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At the Conservative Political Action Conference, the large annual gathering of right-wing activists and followers, people say a lot of crazy things -- too many, in fact, for me to cram into a single story. So I've picked a random 10 -- random insofar as they were among those I came across both in my own time at this enormous conference in Oxon Hill, Md., at the Gaylord National Harbor Convention Center just outside of Washington, D.C., and in reading the work of my fellow journalists and muckrakers. The conference took place March 14 - 16.
Presented, in no particular order, are 10 statements worthy, at least, of an eyeroll.
1. Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana: Torture is funny. A featured speaker on CPAC's main stage, Jindal chose to make light this way of the barrage of political rhetoric CPAC attendees signed up to subject themselves to:
If the choice was to hear 70 political speeches or to gowaterboarding, well, I'd have to think about that.
Video here.
2. Charles Butler, conservative talk show host: Single-parent households the fault of women with an agenda "on the booty call." At a breakout session titled "Fatherless America: The Headwaters of Poverty, Crime & Social Dysfunction," Butler laid the problem of single-parent families squarely at the feet of women, who, he suggested, are essentially tricking men into have children they don't want (because apparently most men have never heard of condoms):
I've had two instances that were very close to me where this fatherless thing comes into play. Michael Jordan is a personal friend of mine -- Michael Jordan the basketball player, and a woman just filed a paternity suit against him for supposedly having this child out of wedlock. You have to understand that this woman that he had this child with, supposedly, was a sex instructor, so she clearly knew how babies got here. But she chose to have a baby because of money: Michael Jordan's a multimillionaire. How many of you remember the slide on Sports Illustrated with a picture of a little baby and the caption, "Where's my daddy?"
Well, these women chose to have babies on their own on the booty call. I just hate to break it down like that, but that's exactly what happened. There was not two words mentioned: "love" or "marry." Now, believe me, black men know how to ask someone to marry them...I've seen too many times when they've either been forced into marrying a woman they didn't want to marry, or being an absentee father.
3. Pamela Geller, professional Islamophobe: I am the queen of substance -- unlike you birthers. Her claim to fame is the fearmongering she spearheaded over plans for an Islamic community center that was to have been built in a repurposed department store several blocks from the site of the World Trade Center, whose buildings were destroyed in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and more recently for hateful, anti-Palestinian ads she placed in bus shelters.
So when Geller was denied a speaking slot on the CPAC stage, she immediately claimed that Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist, one of the conference sponsors, was in league with the Muslim Brotherhood, and her absence from the stage was evidence of the spread of Shariah law throughout America. And we haven't even gotten to the real crazy yet.
That happened when Orly 'Queen of the Birthers' Taitz turned up at the sideshow breakout panel to which Geller had been relegated, demanding to know why Geller's panel wasn't addressing the urgent issue of President Obama's birth certificate. Salon's Alex Seitz-Wald was in the room, and captured some of the excitement on video. From Salon's Jillian Rayfield:
"I think there's enough substance on this panel, I mean how many topics can you handle?" Pamela Geller, the blogger for Atlas Shrugged, shot back. "Inappropriate, really."
4. Sarah Palin, former vice presidential candidate, former Alaska governor, former Fox News analyst: Dog-whistling the birthers.So, OK, maybe Palin's remark, delivered during her big speech on CPAC's final day, is more nasty than crazy, but it's notable because of the clever way it shouts out to the Taitz crowd without really appearing to. In the context of her opposition to universal background checks for the purchase of a firearm, Palin had this to say:
"And background checks?" she asked. "Yeah, to learn more about a person's thinking, associations and intentions? Background checks? Dandy idea, Mr. President. We should've started with yours."
5. Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder and CEO, Tea Party Patriots: Obamacare is just like The Hunger Games. Speaking Saturday from the main stage at CPAC, Martin described the Affordable Care Act this way:
Our country's equivalent to The Hunger Games' tribute will be thepatients who die under this law.
Kyle Mantyla at Right Wing Watch snagged the video. On Friday night, TPP sponsored a Hunger Games-themed cocktail party, and unveiled its Hunger Gamesish video ad.
6. Wayne LaPierre, CEO, National Rifle Association: The government wants to keep records of your guns so the Chinese can hack them. Or something. "And they call us crazy." There was so much crazy in what Slate's David Weigel dubbed the CRAZY WAYNE act that we cannot contain it all here. Although I was in the room at the time, I'll leave it to The Atlantic Wire's Elspeth Reeve to describe it:
Despite portraying the NRA as a beacon of sanity in crazy Washington, LaPierre veered into conspiracy theories. The Second Amendment isn't just an American right, he said, it's the right that protects all other rights: "If you aren't free to protect yourself when the government puts its thumb on that freedom, then you're not free at all." He was not speaking in hypotheticals. LaPierre railed against universal background checks on gun purchases, which justpassed a key Senate committee vote. Universal background checks is a gateway to a universal list of gun owners, LaPierre said. "Why build a list of all the good people? As if that would somehow make us safer from violent criminals or homicidal maniacs! ... What's the point of registering lawful gun owners anyway?" He offered a few theories: So newspapers can print names of gun owners for gangs to access, so the list can be hacked by the Chinese, so the list can be handed over to the Mexican government — "Oh, by the way, they've already requested it!"
At least four times, LaPierre chanted: "And they call us crazy." (If you're a Twitter geek, check out the #theycalluscrazy hashtag.)
One of LaPierre's rants was over the government's ostensible refusal to prevent people with certain mental illnesses from getting guns. Weigel reveals that LaPierre was one of the people who made sure it would stay that way. (Perhaps he's afraid he'll make the list, with all those people calling him crazy.)
7. Scott Terry, white segregationist from North Carolina: Slaves should have been grateful for food and shelter. All right, so perhaps it's not entirely fair to hold CPAC accountable for every wacko who purchased a ticket, but there's a telling aspect to this outburst from an attendee, and that's that it took place during a breakout session on how Tea Partiers should handle charges of racism. At a session titled "Trump the Race Card: Are You Sick and Tired of Being Called a Racist and You Know You're Not One?", Scott Terry rocked the question-and-answer session this way, according to Scott Keyes and Zack Beauchamp of ThinkProgress:
The exchange occurred after an audience member from North Carolina, 30-year-old Scott Terry, asked whether Republicans could endorse races remaining separate but equal. After the presenter, K. Carl Smith of Frederick Douglass Republicans, answered by referencing a letter by Frederick Douglass forgiving his former master, the audience member said "For what? For feeding him and housing him?" Several people in the audience cheered and applauded Terry's outburst.
After the exchange, Terry muttered under his breath, "Why can't we just have segregation?", noting the Constitution's protections for freedom of association.
8. Dinesh D'Souza, outsted Christian college president, filmmaker and author: One problem with liberalism is the notion that slavery involved the theft of labor from African Americans. Again with the slavery. Sigh.
Riding high on right-wing acceptance of his theory that Barack Obama's worldview is shaped by Kenyan anticolonial sentiment against Great Britain, D'Souza is expanding his theory to include all of liberal America, which, according to him, imported the anticolonial worldview in the 1960s, and thus came to ostensibly regard all wealth as a form of theft. (This is apparently not to be confused with the good anticolonial worldview of the founding fathers, who decried, in the Declaration of Independence, how King George "plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.")
Given the success on the right-wing conference circuit of his book about Obama's purported Kenyan resentment, and his movie on the same subject,2016: Obama's America, D'Souza showed a film clip from a forthcoming picture in which he promises to make "a moral case" for what he calls "the free enterprise system," one that is designed to counter all this theft nonsense. (Apparently, slavery was just an entrepreneurial exercise on the part of the slave-traders.) From D'Souza's remarks, delivered on the main stage at CPAC on Saturday:
It isn't just some Kenyan thing, isn't just some foreign thing. Anti-colonialism has come to American in the '60s. It's part of American liberalism. And if you listen to the liberal story of America, it is a story of what? Theft. How did we get America? We stole it from the Indians. Slavery is, in a sense, seen as stealing the free labor of African-Americans. And so the whole story of America is a story of oppression. This is the liberal argument in its broad scale, and it needs to be answered. And in our film, we intend to answer it.
Now this is not just, I should say, about the makers and the takers....so the core idea is that free enterprise is a form of theft. We have to make the moral case for free enterprise and for America. A conservatism that did that would be a conservatism that is viable and powerful again.
Watch the C-SPAN video, and you'll also be treated to the metaphor of Barack Obama as a lion-tamer. In that vein, were D'Souza more enchanting, we might view him as a snake-charmer.
9. Angela Logosmasini, senior fellow, Competitive Enterprise Institute: Cloth grocery bags can kill you.This champion of "free enterprise" has a message for you: plastics are under assault, and only you can save them. And if you don't, their replacements might just kill you. Like pod people.
During a panel discussion on the CPAC main stage titled "How I Learned to Stop Worrying & Love Plastic Water Bottles, Fracking, Genetically Modified Food & Big Gulp Sodas" (no, I didn't make that up), Logosmasini made the case that the use of plastic grocery bags saves lives, because if they become contaminated, no big whup, they're getting tossed, in all their contaminated goodness, into a landfill. Meanwhile, she said, people were dying because they weren't washing their cloth grocery bags enough, thereby catching E.coli and other food-borne illnesses from their grocery bags. She did not, alas, call for better regulation of food safety. In her remarks, Logosmasini mentioned a study that a cursory Google search found quoted widely by right-wing writers:
One of the biggest casualties of the nanny state is plastics...Those bags can gather disease, pick up E.coli and other things from your food, and you have to wash them. You're supposed to be constantly washing these things -- well, people don't do that. A University of Pennsylvania study just found that in San Francisco, after they banned the plastic bag, hospital admissions for E.coli and food-borne disease went up by a quarter, and so did the death rate.
10. Katie Kieffer, columnist, Townhall.com: Obamacare is sexist because you get free birth control. As part of an anti-feminism panel titled, "The Right View...and the REAL Issues" (apparently meant to be CPAC's answer to the Barbara Walters television show, The View), Kieffer offered a sort of affirmation Charles Butler's "booty call" comments (although Butler apparently believes the birth control he sees as the responsibility of booty-call-mama should be paid for by her). Brian Tashman blogged Kieffer's comments at Right Wing Watch:
Naturally, columnist Katie Kieffer later called Obamacare "sexist" because it expands access to birth control, which she believes lets men get women pregnant or give women STDs without feeling any responsibility. "Obamacare is sexist because it puts guys off the hook," Kieffer explained, "all he has to do is say, oh, that's not my fault; you should have been using Obama's free birth control."
So, there you have a mere sampling of CPAC crazy. I'm sure I missed a lot, having chronicled the right for far too long. Spend enough time in these rooms, and you've heard the same crazy things so many times that you cease to notice them anymore. And as the din grows ever louder, the very same phenomenon could numb the body politic. The danger lies not only in the crazy, but in its ceaseless repetition.


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For the past two years, the city's style glitterati have spent much of Boston Fashion Week parked in the posh Tent behind the Mandarin Oriental Hotel taking in shows between sips of champagne and cocktails. But with the Tent and its runway packed up indefinitely (the necessary sponsorships did not come through this year) and no central location for shows to take place, Boston Fashion Week spreads and expands all over the city, requiring a spreadsheet and a white board for proper planning. One look at the website confirms that Boston Fashion Week could qualify as an Olympic endurance event.
Nevertheless, within all of the fashion shows, panel discussions, and see-and-hope-to-be-seen events, there are some can't miss moments. Herewith, our highly subjective guide to the must-see events of Boston Fashion Week 2013, which officially starts Friday night and runs through Oct. 5. If you'd like to develop your own fashion week itinerary, you can find the entire list of events at www.bostonfashionweek.com.
You can also see the work of Launch designers in a furniture store (yes, I said furniture store) on Monday, Sept. 30, from 6-8 p.m. at Circle Furniture (31 St. James Ave., Boston location). The four designers will be on hand and models will wear the 12-piece capsule collections. It's free, but an RSVP is required (also at www.launchlens.eventbrite.com). Finally, you can see the collections on display at Copley Place. The exhibit will remain in place until Oct. 11.
The designing pair Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez — the name of their label is an amalgamation of their mother's maiden names — are in Boston Thursday, Sept. 26, to talk about their work with ICA chief curator Helen Molesworth. They are two of the most innovative and exclusive designers showing at New York Fashion Week, with their clothing sold at exclusive boutiques. In Boston, you can find their work at Louis. The talk is $20 for nonmembers, $15 for members. 6:30 p.m. ICA, 100 Northern Ave. www.icaboston.org
The designers best known for their intricate, sculptural clothing and the bright lemongrass-colored ensemble worn by Michelle Obama for the 2009 inauguration will speak at a fund-raising event at MassArt to benefit the Stitching Studio. The $250 ticket gives you access to preferred seating and a VIP reception with Ruben and Isabel Toledo. 6 p.m. (reception), 8 p.m. (talk). Massachusetts College of Art and Design, 621 Huntington Ave. www.iine.us/stitch-by-stitch
Q. I'm fascinated by the creative process that you and Isabel have. At what point did the two of you realize that you could weave your talents together?
Ruben: It was a natural process. Since we met in high school at age 13, we began to collaborate instantly. Because we liked each other, the rest was easy and fell into place naturally. We have always had very different aesthetics and points of view, but friction is good for art.
Q. I know you don't hold biannual fashion shows like most top designers. Were you ever concerned that not participating in New York Fashion Week would be detrimental?
Isabel: It is important to hold fashion shows, and I love to see my clothes in motion. It's all about the anatomy and body language for me. But fashion moves so fast now. I do love to mount fashion shows, but as a special occasion or purpose. That makes showing new designs even more meaningful.
Q. Did things change after Michelle Obama wore your coat at such a historic event?
Isabel: Yes, it did change everything. After working and developing my designs for 30 years and our amazing first lady wears my clothing, believe me, the world takes notice.
One of the biggest disadvantages to the disappearance of the Boston Fashion Week Tent is tracking down single-designer runway shows. There are plenty of in-store presentations and fashion shows with clothes that you can buy off the rack happening this week. But what people really want to see during fashion week is models with gorgeous hair and makeup wearing original dresses and gowns from local designers. The last time we checked, that's what fashion week is all about. Here are some of the shows we're most looking forward to this week:
Firas Yousif (pictured) has developed a following with his bridal gowns, but his evening wear is equally stunning, and he's showing both on Oct. 3 at the Lindsay Chapel at Emmanuel Church (15 Newbury St.). Seating is at 6:30 p.m., the show starts at 7.
Candice Wu will show her collection, inspired by insects, at the W Hotel on Monday, Sept. 30, from 6-9 p.m. Also on Monday, Denise Hajjar shows her Fall/Winter 2013 collection with a runway show at the InterContinental Boston. Tickets range from $75 to $100 and benefit Dress for Success.
You can thank Evelyn Lauder, the late senior corporate vice president of Estee Lauder, for inspiring Michelle Tolini Finamore, curator of fashion arts at the Museum of Fine Arts, to create the Think Pink exhibition at the museum. The all-pink, all-the-time show opens Oct. 3 and features suits, jewelry, and accessories by designers such as Christian Dior, Dolce & Gabbana, Ralph Lauren, Christian Louboutin, and Oscar de la Renta (pictured). Lauder's family bequeathed a sizable portion of Evelyn Lauder's wardrobe to the museum. Given Lauder's extensive work in raising money for breast cancer research, she had a fair number of pink party gowns from top American designers to choose from.
"Here we are taking in this really wonderful collection, and I thought maybe there's an opportunity to put this collection on display," Finamore said. "And then I started thinking 'Well, maybe pink is something.' "
But what Finamore shows in the exhibition, which features clothing dating back to the 18th century, is that pink was not always associated with the feminine mystique.
"It really started in the 1920s and 1930s when pink was marketed to baby girls," she said. "You can see that until that point pink was not worn exclusively by girls. It was something worn in equal parts by men and women." 465 Huntington Ave. www.mfa.org
If you've yet to attend one of Riseman's fashion presentations at Brasserie Jo at the Colonnade Hotel, you can hardly call yourself a fashion enthusiast. With a keen eye for talent, the grand dame of Boston fashion asks some of her favorite young designers to present their designs during these lunch-time gatherings. It's wonderfully old-school peppered with cutting-edge fashion. On Friday, Sept. 27, she's asked designers Selahdor and Gregory Paul to show. French onion soup, and fashion, is served at noon. 120 Huntington Ave., 617-425-3240.
Local designer Daniel Hernandez is promising a multimedia sensation at his fashion show on Tuesday, Oct. 1, at Venu. There's a fashion show, a short film, an appearance by Miss United States Candiace Dillard, and a trunk show. As Stefon on "Saturday Night Live" would say: "This show has everything." There are a few tickets left at $45. The extravaganza begins at 8 p.m. 100 Warrenton St., 617-338-8061.
A new organization called the Sustainable Fashion Collaborative introduces itself on Sunday, Sept. 29, with an exhibition of sustainable fashion featuring Boston-based designers GeorgAnnette Chatterly, Lallitara, Mulxiply, Amy Plante, Ellen Shea, Avni Trivedi, and Carlos Villamil. The exhibition takes place at Urbano Project. It's free and runs from 6-8 p.m. 29 Germania St. (in Sam Adams Brewery complex), Jamaica Plain. www.sfcboston.org
Celebrate the opening of the Boston Fashion Week with the in-the-know fashion crowd. If you want to find out about the best parties and shows to hit during Fashion Week (and you don't believe this list!), then put on your finest and arrive at Bond restaurant and lounge at 8 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 27. The event is free, but RSVP is requested (www.bfw13openingnight.eventbrite.com) 250 Franklin St., 617-956-8765.
Simon Doonan, the international brand ambassador for Barneys New York, signs copies of his tasty, dishy new book, "Asylum," at Barneys at Copley Place on Saturday, Sept. 28, from noon to 2 p.m.
Q. When I say Boston fashion, you say. . .
A. Barneys, Barneys, Barneys. That's my experience with Boston. I love the sportiness and the authenticity of it. But we had a store there forever in Chestnut Hill, and I just remember these groovy women parading through in their Jil Sander and Helmut Lang. If anything, Boston girls really know how to turn it out. Women in Boston and San Francisco can be critical of themselves, but when I walk home up Fifth Avenue not everyone is wearing a Gareth Pugh jumper.
Q. Y ou've been in fashion for quite a while. What is the most dramatic change you've seen?
A. I've been in fashion so long that my first show was at Versailles and I sat in the front row with Marie Antoinette. I think it's the sheer scope of it that has changed. Forty years ago only the wealthy elite could be stylish, but now anyone can buy something groovy at anytime of the day or night
Christopher Muther can be reached at email@example.com. Follow him on Twitter @Chris_Muther.

subset: commoncrawl


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It's that time of year. The nights are drawing in; no more sitting outside in a comfortable warmth as it gets dark. The mornings are distinctly chillier and I am more inclined to snuggle back under the duvet than to leap out of bed raring to go. Energy levels are sapping just as work schedules are increasing massively over the winter period.
Of course I have a 16-week break to look forward to between February and June, but it seems a long time to wait just now.
So how do I make sure that I maintain equilibrium in the meantime? I know that I need to rest, stay healthy and as stress-free as possible. But how?
Targets, financial deadlines, Christmas, all words guaranteed to set my soul a-flutter at the mere mention. I am normally very good at managing my stressors but when I'm busy or distracted it's easy to forget my coping strategies so here are a couple of reminders to myself;
Plan ahead
This is really important and saves me from a lot of unnecessary stress. Last week for instance I had to travel to London for a training day. I knew that the train would be busy, the Underground even more so. I am used to working from home in a quiet environment much of which I can control directly so being in a lecture room with a group of colleagues can be daunting. As can shopping for lunch at a busy time at the midday break.
I booked my ticket in advance and reserved my seat. An early train to get me into London before the main rush-hour. I took my lunch with me.
I also booked the next day off as holiday. I knew that I would be tired after a long day traveling combined with the training so I made sure that I had a restful day before returning to work. Luckily the weather was sunny and bright and I spent the day in the garden and in the garage making hedgehog houses. Perfect recuperation.
Routine maintenance
Maintaining a routine is not easy for me as my sleep patterns vary so much, as do my energy levels. I have learned instead to "go with the flow" and not worry too much if I don't quite follow my plans to the letter.
Good routines include, at least an hour or two before bedtime, shutting down all electronic equipment. As an information and social media junkie this is difficult for me and I probably pay the price in that my sleep can be disturbed by vivid dreams and I often wake after just 4 hours rest. Instead, I should read (a proper book, with real paper pages and not on Kindle) and in the morning, I should make time to start the day in a calm way by practising something like yoga or writing my journal.
I definitely need to work on this one. I think I'll start tomorrow.
Hopefully I shall survive my "busy" season with sanity intact having followed my own advice but roll on February.


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What is the cost of war? what is the bill? Major General Smedley Butler wrote: "This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all of its attendant miseries. Back -breaking taxation for generations and generations. For a great many years as a soldier I had a suspicion that war was a racket; not only until I retired to civilian life did I fully realize it…."
With all the domestic political news and the apocalyptic talk and actions surrounding John Roberts the Supreme Court and Obamacare it is hard to believe that we are at war for over 10 years and are at war or now preparing for war all over the Middle East. Iraq, Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, the Persian Gulf, Libya, Egypt, Pakistan, you name the place there is a real a present danger of US forces becoming involved in even more war. The Trinity of Evil, those Politicians, Pundits and Preachers and over 60% of Americans now are in favor of sending in ground troops to fight the Islamic State.
There are no statesmen left in Washington DC only shills of the Right and Left and their masters from Wall Street to K Street. The only people profiting from this are the war profiteers who even if the budget gets cut and they fail to deliver usable weapon systems on time or in budget will still get paid. The losers will be the military personnel who must fight the wars who will get tossed onto the street by those that claim that personnel costs are the problem. Of course those that make this point are almost always the same lobbyists that shill for the defense industries and the banks. But enough about them.
Right now tens of thousands of American military personnel and other Department of Defense, Federal law enforcement, intelligence, diplomatic, humanitarian workers as well as contractors in Afghanistan. Tens of thousands more (mostly contractors) are helping to shore up the Iraqi government against the Islamic State or are fighting wars by other names in Pakistan, Yemen, the Horn of Africa. Others are deployed to counter Iran or standing by to assist other allies should the conflict in Iraq and Syria spill over the boarders. Of course this does not take into account the instability in Egypt, Libya, Eastern and Central Africa that threatens even more war or the potential of turmoil in Europe, especially the Ukraine. Likewise a crisis with the Euro Crisis could bring about more financial disasters or even revolutions in countries that are our allies. By the way let's not forget about the nutcase leaders of North Korea who could provoke war on that side of the world in a heartbeat.
But never mind this, let's fight each other instead threaten insurrection when we don't get our way. But wait, I digress…
Did you know that while Americans stand in harms way almost every real or potential enemy has been armed, subsidized or assisted by American corporations and paid for by American tax dollars. We have armed much of the world with weapons that have already in Iraq and Afghanistan killed thousands of American military personnel. But those were small time weapons compared to what we have provided to Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and yes even Israel. F-15, F-16 and F-18 fighter planes, Tomahawk cruise missiles and Harpoon Anti-Ship Missiles, M-1 Tanks, M113 Fighting vehicles, Patriot Air Defense systems, you name the weapons system the war profiteers will sell it and US taxpayers will pay for it. These are weapons that very easily could be used with great effect to attack American interests should leaders in any of those countries decide to use them against us. I only include Israel because in 1967 its forces viciously attacked the USS Liberty which was operating in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea as Israel launched its pre-emptive war against Egypt. Although all of these countries are "allies" we must remember that alliances are only as good as the interests and values that unite nations.
Our defense industries with the support of the government sell advanced weapons to nations that often are less than trustworthy allies, allies of convenience that have little love for the United States but welcome the weapons and training that we provide. They often use them to suppress the aspirations of their own people and plant the cultivate the seeds of radicalism and revolution. It is hard not to cringe when pro-democracy protestors are killed by totalitarian regimes whose police and military are armed to the teeth with American made weapons. When those totalitarian regimes fall as did that of the Shah of Iran in 1979 those weapons fall into the hands of people radicalized against us by our support of their former oppressors.
Certainly nobody seriously believes that the angry masses in the countries that we have armed to the teeth with the latest in American weaponry would not use that weaponry against us should they desire. But wait…. our politicians, arms dealers, bankers and their political, religious and financial backers certainly wouldn't put Americans in harms way? Perish the thought, but not so quickly. They have done so before and will do it again.
Smedley Butler is one of under two dozen American military personnel to win the Congressional Medal of Honor twice. He saw the dangers of Fascism as well as the danger of unlimited corporate and business power to profit by war. Butler was not only a valiant Marine he was also a commander that in war and peace cared about those who served. He saw how American finance and banking interests helped drag us into the Fist World War, the promises broken by the government and the lives destroyed by war.
In his book War is a Racket Butler wrote eloquently about how the heads of corporations and their political supporters in both parties were the only benefactors of war. He wrote of the plight of the soldiers that served and returned wounded and often changed by war and he did not mince words in what he saw. He became an anti-war activist. He was a supporter of the Bonus Army, the veterans that "occupied" Washington DC during the last year of the Hoover Administration to get the bonuses promised for their service and were violently evicted by troops under the command of General Douglas MacArthur. If he was alive today I have no doubt that he would be an active supporter of the current "Occupy" movement and opponent of politicians, political activists, lobbyists and even preachers that advocate even more war.
Butler's War is a Racket as well as other published works are a worthwhile read and should make the most rabid fan of war think twice. Butler's patriotism and devotion to the United States and the Constitution is unquestioned. His warnings are strong, he was a prophet in regard to the dangers of the Military-Industrial Complex well before President Eisenhower coined the term as he left office. He detailed how corporations made obscene profits often by selling the US Military vast amounts of materials that it could not possibly use and which taxpayers bought while business leaders and bankers made their fortunes that they never had realized when the nation was at peace. He reminds us of the dangers that our founders recognized about entwining ourselves in other people's wars. While his answers on how to end war are now utopian dreams because of advances in technology and the wars which now rage without end in sight they are nonetheless not a bad place to start a debate.
Butler writes movingly about the price paid by veterans years after the war, men broken in body, mind and spirit from their war service.
"But the soldier pays the biggest part of this bill.
If you don't believe this, visit the American cemeteries on the battlefields abroad. Or visit any of the veterans' hospitals in the United States….I have visited eighteen government hospitals for veterans. In them are about 50,000 destroyed men- men who were the pick of the nation eighteen years ago. The very able chief surgeon at the government hospital in Milwaukee, where there are 3,800 of the living dead, told me that mortality among veterans is three times as great as among those who stayed home."
One would think that things would be better now but our veterans' health care system is a train wreck and there is an epidemic of suicide among active duty troops and veterans. In 2005 after years of hand wringing the Bush administration grudgingly increased the number of Soldiers and Marines even while cutting Navy personnel and ships to the minimum that they could despite ever increasing operational tempos. The Navy was reduced by over 50,000 sailors during the Bush years and now when the Navy is needed more it has been reduced to the point that 8-10 month deployments with short turn arounds will be normal.
Now the Obama administration is cutting back partly due to the withdraw from Iraq but mostly because of the economic crisis. However the bulk of these cuts are falling on the military personnel and not the war profiteers. The Army will be cut by nearly 80,000 in the coming years the Marines by 20,000 and that may increase if the budget takes the sequestration hit without any reduction in operational tempo. These Soldiers and Marines will enter a bleak job market where many employers give little value to military experience or training, which has resulted in a vastly higher unemployment rate for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans than the general population.
It wasn't much different in Butler's day. He writes:
"Boys with a normal viewpoint were taken out of the fields and offices and factories and classrooms and put into the ranks. They were remolded; they were made over; they were made to "about face"; to regard murder as the order of the day. They were put shoulder to shoulder and through mass psychology, they were entirely changed. We used them for a couple of years and trained them to think of nothing but killing and being killed.
The suddenly, we discharged them and told them to make another "about face"! This time they had to do their own readjusting, sans mass psychology, sans officers' aid and advice, sans nation-wide propaganda. We didn't need them anymore. So we scattered them about without any "three minute" or "Liberty Loan" speeches or parades."
Butler recounted another visit to a different veterans' hospital:
"In the government hospital at Marion, Indiana 1,800 of these boys are in pens! Five hundred of them in a barracks with steel bars and wires all around the outside of the buildings and on the porches. These have already been mentally destroyed. These boys don't even look like human beings. Oh, the looks on their faces! Physically they are in good shape but mentally they are gone."
There are thousands and thousands of these cases and more and more are coming in all the time…
That's a part of the bill. So much for the dead-they have paid their part of the war profits. So much for the mentally and physically wounded- they are paying now with thier share of the war profits. But others paid with the heartbreaks when they tore themselves away for their firesides and their families to don the uniform of Uncle Sam- on which a profit had been made…."
I could go on but I think that Butler says it quite well and with the passion of a Marine who was wounded on more than one occasion and won the Medal of Honor twice.
The only people that want war are those that profit from it and don't have to pay the price paid by those that have to fight them and pay for them. When I see pictures of Mitt Romney protesting in support of the Vietnam war while getting deferment after deferment to avoid service it makes my head spin. My head spins even more when I hear him talking brazenly about committing US troops to even more war. For me the pictures of Romney's pro-war protests as a college student avoiding war on educational and religious service deferments as millions of other Americans went to war are up there with the pictures of "Hanoi" Jane Fonda giving aid and comfort to those that were killing our troops.
Butler's detractors and they are legion on the political right attempt to paint him as an isolationist or appeaser of Hitler. However they misunderstand him and his work. They don't understand as Butler understood that there would not have been a Nazi Germany without Versailles and that was not possible without the American intervention on the side of Britain and France in 1917. That involvement was driven by the bankers and industrialists who had supplied raw materials, weapons and technical patents to the British and French, and had done so before with the Germans who believed that they would lose their investments if the Germans won the war. That would have happened in late 1917 or early 1918 had not the Americans declared war and entered the war on the side of the British and French.
Most of Butler's current critics have never served a day in uniform much less a day in a combat zone. They make their livings and profits by the sacrifice of others and other than a few of his quotes have never read anything about him.
If you sense indignation in my voice it is real. I have lived the nightmare of PTSD for over 7 years. I see and work with the young men and women that have bravely endured the hardship of combat deployments and come home physically, mentally and spiritually wounded. To our credit we are trying to do better, but that doesn't always happen. But for the war profiteers even that will be too much. If military spending is cut you can bet that they will not take the hit that military personnel, their families and our veterans will take. They and their political benefactors will not allow it.
I am a military man through and through. I have spent nearly my whole life associated with the military as a dependent of a Navy Chief who served in Vietnam and a career of over 30 years divided between the Army and Navy. Some of my friends dads did not return from Vietnam, other friends and those who I have served with have paid with their lives in Iraq or Afghanistan while others suffer the continuing wounds of war.
This is personal for me and it is also motivated by my faith as a Christian. Today when I see prominent and politically influential right wing Evangelical Christian leaders and pastors beat the drums of war I am reminded of how Butler chided the pro-war clergy propagandists of the Great War. He wrote: "So vicious was this war propaganda that even God was brought into it. With few exceptions our clergymen joined in the clamor to kill, kill, kill. To kill Germans. God is on our side…it is his will that the Germans be killed." Only today, it is not a blood lust for German blood, it is a blood lust for Moslem blood and it gets louder ever day.
Such preaching is not much different from the right wing pro-war preachers who advocate killing Moslems simply because they are Moslems and that go out of their way to preach the value of "pre-emptive war" despite such wars being against the Christian understanding of the "Just War" or international law against such war that we as Americans helped develop after World War Two at Nuremberg and to which we hold the leaders of what we call "rogue nations."
I only wish that our leaders; political leaders of both parties, religious leaders, and even business leaders would see the folly of this course and their responsibility for the results.
Someone has to say it.
Padre Steve+
Note: All quotations from "War is a Racket" by Smedley Butler copyright 1935 and 2003 by the Butler family. Amazon Kindle edition.


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GR: This is the 25-year update of the warning scientists gave in 1992.
"More than 15,000 scientists have signed a chilling article titled "World Scientists' Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice," urging global leaders to save the planet from environmental catastrophe.
"The plea, published Monday in the international journal BioScience, is likely the largest-ever formal support by scientists for a journal article with 15,372 total signatories, Motherboard noted. The scientists represent 184 countries and have a range of scientific backgrounds. Prominent signatories include Jane Goodall, E.O. Wilson and James Hansen.
"The "Second Notice"—an update to the original version published 25 years ago by the Union of Concerned Scientists and signed by 1,700 scientists then—underscores the lack of progress from the original document.
"The first notice started with this statement: "Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course." It described trends such as the growing hole in the ozone layer, pollution and depletion of freshwater sources, overfishing, deforestation, plummeting wildlife populations, as well as unsustainable rises in greenhouse gas emissions, global temperatures and human population levels.
"Unfortunately, the authors of the current article said that humanity has failed to progress on most of the measures.
"They ominously warned, "time is running out."
"Especially troubling is the current trajectory of potentially catastrophic climate change" from the burning of fossil fuels and other human activities, the paper stated.
"William J. Ripple, lead author of the current article and a distinguished professor of ecology at Oregon State University, told the Associated Press he was stunned by the level of support for the manuscript.
"I initially sent it out to 40 of my colleagues," he explained. "After 24 hours there were 600 scientists who signed it. Within two days, there were 1,200. There were so many people signing that our website crashed a couple of times."
"According to the AP, the researchers document a number of alarming trends from 1992 to 2016, such as a 28.9 percent reduction of vertebrate wildlife, a 62.1 percent increase in CO2 emissions, a 167.6 percent rise in global average annual temperature change and a 35.5 percent increase in the global population (about 2 billion people)." –Lorraine Chow (More: https://www.ecowatch.com/scientists-environmental-warning-2509347840.html.)


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I know it is Sunday and usually I don't do big posts on the weekend, but I am so in catch up mood. My real life keeps getting in the way of my creative one.
Actually, my real life is getting more and more opportunities to be creative. I am still working with my elementary choirs, and we just started a new semester's project, so there is all that set up. Love it, but the paper work can become a bore. However, this week the paperwork should settle, and the fun choir part should be at full mast.
Then there is the art program I have been working on at the elementary school. I am at the point where the grades are about to shift again, so the work is adding up. In about three weeks I will find my new groove, and that should settle again.
Finally, I've been picked up by a middle school choral group to do some choreography work…my first love(dancing, not choral). This is so satisfying, to be back in my comfort zone, but I find my mind constantly focused on the music and the movement. It is a joy, because I think the kids like what I am teaching them. They are surprising me daily, and trust me when I say, these kids are really talented.
But with all this other work, plus the redetermination to push out more art journals and canvas work, my time management skills are really coming into question. If only the house didn't need clean, laundry could do itself, and my children stopped wanting something like food.
Alas, the whining and explanation is over, here is the little bits of art.
First up this morning is a color challenge from the gurus of color over at Color Throwdown. It almost feels like spring is in the air over at CTD, with their spring like colors of pale pink, pale blue, and pale green.
I pulled out some Stampendous stamps and a bit of watercolor paper and started stamping out the little outfits using a combination of Distress pens and Spectrum Aqua pens. I masked off the outfits and then stamped out the heads, hands and legs of the little critters in some Archival black ink. I pulled out a watercolor brush and started spreading the watercolor pens ink through out the outfits. I added a bit of watercolor for the grass, and then trimmed up the card stock. I snagged a bit of textured black card stock and trimmed it to fit an A2 card. I pulled out a Stampendous sentiment stamp and stamped out a sentiment in some white embossing powder. I added two pink pearls, and called the card done. I know the black card stock makes the card less spring like, but I am just not ready for spring yet.
Up next is the this and that challenge over at Fusion Card Challenge. This week the yellow floral theme picture is for the Aussies celebrating Australia Day, and I was drawn in by that bloom. However, I have always tried to complete the fusion, so I studied the sketch carefully.
I pulled out an old (one of my first stamped sets every) Inkadinkadoo stamp set and stamped out the mason jar using my Spectrum Aqua pens. I then pulled out a secondary, Inkadinkadoo stamp set with wisps of floral and fauna. I colored up the stamps with my Spectrum Aqua markers and stamped out the images, occasionally adding water where need to soften the edges. I trimmed up the water color paper and pulled out some floral vellum. I trimmed the vellum up to match the sketch, and adhered them to the back of the water paper. I pulled out an Inkadinkadoo sentiment and stamped it out in some soft brown Aqua pen. I added a few black pen marks around the sentiment to help it stand out. Finally, I added the watercolor paper to a thick sheet of kraft card stock.
The crew over at Catch the Bug Stella Says Sketch have a really fun sketch to play with this week.
I pulled out a JJ digi stamp from Bugaboo and printed it out onto some card stock. I pulled out my Prismacolor colored pencils and colored in the image. I pulled out some pretty blue and white printed paper and trimmed it up to match the sketch's basic design. I adhered the printed paper and the JJ image, and realized, the card was absolutely blah… I pulled out four little heart stamps and stamped them out on the top and bottom of the card and colored them in with some pencils. Finally, I pulled out my gel sparkled pen and touched up all kinds over area with extra sparkle. I finally grabbed my white gel pen, and detailed the printed words with a bit of white. I do love the juxtaposition of the hearts on the boarders of the card and the sentiment. They just don't quite go together.
Over at Muse Card Club, this week we have been give a beautiful floral inspiration card with a polkadot printed paper.
I pulled out an Essentials by Ellen stamp set and stamped out the floral image and two leaves onto some scrapes of card stock. I colored them in with an ink water brush, and softened the colors with a bit of water. I fussy cut out the stamped images and set them aside. I pulled out a off white polkadot printed paper and trimmed it to fit an A2 card. I die cut out a star using a We are Memory Keeps die. I adhered the paper to the card stock and using some dimensional tape, added the flower and leaves. Finally using some green Archival ink, I stamped out a Inkadinkadoo sentiment.
Over at the clean and simple group Freshly Made Sketches a new sketch has shown up that allows for a bit of freedom and fun. Those circles being labeled as any shape, makes me all kinds creative.
I pulled out a Paper Smooches stamped set and stamped out the apple, peach, strawberry, and blueberry. I colored them in using some watercolor pens and highlighted and low lighted the images. I fussy cut out the images (for reasons I can't explain, I forgot I actually have dies that match this set. Going to have to redo the storage so I can remember this and not have to fussy cut). I trimmed out a strip of glitter paper to match the bar of the sketch. I adhered the fruits, adding a bit of dimensional tape to the front ones. I pulled out some purple Archival ink and added the sentiment. I found that the card was B.O.R.I.N.G, so I pulled out the little three bit circles and started adding them everywhere. That solved the boring problem and I think made the card a bit fun.
Finally, we have a color challenge from the design team over at Catch the Bug. The pallet of colors is such a lovely pallet of winter hues.
I on the other hand, didn't go with a winter scene. No, I pulled out a Stella stamp from Bugaboo, and printed it up onto some card stock. I colored the image in with my copics, trying to get the markers to match up with the colors in the challenge post. I trimmed up the card stock, knowing I wanted to make the card a little off center. I pulled out a text printed paper and trimmed it to fit an A2 card. I added a bit of grey ribbon and a bow to the bottom of the Stella and adhered the picture to the card stock. I love how fun any stella image turns out, and no sentiment ever seemed truer.
That is it for today. Hopefully, I can find a way to organize my time to get back on track. Till then, have fun creating.


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Posted on October 12, 2017
By Tom A
Category: Projects
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"Thomas and his Engineers, Students, and Recent Graduate (ESRG) community has been a big help and inspiration to me personally. He supports thousands of young engineers with advice, and when someone needs help, I'm always happy to see the level of engagement in the group. It takes years for engineers to recognize the skills required to have a successful career. It's group's like ESRGs and leaders like Thomas who help us have a better career!"
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Against all our prejudices, FileMaker has debuted a phenomenal consumer-focused app. FileMaker is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Apple, so you'd hope its baby database would look good but its position doesn't afford it any preferential treatment; Bento is Leopard-only, and this is because it's had to wait for the ability, in this latest OS, to access Address Book and iCal information natively, courtesy of public APIs.
Worth the wait
Boy, are we glad they waited. As soon as you launch Bento, it pulls in your contacts from Address Book and events and to-dos from iCal. Unlike with some applications this isn't a one-time gulp of data. Neither is it using the Sync Services framework to round-trip information. No, it's actually interacting with the same raw data that Address Book and iCal provide an interface to. That means that if you make a change to a record in Address Book or iCal, it's instantly reflected in Bento, and vice versa. Bento supports all the fields that Address Book does – including the optional ones such as maiden name and nickname – and you can add your own fields too for use exclusively within Bento.
The main interface is split into three sections: on the left are your collections and data, on the right the list of fields associated with each collection, and in the centre the main records view.
Creating this main view is superbly simple. You can choose to add new libraries based on a range of templates – including project and event planning, billing, inventories and basic CRM models – or create one from scratch. You can use Address Book groups as the basis for your own collection types (though there's currently no support for Smart Groups) and when creating the main record view, it's just a matter of creating whatever fields you want in the pane on the right then dragging them into the main record view. This, set to anywhere from one to five columns wide, automatically reflows resizable fields so your forms look really great.
Good looking
A selection of visual themes helps here too, and if you tire of the pretty graphics, toggle to a table view instead, with optional automatic mathematical fields at the foot of each column to calculate totals, averages and the like.
The bundled templates are sophisticated, while creating the fields from scratch is easy too. Click the + button at the bottom of the Fields pane and you're prompted to add certain types of field. As well as the usual contact info and basic text/number/currency options, you can also create media wells that can hold pics, movies and even DRM-restricted AACs from the iTunes store. Creating calculation fields is a matter of dragging and dropping existing fields into the calculation window and using standard mathematical operators. Examples are only a click away.
Getting info into Bento is pretty straightforward too; it can parse CSV files – not Excel files, though you can export to CSV from Excel – and you can tie the CSV's fields to fields in your Bento collection. CSV export is available too.
The combination of friendly interface, comprehensive help and a welcome movie means you can get to grips with this database tool more quickly than any other we've seen. It's not intended as a server-hosted database to which you can attach scripts, and those apps that do specific tasks and yet are themselves databases – MYOB, for example – might be better suited if all you want is to manage your finances, say. But Bento is by far and away the best attempt we've seen to build a do-anything database app you can sit down in front of and just use. And what's more, it feels like Apple made it.


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Seattle Agent magazine is Seattle's leading source of local news and information for the well-informed residential real estate professional. Through its robust website and newsletters, Seattle Agent provides real estate professionals with the breaking news and in-depth features that they need to build their business and stay connected to the community.
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Judge Chris Ponder
Judge Brooke Allen
What is Probate?
Probate is a court proceeding by which a will is proved valid or invalid. The term is used to mean all proceedings pertaining to the administration of estates such as the process by which assets are gathered; applied to pay debts, taxes and expenses of administration; and distributed to those designated as beneficiaries in the will.
The probate courts of Tarrant County are statutory probate courts presided over by judges elected on a countywide basis.
In general, the probate court probates the wills of deceased persons; establishes guardianships for incapacitated persons and minors; supervises the administration of the estates of deceased persons and incapacitated persons and minors; hears matters involving inter vivos, testamentary and charitable trusts; and hears all cases involving civil mental health commitments.
The probate court also has jurisdiction to hear lawsuits appertaining to or incident to an estate of a decedent or ward and actions by or against a personal representative of an estate of a decedent or ward. It is common for the court to hear any type of civil litigation, including personal injury, property damage, breach of fiduciary duty and family law. The probate courts are charged with the responsibility of independently maintaining contact with every person under a guardianship each year. This is done through court visitor programs developed and maintained by each court.
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How can we express what the resurrection means?
It means vindication. Jesus really is the Messiah, the Anointed One, who fulfills the promise made to David. The chief priests had rejected him. The crowds had cried, "Crucify him!" Peter preached that the resurrection gives us the certainly "that God has made him both Lord and Christ" (Acts 2:36).
It means forgiveness. The wages of sin is death. God warned against eating fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, "for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die" (Genesis 2:17, ESV). The sacrificial system of the Law of Moses was a pointer to what God would some day do on the cross. Life was in the blood. A life was accepted in exchange for the life of a sinner. "He (that is God) made him who did not know sin a sin offering in our behalf, in order that we may become the righteousness of God in him" (2 Corinthians 5:21, my translation*).
It means reconciliation. Adam and Eve had walked with God in a way that it is difficult for us to imagine. Our only hint is in Genesis 3 when they heard the sound of God walking in the garden, and they knew what the sound meant, so they hid themselves because of their sin. Paradise was lost. Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden. Yet, God has sought to reconcile the world to himself. Because of Jesus' death, burial and resurrection, we can approach the throne of grace with confidence. As Christians, we become a temple of the Holy Spirit. We look forward to once more having access to the Tree of Life and walking in God's glorious presence.
It means transformation. Yes, I need to be forgiven of my sin, but I also need a moral makeover. I need to become a better person. Following Jesus and putting to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit is the process of that moral transformation. God's desire is that we be conformed to the image of his Son (Romans 8:29).
It means eternal life. Jesus is the resurrection and the life. Jesus is the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. Jesus' resurrection from the dead anticipates and is the basis of the resurrection at his coming. Death has been conquered. Yes, we may still have to experience physical death, but those who are in Jesus have life and hope of eternal life. "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life" (John 5:24, ESV). "And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son" (1 John 5:11, ESV).
How wonderful and marvelous — He is risen!
—Russ Holden
*The word "sin" is frequently used in the Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament) for "sin offering, so I've rendered it that way here for it makes the passage clearer.


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a window on their lives and work
The first week, there was an international book fair that featured booksellers' and publishers' stalls under a tent at the Zócalo, the central square crossed by tourists, vendors, and anyone else drawn by the restaurants and bands and political speeches. While dozens of would-be buyers combed the stalls for good deals, under another tent nearby, a succession of writers, critics, and cartoonists held forth to listeners.
The next week, a series of workshops, manuscript readings, and discussions drew Latin American writers, editors, and others involved in the book business to Oaxaca. Writing workshops were held in the public library and writers read from their manuscripts in its courtyard.
Then came several days of sessions on developing readers' communities. These were mostly held in a couple of the many other libraries scattered through the city – perhaps the most distinctive element of Oaxaca's literary scene.
Octavio Lara, a photographer, tipped me off to the first little library I visited, across from the grand Iglesia de Santo Domingo with its twin domed spires. There, in a modest one-story building housing the Instituto de Artes Gráficas (IAGO), I found a series of quiet rooms, some displaying art exhibits, others lined with books from the collection of Francisco Toledo, an artist and book publisher who created the institute.
This is perhaps Mexico's most distinguished collection of books and other materials on the graphic arts – and just a few blocks away there's a second IAGO collection of books on literature and history. Both libraries' international holdings are freely open to anyone who comes by.
IAGO has been a model for other multi-dimensional cultural centers that provide space not only for books but for workshops, lectures, and performances.
There is, for instance, Biblioteca Henestrosa, which contains the works and book collection of Andrés Henestrosa, a writer who made varied contributions to the study of the Zapotec language and oral tradition. A man who did not speak Spanish until he was 15, he treasured oral tradition but transformed it into written literature.
Sharing a building with Casa de la Ciudad (which is dedicated to preservation and sustainable development of Oaxaca), the Biblioteca Henestrosa offers free workshops for writers, and the night I dropped by at one of those to meet Fernando Lobo, a writer whose work I like, musicians were setting up in the building's courtyard for a concert.
Music, art, literature, and history intermingle in Oaxaca like old and familiar friends. A stroll through the Museo de Filatelia took me in and out of multiple worlds: in one room, an exhibit of stamps related to Mexican exports; in another, collages drawn from postal communications; then in the garden, illustrations for two postal-themed children's books spread out on walls open to the sky.
In the museum's library, I found David Karminksi Katz, the young staff member in charge of research for the exhibitions. He told me that an important part of the museum's mission is the production of books based on the exhibits. The books are beautifully designed, their production values high, and, of course, they're sold in the museum bookstore to bring in income.
The stamp library and the rest of the 37 libraries that show up on a glossy Oaxaca map devoted to them are just one face of a cultural boom that the city has experienced in the last 10 or 15 years.
There are also small independent publishers like Sur+ Ediciones and bigger ones like Almadía, whose books cover almost an entire wall of its originator, the bookstore Proveedora Escolar. There are smaller bookstores like La Jicara, which concentrates on selling books by independent publishers in Mexico and elsewhere and, in an adjoining room, offers food and drinks. There are journals like Avispero (Hornets' Nest), which publishes creative work and receives financial support from the federal government, and El Jolgorio (Revelry), a monthly culture calendar with thoughtful articles.
El Jolgorio, like much of the cultural activity in Oaxaca, carries on with the support of Fundación Alfredo Harp Helú, named for the man who funds it, a former banker and very rich (974th on Forbes' billionaires' list). The foundation has played a leading role in preserving and renovating Oaxaca's historic center – most dramatically in the case of the Ex-Convent of San Pablo, which, along with foundation offices, houses an academic center and library.
The original sixteenth-century edifice had undergone earthquakes and conversion to other uses and was really a wreck of its former self until finally, in the early twenty-first century, the Harp Helú Foundation invested in its restoration—a dramatic merging of old and new. Along one side of the courtyard, the architect raised a sheet of glass behind which you can see users of a library dedicated to the history of Oaxaca and Mesoamerica – and through the glass, the ghostly old convent wall.
Impressive as the San Pablo edifice is, I suspect I'm not the only one to be just as beguiled by the new public library for children – a series of rooms winding like a snake through a hillside site where the architect was instructed not to cut down any trees.
When I arrived there at dusk one evening to hear a librarian from Colombia, just a few adults and children were dispersed through the library's rooms. When I left in the dark about an hour later, the lighted rooms I passed were nearly full.
Oaxaca's riches for readers are astonishing in the capital of a state that is one of the poorest, and most indigenous, in all Mexico. Just steps from the little libraries of the historic downtown, street vendors go from tourist to tourist with their stacks of hand-woven cloth and embroidered blouses, while indigenous families with nothing to sell sit against walls holding out plastic cups for alms.
Coming into the street one day from a session on encouraging reading, I remembered the line erroneously attributed to Marie Antoinette: "Let them eat cake." Given the poverty all around in Oaxaca, I wondered: Was I hearing a variation in these sessions – "Let them read books"?
As in Paris at the time of the French Revolution, discontent rumbles through the streets of Oaxaca. In 2006, rising up against what they saw as the Oaxaca state governor's indifference to people's needs, thousands occupied the city center where the libraries are concentrated. The protest began in May with a strike by teachers. Others joined their marches, streets were barricaded, the tourist trade turned upside down, and death squads attacked demonstrators. The federal riot police came in. Six months and at least a dozen deaths after it started, the uprising was over.
But unrest still simmers, and police keep a watchful eye on the city. While I was there, the city hosted a conference of representatives from other UNESCO world heritage sites, and overnight the number of policemen in the tourist area – already plentiful by American standards – multiplied. Open trucks bearing police with military-style automatic weapons patrolled the streets.
Then, too, there is the wave of drug-related violence sweeping across Mexico. In a session on reading communities held in Proveedora Escolar, the director of the bookstore's radio program on books – Oscar Javier Martínez – linked the crisis of violence in Mexico with the fact that too few Mexicans read.
After the session, he told me he got the idea from Mexican poet José Emilio Pocheco but Javier himself elaborated. In a country where many children are growing up in families that have been destroyed or are themselves violent, he said, the only way those children will learn empathy is by reading – seeing in the characters of novels the humanity of others.
The problem is, by and large, most Mexicans don't read books. Although Mexico's official literacy rate approaches 100%, studies show the rate of book reading considerably below the United States'. That's not surprising, given the low incomes and high prices of books in Mexico. As one librarian told me, Mexicans are busy "trying to survive."
Indeed. Threaded through my own exploration of Oaxaca's literary life were confrontations with naked need: a child peddling toothpicks in a cafe, a hunched man in a sombrero offering me his little wooden spoons for a dollar apiece, insisting, over and over, as if I just did not understand: "Es para la sal. Es para la sal." ("it's for salt. It's for salt.")
In such a context, I suppose it would be possible to dismiss the little libraries of Oaxaca as entertainments for the privileged, but I can't help but think that their spaces incubate thoughts that spill into the streets – just as after the 2006 uprising, demonstrators' graffiti spilled into an IAGO exhibit dedicated to their art.
In one of the Jolgorio articles celebrating IAGO's 25th anniversary, Pedro Valtierra, the director of Cuartoscuro, a national photo magazine, speculated that cultural centers like those in Oaxaca could be the true solution for social problems in many parts of Mexico. As a historian, I know there are no single solutions to anything, but perhaps it is not too much to hope that through these open doors will blow winds of change. – Carol Polsgrove, January 2014. Photos by Carol Polsgrove. For more on Oaxaca's literary scene, see Fernando Lobo on writing in Oaxaca.
~I enjoyed reading this "ethnographic essay" on Oaxaca's libraries! I like the way you situate these libraries as part of the place's public culture and as part of a larger culture of public literacy, which is shaped by various kinds of institutional interventions, from commercial to state-owned, children-oriented to adult-oriented, and American-style to local iterations. The pictures are delightful and really help those not familiar with this context to grasp the human and material dimensions of this reading culture. Above all I agree with the poet José Emilio Pocheco that novels/books can enable us to build those bridges of empathy across national and cultural boundaries…..and across gender, race, and class boundaries. – Radhika Parameswaran (a big fan of libraries, not the virtual kind), February 2014


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Ahead of the opening rounds of the 2018 European Formula 3 Championship, Blockchain market leaders, Dragon Corp, has announced a multiyear partnership with leading the Hitech F3 team. The partnership, which spans both the European and Asian F3 championships, forms a key element to Dragon's increasing involvement in motorsport and sees the industry leaders supporting tomorrow's stars of Formula One as they find their way up the motorsport ladder.
Commenting on the agreement Paul Moynan, Co-Founder of Dragon remarked:
"Everybody at Dragon is very excited to begin this long-term partnership with Hitech GP. We have identified motorsport as a strategic avenue for growing awareness of our brand and the international reach of Hitech GP's Formula 3 programmes offers significant visibility in our key markets."
Following a series of strong performances in pre-season testing from young drivers, Enaam Ahmed, Alex Palou, and Ben Hingeley, Hitech head into the 2018 season as favourites.
Dragon's partnership with Hitech builds on existing partnerships in motorsports established in Formula E with Championship Leaders, Techeetah, and in ELMS with Spa 6hrs Class winners G-Drive.
On the announcement, Hitech GP Team Principle Oliver Oakes commented:
"The relationship with Dragon represents our most significant partnership to date and offers significant long-term investment for our Formula 3 programmes. Dragon is a young and exciting company with big ambitions, and they recognise the value of motorsport's global stage to grow their brand. We share their love of technology and innovation, and will work hard to ensure the partnership achieves our shared objectives on and off track."
In the coming months, further details regarding Dragon's involvement with Hitech in the Asian Formula 3 Championship alongside additional programmes with the Hitech GP team will be announced.


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As I recover from my Turkey Day gorging (as well as possibly the worst offering of Thanksgiving Day football games in history, with all 3 NFL games and the Texas-Texas A&M tilt being blowouts), I'm feeling strangely good about the Bears this week. Adrian Peterson will break a tackle or three, but I think the rest of the Vikings will be held in check. The Illini basketball team isn't half bad so far (I'll eventually get to my postseason review of the football team once my anger subsists), while my man crush on Derrick Rose is growing exponentially on a daily basis. Here are this week's parlay picks (home teams in CAPS):
(1) West Virginia Mountaineers (-3) over PITTSBURGH PANTHERS
(2) Miami Hurricanes (-1.5) over NORTH CAROLINA STATE WOLFPACK
(3) FLORIDA STATE SEMINOLES (+16.5) over Florida Gators
Frank the Tank's College Football Parlay Record
Last Week: 1-2
Illini Games for the Season: 5-6
Overall Season: 18-20-1
(1) Indianapolis Colts (-4.5) over CLEVELAND BROWNS
(2) GREEN BAY PACKERS (-3) over Carolina Panthers
(3) Chicago Bears (+3.5) over MINNESOTA VIKINGS
Frank the Tank's NFL Football Parlay Record
Last Week: 1-2
Bears Games for the Season: 3-7–1
Overall Season: 17-16-3
(Image from ehow)


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Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Easy Breakfast Braid
I can't wait to get home to the hubs and make him some breakfas. I will be home in a week and a half. I can't wait. It has been 4 wks since I have seen my husband. That is way to long!!!! But I am coming home to a new place. The place has a huge fenced in backyard where I can grow a massive garden!!! Yippee!!! In Florida I could start planting next month!!!!
Breakfast Braid
1 (13.8 oz) can Refridgerated pizza crust dough
cooking spray
1 TB olive oil
1/4 cp. chopped onion
4 oz. sausage
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cp. monterary jack cheese
1/4 cp. cheddar cheese
(It calls for jalapeno, but my MIL can't eat spicy)
1 lg. egg white
1. Lay out the dough on a cooking sheet. Spray both sides. Roll out to about 15x10 in.
2. Preheat oven at 425
3. Brown the onions and sausage in the olive oil. When the sausage is browned then add the eggs.
4. Sprinkle the cheese down the center of the braid. Top with the Egg mixture. Add the cheddar cheese on top. (If using jalapenos then add to the top of the cheese.)
5 . Cut diagonal slits in the dough on each side about 2 in apart then criss cross them.
6. Brush with the egg whites.
7. Bake for 15 min. Let sit for 5 min. then slice the braid.
14 comments:
Yay.. I am so happy for oyu, seeing your hubby, moving in, hope all goes well!!!ReplyDelete
This breakfast sounds fantastic, perfect for a school day! Love the cheesy gooeyness!!
I love breakfast braids. All those goodies wrapped into one meal. That is great about your house and your yard! I'm getting ready to move to a new house with a big yard too. We'll have to share gardening tips. :)ReplyDelete
Wow, what a yummy picture, I'm positively drooling!ReplyDelete
They look mouthwatering with lots melted cheese filling!ReplyDelete
OMG look at that cheese. *drool*ReplyDelete
That's so great that you'll be going home soon. It will be nice to have a place you can call home.
Now that is one serious breakfast!ReplyDelete
Yay. I love this idea. I have done something similar with refrigerated biscuits and a muffin tin.ReplyDelete
I got a Kitchenaid Mixer for Christmas and I am too scared to make my own bread yet. Any first-time advice?
Yay, for coming home!ReplyDelete
I bet my crew would love that as well.
I am not going to tell my family about this meal or they'd make me get up and make it! Delicious! So glad that things are going well for you. Soon you will be together. I left you "an appreciation" on my blog.ReplyDelete
Breakfast braids are just wonderful aren't they. Thanks for this post.ReplyDelete
Hi Miranda! Thankyou for the comment you left on my blog. I live in Melbourne Australia, so I am a bit further from you than you thought!ReplyDelete
Thanks for your interest in my YamDaisy cafe. It is still at the idea stage, but I hope to make it real!
PS Lovely breakfast!
So great to hear that you'll soon be reunited with your hubby! I can't believe it's already been that long! You are strong my friend! P.S. need all the scoop on your garden. Would love to have you as guest blogger on my gardening series!!ReplyDelete
These breads look absolutely yummy! I can't wait to make some too. hmm...mmm.... I bet your hubby would love it too!ReplyDelete


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INDIANAPOLIS – Four months after the finale of "The Ultimate Fighter 17," cast member Zak Cummings finally got his chance in the octagon, and the 29-year-old made the most of the opportunity.
Cummings stifled "The Ultimate Fighter: The Smashes" cast member Ben Alloway and scored a slick submission win in the final minute of the opening round.
The welterweight bout was part of today's UFC Fight Night 27 event at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. It streamed on Facebook ahead of additional prelims on FOX Sports 2 and a main card on FOX Sports 1.
The bout was a gritty grapple fest to open, as the pair battled against the cage to secure dominant positioning. Cummings finally brought the fight to the floor late in the frame, and the effort would pay off.
Alloway briefly teased a guillotine, but Cummings pulled his head free and abandoned a chance to seure his opponent's back in favor of moving to a headlock position. He immediately adjusted his grip into a D'Arce choke attempt and squeezed tight on the hold. Trapped, Alloway was forced to tap with 41 seconds left in the opening frame.
Fighting for the first time at 170 pounds, Cummings said his long-awaited UFC debut was just a sign of things to come.
It felt amazing," Cummings said after the win. "All the hard work, the blood, sweat and tears – it's been a very long time. I'm here to stay."
Cummings (16-3 MMA, 1-0 UFC) now boasts a three-fight win streak and is 6-1 in his past seven official appearances. Alloway (12-5 MMA, 1-2 UFC) has dropped consecutive fights after winning his UFC debut.
Up-to-the-minute UFC Fight Night 27 results include:
- Zak Cummings def. Ben Alloway via submission (D'Arce choke) – Round 1, 4:19
- Roger Bowling vs. Abel Trujillo declared a no-contest (unintentional illegal knee) – Round 2, 4:57
For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 27, stay tuned to the UFC Events section of the site.
Matt Erickson contributed to this report on-site in Indianapolis.


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Non (aka nonsummerjack) is a Japanese cosplayer with a mild case of racial confusion. Kind of like what Rachel Dolezal had. Anyways, her body is awesome and you'll sure to love looking at her.
Check out the latest leaks over at the NudoStar forum. Thanks in advance!
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/nonsummerjack
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/non_nonsummerjack/


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How much am I really liable for?
Dear Dave,
I have old credit card debt that goes back a few years. The account has been sold and re-sold to several collection companies. The limit on the card was $300, but with late charges and fees I now owe $1,500. Am I liable for the extra $1,200?
Dear Monica,
You agreed to their terms, which included the right to charge fees and penalties. Legally, they can do this. The honorable thing would be to send the company you contracted with a check for the full amount.
However, that company no longer owns the debt, and they won't get the money. They sold the debt. The present holder is just hoping to get something out of it. They buy debt in volume, dirt cheap, and whatever they can collect from any creditor is profit.
The current collection company would probably be thrilled to settle for a lot less than face value. Make them an offer, but start really low. You can probably meet them somewhere in the middle and settle this for around $500.
Do not give them any money until you have in your hand – on paper, in writing -- a statement showing the amount for which they will settle, and do not give them electronic access to your bank account, either.
Once you have this in hand, send them a cashier's check or money order, and keep a copy of that payment and the letter for the rest of your natural life!
-- Dave
Dear Dave,
Your plan has been a real blessing to us. Last week, my mother-in-law told my husband they haven't paid their property taxes yet. Three thousand dollars is due. I love my in-laws, but they're big spenders. They've got plenty of money and love to take lots of trips. We make good money, too, and could help them out, but we're afraid this may be just the tip of the iceberg. What's your advice on handling this?
Dear Kelly,
This is a really touchy situation. First of all, you shouldn't do anything. Your husband needs to handle this, because he's their son. Even if you make kind, polite suggestions, they'll assume you're the one withholding from them. You don't want to be labeled as the evil daughter-in-law!
I understand your position and agree that you don't want to enable their bad habits. Giving a drunk a drink is never a good idea. But this is family we're talking about. You should try to find a way to help them if you can. If that help includes money, make certain you know exactly where it goes. When you give someone $3,000 (the amount needed for the taxes) you earn the right to have a say in what's happening.
Maybe your husband could go have coffee with them and just talk about things. He could explain how you guys are getting out of debt, and living on a budget to get control of your money. He could tell them how it's been a fabulous thing for your marriage and your finances, and that he'd love to show them how you're doing it.
I've got a feeling that mom and dad didn't raise their son to have dessert first and then eat his vegetables, but that's exactly what they are doing. They need to pay their property taxes before they go running off on a bunch of fancy trips.
From what you said, they've got the money to take care of what needs to be done and have some fun. But if they don't correct their course, they're liable to have their financial dignity stripped away.
-- Dave
(Dave Ramsey is a syndicated financial columnist. For more financial advice please visit daveramsey.com)


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Never before have we experienced a situation such as exists in Christchurch today. As was seen on Campbell Live last night people are at breaking point. Even the ambulance officers who were interviews, some of whom had lost their own homes appeared to be close to losing it, fighting on because they are trained to, because "my uniform says I am there to help". Men saying they "Cried last week for the first time in 20 years".
The situation is looking incredibly serious. We have our 2nd largest city full of people suffering from Earthquake Syndrome. Interestingly it is very difficult to find information about the psychological impact from a New Zealand perspective, which I blogged about yesterday it seems as if the authorities are keeping it as quiet as possible, worried that it will get worse if people start talking about it.
In the absence of anything else, I think that is exactly what they should be doing, but more on that in my next blog. Maybe its naive of me, but today as a citizen of NZ with no mandate or authority I emailed Dr Martin Seligman of the Positive Psychology Centre at Penn University. In the US they experience repeated incidents of natural disasters in certain areas and of course with their military forces they also have extensive experience in PTSD. In NZ we really have no skills to understand or deal with repeat natural disasters and their human psychological consequences at a level like this, which in my opinion is why we are doing very little about it. We aren't coping with the demands of repairing buildings, deciding which suburbs stay or go. We still aren't dealing with the damage to buildings and the EQC is not paying trades people who are close to losing their businesses for trying to help people keep their homes habitable.
If you haven't seen the Campbell Live tent recordings where they left people in a tent without any interviewers prompting them, to say how they feel, watch the following video and tell me you are not moved.


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Join us.
wine predator.............. gwendolyn alley
Congress is considering two major bills.
- The USA Freedom Act curtails NSA surveillance abuses.
- The FISA Improvements Act attempts to legalize bulk data collection of phone records.
We need to tell Congress to pass the USA Freedom Act and amend it to make it even stronger. Here's how.
- Attend an event in your area
- Ask your representatives the tough questions
- Write to your representative about NSA reform
- Download the Reform The NSA app on iTunes
- Share on social media.
- Use the #stopthensa hashtag on Twitter to help spread the word!
This Information and more from The Day We Fight Back: https://thedaywefightback.org/


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Red Paddle Co. 10'6" MAX RACE MSL inflatable SUP
Product Description
Who's it for? Perfect for young guns looking to take their paddling up a notch
If you're a junior racer looking for a high-performance inflatable SUP that'll help you mix it in race conditions, we recommend the 10'6" Max Race, which is built for speed and close competition. Now available in two widths 24″ and 26″ to suit a wider range of paddlers.
Our patented RSS system means the board is super-stiff, while its narrow nose and tail make it good for speed and agility, and its removable fin and double nose runner fins help it slice through the water. Once you've crossed the finish line, just pack it away, throw it on your back, and head for the next race.
Multiple carry handles on the board allow for quick entry and exit of the water for technical racing, while the Red embossed decked with diamond cut tail section offers ultimate grip whilst paddling and manoeuvres.
Which board to choose? For those weighing up to 60kg, the 24″ board is perfect, while the wider 26″ board is for those over 60kg.
Length 10'6" Width 24"/610mm - 26"/660mm Thickness 4.7"/120mm Volume 180 litres - 197 litres Rider Weight Up to 60kgs/132lbs - 75kgs/165lbs
Product Details
- Variant: Default Title
- In Stock: 1
- Weight: 75.0 lb
- Product Type: SUP Boards
- Brand: Red Paddle Co.


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Replacement e-Bike battery lock.
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