The latest from The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com
- Michael Martin: Mozilo Charged With Insider Trading
- Marlene H. Phillips: Arizona Man Arrested for "Trying to Save Lives"
- Captain Richard Phillips Gets $500K Memoir Deal: Report
- Grant Cardone: Say Yes to Life
- Luis Carlos Montalván: Veteran Stigma: "What Does My Country think of Me?"
- Students, Activists Rip University Of Chicago Over Hospital Agenda
- Will The Next Generation Get Married?
- Terry Gardner: A Note to Married Fliers
- Dr. Josh Dines and Dr. Rock Positano: Tommy John Surgery Epidemic?
- Holly Robinson: The American Gerbil Show: What Our Pets Teach Us
- German Gentleman: First Man Joachim Sauer's 'Nutty Professor' Look (PHOTOS)
- Nick Bunzl: Time to Combat The New Smear Campaign Against President Obama
- Sotomayor Approached About Court Vacancy Four Days Before Souter Retirement
- Michelle Renee: How Do You Want To "Spend" Your Time?
- Hamas Leader Reviews Obama Speech
- Swine Flu: 74-Year-Old Man Is Illinois' 5th Swine Flu Death
- Barbara Ficarra: Live in the Moment or Envision the Future? - How to Get Excited For Both
- Greg Barrett: Alaykum As-Salaam (And Upon You Be Peace)
- Sotomayor's Personal Assets Top $1M
- Michael Markarian: Putting a Stop to Pay-Per-View and Pay-to-Kill Hunting
- David Suissa: Dear President Obama
- Eric Alterman: Think Again: The Surprising Success of the Right-Wing Rant
- WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY Is June 5: All You Need To Know
- Speaker Nancy Pelosi: Twenty Years Later, Still Calling for Freedom in China
- Jarvis Coffin: Content wants to be free. Advertising wants to be accountable. It's a tough time to be a new media child.
- Harvey Wasserman: A Green-Powered Trip to Eco-Solartopia
- John McQuaid: On Newspapers and Paywalls
- Rabbi Steve Gutow: America Can Walk and Chew Gum at the Same Time: Why the U.S. Should Form an Accountability Commission
- Stefan Aschan: More Bang For Your Food Buck
- Dean Obeidallah: The view of Obama from the Heart of the Arab (Comedy) World
- Daniel Krotz: On Deafness
- Sotomayor Questionnaire Published By Judiciary Committee: Help Us Look Through
- Max Blumenthal: Exclusive Video: The Real Reaction From Jerusalem To Obama's Cairo Address (NSFW)
- Celebrity Classic Cars Auctioned In Connecticut
- Mozilo, Former Countrywide CEO, Charged With Insider Trading
- Denise Richards: I Had Three Boob Jobs
- Adriana Dunn: Ted@State: A Trip To The Nation's Capitol
- Two Gay Penguins And A Chick: German Zoo Pair Raising Baby
- Anderson Cooper Celebrates 42nd Birthday With Kathy Griffin And Suze Orman (VIDEO)
- Seth Freed Wessler: GM Bankruptcy Hurts People of Color Hardest. Workers Desperately Need EFCA.
- Chris Willman: One Last, Strange Night With David Carradine
- Mohammad Sohail: Benevolent New York Merchant Cited In Drug Sweep
- Stacey Radin: On the Career Couch: Career Calamity Recovery
- Michael Sigman: The Laughter of Wisdom
- Jeff Sessions Annoyed By Crying Child At Hearing
- Robert Naiman: What President Obama Promised in Cairo
- Hafiz Saeed A 'Humanitarian': Pakistan UN Ambassador
- David Roberts: Celebrating the Blessings of a Coal-Based Economy: Who Needs Teeth When You've Got Cheap Power?
- George Mitrovich: Who Should We Blame For California's Failure?
- Nick Turse: Econocide
- Daoud Kuttab: Obama's Speech: Warm but Honest
- "Inside The Obama White House" Rates High For NBC
- Paula Forman and Jeff Johnson: What's With This Happiness Thing?
- NRA Appealing Chicago Handgun Ban To Supreme Court
- The Coming Vegetarian Revolution
- Juliette Powell: For Cirque du Soleil Founder Guy Laliberte, Space is Not the Final Frontier
- Dr. Jon LaPook: Sex Addiction: Is it Really an Addiction?
- Wednesday's Late Night Round-Up: Bo Obama, Morning Joe, And Craig T. Nelson (VIDEO)
- Jon Huntsman Won't Attend Gay Award Event, Cites Scheduling Conflicts
- Gotham Chopra: Obama and North Korea - Not too much to ask
- "Twister In A Can": Scientists Build World's Largest Tornado Simulator (VIDEO)
Michael Martin: Mozilo Charged With Insider Trading | Top |
The SEC has charged Angelo Mozilo with civil fraud and insider trading. Civil fraud charges also were filed against Countrywide's former chief operating officer David Sambol and ex-chief financial officer Eric Sieracki, according to the AP. Executives such as Mozilo are considered "Control People" because the decisions they make can affect their firm directly. You can consider everything they know to be "insider" information. In order to dispose of their stock holdings, Control People can sell stock and not be charged with Insider Trading if they execute what is known as a 10b5-1 Plan. They plan to sell stock according to a predetermined schedule, so that the disposition of the stock sale will have been made long before one would have had knowledge that was material, non-public information - insider information. Mozilo had such a plan, but amended it, and that his where his trouble began . | |
Marlene H. Phillips: Arizona Man Arrested for "Trying to Save Lives" | Top |
The Arizona Daily Star reports that a 27 year old man named Walt Staton from Tucson, Arizona could be sentenced to up to a year in prison and a $10,000 fine after being convicted of littering on federal land. His litter: containers of water. The criminal act: leaving water in the Sonoran Desert for illegal immigrants. The Sonoran Desert in the Southwestern part of the United States is a beautiful and unique ecosystem, admired by visitors for its fantastic rock formations, 'sky island' mountain ranges, and distinctive saguaro cacti. But the Sonoran Desert is also unforgiving and brutal; without water, a human in the Southwest desert will die within a few days. Staton is a volunteer with the Tucson non profit group No More Deaths . Founded in 2004 by Tucson religious leaders and social activists to combat what they deemed "a morally intolerable situation," the organization's main goal is to save lives by providing assistance to migrants crossing the Sonoran Desert, including food and medical help, but mostly water. Their simple motto, "Humanitarian Aid Is Never a Crime," reflects the ongoing struggle between the organization and law enforcement officials; the 'news' section of their website consists mostly of accounts of arrests of organization volunteers. Walt Staton is now part of a lengthy and growing list of No More Death volunteers fined, charged, and convicted of a crime: current press releases discuss the conviction of volunteer Dan Mills in March and fines imposed on two more volunteers last December, all for dropping unopened containers of water in the desert. But Staton's attorney, William Walker, was still shocked at the verdict. In the Daily Star article, Walker decried both the cost and the reasoning behind the trial and conviction, saying in part, "This trial must have cost the government more than $50,000. They say there aren't enough agents on the border...and then they spend all of this time and money prosecuting a humanitarian who is putting out water to save lives." Among politicians, immigration is still a hot-button topic. Republicans and Democrats discuss reforming and changing U.S. immigration policy with little or no agreement on how, even within their own parties. No More Deaths has a more acute concern: while the discussion continues, people are dying. As I reported in April 2009 for Huffington Post ( The Consequences of a Wall: More Deaths Along AZ Border ) even as illegal border crossing numbers go down, the number of those who die trying to cross the border is rising. Border walls and increased security measures have driven the desperate deeper and deeper into the desert. The terrain is rougher, they walk longer, more die. And the death is horrible: in 1909, a scientist named W. G. McGee penned a graphic description of what happens to the human body deprived of water in the harsh Southwestern desert. In a biography of McGee written by his sister Emma, the long description of a man found dying in the desert begins with the statement: "There is no death more cruel than that of the 'desert thirst,'" and continues with descriptions of the effect of dehydration and the desert sun on muscles ("Strong arms and legs were shrunken to the bone"), skin ("His flesh was dry and black'), and parts of his body ("His tongue was shriveled to a mere bunch of tegument, very black"). This is what drives Walt Staton and other volunteers to continue to 'litter' the desert. As quoted in the Daily Star article, Staton said: "I was just trying to save lives. I was trying to end the death and suffering in the desert." A small box in the upper corner of the No More Deaths website keeps a running count of the number of migrants found dead in the state of Arizona, a stark reminder of the organization's reason for existence. Today the number reads 79. This resident of the desert wonders how many of those human beings would have been spared so terrible a death if humanitarian aid was not deemed a crime by a court of law. More on Immigration | |
Captain Richard Phillips Gets $500K Memoir Deal: Report | Top |
Merchant ship hero Capt. Richard Phillips may never have to brave pirate-ridden seas again, unless he really wants to. According to publishing sources, Hyperion Books has won the auction for a memoir by Mr. Phillips, who saved his crew from Somali pirates by volunteering to be taken hostage. | |
Grant Cardone: Say Yes to Life | Top |
This past week I was reminded of one of the most important lessons in all of life; in order to live life you have to say 'Yes' to it in order to truly live it! In a period of just under 30 hours I participated in the natural childbirth of my first child, Sabrina, and then flew to my mother's home in Louisiana to assisted my brother and sisters in moving my mother from the hospital where she had been diagnosed terminal. At her request we brought her home, made her comfortable and then sat by her side and watched her take her last breaths. This article is not about the birth of my first child or even about the death of my mother but about more importantly how to live the time in between. Each of us will have the experience of birth and dying, but unfortunately very few people make the choice to experience and live life between those two significant experiences. It only takes a bit of observation to see a baby or young child truly living life; highly curious about it and interested in it almost regardless of the consequences. The child more often than not says 'Yes' to the opportunities and experiences of life! They eat bugs and dirt and welcome the rains so they can play in it. As we get older it appears we become more conservative, more reluctant to new experiences, less interested in new things, "set in our ways" and more likely to say 'No' to new experiences and opportunities of life thus causing us to never fully live it. My twin brother, Gary Cardone and I spent the last 20 years selling, persuading, convincing and even pressuring my aging mother to say 'Yes' to the experiences of life. We pushed her, even against her will, to do things she did not want to ensure she lived life. During her senior years we forced her to do things that she was resistant to and uncomfortable with. We often made her stay out later than she thought herself capable. I remember a trip to Vegas where I kept my mother up all night to the point of her being exhausted just so we could watch the sun come up together. I once made her walk the hilly streets of San Francisco until she thought her lungs would explode. I planted flowers with her long after she complained about her body aching and then insisted she make me dinner. I made her dance with me at my wedding to rap music even though it embarrassed her. I would wait until she got in bed at night and call her just to get her up, and then call her early in the morning just to piss her off. Many expressed concerns that we pushed my mother too hard, but we thought it better that she die, living life rather than die never experiencing it. It rarely cost any money to create these moments but just some of my time, energy and in many cases a great deal of persistence. Whether it was taking a simple walk through the neighborhood that her exhausted her or going for a drive to look at houses for no reason except to get out the house, we pushed her to say 'Yes' even when her inclination was to say 'No!' I would make her go to Starbucks with me before she even got out of her robe in the morning, promising her that she could just sit in the car, and then once we got there I made her go in with me. We made her go to movies she had no interest in and play games with us until the wee hours of the morning that she didn't even like. I made her try foods that she thought she wouldn't like and took her places she felt uncomfortable. For the last 20 years she resisted, she complained, and she even got angry at times, but we insisted until she agreed to go along. Because of this my mother accumulated thousands of experiences most people never will and leaves her children with memories we would never had if we hadn't pressed for her to live. And because of these experiences my mother became more than just my mother, but a great friend as well. In the period of just thirty-six hours I witnessed my daughter's life starting and my mother's life appearing to end -- only to be reminded that it's the time between that determines whether we truly live or not. I only hope that my daughter will punish me in my later years and force me to say yes to experiencing life with her so that I can become more than her father but her great friend as well. Push yourself and those around you to say yes to life! In tribute to my mother and great friend: Concetta Niel Cardone 12/23/1920 - 5/26/2009 | |
Luis Carlos Montalván: Veteran Stigma: "What Does My Country think of Me?" | Top |
As if to pour salt on the physical and psychological wounds of millions of America's veterans, a recent trend has emerged in both public pronouncements and privately held attitudes that suggests that veterans returning from the 'long wars' in Iraq and Afghanistan pose a security risk to potential employers, fellow workers, and workplace patrons. "I cannot be open about my post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with prospective employers in light of the Homeland Security debacle," says former Army Sgt. and Iraq veteran Steve Kraft. "It's like a scarlet letter." The "debacle" Sgt. Kraft refers to means comments made by Janet Napolitano, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), citing a section of an April 7, 2009, DHS Report titled "Disgruntled Military Veterans" to the effect that "DHS assesses that right-wing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans...suffering from the psychological effects of war." "Having been singled out by the media for attention, Napolitano's statement surely discourages would-be employers from considering hiring veterans applying for jobs, especially in an uncertain economy." But while the DHS incident lingers in the minds of the public, it isn't the only highly publicized case of veterans stigmatized for their courageous and honorable military service. A scandal at Penn State erupted in February when the University's Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) department posted a contentious video on its website. Produced as part of a package to help faculty deal with "worrisome student behaviors," the video depicted an angry young veteran and a professor who felt threatened by him. Unhappy with his grade, the veteran threatens the professor and says he deserves a better grade, "or else." Former Petty Officer 3rd Class Maggie Kwok, a 25-year-old Chinese-American sophomore and the President of Penn State's Veterans Organization was shocked by the University video. "I can't believe they made this video about us," recalled the former Navy Corpsman of the incident when it happened. "Veterans on campus were very upset," said the veteran of Guantanamo and Iraq. The university responded to the veterans' concerns by removing the video. And yet, the stigma that veterans face has, as Sgt. Kraft feels, turned into widespread employment discrimination, precisely at a time when getting a job is especially difficult. Major Matt Tully, a New York Army National Guardsman and an attorney in his civilian life, specializes in fighting the employment discrimination faced by many veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns. "It's a growing problem," said Major Tully, "higher now than at any other time in the past." According to a 2007 GAO Report, only 1 in 10 veterans files a Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) complaint. "It used to be that employers didn't know that it was illegal to discriminate against veterans who served in the Reserve or National Guard," said Major Tully. "Now, employers intentionally disregard USERRA." Due to the long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, employers have taken steps to lay off those Reservists who are called up to Active Duty. "For example, an airline pilot who deploys to Iraq for a year..." said Major Tully, "...has to be retrained upon his return, which costs a lot of money and overtime." In recent years, the Departments of Labor (DOL) and Justice (DOJ) have taken a much harder stance against the discrimination facing military reservists now that violations are becoming more flagrant. The growing problem is also being discussed and debated in Congress. In January 2009, Rep. Lloyd Doggett [D-TX], sponsored H.R. 466, the "Wounded Veteran Job Security Act." If passed, the bill would prohibit "...any employment discrimination or acts of reprisal against any person who has, or who has been treated for, an injury, illness, or disability determined by the Secretary of Veterans' Affairs to have been incurred in, or aggravated by, military service." According to testimony by Congressman Doggett, "...the amount of time required for the treatment of a veteran's service-connected disability exceeds the amount of vacation and sick leave allotted to the veteran. Some employers have viewed this as grounds to terminate veterans, leaving them faced with an impossible choice - whether to continue receiving the treatment that they need or to keep the job that supports them." But many veterans aren't even able to get a foot in the doorways of potential employers. Rick Jackson, the Program Coordinator for New York State's "Troops to Teachers Program," is worried that his office will soon shut down. "School principals have PTSD in the back of their minds after DHS put out their 'terrorist watch' for veterans," said Jackson. "Many principals seem to have the attitude that 'All these guys [veterans] do is yell and scream and I'm not going to have that in my hallway." In a labor market that is contracting rather than expanding, seeing the hiring of returning veterans as unnecessarily risky puts those military personnel behind the 8-ball in terms of landing jobs. For many veterans, dealing with the stigma attached to their wounds isn't something easy to do. Retired Army Capt. Mark Brogan was severely wounded in 2006 when an improvised explosive devise (IED) blasted his HMMWV ("Humvee") while on patrol in Iraq. "I'm leery of putting down PTSD or TBI on an application for work or school," said Capt. Brogan. "I am concerned with back-door discrimination." While former Army Sgt. Steve Kraft applies for federal jobs in New York City, he participates in group therapy for PTSD twice a week. "It potentially can affect me a great deal if I get a job offer" said Kraft of the growing discrimination against America's veterans. "The way veterans are being mistreated makes me wonder, 'What does my country think of me?'" More on Afghanistan | |
Students, Activists Rip University Of Chicago Over Hospital Agenda | Top |
Hours after a U.S. Congressman announced he was requesting a federal investigation into allegations of patient dumping at the University of Chicago Medical Center, activists gathered on the school's campus to discuss their concerns about the university's behavior. More on Health | |
Will The Next Generation Get Married? | Top |
If you can put aside the inherent creepiness of hearing a man well past his teenage years talking about teenagers having sex, check out this Philip Weiss video over at Big Think. If you can't, here's the gist: today's youngins are trying a lot more a lot earlier than previous generations--Weiss cites the "Hooking-Up Model," for those of you scoring at home--and that gets him thinking about how these kids will approach marriage down the line. Here's our prediction: most of them won't go anywhere near it. More on Marriage | |
Terry Gardner: A Note to Married Fliers | Top |
Last Thursday on a night flight back from Maui to Los Angeles, it happened again. This must have been the sixth or seventh time a married woman requested I switch seats with her, so that she can sit next to her husband. I have noticed that it's always the wives that make the request, never the husbands. Do single fliers like me have some kind of tattoo on our foreheads which only married people can see? My guess is my forehead is emblazoned with the words: "No Will of Her Own" since married people assume, as a single person, I have no seat preference. Usually it happens to me in first class where people often are more pushy and demanding. (I upgrade for the more comfy seats and free alcohol, not the company). The wife will survey me then ask: "Are you traveling alone?" When I reply I am flying solo, she asks: "Would you mind switching seats with me, so my husband and I can sit together?" What I always think, but never say, is: "Why is it my problem that you didn't book far enough in advance to sit together?" People pleaser that I am, I normally comply, but the other night, I didn't. I was seated on the aisle of an exit row, and there was an empty middle seat between me and the guy by the window. We had the only row onboard the plane with an empty middle seat. Such vacancy meant both of us had won the elbow lottery. We could put our elbows on each armrest, relax and sleep on the flight. When the wife initially asked, I said I'd consider it. First, I needed to secure my tuberose flowers. The flight attendant suggested I put them at the feet of the man by the window, so they'd stay colder by the emergency exit door. I now felt committed to Row 18, not just for my own comfort, but to protect my $8.99 Costco bouquet. I told the woman I didn't want to switch. She gave me an unpleasant look and proceeded to ask the man (protecting my flowers) if he would switch. He also declined saying he liked having a window seat. Throughout the wife's pleas to switch seats, her husband in the row behind her -- across the aisle from me -- said nothing. I have noticed in these situations, the husband usually says nothing. Never having been married, I am uncertain whether this is marital training or fatigue. All the husband did say was to advise the two women next to him that he hoped he wouldn't snore too loudly. My row companion and the husband both seemed to sleep quite well. I do not know how the wife fared because I didn't want to make inadvertent eye contact. I had a very pleasant snooze quite content that I had "sat" my ground. More on Travel | |
Dr. Josh Dines and Dr. Rock Positano: Tommy John Surgery Epidemic? | Top |
Ulnar Collateral Ligament (UCL) reconstruction, or "Tommy John Surgery" as it known amongst baseball fans, is a surgery that many professional baseball players have undergone. Unfortunately, it is becoming a much more common procedure in younger athletes, particularly those still in high school. I have actually been interviewed by journalists several times in the last month and frequently the word "epidemic" was used to describe the increasing number of teenagers having their UCL reconstructed. Throwing a baseball generates a significant amount of stress across the elbow and shoulder. The UCL is one of the main stabilizers at the elbow to counteract these stresses. It connects the ulna, one of bones in the forearm, to the humerus or upper arm bone. Tears of the ligament frequently result from progressive microtrauma secondary to frequently throwing a baseball. However, there are occasions where on one throw the player will feel a "pop" and the ligament tears. The good news for most people is that regular everyday activities are not affected by the lack of a functional UCL. Unfortunately, for throwers without a functional ligament, generating their normal velocity or control is near-impossible. Before Tommy John became the first player to undergo UCL reconstruction by Dr. Frank Jobe more than 30 years ago, UCL tears were career ending. Now, the surgery is commonplace. In 2006, about 1 in 9 players in the major leagues had undergone the procedure. The list of names is impressive: John Smoltz, Mariano Rivera, and Kerry Wood, just to name a few. The principles of the surgery have remained fairly similar since Jobe did the first one, and they involve drilling holes in the humerus and ulna through which a tendon, harvested from somewhere else in the body, is woven through. One of the more novel modifications, developed by David Altchek, chief of the Sports Medicine Service at the Hospital for Special Surgery, was to decrease the size of the drill holes placed in the humerus. Another benefit of Altchek's modified procedure was tensioning the ligament became a bit easier. Initially, the surgery was reserved for professional players, but more recently, high school students are undergoing these procedures at alarming rates. This is a disturbing trend that is directly related to kids throwing too much. Some of the risk factors for UCL tears in teenagers that a research study from The Andrews Sports Medicine Center identified include year-round throwing, inadequate rest between starts, throwing more than 80MPH (probably because these are the kids that get asked to throw a lot by their coaches) and pitching in showcases. Little League Baseball has added pitch count limits and mandatory rest days between starts for each age group to help prevent injury in kids. That being said, parents and coaches have to take an active role in keeping track of pitches thrown; many of these kids play on several teams and one coach doesn't know what the other is doing. No matter which technique is used, good to excellent results can be expected in about 90% of the cases. Players must be aware, however, that recovery time is about 9 to 12 months before they can compete at their previous levels. Ideally, by knowing the risk factors, we as a society will better prevent these injuries in our kids so they wont have to experience these long recovery times. | |
Holly Robinson: The American Gerbil Show: What Our Pets Teach Us | Top |
The animals were groomed and shiny. The judges wore white coats and serious expressions as they rated the furry contestants for conformation, color and disposition. There were competitions for agility and speed. Every owner hoped to win Best in Show. Was this The Westminster Dog Show? Nope. This was the American Gerbil Show . The competitors may only be palm-size rodents with tufted tails, but their owners still eagerly trekked to this year's Massachusetts show from as far away as Nebraska to talk gerbil. The American Gerbil Show is held twice each year by The American Gerbil Society . Some of the day's events are just for fun, like the Gerbil Olympics, where pet gerbils take on paper tubes to prove their jaw power and race against each other in plastic balls. Their owners cheer them on from the sidelines, shouting things like, "Yeah, you got this! Go, go, go!" When it comes to exhibiting groupie level enthusiasm for these curious rodents, it's tough to tell the kids from the adults. But serious business is conducted at these shows, too. Gerbil enthusiasts have been breeding these pocket kangaroos since the animals were first imported to this country from Japan in 1954. By now, the color variations have spun out far beyond the golden agouti gerbils that my own father once raised by the thousands. Today there are lilac and nutmeg gerbils, Siamese and Burmese gerbils, dove and polar fox gerbils, honey cream and silver fox, and many more. There is even, as of this spring, a blue gerbil in the United States, shown by the show's coordinator, Libby Hanna. Her devoted husband flew to Helsinki, Finland to pick up the animals, turned around in the airport, and flew right back - his Christmas gift to Libby. "Massachusetts is a real hot spot for gerbils," she assured me. "We had to have blue gerbils." The new blue gerbils were certainly a show stopper. So was Herman the Show Jumping Gerbil, an athletic YouTube celebrity who is even more debonair in person than on screen. A few side tables at the American Gerbil Show displayed gerbil paraphernalia for sale: gerbil purses and gerbil hats, wooden gerbil houses, gerbil art and gerbil books. There were even hand-knitted gerbils trucked all the way from Ohio by their creator. As I mingled with the gerbil fanciers, I couldn't help but recall one of my mother's favorite sayings: "There's a lid for every pot." These were people who wear their passions emblazoned on their t-shirts: American Gerbil Society: Christmas Revels, Audubon Society. If they weren't here, this crowd would be out walking for good causes. One example: Tom and Renee. Tom tells me that he's had pet gerbils since the 1960s. These days he specializes in rescuing gerbils with disabilities, like his personal favorite, a blind gerbil called "Blindy." In an unfortunate incident, Blindy once caught his leg in the crack of a coconut shell while taking a dust bath. Blindy couldn't see which way to pull his leg out, Tom explained, so he thrashed around and broke it. Tom and Renee had to nurse him back to health. "It was a good thing that happened, really," Tom mused, because it showed their adopted son that, "when parents love you, they don't abandon you. They take care of you no matter what happens. It was a good lesson in love." Good lessons in love: that's what our pets, small or large, teach us all. | |
German Gentleman: First Man Joachim Sauer's 'Nutty Professor' Look (PHOTOS) | Top |
As the "first" spouse of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, quantum chemist and professor Joachim Sauer is learning a little about foreign fashion policy. He's spent time with Michelle Obama and Carla Bruni-Sarkozy on recent diplomatic trips, so it's inevitable that he's gained the slightest amount of style savvy. However, Joachim's best accessory is his smile. He looks like he's having a great time as Germany's first man. More on Germany | |
Nick Bunzl: Time to Combat The New Smear Campaign Against President Obama | Top |
During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama was attacked by concerted campaigns to label him a secret-Muslim, anti-Israel, and worse, in attempts to play upon the fears of American Jews who care deeply about the security of the State of Israel and the US-Israel relationship. Despite the smear campaign, 78 percent of American Jews voted for Obama. The Jewish community did not believe the lies and distortions then---and they should not now. Leading up to and following the President's speech today in Cairo, some in the American Jewish community - and the far-right wing in Israel - have outrageously denounced President Obama as anti-Israel and even anti-Semitic as a result of his dedication to Mideast diplomacy, to pursuing a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and to holding both Israel and the Palestinians accountable to their respective obligations. Recognizing this growing trend, earlier this month, Israel Policy Forum took out a full-page ad in the New York Times telling the President, "Yes, You Can" achieve a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As part of our message we asked the president to push for Mideast leaders to achieve five steps forward: 1. RE-START NEGOTIATIONS. US-mediated talks toward the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel must be re-launched without delay. 2. STRENGTHEN SECURITY. Weapons smuggling into Gaza and Palestinian terror attacks on Israelis must stop. The number of American-trained Palestinian security forces in the West Bank must be increased and their role in preventing violence strengthened. 3. IMPROVE THE FACTS ON THE GROUND. West Bank settlement construction and the demolition of Palestinian houses in East Jerusalem must be stopped. Illegal outposts, superfluous checkpoints and unnecessary roadblocks in the West Bank must be removed. 4. FOCUS ON GAZA.The Gaza Strip must be reconstructed with a focus on civilian needs and the local economy. 5. PROMOTE REGIONAL PEACE. The Arab Peace Initiative must be embraced and used as a basis for negotiations for a comprehensive peace between Israel and its neighbors, including Syria. Since our ad, at various points President Obama has stressed the importance of each of these steps, with a particular focus on stressing Israel's need to stop settlement construction. He did so again in his speech today. On the surface, this is not particularly new. Numerous American presidents have pointed to settlement construction as an "obstacle to peace" in the region. Yet, despite these repeated calls, settlements have continued to grow. At the start of the Oslo peace process, there were about 100,000 settlers in the West Bank. Today there are about 300,000 and growing. The difference between President Obama's statements and those of his predecessors is the perception that he is serious about making sure the growth does not continue. As a result, the right-wing of the Jewish community and in Israel is in frenzy. For example, yesterday, a group of right-wingers in Israel turned IPF's ad in the New York Times on its head, protesting at the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem with the rallying slogan "No, you can't." Undoubtedly, President Obama's continued determination to achieve progress toward a two-state solution will further inflame these voices. Make no mistake - a new smear campaign has begun. In the weeks and months ahead, we are likely to hear louder and louder voices claiming that President Obama is 'bad for Israel' or is placing Israel's security in jeopardy. All of this because he is playing the role of honest broker that Israelis and Palestinians will need in order to diffuse and ultimately resolve their conflict. That is why our voice - the voice of those recognize that a two-state solution is in the shared interests of Israel the Palestinians, the US and the entire international community -- must be louder than those of the detractors. The United States must have diplomatic tools and credibility in order to lead the Middle East toward a more peaceful, secure and stable future. Few American foreign policy objectives are as urgent. To achieve these goals and overcome this latest smear campaign, President Obama will need the vocal support of the vast majority of American Jews - and Americans - who support his continued diplomatic efforts. Simply put, we cannot allow rejectionists to hijack the debate and denounce our president as he seeks to advance the shared interests of the United States and the State of Israel. We must continue to tell President Obama: "Yes, you can." Thankfully, so far President Obama is getting our message. Cross-posted on Mideast Peace Pulse http://www.mideastpeacepulse.org More on Israel | |
Sotomayor Approached About Court Vacancy Four Days Before Souter Retirement | Top |
Judge Sonia Sotomayor's answers to a questionnaire she filled out for the Senate Judiciary Committee provides some additional information about the process by which she became Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee. In particular, it is revealed that the appellate judge was contacted four days before Justice David Souter announced he was retiring from the bench, meaning the White House either had its eyes on Sotomayor before it knew of a vacancy, or they were well-informed of Souter's impending retirement before it was publicly announced. Both may be true. Additionally, Sotomayor seems to have conversed with nearly all the key players in the White House's Supreme Court vetting process before actually talking with the president himself. Her interview with Obama came nearly a month after the initial contact was made by chief counsel Greg Craig, and just under a week before she was announced as the choice. Here is the relevant answer from Sotomayor's questionnaire. I was contacted by Gregory Craig, White House Counsel, on Monday April 27, 2009, with respect to the possibility of a future Supreme Court vacancy. Between that date and the present, I have had frequent conversations with Cassandra Butts, Deputy White House Counsel, including near daily phone calls after Justice Souter on May 1, 2009 announced his intention to resign at the end of the current Supreme Court term. On May 14, 2009, I was interviewed in person at my office by Leslie Keirnan, an attorney at Zukerman Spaeder LLP. I was interviewed by telephone on Saturday, May 16, by Gregory Craig, Cynthia Hogan, Counsel to the Vice president, Ron Klain, Chief of Staff to the Vice President, David Axelrod, Senior Advisor to the President, Daniel Pfeiffer, White House Deputy Communications Director and Cassandra Butts. I was interviewed on Thursday, May 21, 2009 by members of the Administration including Gregory Craig, Cassandra Butts, Associate Counsel to the President Susan Davies, Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrod, Ronald Klain, and Cynthia Hogan. Finally, I was interviewed by the President on May 21, 2009, and by the Vice President by telephone on Sunday, May 24, 2009. I have also had numerous phone conversations with different groupings of the individuals listed above. Other individuals have at times participated in these conversations, including Trevor Morrison, Associate Counsel to the President, Alison Nathan, Associate Counsel to the President, and Diana Beinart, Tax Counsel. Read the full questionnaire answers here . Get HuffPost Politics On Facebook and Twitter! | |
Michelle Renee: How Do You Want To "Spend" Your Time? | Top |
When a friend of mine came over last night because things at home were again too tense to handle, we began talking about how his life has been for the past several months. His concern, he said, was about doing the right things for his son, his wife, his job, his dog... everything but himself. I listened, thought about all he was saying and asked him one simple question: how do you want to spend, or use up or pay out, the rest of your time in this life? Instead of thinking about it in such a complicated way by constantly considering what to do to make everyone one else happy, or take care of everyone else's feelings, I proposed that he simplify it by asking himself that one question. If he answers it by making choices to spend his time in a positive, healthy way it will automatically be the right choice for his son, his wife, his family and everyone else in his life. When we pay out or spend we usually get something in return and expect that something to work, not be defective and certainly not abuse us in any way. I pay the electric bill, I get electricity. I pay my car payment and I get to keep my nice car. I am paying out in order to get what I want or for my needs to be met. But if my car was a lemon, my electricity didn't work, the new computer I just bought didn't operate properly, I would not continue spending money on something that didn't work. I would see if the problem could be fixed immediately and if the problem was too severe and a fix wasn't possible, return it for a new one. Why don't we do this when it comes to spending the most valuable thing we have... our time? Why would you keep spending it on something that isn't working? My friend has been in a relationship that is controlling and on both sides, buttons are being pushed nearly every day that escalate into hurtful words and actions they both end up regretting and from which they feeling further pain. People in his life have been alienated because he has chosen to spend his time in and on a relationship that has serious problems; one that demands he not have outside friendships or activities that don't include her. Her fear, jealousy, anger and resentment issues, coupled with his own unresolved issues, has left him emotionally bankrupt. The same kind of scenario showed up in a conversation I had with my mom this morning. She too is spending her time on a relationship that is defective. She has been complaining about her situation for months. At some point we must look at our life and ask ourselves if the way we are spending our time is worth what we are receiving in return. It has to start being about you and how you want to experience life, time and how you choose to exist for the rest of the time you are here. If you seek harmony, do whatever you need to do to have that. If it is spirituality, do whatever you need to do to achieve that, and so on. The simple truth is that by choosing to pay out your time to positive energy, healthy relationships and experiences, you are choosing to get a product worth every precious ounce of your time. Ask yourself today how you want to "spend" your time. Ask yourself if what you are getting for the payout of your time is defective and causing you to become internally bankrupt, or if you are experiencing an amazing return on your investment. Ask yourself how you want to experience life; how you want to exist with the time you have left. Ask yourself if it is time to choose a new way to invest your time. Spend wisely! Watch the movie premiere of Held Hostage on Lifetime Movie Network starring Julie Benz and Bruce McGill based on Michelle Renee's life story and debut book of the same title July 19, 2009! More on Relationships | |
Hamas Leader Reviews Obama Speech | Top |
About an hour after Barack Obama's excellent Cairo speech, I met with Khaled Meshal, the leader of Hamas, at his office here to talk about the speech and the Israel-Palestine conflict. We spoke for several hours and I will have a fuller accounting of our conversation in my print column next week. Meshal speaks some English, but he feels more comfortable using an interpreter. He listened to my questions in English, asking occasionally for translation of a word or phrase, and gave his answers in Arabic. He never raised his voice or used militant language, but he never yielded on his basic position either. More on Hamas | |
Swine Flu: 74-Year-Old Man Is Illinois' 5th Swine Flu Death | Top |
GURNEE, Ill. (AP) -- A 74-year-old northern Illinois man has died from complications of swine flu, becoming Illinois' fifth fatality from the virus. The Lake County Health Department says the Gurnee man was hospitalized and died on Tuesday. His name hasn't been released. Officials say that, like the state's other swine flu fatalities, the man had significant medical conditions that increased his vulnerability to the virus. Illinois has at least 1,268 confirmed swine flu cases. Four other Illinois deaths have been reported. A 22-year-old Chicago man died May 24. The death of a female from suburban Cook County was announced May 27. A 42-year-old Kane County man died May 28, and a 20-year-old Chicago woman died Saturday, one day after giving birth. --- On the Net: Illinois Department of Public Health: http://www.idph.state.il.us/swine-flu/index.htm More on Swine Flu | |
Barbara Ficarra: Live in the Moment or Envision the Future? - How to Get Excited For Both | Top |
I have a really good friend who has somehow mastered living in the moment. Ask him about the future and you won't get much of a response. While I enjoy the "moments" of everyday I can't help but move my mind forward to envision the future. Living in the moment has its rewards, but so does thinking about the future. The way in which you can become energized from savoring the moments, you can become exhilarated by thinking about the future. Both living in the moment and picturing your future can rejuvenate you. Imagine the future you want and chase it, don't obsess about it. Living in the moment and thinking about the future will bring you enthusiasm and excitement to your life. Savor the Moments Be grateful for life's treasures. Be thankful for life's little gifts. Pay attention to the present; surround yourself with people and things you love. Build your foundation for happiness. "The Art of Now: Six Steps to Living in the Moment:" We need to live more in the moment. Living in the moment--also called mindfulness--is a state of active, open, intentional attention on the present. When you become mindful, you realize that you are not your thoughts; you become an observer of your thoughts from moment to moment without judging them. Mindfulness involves being with your thoughts as they are, neither grasping at them nor pushing them away. Instead of letting your life go by without living it, you awaken to experience....Mindfulness reduces stress, boosts immune functioning, reduces chronic pain, lowers blood pressure, and helps patients cope with cancer. By alleviating stress, spending a few minutes a day actively focusing on living in the moment reduces the risk of heart disease. You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment - Henry David Thoreau Don't Overthink Ah, so much easier said than done, but it's possible. Don't over stress about things, don't obsess, and don't beat yourself up. Instead, enjoy the moments of everyday. Don't cloud your head with negative thoughts and unnecessary worry. Focus on the moments no matter how simple. It could be something so small as savoring your favorite cup of coffee or tea, noticing the smell of fresh cut grass, adoring the sunset, or chatting with your best friend. Focusing on the present moment also forces you to stop overthinking. "Being present-minded takes away some of that self-evaluation and getting lost in your mind--and in the mind is where we make the evaluations that beat us up," says Stephen Schueller, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania. Instead of getting stuck in your head and worrying, you can let yourself go. Dream of the Future One of my favorite quotes is by Eleanor Roosevelt: The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. There are some people, like my friend, who only live in the moment; and if it works for them, that's wonderful. But, envisioning your dreams and chasing the future can be exhilarating and exciting and it can bring a new dimension of happiness in your life. Focusing on the future in a positive way can get you jazzed and the excitement that you feel can make you happy. Charting Your Course for the Future Set realistic goals for yourself and have the time of your life trying to reach them. Picture yourself achieving those goals. See yourself climbing the mountain to reach those goals and loving every moment of it. Is There a Danger in Chasing the Future? Carl R. Sullivan, MD, Professor, Vice-Chair of the Department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry at West Virginia University School of Medicine and Medical Director of Substance Abuse Programs for West Virginia University Hospitals, thinks so. He cautions people to be realistic and not to plan the outcome. "While chasing dreams and planning for the future is noble and can even be wistful and romantic," says Dr. Sullivan, he sees many people who have suffered profound disappointments, discouragements and even depression. "I think it is ok to make plans and have dreams but we MUST avoid planning how it will all work out. People make plans and plan the outcome. That is the danger," says Dr. Sullivan. How to Live in the Moment and Desire the Future Empower yourself to cherish the moments and chase the future. Your happiness depends on it. The Dos: • Envision the future you want. • Set realistic goals. • Savor the moments. • Surround yourself with people and things you love. The Don'ts • Don't stress yourself out. • Don't struggle with thoughts of the future that are not realistic. • Don't cloud your head with negative thoughts. • Don't get discouraged, if you run in to a road block, learn from it and move on. Whether you are setting personal goals or your career goals; go after them. Keep them realistic and keep them close to your heart and the moments created from trying to achieve them will be spectacular. More on Health | |
Greg Barrett: Alaykum As-Salaam (And Upon You Be Peace) | Top |
Can you imagine President Bush delivering a speech to Muslims and quoting seamlessly from the Bible, the Quran and the Talmud? Any reconciliatory words from a born-again Christian who declared after 9/11, "Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists," could carry no echo from Cairo. "As-Salamu Alaykum," President Obama said Thursday, delivering the Arab greeting (peace be upon you) exactly one minute into a 55-minute speech in the Arab world's largest city. Bush would've tumbled headfirst over those six syllables. But all stuttering and bumbling aside, he could not have pulled off what President Obama did in Cairo. Anything that Obama's speech may have lacked in substance (did critics expect a Middle East peace accord?) was outweighed by the religious openness he eloquently expressed. "I come here to Cairo to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect," he said to a rapt audience at Cairo University. "There must be a sustained effort to listen to each other; to learn from each other; to respect one another; and to seek common ground. As the Holy Koran tells us, 'Be conscious of God and speak always the truth.'" No Texan Methodist who swears by the literal interpretation of John 14:6 ("... The only way to the Father is through the Son.") could offer those words without sounding fake. So I say today, Thank God (He of Judaism, Islam and Christianity; of Abraham) for Obama's mama. From her grave in Honolulu, Stanley Ann Dunham lives on in the enlightenment of the 44th President of the United States. "... [F]or all her professed secularism, my mother was in many ways the most spiritually awakened person that I've ever known," Obama wrote of his mother in The Audacity of Hope . "She had an unswerving instinct for kindness, charity, and love, and spent much of her life acting on that instinct. ... Without the help of religious texts or outside authorities, she worked mightily to instill in me the values that many Americans learn in Sunday school: honesty, empathy, discipline, delayed gratification, and hard work. She raged at poverty and injustice, and scorned those who were indifferent to both." As a schoolboy in Indonesia, the world's largest Islamic nation, Dunham sent Obama to a neighborhood Catholic school and then to a predominantly Muslim school. Her firstborn son would study the catechism at one and learn about the muezzin's call at the other. In The Audacity Of Hope , Obama recalls that his mother might drag him to church on Easter or Christmas, but she also took him to Buddhist temples, Chinese New Year celebrations, Shinto shrines, and to ancient Hawaiian burial sites. She believed that a good education required a working knowledge of all the world's great teachings and religions. Christianity didn't occupy its own mantle. "Her memories of the Christians who populated her youth were not fond ones," Obama writes. "Occasionally, for my benefit, she would recall sanctimonious preachers who would dismiss three quarters of the world's people as ignorant heathens doomed to spend the afterlife in eternal damnation ¾ and who in the next breath would insist that the earth and the heavens had been created in seven days, all geologic and astrophysical evidence to the contrary." Stanley Ann Dunham is why Obama's presidency offers the world an opportunity that goes beyond failed Middle East accords and partisan bantering. She shaped for us a chief executive who shuns moral absolutism for a more inclusive perspective of God, goodness and the axis of evil. It's why an Obama Administration presents Washington with an opportunity to replace the contradiction of compassionate conservatism with the genuine wisdom of ecumenical humility. Obama is a Christian, as he stated early in Thursday speech, but he shares a faith in all humankind. "It is easier to start wars than to end them. It is easier to blame others than to look inward. It is easier to see what is different about someone than to find the things we share," he said, finishing his speech. "There is one rule that lies at the heart of every religion -- that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. This truth transcends nations and peoples - a belief that isn't new; that isn't black or white or brown; that isn't Christian, or Muslim or Jew." Then he tied the world's three most warring faiths together in their own scripture. "The Holy Koran tells us, 'O mankind! We have created you male and a female; and we have made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another.' The Talmud tells us: 'The whole of the Torah is for the purpose of promoting peace.' The Holy Bible tells us, 'Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.'" He exited the Cairo stage to a standing ovation. More on Obama Mideast Trip | |
Sotomayor's Personal Assets Top $1M | Top |
WASHINGTON — Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor says her personal assets top $1 million. Her $1.16 million in assets include her Greenwich Village condo, valued at $997,500; a $20,000 stake in another condominium; and about $109,000 in cars and other personal property. Her financial statement shows she has $31,985 in the bank. Sotomayor released details about her finances as part of a massive portfolio of documents she sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday in response to a questionnaire about her background and writings. It shows her personal assets amount to far less than others who President Obama considered nominating for the high court. Sotomayor has $418,350 in debts, most of it mortgage debt. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below. WASHINGTON (AP) _ Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor says the White House contacted her about serving on the high court four days before Justice David Souter announced that he would retire. If she's confirmed by the Senate, Sotomayor replaces Souter on the high court. The appeals court judge divulged the April 27 call from White House counsel Gregory Craig in a massive portfolio of documents she sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee. The committee had asked that she complete a questionnaire about her finances, background and writings. Souter announced May 1 that he would retire this fall. Sotomayor says no one ever asked her position during the selection process about any issue that could come before the Supreme Court. More on Sonia Sotomayor | |
Michael Markarian: Putting a Stop to Pay-Per-View and Pay-to-Kill Hunting | Top |
People who hunt often speak about their own ethical standards--ensuring, for example, that animals have a sporting chance and a fair opportunity to escape their pursuer. It's not the killing that matters, many say, but the tracking of wildlife in the outdoors, the thrill of the chase, and the matching of wits between predator and prey. Sadly, there are some outliers in the hunting fraternity who lack either the skill or the inclination to follow these self-professed standards. So they take shortcuts--using money, technology, a rigged setting, and whatever means necessary to skew the advantage so that the hunter has guaranteed success and the hunted has the same chance as the proverbial fish in the barrel. That's why public policy reforms are necessary to curb the worst abuses. And it doesn't get much worse than logging onto a web site, paying an Internet fee with your credit card, and shooting a confined animal thousands of miles away. Just click your mouse or hit a few strokes on your keyboard to fire the remote-controlled weapon , all while sitting in your bedroom wearing camouflage pajamas. What if you want to leave the bedroom and gun down the creature yourself, but you just don't have much time to spare between three-martini lunches? Find a drive-thru safari near your house, choose a giraffe or zebra from the menu, and have the animal stocked in a pen for your shooting pleasure. The animals are hand-fed and wouldn't run from people, even if they could get beyond the fence line. Proprietors of these so-called canned hunts are so sure of your success that you won't even have to pay a dime unless you head home with the trophy and bragging rights in tow. A new bipartisan bill in Congress seeks to crack down on these extreme practices: H.R. 2308, the Sportsmanship in Hunting Act , introduced by Reps. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.), and Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), would ban the remote shooting of live animals over the Internet and the trophy shooting of exotic mammals held captive inside fenced enclosures. It's hard to imagine anyone opposing such a common-sense reform, since rank-and-file hunters agree that these practices are abusive and unacceptable, and have nothing to do with hunting. But we can expect to hear the same old tired arguments from some hunting industry lobbying groups on Capitol Hill, like the National Rifle Association, Safari Club International, and U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance, who've never met a type of animal mistreatment they won't defend. These are the same groups that have defended puppy mills , poaching , and the killing of endangered species --and even tried to shoot down HSUS programs to protect pets from the foreclosure crisis . They will try to obfuscate the issue of captive killing, and trot out bromides about the need to leave wildlife management decisions to the states, or this bill being the first step to end all hunting and gun ownership. About half the states have banned or restricted canned hunts , and more than two-thirds of states have banned Internet hunting since a Texas entrepreneur launched the first pay-per-view snuff site in 2005. Far from being a slippery slope, hunting is still alive and well without canned hunts in Montana and Wyoming, and without Internet hunting in Idaho and Nebraska. But while the states are doing their part, a federal response is critically needed to address the interstate trafficking in exotic animals for canned hunts, and hunting over the Internet which is not confined to any state's borders. The goal is to dry up the supply of blackbuck antelope and aoudad sheep being trucked to shooting galleries around the country, and to make sure no state becomes a refuge for the next Internet hunting web site. So the real question is whether shooting an African animal trapped in the corner of a Texas fence is really hunting at all, or is it something else entirely--something quite different that is masquerading as hunting? Outdoor writer and hunter Ted Kerasote answers this way: "Wildlife is not livestock. The problem comes when people are supposedly hunting these animals. That's the problem right there." Kerasote says captive hunts are turning hunting "into this caged, paid affair and it bears no resemblance to what hunting is, was, and could be. Like so many things in our world, people want to buy the product (the trophy) rather than experience the process (meeting the animal on its own terrain)." David Petersen , another lifelong hunter and author, puts it a bit more bluntly: "To be scrupulously fair, not all canned killers are 'perverts'; some are merely profanely vainglorious and staggeringly stupid." Ask your members of Congress to support the Sportsmanship in Hunting Act , which should be a consensus position for hunting advocates and animal advocates alike. More on Animals | |
David Suissa: Dear President Obama | Top |
Now that you have brought your can-do spirit and sense of optimism to that most intractable of conflicts between Israelis and Palestinians, I thought I'd share a few words of caution. First, Mr. President, be prepared to fail and to cut your losses. Be open to the possibility that this conflict is bigger than you are and there is nothing you can do to "solve" it. When I hear you wax eloquently about creating a Palestinian state, I see you holding a flower in your hands. This flower, which represents the Palestinian state you so yearn for, needs to be planted, watered and nourished. For several decades now, whenever anyone wanted to plant that flower, no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't do it. The flower had no roots, and the ground was full of sand. Nobody cared enough to give the flower the key nourishment it needed -- preparing the Palestinian people for peace with their Jewish neighbors. Today, as I see you holding aloft this rootless flower, I see you falling into the same trap. Which brings me to my second point: Don't be so sure everyone wants peace. When you hear Arab and Muslim leaders tell you that "if only you could solve the Palestinian problem," they would have better relations with America, help you fight terrorism, help you confront Iran, etc., be skeptical. They will do anything, including exploit your weaknesses and put you on the defensive, in order to stay in power. For most of those leaders, power comes before peace. The Palestinian conflict is their suckling milk, their Al Jazeera-fueled drama that diverts attention from their own brutal and oppressive ways. Listen to the words of one of the world's foremost experts on the subject, your special adviser on Iran, Dennis Ross: "Of all the policy myths that have kept us from making real progress in the Middle East, one stands out for its impact and longevity: the idea that if only the Palestinian conflict were solved, all other Middle East conflicts would melt away. This is the argument of 'linkage.'" Of course, as you have often reminded us, a peaceful Palestinian state would be in Israel's interest, as it would ensure that the country stays Jewish and democratic. So here's my third point: Don't assume the Palestinians want a state as badly as you do. Consider this fact. The last Israeli administration made unprecedented concessions to the Palestinians, offering 97 percent of the West Bank, the evacuation of tens of thousands of settlers and even offering what was previously unthinkable: accepting the principle of a "right of return" to Israel for Palestinian refugees and offering to resettle thousands of Palestinians in Israel. The offer was rejected by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who said that "the gaps were too wide" and who later added, "No to the Jewishness of the Israeli state." These latest Palestinian "nos" from our "moderate partner" continue a pattern of rejection that started more than 60 years ago, way before the first Jewish settlement was ever built, and traces to a poison you recently noted -- anti-Israel and anti-Jewish incitement. There's a perverse logic at work here. If you constantly demonize Jews in your schools, media and mosques, glorify suicide bombers and teach your children that there was never a Jewish presence in the land where Israeli Jews now live, how can you then turn around and tell them you will now make peace with these evil "foreign invaders"? This Jew-hatred is independent of Jewish settlements, and is the longest-running impediment to a peaceful resolution of the conflict. The fact is, the Palestinians have invested a lot more energy in hating the Jewish state than in trying to create their own. With that as background, Mr. President, perhaps you can understand why many of us don't see how a showdown with Israel over "natural growth" in the settlements will improve the prospects for peace. Israel hasn't built a new settlement in years. How will your relentless pressure on existing settlements help deal with the Hamas charter calling for the destruction of Israel or the ongoing Palestinian refusal to accept a Jewish state? A more even-handed approach would have been to put equal pressure on both sides to begin a "dismantle for dismantle" plan: Israel dismantles the buildup of illegal outposts while the Palestinians dismantle the teaching of Jewish hatred. As it is, your single-minded pressure on Israel has backfired. Instead of encouraging the Palestinians to move forward and offer their own concessions, it has emboldened them and other Arab leaders to set new conditions for restarting peace talks, and given them a perfect excuse to do nothing. "I will wait for Israel to freeze settlements," Abbas told The Washington Post . "Until then, in the West Bank we have a good reality.... The people are living a normal life." Unfortunately, there are others who are not living a normal life, and those are Jews in places like Sderot and Ashkelon, who over the years have been at the mercy of thousands of Palestinian rockets from Gaza that have rained down on their homes, schools and synagogues. Which brings me to my final word of caution: You might not like the status quo, but believe me there's worse, like the West Bank turning into a terrorist state with a thousand rocket-launchers pointed at Israel's major population centers. If you can find a way, Mr. President, to convince a few million Israelis that the Palestinian state you have in mind will be free of the Jew-hatred that is behind all these rockets, you will find plenty of Jews ready to help you water that plant. More on Palestinian Territories | |
Eric Alterman: Think Again: The Surprising Success of the Right-Wing Rant | Top |
Crossposted with the Center for American Progress Eric Alterman, Danielle Ivory For once, Foxnation.com got it right. "Dems Now Get Taste of Being Called 'Racist,'" said a screaming headline, and there's no denying it was true. How else to characterize a story in which ex-Republican presidential candidate Tom Tancredo and radio host Rush Limbaugh compared Sonia Sotomayor's opinions on race to those of the Ku Klux Klan. David Duke found this to be a bit much. After all, he wrote, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, while Hispanic, was actually part and parcel of a Jewish conspiracy. Subsequently, Tancredo was asked if he wished to reconsider his KKK analogy. Alas, he declined. He also mentioned that he wasn't sure if the Obama administration hated white people. Newt Gingrich also termed Sotomayor a "racist,"--a discovery he apparently felt so strongly about he announced it on Twitter it while visiting the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. Not long afterward, however, Gingrich apparently thought twice. In what was widely characterized as an "apology," he averred the word "racist" was perhaps an unfortunate choice, but that Sotomayor's words revealed "a betrayal of a fundamental principle of the American system--that everyone is equal before the law." Forgive us if we are a little slow on the uptake here, but in fact, that's simply another way of calling the nominee racist. To be fair, it also implicates sexism as well. And even if Gingrich could be honestly judged to have dialed back the criticism ever so slightly on this inflammatory accusation, several other conservative minions of truth and taste, Ann Coulter, Glenn Beck, and Tucker Carlson clearly felt no such compunction.... You can read the rest of Eric Alterman and Danielle Ivory's analysis in their recent article, " Think Again: The Surprising Success of the Right-Wing Rant ." Eric Alterman is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and a Distinguished Professor of English at Brooklyn College. He is also a Nation columnist and a professor of journalism at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. His seventh book, Why We're Liberals: A Handbook for Restoring America's Most Important Ideals was recently published in paperback. He occasionally blogs at http://www.thenation.com/blogs/altercation . Danielle Ivory is a reporter and producer for the American News Project. She lives in Washington, D.C. This column was recently named as a finalist in the category of "Best Commentary -- Digital" for the Mirror Awards. More on Sonia Sotomayor | |
WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY Is June 5: All You Need To Know | Top |
World Environment Day , which falls on June 5 every year, was established by the UN General Assembly in 1972 -- shortly after the US instituted Earth Day . While there are many ways of observing World Environment Day , one of the easiest and certainly the newest is Twittering for Trees : United Nations World Environment Day is coming up on June 5th, and in an effort to get things rolling, the organization launched a Twitter contest (that is also a great way to market the earth-focused day) that for each new Twitterer that follows @UNEPandYou before June 5th, a tree will be planted. Hard to say if the US will notice -- we did just have Earth Day, after all, and then there's the weird little issue of the official North American World Environment Day host city -- Omaha, Nebraska. Though it is Nebraska's largest city, it's awfully difficult to get the coast's attention from Omaha, unless you're the Oracle . WHAT CAN YOU DO? Plant a tree . Follow the United Nations Environment Programme on Twitter If you're a teacher, you can try some World Environment Day lesson plans , even for pre-school and kindergarten . Check out the UNEP's 12 dry (like UN dry ) steps to combat climate change But seriously: Reduce, reuse, recycle. | |
Speaker Nancy Pelosi: Twenty Years Later, Still Calling for Freedom in China | Top |
Twenty years ago today, thousands of Chinese students, workers, and citizens marched in peace in Tiananmen Square. They called for democratic reform, freedom of speech and assembly, and an end to corruption. The People's Liberation Army, the People's Army, was used against the people, crushing demonstrators in Tiananmen Square and crushing dissent throughout China--killing thousands. Today, the spirit of Tiananmen lives on in those continuing the struggle both in China and around the world. Last week, I led a bipartisan Congressional delegation to China. While China has made great economic progress in the last twenty years, it is a country that remains full of contradictions and complexities. While its leaders have astonishing political power, they continue to censor the internet, lock up citizens who organize peacefully, and try to prevent 1.3 billion people from learning the truth about history. The topic of human rights was discussed in our high level meetings and in my speeches. In Shanghai, our first meeting was with Catholic Bishop Jin to discuss the status of religious freedom in China. In Beijing, I delivered a letter calling on the Chinese government to release certain prisoners of conscience . One of those individuals is Liu Xiaobo. Liu spent five years in prison and in re-education-through-labor camps for supporting the Tiananmen students and questioning the one-party system. Late last year, Liu was again arrested for being one of the organizers of Charter '08 , an online public petition for democracy and the rule of law that called for new policies to improve human rights and democracy in China. About 5,000 people signed it. Imagine the courage of those who signed such a petition. Liu continues to be held without charges, and is reportedly under residential surveillance at a location outside of his residence, in violation of China's Criminal Procedure law. In Hong Kong, we met with democracy, human rights, and labor leaders. But what I saw in China last week is that despite continued repression, the spirit of Tiananmen continues to inspire people there and abroad. Throughout China, workers and farmers are fighting back. They might not know about June 4th, as the Chinese government continues to censor news on the news ( Wired's Threat Level blog compiled sites authorities have blocked which include Twitter, Flickr, Hotmail, and the Huffington Post, among others), but they have similar concerns. Two of the issues which have been priorities of my service in Congress - promoting human rights and protecting the environment - are coming together in the discussion about China. Environmental damage adversely impacts the poorest people in the world and this is especially true in China. It is estimated that there are more than 100,000 protests each year in China and the number continues to increase. My friend Han Dongfang, one of the heroes of Tiananmen, explained to me that the Chinese people aren't fighting under a banner of democracy this time. They are defending their land from unlawful seizure. They are fighting corruption at the local levels. They are fighting against the poison that is being dumped into their air, land, rivers, and lakes. They do not have the proper channels to address their grievances. They are calling for a government that is accountable to the people. They are calling for openness and transparency. They are calling for justice. All of these things are what we mean when we talk about fighting for human rights. As a Member of Congress in 1991, I visited China and unfurled a banner in Tiananmen Square dedicated to those who died for democracy there. That was one of the proudest moments of my career. It was my opportunity to express the concern that I had for the human rights situation in China and Tibet. As the Speaker of the House I had the opportunity to speak directly to the President of China and other top leaders on the issues of freedom and human rights. On Tuesday, the House passed a resolution recognizing the 20th anniversary of the brutal suppression of protesters and citizens in and around Tiananmen Square --expressing sympathy to the families of those killed, tortured, and imprisoned in connection with the protests, calling for the Chinese government to allow full and fair investigations and to release those imprisoned for participating in the 1989 demonstrations. With this, the United States Congress says to the people of China and freedom-loving people everywhere: Your cause is our cause. We will never forget, and we will continue to push for freedom in China, so that one day the world's most populous country can finally be called the world's largest democracy. More on Tiananmen Square | |
Jarvis Coffin: Content wants to be free. Advertising wants to be accountable. It's a tough time to be a new media child. | Top |
The story in Daily Finance reporting on Jonathan Miller's speculation that one day Hulu may charge for content has ricocheted around the news forums and digests. Boy, I'll tell you, every time media companies take a step or two towards the invisible fence line surrounding the free content playground online the dog collar starts spitting electrodes. Posters to the column on Daily Finance were quick to jump on Miller's comments: "The fact that executives are still trying to figure out a way to charge for content online is mind boggling to me. It doesn't work. Hulu was an ingenious idea. Since people were watching shows online for free anyways, why not create create an online platform and shift power back to the networks." "Another exec with no clue. I love Hulu in its current incarnation, and would certainly abandon it if it wasn't free. What an idiot." Most of the 60+ posts were like that. The first poster (above) linked to a survey on a related topic at EngadgetHD that asked, "How much would you pay for HULU on your TV?" When I took the survey the score was, pay "Nothing", 4,590 (76.6%), to pay "Something" (there were a few options), 1,401 (23.3%). I was among the "nothing" crowd. Michael Kinsley's article eight years ago in Slate, "It's not just the Internet" , is still the best thing that's ever been written on the subject of content economics. It should be required reading for media professionals. The truth is, content for a consumer audience is free, offline and on. If it's not for free, it's for darn near nothing. It's underwater. It's in the red. It costs the producer, not the consumer of the information. So, of course, advertising has foot the bill for content for 30 years, maybe more, and grew weary of it at the start. Despite their carrying costs advertisers got no input into the editorial products, little input into the position of their messages, and only some insight into how much of their investment reached its target - which was maybe half. Advertising has wanted a little money back, too. The Internet, consequently, has grown-up in the midst of a stormy relationship and the impact on its personality has been profound. If ever there was a child that needed a little play time, it has been the Internet. Listen to the shrill voices of it's guardians: Be accountable. Don't skulk. Answer me! Act responsively. You get nothing until the work is done. Why can't you behave like a grown-up? What's it worth to you? What's the matter with you? Why are you crying? Here, try this. Try this. Try this! Michael Kinsley said in his 2001 article, "Information has been free all along. It's the Internet that wants to enslave it." Funny how that statement rings true as it pertains to the other partner in the relationship, the advertiser. Do you hear the echo? It resonates through the whole matter. It's a tough time to be a media child. You really have to wonder about the parents. | |
Harvey Wasserman: A Green-Powered Trip to Eco-Solartopia | Top |
A free-ranging conversation between Ernest "Chick" Callenbach, author of ECOTOPIA, and Harvey Wasserman, author of SOLARTOPIA, about our green-powered future. Filmed by EON See it at http://blip.tv/file/1851341/ and at http://www.youtube.com/v/Fsv_xmnoorA&hl=en&fs=1& Harvey: It's an honor to be with the author of Ecotopia, which inspired me and so many others to become active on environmental issues. It also inspired me to write Solartopia, What I'd like to talk about is getting from Ecotopia, the first vision of an ecological society, to Solartopia, a vision of a totally green-powered Earth. Yours is the first realized vision of an ecological society and thirty years later I've tried to write a companion or follow-up piece with a vision of a solar-powered society. I read Ecotopia in the early seventies and I just re-read it, and what's amazing and shocking and gratifying about it to me, as I'm sure it is to you, is how much of it came true. Ernest: Not enough. Harvey: So what inspired you to write Ecotopia? Ernest: Well, the story actually begins with sewage. I had written a book called Living Poor With Style which was a guide to how you can live better for less, which was the first one of what's now an enormous volume of books about that stuff, and I was looking around for a new project, and I ad been brought up in the country in central Pennsylvania and everything was recycled because there was nobody to haul it away, and I was dimly aware that we were living in a society of about that time about 200 million people and we were just eating away and pooping away and all the waste was just being gotten rid of as we thought at the time. It was being burnt it was being barged out to sea, everything except recycling it as nutrient material back onto the land. And I thought....there's something really crazy going on here, biologically crazy. And so I began to write this article called "The Scandal of Our Sewage" all about how we were making a big mistake, and I started going to the University of California at Berkeley's library on sanitary engineering---believe it or not, Berkeley has such a thing---and I discovered that in our society when you have two paths, and path A is cheaper than path B, you take path A even though path B is biologically sane and path A is not. Now the world is full of things like that, as you well know, and I got very depressed at this, and I began looking around the world. I looked at Cuba, I looked at China, I looked at European counties... nobody was getting their BLEEP together. So at some point a light went on. And I thought 'If there is no country that's doing this utterly fundamental thing right, maybe it's time to invent one. So I sat down and wrote the section on food to sewage to fertilizer to more food, the so-called stable-state recycling system that's really the basic article of faith of the Ecotopians as they develop. And I looked at that and I remember thinking "if anybody's smart enough to get that right, they'd probably do a lot of other stuff differently too, wouldn't they?" And, for example, then I started thinking about land use, and energy, and transportation, and all the other things that finally made up the book. And I think probably, I've been thinking of course about the differences between your approach and mine, and one of them is that Ecotopia is at bottom biological and anthropological. I used to hang around with a lot of anthropologists up here on campus in Berkeley, and I also knew some at the U. of Chicago when I was a student there, so I'm always trying to look at social structures, how do institutions evolve, how do things change socially. And also, because I grew up in the country, and because my father was a professor of agriculture, and I did a lot of gardening and stuff as a kid, I was always very oriented toward the biological side of life. And so those things combined as I tried to imagine this country that did not yet exist but I hoped someday would exist---I began to stir those ingredients into the pot, too, and it was great fun, too. Harvey: Oh, yeah, it's so much fun to read. I suspect writing Solartopia was the same kind of fun. You get to create the kind of world that you want, that you know is possible and must come to be. Were you living in Ecotopia---California---when you wrote it? Ernest: I was living in Berkeley, in a very ordinary sort of way. People expect me to be a back-to-the-lander, but I came from the land and have no impulse to go back to it. In a way Ecotopia is really about our cities, and how our cities can be sustainable if we go about it right. Our agriculture and our forestry and our fisheries need to be made sustainable, but our cities which is where most of us live and which is where most of our impacts are, are really the top priority. Harvey: And you had a great plot, of course. Lots of great sex in there. Ernest: A little sex and violence help sell a novel and get people's attention. Harvey: What from Ecotopia has come true. Ernest: Well, many things have not come true, and lets get some of those out of the way. In everything connected to the automobile we have backslid since the seventies since I wrote Ecotopia. We have more cars, we're driving more, they produce more global warming gases, more pollutant gases, more everything. Harvey: You had a mass transit system in Ecotopia that really worked. Ernest: Ecotopia, like your Solartopia, is very decentralized, so there's not so much moving around with machines o any kind, much more walking, much more bicycling, much more local transit oriented things. We've made a little progress in that and we're making some more and we'll have to make much more, of course as post Peak Oil comes on. And in that respect you can also be hopeful in that the thinking of city planners and to a large extent city officials has really undergone a revolution since Ecotopia came out. It's not due to Ecotopia so much but it's the legacy of Jane Jacobs, Death and Life of Great American Cities, and people who have followed that kind of thinking on what makes cities valuable and above all what makes them efficient, because cities are really a much more efficient way of human beings living that being dispersed throughout the countryside, everybody with a car and a separate homestead and a twenty-mile drive to what they need to do to live, What we need to do is to make our cities more compact and more efficient and to make them produce both energy as you have in Solartopia and for that matter food. Paris was a food exporter into the 19th Century, and if the French can do it, we can do it. Harvey: Yes, all those baguettes going out. When I read Ecotopia I thought this was really a great thing. It inspired me. I was living on a commune. We were farming organically. Then the way we made this connection to Solartopia, is that living on this organic farm, reading Ecotopia and emulating many aspects of it, the local utility came in and tried to build a nuclear plant four miles from our house. We, of course, were thrilled. We coined the phrase "No Nukes" and we actually stopped them. And where they wanted to build the Montague, Massachusetts, nuclear plant is now a nature preserve, right on the Connecticut River. It's a great thing But when I sat down to write Solartopia, I wanted to take the Ecotopian vision and apply it to the whole world in a society that has gone totally to renewables. I was very committed to not having any magical inventions. Which is true in Ecotopia, which is very down-to-Earth. It is not an implausible scenario. Politically the idea of California, Oregon and Washington seceding---well, we did have a Civil War when the slave states tried to secede.... Ernest: Might yet happen though...nation states may be dinosaurs that we have not yet recognized as dinosaurs. It's true that I was trying to be very realistic, very conservative technically. I didn't want anybody to say "Oh, that's cute but it's science fiction." We don't want people to fail to realize that the problems are really political. If you want to call Ecotopia by a category it should probably be political fiction because I made this wild metaphorical assumption that there might be a breakaway of California, Oregon and Washington who in turn would go their own ecological way to save their own ecological skins, and that that would be a kind of beacon for the rest of the world. In Solartopia you've taken a much more daring approach to say that not only this little tiny, specially gifted quarter could do it, but the whole world should do it. Harvey: Right, but of course we do start with Denmark, which is probably more like Ecotopia than any other country on Earth at this point in time. But the Danes had a Green Party which was partly inspired, I understand, by Ecotopia. Ernest: May be... Harvey: They have their own little community, Christiania, which is a green community right there in Copenhagen. But they also pioneered utility-scaled wind farming. So the point of Solartopia is that we successfully, in a technical sense, convert our entire energy supply to renewables and efficiency, which is very do-able. Just as everything in Ecotopia was do-able, and proved to be done in the last thirty years...in Solartopia, we have the wind technology, we have the turbines, we have the solar panels, we know enough about bio-fuels, and ocean thermal, and geothermal, and recycling that we could do it. In Solartopia we have the enemy, which is Kong CONG---Coal, Oil, Nukes and Gas---which I had a lot of fun with, obviously. And once we've defeated King CONG politically...the reality is that once we've wiped the Earth clean of all fossil and nuclear generators, we could install, with available technology, sufficient renewable resources to run the planet without a blink in the lights. And that's part of the point. Ernest: It was kind of refreshing to see that Al Gore gets that. Harvey: He does to a certain extent, but we have some issues with Al Gore. For example, he wants to now build a national grid, which I am very very dubious about, because the electro-magnetic fields and the sheer logistics of that are daunting and problematic. Plus we have a model of decentralized energy, as Ecotopia is decentralized. And we want community-controlled energy, and that would not come with an Al Gore model super-conducting grid. Al Gore has also failed at this point in time to take on the nuclear power industry, which we think is the cutting edge of the bad old technology. The current line about nuclear power is that it's SO twentieth- century. Ernest: You know it's funny when you were talking about originally getting into this through an anti-nuke struggle, the same thing was true in Germany, actually. The beginnings of the Green movement were around Freiburg in southwestern Germany, the so- called banana belt of Germany, where there's a university and very splendidly preserved town that wasn't apparently bombed much during World War Two. The German authorities apparently wanted to build a huge nuke outside of town. And the farmers and the townsfolks and the students all got together and said "No Nukes." And out of that came the Green Party in Germany that I know was influenced by Ecotopia, really sprang into being. Harvey: Well they also in Germany did the first occupation of a site. They didn't just demonstrate. They actually physically grabbed hold of a site in Wyhl, West Germany, and that was the inspiration for our demonstrations at Seabrook, which I was fortunate enough to be involved in. In '75, just as Ecotopia was coming around, we had a conference in Amherst, Massachusetts. It was the Toward Tomorrow Fair. And at that Conference we pretty much crafted a clear vision, that we would have an Ecotopia that would be totally solar powered. We thought photovoltaic cells would come on first. But as it turns out wind is cheaper and easier to do. There were windmills in Persia in the 1400s. There was actually a windmill in Manhattan in 1660, when it was New Amsterdam. Ernest: When the Dutch were there. My ancestors... Harvey: The vision of a totally green-powered Ecotopia, which I put into Solartopia, is about thirty-five years old now. Its birth pretty much dates to that fair and when Ecotopia came out. And now the technological interchange, which is what I lay out in Solartopia, is pretty easy to do in certain senses. Ernest: I notice you include geothermal, which a lot of people don't do, and which I think is very important, among other reasons because we happen to have a bunch of oil companies around the planet which are very good at drilling holes. And since that's what we need to tap geothermal we would be in great shape if we could transform them from fuel producers to geothermal producers. Harvey: Of course, the corporations have managed to find ways to make geothermal a negative. For example, when they wanted to do geothermal in Hawaii, they picked the most sacred piece of land on the Big Island. It's like, give me a break! Another of the great things about Ecotopia is the politics. You GET the politics and it's a very political book. In Solartopia the first draft was just a technical transformation. OK, we take the wind here, we put the PV here, we have the green roofs, we have the geothermal. And we have bio-fuels, which are NOT food-based. We don't use corn or soy for fuel. We have the "incredible inedibles" which are hemp, of course, and switchgrass, and algae, and the other great crops. But the second step, which is essential, as it was in Ecotopia, is breaking the corporations. You can't have corporations structured the way they are still have an Ecotopian-Solartopian reality. Ernest: When the banks started to come unglued and the investment companies and so on, I was thinking of a passage in Ecotopia where the narrator, Weston, meets an Ecotopian militant who says, "Well, we kindof welcomed economic collapse and the flight of capital because we knew that could be turned to advantage," a T'ai Chi move, or something like that. And lo and behold something like that is actually happening in the country. And I notice in Solartopia you say that good things happen and then some bad things too, which is the way reality is, unfortunately. But it looks like we are going to have some really serious moves on the sustainable and renewable energy system. And it looks like | |
John McQuaid: On Newspapers and Paywalls | Top |
It may be a cliche to write in the Huffington Post that newspaper content should remain free, and I may tick off my friends at newspapers by doing so. But even as an ex-inkstained wretch myself, I couldn't avoid the contradictions contained in this week's report by the American Press Institute : its Newspaper Economic Action Plan . The basic idea: newspapers should start charging for their content ASAP. Readers, Google, and aggregators including the HuffPost should all pony up. Why? Because newspapers spend money to bring us their reportage. That coverage is important to society. It doesn't come cheap. The problem with a "we produce something of value and should be paid for it" attitude, though, is that it is just an attitude, one shaped by a sense of grievance and a gut feeling about what is - must be - right and just. This is a terrible way to formulate any kind of complex strategy - George W. Bush made decisions the same way. In this case, the API ignores the real world conditions of journalism, the Internet and e-commerce. Thus this strategy, if pursued, is unlikely to turn out well. I want newspapers and journalism to survive and thrive. And I'm not against charging for some content if it's done right. But even I can see this is crazy. Start with the API's first recommendation: "Establish a true value for news content online by charging for it." This is a strange formulation. In a market, prices are set by supply and demand, not dictated by producers. The declaration has an anachronistic, command-and-control, almost Marxist feel to it: we control the means of production, we will set the prices. It assumes a kind of monopolistic position that newspapers no longer hold, as much as they might want to. If your starting point is the assumption your product has "value," you'd be wise to take a hard look at exactly what that value is on the open market - not try to spontaneously create a closed, captive one. But the API evidently has not conducted that kind of clear-eyed self-assessment. It sees the economic value of newspaper content as self-evident, of a piece with its perceived social value, and something that must be preserved first, improved upon later. But the truth is that newspaper journalism has a relatively low market value and its social relevance is in decline. It's still important - we need eyes on government at all levels, investigations, a space for local and national community discussions to play out. (And yes, the HuffPost certainly needs it.) But the form of the newspaper story is stale, and the package it comes in - the selection of the day's news, calendar, arts, classifieds, etc. - is something many people no longer really need because they can get most of it elsewhere. Meanwhile the relative social importance of newspaper stories - as a forum for political debates, say - has also declined due to ever-fragmenting attention, competition, and a loss of credibility that's partly self-inflicted. The API's answer to this is to double down on existing, loyal newspaper fans: "The real value to newspapers comes from serving ... 'core loyalists,' the group of heavy users who visit a news site about 18 days a month, two to three times a day. They contribute 85 percent of the page views and user sessions." But surely this base is already in decline, unlikely to replaced by younger readers. These problems are severe. The obvious solution to them is to make a better product - leverage the advantages you have, innovate, create something people really want, and thus make yourself important again - and in the process, figure out how to sell it. The marketplace of the open web is the ideal forum to test this out. (I acknowledge that many or most such tests will result in failure.) The API report makes some gestures toward innovation - but only after enumerating ways to monetize content. Its basic approach is, we've already got a golden goose here, people are stealing our eggs, and we want them back. That's the other principal problem - the report urges a crackdown on the cribbing of content by Google, aggregators and others: they should pay or cease and desist. There is plenty of abuse of "fair use," and original content is endlessly atomized. Perhaps there are ways to police the egregious cases better and/or generate revenue from "republishing" if all involved are amenable. But is this really a wise foundation for a future-of-newspapers strategy? Here's how the report envisions the politics: Many citizens and policy makers regard newspapers as an essential part of the American democracy as evidenced by a recent congressional hearing and a spate of conferences. The sustainability of journalism is important to Americans, and thus, there is a public imperative to ensure, and monetize, the survival of professional news organizations in some form. You can read this two ways. Either the newspaper industry has civic obligation to charge for content, or society itself must recognize the importance of newspaper content and compel politicians to protect it. The first idea is tendentious, the second naive. The public isn't particularly sympathetic to tougher copyright enforcement. The lobbying clout of newspaper publishers and media companies is declining with their corporate valuations. Google has lots of money to spend on its own lobbyists. And the current copyright regime is outdated. When it's reformed, who knows what will happen? It's not like the API report contains no good ideas. No doubt there are ways to charge for premium content as it suggests, for example. But your average small or medium-sized paper doesn't have much (or any) of that, nor does the API give any examples of it. And if your strategy is shaped by an inflexible set of beliefs and an attitude of entitlement, it's not a recipe for innovation or success. After reading this, I'm more pessimistic than ever about the future of newspapers. More on Newspapers | |
Rabbi Steve Gutow: America Can Walk and Chew Gum at the Same Time: Why the U.S. Should Form an Accountability Commission | Top |
Hillel, the great sage, said, "That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow." Torture, prohibited by our values, by our Constitution, and by international law -- is an issue that transcends the politics of the moment. Our nation's hopefully aberrational actions implementing torture during the past several years are a stain not only on our reputation in the world, not only on those who were tortured, but even more so on the very dignity of the United States and her people. A large group of us, as individuals and as organizations, working with the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, are asking for a non-partisan commission to look into what actually occurred, how it happened, and under what authority. If we do not ask these difficult and probing questions now, how can we make certain that it never occurs again? President Obama and his administration are, no doubt, deeply aggrieved by the acts of torture that were perpetrated by our country since 9-11. Unfortunately, the president appears unwilling to establish the commission we feel is necessary. That would pass the buck to congressional committees to find the answers. Congressional committees can be effective investigative tools. But they can also be highly partisan. They are often not heard or listened to in the same way that a full-scale non-partisan administration effort would be. Avoiding a commission might keep the political waters calmer. No doubt, the stones that may be uncovered could tear at the fabric of the country -- and jeopardize political success in other important matters like healthcare, the environment, and education more. I empathize with these concerns. But I also trust both the administration and America's political ability to walk and chew gum at the same time -- to address the past and prepare us for the future. If our concern were not about torture but rather about abuse of power or even graft, I could more easily hear those who want to hold off, at least for a time, finding these answers. However, torture is one of those sins that needs a different lens. Like genocide or mass murder, torture must be confronted with great force and right now. How can we tell the world that American acts of torture have ended if we do not look at the full measure of what we did, who did it, why, and how we can prevent it from happening again? Abu Gharib and other sister acts will live until we show that we have addressed the problem. Water boarding, extraordinary rendition, and mass abuses will not end in the minds of Americans or the world until we have a thorough airing of the matter. Right now and until we close this book we create an opening for those who have and do justify the use of torture. This makes it even more essential that we create this commission now. All of our religious tradition place human dignity at the top wrung of the ladder of moral decency in the world. All of the Abrahamic faiths state clearly that human beings were made in the divine image. The rabbis of the Talmud insisted that their decrees could be superseded by matters of human dignity. Surely, the political considerations of the moment, as important as they may be, should give way to discovering the truth about what America's responsibilities regarding torture in the years just ended. George Santayana famously said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." While our nation's public policy must be forward looking, we cannot chart a future course if we do not grasp what we have done. | |
Stefan Aschan: More Bang For Your Food Buck | Top |
Which berry should I pick today? How about this tomato? Or perhaps this pepper? Nah, that cucumber looks much riper. Back home in my little village in Austria, these were the questions we asked when heading back to the garden to pick out something for a meal. Flash-forward to the USA: Summer is around the corner and fresh-grown and hand-picked fruit and vegetables are readily available from your local farmer, so you don't need to head back to your garden. If you have been reading my newsletter, you know that I am a big supporter of fresh, organic, seasonal and local foods. Although Michelle Obama has a huge plot for a vegetable garden , not all of us have the time, place or space to have a vegetable garden. If you are in this situation, I have the simple solution for you: "Community Shared Agriculture." The concept is easy. You buy a share of the seasonal harvest from a participating farm, which delivers it to a pick-up location near you. Go to www.localharvest.org/csa/ , enter your zip code and find a participating farm near you. There is one farm that I recently discovered which delivers to you. Someone figured out how to piggyback produce with the milk deliveryman. So, this farm delivers right to your home. Check it out and please check the areas that this farm serves at www.myfarmshare.com . Now is the time to sign up for the community shared agriculture program. In two weeks, it may be too late as the amount of shares are limited on the farms. But ask to be put on the waiting list for later in the season or next year, or, ask if there are half shares available. You can still get in on the bounty. Warm regards, Stefan Stefan Aschan is a leading expert on lifestyle, health and fitness who has helped more than 30,000 people get fit through advice on nutrition, fitness and lifestyle changes. For your free "How to live 100 years in perfect health" report and the must read "updates and solution" newsletter on how to have 10 times more success, stay on top of your goals, and accomplish the change of body and appearance, go here . More on Michelle Obama | |
Dean Obeidallah: The view of Obama from the Heart of the Arab (Comedy) World | Top |
I watched President Obama's Cairo speech today in a place not usually traveled to by American tourists - Muscat, Oman - a beautiful country (technically a sultanate) which borders Saudi Arabia. I'm here to perform stand up comedy this week and tomorrow is the last of our 3 sold out shows. Saudi got Obama, while Oman got Obeidallah. (I hope I got more laughs in Oman than Obama got in Saudi.) I can report that the people of this region were greatly looking forward to President Obama's speech today and it appears that they viewed it very favorably. Not only did the audience in Cairo cheer Obama, but not one person threw a shoe at him. However, let's be honest, even if someone threw a shoe, I have no doubt that if former President Bush could dodge one (or two), President Obama could have dodged a shoe even more easily - in fact, I think Obama would have dodged the shoe in a graceful slow-motion style like "Neo" from "The Matrix" and he wouldn't have even missed a word from his speech while doing it. What I particularly liked about President Obama's speech was that he clearly wants to end the philosophy of "us versus them" and he seeks to destroy the negative misconceptions that some Americans and Muslims hold against each other. I can tell you as a comedian who has been increasingly performing stand up comedy in the Middle East (in English) over the last two years, the way the Arab world views America is changing. I'm happy to relay that since President Obama has been elected, the crowds I performed for in Cairo, Dubai, Oman and at the Amman Stand up Comedy Festival in Jordan have cheered when I have said Obama's name - I can assure you that President Bush's name elicited a different response from those same crowds. It truly appears that is an excellent time for a popular Barack Obama to be making overtures to the Arab world that will be viewed as sincere and trustworthy. On the American side, I wish that more of my fellow Americans could see a side of the Arab world that they never do - namely seeing Arabs laughing. Yes, I said laughing! While it may be shocking to some, Arabs actually do know how to laugh and they laugh at the very same jokes American audiences do and at the very same places. In fact, the Arab audiences laugh at the same range of topics that American comedy audiences do - everything from relationships, to pop culture to themselves. It's this last topic - Arabs laughing at themselves - which I truly want Americans to see. Arabs have a great sense of humor and have no problems being the butt of the joke. Of course, the goal of my jokes is not to demonize or demean Arabs, but to hold a mirror up to their customs just like I do to American culture when performing in the US. The Arab audiences have have laughed heartily at various aspects of Arab culture - from Arabs being notoriously late, to their obsession with smoking, to Arabs love of haggling over prices. While the shows I perform in the Middle East are mostly attended by Arabs, there are always some Americans in the audience. And conversely, most of my shows in the US are attended by Americans, but there are at times Arabs in the audience as well. It's great to see Arabs and Americans sitting side-by-side laughing together at the very same jokes. It is my hope that Arabs and Americans will share this experience much more frequently during President Obama's administration and for many years to come. More on Barack Obama | |
Daniel Krotz: On Deafness | Top |
I am almost entirely deaf. I read lips well, and most folks don't know that my ears work as flaps but are otherwise pretty useless. I can hear some types of music, but can't hear what's going on on most television programs. I don't mind very much. I've heard just about everything already and I don't think I'll miss hearing it the second or third time around. I was discouraged to hear (ha ha) that Rush Limbaugh is nearly deaf. I don't care that he is deaf, but I do worry that people will think that all deaf people are loudmouths and know-it-alls. I admit to being something of a know-it-all, but I keep it to myself unless someone tricks me into a conversation about bailouts or transubstantiation; then I can be a loudmouth too. Rest assured that, excluding Rush and myself, most deaf people are charming, polite, and civic-minded folk. Why I am deaf is a complicated matter of heredity, forty years of rock and roll and E. Power Biggs, and the departure of tiny little hairs that are supposed to cover my cochlea, which is basically a bone inside my head. My cochlea, in a nutshell, (that is NOT a pun) is bald. There isn't anything I can do about it. My type of hearing loss can't be improved with the purchase of a hearing aid or surgery. Even if it could be improved through those means I doubt that I would pony-up for the chosen solution. When I look at myself I do so with the realization that I am fully depreciated and that much further investment will not be recouped. That may be sad news to the dentists, physicians, audiologists, and optometrists who depend on our ambition to live forever for their livelihoods, but if I took all my ailments in hand I would become The $6,000,000 Man in very short order. I can't convince myself that I'm worth that much. I used to be able to stand on one leg and hop into my socks. Now, I have to sit down on a bench to put them on, otherwise I'll tip over like a Saturday night drunk. On the whole, I miss hopping into my socks more than I miss hearing. I know that is a self-centered view: my deafness is inconvenient to lots of people while no one except me misses my ability to sock hop. One form of inconvenience is the intense stare that deaf lip readers focus on speakers, particularly if what the speaker has to say is interesting or important. It can be intimidating to people to be stared at, and it is often difficult for them to distinguish intensity from hostility. On the other hand, if a lip reader casts a friendly, sort of boozy nod in your direction, then you know that chowder is coming out of your mouth. In either case, beware the active "Listener." The poet-painter David Jones (1895-1974) became very deaf in later life. His loss of hearing coincided with the Catholic Church's adoption of the vernacular mass, a change that he deeply resented. "They've buggered up the Mass," he exclaimed, in a letter to his friend Graham Greene. "I can't hear what they're up to--and I don't want to!" Jones' dissent was partially a defense of orthodoxy, but it also expressed how dependent hard of hearing people become on cues, and on traditional forms of operation and manner. He knew to respond " Et cum spiritu tuo " when " Dominus Vobiscum " was cued up by the officiating priest, but he literally and figuratively couldn't hear "The Lord be with you" in the vernacular mass. He felt left out and it made him really mad. His anger shows up in his later poems and paintings. The point being, of course, that change is difficult and even more difficult for the deaf and hard of hearing. That's probably why I like familiar songs and familiar people and object to adding anything new to my repertory of allotted days. Like David Jones, and most other old guys, I like to hear what I like to hear. Even when I can't. | |
Sotomayor Questionnaire Published By Judiciary Committee: Help Us Look Through | Top |
The Senate Judiciary Committee has just released a questionnaire filled out by Judge Sonia Sotomayor as part of the confirmation process for her appointment to the Supreme Court. In a blog post on the White House's website, Barack Obama's chief counsel, Greg Craig, noted that the Second Circuit Court of Appeals judge had "delivered detailed and substantive answers" in a historically short time frame. "In an effort to advance her nomination through the Senate as swiftly as possible, Judge Sotomayor has completed her questionnaire faster than any Supreme Court nominee in recent history -- in just 9 days. For historical context, it took Chief Justice Roberts 13 days, Justice Ginsburg 15 days and Justice Alito 30 days from the time they were designated to the time they completed their questionnaires." Linked here are the two documents made available by Judge Sotomayor, 173 pages and 130 pages respectively. Help the Huffington Post look through the material and tell us what you find. Send tips and reaction here . Get HuffPost Politics On Facebook and Twitter! More on Supreme Court | |
Max Blumenthal: Exclusive Video: The Real Reaction From Jerusalem To Obama's Cairo Address (NSFW) | Top |
On the eve of President Barack Obama's address to the Muslim world from Cairo, Egypt, I stepped out onto the streets of Jerusalem with my friend Joseph Dana to interview young Israelis and American Jews about their reaction to the speech. We encountered rowdy groups of beer sodden twenty-somethings, many from the United States, and all eager to vent their visceral, even violent hatred of Barack Obama and his policies towards Israel. Usually I offer a brief commentary on my video reports, but this one requires no comment at all. Quite simply, it contains some of the most shocking footage I have ever filmed. Watch it and see if you agree. More on Barack Obama | |
Celebrity Classic Cars Auctioned In Connecticut | Top |
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Clark Gable loved beautiful cars, but his 1938 Packard convertible was apparently too popular with his legions of female fans. The actor was so overwhelmed by women following him whenever he drove the car that he sold it after a few months, according to the auctioneer Bonhams. "I think he eventually bought a sedate sedan that was enclosed that he could hide in," said Rupert Banner, vice president for Bonhams. "It's rather sad." Gable's car is among those with celebrity connections that will be sold Sunday at the annual Greenwich Concours d'Elegance auction. Its estimated value is $175,000 to $225,000. A 1928 Rolls Royce Phantom 1 Ascot Tourer driven by Robert Redford in the 1974 movie of "The Great Gatsby" to symbolize the roaring 1920s is expected to fetch $150,000 to $175,000. A 1939 Cadillac limousine featured in the 2006 Robert Deniro film, "The Good Shepherd," is also for sale. Greer Garson used the car earlier, so the rear compartment was appointed in red silk to match the starlet's favorite color. The auction, expected to generate $5 million to $6 million in sales, will feature more than 80 collector cars spanning 77 years from one of the earliest Fords to a 1980s Aston Martin. President Woodrow Wilson's Rolls Royce Silver Ghost is for sale. "This is going to be one of the biggest sales of the year," said Maria Writesel, a Bonhams spokeswoman. "It encompasses the whole history of the automobile. We're going to get bidders from all over the world." Among the cars with celebrity connections, most were owned by the late Ted Leonard, who owned a car dealership in Seekonk, Mass. "To assemble so many cars with that celebrity connection would be near impossible today," said Banner, who noted that the Internet has broadened bidding. "It would be almost impossible to be the winning bidder on each of these cars today." Leonard's daughter, Cindy, said her father taught Redford how to drive the Rolls Royce, which had a choke and mechanical controls on the steering wheel. "I think he called him a heavy foot or something like that," Leonard recalled her father saying of Redford. "It is very, very difficult to get used to." Leonard said her father loved beautiful and rare cars. "He was always looking out for the best of the best," she said. "It showed his romanticism, his passion for beautiful things and his passion for life." The cars drew plenty of stares, waves and horn beeps. "My kids would always say when they were with Grandpa they felt like celebrities," Leonard said. Leonard said the family decided to sell the cars after her father, who began his collection in the 1960s, died two years ago. About a dozen of his cars are for sale at the auction. Rick Carey, who researched the cars for the auction house, said Gable's car was unique with a long hood and other features designed by Howard "Dutch" Darrin. Gable showed up to see the car being built with his actress wife Carole Lombard, "which completely distracted work in the shop," he said. Darrin said Gable and the black car with a red leather interior were so instantly recognizable that he would get followed, according to Carey. Cars with celebrity connections have a higher value, Carey said. "The fact that it was owned by Clark Gable and driven around Hollywood, that makes it appeal to a much much wider group of people," Carey said. As for The Great Gatsby car, "They've seen Robert Redford driving this car on screen," he said. ___ On the Net: http://bonhams.com/greenwich More on Cars | |
Mozilo, Former Countrywide CEO, Charged With Insider Trading | Top |
CNBC is reporting that Angelo Mozilo, the former CEO of the failed mortgage giant Countrywide Financial, will be charged with insider trading by the Securities Exchange Commission. A press conference will be held later today, but the charges likely stem from Mozilo's alleged shenanigans concerning his sale of Countrywide shares. Check back here for more updates on this story as it breaks. | |
Denise Richards: I Had Three Boob Jobs | Top |
Denise Richards has something to get off her chest: She's had three boob jobs. Asked whether her breasts were real, Richards, 38, told Howard Stern on his SIRIUS radio show Thursday, "Um, natural on outside, on the inside they are not." | |
Adriana Dunn: Ted@State: A Trip To The Nation's Capitol | Top |
Originally posted on TakePart . My flight has just taken off from Washington DC. This whirlwind trip was invigorating yet exhausting--it was my first time to the Capitol, my first TED talk, and my first time blogging from 35,000 feet. Everyone I met with yesterday gave me great ideas for this evolving project we call TakePart , in addition to contributing to the overall sense that the U.S. political system is no longer inaccessible and shrouded in secrecy. It's ours if we want it back. National Journal staff writer Amy Harder, who I first met in college working on our campus newspaper, is feverishly blogging on all-things- Sotomayor . Yosi Sergant , who I first met in LA in 2007 when he was helping to brand the Obama Campaign through making this image so popular, was recently appointed Communications Director of the National Endowment of the Arts . Mark Newberg was recently appointed Senior Disaster Analyst, Executive Office of Disaster Strategic Planning and Operations for the Small Business Administration (yes, this fits on a standard business card). The placement of this kind of talent--so passionate, informed, engaging--is crucial to implementing change across all of the many organizations that make up our government. Not to overshadow the fact that there's a great amount of work to be done or to suggest that change will happen over night. But knowing the right people are being appointed to these positions is a great way to start. And kudos to the many institutions that are now open to new ideas. The prime example of this new attitude was yesterday's TED@State talk (talks, to be precise), the first of its kind hosted by the Department of State's Global Partnership Initiative and TED , a nonprofit dedicated to spreading new ideas. TED Curator Chris Anderson properly described it afterward as a "feast" of ideas, with approximately 800 people in attendance. Here are my notes from the event. Ambassador Elizabeth Bagley , special representative for global partnerships for the Department of State, introduced the event, first noting that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would have loved to be there, but was invited by the President to accompany him to Egypt. Bagley went on to say that the State Department is changing the way they do business, and described this new approach as a "far cry" from eight years ago. You can read the full transcript of her remarks here . Chris Anderson gave a brief overview of TED (mission statement here ), noting that every day, 300,000 people watch TED videos online. (A couple of my all-time favorites: Elizabeth Gilbert on creativity, Dave Eggers on his TED wish, Jeff Skoll on Humanity 2.0, and Blaise Aguera y Arcas on Photosmyth.) Anderson asked us to switch our mindset for the afternoon from that of a skeptical observer to a participant. His brief address left me thinking: Do ideas last forever? Global, social, ubiquitous, cheap. This is how the first speaker, media theorist Clay Shirky , described the current state of the media landscape. During the 20th Century, the media landscape--telephones, the printing press, television, etc.--supported either groups or conversations, but not both. Recent shifts in the landscape, including the introduction of cell phones with cameras, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, etc., have enabled the entrance of a new consumer, one that is a producer as well. A proliferation of citizen reporting via these channels has forced reactions out of governments. He described the events that happened with the Sichuan province earthquake in China, of which the major news outlets first got word of through Twitter. China, he says, is the best censor of the internet in the world ("The Great Firewall of China.") (See our report on how the Chinese government shut down major Web sites in advance of today, which marks the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests.) Global, social, ubiquitous, cheap. Between talks, we were treated to the vocal stylings of ZapMama and a few short videos from Pangea Day. Stewart Brand , the author and editor of the Whole Earth Catalog, asserted that the rise of the West is over. His talk mainly focused on the slums of the world, and how they surprisingly have tremendous potential. One billion people currently live in slums, which he described as "intensely urban" areas that are gradually being gentrified. In Mumbai, for example, one-half of the city is classified as a slum, which overall represents one-sixth of India's GDP. Squatters embark upon informal enterprises, part of a larger informal economy that can either progress toward crime or a formal economy. We can influence which way they progress. Economist Paul Collier spoke on post-conflict recovery and the conventional approach that denies reality. "Post-conflict economic recovery is a slow process," he said. "The true exit strategy is economic prosperity." He outlined a strategy for successful recovery, stressing the importance of focusing on a few critical objectives--job creation, improving basic services and a clean government. Job creation for young men is essential and should be focused in the construction sector. It's not sustainable, he asserted, to inflate civic service. We can scale up basic social services by incorporating NGOs as part of the public government system instead of independent of it, thus fostering a healthy competition between the organizations and ensuring they are held accountable. After a decade of producing jobs, improving security and reconstructing the infrastructure countries can recover post-disaster, a shift which he described as "the politics of plunder to the politics of hope." Jacqueline Novogratz , founder and CEO of Acumen Fund , discussed the notion of patient capital. Investors, she claims, must have tolerance for risk, allow time for entrepreneurs to experiment, and accept low market returns that have high social impact. Currently the drip irrigation model, which originated in Israel and with Acumen funding was applied with great success in India and Pakistan, reaches a quarter-million people. This is not enough, she said. (You can read up on Acumen Fund's investment in drip irrigation for farmers in Pakistan here .) The final speaker was Hans Rosling , who presented beautiful visual representations of data that support his assertion that we must adopt a new mindset of convergence. "We have a world that cannot be looked upon as dividable," he told us. Our current way of framing the world into two parts ("Western" and "Developing") is incorrect, which he supported through visual analysis of statistics such as mortality and income, child survival and GDP per capita. He expressed gratitude to the US government for its transparency with its data online, and hinted that the World Bank also make its numbers available. Wow. Blogging from up here is incredible. I'm going to try and get some shut-eye before we land in LA. Hopefully these ideas will spark some of your own. | |
Two Gay Penguins And A Chick: German Zoo Pair Raising Baby | Top |
BERLIN — A German zoo says a pair of gay male penguins are raising a chick from an egg abandoned by its parents. Bremerhaven zoo veterinarian Joachim Schoene says the egg was placed in the male penguins' nest after its parents rejected it in late April. The males incubated it for some 30 days before it hatched and have continued to care for it. The chick's gender is not yet known. Schoene said the male birds, named Z and Vielpunkt, are one of three same-sex pairs among the zoo's 20 Humboldt penguins that have attempted to mate. Homosexual behavior has been documented in many animal species. The zoo said in a statement on its Web site Thursday that "sex and coupling in our world don't always have something to do with reproduction." More on Animals | |
Anderson Cooper Celebrates 42nd Birthday With Kathy Griffin And Suze Orman (VIDEO) | Top |
Via TVNewser comes this video of Anderson Cooper celebrating his 42nd birthday Wednesday night on air with Kathy Griffin and Suze Orman (both of whom were spotted at the Gracie Awards for women in radio and television earlier in the evening). AC360's Erica Hill invited the surprise guests, whose silhouettes were visible, to speak one line to identify themselves. Griffin, Cooper's controversial co-host from CNN's New Year's Eve special, said, "I have helped build your career to where it is today." Orman said, "The only place high interest really pays off is right here on AC360." Cooper identified both right away. Watch: Watch Cooper celebrate previous birthdays below: Watch Anderson's mom, Gloria Vanderbilt, wish him a happy 40th on air last year here , and send Anderson your birthday wishes in the comments below. More on Anderson Cooper | |
Seth Freed Wessler: GM Bankruptcy Hurts People of Color Hardest. Workers Desperately Need EFCA. | Top |
When General Motors filed for bankruptcy on Monday, it left behind a long trail of grievers-- twenty-one thousand of them. The loss of these good, union jobs and the many more that will be shed when related businesses close are devastating families and communities. For Black workers, who are highly concentrated in the auto industry, these have long been some of the few reliable jobs that pay living wages, supplying families of color the with the possibility of entering the middle class. As we now know, high levels of unionization equate with smaller income gaps between people of color and whites. But in the economy we've inherited from the last three decades of deregulation and declining union density, people of color are increasingly relegated to low-wage, precarious work that pays too little to support a family. Unless Congress acts now to ensure that work actually pays, these workers will have few options and we'll only deepen the racial income and wealth divides. A few months ago, I traveled to Michigan to interview dozens of people for "Race and Recession," a new report released by the Applied Research Center. I met Leo Shipman, a 24-year-old Black man, who had recently lost his job in an auto parts factory in Detroit. "My biggest worry is my son," he said about his 3-year-old. "You don't know how you're going to feed them. He doesn't know the bills are running up, but I do." When I met Shipman, he was on the edge of being evicted from his apartment. With only a high school education--Shipman's been trying to enroll in a technical college--securing a living-wage job proves elusive if not impossible. Because he had been underemployed, Shipman had no unemployment check coming in. It's growing more likely that his only option will be to work a job that makes feeding his son a daily struggle. As one of the last strongholds of union jobs shrinks, and people like Shipman are cast out, it's time to confront some tough truths about work in our country. Black workers like Shipman have been hit especially hard by layoffs and closures because their concentration in the auto industry is higher than their overall share of the state's labor market. In fact, across the labor market, workers of color are overrepresented in occupations with high unemployment rates. These include jobs in the service sector, as well as construction and transportation occupations. The loss of these auto industry jobs strikes a massive blow to the ability of workers, especially Black workers, to earn middle-class incomes, to save enough to pass on to their children and to achieve some financial stability. Indeed, the UAW was one of the first unions to organize Black workers and the implosion of GM further dismantles one of the mainstays of the Black middle class. The collateral damage of job loss are taking their toll. Sandra Hines, a 55 year old Detroit Native who I wrote about last week, lost the home her family owned for 40 years after her sister was laid off from GM and was forced refinance. The family was sold a predatory loan with an adjustable rate and was evicted after payments skyrocketed. As more people lose their jobs, more families will find themselves unable to pay their mortgages and more wealth will be drained. It is now clear that the perils of this situation go beyond these communities. Indeed, as we find in "Race and Recession," the racially discriminatory predatory lending and foreclosure crisis was a central factor in pushing the economy into this recession. As a country, we're reckoning with the fall-out from decades of putting profit above people. As precious union jobs disappear, the time has come to ensure that those who are unemployed--disproportionately people of color--are able to enter employment that actually pays. Congress should immediately pass the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) so that workers can demand fair pay without intimidation. Since GM now has a major ownership stake in the company, the workers who remain there will be taken care of, but the 21,000 workers who are getting pushed out will be less likely to find jobs with sufficient salaries and benefits, especially as the federal minimum wage increase to $7.25 next month still does not approximate a living wage. Ultimately, as we recover from this recession, we need to make sure that the jobs we create and the economy we build help those who have been most hurt by the recession, which have disproportionately been families of color. Ensuring that good, sustainable jobs go to communities of color across the country is an essential part of building an inclusive and working economy. Check out arc.org/recession to learn about how racial inequity rigged the economy and how to change the rules. | |
Chris Willman: One Last, Strange Night With David Carradine | Top |
When you encounter a talented celebrity who is advancing a bit in years and is clearly Not Quite In His Right Mind, there is always that hope that the star's eccentricities bely the kind of lovable dottiness and refusal to give a whit that can come with age... as opposed to, you know, actual manic depression. Such was my hope when I bore witness to what was probably David Carradine's last public appearance, in late March. He was participating in a panel after an American Cinematheque screening of his 1976 film Bound for Glory , the sort of film-buff affair that usually promises a modest amount of inside-baseball Hollywood illumination but nothing in the way of actual fireworks. Instead, this dry-sounding discussion turned into a riveting hour of riveting near-chaos, with fellow panelists or audience members seething or screaming at Carradine and the actor yelling back. (I gave a full account of the bizarre proceedings in a Huffington Post blog at the time, which you can read here .) Carradine wasn't the only person in the theater who was acting just a little kooky as things got out of hand that night, but he was the trigger for the craziness, and his behavior left the stunned crowd wondering whether the guy they remembered and loved from Kung Fu was an endearing maverick or a sad nutter. Now that we've learned of his apparent suicide, would it be all right to think of him as a little bit of both those things? I'm the last one who wants to put a smiley face on mental illness, especially the terminal kind. But I kind of fell in love with David Carradine that night in Santa Monica, as aghast as I was at some of the things that came out of his mouth. His unbridled candor was probably the result of either not taking enough medication or being too self-medicated--those of us standing around on the sidewalk outside afterward couldn't agree on which was more likely. But, without fully embracing the stereotype of Crazy Guy as Truth Teller (see Revolutionary Road for the latest fictional example), there's something to be said for those unexpectedly air-clearing moments when you're shaken out of a torpor by someone whose self-censorship mode is, for whatever reason, malfunctioning. And something to be said just for "Hollywood characters," of which Carradine was very decidedly one. I won't go into a full recount of what strangeness transpired at the American Cinematheque, since you can read it elsewhere on this site . But the outline of how things unraveled, comically and anxiously, is still burned into my mind. Bound for Glory , as a Woody Guthrie biopic, is naturally a pro-union screed, among other things, so everyone expected Carradine to behave as a proper liberal. Instead, he started talking about how different things are than they were in the '30s, proposing that, in this near-depression, unions needed to cede some of their power and make concessions so that companies could stay alive. An enraged woman in the audience began shouting him down, at length. He shouted back at her--and his points were lucid ones, and yet he seemed to lack the self-awareness to know that yelling into a microphone made him appear to be a bully. Some of the crowd began to turn on him. Fellow cast member Ronny Cox muttered "That doesn't sound like Woody Guthrie to me!" and walked out on Carradine. Perhaps finally sensing that he wasn't coming off well, Carradine stood up for his audience antagonist's right to argue, and tossed his microphone in her direction, so that she could use it. It struck someone in the front row in the head. This wasn't going to be his night. Things had barely calmed down when Carradine seemed to want to pick a fight with the remaining panelist, cinematographer Haskell Wexler, a firebrand in his own right. The actor said repeatedly, with a smile on his face, that Wexler "got an Academy Award for ruining my movie." Rather than capture the grit of the Depression, Carradine said, Wexler had come up with a soft look for the film that made everything look "like it was shot through a glass of milk." It's actually a legitimate criticism some people have made of the film over time--that it's too pretty, too gauzy--but it seemed either refreshingly candid or a little bit evil for Carradine to be making it in front of Wexler. And then he said that director Hal Ashby had tried and failed to fire the cinematographer. Naturally, the legendary director of photography snapped--confirming that he'd been momentarily fired, but saying that he got "unfired" when he made a fuss over how much cocaine everyone on the set was doing. Carradine denied joining in the coke use supposedly rampant in the production, but defended Ashby: "Hal was a fucking genius. I don't like anybody to put him down and say the drugs got in the way... They got in the way of him living longer, but they did not get in the way of his movies." He then spoke up for directors who've been able to do good work while being "cocaine freaks"--lumping Quentin Tarantino in with Ashby. You could hear a couple of hundred jaws scrape the theater floor at that moment. Thinking back now on Carradine talking about what got in the way of Ashby living longer, you've got to wonder what kind of demons got in the way of Carradine living longer. His was not an easy mindset to get into, either that night or during some other quirky exchanges he was known for over the years. Did he relish being the kook who speaks truth to power and/or bullshit artist? Was he even capable of the self-awareness to sense that half the audience for the panel discussion loved him, and half thought he was out of his gourd (not counting the dozens of walkouts)? In the days to come, I expect those who knew him well will be able to speak to his depression, and whether, as I assume, we were seeing a manic episode of it that night in March. But my most memorable takeaway moment from his last public appearance, at least emotionally, is how, when the fracas had reached its tensest moment and there was suddenly a dreadfully awkward silence, he decided to smooth things out by picking up the guitar he'd brought along for an unscheduled musical interlude. He encouraged everyone to join in with him on Guthrie's "Bound for Glory," in what he clearly hoped would be a "Kumbaya" moment. But nobody did, that I could tell--the mood in the room was just too tense to be that easily broken for a campfire interlude--and Carradine was up there wailing away by himself. It was a funny and brave and poignant moment, and I found myself feeling an honest affection for this utterly charismatic and strangely transparent guy... notwithstanding the disorder he'd passive-aggressively instigated and was now trying to clean up. I can't imagine what was going through Carradine's mind in his last moments, if indeed he did take his own life. But I hope it wasn't the feeling that he'd created a mess in his life and no one was singing along. | |
Mohammad Sohail: Benevolent New York Merchant Cited In Drug Sweep | Top |
SHIRLEY, N.Y. — A New York convenience store owner who made headlines after showing mercy on a would-be robber has been accused of selling drug paraphernalia. Shirley Express owner Mohammad Sohail's (so-HAYL) store on Long Island was one of seven businesses cited Tuesday. He's accused of violating state business laws. Prosecutors say undercover officers bought bongs and pipe screens at the store three times in recent weeks. Sohail said Thursday he did not know the items were not permitted to be sold. It's not a criminal charge and is punishable by a fine of up to $30,000. The merchant got attention this week when it was revealed that he gave an intended robber $40 and a loaf of bread if the man agreed never to steal again. More on Crime | |
Stacey Radin: On the Career Couch: Career Calamity Recovery | Top |
There is no doubt that termination is one of the most stressful events in life. It is an event that creates a profound sense of loss that extends well beyond financial stability and security. Accompanying job loss, there is loss of self esteem, the absence of a community of colleagues, diminished sense of purpose and meaning, and a void that is left to fill. Normal responses to job loss include anger, despair, blame of self and others, denial and disbelief. Some may also feel a sense of relief because the anticipation of job loss was no longer there or because they hated their jobs. Whatever the initial reactions, people who have been terminated vacillate from one reaction to another. Ultimately, "What now?" is the question that lingers. Unfortunately, answers may not be as immediate as desired. But, there are actions that can be taken that leads to formulating answers to that looming question. The loss of a job can be a transformative period in your life that forces you to reflect - provides the time to take stock, reevaluate options, current lifestyle and goals. Psychologists have coined the term "resiliency" to describe the ability to bounce back from difficult times. People who are resilient cope well with high levels of disruptive change, sustain health and energy when under pressure, overcome adversities, and adapt to new environments and "rules" after the initial setback. Most people have the capacity to be resilient. There may be people who tend to be more optimistic or adapt easier than others, but resiliency is not reserved for the select few. The difference lies in those who exercise their resiliency versus those who do not. The secrets to building resiliency: Detach from being the "victim" of circumstances Look internally to resolve problems or make change versus relying on others to formulate solutions for you. For decades our society has socialized us to acquiesce to authority. We are told do not ask questions, cooperate, conform to those in charge and follow directions to advance your career. This sets us up to look to others, particularly those in authority, when things are disrupted. But ultimately, you are in charge of ensuring your life and career goals and objectives are achieved. Optimism, humor and positive experiences can serve as a springboard to success Understand that adversity is cyclical-it is not constant. Trust that things can improve and focus on strengths and resources available to you. Pessimism is like an uncontrollable fire, spreading quickly and trapping its victims. Reflection and optimism enables you to think and process information versus becoming reactive. Accept and adjust to the new reality Preventing the crisis is not in your control but you do control how to manage it. Avoidance does not make adversity disappear. Accepting the reality and committing to finding a resolution is a powerful approach to overcome hurdles. Use your emotions constructively When you are experiencing anger or anxiety channel these feelings. Both feelings typically are accompanied by a surge of energy. This energy can be used productively to create change. In times such as these, there may be a tendency to panic or others let fear take over. Managing fear and remaining calm will allow for increased innovation and creativity. Look for learning opportunities People learn a lot about themselves when faced with adversity. Pay attention to accomplishments you have demonstrated during difficult times and continually use these competencies. Some times people surprise themselves with the inner strength they actually have and the capacity to overcome struggles. Maintain a long term perspective When you are experiencing stress and duress it becomes magnified by immediacy. Put this stressful event into the context of your entire life versus in the moment. Trust your instincts Often people ignore their instincts and are affected by others' responses to turmoil. Try to maintain objectivity and not get caught up in the emotional rollercoaster or panic of others who are unemployed. Similarly, select a few trusted advisors who can be helpful versus harmful. Friends and family may be too close to the situation to provide constructive criticism. Commit to change Difficult situations such as a job loss provide an opportunity to do something differently, experiment with the untried and unproven. Experiment with new strategies, new ideas and choices that may have once sounded unrealistic. Times such as these require one to be bold. Shift the mindset from being unemployed to being employed-your job is now to find a new job Create your job description and role and responsibilities. Identify a strategic plan and execute. This plan should include your approach, sales and marketing techniques of the product-you, research, and implementation of the strategy. Hold yourself accountable to your plan. This is a 9 to 5 position at the very least. Building resiliency is similar to strengthening a muscle Initially, it seems unachievable but with repetition your perspective morphs. This continuously changing perspective can enable you to see the light at the end of the tunnel and impact your stamina to find a job. The choice is learned optimism and resilience versus learned helplessness. The choice is up to you. More on Layoffs | |
Michael Sigman: The Laughter of Wisdom | Top |
The wit makes fun of other persons; the satirist makes fun of the world; the humorist makes fun of himself. --James Thurber My mom insists her autobiography will be titled I Laugh Alone, but she has always cracked me up. When I was little, a stranger showed up at our door with her daughter in tow, asking if they could come in and watch my dad write a song. Mom's deadpan reply: "He does most of his writing on the john." I laughed till it hurt while the stranger retreated, unamused. Laughing alone can be painful. I once had a date with a smart saleswoman named Diane. When we got to talking favorite movies -- a dangerous topic -- it was all I could do not to burst out laughing before getting out the words Spinal Tap . Diane put the kibosh on our future with a frosty stare and an icy "Not funny." Sometimes tickling ourselves can get a bit macabre. Barry, a college classmate, sat down next to me in the dining hall early in our freshman year and, while slathering his mystery meat with ketchup, revealed that he sometimes applied the Heinz to his body and then lay out in the middle of the road. In the event, I doubt anyone saw the humor, but Barry's tale set the stage for a lifelong friendship. Of course, laughter is also serious business. Anthony J. Chapman and Hugh C. Foot's weighty tome Human Laughter: Theory, Research and Applications defines it as "the inarticulate vocal sounds of a reiterated ha-ha variety." Now that's funny. Mating Intelligence -- a 2007 compendium of academic papers on why humans choose their partners -- devotes a chapter to "The Role of Creativity and Humor in Mate Selection." The essay -- which took no less than four masters of the obvious to write -- cites a mountain of research leading to one portentous conclusion: "a good sense of humor is an important human mate preference worldwide." (This level of rigor brings to mind the recent Oxford study which required an expenditure of 300,000 pounds to make the case that ducks like water.) (Another chapter of Mating Intelligence -- "Deception and Self-deception as Strategies in Short and Long-Term Mating" -- was written by Maureen O'Sullivan. Could she be a descendant of the namesake who advanced our understanding of mating intelligence as an evolutionary force by playing Jane to Johnny Weissmuller's Tarzan?) Evolutionary humor cuts both ways. Former neuroscientist Wendy Northcutt has built a cottage industry -- via New York Times best-selling books and the thriving website www.DarwinAwards.com -- around the notion of honoring those who "improve our gene pool by removing themselves from it in a sublimely idiotic fashion." Case in point: the owner of an equipment training school who demonstrates the dangers of driving a forklift by failing to survive the filming of his own safety video. Spontaneous laughter can be a universal tonic. I've been privileged to spend time with the autistic son of a friend. Watching him shift in a nanosecond -- and with no apparent stimulation -- from utter silence to spontaneous glee has been contagious and inspiring. Images of the laughing Buddha are a staple of Zen art; this might be explained -- or non-explained -- by these words of Tibetan meditation master Long Chen Pa: "Since everything is but an apparition, perfect in being what it is, having nothing to do with good or bad, acceptance or rejection, one may well burst out in laughter." Could it be that my autistic friend and the Buddhists are marveling at the same crazy, cosmic wondrousness? In the end, we're in serious trouble unless we can -- literally -- make fun of ourselves. I've been lucky my parents shared that trait -- and had the mating intelligence to find each other. When my dad emerged from double-bypass surgery shortly before he died in 2000, he was so out of it I doubt he knew I -- or anyone -- was around. That didn't seem to bother him, though. Perhaps contemplating an X-ray, he seemed satisfied to amuse himself by quipping, "Aorta be in pictures." | |
Jeff Sessions Annoyed By Crying Child At Hearing | Top |
Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committe held the first-ever hearing on the Uniting American Families Act, which would equalize the status of foreign-born same-sex partners of American citizens. Heterosexual Americans can earn citizenship for their foreign partners by marrying them. Gays, obviously, cannot do that, effectively making a gay American and his or her foreign spouse legal strangers. [...] For most people, the sight of a 12-year-old boy in tears at the prospect of his mother being deported halfway around the world would invoke some sympathy. Unmoved, however, was Alabama Republican Jeff Sessions, ranking minority member of the Committee and the only Republican to bother to attend the hearing. At the sight of the weeping boy, according to a Senate staffer who was at the hearing, Sessions leaned towards one of his aides and sighed, "Enough with the histrionics." Sessions's press secretary did not return a call seeking comment. More on Gay Marriage | |
Robert Naiman: What President Obama Promised in Cairo | Top |
U.S. policy in the broader Middle East over the next four years will be judged in the region according to whether the pledges that President Obama made in Cairo today are kept. So it's important for Americans to know what those pledges were. Because when right-wing voices in America try to undermine those pledges, they'll be undermining U.S. national security by trying to force President Obama to break faith with the Arabs and Muslims of the world to whom he made those pledges today. The text and video are here . I encourage Americans to watch the speech in addition to reading the text, because in watching the speech, you also get the reaction of the audience - in particular, the vigorous applause - which has the effect of underscoring the pledges that President Obama made. In what follows, I will highlight some of the President's statements on the Palestinians, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and democracy, and what the President said about extremist violence. The President said: "I have unequivocally prohibited the use of torture by the United States, and I have ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed by early next year." This was wildly popular. Right-wing voices undermine this pledge at our peril. On the Palestinians, the President said: "So let there be no doubt: the situation for the Palestinian people is intolerable. America will not turn our backs on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity, and a state of their own." [...] "Israelis must acknowledge that just as Israel's right to exist cannot be denied, neither can Palestine's. The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements. This construction violates previous agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace. It is time for these settlements to stop." The whole Arab and Muslim world will be watching to see how President Obama backs up these words if the Israeli government continues to expand settlements in the West Bank and reject a two-state solution. Will the Administration stop protecting Israel's actions with the US veto at the Security Council? Will it support efforts to tie a portion of U.S. aid - such as the planned increase in military aid - to real observance of the settlement freeze? On Iran, the President acknowledged the U.S. role in the overthrow of democracy in Iran in 1953. Then he said: "I understand those who protest that some countries have weapons that others do not. No single nation should pick and choose which nations hold nuclear weapons. That is why I strongly reaffirmed America's commitment to seek a world in which no nations hold nuclear weapons. And any nation - including Iran - should have the right to access peaceful nuclear power if it complies with its responsibilities under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. That commitment is at the core of the Treaty, and it must be kept for all who fully abide by it. And I am hopeful that all countries in the region can share in this goal." If the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is the framework for U.S. diplomacy, there is no logical reason why the United States and Iran cannot come to agreement on Iran's nuclear program. If the United States accepts Iran's right to enrich uranium, it's quite plausible that Iran will accept a permanent international inspection regime that will protect against diversion of nuclear material to a military program and against proliferation, as Fareed Zakaria argues in Newsweek . On Iraq, the President said: "I have made it clear to the Iraqi people that we pursue no bases, and no claim on their territory or resources. Iraq's sovereignty is its own. That is why I ordered the removal of our combat brigades by next August. That is why we will honor our agreement with Iraq's democratically-elected government to remove combat troops from Iraqi cities by July, and to remove all our troops from Iraq by 2012." President Obama has pledged in Cairo that the Bush Administration's project of establishing Iraq as a permanent military garrison has been formally abandoned by the United States. Let there be no move to revive it. On "promoting democracy," the President said: "America does not presume to know what is best for everyone, just as we would not presume to pick the outcome of a peaceful election." This policy will be tested in the coming days. Lebanon is having parliamentary elections on June 7, which Hizbullah's coalition could win. Iran has presidential elections on June 12. On the basis of the policy that President Obama pledged in Cairo, we can work with any government that emerges from these elections. On Afghanistan, the President said: "Make no mistake: we do not want to keep our troops in Afghanistan. We seek no military bases there." President Obama told 60 Minutes that the US must have an "exit strategy" in Afghanistan. But when Representative McGovern tried to attach language to the supplemental requiring that the Pentagon submit an exit strategy to Congress, he was blocked by the House leadership, presumably acting on Administration instructions. If the Administration wants people to believe that the US has no goal for a long-term military presence in Afghanistan, it should start by explaining its exit strategy to Congress. I was struck by the fact that the crowd vigorously applauded when Obama quoted the Koran thus: The Holy Koran teaches that whoever kills an innocent, it is as if he has killed all mankind; and whoever saves a person, it is as if he has saved all mankind. What made the vigorous response striking was the context: Obama was talking about "violent extremists." At least in theory, US policy is focused on separating these violent extremists from the broad population who support many of the goals articulated by "violent extremists" while rejecting their means. But of course these noble sentiments also apply to the United States, which has killed innocents in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. This week General McChrystal promised the Senate " extreme measures " to avoid civilian casualties in Afghanistan. If the United States continues to kill innocents in Afghanistan - and according to a New York Times report yesterday, even the existing policies to prevent civilian deaths aren't being followed - the Muslim world can point accusingly to President Obama's quote: Whoever kills an innocent, it is as if he has killed all mankind. More on Barack Obama | |
Hafiz Saeed A 'Humanitarian': Pakistan UN Ambassador | Top |
I just sat down with the Pakistani Ambassador the United Nations, Abdullah Hussain Haroon. I asked Amb. Haroon to respond to Obama's Cairo speech and to the news that Hafiz Saeed, the leader of a terrorist group affiliated with al Qaeda, was released from house arrest in Pakistan today. More on Pakistan | |
David Roberts: Celebrating the Blessings of a Coal-Based Economy: Who Needs Teeth When You've Got Cheap Power? | Top |
grist.org West Virginia gets more of its electricity from coal than any other state. To celebrate that fact, yesterday WV Gov. Joe Manchin (D) declared coal the official state rock . Yes, really. Coal is now the state rock of West Virginia. But why should Manchin stop there? Having a coal-based economy has given his state so many other reasons to celebrate! For instance, West Virginia has the lowest median household income in the U.S., and offers the least low-income weatherization assistance of any state, so perhaps Manchin could declare Sweltering in a Shack the official state pastime. WV has the most casual and heavy drinkers, so it only makes sense to declare bourbon the official state beverage. Manchin’s state comes in dead last in educational services and social assistance , but leads in citizens with disabilities , which suggests an official state motto: You’re On Your Own. And with the lowest number of college graduates of any state, and among the lowest adult literacy rates , WV definitely needs a short motto. The state is winning the race in tooth loss and obesity , so it’s a no-brainer for Manchin to declare milkshakes the official state dessert. WV has the lowest number of foreign-born citizens of any state, and the fewest non-whites , so ‘Murcan English is a gimmee as the official state language. You might think all this coal-economy goodness would drive West Virginians a little crazy, but with the lowest expenditures in any state on mental health services , let’s hope not! Yes, the coal economy has been very good to West Virginia. Yay for coal! More on Poverty | |
George Mitrovich: Who Should We Blame For California's Failure? | Top |
Do not let the sun go down on your anger . Ephesians 4:26 I do my best to follow the biblical injunctions of the Christian New Testament, but when it comes to the state of California and letting the sun go down on my anger, I am, in this and other regards, a failed disciple. How could any rational, thoughtful, informed person be anything other than angry at the condition of California government? How could it come to this? How could the most populous and wealthiest state in the union by every standard of comparison, from natural beauty to intellectual property, be reduced to such pathetic circumstances? (If we were a nation we would be the seventh wealthiest in the world.) How, in the name of whatever deity you invoke, or none, how could this happen? Let me in the order of culpability count the ways: 1) Citizens 2) Arnold Schwarzenegger 3) State Legislature 4) Business 5) Unions When Governor Gray Davis was recalled and Schwarzenegger was elected as his successor there was palpable relief that the dismal days of Davis were over and hope that the Golden State would enter a new age. Having once before entrusted the governance of California to an actor without great consequences (some people reasoned), why not try again? Schwarzenegger was overwhelmingly elected for one reason, and one alone: he was a movie star. His personal story, a uniquely American story (Austrian born or not), was compelling narrative. And we, the citizens, being the saps we are fell for it. We actually thought an actor known as the "Terminator" could terminate our problems. What idiocy! In the beginning of Schwarzenegger's reign there was great excitement because he, unlike Ronald Reagan, was at the top of the movie fame game (when Reagan was elected he was known primarily as the TV host of "Death Valley Days"). Schwarzenegger was the center of adulation; everyone, whether state legislator or fawning Rotarian, seemingly wanted his or her picture taken with Arnold. Not least in the adulatory line was the media, many of whom promptly forgot Peter Finely Dunne's admonition on the calling of their profession, "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." Looking back I find it amazing how many otherwise truly smart people, including not a few Democrats, signed on to the Schwarzenegger "mystique." Duped by his fame into thinking he could set straight the Golden State. In a 43-year run I've gotten a few things right about politics, but I was ingloriously wrong about Schwarzenegger. Before his election I told inquiring friends in other places he stood no chance. I was in error about that but right in believing he would fail as governor - and fail he has! But, out of a sense of Christian charity and fidelity to truth telling, it would be wrong to blame Arnold and only Arnold for what's happened. This is a collective failure, and next in line for justifiable blame, after you and me and Arnold, is the State Legislature. Before the people of this state voted in term limits, another act of monumental stupidity, California actually had extraordinarily able legislative leaders -- Jesse Unruh, Bob Monagan, Leo McCarthy, and Willie Brown in the assembly (and Jim Mills in the state senate). From 1961 to 1995, a 34-year stretch, the state assembly had four speakers. In the past 14 years we've had six, not one of whom I would count as memorable. (Karen Bass, the current "speaker" attempted to raise Assembly staff salaries while the state's budget was being slashed. I mean, seriously, by what means of conjectural logic did she think that would slide by unnoticed?) The only thing term limits gets you is bad government. You end up, as end up we have, with neither continuity of governance nor institutional memory. In the absence of strong legislative leadership, which term limits deny, you get government by permanent bureaucrats and lobbyists. As long as we permit term limits, do not think change will come to Sacramento. It won't - and we will continue to unravel. But, since I'm a liberal Kennedy Democrat, you may not trust what I say about the evils of term limits. So maybe you will accept the wisdom of one of conservatism's patron saints, George Will, who wisely said, "We have term limits. It's called the ballot box." That's right, the ballot box! What is there about that you don't understand? Next, in the descending order of culpability, is the business "community." There are remarkable business leaders in this state. Men and women of vision and competence, from Silicon Valley to San Diego - individuals who have created wealth and jobs, while demonstrating extraordinary philanthropy, but many of whom have evidence a marked distaste, if not a deep disdain, for government itself. Yes, they have legitimately sought to protect their interests by bankrolling candidates and hiring lobbyists, but they have done so out of a protective mindset rather than a deep commitment to good governance. It is this scorn for the process of governance that damns the business community. They have this seemingly fatal idea, that what works in business works in government. No, they are vastly different animals (as eBay founder and gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman may or may not discover). That notwithstanding, men and women of accomplishment in the business world have an obligation to involve themselves in helping California find a way out of our chaotic and perilous state. Business must embrace what it otherwise seeks to avoid - the lending of expertise and involvement in the affairs of state. Lastly, in the blame game, are the unions. Oh, how some people love attacking unions, including Blue Dog Democrats (I will here spare them public indignity by the citation of their names). It's shameful, really, the idea it's acceptable to lay California's collective ills at the door of union shops. Puleeeeeeez! For every union offense against the welfare of society there have been multitudes by business; for every rapacious act by union officials against the general welfare there have been acts beyond number by many in the business community. But unions are not blameless. They have in many instances overreached. It is immoral to be paid more in retirement than while working, and if this state cannot adjust the giveaways and stop early retirement, California's fiscal future is doomed. The law may not permit the state's bankruptcy, but it will in every other way be bankrupt! Well, that's the indictment. How do we fix our sorry state? There are four critical steps that must be taken: 1) The repeal of Proposition 13. 2) The repeal of term limits. 3) The repeal of the two/thirds vote requirement. 4) The repeal of the initiative system. Do I actually believe such sweeping changes can be accomplished? I do, but only when politicians, business and union leaders, start telling the truth about the dire circumstances of our state (it is infinitely worse than they admit). For it will take truth telling to awaken that element within our somnolent population, those who desperately need to be told they can no longer avoid the consequences of what's happening around them - for they are about to enter a world of hurt. If that is done, if truth telling becomes the moral dedication of our leaders, and We The People begin to take seriously our sacred franchise as voters, and proceed to act, not in the expediency of the moment, but in the long term interest of California, then, and only then, can we rightfully reclaim our standing as the greatest American state. | |
Nick Turse: Econocide | Top |
Crossposted with TomDispatch.com Body Count 3 After David B. Kellermann, the chief financial officer of beleaguered mortgage giant Freddie Mac, tied a noose and hanged himself in the basement of his Vienna, Virginia, home, the New York Times made it a front-page story. The stresses of the job in economic tough times, its reporters implied, had driven him to this extreme act. "Binghamton Shooter" Jiverly Wong also garnered front-page headlines nationwide and set off a cable news frenzy when, "bitter over job loss," he massacred 13 people at an immigration center in upstate New York. Similarly, coverage was brisk after Pittsburgh resident Richard Poplawski, "upset about recently losing a job," shot four local police officers, killing three of them. But where was the front-page treatment when, in January, Betty Lipply , a 72-year-old resident of East Palestine, Ohio, "who feared she'd lose her home to foreclosure hanged herself to death" shortly after "receiving her second summons and foreclosure complaint from her mortgage lender"? And where was the up-to-the-minute cable news reporting on the two California dairy farmers who "killed themselves... out of despair over finances, according to associates"? Mass Murder, Mass Media, and Missing Stories Last summer, in the pages of the Nation magazine, Barbara Ehrenreich called attention to people turning to "the suicide solution" in response to the burgeoning financial crisis. Months later, major news outlets started to examine the same phenomenon. Last fall, a TomDispatch report on suicides and a range of other extreme acts -- including self-inflicted injury, murder, arson, and armed self-defense -- in response to foreclosures, evictions, bankruptcies, and layoffs, was followed, months later, by mainstream media attention to the notion of "econo-cide" -- prompted, in large part, by a spate of familicides (murder/suicides in which both parents and their children die). While it's impossible to know the myriad factors, including deeply personal ones, that contribute to people resorting to drastic measures, violent or otherwise, many press reports suggest that the global economic crisis has played no small part in a range of extreme acts. An analysis by TomDispatch of national, regional, and local news reports in 2008 and early 2009 indicates that a silent, nationwide epidemic of drastic measures may be underway. News of such acts linked to economic woes -- from armed robberies to pay the rent to financially-motivated suicides -- has filtered out of cities and towns in no less than 30 states, many of which have seen multiple incidents. And since only a fraction of such acts ever receives media coverage, what is being reported, even if mostly in local newspapers, qualifies as startling. For every Jiverly Wong, who garners days of cable-news coverage, there are untold despondent and desperate dairy farmers and retirees battered by the economy and at wits' end who respond by subjecting themselves, others, or property to violence and are hardly noticed. What follows is a sampling of such incidents, most reported locally, and organized by month -- no month lacked such reports -- since the beginning of this year. January 2009 David Kelley lost his job in September 2008. As values plummeted on his Clairemont, California, home as well as the rental properties he owned, he reportedly became "overwhelmed by debt and depression." On January 5th, he shot himself. "He saw his good life and successful career slipping away," said his stepmother. "He couldn't see beyond the struggles he was having." According to a police report, Manchester, Missouri, resident Frank Kavano, 66, who killed his wife and then himself, left a suicide note that mentioned "financial issues and difficulty in the marriage." After losing a bet on a college football bowl game -- on top of losing his home to foreclosure -- Dante Vinci, age 48, reportedly stabbed a man to death outside a Reno, Nevada , sports bar. February 2009 According to a news report, Gregory and Randolph Graham, third-generation car dealers from Ligonier, Pennsylvania , "watched helplessly over the past year as their business collapsed under the weight of the recession." One night, Gregory, 61, set fire to some of the cars at his dealership and "died of a heart attack next to the burning wreckage." Days later, Randolph, 51, "was found dead, slumped over the wheel of his car in what may have been a suicide." When Otero County, New Mexico, sheriff's deputies tried to serve foreclosure papers on Miguel and Inga Gutierrez, the couple armed themselves and opened fire. After a 16-hour standoff, Miguel was found dead and Inga was taken into custody. "Unemployed, awash in debt and hiding an October foreclosure from loved ones," 55-year-old Wayne "Mike" Anderson of Stratmoor Valley, Colorado, shot himself to death as a sheriff's deputy, ready to evict him, stood at his doorstep. In Glyndon, Maryland , advertising executive Howard "Jack" Marks Jr., 63, killed himself after, his wife told the police, financial woes left him in danger of losing his business. According to news reports, 53-year-old Jeffrey P. McKnight of Pataskala, Ohio, was "struggling financially and overwhelmed with caring for his elderly father" when he set his house ablaze and then killed his dad and himself. Reportedly "upset over being unemployed and his financial status," George Vincent, 49, of Fort Meyers, Florida , drank copious amounts of beer, after which his wife called the police, telling them her husband was drunk, armed, and suicidal. When Vincent pulled a gun on responding officers, they opened fire, killing him, in what the state attorney's office deemed to be a case of suicide-by-cop. March 2009 Lonnie Glasco walked into the San Diego, California, bus-maintenance depot where he worked as a mechanic and shot two fellow employees, one fatally, before police gunned him down. A friend said Glasco, 47, was "despondent over losing his wife and his home." Michael McLendon, age 28 and "despondent over his inability to hold a job," fatally shot nine people in Samson, Alabama , and killed a 10th in a neighboring county. After 46-year-old Springfield Township, Ohio, resident Michael Swiergosz's home went into "foreclosure and had been set for sheriff's sale," he barricaded himself inside "during a standoff with authorities that lasted three hours," before being arrested. April 2009 In Warrenton, Virginia , police said that "domestic issues," likely compounded by "job-related stress," lay behind 39-year-old Bruce Curtin's decision to kill his wife and then himself. Distraught in the face of eviction for failing to pay rent, Ginette Denize, 48, of Canarsie, Brooklyn, New York, turned on the gas burners of her stove, started banging on her landlord's door, and returned to her apartment. Police soon arrived and, when one of them reportedly tripped and fell in her kitchen, she allegedly "hovered with a knife over" him. The two other officers then opened fire, killing her. It was conjectured that the shooting might have been a case of suicide-by-cop. Angered that someone else was living in the home he had lost to foreclosure, Derek C. Hightower, 24, of Bristol, Wisconsin , reportedly set a fire that "destroyed the garage, the house and three vehicles." Michael Knudson's former girlfriend wondered whether he "somehow thought he was saving his mom and brother from the pain and loss of the foreclosure [of the family home] in some misguided way." Eviction was scheduled for April 7th. Days before, say authorities, the 39-year-old killed his mother and brother, buried them in "a shallow grave" nearby, and burned down their Hudson, Ohio, home. Police reported that Mark I. Levy, a 59-year-old Bethesda, Maryland, resident, who had been a deputy assistant attorney general in the Clinton administration and "was about to lose his job because of the economy," died of "an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound." Under investigation by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies for possibly "scamm[ing] clients out of millions in a side investment business he ran," Garden City, New York, resident William Parente, 59, "beat and asphyxiated his wife and daughters in a Maryland hotel room" before killing himself. With talk of layoffs in the air and reportedly fearful of losing his job at California's Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, Mario Ramirez entered his workplace and shot two immediate supervisors before killing himself. Reportedly $450,000 in debt, 34-year-old Middletown, Maryland, resident Christopher Wood shot and killed his wife and children before taking his own life. At a home north of Frederick, Maryland , a man threatened to kill workers from a company that clears out recently foreclosed homes, prompting SWAT team members to be called in. Not far away, outside Baltimore, a man attempted to commit suicide while being evicted from his home. In Dauphin County, Pennsylvania , a 27-year-old man, upset about losing his job, killed himself. A week later, another area man, who had threatened to kill himself "after recently losing his job," surrendered to authorities after a five-hour standoff. In North Carolina , the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department reported 10 "suicide threats or attempts" over the weekend of April 18th and 19th. Bill Cook, the director of the Mecklenburg County Mobile Crisis Team, told the press that economic woes had contributed to the spike. May 2009 Faced with eviction, 33-year-old Motalekgose Mothuse Valela allegedly warned the property manager of his Dallas, Texas, apartment: "No one comes to my place without me being there, and I don't care who it is: the constable, the police or the sheriff... I will blow them all up and blow this place up," according to court documents. He reportedly also affixed a note to his door reading, "Bomb set on door, don't touch," resulting in a standoff with the Dallas police bomb squad and SWAT team which lasted several hours, before he eventually surrendered. According to Indianapolis, Indiana, Metropolitan Police Department spokesman Sgt. Paul Thompson, 27-year-old Candance Macy lured her landlord to her residence "with the intent to kill him" in order to avoid eviction. Reportedly, Macy claimed that "she had lost a ring behind a stove in the kitchen and... she had asked him to retrieve it. When he stooped down to look for the ring, Macy allegedly stabbed him in the back at least four times and several more times on other parts of his body." He was reported to be in serious condition. In Rhode Island , during an eviction proceeding, a Pawtucket Housing Authority employee found a "man lying in a bed with a knife sticking out of his neck, and quickly phoned police, reporting either a stabbing victim or possible deceased person." When police arrived and approached the man, he "suddenly sat up, with the knife hanging from his throat." The knife fell from his neck and the man began threatening the officers with it. "You will have to shoot me. I have nothing to live for," he told them. Eventually, they persuaded him to drop the knife. After Allen Park, Michigan's Mark David Fussner, 44, refused to obey an eviction order and threatened to shoot court officers, the police were called in. As one of the officers approached, Fussner reportedly fired birdshot from a shotgun, wounding him. Other police on the scene returned fire and for the next two hours, the sound of gun shots reverberated through the neighborhood. Fussner was later found dead in his basement. It was unclear whether he died of a self-inflicted wound or was killed by the police. A Silent (and Violent) Epidemic While news reports indicate that extreme acts precipitated by economic disaster have occurred in at least 30 states, similar incidents have undoubtedly occurred in most, if not all, of the remaining 20 states. Suicides are normally under-reported in the press, while murders linked to the economic crisis may never be reported as such. Many extreme acts, in any case, go unnoticed by | |
Daoud Kuttab: Obama's Speech: Warm but Honest | Top |
President Barack Hussein Obama spoke to Arabs and Muslims from his own experiences and from his heart. Without conceding much and while being honest with his audience, he clearly won over the hearts and minds of many people that have so far rejected America. By speaking honestly, even on issues that are not pleasing to hear, he succeeding in bridging the biggest obstacle for all US administrations, that of hypocrisy towards the Middle East conflict. By speaking of the need to recognize the right of Israel to exist, he said we have to similarly recognize the rights of a Palestinian state to exist. By retelling the Holocaust he was able to call Israeli settlements illegitimate. And by honoring the Islamic faith he was able to call for the need to honor Christian and other minorities in the Islamic countries. In his address to students at the University of Cairo, Obama was clearly talking about the future while not failing to show respect to the Islamic faith and to the accomplishments of Muslims for generations. He laid out his personal story by talking about his father's Islamic roots, his growing up days hearing the Muslem call to prayer and working side by side with American Muslims. He quoted the Quran appropriately while reminding people that he is a Christian and pointing out America's commitment to the Abrahamic faiths. He even showed understanding of the existence of Palestinian Christians and didn't shy away from speaking out about the rights of Coptic Christians in Egypt or Maronites in Lebanon. Politically President Obama spoke forcefully against violent religious extremists without ever mentioning the word "terror" or "Islamic extremists." While putting the Middle East conflict second to the post 9/11 wars, he gave the Palestinian-Israeli conflict the same weight as he did the combined wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The US president moved much closer to the international consensus by declaring settlement in the Palestinian territories illegitimate, a major shift in US foreign policy." The US does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements," he told the cheering Egyptian attendees. President Obama committed that he will be personally involved in solving the conflict. He recognized the Palestinian refugee problem and even made a positive hint towards Hamas by saying that they "have support" among Palestinians and called on them to use that fact in a responsible way. It was no accident that Iran and the nuclearization of the region was given less importance than the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Obama hinted towards Israel when saying "I understand those who protest that some countries have weapons that others don't." While opposing nuclear weapons world-wide including in Iran, he favored civilian use of nuclear energy for Iran. Perhaps the harshest words that Obama had to make was reserved to undemocratic Arab leaders. He spoke about the need for freedom of expression and transparency while scolding leaders who rule against the consensus of their own people, or those who believe that elections alone equals democracy. Obama spoke with conviction about the need to give women equal opportunities especially in education but criticized those who try to impose what women should or should not wear, a reference to the French ban on the hijab. The US president has a tough act to follow. Now that the high expectation in the Muslim world from his speech have been fulfilled, the pressure is even greater on the American administration to deliver what it has promised. Failure to deliver on these promises will be much worse than had they not been made in the first place. More on Obama Mideast Trip | |
"Inside The Obama White House" Rates High For NBC | Top |
NBC News' two-part special, "Inside the Obama White House," aired Tuesday and Wednesday and performed very well for the network. The first part, which aired Tuesday night, attracted more than 9.1 million total viewers and won its time period to help lift NBC to first place for the night (the season finale of "Law & Order: SVU" did even better). Wednesday night, part two attracted 9.0 million total viewers, its biggest overall audience in the 9PM hour since October 2008. NBC's struggle in the primetime ratings has been well-documented while its news division continues to perform well. For the week of May 18, no NBC primetime show reached as many viewers as "Nightly News with Brian Williams." The broadcast will air again this Friday, June 5, 8-10 p.m. ET on NBC. More on NBC | |
Paula Forman and Jeff Johnson: What's With This Happiness Thing? | Top |
It seems like everyone is talking about happiness. There is the feature story in the current issue of The Atlantic ("What Makes Up Happy"), describing a 72-year longitudinal study of Harvard men and their search for "a happy life" (www.theatlantic.com/doc/200906/happiness). And here comes "The Happiness Project," a personal quest, turned blog, turned memoir, by one determined young woman to test every theory of happiness ever expounded (www.happiness-project.com). And how about, "Happiness Now," an 8-week program designed by a British Shrink? Do we think that works? The list goes on: no fewer than 386,032 books are on Amazon with "happiness" in the title; not to mention the 77 million Google entries on the same subject. What's this about? Are we more preoccupied with the idea of happiness because it is more elusive? Or do we simply have higher expectations than ever before? Did the bottom falling out of the economy make us reconsider our priorities? Is happiness the new way we keep score? Boomers, more than preceding generations, have thought of happiness as an entitlement. Whereas our parents saw it as a possibility, we saw it as our birthright--a belief that somehow, a perpetual state of joy (or near bliss) was accessible if only we played our cards right. And we did try nearly everything from recreational drugs to consciousness-raising to EST and Transcendental Meditation to psychiatry and serious pharmaceuticals. We pursued happiness religiously for ourselves, and worried through every developmental stage for our kids. It is the rare boomer who is passive about their own pursuit of happiness, and the unusual parent who doesn't try to ameliorate what looks like unhappiness in their child. Maybe we are all nuts. Jeff: I'm convinced that we really used to believe that we were only a few purchases away from happiness. Or that another couple of zeroes on our bank balance would make all the difference. And if this purchase didn't make us light up, well, the next one was surely the missing piece in our happiness puzzle. In other words, for so many of us, happiness was inextricably linked to prosperity. Paula: Yes, but the generation that invented Retail Therapy also somewhere knew that money doesn't buy happiness. There has always been a kind of paradox on that subject. It is as though we know that consumer goals are not the most important human goals, but, at least, they were clearly defined. Jeff: A much easier game than the confusing and even painful process of delineating complex personal goals and growth. Paula: So, you think that this current focus on happiness is a direct reaction to these tough economic times? Jeff: Absolutely. I think that we were in the habit of using consumer goals, as un-nuanced as they are, as a stand-in for life goals and that in this environment where we feel the "store door" closing on us, perhaps forever, we are in a bit of a quandary. Paula: Right. Because the belief that we should be happy all the time is still there. We seem to have lost sight of the fact the "pursuit of happiness"--not happiness per se, is our constitutionally guaranteed entitlement. Apparently it was a matter of some debate among the founding fathers as to whether the phrase in the Declaration of Independence should read "life, liberty and happiness" or if the pursuit itself was the protected right. It is of more than passing interest to consider why the latter became the accepted phrase. The debate might have been quite like our own. For some, the intention was to reflect the thinking of John Locke, that the role of government was to protect life, liberty and property for its citizens. For Locke, there was equivalency between happiness and wealth. For others, however, the issue was more complex. For them, happiness was a rich soup of ideas, opportunities, family and community all seasoned by personal taste. If the current preoccupation with happiness was occasioned by economic turmoil (which in some measure came about through pre-occupation with property), then maybe it's time to consider other aspects of happiness. Can we look beyond the simplicity of consumer purchases to determine a deeper source of happiness? Can we develop our personal and community goals with the same zeal with which we honed our consumer goals? Our hunch is that we can, and we will. It is not the commitment to personal happiness that is necessarily flawed. It was the one-dimensional way in which we pursued it. We are not the first to point out that there may be a happiness bonus in this recession. And perhaps the level of noise on the subject of happiness is a very healthy--and necessary--public debate on the softer side of recovery. More on The Recession | |
NRA Appealing Chicago Handgun Ban To Supreme Court | Top |
WASHINGTON — The National Rifle Association is asking the Supreme Court to strike down strict gun control laws in the Chicago area, setting the stage for another high court battle over Second Amendment protections for gun owners. The NRA wants the court to rule that last year's gun rights decision invalidating a handgun ban in the District of Columbia applies as well to local and state laws. The appeal to the Supreme Court comes almost immediately after a federal appeals court in Chicago said Tuesday that it is bound by earlier Supreme Court decisions which held the Second Amendment applies only to federal laws. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor was part of an appeals court panel in New York that reached a similar conclusion in January. Judges on both courts _ Republican nominees in Chicago and Democratic nominees in New York _ said only the Supreme Court could decide whether to extend last year's ruling throughout the country. Many, but not all, of the constitutional protections in the Bill of Rights have been applied to cities and states. The framers of the Constitution intended "to protect the right to keep and bear arms and other rights from state infringement," the NRA said in a filing made available at the court Thursday. One federal appeals panel, from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, has ruled that the Second Amendment does apply broadly. That court, however, is considering whether to take another look at a dispute between Alameda County and gun show promoters. In the case now pending at the Supreme Court, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld ordinances barring the ownership of handguns in most cases in Chicago and suburban Oak Park, Ill. Judge Frank Easterbrook said that "the Constitution establishes a federal republic where local differences are to be cherished as elements of liberty rather than extirpated in order to produce a single, nationally applicable rule." "Federalism is an older and more deeply rooted tradition than is a right to carry any particular kind of weapon," Easterbrook wrote. Evaluating arguments over the extension of the Second Amendment is a job "for the justices rather than a court of appeals," he said. Chicago officials said they were pleased with the appeals court ruling and would defend the local laws in front of the Supreme Court, if the justices agree to hear the NRA's case. Any decision about that probably won't come earlier than late September. The case is National Rifle Association v. Chicago, 08-1497. | |
The Coming Vegetarian Revolution | Top |
I have a prediction: Sooner than you might think, this will be a vegetarian world. Future generations will find the idea of eating meat both morally absurd and logistically impossible. Of course, one need only look at the booming meat industry, the climbing rates of meat consumption in the developing world, and the menu of just about any restaurant to call me crazy. But already, most people know that eating red meat is bad for their health and harmful for the planet. It's getting them to actually change their diet that's the hard part -- and that's exactly why it won't happen by choice. Going by the numbers, eating meat is pretty hard to justify for the even moderately health-conscious. A National Cancer Institute report released last March found that people who ate the most red meat were, as the New York Times put it, "most likely to die from cancer, heart disease and other causes." The biggest abstainers "were least likely to die." Those who eat five ounces of meat daily, (the equivalent of one and a half Quarter Pounders or Big Macs) increase their risk from cancer or heart disease by 30 percent compared to those who eat two-thirds of an ounce daily -- a stark difference. More on Animals | |
Juliette Powell: For Cirque du Soleil Founder Guy Laliberte, Space is Not the Final Frontier | Top |
Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte announced to close friends via email last night and during a news conference from Moscow this morning that come September 30th, he will embark on a space mission to the International Space Station on board Soyuz TM-16. As a highly visible 'space tourist' aboard Expedition 21, Laliberte will mark Cirque du Soleil's 25th anniversary and hopes to raise awareness around the Global Water Crisis and the charitable organization he founded called onedrop.org In an email message to close friends about his upcoming far flung adventure, Laliberte says: I am undertaking the flight on behalf of the ONE DROP Foundation and Cirque du Soleil. My objective is to raise awareness around water issues in a creative and innovative way. This will be the first Poetic Social Mission in Space. Laliberte, who will have just turned fifty by the time Expedition 21 leaves orbit, will be training in Russia until the September launch date. In view of his working social mission in space, the visionary entrepreneur hopes to engage worldwide audiences to participate in his humanitarian adventure using social media (learn more about building social and cultural capital through social media on my personal blog ). He adds: During my space exploration, I will create worldwide events to involve audiences in the project. Find out how you can participate in Guy Laliberte's space adventure and help spread the world about the global water crisis by viewing the news conference . Juliette Powell is an entrepreneur, digital media consultant and author of 33 Million People in the Room ( Financial Times Press , 2009), a book about social networking for business, inspired by Guy Laliberte. Powell is also co-founder of the Gathering Think Tank Inc., an innovation forum at the intersection of media, business, advertising and technology. You can connect with her on Twitter and Facebook . | |
Dr. Jon LaPook: Sex Addiction: Is it Really an Addiction? | Top |
This week's segment of CBS Doc Dot Com sexual addiction, a subject about which I learned absolutely nothing in medical school and have not learned much more since. In researching the topic over the past week, I began to understand that it is extremely controversial, with experts not even agreeing about whether sexual addiction is a true addiction. When most people hear the term, they usually think they know what's meant by sexual addiction. They may think of someone (usually a man) who has an incessant need to make sexual conquests, sometimes despite his own best intentions. But even back in the days when Sam Malone got this diagnosis on the old TV show "Cheers," it was clear that a real definition was lacking. In 1998, two researchers published an article entitled "Sexual addiction: many conceptions, minimal data." As Erick Janssen, Ph.D., Director of Education & Research Training at The Kinsey Institute, explained to me in an email: "We do not have a generally accepted definition of 'sex addiction.' It was originally approached as involving some kind of 'inability to adequately control sexual behavior,' but this is, as you can tell, not a very objective definition. According to some, sexual addiction seems in the eye of the beholder, or in the eyes of his or her therapist." For one side of the definitional argument, I spoke to addictions treatment specialist Mavis Humes Baird , who is convinced that sexual addiction is a true disorder because people are in the throws of an impulse they can't control, that there are underlying changes in the brain that cannot be addressed by psychotherapy alone. She told me, "for example, if one of the partners in a couple is having affairs and they're not a sex addict, marriage counseling or family therapy is very effective. But if they're a sex addict, all the therapy in the world getting at problems in the relationship won't touch the addiction. One of the primary referral sources for sex addiction is couples counselors who have been doing attachment work with couples for years with the addiction going on unaffected and sometimes kept secret for all those years. You can't treat the sex problems between the partners until the addiction is treated. And that's done by a combination of specific treatment protocols, and 12-step program involvement, and sometimes medication." But Ms. Baird also told me it's not listed in the current version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) and that there's a struggle about whether it will be included in the next edition. One crucial repercussion of not being listed in the DSM-IV is that the exclusion makes it more difficult for patients to receive reimbursement for treatment. Some researchers hypothesize that sexual addiction, substance abuse, and gambling share neurochemical changes in the brain --underlying problems with brain wiring and nerve transmitters such as dopamine. For many of those researchers, it would seem to follow that treatment should be covered as other addictions are. On the other side of the definitional aisle is Dr. Herbert Kleber, Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center, where he is the Director of the Division on Substance Abuse. When I asked him about sexual addiction, he said: "Is it an addiction? I'm convinced gambling is an addiction but am agnostic about sexual addiction. Once you let one of them in the door do you let in shopaholics, kleptomaniacs, etcetera? Where do you draw the line?" Dr. Janssen echoed Dr. Kleber's skepticism, telling me: "There are no reliable prevalence statistics on sexual addiction. That is, it has not been measured in representative samples of men and women. A few studies in non-representative samples have concluded that it could involve 5-10 percent of the adult population. Most sex researchers prefer to not use that term, instead relying on terms like 'sexual compulsivity' or 'sexual impulsivity' to reflect people's experiences and actual behaviors." Dr. Kleber and his colleagues wrote a classic article in which they argued that drug dependence was a "chronic medical illness" and not just a "social problem." The implication was that you could no more "snap out of" drug dependence than diabetes, asthma, or high blood pressure. But Dr. Kleber is not convinced that what he calls "controversial addictions" to sex, the Internet, food, and shopping are true addictions. "We don't know enough about what goes on in the brain with these disorders. Do we include all of them, some of them? At this point, the jury is out." Whatever the jury ends up saying about disease classification and underlying brain biology, one thing seems clear to me: for people suffering from this problem - and for their loved ones - the pain and the need for help are quite real. This is a disorder that desperately needs more research. For an overview interview with Mavis Humes Baird on the subject of sexual addiction, click here. For an interview with Ms, Baird about the relationship between Internet pornography and sexual addiction, click here . For an interview with a self-described recovering sex addict, click here. For an interesting WebMD article on the subject, click here. For a good review of the concepts of sexual addiction, sexual compulsivity, and sexual impulsivity, click here: | |
Wednesday's Late Night Round-Up: Bo Obama, Morning Joe, And Craig T. Nelson (VIDEO) | Top |
Jon Stewart mocked the "Morning Joe" team last night for their new affiliation with Starbucks saying they would now be required to let homeless men use their restrooms. Colbert tipped his hat to Craig T. Nelson who recently disavowed the government bailouts saying: "What happened to society? I go into business, I don't make it, I go bankrupt. I've been on food stamps and welfare, did anybody help me out? No. No. They gave me hope, they gave me encouragement, and they gave me a vision." I'm gonna let the ridiculousness of that statement sink in while you watch this the rest of the video which includes Conan talking about Bo Obama and Jimmy Kimmel's unintentional joke of the day. WATCH: Get HuffPost Comedy On Facebook and Twitter! More on Late Night Shows | |
Jon Huntsman Won't Attend Gay Award Event, Cites Scheduling Conflicts | Top |
Gay rights groups plan to honor Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman with the 2009 Pete Suazo Political Action Award. But the governor probably won't be there to accept it . "I don't believe he's going to be able to participate," Huntsman spokeswoman Lisa Roskelley said, blaming a scheduling conflict. She dismissed any suggestion he was reluctant to be recognized publicly for his stand on gay rights. "He's certainly not shy," Roskelley said. "It's just that his schedule is such that he's unable to participate in every event that he's asked to." Huntsman, a Republican, has backed same-sex civil unions and supported gay rights throughout his career. Representatives from various LGBT organizations , including the Utah chapters of the Stonewall Democrats, Log Cabin Republicans, Human Rights Campaign, the Utah Pride Center and Equality Utah took part in the selection of Governor Huntsman for the award. Past winners include former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and State House Minority Leader David Litvak. | |
Gotham Chopra: Obama and North Korea - Not too much to ask | Top |
For centuries Cairo University in Egypt has been the home to progressive thinkers, provocative activists, and dynamic policy-makers that have had a profound impact on the course of Human history from the days of Cleopatra to Anwar Sadat to President Obama’s historic speech there today. In it, he focused on the evolution of the West’s relationship with the Islamic world, and his fundamental declaration that our collective fates are inextricably tangled together. In his speech, President Obama used the word peace – what Islam means in Arabic - 29 times. Much to the chagrin no doubt of Limbaugh and Osama alike (how’s that for irony?), the President laid out his own connection to Islam, from his father’s heritage to living in Indonesia, and stated eloquently both the contributions Muslims have made historically, as well as the many made by Muslim citizens of the US. By engaging people with dignity, respect, candor and a basic understanding that our fates are fundamentally intertwined and linked, he made yesterday’s “us vs. them” discussion largely irrelevant. Osama-like rhetoric voiced just the day before in the whimpering cleric’s latest tired dispatch from wherever he is held up has never seemed so archaic and primitive. Our hope is that Obama’s message of reconciliation, peace, and collective prosperity is a planetary one, the ethos of which transcends not only the relationship of the US with the Islamic world, but also encompasses every nation on Earth and the next stage of evolution between all of them. Ironically, at the same exact time as Obama’s historic speech, two American journalists – our friends Laura Ling and Euna Lee – were being tried in a North Korean court room, charged with “hostile acts” that could land them in the North’s infamous labor camps for up to 10 torturous years. Because of Obama, we now live in an era of unprecedented optimism, one where we hope it is not unreasonable for us to expect that he will take his same strategy of strength, integrity, and candid engagement to the likes of North Korea’s leadership, both in the short term to secure the release of Laura and Euna back to their families, but also over the long term to facilitate the nuclear disarmament of North Korea, as he has pledged to push all nations – including the US – to do over the next decade. President Obama’s greatest achievement (and possibly his curse) over his short presence in the White House is his tremendous raising of expectations and elegant portrait of leadership for the 21 st Century. It’s not good enough just to remedy the chronic relationship between Americans and Arabs. Our expectation now is that President Obama will take his same transcendent message of conflict resolution to all corners of the globe. Bring North Korea’s long isolated leadership to the negotiating table and reverse the mounting tensions between them and us, which threatens to become just as toxic and virulent as what it has become with the Arab world. Sure – it’s a lot to ask, but – after all – we’re just following his example. By Gotham and Mallika Chopra Related Articles: Sign the Petition to Free Laura Ling and Euna Lee What You Can Do For Laura Ling and Euna Lee What the Captured American Journalists in North Korea Could Mean for Diplomacy You can help Roxanne Saberi, Euna Lee, and Laura Ling Image of President Obama in Cairo by The Official White House Photostream Gotham and Mallika Chopra regularly blog at www.intent.com More on Barack Obama | |
"Twister In A Can": Scientists Build World's Largest Tornado Simulator (VIDEO) | Top |
National Geographic is airing what looks to be a pretty fascinating show next week about a group of scientists who built the largest and most realistic moving tornado simulator--a "Twister In a Can"--to study how better to protect against future tornadoes. The simulator is apparently the only one of its kind that can accurately measure how the wind loads of a tornado affect moving structures. Watch this clip from the show to learn more. More on Video | |
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