbert Gottfried also star. Check out the trailer and get details on the release after the jump. Shock Till You Drop reports that Miss December will hit VOD November 1, just barely missing the Halloween season. But that just means you now have something to do with the extra hour when Daylight Savings ends this weekend. Here’s a trailer for the film: Like the last Smodcast release we wrote up, Alter Egos, this seems like an interesting spin on a familiar genre. In that case, it was a superhero movie about low self-esteem and identity crises. In the case of Miss December, it’s a horror in which the lovelorn potential victim seems nuttier than the serial killer himself. There might also be a bigger message here about the pathology of romance or the romanticism of death, but it’s tough to tell from such a short clip. Head to the film’s Facebook page for more info. Cool Posts From Around the Web: Miss December is a dark romantic comedy about Ari, a young woman whose poor taste in men may be the death of her when she tries to find love with her would-be killer. The elusive Calendar Girl killer has been terrorizing the city of Philadelphia, stalking and killing a different women each month in order to complete his morose calender full of unwilling pin-ups. The year is nearly over, when a taunting letter to the press has Ari convinced that she’s destined to be Miss December and she can’t help but be a little flattered. Miss December formerly known as Calendar Girl is a fun blend of mystery, horror, and comedy that’s all about finding true love in a very inconvenient December.

A WOMAN has revealed her shock when she was filmed walking naked around her flat by ‘pervy builders’ after getting out of the shower. She can be seen walking around with just a towel on her head as the ogling construction workers zoom in on her and snigger in the background. The unsuspecting victim, who we have decided not to name, only became aware she had been spotted when a friend showed her the video after it had already been posted online. She complained the voyeur’s behaviour was “not normal” but said she wouldn’t call the police on the “idiot workers”, adding that she’s not really that bothered by their actions. The woman, from the Dutch town of De Lier, said: “It could have happened to anyone, everyone walks at times through their house like this but it is abnormal that people secretly film it and post it online.” She said she had no idea she was being filmed in the incident last Friday and it was only when a friend showed her the video that she realised she had been secretly ogled. “Normally the curtains are always closed”, she said. “A friend sent me a message with the movie asking me if I was the person. I was shocked. “My first reaction was: I have to call the police. But in the end I did not do that.” Most Read in News Grim forecastMet Eireann issue weather warning for five counties with thundery showers expected as well as risk of flooding ballymun victims namedInnocent Ballymun murder victim Clinton Shannon pictured as cops hunt ruthless gunmen who also gunned down mum-of-six blaze hellHomeless family-of-ten in fear for their lives since house was burned down plead with authorities to end their terror HOLIDAY HORRORIrish tourist shot dead defending girlfriend during carjacking at petrol station in Mexico named CHILD GIVES BIRTHGirl, 10, who was raped by her uncle gives birth to a girl after court refused her an abortion because she was too young BALLYMUN BLOODBATHBrother of mum-of-six shot dead in hallway of her Ballymun home was intended target of hitmen Caught up in terrorDonegal woman tells of her Barcelona attack horror after seeing hundreds flee on Las Ramblas She confessed that she did have to make an embarrassing call to her landlord, as she did not want him thinking she had turned the home into a “playboy mansion or a sex shop.” She added: “I hope everyone will have forgotten it in two weeks time. “I was a bit nervous on Monday when I went to the gym. I just kept worrying about what people would say. “But the citizens of De Lier are very friendly. They do not say anything or if they do, just mention that I have a good body. It is perhaps good advertisement for my gym.” The men, who were not named in reports, have not been sacked but the construction company boss said they had had a stern talking to. Owner, Maarten Lek, said he was angry about the “dumb behaviour” of his workers and sent one of them home “to think about his actions.” He said: “We will send the lady some flowers and hopefully it will all be fine for her.” We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368

Homemaker. That is my title. It seems like such a humble word when I fill it out on a medical form or legal paperwork. Or what about this one: Domestic Engineer. With a job title like that, I could presumably demand a salary making $30,000-$500,000 per year depending upon whose calculations you believe. But when it comes to the end of the day, no one is paying me a salary, and my financial net worth has suffered as a result of my decision to stay home and raise my children. Fortunately, we do not have to make of judgment of ourselves based on the standards of net worth. Our value is determined by God. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. – Genesis 1:27 We have been taught that to have real worth we must be productive, efficient, better, quicker, faster, and perfect. But what we really crave is order, peace and beauty. This yearning is often co-mingled with feelings of guilt, inadequacy, and frustration. We do not know how to meet the world’s standards and satisfy our inner cravings as well. Precious homemaker, when you desire order, peace and beauty, you are experiencing the manifestation of God’s image upon your heart. The LORD God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed. Out of the ground the LORD God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four rivers. The … first is Pishon; it flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. The gold of that land is good; the bdellium and the onyx stone are there. The …second river is Gihon; it flows around the whole land of Cush. The …third river is Tigris; it flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. -Genesis 2:8-14 A Bible teacher at my local church, Kristen Sauder, helped me see this verse in a whole new light! Do you see what God has done? God is the original homemaker. When you are working in your home and using logic and care to make sure the needs of your family are met, you are emulating God, the creator! The Garden of Eden was also a place of beauty. He sculpted trees that were beautiful and practical. It is no wonder we love to decorate – that was the first thing God did! Can you imagine God walking along the garden and determining the perfect placement for each tree, each flower, and its water source? Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.- Genesis 2:15 Once God planned the ultimate garden, he did not send everyone away to gaze upon it from afar. He placed his family right in the middle of it and gave them responsibility for its care. If you homeschool your children, they are right in the middle of your home all day long! When you are delegating and teaching your children how to care for themselves and their property, you are walking in the footsteps of Our Father. The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make him a helper suitable for him.” So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. -Genesis 2:18, 21-22 What a creative God! He saw a problem. He took the resources available and made something pretty spectacular out of it. He took a rib and made a woman! My husband jokes that he can look through the freezer and pantry and think, “There is nothing for dinner.” I can go into the same kitchen and use the same ingredients make a big, tasty meal to feed a hungry family. That is God’s image stamped upon my heart. I can take what I have and make something better out of it. You can, too. These skills you are honing and growing as a homemaker all serve to help you develop yourself more fully into the woman that God has made you to be. It really does not matter what title we give our humble job of homemaking. It won’t matter if you call yourself a Domestic Engineer and estimate a six-digit salary. What matters is that you were created deliberately and carefully by the God of the universe and he loves you. He loves the family resemblance. Praise Him for it, and seek ways to continue growing in His likeness! Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. Galatians 6:9 Happy homemaking, or engineering.

Victoria’s Secret model Shanina Shaik is being attacked for her Coachella-ready braids. Shaik, who is from Australia but is of Lithuanian, Pakistani, and Saudi Arabian heritage, posted a photo on Instagram showing her new, long braids, with the caption, “Looking right for the festival by @queenb_braids_.” Her full head of individual braids look like box braids, which start from “boxes” created at the scalp. But some of her fans aren’t happy. Several of Shaik’s 894,000 Instagram followers were not pleased with her for wearing a look that is common in African cultures, since she is not African. “Tired of seeing this s***. No,” one follower wrote. “No,” wrote another. “Those braids don’t belong to your culture, stop.” Another chimed in: “You look beautiful, but this is cultural appropriation.” However, some pointed out that her Middle Eastern background contradicts the cultural appropriation accusations. “She is of middle eastern ancestry and they wore braids, too; also she tagged the woman who did it. Why are only women fighting over this stuff while blk men fight over job security and safety? This is catty,” commented one follower. However, another commenter challenged that statement: “I am Middle Eastern, too, and our braids don’t look like these at all.” Others jumped to Shaik’s defense. “@shaninamshaik You look amazing,” one admirer wrote. “There is nothing wrong about you getting braids. It’s the style you want and everyone these days is getting braids done. People need to relax. Let us all embrace each other cultures, styles, etc. I am black and some day would love to color my hair blonde. Will that be an insult to the white people? No it would not because they don’t care. So why should we care if other people decide to get braids.” “Lol people arguing over what someone else can do with their hair,” another commenter wrote. “Honestly…..it’s 2017…get over it. Belongs to no one, no one owns this.” Others just stated the facts: She looked great. “Love the braids,” wrote one. “They look awesome on you.” While simply a popular music festival, Coachella seems to inadvertently come with a side of cultural appropriation. In 2016, Free People revealed a Coachella collection that was not received well. The brand’s festival-ready campaign included feathered headdresses and hair clips, medicine bags, and rain sticks featured almost exclusively on white, blond models. Free People was accused of inappropriately using Native American culture. Vanessa Hudgens was called disrespectful for wearing a massive Native American headdress to Coachella three years ago. And in 2014, bindis were all the rage at Coachella, with celebs like Selena Gomez, Kylie and Kendall Jenner, and Hudgens adopting the look, which many deemed inappropriate. What’s next? Paris Hilton wearing a tallis? Read more from Yahoo Beauty + Style: - 7 Controversial Fashion Week Hairstyles That Wouldn’t Fly Today - People Are Obviously Unhappy About Marc Jacobs’s Dreadlocks - Plus-Size Model ‘Dipped in Melanin’ Shares Her Journey to Self-Acceptance

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A biographical drama centered on the rivalry between Formula 1 drivers James Hunt and Niki Lauda during the 1976 Formula One motor-racing season. When Hong Kong Inspector Lee is summoned to Los Angeles to investigate a kidnapping, the FBI doesn't want any outside help and assigns cocky LAPD Detective James Carter to distract Lee from the case. Not content to watch the action from the sidelines, Lee and Carter form an unlikely partnership and investigate the case themselves. An orphaned musical prodigy uses his gift as a clue to finding his birth parents. After an attempted assassination on Ambassador Han, Inspector Lee and Detective Carter are back in action as they head to Paris to protect a French woman with knowledge of the Triads' secret leaders. Lee also holds secret meetings with a United Nations authority, but his personal struggles with a Chinese criminal mastermind named Kenji, which reveals that it's Lee's long-lost...brother. In Manhattan, a bike messenger picks up an envelope that attracts the interest of a dirty cop, who pursues the cyclist throughout the city. It's vacation time for Carter as he finds himself alongside Lee in Hong Kong wishing for more excitement. While Carter wants to party and meet the ladies, Lee is out to track down a Triad gang lord who may be responsible for killing two men at the American Embassy. Things get complicated as the pair stumble onto a counterfeiting plot. The boys are soon up to their necks in fist fights and life-threatening situations. A trip back to the U.S. may provide the answers about the bombing, the counterfeiting, and the true allegiance of sexy customs agent Isabella. Undercover cop Jim Raynor (Jason Patric) is a seasoned veteran. His partner, Kristen Cates (Jennifer Jason Leigh), is lacking in experience, but he thinks she's tough enough to work his next case with him: a deep cover assignment to bring down the notoriously hard-to-capture drug lord Gaines (Gregg Allman). While their relationship turns romantic during the assignment, they also turn into junkies, and will have to battle their own addictions if they want to bring down Gaines once and for all. A lone prospector ventures into Alaska looking for gold. He gets mixed up with some burly characters and falls in love with the beautiful Georgia. He tries to win her heart with his singular charm. Alex Whitman (Matthew Perry) is a designer from New York City who is sent to Las Vegas to supervise the construction of a nightclub that his firm has been hired to build. Alex is a straight-laced WASP-ish type who, while enjoying a night on the town, meets Isabel Fuentes (Salma Hayek), a free-spirited Mexican-American photographer. Alex and Isabel are overtaken by lust at first sight and end up sp Is it just another evening at the hugely popular Italian restaurant of proprietor and bookmaker Louis Cropa in New York? Anything but as tonight's guests include; a local police detective and his wife specially invited by the owner; on the balcony rival bookmaker gangsters from Queens who want to become partners in the restaurant; in the corner renowned food critic 'the food nymph' is her usual demanding self; and at the bar, seemingly unnoticed, is Ken. As the evening continues enter Duncan, inveterate gambler and sous-chef on-the-line in the frenetic kitchen downstairs, who acts as the catalyst that causes the evening to draw to its inevitable, explosive, deadly conclusion. Rush's Time Machine shows in 2010 / 2011 were one of the most anticipated tours ever. Celebrating 30 years since the 1981 release of their classic bestselling album Moving Pictures the band performed the entire album live for the first time as the centrepiece of the concerts. The shows also featured favourite tracks from across their lengthy career and two new songs expected to feature on their next studio album. First concert DVD ever from legendary rock trio Rush. Double-DVD set, containing 28 Rush songs. Bonus features include a tour documentary, multi-angle viewing options for certain songs, and behind-the-scenes footage. Recorded and filmed at Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on the final night of the band's 2002 tour, in front of 40,000 fans. Rush Clockwork Angels Tour captures the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers' 2012-2013 sold-out tour from a unique point-of-view approach to film-making utilizing distinct composition and a voyeuristic style that at varying moments puts the viewer on the stage, at the side of the stage, and throughout the arena. For the first time ever the legendary band was accompanied on this tour by an eight-piece string section! As an aging woman married to a workaholic doctor by chance meets a young man who makes her feel young again. All of this is films by a director making a film about her which cuts in and out of the on camera and off camera drama. Suffering from a contamination obsession and panic disorder, Byunghoon is battling through the little things every day. After their 5 year hiatus due to tragic events in drummer Neil Peart's life, Rush regrouped. 30 years with the same line-up was cause for celebration - and Rush duly did so with the R30 world tour. Here Rush capture their stage show well. Recorded in Frankfurt, 24 September 2004, we are offered a great mix of material from their latest offering Vapor Trails, way back to their much earlier material When Toni Daniels, an ambitious student reporter, goes in search of an exciting story, she discovers the dark secrets of Tambers College. Three beautiful coeds have disappeared, leaving behind some bizarre clues. Are the disappearances somehow related to the fraternity rituals of Rush Week? Are they lined to the tragic death of the dean's daughter? Skeletons pop up from every closet and veiled threats fly as Toni follows the twisting trail of clues that leads to an intense and shocking surprise ending. The story follows media, politics, crime and sex at the point of life and death. Samar Grover (Emraan Hashmi) is a struggling news reporter. Even though his talk show is at the pinnacle of success, his personal life has turned upside down due to problems with his wife (Sagarika Ghatge). Seeing no way out, he accepts an assignment offered by a dynamic media tycoon named Lisa (Neha Dhupia), which he believes can make him millions. However, along with Lisa, one of India's most richest man, Roger Khanna (Aditya Pancholi), together play a game on Samar, which plunges him into a vortex of violence in a deadly game of cat and mouse. Beneath the veneer of glamour, money, power and the enviable life of media, lays a truth that is at once unbelievable and shocking. An omnibus of 42 short films by auteur directors based on Dreams. An in-depth look at the Canadian rock band Rush, chronicling the band's musical evolution from their progressive rock sound of the '70s to their current heavy rock style Four teenage friends move from Minneapolis to Los Angeles to form a potential chart-topping boy band after Kendall is inadvertently discovered by an eccentric record executive, Gustavo Rocque. As they seize this opportunity of a lifetime, these friends embark on an exciting comedy and music-filled journey to prove to themselves and their record label that they are serious about their new career choice. Follow the lives of ambitious miners as they head north in pursuit of gold. With new miners, new claims, new machines and new ways to pull gold out of the ground, the stakes are higher than ever. But will big risks lead to an even bigger pay out? Rush was an Australian television police drama that first screened on Network Ten in September 2008. Set in Melbourne, Victoria, it focuses on the members of a Police Tactical Response team. It is produced by John Edwards and Southern Star. On 10 November 2011, as with Network Ten setting out DVD promotions for the finale of season 4, David Knox of TV Tonight has announced that Rush would not return after 4 years, as the next episode would be its last. The series follows Detective Carter, a radical LAPD detective, and Detective Lee, a by-the-book detective from Hong Kong, as they are forced into forming an unlikely partnership Dr. William Rush is not your average on-call doctor. He's not attached to any hospital, he's highly discreet no matter what the ailment as long as the client can pay his cash-only premium and the doctor can party with the best of them. He has no desire to change his life or how he lives it, until an old flame and his conscience begin to stir things up. A relentlessly fast-paced baking competition that challenges brilliant bakers to create sweet treats that look and taste amazing – all against the clock. Who will race to the finish and win $10,000? Sugar Rush is an Emmy Award–winning British television comedy drama series developed by Shine Limited and broadcast by Channel 4, based on the Julie Burchill novel of the same name. It is centred around the life of a 15 year old lesbian Kim Daniels who at the beginning of series one moves from London to Brighton on the south coast of England. Gold miners Dakota Fred and his son Dustin are back – returning to McKinley Creek Alaska, determined to make a fortune no matter the risk. But to find the big gold payout, they'll put their lives on the line by diving deep beneath the raging waters of one of Alaska's wildest creeks. When Li Xia and her best friend enroll into the arts specialized Qian Chuan secondary school, they meet the legendary Fu Xiao Si and Lu Zhi Ang. Together, the group of youths officially begin their beautiful high school life. After graduation, the friends part with everyone going their separate ways, but everyone continues to fight for their dreams. However, they're all gradually changing and thus become doubtful about the origin of their friendship. A span of ten years makes them realize that other than memories, nothing can be eternal, but they learnt to love and grow. Rush is based from the popular video game series Battlefield, from Swedish game developers DICE. The name comes from a battlefield unique mode in which the player must locate and destroy/defend two objectives. Sugar Rush is a TV show on the Food Network hosted by Warren Brown, a former lawyer who decided to become a pastry chef. Brown, who runs a pastry shop, Cake Love, and cafe, Love Cafe in Washington, DC, meets other pastry chefs and dessert makers and cooks with them. The show is currently in its second season, first airing in June 2006. Double Rush is an American CBS television comedy that lasted only one season in 1995. Robert Pastorelli played Johnny Verona, manager of a bicycle delivery service in New York City. Verona must keep his business on its feet in the face of competition from the increased use of fax machines and the internet. The show premiered 4 January 1995 and ended with the twelfth episode on 12 April of that year. The reason for its cancellation might be because of the title of the seventh episode 'The Show We Wrote the Day We Found Out We Were Going on Opposite Roseanne'. Apparently, "even the most smart-mouthed, wise-cracking New York working stiffs couldn't compete with Roseanne for ratings." Rush was an Australian television series produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation between 1974 and 1976. The first 13 episodes were produced in 1974 and filmed in black and white. In 1976, 13 more episodes were produced, in colour, in conjunction with French production company Antenne 2. Each series featured a different cast with the exception of John Waters. Hosted by Mitchell Tomlinson and Hannah Wang, this action sport series explores the incredible world of action sports and the amazing personalities that are found within. Triple Rush is an American reality television series. It premiered on April 14, 2011, on the Travel Channel. The program is about bicycle courier services in the city of New York. Rush Hour is a sketch show made by Zeppotron and shown on BBC Three during March and April 2007. The show featured several sketches centred around characters travelling to work, school or otherwise, therefore many of the sketches took place inside a car or bus. Several cult and up and coming comedians and comic actors star in the show, each performing several of the characters. The cast includes Adam Buxton, Sanjeev Kohli, Miranda Hart, Frankie Boyle, David Armand, Marek Larwood, Kerry Godliman, Bruce Mackinnon, Naomi Bentley, Lorna Watson, and Katy Wix. BBC Three didn't recommission the show for a second series due to bad reviews. Morning Rush is a morning television program on The Weather Channel, an American television station, which airs Monday through Fridays from 7-10 a.m. Eastern Time. It focuses on morning weather conditions around the country and more recently, news and business information that does not pertain to weather. Head Rush is a spin-off of the popular MythBusters show airing on Discovery's Science since it debuted in 2010. Described by Discovery as a "commercial free hour of MythBusters mashups, hosted by Kari Byron", the show features about ten minutes of new material - experiments and quizzes presented by Kari, as well as TV celebrity and scientist appearances, pitching the idea that "science is cool" - interwoven in fifty minutes of material from MythBusters episodes. These celebrity segments include "Cool Jobs In Science," which has featured other Science, Discovery, and TLC stars such as Dr. Michio Kaku, Cake Boss's Buddy Valastro, Dr. G: Medical Examiner's Dr. Jan Garavaglia, and each of the other four MythBusters.

On the occasion of his exhibit, Double Trouble at P.S. 1, which will be on view till November 20th, Rail’s Consulting Editor Robert Storr and Publisher Phong Bui paid a visit to Ron Gorchov’s studio in Brooklyn one afternoon to discuss with the painter his life and work. Robert Storr: Were you ever a student in the conventional sense, or did you paint on your own, moving into the world through a rather unorthodox path? Ron Gorchov: When I was fourteen I went to Saturday classes at the Art Institute of Chicago. It was in 1944, and a few service men were coming back from WWII at that time. They were taking art classes with great G.I. Bill benefits that paid for art materials. A veteran named Jered Hoffman gave me a paper bag with all his half-squeezed oil paint tubes and a whole bunch of old brushes and he said that they’d be good luck. Phong Bui: Then you went to college in Mississippi? Gorchov: I didn’t plan my education. My high school grades were terrible—I read a lot but I hated school. Ol’ Miss was the most unlikely place I could go. The deep south was exotic. I did well in my freshman classes. I went fishing with William Faulkner and friends once when I was down there, so that was a highlight. Anyway, while I was there, because of the horrific racial problem (this was 1947), I was mentally not at all able to think about art; instead I spent a lot of time with people who had more advanced ideas that helped me grasp this intense situation. I was surprised to meet a few such people in a motorcycle club who went further on equal rights and took risks. After spending a year in Mississippi, I went back to Chicago–-Roosevelt College and the Art Institute for academics and art classes. Storr: When did you come to New York? Gorchov: We (Joy and my three-month-old son, Michael) landed here in New York with eighty dollars in 1953. We moved immediately into the Marlton Hotel, right across from what was the old Whitney Museum, now the New York Studio School on 8th Street. The next day, there was a listing for lifeguards to test at the 54th Street swimming pool. I went for the test and passed and in less than a week I was working at Coney Island. We found a place near the beach but my paycheck wouldn’t come for almost a month so I sent my family to stay with relatives in Philadelphia for a while until I received a few checks and Joy could get a job. By then I was teaching swimming evenings at the old Summit Hotel across from the Waldorf-Astoria. We moved to a cold-water flat in 12th street between Avenue A and B. It was a small 1st floor with 12 ft ceilings. The room I used for a studio was 64 sq. ft but the high ceiling gave it something extra. I was painting a lot but really I had no idea what I was doing. Bui: Did you have time to see shows in museums and galleries? Gorchov: In the early ’50s we had to time things close with subways to get to jobs and relieve each other with our son. Our neighbors who had five young children helped us a lot with cooking, childcare and understanding. But somehow we had time for everything. We had parties with friends. Took Michael everywhere. Joy had a piano and singing coaches and studied acting. I could see all the shows in one afternoon, after midnight talk to artists in bars, then paint all night and sleep three hours in the morning. It was exciting and we didn’t want to miss out on anything. Storr: Just to fast forward to the present, in a very short order, you had two shows: one last summer at Vito Schnabel’s temporary space, and now one this summer at P.S. 1. In both cases new and old work, and I would guess that this has very much changed the kind of situation that you’re in. Many people knew your work, some who knew it had lost track of it, but many younger people are not familiar with it. I wonder what it’s like to be at the receiving end of this attention: how it has affected your work process and your general sense of yourself in the New York community and beyond. Gorchov: When I was about 10 years old, I was thrilled that in the year 2000 I would be 70 years old. For whatever reason, I didn’t think that that was very old. I loved modernism, and believed that there is progress. I thought the world would be great; there’d be spaceships and everything. I remember when Pop Art led discourse in the ’60s shortly after I had an early success, I said to myself, fine, I don’t want to be a ’60s artist. In the ’70s, I had new work and considered being a ’70s artist, I had support from artists. Two Whitney Biennials and Alanna Heiss at P.S. 1 provided major spaces for “Set” and “Entrance” but no strong interest from any gallerist. Nothing worked well for me in the ’80s. The ’90s passed quickly. I don’t know if many artists have thought about picking their time. But I’d like it to be now. Storr: The general tendency is in fact to date artists’ work to the moment when they become visible on the scene, so they’re locked in that. De Kooning is a ’50s artist, even though he painted for the next 40 years. It goes like that pretty predictably. You’re right. Artists are not allowed to pick their decade. It is picked for them. Gorchov: I had at least a couple of gallery shows in every decade. The best part of that was being able to show artists what I was up to. I’m aware that selling art is hard. When gallerists couldn’t sell my work, the easiest way for me to handle it was to assume that my art had to get better. I wasn’t desperate for more exposure. Bui: So that was the sole reason why you pulled away for two decades? To most artists, that would be considered a professional risk since most have learned slowly to accept their retreat by force, not by choice, and very few share your introspective view of making work without feeling the pressure of meeting all the demands from the art world. Gorchov: I don’t think these things are calculated. One thing that I never feel comfortable with is the so-called mid-career artist. I think it means the work is undervalued. An artist whose work is undervalued must produce the show, and then have a hard time capitalizing for the next show even if there are sales. Storr: By capitalizing you mean having enough money to build structures and pay for materials? Gorchov: Yes. The only time any value was ever created for my work was last year with the adventurous cooperation of Vito and his dad, Julian. They understand that artists probably like to be able to work and also live well. Storr: That’s a good principle that we all agree with . So, you see yourself as a 21st century artist, but you did in fact, more than any other group, have real ties to the generation of the ’50s. For example, I remember once you mentioned having known John Graham, who is a mysterious and emblematic figure because he always remained somewhat outside the art world’s establishment. Did you feel that there was a disadvantage with being associated with older artists, or that there was a particular lesson to be gained? Gorchov: The professor/student relationship has some inherent problems. I wrote John a letter in the summer of 1954, telling him who I was and what I was trying to do, and that I gave up painting the figure after I saw his work. After two months he wrote me back a very polite letter saying, perhaps in cooler weather we’ll see each other. I thought that was cryptic. Then suddenly he showed up two or three weeks later at my studio. Bui: This happened while Graham had his show at the Stable Gallery? Gorchov: No, months later. I actually wrote in care of Stable Gallery. The first time Graham visited my studio (then at E. 70th St) he looked around and said, I like that painting over the piano and I’d like to buy it. As for this painting over here it’s like a child pissing on the street, it’s charming, but absolutely not made by a thinking adult. So his immediate opinion of my work was mixed. We became friends. There was a hard period for him for two years but he called in 1957 and Joy and I saw him almost every day until he left for Paris and finally London in 1959. We corresponded until his death in 1962. Storr: Now you were in the New Talent show at the Whitney in 1959, which means you were making abstract paintings at a time when the tenor of things was changing back towards counter figuration, you were going one way and they were going another. Can you describe the paintings you were making at the time? From what I can tell through reproductions they look like they were quite heavily painted, with rather intense color. Gorchov: They were abstract surrealist paintings. Even though my work was being well received—I was very conscious of not wanting to make that kind of painting and I ended up painting quite a lot of them. I had a couple of shows with that body of work. I felt I had to get my feet wet in the art world. An artist who was gently critical of my work was Carl Andre. He said, my work was retardétaire, which I took seriously enough to go underground. Years later I reminded him that he said my old work was retardétaire, and he said, “I didn’t say that. I said you were a retarded terror! Bui: When I first came to know your work I thought of you as being a part of the generation of painters like Stuart Hitch, Thornton Willis, Peter Pinchbeck and Ralph Humphrey, whose work have significant links to abstract expressionism, but nonetheless came at the tail end of its decline. Yet at the same time, you were all questioning the validity of the New York School’s second or third generation and the rise of Pop Art, in addition to the complex climax of that decade, in which emerged so many directions taken in the art world: Neo Dada, Environments and Happenings, perceptual realism and so on. In your case, how did you manage to stay close to your vision? Gorchov: For one thing, I never wanted to be a second or third generation artist of any kind. Also, I think painting, per se, is an ideal way to criticize the work you already admire because that way you can take the best things in it and try to make your work to be the next consequential step. I mean, to me, that’s a given tradition in creative thought: to build on what you’re seeing that you love and try to bring it to new and unknown terrain. Storr: In that regard, you did two pretty decisive things. One was that you dealt with the structure of the support in a way that nobody had done before. I mean, I can only think of a handful of people who had found similar ways of expanding the conventional structure, but it’s still your territory, and the other thing was this ambidextrous way of painting with the left and right hand as to free the gesture—one is simultaneously informed by the other, therefore this deviation created a very unique tension. Gorchov: I think it began on a walk with Al Held when he was looking for a studio space in 1962. He said that Ronnie Bladen and David Winerib thought that the forms in his work would make more sense if he adapted them to shaped stretchers, and he refused to do it. And Al was right, because for what he was doing, he didn’t need to fuss with all of that carpentry. Held believed the rectangle was the inviolate static and his forms were the variables that he could play with. He called them “dancing angels”. But for me, I was thinking about what Richard Smith was doing with a hyperbolic canvas built out in extreme three-dimension that I saw at the Jewish Museum. The work itself felt somewhere between Minimal and English Pop, but the strong 3D got me thinking that even if you start cutting or building a structure onto a 2D rectangle or a square, it’s still a rectangle or a square—it isn’t a major change. But I thought I could use that idea. Since I didn’t have any woodworking skills, in ’66 I made the first negative curve structure with wire dipped in a plastic liquid. And I realized that when you stretch a saddle shape on a frame it had properties that were unusual: the whole thing got stronger. And it could make less acute corners. I also discovered that, with the new structure, it creates an even tension throughout the whole surface. What I’ve finally learned was the right way to build it was to start with a rectangle, and the curved part has to spring off of it. Therefore, the structure itself becomes an argument to the rectangle, and that interested me. In 1968 I made “Mine” the first complete painting from this line of thought. It disturbed me because the corners were even more acute than a regular rectangle. It had something I liked, but the structure was all wrong. I had to give the structure a form that I would want to draw into. I taught myself to work with wood as I began “Entrance,” “Set” and “Strand” as exercises that had to be large so I could see small errors of form easily. Bui: During that time in the ’70s, there was a strong sentiment of anti-action painterliness, which, for better or worse, was a product of the Greenbergian School of Painting: the surface is more varied, form and field became more soft and lyrical, technique more loose, like the crustily painted surface of Olitzki or stained paintings of Frankenthaler, Morris Louis and a few others. But there came a group of artists, you mentioned Richard Smith, but there’re others like Alan Shields, Richard Tuttle, Sam Gilliam, and Robert Ryman to some extent, who reacted against that doctrinaire formalism, took canvas off the stretcher, draped it around the room, resembled it on the floor, and tacked it directly on the wall. Were you a part of that discourse? Gorchov: We were all thinking about these related conflicts and doing it our own way. Lynda Benglis and I had breakfast and talked every morning from 1968 to 1972 about these questions. Soho was heaven then. It was very local. Few appointments. We just ran into each other. Malcolm Morley had a new exciting idea every week or so and would insist you come to Greene Street and see it. Jake Berthot would call at 2 AM if he was reading a great poem or something unusual was happening in his studio. That’s something I think is missing now. Storr: My sense is that there’s much less conversation among artists about what they’re doing now then when I first came to New York. Partly because there’s less agreement about what the central problems of the moment are; they just don’t have the same common culture that they once did. Gorchov: I mean you can learn from even those who didn’t paint; although they could, like Carl Andre. Storr: Yeah. He said a great thing to a friend of mine. At one point she was talking about how painters were getting beat up once again and he said, ‘Painting’s not bad, it’s just hard.’ which was a wonderful answer. Gorchov: Part of the difficultly in painting is the glut of images. I’ve come to fear images. They are randomly used: in a magazine, on a billboard, or in a film or a video. Vic Muñiz has directly addressed this confusion with his hypnotic photographs. Bui: That’s because pop culture enhances graphic image rather than images that emerge out of plastic form. That’s why I think the structure of your canvas not only increases the objectness of the painting, but it also amplifies the meaning of the image. I feel the image in some cases appeared almost like some kind of marking. They seem to have a strong connection to both John Graham’s paintings of the late 1940s, which were loaded with cuts and puncture wounds as in his land mark cross-eyed woman paintings, and Julian Schnabel’s paintings from the late 1970s particularly two paintings: Acetone, and St. Sebastian. These two artists, one older than you by 44 years, one younger by nearly two decades, you know intimately well. Does that sound adequate? Gorchov: Yes. Graham claimed he was using wounds formally—as punctuation. And that the crossed-eyes were a way of trapping space. As for Julian, he and I share a love for extreme forms, not necessarily tormented forms, but forms that imply expansiveness. When I think of Julian’s treatment of form, I think of Rodin’s monumental Balzac, according to some source, the nearly completed plaster torso didn’t look right to Rodin so he hit it with a sledgehammer, which gave it a new twist and energy. When I first met Julian I was immediately impressed by his energy. He has an admirable passion for work and a gift for overcoming obstacles that thwart most mortals. I’m lucky to have a studio near Julian and next to Ray Smith and St. Clair Cemin. Ray’s understanding of abstraction, his inspiring example of being a fearless art warrior would be a great gift in itself. St. Clair’s interest in chimerical phenomena has affected my dreams. Besides, with all of their impressive ability to produce constantly, I don’t know how they tolerate my way of working, which is painting that comes out of leisure. Bui: You mean you don’t have a puritanical work ethic like most good Americans? Gorchov: I hope not. My paintings are mostly made from reverie, and luck. Storr: Let me go to the gesture side. If you take Graham as an example whose work was hugely important to de Kooning and Gorky, this counters the myth that the gesture is totally spontaneous, because Graham rehearsed all the moves that he made, and so did de Kooning—that’s the Classical tradition. Over your shoulder there is a computer unless people hearing this conversation think that you’re a representative of the old school. I’ve seen you work on a computer as a way of developing an image which is the technological alternative to the old classical method of Graham, Gorky, and de Kooning, so how do you think about the business of pre-meditation, performance, the thing you know which relates to the thing that happens on the surface. Gorchov: The computer helped me at a time when I didn’t have enough space, and materials to do as many forms as I wanted, I could make a lot of shapes and just save them (I was brought up where you create a form after having gone through many trials and errors, and you couldn’t change anything, you can’t get back to where you were. Even stripping the painting changes it a lot.) I don’t use the computer that much; it was a novelty that I enjoyed for a while. Digital images don’t interest me much now. For me, it’s always the alchemy of mixing the paint that gives excitement to painting. Storr: Nearly two years ago when I was in the studio you had made a rather decisive change to go back to the rectangle. Could you talk about that since quite a few of them are included in the show, a change which to some viewers, who are familiar with your shaped canvas, may seem abrupt? Gorchov: I had about five or six curved stretchers left and since I had gotten in the habit of paying all my bills on time, my credit was good. I didn’t want to stress my credit by ordering $10,000 of the stretchers, and I thought, wow, it’s so great that people can just spend a few hundred dollars and they can have a supply of canvases and get to work right away. And some individuals have questioned the fact that my work is built on so much craft, that I could only paint on saddle-shape stretchers. So I was thinking about that, which led to an intuition I had relating to the great Blinky Palermo stripe paintings on aluminum at DIA. In this case two vertical stripes with three spaces in a rectangle. So the first one I did, called “Who’s Afraid Of Barney Newman,” 2003, turned out to be promising. I felt something from it; it was real enough that I was compelled to do more. Remember I called you up, and I asked you, what do you think? And you said, ‘Puzzling. They’re handsome paintings, you can handle paint, but they’re not everything you can do. You should go further with these before you look for a dealer.’ It was good advice. So I pushed it a little bit. I started to make forms, and the forms became disengaged from the stripes, you thought the project was okay, but not to give up painting on the curved form. Storr: Another issue of many of your paintings is that they are now very open, in terms of densities of tones, or where the edges are. Again, in the ’50s, the unfinishedness of paintings was thought of as an ideological proposition, but I remember when we did an interview years ago, you talked about how you faced a problem with finishing a painting, and you would give yourself a time limit, and I wonder if you could talk more about that? Gorchov: I don’t do that crazy stuff any more. But here’s the method I used some years ago when I had many paintings to complete for a show. I put large cards by each painting with a number in magic marker. The numbers were the hours I estimated that painting would take to complete—say, 32. In sessions of painting with no break until I estimated that I had halved the hours left to complete; crossed out the 32—and put 16, 8, 4, 2, etc. after each session. Storr: Well it was a great; crazy idea. But I wanted you to talk about what it is that makes letting go of a painting so hard, or that makes knowing where you are in the process so difficult to ascertain. Gorchov: The biggest problem I had with letting paintings go was the feeling that there was an expense to getting a fresh canvas. And if I could make this painting as good as I could make it and keep going with it, however long it took. It’s not rational; I ruined painting after painting to get to a better one. Then I realized that I couldn’t make a painting incrementally better. If you could make it one percent better, maybe, but who cares? A painting has to evolve. With all respect to Myron Stout, I’m not that kind of an artist. Lately, I’m alone in my studio, after the preliminary marks indicate the limits of the elements, I only get one chance. I test the colors that I want, mix them, get the right brushes. I talk to myself—that form will be eight strokes; this form will be 3 strokes—and paint goes down. The next part is hallucinatory and difficult to explain. A decision will be made about adjustments later. Or it will be renovated. Or it feels perfect and can’t be changed. Storr: Apropos to 21st century thinking, if one of the problems is getting the 21st century, another problem is actually making work in the 21st century. In both cases, it has to do with educating people to what they think about what they see, and to get people really past the point where they read certain kinds of surfaces, colors, or marks as metaphors for expressions of total spontaneity, which is what a painter does, and I would assume part of what’s confronting you is how do you show people how to look at the kind of paintings you make? Gorchov: I don’t know about the art public but I trust artists. Peter Acheson, a painter I met through Phong recently at my show at P.S. 1, had a response that made me happy. He knew a good reason why I was working the way I did. He said, this curved boundary allows you to be free, to paint in any way you like, you don’t have to have a signature paint style. Storr: But there is a kind of way of thinking, which is invested in this in the 1950s, which has been deeply engrained in the culture. That’s what I was trying to address. How do you get people to look, with fresh eyes, rather than eyes keyed to past explanations? Gorchov: I’ve been meeting more young artists now than in the recent past who that are interested in paint as a material. Storr: Do you sense that the time is right for people to look at painting again after quite a lot of attention has gone in other directions? Or is it now just a free-for-all? Gorchov: Even though it was always made for a small audience, I believe that painting will be looked at; it’s lasted 40,000 years, why not another 40,000 years? OK, let’s say it’ll only last another 10,000 years, why should it come to a dead stop? Bui: That’s true. The last time we saw each other we were talking about Gandy Brody, who was very visible in the 1950s but somehow his paintings have fallen out of favor in recent decades. All of the sudden, one of his painting ”Meditation on a Kosher Tag” appeared, along with other terrific paintings by Pollock, De Kooning, Frank Auerbach, Bill Jensen, Louise Fishman and many others in the great Soutine show that Maurice Tuchman and Esti Dunow put together at Cheim & Read this summer. I mean if one were to be critical about the differences between the painterly vs. the painted, then there were choices of certain paintings that didn’t quite fit Soutine’s feverish brushwork. Nonetheless it was a great feast to all of those who paint. Gorchov: Gandy was an eccentric character and a terrific painter. His work is a synthesis of his love for Soutine and Ryder. Storr: I remember in 1989 Elizabeth Murray, Bill Jensen, Brice Marden and I did a panel on Ryder at the American Art Museum in Washington DC when there was a big Ryder show. It was a real panel by painters on a painter, which is very rare by any measure. Bui: How about the brilliant traveling retrospective of Elizabeth Murray last year, and, soon, by late October, a similar event for Brice Marden! So painting is again pretty visible. Gorchov: Yeah. People like good food. People like good music, dance, etc. I think everyone, if they don’t have impediments, can love paintings.

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The Pitch: As recalled in Daphne du Mauier’s famed 1938 Gothic novel of the same name, our narrator and young, nameless lady’s companion (Lily James) meets, falls in love with, and marries a wealthy, older Englishman and widower, Maxim de Winter (Armie Hammer), while on holiday in Monte Carlo and returns with him to his lavish Cornish estate, Manderley. She soon begins to notice the long, profound shadow her husband’s recently dead wife, Rebecca, hauntingly casts over Maxim; family and acquaintances; household servants, including cold, austere housekeeper Mrs. Danvers (Kristin Scott Thomas); and even the animals. As the second Mrs. de Winter grows increasingly frustrated with the strange power her predecessor possesses, even from beyond a watery grave, she slowly begins to learn the truth about Rebecca, her demise, and several other secrets kept within the aging walls of Manderley. Déjà Vu: Here’s the rub. Rebecca has been done before and done masterfully. That usually spells doom for a remake. After all, who wants to watch an inferior stab at source material when Old Hollywood masters Alfred Hitchcock, Laurence Olivier, and Joan Fontaine created the definitive version 80 years ago? But like any masterpiece, there’s still enough thrill and tension to be found each time around in this ghostless ghost story if executed well. Unfortunately, director Ben Wheatley and his crew never quite find sure footing around the grounds of Manderley. Rebecca is a tale of secrecy, jealousy, and insecurities revealed in dribs and drabs where nothing is quite as it seems (a perfect first Hollywood project for Hitchcock, in retrospect). While Wheatley’s take finds that pacing well enough for most of the film, it too often disappoints when the payoffs come and winds up making some boring choices. More on that in a moment. Rebecca’s Retinue: The towering Hammer (and his disappearing accent) proves the weak link in a cast that’s been largely whittled down to the story’s essential characters. He pulls off a hunk in a mustard suit far better than an aloof and tormented widower. Olivier casts as long a shadow as Rebecca, but it feels like the script goes through painful attempts just to convince us that this Maxim indeed shoulders a troubling secret. On the other hand, and more importantly, we believe James’ tantrums and tears as her character feels more and more overwhelmed and crushed by Rebecca’s enduring memory. Of course, any version of Rebecca will hinge upon how well the part of Mrs. Danvers is handled. Scott Thomas doesn’t disappoint here. As the sinister head housekeeper of Manderley — plain-clothed, hair and skin pulled back tight, and eyes blue and icy — her Danvers elicits a slight chill each time she enters a room. As it should be. Manderley Renovations: The film looks beautiful. The vibrancy of bright Monte Carlo juxtaposed with the gloomy greens and drab corridors of Manderley make the locations themselves characters in a way they never quite could be in black and white. Bon Jovi would surely approve of Rebecca’s cause of death returning to a shot through the heart (as in the novel) rather than an accidental blow to the head (as in Hitchcock’s). Still, other story choices make less sense. In the Monte Carlo setting, we see a huge deal made by all about the narrator’s poor station in life, but the scandal of her marrying a wealthy widower never really plays out to any meaningful effect once at Manderley. And while it might be a progressive step to see the second Mrs. de Winter — who, we recall, doesn’t even warrant a name of her own — take a more active role than in past versions in protecting her husband from prison and humiliation, it’s hard to believe such an overwhelmed and passive, young woman would suddenly find that type of agency. It makes for a finish that doesn’t quite match its build. Riches and Rags: Rebecca is a psychologically rich story with so much to pick at and probe. That means decisions need to be made on where to focus, and Wheatley bats about .500 in that respect. Arguably the film’s best sequence follows the orchestrated debacle at the ball and the narrator’s emotional breakdown, which leads to Mrs. Danvers nearly ridding herself of her beloved Rebecca’s competition once and for all. At that point, Rebecca has so haunted the thoughts of her successor that the image of her tattered corpse floating to the surface of the sea actually feels earned. In other instances, it feels like Wheatley misses opportunities. The pivotal boathouse scene in which Maxim comes clean feels clumsy and rushed, and we barely scratch the surface of the peculiar nature behind the relationship between Mrs. Danvers and Rebecca. That’s an area future filmmakers might do well to delve into. Rebecca 2.0: Most will be visiting Manderley and meeting Rebecca de Winter for the first time when they scroll across this remake on Netflix. That’s fine. It’s a beautiful-looking film that may pale in comparison to its Oscar-winning ancestor but still offers enough thrills to make it worth viewing. Part of the value of remakes is that they update old material in a way that modern audiences can access and appreciate. While I’d hope that the publicity around this film would make viewers curious about the Hitchcock adaptation or even du Mauier’s novel, the reality is that a modern update will both keep this chilling, psychological thriller alive and possibly inspire a future filmmaker to one day take the story of Rebecca, Manderley, and all living under her spell there to new cinematic heights. Where’s It Streaming? Rebecca will be haunting limited theaters in the United States starting October 16th. It will also be available to stream on Netflix beginning October 21st.

TRAVELLING LEFT IN BOHEMIA By Freda Utley Before the war ended I had attained a position of some responsibility as a “Junior Administrative Assistant” at the War Office earning a salary of £250 a year which rendered life easier for me and mother before my brother came home from the war. Temple, after returning from Mesopotamia on leave following Dada’s death, had been posted to France where he was wounded and gassed at Le Cateau shortly before the Armistice in November 1918. Discharged from hospital early in 1919 he joined us at 68 Jessel House, Judd Street, opposite St. Pancras Station. His experiences and mine since our childhood and early youth had been so different as partially to account for the divergent paths along which our destiny or our characters were to lead us in the years to come. He had escaped my bitter experience at an English boarding school and had enjoyed a year at Cambridge University before enlisting in the army at the beginning of the 1914 war. Subsequently commissioned as an officer and posted to the Connaught Rangers, he had lived under the shadow of death, been wounded twice, and suffered far worse deprivations than I while fighting in the mud and cold of the trenches in France and in the desert heat in Mesopotamia. But his worst periods of danger and discomfort had been interspersed by joy and ease, love and laughter, whereas my life had been drab. Untroubled by our mundane cares he had enjoyed the war in spite of hardship, danger and wounds. Having faced the ultimate test life seemed wonderful to him as to others who have escaped death. As he was to write years later on his hazardous voyage across the Atlantic in a small sailing boat, the most wonderful feeling in the world, bar only the ecstasy of love, is that following escape from danger. In Edmond Spencer‘s words: Sleep after toyle. port after stormie seas, Ease after war, death after life, does greatly please. Now, together, again, after his high key and my low key sufferings, we confronted the difficulties and uncertainties of life in post-war England without money. At the War Office I had become a branch secretary of the Association of Women Clerks and Secretaries. Through this trade union I obtained, in 1920, a bursary from the Ministry of Labor made available to war workers who could prove that their college education had been prevented or interrupted by the war. Thus, five years after I left school, and six years after I had passed Cambridge University’s entrance examination, I became a student at London University. Temple, a year previously, had obtained a grant from the Ex-Officers’ Fund to resume his university studies, and I now joined him at King’s College. Neither of us was really unfortunate in having had to wait so long to get a university education. The intervening years since Temple had left Cambridge and I had left Priors Field, had taught us both, through a variety of experiences, lessons rarely learned in the academic world. And because we had both had to wait so long to get our university education, we appreciated our opportunities more than most college students. The Librarian at King’s College told me that Temple and I were continually astonishing him by the variety of our interests. For both of us it was wonderful once again to be able to satisfy our hunger for knowledge, irrespective of whether the books we read would help us to pass examinations. Originally, my bursary of £2 a week covered only two years of study, which did not permit me to enroll for the B.A. degree. So, like Temple, I started work for the Journalism Diploma. Both of us specialized in psychology and attended most of the B.A. Honors lectures in this subject along with our regular journalism courses. Here I might mention a striking illustration of the difference between Temple’s mind and temperament and my own. One night during my first year at King’s College I had got home at 1:00 a.m. from a dance, to be told by Temple that our class would have a psychology test that morning. For an hour he coached me and I did so well that I gave 97% correct answers in our written test and came out top of the class. But Temple, who had enabled me to achieve this success in competition with a lot of Divinity students, got a rating of only 70%. The difference was that the challenge of an examination brought all my faculties to the highest pitch, whereas Temple was stymied by his greater and more profound knowledge of the subject, as also perhaps by lack of the competitive spirit which was highly developed in me. Moreover, he could not write as fast as I could because he had lost the use of one finger of his right hand when wounded in 1917 on the Somme. It is easier to answer questions when one does not know too much, as I have long since realized. Yesterday, I could write articles and books very fast. Today, I take much longer because I have learned enough to need to pause and reflect and ponder what I really think or believe. And, of course, today I no longer possess the exceptional memory of my youth. Encouraged by Temple, who believed I could do anything I set my mind to, and determined that after having at long last got to college I must obtain an Honors degree, I entered for the B.A. Intermediate examination in the Spring of 1921, without having attended the preliminary courses. For a few weeks I mugged up on my Latin and other subjects not included in the Journalism course, and thanks to the good grounding I had acquired at Priors Field, passed this preliminary first year B.A. examination. A feat which so impressed the King’s College authorities that they induced the Department of Labor to extend my scholarship from two to three years, thus enabling me two years later to obtain my B.A. degree in History with First Class Honors. Temple had tried to persuade me to take Honors in Psychology but I was more interested in history, economics and politics. He, having studied history during his pre-war year at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, had become interested in psychology during his years in the Army. But coming to realize that psychology without a knowledge of medicine was of little use, he became a medical student, after obtaining his Diploma in Journalism. Like my father, my brother was always as interested in the sciences as in the humanities and possessed a rare combination of “literary and scientific aptitudes” to quote from a testimonial given him by King’s College recommending him as a “stimulating lecturer alike in history and in elementary science.” Although we profited in other ways from our Journalism courses, neither Temple nor I ever learned how to make easy money by catering to popular tastes. We both had a try at writing stories for magazines but they were always rejected. I remember endeavoring to get a soap opera type of story of a poor girl gets rich boy accepted under the pseudonym of Felicity Fitzmaurice. My failure was no doubt due to my story sounding too much like a parody of popular fiction. Temple with memories of his pre-war years at Cambridge when he had been influenced by the literature of decadence and had been able to indulge his love of beauty and “gracious living,” fine wines and foods and furnishings, wrote stories in a neo-Oscar Wilde or early Waugh vein. His efforts were no more successful than mine for much the same reason since they read like a burlesque of such books as “The Portrait of Dorian Grey” and “Vile Bodies.” One of his stories I remember involved a millionaire aesthete who had his bathroom fixed up with two tubs enabling him to plunge from warm scented water into an icy tub – a procedure supposedly calculated to restore his sexual virility following a drunken orgy the night before. One writes well only when one writes as one pleases, not in conformity with actual or imaginary popular taste. Many years later, reviewers of the book Temple’s widow and I compiled from his log book jottings and letters, written while sailing across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans on a small yacht, praised the charm of Temple’s fine writing which showed “the heights to which Utley might have risen had not death taken him.” Since my brother and I were supporting our mother, our bursaries were not sufficient for us to live on. We both gave lessons in English to foreigners, helped by our knowledge of French and German. We only got five shillings an hour and had to travel long distances by tube or bus to earn it in the late afternoon or evening after a day’s work at college. But we were lucky in that our pupils were interesting people with whom we established friendly relations and whom it was a pleasure to teach. Temple had pupils at the Czecho-Slovak Legation – his “Checks” we called them – with whom he was brought in contact by his friend George Silva, translator of Kapeck’s famous play, R.U.R., which gave the word “robot” to the English language. I taught Russian employees of the Soviet Trade Delegation and of Arcos, the equivalent of Amtorg in America. During the war years I had been more concerned with my own and my parents’ struggle for existence than with the class struggle or Socialism, or any idealistic notions of how to establish a more just and rational social and economic order. But once at college I began to take an active part in politics, becoming secretary of the King’s College Socialist Society, and later chairman of the London University Labour Party. I joined the Independent Labor Party and became well acquainted with Fenner Brockway. Jimmy Maxton and other dedicated Socialists who led, or inspired, this Left Wing tail of the official Labor Party and opposed its underlying imperialist concepts. As yet, I had no more knowledge or understanding of Communism and Marxist theory than the “Parlor Bolsheviks” or “Park Avenue Pinks” of the 30’s and 40’s. Nor did my first Russian pupils enlighten me. They were high Communist Party officials out to enjoy life in the “capitalist world” after the rigors of the “Workers Paradise” and for the most part confined their propaganda to jokes about England where they were enjoying the best years of their lives. Then I met Plavnik. an old Bolshevik who had lived long years in exile in Germany after the revolution of 1905. To him Bolshevik theory was the breath of life. He was honest and sincere, although extremely vain. His English lessons usually became my German lessons and instruction in Marxist theory. Boris Plavnik was the best type of “Old Guard” Communist: courageous and sincere and self-sacrificing in contrast to the hypocrites and self-seekers who assumed leadership of the Party following Lenin’s death. He was honest even in analyzing himself, which is a most rare quality. One evening he took me to listen from the gallery to a meeting of Russian Mensheviks in exile in England. The speakers were Abramovitch and Dan, leaders of the Social Democratic minority which had split with the Bolsheviks in 1905. As we listened to the speeches, Plavnik got more and more excited and finally exploded to me: “He is a very bad man.” “Why bad?” I replied. “Of course you disagree with him fundamentally, but that does not prove he is a bad man.” Plavnik kept saying that he knew Abramovitch (or was it Dan?) was bad, bad, and I kept on saying, “How do you know he is a bad man?” Finally Plavnik replied, “Because he does not like me.” All of us are inclined to see evil in those who dislike us, but how few are candid enough to admit it! Although so honest about himself, Plavnik shied away from realities when it came to his beloved Party. Whenever I pushed him into a corner by demonstrating the inconsistencies or contradictions of the “Party Line” he would tell me I had no understanding of dialectics. “Sprechen sie bitte dialektisch”, he would adjure me, looking at me severely down his long nose when I argued that it made no sense to attack and undermine the British Labor Party as “social fascist” while also hoping for a Conservative defeat. Plavnik was the most humane of men, and later on in Moscow where he and his devoted wife remained my friends, he sank more and more into his shell, unable to defend, but unwilling to condemn outright, the atrocities committed by Stalin. Like others among the best of the old Bolsheviks, he could not bring himself to face up to the fact that the revolutionary movement to which he had given his whole life had failed and degenerated into Stalin’s tyranny. As the years passed, we saw less and less of him because meetings were too painful between friends who dared not speak their thoughts to one another. Plavnik was lucky enough to go into an insane asylum just before the great purge began: at least that is where he was supposed to be in 1935, and we knew his mental faculties had been failing since the death of his beloved wife a year or two before. Shortly before my graduation in 1923 I defended the Soviet Union as the college speaker in a debate on Russia with H.N. Brailsford as the guest speaker on my side. Our opponents were Sir Bernard Pares, a “White Russian” emigre who had won high academic honors in England, and Cecil H. Driver, a fellow history student, who in later years became a Professor at Yale. When I next met Pares, thirteen years later, he had become a defender of the USSR, while I, back in England after my disillusionment in Russia, was holding my tongue for my husband’s sake, but hating Stalin’s totalitarian tyranny. The change, it seemed to me was not in us but in Russia. Like some other distinguished exiles Pares patriotism caused him to welcome precisely what I abhorred, namely Stalin’s transmutation of communism into national Socialism; and of the Comintern into the arm of Russian policy. Brailsford, meanwhile, standing steadfastly on his liberal principles, had become one of the all too rare British writers who dared to expose the horrors of Stalin’s Russia in defiance of the powerful ‘Popular Front’ of ‘Totalitarian Liberals’ and Communists which was exerting so great and baneful an influence on Western public opinion and policy. Cecil Driver’s subsequent career exemplifies the academic rewards which accrue to those who never compromise themselves through extra-curricular activity or any expression of “controversial” views. He and I were rivals at King’s College where his conservative bent endeared him to the head of the History Department, Hearnshaw, whereas my radical opinions and activities as Secretary of the King’s College Socialist Society were disfavored. Yet such was the impartiality in academic judgement which has generally distinguished British universities that it was to me, not to Driver, that Professor Hearnshaw awarded the Inglis Research Studentship, after I had won higher honors in London University’s B.A. examination. Three decades later, invited to speak at Yale University by such conservative stalwarts as Professor Willmore Kendall, William F. Buckley and Brent Bozell, I found Cecil Driver securely ensconced as a teacher of Political Science, in good repute in the liberal establishment. Whereas I, despite my more distinguished academic record, had found myself precluded from obtaining a university appointment in America on account of my strongly expressed anti-Communist views which made me too “controversial.” This is a later story referred to here to illustrate the “changes and chances” of life and the ambivalent meaning of “conservative” and “liberal” in our politically rotating world. The Inglis Research Studentship at King’s College paid only £ 50 a year and required that I conduct a weekly seminar on political theory. But it also gave me the opportunity to coach backward undergraduates for payment. A year later I was appointed to a resident research scholarship at Westfield College for Women in Hampstead where I enjoyed the luxury of a bedroom and study of my own. besides free meals and a bursary of £100. Of course, I still had to contribute to Mother’s support, but I earned extra money teaching Workers’ Education Association evening classes, writing occasional book reviews for the Daily Herald, and contributing articles to the Independant Labor Party’s New Leader (which, insofar as I remember, managed to pay only 10/ for an article) but was an influential weekly. Thus, I was enabled to study for London University’s M.A. degree which, unlike that of Oxford and Cambridge, is rated as the equivalent of the American PhD. The subject I chose for my M.A. thesis was research on the “Collegia,” (trade guilds) of the later Roman Empire, thus combining my knowledge of Latin and the interest in ancient history I had acquired in childhood and youth with my modern political interests and activities. During my two years’ work for my M.A. degree I spent long hours in the British Museum deciphering collected Latin inscriptions from tombs, studying the Theodosian Code and Gothofredus’ Commentaries thereon (available in a huge brown leather bound volume requiring a 2 ft. high stand to prop it up to be read) and reading translations from the Greek of the writings of such early Fathers of the Church as St. John Chrysostom in order to glean information on the status and condition of the workers in the last days of the Roman Empire. My Director of Studies, Norman H. Baynes, Professor of Ancient History at University College, was the most inspiring as well as profound scholar I ever knew, and had a delightful sense of humor. At his yearly series of public lectures on the Byzantine Empire you could “have heard a pin drop,” as the saying goes, except when his audience roared with laughter at his funny stories of saints and sinners, emperors and courtesans. hermits and foolish virgins, bishops and monks, and the ‘sports news’ in Constantinople where the chariot races between Reds and Greens at the Hippodrome were followed like American baseball games. The story I remember best, (which may be included in the small volume Baynes later wrote on Byzantium in the Home University series), concerned some beautiful girls in a Black Sea Greek City who mocked a Christian hermit who, being a ‘fool for Christ’s sake,’ was revered by the ignorant but regarded as a lunatic by the sophisticated. As I remember the legend, this otherwise kindly old man had cursed the foolish virgins who teased him, and rendered them all squint-eyed. When implored to lift the curse which marred their beauty he replied that it was better for them that he not do so since had they remained beautiful they would certainly have sinned. Being now ugly, they were sure to be virtuous and go to heaven. Norman Baynes, who died in February, 1961, at the age of 83 after a long illness, combined, in the words of his obituary in the London Times, “scrupulously exact scholarship with the gift of an imagination which he was not afraid to use.” For this reason, “his lectures and writings have meant so much to generations of undergraduates who were enabled by his bold reconstructions to understand something of Jewish, Greco-Roman and Byzantine life.” Because I had specialized in ancient and medieval history – a rare choice since most students took medieval and modern courses – I had attended Norman Baynes lectures and small seminars as an undergraduate before he became my Director of Studies while I worked for my M.A. degree. It is to him I owe the wide horizons of my historical perspective, as also more inspiration, help and encouragement than from any other Professor under whom I studied. Today I deeply regret having failed to get to England to see him once again before his death, following my extensive travels in the Middle East of recent years when I visited Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Iraq; all the lands permanently influenced by Greece and Rome which after they became part of the Arab world preserved much of our classical heritage during Europe’s Dark Ages. And which, after having made so great a contribution to civilization in times past, are once again beginning to play an important role in history after centuries of obscurity under Turkish or Western imperialist domination. My debt to Norman Baynes as an inspired teacher is incalculable. I also owe a great deal to him as a friend. In 1926 after visiting him at his home at Northwood I wrote to Mother, “He was charming, and has made me feel so much happier and less worried. He has taken my thesis to read again in order to help me to put it into final form for publication. He was so nice about everything and so really friendly. Do you know, just because I mentioned earlier on that I had been very occupied with your affairs which were going badly, he said I should remember that if I were in difficulties there was always £50 ready with him for me. Isn’t he extraordinary?” Many years later, after I had escaped from Russia with my two year old son and was nearly destitute in England prior to the success of my book Japan’s Feet of Clay , Norman Baynes again wanted to help me financially. I can no longer remember whether or not my ‘bourgeois prejudices,’ not yet quite dead, prevented me from taking money from him, although I think I must have done so. The big thing was that Norman Baynes, the revered and beloved teacher of my youth, still held me in high regard and with considerable affection, despite my having abandoned the study of history to immerse myself in politics. Although he spent his own life in academic studies, he understood and sympathized with my descent to Avernus in the belief that the Soviet purgatory was Paradise, or at least a way station toward it. In contrast to Norman Baynes, whose profound historical knowledge and perceptive intelligence prevented him from having illusions about Stalin’s dictatorship, Dr. Laistner, Professor of Ancient History at King’s College, was to shock me when I met him again some fifteen years later in America. In the 20’s at King’s College he had been a dyed-in-the-wool conservative who disapproved of my radicalism but, like Professor Hearnshaw, did not let his political views affect his judgement of my academic merits. But in 1941 when I gave a lecture at Cornell University where Laistner had become a professor, he defended the Soviet Union against me. He was, of course, an Englishman and “Uncle Joe” Stalin was by then England’s “gallant ally.” Laistner was a handsome, blond Aryan type of fine physique, but a colorless personality who never married and lived with his mother. Baynes, rugged face, too wide mouth, beetle brows and angular figure was almost ugly, but his dynamic personality, character and intelligence rendered him singularly attractive. Although the perpetual problem of how to get money for Mother still made life difficult for Temple and me, by 1924 we were much better off than when he first came home from the war. We still lived in a small cold-water, three-room-and-kitchen flat at Jessel House. Judd Street, close to St. Pancras Station on the outer edges of Bloomsbury. But we now had a gas fire in the living room and a bathroom with a geyser to heat water, instead of having to light a fire under the “copper” in the little wash house behind the kitchen and transfer the heated water with a scoop into a tin tub in the kitchen which, when covered by a board served as a table. Remembering our poorest years as students in London Temple was to write from Suva in the Fiji Islands shortly before his death in 1935: “I have not to get up on a freezing, foggy London morning and light the copper before I get a bath. I have not to go dashing about all over London to earn 5/- an hour giving English lessons – I am probably a ‘spoilt child of fortune’ as I tell Zarathustra my half-caste Persian kitten, he is. I remember well that I have now got everything material I used to think I wanted when we could get nothing in Jessel House. Nevertheless, it was more fun in the Galapagos with Brun . . . . “ Today, as I sit writing this book in my centrally heated house in Washington, D.C., with the wolf far from my door instead of howling nearby as during many of the years of my youth, I look back on the Spartan years of my life with nostalgia. So true it is that material comforts have little to do with happiness. Many who have always enjoyed them say this without knowing what it means to be without them. But I can claim to speak from experience, having known real poverty in England, and far worse deprivations in Russia than even the most ‘underprivileged’ Americans can imagine. Although I was to experience far greater privation and discomfort in Moscow in the 30’s, the niggardly poverty of our life in London in the 20″s was harder to bear. Not only because it is in youth that one longs most for pleasure, pretty clothes, fun and gaiety, but also because it is far worse to be without money in an affluent society than to share the general poverty of neighbors and friends. Arcadi, my long lost Russian husband, whose gift of humor sweetened our lives and helped me to make light of hardships and discomforts in Russia, used to say how much easier it was to be happy there than in the “capitalist world” where everyone longed for all sorts of unnecessary things. “Look,” he would say with a twinkle in his eye, “in the bourgeois world people are never satisfied, but in Russia one feels fortunate if one manages to get a seat on a streetcar getting to work, or if one’s soup at dinner contains a bit of meat.” All values are relative as Hadow, who once loved me, used to say during our student days. Although I have forgotten his first name, I can still hear his melodious Scotch voice with its rolling r’s pronouncing this favorite aphorism of his, the truth of which has become ever clearer to me during the up and down course of my life. I have no idea what happened to Hadow or whether he is still alive today somewhere in the vast reaches of the declining British Empire which Scotsmen of his quality did so much to create, develop and sustain. But the memory of his healthy ruddy countenance, vivid dark eyes, thick black hair, warm smile and sturdy figure clothed in an ill-fitting reach-me-down suit, revives in my mind’s eye as I distinguish between the dim or well-remembered companions of my youth. He was one of the nicest men I ever knew and he would have cherished me and given me security and his mind was as good or better than mine. But he aroused no spark in me much as I valued his friendship and respected him for his goodness, intelligence and honesty. He was a down-to-earth Scot with his feet firmly planted on the muddy ground of reality who would have held me back from expending much of my life on an abortive quest for justice on earth. Mother was a good cook who managed to provide us with a tasty and satisfying dinner in the evening during the hardest years of our student lives. Dinners which ended with strong cups of coffee, ritually brewed by my brother from beans freshly ground at the corner of our kitchen-dining-room table. Until this welcome end to the day, Temple and I endeavored to stave off our youthful appetites, unsatisfied by the ham or cheese sandwich, which, with a cup of coffee, was all we could usually afford to buy for lunch at the King’s College underground cafeteria, except on the rare occasions when we won a few shillings, sometimes even a pound or two, betting on the horses. Many other students at King’s could be found running out into the Strand between afternoon classes to buy a paper giving the racing results. The attraction of betting is, no doubt, greatest among the poor, and in our case we had been lured into temptation by having been given a tip about Spion Kop who won the Derby in 1920 at odds of 16 to 1. Mother and Temple had dared to stake several pounds on this tip, given us by our once-a-week charwoman whose sister’s husband worked at a famous racing stable, and they enjoyed a long holiday together in Brittany that summer on their big gains. I. too, had won a few pounds and was able to buy some clothes, although unable to accompany them to France since I was then still working at the War Office. We occasionally got another good tip from our charwoman and Temple also worked out a “system” which required that he do complicated calculations based on weights and age and past performance of the horses. By and large I think we won more than we lost by the shilling or half crown bets we usually confined ourselves to. The main thing was that these “flutters” added a little excitement to the daily grind, and sometimes enabled us to enjoy a good dinner with wine at some Soho restaurant. As our economic situation improved we betted less and less and eventually abandoned the futile pursuit of fast horses as a means to make money. Although I had missed out on Spion Kop there were other summers when I enjoyed a vacation abroad. Temple and I knew how to enjoy a cheap holiday on the Continent by travelling “hard”-third class-with bread, wine and cheese to sustain us on the journey, and finding some auberge, or small hostelry in places where no tourists and few foreigners came, and prices were so low that we could afford to pay them. Speaking French fluently, and feeling ourselves carefree if we had a few pounds and a return ticket in our pockets, we went off together or separately to France or Italy on summer vacations returning home when the money was spent. At Camaret in Brittany, during that Spion Kop summer, Temple and Mother and Walter Field had discovered an inn where £2 a week covered the cost of room and board, including lobster or langouste, almost every day. Here, becoming friendly with the daughter of the house, I went fishing with her and her brothers at the dawn of many a happy day, and learned from them the words of Breton songs, still remembered. This fishing was quite different from mackerel drifting in Devonshire where one cast long nets at evening and hauled them in at daybreak. In Brittany the fishermen depended mainly on the langouste (crayfish) they caught off the Cornish shores from large sailing boats which spent weeks or even months away from home. The dawn fishing at Camaret was more of a pastime or only a minor means to earn money. Ground bait was cast around the boat attracting multitudes of fish which we caught with small harpoons. Besides holidays abroad I was lucky to have Marjorie, my Prior’s Field friend, whose story I have already told in the chapter entitled “My English School.” After marrying her fisherman in 1921 she was happy to have me visit her in Sidmouth whenever I could afford to leave London and enjoy the greatest of all pleasures to me: swimming in the sea. Nor was Marjorie my only good friend in Devon. There was also Kathy and her husband Stan Harris. Kathy was an educated girl whose widowed mother had run a boarding house and who had married an illiterate, but far more intelligent fisherman than Marjorie’s Ern whose views reflected those of the newspaper he happened to read that day. Many of my letters preserved through the years by my mother, now helping me to write this book were written to her while, for one reason or another, she was staying with Kathie and Stan Harris at their house on Old Fore Street, Sidmouth, ostensibly as a paying guest or lodger, but receiving the love and care and sympathy which are beyond price. Mother accomplished wonders in decorating our small flat, where her “bedroom'” with its black silk-covered divan and various-hued cushions was also our living room. We kept open house once a week with only beer or cheap Spanish wine and sandwiches with most of our guests sitting on the floor, but with good conversation and great argument lasting far into the night. Temple, after passing his medical examinations at King’s College, started clinical studies at St. George’s Hospital in 1925. One of his best friends was Dr. David Frost, who married my college classmate, Dora, who later became the wife of Hugh Gaitskell, leader of the British Labor Party. I remember Dora as a petite, very pretty girl with flashing dark eyes and beautiful curly black hair, who aroused the protective instincts of all the young men in our circle. although she was tough-minded, had a sharp and witty tongue and was eminently well able to take care of herself. In 1962 Teddy Joll, with whom I had long lost touch, wrote me a letter telling me about various members of the “Utley Circle” in Bloomsbury in the 20’s. and said: “And there is dear little Dora, maybe wife of a future Prime Minister and of an eventual Earl.” To judge from which remark, “steady Teddy” Joll. who became Deputy Registrar General of the United Kingdom before his retirement in I960, and was our neighbor and close friend while he lived with Bobby in Jessel House, still felt protective toward Dora. David Frost, unlike Dora, was the type of sensitive Jew without money and with an inferiority complex, which may have accounted, in part, for his joining the Communist Party years after I had already left it. After his and Dora’s son was born. Temple warned David that he might give the same complexes to their child as those from which he himself suffered. As Temple saw it, Jewish parents were inclined by excess of affection to store up trouble for their children by making them feel themselves to be the center of the universe. Later, confronted with the realities of life, a child thus reared reacts by developing either a superiority or inferiority complex, resulting, in turn, in behavior that alienates friends and creates prejudice. I don’t know what has happened to David and Dora’s son. His parents were divorced long ago and according to what Dora told me when I visited her in London in 1953, David had been such a brute to her that she had left him to marry Hugh Gaitskell. Since God works in mysterious ways one can count it a good thing that, thanks perhaps largely to David’s behavior to her after he became a Communist, Mrs. Hugh Gaitskell became uncompromisingly anti-communist, and no doubt also influenced her husband in that direction. Yet, I remember David with affection as a gentle, intelligent and kind young man. and wonder whether if Dora had been less hard and ambitious, although so feminine in appearance and behavior, he would ever have taken the Moscow road. Because David Frost was one of the most devoted, loyal and helpful friends Temple ever had, I am, no doubt, prejudiced in his favor. There were so many times when David “turned up trumps” when Temple was in trouble that I find it well nigh impossible to believe that he was ever the brutal husband Dora depicted. But I must admit that I never really liked Dora, no doubt because she possessed and exploited to the full all the feminine allure which I lacked. I was no doubt “catty” about her in those distant days, to judge from a letter written to my mother dated 5 July, 1926 in which I refer to “a man called Napier with whom both Robert and Dora have been very friendly but who seems to have fallen in love with me . . . Married of course, still it is quite pleasant and I have annoyed Dora very much.” Showing that I was as inclined to female joy in conquest as most women, I concluded my letter by saying: “I am feeling better about life.” There are several other references to Dora Frost in my letters to Mother which revive my memories of this clever and attractive woman whom I knew so well when we both studied at London University and who was to become the “first lady” of the British Labor Party. Since I am now dropping famous names, I should also mention Elsa Lanchester, another member of the 1917 Club who was a friend of Temple’s and came to our parties. Her “boy friend” in those days was a musician singer and comedian called Harold Scott who never won fame and fortune, but helped launch Elsa Lanchester on her successful career long before her association with Charles Laughton. Elsa then was a girl and Harold in his thirties, or maybe even older since he was one of those small, slight, blond, blue-eyed types who never look their age. Strange that although I never knew him well or liked him much, I can today still vividly remember Harold Scott dressed in grey flannel trousers and a worn tweed jacket, his high forehead surmounted by scanty golden hair and his long, thin nose slightly red at the tip above his full lipped mouth, strumming on the piano and singing a long forgotten song called “Thank God for the Middle Classes,” with the refrain: If His Majesty the King Wants any little thing He sends for the middle classes. One evening at our flat Philip Rabinovitch, chairman of the Russian Trade Delegation in London, “fell for” Elsa Lanchester after she and Harold had delighted us all by their comic skits. Philip Rabinovitch had been a tailor in New York before the Bolshevik revolution, had a fine baritone voice and enjoyed singing, fun and good company. His rendering of “Black Eyes,” and the “Volga Boat Song” (or Vulgar Boot Song as my friend Yaffle, the humorist and cartoonist of the I.L.P. called it) was superb. But he also took joy in singing such silly popular ditties of the time as “When it’s nighttime in Italy, it’s Wednesday over here.” That evening long ago in London he and Elsa Lanchester sang a duet I should otherwise long since have forgotten, in which two derelicts on the Thames embankment tell one another: “The Times, The Telegraph And all the papers says: Money is much cheaper today.” Philip Rabinovitch and his wife Sophie, also a Party member, were to remain my friends until the end of my life in Russia. He became a Vice Commissar of Foreign Trade but was never a party snob. He had a sense of humor, courage and a kind heart, and he owed his rise to a leading position in the Communist hierarchy to his great abilities, which was rare, since the road to preferment for most was paved with the bodies of those they had denounced, slandered, or falsely accused. Whenever in Moscow our housing difficulties were the greatest, Sophie Rabinovitch would invite me and my husband to take a bath in their well-appointed apartment – a tremendous boon in those days. And it was Philip Rabinovitch who secured us a room in the New Moscow Hotel when we were homeless. He respected my husband as one of the best “non-party specialists” working for the Commissariat of Foreign Trade, and there was doubtless an affinity between them since both were former members of the Jewish Social Democratic Bund. It required both social and political courage in the 30’s in Russia for Bolshevik “aristocrats” like Philip and Sophie Rabinovitch to welcome a “non-party specialist” such as my husband to their home. Looking back I realize that they were permanently influenced by the years they had spent in exile in America, where democratic personal behavior comes naturally. When I finally left Russia in April 1936 following my husbands arrest. Philip Rabinovitch was to send his official limousine to take my son and me to the station, a courageous act in those times when even to speak to someone connected to anyone else arrested in the Great Purge was dangerous. I do not know what happened in the end to Philip and Sophie or to their lovely daughter Nuria, whose piquant face, sylph like figure, and lovely smile revealing small perfect teeth which really were like pearls, are etched on my memory. She had been married three times before I left Russia in 1936 which was not unusual among the children of the Communist “aristocracy,” but she had followed her heart and never became a snob like so many others who married for privilege and status. Probably they were eventually liquidated since this was the fate of most of the best of the old Bolsheviks. Today, more than forty years after I first knew them in London, I can still hear Philip singing silly songs at Jessel House, in the days when it was still possible to be both a Bolshevik and a decent human being full of the joy of life.

In short, Essentials allows artists to put down their instruments and divulge about a specific topic, giving fans and the like the opportunity to connect with their interests and inspirations. It’s just unlike any other print list feature, we’re totally okay with things getting weird, candid and uncensored. For its debut, we connected with WAMPIRE’s Rocky Tinder and Eric Phipps (see above) post-tour so they could name off their Favourite Television Theme Songs. Wampire’s new album Curiosity can be found on a clear LP or a purple cassette via Polyvinyl Records “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage” (1980) ROCKY TINDER: My absolute favourite television theme song of all time is hands down Carl Sagan’s Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. For a while I would put this show on every night before bed and at some point, I just started falling asleep before the credits even finished. “Fishing With John” (1991) TINDER: One of my other favourites is the theme from the show Fishing With John. It’s very much in the same vein as the Cosmos theme. Quiet and pretty, except there is a breath-y man singing along in a voice that you can’t help but giggle to. Also it is just a fantastic show (Editor’s Note: Willem Dafoe once made an appearance). “The X-Files” (1993-2002) TINDER: Who doesn’t love The X-Files theme song? It’s gotta’ be one of the spookiest medleys of all time. As a child it would send shivers down my spine. TINDER: Ah shit, the COPS one is pretty fantastic too! Almost forgot about that! “Knight Rider” (1982-1986) ERIC PHIPPS: Only thing I would want to add to this is the beauty of this Italo-disco theme. Hasselhoff rules in this ladies man/crime fighter role, and the theme really sets the tone for his vigilance and braun. The pseudo Bond approach of this series is fantastic. If you haven’t watched at least five episodes of Knight Rider in a row then you haven’t lived. There’s one where a sexy woman invites Hasselhoff back to her loft in order to hypnotize him with European disco and then steal his new age automobile – and we wonder why Germans still love the Hoff to death?

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Now, I have never needed to be convinced that the right way to be is to be pro-life. I have simply always been pro-life. Still, it can’t hurt to hear some new insight or encouragement from others. A few years ago, my father commented on one of his favorite pro-life bumper stickers. That bumper-sticker phrase has stuck with me. The phrase is very truthful: “if it’s not a baby, then you’re not pregnant.” Not only is such a phrase truthful, but it is very commonsense and simple – or at least should be. Now, there are those who will disagree with me, and may even express such disagreement right here on this forum. So, for the people who disagree, I have to ask: if what is in the mother’s womb is not a baby, what is it? I stand by this phrase because that’s what women become pregnant with: babies. Some may make an argument that I have heard before: that they believe the unborn child is merely a “potential” human being, and that “it” will become an actual human being when born. I have a problem with that, though. I am in no way saying that women who menstruate an unfertilized egg, or men who ejaculate sperm, are wasting or destroying human life. I have been asked if I think that way before, and I always answer that I do not, and that it would be silly to think so. But to me, if we’re going to talk about “potential,” the only potential is for the sperm to fertilize an egg. Once the egg is fertilized, there’s no more potential. A new life has now been conceived. Men and women have sex for reasons other than procreation – this I am aware of. Even when birth control is not used, the sperm does not always fertilize the egg. In fact, when you think about it, it does seem pretty miraculous how we come to be. I also am in no way saying that sex has to create babies to be meaningful. For the purpose of my main point in this article, however, from a purely reproductive level, if the sperm does not fertilize an egg, then nothing has happened. The potential was there, in that the act that creates babies occurred, but no baby was actually conceived if the sperm did not fertilize the egg to bring about a baby and continue the process. Should the sperm actually make it to the egg, and should fertilization occur, something truly amazing happens, though. Whether I’m trying to have a debate or a simple conversation, my fascination with conception is best summed up by a statement from National Geographic‘s “In the Womb“: Once within the egg wall, the sperm’s nucleus is drawn towards the egg’s. The two cells gradually and gracefully become one. This is the moment of conception, when an individual unique set of DNA is created. A human signature that never existed before and will never be repeated. Something so out of the ordinary has been created, and this new life is not just some parasite or “thing.” If a woman has sex, but she gets her period, well then she’s not pregnant. If she misses her period, though, and she has a positive pregnancy test, and she shows other signs of symptoms as her changing body prepares for pregnancy, well then in nine months she is going to give birth to the baby growing and developing inside her womb. CLICK LIKE IF YOU’RE PRO-LIFE! While in my senior year of college, when I was in choir, we had a guest conductor. He was a very interesting man who taught music at a Christian college. I was able to get the sense that he was Christian, and most likely pro-life.. He did make some statements about God, but being that we were many schools gathered to perform Mozart’s Requiem, it understandably was not the place for a guest conductor to get into a discussion about pro-life viewpoints. However, he did like to make an interesting and repeated comparison when he told us that pitch was like pregnancy: you either have the pitch/are pregnant, or you don’t/aren’t. So let’s be real here. If this new creation is not a baby, what else is inside a mother’s womb? Elephants are pregnant with elephants, dogs are pregnant with dogs, and humans are pregnant with human babies. A mother either is pregnant with a baby or is not pregnant with anything at all. Let’s treat babies in the womb as they are and call them what they are. And another favorite pro-life phrase of mine applies here as well. An unborn baby is “not a potential life, but a life with potential.” LifeNews Note: Rebecca Downs is currently a senior in college where she is involved in the Respect for Life club there. Upon graduation she hopes to pursue a career in the political world, specifically to do with the pro life movement.

Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray, 1847 Dear readers, you might as well know the truth: I love Vanity Fair. That’s right. I love it. I have read this book three times. Three! And I thoroughly enjoyed it each time. Well worth the triple read. Poor William Makepeace gets a bad rap. People complain that he makes his authorial presence known too frequently in Vanity Fair. He does have a Henry Fielding-like tendency to explain why he is skipping forward in his timeline. However, most of the time he does this briefly and with some humor. Also, I don’t see why people should be so affronted by the author mentioning himself in a book. When Vonnegut does it we call him a post-modern genius. I guess some readers are upset that Thackeray “breaks the fourth wall” or whatever. But should sophisticated readers be bothered by that? If you are old enough to read Vanity Fair, your enjoyment of a novel shouldn’t be centered on pretending that the characters really exist and the events really took place. You should always think about the author and wonder why he or she skipped forward in the timeline, started following a different character, made Becky so evil, didn’t describe the conversation at one dinner table, but did describe the conversation at another and so forth. Sometimes Thackeray explains his authorial decisions to his reader. There’s nothing wrong with that. If you have a problem with it, you’re in the wrong. Quit hating, haters. As to the lengthiness of Vanity Fair, yes it is long, but the plot-to-word ratio is just fine. I disliked almost every 18th century book that I read, because the style at the time was to use an excess of words to describe a bare bones plot. The author keeps writing while the plot sits still. Thackeray does not do that to you. Find me a chapter in Vanity Fair where you learn nothing new about a character and the plot does not move forward. Go ahead, I dare you. The book is epic in scale. We follow Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley from the cusp of womanhood to middle age, stopping off at the Napoleonic Wars on the way. Which brings me my favorite thing about Vanity Fair. This is the first book on the list in which the characters get married and the plot keeps going. To be fair, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall was published at about the same time and it also follows characters beyond their wedding day. However, every other author before Anne Bronte and Thackeray consider the process of deciding whom to marry to be the only interesting part of a woman’s life. That’s all that the heroines of other novels accomplish. Thackeray knew better. He knew that marriage vows are only the beginning of a marriage story and women’s characters continue to develop even after they have joined themselves to a man. That bit of wisdom, in and of itself, would be enough to bring me back to Vanity Fair for a reread, but it has even more wonderful qualities. Thackeray’s style is richly detailed (in a good way), bitingly satirical, misanthropic and funny. It might sound odd to refer to a 500 page novel as “refreshing,” but when you’re knee deep in Charlotte and Anne Bronte’s self-sacrificing, sanctimonious, pious women, Thackeray’s scathing portrayal of the self-serving vanity of human nature comes as a wonderful relief. The subtitle of Vanity Fair is A Novel without a Hero. Becky Sharp is definitely the main character, but she’s too immoral to be considered the hero; Amelia Sedley is too weak; George Osborne too vain, and Rawdon Crawley too gullible. Some say Major Dobbin is also too flawed to deserve the title of hero, but I don’t see it. No one’s perfect. To me he’s the only character who behaves intelligently and unselfishly throughout the novel, and any idiosyncrasies in his personality can be forgiven. Becky is a conniving, crafty villain which makes her a delight to follow, until her actions hurt the sympathetic characters and you get pissed off at her. I do kind of wish that Thackeray had made a hero out of Becky. Her dominant character trait is ambition. I want to like a woman who doesn’t just accept her place in rigid Regency Society. Becky is not content to remain a poor artist’s daughter. She constantly strives for a higher station in life. In my opinion her ambition is admirable. She’s more intelligent than the aristocrats she encounters; she deserves comfort as much as anyone. However, I get the feeling that Thackeray censures Becky for her “unnatural” desire to break out of the station that was assigned to her at birth. Thackeray sets up a dichotomy between Amelia and Becky. Amelia is weak and trampled by the world, but more admirable than Becky, because more kind. Becky is strong, but less admirable, because more self-serving. I would have liked to have seen an ambitious female character who has the moral fiber to not trample over anyone in her path. Why does female ambition have to be linked to a complete lack of love for other human beings, Thackeray? Why? You might like Vanity Fair if: - you like War and Peace - you are interested in books that detail women’s lives after marriage - you like satire You might not like Vanity Fair if: - Hey, if you’re looking for reasons to not read Vanity Fair, ask literally everyone else. People who haven’t even read the book have plenty of trash to talk about it, I’ve found. I personally think it’s a gem of Victorian literature. Vanity Fair is like a peach. Juicy, delicious literary accomplishment wrapped around a hard, bitter kernel of misanthropy. Eat the peach, y’all. Eat the peach.

Whether you run your own business or the boardroom, you need to make time to relax and restore yourself. You can only go so far before you burn out. Proactively investing time in yourself helps you consistently excel as a professional. The summer offers a great opportunity to hit that pause button. Just the presence of warm weather already invites your body to take a break and relax. But how do you know which activities are restorative and which wear you down more? When you’re making space for your own restoration and recovery, there are three areas of wellbeing to work on – your body, mind, and emotion. This process looks different for everyone, so we’ve put together some suggestions to get you inspired. 4 Things To Do in the Summer Restoring Your Body When people think about taking care of their bodies, they first think about exercise. Sure, a jog might do some good, but what happens when you are so worn down by the end of the week that you can’t get out of bed? Your body needs rest, not more stress. You don’t need running shoes to enjoy the local park. If a restorative walk seems more your pace, getting out and moving could help you process thoughts still churning in your head from the last week. Your body might simply need to sit on a park bench and soak up the sunshine. Getting to a farmer’s market also presents an excellent opportunity to appreciate the summer day without strenuous exercise. While browsing the vegetables, fruits, preserves, and jars of honey, you might be inspired to make a dinner you’ve never tried before. Maybe you’ll find inspiration for a mason jar cocktail! It’s easy to get in a food rut; you’re good at making a quick four or five recipes, so why branch out? Seeing produce you normally don’t think to pick up during your weekly trip to the grocery store could give you a renewed excitement for cooking fresh flavors. Restoring Your Mind When was the last time you turned your mind off? And not because you fell asleep on the couch using Netflix as white noise. When was the last time you thought about the future and wondered if you were making strides towards that future? Is what you’re slogging through now projecting you towards the future you want? How are you supposed to know? We live with ourselves, so we assume we know ourselves. Spending the day practicing mindfulness helps us become more in tune with our mental states and current needs. Meditation takes time to master, or even get sort of good at. Taking five minutes every day to check in with yourself and your body helps you understand your emotions, get a diagnostic on how you feel, and what your current needs are. There are a number of apps available in this space, both free and with subscriptions. Subscription-based apps generally give a free trial period so you can see if their meditation styles work for you. A few good options to try include: - Wysa: An AI-based app that you have text conversations with. It tracks your moods and offers meditation prompts based on your needs. You unlock the whole app with a subscription. - Insight Timer: Lots of free options on meditation, sleep, stress, and talks but can be expanded by a subscription - Headspace: Subscription-based, but offers a number of specialized courses and sleep stories. Practice guided meditation so you can get better at reading your emotions on your own. If meditation sounds too intimidating, start by having coffee with yourself. Turn your phone off, get a cup of coffee, tea, wine, or water, sit at a table, and take the time that you would if you were meeting a friend for a coffee date. Spend that uninterrupted time actively thinking with yourself. Does the thought of spending time alone with yourself make you uncomfortable? That’s a sign that you need it even more. Restoring Your Emotions What brings you joy? Sure, you say that you love to read, do puzzles, go swimming, and write in your spare time. But do you ever make time to pursue those things? When was the last time you turned off your phone so those emails couldn’t come pouring in to interrupt your guilty pleasures? It’s easy to sit on the couch, throw on TV, and scroll the night away. But what if you took that half-hour show and instead got your favorite blanket, turned off your phone, sat by the air conditioning, and dove into a book you really want to read. Not the book you tell people is on your list because it sounds smart, but the book you can’t put down. Go read that book. Go to a swimming hole, attend that backyard barbecue, eat that ice cream and hot dogs. Take that weekend road trip and fall asleep watching the stars on a summer night. When looking for things to do in the summer, think about all those summer activities you looked forward to when you were a teen and the summer meant freedom. Go do those things! Invest in Your Happiness Even if you’re tight on funds, there are ways you can have fun on a budget this summer. Giving yourself permission to care for your body, mind, and emotional health is the first step to investing that time and space into your own wellbeing. Let loose, have fun, and think beyond productivity. You have a whole summer long to check things off (or even make) your bucket list. Work culture in the United States will have you believe that you need to earn relaxation and that things or people only have inherent value when they are productive. You weren’t born just to be productive and die. You were born to be yourself and enjoy the time you’ve got. Smile because you deserve happiness, not because you owe it to anyone else.Published in Author, Artist, Photographer. Sarah Margaret is an artist who expresses her love for feminism, equality, and justice through a variety of mediums: photography, filmmaking, poetry, illustration, song, acting, and of course, writing. She owns Still Poetry Photography, a company that showcases her passion for capturing poetic moments in time. Instead of poetry in motion, she captures visual poetry in fractions of a second, making cherished keepsakes of unforgettable moments. She is the artist behind the Still Poetry Etsy shop, which houses her illustrations and bespoke, handmade items. She is the author of intricacies are just cracks in the wall, a narrative poetry anthology that follows a young woman discovering herself as she emerges from an abusive relationship.

Art Review City speaks with New York dealer Howard Shapiro about opening his gallery, some of his success stories, and his unique approach to the business of art. “My dream was always to open an art gallery. No other business would allow me to be surrounded by beauty and help artists get the recognition that they deserve.” – Howard Shapiro, owner of Lawrence Fine Arts in East Hampton, NY Howard Shapiro spent over two decades as a consumer finance expert on Wall Street at firms including Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, so his friends and family were surprised when he decided in 2009 to pivot his career by opening an art gallery. But it turned out to be a winning combination: he brought with him an acute understanding of business and finance, and quickly evolved from art startup to standout. Art was always his passion, but he took a circuitous route to get there. After earning his bachelor’s degree in Comparative Literature and Art History at Yale in 1983, Shapiro was accepted into Yale’s PhD program in Art History, but his parents insisted that he choose a “real” career instead. Art was something nice to look at—and buy when he could afford it—but it wouldn’t support a family. Looking back, he acknowledges that his parents had a point. The art world would have to wait. The Wall Street life was hectic, so when Shapiro and his wife Esther could afford to start buying for themselves, they originally sought artwork that was calm and soothing and began collecting American Impressionist works. The first work they purchased—and still own today—from a small outdoor craft fair was a painting by Susan Hely St. John. It was an 1880s portrait of a young man with his back turned to the viewer in a three-quarter view reading a book by dim candlelight. They absolutely loved the serenity of this work, and for $400 it was an example of Shapiro being able to find a diamond in the rough. “The common denominator to both phases of my career is to do what you like, but do it well. If you can’t do something well, it might not be right for you.” Coming from an analytical background, yet trusting his emotional response to art and artists, has been Shapiro’s unique skill in building a business and weathering the negative effects of the pandemic with a strong customer base, and an international clientele. When the time came to leave Wall Street—Shapiro says it was “now or never”—and start the gallery, he knew his program would be all about conceptualization. While studying for his undergraduate degree, Shapiro had read Harold Bloom’s “Anxiety of Influence.” In it, Bloom discusses the psychological struggle of aspiring authors to overcome the anxiety posed by the influence of their literary antecedents. Shapiro took this philosophy with him to the art world. He understood that an artist wants to be inspired, but also wants to create something new into the canon of art history. Shapiro says that most things have been tried already by another artist—but says that it’s how you conceptualize new work into a dialogue with the past that matters. What appeals to Shapiro is the artist who directly engages in this dialogue, not to copy, but to be inspired. He sees great art as a challenge from one generation to the next. These are the artists he has sought out and shown. “Great artists talk with one another across generations,” says Shapiro, “and that’s a dialogue I want to be part of.” Shapiro enthusiastically explains that he loves what he does every single day and couldn’t be happier with his decision. However, he did make one promise to his wife—to take the gallery seriously and run it like a business. Keeping detailed books, spreadsheets, and observing profit and loss statements like a hawk would allow him to keep the gallery running smoothly, and keep supporting the artists that he had rededicated his life to. In his first decade of business, Shapiro has had more than his share of successes. The show that put him on the map is Arthur Pinajian’s “Lost Paintings” exhibition in 2013. He immediately saw the power and significance of the work upon being contacted by the Pinajian Estate, but even he had his doubts at first. “I didn’t think this was the first thing collectors would be looking for, but the works were too beautiful not to show,” he says. Shapiro recounts the story of a couple that walked into the gallery two days before the show opened and fell in love with two of the paintings. The couple couldn’t decide between the works and tried to haggle the prices down significantly. Knowing the value and quality of the artwork he was selling, he declined their offer, even when the couple said: “He’s an unknown artist; you’ll be begging us tomorrow to take the work for half price.” Unfortunately for these two collectors, James Barron—an art reporter with the New York Times—was working on an article about the artist, which came out Friday. When the couple came back on Sunday to make their final offer to the gallerist, they discovered the exhibition had sold out. From this experience, Shapiro learned to trust his eye. Another highlight in his first years was the hugely successful presentation of Angel Ortiz (known as LA ROC) at Art Hamptons in 2013. This was the first major presentation of LA ROC who was only 14 years old when he began collaborating with graffiti artist Keith Haring in the 80s. “People didn’t know that they were partners and collaborators and that LA wasn’t some Keith Haring wannabe,” says Shapiro. Shapiro presented a sold-out gallery exhibition later that year. The gallery’s Marjorie Strider’s exhibition, “The Second International Girlie Show,” was another big hit for the gallery. “Here was a woman and a first generation pop artist and nobody was focusing on her.” After the 2014 show, she was included in shows at the Walker Art Center and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. As a very strong supporter of AbEx and New York School artists, Shapiro presented “Works in Progress: Artists in Their 80s and 90s”. This exhibition featured a series of phenomenal artists, many of whom—paradoxically—had fallen out of the limelight due to the longevity of their careers. Among the artists he showed were Knox Martin, Paul Resika and Stan Brodsky. As a result of this exhibition he was contacted by numerous artists of that age looking for representation. “We were so fortunate to pick up some wonderful artists, including Amaranth Ehrenhalt, who was in the Denver Museum Show ‘Women of Abstract Expressionism.’” According to Shapiro, one key reason to have a mixed program is having the opportunity to take chances on new artists that fit into the gallery’s conceptual framework. Shapiro continues to showcase a well-balanced program that is comprised of half contemporary works and half secondary market acquisitions and/or artist estates. There are a handful of key advisors that Lawrence Fine Arts relies on to help find and select the right artists for the gallery. One of his most recent additions is American photographer Howard Schatz, whose figurative works have been placed in numerous important public and private collections. One of Shapiro’s favorite pieces is Schatz’s tongue-in-cheek interpretation of the Renaissance work “The Pietà” but this time featuring Brooke Shields. “Our photography practice is an area we plan to expand,” says Shapiro. Shapiro spends quite a bit of time looking for artists whose careers and work deserve a reappraisal and fit into his conceptual framework. In addition to Amaranth Ehrenhalt, he has recently agreed to represent the estates of Gandy Brodie and Angelo Ippolito, two New York School artists, and one the co-founder of the Tanager Gallery, and the estate of Robert S. Neuman, an important second generation Abstract Expressionist artist. Judith Lindbloom was a real discovery for Shapiro. She was gay and a woman in the very macho art world of post-War New York and didn’t get the attention she deserved. “The history of the post-War period is still being written,” says Shapiro, “and artists like Lindbloom will ultimately find their way in.” He has worked with Harriette Joffe—“a real favorite and so underrecognized”– for years, and now, after her death, will represent the estate. Early American modernist Rolph Scarlett is another favorite. His constellation of contemporary artists includes Howard Schatz, Geoffrey Dorfman, Janet Mait, Emanuel Buckvar and George Schulman. The emphasis on quality art, personalized service, and scholarship are central to his business. He has no interest in showing second-tier art just because the artist has a “name”. As a self-described “people person”, Shapiro is ready to get back to his brick-and-mortar gallery, attend art fairs, and start visiting museums all over the world again. Many of his clients have told him they are not buying today, but he has perfected the craft of maintaining his relationships with Zoom coffees and virtual gallery visits. He finds that many clients and potential clients are enjoying the slower pace. He believes the art fair schedule had become too overwhelming for many. “We’ve had so many great sales this past year after schmoozing on the phone,” he says. “You don’t get that at an art fair.” Shapiro intends for 2021 to be his best year ever, despite the impact of COVID-19 on many art businesses. He’s used this period of time to reach out to museums and institutions—he placed eight works in museum collections in 2020– and scheduled some important exhibitions for his artists. His business style is to let the client come to the painting—“there is no hard sell for art”—and knows that showing the highest quality artist will win over his audience in the long-term. He has also used this time to conduct research on artists and movements he feels would be right for his program. Shapiro jokes that he has only begun to read through the large stack of books on his desk. There is much to be done and discovered in 2021 and beyond, and he can’t wait to share his art discoveries with the world. Visit him online at www.Lawrence-Fine-Arts.com, and make sure to stop by the gallery next time you are out in the Hamptons. There is always something new to discover at Shapiro’s gallery, which will be opening its new Chelsea space later this year.

After five women came forward last month with accusations including rape, sexual assault, and sexual misconduct against Seattle nightlife entrepreneur and former Lumineers manager David Meinert, six more women have spoken out in a second article published by KUOW.org. The new allegations include sexual assault and range from 2001 to 2015. The new accusers include musician Eryn Young, Seattle Times food critic Bethany Jean Clement, Umami Seattle founder Elise Ballard, Urban Artworks board chair Rebecca Jacobs, and political operative/Bellevue College adjunct professor Maria Leininger. A sixth accuser, a communications professional, only revealed her first name, Jenna. The alleged incidents, recounted in graphic detail by KUOW and supported by secondary sources, include non-consensual genital touching, several incidents of aggressive and non-consensual kissing and groping, attempts to induce women to perform oral sex, threatening comments toward two women after Meinert learned they had told friends about the incidents — and in one case, he allegedly slapped a woman repeatedly when she refused his advances. Meinert, 52, is a long-established figure in the Seattle music scene, although his businesses have unraveled in the wake of the accusations. Three acts he previously managed publicly have parted company with him — Hey Marseille, Andrea Gibson, and more recently, according to a band rep, the Lumineers — although Hey Marseille and the Lumineers are still listed on the website of his management company, Onto Entertainment. Other acts he had managed, including Blue Scholars, Common Market, and the Presidents of the United States of America, are no longer listed. He also currently owns or previously owned or co-owned the 5 Point Cafe, the Comet Tavern, Grim’s, Lost Lake, and the restaurant group Guild Seattle, although two days after the initial accusations were published, a business partner told KUOW that Meinert no longer held a stake in all except the first-named organization. Meinert did not immediately respond to Variety’s request for comment. While KUOW reported that he did not respond to the new allegations, he previously denied the specific allegations of rape and sexual assault. “Prosecutors had declined to charge an accusation from 2007, and Meinert said he had no idea why two other women would make rape and sexual assault allegations years later,” the report reads. “He had never had sexual contact with the newest rape accuser, and he had sex with the sexual assault accuser consensually, he said.” “Two other lower-level allegations from other women could have been plausible, Meinert added, though he didn’t recall the specifics,” the report continues. “He had been ‘handsy’ in the past, he told KUOW, but he was learning from his mistakes. He spoke in sympathetic terms about the #MeToo movement and insisted he was not a rapist.” Source: Read Full Article

Steven Moffat is a sexist asshole did we not forget about the whole magical pregnancy storyline or the fact that he made a canon lesbian fall in love with a man you can like his work, but don’t be coming at me and telling me he is a feminist writer because I will just laugh at you edit: I am just so mad that he magically suggests that River is bisexual and the gets so fucking surprised that no one knew that Oh my god, maybe it is you and not them Err… if by “Canon lesbian fall in love with a man” you are refering to Irene Adler then you are sadly mistaken. Irene Adler was never a Lesbian in a Scandal in Bohemia. She was, in truth, the lover of the King of Bohemia and by the end of the story gets married to a guy called Godfrey Norton. While she and Holmes never had anything going on, in Doyle’s original stories she was never assumed to be anything BUT straight. Not to put a finer point on it but Canon!Irene liked the menfolk. It’s only Sherlock!Irene who is into the sweet ladychicks. And why is having a lesbian fall in love with a man nessisarily a negative thing? Russel T. Davis before doing Doctor Who wrote a series about a out-of-the-closet-for-years gay man falling in love with a woman, called Bob and Rose, which was based on real events. Are we to suggest Davis is homophobic (and therefore hypocritical). That scene where Irene is talking to Watson, wasn’t all about how she’s gay. It was about how love and attraction isn’t straight forward. How messy and complex it is. For all of Watson’s “I am not gay” he does love Sherlock in a very deep sense (whether platonically or romantically is up for debate) and probably more than anyone in his life. Irene being gay just high-lights this. She is, in that scene a foil for Watson. Sherlock didn’t cure her of Lesbianism. Irene still identifies as gay. Sherlock is just a freak exception for her. And that’s what Belgravia was all about. How weird and confusing and nonsensical and treacherous and devastating attraction and/or love can be. But going with the whole simplistic Glee view of you’re-either-straight-or-your-gay is, as a standpoint, just as detrimental and harmful to people confused about there sexuality as saying that all lesbians need is a good man to sort her out. I believe that Irene was an example of the first, not the second. I would argue with you on some of the other points but I have a feeling those are really just points of interpretation. I had another three paragraphs here but unless you want to read them, I think I’ll keep this short. The adler bit was the main part of what I wanted to say anyway. Do I think Moffat is a feminist writer. No. I think he is mainly thinking about time travel and fighting crime. Do I think he’s a misogynist? No. No I don’t. While you may not agree with the way Moffat portrays women, I believe that he always makes these women more than “just the chick”. These are deep, complex characters within their own right, with their own aspirations, fears and foibles. I believe he likes the women he creates and does admire them. Do I think he needs to be more aware of female issues? Yes. Just as more white writers need to be aware of non-white issues and how straight writers need to be aware of gay issues and cis-writers need to be more aware of trans-issues and writers without disabilities need to be more aware of disability-issues. No one’s perfect, but I do believe Moffat gets an unfair amount of flack for never being PC enough. There is only so much he can do while not becoming a preacher about every single issue on the face of the earth. To sum up I would like to put foward the following comic by Erika Moen who married her freak exception to her gay rule. Because lesbian characters of film and TV are often put in straight relationships. It is rare that lesbian characters are allowed to be with women exclusively. If The Powers That Be of these productions wanted a queer-female character to end up with a male character, why didn’t they make her bisexual outright? Turns out there are reasons why “lesbian with an exception” characters are created over and over again. “Lesbian with an exception” is a fantasy that many people have about lesbians. When a lesbian’s parents, for example, have this fantasy, it goes like this: If a lesbian is patient and open (that means “ever-so-reluctantly willing to have straight sex and put off finding fulfillment with another woman just to make her parents happy”) enough, she can meet a guy, enter a relationship with him, and be cured of her lesbianism, and the family can finally put this embarrassing “lesbian” business behind; then they can say, “I told you this would be a phase that you would grow out of!” This fantasy allows the parents (or other family members or friends—whoever) to never come to terms with simultaneously holding homophobic beliefs and having a gay loved one. She’s not really a dyke. It’s a phase. For men, the fantasy goes a little differently: You meet a lesbian. The only sexual experiences she’s ever had or enjoyed have been with women, or maybe she hasn’t had any at all, but she already knows that she doesn’t want to have sex with men. She swears up and down that she’s not into men. But after she spends a little while with you, you prove her wrong about herself, you magical hunky stud thing, you! Dumb bitches don’t know anything, not even about their own wants and desires. Through your charms, male intellect, and/or sexual prowess, now she’s into you. Congrats! You have converted a lesbian. Your bros high-five you. The latter fantasy is annoying as hell and its meaning is really important, for instance in explaining why your commentary is awful. I’m sure some guys somewhere maybe don’t think too hard about their lesbian-conversion thoughts: they “just like it” because it’s a common fantasy. (Do they wonder why it’s a common fantasy?) I’m not gonna pat them on the back for not thinking. What it comes down to is this: A man’s fantasy that he has the ability to convert a lesbian is a personally reassuring and patriarchy-reassuring fantasy. The idea that some women really aren’t interested in men (if you are a guy reading this: that means you, bud) threatens the male individual and the whole patriarchal culture because the comfort, security, and benefits of male privilege rely on women to recognize men as inherently more capable and intelligent, their lords and saviors; men’s individual and collective privilege depends on women worshiping at men’s feet and making personal sacrifices for them. Female devotion and subservience keep a patriarchy running smoothly. Boys learn that they’re owed women. Lesbianism, through its incidental apathy toward men, represents a bug in patriarchy. The “lesbian with an exception” fantasy quells patriarchy’s fear of losing followers. It’s actually a big deal whenever the fantasy appears in popular media because it means something bigger than the film or TV series in which it appears, something that’s at the intersection of homophobia and sexism. In the comic, Erika’s husband refers to lesbians in a Pride parade as “dykes” while he is taking part in the same parade with her AS A STRAIGHT COUPLE. In another panel, the couple street-harasses a woman; this is supposed to be subversive and lighthearted fun. Are you sure that you want to defend your stance using this comic?

by Amanda Ashley, paranormal (2003) Zebra, $6.50, ISBN 0-8217-7528-6 There are two things about this book that don't sit well with me. One, the characters don't behave or react according to the gravity of their situation. Two, this is another one of those Evil Slutty Vampires Threatening To Steal The Men Of Our Virginal Heroines things that is, to me, the hallmark of a really mediocre romance novel by a romance author who takes the easy way out with plots (why demonize non-virginal women all the time?). Three, I have no idea what is going on in this story. Okay, that's three things instead of two, so I may as well toss in a fourth one, an extension of item two: isn't it bizarre that an author chooses to go all puritanical on the reader in a vampire romance? I can imagine just a bunch of blood-soaked religious zealots, fresh from stoning a harlot who has dared lost her virginity to a man, reading this book and sighing and dreaming about a Noble Tormented Vampyre - or shall I say Dumbyre? - stealing their precious virginity from them. Brrr, scary. I'm not going to elaborate on the Evil Slut Vampiress out to steal the Vampire Men of pure noble virgin-no-more-after-I-gave-it-to-my-Dumbyre-hero dimwits out there, because I have no idea who they are or why I should even care. Fans of Amanda Ashley's previous books - I confess I skipped a book or eight along the way - may recognize Marisa and Grigori or Dracul or Dumbaghoul or whatever (aside: why do all the vampire heroes of Ms Ashley and Christine Feehan and others seem to get their names from the same Book Of Corny Vampire Names?), but me, I'm lost. Reading about the Triumph of the Submissive Virgins don't appeal to me. The main romance is between Edward Ramsey the Vampire Slayer and Kelly Anderson, Pure and Braindead. Edward is now a vampire. How? Again, that is something I believe happened in a previous book. I don't know. But what I know is that I find it hard to believe that a man who spent his life hunting down vampires will behave so nonchalantly at being turned into something he dedicate his life to killing. Where is the confusion, anger? Apart from a throwaway sentence or two about guilt over sucking blood, Edward generally behaves like a stereotypical vampire hero: all italicized Come to me! mind-yapping and brooding in dark shadows like the creation of an author who probably overdosed too much on The Phantom Of The Opera musicals. Kelly, the obligatory Pure and Stupid and Hence A Woman Of Virtue, is worse as the heroine who wants to die because she is betrayed by a man, is saved by Edward, and is so pathetically grateful that she, despite her fears of being sucked to death, agrees to be his housekeeper even when she knows he's a vampire and nothing else about him. Then she is making love to him and declaring her love. These characters may claim to feel emotions, but they have no complexity or depths to show them. There is no emotional conflict in Edward for being a vampire, a creature he claims to despise. Kelly has no common sense, no logic, just blind trust in a man whose only virtue to commend him (as far as she knows when she sleeps with him) is that he has fangs, he whines about being good only because he doesn't kill "indiscriminately" like that Evil Slut Khira, and that he sleeps in coffins. These characters act in a robotic programmed formula made legal under RWA's The Comfort Read Apology Charter Clause 23(A): It is permissible for an author to recycle her plots and characters in her books as long as there are readers that keep buying while still claiming to be creative and idealistic in her defense against critics. At one point, Edward announces, "Move over, Dracula. Look out, Lestat. Ramsey is here." Don't kill me by trying too hard to be funny, Ms Ashley. And these people, Marisa, Grigori, Edward, Kelly, the Quartet of Lobotomy, are going to live forever. Forget After Sundown, I think I'm embracing the apocalypse. This book at Amazon.com This book at Amazon UK Search for more reviews of works by this author:

Two emotional specials where an extraordinary and inspirational mom and dad are rewarded with the day of their dreams. Mom's Dream Day / Dad's Dream Day (2 x 44 minutes) Join Women's Entertainment Network in honoring an extraordinary mother in "Morn's Dream Day." We will highlight, honor and reward a mother who has devoted her life to helping others. Her story will be told by those who love her and those who have been forever changed by her inspiring acts of kindness. She will be pleasantly surprised, whisked away and given a day of pampering, reuniting and a home makeover. Joanne Corless is our extraordinary mother; she is an inspiring woman who has set the bar for helping and educating children with autism. Joanne's son AJ is autistic and is the inspiration for her to teach family's worldwide about the opportunities for children with autism. Joanne is the founder of the Ai' Foundation which has raised money to start and support the Comprehensive Learning Center which is devoted to educating autistic children. She is a mother who deserves a "Mom's Dream Day" Joanne's Dream Day starts at the Comprehensive Learning Center where parents and family have gathered to surprise her. Laurie Hibbert our host is waiting just around the corner in a white stretch limousine and is ready to whisk Joanne away on her Dream Day. Finally Joanne arrives .. ...SURPRISE The New Hope train station is the first stop in a series of surprises for Joanne. "The Tilson Limited Arriving from Columbus Ohio" blares over the loud speakers and as the train rolls to a stop; Joanne is shocked to see her high school friend Kathy Tilson stepping off the train and onto the platform. But it's not over yet Cathy Humphrey; Joanne's college roommate has snuck into the limousine and is waiting to surprise her "These are my two best friends," Joanne cries as Cathy steps out of the limousine. It's off to lunch at Marsha Brown's so these best friends can enjoy each others company. But what Joanne doesn't know is there are a few more surprises on the way... "Can I borrow your mustard?," " Would you like some water?," "Can you please keep it down?" Behind each of these questions are loved ones and Joanne is thrilled to see each and every one. Joanne leaves her friends with the promise to see them later and heads to Angel Heart Boutique for a clothing makeover. "I need a thong" Joanne laughs as she tries on one stunning outfit after another. Never fear Laurie Hibbert's here, with a thong to complete the perfect Dream Day outfit. But don't put it on yethair and makeup comes first and we know just the place. Zanya's Spa and Salon will cater to Joanne's every need. Zanya, Nancie, Mark and Adrienne are Joanne's Dream Team and they get to work immediately. Color, cut, manicure, pedicure and makeup! Whoa! Joanne heads to the changing room and is kept away from all mirrors while she puts on her Dream Day outfit "I look like my mother..... in a good way; when she was young" Joanne shouts when she finally is placed in front of a mirror to see her head to toe makeover. Joanne is looking good and is ready for a party. What she doesn't know if that she is headed to one. One hundred and twenty of Joanne's family and friends have gathered at the Triumph Brewing Company to see Joanne's transformation and hear about her dream day. Pleasantly surprised Joanne heads around the room to greet everyone; AJ is the happiest of them all to see his mother. Laurie presents Joanne with a diamond heart necklace signifying her three beautiful children and speeches are made by those who have been inspired by Joanne's hard work and dedication to children with autism. The night seems to be coming to a close but don't count on it. Laurie gathers Joanne and her husband Allan for the limousine ride home. They discuss the day filled with surprises, reunions and wonderful memories. However, there is one more surprise; a crew of workers has been in Joanne's bedroom transforming it into a haven and separate work area. Joanne knows something is up when she enters her house but when she enters her bedroom she is flabbergasted. "Oh my God, it's beautiful," Joanne screams after a few seconds of shock. She is lead around the room by Keith and Christina our design team and is truly thrilled with her new space. It's late and it is time for Mom's Dream Day to come to an end. But not without warm wishes, a grateful thanks and a big hug from Laurie and the Crew of Mom's Dream Day. Thanks Joanne for being an Extraordinary Mom! Nancy Glass Productions (NGP) and The Women's Entertainment Network (WE) have paired to create a heart warming television special. "Dad's Dream Day" will highlight, honor and reward an extraordinary father who has devoted his life to helping others. His story will be told by those who love him and those who have been forever changed by his inspiring acts of kindness. He will be pleasantly surprised, whisked away and given a day of pampering, reuniting, a home redo and a gala held in his honor. Jay Scott is the subject of our special; he's an inspiring man and father who's dedicated his life to keeping alive his daughter's dream of finding a cure for cancer. Jay's daughter Alex died August 1, 2004 of neturoblastoma, an aggressive childhood cancer, she was only 8. Before her death, Alex and her father started Alex's Lemonade Stand to raise over a million dollars for cancer research. Jay has recently quit his job to run the Alex Foundation full time. He has been the strength behind his family's tragic ordeal and an inspiration for families everywhere. Jay Scott is an extraordinary father who deserves to have one day dedicated to his true acts of heroism. Jay's Dream Day begins with our host Laurie Hibbert heading to Jay's office where friends and family have gathered to surprise him. Laurie details Jay's life and goals to cure childhood cancer. Laurie arrives just in time to greet everyone and get ready for the surprise. Jay is stunned when he walks into his office to find loved ones and to finally find out he is going on a Dad's Dream Day. Laurie whisks Jay away"Penn's Landing Please." Meanwhile, a crew of fifty workers invades Jay's backyard and garage to transform them in just 8 hours, in time for Jay's return home and final surprise. Jay and Laurie are headed to Penn's Landing where his first surprise awaits. Jay's sense of humor comes out and we know this is going to be one great day. Upon their arrival they see a boat in the distance and Laurie leads the way to the dock. Kevin Murphy, Jay's oldest friend, cruises in on that boat and truly surprising Jay. "How long has it been 15 years? WOW I can't believe you're here." Jay and Kevin pick up right where they left off; "I wish there was a basket ball court around, so I can embarrass you with my skills." The banter continues on their way to the Hyatt for breakfast. As Jay and Kevin enter the restaurant and take a seat; Fran Espinoza, another childhood friend is getting into disguise. A Hawaiian waiter's shirt allows Fran to sneak up behind Jay. "Would you like coffee?" It takes Jay a couple seconds to realize that it's not a waiter but his friend. "FRAN, what are you doing here? Just thought I'd stop by." The three friends enjoy the rest of their breakfast and each others company. After everyone finishes breakfast the threesome piles into the limousine and continues to reminisce while headed to THAT basketball court Jay was talking about. Laurie hands out Converse Sneakers which is Jay's clue to where they are headed. "I can't tell you where were headed but I can tell you, you'll need these." The limousine pulls up to the Philadelphia 76ers practice court where president Billy King greets them. They are instructed to get changed because a game of hoops is about to start. "Now let me introduce you to your teammates," Billy suggests after they emerge from the locker room. Michael Caron, John Hawran. Eric Pihel and Jimmy Waters, come storming out with game faces on. Jay is now surrounded by all six of his best friends and couldn't be happier. A game of hoops ignites just like the old days and the humor never stops. "Hope there is a doctor in the house, their gonna need it after I'm through." Sweaty and Tired after an invigorating game, the seven friends head to the locker room not remembering or caring who had won. After a quick shower Jay leaves his friends with the promise to see them later and is escorted to his next event. In the limo Laurie teases Jay about his various hairstyles as we see pictures of Jay with dreadlocks. Hmm wonder where were headed to next. GROOM Barber Shop for an old fashion haircut and shave but not without another reunion. Bill Divers a close friend and co-worker is hiding in the wings to surprise Jay and wish him well on his "Dad's Dream Day." Meanwhile, back at the house, the crew is working hard transforming Jay's backyard and Garage. But not without obstacles; it's raining and unexpected elements are hindering work in the garage. Keith Keaveney and Christina Manca, our "Dream Day Design Team" are trying to keep moral up and work moving. "Let's hope this gets done in time or Jay's Dream Day may turn out to be a Nightmare." Jay leaves GROOM with a fresh shave and haircut but his clothes need a little improving. We know just the place; Boyd's Clothing Store. "Jay hates to shop, especially for clothes and especially for himself," Liz tells us while she watches her husband try on clothes through a hidden monitor in the stock room. Jay is fitted with a beautiful suit and heads back to the Limousine but not without his wife who surprises him at the bottom of the stores grand staircase. Jay thinks that he's headed off to a quiet dinner with his wife, but little does he know that friends and family are waiting to surprise him. Speeches are given in Jay's honor upon his arrival and he is stunned over the outpouring of admiration. Laurie Hibbert presents the Scott Family with round trip airline tickets to anywhere in the United States and they are thrilled. After a bite to eat and a thank you to everyone, Laurie gathers Jay and his family for the ride home. They discuss the day filled with surprises, reunions and wonderful memories. But "Dad's Dream Day" is not over yet. Our design team and crew are in a mad dash to put the final touches on the backyard and garage makeover. Upon pulling up to the driveway Jay is instructed to put on a blindfold and is escorted into his garage. "WOW, I can't believe this." Christina Manca leads Jay through the garage and all its new organizational tools. Jay is than lead into the backyard where for the first time he has grass. Both Jay and Liz are speechless with this amazing transformation and grateful to the team of workers that made this "Dream Day" possible. It's getting late and it is time for "Dad's Dream Day" to come to an end. But not without warm wishes, a grateful thanks and a big hug from Laurie and the "Dream Day" crew. Thanks Jay for being an Extraordinary Dad.

Pfc. England's family in doubt The photographs have left her family and friends aghast and searching for answers. They are convinced that she would never have thought up anything so cruel on her own and that she must have been following orders. If that is the case, the family and friends then have to reconcile how the tough, bold and independent young woman they know followed an order that seemed so obviously wrong. "She's kind of stubborn," her mother, Terrie England, said. "But that doesn't mean she can't follow orders." Yeah. I'm sure "go stand in front of that naked prisoner smiling and giving us a thumbs up" was an order. Kick the Leftist Brilliant political ramblings out of upstate New York and Washington, D.C. Friday, May 07, 2004 Pfc. England's family in doubt Thursday, May 06, 2004 "We aren't attending your graduation because we don't wanna make it a spectacle." Yeah, right, George. You're too busy for your children, we know it. Some errors seem to be present in this story: The 365-50 roll call Thursday by which the House approved a resolution condemning the abuses of Iraqi prisoners while commending the members of the U.S. Armed Forces serving in Iraq A "yes" vote is a vote to approve the resolution. Voting "yes" were 151 Democrats, 213 Democrats and one independent. Voting "no" were 49 Democrats and one independent. That's a lot of Democrats. (I'm sure the AP will catch this soon, but it's too entertaining not to mention it). Kerry picks wrong economic team? Town Hall's latest spew: Sen. John Kerry recruited two famous businessmen to what The New York Times described as his "motley team" of economic advisers. Kerry turned to Steve Jobs of Apple Computer and Warren Buffet of Berkshire Hathaway. (When Kerry said he was fighting for Jobs, we didn't realize he meant Steve). Buffett is the second wealthiest man in the world. Steve Jobs just received America's second largest executive pay package. Both are amazingly talented at what they do. But what they do not do is economics. Until now, nobody imagined Steve Jobs had any interest in economics. Buffett, on the other hand, has sounded off on numerous topics. Unfortunately, Buffet's paper trail makes it reasonable to conclude that Kerry approves of his views. And that could prove embarrassing. Yeah, I'm sure Steve Jobs really sucks at economics. Good Lord, this is exhausting. Kerry's wife nearly had an abortion 30 years ago And it's our business. More Bush flip-flopping Bush is backing off on his concessrions to Israel. I'm sure this has nothing to do with a certain POW torture scandal, does it? Voting rolls being purged in Florida Deja vu, anyone? Wednesday, May 05, 2004 You can't make this stuff up Some people have some interesting comments on the torture scandal. I will now make fun of them: Engineer Mike Wallace of Santa Clara, California, does not condone the abuse but said, "We don't know the full story of what they did. These people could be murderers, scoundrels." And I don't know how I'd sleep at night if we let a "scoundrel" go without being stripped and made to pose next to other scoundrels. "When you've got prisoners, don't try to humiliate them or torture them," said 43-year old Berry Samuel, taking a break from his maintenance work job. But his colleague Oscar Torres, 21, countered, "I think they deserved it. Those people are crazy over there. I'm voting for Bush. He's doing right." Swift rebuttal, Oscar! Your short, grammatically sound sentences exude intelligence. Barbara McNagny, 70, a registered nurse from Rogersville, Missouri, said bluntly, "These people would tie us up by our fingernails if they could. I'm afraid if we don't scare them to death, they won't get in line." You heard her! Hop on that sweet, sweet democracy train or we'll make your masturbate in front of your fellow POWs. With Amnesty International seeking an investigation of the abuses, one Dallas Morning News reader wrote to the newspaper, "I don't recall this group calling for any investigation into the burning and hanging of U.S. military contractors from a bridge in Falluja several weeks ago." Good point! However, the need to investigate is slightly lessened by the fact that it doesn't need to be investigated. In fact, I have an inkling that insurgents may be responsible. "If the humiliation of these prisoners results in the saving of one American military life, go to it," Derrel Norris of Wills Point, Texas, said in a letter published on Tuesday. Absolutely! Naked Prisoner Pyramids, as we in the know call them, are actually the #2 deterrent to terror. Number 1 being funding Saudi Arabia. But some like Gregory Brown, 37, a bank employee from Chicago, were concerned that the Bush administration's effort to win the war of ideas was too little too late. "The repercussions are that there will probably be more bombings" against U.S. interests, he said, adding that the photos will enrage religious Muslims. "I don't think a 'forgive us' will do because it's a very embarrassing scene." You mean the pictures of their countrymen being humiliated and tortured will actually anger them, rather than make them instantly subservient to our cause? That's ridiculous! I believe you need a lesson in foreign relations from a certain Ms. Barbara McNagny. Marijuana use up among adults I didn't know you could really "abuse" a pretty much harmless drug, but I stand corrected. Get it while you can The Smoking Gun has a copy of the Army's investigation into the torture allegations. Newsmax: torture allegations overblown The right-wing shill's primary reason that the torture probably didn't happen: Did U.S. soldiers in Baghdad "torture" Iraqi prisoners housed at Saddam Hussein's old Abu Ghraib prison? That's the impression being given by the blanket coverage of photos showing Iraqi detainees being humiliated at hands of their American keepers - half of whom, by the way, were female. That's right. Along with three male GIs suspected in the prison "torture" episode, three females, Spec. Megan Ambuhl, Spec. Sabrina Harman and Private Lynndie England have been named in the scandal. England is the GI shown in several of the photos circulated throughout the world, cigarette dangling from her lips as she smirks at a masturbating Iraq prisoner. Female torturers? That tidbit should send up a red flag immediately. When Saddam routinely tortured Iraqi innocents held at Abu Ghraib for decades, press accounts make no mention of women feeding detainees into meat grinders, or dipping prisoners in acid, or dismembering victims to be sent home to family members in Hefty bags. Soldiers or not, women are generally not the best candidates to administer physical "torture" of any kind. The fact that no other righties in the country are looking for excuses here should indicate how pathetic Newsmax is. Senate votes to protect overtime pay Tuesday, May 04, 2004 11 years for chemical weapons Would you be satisfied if the guy next door building cyanide bombs was out of prison so soon? Through an apparently legal loophole, the citizens involved in the torture cases may just get off without charges. Fucking great. Prisoner scandal worsens A probe has discovered that two POWs were killed by Americans. Are you lonely? Do your quests for love leave you with someone a little too...liberal? Well then have we got the site for you! www.SingleRepublicans.com - because we have a hard time finding anyone to melt our cold, cold hearts. Mexican gay man not "effeminate" enough for asylum This is ridiculous: The Immigration and Refugee Board has rejected the asylum case of a Mexican homosexual man on the grounds that he is not "visibly effeminate" and therefore not vulnerable to persecution in his homeland. Fernando Enrique Rivera, who lifts weights, wears his hair closely cropped and favours jeans and conservative sports shirts, believes the IRB's decision shows a stereotypical understanding of homosexuality. "I know some gay refugees who put on lipstick and dressed effeminately for their hearings because they thought it would help their case. But that is not who I am," Mr. Rivera said in an interview in a Church Street eatery in the heart of Toronto's gay village. "You don't choose to be gay. It's not like being a vegetarian. It's a very complex thing." "Six morons who lost the war" Apparently some people up high have some choice words for the American torturers: Regardless of the outcome of the now multiple investigations into prisoner abuse at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, politicians and media around the world say the United States' image has suffered a serious blow. Sen. Joe Biden (D) of Delaware said on Fox News Sunday that "This is the single most significant undermining act that's occurred in a decade in that region of the world in terms of our standing." The Associated Press reports that a senior Bush administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the photos (of US soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners) hurt the US efforts to win over an audience that is already deeply skeptical of US intentions. Arabs and Muslims, the official added, "are certain to seize upon the images as proof that the American occupiers are as brutal as ousted President Saddam Hussein's government." Officials at the Defense Department are also said to be "livid," and well aware of the damage that has been done by the incident, according to NBC News' Pentagon reporter Jim Miklaszewski. Speaking on the Imus in the Morning radio/MSNBC program Tuesday , Mr. Miklaszewski said he asked a Pentagon contact about the soldiers alleged to be involved, to which the Pentagon official replied, "You mean the six morons who lost the war?" The Chicago Tribune reports that other experts agree with this assessment. "The United States already had a huge perception problem in the Arab world," said Stephen Walt, a professor of international affairs at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. "This is only going to reinforce the belief that the United States is anti-Arab and anti-Muslim, whether it's true or not." Monday, May 03, 2004 Israel surrounds Arafat If the Middle East was a movie, it'd be getting mighty good just about now. CIA to investigate prison issue If, as Drudge says, the CIA will be investigating this issue, how exactly are we to get to the bottom of whether or not MI was involved? More BS news Apparently we now need studies to discover that obese kids are bullied moreso than others. File that under "No Shit." Sometimes I feel like certain news stories just shouldn't be written. That's what you get for being a loser Bush/Greenspan getting close There is a growing danger that financial markets could perceive the Bush administration as unduly influencing the direction of federal monetary policy. So says Kenneth Thomas, a lecturer in finance at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business. According to Thomas, there's been a dramatic increase in the number of meetings between Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and White House staff since President Bush took office in January 2001. Thomas based his conclusions on Freedom of Information Act requests for Fed data over the past six years, tracking the number of meetings between Greenspan and White House staff during that period. He found that from 2001-03, Bush's first three years in office, there was a 67 percent jump in the number of Greenspan-White House meetings compared with the three years from 1996-98. The FOIA queries showed Greenspan had 55 White House meetings in 2002 and 68 in 2003, up from about 12 per year between 1996 and 2000. While the facts are all accurate, I believe the conclusion of the article may be a little off. In my opinion, it isn't Bush that is having too much of an impact on the Fed, but Greenspan who is putting his influence where it doesn't belong - that is, in politics. Laurence Meyer (ex-Fed chairman) is apparently saying that Greenspan needs to keep his mouth shut more than he does. It is arguable that Greenspan's influence passed the 2001 Bush tax cut. To say that the WH is affected the Fed and not vice-versa is flat out false. The sad truth may be that they aren't acting as separate entities, but working together. Rebuke for offenders in abuse case BAGHDAD, May 3 -- The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, has recommended issuing the highest form of administrative rebuke against six officers or sergeants who helped supervise the troubled Abu Ghraib detention facility west of Baghdad, which is the focus of an investigation of alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners, a U.S. official disclosed Monday. The six unnamed supervisors will each receive a general-officer memorandum of reprimand, a document that can effectively end an officer's career by making future promotion impossible. A seventh supervisor will receive a letter of admonishment, a lesser form of penalty. The senior military official, who briefed reporters on the condition that he not be identified, would not name the units or ranks of the seven supervisors who will be punished. They are separate from the six enlisted soldiers who were criminally charged in March in the physical and sexual abuse of about 20 prisoners at Abu Ghraib in October and November last year. Four other enlisted soldiers are still under criminal investigation. OK...I support the idea of ending their military careers. You know what else I support? Jail time. Large amounts of it. Flat screens for prisoners A bunch of people are making a fuss over this: SALEM, Oregon (AP) -- Convicted felon Nicholas Krahmer kicks back on a bunk and enjoys one of the latest perks of prison life: A spanking new flat-screen TV that's still the envy of many viewers on the outside. The tiny 7-inch set resembles flat-screen models installed in cars or on airplane seats. But it beats the alternative, he says -- a night in the recreation room with about 150 other inmates who are prone to brawls over what to watch and where to sit. Oregon's in-cell television policy springs from years of frustration in finding incentives for good behavior among prisoners serving mandatory sentences. Krahmer bought the $300 television with money he earned working in prison, where he is paid a few dollars a day for computer drafting. Inmates also must have clean discipline records to qualify for the flat-screens. "I've worked for it. I've stayed clear of any sort of nonsense in the institution," said Krahmer, 27, who is serving 70 months at Oregon State Correctional Institution, outside Salem, for assault with a knife. "I've never seen an episode of 'Survivor.' I'm eager to watch that. I want to see what my family watches." Randy Geer, administrator of the prisons' non-cash incentive programs, said that as far as he knows, Oregon is the only state where felons have flat-screen TVs in their cells. The 25 inmates who have bought the high-tech TVs get the same basic cable that's piped into the prison's common TV room. "Prisoners shouldn't get TV! ::whine!:: ::whimper!:: ::moan!::" Well, if it prevents brawls and isn't costing the taxpayers, I say it's fine. Sunday, May 02, 2004 Menudo is coming back? Thank the Lord! OK, so I didn't feel like doing any serious blogging. 30 more torture scandals probed The dossier of terror includes : Claims that POWs were thrown to their deaths from a bridge. A videotape of the killings is said to have been destroyed. The drowning of 16-year-old Ahmad Jabbar Kareem, who was allegedly forced into a canal by British soldiers near Basra. The deaths of two men detained by the Black Watch near Basra a year ago. Abd al-Jabbar Mossa, 53, and Rathy Namma are both said to have suffered heart failure. Mossa's family claim he was hit on the head. Weeks after the torture photographs were taken, a prisoner was allegedly beaten to death by members of the same Queen's Lancashire Regiment. An MOD spokeswoman said yesterday's bombshell allegations which followed pictures of US troops abusing inmates in Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison are being investigated by the Royal Military Police More on the Iraqi torture situation Lambert at corrente does some good investigative work. Franken to run for Senate I think his talents are better used outside of actual politics, so I'm not sure I support this. Kerry establishing Iraq policy The criticism of Bush's Iraq policy without presenting a solid strategy of his own was wearing thing, and hopefully this is the beginning of a turnaround for Kerry: FULTON, Missouri (CNN) -- Saying it is "time for a new direction in Iraq," Sen. John Kerry called Friday for the United States to internationalize peacekeeping efforts in the turbulent nation and launch a "massive training effort" to build and strengthen Iraq's security force. "This is a moment of truth in Iraq -- not just for this administration, the country, the Iraqi people, but for the world," the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee told an audience at Westminster College. While Kerry has called for a broader international effort before, Friday's speech represented the candidate's most detailed vision to date for how the United States should handle Iraq. "This may be our last chance to get it right," Kerry said. "We need to put pride aside to build a stable Iraq. We must reclaim our country's standing in the world by doing what has kept America safe and made it more secure before -- leading in a way that brings others to us so that we are respected, not just feared, around the globe." Are terrorists doing dry runs of terror attacks in NYC? Italian hostages disarmed by U.S. The four Italian security guards kidnapped in Iraq had their personal protection weapons confiscated by American soldiers just hours before they were seized by suspected rebels, colleagues have revealed. According to Paolo Simeoni, the former leader of their security team, soldiers manning a checkpoint in one of Baghdad's most dangerous districts confiscated their three high-powered assault rifles and two pistols. Breaking his silence about the incident, Mr Simeoni said the Americans claimed that the Italians had flouted gun permit rules. The soldiers issued a receipt so that the arms could be collected at a later date. The men, who had been on their way back to Italy, were forced to return to their hotel and search for substitute weapons. They managed to find just a single machine pistol and two handguns, which friends fear left them vulnerable to their attackers. One of the hostages, Fabrizio Quattrocchi, was executed by the kidnappers, an Iraqi Islamist group, two days after the men were captured, on April 12. His death was videotaped and the plight of the three remaining captives continues to cause intense public anguish in Italy. Bush numbers down in NC Over 5 points since February. Thomas Hamill, being held hostage by insurgents after his convoy was attacked, has escaped his captors and is in safe hands. Myers says abuse not widespread WASHINGTON - Top U.S. military officer Gen. Richard Myers said Sunday there is no widespread pattern of abuse of Iraqi prisoners and that the actions of "just a handful" of U.S. troops at a Baghdad prison have unfairly tainted all American forces. An internal Army report found that Iraqi detainees were subjected to "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses" at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, according to The New Yorker magazine, which said it obtained a copy of the report. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said "categorically" that "there is no evidence of systematic abuse" in the U.S. detention operations in the region. "We review all the interrogation methods. Torture is not one of the methods that we're allowed to use and that we use," Myers said. "I mean, it's just not permitted by international law, and we don't use it." Uh, first of all, it's clearly not permitted by international law - that's why this is a big deal. Second of all, how exactly would Myers know how widespread it is? The fact is that we don't know how widespread it is, that's why it's being probed. Things like this hint that perhaps something more complicated is at work here: A soldier accused of abusing prisoners at the Abu Ghraib facility wrote to his family last December that military intelligence officers encouraged the mistreatment, according to correspondence provided by the soldier's family.

Confronted with low voter participation rates and high levels of ignorance about politics and policy, many of us regularly bemoan the apparently apathetic American electorate. But we're mostly concerned with the apathy of people whom we imagine as potential political allies. When right-wing Christians made a dramatic entrance onto the political stage some 20 years ago, through organizations like the Moral Majority, they weren't exactly welcomed by liberals and lauded as exemplars of good citizenship. I wouldn't lament low voter turnout if all right-wing, antilibertarian Republicans (and Democrats) stayed home on election day, and I imagine they'd be similarly sanguine about a display of voter apathy from me. So I'm not sure whether to welcome or worry about an emerging campaign to politicize what New Age guru Marianne Williamson calls the consciousness community--an eclectic group of seekers including the consumers of personal development and pop spirituality books, patients of pop therapies, and adherents of alternative religions. Organizations promoting a new spiritual politics are springing forth, promising to save the world along with our souls. In April of this year, the Center for Visionary Leadership held a fourday summit in Washington modestly devoted to "re-igniting the spirit of America." Billed as a "non-partisan, multi-denominational dialogue on values, spirituality, and governance" (the organizers apparently loathed leaving anyone out), the summit included a diverse group of speakers, from Robert Kennedy, Jr., a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, to John Hagelin, Natural Law Party presidential candidate, and Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun and advocate of "emancipatory spirituality." Seminars addressed concrete problems like unemployment, crime, and health care, along with the most amorphous concerns, like spiritual values in public life. Entertainment included music by Magpie and an appearance by the Acoma Indian Dancers. The next month, on May 18, the Foundation for Ethics & Meaning (FEM) held a four-day conference in New York, aimed at "challenging the dominant ethos of cynicism, materialism, and greed with an emerging vision of meaningful connection and social responsibility." FEM was co-founded by Michael Lerner and conceived as a "progressive counterpart" to influential conservative think tanks and foundations, like the Manhattan Institute and the Heritage Foundation. In addition to its vague spiritual yearnings, FEM does appear to harbor some specific policy concerns--"big money" in politics, "frenzied globalization," media conglomeration, and whatever else gets in the way of creating a "more caring world." Meanwhile, for all those carers and sharers who can't or won't attend conferences, there's the Global Renaissance Alliance (GRA), co-founded by Marianne Williamson and FOG (Friend of God) Neale Donald Walsch, author of the best-selling Conversations with God. The GRA, which bills itself as a "citizen-based international network of spiritual activists," aims to inspire ongoing gatherings of "citizen circles," committed "to cultivating an intimate fabric of deep community... . The GRA is like a mystical grid on which our individual prayers, meditations, and actions for peace synergistically merge." You can't paraphrase vision statements like this because their content is so elusive. What exactly do the leaders of the GRA believe? "We believe that love should rule the world... . We believe the soul has a wisdom of its own... . We believe in spiritual power." What political form will this power take? It's likely that it will incline toward the left, potentially providing a relatively liberal counterweight to conservative Christians-- the "consciousness community" of the right. Pop spirituality and personal development movements are greatly disdained by the right, partly because they're apt to be critical of established religious dogma and because they promote forgiveness, or therapy, over punishment. They are also closely tied to popular feminism, which is abhorred by conservatives. Historically, women have played dominant roles in American New Age movements, and today's New Age community is clearly feminized: It celebrates stereotypically feminine virtues--emotional sensitivity, relational skills, and a penchant for "connectedness." Rhetorically, the new spiritual activists reject both traditional liberal and conservative approaches, offering a sort of New Age third way. But the particular political causes they champion are recognizably liberal. A GRA-sponsored conference that I attended in 1998 included panels with representatives from groups like Amnesty International, the Children's Defense Fund, and Common Cause. It also offered a sound civics lesson from a constitutional historian, along with the usual New Age platitudes from Williamson, Walsch, and others. From a pragmatic liberal perspective, then, there is some virtue in these undertakings; still I find them troublesome. It's hard to work up much enthusiasm over the entry into the political sphere of people who revere hucksters like Neale Donald Walsch and Deepak Chopra (who sits on the board of the GRA), regarding them as enlightened spiritual leaders. Chopra is perhaps best known for Ageless Body, Timeless Mind, a highly unoriginal primer on living practically forever through positive thinking. (He often seems to be channeling the spirit of Christian Science founder Mary Baker Eddy.) Chopra is also the author of The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, which offers to help you create "unlimited wealth with effortless ease." (So much for antimaterialism.) Walsch found fame with the phenomenally successful Conversations with God, a moronic and shamelessly selfaggrandizing book that purports to be the author's transcriptions of his dialogue with the Almighty--who sounds suspiciously like Neale Donald Walsch. It is also a rather amoral book, not just ignoring but utterly trivializing the problem of evil. Walsch takes New Age relativism to its silliest extreme. "Even Hitler went to heaven," God reportedly has informed him. Walsch is a perverse choice to help remoralize the nation, but charlatans do find acclaim in America, especially in the spiritualized world of selfimprovement, and once anointed, they're rarely defrocked. The supposedly egalitarian consciousness community does love its gurus, and despite all the comforting talk about democratic citizenship, New Age political groups, like the GRA, are apt to thrive on hero worship. Attend a New Age conference, and you'll see celebrity authors deliver sermons to adoring audiences that never ask a critical question. The celebrities are regarded by their fans as saviors, beyond reproach, which often seems to be the way they regard themselves. Marianne Williamson, for example, is especially prickly, exhibiting a Nixonian distrust of the press. During her talks, she is apt to complain to her fans about her bad press, seeking sympathy and support: "Abuse of leaders is the last unchallenged oppression in the United States," she says in an apparent burst of self-pity. Yet she soldiers on, a woman who seems willing to sacrifice herself to public office, for the public good. When she urges her fans to become engaged in politics, you have to wonder who she'd ask them to support. "Run, Marianne, run," a man sitting behind me at one of her appearances yelled. Her recent book The Healing of America reads a bit like a New Age political platform, offering an absurdly reductive diagnosis of America's political ills and issuing a call to action. According to Williamson, her generation of boomers was traumatized by the political assassinations of the late 1960s; some remained politically active and gravitated to the East Coast, while those seeking spiritual enlightenment went west. She urges West Coast seekers (the "consciousness community") to import their wisdom into the political sphere and "heal" America. It's not surprising to hear her touting the formation of third parties. Offering her audiences prayer and appealingly simple political analyses, Williamson is like a cross between early twentieth-century evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson and Ross Perot. I have no quarrel with political ambition or the ego that drives achievement. But the leaders of the new spiritual politics do seem especially self-serving. Is it mere coincidence that so many are promoting books? The Center for Visionary Leadership was co-founded by Corinne McLaughlin and Gordon Davidson, authors of Spiritual Politics. Michael Lerner, co-founder of the Foundation for Ethics & Meaning, is the author of several books about politics and spirituality. Marianne Williamson and Neale Donald Walsch, of course, are publishing phenomenons. Maybe some Americans want spiritual leadership, but many settle for spiritual demagoguery. How do people distinguish between the false spiritual leaders and the true? Popularity (success in the marketplace) is a common measure of enlightenment. It is, for example, impossible to separate the deference paid to Oprah Winfrey's presumed spiritual wisdom from awe of her shrewd commercialism. Her personal success story and enormous wealth are tacitly perceived as proof that she is spiritually evolved. Like the Puritans, we perceive wealth as evidence of virtue as well as insightfulness. "If you're so smart, how come you're not rich?" people say to critics like me. Pop spirituality is an unpredictable basis for the creation of a new progressive political constituency. It promotes adherence to particular liberal causes at the same time that it advances the careers of some untrustworthy political leaders and encourages the abdication of judgment that is anathema to a liberal democracy. It rants against materialism but exalts its victors. How do you become a spiritual leader? Sell a lot of books. You have to wonder about a progressive political movement whose heroes have been sanctified by success. ¤ You may also like: You need to be logged in to comment. (If there's one thing we know about comment trolls, it's that they're lazy)

Video games are many things to many people. You and I might use games to show our girlfriends where they are on our list of priorities, but scientists and psychologists are using them to cure depression, cancer, lazy eye syndrome, and gay bullying. Just think of all the ways games have changed our lives. Why, before the Wii U existed, it would have required a series of unspeakable crimes to show penis drawings to so many thousands of children at once. And like those brave masters of dong art, this article is about heroes who were inspired by games to achieve the impossible. #5. The Top 5 Warcraft Characters Are All the Same Person World of Warcraft is designed to be a never-ending quest. There are 1,797 achievements in the game, and each of them requires hours, sometimes weeks to obtain. It takes such a monumental time investment that by the time you get past 1,000, your body medically replaces your sex organs with cup holders. It's why, in Mandarin, "World of Warcraft" translates to "The People's Fun and Noble Plan for Sterilize Youth." One player not only managed to get 1,954 achievements (157 more than the maximum), but did so with five different characters: Ataxius, Ataxas, Ataxus, Ataxxus, and Ataxa. They each have an identical set of achievements because of an absurd computer game delivery system known as multiboxing. Multiboxing is where you use several computers simultaneously to trick the game into thinking you're five different people. It's similar to another trick you might try as a hardcore gamer -- convincing Pizza Hut you're an entire soccer team. How Much Time Would This Take? If you or someone you love has three extra nipples, then you already know how difficult it is to play with five different things using only two hands. Simultaneously playing five Warcraft characters turns a relaxing diversion into a stressful, full-time job. A single wrong keystroke and suddenly one of your paladins is eating cupcakes instead of crusader striking. That doesn't sound like a big deal, but with the amount of diabetes in your body, looking at a picture of dessert is more than enough to make your foot fall off. The point is, multiboxing isn't exactly a time saver. Even if you're swinging five swords at a time, it takes more than just years of killing monsters to get all the WoW achievements. You need to research where countless rare monsters and pets appear, then stake out those locations for days, hoping to get lucky. You have to pretend to fish -- just stand there and fish -- for over 500 hours. You have to schedule hundreds of all-night sessions with 24 actual humans in order to kill complicated bosses. And trust me -- you don't end up moving to World of Warcraft because of your honed people skills. Communicating with MMO players is like trying to speak sign language through a hole in a bathroom wall: Everyone on the other side of it is confused, is angry, or only came here to suck. Being the top five characters in this game represents years of work. When you read about some woman who forgot she owned a baby because she was distracted by her shaman's herbalism skill, she isn't even close to this. It almost defies science -- isn't human blood supposed to congeal when it sits still for that long? Plus, it's hard to control five guys at a time while insect colonies are sending foragers in every direction to retrieve chunks of you. Let me try to put it another way: In the time it took to win 105,000 Warcraft achievement points, this person could have become fluent in Icelandic and used it to watch a can of Icelandic beans expire seven times. #4. Sim City 3000 Player Builds "Perfect" City Sim City is a soothing game about building your own metropolis. You construct whatever you want, and with no enemies other than traffic and the occasional Godzilla, the only hard part of Sim City is convincing the unemployment office that you're looking for a job. And yet someone found a way to beat it. An architecture student named Vincent Ocasla put this together: He redesigned city blocks into strange cascading rectangles to eliminate space between buildings and cut down on subway stations. He created an all-powerful police state to keep his uneducated slave people from revolting. He made George Orwell's darkest visions look like a bubbly hand job from the cast of Yo Gabba Gabba! In an interview with Vice.com, where he explicitly denied any mental problems, Ocasla described his city's people: "They have all been successfully dumbed down, sickened with poor health, enslaved, and mind-controlled just enough to keep this system going for thousands of years. Fifty thousand years, to be exact. They are all imprisoned in space and time." It's hard to tell if he really loves video games or if he's trying to frighten his prison therapist. How Much Time Would This Take? As you might imagine, reinventing every aspect of urban planning isn't something you do on accident. The math science he used is outside my area of expertise, but he drew shapes and numbers all over graph paper for 18 months before he even started playing the actual video game, and then it took over two years to finish his city. It's easy to accuse him of wasting time, since after four years of development, all he did was invent a way to cram more people into a tinier space and make them miserable, but I went to enough college to know that that's virtually indistinguishable from most post-graduate programs. #3. MIT Students Hack a Building's Lights to Play Tetris (Terribly) No matter how intense the struggles are that go into them, video game records have a tendency to be unimpressive. For instance, the fastest game completion ever came when some asshole playing Clue on the Sega Genesis just immediately accused Colonel Mustard of doing it with the Knife in the Hall. During the world record for the longest gaming marathon, I found out that anyone attempting the record can spend 17 percent of their time taking breaks! That's not a marathon -- that's a half-day for the people who assembled your Xbox. Still, you have to be impressed that last year a group of MIT students hacked a 21-story building on their campus to transform it into this: We live in a strange, nerdy world, so the MIT students' idea of using window lights to play Tetris wasn't very original. However, this is a specifically crazy accomplishment, because the combination of horrible luck and horrible skill created the biggest, worst game of Tetris that will ever be. You'd swear that the programmers sadistically designed it to give the player the worst possible piece each time, and that whoever dropped them into place had the organization skills of a Somalian open grave. Like Shaquille O'Neal trying to fit inside a condom, this 21-story game turned out to be 295 feet of painful frustration. By the time it was over, the person smart enough to turn a building into Tetris hadn't cleared a single line. Not one! If you cover a Gameboy in afterbirth and let a cat try to eat it, it will get at least one goddamn line. How Much Time Would This Take? Setting up the prank must have taken years of combined expertise in many fields, but trying to sit through a video of it seems to take even longer.

Obama Hopes to Enact New Gun-Control Measures in 2013 England Warns America: Don't Let Them Take Your Guns HOLLY NOTE: We've TWO major warnings from allies England and Australia about skyrocketing crime after gun bans are in place. Will Americans quietly submit? Lawmaker: Tweak Constitution to Affirm Gun Rights: Amendments Would Deflect Leftist Plan to Register Firearms Barbara Simpson: Anti-gunners: Please Shut Up! Simpson Blows Holes in Deceptive 'Gun-Control' Logic Senate Committee Report on Benghazi Terrorist Attack Faults State Dept Obama Urges Illinois to Legalize Gay Marriage PC Police Ban 'Illegal' Language Sandy Hook Shooting:Suspect Car Linked to Christopher A Rodia and Drug Family of Norwalk Kitty Werthmann: Distorted Memories of Anschluss Indefinite Military Detention of US Citizens to be Signed into Law By Obama Civil War: Senate to Go for Handguns Feinstein: All Gun Owners Should Be Registered, Fingerprinted States, Cities Mulling Own Assault-Weapon Bans, Amid Doubt Over Federal Action Dueling Data on Gun Crimes Put New Laws in Crossfire Petition Calls for Gun Free Zones Around the President, VP, and their Families 3 Teenage Boys 'Kidnapped Woman, 22, on Christmas, Robbed Her and Raped Her for Hours Even After She Repeatedly Vomited on Them HOLLY COMMENT: A personal firearm would have prevented these unspeakable acts. Three in the Head Pruden: Taking Aim at the Easy Target Guns Gun Control Fact-Sheet DHS Insider Report: Coming This Spring: “Life for the Average American is Going to Change Significantly” 2013: It's Going to Be a Rough Year Hero Remembered: Gulf War Leader Norman "The Bear" Schwarzkopf Dies at 78 Stormin' Norman Passes Away from Pneumonia pics States Slowly Killing Capital Punishment Bad Laws Are the Worst Sort of Tyranny Sharia Threat to America Obama's Vacations Cost Us Millions for Security Obama's Smoky Little Fish Light Bulb Ban on Horizon: Future dims for Survival of Cheap, Reliable Illumination Ex-Feds and Wall Street Execs Are Going into Hiding - Why? FBI Labels Occupiers "Domestic Terrorists" If You Are on This List You May Be in Grave Danger Latest from “DHS Insider” Pt 1, Pt 2 Warning to Gun Grabbers and Collectivist Media: By Calling for Gun Control, You Are Unleashing Your Own Worst Nightmare Raft of Unusual State Laws to Take Effect in 2013 A Failed Congress Is This the Real Reason Behind Sandy Hook? Black Racism Unchained: Exclusive: Jesse Lee Peterson Declares, 'It's Time for Whites to Speak Out' Is Black America Lost? Outrage Over Newspaper Naming, Maping Handgun-Owners The Left's Alinsky Tactics in Gun Debate Grandpa Shoots, Kills Indiana Teen’s Attacker Someday They Will Have All Your Guns Firing an 'Irresistible' Woman Is Not a Victory for Family Values HOLLY COMMENT: The premise of this opinion piece echoed the first thought that popped into my head. It's not a victory for family values. Instead of firing this woman, the dentist should have exhibited some self-control. Glenn Beck: Obama Destined for Prison? And the Biggest Lie of 2012 Is ... Obama, News Media Fingered for Misleading Tales 25 Facts That Mainstream Media Doesn't Really Want to Talk About Right Now Cold War Christmas Messages We Must Not Forget Afterburner: Merchants of Despair Tens of Thousands Sign Petition to Deport Piers Morgan National Gun Ban Advocates Seek to Make Colorado Their Top Priority for 2013 Session Lawmakers Look to Restrict Gun Magazine Capacity Police in Every School Not Practical - There's Another Solution Testimony of Darrell Scott (Father of Columbine Shooting Victim) Before House Judiciary Committee Marine Back in US After Release from Mexico Prison White House Chef Joins the Obamas in Hawaii Could You Pass a US Citizenship Test? Inhofe : Benghazi Will Be Biggest Cover-Up in History Report: Jon Hammar to Be Released from Mexican Prison Today North Korea Arrests U.S. Citizen New York Gov: Gun Confiscation and Forced Buy-back an Option Obama to Grab the Guns Michigan Gov. Vetoes Bill That Would Allow Conceal-Carry in Schools, Churches and Sports Stadiums Stewart Rhodes: My Personal Pledge of Resistance 26 Bells Mark One-Week Anniversary of Newtown Shootings 'I Am the Devil': Former Classmate Reveals School Gunman Had 'Online Devil Worshiping Page' as Childhood Barber Recounts How He Never Spoke and Just Stared at Floors House Passes NDAA 2013 with Indefinite Detention Intact Obama Killing Another Coal Plant Obama Kills Not a Tear Was Shed, Not Even a Fake One It's Time for the Aware to Take Action The Best Bug-Out-Bag Essentials Newtown Teacher Called ‘Superhero’ at Emotional Funeral Piers Morgan: 'Of Course' I'm 'Gleeful Tragedy Happened' Krauthammer: The President Invoking Massacre of Children in Context of Fiscal Talks “Is a Sacrilege” 50 Million Reasons That Make People Think Obama Is Planning Civil War If Obama Is Opposed to Guns, Why Did His Administration Just Purchase 1.6 Billion Rounds of Ammo and Sniper Rounds? Gun Task Force Draws Cool GOP Reception Thousands Join NRA after Connecticut School Shooting Biden Flip Flop from 2008: If Obama ‘Tries to Fool with My Beretta, He’s Got a Problem’ Reality Check: Are Calls for Stricter Gun Laws Really About Guns Good Laws Will Never Abolish All Evil Marine Vet Stands Guard Outside School After Shooting MUST WATCH: Why Isn't Obama Trying to Secure the Release of Marine Reported Sex Assaults rise at US Military Academies Everyday 'Heroes' Recognized for Life-Threatening Rescue Attempts Across US, Canada Women Suing State Troopers Over Roadside Cavity Searches Fiery 40-Car Pileup in New York Kills 1, Injures 33 Benghazi Report Blames 'Systemic Failures' Within State Department HOLLY COMMENT: Conveniently, Secy. of State Hillary Clinton, suffers 'incapacitating concussion' what are the odds? State Department Dismisses John Bolton's 'Diplomatic Illness' Remark About Clinton Hillary’s Benghazi Cover-Up Diplomatic Illness and Travelgate Obama Tasks Biden with US Gun Law Review Cops, Detectives, FBI Agents, U.S. Soldiers Will Not Enforce Gun Confiscation Orders Piers Morgan Calls Pro-Gun Advocate 'Unbelievably Stupid,' 'Dangerous': 'You Shame Your Country' Essential Gun Charts And Facts No Matter Which Side of Firearms Control You Support Exclusive: Fear of Being Committed May Have Caused Connecticut Gunman to Snap Sandy Hook Massacre: Official Story Spins Out of Control Bilderberg Group Member Rumored to be Selected by President Obama as Next Secy of State Gun Sales Surge After Massacre 2 Million Gun Applications in November Alone Heads Up: One of the premiere ammo/firearms retailers, Ammo Man, is so busy they've put up this announcement: Phone lines will NOT be answered today so if you need to place an order, please do so online. We are swamped and will be trying to catch up with all hands. Please e-mail all requests and they will be responded to as soon as possible. Americans Turn in Guns After School Massacre Myth #3: Gun Control Has Reduced the Crime Rates in Other Countries Armed Task Force to Patrol Arkansas Streets Libor Scandal Grows as Fathers of 2 Mass Murderers Were to Testify Feds Look Other Way as Wind Farms Kill Birds -- But Haul Oil and Gas Firms to Court Feds Secretly Free Dangerous Criminals Instead of Deporting Them Sandy Hook Shooting: The Victims' Stories 'I Am Adam Lanza's Mother': A Mom's Perspective on the Mental Illness Conversation in America De-mystifying Mass Murder in America Antidepressant Induced Suicide & Violence Newtown: Two Movies, Two Mass Murders, and Questioning All the Facts. Torrid Political Implications Are at Stake Newtown School Shooting Story Already Being Changed By the Media to Eliminate Eyewitness Reports of a Second Shooter The Day Christmas Died Ind. Man with 47 Guns Arrested After School Threat Progressives Plan March on NRA in DC Monday Liberals Call for Murder of NRA President, Members & Repeal of Second Amendment Senate Democrats Renew Call for Gun Law Debate Sen. Durbin: Newtown Shooting May Lead Congress to Pass Gun Regulation Sen. Feinstein to Introduce Assault Weapons Ban First Day of New Congress Obama Politicizes Vigil in Newtown, Hints at More Gun Control Obama Implied During His Speech in Newtown Conn. "We Have to Give Up Our Freedoms" Stampeding Gun Control Through Crisis Supreme Court Fight Over Gun Rights Looms Pro-gun America Quiet, Contemplative in Wake of Sandy Hook Massacre South Australia Mother Plans Toy Gun 'Buy-Back' after Sandy Hook Shootings in Connecticut Sandy Hook & Batman Shootings Smoking Gun Gun Control is Evil Misspelled Stun Gun Used on 3 Elderly Mennonite Women More Than 2000 Children Are Murdered in the U.S. Every Single Day Ad War Erupts Over Meaning of 'Jihad' in U.S. 'Tea Party' Group Fights for Islamic Causes It Must Rescue Movement from 'Evangelical, Conservative Jewish Bloc' Camping at Home. The Easy Way to Prep Search for Answers Begins as Nation Mourns 26 School Massacre Victims 20-year-old Gunman Opens Fire in K-4 School in Newtown, Conn. Killing 26; His Mother Later Found Dead at Her Home; Gunman Shoots Self at School Outpouring of Sympathy from Around the World in Response to Connecticut School Shooting Concealed Carry: Court Strikes Down Illinois' Ban Could You Survive a Nuclear Meltdown? EPA Going Too Far in Virginia? Unions Prepare for ‘Civil War’ Michigan House Nullifies NDAA U.S. Marine Tortured in Mexico Jail Dennis Miller Slams Obama for Not Being the President of All Americans Proposed CA Law Would Grant Homeless 'Right' to Urinate on Sidewalks Gun Control, People Control and Thought Control Martial Law In NJ 1st Week of February John Moore Drops a Bombshell! Benghazi Explained: Interview with an “Intelligence Insider” (Part III) FEMA Trailers Sit Empty While Storm Victims Battle Cold in Brooklyn Sandy Victims Wait as FEMA Trailers Sit Empty Steven Crowder Speaks Out on Assault at Union Protest in Michigan Homeland Security Increasingly Loaning Drones to Local Police U.S. Air Force Sticking to Plans to Buy 1,763 F-35 Jets I-77 Reopens After Massive Gas Line Explosion in W. Virginia Obama at 'Max Damage Potential' Right Now Boehner Faces Ouster Threats Within GOP Paradise Lost: CA to Provide Free Cell Phones for Homeless California Exodus as Thousands Quit State Hey, Dude, My Pot's Caught in a Catch-22 Why Are Preppers Hated So Much? Florida Failing to Protect Children Navy SEAL Team 6 Member Killed Rescuing Doctor from Afghanistan Obama’s Broken Promises to Sandy Victims Obama's Money Plans Backed By Communists Study: Obama Won Swing States Thanks to Irreligious Voters Nuclear Smuggling Monitors for U.S. Cut Back Administration Moves Forward on Gun Control Obama's America: Tiny Homes for You Give 'Made in the USA' This Christmas American Made Products Directory American Made Gift Ideas American Made Building Products 120+ products from over 33 states China Goes Shopping for U.S. Business Obama Aims to Save Chickens, Limit Humans Louisiana Supreme Court Upholds Seizure of Motorist Cash Los Zetas vs. “Your” Government: The Dreaded Comparison Pearl Harbor Attack Exposed (starts 12:20 min. in) Are Your Neighbors Christmas Crazy? Fatal Attraction: US Flirts with International Speech Codes Bob Costas: Just Another Mindless Gun Control Nut EXCLUSIVE: FEMA Teams Told to 'Sightsee' as Sandy Victims Suffered Driven By Fear: Gun Sales Soaring On Obama Ban Jitters Insider vs Insider: “Stolen Stolen Stolen…” 'Gangnam' Rapper, About to Perform for Pres. Obama, Sang About Killing Americans Rent Hike Threatened for Obama Voters New Panama Canal Could Change Everything for US Imports Vader: Drone-Based System Automatically Spots, Tracks People from 25,000 Feet National Geographic's Doomsday Preppers Survey: How Prepared Are You? Are Preppers Responsible for the Unprepared? “Doomsday Prepper” Raided By Police, FBI After Criticizing Obama Preppers Who Make Surviving the Apocalypse Even Less Fun Senate Unanimously Passes 2013 NDAA; Power to Arrest Americans Remains America More European After 4 Years of Obama Detroit Councilwoman’s Rant: We Voted for You, Obama, Now Give Us Some of That Gov’t ‘Bacon’ Feds Expand Polygraph Screening, Often Seeking Intimate Facts Americans Are Most Spied on People in World History Lesbians "Marry" in West Point Chapel's First Same-Sex Wedding Obama to Pitch Unilateral and Unlimited Debt Ceiling Authority Today No Mubarak-Style Condemnation for Morsi Power Grab from Washington Santorum: UN Disabilities Treaty Troubling 'Everyone in US Under Virtual Surveillance' - NSA Whistleblower Moscow Times Predicts U.S. Collapse HOLLY NOTE This is a retred of a 2008 article Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S. Chicago Teachers Union VP Busted Participating in Midwest Marxism Conference Krauthammer: 'Easy to Win Elections When You Give Away Candy That You Borrowed from the Chinese' Report: Fox News Shelves Rove Extreme Holiday Decorations 2012 Benghazi Storytelling: Too Many Answers, Not Enough Truthfulness Benghazi Explained: Behind the Lies U.S. Risks 'Another Benghazi' Under Mexican Rules Barring Agents from Arming U.S. Denies Iran's Reports of Captured Drone US Envoy Tries to Stop UN from Regulating Internet Andrea Shea King Says Internet Threat Has Reached Critical Turning Point It Takes 54 Trees to Make a Merry Marxist Christmas Newly Released Photo Shows Bloodied George Zimmerman from Night of Trayvon Martin Shooting Dirty Harry Is Ramming Gun Control Down our Throats Obama's Dismantling of American Might Has Worldwide Repercussions America Not Dealing with Reality Gay Conversion Therapy Law Temporarily Blocked By Federal Judge Good Bye Cable, It's Been Nice Sandy-ravaged Communities Dealing with Cold and Lack of Housing While FEMA Trailers Sit Idle in PA Disarming America: State Dept Advisory Board Urges Deeper Nuclear Force Cuts Including Unilateral Reductions NBC Uses NFL Murder-Suicide Tragedy to Make Plea for Gun Ban Krauthammer: Robert E. Lee Was Offered Better Terms at Appomattox Than Obama Is Offering Republicans La. Town Evacuates; Police Relocate 6 Million Pounds of Explosives What Will You Do When the Lights Go Out? Doomsday Preppers Are “Socially Selfish Preparing Themselves and the Hell With Everyone Else” Senate Votes Down Indefinite Detention of Americans or Does It? Amendment to Protect Americans from Indefinite Detention Passes Benghazi: Behind the Scenes (Part II) The Way Out of ObamaNation Is the Collapse of Agenda 21 Sandy Victims, in Tears, Beg FEMA for Help as Work Comes to a Standstill Staten Island Sandy Recovery Meeting Gets Heated, Victims Beg FEMA for Help What Happened to 'No Red Tape'? Rand Paul Renews Threat to Filibuster the NDAA Sinister Sites: IRS Headquarters, Maryland Rice Ends Second Day on Hill with Hopes of Nomination Appearing to Dim If Every US State Declared War Against the Others, Which Would Win? The Governing Class and the Decline of America Constructing and Finding Hiding Places Justice, House GOP Lawyers Will Meet to Discuss Fast & Furious Documents Obama vs. House on Guns. Who Will Prevail? The Left Continues to Revise America’s History First Transgender Elected to Office Asked to Resign Over Past Conviction Constitution in Peril BP Suspended from New US Government Contracts Following Gulf Spill Settlement, EPA Says What Environmentalism Really Means Obama to Bypass Congress to Ban Semiautomatic Firearms Black Friday Gun Sales Hit New Record High UN Global Gun Ban Flimflam Poll: 54% Dissatisfied with the Team Obama’s Handling of Benghazi Empty Embrace… Hurricane Sandy Victim Upset After Being Played By Obama Sandy Costs New York $42 Billion: Story reader comment: I saw the damage in Staten Island yesterday, still a lot of work to be done. Houses are blocking roads, many need to be demolished before they break under their own weight. Even those whose houses were not structurally damaged still have no electricity. One Month On: 30,000+ People without Power in New York and New Jersey President-for-Life, King of the World Paving Way for Messiahship Barack Obama: From Beginning to End What We Can Expect in Future Two and a Half Smut Stars Be Careful Who You Sleep With Beyond Collapse: Surviving and Rebuilding Civilization from Scratch Jamie Foxx: 'Our Lord and Savior Barack Obama' Sandy Victim Promised ‘Immediate Help’ by President Obama Still in the Cold Obama Promised: "We Are Here for You" LIPA Customers Who Spent Weeks Without Power Due to Sandy Get Zapped With Normal Electric Bills Confetti at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Contained Police Secrets Cuba, Venezuela, Russia, China Now More Free Than America in Notable Ways Dean Henderson's Picks for Obama’s 2nd Term Cabinet Gun Sales Soar Over Holiday Weekend Massive Number of Coffins Videotaped: What Are They Preparing For? Here’s How it Will be Done Winning the Battlefield of the Future I’m Tired and I Want to Go Home Cal State Long Beach Will Offer Queer Studies Minor Next Fall Presidential Memorandum: National Insider Threat Policy and Minimum Standards for Executive Branch Insider Threat Programs Black Friday: Bargains, Brawls and Gunfire Melee! When Black Friday (and Shoppers) Go Bad 4th Straight Year, Obama's Thanksgiving Message Doesn't Thank God Voting for Obama Kept Families Away from Each Other for Thanksgiving Obama Mocks Romney During Thanksgiving Turkey Pardon West: Counting Blessings Despite Election Bruises Feds Want Obama's Internet Instructions Kept Quiet Stop the UN's Takeover of the Internet What's at Stake, What You Can Do US: We Initiate Terrorism to Create Terrorists to Overthrow Governments Over 3,000 Leaks Found in Study of Boston's Natural Gas Pipelines Quiet Rimfire Shooting Without a Suppressor Unskewed Polls’ Founder Sets Up Site Claiming Obama Stole Election Judge Jeanine to Obama: You Either Sent Help or You Didn't. You're Either Telling the Truth or You're Not. Did You Give the Order to Save American Lives? Army, Navy Suicides at Record High Thanksgiving 50 Years Ago California Dreamin': Survey Shows More Drugged Drivers Than Drunken Drivers The Surrealistic States of America Senate Bill Rewrite Lets Feds Read Your E-Mail HOLLY NOTE: You think they haven't been doing this all along? Wal-Mart Draws Battle Line: Fights Union's Black Friday Job Action TSA Unionized Americans Screwed TSA Issues Warning Over Opt Out and Film Week How to Survive Societal Collapse in Suburbia Thanksgiving, Colonists & Early American Law Nearly 100 House Republicans to Obama: Don't Nominate Rice as Secretary of State When Law and Order Break Down: “People Are Afraid Right Now. You Can See It in Their Faces.” Indiana Explosion Now a Homicide Investigation Homeless in New Jersey Stunning Photographs of 3,200-Year-Old Giant Sequoias as High as 20-Story Buildings Iran Moving Sleeper Cells Into America? Congress to Probe WH 'Talking Points' on Benghazi Anonymous Claims They Hacked GOP on Election Day Gun Store: Obama Voters Not Welcome What Seceding from the U.S. Will Cost You We Pray for President Obama HOLLY COMMENT: Not be cause we like him, but we respect the Office and are commanded to pray for our leaders. 1Tim 2:1-3 Obama Admin. Must Account to Congress for Targeted Assassinations Left with Tornado Damage, Ala. Town Blames FEMA Horrors of FEMA Disaster Relief National Heritage Sites and Agenda 21 TVA Installing New Sirens at Nuclear Plants TSA Abuses the USA: The Final Solution Hal Lindsey: Atlas Shrugged Impeach Obama Petition Reaches Threshold for Official Response 22 Signs That Voter Fraud Is Wildly Out of Control and the Election Was a Sham One Good Thing the Reelection of Obama Has Accomplished Hurricane Sandy, Martial Law, and FEMA Camps: Rehearsal for Future America? The Ground We Are Standing on Is Quicksand 3 Myths About Secession Wild Bill: Secession... Dumb Idea. BTW, Signing a Petition on a Govt Site Paints a Target on Your Back GOP Leaders Back West’s Call for Recount 32 Questions That All Americans Must Answer FEMA Shelters in Northeast Resemble Police State Prison Camps CNN Report: Petraeus Knew “Almost Immediately” Terrorists Responsible for Benghazi Attack Tulsa: Muslims Tell Interfaith Dhimmis to Abide By Sharia Ron Paul's Farewell to Congress Thousands of U.S. Military Votes Uncounted or Missing Distraught Homeowners Take Post-Sandy Obama Visit with Grain of Salt Obama Reportedly Signs Classified Cyberwarfare Policy Directive with Troubling Implications The Nuts on Doomsday Preppers Wouldn’t Last a Week Warning of Fault Danger to Reactors Given With Over 100,000 Supporting Texas Secession, Ron Paul Weighs In No Joke: The GOP Can Not Legally Help Stop Vote Fraud Death of Key West Man Linked to Obama's Reelection Top 10 Items to Stockpile for Emergencies Another Building Explodes in Indiana: 3 in Less Than a Week! Insider: CIA Is Purging the U.S. Military in Globalist Coup Busted: Obama’s Fieldworks Office Admits Funneling Money to Defeat Allen West Cracks Found in South Carolina Nuclear Plant Louisiana State Police Confirm a Small, Unmanned Bunker Exploded The Susan Rice Disaster African Al-Qaeda to 'Export' Violence to US Is U.S. Reaching Unsustainable Energy Path? White House ‘Secede’ Petitions Reach 675,000 Signatures, 50-State Participation Anti-secession Forces Fight Back with White House Deportation Petitions Drew Zahn on US States Signing Petitions to Secede (starts 5:11 min. 38:50 min.) AOW Rick Wiles on Allegiance to Obama and His Revolutionary Agenda (starts 4 min. in) AOW Petraeus Will Testify Before Congress on Benghazi Attacks Pelosi to Remain as House Leader What China's Nuclear Missile Subs Mean for the U.S. Colorado SWAT Team Will Be Met By 1500 Member Organized Militia? What Are the Odds Petraeus Would Be Forced to Resign Rather Than Expose the Libyan Scandal? Nullification and Secession - What You Must Know! CBS News Admits FEMA Camps Are Real US Democracy: Have We Passed the Point of No Return? Patriots Declare: We Shall Not Let Vote Fraud Stand! Allen West: 'Unconscionable' Vote Shenanigans Was the 2012 Election Stolen? Here’s How Touchscreens Killed Romney Votes The Big List of Vote Fraud Reports 2012 Presidential Election Popular Vote Made It a Lot Closer Appreciation from an Australian for the US Constitution and Freedom NTSB: No Evidence of Gas-Line Leak in Ind. Home Blast A Nation Adrift Breaking Up with Mainstream Media Petitions Seeking White House Approval to ‘Secede’ Now Come from 47 States Texas Petition Reaches 25,000 Signatures, Triggering WH Review Secession Not a Reality, Despite Petition Efforts Did Civil War Just Become Inevitable? Moving to Canada Drivers Questioned on Guns at Federal Checkpoint Teachers Flock to Northwestern University for 'Marxist Conference' Philip Hoezel's Upside Down Flag Protest Upsets Neighborhood on Veterans Day Marijuana Laws: Growing Outcry in Latin America Over Colorado, Washington Votes Obama Nativity Figurine Popular in Italian Shops America Isn't the Greatest Country Anymore All the President's Scandals: Petraeus and Benghazi: A Time for Truth Election is Over - Be Prepared for the Fall Out Obama Considering John Kerry for Defense Secretary San Diegans Face 6 Years In Prison for Washing Their Car Skype Rats Out Alleged Wikileaks Supporter Without Waiting for Court Warrant 20 States Including Texas Have Filed a Petition to Secede from the United States HOLLY NOTE: Though this article was just written yesterday, it's already behind as other states have since submitted secession petitions. Altogether there are now 20 states disgruntled enough to pursue action. Few like to contemplate the break up of our Country and this may turn out to be 'something' or it may be 'nothing'. "A House divided against itself cannot stand." Pres. Lincoln, 1858 Status of Signed Secession Petitions in 19 States HOLLY NOTE: When looking at the signatures on the White House site, Stan discovered that there is a core group of people signing these petitions for each of the various states making it look worse than it is. But, signatures are growing hourly in number. Texas Judge Says Obama Re-Election Might Trigger Civil War Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S. Obama and America's End Did Voter Fraud Swing the Election? CAIR Poll: More Than 85% of American Muslims Picked Obama New Petition to WH: Do Away with Electorial College, Go Back to Popular Vote HOLLY NOTE: Anyone can create or sign a petition. You simply must have an account. US Guns Sales Soar After Obama's Re-Election To Our Veterans --Thank You For Your Service Elmo 'Voice', Embraced by Obama During Election Campaign, Charged With Homosexual Child Molestation Is Obama’s Cybersecurity Executive Order Imminent? Obama Image Replaces Stars on American Flag in Florida Lawmakers Raise Questions on How Petraeus Affair Was Handled Cover-up at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue 6,125 Proposed Regulations and Notifications Posted in Last 90 Days Average 68 per Day Explosion Destroys at Least 31 Homes in Indiana, 2 Dead; Cause Unknown Remember This Before The Election: Obama Has Won Already CBS Accidentally Airs Nov 6, 2012 Results 19 Days Before Election FEMA's Wasteful "Disaster Socialism" Terror on the Tarmac as Southwest Jet Carrying 125 Passengers Slides Off Frozen Runway Yes, This Is the Obama Cover for Newsweek’s Post-Election Issue What Happens with Keystone Now that Obama is Back In? Before You Get Too Depressed About Obama Coming Back, Read This After Sandy: A Few Tips 40 Outrageous Facts Most People Don't Know Just Before Hurricane Sandy, Obama Signed E.O. Merging Homeland Security with Private Sector to Create Virtual Dictatorship Read This E.O. America Has Shifted to the Left and the Culture War Is Over Defense Department Can't Put Soldiers, Ballots Together 16 Million Missing White Votes! Where Did They Go? Gun Ban Back on Obama’s Agenda Gun Sales Continue to Rise NRA Skeptical of U.S., U.N. Arms Treaty CIA Head Gen. Petraeus Affair Forces Resignation HOLLY NOTE: Peculiar timing since Obama saw Petraeus as a threat regarding upcoming Benghazi testimony. If a person ever steps sideways, govt will find it, expose it and hold otherwise good people hostage to its will. The Billion Dollar Election: Who Got Paid? Kuhner: Obama’s America Path Is Clear for Socialism’s Triumph Romney "Shellshocked" By Loss Store Owner Explains Decision to "Mourn" Election Outcome Ron Paul: 'We're So Far Gone' ‘Republicans’ Rush to Help Obama Destroy America: Sean Hannity, “I’ve Evolved on Immigration” The First or Last Tytler Election: We're All Greeks and Spaniards Now How to Re-elect a Tyrant: Step-by-Step Instructions for Lovers of Tyranny! 10 Little-Known Consequences of a Second Obama Term School Children Taught About Gay Foreplay, Saran Wrap Eric Holder Under Fire Again Poll: Nearly 1/3 of Americans Would Accept ‘TSA Body Cavity Search’ in Order to Fly America Commits Suicide Sifting Through the Wreckage A Grim 4 Years Lie Ahead Napolitano: 4 More Years to Crush Personal Freedoms Second Term May Deliver Authoritarian We Fear The Lull Before the Social Storm Ron Paul’s Election 2012 Lesson: Obeying the Constitution, No Sure Path to Freedom What Does a Second Obama Term Mean for Gun Owners? U.N. Celebrates Obama Re-election by Pushing Global Gun Control Turn Them Over: Feinstein Moves to Ban ALL Assault Rifles, High Capacity Magazines, and Pistol Grips Anti-Obama Protests Escalate at Miss. University Cal Thomas: 4 More Years of Decline 'Whites-to-Hell’ Pastor to Join Obama HOLLY COMMENT: It's pretty hard to make the case that Obama is NOT broadening the racial divide. One Nation Under Socialism - Jon McNaughton Bringing the Dirty Tricks Back Home An Ancient Evil Awakens 11-6-2012: Hoover Dam False Flag Soon? Obama Already Creating More Jobs... in Pakistan Nuclear Event in USA on Wednesday 10 Dire Consequences of Obama’s Re-Election Victory Report: 2 Ohio Election Judges Removed for Allowing Unregistered Voters to Cast Ballots Washington Legalizes Pot By Wide Margin GMO Foods Labeling Fails in California, But Lifts Awareness ALIPAC to File Official Protests of Illegal Immigrant Voters Detected In Nevada More Illegal Immigrant Voters Documented in Massachusetts Vote Glitch Reports Pile Up in US Election Voters and FBI Put on Alert: Massive Deceptions Documented in Prop. 37 Campaign UN Poll-Watchers 'Amazed' US Doesn't Require ID's to Vote Election 2012: How the Winner Will Destroy America In US Election, He Who Lies Wins Connecting the Dots of the Obama Story: Chicago Backdrop Colorado Legalizes Recreational Marijuana and Industrial Hemp Saudis Helped 'Muslim Side' of Obama's Kenyan Family Go from 'Rags to Riches' Top Dems ‘Engaging’ Groups Tied to Hamas, Muslim Brotherhood Puerto Ricans Weigh in on Future Statehood Divided States of America Notes on the Decline of a Great Nation America No Longer Dreams Winner of US Elections Will Be President of a Divided, Disillusioned Nation Be Afraid America, Very Afraid Vote Fraud Underway - What Candidates Must Do The Fundamental Transformation of America Thousands of Military Ballots ‘Too Late’ Forensic Profiler: Obama Driven by 'Revenge' Key Reasons for a Romney Win on Tuesday Dick Morris: Romney 325, Obama 213 Valerie Jarret: “After We Win This Election, It’s Our Turn. Payback Time.” Did Team Obama Just Show Their True Intent? Black Panthers Return to Patrolling Philly Polling Site Warning! Obama Has Post-Election 'Surprise' If President Gets 2nd Term, He'll Spring These Regulations on America November Surprise: EPA Planning Major Post-Election anti-Coal Regulation Unions Under Fire: Accused of Trying to Force Illegal Immigrants to Vote Will We Sacrifice the Nation? Priebus: America Needs Mitt Romney A Real Leader: Our Nation Can’t Survive 4 More Obama Years Joseph Farah: Vote for Mitt Romney 'America as We Have Known It' Is at Stake How Many Paths Are There to the White House? Is Barack Obama Really A Saudi / Muslim "Plant" in the White House? Romney Casts Himself as Uniter, Obama as Divider Romney Votes as Candidates Hold Final Campaign Rallies Election Day: Most Predictions of the Next 4 Years Will Be Wrong Obama Ordered "Stand Down" Benghazi-Gate: A Disgrace to the Nation Medal of Honor Winner Blasts “Ditherer-in-Chief” Obama Over Benghazigate Piedmont Boy, 3, Gets $2,500 Ticket for Urinating in His Front Yard Will a Prophet Assume Command? 32 Large Newspapers That Endorsed Obama Last Election Now Endorse Romney MINI PIC HOLLY NOTE: Add to these 28 The New York Daily News, Long Island Newsday, Illinois Daily Herald, Los Angeles Press-Telegram Pueblo, Colo GOP: Machines Switched Romney Votes to Obama HOLLY NOTE: During the live interview exposing this story, one election official noted these vote switches were only occurring in swing counties, in swing states and ONLY from Romney to Obama. Of course, it's just a coincidence... Poll Finds Romney Leading Obama in Montana Romney Hits Back at Obama’s ‘Voting Is the Best Revenge’: ‘Vote for Love of Country’ Jon Voight Warns Against Obama Agenda to Destroy America Romney Rallies Wisconsin Obama Campaigns with Celebs as Sandy Devastation Continues Parsing the Polls; If Gallup Is Right, Tuesday Will Be a Long Night for Dems Nonvoters: Too Busy, Fed Up, or Say Their Vote Doesn't Count Paul McGuire: Election Day Who Will Rule Tomorrow? On Election Day You Have the Duty and Responsibility to Vote Was Obama an Indonesian Citizen? Here’s What We Found When We Went There Looking Prepare! On Wed Obama Took First Major Step to Ban All Firearms in the US Henninger: Romney's Secret Voting Bloc Dick Morris Stands by Romney Landslide Prediction Troubles Await Next US Admin. What Went Wrong in Libya Mother of Seal: 'I Believe Obama Murdered My Son' Liberal Media, WH Owes Preppers, Survivalists Massive Apology in Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Lessons from the Ultimate Safe Houses China to Take Over a U.S. Airbase in Azores Mitt: I Can Bring America Together. I Believe in America. Obama Flip-Flops on 'One-Term Proposition,' Says Fixing Economy Takes More Than 4 Years Sandy Power Outages Could Last 10 More Days; New Storm Coming? Utility Workers Pelted With Eggs After Bridgeport, Conn. Mayor Blasts Provider As Blackouts Linger, Northeasterners Try to Adjust SHOCK: 72 Hours After Grid-Down: Starvation, Supply Shortages, Food Lines, No Clean Water, No Gas, Transportation Standstill ‘We Need Food, We Need Clothing’: Staten Island Residents Plead for Help 3 Days After Sandy New Jersey Town Turns Away Alabama Volunteer Utility Workers Because They're Nonunion Seaside Heights and Nearby Towns Under Martial Law in NJ In Areas Hit By Sandy, Lawmakers Ask U.S. to Pay the Whole Cost FEMA to the Rescue After Sandy But Will Agency Need Saving Too? HOLLY NOTE: This is the BEST example of why you should prepare yourself and your family. Depending on government for supplies or our personal needs and safety, chills my blood. Those who personally prepare are best served. East Coast Fuel Shortages Wave Took Out 5 of 6 Critical Pumps That Cool Reactor at NJ’s Salem Nuke Plant Still Operating on Emergency Cooling Military Trucks to Serve as Election Day Polling Places WH Insider “Governor Romney Is Gonna Win This Thing” Ruger Blows Away Expectations: Gun Sales Surge Ahead of Presidential Election 10 Lessons for Armed Citizens from the Aurora Theater Mass Murder Abandoning America’s Honor Obama and Biden Indicted by Grand Jury HOLLY NOTE: But will it have any 'teeth'? Conservatism Is Calling October Surprise - Hurricane Sandy Wins Election and Aftermath Obama Issues Executive Order Merging Federal and Corporate Effort in War on Terror Tempers Flare: Residents Complain Government Is Too Slow Distributing Food and Supplies After Sandy, a Desperate Search for Power Millions Cope With No Power from Superstorm Sandy Why Election Day Won't Be Postponed More Electronic Voting Machines Changing Romney Votes to Obama SMOKING GUN? Cable Warned Consulate Staff Felt Like Sitting Ducks Benghazi Reveals Obama-Islamist Alliance Libyan Attack Was Botched Kidnapping Attempt Ordered By Obama Obama Just Does Not Like People Very Much $43 Trillion Lawsuit Awaits Obama White House and Banks Uninstalling Obama 1.0...94% Complete 2013: The Death of Free Speech Andrew P. Napolitano: Reflections on the Loss of Liberty Oklahoma Prepares for Open Carry Gun Law Pipeline to Be Built in Seismically Active Area, 1 Mile of Nuclear Plant Joel Skousen on Hurricane Sandy and the New World Order (starts 7:15 min. in 45 min. long) Behold the Illuminati MSNBC Trashes Romney for Collecting Food, Supplies for Sandy Victims Could Sandy Postpone the Election? McCain: Obama Might Be Conducting ‘Massive Cover-Up’ With Libya Attack "Mr. President THEY KNOW" Beck: Obama May Go to Prison and Be Impeached Killing Our Own Libyan Leaks: Secret Document Reveals Al-Qaeda ‘Brother’ Put in Control of U.S. Embassy in Tripoli Presidential Polls for Ohio: Romney 50%, Obama 48% Individual Preparedness, Not Big Government ‘Management,’ Would Have Helped Most FEMA Funds May Dry Up with Looming Budget Cuts Confused Whom to Vote For? Take This Fun Quiz to See Who Most Matches Your Views Despite Mainstream Media's Attempts to Silence It, 2016: Obama's America Is the #4 Best-Selling DVD The Ground War Federal Court Approves Use of Hidden Surveillance Cameras on Private Property Without Warrants Voting "YES on 2" Means Getting the Gold Standard for Gun Rights in Louisiana Hurricane Sandy Drowns Coverage of White House Scandals Obama Uses Storm for Campaign White House, FEMA Send Storm Victims to Internet for Help HOLLY COMMENT: This is exactly why you can only depend on yourself in times of disaster and not FEMA or the government. Oliver Stone's New Book Rips Obama What Will Be Sandy's Effect on Economy? Commander GEN Carter Ham Relieved of Duty for Wanting to Help Our Ambassador to Libya Pentagon Denies Firing Why Was Chris Stevens Allowed to Die? OPED Media Slammed for Not Challenging Obama on Coverage of Libya Attack NEW VOW Obama Signs New Executive Order Expanding Homeland Security Mission in the U.S. White House Hiding Dead Gulf Wildlife in Garbage Bags Just When Was Obama Born? Detailed Look at Obama’s Radical College Past... and We’re Not Talking About Barack EMP-warning Pioneer in Bitter Fight 'Transnational Gang' Merges with Drug Cartel Illinois County Lands $100 Million Federal Waiver Why You Can't Trust Government OPED The 'Lord of the Flies' Administration Obama Personifies Cloward-Piven Strategy Obama’s October Surprise - Exposed by Benghazi? Rush Military Caller Says That Obama Ordered NO RESPONSE to Benghazi Attack Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer: My Sources Tell Me Obama Was in the Room Watching Benghazi Attack ‘He (Obama) Ordered the Stand Down. The CIA Is a Family & They Are Pissed Off. They Followed Orders.’ Father of Slain Benghazi SEAL to Obama: “It’s Better to Die a Hero Than Live a Coward” Father of Former SEAL Killed in Libya Wants the Truth Operation Bengazi Accountablity-1 Million Calls Monday Oct 29 A Great Tsunami Is Headed Our Way Benghazi, Libya Biopsy from a Malignant, Failed Presidency Obama Admin's 'Loose Lips' Under Investigation Ohio Governor Predicts Romney Win There Gov. Kasich: Romney Will Take Ohio Democrat: Why I'm Voting for Romney Obama Has Disdain for Everyone, Not Just Romney OBAMA IS FINISHED! Leftist ‘Main’stream Media Goes All-In for Mitt Romney 12 Reasons to Vote for Obama Army to Assign Reserve Units to NORTHCOM, Other Regional Commands Damning: Emails Reveal WH Told of Militant Claim 2 Hours After Benghazi, Libya Attack CBS Obama Avoids Question on Libya Requests for Help HOLLY COMMENT: Is this the man you want for YOUR Commander-in-Chief? Think long and hard... CIA Operators Were Denied Requests For Help During Attack on Consulate McCain: Pentagon Was Not Prepared Petraeus Throws Obama Under the Bus Blockbuster Report Contradicts Panetta's Claim of 'No Real-Time Intel' During Libya Attack Dad of Ex-SEAL: Those Who Denied Request for Help 'Murderers of My Son' Biden Joke about Dead SEAL Goes Below the Belt: Asks Hero's Dad: 'Did Your Son Always Have Balls the Size of Cue Balls?' President Calls Romney a 'Bullsh**ter' HOLLY COMMENT: Really nice talk... Obama has got to be the least presidential president Romney Stands By Concerns About Shrinking Navy Fleet, After 'Bayonets' Zinger Presidential Election Preview 2: Where They Stand and Why It Matters Last Chance Election Primer Absentee Ballots Sent to U.S. Military Serving in Afghanistan 'Destroyed in Crash' Groups Use Fake Letters, Felony Threats to Suppress Republican Vote How Hurricane Sandy Could Affect the Election Mexican Point of View of Obama's Presidency "We've Heard It All Before" If Not 'Apologizing,' Mr. President, What Would You Call It? Feds: 'Cannibal' Cop Plotted to Eat 100 Alleged Nanny Killing, ‘Cannibal Cop’ Present a New York Gone Mad The SAME Unaccountable Government Agency Which Spies on ALL Americans Also Decides Who Gets ASSASSINATED by Drones Globalists Plan for Civil Unrest if Obama Loses Gets Leaked What's the Other Obama Saying These Days? National Guard Whistleblower: “Doomsday Preppers Will Be Treated as Terrorists” Ted Turner Apologizes for Saying It’s “Good” U.S. Soldiers Are Committing Suicide Letter from a Brother in Christ: I Can't Talk About ... Trading Liberty for Cybersecurity US Control of Canyon Not So 'Grand'? Beck: How Obama Used Ambassador Stevens to Funnel Arms to Libya and Syria Obama Void of Vision Video Snags Dem Boss Plotting Vote Fraud The Liar President Pray for an End to 'the Obama Tribulation' America’s Most Biblically-Hostile U. S. President Texas Farmers Face Off Against Keystone Pipeline Biden: Who Am I? Why Am I Here? How to Change the World State Department Emails from Day of Libya Attack Show Al Qaeda-Tied Group on Radar N. Carolina County Voters Say Ballot Cast for Romney Came Up Obama on Machine Disturbing: CBS Declares Obama Winner of Election 2 Weeks in Advance Colorado Finds 300 More Suspected Noncitizens on Voter Rolls Fake Voter Registration Letters Raise Alarm in Florida with Early Voting Set to Begin Underestimating Nation's Voter Fraud Vulnerability What States Do Obama, Romney Need to Win? Dominion Investigates Shutdown of North Anna Nuclear Reactor Romney Accuses President of 'Weakness' Abroad, as Obama Calls Rival 'All Over the Map' Rasmussen: Uh-Oh for 'O': Daily Presidential Tracking Poll Ditto Gallup: Romney 51%, Obama 46% “Voter Fraud is a Felony” Billboards Removed Amid Outcry From Critics Krauthammer on Obama's 'Unequivocal' Loss: 'Romney Went Large' Image of Romney Crops Up in Iowa Farm Field U.S. Congress Introduces Bill Ordering FEMA to Conduct 'Mass Fatality Planning' Romney Passed the Test 10 Urgent Preparations for Possible Riots after the Presidential Election Military Forces Chaplains to Perform Gay Marriage Report: Islamist Radicals Find Warm Welcome in Obama White House Obama Receives Endorsements from 3 Dictators 358 U.S. Generals and Admirals Support Mitt Romney Trevor Loudon: An Urgent Message for America 1 Donald Trump Claims Barack Obama Bombshell 3 Top 5 Reasons Not to Re-elect Obama 2 Should Barack Obama Resign Tonight? Obama's Class Warfare: Don't Get Fooled Again OPED UN Deploying Teams to Monitor U.S. Election WH Denies US, Iran Agreed to 1-on-1 Talks PM ‘Knows Nothing’ of Iran-US Talks Agreement Guess Where U.S. Troops Go Next Super Storms of Consciousness - Seductive Winds of Armageddon Latest Ammo Purchase Reeks of Collusion and Chicago Style Politics Banned for Life: Armstrong Stripped of All 7 Tour Titles Obama on Libya Terror Attack: 'Not Optimal' Voter Fraud Fears in Swing State Ohio Romney, Obama Roast Each Other, Themselves at Annuall Al Smith Dinner HOLLY NOTE: Regardless of candidate preference, this is the best laughs we'd enjoyed in a while. Prepare yourself, they were cordial and funny. Clinton: I Thought Obama 'Was Going to Cry' Andrew Wilkow: Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin and Dr. John Parnell Andrew Wilkow: Slide Towards Socialism DoD: Population Control Part of US “Stability Operations” CIA Seeks to Expand Drone Fleet How Obama & Friends Helped 'Advance' the Middle East Obama Needs to Pack His Bags? Just 3.4% of U.S. Adults Identify as LGBT yet they dictate many PC policies Gallup Shows Disparity Increasing Romney 52%, Obama 45% Sen. Inhofe Warns of Unfettered EPA in Second Obama Term Obama Prosecuting Whistle-Blowers as Spies To More and More Women, Romney Is the Safer Choice The Second Debate Obama-Biden: Playing the Liar Card Who Is Responsible for the Mess in Libya? Unconstitutional? Chicago Official Proposes Bullet Tax to Curb Crime Russia Drops Bombshell on U.S. Nuclear Safeguard Plan and Few Notice Feds Say Trust Us Wwith Your DNA In Rematch, Obama and Romney Get Testy Over Jobs, Energy, Immigration Debate Fact Check: Romney, Obama Make Stumbles in Round 2 'Moderator' CNN’s Crowley First Plays Umpire, Then Joins Team Obama Crowley Gives Obama 9% More Time What I Heard at the Debate OPED Israeli Views of Obama Increasingly Unfavorable State Department Paints Obama and Biden as Liars, Uninformed or BOTH Military Insider: Ambassador Rice Just Confirmed Obama White House Lie The Muslim Agent Who Pulls Obama’s Strings Nationwide Guns Ban Coming to America? HOLLY NOTE: Remember the experiences of these Aussies people who feel they've been severely wronged with gun confiscation when Obama comes for your weapons. Their govt sold them a bill of goods and see their freedoms stolen. Utah Spy Center Uses Terror Tactics to Keep the Public Away Surveillance State: From Inside Secret FBI Terrorist Screening Room to TrapWire Training “Sir, You Must Come with Us” Mobile Record (the videographer spends the first 6 minutes presenting his credentials. To get to the meat of this vid, skip to 6:15 min. in) Build a DIY Rocket Stove Pressure on Obama as Romney Gains Momentum Poll: Romney Near Landslide In Rural Swing Counties In Swing States: Women Push Romney into Lead Obama Supporters Threaten to Kill Romney If He Wins Election How Will Romney Handle Benghazi Attack at Debate? Documents: Despite Obama’s 2008 Claims, Political Relationship With Rev. Wright Began as Early as 1987 Obama's Family Funding Sharia Stan's Take on Atlas Shrugged Part 2 Tea Party Versus Agenda 21: Saving the U.S. or Just Irking It? Clinton Falls on Sword in Benghazi Scandal: 'I Take Responsibility', But ... Behind the Benghazi Cover-up Black Mob Picks on 'the Wrong Guy' Your Right to Resell Your Own Stuff Is in Peril Seller, Beware: Feds Cracking Down on Garage Sales Webster Parish Sheriff Office Confirms Bunker Explosion at Camp Minden Voter Fraud: The Way to America's Destruction Another Obama Executive Order Allows Seizure of Americans’ Bank Accounts 'Atlas Shrugged: Part II' Kept from Mainstream Movie Critics, But Public Interest Remains High HOLLY NOTE: Stan and I saw this the day it opened. It was even better than Part 1. It's hard to remember an instance when a movie actually made me angry, but this one managed in spades. Without giving away the plot, gas prices hit $42/gallon, which forces most people to travel by train. An Executive Order, Directive 10-289 is issued, which freezes all pay, no company can hire or fire, and all patents, all intellectual property must be signed over to the government. Ditto for copyrights. Government tyranny skyrockets and it pressures businesses to implement its new "fair share" law". Sound familiar? There are many parallels we see playing out right before our eyes in America. You can read the particulars here. It would be astonishing to think that this novel was first publish in 1957, but considering Ayn Rand was Philip Rothschild's mistress, she certainly had an inside track to the New World Order's agenda. Go see this movie if want a glimpse of your possible future. WOW!… Ohio Coal Miners to Obama: Quit Lying About Us! Pants on Fire: Obama Scrambles for Cover as Benghazi Lie Explodes Social Justice is a Proven Failure... and So Is Obama Obama's Communist Party Endorsement Age of Obama: Post-Apocalyptic Shows Rule Television Western Defense Budget Cuts May Be Unstoppable EPA's Secret Document Something in the Air Shocking: 'You Should’ve Served US Better and Died!’ Debt Collector Berates Disabled Veteran Biden's Demeanor During Debate Called Disrespectful Devastating RNC Ad Captures Biden Laughing at the Issues Sparks Fly as Biden, Ryan Face Off in Feisty VP Debate Fact Check: Top 10 Worst Lies by Joe Biden in VP Debate Biden Loses It The Reality Principle: Obama and Biden Were Winning Until They Faced Actual Opponents Biden Makes Liars Out of Administration's Own State Department The Obamage Is Done Will the Election Results Cause Massive Riots to Erupt All Over America? The Big Bird Counterattack Romney Surge Rocks UK Betting Market When War Games Become War, Really Bill Maher: “We Need to Promote Death” John Moore Shares a Secret VP Debate Grows in Importance Media to Declare Biden the Debate Winner Quinnipiac/CBS News/NY Times Poll: Romney Edges Obama in Colo, Narrows Gap in Wisc NBC/WSJ/Marist Poll: Romney Gains in Key Swing States Obama Camp Helps You Vote Twice! Obama Fans: We'll Riot, Leave U.S. If Mitt Wins 'I Want to Shoot Romney in the Penis. Why Do We Let Him Talk?' DEYO COMMENTARY: Remember all the Hollywood luminaries Alec Baldwin, Susan Sarandon, Barbra Streisand, Stephen Baldwin, Eddie Vedder, Robert Altman posturing and espousing to leave if Bush won? Yet instead of following through with empty threats they choose to suck up the rewards of living in the world's richest Nation. Gee, if only these weak Americans kept their word... GBR: Obama Lied to America 2012 Laundry List of Obama Lies Sen. Levin: It Was Obama Who Required NDAA Obama's Lucky Charms: A Hindu God in His Pocket, a Masonic Emblem, and a Ring That Says "There Is No God Except Allah" World's Richest Gets Richer Thanks to 'Obamaphones' Michelle Hints at Political Future Beyond Barack Government Dependency Will End in Chaos Elections Should Belong to the People US Security Chief in Libya: "State Department Told Us Don't Continue to Ask for Help" Larry the Flagman Will Americans Submit to TSA Cavity Searches? Legislators Slam Advertising Group for Advising Members to Avoid Do Not Track Tech More Proof Martial Law Is About to be Enacted Black Mob ‘Knockout Games’ Now Spreading Obama's Ring: 'There Is No God But Allah' Bombshell: Obama.com Owned by Bundler in Shanghai with Business Ties to Chinese Govt Foreign Funds: Obama Campaign Under Fire for Possible Overseas Donations The Obamas’ Wahhabist Fundraising Empire: Obama’s First Cousin Spills the Beans (on video) Cavuto: Big Bird Isn't the Problem Let This Be a Warning America: When the Riots Start, Government’s Response Will Be Brutal Supreme Court to Weigh In Again on Affirmative Action New O’Keefe Video: Obama Campaign Staffer Caught Helping Activist Vote Twice 'Sexiest Woman' Turns Ugly: Mila Kunis Slams Christians, Republicans The Communist Takeover of America - 45 Declared Goals New Zealander Trevor Loudon Explains Communist Infiltration in the US IMPORTANT HOLLY NOTE: Every American, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity or party preference should watch this video. If non-Americans can see what's happening to our Country, why can't we? VOW Dying Woman Humiliated at Sea-Tac Airport by Security Search High Stakes Ryan-Biden Bout Could Seal Deal for Romney Gallup: Mitt's Debate Win The Biggest in History Pew Poll: Romney Up 4 Points for Biggest-Ever Lead Electoral College Model Predicts Romney Will Win Even Bigger Than Previously Thought in 2012 HOLLY NOTE: The university referenced in this article is Colorado State Univ, set in the notoriously liberal town of Boulder. If they could, they would lean left, but their predictive models have been 100% accurate for presidential election results since 1980 and show a staggering Romney win. The Mitt Romney You Don't Know Romney Surges Among Women Voters Post-Debate Romney's Presidential Foreign Policy Speech Full Debate: Bill O'Reilly vs. Jon Stewart full episode (this will get pulled down quickly, just like 2016 did) HOLLY NOTE: When a video is likely to be removed within a few hours generally due to copyright issues and for ones that you want to keep forever, look into a YouTube downloader. You can generally get this software for free. Some will be on trial basis only and then they expect you to buy them later. However, for vids that have fleeting availability, this is invaluable software. To find one that works for you, enter into your search engine "free YouTube downloader". Make sure you designate for Mac or Windows. Most are very simple to use. This lets you store on your computer a video for later viewing. Since we have numerous terrific Videos of the Day today, in addition to the Videos of the Week, we will leave Vids of the Day up thru Wed. But if you're smart, you'll install a YouTube downloader on your computer. Amid Foreign Contributions Scandal, Obama Campaign Claims It Tries to Stop Illegal Donations Barack Obama, The Misoverestimated President To: Americans Everywhere For America’s Survival An Open Letter to Secretary Napolitano High Times: 3 States to Vote on Recreational Pot Use DHS Embraces Small Spy Drones, Slated to Begin New Testing Program at Fort Sill, Okla. Kid Rock Talks Politics - "Sorry Obama Didn't Do a Better Job" The Buying of Obama’s America Obamanites in Panic: Romney Signs in VA Defaced, Stolen, Smeared with Feces Goldman Sachs Turns Back on Obama, and Supports Romney Collapse & Evolution VOW (starts 39:25 min.in) Sandusky Sentenced to 30 to 60 Years in Child Sex Abuses Obama's Executive Orders More and More Dispensing with Congress Report: Foreign Fundraising Scandal Rocks Obama Campaign Have Americans Finally Tired of the Obama Narrative? Gallup: 5-Point Romney Bounce Twitter Explodes After Black Actress Endorses Romney as the ‘Only Choice for Your Future’ Romney: 'Hope Is Not a Strategy' for America's Foreign Policy Obama Ramps Up Attacks on Character After Debate Multiple Twitter Users Threaten to Assassinate Mitt Romney: ‘Shoot Him Dead’ Letterman Suggests Romney Didn't Pay Taxes, Calls Him a 'Felon' Russia Capable of Neutralizing US Missile Defense Threat Spooks in the Machine Speak Up Private Guns Eyed Amid Military Suicides Police Warn Fans: 'Enter Detroit at Your Own Risk' Undeniable, American Civil War, It Is in the Cards FEMA Bill HR6566: Ordering National Preparation for Mass Death, Video Curtis Bowers, Writer, Producer, Director, Star of Doco "Agenda: Grinding America Down" VOW Columbus, Brave and Bright OPED Canada Highlights War of 1812, with US as Villain FEMA to Mobilize for “Mass Fatality Planning” Military Police Used for Crowd Control in South Carolina Don’t Be Fooled, That Debate Was a Big Deal Revolt of the Spooks On the Cannibals AARP to Obama: Keep Us Out of It Swing State Polls Are Rigged Obama's Mask Slips Time to Fight NRA Endorses Romney as ‘Only Hope’ for Firearms Freedom Officials Mull Seismic Tests Near Calif. Nuke Plant U.S. Deems Chinese Canadian Energy Purchase National Security Risk Time: Obama 'Got His Butt Kicked' CNN Poll: Romney's the Big Winner Romney Attacks Obama’s ‘Trickle Down Government’ in First Debate Politico: Romney Up 4 in 'Toss Up' States Left and Right Come Together to Slam Obama's Bomb of a Night (and Lehrer) Was This Obama's Jimmy Carter Moment? Princeton Economist: The Math Behind Romney's Tax Plan Adds Up Frank Luntz Focus Group: Reactions to the 1st Presidential Debate Not Just a Debate A Lie-Detector Test! Fact Check: Presidential Debate Missteps Hurt: Obama the Debater: Making Jimmy Carter Look Awesome Eric Bolling CLOBBERS Obama on His Stafford Act Demagoguery 5 Times Obama Smirked Consensus: It Ain't Over Debate Re-Energizes Campaign 2012 What Was the Dot on Romney’s Lapel Flag Pin? The Campaign Tells Us We Have Been Duped: The Story 13 Minute Video Every Voter Should Watch Police Lieutenant Who Decked Woman Will Be Fired Black America: What if Obama Were White? Larry Elder Spotlights Double Standard Among Supporters Despite Unemployment Stats Military Absentee Ballot Requests Plummet from 2008 Diaz: Democratic Marriage Destruction Opens Door to Polygamy Supremes Reject Appeal on Airport Scanners Drones in the USA - SkyNET ALERT! - Attack of the Robots U.S. Military May Consider You a Potential Terrorist If You Are Young, Use Social Media, or Question “Mainstream Ideologies” Senate Panel: DHS Fusion Centers Produce ‘Predominantly Useless Information’ and ‘a Bunch of Crap’ George Zimmerman Considers Lawsuit Against NBC for Editing Non-Emergency Call to Make It Appear He Is Racist The Speech on Race You Probably Haven't Heard: Obama Suggests Neglect of New Orleans Was Racial HOLLY COMMENT: Note the distinctive 'black dialect' compared to today's 'presidential speak'. This is from the man who promised to unite America. Video Surfaces of Obama in 2007 Suggesting Racism Slowed Aid to post-Katrina New Orleans, Pt 1, Pt 2 Allen West on Prez’s Controversial 2007 Speech: When Obama ‘Gets Off of His Teleprompter, You See a Different Type of President’ RNC: Obama Won't Debate the Issues Guide to the Obama Admin’s 5 Major Scandals for Mainstream Media Dummies Obama in 2006 on Raising the Debt Limit Quote of the Decade Biden: Middle Class Has Been 'Buried' Last 4 Years HOLLY NOTE: Hoof-in-mouth disease strikes VP again. Obama‘s ’Dreams from My Father’ Purged of All References to Communist Frank Marshall Davis China Firm Sues Obama Over Blocked US Wind Farm Deal CNN Story Shows Economists Favor Romney But Headline Stresses They Do So 'Reluctantly' US Diplomats in Libya Repeatedly Asked Obama Admin for Beefed-Up Security in Benghazi; It Was 'Denied' Republicans Rip WH for Putting Tax Dollars on Line Over Possible Defense Layoffs Lawmaker: 'Serious' Errors Made in Libya Response; Accuses Obama Officials of Seeing 'What They Wanted' 2016, Obama's America full length, watch before you vote Islam Rising: The Unraveling of Obama's Foreign Policy Why Americans Might Tolerate This Failed President Vegas Odds Maker Gives Reasons for Big Romney Win in November Video Shows Black Philly Cop Punch White Woman in the Face During Street Gathering Black Mob Hijacks Store: 'We Own This' Obama Administration Armed Jihadists to Overthrow Governments How Government Lies Become Truth American Crossroads: Operation Hot Mic A Dangerous New World of Drones Perot: Fiscal Nightmare Means USA Could Be Taken Over Chinese Hackers Break into WH Military Office Network in Charge of President’s Nuclear Football Big U.S. Fleet Nears Disputed Islands, But What For? Major Troop Movements in the US: Headed to DC? Follow the Thread Washington DC Destined by NWO to Go Up in Flames 50 C-135's Observed Over Nevada Chris Christie: ‘Stop Lying, Mr. President’ About Romney’s Economic Plan Chavez: "I'd Vote for Obama" HOLLY COMMENT: What does that tell you? Voting Rights Top Issue in Supreme's New Term Fallen Soldiers March Red Alert! Deployment, Preparing for War Now NDAA (starts 8:35 min. in) Prepare, People, Prepare Emotional Politics Preview of Univision’s “Bombshell” Report on Fast & Furious 4 Pat Caddell: Press Has Become 'Threat to Democracy' and 'Enemy of the American People' Clint Eastwood - It's 'Halftime in America' Thousands of Bombs Dumped in Gulf of Mexico Pose Huge Threat to Oil Rigs Mainstream Media Threatening Our Country's Future Issa, Turner Threaten Geithner with Subpoenas on Delphi Documents Romney to Meet with Israeli PM Netanyahu Today “Keep Obama In President, You Know! He Gave Us a Phone! Food Stamps, Social Security...” Reality Check: Actions Speak Louder Than Words with President Obama and the NDAA? Justice Dept's Warrantless Spying Increased 600% in Decade Leno Takes Some Surprising Shots at Obama Why You Shouldn't Vote for Obama Politicized, Militarized DHS Unveils New Panzer Division We the People HOLLY NOTE: Though we ran this in 2010 it's a good reminder. Kansas City Muslims Want Limits on Free Speech Dearborn Islamic Leaders to Rally for Speech Prohibition Agenda 21 Micro-Apartments Built Across America in the Name of Sustainability $100,000 Reward Offered for Waldo Canyon Firestarter NAACP Urges U.N. to Investigate U.S. for ‘Racially Discriminatory Election Laws’ Eye Candy on the View Am-dad at the UN America on the Rocks 30 Examples of Why America Is No Longer a Free Country States Make Fake IDs Quick and Easy Court Rules Motorists Can Be Detained for Paying by Cash at Toll Booths Paul Craig Roberts: America, The Next Banana Republic A Culture of Delusion 3-Star General: Muslim Brotherhood Has Infiltrated DoD Who Is White House Visitor Hisham Altalib? Do Americans Truly Understand 'Redistribution of Wealth'? Obama Versus Obama: Part II Obama: 'It Will Not Be Enough to Put More Guards in Front of an Embassy' Obama to UN: It's Not My Fault Why Obama Won't Meet With World Leaders This Week Obama, 'the Prophet of Islam,' and Slander Obama, Ahmadinejad Singing from Same Choir Book Madonna Calls Obama a 'Black Muslim,' Says She'll Strip Onstage If He Wins New Term Army Sprayed Radioactive Materials on Population in St. Louis John Moore on Firearms Expertise, Survival Tips And Censored News Stories Appeals Court Caves to TSA Over Nude Body Scanners Mr. Obama, Stop Praising Islam What Do You Expect When Socialists Serve in Congress? Plan B for Obama Redux Obama and FEMA Create Civilian Army Trained in Domestic Preparedness 'Unskewed' Polls Show Nearly 8-Point Romney Lead Obama 'Adviser Acknowledged Privately That in This Election Year, Campaigning Trumped Meetings with World Leaders' How Obama Has Damaged America Federal Cop: Do Not Go Anywhere Far from Home Between Now and Nov.. You Will Not Be Able to Get Back Home Spawn of Pigford Lives… Obama USDA Offers Women, Hispanic Farmers $1.3+ Billion in Redistribution Payouts Tony Blair: U.S. Should Stop Wanting Love The Fed’s US Land-Grab Hidden Within Purchase of Mortgage-Backed Securities Welcome to the Awareness Act Social Network NSA Whistleblower (starts 2:15 min. in) Alternatives to a Bugout Location What You Should Consider Tsunami High Risk Areas Involve 23 Nuclear Power Plants Preppers and the Transition Movement “The Map”, FEMA Camps And More: John Moore 'Fast and Furious' Whitewash by Justice Dep't Obama Lies Claiming Fast and Furious Started Under Bush UN Small Arms Treaty Passes While Media Sleeps All the World Wonders The Secret History of America The Greatest Conspiracy on Earth Bowing to the Mob So Much for Freedom of Speech Big Oil Funding U.S. Politics White House: Libya Was 'Terrorist Attack' HOLLY COMMENT: Stating the obvious is now 'news' DOJ-Funded Training Manual Lists Bumper Stickers as Terrorism WH Insider: "Barack Obama The Butcher of Benghazi" Polls: Obama Ahead in Colorado, Iowa and Wisconsin DEYOS COMMENT: Too many Coloradans sucking California weed and blinded by babble Hope in Colorado Obama Mutilates American Flag: It Oughta Be Illegal Obama Voters Explain Why They Changed Their Vote Pat Buchanan: ‘Barack Obama Is a Drug Dealer of Welfare’ Decentralize or Die! 21 Facts About America’s Decaying Infrastructure That Will Blow Your Mind Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant Shuts Down Unexpectedly Power Outage in Yukon Knocks Out Communication Systems Across Territory Obama, Messiah, King of the Lose 10-part Report Raises Questions About Narrative of Obama's Early Life Prostitution Scandal Report May Cite White House Staff Involvement The Last Failed State UN Promotes Another Gun-Grabbing Program UN Conquers Texas Big Sis: Obama Ready to Sign Surveillance Grid Executive Order EPA's 4-Gallon Minimum Mandate FEMA Corps Develops the Next Generation of Emergency Managers "Who's Going to Survive?": Prep to Survive for Beginners and Experts Alike Hollywood: The Lens of Lucifer Obama in 1998: "I Actually Believe In Redistribution" Romney Outlines $500 Billion in Annual Pay, Workforce, Program Cuts Black Panther Leader on Election Day: 'We Will Be There' Obama’s Communist Mentor Florida Professor Suspended for Making Students Sign ‘Vote for Obama’ Pledge What Obama Thinks of Americans Can the Election Be Rigged? WMD Expert Dr. Peter Vincent Pry on the EMP Threat Jesse Ventura on Iran and UN Gun Control Protester Dies After Inhaling Fumes from Burning American Flag Nasrallah Makes Rare Appearance at Rally Against anti-Islam Film Qaeda in North Africa Urges Killing More U.S. Envoys Child with ‘Beheading’ Sign at Sydney Protest: Search for Mom Is On Steve Emerson on Coren. Political Correctness Has Damaged All Aspects of Life Emails Show DoJ Working with Media Matters on Stories That Target Critics Smile, The Government Is Watching You 'Unfounded and Preposterous': Libyan Reports Shred WH Claim That Benghazi Attack Was Spontaneous, Unpredictable Libyan Intelligence Challenges Obama Account of Deadly Consulate Attack There Were No Demonstrations Outside Embassy; Strike Was Pre-Planned Mohamed Al Magarief: If You Take into Account thE Weapons Used, Like RPGs and Other Heavy Weapons, It Proves That It Was Preplanned. It's a Dirty Act of Revenge That Has Nothing to do with Religion.' Arab Media: US Ambassador was Sodomized by Muslim Mobs Before Being Murdered, Paraded in Streets Full Summary of Latest Anti-American Sentiment Tarpley: Middle East Riots a Provocation to Sink Obama Bachmann: Obama "Most Dangerous President" Ever on Foreign Policy Obama’s Lawyers Appeal Court Ordered Block Against NDAA Indefinite Detention Provision Obama Caught Lying Again: He Was Member of 'New Party,' Says Kurtz In Chicago, No Memory of Obama New Party Membership Investigation Finds Obama Financing Mosques Worldwide with U.S. Taxpayer Dollars Denial is Now National Suicide OPED A Failed Presidency of Global Proportions OPED Republican-backed Sequestration Bill Passes House, But Unlikely to Go Further WH Warns of Military 'Destruction' in $110 Billion Sequestration Cuts Allen West Gives Weekly GOP Address, Blasting Obama for Hollowing Out Our Military Obama v. Romney on Federal Pay, Size of Government and Management (click on Romney tab for his positions; Obama tab to view his) Oath Keeper Attempts to Wake Up Republican Sheep How to Avoid Getting Trapped in FEMA Camps Supervisors Finalize Jail Fee in Calif. County Colorado Town High School Seizes Rosary Beads From Student, Says They’re ‘Gang Symbol’ The End of the Line: Interview with G. Edward Griffin VOW Flood Threat to Nuclear Plants Covered Up by Regulators, NRC Whistleblower Attack Not Triggered by Film But to Avenge Killings of Senior al-Qa'ida Leaders Diplomatic, Western Posts Targeted Repeatedly In Benghazi in Run-up to Deadly Assault No Marines for Libyan Ambassador, Full Security Detail for Valerie Jarrett Vacation Protesters Set Fire to American School in Tunis, Reuters Reports US Braces for More Violence in Muslim World After Friday Prayers Marines on Ground in Yemen as Mobs Attack Embassies in Tunisia, Sudan Muslim Brotherhood Website Demands That West Criminalize ‘Assaults’ on Islam Report: US Govt Knew of Possible Attacks on Diplomatic Missions 9/11 Cairo. Muslim Leader Burns Bible, Threatens Christians Israeli Arab Official Warns of 'Armageddon' Police Step Up Security Amid Prophet Mohammad Riots Texas Campus Reopens After Evacuation Ezra on Days of Rage Romney Is Right: In Embassy Incidents, Obama's First Instinct Was to Sympathize with Attackers Misplaced Blame for the Embassy Attacks Obama Leadership Questioned in Aftermath of Consulate Strike Is Anybody Driving the Bus? More Sniper Ammunition Being Ordered by DHS. Who Are the Targets? Russian Spetnaz Brake Ranks with US Commanders, Set Up Encrypted Communications Directly with Russia and Ammo Worries U.S. Military Spending $20 Million for Firewood HHS Chief Broke Law Restricting Political Activity, Signed Ethics Pledge Rep. Walsh: Obama Should Follow Standard Procedure, Fire Sebelius for Violating Hatch Act Which Parts of the US Will Be Gone under Agenda 21 Obama-backing Group Fights for Felons’ Votes The World Obama Made Chicago Homosexual Community Shocked Obama Could Keep It Secret Claim: Obama Hid His Gay Life to Become President! Documented Report Bachmann Says FBI Agents Watched Over Her Shoulder Maryland Residents Are Sick of Being Spied on and Tearing Down Police Cameras Al Zawahri Personally Ordered Al Qaeda to Murder US Ambassador Stevens US Officials Investigate Whether Strikes in Libya and Egypt 'Coordinated,' Timed for 9/11 Anniversary Film Controversy: Innocence of Muslims: DEYOS' NOTE: We watched this film and yes, it's pretty obvious how it would anger Muslims. However, this is a single moment in time, a short film, soon to be lost in the myriad of other breaking news and other "outrages". The maker of this film, Sam Becile, is an Israeli-American. Likely this person is more than tired of his fellow countrymen (and women) referred to as dogs and apes in the Quran. Pretty incongruent since the Hebrews are God's chosen. Printed in millions, if not billions of Qurans and taught in Islamic schools throughout the world, this racial hate speak does NOT go away, not ever. Instead it is pounded into the hearts souls and minds Muslims worldwide. Their vitriol promulgates racial and religious intolerance much more than any 13-minute film ever could. These embassy attacks and Muslim uprisings likely have more to do with the anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, which commenced on the exact day, than perceived slurs against Mohammed. The timing is too obvious. Muslim extremists are testing our defenses, our resolve and willingness to defend our position. Watch Obama let this slide too, and Americans will be left sucking a dry rag. He'll bow and scrape again and yes HE already apologized. (There is no link for this commentary.) Arabic Sources Reveal the Truth Regarding Attacks on U.S. Embassy in Egypt: One of Culprits to Visit U.S. on September 15th 2 U.S. Warships Headed to Libya After Deadly Consulate Attack After Attack, Obama Says Egypt Neither Friend Nor Foe HOLLY COMMENT: Diplomatic dope must be good to smoke unless you 'didn't inhale' like Bill Clinton From Libya: ‘Don’t Shoot Us! We Were Sent By Mursi’ Middle East a Tinderbox, American Leadership Absent Russia Deeply Worried... Protesters Angered By an anti-Islam Film Storm US Embassy in Yemen Egyptian Intelligence Warned of Embassy Attacks as Early as Sept 4 11 Years After 9/11, 2/3 of US Travel Warnings Relate to Muslim World Cheney: Cairo, Benghazi and Obama Foreign Policy Wall Street Insider: Sadly, Every Concern About This Man Calling Himself Obama Has Proven True Far Worse Is Yet to Come Obama's Second Term Transformation Plans Beck: Who Is The Real Barack Obama? Just 37% Say U.S. Heading in Right Direction US Totalitarianism Loses Major Battle As Judge Permanently Blocks NDAA's Military Detention Provision Issa 'Cautiously Optimistic' About Fast and Furious Report US Police State? 4 Examples Prove It! Is ‘Revolt’ Our Only Option? U.S. Ambassador to Libya Murdered by Rioting Muslims Among 4 Americans to Die in Protests Over anti-Islam Film Russian Ships Displayed at DNC Tribute to Vets WH Scrambles to Contain Controversy Over Netanyahu Snub Brand-New Surge in Black-Mob Violence Apocalyptic TV: Art Imitating Life or Predictive Programming? IG Report: Top Justice, ATF Officials Ignored Public Safety in 'Furious' Ops WH Insider: Ohio Now Turning to Romney Polling Data 101 Obama Sold Vote Count to Company in Spain Linked to Soros Michael Savage: How Obama Fixed 2012 Election Constitutionalists Labeled as Terrorists for Speaking Out Against the Government Obama’s 9-11 Proclamation Does Not Mention God New York Post Ad Exposes Obama's 'Real Father' Israeli Science Website: Obama Birth Certificate Forged Assault on the Free Market Obama Campaign Declares, 'I'll Be Damned' Fiery Comment Comes Hot on Heels of DNC Booing 'God' A Shrink Asks: What's Wrong with Obama? Obama Widens Lead Over Romney Despite Jobs Data: Reuters/Ipsos Poll HOLLY COMMENT: Some things simply defy logic Love Him or Hate Him, You Don’t Know Him Due to Eligibility Concerns, Florida Judge Terry Lewis: Obama Is Not (Cannot be) the Nominee for the Democratic Party Gun Sales Surge: An Obama Bounce Pic of the Day: If You Weren’t the VP I’d Kick Your Ass HOLLY COMMENT: Take a look at the expressions on these 2 bikers' faces. Not exactly thrilled. 30 Signs That the US Is Being Turned into a Giant Prison Obama Supporter Interviews Herself Obama’s THREE Proud Words “Made in the USA“ The Conscience of a Voter OPED FBI Begins Installation of $1 Billion Face Recognition System Across America Russian and Chinese Soldiers Seen in Cheyenne, WY 9/11 Pseudo-Science: A US Foreign Policy Built on Fraud 10 Obstacles to Achieving Personal Independence James Rawles on Economy & Survivalism - VOW (starts 7:20 min. in, first 2 hours) Change You Can't Believe Woodward’s Devastating Account of Obama’s Failed Leadership 2012 Obama vs Romney: The Illusion of Choice We've Heard It All Before HOLLY NOTE: And you want 4 more years of this? Fact Check: First Lady's False Fairy Tale of Struggle Gallup Sued by DOJ after Unfavorable Obama Polls, Employment Numbers Eastwood Says His Convention Appearance Was 'Mission Accomplished' Colorado Public Television Presents 9/11: Explosive Evidence Experts Speak Out 1 Chart of the Day: Smith & Wesson Sales Who's Funding Purchase of the $35M Beachfront Hawaiian Estate for Barack and Michelle Obama to Move into January 2013? No, Really: Govt Warns of 'Zombie Apocalypse' HOLLY NOTE: Take this AP story to heart. When govt is finally compelled to warn the public, the situation is truly serious. You'll need more to prepare than just a clean pair of underpants as this article suggests. America’s Takeover of the UN A Godless Party Expels the Creator America's 10 Most Polluted States New Orleans Eyes More Levees After Passing Isaac's Test Convention Floor Erupts, Boo and Shout 'NO' When God, Jerusalem Restored to Platform HOLLY NOTE: It doesn't matter whether or not the Dems revamp their platform. This hasty retrace only came about after huge protest against them entirely removing God and Jerusalem from Convention-speak. Only the delusional could think God won't see through this quick backstep as anything other than an attempt to repair their God-forsaking actions. Convention Floor Chaos Savage: Dems Rejection of God 'the Turning Point' Axelrod, Jarret Throw Fellow Dems Under the Bus, Say It Was Their Fault Jerusalem, God Were Left Out Dem Buttons: Vote Black Decline and Fall: The Tragedy of Barack Obama Mother of Dem Convention Star Castro Called Alamo Defenders 'Drunks,' 'Crooks' Maxine Waters Confronted on 'Stimulus' Corruption Bill Clinton: A Good Lawyer Defending a Guilty Client' Fact Checking Bill Clinton’s Speech and Other Dems at Convention Remembering the Clinon-Attributed Murders Delusional Reality: Everything Peddled by Politicians, Media, Banks and TV Is Fiction Big Oil 1 - 0 Environment: Shell Granted Permit to Work off Alaskan Coast What Obama Won’t Say in Charlotte: War on Terror is Done 30,000 Dead North Carolinians Registered to Vote The Final Race, The Final Lap for Your Freedom Chuck Norris' Anti-Obama Video Warns of '1,000 Years of Darkness' Behold a Pale Horse VOW Why Blame Obama? President Announces Open Season on Combat Vet US Military Has ‘Taken Over’ a Small Colorado Border Town: What Are They Preparing For? HOLLY NOTE: Cokedale is only 10 minutes away from I-25 and 45 minutes away from Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site, the southern arm of Ft. Carson. Pinon Canyon is the Army Base embroiled in controversy when it tried to take over even more land from farmers through eminent domain in 2007. They original chunk of land they wanted included most of southern Colorado, which would make it roughly 3 times larger than any other military base in the U.S about the size of Rhode Island. The military using the sleepy town of Cokedale as a staging area makes sense as it's n remote area of Colorado, close to a decent size water source and a hair's breath away from the Interstate. Mr. Scam Man 3 Obama Calls for Amendment Limiting Free-Speech Rights Obama Has Destroyed the Future of America in Order to Improve His Chances of Winning the Election Obama Movie, 2016, Killing It Despite Negative Press Romney to Voters: Move on from Obama Disappointment Media Calls Paul Ryan a Liar. Real Facts Say Otherwise… Eastwood Spars with Chair as Obama Stand-In, Calls Romney 'Stellar' Businessman Bullets, False Flags and Biological Warfare: What is the US Government Planning? Daniel Hannan Is Shocked We Are Discussing Social Issues with Our Debt Approaching $16 Trillion Texas Voter ID Rejected by Supreme Court New GOP Platform Condemns Fast & Furious, Blame Agent's Death on Operation Best Paul Ryan Quotable Quote from Wednesday UN Arms Treaty 1 Older Couple Shares How Mitt Romney Ministered to Their Dying 14 Year-Old Son 1 Ryan Takes Aim at Obama in RNC Speech, Vows GOP Won't 'Duck the Tough Issues' Rep. Ryan: Let's Do this. Let's Get This Done John Moore: No Election this Fall - Financial Collapse One of Most Dangerous Cities in US to Ditch Police Force US Forest Service Has an Immediate Need for Ammuntion Silence Is Not “Golden” When Defending Liberty Ann Romney Takes Center Stage in Tampa, Vows Husband Mitt 'Will Not Fail' Report: Actor Clint Eastwood Headed to Republican Convention in Tampa; Will He be Thursday’s “Mystery Speaker?” RNC Raises Dialogue with ‘Truth-Telling’ Message, No Personal Attacks on the President MSNBC Fears Romney Has White Appeal Love and Change in Tampa DNC Proceeds with 2-Hour Islamic ‘Jumah’ Prayers (and You Won‘t Believe Who’s Invited) Look Who's Behind 'Voter ID Is Racist' Campaign Former Marine Detained for ‘Ominous’ Facebook Posts Speaks Out for First Time: ‘It Made Me Scared for My Country’ Obama’s Sneaky, Deadly, Costly Car Tax Amassing Arms for Secret Forces to be Used Against American Citizens? I Heard It Through the Grapevine That the Government Was Violating Property Rights Fast and Furious: Prosecutions Coming? 1 Million Gallons of Raw Sewage from Mexico Closes San Diego Beaches Ron Paul Won Paul's Winning Stratagem 40 Items to Barter in a Post-Collapse World Remote Alaska to Stockpile Food, Just in Case Obama 'Causes More Misery Than Natural Disasters' Russian Expert Predicts Obama Will Declare Martial Law in America by End of 2012 Ann Romney: 'This Man Will Lift Up America!' How Ann Romney's Incredible Family Journey from a Welsh Coal Mine Could End in the White House DHS Source: “It’s Going Hot” The Fall of the United States of Babylon! Staged Crisis Leading to Suspended Elections Could Happen on Our Watch The Western Onslaught Against International Law The Speech Obama Failed to Deliver Mystery Surrounding 1.2 Billion Rounds of Ammo Solved Kuhner: Biden Dangerously Detached from Reality Obama Remembers Neil Armstrong with a Big Picture of… Himself Obama Declares War on Seniors, Steals Part of Their SS Check Free Speech Disappearing & Corporate Tyranny Rising Obama Wants to Jail You for Crimes You'll Commit in the Future 1 Megyn Kelly on Obama's America 2016 2 '2016: Obama's America' Earns $6.24M for Weekend, Number 6 on Political Documentaries Genre List Seniors Arm Selves in Record Numbers Despite Big Media’s Anti-Gun Hype Space Ship Earth: A Mass Extinction Level Event Weather Extremes Test Nation's Power Grid 7 Reasons to Consider Off-the-Grid Independent Living Obama, Holder Sledgehammer the First Amendment Lawmaker Questions Holder on Abusing FBI Travel Privileges Obama Makes Free Speech a Felony Not the Behavior of a Winning Campaign The Obama Syndicate: When Evil Rules the Land and its People Will the Romney Campaign Demand Release of the Obama-Khalidi Video? Obama Asks Eurozone to keep Greece in Until after Election Day Federal Auditor: 2,527 DHS Employees and Co-Conspirators Convicted of Crimes 545 vs. 300,000,000 People Charley Reese's Final Column in 2001 (and nothing's changed) Watchdog: ACORN Back with 174 Rebranded Affiliates Report: State Dept. Considers Eliminating US Nuclear ArsenalDetained Marine Veteran Now Released, Per Judge’s Order Obama Adds Military Heroes to 'Enemies List' Best Military Quote Psychiatry as Weapon to Silence Religious and Political Opposition The Little Known New Madrid Pipeline Bomb On Lance Armstrong Texas Judge Preparing for ‘Civil War’ If Obama Re-Elected Where's the Tough Love for Obama? U.S. Census Bureau Helped Racially Target Thousands of American Citizens for Camp Internments U.S. Marine Held in Mental Hospital Because of Facebook Posts Full Frontal Nudity on Prime-Time TV Up 6,300% Over Last Year, Study Radical Islam Joins the DNC 600 Rabbis Throw Their Support Behind Obama 'Forward.' The Perfect Campaign Slogan for Obama? Traffic Cams, Drones Were Just the Beginning... WH Insider Issues Warning False Flag Planned for GOP Convention? Are People Being Thrown in Psychiatric Wards for Their Political Views Survivalist Congressman Is Ready for Doomsday Top 10 Reasons Not to Re-elect Obama (part 2 of 3) Music Superstar: 'We've Got a Muslim President' WH Insider: Obama Preps Media for “Surprise” Presser Republicans Pull Plug on Missouri Sen. Candidate Akin After Disgusting Rape Remarks Maryland Train Derailment Leaves 2 Dead America's Large-Scale Disaster Readiness Has Slipped into Neutral House Guest 'Shot Ex-Girlfriend and Her Boyfriend Multiple Times, Sawed Off Their Limbs, Dumped Them in Canal' The Strange Case of Joe Biden HOLLY NOTE: Yes, let's make ourselves more vulnerable and an easier target. Newsweek Shocker: Hit the Road Barack Agencies Try to Damper Conspiracy Theories After They Put Out Orders for Thousands of Rounds of Deadly Bullets Who Does the Government Intend to Shoot? Archie Bunker Called It HOLLY COMMENT: Anyone old enough to remember this 70s top-rated, cutting edge comedy will appreciate Archie's 'viewpoints' come true tongue in check so don't send 'cards and letters'. It underscores that Obama is a little sketchy on America what kid doesn't know we have 50 states? Simply priceless. 3 Dr. Paul Craig Roberts: Amerika’s Future is Death Another Icon Gone: Comedian Phyllis Diller Dies at 95 New Black Panther Audio: 'If They Are White, Kill ‘Em All' Is There Anyone Obama Won't Betray? Puttin Up the Flag 4 Poll: Voters Say They Are No Better Off Than in 2008 Police Allowed to Track Cell Phones in US Without Court Warrants Obama's Czars With Pictures Most Arrogant Man in the World 2 Flying Over America 4 Govt Awards Ammunition But Hides How Much It Spent and Quantity Requested Social Security Admin. Explains Plan to Buy 174,000 Hollow-Point Bullets A Warning from an Airman or Could This Be a Warning from God? (scroll down to the yellow rectangular sign) HOLLY NOTE: While this was posted with the BEST of intentions by the author, there was no source listed, so we proceed with caution. That said, some of these Executive Orders have been in place for 6 decades and subsequently grouped together in 1994 legally confiscating everything citizens have. Please see this page. Since then, other EOs have been signed that are even more onerous for self-sufficient Americans. This escalated with Bush 42, including the nullification of Posse Comitatus, then ramped up considerably by Obama. Do check these other mainstream articles regarding martial law and posse comitatus. These laws did not just crop up last month. Do NOT let these EOs deter your preps. As for food and water (etc.) storage, make your residence the main storage site for these items unless your bugout place is really close. If things go south without much notice, you may not have time to relocate even a short distance. If you have a bugout location far away, store part of your supplies there and the remainder of your cache, somewhere completely off-grid in case the bugout place ends up as a "no-go". Interesting Note: Saturday morning Stan and I headed to Colorado Springs. On I-25 between mile markers 128 and 122 6 miles of newly erected pole fencing with heavy-duty wire lined both sides of the freeway. If I-25 became log-jammed in an evacuation or disaster, how many people would have tough enough wire cutters in their vehicle as a matter of practice? Do you, right this very minute? Depending on the size of your vehicle, you may or may NOT get through this cut fence, as the poles are set fairly close. I can't tell you the weird feeling we got looking at this long barricade when wide open spaces are the order of the day in Colorado. It felt like we could be "funneled" somewhere with no options. SC Mission 2012 Starts Tomorrow: Disaster Exercise Masquerading as 'Free Healthcare Event' Virginia Vintners Taste the Police State Nearly 9,000 Marijuana Plants Seized in Pueblo County: One of Largest Busts in Colorado History Welcome to the Third World, Part 7: Bye Bye, Public Services Obama: I Don't Think Anyone Would Suggest I've Tried to Divide the Country Romney-Ryan Prepare Assault on Govt. Spending Dem. Co-chair on Paul Ryan: He Is Honest, Straightforward, Sincere, Sensible Christianity & Gun Owners in the Crosshairs: Chilling Tactic Exposed Dishonorable Disclosures must see 1 Virginia Business Owner Declines Request for Joe Biden to Stop in Store Because He Built His Business 3 'Preparing for Mass Civil War', Obama's Homeland Security Department Buys 1.2+ BILLION Rounds of Ammo Why the Gov't Purchase of Ammo Should Scare the Hell Out of You Obama Surreptitiously Implementing a Radical Plan to Destroy American Suburbs 5 U.S. Nuclear Reactors Shutdown in 3 Days 2 Chevron Refinery May Close for 6 Months Following Fire Sept. 11 Museum Says Steel Cross, 'Historical Object,' Should Stay Paul Ryan a Gift to Both Campaigns Before You 'Fall in Love' with Ryan Check His Voting Record This Congress Could Be Least Productive Since 1947 More Than 25% of Americans May Not Vote in Nov. High Explosives Awardee Announced to Firm of Former TSA Head Surviving an Active Shooter Event - English 1 American Gun Lovers Turn to Russian AK-47s Zombie Apocalypse Weapons VOW GOP Sues to Force Obama Compliance on Fast and Furious Who Built America? TSA: Carcinogenic Petting Zoo Scrubbed: Evidence Stanley Kurtz Was Right About Barack Obama's Plot to Destroy Suburbia Obama: 'A New America in Which Prosperity Is Shared' Obama in Iowa: Tell Paul Ryan to Do Something About the Drought Government = Fraud, Waste, Abuse, Corruption Prepping for Civil War: DHS Set to Purchase Up to Another 750 Million Rounds of Ammo Zombie Response Training in San Antonio Implications of Ryan Pick for Romney Campaign 3 Warm Seawater Forces Conn. Nuclear Plant Shutdown New "Red Dawn" Trailer Movie Coming Thanksgiving 2 Stratfor Emails Reveal Secret, Widespread Trapwire Surveillance System The Fracturing of America Prophetic? US Flag Falls During Serena Williams' Gold Medal Ceremony 2 The Civil War of 2016 U.S.: Military Officers Are Told to Plan to Fight Americans US Army Tactical Manuals Describe How to Control Domestic Insurrection NOAA Requests Ammunition for the Weather Service Game On: Ryan Pick Begins Debate for America Just Who Is Paul Ryan and What Does He Stand For? Spike Lee Admits 'Black Jesus' Obama Failed to Live Up to Hype Obama Signs Bill Exempting Presidential Appointees from Senate Confirmation Meet the Hopeless Drunk from a Nairobi Shanty Town Who Is the U.S. President's BROTHER America and Divine Intervention 53% in Colorado Oppose Tougher Gun Control Laws Pastor John Hagee on Obama The Most and Least Livable States in America Afghan Police Squad Invited US Special Forces Soldiers to Dinner and Killed Them Obama Considering Implementing Cyber-Security Measures Via Executive Action, Bypassing Congress Cops Strip Search Mom, “Forcibly” Pull Tampon Out of Her for Maybe Rolling Through Stop Sign Obama: Let's Repeat Auto Industry Success with Every Manufacturing Industry Obama’s College Classmate Speaks Out: The Scandal at Columbia That Ends the Obama Presidency 1 Buchanan: 'Obama Has Steadily Diminished Both Himself and the Office He Holds' Dreams from My Real Father: A Story of Reds and Deception (2012) must see Obama's Massive 2nd-Term Industry Takeover Plans Prepare for What Is Coming: “There is a Very Present Danger that is Facing Every American” Dr. Jerome Corsi: Evidence Obama Was Married to Pakistani Man Surveillance Cameras Turned Off During Sikh Temple Shooting Nuclear Waste Issues Freeze Permits for U.S. Power Plants U.S. Olympic Athlete, Mexican Flag? Harry Reid’s Sideshow College Grads Score Youtube Hit with 'Obama That I Used to Know' Parody How Much Will the Chevron Refinery Fire Affect Gasoline Prices? ..Federal Investigation Underway Obama’s College Classmate Speaks Out: The Scandal at Columbia That Ends the Obama Presidency The Importance of Having a Firearm / Firsthand Experience Illegal Aliens Can Vote, Military Can't? Obama Opposes Boy Scouts' Policy Banning Homosexuals US Govt Proposes Law Making It Illegal for Them to Kill You Govt Media Sugar Coats Recent High Explosive Solicitation, Then DHS Hides Request Drivers' Newest Nemesis -- Stop-Sign Cameras Puerto Rico, Drug Corridor to the Mainland U.S. Trashing Our World: More Laws Won’t Change Human Behavior Dick Morris: Obamacare Causes Doctor Shortage 3 The High Cost of Voter Fraud: Obamacare Obama WH Told GSA to 'Stand-Down' on Occupy Protesters DHS Orders Over a Half Ton of High Explosives Colo. Health Officials to Thief: Don’t Open That Box Response to Chevron Refinery Fire Under Criticism How the Oil Boom Is Changing North Dakota U.S. Army to be Used Against “Insurrectionist” Tea Party? Mandate by Congress Forces Post Office into Default Surrounded by Psychopaths, Sociopaths as We Approach the Edge of Societal Collapse Mind Control? Neighbors: Temple Shooter's Ex Wore 'Blank Stare' Cracking Wisconsin Gunman's Secret Racist Tattoo Code Court Gives Government Go-ahead for Warrantless Wiretaps Federal Court Upholds the Herding of Demonstrators into “Free Speech Zones” Massive SF Bay Refinery Fire Spews Health Hazards Liars, Damned Liars, and Harry Reid Vetting Conference Exposes More of Obama's Marxist Ties Coming to Terms with Attacks on Liberty and Democracy Globalists Gutting America Head for the New World Hills Homeland Security and Military Vehicles - Pictures Captured in Kentucky Hundreds of Tanks Moving Through Burbank, CA 1 SHADE the Motion Picture 'Official Trailer' 'White Supremacist' Behind 'Domestic Terrorism', Killing 6 at Sikh Temple Grab My Gun? Get a Grip! Cold Hard Facts on Gun Bans: “The Cost of Liberty Can Be Measured in the Loss of Life” Millionaire Buys Every Foreclosed Home in Michigan County for $4.8M Georgia Lumberyard Owner Hammers Obama on 'You Didn't Build That' WH Considers EO, Leaves Internet Takeover a Possibility If You See This Google Warning, Act Fast: Big Brother is Watching All Presidents Bar 1 Are Directly Descended from a Medieval English King How the Republican Party Stole the Nomination from Ron Paul Military Evacuating Coasts: Incoming Object Likely Cause HOLLY NOTE We like to vet everything posted, but we have not been able to verify this. 9 Steps to Take Now to Prepare for the Perfect Storm of Civil Unrest Jon Stewart: 'You, Harry Reid, Are Terrible' Obama Campaign Sues to Restrict Military Voting Vacant Detroit Becomes Dumping Ground for the Dead Wichita to Explore Options on Open-Carry Gun Law Vermont Man Uses Farm Tractor to Flatten 8 Cop Cars Thoughtcrime is Real WH Insider: “We Got One Last Chance Here to Make It Right” No Taxes on Olympic Medals, Outraged U.S. Lawmakers Demand U.S. Nuclear Bomb Facility Shut After Security Breach HOLLY NOTE: If an 82-year-old woman can get through the perimeter fences, how safe do you feel? Congress Wants to See Obama's "License to Kill" EMP Attack: '90% of Americans Would Be Dead' Feds Sue for Control of New Mexico Water Supply WH Analysts Feared Risks in Revamped Solyndra Loan 3 The FDA Is Spying on Its Own Scientists Homeland Security Issuing Its Own DMCA Takedowns on YouTube to Stifle Speech Gay 'Kiss-In' at Chick-fil-A Restaurants Today Bug Out Boot Camp Exposed! Obama's 2nd-term 'Marxist' Jobs Plan How Would You Destroy America? Govt. Silently Positions for Martial Law as Financial Collapse Arrives in America Thoughtcrime is Real The Most Important Press Conference Ever Held at Any Time in U.S. History: Part I Scary Gun Ruling May Become Model for Nation 5 ATF Officials Singled Out in Fast and Furious Probe DoJ Cries 'Distortions' Dick Morris: Though Stumping for Obama, "Clinton Is Going to Cast His Ballot for Mitt Romney" Does Barack Obama Expect the Upcoming Election to Spark Rampant Civil Unrest? DHS Prepares Faceoff with American Public 1 Obama, the First Communist President? The Pope Strikes a Blow for San Francisco Poll: 2/3 of Democrats Support Gay Marriage Scalia Opens Door for Gun-Control Legislation, Extends Slow Burning Debate Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia to Chris Wallace: Guns May Be Regulated 2 Cowardly Republicans: Impeach Obama Now Tom Tancredo Uses 'John Roberts Principle' to Argue for Immediate Action OPED Dick Morris: UN Shelves Gun Treaty...for Now 1 Keep the Pressure Up: Sign the Petition to Stop the US from Signing the Arms Trade Treaty! HOLLY COMMENT: Since as of July 27th, this has already been voted down, on the petition letter after where it reads: "July 27th in New York City" we added the phrase "and ALL such future legislation". Former Navy SEAL Brandon Webb: How to Survive a Shooting 3 Navy SEAL Lessons Learned from Aurora Colorado Surveillance & Harassment VOW 2 (skip to 42 minutes in) Brandon Darby: FBI Ignoring Sex Trafficking of Minors Wile E. Coyote Joins Obama Campaign Team DC Mayor calls Chick-fil-A 'Hate Chicken' The New Wealthy Homeowners in America ... Are Chinese CIA “Manages” Drug Trade, Mexican Official Says UN Fails to Reach Agreement on Treaty to Regulate Global Arms Trade, However... Gun Rights: Final Version of UN Small Arms Treaty Due Friday Bombshell: Leaked UN Treaty Does Ban Guns UN Gun Confiscation and the Robot Takeover! 1 D-Day for Gun Owners 2 Obama Calls for Measures Against Gun Violence WH Rules Out Any Gun-Control Efforts Soon Does Obama Think U.S. Soldiers Use AK-47s? Gun Control: Why the US Military Is Fighting with the NRA Thousands Sat in Their Cars for 7 Hours Tuesday as Police Played Blame Game HOLLY COMMENT: Imagine how much fun this area will be during an evacuation! Defense Official: America's Enemies Will Avoid the Battlefield and "Attack Us Here at Home" Fed. Protective Service Orders ~150 Sets of Riot Gear to be Delivered in 15 Days Emanuel's 'Chicago Values' Includes Supporting Gay-Hating, Jew-Hating Louis Farrakhan Boston Mayor to Chick-Fil-A President" 'I Urge You to Back Out of Your Plans to Locate In Boston' Several folks have sent this in again and just to clear the air Sex with Animals Still Not OK in U.S. Military Man Pleads Guilty in Chicago to Trying to Export Missile Parts to Iran 5 Guys Take Same Photo for 30 Years Mayor Bloomberg Says Cops Should Strike Across the Country to Put Pressure on Congress to Crack Down on Guns Concealed Weapons Save Lives Obama Talks of Limiting Gun Use After Massacre As UN Treaty Takes Shape, Raising Alarm Among Gun Rights Advocates Media Underplays Successful Defensive Gun Use Common Defense: In Crisis, America Buys Guns, Hurray! Congress Warned That al-Qaida in Iraq Is Coming to America Tragic Dramatics and the Obama Presidency Aurora Theater Shooter Sent Notebook to CU Shrink Before Massacre US Government Ran Chemical Experiments on Military Veterans Under Operations MKUltra, Bluebird and Artichoke Anaheim, Calif. Braces for More Unrest After Police Shootings Remarkable Photos Capture Life in Besieged Washington During Civil War Windows Smashed, Fires Reported as Anaheim Police Shootings Protest Turns Violent Another Gas Station Accused of Discrimination Against Military Members 1 Call for Planned Parenthood Probe Trailer Exposing Obama's 2nd-term Blueprint 2 Obama Keeps on Conning America Were the Batman Murders a Covert Op? Mind Control: Colorado Shooter Was 1 of 6 Students With Grant for ‘Elite’ Neuroscience Program Mass Murder a Modern Curse? Hardly. Gun Control and the Murder Rate From Arab Spring to the Coming Nuclear Winter Colorado Gun Sales Jump 41% Since Tragedy Texoma (N. Texas-SE. Okla.) Sees "Massive Spike" in Gun Sales Up After Colorado Shootings Gun Sales Up 15% in Las Vegas Ohio Guns Sales Increase 26% in 2012 Rise in Missouri Gun Sales, Colorado Shooting Part of Motivation Calls for Gun Control Stir Little Support Gun Sales Increase as World Leaders Negotiate Strict Gun Laws 3 Shooting Prompts Call to Curb Online Ammo Sales HOLLY COMMENT: In case you missed it yesterday, buried in this article about the newly formed Marine Corp. battalions of law enforcement, they WILL be deployed on U.S. soil to stop civil unrest. The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which officially ended during the Bush administration in 2005, is now moving full-force forward. Sanitizing Obama's Radical Past 3 Arrested in U.S. 'Dark Knight' Movie Incidents Richard Rothschild Battles Local Agenda 21 55% of Americans Believe That the Government Will Take Care of Them If When Disaster Strikes Colo. Shooting Prompts Call for Stricter Gun Laws UN Arms Treaty Aims at Terror, But Puts Second Amendment in Crosshairs Aurora's Strict Gun Laws Didn't Prevent Shooting, But If One Law-Abiding Person in the Theater Had Been Carrying One... "Locked & Loaded" - Vietnam Vet Calls for More Guns Marine Corps Creates Law Enforcement Battalions Cops Say Attack Planned for Months Shooting Was 'Calculated and Deliberate,' Source Says Gun Jammed Gunman Used Same Drugs That Killed Batman Star Heath Ledger Stories of Victims Killed Emerge Remembering the Victims with a Vow: 'I Refuse to Say His Name' 12 Crosses Built as Tribute to Those Killed in Aurora Theater Shooting Trip Wire in Apartment 'Meant to Kill' All Explosives Removed The Curse of Batman: How the Film Is Plagued by Tragedy Taking the Cyberattack Threat Seriously Obama Pens Cybersecurity Op-Ed, Scares Americans Everywhere NCAA Slaps Penn State Football with $60M fIne, 4-Year Postseason Ban, Must Vacate All Wins from 1998-2011 in Wake of Child Sex Scandal Drones to Fire Lasers Over US 7 Habits of Highly Ineffective Government America's Future: No Longer Worth Celebrating Troops March in San Diego Gay Parade - in Uniform Preppers Are Going to Die 2 Mass Murder: 12 Killed, 50 Wounded at Aurora, Colo. Movie Theater Witnesses to 'Batman' Massacre Describe Terrifying Scene CNN's Piers Morgan Exploits 'Dark Knight' Massacre to Push Gun Control HOLLY COMMENT: Right after the tragic 1996 massacre in Port Arthur, Tasmania, within 6 months Australia seized the opportunity to institute gun confiscation. People then were pliable and frightened thinking the removal of guns would make them safer. It has only made them less so. If someone has an agenda to hurt, they will find another way to accomplish it. Already gun control in America is being quietly implemented through a UN Treaty and in times of natural disasters as seen during Hurricane Katrina. These precedents condition people to quietly hand over firearms. Watch for this agenda to ramp up significantly. It's just like after 911 when people were terrified of a repeated terrorism. Now look at our freedoms what's left of them. All it takes to transform our lives is one tragic mind-conditioning act. When freedom is surrendered to more government control, it never returns. Rush Limbaugh's Right: The Dark Knight Rises Is a Pro-Obama Plot Congress Hears Warnings About Drones in US Skies Why Are So Many Bad Things Happening to America? Gun Confiscation Training Troops Ordered to Kill All Americans Who Do Not Turn in Guns States’ Pressure Shifted TransCanada Stance on Pipeline Extension Former Worker of Bohemian Grove Speaks Out About the Club Sex Scandal Casts Pall Over Lackland AFB Watergate, Nixon, & the Mafia 1 (starts 40 min. in) The Business That Government Built Dunmire: Sequestration Set to Damage Defense As No Enemy Could Arpaio: Obama Birth Record 'Definitely Fraudulent' Leaked! Obama's Devastating 2nd-term Plans Top 10 Things Obama Has Not Released Sununu: Obama Should 'Learn to Be an American' Senator Implicates Top FDA Office in Agency Spying Program The Disclose Act (S. 3369): Destroying our First Amendment Congressional Approval Rating Falls Again Cover-Up! Contracting System Sanitized of Kenya Documents Now 'Indisputable Proof' of Obama Forgery The Folly of Obama's Politics Nobody Else Made It Happen, Mr. President Obama Preparing for Citizen Uprising? Warning Sounded Over WH Power Grab Daily Presidential Tracking Poll: Romney 47%, Obama 44% Bill Whittle DESTROYS Any Notion of Reelecting Obama with Rehash of His Greatest ‘Successes 3 66% Believe U.S. Has Too Much Government Power, Too Little Freedom UN Gun Grab Follows State Department Plan Signs of Things to Come War Veterans Told to Remove U.S. Flags 2 Troops Ordered to Kill All Americans Who Don't Turn in Guns 1 12 Hellhole Examples of What the Rest of America Will Look Like Soon Where Will We Be in 2016 Dinesh D'Souza at CPAC 2012 4 Emergency Alert! UN Set to Ban Civilian Gun Ownership Clinton Set to Sign U.N. Treaty to Disarm America, Advance Global Government Hillary's End Run on Gun Control! Dick Morris TV Senate Scheduled to Vote Today on anti-Free Speech Bill Hurricane Katrina Door to Door Firearms Confiscation: "You Never Expect to Do This in Your Own Country" 2 Obama Won't Apologize for Attacks Obama May Cancel 2012 Elections! Dr. Jerome Corsi Pt 1, Pt 2 1 Dead Dogs for Obama Obama to Business Owners: "You Didn't Build That" O’s Scary ‘Story’ Emergency Alert! UN Set to Ban Civilian Gun Ownership VOW 1 Sticker Shock! Air Force Tests Biofuel at $59/Gallon Leaked Docs Reveal 'Off the Charts' Damage at US Nuke Plant Oversight Board Questions Nation's Premiere Nuke Lab on Radiation Risk DHS Praise Lord Obama and Pass the Ammo Today's Kids Inherit World Reverting to Barbarism Top 10 Items for New Preppers VOW 2 America's Coming Civil War -- Makers vs. Takers OPED 1 Morgan Freeman on Obama OPED 2 DHS Emergency Power Extended, Including Control of Private Telecom Systems Romney Aide: Obama Hits ‘New Low’ With Felony Smear Campaign Homeland Security Seeking Assault and Sniper Rifles Leftist Radio Host Mike Malloy 'Calls Satan' to Learn How Breitbart Is Doing in Hell Gun Sales Skyrocket as D-Day for Gun Control Looms Gun Making: An American Cottage Industry Treaty Overboard: Just Three More ‘No’ Vows Needed to Block Law of the Sea Report: US Lost Billions to 'Fraud, Waste and Abuse' in Iraq Home Owner Visionary 2 Lawmakers Opening Intel Leak Probe? Obama Downplays Security Threat from Chavez Judge Andrew Napolitano: We Are at a Turning Point OPED 1 Update on UN Arms Trade Treaty 5 Words for the UN: From My Cold Dead Hands Biden Plays the Race Card in Vegas Chicago Police Sergeant: "Tribal Warfare" on the Streets Photos of FEMA Camps, Regions, and Warnings Man Swallows 62 Condoms of Cocaine US Soldier Denied Service at Muslim Owned Gas Station 2 Gas Station Owner Apologizes... Pentagon Takes Over Civilian Duties and Sprays Mosquitos in Florida How to Deal With a Government Checkpoint HBO's NEWSROOM Opening Scene "Why America's Not the Greatest Country" (language warning) 1 Is President Obama Intentionally 'Destroying' America? More Charges in Murder Tied to 'Fast and Furious' From Arab Spring to American Summer: The Politics of Power Outages Obama Now Controls All Communications Via Executive Order 1 Barack Obama's Falsified Social Security Number Curl: Who’s Bailing on Obama? Just About Everybody Obama Loses Ground to Romney in Key Measures of Poll 'After 9/11 NSA Had Secret Deal with White House' 2 Colo. Satanist Wants Theft of 'Vote for Satan' Sign Declared a Hate Crime Hill Poll: Majority Believe Obama Has Changed Country for Worse President Uses 'I' and 'Me' 117 Times in 1 Speech New E.O. -- Assignment of National Security and Emergency Preparedness Communications Functions ...Challenges First Amendment Russian Nuclear-Capable Bombers Intercepted Near West Coast in 2nd U.S. Air Defense Zone Intrusion in 2 Weeks Tom Tancredo: John Roberts' Move to the Dark Side California High-Speed Rail Gets Green Light Everybody Must Get Droned Colorado Will Furnish Christmas Tree for U.S. Capitol This Year Iron Curtain Encircles Latin America; USA Next Barney Frank First Sitting Congressman to Enter Same-Sex Marriage David E. Martin Reveals 12 People Bought Obama's Presidency Trump: Obama Will Start Iran War to Win Election Erkes and Schiller: Obama’s Bait and Switch Frustrated Montana Woman Tells It Like It Is Most Americans Feel Utter Despair About the Dysfunctionality of Our Current President Obama’s Constitutional Crisis Passengers Could Be Asked to Give Drink Samples to TSA NRA Chief on Stopping the UN Arms Trade Treaty Backed by President Obama 2 Johnny Cash "Less" Sings the Obama Blues 6 Nugent: Turncoat Roberts Chief Justice’s Surprise Ruling Means Limited Government Is Dead Brad Pitt's Mother Pens Anti-Obama Letter to Local Newspaper Is US Government Reading Email Without a Warrant? It Doesn't Want to Talk About It Fast and Furious: 'Storm Just Starting to Brew' Does the Law of Unintended Consequences Rule the Land? When Brain-Dead Politically Correct Liberal Communists Rule America… Oh Wait, They Already Do Congressman: American Schools Should Be Modeled After Madrassas, ‘Where the Foundation Is the Koran’ 3 The Communists Killed Kennedy SCOTUS and the Collapse of States' Sovereignty Obama Told to Back Off U.N. Gun Treaty Lawmakers Back Bill For ‘Made in the USA’ Flags Only GOP Congress Breaks ‘Pledge to America’ My 3 Daddies: California Eyes Multiple Parenting Law Twitter Ordered to Hand Over Occupy Protester's Tweets President Reagan's Address to the Nation on Independence Day - July 4, 1986 4 (good reminder of when the President worked to unite our country) Can Americans Escape the Deception? Ever Wonder Why We Even Bothered? Honoring the USA on Independence Day Alt-Market Celebrates Independence Day Gov. Jindal: We Need to End Obama's 'Culture of Dependence' Vets to Work ... On Canada's Pipeline Oil-Drilling Trade-Offs: Keystone for Alaska Phony Badges Flooding into Chicago Area 1 3 Former NSA Employees Expose ‘Mass Illegal Surveillance’ in Court Complete Disaster Non-Preparedness: DC Grocery Stores Out of Food, Gas Unavailable, Grid-Down as Summer Heat Rages 6 Ways to Prepare for Going Off-Grid Krauthammer: Why John Roberts Ruled the Way He Did Only 43% Now Believe America Is Last Best Hope of Mankind Grant Approved to Equip Fire Marshals with Bulletproof Vests Trans-Atlantic Doomed to Extinction VOW What to Expect When You’re Expecting... A Collapse! House Finds Holder in Contempt Over 'Fast and Furious' Investigation The Biggest Scandal in U.S. History Was Obama Involved in 'Fast & Furious'? Monckton Tells Lords: Obama Presidency at Risk More Severe Than Fall of Watergate Colorado's 'Epic Firestorm' Reveals Danger of Air Force Cuts Panetta Pleads for Missile Defence Dollars The FBI’s Secret Surveillance Letters to Tech Companies Obama Unmasked Over Time by “Gaffes” Rove: Obama's Strategies Are 'Just Pathetic' NSA Won't Disclose How Many Americans are Being Spied on Sheriff Arpaio Obama's Records Are Missing + Mike Zullo, Jerome Corsi 2 Whatever Happened to the Keystone XL Pipeline? 60% Favor Building Pipeline A Political Glossary What Should You Take If Evacuated 1 Obama Booed During Own Fundraiser: ‘I Understand, My Mistake’ (Updated with White House Spin) 3 In a First, Pentagon Celebrates Gay Pride Oreo Cookies Go Gay on Facebook Issa Challenges Obama Executive Privilege Claim HOLLY NOTE: His position of (fill in the blank) must really take its toll. Look how gray he's gone in 3-1/2 years. Is Prepping Worth it? What if Nothing Happens? Is it all a Waste? All Eyes on Supremes as Health Care, Immigration Rulings Loom Guess Which Restaurant Defends Right to Bear Arms! “Don’t Be Alarmed”: Army Trains MPs to Drive Tanks on U.S. Streets The Other Eric Holder Scandal Phoenix Boy, 14, Shoots Armed Intruder While Watching 3 Younger Siblings New Yorkers Stunned as Plane Flies Swastika Banner Over NYC’s Beaches US Govt. Gives Classified Tesla Tech to UN for Sustainable Development Scheme The Swiss Army Survival Tampon House Could Send Holder to Jail Without Approval of Senate or U.S. Attorney ‘They’re Lying and They‘re Hiding it’: Parents of Slain Border Agent Brian Terry Speak Out in Rare TV Interview Parents of Murdered Border Agent: White House Is 'Hiding Something' Obama’s Claim of Executive Privilege: It’s Frivolous Terry Family Speaks Out in Rare Interview 2 Dems Avoid, Republicans Slam Pelosi Theory on Holder Contempt Push NYT: Jay Carney Made an ‘Angry Phone Call’ to Fox Exec. Following Anti-Obama Video Editorial: End the Secrets on Fast and Furious OP ED 2 "Hope and Change"...Still? Looking Back at 4 Years of "Change" 1 The Scam Wall Street Learned from the Mafia Anonymous Attacking Creators of Indefinite Detention Bill Massive Nuclear Explosions and Coverup in Indiana and Michigan HOLLY NOTE: You may want to plow through the first 5 1/2 minutes with the volume off to avoid the rap "music and get to the heart of this important video. 1 How About an American DREAM Act? OP ED 1 Gay Activists Visiting White House Take Photos of Themselves Flipping Off Reagan Portrait Will Toledo, Ohio Be the First Major American City to Be Owned by China? Shocking Obama Words: Bombshell Anti-White Audio Uncovered! 3 Obama’s Nixonian Contempt for Transparency Obama's First Assertion of Executive Privilege: Ill-Timed and Ill-Considered Pelosi Calls for Super Committee Transparency flashback Jack Cafferty Destroys Obama and Pelosi on Transparency HOLLY NOTE: Consider how much less transparency there is now. Another broken promise... Ron Paul’s Task: Build Up the Remnant Top American Brands That Will Disappear in 2013 Agenda 21: How Will It Affect You? 1 5 Types of Looters You Must Prepare For Brace for the Apocalypse! Surviving the Worst in an Inland Lifeboat House Panel Debates Contempt Vote as Obama Exerts Executive Privilege Obama Exerts Executive Privilege in Showdown Over 'Fast & Furious' Docs Obama 2007: Bush WH Trying to “Hide Behind” Executive Privilege, They Need to “Come Clean” flashback 1 AG Eric Holder’s Lletter to Obama Asking to Assert “Executive Privilege” Secret Service Agents Partied Like Rock Stars on Obamas' Vineyard Vacation 38 Falsehoods Found in Obama Autobiography Federal Judge Strikes Down Part of Chicago's Gun Law News Broken: US Journos Barred for Doing Job 2 More Taxpayer Millions for Van Jones and His Nest of Vipers No Charge for Texas Dad Who Killed 5-year-old Daughter's Rapist The Economic Abuse of Veterans in America Hellish JetBlue Flight Turns into Vomitorium All Over America Gov't. Control Freaks Force Preppers Back onto the Grid Thousands of Military Drones to be Deployed Over CONUS Talk of Drones Patrolling U.S. Skies Spawns Anxiety Coburn: Obama Is Not Doing Fine Obama's Latest Excuse Against Probing Eligibility Was Obama’s Socialist Party Racialist? Miller: Gun Ownership Up, Crime Down Sen. Marco Rubio: Obama Using E.O. to “Deliberately Divide Americans” and Circumvent Congress Shotover Jet HOLLY NOTE: A girlfriend sent in this video and there's only 2 things to say: wear a crash helmet and take an "Obama" before doing this ride. All Over America Government Control Freaks Are Forcing Preppers Back on to the Grid NSA Refuses to Admit to Spying on Americans The Grey" - Luciferian Movie Not About Masculinity Bedford County Dead Dog Receives Voter Registration Forms WWII War Hero Has Land and Home Stolen Obama Plays 100th Round of Golf as President President Obama: The Biggest Gov't. Spender in World History Holder's Just-Us Department under Fire 'Fast and Furious' Whistleblower Says He's 'Disappointed' One Year Later One Year Later, 'Fast and Furious' ATF Whistleblower Speaks 3 O Invents Own Legend Obama’s Policy Strategy: Ignore Laws More Gov't. Offices Move to Denver? Colorado Likely on Short List of Candidates for Patent Office Conservative Bloggers on High Alert After 'SWAT-ing' Attacks Facing Contempt Charges, Will Holder’s Politicking Finally End? Rubio: Dems 'Pit Americans Against Each Other' to Win Elections Corruptocrat Eric Holder's GOP Enablers They Must Go Thank You Barack Obama… As Promised, Canada Is Building Pipeline to Sell Gas to China This New Drone Will Radically Enhance Navy Surveillance Capabilities Pentagon Report Lists 110 Potential Drone Bases in the U.S. Aerial Mapping Raises Serious Privacy Concerns Massive Nuclear Secret Uncovered In Austin, Texas Secret Service Buys 26 Devices to Identify, Collect Wireless Communication Data Chuck Baldwin Warns Ron Paul Swing States This Year It’s Almost Time for Panic: 5 Disasters That Can Push Humanity Off the Cliff The 3 Stages of Crisis Looking Through the Other Side of Disaster Chinese Plot to Strip Americans of Firearms Police: Taser Used On Nude 80-Year-Old Woman Attempting Hit Officers With Cane Obama Plans Attack on First Amendment if Re-elected Shocker: AFL-CIO Shifts Resources Away from Obama, Dems Holder Faces Corruption Scandal, Too Rubio: Florida Illegal Voter Purge Not Targeting Hispanics Krauthammer Slams Obama on Economic Claims 3 Panicked Democrats Tell Obama: Your Economic Message is Failing U.S. Rebellion Ignited Against U.N. Globalization Cal Thomas Column: Just Who Are Calling 'Extreme'? Squealing Versus Killing Dennis Prager Q & A. at Denver Univ 4 Why You Absolutely Must Have Food Supplies, Hard Assets, and Reserve Cash Romney Is Right About the Importance of Being Able to Fire People Chuck Roast Grassley Wants 'Somebody's Scalp' Over Fast and Furious Grassley to Holder: "Cough Up the Docs" No Silver Lining for Obama in Slew of Recent Polls: A Comprehensive Disaster Dems Fret about Obama's Prospects Oh, Joy (Biach) Behar: 'I'd Like to See [Romney's] House Burn' Gingrich Annihilates Sharpton in Epic Food Stamp Battle Labor Unions Are Not Dead. They Are Reloading. Firearm-Friendly Towns in Idaho Lure Gun Makers GM Is Becoming China Motors 1 Unhinged: 'Crappy Sex Lives’ of ‘The Right’: Netroots Panelist Claims ‘Twisted’ Conservatives Have ‘Forced, Coerced, Nasty‘ Sex with ’Children & Animals’ ‘When Does it Move Beyond Self-Defense?’: Civil Rights Leader Questions Texas Dad's Killing of Daughter’s Molester 'You've Violated the Public Trust' Cornyn Tells Holder to Resign, Blasts Him Over Fast and Furious AG Eric Holder: Everyone Knows ‘In-Person Voting Fraud Is Uncommon’ 4 Judging the Damage from Obama's Leaks Navy Drone Crashes Off Maryland; No Injuries Poll: Obama Rapidly Losing Support Among Black Voters Law of the Sea Treaty vs. the Free Economy The 911 Call and 80+ Members of Congress Growing Independence from Both Parties US: Russia Sending Attack Helos to Syria Indiana First State to Allow Citizens to Shoot Law Enforcement Officers Issa Panel Sets Holder Contempt Vote King: Leaks Lead to White House Gallup Poll: Jewish Support for Obama Plummets to 10% N.Y. Dems Poised to Nominate Former Black Panther, Anti-Israel Radical for Congress Reward for Obama: 10 Camels! Somali Islamists Respond to US Bounty Non-Citizens, Convicted Felons Could Swing the Election for Obama Major Attack on US Naval Forces in the Straits of Hormus Hormuz Attack Story Updated Principal Bars Kids from 'God Bless the USA' Song at Graduation Cities Crack Down on Homeless: Compassion Fatigue? California: Blackouts Possible this Summer, Nuclear Plant Offline Fukushima Forum: Arnie Gundersen Compares U.S. and Japanese Nuclear Reactors 5-Year-Old Sings 'God Bless the USA' 3 Lawmakers Vow Crackdown on Leaks NDAA Unconstitutional: Federal Judge Bans Obama from Indefinitely Detaining Americans Obama Caught Lying Again: He Was Member of 'New Party,' Says Kurtz Axelrod Plays Dumb on Obama and Socialist 'New Party' Holder: Email with Words 'Fast & Furious' Not Referencing Fast & Furious Lawmakers Express Concerns with Holder Leadership Following Testimony Issa to AG Holder: Who Is Responsible for Operation Fast & Furious? 1 Capitol Hill GOP Lawmakers Ask Holder to Probe Harassment of Conservative Bloggers Bill Clinton: 'I'm Very Sorry' for Bush Tax Cuts Comments 3 The Eye-Popping Wisconsin Story You Didn’t Read The Awakening of the Average American Suicides Among U.S. Troops Averaging 1 a Day in 2012 Colorado Man Ticketed Rushing Pregnant Wife to Hospital 20 Minutes Before Birth Bank Runs, Food Shortages, Riots, Looting, Blood in the Streets. And That's Just Greece: 10 Things to Prepare for NOW A Primer on Shotguns Paracord: The Most Versatile Item in Your Bug-Out Bag Nuclear Cover-Up: Explosions, Military Helicopters Filmed Near Blacked Out Radiation Zone Engineers at Davis-Besse Nuclear Reactor Near Toledo Found a Pinhole Coolant Feds Arrest 190 Alleged Child Predators in Massive Undercover Operation Ted Turner Calls for Depopulating Two Thirds of the World Luke Rudkowski Reports Ted Turner: World Needs a 'Voluntary' One-Child Policy for the Next Hundred Years Meet John Brennan, Obama's Assassination Czar Wisconsin's Walker Survives Recall by Wide Margin Walker Victory Big Warning for Obama in Key Swing State Recall Victory's 4 Lessons 5 Reasons Why Labor Has Already Lost the Recall 10 Signs That America's Highways Are Being Transformed into a High Tech Prison Secure Communities Launched in D.C. on June 5, as City Leaders Object U.S. Military Is Operating Drones Domestically, Sharing Data with Law Enforcement Obama's Latest Drone Target: Who is Abu Yahya al-Libi? Colorado Police Halt 19 Cars, Handcuff Everyone to Find 1 Bank Robber The Government’s 'Boots on the Ground' When It Hits the Fan May Be Your Neighbors Today, The Anniversary of D-Day- America’s Greatest Generation- Desecrated by All of Us 11 Famed US Sites Named to Annual 'Most Endangered Places' List More Than 1.5 Million Texas Voters Could Have Registration Suspended Wisconsin Recall Election Monitored for Discrimination; Contests in California and New Mexico Is Fast & Furious Investigation Fizzling? 2 Marine: Obama Claimed He Was Born in Mombasa, Kenya 1 CBO Finds Obama Stimulus May Have Cost as Much as $4.1 Million Per Job Another Obama Record!… US Treasuries Lower Than Any Time During Great Depression Man Beaten for Removing Democrat Lawnsigns from His Yard Cops Gun Down Man for Legally Carrying Firearm Civil Rights Advocates Trying to 'Shoot Down' Drones Spy Drone Nearly Brought Down a Plane in Colorado U.S. Missiles Infected with Chinese Fakes '84,000 Suspect Electronic Parts Installed Zimmerman Turns Himself In Bilderberg 2012: Protesters Hail Their Hero, Alex Jones Does Obama Have a Winning Wildcard? Law Enforcement Officials Refuse to Identify Who Installed 'Mystery' Cameras on Utility Poles Throughout NY County The List: A to Z Survival for the Abysmal Times Ahead Craig Hulet on Surveillance State Is Here (first hour only of Brain Wars, starts 5:40 in) Cop: 'First Amendment Rights Can Be Terminated' 1 Feds Order Florida to Stop Purging Ineligible Voters from Rolls Obama Nobel Prize Winner Turned Hit Man-in-Chief? 2 Bilderberg 2012: Official List of Participants Professor’s Appalling Rant to Students: Cops Are ‘Piggish,‘ Conservatives Are ’Schmucks,‘ America is ’Perverse Place,‘ Need to Revisit ’Useful’ Marxist Concepts Just Making It Official: Rockefellers and Rothschilds Unite WH Insider: Obama in Serious Trouble And That Makes Him Very Dangerous Obama "Then and Now" Does He Live Up to 'Hope & Change'? 2 Obama Drug Use Choom Gang, Roof Hits and Total Absorption Muslim Brotherhood Infiltrates U.S. Public Schools? Response of Man Told He Couldn't Fly the American Flag in His Yard Bill Outlawing Abortion for Sex Selection to Be Voted on Today WH Says Obama 'Misspoke' After Poles Demand Apology Over ‘Polish Death Camp’ Remark Illinois Rep. Loses It Over Taxpayers Paying Teachers' Pensions 1 Miller: SWAT Rampage Destroys Iraq Vet's Home Over Guns Eric Holder, ACLU Lawyers, IRS Admin. to Advise 100s of Black Pastors on What to Say During 2012 Election WH Defends Terror 'Kill List' Birth Certificate Whac-a-Mole Thousand$ Raised to Help Jailed Honor Student Media and Activists Calling for Peaceful Resistance at Bilderberg 2012 Obama Awards Medal of Freedom to Avowed Socialist Earthquake Could Trigger San Onofre Shutdown EPA Celebrates the ‘Crushing’ of 1M Working Refrigerators War Drums: We're Ready to Stop Iran The Distinctive Trait of America Arabic Mandated in New York Public Schools is a Step Toward the Islamization of America And Exactly What Is Your Job About, Mr. President? It's None of Government's Business! Government to Fork: The Obama Garden American Holocaust and the Coming New World Order Foreign Agents Creep into U.S. & Canada Under Integration Scheme Drones Shot Down Over Texas New Mexico Named 'Riskiest State' in the US See Where Your State Ranks Amarillo by Morning (Smith and Wesson on My Mind) After Armageddon - A Look at a Post SHTF Situation VOW How Can Anyone Be a Birther? 100,000 Texas Students to Be Tracked Via Chips in IDs Meet Soros-Funded Domestic Terrorist Brett Kimberlin Whose ‘Job’ Is Terrorizing Bloggers into Silence Obama EPA Officials Visit Man at Home for Inquisitive Email Nuclear Sub Damaged by Fire Might Have to be Scraped Priest Removed from Ministry Due to Sex Abuse Allegations Now Works Security at Philadelphia Int'l. Airport Liberals Blame Obama’s Primary Humiliation on “Race” Law of Sea Treaty Faces Rough Water The Law of the Sea Treaty Will Sink America's Economy Why Are FDA Agents Armed? 1 Attorney Association Bans Biblical Marriage Conference Nuclear Sub Burns at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard: Cause of Fire Under Investigation Update on NDAA and Drones Flying Over the US 45 Signs That China Is Colonizing America related Photo of the Day Iran Navy Saves US Freighter from Pirates: Report Joseph Farah Lauds Lou Dobbs for Broaching 'Kenya-Born' Revelation Margaret Thatcher Adviser Talks Obama Eligibility Jack Abramoff Spotlights Obama's Brazen Violation of His Own Lobbyist Rules Crossroads GPS: "Basketball" 4 Nuclear Accidents Likely 'Every 10 to 20 Years' Obama Admin. Giving Away 7 Strategic Islands to Russia Just Lovely: Look Who U.S. Is Helping Now Planet Infowars: Rallying Point for the Resistance! Bain Backfire: Obama Camp in 'Full Damage Control Mode' Obama and Congress in Violation of Oaths of Office Levin: Obama's College Transcripts More 'Secret' Than Details of Bin Laden Raid Sheriff Joe Sends Detectives to Honolulu Obama is the Big Lie 5 Grave National Security Threats That U.S. Must Address Strategically Agenda 21 Conspiracy Theory or Threat Obama's Giveaway: Oil-Rich Islands to Russia Obamahontas: POTUS Claimed Cherokee Ancestry, Too Internment and Resettlement Operations: Field Manual 3-39.40, Feb 2010 HOLLY NOTE: Everyone should download and read this A Victory for All of Us New Bill Would Make It Legal to Target Propaganda, "Psychological Operations" Directly at U.S. Citizens The Top 50 Excuses for Not Prepping The Prepper Movement: Why Are Millions of Preppers Preparing Feverishly for the End of the World As We Know It? The Whole World Is Watching: NATO & The Chicago Summit Senate Dems Back Increase in Air Travel Fee to Close TSA Funding Shortfall 47 Treated After Chemical Explosion in Georgia Town NATO Summit: Loud Cheers as Those Arrested, Detained Released from Police Facility US-Pakistan Rift Complicates NATO Summit in Chicago Leadership Window Dressing at G8 and NATO Summits Sunday's NATO Protests: Sights and Sounds 2 City of Chicago Website Hacked, Back Online NATO Summit Protest Gallery USA's Creaking Infrastructure Holds Back Economy A Racial Revolution? N.C. Teacher Tells Student He Could Be Arrested for Talking Badly About Obama It’s a Crying Shame American Crossroads: Operation Hot Mic 5 Shocker! Obama Was Still 'Kenyan-born' in 2007 Obama’s Father Exposed as anti-White Terrorist by British, U.S. Intel Defense Contractors Eye Cuts to Jobs, Plants 30,000 - 100,000 Russian Troops Scheduled Within Next 7 Months - May 2, 2012 1 HOLLY NOTE: Not saying this isn't happening but the original figures were for 22 troops which bloomed to 30, then morphed to 100,000 and now it's 200,000 troops. This may be correct or it could be Internet rumor run amuck. We simply don't know. We are only 30 minutes from Ft. Carson and local papers have all reported Russian troops cross-training, but they are all sticking to the initial 22 head count. With that in mind, remember that prophetic info has been collected for years about a coming Russian/China invasion after our country has been severely weakened. This we believe prophetically correct so the aforementioned is not a crazy scenario. Trayvon Martin Documents Released Witness Told Cops: Trayvon Straddling and Punching 'MMA Style' Protest Erupts after All-white Jury Acquits ex-Houston Cop Over Teen's Beating GSA Caught in Another Spending Spree Congress Holds Hearing on Corruption, Abuse within TSA 2 Newark Airport Security Deficiencies Known by Obama, Congress? The Vetting - Exclusive - Obama's Literary Agent in 1991 Booklet: 'Born in Kenya and Raised in Indonesia and Hawaii' Part of NDAA Military Detention Law Blocked by New York Judge Arizona Official to Hawaii: Show Birth Verification Rush: Obama Planning Late-year Surprise? Judge Napolitano : First American to Shoot Down a Drone Will Be an American Hero 1 Dem Senators Want 30% Tax on Anyone Who Renounces US Citizenship Who Is Buying American Firearms Companies? Why? Regular Patrol Cops to Get “Ballistic Shields” in Florida Obama Administration Shrugs Off Contempt Threat Against Holder James Dobson Says the Family 'Will Cease to Exist' If 'Gay' Matrimony Prevails Bilderberg Technocrats Hacking U.S. Elections Election 2012 Prediction: Bilderberg Gets In Two Representatives Looking to Neuter the NDAA Half of Americans Support Homosexual ‘Marriage’ Congressman Darrell Issa: Second Amendment Hero Whistleblower Reacts to New Nexico Prison Rape Allegations Report: Nearly 10% of Inmates Suffer Sexual Abuse 5 Reasons America Is in Decline US Veterans to Return War Medals in Protest Obama Most Morally Bankrupt Imposter President in US History Influential Panel Calls for Steep Reduction of US Nuclear Weapons Credit Card Fraud Prevention Advice Census: Minorities Now Majority of U.S. Births It Can Happen Here Former Counterterror Chief: CIA Weakened Under Obama, Leaks Very Damaging Obama Steps Up Gay Marriage Fight Calls for Repeal of DoMA Colorado Civil Unions Bill Killed Before Reaching House Floor Gay Rights in the US, State by State Michael Savage: How Obama Fixed 2012 Election 1 New Obama Book Shocker: Kennedys and Obamas at War Caroline Considers Obama a ‘Liar’ The Amateur: Barack Obama in the White House Top 9 Reasons Congress Is Broken Holder Could Be Prosecuted if He Stonewalls Gun Probe Any Further Global-warming Policies and the Threat to U.S. Commies Storm Obama Headquarters Praised Radical Group Founder as 'Great Reformer' Fuzzy Math on Energy White House Lied, Jobs Died Rainbow Circus, Global Economic Collapse and Thermonuclear War A Censored Race War? Foreign Wars Could Send Hoards of Third Worlders to our Shores in Coming Decades So You Want to Own a Gun (Part Three) 700 National Guard Homeland Response Force Troops Set to Train in New York 'First Gay President': Newsweek Marks Obama's Landmark Announcement with Controversial Cover 1st Gay President Cashes In 1 Economic Meltdowns, Global Warming, Guantanamo: How the World Is Disappointed in Obama's Performance and Broken Promises Feds' Intrusions into U.S. Farms and Families How Horrific Will It Be for the Non-Prepper? Terry Anderson, Black L.A. Talk Radio Host Listed Things Sen. Obama Said That Aren't Exactly Correct The Obama Golf Counter General Motors Is Becoming China Motors 3 Around World, Obama's Presidency a Disappointment NATO Protesters Gearing Up Geraldo Rivera Calls TSA Screening 'Manual Rape' $100 Million NATO Invasion of Chicago Coming Soon DHS Whistleblower: Obama to Commit ‘Reichstag’ Event to Enact Martial Law Kansas Lawmakers Pass Anti-Islamic Law Measure Facebook Co-Founder Renounces US Citizenship Obama Tied to Bill Ayers' Radical Leftist Organization from Age 11 Obama Selling Gay “Party Pack” Rev. Franklin Graham: Obama Has ‘Shaken His Fist at’ God 'I Am Not Going to Surrender My Office to the Federal Government,' Sheriff Arpaio Sheriff Joe Demands Obama Draft Registration Dems Revive Bill to Strip Sheriffs of Power MAP-21 Bill Could Revoke Passports and Force Motor Vehicles to be Equipped with ‘Event Data Recorder’ Society's Double Standard on Depravity Issa to Holder: ‘Fast and Furious Will Be Your Legacy’ Darrell Issa: Eric Holder Like ‘Waiting for Godot’ Obama’s Sordid High School Past: Drug Use, Black Nationalism Sorry, Joe, Most of Iran’s Nuclear Progress Has Come under Obama Surprise! Gay President Supports Gay Marriage America - Systemic Collapse (Pt 1) 2 Woman Accused of Cutting Baby from Womb in Kennewick Wants New Trial U.S. Military Conducts ‘Realistic Urban Training’ Exercise in Miami Military Training in the Middle of Miami Jolts Residents Out of Bed Chinese Group Plans to Construct a 200 Acre “China City” in Michigan Chinese Takeover of America Begins... Federal Reserve Clears Communist China for First 'Takover' of US Bank! Military Job Video... Internment Specialist Concentration Camp Guards in USA Russian Soldiers to Train at Fort Carson Raytheon Declares US Missile Interceptor Test 'a Success' Military Training in the Middle of Miami Jolts Residents Out of Bed House: No Gay Marriage on Bases Romney Reaffirms Support for Traditional Marriage Catholic Schools Could Be Breaking Law Over Gay Marriage, Warns Minister Gay Marriage is Obama’s Poison Pill Obama's Plan to Destroy the Republic Rick Wiles Interviews Doug Hagmann Regarding the Coming Civil War in America Al Sharpton: GOP Has Declared 'War on Black People' Time to 'Fire Back' 2 How the Oil Industry Deceived the US with Promise of Energy Independence Army Admits Re-Education Camp Manual “Not Intended For Public Release” Uncle Sam the Snooper American Freedoms Being Replaced with Illusion of Security Hurt: Obama’s Real ‘War’ Is Against the Elderly Obama Wants Power, Not Jobs Obama’s Same-Sex Evolution Takes Wide Stance on Homosexual ‘Marriage’ North Carolina Bans Gay Marriage Civil Unions, Too Killed in Colorado: Civil Unions Bill GOP Pushes East Coast Missile Defense Site Over 1,300 Tubes Damaged at Calif. Nuclear Plant Snapping Up, Locking Down the Land 'Green' Lawsuits Costing Taxpayers Millions Strange Anomalies in the Famous Situation Room Photo The Chicago Way: Justice for Sale at Holder's DOJ Issa to Holder: You Can Still Avoid Contempt If You Give Up Fast and Furious Documents Is Obama Negotiating Treaty That Would Essentially Ban All "Buy American" Laws? Obama: “2012 Is Make or Break for American Marxism” Obama Admin. Security Official: We Don't Need to Subpoena Reporters Anymore Because We Already Know Who They're Talking To Romney Silent as Supporter Insists Obama Be Tried for ‘Treason’ Obama's Secret Gun Control Plan! Dick Morris TV: Lunch Alert 2 Now a Witness to Breitbart's Death Vanishes The Planned Re-Election of Obama, Revolutionary Style Private Investigator Doug Hagmann Interview on TruNews AOW America Catering to Mexicans for Votes in Presidential Race U.S. Internment Camp: Prison for a New American Century Is Fast and Furious the Next Watergate? Ark. Congressman Wants to Disconnect $1 Billion Free Cell Phone Program Tracking Cellphones Compromises 4th Amendment Joe Biden on Gay Marriage Then and Now VP Biden on Same-Sex Marriage 3 Muslim Brotherhood Invades Tampa to Re-elect President Obama! 2 Special Warning: DHS Knows an Economic Collapse Is Coming and That People Are Not Prepared Leaked U.S. Army Document Outlines Plan for Re-Education Camps in America “We are Preparing for Massive Civil War,” Says DHS Informant Obama's Ex-Girlfriend: What Her Diaries Reveal Secret Files Missing at National Archives Due to "Chronic Disregard” Dictator Obama Issues New Threat to Supreme Court over ObamaCare Wave of Black Mobs Brutalizing Whites Since Trayvon Martin Slaying Obama Signs E.O. Declaring International Law for the UN Obama’s Midnight Madness: Prez Campaigns at Expense of Nation, National Security Issa Makes Case for Contempt Order Against Holder, Says 'Furious' Response 'Cannot Stand' “If I Wanted America to Fail” 1 Big Brother is Bipartisan, Good to Know Neo-Nazi Among 5 Killed in Arizona Home Shooting Facebook Users Heap Baggage on Spirit Airlines After Dying Vet Refused Refund Custody Battle Pits U.S. Mother Against Palestinian Father Who Moved His Kids to Gaza Seattle Mayor Issues Emergency Order After May Day Mayhem Shoot-to-Kill Order Enforced in No-Fly Zone During NATO Perverting Charity: One of America’s Largest Foundations Sets Aside Giving to Pour Millions into Liberal Political Causes Colorado Couple Downsizes to 127-square-foot Home 2 New Obama Slogan Has Long Ties to Marxism, Socialism Obama Has Yet to Understand That the Next President Will Be Cleaning Up His Messes SEALs: Obama Taking Credit for bin Laden ‘Cheap Shot’ Mark Levin Interviews Ex-CIA Chief Jose Rodriguez Who Says Pelosi Lied About Waterboarding Miller: Obama's Blame Game Gaffney: Wanted: A Competent Commander-in-Chief A Cynical Process: Labor Unions Have a Lot in Common with the UN U.S. Troops In Neighborhood Streets Fully Armed US Attorney General Eric Holder's Ballot to Vote Offered to Total Stranger 3 Top ICE Official Pleads Guilty in $500,000 Scam Human Colony Collapse Disorder: The Top 10 Countdown to Our Own Extinction Global Risk Consultant: World Is Changing But ‘Absolutely Foolish’ to Bet Against the US Polling Shows that Gun Love Is on the Rise Top EPA Official Armendariz Resigns Over 'Crucify' Comment Cyber Intelligence & Internet Spying: House Passes Draconian Internet Spying Bill Why You Should Be Afraid of CISPA ‘If You Don’t Have Any Guns, You Can Ask Eric Holder to Get Some For You’: Jimmy Kimmel’s Full Routine Authorities Refuse to Disclose Details of Chicago Evacuation Plan Virginia Lawmakers Agree to Reject NDAA 'Your' Car Won't Be After 2015 LAPD: Breitbart's Coroner May Have Died from Arsenic Poisoning 4 'Civilization Jihad' and Obama's Connections Republicans Prepare Contempt Citation Against Eric Holder Over Fast and Furious Report: Russian Troops to ‘Seize’ CIA Facility in Elaborate War Game... on U.S. Soil Russian Troops to Target Terrorists in America as Part of Drill Milwaukee Red Cross Told to Prep for Chicago Evac During NATO Summit Local NATO Hosts Red-Faced Over ‘Red Zone’ Militarization Plan Want to Know Just How Close the Muslim Brotherhood Is to the Obama Admin? 1 Michelle's Spanish Vacation Cost Taxpayers $500,000 Poll: Feds' Favorability Drops to 15-year Low Karl Rove’s Electoral Map: If Election Were Held Today, Obama Would Win The Romney Opportunity "More Than Any President, This Incumbent Is Willing to Say Things That Aren't in the Area Code of the Truth" Krauthammer: Biden Holds 'American Record for Wrong on Most Issues in Foreign Affairs Ever' Clinton Admin: US Secret Agents, WH Staff in Moscow Club Known for Sex, Drugs, Cop Raids - Report Labor Dept. Withdraws Farm Child Labor Rule Politics Stands in Way of Nuclear Plant's Future Americans Are Not Stupid - With Subtitles 5 Judge Wants Definition of 'Natural Born Citizen' Draft House Measure Demands Nuke Capability in New Bomber from Get-Go Jim Inhofe Rips EPA’s ‘Crucify Them’ Approach Report: Secret Service Involved in Second Prostitution Scandal Stealing Our Elections Obama Racialism, Fired Up in Jacksonville Obama Admin. Let Grenades Walk in Fast and Furious, Documents Show High-ranking DoJ Official to Resign Amid Fast and Furious, Virgin Islands Bribery Scandals TSA Screeners Allegedly Let Drug-Filled Luggage Through LAX for Cash Dad: TSA Got Aggressive With 7-Year-Old with Cerebral Palsy Dershowitz: Prosecutor in Trayvon Martin Case Overreached with Murder Charge Teen Charged with Hate Crime, Says He Was Mad About Trayvon Martin Contract Battle Sets Up Possible ‘Occupy’ Shutdown Attempt on Golden Gate Romney Promises 'Better America' after 5-State Primary Sweep Puts Pressure on Gingrich In the Social Media World, Rubio Would Be Romney's Veep Choice H. L. Mencken Says Obama Is Not the Problem IRS May Have Authority to Remove Your Right to Have a Firearm Secret Service Scandal Focus Now on Capitol Hill Pentagon Confirms Plan to Create New Spy Agency 3 More Agents Ousted in Secret Service Scandal, 2 Others Cleared Senior U.S. General Orders Top-to-Bottom Review of Military’s Islam Training No Charges Over 'Reverse Trayvon Martin' Shooting in Phoenix Area Bank of America's War on the Second Amendment Federal Communications Commission Is More Secretive Than the CIA Obama’s Enemies List 10 "Cannots" for Society! Justice Sotomayor: Tax Evasion, Perjury - What Did Obama Know & When? Agenda 21: The End of Western Civilization North Dakota Votes to Secede from Union Arizona: Countdown to the Showdown on S.B. 1070 Scandals, Scandals Everywhere! Homes Abandoned Amid Riot Warnings in Chicago House GOP Rejects Vote on Obama State Department Set to Cede Oil-Rich Alaska Islands to Russia Another Fraud Charge on Convicted Felon George Soros: Flying the Coop on His Fraud Company and a $39.4 Million Judgment Against It! Black Mob Beats White Man to Near Death When Is Race Important in Violent Deaths? Georgia Granny Thwarts 2 Would-Be Robbers in Shootout 10 Important Issues Only Ron Paul is Addressing New York Store Dedicated to 100% Domestic Merchandise 2012 GPA Redistribution Petition & Video Contest - Carthage College 1 Obama Increasingly Seeking Ways to Act Without Congress Lindsey Williams on Jeff Rense Spills the Beans Slaves or Not: the American Police State TSA Installs Undercover Agents on Texas Busses Domestic Drone Authorizations Iran Building Copy of Captured US Drone 18 Venn Diagrams Showing How Corrupted American ‘Democracy’ Really Is What Most Gun Nuts Get Wrong New Agency Office of Financial Research Stirs Orwellian Fears GOP Senators Accuse Obama of Lying About Scarcity of Oil Supply after USGS showed US May Have More Than 20% of World's Untapped Supply, Not 2% Another “False Flag” Operation Pending EU gives US Go Ahead for ‘Big Brother’ Snooping Surveillance Net: “Beyond Anything That Has Ever Existed Previously” Possible New Evidence Shows George Zimmerman's Bloodied Head Congress Is About to Pass Bill That Restricts Traveling, Driving and International Banking Ted Nugent Meets Secret Service: Was He Singled Out? Mass-Casualty Earthquake Drill Held in Ogden Social Security Administration Letting Tax Dollars Go Up in Smoke Pentagon Chief: 'We're Within an Inch of War Almost Every Day’ Does President Obama Take Too Many Vacations? 1 3 Out at Secret Service in Colombia Prostitution Scandal as Congressman Warns 'It's Not Over' No Joy in Democratville Regarding the Election Mark Levin: Obama Is an Imperial President Stop the Liberal Presses: NYT/CBS Poll Finds Trouble for Obama TransCanada Submits New Keystone XL Pipeline Plan Lindsey Williams on Alex Jones VOW 2 The Eligibility Issue Still Matters to Americans Obama: "We've Begun to See What Change Looks Like" (and it's ugly) Illinois City Official Accused of Stealing $30M from Taxpayers Governments Cash in on Carbon Taxes Red Alert: Draconian CISPA Bill Picking Up Sponsors Ahead of Vote Next Week Here's What You Need to Know About the Gov’t Possibly Mandating Vehicle ‘Black Boxes’ Legendary Dick Clark, 82, Dead of Massive Heart Attack Senate Dems Refuse to Produce a Budget for 3rd Year in a Row Blackhawks Circle Low Through Chicago Skies as Secret Service Releases Security Details 1 Shredding the Constitution All Aboard the Auschwitz Express: “People Don’t Want to Believe It” Appeals Court Upholds Arizona's Voter ID Requirement House Bill Limits Federal Restrictions on Hunting 10 Disgusting Examples of School Children Being Arrested, Handcuffed and Brutalized by Police 800+ Major Corporations and U.S. Chamber of Commerce Support Internet Freedom-Crushing CISPA Secret Service Looking into Ted Nugent Violent Anti-Obama Message Keystone XL Likely Dead Fukushima Daiichi and US Domestic Nuclear Crisis Record Number 1,800 Americans Renounce Citizenship Over Taxes The Babylonian Captivity of Washington: Israel Can Start a War and the US Can Do Nothing to Stop It Security Clearances Yanked for 11 Agents Accused in Prostitution Scandal GSA Exec Pleads Fifth on Capitol Hill Outrageous Spending 1 Join Demand to Investigate Mich. DNR Director Rodney Stokes Over Forced Shooting of Baby Piglets in Cold Blood Here's the E.O. re: Yesterday's New Item.: Supporting Safe and Responsible Development of Unconventional Domestic Natural Gas Resources Senate GOP Blocks Buffett Rule Bill Obama in Colombia: ‘Part of My Job Is to Scout Out Where I May Want to Bring Michelle Back Later for Vacation’ Little-Known DOJ Cell Watches Trayvon Martin Protests Helter Skelter Manufactured Crisis=Manufactured Race Wars The Real Obama: His Inner Circle 2 Poll: Pelosi Still the Least-Liked Member of Congress Obama's Bodyguards Sent Back to US after Prostitution Scandal Scandal Overshadows Obama Colombia Trip Obama: I'll Be Angry If Secret Service Prostitution Allegations Are True Issa on Scandal: Not the First Time Romney Warns NRA: Obama Coming for Guns Not-So-Smooth Operator: Obama Increasingly Comes Across as Devious and Dishonest Power Grab for Natural Gas New Executive Order Why America Is Devolving Towards Absolute Government Control - With America Headed Towards Socialism, Most Care Not Enough to Resist Ex-Reporter Sues After Alleged Police Brutality Deleted Off Camera The Nuclear Assassination of America Exposed Farrakhan Threatens: People Will Kill Their Leaders in a Few Days Former Hitler Youth Whistleblower Warns of America's Nazi Future 1 Big Sis Needs More Ammunition This Time for Training Obama Hammered for 'Jetting Around,' Taking Vacations While Americans Suffer Outmaneuvering Netanyahu - Obama's Iran Strategy Obama Abuses Words as Clinton Abused Women Something Wicked This Way Comes America and Titanic: a Shared Destiny? Obama Supporter, Rosen, Ignites Mommy Wars with Romney Rosen Didn't Misspeak; She Spoke Deliberately, with Passion Gambling on Security: Is America Safe Enough to Afford a Downsized Military? Napolitano Perjures Herself to Congress in Fast & Furious Testimony Twice as Many Unmarried Couples Having Babies City Council Awakens to Evil and Defeats It Cable Glitch Causes Porn to Air on Colorado Springs Channel Instead of Good Morning America US Military Stocking Up on Massive Amount of Anti-Radiation Pills Prepping for Nuke Fallout US Military Stocking Up on Massive Amount of Anti-Radiation Pills Prepping for Nuke Fallout Congress Flooded with Calls to Probe Obama Obama: Who's Your Daddy? 3 State Seizes Property Under ‘Green’ Zoning Laws, Terrorizes Man to Death Agenda 21's Eco-Fascism Bares Its Teeth Zimmerman to Face 2nd-degree Murder Charge 'Thank You, Lord,' Says Martin's Mother Tyson on Zimmerman: 'It's a Disgrace He Hasn't Been Shot Yet' Race War! Democrat La Raza (meaning The Race) President: Blacks, Hispanics Should Team Up ‘To Attack Common Enemies’ 1 Stealing the 2012 Election Planned!... A SPANISH Company NOT the American People Will 'Count' Votes in November! Allen West: I ‘Believe’ About 80 House Dems Are Communists, and Obama is ‘Too Scared’ to Debate Me Andrew Napolitano: What If the Gov't Rejects the Constitution? Map of the Dead Zombie Survival How Are Those Supreme Court Attacks Working Out for You? Obama as Farce Cities A Prepper’s Nightmare & Solutions Treasury to Cut Costs by Remaking Coins, Replacing Paper Nazi Engineers, Secret U.S. Military Bases, and Elevators to the Subterranean and Submarine Depths (Pt 1) DoD to Further Militarize U.S. Law Enforcement with Hundreds of Military Robots CISPA = SOPA 2.0? 1 US Military Sets Goal to Cut Power Grid Dependence Could Require $20B in Private Financing Gary North: Forget Moving Overseas American Universities Infected by Foreign Spies Detected by FBI Gas Prices Grow More Under Obama than Carter Study Claims ObamaCare Would Explode US Deficit Obama Receives Brazil's Ex-Terrorist President Oblivious to the Obvious Obama's Re-Election: A Stake in the Heart of the American Spirit This Is How Media 'Fact Checks' Obama? There's Truth, Then There's "Obama Truth" See Obama Double Speak Wall Street Insider: My God... My God... What Has Become of America? How NBC Editors Made the Zimmerman 911 Call Sound Racist Luxury Doomsday Prepper Shelters Being Built Into an Abandoned KS Missile Silo MPAA Chairman Chris Dodd Wants to Resurrect SOPA, Confirms Secret Negotiations WH Diverted $500M to IRS to Implement Healthcare Law Senate Budget Leader Predicts Budget Stalemate Through 2012 Campaign WH Ignores Congress, Sends All $1.5 Billion in Aid to Egypt O'Keefe's Latest: Voter Fraud Investigation Lands on Eric Holder's Doorstep 1 13 Ways Government Tracks Us What If Earth Day Explodes 4/22/2012. USA Is Not a Government! 3 Ted Nugent: Thank Obama for Record Gun Sales Globalist Plan to Disarm America New Black Panthers: Race War for Trayvon April 9th 'Day of Action' 2 (language warning) The Left’s Frontal Assault on the Supreme Court Kuhner: Obama v. Supreme Court President Would Weaken the Pillars of Our Republic to Get His Way Obama’s Bullying of Court Shameful Holder Says Court Power to Review Laws 'Beyond Dispute' Savage New Territory: Trickle Down Tyranny US Gov't. Orders 750+ Million Rounds of Hollow Point Ammo in 3 Years Leader of ‘DARPA for Spies’ Steps Down Obama's Budget: 'Interest Payments Will Exceed Defense Budget' in 2019 Man, 78, Beaten by Teens: 'This Is for Trayvon' Asked Why Gas Prices Are Going Up, Biden Gives 11 Minute Answer on Iran, Bombing Oil Fields 1 California's Nuclear Power Woes Obama Misquotes Bible on Wealth Redistribution They Party ... On Your Tax Dollars: Video Shows Feds Joking About Cost of Lavish Conference Arlen Specter: a Sty in the Public Eye US Plans to Deploy Combat Ships to Singapore: Panetta Islamic Indoctrination in Textbooks Obama Engaged in "Unhinged Attack," Hensarling Says Exposing the Obama-Soetoro Deception Former Obama Student: Obama's Ignorance of Constitution Embarrassing Judge Napolitano: I Think the President Is Dangerously Close to Totalitarianism 1 Hope for the Dead Andrew Napolitano Links Freedom from Government Control to Jesus' Resurrection Obama Is Making the Case for His Own Impeachment Arpaio: If DOJ Wants to take me to Court, Fine, I’ll Meet Them in Court Secrets of Prometheus Film Leaked 2 Gun Shops: Obama Re-election, Doomsday “Preppers” Still Driving Rocketing Sales USDA Orders 326,000 Rounds of Ammo as Homeland Security Stays Quiet Over 450 Million Round Order Police Officers Sentenced Over Katrina Killings Canadian PM Blasts Obama on Keystone: The U.S. Is an Unreliable Energy Partner School Changes Lyrics from 'God Bless the USA' to 'We Love the USA' 'It's On, Cuz We Don't Have to Worry About Re-election' Could the Pelican Brief Become Reality by the Assassination of Supreme Court Justices to Save Obamacare? WH Not Considering Slashing Deployed Arsenal to 300 Nukes: Expert Why the US Cannot Extract Most of its Oil Reserves Iran Says if Attacked by Washington "No Place in America Will Be Safe from Our Attacks" Iran Will Retaliate If Attacked, But How? No Limitations on U.S. Missile Defense: Envoy Russia to Consider Sanctions Against U.S. Romney Sweeps 3 Primary Contests, Eyes General Election Battle NSA Whistleblower Thomas Drake Prevails in Unprecedented Obama Admin. Crackdown 3 Former WH Speechwriter Suggests Military Coup Could Oust Obama Full Text of Newsmax Column Suggesting Coup A Nation Arms Itself for What? Lawmaker Wants Hearing Over $820G Vegas Bash Oscar-Winning Producer Presents '2016': Investigative Obama Documentary World Trade Center Nears Landmark Height, Reaches 100 Floors President Obama Warns 'Unelected' Supreme Court Against Striking Down Health Care Law The Real Obama: Betraying Israel 1 Obama Imposes Martial Law Who Shrank Our President? Just 6% Rate Congress’ Job Performance as Good or Excellent US Draws Up Plans for Nuclear Drones Pentagon Activates Missile Defenses for NKorean Launch Affirmative Action Ban Upheld in California The Census' Broken Privacy Promise American Crime: Black on Black; Black on White Top Obama Campaign Donor Accused of Fraud Arpaio Takes Obama’s ‘Forgery’ to Public: "Biggest Constitutional Crisis Since Watergate" Occidental College Transcripts Reveals Obama Claimed Foreign Citizenship to Get Scholarship With GPS Data Out, Feds Eye Warrantless Cell Phone Surveillance Obama: Government 'Made This Country Great' (and we always thought it was the people!) Swing States Poll: A Shift by Women Puts Obama in Lead Homeland Security Targets Anti-Abortion Activists as Domestic Terrorists DHS Isn’t the Only Ammo Hog in the U.S. Civil War Has Begun: America Is Fatally Deceived Melissa Woodward: A Sex Slave's Story America is Freemasonry's "New Atlantis" UN Decides When We Go to War, Without Congressional Approval VOW 1 The Voter ID Battle Feds to Announce Distribution of $500M from Google The Trayvon Timeline: How Local Crime Story Became National Racial Outrage ABC News Doctors Zimmerman Video to Peddle False Story in Trayvon Martin Case Parents of Murdered British Students Criticize Obama Hurt: Brutal Week for Obama, the Worst of His Presidency Behind-the-Scenes Attempt to Kill Arizona’s Obama Eligibility Bill Hero U.S. Soldier Gives Life to Save Afghan Girl Lawmakers Press Obama to Help Avoid Defense Cuts Air Force Announces It's Upgrading the One Plane It Needs to Bomb Iran FBI Memo: Agents Can “Bend or Suspend the Law and Impinge Upon the Freedoms of Others” DHS Buying 450 Million New Bullets Fear Grows in Calif. Cities Near San Onofre Nuclear Plant EPA Climate Proposal Could Limit Coal's Future, at Least in U.S. 5 Arrested, Accused of Forcing High School Girls to be Prostitutes Obama Budget Defeated 414-0 Feds Refuse to Release Obama Draft Docs to Sheriff Joe Plans for a New Pipeline to Rival Keystone XL Lawyer: Zimmerman Police Video the 'Smoking Gun' Man Arrested at Philly Airport Over Alleged Bomb Family Demands to Know If Weapons Used to Kill ICE Agent Could Have Been Seized Before They Crossed into Mexico Jack Van Impe: Obama Has Been Chosen to Lead New World Order 2 CNN Poll: Obama Leads GOP Candidates Not Being Gay is Now a Crime Man Destroys Neighbor's House With Bobcat After Accusing Them of Selling Drugs 1Al-Qaida Warns Muslims: Time to Get Out of U.S. Al-Qaida Nukes Already in U.S. 7 Cities Targeted Why Obama's Open Mic Slip Could Seriously Hurt His Reelection Hopes The Terrible Truth Told by Obama's Open Mic Slip Issa Says Obama’s ‘Going to Sell Out Our National Defense After the Election’ Russian Media Expose Obama's Birth 'Forgery' Eligibility Invades U.S. Town-Hall Meetings Troubled U.S. Nuclear Plant to Stay Shut Down A Nuclear Blast of Any Size Would End D.C. as We Know It Freight Train Carrying HAZMAT Derails, Catches Fire in NE Indiana JetBlue Pilot Subdued After Total Meltdown on Flight Boston Loses Landmark Case Against Man Who Recorded Police Brutality The Audacity of Obama’s Intentions Revealed Obama’s Hot Mike Disaster U.S. Military Being Replaced With Obama's Own National Security Force?... Obama Youth Gestapo? 7 Rules of Bureaucracy "Guns" I Think You Should Read This Was Trayvon Martin a Drug Dealer? Women Don't Need Men Green Climate Fund Wants Immunity from Any Kind of Prosecution Obama: 'After My Election I'll Have More Flexibility' Insider Warned Us Obama’s Racial Division Plan Now Underway... Santorum to NYT Reporter: "Quit Distorting Our Words, It's Bulls---" 2 President Obama’s Hall of Blame Obama Replacing U.S. Military With His Own National Security Force? Dick Morris: Obama Has Assumed Dictatorial Powers The Presidents Book of Secrets VOW 2 U.S. Military Purging 'Birthers'? Thousands to Facebook Marine: We've Got Your Back National League of Cities Efforts to Ban Guns in America Through Your Local Government Group Teaching Homeless How to Invade Apartments 9/11/01: Failures of US Secret Service on Morning of 9/11: Call for Transparency "After America, There is No Place to Go" Trayvon Shooter 'Couldn't Stop Crying' After Shooting\ Witness Counters Trayvon Media Narrative Says 17-Year-Old Was Beating Zimmerman Before Shooting Gingrich Says President’s Remarks About Trayvon Shooting ‘Disgraceful’ Black Panthers Offer Bounty for Capture of George Zimmerman ...Calls for Lynching Leveraging Racism for Chaos Gateway to Communism Spike Lee Retweets Zimmerman’s Home Address Teacher Fired After Not Noticing 3rd Graders Having Oral Sex Under Desk Alex Jones Breaks Down the Martial Law System with George Noory 1 Martial Law Executive Order: History Should Cause Concern, Not Comfort US Intelligence to Keep Tabs on Americans With No Ties to Terror Kuhner: Obama’s Power Grab Screw Democracy! Obama Administration Will Give Muslim Brotherhood $1.5 Billion in US Aid Federal Judge Okays Flag Desecration Supreme Court Ruling: Victory for Property Owners, Defeat for EPA Gun Sales Explode as Election Looms Sturm, Ruger Can’T Keep Up With Demand, Suspends Sales Obama Administration's Plan to Cut Back Pilot Firearm Training Raises Security Concerns 'This Is Such a Crock': Limbaugh Calls Out President for 'Approving' the Keystone Deal Limbaugh on Obama's Keystone Pipeline Half Approval 2 Team Obama Selling Vulgar T-Shirts Prisoner Exodus in California Continues, Sparking Safety Concerns Human Fetuses Found in Luggage at Miami Airport Marine Faces Discharge for Being Openly Critical of President Obama 8th Graders Forced to Gather Opposition Research on GOP Candidates Sheriff Joe Wants Obama's Original Draft Card Asks Feds: What Steps Will Be Taken to Investigate Possible Forgery? The Selling of the Presidency, 2012 Joseph Farah Tries to Keep Straight Face Watching Propaganda Film Obama Caught Fibbing at Oil Field 1 Obama Tries to Spread Blame on Solyndra, Keystone The Militarization of America Super Rich Republican Donor Calls Obama ‘The Most Dangerous American Alive’ Ken Blackwell: Holder's ‘War’ on Voter IDs Decried as Obama Re-election Tool More Senators Express Disappointment in Holder’s Job Performance If I Were the Devil: Paul Harvey (Warning for a Nation) 2 OWS Protesters Dumping Fecal Matter, Urine Around NYC 4 Gaffe-a-Minute Biden Jokes Inappropriately About the Irish: 'Lubricating Has a Different Meaning!' MUSHROOM ALERT! Legislature to Vote on Dozens of Imaginary Budget Bills Today! Obama Doubles Down on Solar Energy Efforts Energy Industry Accuses Obama of Rigging Oil Numbers of Untapped Resources Feeding the Homeless Banned in Major Cities All Over America Obama Wants to Track You Why is Obama Lying About US Oil Reserves? 5 Dirty Secrets Obama Doesn’t Want You to Learn before the Election Huckabee: Does Voter ID Battle Make Sense? 3 Obama Executive Order: Takeover of Municipalities Drowning in Debt! Obama Bypasses Fossil Fuels to Burn Green Dollars The Obama Admin.: All Your Privacy and All Your Stuff Belong to Us The Real Obama: Absolute Power 1 Did the Obama Admin Give MSNBC Sensitive National Security Info on Movement of Nuclear Materials? US War Game Simulates Aftermath of Israeli Strike on Iran Gov't. Buying All 5.56 Military Surplus Ammo & Telling Ammo Dealers to Stop Selling to Vendors & Civilians Obama's Legalization of Slavery and Systematic Population Reduction A Video That Is Beyond Disgusting What the Mailman Knows about Ayers and Obama Obama Blamed Troubles on Fox News, Book Begich-Manchin Has One Purpose: To Keep the Senate Gavel in Harry Reid's Hands Tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve The Decline of American Power Continues 3 Grading the Nation: How Accountable Is Your State? 8 Get an 'F' on Corruption Rotten Deal? Despite Tim Tebow's Heroics, Broncos Bring in Manning Obama Executive Order: Peacetime Martial Law! New Obama Executive Order Seizes U.S. Infrastructure and Citizens for Military Preparedness Read Obama's Latest E.O.: National Defense Resources Preparedness Executive Order: Power Grab or Mere Update? Gov’t Study Asks: What Happens if Someone Nukes D.C.? Document: "National Capital Region: Key Response Planning Factors for the Aftermath of Nuclear Terrorism" Proposed UN Environmental Constitution for World Would Establish an Incredibly Repressive Global Governance The Chief Executive Has Just Declared: Congress Is Irrelevant “We Are This Far from a Turnkey Totalitarian State" - Big Brother Goes Live September 2013 The NSA Is Building the Country’s Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say) Tennessee Lawmakers and UN Agenda 21 Navy Expected to Recommend a Force of About 300 Ships Holder in 1995: We Must 'Brainwash' People on Guns Just 41% Say America’s Best Days in Future The Obama Flag, Who Decided It Would Be OK? A Black Man, The Progressive’s Perfect Trojan Horse Gunboats, Super-Torpedoes, Sea-Bots: U.S. Navy Launches Huge Iran Surge Castro Knew JFK wAs About to be Killed, Claims Retired CIA Intelligence Chief 2012 or Never Kuhner: Oust Obama President’s Globalist Doctrine Undermines American Sovereignty Activist: Voter ID Laws Aren't Discriminatory Ayers: 'Revolution' Needed to Stop 'White Supremacy' 4 78% of Voters: Don't Send US Troops to Syria He Thinks You’re Stupid… Obama Repeats Myth About US Oil Reserves ATK to Supply 450 Million Rounds of .40 Caliber Ammo to DHS Napolitano: Can the Secret Service Tell You to Shut Up? Road Open After HAZMAT Situation at Los Alamos Labs Announcing the Creation of FEMA Corps U.S., Britain to Agree to Release Emergency Oil Reserves FBI Warns of Homegrown Violence After Afghan Massacre U.S. Troops Numb... Blago Heads to Colorado to Serve 14-Year Sentence Courts or Polls May Be Next Stop in Pa. Voter ID Law Fight Texas Takes Aim at Blocked Voter ID Law UN Human Rights Council Will Investigate US Voter ID Laws Obama’s Words Disguise His Israel Foreign Policy Actions AFL-CIO Plans Door-to-Door Politicking for Obama and Other Dems Obama's Fix for Gas Prices: "Set Up Task Force to Look into Speculation" 30 Years Later, Same Vital Questions 2 Only 20% Say They Are Better Off Now Than 4 Years Ago Marines Forced to Disarm Before Panetta Speech in Afghanistan It's Not About ’Stuff‘ It’s About a ‘Mindset’: Beck and Panel Discuss Emergency Preparedness American Flag (Made in China) with Obama's Image Sparks Outrage at Florida Dems Regulation Nation: New Study Finds Obama’s Regs Cost $46 Billion a Year Poll: Government Officers Impeding Reporter Access to Info, Interviews Key Witness in Obama Passport Fraud Case Murdered in Front of Church The War Is Over, the War Is Lost, Bring Them Home Major US Airport to Evict TSA Screeners TSA Wasteland in Graphic Display Which Is Better - A Society with Loose Sexuality or a Society with Strict Rules for Sexuality? Residents Fleeing Puerto Rico More Natives Live in U.S. Than on the Island Why Are Millions of Americans Preparing for Doomsday? My Doomsday Tab: $130K on Bunkers, Guns and More Media Works Hard to Protect Obama on Gas Prices Media Cover-up of Obama Impeachment Exposed 1 Poll: 88% of Americans Vote YES to an Obama Impeachment Dead People and Clones Voting in Vermont Taliban Threatens to Behead US Soldiers Over Changing Our Country Into Several Countries Obama's Secret Plan to Soar Gas Prices Chuck Norris Exposes Strategy to Sabotage Americans at the Pump Obama Signs Anti-Protest Trespass Bill Obama Admin. to Congress: You’re Irrelevant Why Is Obama Administration Not Interested in Defense of the U.S.? Obama Is Killing America Mary Matalin Smacks Down Spitzer: We're Not Better off Than 4 Years Ago, "If Carter Was Malaise, This Is Despair" 3 Will a Sitting President Finally Be Held Accountable for High Crimes and Misdemeanors? Our Choice: Impeachment or Dictatorship Tom Tancredo Urges House to Begin Proceedings Against Obama ASAP Gun Sales Up 24%, Some See Link to Obama Re-Election Fears Gun Nation: Inside America's Gun-Carry Culture CAIR Hails 'Sharia' Victory in Florida, Presses Broader Agenda in Congress Obama Apologizes for Afghan Slayings, Still Ignores Mexican ‘Fast and Furious’ Murders US Military Turns Up the Heat on Rioting Mobs Planned Parenthood Accused of $6M Fraud Obama Quietly Prepares for Fall as Republicans Fight Gallup: Half of All Americans Call Obama Presidency 'Failure' Lou Dobbs: Report Details 21 Legal Violations By Obama Admin. 1 What Happened to “We the People”? Soros and Big Dem Donors Set to Clean Up from NAT Gas Act Keystone XL Pipeline Denied Lifeline Thrown by Republicans 'Sandhogs' Dig Massive Tunnels Under NYC 4 Why Putin Is Driving Washington Nuts Coup D’etat: Pentagon & Obama Declare Congress Ceremonial Texas Children Found Living in School Bus, While Parents Imprisoned for Embezzlement Exclusive: Unedited Obama Race Video Unveiled 1 High School Students‘ ’USA! USA!’ Victory Chant Deemed Racial Insult Free Speech in US, but Only in Designated Zones? Panetta: US Weighs Iran Strike Plans Reluctant U.S. Prepares Military Options for Syria New U.S. Air Force Energy Strategy Call for Nuclear Reactors in Space Arsenal of Weapons, Explosives Found at NY Home 12 States on Path to Guns With No Permits Panel Recommends US Customize Nuclear Power Plant Emergency Plans No Food Stamps for $1 Million Lotto Winner How to Beat a TSA Body Scanner and Flush a Billion Dollars Down the Toilet John Bolton Responds to Obama's Tuesday News Conference Calling It a 'Conscious Falsehood' 2 Confirmed: Obama's Birth Certificate Not Authentic 2012 1 Michelle Obama Attends $100,000 Per Couple Fundraiser Congress 'Criminalizing' First Amendment 'No Longer Need to be Conspiracy Theorist' to Worry About Police State The Era of the Creepy-State is Here Obama’s Missile Defense Madness The Scorched-Earth Politics of America's 4 Fundamentalisms How Much Does Obama's Campaign Know About You? Supreme Court Ginsburg Likes Use of Foreign Law Attorney General Holder Says Murder Is Legal Obama Second Term Odds Spurs Rash of Gun Buying Majority in 3 Key States Doubt Obama Eligibility Obama's Remaking of America Report: Wikileaks Emails from Stratfor Allege Osama Might Not Have Been Buried at Sea Holder Promises to Kill Citizens with Care Why Are We Still in Afghanistan? 'Make My Day' for Businesses Bill Fails in Colo. Senate Minorities Now the Majority in 106 US Cities The NDAA: A Clear and Present Danger to American Liberty Obama Sets NDAA Detention Guidelines Hawaii Official Now Swears No Obama Birth Certificate Is Obama Targeting Key Patriots on Enemies List? Malice in Wonderland as Barack’s Presidency Finally Runs Out of Gas Daylight: The Story of Obama and Israel VOW 1 Terrorist Lawyer Gets Big Justice Post Marines 'Starting to Look Ridiculous' Making Military Families Pay Barrasso: Strategic Petroleum Reserve Is for Emergencies - Not Political Disasters Senator: Obama's Acting Like U.S. Is USSR Obama Likens Himself to Mandela, Gandhi "Go to Hell Barack" Ad Greets Commuters at Washington DC Metro Station AZ Sheriff Joe Arpaio Releases Results of Obama Birth Certificate Probe: ‘Forgery’ After $400M Fed Loan, 3rd Obama-Financed Solar Company in Trouble Breitbart's Last Investigation? Obama Michael Savage Raises the Question: Was Breitbart Assassinated? Alan Dershowitz: Media Matters Hurts Obama Media Matters to Dershowitz: 'Go to Hell' ‘Anti-Jewish Extremism’: Group Takes Out Full-Page NY Times Ad Blasting Media Matters & CAP The TSA Is Coming to a Highway Near You Must-Watch Video: Unsafe American Nuclear Plants Pt 1, Pt 2 2 Egyptian-Held Americans Freed after $300K-Each Payment Made Clinton: Build Keystone Pipeline on Alternative Route Springsteen's 'Wrecking Ball' Slams into Dire Times Publisher and Author Andrew Breitbart Dead Conservative Commentator Andrew Breitbart Dead at 43 3 In Memoriam: Andrew Breitbart (1969-2012) Goodbye, First Amendment: ‘Trespass Bill’ Will Make Protest Illegal Obama Issues Another Unconstitutional Edict Arizona Sheriff Probes Obama's Birth Certificate The Autoworkers Obama Left Behind Holder Loses Cool During House Hearing When Asked About Fast and Furious ...Could Be Jailed for Ongoing Cover-up Occupy, Nation of Islam Hold Joint Rally Shooting a RINO The Coming Biological Warfare Attack in America FEMA Preparing “National Responder Support Camps” Eerily Similar to KBR’s “National Quick Response Team” Gallup Poll: 72% of Americans Call Individual Mandate ‘Unconstitutional’ George Soros Tells Progressive Donors Obama Might Not Be the Best Investment Obama Energy Chief Bombshell Admission ... Detention-prevention Bill Hangs in Balance Obama to Cut Healthcare for Troops It's Coming: Union, Leftist Leaders Announce '99% Spring?'... and Training in 'Places of Worship' Swing States Poll: Health Care Law Hurts Obama in 2012 11 Reasons to Get Your Kids Out of Government Schools Denver Anarchists ‘Urine Bomb’ Police 1 Silencing the Critics The Battle for the Soul of America TransCanada to Proceed with U.S. Southern Leg of Keystone Pipeline Global Warming Causes Amnesia How to Destroy America: A Speech by Governor Lamm 13-Man SWAT Team Raids Medical Marijuana Patients' Home KKK: Membership 'Booming' in Colorado Kirk Cameron's 'Monumental' Film Looks to Rediscover America's 'National Treasure' Great News: ObamaCare High-Risk Pools Cost Double Their Original Projections The Con Artist: We Can’t Afford a Sequel 3 Here Comes Obama's 3 AM Phone Call Wyoming Lawmaker Introduces Doomsday Bill to Prepare for Collapse of Federal Government Can Obama's Detention Plans Be Stopped? Is America a Police State Yet? It's Time D.C. Understood: 'This Is Our America' Obama Plays Race Card, Calls on Churches to Support Campaign Farrakhan Warns Race Hate Could Lead Obama Assassination Attempts 33 Ways to Encourage Atlas to Shrug 9/11 Foreknowledge Caught on Computers That Measure Global Mind Wikileaks Pairs with Anonymous to Publish Intelligence Firm’s Dirty Laundry Clinton to Muslims: Pay No Attention to GOP Campaign Talk Mark Levin Slams First Lady for Class Warfare Marxist Bullcrap! 3 Signs You're Living in Georgia States Sue to Block Obama Contraception Mandate Obama Brag: "I've Got Another Five Years Coming Up" 'Stupid' and Oil Prices US Preparing for Military Intervention in Syria? Obama Leading America to War Another Obama Lefty Confirmed to the Bench Little Background on Jesse Furman What Ron Paul’s Detractors Reveal Sen. Pat Roberts' Office Is Latest to Get Powder-Filled Letter Maryland Poised to Legalize Gay Marriage Homosexual Manifesto Threatens America 3 The Big Creep GOP Field Clashes in Heated Debate AP Fact Check: GOP Candidates Make Debate Claims on Bailouts, Budgets & Taxes Politics Obama Brags About Bypassing Congress - Again: ‘Joe and I We’re Going to Act’ Poll: USA More Hopeful on Economy, Not Politics Son of Marx Midair Helicopter Crash Kills 7 Marines This Forgotten Oil State Could Out-Produce Alaska and California Soon Grandfather Arrested for Holding Burglar at Gunpoint While Waiting for Police to Arrive Iran Missiles Could Hit US in 2-3 Years McCain to Introduce Cybersecurity Legislation Giving Even More Domestic Control to NSA, Military Virginia Votes to Refuse NDAA Free Speech for Conservatives The Basic Reason for America’s Constitutional Crisis New Government Initiative Would Circumvent 2nd Amendment By Targeting Ammunition Not Guns Americans' Satisfaction Almost as Low as It Was Under Carter Reigniting the Tea Party Movement 3 She Animal - The New Female Sexual Predator Obama State Department Set to Cede Oil-Rich Alaska Islands to Russia Top 10 Reasons to Elect Anybody But Obama Newt: 'You Can't Put a Gun Rack in a Volt' 1 Special Ops Forces Killed in Air Crash in Horn of Africa Infographic on the Greatest Gun Salesman in America: President Obama Attractive Females Targeted by TSA Agents for Multiple Naked Body Scans Illegitimacy Becoming the Norm Tween Dating on the Rise Ron Paul: U.S. ‘Slipping into a Fascist System’ Reversing Obama’s ‘Soft Despotism’ Gradually, Then Suddenly Santorum: 'I Wasn’t Suggesting the President's Not a Christian' Buchanan Liberated from MSNBC Constraints Just Weeks after 17-Day Hawaii Vacation, Michelle Hits Slopes with Daughters in Aspen U.S. Nuclear Plants Spark Concerns Behind 9/11: Hr 1, Hr 2, Hr 3, Hr 4 VOW Top Secret America, Pt 1: A Hidden World, Growing Beyond Control Top Secret America, Pt 2: National Security Inc. Top Secret America, Pt 3: The Secrets Next Door Top Secret America, Pt 4: Monitoring America American Politics in One Easy Lesson Maine GOP Recounting Caucus Votes (see yesterday's video) Overreach: Obamacare vs. the Constitution FEMA Solicits Firms to Monitor Media Coverage of Their Activities New Jersey Passes Gay Marriage Bill, Christie Expected to Veto 5 Reasons to Oppose Gay Marriage Bathing, Sex Habits Fair Game for Census? 2nd NC Mother Says Daughter’s School Lunch Replaced for Not Being Healthy Enough Miller: Obama’s Fast and Furious Spin Who Are Police Dash Cams Really Protecting? President Obama’s Plan to Kill Armed Pilot Program Obama's Nurse Ratched The Rising Fever of Despotism Obama's Catholic Church Gambit: Lessons from American Communists Boxer: Insurance Rights Trumps Religious Rights Maxine Waters Calls Republican Leaders 'Demons' Maine Prevents Ron Paul Victory Because of "Snow"!! Rampant Voter Fraud in Maine 2 Santorum Paid Double Romney's Tax Rate in 2010 FCC Cracking Down on Dinner-Interrupting Marketing Robocalls Americans Are NOT Stupid (Just Ignorant?) 4 It's Five Minutes 'Til Twelve - Pt 2 Investment Firm Fires WND Reporter for Exposing Scandal Ted Nugent (a bit extreme) on the 2nd Amendment 3 Insanity! Is Barack Obama Going to Unilaterally Slash Size of U.S. Nuclear Arsenal by Another 80%? HOLLY NOTE: First Panetta drastically cuts the military budget, then to meet these budget demands, the Pentagon may oust troops. Our Navy is smaller than it has ever been since 1917, the Air Force is smaller and older since its founding and now Obama wants to eliminate 80% of our best deterrent weapons. "Strength through deterrence" is on the chopping block. We are being neutered, made exposed and vulnerable. This not only puts our own country at risk, but all those who America protects. Obama's living up to his promise to "profoundly change America". Now we pay the price. Obama HAS GOT TO GO! Obama Provides a Hint of How He'd Fight Future Wars Is Obama Using the IRS to Silence Opposition Voices? Something Fishy? Deflated Valentine Balloon Downs Power to 15,099; No Explanation for 2nd Outage Affecting Another 21,000 When the Grid Goes Down, You Better Be Ready! What If the Lights Go Out? Panetta to Defend Cuts to Military in Budget Plan Pentagon May Oust Troops Involuntarily to Meet Reductions in Budget Plan Study: 1 in 8 US Voter Registrations Have Major Errors Chris Christie on Israel - and What It Means to Be a Leader NJ State Senate Passes Same-Sex Marriage Bill Chris Christie Vows to Veto It Whitney Houston Lost Most of $100M Fortune After Years of Drug Abuse, High Living Media Matters' War Against Fox Judge Napolitano: WhatIif Democracy Is Bunk? 1 ObamaGenius: ‘Since My Chevy Volt Won’t Sell, I’ll Penalize Americans $2,500 More Per Vehicle Sold’ Whitney Died of Prescription Drug, Alcohol Combo, TMZ Reports NRA: Obama Will 'Erase' 2nd Amendment Next Term Former DEA Chief: 3 Other Agencies Knew About 'Fast and Furious' Ted Nugent Speaks Out Against Obama and Gun Control 3 Obama "Accommodation" to Religious Groups Changes Nothing: New Policy Simply Moves Contraceptives to List of Basic Services Beauty and the Beast...the Beast State is Turning on the Church Samuel L. Jackson: 'I Voted for Obama Because He's Black' HOLLY NOTE: This is as mindless as women who voted for Bill Clinton because he had great hair. America’s Monarchy, Are They Forcing New Revolution? 2 Fox Business News Axes Freedom Watch It's Five Minutes 'Til Twelve Obama Hands Over Sovereignty to UN! Dick Morris TV 1 Chuck Woolery on Democracy 4 Obama to Cave on Birth Control Rule, But How Much? Santorum: Obama Leading Christians to the ‘Guillotine’ LAPD Pioneers High-Tech Crime-Fighting ‘War Room’ The Corruption of America Appeals Court Rules Against California's Voter-Approved Ban on Same-Sex Marriage Washington Lawmakers Pass Gay-Marriage Bill 2 Judges Against 7 Million Voters Birth Control Fight Threatens Democrats Most D.C. Workers Won't Be Prosecuted in Fraud Case Justice Ginsburg Should Resign 1st Nuclear Reactors Approved for Georgia Since 1978 White 'Cobwebs' Found in Nuclear Waste Pool A Nuclear Threat to Our Health The Great Shakeout: Earthquakes Affect Reactors, Too World's Last WWI Vet, Florence Green, Dies at 110 Two Parties = Zero Difference. The Horrors of Big Government. 1 F.E.M.A. The Secret Government as Described on X-Files 3 Chuck Woolery on the Zombie Apocalypse 2 Santorum Finally Gets His Moment South Carolina Sues Justice Department Over Voter-ID Law Block Drones Over U.S. Get OK by Congress How Hypocritical Is Barack Obama? Why 21 Democratic Senators and 1 Sitting President Must Be Defeated NY Times Publishes Hit Piece Against US Constitution as FBI Demonizes Americans as Possible Terrorists FBI Says Paying Cash for Your Morning Coffee a Potential Terrorist Activity, Urges Coffee Shop Owners to Report Cash-Paying Customers Air Marshals Gone Wild! Tales of Sexism, Suicide and Bigotry 'Doomsday Preppers' Highlights Extreme Survival Techniques HOLLY NOTE: Stan and I watched the first two episodes. As expected, NatGeo made preppers look ridiculous and extreme. States to Feds: Take This Law and Shove It Clint Eastwood: 'I am Certainly Not Affiliated with Mr. Obama' Obama Reverses Stance, Previously Described Super PACs as "Threat to Our Democracy", Now Urging Unlimited Donations Obama: I'm Getting 'Better as Time Goes On' Candidates: Obama Violating Freedom of Conscience Obama Admin. Faces Backlash Over Rule Ordering Birth Control Coverage Army Told Chaplains Not to Read Catholic Letter Fast and Furious: Josephine Terry to Holder, ‘What a Joke You Are’ ACORN Is Up to Its Old Tricks Sheriff Joe sets D-Day on Obama's Eligibility Problems at California’s San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant Could Have Lead to Meltdown Are There Holes in Pipeline Transparency? "Bold Alligator 2012" Drills 20,000 Troops on US East Coast for Persian Gulf Action Wake Up, America 4 Mo. Teen Describes Killing as Amazing, Enjoyable President Obama: 'I Deserve a Second Term' Americans Are Better Than Who Obama Thinks We Are America after Obama Blockbuster Revelation! - Mini Documentary - Illegal Obama "Propped Up" by Congress! 2 Romney's Nevada Win Leaves Rivals Few Options Gingrich’s Deep Ties to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Senate to Vote on Bill That Could Kick TSA Out of Airports Tennessee Begins Push Back Against NDAA Tyranny Egypt to Try 19 Americans in Case Straining Ties Most Expensive Red-light Cameras Bring in Calif. Millions Is a Fukushima-level Event Inside the U.S. a Foregone Conclusion? Controversial Artist Depicts Obama Trampling the Constitution The Forgotten Man - Jon McNaughton 2 Watch This Year's Super Bowl Ads - and Read Expert Reviews Exclusive: Israel Warns US Jews: Iran Could Strike Here Santorum Warns of Doomsday Under Obama Doug Vogt’s Mega Neutron Bomb on Obama’s Eligibility 1 How’s That Hopey-Changey Stuff Workin’ Out for Ya? Number of U.S. Expatriates Continues to Soar. Holding Holder's Feet to 'Fast and Furious' Fire 3 Criminal Rot Spreads Through Justice Department Colorado's "Make My Day" Law Advances for Businesses Mitt Romney and Poor Americans 2 TSA Trains Super Bowl Hot Dog Sellers to Spot Terrorists San Onofre Nuclear Plant Radiation Leak, Worn Tubes Raise Concerns Egyptian Kidnappers Reportedly Free 2 American Tourists Roseanne Barr Seeks Green Party Presidential Nod Rosanne Singing National Anthem 4 Q: Did DOJ Know About 'Furious'? A: Memo Says Yes, a 'Terrific Idea' Panetta: U.S., NATO to End Afghan Combat Mission Next Year Obama's NDAA Makes it Harder to Fight Terrorism Cite Obama with Contempt, Lawyers Urge Sen. Lee: Obama's Consumer Bureau Set Up in Manner ‘Reserved for Despots’ Outrage Intensifies Over Labor Dept. Proposal to Ban Children from Doing Some Chores on Farms Police State USA War Through Weakness? 2 Texas Missionaries Murdered in North Mexico It's Baaack! The Plan to Kill Talk Radio San Onofre Nuclear Plant Closed After Radiation Leak NRC Concerned About Seismic Activity Around Nuclear Reactors Trump to Endorse Romney, Sources Darrell Issa Threatens Eric Holder with Contempt Over 'Fast and Furious' Are Big Media Covering Up Fast and Furious? New Risks for Nuclear Plants: Reactors in Central, Eastern U.S. Face Greater Earthquake Threat, Study F-35 Story Shows Why It's So Hard to Cut a Federal Program Bungling TSA Agents Find 2 Pipe Bombs at Airport… Wait 6 Hours Before Calling Cops Dems: Arizona Officials to Blame for 'Fast and Furious' Scandal Obama Eligibility Challenges Spread to 6 States Media Blackout in Obama Georgia Ballot Eligibility Case Obama Eligibility Court Case…Blow by Blow Obama: The Most Polarizing President. Ever. No More Leading from Behind for America ON FIRE: Paul Ryan Completely Dismantles Obama 1 President Obama's Civilian Soldiers Obama Sandbags the Archbishop GBTV: Predictions Come True Part 2 3 Nuclear Plant Vents Radioactive Steam onto Downtown Chicago 2 Illinois Nuclear Reactor Shutdown Probed NRC Wants U.S. Nuclear Operators to Adopt New Seismic Model Leaky Nuclear Plants vs. Renewable Pipe Dreams 300 Arrested in Occupy Oakland Protests; Police Say Some Broke into City Hall Tea Party Fight Coming 1 Police Usage of Armored Surveillance Vehicles Becoming More Widespread Presidential Commission: Directed Energy Weapons Used on American Citizens in Tests New Jersey Assembly Committee to Consider Ammo Ban & More GMO Food and Unconstitutional Legislation Hr 1, Hr 2, Hr 3, Hr 4 HOLLY NOTE: During the 2nd hour, audio experiences periodic drop outs, but is clear after that. Be patient, this is a "must hear" interview. VOW Pentagon Looking at Bigger Bomb, Navy SEALs Mothership for Persian Gulf Military Conducts Dramatic Helicopter Maneuvers Over Downtown L.A., Learning How to Operate in Urban Areas Egypt Preventing US Citizens from Leaving U.S. Prepares for Unmanned Warfare Peak Oil Crisis Being Compounded by Refinery Closures U.S. to Lose Out Yet Again on Developing Cuba's Offshore Oil? Despite Current Oil & Gas Boom, Obama Admin. Deserves No Credit Obama Accused of Disrespecting Court, State, Americans Obama Birther Court Hearing in Georgia 1 Buy Buy American Pie 4 The Vote Pump: Obama Will Have $1B to Spend on Re-election 2 Georgia Warns Obama of 'Peril' of Ignoring Eligibility Hearing Hearing to be Broadcast Live This Is the One Obama SOTU Clip That Has Beck So Upset Familiar Rhetoric, Failed Record 1 Obama Calls on Energy Companies to Disclose the Ingredients of Fracking Fluid New Pentagon Plan Focuses on Drones, Special Ops, Cuts Traditional Forces MII PIC Obama Pushes for New Taxes, More Spending in State of the Union FACT CHECK: Obama's 2012 State of the Union 'No Spin' State of the Union 1 Minuteman PAC Warns of Imperial Presidency Picket: Obama Ignores Call from Americans to Build Keystone Pipeline Harper Builds Oil Link With China After Obama Keystone ‘Slap’ Drawing a Pipeline in the Sand: GOP Determined to Make Obama Pay for Nixing Keystone Obama’s America: A Tired Old Mare Elites Pushing Class Warfare is Just Another False Paradigm A State of Class Warfare If You Thought SOPA Was Bad, Just Wait Until You Meet ACTA Charlotte City Council OKs Expanding Police Power During DNC The Right to Bear Arms: Over 10,800,000 Guns Sold in the USA in 2011 Battle Los Angeles: Joint Military Training Exercises in L.A. Seek to Prepare Soldiers for Urban Warfare Same SEALs Who Killed bin Laden Rescue US and Dane Hostages Held in Somalia SOPA and PIPA Fully Alive And a New Bill Joins Them Obama Not Scheduled to Appear in GA “Birther” Hearing Despite “Order” More Obama Constitution-shredding Another Obama State of the Union: Let Us Count the Lies Romney Tax Return: $21M Income, $3M Charity, $3M Taxes Why Do Soldiers Overwhelmingly Support Ron Paul? More on Ron Raul TSA’s Endorsement of Rand Paul for President in 2016 Police Preparing for Riots / Martial Law / Economic Collapse Third World America: Bodies Driven to a Pauper's Burial in a U-Haul Multiple Nukes Going Off in U.S. Cities The Disarmament of America, Part 2 UN Small Arms (Gun Confiscation) Treaty to be Ratified by the US Senate in 2012 1 ‘Occupiers’ Throw Bibles, Allegedly Urinate on Cross Police State USA and the NDAA: Creating American Terrorists 1.4 MILLION Gang Members and More Pour into the U.S. Every Single Day Iranian News Sources Claim Obama Recognizes Iran's Nuclear Rights U.S. Bridges, Roads Being Built by Chinese Firms 1 Newt Gingrich Denies Bohemian Grove Existence: Some People Have "Fantasy Lives" 2 Witnesses Document Potential Vote Fraud in S.C. Primaries First Phase: US Deploys 12,000 Troops in Libya The Next SOPA Obama’s 32 Month Report Card Georgia Judge Orders Obama to Appear in Court Atlanta Paper Sorry for 'Kill Obama' Article ‘God’-awful OWS Mob Steals Sacred Item from Church The Pig in the XL Pipeline Americans Preparing for Civilization's Collapse Safe Firearm Storage at Home CONUS: Woodland Military Equipment Movements Ramp-Up as Investigation Continues US to Keep Just 11 Aircraft Carriers to Show Sea Power White Middle-Schooler Beaten Unconscious by Group of Black Students Carney Dodges Question About Obama's College Transcripts: "I Would Refer You to the Campaign" Federal Official in Arizona to Plead the 5th and Not Answer Questions on Fast and Furious Nugent: Fast and Furious Stinks Creeping Authoritarianism on Capitol Hill SOPA and PIPA Part of Effort to Domesticate Politically Incorrect Internet Vote on PIPA Internet Censorship Bill Postponed Miller: Simple Entitlement Reform Worries Over "Occupy Super Bowl" Former Sen. Chris Dodd Calls Largest Internet Protest in History a "Gimmick" Obama Names Turkey's Erdogan Among Top 5 International Friends More Harmful Foot-Dragging from Washington Obama Argues Against Appearing at Eligibility Hearing Debate Audience Protests CNN Attempts to Exclude Ron Paul A GOP Candidate's Bitter Ex-Wife Receives More Coverage Than Video of Obama Dining with Terrorist-Supporters Obama's Impressive List of Accomplishments Kuhner: Opposing Obama Is Not Racist NDAA THE Single Most Dangerous Legislation Ever Passed Hr 1, Hr 2, Hr 3 - must hear Why the NDAA is Unconstitutional Ron Paul Introduces Legislation to Strike NDAA’s Unconstitutional Section 1021 Ron Paul Introduces Repeal of Indefinite Detention in NDAA The Emperor Barack Obama Is, in Fact, the Food Stamp President Iowa Caucuses a 'Split Decision' InsiderAdvantage Poll: Gingrich Now Leads Romney in S. Carolina ...Will That End Tonight When Ex Airs Dirty Laundry? Perry Dropping Out May Endorse Gingrich Indiana Unveils First License Plate for Gay Youths Obama to Reject Keystone Pipeline There Goes Tens of Thousands of Jobs Feds to Start Their Internet Grab Wikipedia, Other Websites Go Dark in Anti-Piracy Bill Protest Why Wikipedia Went Down at Midnight 2 Glitch? Here's How to Beat Wikipedia’s Blackout SOPA Explained: What It Is and Why It Matters The Secret Behind SOPA Recipe for Vote Fraud: Global Internet Voting Firm Buys U.S. Election Results Reporting Firm NYPD, Feds Testing Gun-Scanning Tech, But Civil Liberties Groups Up in Arms TSA Apologizes to Elderly Women for Strip Search at Kennedy Airport 100 American Contractors Have Been Detained by Iraq in 2012 State Department: U.S. Not ‘Overly Concerned’ About Iraq Detentions Problems Plague Cleanup at Hanford Nuclear Waste Site How to Divert the Unprepared from Your Preps 'Constitutional Crisis' from Recess Appointments? Mark Levin: ‘We Now Live in a Post-Constitutional Country’ Are You Ready for the Coming One World Government? US Prepares for War Against China (see Video of the Week) Life in Orwellian Times The Enemy Expatriation Act, No Different Than the Nazi Nuremberg Laws (H.R. 3166; S. 1698) Big Government to End Internet Freedom NDAA and Patriot Act are Unconstitutional, Therefore Void & Powerless SOPA Headed for Major Makeover in Face of WH, Internet Opposition Wikipedia to Shut For 24 Hours to Stop Anti-Piracy Act WH Letter Defends E-Parasite, Anti-Internet Bills A Power Play in Congress and How to Stop It CNN Poll: Congressional Approval Hits All-Time Low Congress Logs Most Futile Legislative Year on Record Guns, Gold, and Spirit of Jefferson Rise Again Single State Defies Obama Detention Plan New Space-Arms Control Initiative Draws Concern New Navy Budgets May Sink Plans for Aircraft Carriers Harry Reid's Magic Glasses 3 Obama Reorganization Bid Faces Challenges on Capitol Hill Another One Down, Huntsman to Drop Out, Back Romney NDAA: Death to Due Process Dead On Arrival: SOPA Shelved Indefinitely, Obama Succumbs to Pressure, Issues Official Veto Threat On SOPA, Obama Walks Thin Line As Keystone Pipeline Decision Looms, WH Suggests Deadline Is Too Soon As Obama Dithers… Canadian PM Harper to Travel to China to Sell Oil Eric Holder, Voter ID, and the Chicago Way The Left's War on Voter Fraud Reform How Progressive Race-Baiters Destroyed Civil Rights Progress in America Top 10 Obama Revelations The Abolition of Gender How to Prepare for the Difficult Years Ahead New Bill Would Allow U.S. Government to Revoke Citizenship Without Conviction Another Tyrannical Success for Lieberman: Enemy Expatriation Act Now Law Under NDAA Judge Napolitano - What If It's About Them 1 States Still ‘Gun’ for Unsuspecting Firearm Owners History Repeats Itself with the NDAA; Pentagon Furious Obama Czar Proposed Government ‘Infiltrate’ Social Network Sites Panderer-in-Chief: Why Obama's National Security Record Is Weak and Dangerous Obama’s Race Pandering The Obama-Brotherhood Love Affair Heats Up How's That Government Meddling Workin' Out for Ya'? The Disarmament of America Presidential Candidate Gun Record Guide Court Sets Back Oklahoma's Proposed Ban on Islamic Law Cop Killing in Arizona Connected to Fast and Furious? 11 Shocking Home Invasion Horror Stories That Are Almost Too Creepy to Believe Miss. Judge Blocks Release of 21 Inmates Given Pardons by Gov. Obama Targets Facebook, Twitter, Drudge Rights? In the New America You Don’t Get Any Rights! Nationwide Poll: Ron Paul Surges into Second Rush: Romney Admits He’s Just Like Obama 2012 Candidates on the Issues: Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Barack Obama What If Elections Don’t Matter? The Real 99% 1 Veterans Court Under Way in Calif County Sarah Palin Rips Michelle Obama: ‘Are We Just a Bunch of Numbskulls?’ Michael Savage: Look Out, She's Going to Vote! New Jersey Will Pay You $1000 To Destroy The 2nd Amendment Turn in Your Neighbor for Owning a Gun....get $1000 Reward in Newark, NJ 1 Supremes: EPA Actions ‘Outrageous’ California Educators Normalizing Deviancy? Mississippi Gov. Pardons 210, Including Murderers, Rapists President Obama vs. Republican Candidates Write-In Campaign for Clinton Underway in New Hampshire 2 Michelle Obama: Tired of 'Angry Black Woman' Stereotype Issue Snapshots: Positions of the Republican Presidential Candidates, at a Glance Enviromentalism Path to Global Dictatorship TSA Annual Report Proves It's Useless Navy Readies for Chinese Power Grab on Shipping Vet Illnesses & PTSD Pt 1, Pt 2, Pt 3 must hear Fidel Castro on Obama: A Robot Would Be Better As George Soros Planned Final Implementation of Obama Dictatorship in Progress on All Levels Complacent Conservatism Is Allowing America to Slide into the Abyss Environmentalism Path to Global Dictatorship Ron Paul and Israel CBS Poll: 58% of Republicans Dissatisfied with GOP Field Obama's Fascist America in 10 Easy Steps Non-citizen Voting in Connecticut The Top 5 Reasons Obama Must Be Removed as Commander-in-Chief (HOLLY NOTE: This is a mere scrape at the long list) US Schools with Their Own Police Iran Sentences American to Death in Spy Case The Answer is NOT "Anybody But Obama" ** 1 Ron Paul Likens Obama to “Dictator” Over ‘Recess Appointments’ Feds Find Failures in Cook Co. Homeland Security Project How Homeland Security Monitors Its US Journalists New Clancy 'Rainbow 6' Vid Game Labels OWS Protesters as New Domestic Terror Threat 500,000 Military Layoffs Planned as Obama Argues for Federal Pay Hikes and Need for $103K/year "Invitations Coordinators" Obamas Held Secret Alice in Wonderland Halloween Party at WH in Depths of 2009 Recession California Jails Release 57 Inmates Early Oil Storm VOW Obama to Gut Military Takes Flak on Defense Downsizing Why Are More Women Buying Guns? GA Judge Denies Obama Motion to Dismiss Complaint That Would Keep Him Off the Ballot McCain: 'This President Leads from Behind' Training Excercise Startles Locals Agenda 21 Strikes Back Stacy Lynne Arrested Son Taken Obama and Dictatorship Obama Lies 4 Times in 1 Commercial Court: Obama Must be ‘Constitutionally’ Eligible Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death: 2012 NDAA Ron Paul in His Own Words on Drugs and Prostitution 2 Planned Parenthood Kills 329,445 Babies in 1 Year Using $487.4 Million in Taxpayer Funds Will Generation 'Gimme' Work for the American Dream? Eye-opening Insight into America's Youth Warning to America: ‘We Are at Crossroads’ Gun Makers Baffled by ATF Criteria Nugent: Pay Lawmakers What They’re Worth: 10 Bucks America’s Meddling Abroad: Pat Buchanan rips 'Neocons and Democratists' U.S. Funds to Disrupt Elections Eyes Turn to Virginia as State Weighs Voter ID Law Knight: Voter ID terrifies Democrats America is an Insecure Empire with Catherine Austin Fitts ACLU Leader on Signed NDAA: "Obama's Action Today Is a Blight on His Legacy" Obama's Signing Statement on NDAA: I Have the Power to Detain Americans... But I Won't Obama's Golfing Ruins Christmas for Marines and their Families Ron Paul’s Soros Defense Plan Game Over: Tyranny Revealed 40,000 New Laws Go into Effect Witch Hunt in the Heartland New Nationwide FEMA Camps Should Raise Eyebrows No Rest for Conservative America, the ‘Sleeping Giant’, in 2012 10 Things to Do to Survive 2012 Andrea Mitchell: Iowa Is "Too White, Too Evangelical, Too Rural" 'Occupier' Stabs Cop on New Year's Eve in Zuccotti Park 68 Occupiers Arrested in NYC on New Year's White House Mulling Policy Shift Toward Taliban? L.A. Arson Wave Grows to About 40 Fires; Most Since 1992 Riots Purposeful Dumbing Down?: High School Diploma Requirement Might Violate Americans with Disabilities Act

About the Book In Sea Creatures, a riveting domestic drama by Susanna Daniel, a mother must make the unthinkable choice between her husband and her son. When Georgia Qullian returns to her hometown of Miami, her toddler and husband in tow, she is hoping for a fresh start. They have left Illinois trailing scandal and disappointment in their wake, fallout from her husband’s severe sleep disorder. For months, their three-year-old son has refused to speak a word. On a whim, Georgia takes a job as an errand runner for a reclusive artist and is surprised at how her life changes dramatically. But soon the family’s challenges return, more complicated than before. Late that summer, as a hurricane bears down on South Florida, Georgia must face the fact that her decisions have put her only child in grave danger. Sea Creatures is a mesmerizing exploration of the high stakes of marriage and parenthood. When Georgia Quillian returns to her hometown of Miami, her husband, Graham, and their young son in tow, she is hoping for a fresh start. The family has fled Illinois trailing scandal and disappointment, the fallout from Graham's severe sleep disorder and Georgia's failed business. To make matters worse, their charming three-year-old son, Frankie, has for months refused to speak a word. Although Georgia is still grieving her mother's death from five years earlier, her father and stepmother offer warm welcome—and a slip for the dilapidated houseboat Georgia and Graham have chosen to call home. On a lark, Georgia takes a job as an errand runner for a reclusive artist who lives in the middle of the bay, and she soon finds that time spent with the intense hermit might help Frankie find the courage to speak, and might also help her reconcile the woman she was with the woman she has become. But when Graham leaves to work on a research vessel in Hurricane Alley, and the truth behind Frankie's mutism is revealed, the family's challenges return, more complicated than before. As a hurricane bears down on South Florida later that summer, Georgia must face the fact that her choices have put her only child in grave danger. Sea Creatures is a mesmerizing exploration of the high stakes of marriage and parenthood, the story of a woman forced to choose between her husband, her child, and the possibility of new love. “A captivating, haunting novel about the complexities of the human heart and its attachments, terrain as slippery and beautiful and disaster prone as Daniel’s South Florida.” — Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone “There’s a charmer at the heart of Sea Creatures….Almost like an action-filled, emotional memoir….Gripping.” — Associated Press “While Miami has inspired its satirical works of genius, chilling mystery novels and excellent accounts of Cuban exile, we’ve mostly run short on first-rate literature that takes the city seriously enough to capture its eccentricities without flinching....Daniel, with Sea Creatures, gets it absolutely pitch perfect.” — Miami Herald “A tender tale of a woman navigating the responsibilities and risks of parenthood.” — Atlanta Journal-Constitution “Don’t confuse the waterfront setting with light beach reading; this is substantive domestic drama…readers interested in families coping with disabilities will find Frankie particularly compelling as he navigates changing relationships and obstacles.” — Library Journal “Daniel returns to Stiltsville’s South Florida in a second novel filled with domestic upheaval, difficult choices, and far-reaching consequences….Daniel’s verdant descriptions of salt and sea continue to shine, as does her portrayal of a mother struggling to protect her son.” — Publishers Weekly “A sophisticated story that holds the reader rapt….[Daniel] sets up each scene in Sea Creatures with masterful strokes….She builds momentum from the opening chapter, leading up to the crescendo….Daniel drives into tumultuous waters and emerges with a mesmerizing, beautiful novel.” — Jeanna Kolker, Wisconsin State Journal “Utterly enthralling….[Sea Creatures is] about love, loss, and longing in their most familiar forms. Brace yourself: you’ll fall hard for the characters, and your heartwill break preemptively-even before the hurricane blows through.” — Catherine Newman, More.com “What I found most stirring in Sea Creatures is how deftly Daniels exposes one of the most agonizing realities of parenthood: that no matter how hard we try, or how endless our love for our children, we are hampered by our own limitations, sometimes even tragically.” — Helen Schulman, author of This Beautiful Life “Susanna Daniel brings an uncommon intimacy to her characters’ lives, and also to the landscape where those lives unfold-a cartographer not only of the shore and the ocean but of the passions, bruises, joys, and insufficiencies of the human heart.” — Kevin Brockmeier, author of The Brief History of the Dead “An intelligent page-turner (that is, the dream combination) about, among other things, South Florida, art, insomnia, and marriage.” — Curtis Sittenfeld, author of Prep and Sisterland “Daniel’s writing is rich in description—of both its lush Florida settings and her characters’ emotional landscapes—that draws the reader in.” — Isthmus Review “Sea Creatures is perfect for summer reading, a more literary offering than your usual beach fare. Author Susanna Daniel crafts beautiful, dreamy descriptions of ocean life that threaten to lull readers into a sense of complacency.” — The Daily News Journal (Tennessee) - ISBN: 9780062219626 - ISBN 10: 0062219626 - Imprint: Harper - On Sale: 07/30/2013 - Pages: 336 - List Price: 7.99 USD - BISAC1: FICTION / Literary - BISAC2: FICTION / Romance / Contemporary - BISAC3: FICTION / Family Life

An Irish Ghost Story By Kate Bell The tale I am about to relate is strictly true. It was told to me by a young lady whose grandmother, or grandaunt, or great-grandmother, had been the heroine. I am not quite certain which of the three, but it was some ancestress or relative. I wish to be particular on this point, because I know how much more interesting it must make the story. About 60 years ago then—more or less (I know it must have been a long time ago because there were rebels in Ireland then) armed bands of men, most absurdly called ‘Whiteboys,’ though they were full-grown villains of the blackest die, roamed over certain districts of Ireland, doing all the mischief they could, burning houses, shooting men, ill-treating women and children, rousing Catholics against Protestants, tenants against landlords, and, in fact, everybody, who had nothing, against everybody who had anything. The special objects of the Whiteboys’ hatred were the landed proprietors. These persons were not at that time greatly to be envied. Inheriting, for the most part, heavily mortgaged estates, they inherited also a talent for spending money, far beyond any capacity for gathering it. When, at last, their tenants refused to pay any rent at all, and the excited state of the country made it dangerous to attempt to force them, why, the result was that the majority of the ‘landed gintry’ of Ireland found themselves finally ‘landed’ in the ‘Encumbered Estates Court.’ Mr Fitzgerald was a landed proprietor, who lived at Kilbally-something House, near the small country-town of Ballykillsomething else; (the final syllable does not matter much in these Irish names). Although a Protestant, Mr Fitzgerald had hitherto lived on amicable terms with his tenantry. He was known to be a just and kind-hearted man, and besides, (which was of much more importance in the eyes of the Irish poor) he came of a ‘rale ould family,’ a family of sufficient dignity to possess a ‘Banshee’ of its own. Therefore although the majority of the tenants had ceased to pay any rent, they were forbearing and generous enough not to shoot their landlord, and, as long as he ‘kept quiet,’ did not mean to do him any harm. So the wives of the poorer tenants still went up to the kitchen of the big house for a chat, and still resorted to ‘the misthress’ when they needed help, or medicine, or a word of good advice, the latter two, however, being much oftener asked for than taken. A few years before the (unknown) date of my story, Mr. Fitzgerald had married Annie O’Byrne, the daughter of a neighbouring country gentleman. Many men envied him the prize, for Annie was one of the belles of the county and as good as she was pretty. Picture her to yourselves, my readers if you can! for she is the heroine of this tale, generous, bravo, and witty, impulsive, loving, and loveable; in fact, a perfect specimen of that most charming of all feminine creatures, the true Irish lady. Annie had been brought up almost entirely in her own native county, the only exception being two seasons spent at a fashionable boarding school in Dublin. There was one branch of her education not attended to at that boarding school. This neglect, afterwards turned out to be of the greatest use to her, as we shall see. In her early childhood, Annie had learnt from the nurses aid servants who surrounded her, many of the wild legends and superstitions of her native country and many also of its touching ballads. Possessing a vivid imagination and retentive memory, she could, in later years relate some wild story of the district in such a manner as to thrill her auditors with pleasing horror, or sing some touching Irish ditty till tears came to their eyes but her special talent lay in imitating the mournful ‘keen’—that heart-breaking wail of the Irish mourner. Mrs. Fitzgerald was of course a great favourite amongst the tenants, both on her father’s and husband’s estates. Her intimate acquaintance with their habits and modes of thought, and her knowledge of their native language gave her great influence. Her ready sympathy in their troubles quite won their hearts, those warm and loving Irish hearts, which yet often so cruelly belie themselves under the evil influences of ignorance–and superstition! Ballykil——-House was situated on a terrace commanding a lovely view of the surrounding country. The lawn studded with clusters of Arbutus and Hydrangea, and bordered by two fine avenues of Elm and Ilex, sloped gradually down till it reached the high road, beyond which, stretched an undulating plain, where the fields and hedges glistened with that vivid green, so peculiar to the Emerald Isle. Ballykil__ House was a large and comfortable mansion though, (like many of the Irish country houses of that time) standing much in need of repair. The sitting-rooms were all on the ground floor, and so also ware the kitchens and servants offices, The latter lay at the back of the house, and were reached by a long passage, having been built out from the main edifice. The old-fashioned vaulted stone floored kitchen had three large windows on each side, looking out on the one hand, into the glen before mentioned, and on the other into the shrubbery. The windows had no shutters, but were crossed by two or three iron bars, an unusual precaution in those days, for burglary was not a vice of the Irish peasantry, nor even petty theft. Upstairs there were the sleeping rooms of the family and servants. Mr. Fitzgerald’s domestic establishment had been greatly reduced since the real troubles had begun, and consisted at present of only three female servants and one man, the latter acted as groom, gardener and general messenger. One summer evening, Mr. and Mrs. Fitzgerald were sitting on the terrace in front of their house, admiring the glories of the sunset rays gilding the fair scenes before them, and discussing the state of affairs in general and the state of their own district in particular. ‘ How happy we are,’ said Mrs. Fitzgerald ‘to be so quiet and peaceful here.’ ‘Long may it last!’ replied her husband, ‘but there are floating rumours, that the Whiteboys have been seen in the neighbourhood, and if so; farewell, to peace!’ ‘I do not think they would do us any harm at any rate,’ observed Annie, ‘for none of our people would join them, we are not rich enough to tempt an attack for the sake of plunder, and I do not think there is one man in the district, who harbours ill-feeling or revenge against us.’ ‘You forget Con Bourke,’ answered Mr. Fitzgerald; ‘I was obliged to turn him out as he had not paid rent for three years; he was thoroughly bad, or I might have left him alone, but I found he was spreading mischief and persuading the tenants not to pay any rent, vowing vengeance. I have never ventured to eject another tenant since.’ ‘But you know dear, Con came from another part of the country,’ remarked Mrs. Fitzgerald eagerly ‘he was not one of our own people and besides that, he is gone to America.’ ‘I hope so, but I doubt the fact,’ replied her husband, ‘and if the Whiteboys should ever attack us I fancy we shall have to thank Con Bourke. But who is this coming up the avenue?’ As he spoke, a man appeared, riding in haste. On reaching the house, he dismounted and handed Mr Fitzgerald a letter. Annie, watching her husband while he read saw his face grow suddenly grave and anxious. He turned quietly, however, to the messenger saying, ‘Take your horse round to the stable for a feed, O’Hara, and send Jerry here to me.’ Only when the man had disappeared did Mr Fitzgerald relieve his wife’s curiosity. ‘This is a letter from the High Sheriff, my dear Annie, calling on me to repair at once to the town, both as a magistrate and as an officer of militia, to assist in keeping order and to protect the inhabitants against an expected attack by the Whiteboys. The militia has been called out in the immediate neighbourhood already, Sir George says.’ Annie turned pale, for danger threatened her husband. ‘And how does Sir George know of this attack?’ she asked. ‘He has received an anonymous communication, informing him that a large band of rebels intend entering the town to-night, where they expect to be joined by a number of malcontents. Their object is to seize the gaol, and burn it down after having set free the prisoners, especially that last batch of rebels. However, I must go at once, but I cannot bear to leave you here alone, Annie I don’t know what to do.’ ‘I am not in the least afraid,’ replied Annie, bravely. ‘You know I am quite safe amongst our own people, and as the Whiteboys will be occupied with the attack on the town there is no fear of them. I am far more anxious about you, my dear husband, who are going into danger. However it is your duty to go at once, and I will not keep you back by my foolish fears.’ ‘You should have been the wife of a soldier, my dear,’ said her husband, kissing her, and while Mrs Fitzgerald went into the house to make some preparations for his departure, Mr Fitzgerald gave his orders to Jerry, who now appeared breathless with excitement. ‘Bring round the car at once, Jerry, put on your uniform and load your gun, there may be fighting in store for us. The Whiteboys are expected in the town to-night.’ Jerry grinned with delight at the prospect of a shindy, for he was a soldier in his master’s regiment of militia. In less than a quarter of an hour the car was at the door, and master and servant, both, armed, but with large top boots concealing their uniforms, mounted one on each side, and away rattled the old jaunting car down the avenue. ‘God bring you back safe to me again, darling,’ had been Annie’s last words as she had been bravely struggling to keep back the tears that would glisten in her eyes as she bade good-bye. As Mr Fitzgerald looked back up the avenue to wave a last farewell, he saw his wife still standing on the terrace. The last rays of the setting sun were falling on her sweet face and crimsoning the long curls of her hair tossed back from her brow, as she held one child high in air to kiss its hand to papa, and the other child clung timidly to her dress. Mr. Fitzgerald never forgot that scene, for his wife’s hair was grey ere she stood on that terrace again. When the car had disappeared Mrs Fitzgerald went into the house and occupied herself busily till night came on; determined not to give way to her sorrow and anxiety. The elder of the two children, little Aileen, had. been feverish and restless during the day and her mother determined to keep the child with herself for the night. Before retiring to rest, Annie drew back the curtains of her window, and looked out. The wind had risen, and heavy masses of cloud swept across the sky, obscuring at intervals the light of the newly risen moon. All seemed quiet in the direction of the distant town, and breathing one more prayer for her husband’s safety, Annie lay down to sleep. An hour or two later Aileen awoke, and became more and more restless in spite of the medicine and cooling drink administered by her mother, till finding sleep impossible, Mrs Fitzgerald rose and throwing on a long white dressing-gown, sat down in aa armchair by the bed-side, prepared for a night watch. After a time little Aileen cried for more ‘nice drink,’ but there were no more lemons in the room so Annie, giving the little girl the last drop left in the tumbler, told her to be quiet and be a good child while mama went to fetch some for her. Then, drawing back the curtains that the child might see the moonlight, Mrs Fitzgerald took the candle and left the room. Having descended to the dining-room, and finding no lemons on the sideboard, Annie suddenly remembered that there were some in a pantry which opened off the kitchen, and at once she hurried there to get them. As she left the dining-room a draught, by the shutting of the door, blew out her candle. ‘This is unfortunate!’ said Annie to herself ‘especially as I have no matches. However, it is moonlight so I can grope my way to the kitchen where I shall find both matches and candles on the chimney piece.’ So leaving her own candle on the Hall table, she hurried down the long dark passage leading to the kitchen. Mrs. Fitzgerald had told her husband truly that she was not afraid, for personal fear had really never crossed her mind, and her only personal anxiety was lest the child should become frightened at her long absence. On opening the door, Annie found the kitchen almost in total darkness. Only a few streaks of light only, lay across the floor, the moon being half obscured at the moment. The rest of the floor was darkened by heavy shadows from the shrubbery. As she groped her way to the chimneypiece Mrs. Fitzgerald for the first time, experienced a sensation of awe and loneliness, aptly turned eerie and this feeling increased when, after searching on the chimneypiece (where, she knew the cook always kept her matches, she could find none. She was still standing in the deep black shade thrown by some shrubs across the upper end of the kitchen, when the moon suddenly emerged, bright and clear, from behind the clouds and all the floor before her lay in one broad expanse of soft and silvery light, crossed by bars of shadow. Delighted at the sudden change Annie looked up, and out of the barred windows, looked up—and saw at every window human faces—faces, that looked white and ghastly in the moonlight, pressed against the bars, fierce eyes that seemed to be piercing that corner of black shadow where one white speck appeared—faces that were cruel, coarse and brutal! eyes that haunted Annie to her dying day. The shock was so great, that for one instant her heart and brain seemed turned to stone, she could not breathe or stir. Then, like a lightening flash, the whole truth burst upon. her. ‘The Whiteboys the cruel Whiteboys they will kill us all! they will burn down the house,’ but then the first thought of the woman’s heart was ‘my children ! Oh god! save my children,’ and in that brief moment an agonized though silent prayer went up to Him. who, heareth in the time of trouble.’ But she must act as well as pray, and what can she do? Poor Annie! surely terror must have driven her mad! Loosening the knot of her black hair till it fell in waving masses to her waist, throwing her arms above her head, and there clasping and wringing her hands and uttering one long low wail of agony she suddenly emerged into the light. Those hardy men were terror stricken at the sight; some with a cry of horror turned and fled, others hid their eyes and whispered to their companions behind them; for fast as those faces disappeared from the windows others took their place, at first incredulous, but soon on all there came the same blank look of awe and dread. Truly they saw a weird sight! What was that ghostly, awful figure wandering up and down, and round and round that gloomy vaulted room, keeping her lonely watch at dead of night. White feet gleaming on the cold stone floor, white garments floating to the ground! Pale hands, now folded patiently upon her breast, now wrung as if in bitter agony! A white and ghastly face! whose fixed blue eyes gazed at them, with such a wild and mournful, but yet stony gaze, that the bravest amongst that murderous band, shuddered as they looked: and ever and anon, there rang out upon the breathless silence, that shrill and mournful keen, that wailing deathsong which thrills the Irish heart. What could this be but the Banshee?—the ‘Banshee of the Fitzgeralds!’ that sad spirit who appears only to announce the approaching death of one of that family which she loves and guards; and who mourns bitterly over the fate which she alone foresees, but has not power to avert. Woe to the man, who disturbs that spirit in her night watch or who interrupts her ‘keen’ of sorrow There were amongst those men however, some more determined and less superstitious than the rest, and although even they, dared not enter the house which that spirit walked, yet they said ‘Let us wait a while perhaps she will disappear soon, and then we must make haste, seize what we can, and burn the house down.’ And Annie heard them! The band retreated to the glen, from whence two or three of the boldest returned at intervals to look in; but the spirit walked still! still wept and wailed, and wrung her hands only each time they came, the wail was lower and feebler, the step slower and more solemn. At last the boldest gave way, and came no more. For the Irish peasant will face danger in any earthly form, but let the terror take a ghostly shape and he is the veriest coward! With gloomy fears and lowered voices, the baffled Whiteboys slowly slunk away and disappeared down the glen. Annie Fitzgerald unfortunately, did not know that the men she feared had gone at last, and she still dreaded their return. It was past midnight when she had left her room that night, and now the clock was striking three. The moon sank down below the verge of the horizon, but a faint light still lingered on the sky, and so the Banshee walked still! near to the windows, where the glimmer of her white garments might be seen; only the wail had ceased at last. The voice was gone indeed she walked mechanically now. The faint red gleam of early dawn appeared. The chirping of the awakening birds sounded from the shrubberies. Slowly, oh, how slowly, the blessed light of day crept up the eastern horizon, bringing release to a brave weary creature whose strength was well-nigh exhausted. Then, only, did Annie feel that she was saved. She knew that the Whiteboys dare not wait for daylight, and so, casting one last shuddering look at those barred windows, she left the kitchen, and walked steadily down the long passage. When she reached the foot of the staircase, strength failed her, brave Annie gave way at last and fell senseless on the floor. There the servants found her a short time afterwards. Roused by the crying of little Aileen, the nurse had run down to her mistress’ room, where she found the child alone, crying out for her mama who she said had left her ‘such a long long time ago.’ Fortunately little Aileen must have fallen asleep immediately after her mother had left the room, and had not awakened till daylight appeared. Nurse calling down the other servants, immediately went in search of her mistress, and was horrified to see the white heap lying at the foot of the staircase. They carried Annie to her bed, and tended her lovingly till her husband’s return a little later, when he found his wife, whom he had left so bright and well, senseless and speechless Immediately Jerry was despatched for the doctor and also to bring the parents of Mrs. Fitzgerald, who lived a few miles away. The servants could give no reason for the condition in which they had found their mistress, and all seemed most mysterious. Presently, however, the cook ran up to say that there were numerous footsteps outside the kitchen, as if a number of men had come up from the glen and returned thither. Mr Fitzgerald at once suspected that the Whiteboys, instead of attacking the town made their way to his house, and that the letter to the sheriff had been only part of a plot to mislead him and others; for no alarm or attack had occurred in the town during the past night. Before the doctor arrived Mrs Fitzgerald recovered consciousness sufficiently to relate with tolerable clearness what had happened. This enabled her husband to send messages to the town giving information as to the direction the band had taken their steps having been traced after leaving the glen. Very brief was poor Annie’s gleam of intelligence; she soon relapsed into unconsciousness again, and a severe illness followed. For weeks she lay in brain fever, struggling with dreadful phantasies, haunted incessantly by those faces and eyes, and wailing on monotonously that dolorous ‘keen’ she had often practised in her merry childhood, but which now wrung the hearts of the loving watchers by her bedside learning, as they did, from her ravings, all the concentrated agony which she had endured on that dreadful night. But if the wife had prayed earnestly for her husband in his hour of danger, so now his prayers for her were answered; and Annie recovered to be more than ever the beloved wife, mother, and daughter, and in addition to become henceforward the heroine of the county. The long hair which had played its part was shaved off during her illness, and when Annie’s locks grew again, they were grey. But some thought this only added to the beauty of the sweet face, which, had grown more thoughtful and grave then of yore. Many years passed ere Mrs Fitzgerald could be persuaded to relate her story to any but her husband. As the terror and suffering of that night passed away in the past, she would occasionally, however, tell the tale to some of her children and dear friends at their very earnest request. It seemed to her, she said, as if in immediate answer to her prayer for help, that thought had come into her mind. By a sudden inspiration, knowing as she did the superstition of the Irish poor, and knowing how mysterious and ghostly she must appear in that lonely room at dead of night, she had acted—for the very last time in her life—the part of Banshee and strength had been mercifully given her to bear a mental strain for three long hours, which might well have driven her mad. Soon after Mrs Fitzgerald’s recovery, the band of Whiteboys, which had threatened Kilbally—— House, was captured by two and threes, having dispersed about the country. It appeared that Con Burke, inspired by revenge, had induced them to attack his late landlord’s house, informing them that there were plate and jewels of great value in the house (an invention of his own) and rousing their indignation against Mr. Fitzgerald as a ‘tyrant’ Landlord and, a ‘heritic.’ As those Whiteboys were all from a different part of Ireland, they believed him, their only aim indeed, being plunder and destruction. All the men acknowledged the terror they had felt at sight of the ghost! Most of the prisoners wore transported. Only a few of the greatest criminals amongst them suffered death, but from that time, the district remained quiet and Mr. Fitzgerald enjoyed many happy years in peace with the noble woman whose courage had saved to him his wife, his children, and his home. Auckland Star, 27 May 1876: p. 7 Mrs Daffodil’s Aide-memoire: While this story was published in the 1870s, the “Whiteboys” protested the injustices of landlords in the 1760s. The authoress, with a romanticised view of the Irish countryside, voices some unfortunate common prejudices about the “superstitions” of the “peasants,” as well as a bit of dismissiveness for the lower orders. The “keen” or caoine was the Irish funeral lamentation uttered at wakes and funerals. It was, indeed, heart-breaking. Here is an early 20th-century description: The cries of lamentation usually take the form of questions which are asked in a half-singing, half-reciting and sobbing voice. “Mo cushla machree (pulse of my heart), why did you die from me ? Wasn’t it you that was the best of husbands and fathers, giving joy to all that knew you, and wouldn’t those that love you go through fire and water to save a hair of your head from being hurt ? ” The piercing wail of a mother for a favourite son is most heartrending to hear. “Ah, Michael, mo ville astore (my ten thousand treasures), sure your like was not to be found on all the broad acres of Ireland, and your death has cast a shadow on the country that no sun will ever disperse.” The Banshee or Bean Sidhe is the Irish death messenger. She may appear as an old woman washing the bloody clothes of the soon-to-be-dead or as a younger woman with long red hair. She keens or wails in the manner of Irish mourners, announcing an imminent death. The Fitzgeralds as well as the O’Neills, the O’Donnells, and the O’Briens, were among the ancient families of Ireland said to have their own personal banshees. It was said that the banshee might even cross the water to wail for members of those families who had sailed to America. Mrs Daffodil invites you to join her on the curiously named “Face-book,” where you will find a feast of fashion hints, fads and fancies, and historical anecdotes You may read about a sentimental succubus, a vengeful seamstress’s ghost, Victorian mourning gone horribly wrong, and, of course, Mrs Daffodil’s efficient tidying up after a distasteful decapitation in A Spot of Bother: Four Macabre Tales.

(Written before I left the network, posted with permission from Ms. Kara David) This was a very fun shoot. The station ID where this has been part of won several awards already. Bonus: I get to interview her for this video! “Saan dito ginagawa yung People’s Day?” (Where do they hold People’s Day?) was the first actual conversation I’ve had with our new host, Peabody winner, Kara David. We were in the Governor’s Mansion in Batangas then, waiting for Gov. Vilma Santos’ meeting to be over for our Powerhouse interview set at three o’clock that afternoon. I was startled when she approached me, my mind frantically searching for an answer. And then I got a bit confused because based on my research; the first floor conference and the second floor conference room are both used to entertain Batanguenos’ woes, but I wasn’t entirely sure. I scrambled for words and so I told her, “Uhm, confirm ko po if sa baba or dito sa taas.” (Let me confirm if they do it in the first or second floor.) “’Di ba researcher ka, dapat alam mo,” (You’re a researcher, right? You should know) was what she told me. Crap, my first encounter with my favorite documentarist and I turned out to be a researcher who does not know her job. I rushed to ask a staff to save my face but just as I was about to tell her the answer, Ms. Kara is already interviewing another staff to get her own answers. I felt like a dimwit, newbie researcher who does not know her job. With Powerhouse’s host then, Tita Mel Tiangco. Before then, Tita Mel (Tiangco) hosts Powerhouse. But because she’s having problems with schedule and wants to focus with the foundation, she had to quit. Kara David took over sometime in July 2013. I wasn’t really sure at how this big transition would impact the show; I was more concerned and excited with working with the new host, my favorite documentarist. With the kind and number of awards and recognition she garnered over the years, I imagined she has high standards in work, so naturally, I am on my toes. When we finally meet, I didn’t know what to think about her except that she gives off a no-nonsense vibe when I first met her. The woman made her own notes and research on Vilma Santos besides the twelve-page one I gave her; Kara David is not like your typical host. You have to give her that. I also know that she writes her own scripts in I-Witness so I am super eager to know her writing style and work ethic, because I would really, really love to pick her brain. Pahiya konti, bukas bawi Ever since my first encounter with her, I made it a point that I know my research from the heart, cover to cover; like you are BFFs with your interviewee or a stalker or an investigator who knows everything about the person. You are after all, a researcher. One time, I had to accompany her going to the location because our executive producer and coordinator couldn’t make it; that day might be one of the longest rides I took from GMA to Sen. Bongbong’s satellite office in Roxas Boulevard. My stomach feels funny and my ass couldn’t sit still. I was reviewing the resmats (research materials) like I have a graded recitation the whole ride. I wouldn’t want to be caught off guard again. I realized that she likes to ask questions and clarify information she read on the resmats, especially in parts where she’s confused or feels like some viable info is missing. So I was really praying that what I wrote in there made sense to her. Aside from her wanting to know the little details, I noticed some little things with my time working with her. She doesn’t want to be late for her guests, so if the driver gets lost, she’s quick to pull her iPhone from her bag and use Waze or the MMDA app whenever needed so we can get to the location right away. She’s not maarte and she can change clothes inside the van. She also appreciates it when you tell her more than what is written on your research, because that means that you did your job, and that meant she can ask the right questions to the guest. Cebu, Philippines! At Kenneth Cobonpue’s pretty house! My favorite house among all the houses we’ve featured! Vigan, Ilocos Sur! Watching the amazing dancing lights with Ate Monday. She speaks her mind; she’ll tell you if your work lacks something and what was wrong with it. She sometimes loses her control like any other person would and would start ranting that your work could’ve been better, because she knows you can do better. Is it bad if I tell you that I sometimes wait for moments when she tells us she does not like the quality of work that we did? Because by then, her X years of journalism experience comes out in the open with the things that she starts to say. She is just full of wisdom that all you can think of was “Oo nga ‘no, bat di ko naisip yun?” (Why didn’t I think of that first?) Duh? Because you’re not Kara David. It was like a pop up seminar whenever she gives suggestions on what could have been done instead. The best parts though were the actual seminars she gave that we attended. Nakakahiya man, sinave ko talaga! Hahaha! Sorry na! Fan talaga ‘ko. Huhu. Likewise, she’s also quick to give praises whenever it’s due. I’ll never forget the first time she told me that I did a good job on my first writing assignment for Powerhouse. To say that I was in writing heaven is an understatement. I mean, to have THE Kara David text you that you have the gift in writing is saying a lot. Validation, right there and then. Felt like I won a Palanca or something. She’s also just like any other person who also talks about trivial things to pass the time, like asking “May boyfriend ka ba, Mina?” (Do you have a boyfriend, Mina?) out of nowhere or share funny posts on her Facebook newsfeed and talk about things that are of national importance. I like riding along with her later on because I like asking her about these issues and what she thought about them, I told you, I like picking her brain. She likes Game of Thrones, a lot; her ringtone’s GoT’s theme the last time I heard it ring. She’s very family-oriented and loves talking about her daughter’s (Julia) accomplishments just like any other mom would. She’s an adrenaline junkie and I think she wants to try all the adventure-filled stuff with “–ing” in them. She’s a cowboy like us who eats on a moving vehicle and she’s quick to say “Hi, boys!” to our crew whenever she arrives on location. At one point, I even became in charge of the stuff she wears on the show. All I can say is that she does not like clothes that are too revealing. Hehe. End of the line circa 2009, I-Witness DocuSeminar. Lucky to be one of the 80 people to be part this event. Writing for Kara David is one of the greatest things that I will forever cherish as one of Powerhouse’s researcher and later on, segment producer. Hearing her voice reading the words that I write is fulfilling as hell. If you told me back in 2009 when I first met her in I-Witness docu-seminar that I would one day write for her, I’d tell you you’re nuts. But that’s how sometimes life becomes a “wish-granting factory” we hoped it would always be. Today, I am almost at the end of my writing stint for her, who knows when the next time will be? But working with her and knowing her in a more professional and somehow personal level more than the 2d version of herself jumping out of planes on TV is one of the things I’ll always remember I’m lucky to experience. I’d never forget our first encounter, because the day she told me “Researcher ka ‘di ba? Dapat alam mo.” (You’re a researcher, right? You should know) was the day she made me realized that I should always put my game face on, give the best work to anyone I work with, because in the end, it reflects back to the kind of work that I can give. Powerhouse kick off party 2013. My last Christmas party with the group! :’) Behind the award-winning, moving and tear jerking documentaries we always saw her in, I will remember her as the ultimate slasher, the super mom, the romantic, the compassionate founder of Project Malasakit, the adrenaline junkie, and the bubbly “babaeng bakla” who loves belting to Aegis songs, even if she can’t reach the high notes.

It’s one of those stormy days where I’d rather be sitting by the window, with a cup of coffee and a good book, hearing the raindrops hit the window. I just got back from filming and the location was a young couple’s home in Punggol. I was early reporting for work today and had a bit of time to myself so I planted myself on their L-shape sofa by the floor to ceiling window to read my book “The Memory Keeper’s Daughter”. It’s not a feel-good book but I love the setting of the first chapter. Cold, wintry, harsh and difficult. I think it’s just perfect for Christmas. That aside, I wanna share this other book that I just finished reading with all of you. I like Jodi Picoult because she has plenty of quotes about life, love, relationships which she use to round up sections of the story. Each paragraph is delivered with a punch that never fails to send shivers down my spine. I really liked the way it left me thinking about myself and the way my life parallels fiction. Her stories are ordinary yet this is exactly what is so frightening about it, that the things that happen to her characters could happen to us, the people we know and love, and when it really does, it wouldn’t just go away so easily with the flip of a page. This book explores kinship and marital love through a man’s desperate attempt to reign in his character and prove to himself more than anyone else who he really is; the conflicts, desires, temptations faced by a growing teenager; and the emotional battle of a woman who is so afraid to confront the inconsistencies of her wants that she screws up her relationship with her husband and daughter. It’s rather depressing to think about the lessons learnt, but in a perverse way, I’m also glad to draw certain conclusions from the story. Anyone can try to hide who he really is, and for years, be able to fool the people around him, but the frightening truth is when you deceive yourself into thinking you have it all under control, that you actually believe you are no longer what you were before, when all it takes is just the click of a light bulb to unleash the nemesis from within. Where does that leave you? The uncertainty that shrouds the mind of a growing teenager, who is bombarded with so much superficiality that she can’t differentiate right from wrong, imaginary from reality, who thinks she is saying something when everything else she does mean another. Reasoning and logic is marred with thrill and impulse. What if the only way out is to get yourself in? What if the only way to help is to stand and watch the worst happen? If a conversation is punctuated with prolonged silences, you know something is wrong. You focus on why the relationship is not working out, instead of how it can work out; you blame the other person; you meet someone else and start anew. And then one day you realise that it’s you who has changed, not the other person. You realise that you are trying to fill up the so-called void in your heart when all these while you’re merely too full of yourself. There is hope, I’m certain. Only if we are willing to confront who we are, and then let go. All of it.

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Romance, Steampunk, Alternate History Paperback $15.00 (320 pages, BERKLEY) Audiobook $27.97 (10 hours and 15 minutes) As the mercenary captain of the Lady Corsair, Yasmeen has learned to keep her heart as cold as steel, her only loyalty bound to her ship and her crew. So when a man who once tried to seize her airship returns from the dead, Yasmeen will be damned if she gives him another opportunity to take control. Treasure-hunter Archimedes Fox isn't interested in the Lady Corsair -- he wants her coldhearted captain and the valuable da Vinci sketch she stole from him. To reclaim it, Archimedes is determined to seduce the stubborn woman who once tossed him to a ravenous pack of zombies, but she's no easy conquest. When da Vinci's sketch attracts a dangerous amount of attention, Yasmeen and Archimedes journey to Horde-occupied Morocco -- and straight into their enemy's hands. But as they fight to save themselves and a city on the brink of rebellion, the greatest peril Yasmeen faces is from the man who seeks to melt her icy heart... Author Site: meljeanbrook.com Everything I desire in a Romance done to perfection. (5 stars) Archimedes Fox, legendary hero of serial novels and treasure hunter, is bound and determined to have his greatest adventure yet. He plans to fall in love. But not with just any woman. Fox wants Yasmeen, the equally legendary Captain of the Lady Corsair, the woman who has done nothing but make her heart of steel obvious. From tossing him to zombies to taking his most valuable find courting Yasmeen could be more trouble than any adventurer—legendary or not—can handle. Getting his treasure back is a life or death matter for Fox. When circumstances alter the course of their adventure to get it back the pair must brave zombies, a mutinous crew, and Horde territories. Can the pair survive their most dangerous adventure yet? Will Yasmeen's heart find enough warmth in Archimedes to melt her cold exterior or will her past keep her from a love worth waiting a lifetime for? I shouldn't be reviewing this book. I'm having a terrible time finding anything I didn't like about it which makes it difficult to be objective. Keeping that in mind let me just say that I know this book and series will not work for everyone. You have to suspend disbelief a considerable bit and let the pseudoscience be. Brook has built one of the most exciting worlds I've read but there's so much of it I think it'd be easy to get Tolkien-esque in description overload. Fortunately, Brook has done an excellent job of not overly fatting this novel while still giving readers much more of the world to explore. If you've read THE IRON DUKE and wanted to know more about the Horde this book will be very satisfying. As an adventure this book is great. As a romance it is exceptional. The groundwork for it was laid a bit in THE IRON DUKE so I honestly would not recommend this as a stand-alone though I think it's the better of the two. Yasmeen is an intriguing woman and finally getting some background on her made her even more enjoyable. Archimedes is charming and could disarm any other woman thrown at him but naturally he wants the one who doesn't want love with him or anyone. Their banter is as amusing as always but the sexual tension in this one sparks off the page to the point of nail-biting. Looking for some steamy steampunk? This is your book, hands down. If you read THE IRON DUKE and struggled with disliking Mina and Rhys or finding their romance a little too unbelievable (I know many of you did based on reading others' reviews) I'd suggest giving this one a try. Yasmeen is no wilting flower and Archimedes is not the overbearing alpha-male type that I personally can't stand. The pair are equals in all ways which is exactly what I was looking for. This is one of my favorite romances I've ever read and the adventure only makes it more exciting. I'm scared Brook might not be able to top this one but I'm anxiously awaiting more Iron Seas novels. Yummy Men and Kick Ass Chicks Notes: Review copy received via publisher. Check this book out if you liked:

Over the past couple weeks, I’ve thought a lot about leadership, first in a series of meetings in New Orleans, and then because of some matters in Manchester. Over this time, I’ve gotten praise—some of it even deserved—for my leadership “style.” I use the quotation marks, because my “style” is being myself. Praising that is like flattering Shaquille O’Neal for being good at being tall—he didn’t have much choice, really, and neither do I. Since I was 28 and became director of an alternative school, I’ve spent 22 years in leadership positions. In none of them was I a traditional, by-the-book, let’s-tighten-things-up-here-or-heads-will-roll kind of leader. My friend, long-time boss and mentor, Mark Roth, was once asked to give me a reference. At the end of Mark’s comments, the interviewer tried to sum things up: “Sounds like Keith’s a real no-nonsense kind of guy.” “God, no!” said Mark. “You misunderstand me. Keith’s all nonsense; he’s just clear about what kind of nonsense he wants.” Hence, a clown, and yet also a mystic, believing life has meaning, magic is real, and humans can transform themselves from empty bags of need to overflowing bodies, minds and spirits of generosity. As long as they don’t stop laughing at themselves and everything about them. Still, having folks reach out to ask my advice on running nonprofits is better than a sharp stick in the eye—or indictments being handed down—so at some readers’ request I’ve put together some things I believe about me and nonprofit leadership. Your results may vary. - Take responsibility for anything that happens in the organization. Harry Truman was not our greatest president. Abraham Lincoln was. While I want to be Lincoln, that’s kind of like setting the Buddha as my goal: aspirational but not always helpful on a minute-by-minute basis. Truman, on the other hand, a man thrust into greatness, offers American pragmatic life lessons as prescribed by William James, John Dewey and Charles Pierce: an idea is true if it works. “The buck stops here” is one of the most realistic and responsible statements ever uttered by an American leader, and applies to nonprofit leaders in particular. As the boss, I am responsible for whatever my organization does, and I take full ownership for that. It doesn’t matter if I was lied to or misled by people who work for me; it doesn’t matter if I had no idea what was going on; it doesn’t matter if I didn’t fully understand the implications of our actions: I put on the cloak of leadership so I wear the cold blanket of blame when things go wrong. As you can ask any number of former employees, I will hold them responsible in private, including firing them. To the world, though, the problems of the nonprofit are mine. - When you make a mistake, admit it right away and try to offer solutions or ways to return to normal. I am an alcoholic in recovery, and one of the first things I learned when I got sober is, “It’s not screwing up that leads you back to a drink. It’s refusing to admit you screwed up that gets you drunk.” Absolutely true, and not just about drinking. I make mistakes all the time and therefore I confess all the time. The funny thing is, when you’re honest about your mistakes, do your best to fix them, and try to find new mistakes to make instead of repeating old ones, the people around you start to look at you as good and honest and competent. - Keep behavior flexible while maintaining inflexible values. I think almost anything is worth trying to see if it works. From good ideas (starting an improv theater with “at-risk” teenagers; organizing film festivals with movies directed by high school dropouts; stepping away from federal funding at Liberty House; refusing to appear on stage with politicians) to not-so-good ideas (six-hour long bus rides with teenagers to go camping; trying to make a working raft a la Huck Finn to float down the Contoocook River; paying Liberty House residents to do work at the place they lived, I’ve tried to live by Truman’s credo: We’ll try some things, and if they don’t work, we’ll try some other things. While behavior is flexible, values aren’t. At Liberty House, maintaining a sober community was one of my bedrock values. It’s hard enough for a newly sober man or woman to stay that way, but being surrounded by serial slippers and sippers makes it extraordinarily difficult. On the other hand, I believe every person with an addiction can find a way out, if not on the first or fifth try, then on the 20th. Hence, a mantra I’m sure people have tired of hearing me utter: Zero Tolerance but Infinite Hope. In life, the means don’t justify the ends–the means are the end. What we do and why we do it matter more than our goals, because they determine our goals. The logic behind one obvious credo—you can’t lie your way to honesty any more than you can screw your way to purity—applies across the board. No matter what, you don’t lie—and if you do, you fess up right away—you don’t blame others, you don’t cut corners and you don’t bully. More on values later, but for here the message is to behave like the person you want to be instead of the person you may have been in the past. - Seek a Vision. Nourish that Vision. Trust your Vision. When you’ve got skin in the game, it shows. Your vision is your touchstone, your goal and your energy, helping you persuade instead of simply issuing orders. For not being much of a God guy, I do find a lot of good lines in the Bible, and one of my favorites comes from Proverbs: Without a vision, the people perish. And so does the leader. While the waves on top of my oceanic vision rise and fall, the currents and tides have remained constant for decades: helping create a community where people look each other in the eye with respect and regard, where learning and growth are fostered and praised, and where the weakest are protected from the stronger and the strongest are protected from themselves. - Energy and Attitude are Choices. Simple. Simple. Simple. Be present. Be grateful. Demonstrate your passion. Give more than you take. Hustle and be the hardest worker on the team. We are what we do, and leadership grows from your behavior, not your position. Reading over what I’ve written so far, I don’t disagree with myself, but I don’t see my love of goofiness, of lightness, of laughter for chrissake. Life is short; death is long: laugh until your throat hurts, laugh some more, and then get back to the goddamned work of creating a community. And, finally: Dammit, you’ve gotta be kind. Note: A stranger and almost unidentifiable version of the ideas above appears as my life mission statement: “What It Is: a mission statement in a Keatsian voice.” It has no jokes and few specifics, but it is one of the few things I’ve ever written of which I am unreservedly proud.

REVIEW: ‘Ready Player One’ has a great message … and tons of content problems March 30th, 2018 / By: Michael Foust / comments Wade is a technology-crazed teenager living in a technology-crazed world. This world, though, is much different from modern-day America. The year is 2045, and Wade is fighting for survival in a depressing, dystopian world where people have forgotten how to work. He lives with his aunt in a rusted, high-rise trailer park in Columbus, Ohio, and he passes his time doing what most Americans do: playing in an interactive virtual reality world called the OASIS, where people can be who they want to be and where the limits are – you guessed it – your imagination. In 2045, this is what people do when they’re not eating or sleeping. They don a virtual reality headset and explore a fake world. Everyone has an avatar, but – here’s the catch – no one knows whose avatar is whose. The reason for the secrecy is simple: They are racing to find a hidden “Easter egg” within the game that was placed there by OASIS creator James Halliday – a find that would net the winner ownership of OASIS and presumably wealth, too. If someone is getting close to finding the Easter egg – and if other players know who that person is – then he or she might be hunted down and killed in the real world. For Wade (avatar: “Parzival”), the race to find the Easter egg is going great. In fact, he’s in first place. But then he falls in love with a female avatar. And then he unveils his real-world name. And then a bad guy who heads a company called Innovative Online Industries tries to locate him in the real world and kill him. It’s all part of Ready Player One (PG-13), which opens in theaters this weekend and is based on the 2011 bestselling novel by Ernest Cline. It was directed by Steven Spielberg and stars Tye Sheridan (X-Men: Apocalypse) as Wade/Parzival, Olivia Cooke (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl) as his romantic interest Samantha/ Art3mis, and Ben Mendelsohn (Rogue One) as the head of Innovative Online Industries. Ready Player One is a modern-day parable with a great message for of all of us: Get off your high-tech devices, spend time with your friends and family, and live life in the real world. Sadly, though, much of the content is not family-friendly. Moderate/Extreme. It’s not as bad as modern-day violent video games – there’s not as much shooting -- but it could be quite intense for children. The movie begins with scenes of Fast and the Furious-type cars racing and crashing in city streets. King Kong and a T-rex try and smash the cars. Later, we see the boyfriend of Wade’s aunt punch him. One specific avatar has a skeleton for a chest. The family of one of the main character dies in an explosion. Guns are pointed and often shot. A massive war-type battle takes place. We see more punching and fighting. We see lots of zombies. We see an alien-type monster explode out of an avatar’s chest. Perhaps the film’s most disturbing scenes involve a re-creation from parts of the horror film The Shining. We see the spooky girls, blood spilling down the hallway, and zombies chasing and trying to eat the good guys. Much of it is played for chuckles, but I’m not sure children will be laughing. Moderate. Art3mis wears a skin-tight virtual outfit that shows her back. Later, she wears a quite-revealing dress when she and Parzival dance provocatively in a nightclub. The most concerning scene involves a real-world woman getting out of a bathtub and walking toward a male character (she turns into a zombie). She’s nude, although due to camera tricks the viewer only sees her head, back and legs. In the film’s opening scene, we briefly see an overweight, dressed woman wearing a virtual reality headset and dancing on a pole. Moderate/Extreme. About 36 coarse words: s—t (14), h-ll (8), a—(3), d—n (1), f-word (1), d—k (2), GD (2), G-d (1), OMG (2) and p-ssed (2). That’s a lot for a movie aimed at an audience that includes tweens and teens. It also seemed the writers placed some of the words in scenes just for effect – to make the characters sound “cool.” They seem out of place. Other Positive Elements Samantha was born with a birthmark on her eye and uses her hair to cover it. Wade sees her in the real world and tells her he likes the way she looks – birthmark and all. Ready Player One gives us lessons on the dangers and pitfalls of technology, the limitations of a virtual reality world, and the need to stay grounded in reality. Technology has one primary purpose – to make things easier and convenient, and above all, to improve our lives. Washing machines did that. Dishwashers, too. The list is long. But if we’re honest, can we truly say that the latest wave of technology – smartphones, tablets and high-tech video games – has been a net-plus for society? Consider: A 2015 study by Microsoft showed that our attention spans have fallen in recent years, from 12 seconds to eight seconds. This means we’re more distracted than ever from the more important things in life: Nature. Friends. Family. God. We don’t want to deal with real-world problems. We’ve got to check Facebook! And we haven’t even discussed the addictive nature of these devices. Some researchers argue they can be as addictive as drugs. The Bible tells us to “be still” and worship him (Psalm 46:10), but is that possible when our smartphones are constantly beeping with alerts and texts – and we’re engrossed in social media? Nielsen tells us that the average American stares at a screen 10 hours a day. Wade said it best at the end of the film: We need to spend more time in the real world. - How long could you live without your smartphone? What would you miss most? - Do you think smartphones have been a net-plus or a net-minus for society? - Do you think the future of America and the world will resemble the world in Ready Player One? - What steps can we take to ensure we’re not addicted to technology? Entertainment rating: 3 out of 5 stars. Family-friendly rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars. Rated PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi action violence, bloody images, some suggestive material, partial nudity and language.

9 Things You Should NOT Do When Getting An Escort Escort Rules: 9 Things You Should NOT Do When Getting an Escort If you are planning on hiring an escort, you should know the escort rules. Click here to find out more on what you should not do when getting an escort. Keyword(s): escort rules If you are planning on hiring an escort, then you should know the escort rules. Some men hire escorts regularly for various reasons. Hiring an escort is beneficial in several ways. First, it helps in saving time, effort, and money. The process of courting a woman can be tedious. It takes a lot to impress a woman and take her out. All this is intended at sleeping with her and fulfilling your sexual desires. Second, it does not need special skills to sleep with an escort. Impressive social skills and good looks are required to get a woman. Third, escort services are essential in fulfilling your sexual desires. It is difficult to get a woman who can fulfill your fantasies without being judgmental. Fourth, you can access a wide variety of escorts and services. You can hire an escort to sleep with or an event. You can also select an escort based on character or looks. We have compiled a list of the nine things that you should not do when getting an escort: Escort Rules: 1. Don't Be Disrespectful All women deserve to be treated with kindness and respect. Paying an escort does not give you the right to be rude and disrespectful. Good manners prove that you are worth the time spent on an escort date. Good manners also boost the morale of the escort, encouraging her to give her best service. Good services lead to customer satisfaction. Respectful people are also candidates for future dates. Cruelty can force an escort to work out on a meeting before its completion. 2. Don't Ask for Favors Escort dates are agreed on a set fee. Just like other jobs, the escorts are paid for their time. This is how they generate income to meet their obligations. It is unfair and impractical to ask for freebies. You do not ask for free services when visiting your doctor or seeking legal services. You should also not expect free services from an escort. The biggest motivation for any work is profit maximization. If an escort decides to give you free time or service, then the quality will be low. The escort will give much attention and effort. No one wants low-quality services, especially after hiring an escort and spent extra money paying for a hotel room. 3. Don't Invite Your Friends When Hiring an Escort An escort appointment is for you only. The fee is agreed on the time spent on you and not your group. If you are planning to bring your friend, then you should make this request early. If the escort is comfortable, the price will be agreed upon. An escort has the right to deny you services and leave if you bring your friend or group. This is because you are exploiting her. You are also violating your agreement with the escort service if you bring a friend without their consent. Some escorts do not prefer group sex, while others are scared of groups because of their safety. There are numerous stories in which escorts have been raped, physically abused, or even killed. An escort will only agree to give her time and service if she is comfortable, and her safety is guaranteed. 4. Don't Be Nervous It is normal to nervous in an escort date, especially if it is your first time. Always try to relax and let the escort make you comfortable. It is the job of an escort to make a client feel comfortable. This is what they are paid for. An escort cannot do the job you are paying her for if you are nervous. Relaxing creates a perfect atmosphere to engage with the escort in meaningful conversations. Do not be shy when talking to the escort. You are not the first person to talk to her or ask questions. Feel free to ask an escort any question, but always be respectful and sensitive. Questions are good because they initiate conversations. 5. Don't Cancel an Escort Date without Notification Nobody likes to be stood up for a date or an appointment. Do not do this to an escort. They spend a considerable amount of time and effort preparing for the meeting. If something happens that will prevent you from meeting your escort, then call early and let her know. It is disrespectful and rude not to show for a date. 6. Don't Forget to Set Boundaries Always have a set of guidelines and stick to the. Also, remember to respect and abide by escorts' rules and requests. 7. Don't Lend an Escort Your Phone Mobile phones carry a lot of personal and confidential information. Giving an escort your phone can lead to privacy breach and irreversible consequences. 8. Don't Loan Money Lending escort money creates a personal relationship outside the normal agreement. You may like her so much but it is never a good idea to lend escorts money. 9. Don't Forget to Watch Your Belongings Not all escorts are trustworthy. Some may steal your valuables if they are out of your sight. Learning escort etiquette improves the experience with an escort. The most important when hiring an escort is to have fun. Abide by these nine simple escort rules the next time you are on a date with your escort. Other than these nine rules, make sure that you protect yourself if you decide to sleep with the escort. Always practice safe sex to avoid unwanted pregnancies or contracting diseases. Not all escorts offer sexual services. Some just offer clients a good time. Do not force her into any sexual contact. Before selecting an escort service, make sure that you peruse their customer reviews and ratings. Otherwise, you may fall victim to the usual pitfalls of online advertising. You should also arrive for your escort meeting clean. This is a normal date; the difference is that you have paid for her time. You can carry some flowers or a gift to make her happy. Please explore other parts of our blog to find out more insightful information on hiring an escort.

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Reviewed by Nimue, Yatin and UCV UCV Says - The last time I read an anthology was during my BA days, when hours would be spent trying to thrash a Keating or a Chekov into submitting all interpretations of their work in the Lit. class. I think it was the nostalgia that prompted me to accept a review copy of 'Shades of Love', despite my professed fatigue of reading Indian English writing. Also, the endless intrigue of love pushed me further. Thankfully, it wasn't a bad pick. Edited by Ankit Mittal (who needs to find a better proofreader, considering the number of errors I spotted), 'Shades of Love' is a collection of short love stories by Indian authors, known and unknown. Some names I was familiar with; Sachin Garg, Naman Kapur, Aastha Atray Banan and Rohit Gore among them. The other new names, were as good, if not better, than the published crop. Mittal needs to be credited for making mostly poignant choices, reflecting indeed the many shades of love in this anthology. However, some stories are entirely forgettable. I shall recall, here, the most unforgettable ones. 'A Pop Tart's Psychotic Love Story' by Aastha Atray Banan with its 'LOOK AT ME!' title, also has the meat to go with it. We have the story of a girl, unable to forget the lover who has ditched her, pushed to the threshold of madness. She will do what it takes to have him back, even if it means to kill him or his present girlfriend. When she finally walks up to the ex's house, all guns blazing, she is met with a rather unexpected turn of events... 'A Hero Greater Than Shahrukh Khan' by Rohit Gore has a cheesy title (Gore has a penchant for those), but is deserving of mention because of its tenderness. Caught in Mumbai's infamous deluge, an underdog becomes his family's hero; winning love at the cost of his life. 'Stolen' by Naman Kapur is a sharp little story about love between two equals - in crime and in bed. A pickpocket zooms into a target, sparks fly, and the one out to steal is stolen from. Fun. Apart from these, 'The Remedy' by Sachin Garg, and 'She Called It, Kikugasane' by Tushar Rai are also fair reads. However, Durjoy Datta's 'The English Teacher' is the most remarkable and shocking story of the whole lot, about an obsessive love, and that's all I am going to say about it for fear of ruining it for a reader. If you need a reason to buy this book, buy it for Datta's story. Yes, ignore the horrible paper quality of the book, ignore the lame stories, even ignore the choice of font on the book cover. Read Datta's story and ask Grapevine India to rope him in to write a novel that would stick to a reader's mind forever. Rating - 2.5/5 Nimue Says - Short stories never disappoint me *much*. I feel even a single gem that stays with you forever , makes a book worthy.Shades of Love is of 25 short stories but shades of love are many in each story.The book cover is a real beauty with definitely many shades of red and pink in it ( goes with the book name :D ) There are stories for all age groups ( since love has no age right ! ) , settings and moods. Love happens all the time. Every one has a love story to share and the ones listed here are some really unique ones. A married man finds love right before he dies , two people find love when they are not even searching for it. A wife tries to understand infidelity , a lady returns beyond death to her love , a girl re thinks her decision to marry on her wedding day. Each plot is different , each mood is different. Every emotion and character living it is different. and yet , you find yourself relating to so many of them even in bits and pieces. some of the stories impressed a lot with unique plot , some with poetic writing and some for just showing love in impossible shade maybe.I dint like a few stories that sort of sounded predictable to me. Also the writing was bit not as good as some others. But then, that's the beauty of a story collection. I am always a biased reader when it comes to story collection. Though I will not point out the ones I didn't like , I damn sure tell you of the ones I liked. The one story that totally caught me into its web of words and images was "She called it,Kikugasane". I have read and retold it to my best friend and every time I can feel the power and magical feeling of Love surrounding me as I finish this. As Ankit Mittal says , "There are always stories to tell and interpretations to extract." , This book sure will take you to a journey of exploration of not just the words but feelings in your life. Having said all this about the stories and the writing , I want to add that the pages of the book I received were a let down. The beautiful cover doesn't open into crisp fresh pages but to dull grey ones. I personally didn't like that though I did enjoy reading the book. Rating : 4/5 Yatin Speaks - Shades Of Love dropped in this afternoon. It is a collection of short stories edited by Ankit Mittal and Grapevine Publisher's first anthology. Honestly, I am not a person who likes reading short stories. I have tried reading them a couple of times but by the time my interest starts developing in a story, it ends. But, with Shades Of Love, the case was different. I read each and every story. Though, I skipped 4 stories because I couldn't relate to them. The title of the book is so apt because the book shows some 25 shades of love through 25 different stories. Every story is unique in its own way. There is infidelity, psycho behaviour, secret love, lust, dark desires, genuine love, lost love and many other shades. Also, I would want to point out the forward of this book written by the editor, Ankit Mittal. It says, "Love is the most complex, perplexing, phenomenon one can ever encounter, spanning the most insipid to dark emotions known to man" and this line comes true through this book. It would be unfair of me to my favourite story from the whole collection because every story represents a different character of love. I am impressed with the way new budding writers are coming in and Grapevine is giving them platform. Though, honestly, I was a bit disappointed when the book started with a man and woman making out. But, towards the end, the story took such a turn that left me aghast. The list of people whose stories have been published in the book is as follows All and all, Shades Of Love is a book that you would want to pick up if you want to see the different extremes of the most complex term known to the mankind, LOVE. Try it out. You might like it. Editor: Ankit Mittal