Monday, April 27, 2009

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Richard Walden: Swine Flu Outbreak Precautions Begin Top
Operation USA, a Los Angeles-based disaster relief agency, announced that it was sending tens of thousands of N-95 biohazard protective masks to a network of community clinics in San Diego County along with latex gloves and other protective gear in the event that the airborne version of the H1N1 virus, or Swine Flu, crosses the US-Mexico border. This is in response to an urgent appeal from the Washington, D.C.-based National Association of Community Health Centers. The relief group is withholding in its Los Angeles warehouses tens of thousands more masks and other paraphernalia in case they are needed in the Los Angeles area. This may sound highly dramatic but in reality this type of preparedness activity is beginning to unfold across the USA and in many other countries. We do not yet know the lethality of this particular strain or mix of animal and human viruses, but it appears at first glance less deadly than the "bird flu" virus which caused over 250 deaths in Asia over the past 5 years and decimated tens of millions of chickens and ducks in Asian countries where they are an important part of the food supply. That virus rarely "jumped species" from animal to man and it was never airborne. The Swine Flu variant we are facing appears to be far more easily transmissible from animal and human to other humans. The early evidence shows it was able to travel to the U.S. and Europe inside the lungs of passengers returning home from Mexico. We need to follow a series of simple steps regarding hygiene, avoiding crowds and reporting the onset of any flu-like illnesses early-on. For California's 8+ million medically uninsured, local clinics and public health authorities will be available to screen new cases of flu at little or no cost. Should anti-virals be needed, they are being provided from federal and state stockpiles if pharmacies run out. Self medication with other medication in lieu of a medical exam is not advised as you may lose the 72 hour window where Tamiflu and Relenza are effective against this type of Swine Flu. Above all, follow the news closely -- especially messages from the US Centers For Disease Control. More on Swine Flu
 
Swine Flu: Chicago's Mexican Community Prepares, School Bans Handshakes Top
CHICAGO (AP) -- Religious and community leaders in Chicago's Mexican neighborhoods are trying to educate residents and calm fears about a swine flu outbreak. A spokesman for the Mexican Consulate in Chicago says officials are trying to keep people from panicking. Consulate workers prepared informational fliers in Spanish about preventive measures and planned to hand them out. Meanwhile, pastors and religious leaders listened to resident concerns in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood, which has one of the largest Mexican communities in the Midwest. Pastor Jose Landaverde says people have been stopping by Our Lady of Guadeloupe Anglican Church and are worried about family members in Mexico. Concern about a deadly strain of swine flu has prompted one Chicago school in a largely Hispanic neighborhood to forbid students from shaking hands. Orozco Community Academy Principal Coralia Barraza also says when parents call to say their children are home sick, school officials are being told to ask more questions about the illness than they typically do. Barraza says the school in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood is being particularly vigilant because it has a lot of Hispanic children and routinely enrolls students who've just arrived from Mexico - including one just last week. She also says students travel with their families to and from Mexico. More on Swine Flu
 
World Health Organization Swine Flu Press Conference (VIDEO) Top
The World Health Organization is holding a press conference to discuss the worldwide outbreak of swine flu. Watch it below. Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News , World News , and News about the Economy More on Swine Flu
 
Darryl A. Cobbin: Marriage And Family Stimulus Package Part I: Calling All Husbands And Fathers Top
When I read the headlines about the apparent suicide of David Kellermann, Freddie Mac's acting CFO, it confirmed something I'd been feeling for a long time, a reality that we all share: the current financial crisis has deeply personal implications that we are not talking about nearly enough. I don't pretend to know what went on in the Kellermann household. I don't know if Mr. Kellermann had some kind of mental illness, or if he was so torn apart by the mortgage crisis and the enormous scrutiny he was under that he couldn't take it anymore. But I just can't shake the heartbreaking image of his wife finding him hanging in the basement by a piece of exercise equipment. Perhaps only she knew the kind of turmoil going on in her husband's life. And now a very public crisis has become the unimaginable tragedy of an individual and his family. Conversations about the impact the economy and unemployment, or the threat of it, are having on relationships are glaringly absent in the media, and it's high time we started a dialogue. Financial pressures wreak havoc on even the best of marriages. Divorce rates hover around 50% and money issues are among the top causes, so we're facing a tsunami of marital crises in this country. We have been enjoying years of prosperity and this is the first time in a long time many of us have had to do without. It's come at us like a body blow, and now we're facing a whole new reality. But we don't have to do it alone. We're all going through it. As a husband and father I always prided myself on being a good provider to my family. A great deal of my identity was tied up with my jobs, and being able to pay for the best "things" in life for my wife and three beautiful daughters. I came up in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Detroit in the 70's and I was determined that my own children would grow up with all the safety and security I never had. But at the end of last year I hit a career wall. As an executive vice president of marketing, I enjoyed a comfortable salary and all the perks and prestige of being a top entertainment executive. My long term career goal was to be at the helm of an international multimedia entertainment company and I had been elegantly building my career towards that destination. Unfortunately, like so many of us now, I was affected by a change made at my company. I had a choice - to either stay on in a reduced capacity, leaving myself exposed as an extra wheel, or leave and be in control of my own destiny. I chose the latter. It was a tough decision. It was the first time in my career I was ever in a situation where I had to make a choice to stay or go because of a job reduction. My wife has been a stay-at-home mother for 10 years, so I have been the sole breadwinner, and now we no longer have the long term certainty of a weekly paycheck delivered by a company. I'm working to find another fulltime corporate position. But something inside is telling me never to put all my eggs in one basket again. I don't want someone else deciding the financial future for me and my family, so I've started my own marketing firm to help companies develop a laser sharp branding position and make better use of tight marketing budgets. I've done this internally for companies large and small with great success. I've decided that now is the right time to start a new business for myself. Entrepreneurs are born out of times of chaos. Some of the best businesses in America got started during the Great Depression. So why am I sharing all of this with you? Because I know thousands of you are going through similar challenges, and we need to acknowledge that we're not alone in this, no matter how isolated we sometimes feel. I'm a fiercely private person, and I've never even shared my story with friends and neighbors, let alone over the Internet! I know a lot of other men like this. We're proud, and we identify with our jobs, and when things aren't going well we try to protect our families from the pressure and fear by staying silent. But now is not the time to keep it to yourself. Feeling like you can no longer provide at the same level is hard. But what keeps me moving forward is understanding that it's not about me, it's about my wife and children. Seeing the situation from their eyes helped me get my priorities right. As husbands and fathers, you have to ask yourselves, "What kind of man do I want my children to see through their eyes now?" You also have to remember that when your kids greet you as you walk through the door at the end of a day of work, they don't care about your title or paycheck. They love you because you are you. My girls have really inspired me through this whole period because they love me no less than they did before. Remind yourself of this fact every day. What really helped me was being able to talk it all through with Valerie, my wife. I learned a long time ago that in order for a marriage to stay solid it's important to make financial decisions together. As I mentioned, money issues can be deal breakers (I even wrote a book about this). But when I told my wife the situation, she was totally supportive. She thought of many smart ways we can cut costs while we're in this transition phase. For example, instead of going away on vacation this spring break, we had a staycation, and invited my mother-in-law to spend time with the kids. My girls are into several after-school activities, but we decided to take a season off from all the extra-curricular past times. I've been pleasantly surprised by the benefits of this stripped down lifestyle. As a family unit, we are closer. In the past, I was so busy with work stuff, and my children were always out at this practice or that practice. We rarely had "family time." But now I'll actually sit down and watch a DVD with my kids -- something I never did before. I'm even driving my 'tween daughter to school in the morning. The other day she started telling me about some friends in her class, and how they were already interested in boys, and it led to "the talk." When she got home that afternoon we continued our conversation, and I got to give her my male perspective on boys , hormones and relationships. It happened organically. We could both enjoy the conversation because it didn't feel forced. But had I been working at my old job, I'd have had to appoint a time for my daughter and I to discuss the birds and bees. Not quite the same thing! Of course, I'm still concerned about the economy. Yet I realize that the best things in life are not things at all. If anything, I'm enjoying getting back to some basics, and I hope you've found similar opportunities in this turmoil. If not, please talk about it, even if it's just here in this blog forum. I plan to continue writing about my own balancing act between career, financial pressures and family. I'm still a work in process and I'm bound to make mistakes. But I think we as husbands and dads can help each other and grow, if we engage more with each other. This is the first of a four-part series on this topic, because there's a lot to say about it that hasn't been said. I await your feedback. Like I said, this kind of disclosure is unusual for me, and it's probably unusual for you. But these are unusual times. *** Darryl Cobbin is a veteran marketing executive, serving in senior marketing positions at The Coca-Cola Company, Boost Mobile and Twentieth Century Fox Films. His self-published book on marriage and family is due for release later this year. More on Relationships
 
Survey: Obama's 100 Days, Past And Future Top
During their first hundred days in office, American presidents are under a constant microscope, often facing some of the most consequential and highly-analyzed moments of their presidencies, as was the case with the assassination attempt on President Reagan and with President Kennedy's bungled Bay of Pigs in Cuba. The hundredth day of Obama's presidency is this Wednesday, April 29. Pundits across the nation will be rating the president's successes and failures. But we want to hear something more personal from our readers. What did President Obama do in the first 100 days that personally effected you? Did a bill he signed have an impact on your life? Did you meet the president? Or interact personally in some way with his administration? Email us in 150 words or less (not including links) to submissions+100@huffingtonpost.com . We also want to hear your ideas for the next hundred days. What should Obama's top priority be? What single thing would you ensure gets done, that you worry Obama may avoid or overlook? Tell us in 150 words or less. Email submissions+100@huffingtonpost.com with either "Last 100 Days" or "Next 100 Days" in the subject line, depending on your focus. (You are encouraged to send an email on each.) If you favor the visual medium, feel free to send in a YouTube video submission of two minutes or less. This can be you talking into the camera or something more creative. We'll publish the most insightful and well argued submissions on Wednesday. More on Obama's First 100 Days
 
Gibbs: Obama Remains "Concerned Enough" About Rising Salaries On Wall Street Top
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the president continues to be "concerned enough" about compensation levels on Wall Street as new reports show that officials at some of the world's largest banks are beginning to receive salary packages as big as or exceeding those handed out before the economic downturn. At the White House press briefing on Monday, Gibbs reiterated the president's preference for "guidelines and proposals to rein in executive pay and to ensure that there is some measure in compensation and that the compensation rewards success." But when asked about a new report showing a rise in the industry's compensation packages -- even as unemployment in other sectors continues to increase -- the press secretary offered somewhat mild disapproval. "I think the White House was concerned enough in February about this issue," he said, "and continues to be concerned enough about this issue." Officials tasked with handling and overseeing the financial sector rescue have found themselves in a tricky situation when it comes to executive compensation. Claiming that they are largely hamstrung to stop bonuses or past payments, the White House and Congress have sought to implement legislation that would curb future excess. The lavish payments have the potential to create a real populist backlash and political headache, as witnessed by the backlash to AIG's bonuses in February. Still, the White House doesn't seem eager or willing to get ahead of a second wave of potential anger. Gibb's reaction to the rise in executive compensation was decidedly even-tempered. And at another point in Monday's briefing he all but declined to field a similar question. Get HuffPost Politics on Facebook , or follow us on Twitter . More on Financial Crisis
 
Redmond O'Neal, Farah Fawcett's Son, Released from Jail to See Mom Top
At the request of his lawyer, Redmond O'Neal was sprung from jail for three hours over the weekend to see his ailing mother Farrah Fawcett in a visit supervised by the sheriff's office. "A sergeant and a deputy drove him to his mother's home [Saturday] and he's now back in custody," L.A. County Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore tells PEOPLE.
 
Bill Mann: Hate-talk Radio's Michael Savage's Real-life "Streets of San Francisco" Encounter with SFPD, Film Crew Top
When hate-talk radio's Michael Savage urinated on beloved San Francisco newspaper columnist Herb Caen's grave during Caen's 1997 funeral, it was obvious that right-wing talk radio had reached the bottom of the barrel. Sadly, it's remained there. I was alerted to this vile stunt by one of my newspaper readers in the Bay Area. I quickly turned on the radio and tuned back and forth between Caen's memorial service, which was being broadcast live to tens of thousands, and "The Savage Weenie" using restroom sound effects to electronically simulate relieving himself. When I called the radio exec in charge of the major station that aired Savage's bile-a-thon to complain, he shrugged it off. Why Savage's despicable stunt that lowered the already earth-bound radio bar even further? To get ratings and attract attention, of course. But also, for revenge. It seems Caen had upset Weenie (his popular nickname, his little-heard given name being Weiner) a few weeks before. Caen had printed an item in his famous three-dot San Francisco Chronicle column about Savage having a run-in with a man in a wheelchair in a local restaurant. That's our Weenie! Savage...the only guy who could make Rush Limbaugh look like a class act. I've had the sad journalistic duty of writing about this pathetic-but-popular hatemonger longer than anyone, ever since this braying bigot first surfaced on San Francisco's top-rated radio station, KGO, 15 years ago this spring and I began reporting on how annoying he was in my Bay Area radio/TV column. Savage was my annual year-end pick as Disgrace to Broadcasting for years because of his venomous attacks on gays, lesbians, immigrants, and Democrats, whom he still calls "vermin." I finally gave up and "awarded" Weenie the Perpetual Trophy. Until the disgraceful Caen grave desecration, Savage's bizarre heckling of another class act, local public-radio host Michael Krasny, had been his personal low I'd reported. Krasny was giving a garden-variety inspirational graduation speech at Redwood High School in Marin County in the mid-1990's. (Redwood is comic Robin Williams' alma mater). Savage, who routinely refers to liberals as "mentally ill," began heckling Krasny, a popular and well-regarded English professor/author and a rare class act in talk radio. Krasny later called Savage's classless, attention-getting stunt (which I reported on the front page of the San Francisco Examine r ), as "oratorical penis envy." Savage even admitted to me later that he'd embarrassed his daughter, who was graduating, with his tirade. (I was a registered Republican at the time, so that's presumably why he assented to an interview). Recently, a profanity-filled 1991 video of Savage and his charming wife surfaced on the net - and is attracting lots of Comments. What is shows, while hardly surprising, caused Savage to spin it on a recent show, claiming the filmmaker who posted it "was trying to make me the bad guy." As the five-minute film says: Watch it and judge for yourself. A few lowlights: --A film crew from the popular Fox show "Cops" was on a routine ride-around with two San Francisco policemen. The SFPD officers are questioning two homeless men for apparently using a doorway for a public convenience. -- The Weiners, fresh from dinner at a SanFran restaurant, happen upon the scene. The teeny-tiny radio host begins screaming at the film crew, "Stop racially profiling the police! Another Commie trying to bother police!" --Mrs. Weiner, meanwhile, sticks her face in the camera and says sweetly, "You don't like it when someone gets in YOUR space, do you?" --"I almost got arrested," Savage admitted on his toxic-outfall radio show. -- "You're garbage! You're street shit!" Savage yells as the homeless pair. "They're not bothering me," says one SF cop evenly. "Well, they're bothering ME!" Weenie proclaims in his trademark wide diphthong. -- "Go back to Russia, you fucking assholes!" he yells at the amazed and bemused film crew. (One of the cops tells the crew that Savage is "out of control." ). -- "He threatened my wife!" Savage then yells at the cops with typical understatement. The officer tells the curiously popular syndicated radio loudmouth, "You really need to move along." (At this point, it's surprising the Savage Weenie HADN'T been arrested for making the cops' job even harder). So, just another typical day out of the office for the king of hate talk, whom I've nicknamed The Human Emetic. I used to think Weenie only acted like a jerk on the air, that it was a crass act. But after watching this just- unearthed episode of "The Streets of San Francisco," it's clear that it's no act. .
 
Swine Flu: Illinois Officials Prepare For Local Cases Top
Public health officials say it's only a matter of time before cases of swine flu emerge in Illinois. Officials say they're focusing on special populations, such as children, seniors and immigrants, and they're ready to handle any possible infections. Seven people with cold symptoms have already been tested for the swine flu, but none are carrying the virus. Illinois Public Health Director Damon Arnold says officials are in daily contact with local hospitals and health departments. He says the state will receive additional anti-flu drugs from federal stockpiles this week. Officials say people should use commonsense hygiene practices to avoid the virus, such as frequently washing hands and covering their mouths when coughing. More on Swine Flu
 
Treasury Needs $361B More Top
WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department said Monday it will need to borrow $361 billion in the current April-June quarter, a record amount for that period. It's the third straight quarter the government's borrowing needs have set records for those periods. Treasury also estimated it will need to borrow $515 billion in the July-September quarter, down slightly from the $530 billion borrowed during the year-ago period. The all-time high of $569 billion was set in the October-December period. The huge borrowing needs reflect the soaring costs of the $700 billion financial rescue program and the recession, which is nearing a record as the longest in the post World War II period. The slump has cut sharply into tax revenue and boosted government spending for benefit programs such as unemployment insurance and food stamps. The administration is projecting the federal deficit for the entire budget year ending Sept. 30, will total a record $1.75 trillion. A deficit at that level would nearly quadruple the previous record of $454.8 billion set last year. To cover the government's heavy borrowing needs, Congress in February boosted the limit for the national debt to $12.1 trillion as part of the legislation that enacted President Barack Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus program. The national debt now stands at $11.1 trillion. The government released its estimate of borrowing needs for the quarter before a news conference Wednesday when officials are scheduled provide exact details of how much debt the government plans to sell next week and in what maturity levels as part of Treasury's regular quarterly debt auctions. The $361 billion estimate for borrowing this quarter compared with borrowing needs of just $13 billion in the year-ago period. Normally the government's borrowing needs shrink sharply in the April-June quarter because of all the tax revenue being collected. The government announced in February that it was bringing back the seven-year note and doubling the number of 30-year bond auctions it would hold each year to help finance the surging borrowing needs.
 
Dr. M.J. Wegmann: 3 Sure-Fire Strategies to Prevent the Swine Flu Top
With today's headlines dominated by the swine flu we need to learn more in order to protect ourselves and our families. The 1918 Flu killed an estimated 40 million people world wide. I pray this outbreak does not reach that proportion. I cannot comprehend the psychological impact of death on this scale in society today. Here's a little history on the swine flu. On February 5, 1976, an army recruit died and four of his fellow soldiers were later hospitalized. Two weeks after his death, health officials announced that swine flu was the cause of death and that this strain of flu appeared to be closely related to the strain involved in the 1918 flu pandemic. On August 20, 2007 Department of Agriculture officers investigated the outbreak of swine flu in Nueva Ecija and Central Luzon, Philippines. In March and April 2009, more than 1,000 cases of swine flu in humans were detected in Mexico, and more than 100 deaths are suspected to have a connection with the virus. The Mexican fatalities are said to be mainly young adults, a hallmark of pandemic flu. [1] The nature of a flu tends to be in waves. Flu pandemics typically come in waves. The 1889-1890 and 1918-1919 flu pandemics each came in three or four waves of increasing lethality. [2] I can't find much information about what wave this flu is on, but researchers are more concerned about this flu than many in the past. Here are 3 Sure-fire Strategies to help you and your family respond to the threat of the flu. 1. Hygiene - maybe one of the greatest advances of the industrialized nations was the change in the way sanitation and hygiene were practiced. Limiting our exposure to toxins both organic and inorganic makes sense. The body has a built in immune system, but sometimes that system can be overwhelmed. Frequent hand washing, especially when there has been contact with other people or with potentially contaminated surfaces can be very helpful. 2. Chiropractic - One of the most important studies was performed by Ronald Pero, Ph.D., chief of cancer prevention research at New York's Preventive Medicine Institute and professor of medicine at New York University. It showed the positive effect that chiropractic care can have on the immune system and general health . Dr. Pero measured the immune systems of people under chiropractic care as compared to those in the general population and those with cancer and other serious diseases. His initial three-year study was of 107 individuals who had been under chiropractic care for five years or more. The chiropractic patients were found to have a 200% greater immune competence than those people who had not received chiropractic care, and they had 400% greater immune competence than those people with cancer and other serious diseases. The immune system superiority of those under chiropractic care did not appear to diminish with age. Dr. Pero stated: When applied in a clinical framework, I have never seen a group other than this chiropractic group to experience a 200% increase over the normal patients. This is why it is so dramatically important. We have never seen such a positive improvement in a group. [3] Another study from Patricia Brennan, Ph.D., leading a team of researchers, conducted a study that found improved immune response in her test subjects following chiropractic treatment. The study specifically demonstrated the "phagocytic respiratory burst of polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) and monocytes were enhanced in adults that had been adjusted by chiropractors." [4] Life Chiropractic University, produced an incredible study from the Sid Williams Research Center in 1994. The researchers took a group of HIV positive patients and adjusted them over a six-month period. What they found was that the "patients that were adjusted had a forty-eight percent (48%) increase in the number CD4 cells (an important immune system component)." These measurements were taken at the patients' independent medical center, where they were under medical supervision for the condition. The control group (the patients that were not adjusted) did not demonstrate this dramatic increase in immune function, but actually experienced a 7.96% decrease in CD4 cell counts over the same period. [5] The immune system is affected by the nerve system through the connections with the endocrine and the autonomic nervous system. And chiropractic care improves the function of the nerve system through improving the movement of the spinal bones that encase and protect the spinal cord. Stressful conditions lead to altered measures of immune function, and altered susceptibility to a variety of diseases. Many stimuli, which primarily act on the central nervous system, can profoundly alter immune responses. The two routes available to the central nervous system are neuro-endocrine channels and autonomic nerve channels. [6] 3. Masks - no mask can provide a perfect barrier but products that meet or exceed the NIOSH N95 standard are thought to provide good protection. The rationale behind masks is to limit airborne secretions to stop the virus from spreading from person to person. The use of masks is not uncommon in the hospitals where the potential of infection can be greater in compromised patients. It would be unethical and potential deadly for a surgeon to operate without first washing their hands and using a mask. As I stated previously I pray this flu does not turn pandemic. Millions of people's lives will be at stake. I do hope you adopt some of the ideas I shared with you; starting first with the hygiene. Second I encourage you to explore the wonders of chiropractic if you currently know little about chiropractic. Finding a great chiropractor can be a challenge. Many chiropractors simply operate as "pain" doctors, never fully utilizing or understanding the miraculous results when applied properly. Dr. Wegmann is the co-founder of TheNewWellness.com one of the fastest growing health websites in the world. [1]. Deadly new flu virus in US and Mexico may go pandemic". New Scientist . 24 April 2009. [2]. U.S. Institute of Medicine; Stacey L. Knobler, Alison Mack, Adel Mahmoud, Stanley M. Lemon (editors) (2005). The Threat of Pandemic Influenza: [3]. Pero R. "Medical Researcher Excited By CBSRF Project Results." The Chiropractic Journal, August 1989; 32. [4]. [4] Brennan P, Graham M, Triano J, Hondras M. "Enhanced phagocytic cell respiratory bursts induced by spinal manipulation: Potential Role of Substance P." J Manip Physiolog Ther 1991; (14)7:399-400. [5]. [5] Selano JL, Hightower BC, Pfleger B, Feeley-Collins K, Grostic JD. "The Effects of Specific Upper Cervical Adjustments on the CD4 Counts of HIV Positive Patients." The Chiro Research Journal; 3(1); 1994. [6] Felton DL, Felton SY, Belonged DL, et al. "Noradrenergic sympathetic neural interactions with the immune system: structure and function." Immunol Rev. 1987 Dec;100:225-60. More on Swine Flu
 
Hamid Karzai Announces Re-Election Bid Top
Afghanistan's president has said that he will soon register his candidacy for August's presidential election. More on Afghanistan
 
Nancy Keenan: Pro-Choice Progress: A Primer on President Obama's First 100 Days Top
Wednesday, April 29 marks the 100th day of President Barack Obama's administration . As the political leader of the pro-choice movement, NARAL Pro-Choice America will mark this milestone as yet another reminder of how electing leaders who support the fundamental American values of freedom and privacy does make a difference in the lives of women and their families. President Obama is leading our country during an especially challenging time and many of our family and friends will discuss what's happened during his first 100 days on a number of fronts . When the topic turns to women's reproductive freedom and choice, we want you to be prepared to share the following signs of change: • President Obama rescinded the global gag rule , the Bush administration policy that canceled U.S. family-planning funds to many overseas health centers and denied the world's poorest women access to birth control. (January 23) • President Obama re-funded the U.N. family-planning program, UNFPA , which President Bush had de-funded for seven years straight. Obama also signed legislation into law boosting UNFPA funding to a record $50 million. (January 23 and March 11) • President Obama signaled his commitment to medically accurate sex education by including it in his first-ever budget outline . (February 26) • President Obama announced his intention to repeal the controversial, last-minute Bush policy known as the Federal Refusal Rule . The regulation could have allowed entire health-care corporations to refuse to provide medical services - including, potentially, birth control. (February 27) • President Obama signed legislation into law fixing the birth-control price crisis at college health centers and safety-net provider clinics across the country. (As a senator, Obama authored this legislation.) (March 11) • President Obama signed legislation increasing family-planning funding for American women by $7 million, and cutting the failed "abstinence-only" programs by $14 million . (March 11) • President Obama signed legislation increasing international family-planning funding at the USAID by more than $30 million. (March 11) We have reason to celebrate after reading this list, but let's not forget that we're marking the first 100 days of what will be a long and bumpy road to progress. There will be budget debates, a possible vacancy on the Supreme Court, and more. As Pulitzer-Prize-winning columnist Cynthia Tucker said at our annual event marking the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision in Washington, D.C. during the early weeks of this administration: "Obama didn't say, 'Yes, I can,' he said, 'Yes, we can.'" How right she was. We must be Partners for Change to build on the success of the first 100 days--especially because our opposition is going to extreme depths to attack President Obama. Look at the right-wing attacks on three of President Obama's key nominees : Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas for secretary of Health and Human Services; former NARAL Legal Director, Prof. Dawn Johnsen , for assistant attorney general at the Department of Justice; and Judge David Hamilton for a judgeship on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. What do these nominees have in common? In addition to impeccable qualifications for the respective positions for which they've been nominated, they also have taken pro-choice positions. Before you sit down to watch the president's press conference on Wednesday evening, I ask you to take tangible action to become a Partner for Change and call on the Senate to reject the divisive political attacks from right-wing groups and confirm these qualified nominees. The actions we take now will determine what additional points we add to this pro-choice primer in the next 100 days. More on Kathleen Sebelius
 
Swine Flu: What You Need To Know Top
More on Swine Flu
 
Octomom Gets New Tattoo In Honor Of 14 Children Top
The tattoo -- an angel with 14 stars and an infinity symbol -- was a tribute to her brood. "I just wanted to symbolize the eight babies and the six other kids and how the angel represents that they're angels -- they all are miracles," she said. "And the angel's dropping 14 stars, one for each child. That's it. Kind of simple but meaningful to me." More on Nadya Suleman
 
Manuel Rosales, Chavez Critic, Granted Asylum In Peru Top
Peru has granted asylum to a Venezuelan opposition leader who says he is being politically persecuted by President Hugo Chavez's government. More on Venezuela
 
Stephen Funk: The Bad Apples Were at the Top Top
Inspired after reading a piece by Huffpo contributor Gregg Mitchell . Go read it! Alyssa Peterson was one of the first female U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq -- a 27 year old whose suicide is made more tragic with the release of these memos on torture. She objected to the interrogation techniques being used and refused when ordered to carry them out after only two nights. Days after her refusal she grabbed her service rifle and took her own life. Alyssa Peterson should still be alive. She was a trained Arabic-speaking interrogator who served with C Company, 311th Military Intelligence BN, 101st Airborne, there is no reason why under normal and legal circumstances that she would not be able to perform interrogations. The evidence suggests these weren't normal and legal circumstances. We will only find out with a formal investigation because much of the information has been covered up by the military, including lying about her suicide at first calling it a "non-hostile weapons discharge". If Alyssa Peterson had never been ordered to torture she would still be alive. The intense struggle between service and conscience pushed her to end her life, but it should have never happened because she should have never been ordered to torture. She may have pulled the trigger, but others created the situation in which people like Alyssa are told to commit acts so heinous and illegal that they would consider suicide. Alyssa is obviously not the only one. Many other military interrogators were ordered to perform acts so intense and inhumane that they have also, like Alyssa, been deeply affected. According to a recent military report veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq are have been committing suicide at higher and higher rates as the wars continue, 2009 is already on track to surpassing 2008's numbers. Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News , World News , and News about the Economy Now that President Obama has stopped the Bush Administration torture programs we can begin work to undo the harm these illegal acts have caused. We've talked about repairing our image abroad, about how our use of torture was a recruitment tool for al-Qaeda, but we have not examined the damage the Bush Administration caused the people being interrogated or the interrogators themselves. For those struggling with conflicts between their military service and their conscience, you are not alone , you are not weak, you are not wrong. You have the right to refuse service that conflicts with your conscience. I know it is an incredibly daunting task to honor your conscience when the military demands complete obedience, but when I followed my conscience I found the opposite of what the military told me. Instead of being alone, weak, and wrong, I had the support of many inside and out of the military which empowered me to choose what I knew to be right. People in the Bush Administration also had choices, and prioritized getting information that would link Saddam Hussein to 9-11 and al-Qaeda. They chose to gather this information by any means necessary, although they knew that torture provides unreliable testimony. They chose to bend the law until it broke. The law does not have a choice. No matter how many other urgent crises there are to attend to at the moment, the evidence revealed last week must be thoroughly investigated and those responsible must be punished for war crimes. More on War Crimes
 
KFC Free Chicken Day: April 27th (TODAY)! Top
Today is KFC free chicken day ! Before the day is done, rush yourself to the nearest KFC for a free piece of grilled chicken.
 
Douglas Alexander MP: Security Central to Tackling Poverty in the 21st Century Top
Douglas Alexander MP delivered the following speech at an NDN forum in New York on Monday, April 27, 2009. Safer communities and better security will be central to the UK's aid effort. Security must be recognised along with the provision of basic services like health, education and water as a key part of development work. I urge the UN and the international community to transform the way they do business to realise this change. I am calling for a stronger remit and more support for regional organisations - such as the African Union - which are best placed to provide peacekeepers and mediation. My four-point plan includes: • Support for secure political settlements that will build the legitimacy of the state - practical and lasting agreements on power-sharing. • Help to build effective justice systems and to reform the police and army to offer people genuine safety and ways to resolve disputes. • Assistance to ensure states can survive on their own by helping governments to raise tax revenues and to encourage civil society. • Increased support for states to deliver basic services like health education and water to meet the expectations of their citizens. Research has shown that a single civil war can cost the same as the sum sent spent annually on development aid worldwide. The importance of helping to build a strong state has been underlined by experience in Afghanistan. Afghanistan has never had a strong centralised government. But sustainable peace and the eventual exit strategy from our development effort depends on helping to create a stronger government that has credibility with its people. So we are increasing our help for core state functions including the Presidency, local government and the justice system as well. Half of all the children who die before the age of five are born in fragile states. Civil war is more likely to break out in low-income countries - so there is a vicious circle of poverty leading to violence leading to more poverty. And conflicts all too often spill over borders, destabilising entire regions. In response to this challenge many donors, including the UK, have already shifted additional resources towards fragile states. But fragile states don't just need more money, they need a different approach to help them tackle the root causes of their fragility. We must help to provide opportunities for the poorest so that they have choices in life, to ensure that resorting to violence, gun-running or kidnap are not their only options. Somalia provides a clear example. It has become infamous for the pirates that plague its coastline. The US, UK and European Union continue to contribute to international efforts to combat that threat. But the piracy is a direct reflection of the crisis afflicting the country - a crisis brought on by 18 years of conflict and the almost total collapse of the state. We must offer Somalis a reason to hope for a better future, by creating jobs, especially for young people. If we can't provide opportunities for people to earn a secure living, the risk of fighting for a warlord or an extremist group or taking your chances on the Indian Ocean might seem worthwhile. Wherever we live - whether it's Baltimore, Brixton or Basra - there are people who will pay our children to pick up a knife, or a handgun, or an AK47, and to use it to commit acts of violence. The challenge we face, in rich and poor countries alike, is to give people a choice and a stake in their communities - the chance to earn an honest living and provide for themselves and their children without having to turn to violence and crime. That is why we require a fresh approach. For decades we have worked to support economic growth and provide basic services like clean water, health and education. But in countries afflicted by conflict we must now add to that core mission a commitment to build peace and to build functioning states. In the past, aid agencies have too often been afraid to engage in building political institutions for fear of being accused of interfering in a developing country's politics. But our experience teaches us that we cannot address the challenges we face in fragile environments, in particular, through technocratic solutions alone. Training people to become teachers, health workers or police officers, and supplying text books and equipment are necessary interventions if we want to reduce poverty, but alone they are not sufficient. We also need to support political institutions and processes - parliaments, political parties, civil society and the media. As the World Bank's study on Voices of the Poor showed - and experience from Liberia to Afghanistan or Bosnia demonstrates - poor people want security and justice in the same way that they want sanitation, education or health care. If we are honest, many who want to eliminate world poverty have been wary of working in this area. As a concept, it became conflated and confused with the idea of 'the war on terror'. It poses sovereignty issues for developing countries and is politically sensitive for donor countries. And where there has been a focus on security, it has largely been in terms of state control of its territory rather than thinking about security from the perspective of poor people. And it is those people that we should be placing at the heart of our thinking on developing safer communities. So interventions to train police officers better, to tackle abuse by soldiers, and improve access to courts need to become as commonplace a response to poverty as building schools or health clinics. And by helping these countries that are in or on the edge of conflict to take steps towards sustained peace, and strengthening a government's capacity to govern, we will make a decisive contribution to achieving a safer, more equal and more prosperous world. More on Afghanistan
 
Patrick Fitzgerald Agrees To Stay As US Attorney: Durbin Top
CHICAGO (AP) -- U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin says corruption-busting prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has agreed to stay on as U.S. attorney in Chicago. In a letter to Illinois congressmen Monday, Durbin said Illinois is "fortunate Patrick Fitzgerald has agreed to continue his service as U.S. attorney in the Northern District." The announcement came as no surprise. Last November, Durbin said he'd recommend another term if Fitzgerald wanted it. In nominating a U.S. attorney, the president traditionally chooses a candidate recommended by the senior senator of the president's party.
 
How to Attract Birds to Your Yard Top
Birds are like people, except they are a different species and aren't as good at crossword puzzles. Despite our obvious differences, we still want birds around. They are nice to look at and free to enjoy. Birds eat pesky insects that may tear up your garden, so they are a green first step towards replacing pesticides. More on Animals
 
Russ Wellen: Justifications for Torture: You've Heard the Rest, Now Here's the Best Top
Since President Obama approved the release of the torture memos, conservatives have jump-started their efforts to make the case that torture works. The testimony of everyone from historians to FBI agents aside, what if there's a germ of truth to what they allege? Thomas Hilde, editor of On Torture (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008) explains in an email (excerpted here with permission) the method -- seldom cited -- to the madness of modern torture. [Emphasis added.] . . .torturing for information. . . requires as much torture as possible in order to make it meaningful information rather than simply raw data. Often, as with the Burmese junta, this just means hauling in people. . . with little or no reason for suspicion. . . torturing them all, and then plotting out the various individual bits of data to create a larger, meaningful narrative while tossing away the outlying data (from the insane, people who know little if anything, from the moments of a victim's sheer delirium, etc.). To update an analogy from a different context (from the great 19th-century philosopher, Charles Peirce). . . we can know with some degree of certainty that the goal of an archer or pub darts player was to hit the bulls-eye without him actually ever hitting it. But only if we have enough other data points from which to extrapolate. Three darts -- say, off the board, in the inner ring, an inch above the bullseye -- don't tell us much. The true goal -- the bullseye -- would be revealed in the pattern left by, say, 183 darts, even if all of them miss the bulls-eye. Same goes for information when the means of getting it make its veracity seriously suspect (i.e., torture victims will say anything). The more individual data points, the clearer the picture. More torture victims, better information. This is also why torture always tends towards institutionalization. I think we should be very careful of focusing too much on the individual cases in trying to analyze the policy precisely because torture institutionalizes. But in the cases of KSM and Zubaydah, the ongoing torture may function in a similar way. ... [My] guess is that they were trying to verify little bits of information gotten from him in other torture sessions or from other torture victims by trying to beat his mind into a malleable pulp. It's not that torturing for information doesn't "work." It's that we've misunderstood the nature of torturing for information. I think that's what Cheney is probably relying on if he is indeed saying that all the torture memos ought to be released because many will show that the torture "worked." In other words, volume, volume, volume -- like, like. . . warrantless surveillance! In both practices, the extravagant expenditure of time and money required to mine wave upon wave of data suggests a regime less concerned about threats to the state than to itself. The obsessive pursuit of information has traditionally been the mark of a regime that rules by force and sees enemies at every turn -- like the Bush administration to a certain extent. If we wish to wipe that slate clean, we can scarcely grant the offending parties a free pass. Addendum Nor should we forget, as Professor Hilde reminds us, that the meaningfulness of the information extracted: . . . is a function of fitting into the preexisting expectations and interpretive frameworks of the torturers. Factual verification may never be possible in many cases. Meaningfulness and factualness are not one and the same thing. More on Dick Cheney
 
Brad Pitt Takes Sons To Niagara Falls Top
NIAGARA FALLS, Ont.--People magazine may have named him "Sexiest Man Alive" twice, but even Brad Pitt looked a little goofy in his blue Maid of the Mist poncho. The superstar actor was in Niagara Falls, Ont., on a picture-perfect afternoon to take in the sights of the world-famous cataracts Saturday. In tow were two of his sons, Maddox and Pax; his parents, Bill and Jane, and his bodyguards. The group enjoyed the attractions while remaining relatively under the radar. More on Celebrity Kids
 
Penelope Andrew: How Recent Documentary Films May Have Paved the Way to Embrace the Figure of Barack Obama Top
The following film article is part of a special series on the rise in popularity of documentary films published by Critical Women on Film , the online journal of the Women Film Critics Circle. Among the many points discussed are the failure of the mainstream media to adequately cover several controversial events during the Bush Administration; the role of film, documentary or narrative feature, in realizing the public's deeply desired dreams, which includes a search for heroes; and how these films may have prepared us to embrace and elect perhaps our most Capraesque political figure to date -- Barack Hussein Obama. Introduction to the Documentary Phenomenon To look at the escalating popularity of the documentary film is to enter an interesting, complicated, and -- if one dares to dig deeply enough -- collectively psychoanalytic exploration of the role of desire and dreams in a time of mass confusion. More documentaries are being produced (the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences tightened its criteria for qualifying nominations as submissions soared), many more are being seen (they now comprise a burgeoning market in which even mega-producers like Harvey Weinstein have positioned themselves), and their quality has risen impressively (as evidenced by glowing reviews and in winning multiple, international nominations and awards in and outside their category). Seasoned mainstream as well as independent narrative filmmakers are weaving the controversial, colorful threads that make up the increasingly hot-topic tapestries of the genre: Jonathan Demme's treatise on former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, The Man from Plains (2007) and Spike Lee's opus When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (2006) -- an HBO-produced TV documentary series that won a Peabody, three Emmy Awards, and several foreign film festival awards was also lauded for its artistry in the 2008 Whitney Biennial -- are but two examples. Filmmakers totally devoted to the genre -- Sophie Fiennes ( The Pervert's Guide to Cinema , 2006); Michael Moore ( Roger & Me , 1989 through Untitled Michael Moore Project , 2009); Errol Morris ( Gates of Heaven , 1978, The Thin Blue Line , 1988); and the very prolific, cross-over (with the Oscars to prove it), director Rob Epstein ( Word Is Out , 1977, The Times of Harvey Milk , 1984, Threads from the Quilt , 1989, The Celluloid Closet , 1995, Paragraph 175 , 2000) --practice their craft with creative abandon and will likely continue to flourish. U.S. television has also played a role in the rise of the documentary with PBS and HBO among the major hothouses in which filmmakers have tackled subjects from the very dirty, political tricks of Lee Atwater to the war crimes of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. Actor/directors have done some interesting work in the genre, i.e., Diane Keaton (Heaven, 1987) and Rosanna Arquette ( Searching for Debra Winger , 2002 and All We Are Saying , 2005). Then there are the brilliant and poignant single films done by virtually unknown filmmakers. Born into Brothels (2005) by first-time directors, Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman, stands out among them as a work of dedicated passion. A search for humanity in the most unlikely of places -- Calcutta's red light district -- this small, intimate film tied with giant Fahrenheit 9/11 in 2004 for The International Documentary Association Award and won The Independent Spirit 2005 Truer Than Fiction Award. The National Board of Review made room for both films in tapping Brothels as Best Documentary, while Moore's film took its Freedom of Expression Award. Born into Brothels' Academy Award and Fahrenheit 9/11 's Palme d'Or stand side by side as two necessary bookends in a year when so many nightmares cried out for attention and creative expression. And then there is the work of Heddy Honigmann whose devotion in finding the soul of her subjects and touching the psyches of her audience is in a class by itself. Her 1999 film Crazy covered the subject of genocide through the eyes of the Dutch peacekeeping forces who witnessed atrocities in the Congo, Bosnia/Herzegovina, and other breeding grounds for waking nightmares. Ultimately, it was music that soothed and saved these men and women whose psyches barely survived their service as blue helmet (i.e., unarmed) veterans for the United Nations. Crazy is rarely seen and not yet available on DVD. To view a segment of this amazing documentary on American cable television's independent film channel is to yearn for more. The tragedy and the majesty of her images, and the haunting riffs of the veterans' musical choices -- Puccini's "Turandot", "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," "Crazy," et al -- are very, very hard to forget. The late Francine Parker's 1972, anti-war documentary FTA was dusted off, restored, and screened theatrically at the IFC Center in New York City in early February and is now available on DVD. The film followed Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, and six of their "trouble-making" writer, actor, musician friends as their anti-USO alternative to Bob Hope -- a thinking troops' troupe -- entertained baby-faced U.S. soldiers stationed in cities across the Pacific Rim. In a particularly moving scene, Sutherland recites a passage from Dalton Trumbo's powerful anti-war novel Johnny Got His Gun, about a guy named "Joe " who is a WWI veteran trapped inside a body maimed and disfigured beyond human recognition. The IFC screenings were introduced by Fonda herself, in a powerful reminder of the censorship, fear, and smear tactics that derided her as "Hanoi Jane" and tainted a group of anti-war activists who cared deeply about the troops, as "un-American" during another troubled time in U.S. history. The film restores Trumbo to a place alongside Theater of War's Bertolt Brecht as one of literature's most powerful, anti-war voices and one of documentary films' currently celebrated and rediscovered anti-heroes. How to Frame Such a Landscape? With such a rich landscape of documentary filmmaking, narrowing a field of documentary dreams was extremely difficult. A specific time period, 2003 through the present, and a particular theme, war , were chosen. Although these films coincide with the U.S. invasion of Iraq, their stories begin with 9/11 and reach back to the Vietnam War and even further. The obscene and now well known fact that 9/11 was the geo-political opportunity after which the Bush Administration had thirsted, while for the rest of us it was a national nightmare, which they exploited relentlessly is still a bitter pill to swallow. This informed the choices of the films considered: Fog of War (directed by Errol Morris), Theater of War (directed by John Walter), Body of War (directed by Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro), Fahrenheit 9/11 (directed by Michael Moore), and Waltz With Bashir (directed by Israeli Ari Folman, veteran of the 1982 invasion of Lebanon), which exposes horrors staggeringly similar to the trauma of Vietnam veterans. The Dumbing Down of America It can be argued that with the Bush Doctrine in full swing, the popularity of documentary films became activated by the public's disillusionment and mistrust of the mainstream media and by the disintegration of responsible investigative journalism, especially around coverage of the U.S. invasion, prolonged occupation, and escalation of the war in Iraq. Not only did mainstream media fail to perform with distinction, they were seduced into collusion with Bush's propaganda machine, whose tactics extended to censorship especially in hiding the dead and broken bodies (and damaged psyches) of war. New media tried to compensate but could not satisfy the ever growing appetite for responsible war reportage. The media -- like the American people -- were stunned into submission by fear and confusion. Susan Sontag's attempt in a New Yorker essay to provide a deeper meaning to and broader context for 9/11 was met by outrage, derision, and death threats. The disconnect between last Tuesday's monstrous dose of reality and the self-righteous drivel and outright deceptions being peddled by public figures and TV commentators is startling, depressing. The voices licensed to follow the event seem to have joined together in a campaign to infantilize the public....And this is not Pearl Harbor. We have a robotic President who assures us that American still stands tall. A wide spectrum of public figures, in and out of office, who are strongly opposed to the policies being pursued abroad by the Administration apparently feel free to say nothing more than they stand united behind President Bush. A lot of thinking needs to be done...about what constitutes a smart program of military defense....The unanimity of the sanctimonious, reality-concealing rhetoric spouted by American officials and media commentators in recent days seems, well, unworthy of a mature democracy. To read the film essay in its entirety, go to Critical Women on Film, the online journal of the Women Film Critics Circle http://criticalwomen.net/2009/04/documentary-film-in-era-battered.html
 
John Farr: Best Movies By Farr: A Tale Of Two Hepburns Top
As a budding film buff roughly forty years ago, I recall arriving at the natural conclusion that since Katharine and Audrey Hepburn not only shared a last name but were also both famous movie personalities, they must somehow be related. Was Kate her mother or her aunt, I asked myself. Once I learned they were in fact not kin, I observed what a big world it was, and took comfort that there was a perfectly logical reason why these two actresses looked nothing like each other. Of course any lack of physical resemblance was only the beginning of their differences. In fact, on closer examination, the two almost seem like a study in contrasts. Kate was old New England stock to the core, while Audrey was descended from authentic European aristocracy. A Bryn Mawr graduate, Kate was born to comfort and privilege, while Audrey's distinguished bloodline could not exempt her from some harsh early years fighting off starvation in Nazi-occupied Holland. (Being the daughter of an Englishman certainly did not help). The always outspoken Kate screamed feminism before feminism was even a term, sporting trousers and spouting opinions with a man's aggressive assurance, while Audrey, a fashion icon who wore Givenchy creations in many of her films, personified womanliness in its most graceful, delicate and ethereal form. Kate put career first her whole life, choosing not to wed and have children after an early, failed first marriage. Her on- and off-screen partner, Spencer Tracy, himself a married, devout Catholic, would not divorce, and served as both surrogate father (and later, child/patient) to Kate. By contrast, Audrey would wed twice (once to actor Mel Ferrer), and bear a son by each marriage. Then, in the late sixties, she would consciously choose family over show business. Thus Kate had more longevity, but more bumps along the way, while Audrey's career was basically up, up, up- until she herself chose to bow out. While in their later years both Kate and Audrey pursued extremely private lives, Kate never lent her name to any cause in a highly visible way, while Audrey's early brush with malnutrition galvanized her into becoming a roving ambassador for UNICEF, using her celebrity to improve the lot of the world's hungry and dispossessed. Finally, Kate would see ripe old age (she died at 96), while Audrey would succumb to cancer in 1993, at age 63. Had she lived, the younger actress would have turned eighty on May 4th. In an "Entertainment Weekly" online poll from a decade ago, Kate and Audrey received the most votes for "Best Classic Actress Of the Twentieth Century", with Kate edging out her younger rival by less than a percentage point. Given their close proximity in this poll, I had to wonder which Hepburn resonates more with today's audiences. Believing in sound research, I simply asked my wife Olivia which actress she prefers on-screen, and relates to more overall. "Audrey", she shot back without hesitation. "Kate grates on me after a while. And Audrey reminds women that femininity can be an asset." I know just what she means. Kate can come off as arch, mannish and impossibly upper-crust in her films, and she was also notoriously demanding to work with. The luminous Audrey, on the other hand, was by most accounts precisely what she seemed to be: an angel. Still, Kate had a special energy that mesmerized viewers, and in my opinion, boasts a slightly more impressive and enduring filmography. Regardless of one's personal preferences, what these two women indisputably shared was immense talent, dedication, and that rare phenomenon called star quality: the ability to project a distinctive, readily identifiable persona that viewers respond to and care about. What follows are my own top picks for each star. All you need to do is... pick your Hepburn! Kate's Klassics Stage Door (1937) Bringing Up Baby (1938) The Philadelphia Story (1940) Woman Of The Year (1942) Adam's Rib (1949) Summertime (1955) Long Day's Journey Into Night (1962) A Lion In Winter (1968) Audrey's All-Timers Roman Holiday (1953) Sabrina (1954) A Nun's Story (1959) Breakfast At Tiffany's (1961) Charade (1963) My Fair Lady (1964) How To Steal A Million (1966) Wait Until Dark (1967) For full write-ups on each of these films, and close to 2,000 more outstanding titles on DVD, visit www.bestmoviesbyfarr.com. More on Fashion
 
Fortune 's Stanley Bing: 9 Things We'll Probably Forget When This Is All Over Top
1. Economics is a bunch of bushwah. Now we know it. Economists are obviously not only behind the curve on what has occured, they are in many cases the cause of it. It is not a science. It is not even an art. At best, it's a craft, like pottery. As things improve, we can expect a bunch to begin operating pretty much as usual, though. Why shouldn't they? It's a living. 2. Wherever there's money around, there will be crooks . Many of these crooks are well-dressed. Often they are at the top of whatever game they are bilking. Next time this all happens, people will once again be surprised that the guy who ran the exchange is the person who also managed the Ponzi scheme. 3. The Law is a ass . I believe it was Mr. Bumble in Oliver Twist who said it, but recognition of the unique aspect of the legal profession goes back to Shakespeare and beyond. Virtually all of the regulators and legislators who were supposed to be monitoring the finance industry were certainly lawyers, as were the lawmakers who were asleep at the switch until they could be assured of airtime on cable on the subject. 4. In God We Trust. All others pay cash . Every panic in history has been precipitated by the same stupid sequence of events. In Rome, for instance, a huge panic not that dissimilar to ours happened when some rich bankers underwrote a bunch of ships that were sent to the east. The ships foundered. The banks had over-extended themselves. They ran out of cash. People freaked out. In 1837, following another crash a few decades earlier, the banks once again forgot about the whole debt/equity thing and doled out huge amounts of money in western real estate. The market went bust. The banks went boom. The economy went into the tank for 10 years. A few years ago, my own corporation almost went belly up after its Financial Services Division lent a bunch of dough to a sleazy real estate outfit in New Orleans that just didn't pay us back. Now we have this, and everybody asks, "How could all these smart people lend out so much stupid money?" Because that's what they do to MAKE stupid money, Sparky. As soon as nobody is looking they'll do so again. 5. The rich are not like other people . They're not smarter. They're not happier. They just know how the game is played and, for the most part, what to do to stay there. Sometimes everybody forgets that the whole thing is designed to keep the powerful in power and the rich in their McMansions, and the People are sold the idea that everybody can have their Baby Benz. And for a while, everybody sort of gets high on the idea that capitalism is a populist enterprise. It's not. It's for just a few lucky souls and manipulative hedgers and, really, the rest of us should really just buckle down behind our plows and keep our pennies in that coffee can by the window ledge. We'll forget that, of course, as soon as the markets simmer down. Then the Ralph Kramden side of us will once again emerge from the closet where it's been whimpering for the last 18 months, and we'll all be back in the hunt for the next mystery appetizer. 6. The press is the running dog of the system . Of course there are exceptions. But in general the media covers the winners and puts a nice shine on their helmets. What you read is what they get. Now that there are fewer reporters than ever, and more blogspit in the machine, everything will only get worse in this regard. Right now, even at the height of our troubles, the food chain goes from security analyst and quote monkey straight to the wires and blogs and directly to you. And you read it and think whatever occupies your brain pan for the most recent five minutes. 7. Be careful who you insult while they're on their way down . They will either rise up one last time, like Carrie's dirt-encrusted fist from the grave, and pull you down with them, or they will meet you as they are on the way back up and chew your head off now that they can. Those in need of proof on this subject need only consider two short words: John Thain. 8. Nothing lasts forever . Not good times, and not bad times, either. And nobody knows when whatever train we're on will arrive at the next station. Not nobody. Anybody who tells you they do is smoking something. You can either ask for some of what they've got or ignore them entirely, depending on how you're feeling or what day of the week it might happen to be. 9. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day . Even when nobody else is picking up the check. Later on, when that starts again? Even moreso.
 
David Misch: Obama Calls For End To Murder Prosecutions Top
With Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid at his side, President Obama today announced his opposition to all prosecutions for the crime of murder. "While murder is a dark and painful act," said Mr. Obama, "I see no point in looking backward to prosecute those who have committed it in the past." Mr. Reid added "It's quite possible that the investigation and prosecution of these past crimes will be seen by many as 'retribution'. Surely Americans do not wish to be viewed as a nation which 'punishes' those who break 'laws'. That way lies chaos." The President continued: "Yes, reflection rather than retribution is needed now. Nothing will be gained by blaming murderers for what they've done. That is, of course, assuming the murder is in the past. Anyone planning to murder in the future should be aware of the possibility that their actions may be condemned and that they themselves may be put at risk of public criticism." Mr. Obama also called for an end to the teaching of History in the public schools. "How can learning about what happened in previous years prepare us for the challenges of tomorrow? Moving forward is the best way to avoid making the mistakes of the past. Even better is not doing anything about those mistakes, which will assist us in not making them again, at least in exactly the same way."
 
Slumdog Star's Mom: They're Dating Top
Patel's mother Anita has confirmed to a British newspaper that the pair are very much a couple. "First it was the film and now everything else seems to have slotted into place," Mrs. Patel is quoted as saying in Monday's Daily Mirror. "Life can't get any better for him. Freida is really beautiful, and I am really happy for them." More on Slumdog Millionaire
 
Richard Laermer: Amazon Failure, the Future of the Corporation and "Crisis Communications 101" Top
I'd like to think Amazon is in control of its business model but like all companies that have too many tentacles in too many places they are actually in a heap of trouble a lot of the time. When a company spends as much time carefully cultivating their thought to be casual image - Amazon's hype is about as contrived and particularly worded as I've seen - you know that they take every word and comma written about them with the utmost seriousness. Like, for instance, this: Amazon is doing a big shiny dance with regard to moving gay, lesbian, transgendered and erotic books to the Adult section of the world's largest bookstore. On one hand they say it was a ham-fisted (a word when used is ham-fisted) re-categorization error, which would have worked as a plausible excuse if they corrected it immediately. But that's where the other hand slaps that hand away. Amazon sent letters to publishers informing them of the move. That's not something Amazon can take back so easily. As a matter of fact, publishing types I spoke to feel this move is final. Crisis PR is about taking the bull by the horns of reality and stopping a shitload of bad press before it takes you over. In the case of Amazon, the tweets and posts about this debacle are still overshadowing their efforts to bring the noise level down and make everything better. When the dust on the gay fiasco settles, it's obvious that was an effort of Amazon insiders to take gay-themed books like Randy Shilts' The Mayor of Castro Street and John Rechy's City of Night and turn them into something naughty. How did this happen? No outsiders know for sure. Most likely, Bezos and some insiders have an idea that brings them no pride: It's likely that someone or some group within the company has a religious or personal belief that trumps anything already "on the books" about categorizing gay or sexed-up titles. I believe that, like in caveman days, small people in power who have no hobbies use that heaviness in a way that will only make them feel better. In Amazon's and others' cases, if you're a molasses-moving public company and a small number of employees (or two, in the case of Dominos' snot-in-pizza fiasco) screws with your brand, it usually takes a series of high level meetings before anything happens to clean it up. Somehow, Dominos, as we now nod to, pounced in an aggressive manner that made it clear this was a rogue movement of two never-to-be-seen-again idiots. The Big A moves in mysteriously slow ways (which is why its slogan, "Amazon. And You're Done." makes me laugh). They wring their hands for days diluting a statement and the non-spontaneity of that careful statement put more egg on an already crinkly face. No matter what happens to Amazon, the policy put in place had a sinister smell, and so Amazon will always have a bad rep with gay authors, readers, and like-minded/sensitive/ folks who think prejudice is simply too last year for them to bear. That's a literate group who pays full price. I can't imagine a collective with bigger mouths who now spend a great deal of free time slamming Amazon at every turn. Perhaps one day BN will stop licking their own wounds, look up and grab them by the bookbinders. Oh, and what could Amazon have done to stop the attacks? They could have canned the folks who made gay book-bashing a pastime, and did so with verve and gusto, without worrying about fallout from the investment community. Alas, nothing transpired. In a big show of "We want to be all things to all people," oops-oh-boy statements appeared, and they, like all vanilla approaches, fall on deaf ears. Crises aside, I am looking towards a new era when our networked population stops caring about corporate monoliths in favor of seeking ways to buy locally, from small sellers, outside the Amazon box. Let's give our shrinking expendable monies to entrepreneurs know how to treat each customer with style, grace and aplomb. And yeah, wren't you tired of the nonstop huffing-and-puffing in our direction by companies who work so hard to 'acquire' us but do so little for us afterwards ? **************************************************************************************************** Regular commentary on Twitter: twitter.com/laermer For more buy the book 2011: Trendspotting
 
Cute/Ridiculous Animal Thing Of The Day: Baby Rides Sled Pulled By Puppies (VIDEO) Top
We don't know where Puppytown is, only that we desperately want to live there. It's a land where babies are apple-cheeked, dressed like tiny lumberjacks, and riding sleds with teddy bear drivers. A land where baby dogs pull baby people through fields of perfect snow. It's amazing. (Via Buzzfeed ) WATCH: More on cute animal videos
 
Stephen Balkam: Qikker than Twitter Top
Twitter is so ten minutes ago. Now there's Qik - an application that allows you to stream live video from your cell phone directly to the web or your Facebook account or to another phone. Don't have a video camera as part of your phone? No worries, the downloaded software turns your ordinary camera phone into a cam corder while simultaneously broadcasting whatever you're doing or looking at, to the world. Admittedly, these are early days for Qik. Not all phones support it. I tried to download it to my 3G iPhone, but it turns out I have to "jailbreak" my phone before I can proceed. Not being the adventurous type when it comes to tech devices, I searched in vain for Qik in the iPhone Apps store. Soon, I've been told. But if you do have a supported phone , then it's a matter of a few clicks and away you go. The implications are mind boggling. Think political rallies, weather events, live births, slow deaths - all of these and more will be instantly available with a helpful Google map to show you exactly where the video is being streamed from, thanks to inbuilt GPS capabilities of most phones. We are heading for an unedited, unmediated, live view of everyone and everything, inside and out, whether we like it or not. We're going to have to get used to a Truman Show-type existence where we will both star and direct our own as-it-happens video show. So what about safeguards? The Qik terms of service helpfully point out that it reserves the right to remove "material that is unlawful, obscene, defamatory, libelous, threatening, pornographic, harassing, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive, or encourages conduct that would be considered a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability, violate any law, or is otherwise inappropriate". And do this instantaneously? Unlikely. However, they do have a Report Abuse button under each submission. It will be interesting to see how quickly they can respond when large amounts of live videos come flooding in. And how about kids? They are, after all, the early adopters of all things mobile. Parents have bought their teens and tweens mobile phones in their millions to keep in touch with them and, in some cases, track where they are at any given time. Do they realize they've just handed them a mobile production unit for live television? Will this take sexting and cyberbullying to a new and more challenging level? And, consumer beware the costs of all this streaming content. There will be a new round of sticker shock as folk receive their monthly bills and see that those exciting videos they sent from their Grand Canyon rafting trip have cost them an arm and a leg. Will the carriers be able to cope with the bandwidth demands? Will schools know how to handle kids live streaming from the playground (or locker rooms)? How about bosses being secretly broadcast by their employees from private meetings? Or recently arrested detainees sending out damning evidence of their treatment within a squad car as we watch live from our living rooms? Who knows. All we do know is that the future just got a little closer. And you can see it live at qik.com. As their strap line so succinctly says: "See what happens". More on Twitter
 
SWINE FLU: US advises against Mexico trips Top
WASHINGTON — U.S. officials advised Americans against most travel to Mexico on Monday as a swine flu virus that began there spread to the United States and beyond. With 40 cases now reported in the U.S., President Barack Obama urged calm, saying there was reason for concern but not yet "a cause for alarm." Dr. Richard Besser, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that so far the disease in the United States seems less severe than the outbreak in Mexico, where more than 1,600 cases have been reported and where the suspected death toll has climbed to 149. No deaths have been reported in the U.S, and only one hospitalization. "I wouldn't be overly reassured by that," Besser told reporters at CDC's headquarters in Atlanta. He raised the possibility of more severe cases _ and deaths _ in the United States. A European Union official warned against travel to parts of the U.S. as well as Mexico, but Besser said that seemed unwarranted. State Department spokesman Robert A. Wood said the EU commissioner's remarks were his "personal opinion," not an official position, and thus the department had no comment. "We don't want people to panic at this point," Wood said. Still Besser said of the situation, "We are taking it seriously and acting aggressively. ... Until the outbreak has progressed, you really don't know what it's going to do." The U.S. stepped up checks of people entering the country by air, land and sea. And Besser said a new U.S. travel advisory was being prepared suggesting "nonessential travel to Mexico be avoided." The confirmed cases announced on Monday were double the 20 earlier reported by the CDC. Besser said this was due to further testing _ not further spreading of the virus _ in New York at a school in Queens, bringing the New York total to 28. Besser said other cases have been reported in Ohio, Kansas, Texas and California. He said that, of the 40 cases, only one person has been hospitalized and all have recovered. Countries across the globe increased their vigilance amid increasing worries about a worldwide pandemic. Obama told a gathering of scientists that his administration's Department of Health and Human Services had declared a public health emergency "as a precautionary tool to ensure that we have the resources we need at our disposal to respond quickly and effectively." "This is obviously a cause for concern and requires a heightened state of alert, but it's not a cause for alarm," Obama said. He said he was getting regular updates. The Senate has yet to confirm a secretary of human services, a surgeon general or a director of CDC. The absence of those officials left Besser and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to brief reporters on the swine flu outbreak. The quickening pace of developments in the United States in response to the spreading new flu strain was accompanied by a host of varying responses around the world. Mexico, at the center of the outbreak, suspended schools nationwide. China, Taiwan and Russia considered quarantines, and several Asian countries scrutinized visitors arriving at their airports. U.S. customs officials began checking people entering U.S. territory. Officers at airports, seaports and border crossings were watching for signs of illness, said Customs and Border Protection spokesman Lloyd Easterling. While "the borders are open," Easterling said officials were "taking a second look at folks who may be displaying a symptom of illness." If a traveler reports not feeling well, the person will be questioned about symptoms and, if necessary, referred to a CDC official for additional screening, Easterling said. The customs officials were wearing personal protective gear, such as gloves and masks, he said. The CDC can send someone to the hospital if they suspect a case, but no one is being refused entry. Also, the CDC is readying "yellow cards" with disease information for travelers, in case they later experience symptoms.The border monitoring resembles that done during the SARS epidemic earlier in the decade. Multiple airlines, including American, United, Continental, US Airways, Mexicana and Air Canada, said they were waiving usual penalties for changing reservations for anyone traveling to, from, or through Mexico, but had not canceled flights. Besser said the best way to keep the disease from spreading is by everyday precautions such as frequent handwashing, covering up coughs and sneezes and staying away from work or school if not feeling well. Besser said that for now he'd prefer people "not giving that little kiss of greeting that they're used to right now." While the cases reported so far in the United States seem relatively mild, Besser said far more will be known about the disease's transmission traits and severity in a week or two. He said the particular virus at issue had not been seen before, either in the United States nor in Mexico. U.S. authorities are not currently recommending that people put on masks in the workplace to protect against infection. The evidence "is not that strong" that the wearing of protective masks effectively limits the outbreak of such diseases, Besser said. He said about 11 million doses of flu-fighting medications from a federal stockpile have been sent to states in case they are needed _ roughly one quarter of the doses in the stockpile. While there presently is no vaccine available to prevent the specific strain now being seen, there are antiflu drugs that do work once someone is sick. If a new vaccine eventually is ordered, the CDC already has taken a key preliminary step _ creating what's called seed stock of the virus that manufacturers would use. A private school in South Carolina was closed Monday because of fears that young people who recently returned from Mexico might have been infected. Officials of Newberry Academy in Newberry, S.C., said some seniors on the trip had flu-like symptoms when they returned. State Department of Health and Environmental Control spokesman Jim Beasley said test results on the students could come back as early as Monday afternoon. To date, there have been no confirmed swine flu cases in the state. Overseas stock markets fell as investors worried that the outbreak could derail economic recovery. U.S. stocks fluctuated as the swine flu threatened the travel industry, with major indexes modestly lower by mid-afternoon. The New York City school where 28 cases have now been confirmed was closed Monday and Tuesday. Also, 14 schools in Texas, including a high school where two cases were confirmed, will be closed for at least the next week. Some schools in California and Ohio also were closing after students were found or suspected to have the flu. In Mexico, the outbreak's center, soldiers handed out 6 million face masks to help stop the spread of the virus that is suspected in up to 103 deaths. Most other countries are reporting only mild cases so far, with most of the sick already recovering. Spain reported its first confirmed swine flu case on Monday and said another 17 people were suspected of having the disease. Also, three New Zealanders recently returned from Mexico are suspected of having it. "It was acquired in Mexico, brought home and spread," Nova Scotia's chief public health officer, Dr. Robert Strang, said of Canada's first confirmed cases. ___ Associated Press writers Mark Stevenson and Olga R. Rodriguez in Mexico City; Frank Jordans in Geneva; Mike Stobbe in Atlanta; Maria Cheng in London and Eileen Sullivan and Robert Burns in Washington contributed to this report. More on Swine Flu
 
Gingrich Condemned Torture In '97: Violates The "Foundation Of American Values" Top
One of the more difficult rows to hoe in the ongoing debate over detainee treatment has been the insistence by some conservatives, against countervailing evidence, that these measures not only aren't torture but actually work. Former Vice President Dick Cheney has led the charge, requesting that two specific memos be released showing valuable evidence from detainees who buckled during waterboarding. But outside of the administration as well, various officials who were once absolutists when it came to denouncing torture or humanitarian abuses now find themselves dealing in vagaries when discussing conduct by former Bush officials. See, for example, these quotes from Newt Gingrich. The former Speaker of the House and reliable GOP presidential flirt would not definitively define waterboarding as torture during a Friday appearance on Fox News. VAN SUSTEREN: But you said a minute ago that it was torture, waterboarding... GINGRICH: No, I said it's not something we should do. VAN SUSTEREN: OK. Is it torture or not? GINGRICH: I -- I -- I think it's -- I can't tell you. VAN SUSTEREN: Does it violate the Geneva Convention? GINGRICH: I honestly don't know. Several weeks ago, meanwhile, he insisted that President Obama's decision to close Guantanamo and put an end to interrogation policies had made the United States less safe . When he was in office, however, Gingrich took one of strongest public postures against detainee abuse, political imprisonment and, yes, torture. A reader sends over the statement Gingrich issued following then-Chinese President Jiang Zemin's visit to the United States, in which he insisted that there was "no place for torture and arbitrary detention," describing such acts as contrary to "the foundation of American values." FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: OCTOBER 30, 1997 SPEAKER'S STATEMENT ON VISIT OF PRESIDENT JIANG Washington, D.C. -- House Speaker Newt Gingrich released the following statement today following his meeting with Chinese President Jiang Zemin. "As I said in China this spring, there is no place for abuse in what must be considered the family of man. There is no place for torture and arbitrary detention. There is no place for forced confessions. There is no place for intolerance of dissent." "While we walked through the Rotunda. I explained to President Jiang how the roots of American rule of law go back more than 700 years, to the signing of the Magna Carta. The foundation of American values, therefore, is not a passing priority or a temporary trend. Get HuffPost Politics on Facebook , or follow us on Twitter .
 
Greg Hanlon: HuffPost Review: Tyson Top
There's a case to be made that Mike Tyson ruined boxing for a generation of fans who came of age after Muhammad Ali. For us, no fighter will equal the aura of '80s-era Tyson, who charismatically embodied the violence at the heart of the sport's appeal. But his extended crash and burn and degeneration into a tawdry sideshow makes it hard for us to take the sport seriously ever again. Still, he remains an enduringly captivating character. And just as his name sold video games when we were kids, so it will sell tickets for James Toback's new documentary film, Tyson , which premiered in theaters last Friday. The movie weaves old footage of Tyson with interviews with the contemporary version culled from more than 30 hours of tape. On display is the stark discrepancy between the menacing block of granite he once was and the tired, doughy middle-aged man he has become. Some of the fury in Tyson's face is gone, but the sadness behind that fury is not. Neither, for that matter, is the restless, frustrated search for self that makes Tyson a somewhat sympathetic character despite his many misdeeds. Tyson is often mocked for his speech impediment, his fondness for big words he has not quite mastered, and some of his more ridiculous statements through the years (threatening to eat Lenox Lewis' children before praising Allah comes to mind). But the man is not stupid, and his narration carries the movie. He takes us back to his youth in "hellacious" Brownsville, Brooklyn of the 1970s, telling us that before he became a street thug, he was the target of neighborhood bullies because he lacked the confidence to stand up for himself. That all changed when a bully grabbed one of the pigeons Tyson kept for a pet and ripped the bird's head off. Tyson flew into the rage and beat the bully to a pulp. From that moment on, nobody fucked with him. He had discovered in himself a capacity for violence, but some three decades hence, he is still looking for much else. The movie makes the viewer feel sorry for Tyson, but that doesn't override our repulsion with many of his actions. In the film, his poignant introspection often crosses over into self-absorption. He keeps his anger and destructiveness mostly under wraps, but can't prevent these qualities from occasionally leaping to the surface in disturbing ways. He is still furious with Desiree Washington, the Miss Black America beauty pageant contestant whose accusations of rape led to his 1992 conviction and three-year prison sentence. He calls her a despicable liar and insists he never "took advantage of her," in his words, though he admits to taking advantage of other women, an example of one of his many blind-spots. In the end, what emerges is a man of contradictions: The same man who charged at Lenox Lewis during a pre-fight press conference in 2002 tenderly wiped blood off his opponent's face after their bout. He is contrite and angry, a victimizer and a victim. And after all these years, he is still enthralling. Tyson premiered Friday, April 24th. More on Sports
 
Meredith Lopez: A Made Mom Top
I used to be one of those snobby Manhattanites who make fun of people who have kids and then immediately migrate to the neighborhood of Park Slope in Brooklyn. And then Husband and I signed a lease a few weeks ago. For an apartment. In Park Slope. We did not intend to move there, it just happens to be where we found a really great apartment in our price range (with a terrace!). At least, that's what we're telling ourselves. Park Slope is family-friendly to a near militant degree. It's more than family-friendly. It's almost family- mandatory . Home of the infamous "Stroller Mafia," I've already heard horror stories of rabid parents who, if they so much as imagine even the tiniest slight against their children will terrorize the local businesses into submission. A friend of mine told me that a bookstore there had parents protesting the stocking of Disney Princess books, because they were misogynistic. In looking for part-time daycare for the Juban Princeling, I found one place that seemed normal and nice, only to discover that not only was there a waiting list for a coveted spot at this place, but it was impossible to get the Princeling on that waiting list. This is an under-two-years-old daycare. And I could not get my six-month old son on the waiting list for a half-day twice-weekly spot. The WAITING LIST! Clearly, we are dealing with more than your average "soccer moms" and "little league dads" here. I've gone ahead and joined a popular neighborhood website that is the unofficial online HQ of the Stroller Mafia. My goal is to slowly and subtly infiltrate this crowd so I can make some Mommy Friends, make some playdates for the Princeling, and generally not feel like an outcast in our new community. However, I'm a little scared of what I will encounter. I had a c-section and formula feed the Princeling. I'm a SAHM who will be putting my baby into part-time daycare purely so he can start socializing with other babies and get used to other caretakers. I don't pay attention to which brand of strollers we schlep him around in, and the Princeling's wardrobe is full of non-organic clothes. During the Princeling's baths we sing and dance along to M.I.A. or Missy Elliot, not Baby Einstein. The Princeling does not co-sleep in our bed. Although we buy Seventh Generation diapers , they are still disposable, and not cloth diapers hand-woven by me from cotton I grew myself during my pregnancy. Our recycling bin is full of empty bottles of wine that we drank before putting the baby to bed - in his own crib. We drink tap water and also use it for our baby's bottles. And although we buy only organic formula and baby food, we still buy it rather than make it ourselves from fruits and vegetables grown in a little plot of land in a community garden. The Princeling and I are not currently enrolled in any Mommy and Me classes. I have a feeling we're not exactly going to blend in. Moving to Park Slope reminds me of the three semesters I spent at a very small but very crunchy liberal arts school out West. While my fellow students went around wearing dreadlocks in their white kid hair, playing Frisbee golf and hackeysack , and composting their trash for their marijuana plants, I ordered cheeseburgers in the dining hall. The looks I got clearly told me I might as well have been torturing baby cows in front of the mommy cows, for all my meat-eating, animal-hating, earth-trashing, consumerist wickedness. I'm afraid that if it's found out, in Park Slope, that I buy my baby's food in jars, the Stroller Mafia will set up a picket line outside our building with candles and vigils and big signs stapled to sticks and songs and chants like, "One, two, three, four! Giving your baby food out of a jar will decrease his IQ and make him anti-social and give him ADD and he won't be able to learn a second language and won't get into college and he'll end up a homeless beggar by the time he's 25 because you are the worst mother ever!" Though, being the Stroller Mafia, I'm sure they can come up with something catchier, and rhyming. Husband is already making noises about us possibly joining the Park Slope Food Co-Op as a way to save money on groceries, as well as get involved with our new community. Of course, he's also been reading books like " The Omnivore's Delimma " lately, so he's already a step ahead of me as far as crunching up for our big move next week. He still eats meat with me, but now the meat we buy has to be farm-raised, grass-fed, hormone-free, massaged daily, sung to, manicured, pedicured, and allowed to talk about its feelings before it is gently soothed into the Big Grass Field in the Sky so we can sink our teeth into its delicious, bloody flesh. Maybe Husband can put in a good word for me with the Stroller Mafia.
 
Pope Mideast Visit Preparations See Both Strife And Excitement Top
Preparations for the Pope's May 8 - 15 Mideast visit have adopted varying tones, from laudatory educational campaigns to politically sardonic venue choices, all depending on who is rolling out the red carpet. As the AP reports , for example, Palestinian refugees in the Aida camp near Bethlehem are welcoming the Pope, but intend to make a statement in the process by building the stage from which he will speak in the shadow of the massive concrete barrier separating Israel from the West Bank. However, the Israeli government has caught wind of the move, which is meant to depict Israel as a Palestinian occupier, and is canceling the construction for violating permits. Nearby, Bethlehem's governor Salah at-Tamari decried the Israeli government Friday for acting in a manner that is meant to hide the "repressive practices against Palestinians," and pointed out that the inclusion of the Aida camp on the Pope's itinerary was meant to specifically address this issue, AdnKronos reports. According to AdnKronos: The Aida camp was established in 1950 between the Palestinian towns of Bethlehem and Beit Jala. According to the United Nations Relief Works Agency, the camp is severely overcrowded and has a population of 4,456 inhabitants. At least 478 families in the camp receive emergency food rations. Other regional voices have been even less subtle in their reaction to the Pope's trip, such as Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood, who is calling for a Papal apology for remarks he made in the past about the Prophet Muhammad, the AP reports. According to AP: The controversy centers on a speech the pope made in September 2006 about Islam and violence in which he quoted a Medieval text that characterized some of the teachings of Muhammad as "evil and inhuman," particularly "his command to spread by the sword the faith." In contrast, Israel's Catholic schools have been pulling out the stops since the Pope's visit was announced in early March. Since that time, Catholic schools have set aside 500 hours of class time to focus specifically on the Pope, Vatican and Catholic history, Catholic News Agency (CNA) reports. Reflecting Israeli Catholics' anticipation of the momentous visit, Fr. Elias Daw of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church told the Italian bishops' news agency SIR that: "This journey comes in a delicate moment, after the tragedy of Gaza, the recent attacks against the symbols of our religion on an Israeli TV channel and the declarations made by Holocaust-denying Bishop Williamson," he told SIR. "Christians in the Holy Land need the Pope and his voice of truth and justice now more than ever." The Pope's trip will have a specific directive to promote Israeli-Palestinian rapprochement, which he expressed in his annual Easter address from the Vatican. According to Al Jazeera: "Reconciliation - difficult, but indispensable - is a precondition for a future of overall security and peaceful coexistence," the pope said in his twice-yearly "Urbi et Orbi" (to the city and the world) address. "It can only be achieved through renewed, persevering and sincere efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict." We'll have updates to come as the Pope's visit approaches and, presumably, more clashes of expectation and preparation occur. ------ Keep in touch with Huffington Post World on Facebook and Twitter . More on Middle East
 
Trevor Traina: How safe is your car? Top
Other than fastening a seatbelt, I hardly think about safety issues when driving. I certainly wasn't concerned last month while racing to the Seattle airport in my full-sized rental car. Rare Northwest sun sparkled as I merged into a lane behind a pickup. Before I knew it, something heavy and metallic was flying at my head. I still don't know if it was a wrench or a pipe or what. My hands reflexively rose to protect my face as I braced for the inevitable. Miraculously, whatever it was bounced loudly off of my windshield, inches from my head, leaving a sober mark to be discussed with the rental agent ten minutes later. As soon as the shock subsided, I honked repeatedly at the offending truck. They never stopped. There is much debate today about the environmental harm done by large vehicles like SUVs. Some of the smallest cars ever to roll down a paved road have gotten everyone talking about efficiency and functionality. Minis are maxi when compared to Smarts or the new Tata. These light vehicles get amazing gas mileage and fit into parking spots previously reserved for strollers and segways. They are cheap and kind to the planet. For sure, those are great things particularly if you don't dwell much on safety issues. However, accidents are like 100 year floods or economic recessions. They happen more often than you think. My sister was nearly killed while driving a Mini on a city street. She was going less than 20 miles per hour as was the pickup that hit her. It isn't until something is flying towards your head at 60 miles per hour that you remember that some things are even more important than fuel economy. Just for the record, I am all for fuel-efficiency and environmental protection. I approve of hybrids, electric vehicles, running a car on recycled hair gel - whatever. I am just not sure that the solution is to move to tiny cars. And while it is important to apply our best thinking to making vehicles that won't harm the environment, I just don't want us to pretend that small cars are as safe as larger cars because I am not convinced they are. I insist my wife and children be strapped in tightly in larger vehicles that can withstand an impact. I encourage my friends to do the same. I was thinking through all these issues last week as I drove in from the airport at the tail end of yet another business trip. The Seattle incident a month ago was not in my mind as I merged onto the highway. I didn't realize it but, like the 100- year flood that supposedly never comes, I was about to find myself in danger again. A blue Honda Accord pulled into the lane in front of me and before I knew it an entire bumper was cart-wheeling up off of the highway at me. It smashed into the grill of my car (yes an SUV), punctured my heavy steel hood, slammed into my windshield and dented the roof before blowing past me. Miraculously again it did not come through the windshield and I was unharmed. In shock, I leaned on the horn. They never stopped. More on Cars
 
Richard Chin: On World Malaria Day, Commitment to Malaria Continues Despite Tough Economic Times Top
Last week, Norway's Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre announced a $225 million initiative aimed at bringing effective anti-malarial drugs to all who need them. "The age when the world had effective drugs against infectious diseases but let millions die each year because they couldn't afford them is over," he declared. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria will manage the new initiative. Malaria is not a new disease; throughout history it has claimed the lives of millions of people, including some of the most famous figures in history--Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan are both thought to have died from the disease. Yet for all our attempts to eradicate malaria, thousands of years later, we are still at its mercy. Today, malaria still claims over one million lives a year, with roughly half of the world's population at risk to the disease. The malaria parasite is a particularly wily foe and has overcome our attempts to defeat it on numerous occasions in the past. But the Roll Back Malaria Partnership has created a roadmap to eliminate malaria regionally and then eventually eradicate it altogether. Although the disease is widely considered to be beatable, a large effort from global stakeholders is required in order to develop the wide portfolio of treatments, preventions and research necessary to ensure that the disease is brought under control and eventually eradicated. Even though global funding has increased over the years, the UN Millennium Development Goal of halting and reversing the spread of malaria by 2015 seems a hard-to-reach target. The Roll Back Malaria Partnership estimates that some 8.9 billion dollars will be needed to be spent on research in the next 10 years to progress towards control, regional elimination and, eventually, eradication. This is no doubt a tremendous investment, but it's one that must be made, and one that will eventually pay dividends. Vaccines are the ultimate goal in prophylactic therapy and Artemisin-based Combination Therapies (ACTs) are the current WHO-recommended treatment for malaria. In total, 228 million doses of ACTs are required per year, along with 730 million nets and 1.5 billion diagnosis tests. Further, additional dollars must be committed to help these resources actually reach their intended recipients. There has been hesitation to invest in ACTs due to the unstable and unpredictable market for artemisinin - the raw material for ACTs that comes from the plant artemisia annua. Novartis, the primary producer of ACTs, estimates that it has had to absorb losses of 100 million dollars in producing the drug due to the volatility of the artemisinin price. Making this market more stable is crucial to the success of ACTs and will require a range of interventions from the market to the lab. To ultimately bring more certainty to this market, three scientific projects under the umbrella of the Artemisinin Enterprise , and backed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (http://www.gatesfoundation.org/), are using the latest technology to address the problem of undulating Artemisinin prices. The Centre for Novel Agricultural Products in York is using plant science to produce a plant with a higher yield of artemisinin; the Institute for OneWorld Health is looking into ways of developing semi-synthetic artemisinin through fermentation; and Medicines for Malaria Venture is working on developing a more stable, rapid acting, fully synthetic artemisinin-like molecule. Although each of these projects sounds complicated, they all go to the root of the problem and will contribute to a more stable, affordable and better quality supply of ACTs. A course of ACTs can be around 30 to 60 times the price of ineffective non-artemisinin therapies. Progress in the derivatization process could markedly reduce the money spent on extracting artemisinin and enable it to be spent in other areas of the fight against malaria. The magnitude of eradicating malaria can seem daunting, but there are important short-term and long-term efforts that anyone can support on World Malaria Day and every day. On the short-term front, buy a life-saving malaria net from Nothing But Nets . On the longer-term front, learn more about supporting malaria drug development efforts from the Artemisinin Enterprise and advocate government efforts to provide essential funding to combat malaria worldwide. Only aggressive short-term and long-term action will save millions of lives and eventually make malaria history.
 
A Look Back At Pontiac's History (SLIDESHOW) Top
Two people familiar with the latest developments in General Motors Corp.'s restructuring plan say the automaker will announce Monday that it is eliminating its storied Pontiac brand. Historical details about Pontiac: • The first Pontiac car was introduced in 1926 after GM acquired the Oakland Motor Car Co. of Pontiac, Mich., in 1909. Pontiac was meant to be a low-priced companion to GM's "Oakland" line, but Pontiacs proved more popular. By 1929, half a million Pontiacs were sold. • Oakland ended production in 1932 but Pontiac lived on, from the early models like the Chief and Master Six Coupe to the Star Chief and Catalina. • Just before the 1949 models went into production, Ford Motor Co. obtained spy shots of the new Pontiacs, and both companies had created nearly identical grilles. After a phone call from Ford, Pontiac reluctantly redesigned its grille because the Ford was debuting first. • John Z. DeLorean joined Pontiac in 1957 to head up advanced engineering. DeLorean, division general manager Semon "Bunkie" Knudsen and chief engineer Pete Estes inspired the cars that soon would reshape the division. • Pontiac built a reputation for performance in the 1960s and 1970s with offerings like the GTO, one of America's first muscle cars and the inspiration for Beach Boys' tune "Little GTO"; and the Firebird and Firebird Trans Am. • Efforts in recent years to revive Pontiac as a performance-oriented brand failed to work. The company had said it wanted to keep Pontiac as a niche brand with one or two models, but is buckling under government pressure to consolidate its eight brands, several of which lose money.
 
Edward J. Murray: The Bednet Bottle Top
Smack...Sswwwaatt...Ssllappp... Those were the not-so-sweet sounds of summer at bedtime in the days before universal air conditioning. In my memory, those night-time mosquitoes didn't zzzziinngg around the room, they screamed in my ear. Smack! I'd whack one strafing my cheek. Wack! Another on my thigh. (On hot summer nights, not even a sheet between you and "them.") The great grotesquery was if you actually got one, it was because it was a slow bug. And it was slow because it was carrying a "full load" (probably of your brother's blood). Blood on your palm. Yyuukk! There's actually a kind of bittersweet memory that lingers from those hot, hot summer nights of long ago. But that's because no one died from them. No one in our neighborhood got malaria or any other mosquito-borne disease. No long, often deadly, fevers. (Actually, totally unbeknownst to me, there were - when I was five or six - children in the American Southeast who did die from mosquito bites in the night.) Who knew? Today we know. Children and adults all over the tropical and sub-tropical world get sick and die from these bites in the night. And, if they survive, they are usually left in a highly weakened state for their entire lifetime. We've just spent two weeks learning more and more about malaria and not just how it can be stopped but how we can help stop it. Action's the answer: distributing bed nets. You and your family can be the act-ers. Here's a simple way. Pay to go to bed. Get a quart- or half-gallon-sized juice bottle. Clean it out well. Decorate it as a family so you won't forget what it represents. Now it's a BedNet Bottle! Put it in a prominent place. Every night before you go to bed (this can be part of a very important nightly ritual for children), every family member pays for the privilege of a safe and quiet night's sleep. It can help you remember how blessed you are...and, what a blessing your family can be to others. Each member of the family can put in a quarter, or whatever amount, every night. (If there's a sleep-over - EVERYBODY PAYS!) If there are four of you, by the end of the month you'll have $30 dollars. That'll buy 3 bed nets every month. Thirty-six a year. Invite neighbors, friends, folks at your place of worship to join with you. (You could have "BedNet Sunday or Saturday" every month!) A hundred families could provide funds for 3,600 bed nets per year. With a BedNet Bottle. Do the math, as they say. You act and get others to act with you. It could be a movement. It can start with you. The cure for malaria is action. By us.
 

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