Sunday, May 10, 2009

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Jenny Block: Bristol Palin Got Pregnant So You Don't Have To Top
Don't have sex. That's the message some groups insist on pushing to the young and/or unwed. Don't have sex. That's it. No guidance about birth control. No information about how to protect oneself against STDs. Just don't have sex. And now the abstinence movement has a brand new Barbie to push their fruitless agenda - Bristol Palin. I don't know why I'm surprised. It's the perfect lemons to lemonade story. "I got pregnant so you don't have to." Argh. These days the "just say no" maniacs do need an infusion of some sort since Obama just recently hacked away at two $100 million abstinence only programs from the George W. Bush-era. In their place, he's offering up $110 million for comprehensive "teen pregnancy prevention." In other words, real sex education. It's so obvious. The forbidden is enticing. Think Adam and Eve, Bluebeard, or, how about Prohibition? Ring any bells? Don't get me wrong. I don't necessarily think teenagers are ready to have sex. But I know that they DO have sex. And if they're going to do it, I want them to have the whole story - from soup to nuts. (Pun intended.) And I think Bristol Palin is sort of a strange pick. For one, she said that preaching abstinence is "not realistic at all" in her very first post-pregnancy interview and now is back peddling at an alarming rate. Uh, guys, is this really who you want as your poster child? Meanwhile, she's telling young people that pregnancy isn't "glamorous" while we watch her all dolled up and preening for the media. Really? Looks pretty damn glamorous from here. I know. I know. It's because she's Palin daughter that she's getting the attention. But would she still be news if she hadn't been knocked up? She needed a story. Now she has one. Aside from accidental pregnancy, a sense of being needed or valued is one of the primary reasons teenagers get pregnant. She's a statistic, not a role model. We need to talk about sex more, not less. At school, at the doctor, at home. Wherever young people are seeking information. We need to talk about masturbation. We need to talk about foreplay. We need to get sex out of the dark because that's where things fester. If we tell kids the truth about sex -- the good, the bad, and the ugly -- then they won't feel the need to engage in it simply to find out what all the fuss is about. And if they still chose to do it, at least they can do it safely. It's nuts. Sex happens. And all the promise rings and purity balls in the world aren't going to stop it. Only one question remains -- is the next generation going to do it safely or not? More on Sex
 
Michael Shaw: Reading The Pictures: America All Pumped Up In Korengal Valley Top
At first, I thought this photo of Spl. Taylor Jordan lifting weights in the Korengal Valley (which got exposure this week from the WSJ Photo Journal, a NYT slide show, etc.) was published out of irony (excuse the pun). Because of the similarity in vantage, distance and even foreboding weather, I saw it as reminiscent of last month's TIME cover , only accentuating how much the Valley remains a barrier to us in spite of our muscle. Especially after the flawed U.S. bombing mission last Thursday, however, which hit the news the same day Obama was meeting with Karzai at the White House, the message of the image seems rather obvious. Spl. Jordan, perched as he is at the edge of this mountain, stands for all the metal we're thrusting down now . For more visual politics, visit BAGnewsNotes.com (and follow us on Twitter ). (image: David Guttenfelder/A.P. via Wall Street Journal Photo Journal, May 8, 2009 . caption: Spl. Taylor Jordan from the U.S. Army First Battalion, 26th Infantry, lifted weights in the rain at his platoon's base Camp Restrepo in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan Friday.) More on Afghanistan
 
Top Health Care Industry Reps To Offer $2 Trillion In Savings In Bid To Help Pass Obama's Overhaul: AP Top
WASHINGTON — Top representatives of the health care industry plan to offer $2 trillion in cost reductions over 10 years in a bid to help pass President Barack Obama's health overhaul. The industry officials plan to be at White House on Monday to present the offer. A source outside the administration told The Associated Press that the savings would come from slowing projected cost increases by a small percentage each year for 10 years. The end result would be an estimated $2 trillion in savings. The source spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to pre-empt the public announcement. The groups represent the insurance industry, hospitals, doctors, drug makers and a major labor union. The insurance industry group America's Health Insurance Plans has said previously that it's possible to "bend the cost curve" by shaving about a small percentage a year from annual increases that now run far ahead of general inflation. More on Barack Obama
 
NASA's Most Dangerous Ever Shuttle Mission To Fix Hubble Telescope Set To Blast Off Top
Nasa is set to dispatch seven astronauts on its most dangerous ever shuttle mission as it attempts to rescue the $7 billion Hubble Space Telescope from meltdown. Led by former US Navy fighter pilot Scott Altman, 49, a one-time stunt flier for actor Tom Cruise in the film Top Gun, the crew of Atlantis will repair and upgrade the orbiting observatory, risking a potentially deadly space-junk collision that could leave them stranded 350 miles above Earth.
 
Graham E. Fuller: Global Viewpoint: Obama's Policies Making Situation Worse in Afghanistan and Pakistan Top
For all the talk of "smart power," President Obama is pressing down the same path of failure in Pakistan marked out by George Bush. The realities suggest need for drastic revision of U.S. strategic thinking. -- Military force will not win the day in either Afghanistan or Pakistan; crises have only grown worse under the U.S. military footprint. -- The Taliban represent zealous and largely ignorant mountain Islamists. They are also all ethnic Pashtuns. Most Pashtuns see the Taliban -- like them or not -- as the primary vehicle for restoration of Pashtun power in Afghanistan, lost in 2001. Pashtuns are also among the most fiercely nationalist, tribalized and xenophobic peoples of the world, united only against the foreign invader. In the end, the Taliban are probably more Pashtun than they are Islamist. -- It is a fantasy to think of ever sealing the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The "Durand Line" is an arbitrary imperial line drawn through Pashtun tribes on both sides of the border. And there are twice as many Pashtuns in Pakistan as there are in Afghanistan. The struggle of 13 million Afghan Pashtuns has already enflamed Pakistan's 28 million Pashtuns. -- India is the primary geopolitical threat to Pakistan, not Afghanistan. Pakistan must therefore always maintain Afghanistan as a friendly state. India furthermore is intent upon gaining a serious foothold in Afghanistan -- in the intelligence, economic and political arenas -- that chills Islamabad. -- Pakistan will therefore never rupture ties or abandon the Pashtuns, in either country, whether radical Islamist or not. Pakistan can never afford to have Pashtuns hostile to Islamabad in control of Kabul, or at home. -- Occupation everywhere creates hatred, as the U.S. is learning. Yet Pashtuns remarkably have not been part of the jihadi movement at the international level, although many are indeed quick to ally themselves at home with al-Qaida against the U.S. military. -- The U.S. had every reason to strike back at the al-Qaida presence in Afghanistan after the outrage of 9/11. The Taliban were furthermore poster children for an incompetent and harsh regime. But the Taliban retreated from, rather than lost, the war in 2001, in order to fight another day. Indeed, one can debate whether it might have been possible -- with sustained pressure from Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia and almost all other Muslim countries that viewed the Taliban as primitives -- to force the Taliban to yield up al-Qaida over time without war. That debate is in any case now moot. But the consequences of that war are baleful, debilitating and still spreading. -- The situation in Pakistan has gone from bad to worse as a direct consequence of the U.S. war raging on the Afghan border. U.S. policy has now carried the Afghan war over the border into Pakistan with its incursions, drone bombings and assassinations -- the classic response to a failure to deal with insurgency in one country. Remember the invasion of Cambodia to save Vietnam? -- The deeply entrenched Islamic and tribal character of Pashtun rule in the Northwest Frontier Province in Pakistan will not be transformed by invasion or war. The task requires probably several generations to start to change the deeply embedded social and psychological character of the area. War induces visceral and atavistic response. -- Pakistan is indeed now beginning to crack under the relentless pressure directly exerted by the U.S. Anti-American impulses in Pakistan are at high pitch, strengthening Islamic radicalism and forcing reluctant acquiescence to it even by non-Islamists. Only the withdrawal of American and NATO boots on the ground will begin to allow the process of near-frantic emotions to subside within Pakistan, and for the region to start to cool down. Pakistan is experienced in governance and is well able to deal with its own Islamists and tribalists under normal circumstances; until recently, Pakistani Islamists had one of the lowest rates of electoral success in the Muslim world. But U.S. policies have now driven local nationalism, xenophobia and Islamism to combined fever pitch. As Washington demands that Pakistan redeem failed American policies in Afghanistan, Islamabad can no longer manage its domestic crisis. The Pakistani army is more than capable of maintaining state power against tribal militias and to defend its own nukes. Only a convulsive nationalist revolutionary spirit could change that -- something most Pakistanis do not want. But Washington can still succeed in destabilizing Pakistan if it perpetuates its present hard-line strategies. A new chapter of military rule -- not what Pakistan needs -- will be the likely result, and even then Islamabad's basic policies will not change, except at the cosmetic level. In the end, only moderate Islamists themselves can prevail over the radicals whose main source of legitimacy comes from inciting popular resistance against the external invader. Sadly, U.S. forces and Islamist radicals are now approaching a state of co-dependency. It would be heartening to see a solid working democracy established in Afghanistan. Or widespread female rights and education -- areas where Soviet occupation ironically did rather well. But these changes are not going to happen even within one generation, given the history of social and economic devastation of the country over 30 years. Al-Qaida's threat no longer emanates from the caves of the borderlands, but from its symbolism that has long since metastasized to other activists of the Muslim world. Meanwhile, the Pashtuns will fight on for a major national voice in Afghanistan. But few Pashtuns on either side of the border will long maintain a radical and international jihadi perspective once the incitement of the U.S. presence is gone. Nobody on either side of the border really wants it. What can be done must be consonant with the political culture. Let non-military and neutral international organizations, free of geopolitical taint, take over the binding of Afghan wounds and the building of state structures. If the past eight years had shown ongoing success, perhaps an alternative case for U.S. policies could be made. But the evidence on the ground demonstrates only continued deterioration and darkening of the prognosis. Will we have more of the same? Or will there be a U.S. recognition that the American presence has now become more the problem than the solution? We do not hear that debate. Graham E. Fuller is a former CIA station chief in Kabul and a former vice-chair of the CIA's National Intelligence Council. He is author of numerous books on the Middle East, including The Future of Political Islam. More on Afghanistan
 
David M. Abromowitz: A Mother's Day for a Mom Who Never Liked Mother's Day Top
My mother never particularly liked Mother's Day. The sentiment always struck her as unctuous, akin to the scriptural passages frequently read at women's funerals: "A woman of valor who can find? For her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, and he hath no lack of gain. She doeth him good and not evil all the days of her life." Mom made us swear no one would read it at her funeral. Not that she ever would have identified herself as unhappy with motherhood or honoring mothers. Born in 1919 and predisposed to voting Republican, she was uncomfortable with early feminism of the 1960s. But had she known of Julia Ward Howe's early effort at establishing a Mother's Day through her 1870 "Appeal to Womanhood Throughout the World", my Nixon-supporting-turned-Another-Mother-For-Peace mother would have signed up. These words of Howe's would have been right up her alley: "Arise, all women who have hearts whether your baptism be that of water or of tears! Say firmly: We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We, women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country, to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs." A child of the Depression, Mom must have thought the 1934 sentiments of Franklin Roosevelt's Mother's Day Proclamation made sense as well: "Whereas [Congress has declared that] there are throughout our land today an unprecedentedly large number of mothers and dependent children who, because of unemployment or loss of their bread-earners, are lacking many of the necessities of life," President Roosevelt called on Americans to show love and reverence for motherhood by "doing all that we can through our churches, fraternal and welfare agencies for the relief and welfare of mothers and children who may be in need of the necessities of life." Since my mother passed away in the early 1990's, there is no way to know what she would make of Barack Obama. But this year's presidential Mother's Day proclamation would have resonated with a woman who co-owned a department store, helped build a synagogue, organized newspaper recycling drives before there was Earth Day, and yet was still expected to deal with all things related to children and food in the household. "Women often work long hours at demanding jobs and then return home to a household with myriad demands," proclaimed President Obama. "Balancing work and family is no easy task, but mothers across our Nation meet this challenge each day, often without recognition for their hard work and dedication. The strength and conviction of all mothers--including those who work inside and outside the home--are inspiring. They deserve our deepest respect, admiration, and appreciation." I wish my mother had lived to hear this sort of unsentimental but real respect and acknowledgement of what she (and millions of women for decades) endured and accomplished as a mother, and what so many other mothers accomplish every day. That's a Mother's Day that Mom would have liked. David Abromowitz is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress. On Mother's Day his thoughts turn to Rosalind Samotin Abromowitz, 1919-1992. More on Mother's Day
 
James Warren: This Week in Magazines: If The Economy is Driving You to Drink... Top
If the economy is driving you to drink, head to Trader Joe's for the Two Buck Chuck, then check, "Drink Up - The rise of really cheap wine" in May 18 New Yorker . Dana Goodyear introduces us to Fred Franzia, 65 and twice-divorced, the iconoclastic populist whose company, Bronco, is our fourth-largest winery and who just sold his four-hundredth-millionth bottle of Charles Shaw, the $1.99 offering better known as Two Buck Chuck (or, as Goodyear reveals, "Two Buck Upchuck" to Napa Valley critics of Franzia). His goal seems stratospheric, namely producing 100 million cases a year, but one shouldn't sell the guy short, especially in a world where a once little-known Illinois state senator can....... "The recession is likely to bring Franzia more customers," Goodyear writes, with what might seem a firm grasp of the obvious, given the link between lousy times and boozing. "People are drinking more, and cheaper, wine; industry people call it 'trading down,' a sharp reversal after decades of aspirational consumption. From his own vineyards, Franzia has a ready supply to meet the increasing demand. In good times and bad, owning so many acres allows him to experiment with up-and-coming varietals, changing the character of his vines by grafting new shoots onto old root stock." "'We feed the shortages,' he says. For instance, after the movie Sideway ' created a boom in Pinot Noir, he converted thousands of acres of vineyards, through grafting, to Pinot Noir. 'Every year, the vineyards get refreshed,' he told me, explaining that this year he is grafting two thousand acres, or five per cent of his holdings -- not much risk, should his bets prove to be losers. 'The average farmer would shit in his pants. We're just adjusting to the market.' Another time, he said, 'I've got twenty-four million grapevines. My vines alone have a three­hundred­and­sixty­million­dollar value, not counting the land. That's why no one can catch us. Checkmate, we won.'" If he succeeds, perhaps one should finance nearby laundromats for the garments of average farmers. ---Cable TV host Joe Scarborough tries to dissect the Republican Party's current ills in "They Only Look Dead" in May 18 Time . In sum, "If the GOP is to move toward victory, it must again find the middle of American political life and stop being seen the way liberals were viewed for a generation: as tone-deaf ideologues mixed with self-consumed radicals." But while saying he's not urging a search for the "mushy middle ground," it's still a tad unclear how calling for "a new era of responsibility" and a bit more government oversight of markets gets the party where it needs to be. He's not quite clear on what a new view of government should be. Elsewhere in the issue, there's an excerpt from Elizabeth Edwards new book, touching upon husband John's affair with a photographer and unavoidably raising all the old questions about the private conduct of public people in our sadly Puritanical land. Eyebrows may be raised by disclosure that, after he announced for president in 2006 and told her a version of the dalliance, she agreed with him that he should not drop out of the race. "It would only raise questions, he said. "He had just gotten in the race; the most pointed questions would come if he dropped out days after he had gotten in the race. And I knew that was right...." ---May 18 Newsweek is worth Alissa Quart's " Listening to Madness ," a look at a mini-movement of mentally ill patients who are largely casting aside both diagnoses and medication as they are "trying to change the treatment and stigma attached to mental illness. Welcome to Mad Pride, a budding grassroots movement, where people who have been defined as mentally ill reframe their conditions and celebrate unusual (some call them 'spectacular') ways of processing information and emotion." Some experts unexpectedly cringe, finding medication to be incumbent for those with bipolar disease or schizophrenia. And while Quart does note how this small group of activists "have taken their suffering and created from it an all-too-rare thing: a community," one can wonder about going a bit too far in lauding the creation of a community. There are lots of wayward groups, such the desperate and disenfranchised-turned-terrorists who can create communities of no vague potential merit. ---The May 9 National Journal 's " Obama's Ideal Justice " weighs into the always-intriguing parlor game of whom a president will pick for the Supreme Court. Here, Stuart Taylor Jr. gives his suspicion: "What Obama needs, in short, is an intellectually stellar, not-too-old, Hispanic woman lawyer with empathy for the powerless; views on social issues that are predictably liberal but not so activist as to inflame the Right; views on presidential war powers that are predictably deferential but not so much so as to inflame the Left; broad real-world experience; and, of course, rapport with Obama." "No such human being exists, I suspect. I also suspect that the president may come to see the opportunity to choose a new justice as a lot less fun than a law professor might imagine." ---June Bon Appetit gives us " 15 Dishes in 15 Minutes ," or how just a tiny bit of preparation can get you spicy orange chicken stir-fry; shrimp scampi with green onions and orzo; pasta with goat cheese, lemon and asparagus; chicken and watercress salad with almonds and feta; rosemary trout with cherry-tomato sauce; spice-roasted Cornish hens with cucumber-yogurt sauce; and a Portobello burger with peso, provolone, and roasted peppers, among others. This is not for ESPN-loving guys whose idea of preparation is opening the Nacho Doritos and throwing three beers into the freezer. Nor is it necessarily for the growing ranks of jobless with more time on their hands than desired. ---Hey, there's a little bit of Minnesota in Malibu, according to June Architectural Digest 's " Midwest Meets Malibu ," taking us to actor Richard Dean Anderson's home, where the former "MacGyver" star lives with his 10-year-old daughter in a house partly reflecting how the Minneapolis native always "swooned at the sight of the classic barn structure in central and northern Minnesota." It's a neat-looking, rustic combo of his Midwest nostalgia, the reality of a beach lifestyle and, presumably, "MacGyver" residuals. -- Slate.com 's " Manny Being Woman-y " looks at the hormone taken by baseball star Manny Ramirez, now suspended for 50 games in a case apparently so egregious, not even the players union is appealing on his behalf (strong suggestion: Manny's a lying s.o.b). Ramirez says he was taking human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) to treat a "personal health issue." Juliet Lapidos asks as to just what that personal issue might be, if Manny is to be believed, and writes: "Infertility. The hormone HCG is released naturally in women during pregnancy, when it serves to maintain the appropriate levels of progesterone. It's commonly prescribed to women undergoing IVF treatment to trigger ovulation. If taken by men, HCG stimulates the testicles' leydig cells to synthesize testosterone. Doctors prescribe the drug to boys as a treatment for delayed puberty (no secondary sex characteristics at 14, for example) and undescended testes. But a man of Manny's age -- he's 36 -- would take HCG if he's suffering from oligospermia, or a low sperm count. The hormone is generally administered via intramuscular injection." ---Photography buffs should check May 11 Sports Illustrated 's " Slide Show ," a primer on how the magazine's photographers worked in the pre-digital age, namely with the slide that accompanied every shot which ran in the magazine. Those slides tended to include scribbled notes, often a description of what was happening in the photo. And in the case of some much-used classic shots, you would see the slide mount "become tagged with so many stickers marking its repeated usage in the magazine that the slide would come to resemble a steamer trunk returned from a journey around the world in an even earlier time." Several pages of great shots and slides, and how the handiwork actually was published, are included here. ---" The Italian Solution " in May 7 Economist suggests that tiny Fiat may be going "merger mad" as it seeks to take over both Chrysler and GM's Opel unit in Europe. Some see Sergio Marchionne, the Fiat boss, "an empire builder who has come to believe his own publicity. The charge exasperates him. 'It's just nonsense,' he says. "Fiat Group employs 200,000 people, but I'm going to carve out the car business and let the rest of it go its own sweet way. Look, I really hate the personal issue. It's not about me, let's just fix the industry. I'm only a conduit for change. You can't just have Toyota on its own, we need this to guarantee survival. Now it's up to others.'" ---June Money includes "When It Makes Sense Not to Buy," suggesting that, for now, renting may be a new American dream. It concedes that the case it makes is essentially short term and "over the long haul the arguments favor ownership." But it crunches numbers for cities with some of the lower and higher price-to-rent ratios and suggests that it's smart to rent in Seattle, Raleigh, N.C., Bridgeport, Conn., and Milwaukee, while buying is smarter in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh. ---May 28 New York Review of Books has a rather heated exchange on, ah, ants in the letters section as anthropologist Jeffrey Dickemann of Sonoma State University argues that Tim Flannery's " The Superior Civilization " opus in the February 26 issues reflects someone "so taken with the ants, and especially southern fire ants, that he is tempted to think that humans are becoming a superorganism, which he sometimes sees as a salvation from our destructive current path. But the human species is precisely not a superorganism; its Darwinian success is precisely due to that fact." Flannery responds that he does note "fundamental differences between ants and humans" but, "Like us, ants have been shaped by Darwinian evolution, and if left unrestrained by predators and disease, they too would doubtless exhaust their resource base." He clearly disagrees with Dickemann that human societies can't be deemed superorganisms. "The trend of human development over the last ten thousand years has been toward ever larger collaborative units, which entails economic specialization of the individual, enforcement of the rule of aw, and even greater interconnectedness between individuals. All of this is concordant with the superorganism concept." Clear? ---And this week's journey to the obscure, or stories recalling my five-year-old's declaration that something "makes my head hurt," comes via " Obscene Modernism and the Trade in Salacious Books " in Vol. 16 of Modernism/modernity via Johns Hopkins Press. There, Rachel Potter, a lecturer in modern literature at the University of East Anglia, delves into what we consider "obscene" and what we consider "pornographic" and what differences, if any, there truly are. "The word obscene is from the Latin obscenus meaning ill-omened; but over time it has come to mean that which is off-stage. There are always important reasons for sidelining certain areas of representation. Ideas of obscenity depend on labeling and circumscribing particular kinds of language or representation. Nietzsche alters where we locate obscenity, but not the circumscribing logic that informs its assignation. The obscene is a kind of last resort, a limit beyond which a writer will not go; the reasons for the assertion of this limit are always revealing." "It is partly from the desire to test conventional limits that obscenity plays such a central role in modernist writing. Like Nietzsche, modernist writers use obscene images because they want to reveal, and sometimes revel in, the uncomfortable limits of representation. Alternatively, there is a desire to attack a combination of an unhealthily repressed attitude to the body and hypocritical cultural norms, a theme present in novels from the late nineteenth century on. From Emile Zola's L'oeuvre (The Masterpiece [1886]), through to Ulysses (1922) and Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928), it is the sentimental cant of the moral majority that is labeled as obscene, not the explicit references to naked bodies or sexual interaction. These writers attempt to overturn dominant cultural and legal understandings of obscenity. Thus, the rise of literary realism coincided with the rise in legal prosecutions of literary obscenity." I won't give away the ending.
 
Rachael Freed: The Most Important Letters We Will Ever Write: Memory and Meaning - Mother's Day Top
Transforming the Ancient Ethical Will into Contemporary Legacy Letters Let's start at the beginning. What is an ethical will? It's a non-legal document written to communicate values and wisdom, history, stories, and love from one generation to another. Where did it come from? From the Judeo-Christian tradition, the book of Genesis, when a dying Jacob gathered his sons in Egypt to offer them his blessing and to request that they bury him in Canaan with his ancestors. Early rabbis urged men to instruct their sons about the tradition's ethical teachings. They were transmitted as written letters. So that's the history lesson. But a question far more compelling is, "What has ignited such a powerful and growing interest in writing 'legacy letters' in contemporary life?" Before I make generalizations, and I intend to, here's my personal answer: I was introduced to the ethical will at a women's gathering. Entranced, I raced home to write to my adult son and daughter. Ignoring the historical patriarchal tradition, I encouraged myself with, "Well, I too -- mother and ancient hippie feminist -- have wisdom, values and love to express to my children and grandchildren." My fingers flew over the keyboard. What I wrote that day is the most important message I have ever written. "Well, I too -- mother and ancient hippie feminist -- have wisdom, values and love to express to my children and grandchildren." When I finished, I experienced a deep sense of well-being. I'd told my children about our family history and values. I'd expressed my love for and pride in them. I'd blessed them with the hard-earned wisdom of my life experience and the lessons I'd learned. I'd shared my love of life and my dreams and hopes for them. I'd asked their forgiveness for the wounds they bear from my imperfect parenting. I'd explained my rationale about my philanthropic and personal financial choices in my will. I'd shared stories about the meaningful "stuff" I wanted them and their children to have and pass down. True to the tradition going back to Jacob, I'd spelled out details clarifying and personalizing my advance directive. I asked my children to care for me if necessary as I neared death, and explained what dying with dignity meant to me. I told them the ways I wanted to be remembered. When I finished I was relieved, at peace, unafraid, and experienced gratitude for the blessings of my life. What had I tapped into? Universal needs dovetailing with my own to communicate for the future! I discovered that people are transformed by participating in a simple introductory experience of legacy: writing one blessing to a loved one. Here are my observations after a dozen years and two books of experience. Legacy writing connects us to our history and future generations, clarifies our values, and communicates a legacy to those we love. As significant, it also taps into deep universal needs that we don't even realize we have. Legacy writing helps us clarify our identity and our life purpose. Beyond this, six additional needs are addressed as we write our legacy letters. They include our need to: * belong, * be known, * be remembered, * have our lives make a difference, * bless and be blessed, * celebrate Life. Realizing that life is fragile, that we do not control the number of our days, we feel the urgent need to document our legacies to help shape this unfolding new world. Many seniors feel a special responsibility to transmit and preserve stories, learning and love. As we fulfill these individual responsibilities, we find our place as contributors, strengthening the fabric of our families, communities and culture. As a culture we are swept away by the seductions of our secular world, with its promises of instant and easy satisfaction. We come away hollow, yearning for fulfillment, intimacy, meaningful connections, and a sense of purpose beyond our selves. Preserving memories is one way to enliven and make sacred our link to the generations before us. We must name, recall, reclaim, and appreciate the legacies passed down to us that we in turn must pass down to the next generations. The function of the elders as the Keepers of the Memory of the tribe is essential to the survival of the whole society. Without memories a race has no future. - Denise Linn in Sacred Legacies Because it may be difficult to know where to begin, and the myriad of potential letters can be daunting or confusing, here is a step-by-step guide to help you get started. Both the calendar and our relationships are instrumental in shaping who we are. Relationships with our mothers, whether they're alive or not, are often complicated. But Mothers Day is just around the corner. Because I trust the process of legacy writing, and have witnessed examples of the healing of difficult relationships through the process, I suggest we begin here: 1. Bring your cup of tea or mug of coffee and your favorite pen and paper to your most quiet and peaceful place to sit. Set your timer for 15 minutes, no more. 2. The first step is to choose a mother to focus on: it may be your mother or a surrogate mother, a mother neither your biological nor adopted mother. Choose a woman who has nurtured, supported, encouraged, even nagged at you with love, and who expected of you your best. The mother you choose to honor today may no longer be here in physical form -- that's okay too. (An example: when a young woman shared her amend legacy letter to her mother with me in a legacy workshop, I observed that she seemed troubled. She said she'd shared it with me because she thought she'd made a mistake. "Why?" I asked, "There's no wrong way to do it." She explained that her mother had passed away. I assured her that relationships don't end with death, and that healing is possible no matter the circumstances. She looked relieved, her peace of mind palpable, as she confided that she never could've written the letter while her mother was alive.) 3. Write the name of the mother you chose and today's date at the top of your paper. 4. Take a few minutes to reflect, to remember, and jot notes about things you're grateful to her for...what you appreciate about her...what you want to celebrate about her. Maybe she was there for you when you skinned your knee or your heart; maybe she taught you a skill or a perspective that's been invaluable to you throughout your life; maybe she worked long and hard on your behalf in times more difficult than ours; maybe she was an immigrant or a pioneer who dealt with a new language, a new world and way of life; maybe she made sacrifices in her own life for the betterment of yours; maybe you appreciate her for giving you life. 5. Now take no more than five minutes to write her a mother's day blessing, a blessing that honors her and expresses your appreciation of her. 6. Put your blessing away overnight. Tomorrow, read it aloud to yourself; make any revisions that seem right to you. Then copy it in your own hand on a simple card to read to and give your mother on Mother's Day. May you and your loved ones be nourished this Mothers Day, and may all your legacies be blessings, Rachael Freed For more about legacies, visit www.Life-Legacies.com Visit www.life-legacies.com/tips/ to subscribe to Legacy Tips&Tools, a free monthly e-letter. More on Mother's Day
 
Daoud Kuttab: Christian Arabs Like the Pope Want Peace with Justice Top
The visit of the Holy See to Jordan and Palestine is a perfect opportunity to review and declare the role of Christian Arabs in the peace process and their calls for peace with justice. To begin with, it is important for all to know that Arabs have been in Palestine and Jordan before Islam and Christianity. References to the word "Arab" and its derivatives are mentioned hundreds of times in the Old and New Testaments. The Biblical figure of Job is said to be Arab and Arabs were among the many attending the sermon on the day of Pentecost by St. Peter when 3,000 (among them Arabs) became Christians. Act 2 refers to Arabs having heard the sermon in their own tongue. Arab Christians have, therefore, been an integral part of Palestine and the Middle East region since at least the Day of Pentecost. The role of Arab Christians in modern Arab nationalism was best reflected in George Habib Antonius' book The Arab Awakening . Antonius (1891-1941) was one of the first historians of Arab nationalism. Born of Lebanese-Egyptian parentage and a Christian (Greek Orthodox) Arab, he served in the British Mandate of Palestine. His 1938 book The Arab Awakening was written as Palestine was slipping from Arab control. Antonius traced Arab nationalism to the reign of Mehmet Ali Pasha in Egypt. He argued that Arab nationalism was a product of the West, especially of Protestant missionaries from Britain and the United States. He saw the role of the American University of Beirut (originally the Syrian Protestant College) as central to this development. The number of Arab Christians vary. Wikipedia states that Christians today make up 9.2 per cent of the population of the Near East. In Lebanon, they now number around 39 per cent of the population, in Syria about 10 to 15 per cent. In Palestine before the creation of Israel estimates range up to as much as 40 per cent, but mass emigration has slashed the number still present to 3.8 per cent. In Israel, Arab Christians constitute 2.1 per cent (or roughly 10 per cent of the Arab population). In Egypt, they constitute between 9 and 16 per cent of the population (the government figures put them at 6 per cent). Around two-thirds of North and South American and Australian Arabs are Christian, particularly from Lebanon, but also from Palestine and Syria. While the number of Christian Palestinians in Jerusalem and the occupied territories has dwindled over the years, they are still a key component of the Palestinian and Arab peoples of the region. Activists blame violence, occupation and uncertainty, coupled with opportunities (or lack thereof) for work and emigration, as the main reason for the flight of Christian Palestinians to the Americas, Australia and Europe. While the world looks at the Arab-Israeli conflict from an Arab-Israeli point of view, or a Jewish-Islamic one, the role and contribution of Arab Christians cannot and need not be ignored. Unlike followers of the Jewish and Muslim faiths, Christians have no religious attachment to physical locations. Scholars refer to the response of Jesus to the Samaritan woman's question about whether to worship in Jerusalem or in the Sumerian mountains. Jesus replied to her: "Neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." Christian Arabs, however, believe that a lasting resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict must both address the national aspirations of the Palestinians (of which they are part) and provide for the spiritual needs of the faithful, including Christians. In this regard, Palestinian Christians are perhaps angriest with a radical but effective group of Christians who try to give Biblical support and legitimacy for the Israeli aggression against Palestinians. An entire industry that has been well endowed has cropped up in the West, attempting to hijack the Christian theological debate in favour of what is now referred to as Christian Zionism. Right-wing governments in Israel and the US seem to be natural feeding grounds for these fundamentalists. Palestinian Christians have forcefully rejected this position and some established evangelical voices have also come up to debunk these myths and insist on the need for justice as an integral part of any peaceful resolution in the region. The visit of the Pontiff has stirred plenty of interest in the contributions Christians can make to the peace process. Israel's attempts to ban the Aida refugees in Bethlehem from erecting the stand for the visiting Pope by the 28-foot-high wall is perhaps the most glaring worry the Israeli occupiers have about the visit of the Pontiff. They fear precisely what Arab Christians insist on: that a truly Christian position on the Israeli-Arab conflict will not be merely satisfied with a call for peace, but will necessarily also include a call for justicefor Palestinians. "Peace and justice" is the message of people of faith from the entire world, and is certainly the focus for Arab Christians. The writer is director of media NGO Community Media Network in Jordan and Palestine. He comes from a Palestinian Christian family that traces its ancestry in Jerusalem 600 years.
 
Lita Smith-Mines: Change Your Panties, Change Your Life! Top
Apparently I have been wearing the wrong underwear. According to the catalogue I just received in the mail, choosing an undergarment isn't about a preference for boy cut, bikini, or thong. Apparently picking panties would establish whether my mindset was juvenile or mature, as page 36 entices me with a product that will surely inspire me to "suck it up" and "handle the situation". The item for sale? A $12.00 sign which reads: PUT ON YOUR BIG GIRL PANTIES AND JUST DEAL WITH IT ! What I slip into before my clothes is obviously no longer a matter of comfort or allure. My briefs are obviously in need of alteration, and I've just been blind to the necessity until now. So what if my law practice is reeling from the real estate downturn? I'll just put on big girl panties. Is your income diminished so sometimes you skip buying groceries? You must also shimmy into big girl panties. Scores of women stressed beyond belief by working seven days a week to try and hold onto our businesses? Sisters, a pair of big girl panties is all any of us need! I'm old enough to remember when a woman spotted with VPL (visible panty line) was taunted in ads for letting the world see that she did indeed wear panties, and Brooke Shields caused quite a sensation by hinting she might not be wearing any at all. Yet nowadays, panties can't be just what come between you and your Calvins -- big bloomers are peddled as all that women need to succeed. What's that you say? The sign might be a metaphor for adopting a grown-up attitude towards problems, and the actual cut of my underwear won't make any difference in how I handle the situation? Does this revelation also mean all the other advisory phrases and suggestive slogans featured on placards, posters, tiles and T-shirts in the charming catalogue wouldn't be instructive principles guaranteeing my triumphs in business and in life? What a shame -- I was planning on successfully adopting each and every one of these game-changers: LIFE IS TOO SHORT, BUY THE SHOES PLAN B INCLUDES MARGARITA PUT ON A LITTLE LIPSTICK; YOU'LL BE FINE SOME DAYS, IT IS NOT EVEN WORTH CHEWING THROUGH THE RESTRAINTS LOVE LIFE! AND IT WILL LOVE YOU BACK! BREATHE -- IT'S YOUR ONLY OBLIGATION THINK ABUNDANTLY -- ENERGY FOLLOWS INTENTION THE TIME TO BE HAPPY IS NOW Additionally on page 36 of the knick-knack catalogue, just above the big girl panty proclamation, there's a ceramic tile with a ribbon meant to hang on a wall, offered at $15.00. This advisory ornament should disturb men as much as the underwear exhortation vexes me as a woman: IF IT HAS TIRES OR TESTICLES IT'S GONNA GIVE YOU TROUBLE! More on Economy
 
Susanna Speier: Politiku for Mother's Day Top
Mothers Day wouldn't have existed if it wasn't for Anna M. Jarvis' tireless solicitations to legislators and prominent businessmen. In 1914, when her efforts finally paid off, the holiday dedicated to honoring her mother as well as everyone else's mothers was officiated as a national holiday by President Woodrow Wilson. It is now observed on the second Sunday of May in countries all around the world. Thought rarely associated with one tireless woman's efforts, it is not difficult to associate the holiday itself with tireless legislative advocacy. Regardless of whatever it was that held them back, mothers on a mission tend to be persistent and driven forces to be reckoned with. The impact that our mothers' political thoughts, feelings, ideas, knowledge, ideals, choices, opportunities, experiences and activities have on us is difficult to grasp. What is clear, however, is that our mothers' politics influence our political identity. In honor of our moms; Matt, Don, Aaron , Phil, Irene, Martha and I present Politiku for Mother's Day: Martha Danly's Politku One true Democrat. Marries a Republican. Brings him to her side. Don Goede's Politiku happy mom's day mom and yes, we are still at war the living say hi Aaron Landsman's Politiku Mom? What do you mean The Weather Underground may Have stayed at our house? In the Midwest, where Activism's more polite, You fought hard enough to win. Phil Rose 's Politiku Nice young black man this Jesus was a rabbi that Liberal white guilt Irene Gravina's Politiku I chose Obama From the start of the campaign My Mom says proudly Matt Cohen's Politiku Mom's a liberal She's also conservative Mostly she just cares. Mom's view is open Picks her issues one by one Then changes her mind. Susanna Speier 's Politiku Mom tells me about Her Zayde's Roosevelt Clock "Wheel for a New Deal" More on Mother's Day
 
Sheldon Filger: Russian Economy Faces Disastrous Free Fall Contraction Top
In 1987 I visited the Soviet Union with Republican Congressman Tom DeLay (who has since moved on to bigger-but not necessarily better-things), and observed firsthand how a society with bright, well-educated people can still undergo a profound economic collapse when the elites running the nation are infused with corruption, fossilized dogmas and misplaced priorities. Four years after my visit, the USSR of old imploded under the weight of its own colossal economic mismanagement and contradictions. Will history repeat itself? The Russia of today is far from immune to the ramifications of the Global Economic Crisis. Though I would not argue that the Russia being ruled by the duality of President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is on the same trajectory as Gorbachev's Soviet Union, there has already emerged a sustained trend of harsh macroeconomic data that attests to a severe economic crisis gripping the Russian nation. The country's stock market has sustained losses from its peak in the range of 70%, while the prices for Russia's commodity exports, the major source of foreign exchange earnings, have plummeted at a staggering rate, especially with regards to oil and natural gas. Perhaps more alarming, the latest projection by the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development reveals a dire forecast of negative 7.5 % growth in Russia's GDP for 2009. Though some believe that the EBRD projection may be too pessimistic, only four months ago this same institution was predicting that the Russian economy would contract by a mere negative 1%. Recent indicators point to a national economy going south at an accelerating pace, reflected in official Russian government statistics which reveal that the national economy contracted by a staggering negative 9.5%. in Q1 of 2009. At the very least, Moscow faces a crippling recession. The Medvedev/Putin regime has initiated a host of policy responses to mitigate the impact of the Global Economic Crisis on the nation's fragile economy. Time will determine their long-term effectiveness; however, in the short-term some measures have proven more efficacious than others. A major goal of Moscow's economic technocrats has been to stabilize the country's banking system, and for the time being a degree of success has been achieved through government provision of liquidity to financial institutions. However, this complex geopolitical space that is Russia is now facing a vast array of complex challenges that other members of the G8 are spared, despite the destructive impact of the global synchronized recession facing all major industrialized countries. In Russia, historically, economic health and political stability are intertwined to a degree that is rarely encountered in other major industrialized economies. It was the economic stagnation of the former Soviet Union that led to its political downfall. Similarly, Medvedev and Putin, both intimately acquainted with their nation's history, are unquestionably alarmed at the prospect that Russia's economic crisis will endanger the nation's political stability, achieved at great cost after years of chaos following the demise of the Soviet Union. Already, strikes and protests are occurring among rank and file workers facing unemployment or non-payment of their salaries. Recent polling demonstrates that the once supreme popularity ratings of Putin and Medvedev are eroding rapidly. Beyond the political elites are the financial oligarchs, who have been forced to deleverage, even unloading their yachts and executive jets in a desperate attempt to raise cash. Should the Russian economy deteriorate to the point where economic collapse is not out of the question, the impact will go far beyond the obvious accelerant such an outcome would be for the Global Economic Crisis. There is a geopolitical dimension that is even more relevant then the economic context. Despite its economic vulnerabilities and perceived decline from superpower status, Russia remains one of only two nations on earth with a nuclear arsenal of sufficient scope and capability to destroy the world as we know it. For that reason, it is not only President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin who will be lying awake at nights over the prospect that a national economic crisis can transform itself into a virulent and destabilizing social and political upheaval. It just may be possible that U.S. President Barack Obama's national security team has already briefed him about the consequences of a major economic meltdown in Russia for the peace of the world. After all, the most recent national intelligence estimates put out by the U.S. intelligence community have already concluded that the Global Economic Crisis represents the greatest national security threat to the United States, due to its facilitating political instability in the world. During the years Boris Yeltsin ruled Russia, security forces responsible for guarding the nation's nuclear arsenal went without pay for months at a time, leading to fears that desperate personnel would illicitly sell nuclear weapons to terrorist organizations. If the current economic crisis in Russia were to deteriorate much further, how secure would the Russian nuclear arsenal remain? It may be that the financial impact of the Global Economic Crisis is its least dangerous consequence. More on Global Financial Crisis
 
GM Bankruptcy Almost Inevitable, Experts Say Top
DETROIT — For General Motors Corp., the task at hand is so difficult that experts say a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing is all but inevitable. To remake itself outside of court, GM must persuade bondholders to swap $27 billion in debt for 10 percent of its risky stock. On top of that, the automaker must work out deals with its union, announce factory closures, cut or sell brands and force hundreds of dealers out of business _ all in three weeks. "I just don't see how it's possible, given all of the pieces," said Stephen J. Lubben, a professor at Seton Hall University School of Law who specializes in bankruptcy. GM, which has received $15.4 billion in federal aid, faces a June 1 government deadline to complete its restructuring plan. If it can't finish in time, the company will follow Detroit competitor Chrysler LLC into bankruptcy protection. Although company executives said last week they would still prefer to restructure out of court, experts say all GM is doing now is lining up majorities of stakeholders to make its court-supervised reorganization move more quickly. "If we need to pursue bankruptcy, we will make sure that we do it in an expeditious fashion. The exact strategies I'm not getting into today, but we'll be ready to go if that's required," Chief Executive Fritz Henderson said last week. The threat of bankruptcy, however, may be just a negotiating ploy to pull reluctant bondholders into the equity swap deal. In Chrysler's case, some secured debtholders resisted taking roughly 30 cents on the dollar for what they were owed, but most gave in after they were identified in court documents. Henderson, who took over in March when the government ousted Rick Wagoner, said last week there's still time to get everything done by the deadline, although he conceded it will be difficult to meet a government requirement that 90 percent of its thousands of bondholders agree to the stock swap. The biggest obstacle to GM restructuring out of court appears to be its bondholders, who have been reluctant to sign on to the stock swap when the government and United Auto Workers union would get far more stock in exchange for debts owed by GM. GM has proposed issuing 62 billion new shares, 100 times more than the 611 million now offered publicly. Even though the U.S. government has agreed to back up GM and Chrysler new-car warranties, potential car buyers already view GM as if it's in bankruptcy, reflected by the company's steep revenue drop in the latest quarter, Lubben said. On Thursday, GM posted a $6 billion first-quarter loss and said its revenue dropped plunged by nearly half, largely because bankruptcy fears scared customers away from showrooms. "I don't think anyone is buying cars from a company who is wringing their hands about a potential bankruptcy for the past year or so," he said. Under Chapter 11, a company can stay in operation under court protection while sheds debts and unprofitable assets to emerge in a stronger financial position. At this point, GM needs to resolve the uncertainty and get in and out of bankruptcy as quickly as possible, Lubben said. The company is talking with the UAW and Canadian auto workers unions about concessions, including getting the UAW to take roughly 39 percent of its stock in exchange for half of the $20 billion GM must pay into a union-run trust that will take over retiree health care payments next year. About 50 percent of the stock would go to the government for its loans. GM said last week it would need another $2.6 billion in May and $9 billion more for the rest of the year, bringing the total to $27 billion. One percent would go to current shareholders, with bondholders getting the other 10 percent. Bondholders are reluctant to take the deal because the government and UAW are getting far bigger stakes in the company, said Kevin Tynan, an industry analyst for Argus Research in New York. "When you look across at what the union is getting and what the government is getting, to expect them to take 10 percent is just unrealistic," he said. Cutting dealers also remains a huge hurdle, with GM hoping to shed 2,600 of its 6,246 dealerships by 2010. But dealers are protected by state franchise laws, and trying to shed them outside of bankruptcy would result in either millions of dollars in payments or multiple lengthy lawsuits, Lubben said. "That means you've got to negotiate with each one of those dealers individually." Also, GM on Friday told its major parts suppliers that it would move up payments due on June 2 to May 28. Company spokesman Dan Flores said it was being done to help the suppliers at a critical time, but he denied that the payments were pulled ahead of a potential June 1 bankruptcy filing. GM has begun to temporarily close 13 assembly plants for up to 11 weeks through mid-July in an effort to control inventory. With Chrysler plants also shut down during its bankruptcy proceedings, parts suppliers will soon have no income and could go under. It would help speed up GM's stay in bankruptcy court if it could pull together big blocks of stakeholders to agree on reducing debt or changing other stakes, said Robert Gordon, head of the corporate restructuring and bankruptcy group at the Clark Hill PLC law firm in Detroit. During its quest for government aid, GM executives said bankruptcy would severely cut their sales, with research showing that people would shy away from GM vehicles for fear that warranties would not be backed and parts would not be available. Tynan said the executives now can't change their story, even though they likely know that bankruptcy is inevitable. "They're sort of morally obligated to say 'we're intent on doing this outside of bankruptcy,'" he said. "But at the end of the day, they just want the magnitude of the restructuring to get done." More on Auto Bailout
 
Danny Groner: Preaching Basketball Without the Baggage Top
While trying to downplay differences in the world, Dave Cullen is doing his part to make a world of difference. The founder of Full Court Peace (FCP), an organization that bridges gaps through basketball , sat down with me last week to discuss his organization's role in curing conflict and addressing the longstanding prejudice that persists in his native city of Belfast, Northern Ireland. An ESPN Espy winner for its humanitarian work and mission, FCP has grown in size and prominence over the past few years, under the direction of Cullen and others. People, Cullen says, have been quick to get behind FCP's mission, providing both publicity and charitable donations. This is not surprising once you consider that the worthy cause preaches tolerance, education, exercise and advocacy to young students. All in an afternoon's work. Designed and run as an after-school program for students of different religions, FCP must be sensitive to students' preconceived notions and personal anecdotes of what their counterparts may preach, believe or represent. To accommodate everyone's needs and beliefs, Cullen has designed the program's attitude, drills and schedule to keep basketball as the major intended interest of the organization. Any lessons in tolerance come exclusively through students' interaction with each other; FCP does not want its staff to see itself as interventionists or conflict resolvers. The goal of the program, as Cullen puts it, is to provide "basketball without the baggage." There's something inherently pleasing about this focused mission and enterprise. You see, Protestant and Catholic children enter the program most likely with some sense of hatred for their opponents. They face off with other students their age who they have been largely segregated from for much of their lives. Some have grown to fear others, others have grown fed up. FCP offers a court where kids can set aside that emotional burdens of living amid the struggle. The students'' perceived opponents, of a larger historical and religious context, are replaced by opponents of a more competitive and athletic nature. Once their rivals - and the game - have changed, it's organizers, leaders and donors hope that the students will translate positive messages of teamwork from the court to those of harmony off of it. Pairing up students of different backgrounds has wound up influencing some to replace animosity for more promising, auspicious intensity. Cullen modestly points out that FCP delivers a platform for the kids to improve their basketball skills under the leadership of qualified and understanding coaches. Whatever else the students take away from FCP is entirely up to them to take advantage of the opportunities presented to them. For that reason, working with this teenage sect can be an equally frustrating and rewarding task. Depending on the teen, coaches and counselors will encounter everything from open-minded optimism to stubborn resistance in the faces and actions of its constituents. Cullen cites several examples, though, of those who have taken measures to improve their lives and to alter their viewpoints, even just a little bit. So, the goal of the organization is not change people, but to get their students to at least begin to consider the opposing viewpoint. Cullen himself admits that much of his life has been impacted by the ongoing conflict between the two opposing sides in his region. He says that he still struggles to forgive past clashes, especially the violent ones, committed in the name of religious conflict and personal strife. Having Cullen at the helm of the program provides a necessary example for the kids of how severely exhausting the toll of this deep-rooted war has been on some Irish citizens. While talking about basketball strategy, Cullen can focus on the intricacies of the game, including how to successfully run a press defense and how to build creative offensive schemes. Yet, when it comes to most other topics related to Irish life - everything outside of basketball, really - Cullen's tone and demeanor take a turn to those of a more soft-spoken, conflicted man seeking a more peaceful and compassionate franchise.
 
Dr. Susan Corso: Mother's Day and the Universal Law of the Garbage Truck Top
If my clientele is any indication, many of us have psychospiritual garbage around our mothers. A client sent this story to me via email. It seemed perfect for the aftermath of Mother's Day. "One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport. We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches! "The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. I mean, he was really friendly. So I asked, 'Why did you just do that? That guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!' This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now understand as The Universal Law of the Garbage Truck. "He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they dump it on you. Don't take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. "Don't take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets. The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day." So what does garbage have to do with Mother's Day? Plenty. Ever heard the adage ... forgive or relive? It's true. Forgive your mother. Do it for yourself, not for her. Otherwise you're stuck in recycling your garbage about her. Think of it this way: your mother is not just your mother. She is a person in her own right, and she's doing (or did) the very best that she can with what she's got (or had) at any given time. Have a blessed, garbage-free week! Visit Susan Corso's website at www.susancorso.com . More on Mother's Day
 
John W. Whitehead: The Swine Flu or the FDA: Which Is More Dangerous to Your Health? Top
In a 2005 article in the Village Voice entitled " Capitalizing on the Flu ," James Ridgeway predicted that a "flu pandemic would spark enough fear to make it a greed pandemic." As Ridgeway observed, "With a worldwide market estimated at more than $1 billion, there's big money in a flu plague." In fact, the pharmaceutical industry has gone to great lengths through its lobbying and government contracts to ensure that it will get a good piece of the plague pie. Now with the swine flu set to become a global pandemic, Big Pharma is raking it in. Responding to the somewhat hysteria-induced demand for drugs to protect against the swine flu, pharmaceutical companies have ramped up production of Tamiflu and Relenza, two anti-viral drugs being touted for their ability to fight the flu. Eleven million doses of the flu-fighting drugs, about one-quarter of what has been stockpiled by the U.S. government, have already been sent to the states. News media sycophants, in typical fashion, have taken up the hew and cry over Tamiflu's life-saving properties. Yet little is being said about the very real dangers that these drugs, particularly Tamiflu, pose to your health and mental welfare. First approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1999, Tamiflu was promoted as a drug that could significantly reduce the length and severity of influenza. These claims even prompted the U.S. government to purchase 20 million doses of Tamiflu -- at a cost of $2 billion -- in the event that a bird flu pandemic occurred. The Pentagon followed suit, paying a whopping $58 million in July 2005 for treatments of U.S. troops around the world. However, problems with Tamiflu had already begun to surface as early as 2004 when it was alleged that the drug was causing some of its users to manifest very unusual behavior. For example, during the 2004 and 2005 flu seasons, two teenage boys committed suicide within hours of taking Tamiflu. The 17-year-old jumped in front of a large truck on a busy road after walking outside his house barefoot and in pajamas during a snowstorm. The 14-year-old jumped to his death from the balcony of a ninth-floor flat. Later, a teenage girl was narrowly prevented from jumping to her death from a window within days of starting a course of the flu drug. By November 2005, it had been reported that 12 Japanese children had died while on the drug and others had experienced hallucinations, encephalitis and other symptoms. Despite these alarming reports, the FDA opted not to issue a warning about the drug's potential for causing abnormal behavior. Instead, the FDA issued a warning about Tamiflu's potential for producing skin rashes. It wasn't until reports surfaced of more than 100 new cases of delirium, hallucinations and other abnormal psychiatric behavior in children treated with Tamiflu that the FDA changed course and required Roche, the Swiss company that makes the drug, to include a warning label cautioning patients, doctors and parents to look out for strange behavior in anyone taking the drug. However, Tamiflu is not the only drug to be suspected of having psychiatric side effects. There have been a disconcerting number of drugs which, although cleared by the FDA for use in treating epilepsy, asthma, influenza, obesity and smoking, are now believed to contribute to suicidal behavior. Thus, there is good reason why the FDA has increasingly been viewed as one of the most corrupt agencies within the U.S. government. The FDA is suspected of causing high drug prices, keeping life-saving drugs off the market, allowing unsafe drugs on the market because of pressure from pharmaceutical companies and censoring health information about nutritional supplements and foods. One of its most vocal critics is Dr. David Graham, currently the Associate Director of the FDA's Office of Drug Safety. In his estimation, the FDA is "responsible for 140,000 heart attacks and 60,000 dead Americans. That's as many people as were killed in the Vietnam War." His words offer an insider's perspective on the fatal role he believes the FDA played in thousands of heart attacks and deaths caused by the pain medication Vioxx -- a medication the FDA approved and initially failed to warn of its potential effects. The Vioxx debacle was brought to America's attention when Congress was presented with evidence showing that among the estimated 20 million users of Vioxx, hundreds of thousands had died or suffered heart attacks as a result of taking the drug. Other drugs approved by the FDA and later found to cause harm include dexfenfluramine, a diet drug whose post-marketing data indicated an increased risk of pulmonary hypertension, and troglitazone, a diabetes drug that carried with it the risk of liver failure and was later pulled from the market. Yet as Graham has pointed out, "Rarely will they keep a drug from being marketed or pull a drug off the market." The delays in taking action on problematic drugs was addressed by Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of the Public Citizen's Health Research Group, in a statement before the Institute of Medicine Committee in January 2006: "In too many instances, serious post-marketing safety problems identified by the Office of Drug Safety have not been acted upon because of resistance from FDA management and from the review division that originally approved the drug." The pharmaceutical companies also bear the responsibility -- and the blame -- for unsafe drugs being approved and sold to the American public. "The FDA assumes the drug is safe and now it's up to the company to prove that the drug isn't safe," remarked Graham. "Well, that's a no-brainer. What company on earth is going to try to prove that the drug isn't safe?" It should come as no surprise that the pharmaceutical companies have the federal government in their hip pocket. According to a 2008 report from the Center for Public Integrity, the pharmaceutical industry has spent more than $1 billion on federal lobbying and campaign donations over the past decade. Indeed, Washington is so overrun with drug lobbyists that Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) once remarked, "You can hardly swing a cat by the tail in Washington without hitting a pharmaceutical lobbyist." Furthermore, as CPI pointed out, the drug industry's investments in Washington have paid off handsomely, resulting in a series of favorable laws on Capitol Hill and tens of billions of dollars in additional profits. "It is by now well-known that the drug companies provide huge sums of cash to politicians -- $133 million to federal candidates since 1998, according to the Center for Public Integrity, with upwards of $1.5 million going to Bush, the top recipient," writes James Ridgeway in the Village Voice . "The industry operates an elaborate lobby in Washington that in 2004 spent $123 million and employed an army of 1,291 lobbyists, more than half of whom were former federal officials." Those numbers have increased dramatically in the past five years. For example, in the first nine months of 2008 alone, the pharmaceutical industry reportedly shelled out $171.1 million on lobbying and was on track to exceed what it had spent the year before. However, while the drug industry has in the past invested more of its funds on Republican candidates (they received $89.9 million in campaign contributions between 1998 and 2005), its lobbyists have in recent years been working hard to gain favor with the Democrats. As the Washington Post reports, "To strengthen their position, drug firms and their trade groups have been transforming their Washington operations by hiring top Democratic lobbyists to gain access to new committee chairmen, bolstering Democratic political donations and spending millions on public relations campaigns to overcome an image, indicated in recent surveys, that the industry puts profits ahead of patients." Certainly, this collusion between the pharmaceutical industry and the government should come as no surprise to anyone who keeps up with the news and the rampant corruption in the halls of Congress. But there are dire ramifications from Big Pharma's stranglehold on the U.S. government. As James Ridgeway writes in his recent article in Mother Jones , " Swine Flu: Bringing Home the Bacon ," there are "winners as well as losers in every high-profile outbreak of infectious disease. First and foremost among them, of course, is Big Pharma, which can always be counted on to have its hand out wherever human misery presents an opportunity to rake in some cash." Clearly, Big Pharma are the winners here. Stock prices for pharmaceutical companies involved in the production of Tamiflu and Relenza have already jumped dramatically. And investors are already salivating at the prospect of the government insuring against future outbreaks by increasing its stockpiles of the drugs, as well as spending more on grants and funding for research. What remains to be seen, however, is who will be the biggest loser. More on Swine Flu
 
Melissa Hapke: In Memory of Mom Top
My mother passed away Thursday after a three year battle with lung cancer. Her funeral is Sunday. I have mixed feelings about her passing. I'm trying very hard to remember the good things that happened with my family while we were growing up. Baking cookies at Christmas comes to mind. We'd take a vacation every summer. Until you've traveled in the bed of a truck with an aluminum topper, you don't know what those trips were like. Especially when you consider most of them were in July and August. We had fun, but we also had our problems. Mom wanted things done her way, and her way was not mine. Funny thing is, I got to where she was directing me eventually. It took awhile, but we got there. While growing up, I couldn't appreciate the sacrifices she made for me, or for us. I do now though. We never had money to spare and I remember periods when she and dad would go with less food than my brother, sister and I so we could eat. I never really thought much about it, but I think that was one of the biggest sacrifices she made for us. She always passed it off as she was dieting. She and dad tried to keep their fights to themselves, too. Every now and then I would hear them, and I thought it was healthy because both of them had a problem with communication. They'd wait until things blew up instead of working through it step by step. Since I live near St. Louis and she was near Chicago, we'd talk by phone a lot. Sometimes "Wheel of Fortune" would be on when I called. We'd sit there solving the puzzles while we were talking. I always thought it was dad who enjoyed that show, apparently mom did more so than he does. One particular Mother's Day comes to mind for me, the weekend of my Junior Prom in May 1987. My 18th birthday present was my prom dress. I went stag with one of my friends. We had a lot of fun and stopped at one of her friend's houses on the way home. Well, we drank. I must have woken dad up when I stumbled up the stairs, but he didn't say anything then. Nope. He waited until about 8 a.m. and woke me up, hangover and all. "Are you going to make breakfast for your mother?" he asks. He was persistent and I was pissed, one because I was hung over and two because I knew mom wouldn't be up until noon. I know this is more of a dad story, but I learned a lesson about it too. I never came home drunk again. I don't know how much mom knew about what happened, because I never asked her, but I'm pretty sure she knew it had something to do with dad and me butting heads. I know mom is not suffering now, but I can feel the loss. I'll deal with it, but I'm not sure how well. Remembering the good times will help and honor her memory more than if I just stop moving forward with my life. More on Mother's Day
 
Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner: Mother's Day is Going Viral: Talking Babies and a National Mom Uprising Top
Michelle Obama isn't the only one flexing her right to bare arms. The millions of women proclaiming their friends as Mom of the Year this past week is nothing short of a national mom uprising. This week 7 million people viewed the MomsRising.org Mother of the Year Award customizable video in honor of Mother's Day. You can watch the video here . Along with Beyonce, ponytail advice, and naked dogs, this video includes serious facts about mothers in the U.S. today. So in case you were too smitten by baby Joshy talking, and too distracted by watching President Obama sing the praises of your favorite mom, to read the text crawl at bottom of video screen, here's what it says: "Moms in this country are way undervalued - Mothers make 73 cents to every dollar an equally qualified man makes at the same job - Single mothers make only about 60 cents to a man's dollar - Those two facts, it should be noted, really suck - especially because men aren't making much these days either - Over a lifetime mothers are paid anywhere from $400,000 to $2 million less than men doing the same work due to gender wage disparity. That's a ridiculous "Mommy Tax." A full quarter of US families with children less than 6 years old live in poverty - Well duh, all these other statistics would lead to this likely outcome - Motherhood is one of the hardest full-time jobs that does not come with Social Security or health benefits - It does however come with a lot of labor as well as love." It's important to have fun celebrating moms, especially on Mother's Day. As the video says, "A big thank you for an often thankless job." It's also time to get serious about insisting that mothers are treated fairly in the work place and to demand that economic security policies for families be a top priority in our nation, including: Creating a healthcare system that works for both families and business; passing paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance; moving fair pay bills forward like the Paycheck Fairness Act and the Fair Pay Act of 2009 so gender based wage disparities can be addressed front and center; guaranteeing a minimum number of paid sick days that all people can earn each year in our nation; and making sure that all children have quality early learning opportunities, are all ways we can lower the wage gap between moms and non-moms while also helping our children and nation thrive. The fact of the matter is that our nation still needs to catch up to the modern reality that the majority of mothers are juggling an unprecedented number of roles at home and in the workplace at the same time. More than three-quarters of moms are in the labor force and families are increasingly relying on their wages to make ends meet, yet there is a profound wage and hiring bias against mothers. There are 83 million of moms in our nation--and a full 80 percent of American women have children by the time they are forty-four years old. In other words, the vast majority of women in our nation become mothers so these issues directly touch all of us in some way or another. The fact that a study last year found that women with equal resumes are 79% less likely to be hired if they are mothers--and another study found that women without children earn 90 cents to a man's dollar while mother's earn only 73 cents--show that we've got to address these issues front and center as we rebuild our nation because we all lose when such a large portion of our nation is falling behind. Let's join Michelle Obama in flexing her right to bare arms. Moms are powerful. Our voices are strong and our networks are vast. Watch the video, send it along to all the moms in your life to celebrate what they do each and every day, and then sign up to join the national uprising with MomsRising.org in honor of Mother's Day. More on Mother's Day
 

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