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EVEN in these enlightened days there seems to be in some minds a strange confusion as to the understanding of the principle of Equality for which we plead, and which is one of the first principles laid down in the Charter of our Liberties. What is meant in that charter is Equality of all before the Law; not by any means social equality, which belongs to another region of political ideas altogether.
A friend who has lived in South Africa, and who has had natives working for and with him, tells me of this confusion of ideas among some of the more vulgar stamp of white colonists, who, my friend observes, amuse themselves by assuming a familiarity in intercourse with the natives, which works badly. It does not at all increase their respect for the white man, but quite the contrary, while it is a little calculated to produce self‐respect in the native. My friend found the natives naturally respectful and courteous, when treated justly and humanely, in fact as a gentleman would treat them. Above all things, they honour a man who is just. They have a keen sense of justice, page: 134 and a quick perception of the existence of this crowning quality in a man. Livingstone said that he found that they also have a keen eye for a man of pure and moral life.
The natives in the Transvaal have never asked for the franchise, or for the smallest voice in the Government. In their hearts they hoped for and desired simple legal justice; they asked for bread, and they received a stone. It does not seem desirable that they should too early become "full fledged voters." Some sort of Education test, some proof of a certain amount of civilization and instruction attained, might be applied with advantage; and to have to wait a little while for that does not seem, from the Englishwoman's point of view at least, a great hardship, when it is remembered how long our agricultural labourers had to wait for that privilege, and that for more than fifty years English women have petitioned for it, and have not yet obtained it, although they are not, I believe, wholly uncivilized or uneducated.
The Theology of the Boers has been much commented upon; and it is supposed by some that, as they are said to derive it solely from the Old Testament Scriptures, it follows that the ethical teaching of those Scriptures must be extremely defective. A Swiss Pastor writes to me: "It is time to rescue the Old Testament from the Boer interpretation of it. We have not enough of Old Testament righteousness among us Christians." This is true. Those who have studied those Scriptures intelligently see, through much that appears harsh and strange in the Mosaic prescriptions, a wisdom and tenderness which approaches to the Christian ideal, as well as certain severe rules and restrictions which, when observed and maintained, lifted the moral standard of the Hebrew people far above that of the surrounding nations. When Christ came on earth, He swept page: 135 away all that which savoured of barbarism, the husk which often however, contained within it a kernel of truth capable of a great development. "Ye have heard it said of old times," He reiterated, "but I say unto you"—and then He set forth the higher, the eternally true principles of action.
Yet if the Transvaal teachers and their disciples had read impartially (though even exclusively) the Old Testament Scriptures, they could not have failed to see how grossly they were themselves offending against the divine commands in some vital matters. I cite, as an example, the following commands, given by Moses to the people, not once only, but repeatedly. Had these commands been regarded with as keen an appreciation as some others whose teaching seems to have an appreciation as some others whose teaching seems to have an opposite tendency, it is impossible that the natives should have been treated as they have been by Boer Law, or that Slavery or Serfdom should have existed among them for so many generations. The following are some of the often‐repeated commands and warnings:—
Ex. xii. v verse 19.—"One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you."
Num. ix. v verse 14.—"If a stranger shall sojourn among you, .... ye shall have one ordinance, both for the stranger, and for him that was born in the land."
Num. xv. v verse 15.—"One ordinance shall be both for you of the congregation and also for the stranger that sojourneth with you, an ordinance for ever in your generation: as ye are so shall the stranger be before the Lord."
Verse 16.—"One law and one manner shall be for you, and for the stranger that sojourneth with you."
Lev. xix. v verse 33.—"And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him."
Verse 34.—"But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall page: 136 be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt."
Verse 35.—"Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in mete‐yard, in weight, or in measure."
Although the natives of the Transvaal were the original possessors of the country, they have been reckoned by the Boers as strangers and foreigners among them. They have treated them as the ancient Jews treated all Gentiles as for ever excluded from the Commonwealth of Israel,—until in the "fulness of time" they were forced by a great shock and terrible judgments to acknowledge, with astonishment, that "God had also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life," and that they also had heard the news of the glorious emancipation of all the sons of God throughout the earth.
Not only is the non‐payment, but even delay in the payment of wages condemned by the Law of Moses. Is it possible that Boer theologians, who quote Scripture with so much readiness, have never read the following?
Lev. xix. v verse 13.—"Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour, neither rob him: the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning."
Deut. xxiv. v verse 14—"Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren, or of the strangers that are in thy land, within thy gates:"
Verse 15.—"At his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it; for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it: lest he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto thee."
Jer. xxii. v verse 13.—"Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his page: 137 neighbour's service without wages, and giveth him not for his work."
Mal. iii. v verse 5.—"And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against ... those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts."
The following is from the New Testament, but it might have come under the notice of Boer theologians and Law makers:—
The epistle of St. James v. v verse 4.—"Behold the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth; and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth."
Verse 3.—"Your gold and your silver is cankered, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you."
Jer. xxxv. v verse 17.—"Because ye have not proclaimed Liberty every man to his neighbour, behold I proclaim Liberty for you, saith the Lord, to the Sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine."
I am aware that there will be voices raised at once in application to certain English people of the very commands here cited; and justly so, so far as that application is made to individuals or groups of persons who have transgressed not only Biblical Law but the Law of our Land in their dealings with native races; and the warning conveyed to us in such recriminations must not and, I believe, will not be unheeded.
The following occurs in a number of the "Ethical World," published early in the present year:—"We know that capitalists, left to themselves, would mercilessly exploit the labour of the coloured man. That is precisely the reason why they should not be left to themselves, but should be under the control of the page: 138 British Empire. It is a reason why Crown colonies should supersede Chartered Companies; it is a reason for much that is often called 'shallow Imperialism.' If the present war had been staved off, and if, by mere lapse of time and increase of numbers without British intervention, the Outlanders had come to be the masters of the South African Republic, they might have established a system of independent government quite as bad as that now in existence, though not hardened against reform by the same archaic traditions."
To my mind some of the published utterances of the Originator and members of the "Chartered Company" are not such as to inspire confidence in those who desire to see the essential principles of British Law and Government paramount wherever Great Britain has sway. There is the old contemptuous manner of speaking of the natives; and we have heard an expression of a desire to "eliminate the Imperial Factor."
This elimination of the Imperial Factor is precisely that which is the least desired by those who see our Imperialism to mean the continuance of obedience to the just traditions of British Law and Government. The granting of a Charter to a Company lends the authority (or the appearance of it) of the Queen's name to acts of the responsible heads of that company, which may be opposed to the principles of justice established by British Law; and such acts may have disastrous results. It is to be hoped that the present awakening on the subject of past failures of our government to enforce respect for its own principles may be a warning to all concerned against any transgression of those principles.
Continental friends with whom I have conversed on the subject of the British Colonies have sometimes appeared to me to leave out of account some considerations special to the subject. page: 139 They regard British Colonization as having been accomplished by a series of acts of aggression, solely inspired by the love of conquest and desire for increased territory. This is an error.
I would ask such friends to take a Map of Europe, or of the World, and steadily to regard it in connection with the following facts. Our people are among the most prolific,—if not the most prolific,—of all the nations. Energy and enterprise are in their nature, together with a certain love of free‐breathing, adventure and discovery. Now look at the map, and observe how small is the circumference of the British Isles. "Our Empire has no geographical continuity like the Russian Empire; it is that larger Venice with no narrow streets, but with the sea itself for a high‐road. It is bound together by a moral continuity alone." What are our Sons to do? Must our immense population be debarred from passing through these ocean tracts to lands where there are great uninhabited wastes capable of cultivation? What shall we do with our sons and our daughters innumerable, as the ways become overcrowded in the mother land, and energies have not the outlets needful to develop them. Shall we place legal restrictions on marriage, or on the birth of children, or prescribe that no family shall exceed a certain number? You are shocked,—naturally. It follows then that some members of our large British families must cross the seas and seek work and bread elsewhere.
The highest and lowest, representing all ranks, engage in this kind of initial colonization. Our present Prime Minister, a "younger son," went out in his youth,—as others of his class have done,—with his pickaxe, to Australia, to rank for a time among "diggers," until called home by the death of the elder son, the heir to the title and estate. This necessity and this taste for wandering and exploring has helped in some degree to page: 140 form the independence of character of our men, and also to strengthen rather than to weaken the ties of affection and kinship with the Motherland. Many men, "nobly born and gently nurtured," have thus learned self‐dependence, to endure hardships, and to share manual labour with the humblest; and such an experience does not work for evil. Then when communities have been formed, some sort of government has been necessitated. An appeal is made to the Mother Country, and her offspring have grown up more or less under her regard and care, until self‐government has developed itself.
The great blot on this necessary and natural expansion is the record (from time to time) of the displacement of native tribes by force and violence, when their rights seemed to interfere with the interests of the white man. Of such action we have had to repent in the past, and we repent more deeply than ever now when our responsibilities towards natives races have been brought with startling clearness before those among us who have been led to look back and to search deeply into the meanings of the present great "history‐making war."
The personality of Paul Kruger stands out mournfully at this moment on the page of history. Mr. FitzPatrick wrote of him in 1896, as follows:—
"L'Etat c'est moi, is almost as true of the old Dopper President as it was of its originator; for in matters of external policy and in matters which concern the Boer as a party, the President has his way as completely as any anointed autocrat. To anyone who has studied the Boers and their ways and policy .... it must be clear that President Kruger does more than represent the opinion of the people and execute their policy: he moulds them in the form he wills. By the force of his own strong convictions and prejudices, and of his indomitable will, he has page: 141 made the Boers a people whom he regards as the germ of the Afrikander nation; a people chastened, selected, welded, and strong enough to attract and assimilate all their kindred in South Africa, and thus to realize the dream of a Dutch Republic from the Zambesi to Cape Town.
"In the history of South Africa the figure of the grim old President will loom large and striking,—picturesque as the figure of one who, by his character and will, made and held his people; magnificent as one who, in the face of the blackest fortune, never wavered from his aim or faltered in his effort.... and it maybe, pathetic too, as one whose limitations were great, one whose training and associations,—whose very successes had narrowed and embittered and hardened him;—as one who, when the greatness of success was his to take and to hold, turned his back on the supreme opportunity, and used his strength and qualities to fight against the spirit of progress, and all that the enlightenment of the age pronounces to be fitting and necessary to good government and a healthy State.
"To an English nobleman, who in the course of an interview remarked, 'my father was a Minister (of the Queen),' the Dutchman answered, 'and my father was a shepherd!' it was not pride rebuking pride; it was the ever present fact which would not have been worth mentioning but for the suggestion of the antithesis. He, too, was a shepherd,—a peasant. It may be that he knew what would be right and good for his people, and it may be not; but it is sure that he realized that to educate would be to emancipate, to broaden their views would be to break down the defences of their prejudices, to let in the new leaven would be to spoil the old bread, to give to all men the rights of men would be to swamp for ever the party which is to him greater than the State. When one thinks of the one century page: 142 history of that people, much is seen which accounts for their extraordinary love of isolation, and their ingrained and passionate aversion to control; much, too, that draws to them a world of sympathy; and when one realizes the old President hemmed in once more by the hurrying tide of civilization, from which his people have fled for generations—trying to fight both fate and Nature—standing up to stem a tide as resistless as the eternal sea—one realizes the pathos of the picture. But this is as another generation may see it. We are now too close—so close that the meaner details, the blots and flaws, are all most plainly visible, the corruption, the insincerity, the injustice, the barbarity—all the unlovely touches that will bye and bye be forgotten—sponged away by the gentle hand of time, when only the picturesque will remain."*
And now that his sun is setting in the midst of clouds, and the great ambition of his life lies a ruin before him, and age, disappointment, and sorrow press heavily upon him, reproach and criticism are silenced. Compassion and a solemn awe alone fill our hearts.
A late awakening and repentance may not serve to maintain the political life of a party or a nation; but it is never too late for a human soul to receive for itself the light that may have been lacking for right guidance all through the past, and God does not finally withdraw Himself from one who has ever sincerely called upon His name.
I beg to be allowed to address a word, in conclusion, more especially to certain of my own countrymen,—among whom I count some of my valued fellow‐workers of the past years. These latter have been very patient with me at times when I have ventured a word of warning in connection with the Abolitionist
* The Transvaal from Within. FitzPatrick.
page: 143 war in which we have together been engaged, and perhaps they will bear with me now; but whether they will do so or not, I must speak that which seems to me the truth, that which is laid on my heart to speak. I refer especially to the temper of mind of those whose present denunciations of our country are apparently not restrained by considerations derived from a deeper and calmer view of the whole situation.
Many among us are learning to see more and more clearly that the present "tribulation" is the climax of a long series,—through almost a century past,—of errors of which till now we had never been fully conscious,—of neglect of duty, of casting off of responsibility, of oblivion of the claims of the millions of native inhabitants of Africa who are God's creatures and the redeemed of Christ as much as we,—of ambitions and aims purely worldly, of a breathless race among nations for present and material gain.
There are hasty judges it seems to me who look upon this page: 144 war as the Initial Crime, a sudden and fatal error into which our nation has leapt in a fit of blind passion aroused by some quite recent event, and chiefly chargeable to certain individuals living among us to‐day, who represent, in their view, a deplorable deterioration of the whole nation. The evils (which are not chiefly attributable to our nation) which have led up to this war, and made it from the human point of view, inevitable, are all ignored by these judges. Like the servant in one of the Parables of Christ, who said "my Lord delayeth his coming," (God is nowhere among us,) and began to beat and abuse his fellow‐servants, they fall to inflicting on their fellow citizens unmeasured blows of the tongue and pen, because of this war. Their hearts are so full of indignation that they cannot see anything higher or deeper than the material strife. They judge the combatants, our poor soldiers, the first victims, with little tenderness or sympathy. When King David was warned by God of approaching chastisement for his sins as a ruler, he pleaded that that chastisement should fall upon himself alone, saying, "these sheep (the people) what have they done?" We may ask the same of the rank and file of our army. What have they done? It was not they who ordained the war, and so far as personal influence may have gone to provoke war, many of those who sit at home at ease are more to blame than the men who believe that they are obeying the call of duty when they offer themselves for perils, for hardships, wounds, sickness, and lingering as well as sudden death.
God's thoughts, however, are "not as our thoughts," nor "His ways as our ways." The record I might give of spiritual awakening and extraordinary blessing bestowed by Him at this time in the very heart of this war on these, the "first victims" of it, would be received I fear with complete incredulity by those to whom I now address myself. Be it so. The sources of my page: 145 information are from "the front," they are many and they are trustworthy. It seems to me that in visiting the sins of the fathers on the children, or of rulers on the people, the Great Father of all, in His infinite love has said to these multitudes: "Your bodies are given to destruction, but I have set wide open for you the door of salvation; you shall enter into my kingdom through death." And many have so entered.*
The following is the expression of the thought of many of our humble people at home, who are neither "jingoes" nor yet impatient judges of others. The Journal from which the extract is taken represents not the wealthy nor ambitious part of society, but that of the middle class of people, dependent on their own efforts for their daily bread, among whom we often find much good sense:—"Some persons are humiliated for the sins and mistakes they see in other people. As for themselves, their one thought is 'If my advice had been taken the country would never have been in this pass!' This is the expression of an utterly un‐Christian self‐conceit. Others, again, take delight in recording the sins of the nation. That our ideals have been dimmed, that a low order of public morality has been openly defended in the highest places, and that the reckoning has come to us we fully believe. Yet it is possible to judge the heart of our people far too harshly. It is a sound heart when all is said and done. We fix our eyes upon the great and wealthy offenders; but it must be remembered that the British people are not wealthy. The number of rich men is small. Most of us, in fact, are very poor. Even those who may be called well off depend on the continuance of health and opportunity for their incomes. The vast majority of those who believe that our cause is righteous are not exultant
* This may also be true of the Boer combatants sacrificed for the sins of their rulers, but I prefer only to attest that of which I have full proof.
page: 146 jingoes, neither are they millionaires. They are care‐worn toilers, hard‐worked fathers and mothers of children. They have in many cases given sons and brothers and husbands to our ranks; their hearts are aching with passionate sorrow for the dead. Many more are enduring the racking agony of suspense. Multitudes, besides, spend their lives in a hard fight to keep the wolf from the door. Already they are pinched, and they know that in the months ahead their poverty will be deeper. Yet they have no thought of surrender. They do not even complain, but give what they can from their scanty means to succour those who are touched still more nearly. It is quite possible to slander a nation when one simply intends to tell it plain truths. The British nation, we are inclined to believe, is a great deal better and sounder than many of its shrillest censors of the moment. And, for our part, we find among our patient, brave, and silent people great seed‐beds of trust and hope."*
These are noble words, because words of faith—worthy of the Roman, Varro—to whom his fellow‐citizens presented a public tribute of gratitude because "he had not despaired of his country in a dark and troubled time."
It can hardly be supposed that I underrate the horrors of war. I have imagination enough and sympathy enough to follow almost as if I beheld it with my eyes, the great tragedy which has been unfolded in South Africa. The spirit of Jingoism is an epidemic of which I await the passing away more earnestly than we do that of any other plague. I deprecate, as I have always done, and as strongly as anyone can do, rowdyism in the form of violent opposition to free speech and freedom of meeting. It is as wholly unjustifiable, as it is unwise. Nothing tends more to the elucidation of truth than evidence and freedom of speech from
page: 147 all sides. Good works on many hands are languishing for lack of the funds and zeal needful to carry them on. The Public Press, and especially the Pictorial Press, fosters a morbid sentiment in the public mind by needlessly vivid representations of mere slaughter; to all this may be added (that which some mourn over most of all) the drain upon our pockets,—upon the country's wealth. All these things are a part of the great tribulation which is upon us. They are inevitable ingredients of the chastisement by war.
I see frequent allusions to the "deplorable state of the public mind," which is so fixed on this engrossing subject, the war, that its attention cannot be gained for any other. I hear our soldiers called "legalized murderers," and the war spoken of as a "hellish panorama,"* which it is a blight even to look upon.
But,—I am impelled to say it at the risk of sacrificing the respect of certain friends,—there is to me another view of the matter. It is this. In this present woe, as in all other earthly events, God has something to say to us,—something which we cannot receive if we wilfully turn away the eye from seeing and the ear from hearing.
It is as if,—in anticipation of the last great Judgment when "the Books shall be opened,"—God, in his severity and yet in mercy (for there is always mercy in the heart of His judgments) had set before us at this day an open book, the pages of which are written in letters of blood, and that He is waiting for us to read. There are some who are reading, though with eyes dimmed with tears and hearts pierced with sorrow,—whose attitude is, "Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth."
You "deplore the state of the public mind." May not the cloud of celestial witnesses deplore in a measure the state of your
* An Expression reported to have been used by Mr. Morley.
page: 148 mind which leads you to turn your back on the opened book of judgment, and refuse to read it? Does your sense of duty to your country claim from you to send forth such a cry against your fellow‐citizens and your nation that you have no ears for the solemn teachings of Providence? Might it not be more heroic in us all to cease to denounce, and to begin to enquire?—with humility and courage to look God in the face, and enquire of Him the inner meanings of His rebukes, to ask Him to "turn back the floods of ungodliness" which have swelled this inundation of woe, rather than to use our poor little besoms in trying to sweep back the Atlantic waves of His judgments.
It is good and necessary to protest against War; but at the same time, reason and experience teach that we must, with equal zeal, protest against other great evils, the accumulation of which makes for war and not for peace. War in another sense—moral and spiritual war—must be doubled, trebled, quadrupled, in the future, in order that material war may come to an end. We all wish for peace; every reasonable person desires it, every anxious and bereaved family longs for it, every Christian prays for it. But what Peace? It is the Peace of God which we pray for? the Peace on Earth, which He alone can bring about? His hand alone, which corrects, can also heal. We do not and cannot desire the peace which some of those are calling for who dare not face the open book of present day judgment, or who do not wish to read its lessons! Such a peace would be a mere plastering over of an unhealed wound, which would break out again before many years were over.
There seems to me a lack of imagination and of Christian sympathy in the zeal which thrusts denunciatory literature into all hands and houses, as is done just now. It would, I think, check such action and open the eyes of some who page: 149 adopt it, if they could see the look of pain, the sudden pallor, followed by hours and days of depression of the mourners, widows, bereaved parents, sisters and friends, when called upon to read (their hearts full of the thought of their beloved dead) that those who have fought in the ranks were morally criminal, legalized murderers, "full of hatred," actors in a "hellish panorama." Some of these sufferers may not be much enlightened, but they know what love and sorrow are. Would it not be more tender and tactful, from the Christian point of view, to leave to them their consoling belief that those whom they loved acted from a sense of duty or a sentiment of patriotism; and not, just at a time of heart‐rending sorrow, to press upon them the criminality of all and every one concerned in any way with war? I commend this suggestion to those who are not strangers to the value of personal sympathy and gentleness towards those who mourn.
No, we are not yet looking upon hell! It may be, it is, an earthly purgatory which we are called to look upon; a place and an hour of purging and of purifying, such as we must all, nations and individuals alike, pass through, before we can see the face of God.
Mr. Fullerton, speaking in the Melbourne Hall, Leicester, on Jan. 7th of this year, said:—"The Valley of Achor (Trouble), may be a Door of Hope." "You say the Transvaal belongs to the Boers; I say it belongs to God. If it belongs specially to any, it belongs to the Zulus and Kaffirs, on whom, for 100 years, there have been inflicted wrongs worthy of Arab slave dealers. What has the Boer done to lift these people? Nothing. As a Missionary said the other day, 'A nation that lives amongst a lower race of people, and does not try to lift them, inevitably sinks.' The Boers needed to be chastised; only thus could they be kept page: 150 from sinking; only this can there be hope for the native races. Who shall chastise them? Another nation, which God wishes also to chastise. Is therefore God for one nation and not for another? May He not be for one, and for the other too? If both pray, must He refuse one? Perhaps God is great enough to answer both, and bringing both through the fire, purge and teach them."
It would have been bad for us if we had won an early or an easy victory. We should have been so lifted up with pride as to be an offence to high Heaven. But we have gone and are going through deep waters, and the wounds inflicted on many hearts and many homes are not quickly healed. In this we recognise the hand of God, who is faithful in chastisement as in blessing.
Many have, no doubt, read, and I hope some have laid to heart, the words which Lord Rosebery recently addressed to the Press, but which are applicable to us all at this juncture. They are wise and statesmanlike words. Taking them as addressed to the Nation and not to the Press only, they run thus: "At such a juncture we must be sincere, we must divest ourselves of the mere catchwords and impulses of party .... We must be prepared to discard obsolete shibboleths, to search out abuse, to disregard persons, to be instant in pressing for necessary reforms—social, educational, administrative, and if need be, constitutional.
"Moreover, with regard to a sane appreciation of the destinies and responsibilities of Empire, we stand at the parting of the ways. Will Britain flinch or falter in her world‐wide task? How is she best to pursue it? What new forces and inspiration will it need? What changes does it involve? These are questions which require clear sight, cool courage, and freedom from formula."*
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In the conscientious study which I have endeavoured to make of the history of the past century of British rule in South Africa, nothing has struck me more than the unfortunate effects in that Colony of our varying policy inspired by political party spirit in the Mother Country; and consequently I hail with thankfulness this good counsel to "divest ourselves of mere catchwords and impulses of party, to discard obsolete shibboleths, to free ourselves from formula, and to disregard persons," even if these persons are or have been recognized leaders, and to abide rather by principles. "What new forces and inspiration do we need," Lord Rosebery asks, for the great task our nation has before it? This is a deep and far‐reaching question. The answer to it should be sought and earnestly enquired after by every man and woman among us, who is worthy of the name of a true citizen.
My last word must be on behalf of the Natives. When, thirty years ago, a few among us were impelled to take up the cause of the victims of the modern white slavery in Europe, we were told that in our pleadings for principles of justice and for personal rights, we ought not to have selected a subject in which are concerned persons who may deserve pity, but who, in fact, are not so important a part of the human family as to merit such active and passionate sympathy as that which moved our group. To this our reply was: "We did not choose this question, we did not ourselves deliberately elect to plead for these persons. The question was imposed upon us, and once so imposed, we could not escape from the claims of the oppressed class whose cause we had been called to take up. And generally, (we replied,) the work of human progress has not consisted in protecting and supporting any outward forms of government, or the noble or privileged classes, but in undertaking the defence of the weak, the humble, page: 152 of beings devoted to degradation and contempt, or brought under any oppression or servitude."
It is the same now. My father was one of the energetic promoters of the Abolition of Slavery in the years before 1834, a friend of Clarkson and Wilberforce. The horror of slavery in every form, and under whatever name, which I have probably partly inherited, has been intensified as life went on. It is my deep conviction that Great Britain will in future be judged, condemned or justified, according to her treatment of those innumerable coloured races, heathen or partly Christianized, over whom her rule extends, or who, beyond the sphere of her rule, claim her sympathy and help as a Christian and civilizing power to whom a great thrust has been committed.
It grieves me to observe that (so far as I am able to judge) our politicians, public men, and editors, (with the exception of the editors of the "religious press,") appear to a great extent unaware of the immense importance of this subject, even for the future peace and stability of our Empire, apart from higher interests. It will be "imposed upon them," I do not doubt, sooner or later, as it has been imposed upon certain missionaries and others who regard the Divine command as practical and sensible men should do: "Go ye and teach all nations." All cannot go to the ends of the earth; but all might cease to hinder by the dead weight of their indifference, and their contempt of all men of colour. Dr. Livingstone rebuked the Boers for contemptuously calling all coloured men Kaffirs, to whatever race they belonged. Englishmen deserve still more such a rebuke for their habit of including all the inhabitants of India, East and West, and of Africa, who have not European complexions, under the contemptuous title of "niggers." Race prejudice is a poison which will have t be cast out if the world is ever to be page: 153 Christianized, and if Great Britain is to maintain the high and responsible place among the nations which has been given to her.
"It may be that the Kaffir is sometimes cruel," says one who has seen and known him,—"he certainly requires supervision. But he was bred in cruelty and reared in oppression—the child of injustice and hate. As the springbok is to the lion, as the locust is to the hen, so is the Kaffir to the Boer; a subject of plunder and leaven of greed. But the Kaffir is capable of courage and also of the most enduring affection. He has been known to risk his life for the welfare of his master's family. He has worked without hope of reward. He has laboured in the expectation of pain. He has toiled in the snare of the fowler. Yet shy a brickbat at him!—for he is only a Kaffir!" However much the Native may excel in certain qualities of the heart, still, until purged of the poison of racial contempt, that will be the expression of the practical conclusion of the white man regarding him; "Shy a brickbat at him. He is only a nigger."
A merely theoretical acknowledgment of the vital nature of this question,—of the future of the Native races and of Missionary work will not suffice. The Father of the great human family demands more than this. "Is not this the fast that I have chosen? To loose the bands of wickedness, To undo the heavy burdens, To let the oppressed go free, And that ye break every yoke?" ISAIAH lviii. 6.


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By Shuli Ren
Who would have thought Mead Johnson Nutrition (MJN), a blue-chip American company, is now a play on the baby boom in emerging markets.
Geographically, 70% of the infant formula and children nutrition supplier's revenue comes from emerging markets in Asia and Latin America. North America and Europe contribute to the rest. This revenue mix is expected to tilt further away from the developed world, where revenue declined 3% last year. Emerging markets revenue increased by 12%.
Emerging markets contribute even more to Mead Johnson's bottom-line. EBIT margin in Asia and Latin America was 33% last year, higher than the 21% in U.S. and Europe.
This is largely because of China, whose rising middle class became wary of domestic producers following a long series of milk contamination scandals. When it comes to feeding their only children, Chinese prefer foreign brands and high prices, which they associate with quality.
In an initiation report, using two-stage discounted cash flow analysis, First Global analysts gave Mead Johnson a fair value of $87 per share, implying 16% upside. Mead Johnson last traded at $75.
I recognize Mead Johnson's emerging markets exposure, but China – its growth engine and margin booster – poses too much political risk. China launched price fixing investigations on the foreign producers last month and fined six international companies, including Mead Johnson (4% 2012 revenue as penalty), for anti-trust violations.
One can see why China launches such investigations. Price points for baby formula are much higher there. Channel checks conducted by Nomura Securities in July showed that, premium products retailed at around RMB 220 per 900g bag (24 British pounds). In the UK, the equivalent product cost only GBP 8-9. Additionally, infant health is a major concern among China's large middle class, whose family lineage is not hedged thanks to the one-child policy and whose allegiance the government is eager to earn.
Mead Johnson will only see margins in China narrow, as the country moves towards safer, mass market brands. Chinese companies are getting savvy, partnering with their foreign counterparts to rid themselves of the perception of poor quality. In May, China's biggest diary producer China Mengniu (CIADF) formed a joint venture with Danone (DANOY), which invested $417 million for a 4% stake in Mengniu. Mengniu's second-quarter earnings already showed reputation gain from the investment.
A valuation model is as good as its inputs. Looking at First Insight's DCF analysis, Mead Johnson's current market price would be fair value if the terminal return on incremental capital (ROIC) were 7.5%, instead of the base case of 8%, which I could argue is preferable because of the long-term margin squeeze. First Insight analysts did not explain in their report why they chose 8% as the terminal ROIC.
Mead Johnson trades at 21.7 forward P/E, higher than its five-year average of 20.9, according to data provider Factset. Its PEG ratio is 2.3. It already trades at a premium to its peers: Danone is valued at 17.4 forward P/E, Nestle SA (NSRGY) is at 16.6.

subset: commoncrawl


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In the interest of tracking those who abandoned their Advogato diary to supposedly greener pastures, I've created Planet (former) Advogato. The domain ain't pretty, but it works.
I obviously missed plenty of peoples that have a new blog, but as usual in Open-Source, it's an early release. Let me know if you know of others that I should add.
Yesterday I had my disk filling up. If you saw old blog posts in my RSS feed and Planet FOSS-IL didn't update, that's the reason.
Another side effect of that condition was that SpamAssassin got stuck. The effect of that was that further mails were not processed by it, they were sent right to my mailbox. And I had a reminder of what it means to have life without SpamAssassin. I got in a period of about 12 hours just over 300 spam messages.
Thanks to SpamAssassin folks, I don't need to suffer this on a day to day basis.
Now, if they only got this hangup bug fixed, all would be well.
Oh, and the Subversion peoples need to see what needs to be done with all those damn log files, they filled my HD. Still need to research what caused a single project to fill 12GB of disk space.
You can comment at my blog.
I've moved my blog to my website at http://baruch.ev-en.org/blog/.
I've imported all of my posts from Advogato into it, and posted a new one.
I still don't know if this will be my final post here, but I really like the fact that I can actually see how many are reading my blog and get comments on posts. I will miss the community sense.
Filed a bug report with Mercurial and it got fixed pretty fast, though I was asked to actually produce a small test case script. This turned out to be a good experience.
I've also filed bug reports and feature requests at AlbumShaper, and they get solved one by one. I'm still stuck with a bug that prevents drag-n-drop from working when using the Ion2 window manager.
I've been distracted from working by the Gramps program to generate the family tree. This is a really nice program and I've already got a lot of data into it. It generates some nice graphs with GraphViz. I need to figure out how to make it work properly with Hebrew in the text, currently Hebrew is munged and I use English names instead. This is a bit uncomfortable for those in my family whose English command is lower than their Hebrew command.
I've caused my parents to go out and ask for the missing pieces of information, so now I have better knowledge of my family tree, and hopefully a chance to preserve some of the family history.
I just found AudioScrobbler, the idea sounds nice though I didn't get to find any musical neighbours yet.
The XMMS plugin is just crap! It hangs when there is an ID3v2 tag, I fixed that and provided the patch to the Debian BTS. The author should learn about reusing libraries and find some that implement this code already. Or at least copy code from another GPLed app instead of inventing his own.
drag-n-drop woes
I've been trying to use AlbumShaper for managing my digital photo albums, but for a while now I had a problem that I couldn't reorder the photos in it because I couldn't drag-n-drop the photos.
After much trying and playing I found that when I'm working in my normal window-manager (ion2) I can't drag-n-drop, but when I switched to another environment, such as Gnome or KDE, with another window-manager, everything works.
Now I got my albums in order, but I haven't figured out what is the reason for this wierd behaviour.
We've had a conference call with Diane Peters from the OSDL and Matt McCooe who is responsible to licensing for NUIM. This will hopefully help to clear up the issues.
It was suggested that releasing the code under the GPL gives implicit license to the patent, but that to ensure that no-one will fear future litigation we can license the patent to OSDL for sub-licensing.
This is in the works now, and I've communicated the above to the kernel folks and at least Dave Miller said that he sees no trouble licensing-wise with our contributions.
Hopefully now our patches will receive the technical review that they need to continue their journey in the linus tree.
Bugs, Bugs & Bugs
I've been drilling into the inner workings of my changes, they seem to work for all of my tests, but I wanted some more confidence.
It appears that my patches break the counting of fackets_out (which I haven't deciphered it's use yet). It causes no known effect, but that does not mean it's not a bug.
Where did I put the pesticider? (An environmentally clean pesticider! -- It is actually proven to work, it hasn't killed any pest! :-)
p.s. relayfs rulez! I'm pumping tons of data out of the kernel for tracing purposes, and it just works, with little damage to performance. (Derry, this is the case where gdb is not helpful).
We have finally got the approval to release H-TCP under the GNU GPL, it's been a long time and quite a bit of work to convince the university administration that it is ok to do so and that they will come to no harm by approving it. So I've submitted a note about that to LKML, only to get back a message that we need an explicit patent license for the pending patent. That means another long wait, and more dealings with the bureaucracy to get that sorted.
The problem begins with the way research is funded, you always have some strings attached. You need to show later in some review how good your research is and the fruitful results it brought humanity. Only that everyone is just so damn busy to really understand the results that they prefer to see more "tangible" results, such as patents, articles and such. You have some new code for Linux Kernel? We care not about it, we prefer an almost useless patent that is unlikely to bring any profit over real benefits to humanity.
And so you have a patent, except that you don't own it. The university does. So in order to allow others to use your invention, you need to ask someone (more often than not, more than one person) for permission to release your work for the general good. It sucks.
Basically the administrations that run the universities have lost sight of the real purpose of universities and are just looking at everything through the financial reports. No wonder RMS quit MIT to do his Free Software, he'd probably still be fighting with the administration to get a single program released with sources.
On some happier note
On the suggestion of David Miller I've contacted Diane Peters from OSDL to help us understand what we need to provide so we won't stumble through the maze like blind folks. She had agreed to help which is great, so we are trying to organise the meeting with her to get the information and then we'll (hopefully) be able to sort it all out.
Performance issues with 2.6.11
I'm close to being desperate with 2.6.11 with regards to TCP performance, some change or another between 2.6.6 and 2.6.7 killed performance and I can't find anything wrong, not in the TCP code and not in the e1000 driver.
On 2.6.6 with only H-TCP patches, I'm getting 300Mbit/s (and 40ms rtt) with no troubles at all. In 2.6.11 I'm lucky when I'm getting 150Mbit/s. The H-TCP port between the versions is simple enough and has no real changes.
I'm not sure if it's something that I did wrong in my porting of the code, or something in Linux itself. I'm close to leaving it for now and returning to it later, but it does mean that I'll probably leave my patches unsubmitted. Which means more work later on when I come back to it, forward porting the patches from 2.6.6 to whatever will be the version at the time.
I managed to get my presentation done in time and in a good manner. I covered most of what I wanted, though I left out the actual technical details of my work. It was a postgrad seminar presentation and my time slot was short as it was (30 minutes).
I didn't get a lot of feedback, but what I got was that it was good.
English not being my mother tongue I sometimes got stuck to find the best word/phrase, but got over it.
Not too bad overall. The slides are temporarily at http://baruch.ev-en.org/Baruch_seminar.pdf
Now I need to go back to my work, get performance of 2.6.11 to be at least that of 2.6.6, get the patches in order and send them to netdev for review.
This time I hear the H-TCP patches might have their license issue solved, so they have a fair chance of being included.
New HTML Parser: The long-awaited libxml2 based HTML parser code is live. It needs further work but already handles most markup better than the original parser.
Keep up with the latest Advogato features by reading the Advogato status blog.
If you're a C programmer with some spare time, take a look at the mod_virgule project page and help us with one of the tasks on the ToDo list!


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Policy Information
ContentsPolicy Information
OverviewI. The Institution's official business and operating hours are 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M., Monday through Friday. Regular full-time employees are generally scheduled to work a 40-hour week, usually 8 hours each day.
II. The Institution recognizes the need for and benefits of alternate work schedules and/or locations for some Institution staff who have legitimate personal needs which may conflict with the normal operating schedule of the Institution. To accommodate those special circumstances and to provide a framework within which the major activities of the Institution can continue to be accomplished with a minimum amount of disruption, a flexible work policy has been established. The following guidelines apply for regular full-time employees:
A. Requests should be in writing to the supervisor and reflect a legitimate personal need that cannot be met within the Institution's regular operating schedule;III. Providing staffing, work load and building safety/security issues have been addressed to the supervisor's satisfaction, the employee can continue on a flexible work schedule until the agreed upon end date.
IV. Because of the demands of scientific
research, many of the staff, including scientific and marine personnel,
must observe special work schedules and/or
arrangements, on both short- and long-term bases. These arrangements
should be set up by the supervisors as far in advance as possible
so that employees can have adequate time to arrange their
V. Periodically Institution-sponsored activities and functions are held during normal working hours. These events could include meetings of standing committees, lectures, CPR and First Aid classes. Employees are encouraged to attend such activities, staffing and work load permitting. Arrangements should be made in advance with the supervisor.
Should you require assistance in the interpretation of this procedure, please contact your Human Resources Representative.
[go back]
Copyright ©2007 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, All Rights Reserved, Privacy Policy.


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Web Stories
Chapel exhibit honors Gandhi, King and Ikeda through Feb. 7
Posted January 31, 2003; 05:16 p.m.
"Gandhi, King, Ikeda: A Legacy of Building Peace," an exhibit honoring three leaders in promoting peace and justice around the world, will be on display from Friday, Jan. 31, through Friday, Feb. 7, at the University Chapel. The exhibit is sponsored by the Office of Religious Life .
An official opening ceremony was held Monday, Feb. 3, at the chapel, featuring remarks from Lawrence Carter, dean of the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel at Morehouse College.
As part of the ceremony, Carter honored several members of the Princeton and nearby communities for their commitment to justice, peace, civil and human rights. They were Heddye Ducree, director of the Carl Fields Center for Equality and Cultural Understanding; Joseph Williamson, former dean of religious life and of the chapel; Peter Paris, the Elmer Homrighausen Professor of Christian Social Ethics at the Princeton Theological Seminary; Robert Moore, executive director of the Princeton-based Coalition for Peace Action; and M. William Howard, pastor of Bethany Baptist Church in Newark.
The nationally touring exhibition includes photos, quotes and historical information honoring the lives and efforts of King, Mohandas Gandhi and Daisaku Ikeda, president of Soka Gakkai International, an American Buddhist association that promotes world peace.
The exhibit and ceremony are free and open to the public. The chapel is open from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Saturday and 7 a.m. through 11 p.m. Sunday.
Contact: Eric Quinones (609) 258-3601


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Beef up your grilled dinner options with a meaty salad. You'll find a feast for the eyes and the satisfaction of a flavorful meal.
Enjoy this sizzling summer salad with a crusty French baguette and tall glasses of iced tea.
Bell peppers are available in a rainbow of colors, such as red, yellow, green, orange, purple and chocolate brown. Pick whatever color you like, or use a variety!
© 2017 ®/TM General Mills All Rights Reserved


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Family: Haematopodidae, Oystercatchers view all from this family
Description ADULT Has all-dark plumage, but in good light, brown wash can be discerned on back. Bill is red, legs are dull pink, and eye is yellow with a red surround. JUVENILE Similar to adult, but bill is dark-tipped and back feathers have pale margins.
Dimensions Length: 17-17 1/2" (43-44 cm)
Habitat Found on rocky shores and often nests on shingle beaches. However, human disturbance excludes it from many potentially suitable areas in breeding season.
Observation Tips Easy to find in suitable habitats.
Range California, Western Canada, Alaska, Northwest
Voice Utters are shrill, piping kweep.
Similar Species American Oystercatcher H. palliatus (L 17-19 in) occurs on Gulf coast and rarely in southern California. Has pied plumage and favors mudflats as well as rocky shores.
Discussion Robust and stocky shorebird. Entirely black plumage and bright red bill make it almost unmistakable. Feeds on intertidal invertebrates, using chisel-like bill to hammer mollusks from rocks and break their shells. Somewhat gregarious outside the breeding season. Sexes are similar.


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Fantasy Football Week 1 Projections By James Morris
We've done the draft; we've looked at the waiver wire; now it is time to set those line-ups and take home the league title. Sometimes the hardest part of the fantasy season is deciding who to play out of the line-up full of studs every team seems to have. That is where I come in; I make sense out of madness and tell you who to sit and who to start week in and week out.
One big mistake people make is starting the bigger name over the better match-up. Let's say you have Chris Johnson, Jamaal Charles, Trent Richardson and Steven Ridley, who do you start? Yahoo.com, NFL.com, ESPN.com will all tell you to go with Johnson and Charles, and stick Richardson in the flex. But, that is why I am here and they are there… because I know more than they do. So, get aboard the Morris Express and allow me to bring your fantasy into my reality!
There are a few key injuries that we need to talk about before getting to the rankings:
Arian Foster is questionable for the Texans against the Dolphins on Sunday. Foster is one of the top backs in fantasy football, so you'll want to check back here Sunday morning for an update on his status. If he can't go, Ben Tate becomes a good option to start for your team as he'll get the majority of the carries.
Rashard Mendenhall is doubtful for the Steelers' Sunday night game in Denver. If he isn't a full go, it will be too late to put anyone else in. I would leave him on the bench unless something drastically changes in the next 30 hours and we have definitive proof he is a 100 percent go.
The Vikings have already said that even if Adrian Peterson suits up for week 1, his action is going to be limited at best. Toby Gerhart is going to be the RB this week, and you should leave AP on your bench until further notice.
Marshawn Lynch is dealing with back spasms, and his status is going to be a true game-time decision. If you own him, make sure you go grab Robert Turbin as a handcuff and be ready to make the switch on short notice.
Stevie Johnson is dealing with a groin problem that required off-season surgery. He is listed as questionable, but Coach Chan Gailey still expects him to play versus the Jets in the opener.
Start 'em
Matt Ryan – QB Atlanta: With an ADP (average draft position) of 66, Ryan fell to round 7 in standard drafts and that is a steal. Julio Jones is going to finish the season as a top 5 fantasy WR, and it is because of what Ryan is going to do with the ball. I would play Ryan over guys like Tony Romo and Peyton Manning without hesitation.
Andrew Luck – QB Indianapolis: Luck is more for 14-team and deeper leagues, but this kid is for real. He looks like one of the most NFL ready QBs we've seen in the last decade, and the Colts are going to use him as if his last name was Manning. The Bears secondary has long been their weak spot, so I have Luck finishing the week as a top 12-15 QB.
Doug Martin – RB Tampa Bay: Martin has been named the starting RB in Tampa Bay, ahead of incumbent LeGarrette Blount. He was taken on average at the tail end of the 5th round, which makes for very nice value considering I have him ranked as a top 12 RB this week. The Panthers run defense doesn't scare me, and the addition of Vincent Jackson and Dallas Clark should take off some of the focus on stopping the run.
Stevan Ridley – RB New England: Ridley is coming off a strong pre-season in which he racked up 152 yards on 34 carries (4.47 YPC), and Shane Vereen is still nursing a minor foot injury. The Patriots won't use the ground-and-pound approach to running the ball, BUT Ridley could be a sneaky bet for some redzone touches and enough yards to make him a top 15 RB play this week.
Reggie Bush – RB Miami: Bush fits nicely into a flex spot against the Texans. I have him ranked just outside the top 30 RBs this week, and that is more due to the Texans defense than it is the Dolphins offense. I have faith in Ryan Tannehill as a QB, but there are some real WR concerns that could allow the Texans defense to stack 8-men in the box on running downs.
Eric Decker – WR Denver: Peyton Manning made even Austin Collie and Pierre Garcon look like WR studs, so you can only imagine what he can do for guys with actual skill like Decker and Demaryius Thomas. I would have no problems at all putting a top 20 WR ranking on Decker and a top 25 ranking on Thomas this week.
Torrey Smith – WR Baltimore: Smith has emerged as Flacco's clear No. 1 option and is running a full route tree this season. Flacco has given him plenty of praise and I see his as a legit WR2 given his 11 catches for 146 yards in just two preseason games.
Greg Olsen – TE Carolina: Cam I Am is a beast at the QB position, and he is going to make a fantasy stud out of Olsen this season. TE is an all-or-nothing position in fantasy football, with many leagues going the route of a WR/TE flex spot. However, Olsen hauled in five catches for 62 yards in three pre-season games, and I envision him as a sneaky TE1 this year because of his TD's.
Seattle Seahawks Defense: The Seahawks defense isn't given nearly the respect it deserves. On average they were the 8th defense off the draft board, despite finishing last season ranked 5th when the 2011 season finished. The Cardinals have problems at every position except WR1, and I would put the Seahawks defense #1 in my board this week because of it.
Sit 'em
Matt Schaub – QB Houston: Schaub was once a top 10 fantasy QB, but those days are behind him now. The Texans offense has evolved into a run-heavy scheme where Schaub makes a few big play throws to Andre Johnson each game. At best he is a QB2 in fantasy terms, and not someone I would even own unless I am in a 2-QB league.
Robert Griffin III – QB Washington: The Redskins are dealing with much of the same problems as the Seattle Seahawks, a lack of weapons for the QB to utilize in the passing game. Pierre Garcon isn't someone I am overly excited about as a WR1, and Josh Morgan as a No. 2 option doesn't help at all. The lone bright spot I see is Fred Davis at TE. But, with a 3-way RBBC brewing and a lack of receiving options, I would leave this rookie on the bench until he gives us a reason to play him.
Trent Richardson – RB Cleveland: As good as Richardson may be, the rookie has some major hurdles to deal with on the offense. Even if his knee is healed from the scope, he still has Brandon Weeden at QB, and a WR corps that consists of Greg Little, Josh Gordon and Mohamed Massaquoi. At best he is a flex play this week, and probably someone I would rather leave on my bench if at all possible.
Rashad Jennings and Maurice Jones-Drew – RBs Jacksonville: Maurice Jones-Drew ended his hold-out, but that didn't put him back in the Jaguars RB driver's seat. Even with Jennings leading the pack until MJD is back into game-shape, the Vikings run defense is a tough one for even the best running backs in the NFL to deal with. The reality is that Jennings will hold the starting job for weeks 1 and 2, and then turn the reigns over to MJD in week 3. The Jaguars face the Vikings and Texans in the first two games of the season, neither of which is encouraging for Jennings' owners.
Stevie Johnson – WR Buffalo: As I said earlier, Johnson is expected to play in this one despite being held out much of this week in practice. Regardless, he is going to draw coverage from Darrelle Revis and I think his history of success against the shut-down corner ends this week. At best I see him as a low-end WR3 and would feel more comfortable if he were in my flex spot.
Malcom Floyd – WR San Diego: Floyd was taken in the 12th round in most drafts, which puts him in many flex spots to start the season. The problem I have with him is that the Chargers face the Raiders in a division rivalry game, and Robert Meachem has not found his groove with Philip Rivers as of yet. Floyd has shown big games against the Raiders in the past, but there is added pressure since the Chargers are also without RB Ryan Mathews.
Jacob Tamme – TE Denver: Tamme was taken far too high (ADP of 114 in the 12th round) and he only managed to amass four catches for 43 yards and no touchdowns in the pre-season. As much as Manning can do for his WRs and TEs, Tamme didn't get the looks this pre-season and he is not someone I would want on my team entering the season. Instead go grab Kyle Rudolph from the Vikings and let someone else deal with Tamme this season.
Check back right here Sunday morning for an injury updates blog to help set your lineups for week 1.
If you have any further lineup questions, follow James on Twitter here.
The opinions, analysis and/or speculation expressed by The Finsiders Blog represent those of individual writers, and unless quoted or clearly labeled as such, do not represent the opinions, policies or desires of the Miami Dolphins organization, front office, coaches and executives. Writers' views are formulated independently from any inside information and/or conversation with Dolphins officials, including the coaches and scouts, unless otherwise noted.
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USAID is deploying humanitarian response experts to northern Iraq. - view the latest updates
Kindergarten Becomes Safe Haven
Ari Hishyar Sedeq Hassan's" Laween" Supermarket offers Dahuk shoppers freshly baked bread in addition to regular grocery store products
Faris Malik in his expanded Tikrit workshop. Credit: Louis Berger Group
About Iraq
USAID, alongside other U.S. government agencies, works closely with Iraqi national, provincial, and local governments, international institutions, and a network of local partners.
USAID has implemented activities designed to strengthen infrastructure, stabilize communities, foster economic and agricultural growth, and help the various levels of government better represent and respond to the needs of the Iraqi people.
USAID remains committed to the mutual goals of the partnership between the US and Iraq: a secure and stable Iraq with more inclusive, capable and accountable governance, manifested by more effective provision of public services to all citizens, support to conflict-affected communities, and implementation of targeted economic reforms.
Last updated: November 10, 2016


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Action - Semi-Auto
Action Type - Double Action
Caliber - .40 S&W
Barrel Length - 4.4"
Weight - 2.0 Lbs.
Designed for the U.S. Army and carried by U.S. Navy SEALs, Texas Rangers, and many other elite military and law-enforcement professionals, the Sig Sauer P226 has earned its place in the highest class of production pistols. The P226 staggered magazine design gives the handgun a higher capacity than other semi-automatics. The exceptional ergonomics and balance make this full-size pistol easy to handle and its longer barrel yields better ballistic performance and accuracy. The manual decocking lever provides an extra level of security and allows single-action fire. This double-action pistol features fixed 3-dot sights and a decocking lever and comes with three 12-round magazines and the original factory hard case. Its grips, metal, and bore are all in good condition.


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1. You're Doing It Wrong: The BLT
The Right Way to Make a BLT:
Basketweave that bacon.
2. You're Doing It Wrong: Boiling Eggs
The Right Way to Boil Eggs:
Add one teaspoon of baking soda. It'll make the shell come off effortlessly.
3. How NOT to Eat a Cupcake:
The right way to eat a cupcake:
Make a cupcake sandwich. Equal frosting to cake ratio in every bite.
4. You're Doing It Wrong: Bobby Pins
The bobby pins are constantly sliding out of your hair and coming loose.
The Right Way to Insert a Bobby Pin:
5. You're Doing It Wrong: Nail Polish
How to Properly Apply Nail Polish:
6. The Wrong Way to Make Cookies in the Summer:
Everything gets even hotter with the oven on.
The right way:
Best car air freshener ever.
7. How You Normally Fold a Fitted Sheet:
The Right Way:
8. You're Doing It Wrong: Cleaning the Blender
You reach your sponge down, accidentally cut yourself on one of the blades, and start bleeding everywhere.
The Right Way:
9. You're Doing It Wrong: Taco Eating
The shit is just spilling out everywhere.
The Right Way:
Use lettuce leaves as a taco liner. Even if the taco shell breaks, your taco contents are still contained.
10. You're Doing It Wrong: Eating a Popsicle
You're a slob. You're only human.
The Right Way: Use a Cupcake Wrapper
11. If This Is Your Dresser, You're Doing It Wrong
The Right Way to Fold Clothes
File folded clothes to save space.
12. You're Doing It Wrong: Squeezing Lemons
The Right Way: Use a Pair of Tongs
You'll get much more juice out. Another tip: microwave for a few seconds. It'll make the lemon softer and more squeezable.
13. You're Doing It Wrong: Stale Ass Chips
The Right Way: Master the Origami Bag Fold
14. You're Doing It Wrong: Peeling a Potato with a Peeler
You are wasting so much valuable potato!
The Right Way:
After boiling the potato, put into cold water for 5 minutes. Twist the potato skin off with your hands — it should come right off.
15. You're Doing It Wrong: Living Through the Pain of New Shoes
The Right Way: Break In Your Shoes In Under Five Minutes
Put on a thick pair of socks and then put on your shoes. Aim a hairdryer at the shoes, concentrating on the tighter spots. Wiggle your toes and feet around. Keep them on while they cool.
Remove the socks and test out shoes. They should be stretched out, but if not, just repeat the process.
16. The PB&J: You're Doing It Wrong
You haven't quite mastered how not to get jelly all over yourself.
You have no excuse.
The Right Way to Make PB&J: The Pocket Method
17. You're Doing It Wrong: Opening a Banana at the Tip
The Fast, Efficient Way to Peel a Banana:
Pinch the bottom ends and split open. You'll end up with a cartoon-perfect banana peel, plus it eliminates the stringy stuff.
Watch the video tutorial.
18. You're Doing It Wrong: Cutting Cherry Tomatoes One by One
As if you had all the goddamn time in the world to spend on a stupid salad.
The Right Way: Sandwich the Tomatoes Between Two Plastic Lids and Slice Across
You, Eating Pomegranates: WRONG!
The Right Way to Get Those Pomegranate Seeds Out Intact:
Cut the pomegranate in half, submerge in cold water, and extract the seeds from under the water. They'll release effortlessly from the papery membrane and sink to the bottom of the bowl.
19. How You Normally Eat Tic Tacs:
An entire container of these dainty little candies, consumed in one sitting, like a heathen.
The Right Way:
The Tic Tac dispenser is specifically engineered to allot ONE AT A TIME.
20. The Wrong Way to Enjoy a Bag of Chips:
HAHA you actually use your hands to hold the bag??
Alas, There Is a Right Way:
Roll up the bottom to create a snack bowl. You can now serve chips at parties without having to dirty yet another bowl.
21. You're Doing It Wrong: Smashing Beer Cans on Your Head
The Proper Way to Crush a Can on Your Head:
Use your fingers to begin the process of the crushing. Get the full directions here.
Or, if you're not a fratboy…
You could crush a can the civilized way.
- President Trump is ordering a review of all of America's national monuments that were created in the past two decades.
- Arkansas has carried out the first double execution since 2000. The state had scheduled 8 executions before a key drug expires.
- The same Russian hackers who interfered in the 2016 US presidential election are now active in German and French politics 💻
- A popular app changed the name of a filter after people complained it whitewashes them. The filter still lightens your skin though 🤔


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Bernard Chazelle, professor of computer science, is leading a freshman seminar this semester titled "What Do Your DNA and Your iPod Have in Common?" The premise of the class is that computing comes in different shapes and sizes and that DNA and iPods are different implementations of exactly the same principle. "What makes DNA and iPods amazing widgets is that both are universal computers," he says.
Below left: Chazelle guides a wide-ranging conversation on topics including Internet viruses and the potential of DNA.
Photos: John Jameson
The Princeton Weekly Bulletin featured stories on two freshman seminars, both focusing on the intersection between art and science, in its Nov. 20, 2006, issue. The April 9, 2007, issue includes stories on four more seminars — these a little more wide-ranging in their subject matter.
Freshmen this semester are discovering the excitement and challenge of working in a small-group setting with faculty and fellow students on topics such as great books, the chemistry of chocolate, black music and the DNA/iPod connection.
These are just a sampling of the 70 courses offered during the fall and spring semesters through Princeton's freshman seminar program. This year, some 950 freshmen — nearly 80 percent of the class — have enrolled.
Almost universally, students say that their freshman seminar was one of their best academic experiences at Princeton and that they form their most enduring intellectual friendships with fellow students in the seminar.
Web Stories
Thinking critically about computing, biology and society
Posted April 20, 2007; 11:53 a.m.
From the April 9, 2007, Princeton Weekly Bulletin
Bernard Chazelle is asking his eight freshmen whether they know who Kevin Mitnick is.
Since the students were born well after the convicted hacker broke into his first computer system, Chazelle gives them some background.
The genius of Mitnick — now a computer security consultant — was that he was a social engineer who knew how to use technology to exploit the psychological Achilles' heels of others, says Chazelle, a professor of computer science.
"Social engineering is much more effective than mere hacking," he tells the students, most of whom are interested more in the humanities and social sciences at this point in their academic careers.
The confluence between social forces and computing is a strong undercurrent in Chazelle's class, a Richard L. Smith '70 Freshman Seminar titled "What Do Your DNA and Your iPod Have in Common?" The premise of the class is that computing comes in different shapes and sizes and that DNA and iPods are different implementations of exactly the same principle. "What makes DNA and iPods amazing widgets is that both are universal computers," Chazelle says.
In this class, the DNA enters the conversation later. For now, the class is discussing, if not exactly iPods, something closely related — the Internet and the worms, viruses, zombies, botnets and other species that can infect it. Inevitably the conversation turns to spam.
A student questions whether anyone ever responds to spam.
"Look, they wouldn't send it if it didn't work," says Chazelle. "Spammers are evil but they are not stupid."
Chazelle, a computer science theorist, segues into a technique called spoofing. "Spoofing is very scary because it enables someone to impersonate someone else," he says. "It is a concept that people have not paid enough attention to."
He discusses phishing, spam that tries to lure financial information from recipients by posing as trusted entities, such as banks, but directing them to spoofing sites, often at obscure Web addresses in foreign countries. He displays a slide of an e-mail that is putatively from a U.S. bank and asks what is suspicious about the message. At first the students are silent.
"If you were Kevin Mitnick, you would have spotted it right away," he goads playfully.
"Good thing we're not Kevin Mitnick," quips student Jac Mullen.
"Give us a hint," a classmate implores.
Chazelle tells the students to look at the address bar in the e-mail. "Cyrillic," exclaims Mauricio Lanio. "It's Russian!"
After a break, Chazelle displays the class blog. Since the seminar is a writing course, students are required to contribute "concise, pithy, thought-provoking posts." Earlier in the day, Alex Satty posted a short essay on viruses that insinuate themselves on a computer by pretending to be something else and referred to an episode of the television show "NUMB3RS" where this happens. Classmate Virginia Byron responded in a post that she was thinking of the same episode of "NUMB3RS" during the previous class.
The current conversation then turns to DNA. Chazelle talks about an experiment in which DNA was used to compute a classically difficult puzzle known as the traveling salesman problem, which requires calculating the shortest route to visit a collection of cities and return to the starting point.
In about 20 minutes of Socratic dialogue, Chazelle and the students sort out how it is that pure DNA can encode a seven-city traveling salesman tour and come up with the right answer.
Chazelle and the students also ponder the potential of DNA to power tiny nanoscale factories and computers, but as class ends, they have not precisely addressed the question of how their iPods are connected to their DNA. The conversation will continue, however, throughout the semester, in class and on the blog.


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A recent Bank of England poll of U.K. lenders turned up some unexpected good news: Credit "availability" for both households and companies rose significantly in the fourth quarter of 2012.
The net proportion of lenders reporting a rise in the availability of secured household credit over the prior three months soared to a post-2007 high of 26.2%, up from negative 4.1% in the second quarter and 21.9% in the third. The positive change was even more dramatic in the corporate sector: Lenders reporting improved credit availability rose to a net of 29.4%, up from negative 5.5% in the third quarter.
The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street was quick to take credit for the credit. "Lenders noted," crowed the BoE, "that the Funding for Lending Scheme," through which the BoE and U.K. Treasury have since August provided banks with ultra-cheap funds to boost their lending, "had been an important factor behind this increase."
It is impossible to know how much banks would have lent without access to reduced borrowing costs from the government. But we can say with confidence that the survey the BoE refers to is about as reliable as Libor.
Libor interest rates, as we all now know, were routinely manipulated by major international banks over recent years. Because the rates were not based on actual trades, and high rates were seen as indicating difficulties obtaining funding, banks were able and had every incentive to report artificially low ones. Banks have admitted to taking advantage of this flaw in the framework and routinely underreporting their cost of funds.
The indexes of credit availability the BoE has manufactured from its surveys are similarly unreliable. They are created by asking bankers amateur-journalist questions such as "How has the availability of secured credit provided to households changed?" and then assigning double the weight to lenders who respond "a lot" versus those who say "a little." There is nothing quantitative about the survey itself. Much more importantly, the banks have every incentive to tell the BoE that funding-for-lending is working swimmingly, and that the government should therefore keep funneling them cheap funds.
Meanwhile, actual U.K. bank lending remains dead as a doorknob. Between October and November last year, net secured lending to individuals declined by £200 million, to a level nearly identical to that a year prior. Net lending to U.K. business declined £2.8 billion, to a level 4.1% below that a year prior.
Importantly, FLS-beneficiary banks, which have borrowed some £4.4 billion under the scheme, have barely increased their lending. FLS-bank cumulative net lending to U.K. households and private nonfinancial companies rose just 0.04% from June to November. Lloyds and Santander, each of which borrowed £1 billion under FLS, actually reduced their lending over the period, by £2.8 billion and £3.5 billion, respectively.
In short, actual U.K. lending data suggest the BoE is being "Libored" by the banks—that is, being fed cheery, made-up credit "availability" numbers to keep their regulator and funder happy.
Might FLS yet prove its worth in due course? We doubt it. The scheme is structurally flawed. It offers banks discounted financing equal to 5% of their base stock of loans with no requirement that they actually increase lending. Putting the subsidy after the fact—essentially paying banks to lend—would address this problem. But this would entail the political cost of making the U.K. government's handout to the banking sector transparent.
In the United States, an August research report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland offered an appropriately skeptical take on FLS, highlighting the fact that it provides the largest subsidies to the weakest banks—those with the highest cost of funds—and warning that its fiscal-policy-like nature could represent an encroachment on the BoE's independence.
Yet with the minutes from the Fed's Open Market Committee meeting in December noting "still-tight credit conditions for some borrowers" as one of the "persistent headwinds" restraining economic activity, and Chairman Ben Bernanke having earlier said that he was "very interested" in FLS, the Fed might yet be tempted to embrace the idea. It should not.
Mr. Steil is director of international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of the forthcoming "The Battle of Bretton Woods: John Maynard Keynes, Harry Dexter White, and the Making of a New World Order" (Princeton University Press). Ms. Walker is an analyst at the Council.
This article appears in full on CFR.org by permission of its original publisher. It was originally available here (Subscription required).


text: The month of Feb. will have a training day for nearly every weekend for those of you in the Memphis Area ... Feb. 9th the Southern Flight (UKC Hunt Test) club will have a training day, Feb. 16th the Memphis Amateur (AKC Field Trial) club will have a training day, and Feb. 23rd Mid-South (AKC Hunt Test) will have a training day. Dogs of all ages and skill levels are invited to attend, if anyone is interested in any or all of the above dates just let me know and I'll track down the details that I have written down but not currently in front of me. I do know that some of these clubs would appreciate a head count to know how much food/how many birds to have, and I'm pretty sure they will all be providing free lunch.


text:
Click here to see the types of sounds you can find.
On August 1, 2016, FindSounds.com celebrated
its 16-year anniversary as the leading Web search engine for sound effects.
Palette is a software
program that lets you search more than one million sounds on the Web
and helps you organize and search your own sound collection.
Version 2.3 is now available and includes our easy-to-use audio editor.
Click here for a free trial.
Each month FindSounds.com,
FindSounds Mobile,
FindSounds for Android,
and FindSounds Palette
process more than 2,000,000 sound searches for more than 300,000 users.
has been profiled on television and radio, in magazines and newspapers, and on countless Web sites.
PC World "Best of the Web"
"Incredibly Useful" --Yahoo! Internet Life
"Impressive Technology" --New York Times
Read the story of FindSounds in the article
Searching for Sounds.


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So is there a circle that the handler must stay inside or something at the line? And if he drops it when he returns but i give the fetch up command and he picks it up is that still ok?
So is there a circle that the handler must stay inside or something at the line? And if he drops it when he returns but i give the fetch up command and he picks it up is that still ok?
I ran my 1st test about a month ago. Listen to the judges instructions. Air your dog before your turn. Get him out of the crate and walk around (on lead) just so he can see and hear what's going on. Watch and learn from others before it's your turn.
Have fun. I did and we didn't pass. I can't wait until the next one...
DUCKDAWG'S MAC'S MAGICAL MR. OCTOBER JH -- Reggie
You don't have to have a collar but there is no extra credit for not so why risk it? Technically you should be holding the collar and not touching the dog but incidental brushing is not the issue.
Wow, so excited for you! I'm in the same boat with a 4 month old - new and green to everything in this game! I'm still trying to figure out the training regiment so we are ready to go in the spring. Some really good advice here that I am going to make note of. GOOD LUCK!!!
"Dogs come into our lives to teach us about love, they depart to teach us about loss. A new dog never replaces an old dog; it merely expands the heart. If you have loved many dogs your heart is very big." Erica Jong
Grady's Southern Dream Girl Mardi Gras "Mardi"
Smokey's Angel Callie Girl "Callie"
Carol's Smokey Girl "Smokey"
TO the OP, what test are you running at the end of the month.
Expect to feel like you're going to throw up as you walk to the line.
Expect to feel like you've been kicked in the...stomach...if your dog decides to run around like he's never had a day of training. (and he'd be far from the first to do it)
Expect to feel like the King of the World if your dog nails it. (and even though he'd be far from the first to do it, he's YOUR first to do it and it feels GREAT)
Expect that, pass or fail, you will meet a lot of really nice, helpful people that really do want to see you and your dog succeed.
Expect that it will only set the hook deeper and you'll be anxious for more.
Expect all that and more. Good luck!
Ron Rhodes
A Lab has no appreciation for the artistic value of a bonsai tree, but does appreciate their potential as chew toys.
Let the dog hunt! Don't be quick on the whistle. A good constructive hunt looks way better than a sloppy handle. It's not a timed event. You may really need that handle later on. Even though it feels like he's been making loops for 15 mins, it's probably only been 15 seconds. Relax, have a good time. Your dog will think he won even if he don't pick up a bird. Expect the craziest things to happen then be happy when they don't. Enjoy! And be ready to spend a lot of your weekends doing this
Dont forget to give water to your dog like I did at a Seasond test. I was marshalling and forgot I had my dog in the crate.
She just swam circles trying to drink the whole pond. I thought it was funny. Didnt pass
In all seriousness, relax, take a deep breath, and remember that no matter what happens you get to hang out with your best buddy and a bunch of really good people. You could do much worse.
Steve Wyatt
HR Belle's Rolling Big Rig MH "Jimmy"


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September 27, 2010 at 22:19:00 Sep 27, 2010 @ 22:19
Really? I don't see how it could have been more obvious. The way trinity killed Rita, exactly the way he killed in the past. When Dexter was about to kill him, he said "it's already over"...Oh and this interview
That's speculation^.. I think it was someone who knew how trinity killed his victims.


text:
Zika and Microcephaly: How Doctors Made the Link »
"The first ultrasound scans were devastating.
In grainy black and white, doctors peeking into the wombs of pregnant women in Brazil could see trouble.
The brains of their tiny patients weren't keeping pace with the rest of their gr"...
Read the Zika and Microcephaly: How Doctors Made the Link article »
(quinine sulfate) Capsules, USP
QUALAQUIN® use for the treatment or prevention of nocturnal leg cramps may result in serious and life-threatening hematologic reactions, including thrombocytopenia and hemolytic uremic syndrome/thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (HUS/TTP). Chronic renal impairment associated with the development of TTP has been reported. The risk associated with QUALAQUIN use in the absence of evidence of its effectiveness in the treatment or prevention of nocturnal leg cramps outweighs any potential benefit [see WARNINGS AND PRECAUTIONS].
QUALAQUIN (quinine sulfate) is a cinchona alkaloid chemically described as cinchonan-9-ol, 6'-methoxy-, (8&apha;, 9R)-, sulfate (2:1) (salt), dihydrate with a molecular formula of (C20H24N2O2)2•H2SO4•2H2O and a molecular weight of 782.96.
The structural formula of quinine sulfate is:
Quinine sulfate occurs as a white, crystalline powder that darkens on exposure to light. It is odorless and has a persistent very bitter taste. It is only slightly soluble in water, alcohol, chloroform, and ether.
QUALAQUIN is supplied for oral administration as capsules containing 324 mg of the active ingredient quinine sulfate USP, equivalent to 269 mg free base. Inactive ingredients: corn starch, magnesium stearate, and talc.
What are the possible side effects of quinine (Qualaquin)?
Get emergency medical help if you have any of these signs of an allergic reaction: hives; difficulty breathing; swelling of your face, lips, tongue, or throat.
Stop using quinine and call your doctor at once if you have any of these serious side effects:
- fever, chills, confusion, weakness, sweating;
- severe vomiting, stomach pain, diarrhea;
- problems with vision or hearing;
- chest pain, trouble breathing, severe dizziness, fainting, fast or pounding heartbeats;
- severe flushing (warmth, redness, or tingly feeling);
- urinating less than...
Read All Potential Side Effects and See Pictures of Qualaquin »
What are the precautions when taking quinine sulfate capsules (Qualaquin)?
Before taking quinine, tell your doctor or pharmacist if you are allergic to it; or to quinidine or mefloquine; or if you have any other allergies. This product may contain inactive ingredients, which can cause allergic reactions or other problems. Talk to your pharmacist for more details.
Before using this medication, tell your doctor or pharmacist your medical history, especially of: previous serious side effects with quinine (such as blood problems), family/personal history of a certain enzyme problem (glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency-G6PD), a certain eye nerve problem (optic neuritis), hearing problems (such as ringing in the ears), a certain nerve/muscle disease (myasthenia gravis), heart rhythm problems (such as atrial fibrillation/flutter), kidney problems,...
Last reviewed on RxList: 11/28/2016
This monograph has been modified to include the generic and brand name in many instances.
Qualaquin FDA Prescribing Information
Additional Qualaquin Information
Qualaquin - User Reviews
Qualaquin User Reviews
Now you can gain knowledge and insight about a drug treatment with Patient Discussions.
Here is a collection of user reviews for the medication Qualaquin sorted by most helpful.
Report Problems to the Food and Drug Administration
You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit the FDA MedWatch website or call 1-800-FDA-1088.
Women's Health
Find out what women really need.


text:
Taco Bell
Fast Food Restaurants
320 E Wooster St, Bowling Green, OH 43402
Closed Now
- Today
- Tomorrow
7:00 am - 4:00 am
Regular Hours
- Mon - Tue
7:00 am - 4:00 am
- Wed - Sat
7:00 am - 5:00 am
- Sun
7:00 am - 4:00 am
More info
Price Range
Extra Phones
Fax: (419) 354-1155
TollFree: (800) 419-2188
General InfoTaco Bell is a chain of Mexican-style restaurants that serves a variety of food items and beverages. Its menu features a selection of tacos, burritos, gorditas, quesadillas, chalupas, taquitos, nachos and various platters. Taco Bell also offers specialty items, such as the Crunchwrap Supreme, as well as a special menu for children. It serves more than 2 billion consumers annually through over 5,500 restaurants in the United States. In addition to nearly 250 overseas locations, Taco Bell operates free-standing units and quick-service kiosks at shopping malls and airports. Most of its restaurants are owned and operated by independent franchisees. It has restaurants in Canada, Guam, Aruba, the Dominican Republic, Chile, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Ecuador and the Philippines. Taco Bell serves community youths through the Taco Bell Foundation for Teens. Its holding company, Taco Bell Corporation, was founded in 1962 and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Yum! Brands. Taco Bell Corporation employs more than 143,000 people and generates sales revenue of over $1.8 billion through company-owned and nearly $4.4 billion through franchised restaurants.
Payment Methods
Master Card, Visa, All Major Credit Cards
Other Information
Drive Through: Yes
Good For Family: Yes
Good For Groups: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Attire: Casual
Take Out: Yes
Cuisines: Mexican, Fast Food, Latin American
Takes Reservations: No
Specialties: Fiesta
Price Range : Below Average
Be the first to review!
to share your opinion of this business
with YP visitors across the United States
and in your neighborhood
View similar Fast Food RestaurantsSuggest an edit


text:
Opinions, Context & Ideas from the TPM Editors TPM Editor's Blog
Why The Bush Tax Cut Vote Was So Important
In hindsight, an inability or unwillingness to phase out the Bush tax cuts for high earners before the 2010 election was the Democrats' single largest failure of President Obama's first two years. That single omission underlies so many of the difficulties he's faced in the ensuing year and a half that it's difficult to fathom how different the political landscape would look today if Dems had handled things differently in 2009 or 2010.
But they didn't do it in the brief period when they had 60 votes. They didn't do it via the budget process, which would've required rounding up only 50 votes, and they were so scared of every GOP utterance by the fall of 2010 that they didn't even effectively turn GOP hostage-taking into an effective political weapon. Senate Democrats fractured over whether to set the expiration threshold at $250,000 or $1 million, and even at that higher bar they weren't able to unite in a way that clarified the Republican's politically noxious legislative strategy. House Democrats were in even greater disarray. It was a mess.
Obviously many things are different now. Obama's on the ticket this time. His opponent is a poster child for tax inequity. A sea change in national politics has made it easier for politicians to address issues like inequality.
But it's hard to draw a direct line between changes in the political environment and the decision making processes of the usual Democratic suspects. Notice for instance that all the vulnerable Democratic incumbents found their spines and voted for the bill. (Ironically, the caucus' defectors -- Joe Lieberman and Jim Webb -- are both retiring.)
I think that's almost entirely attributable to a commitment to purpose among Democratic leaders that just wasn't there two years ago. The White House deserves a lot of credit for that -- for stepping up a month ago and yanking Congressional Dems out of the politically palatable but substantively lazy consensus that they should draw the expiration line at $1 million. Once that was done, Harry Reid and other Dem leaders made clear, both publicly and privately, that politics and leverage were on the Democrats' side in this fight, and that political consequences of rebuffing the President would be devastating.
Toward that end, Harry Reid stared down Mitch McConnell in a way he just didn't try in 2010. McConnell voluntarily dropped a filibuster, ostensibly to prevent Democrats from dragging the fight out for months and months, and identifying Senate Republicans as the key antagonists. He hung that anvil around John Boehner's neck instead.
Patty Murray -- whose job as DSCC head is to keep Democrats in charge of the Senate -- gave a widely discussed speech in which she basically committed herself and her party to holding the line, to clarify that the GOP's insistence on extending tax cuts for wealthy people threatens higher taxes on everyone.
"Holding the middle class tax cuts hostage may be a smart tactical move if the goal is to protect the rich," she said. "But it's not good policy, it's not good politics, and Democrats are going to keep reminding the American people why middle class tax cuts aren't being extended immediately even though both sides say they want them to be."
That was before Wednesday's vote. Now the threat isn't idle, and instead of speaking generically about how Democrats and Republicans should get together and extend the Bush tax cuts they agree on, Obama and Democratic leaders will howl that Boehner won't pass this bill because Republicans would rather everyone's taxes go up than see rich people pay slightly more. Mitt Romney's going to have to answer for that strategy, too.
Actually passing the bill lends the issue a huge degree of political potency, and robs House Republicans of the claim to be that they alone have a plan to avoid a fiscal catastrophe at the end of the year.
Now I don't think the public hue and cry will be loud enough to force Republicans to move off their position before the election. Maybe if this were another issue -- but not taxes. And if Mitt Romney wins in November, then they'll just extend all the Bush tax cuts anyhow. But if Obama wins, this bill will still be live. And the pressure on the House GOP to relent and pass it during the lame duck will be overwhelming.


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Hey folks,
A close friend of mine works for a company called Kangaroo TV. He informed me this morning that Stephen Ross has purchased the company and "has a huge vision for the Dolphins and [their] product throughout the nfl and college football...
For those of you interested, here's some more info on Kangaroo TV
I believe they already offer this device at Dolphin Stadium, but i can only imagine where Ross plans on taking this. By the way, my buddy says he is a very interesting guy with incredible vision for the Dolphins.Kangaroo TV takes live events to a whole new dimension. Get a bigger piece of the action and see it from more angles. Make every moment count. Get stats, audio and video content all in one slick looking handheld terminal. Youll never see live events the same way again.


text:
Well I feel like Slicker does but JabbaJohn rocked with the information he brought to this party. Very reasonable.
But I long for the days when the economy and interest held things together when we'd easily see carded Cliegg Lars, maybe Nyrat Agira, Imperial Dignitary Sim Aloo - because the line and the product flow-through would support them being at least one per case in standard releases.
Also the Clone Wars ANIMATED style might have supported Anocanda Farr, Bail Organa, Chancellor Palpatine, Trandoshan hunters, Riff Tamsen, Dutchess Satine, Padme in a non-action outfit - because collectors were also buying animated figures and it could be marginally supported and the product style was not just appealing to the kid market whom Hasbro determined needed an army of Obi-Wans for every customer.