text:
Nov 6 (Reuters) - SunEdison Inc reported aquarterly loss, compared with a year-earlier profit, due tolower prices for its solar power plants and a drop in sales ofsolar panels.
The company's third-quarter net loss of $108 million, or 47cents per share, compared with a profit of $37 million, or 16cents per share, a year ago.
- Company Earnings
- Finance
- solar panels


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We are from the Roane county area just west of Knox and I have been wanting to get a little group started with people of different backgrounds and expertise so we can share knowledge and resources. Pretty much just learn from one another. Maybe get together at the range or go camping. Whatever could be useful.
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
This is my family's favorite hotel in the Edvardsville area. The hotel is clean and the staff is exceptional. We stay here when we visit our daughter or are looking for an affordable place close to StL.
- Reservation Options:
- TripAdvisor is proud to partner with Travelocity, Booking.com, Expedia, Priceline, Cheap Tickets, Orbitz, Hotels.com, Hilton Hotels, TripOnline SA, Odigeo and Tingo so you can book your Hampton Inn & Suites St. Louis-Edwardsville reservations with confidence. We help millions of travelers each month to find the perfect hotel for both vacation and business trips, always with the best discounts and special offers.
- Also Known As:
- Hampton Inn & Suites St. Louis-Edwardsville Hotel Glen Carbon
- Hampton Inn And Suites St. Louis-Edwardsville
- Hampton Inn Glen Carbon
- Glen Carbon Hampton Inn


text:
I'm writing an application that is trying to bulk export data from a SQL Server database (with a given connection string) to a local file (in whatever format).
Normally the sql server utility BCP.exe would be ideal, however, the bcp utility may not be available on the machine my app is running on. Also, bcp is not considered a redistributable app.
My question then: Is it true that BCP.exe is not redistributable? If not, then what are the best redistributable modules available to me and my app.
Any solution will be considered.


text:
- Age / Gender:
- n/a, Male
- Location:
- Location not disclosed
- Joined:
- 3/31/09
- All Stats >
Like Swords and Guns.
User Statshot
- Community Stats
Level 3 Blank Slate
Normal Whistle
Ranked as Civilian
Contact Info / Websites
Recent Game Medals
It's dangerous to go alone! 5 Points Obtain the wooden bat Medal Stats.
Killer 5 Points Kill 5 enemies. Medal Stats.
Hippos 10 Points Kill 12 hippos! Medal Stats.
Dragonfly 25 Points Kill the dragonfly in under 5 seconds! Medal Stats.
SOLDIER 5 Points kill 50 enemies Medal Stats.
I have to go deeper 10 Points Complete the game Medal Stats.
The Librarian 25 Points Collect all 15 notes Medal Stats.
First boss killed 10 Points The first mission is completed! Medal Stats.
Now you are ready 5 Points Tutorial is completed Medal Stats.
Fighter 10 Points Finish 10 levels on any difficulty Medal Stats.
Total Medals Earned: 1,071 (From 231 different games.)
Favorite Games
Ars Tactica: Prelude Rated 3.2427 Stars Ars Tactica: Prelude is a classic roguelike set in a magical crypt. Strategy - Other Zombie Tactics Rated 4.1456 Stars Tactical hexagon zombie story-driven game. Strategy - Other Smash From Beyond Rated 3.3544 Stars Smash the evil flesh hungry pumpkins from beyond! Skill - Collect Idle Evolution Rated 4.0463 Stars God did it in 6 days. How much time will you need? Strategy - Other
Latest Shared Creations
Bored Added to pumpkins for Carve n' Share Oct 18, 2010. Load Level
Favorite Audio
|Techno Song
|_-={Rage of the Champions}=-_
|Classical Song
|Sisters of Snow Assent ~P~
|Miscellaneous Loop
|Lost and Forgotten ~P~
|Video Game Loop
Favorite Art
Favorite Movies
Learn basic Japanese 2 Rated 4.2886 Stars Learn basic Japanese 2 Informative Crotchless Chaps Rated 4.4109 Stars Women have gone unchecked for Millenia. Now it's our turn, boys. Comedy - Original Too Cute: Pokémon Rated 4.1211 Stars An adorable parody of the Animal Planet show, 'Too Cute' Comedy - Parody Stress Rated 3.4871 Stars Stress Action


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Tough love
Who else but veterinarians deal with three or more animal species (I'm including Homo sapiens) every day on an intimate level—pushing, prodding, looking, listening?
Who sees how those different animals compare—the domestic dog and cat, the outdoor raccoon and squirrel, the caged parrot and soaring raven, the meandering cow and the fretful horse, the fluttering Betta fish and the slithering boa?It's no wonder that when you see someone kissing a dog on the May 2012 cover of Veterinary Economics, you gasp. (Missed it? See the cover again.) You know a cat, a dog, or worse may bite or scratch if people get up in their faces, snout to snout. You also know what lives on, in, and around these species. "Don't you know what you can catch from doing that?" you counsel.
It's a good question. That's why it was a treat to receive letters from your colleagues calling us out on our cover and our suggestion that hospital employees consider smooching their patients. The article's author, Dr. Christina Winn, does a fine job of explaining why she suggested kissing Rover or Fluffy in the first place.
But I want to dig deeper. Do prudent and cautious veterinarians also regularly remind clients how dangerous their pets' mouths, fur, and paws can be? When there was an outbreak of people sick with Salmonella from turtles bought from street vendors, the preventive suggestions poured in. Most common—wash your hands after touching your turtle, your turtle's cage, your turtle's feces ... really, anything around your turtle. But would you suggest the same to your cat owners, dog owners, and bird owners? If we can't kiss the dog, does it harm the bond between pet and pet owner—the bond that veterinarians depend on to motivate pet owners to do the very best for their pets?
Many pets today eat in the same kitchens, sleep in the same bedrooms, travel on the same vacations, and share the same familial affection of their human family members. Zoonoses could surely become more prevalent. Is all that emotional closeness worth the risk?
That's for every one of you—and every one of your clients—to think about, to weigh the dangers of illness and the benefits of close connections, skin to fur, paw in hand.
I know where I fall. Up until my wife's allergies grew really bad in the past few years, we both sniffled and sneezed our way through mild but perpetual allergies to hang onto our two-to-five-cat menagerie at home. We were mildly sick all the time, but it didn't matter. It was worth it. I liked smelling their fur, earthy and mellow. I liked smelling their breath when they'd rub their faces on mine. And I enjoyed taking them to a cat-only clinic that loved and cared for them.
How do you walk the line between the risks of pet ownership and the physical bond you enjoy with pets?
Brendan Howard, Editor
Hot topics on dvm360
Pol on defense as Michigan veterinary board discusses negligence charges
Controversial reality TV veterinarian calls his approach 'common sense.'
Photo gallery: The top 10 veterinary schools in America, according to U.S. News
U.S. News & World Report ranks programs for the first time since 2011.
Front Desk Disasters, Episode 3: Dude looks like a lady
Everyone's favorite receptionist is at it again. Would you handle this situation differently?
Video: Flea hideouts in the house
Parasitology expert Michael Dryden, DVM, MS, PhD, reveals prime hideouts for fleas—and gives tips to clear them out of clients' homes for good.
Veterinarians: Your clients are going to Google with these cat questions
You might be surprised by what your clients are researching. Plus, get an educational client handout.


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Below are top resources on SparkPeople for Kid Party Food.
During family gatherings, food temptations are everywhere. From stuffing and pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving to eggnog and sugar cookies in December, to barbecues in the summer, the seasonal temptations are endless. It can be tough enough to navigate the... Read more
Every year, thousands of people set New Year's resolutions to stop doing things: Stop eating fried foods. Stop watching TV. Stop drinking so much soda. But, really, how long do they stick? When your resolutions aren't enjoyable and only f... Read more
Every year, thousands of people set New Year's resolutions to stop doing things: Stop eating fried foods. Stop watching TV. Stop drinking so much beer. But, really, how long do they stick? When your resolutions aren't enjoyable and only f... Read more
We've all done it, and sometimes we don't even realize when it's happening. Maybe you graze when you're bored, or reach your hand into the office candy jar each time you pass by. Perhaps when you're feeling sluggish in the afterno... Read more
Why when im logging food or exercise does it say i havent logged anything when i have?... Read more
I am craving healthy food but with no support its hard...what can I do???... Read more
Lately I've watched documentaries on food and the one I watched yesterday was so disturbing! Makes me want to be a vegan. My only concern is with prices, how expensive are vegan options? I also live in a small town in WY, with limited options.... Read more
I'm from the south and we love rich foods, how do you guys get through the weekend, I work Monday through Friday and I'm good the weekend is my downfall how do you guys get through it????.... Cornbread is my weakness...... Lol....... Read more
How do I get my food to sync to my FitBit? Which app do I enter it on?... Read more
Dealing with leftover party food... Read more
If you're a parent, you know that the last thing you're worried about when planning your kid's birthday party is 'the parent's nutritional needs.' The buffet of kid-friendly delights are not always in step with your current meal plans. If you have... Read more
Welcome to our 'child free' SParkers who want a safe and honest place to discuss our choices for not having children (and all things that come from that)... Read more
As a chef, I love to entertain in our home--especially around the holidays when the house is decorated and we want to spend time with our family and friends. As part of my schooling, we were taught how to entertain as part of our hospitality tra... Read more
It's not just the ghouls and ghosts causing a scare on Halloween — how about the mountains of treats handed out to kids by friends and neighbors? Some treats are worse than others — these are the ones that I pick out of my kiddos'... Read more


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Welcome to the Puritas Baseball League web site.
Registration for the In House Division is still open.
Details on the registration are now available by clicking on the "In House Regist." tab at the top of this page.
We have also posted some general In House Division info for parents and coaches including dates the season starts and ends, playing days, uniform and equipment requirements, etc. You can access that info by clicking on the "In House Div." tab.
Registration for the Puritas Early Bird Tournament is now closed.
Registration for the travel league is now closed.
The League office is located at:
*Maplewood Diamonds
18026 Cleveland Parkway,
Cleveland, Ohio 44135
Please note: This is not our mailing address. See below.
*Maplewood Diamonds are located on Cleveland Parkway, off Rocky River Drive, between Brookpark Rd. and Puritas, approximately one mile north of Cleveland Hopkins Airport.
Mailing Address:
Puritas Baseball
19500 Puritas Avenue
Suite 121
Cleveland, Ohio; 44135
You can now follow us on Facebook.
E Mail address - firstname.lastname@example.com


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pre-made prairie points
Is there a place I can purchase pre-made prairie points by the yard? I've heard it does exist...but I can seem to find it by Googling.
I've not heard of it myself, but I wanted to post to say I enjoyed your 'My page.' Safe to assume you're in Hawaii? I like your sweet kitties, and the quilts you picture are really lovely--and interesting.
"What does OHGWQ stand for again? Something something Garden Web quilt? The bodies of the turtles are pieced sometime? I got a smile from eight months collecting, two weeks sewing. That's how it is, isn't it!
And the just for me quilt is a stack and whack? I'm mighty impressed with those extremely straight borders and all those perfect points!!! I'm glad you flipped it to show off your label. Is that the name of the quilt? And did you put your own name and date on it anywhere?
And the little girls have embroidery floss hair?
These three look so crisp and professional!
Hi Petalpatsy,
Your post got me to take a look at my "My Page". I obviously haven't done that in quite some time! Haven't been able to post like I used to. I'll have to update it when I get some time. Thanks for the compliments.
OHGWQ = One Hundred Good Wishes Quilt. It's based off of a Chinese folk tale...& many families make these quilts for their adopted children. Some of the turtles are pieced. The turtles are all fabrics from family members & the rest of the fabrics were collected from friends & friends in the adoption community. I pieced some of the turtle shells if I got more than 1 fabric from one family unit.
Dragonfly Dreams is the name I gave my quilt. It's just a basic Stack n whack design.
The quilts are gorgeous!!! I have never seen or heard of pre-made prairie points but I did use this tutorial to make fast points that were all from the same fabric.
Here is a link that might be useful: Fast Prairie Points
I have about 3 yds of premade white prairie points....and am desperately searching for more...I need a total of 6 yds. Found what I have in my stash...who knows how long it's been there or where I bought it! I've searched Joann's, Walmart, Hobby Lobby, etsy, ebay...nothing. Haven't found any online either....hope someone knows of a place.
I found the Etsy offering below. Perhaps if you got in touch with her she has or would make other colors.
Here is a link that might be useful: prairie point bunting


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Target's latest designer collab is almost here, and we've got an exclusive first look.
Perfect Timing
Chef Mathias Dahlgren has opened his namesake restaurant in the refurbished Grand Hôtel Stockholm, overlooking the bustling harbor. Designed by Ilse Crawford, the space is divided into a food bar and dining room (shown), and the menu changes daily. At S. Blaiseholmshamnen 8. Call 011-46-8-679-35-84; mdghs.com.
The Monkey Bar, a Manhattan fixture since 1927, is celebrating its 80th anniversary with a new Asian-fusion menu and interiors by Stephanie Goto—rest assured, the primate murals remain intact. At 60 E. 54th St. Call 212-838-2600; elyseehotel.com.


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Find Your Best Mascara
Beauty products are a few of my favorite things. Use this mascara review and guide of top brands from Benefit cosmetics, L Oreal, Clinique, Estee Lauder and more to choose your best mascara.
The quest for the perfect mascara can be overwhelming, but fun, too.
All you've gotta do is turn on the TV for a minute, and you'll see tons of beautiful mascara ads promising you intense, fake lash drama.
But who delivers? Here is a list of some of the best mascaras, whether you're a gal with a beauty budget or you'll blow the rent for an amazing product!
Lancome Definicils
Lancôme has been pumping out consistently great mascaras for years, and Definicils has been their top seller.
Try as you might, this baby won't clump, and lengthens and defines every little lash. If it's volume you are after, you may need to add a volumizing basecoat, though.
This is one of the priciest brands, but worth its weight in lengthy lashes.
Benefit Bad Gal Lash
Volumizing to the millionth degree, Bad Gal has been a consumer favorite for years.
The large brush grabs every lash to separate and pump it up!
Try the new dark blue version to brighten up tired eyes. No waterproof version available as yet, and if it's length you crave, you may want to use a lengthening primer.
Dior Show Mascara
While Dior Show comes with a hefty price tag, most fans will tell you it's worth every penny.
This mascara almost triples the volume and length of eyelashes, and stays put without smudging. The large fluffy brush somehow even has a curling effect.
This is one of the absolute best mascaras on the market right now.
The creamy formulation does dry out in the tube, so be sure you replenish frequently – as you should anyway! Available in waterproof, as well.
Bobbie Brown Everything
A favorite of celebrities like Serena Williams, this mascara is a lengthening master with some added volume and more separation. It's smudge-proof and flake free, with no change of clumping.
Prescriptives Lash Envy
Full, fabulous lashes to be envied. The exclusive Volumatrix Polymer formula boosts lash volume up to 200% for 12-hour wear. Holds curl and fans out lashes to give that falsie look. Works even on skimpy lashes.
Prescriptives Lash Builder
Primers add an extra step, it's true, but you won't believe the difference they make – even in mascara! Add a few coats of this lash primer to give your power mascara and extra boost.


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3rd December 2013
Six of the most hideous reactions to Tom Daley's coming out video 75
1:30 PM — As countless social media users around the globe celebrated and congratulated Tom Daley for coming out yesterday (some fans commiserated that he is in a relationship), sadly some took to Twitter to vent their homophobic views.
Comment: Tom Daley coming out should bring us together, not divide us 29
7:52 AM — Sam Bannister writes for PinkNews on why he thinks it is important that Tom Daley revealed that he is in a relationship with a man, and says that it is now more important than ever that those in the LGBT community stand together.
2nd December 2013
Sport stars congratulate Tom Daley for talking about same-sex relationship 27
5:58 PM — The world of sport is congratulating Tom Daley for having the courage to speak openly for the first time about being in a same-sex relationship and the Olympic diver says he's been "overwhelmed" by the public's reaction.
Comment: I made a mistake with my Tom Daley headline, but a mistake was all it was 111
2:21 PM — This is the first time I have written a comment piece for PinkNews because I normally try to let the news speak for itself, but I think this warrants me weighing in, and I'll always be the first to admit my mistakes.
Tom Daley: 'I'm dating a guy and I couldn't be happier' 92
10:48 AM — Olympic diver Tom Daley has revealed he is in a relationship with a man.
31st October 2013
Olympic diver Jack Laugher: I wouldn't mind being an openly gay diver 7
1:41 PM — British diver Jack Laugher says he wouldn't have a problem being a gay athlete and that "everyone should feel comfortable to be gay".
30th October 2013
BBC survey: Tom Daley's Splash! favourite for gay men whilst lesbians like Rules of Engagement 2
3:18 PM — ITV's 'Vicious' and 'Splash!' have been rated the most popular programmes for young gay men in a BBC survey, whilst for lesbians in the same age category 'Rules of Engagement' followed by 'Never Mind the Buzzcocks' are the most popular shows.
8th September 2013
Tom Daley: 'I am not gay — but I wouldn't be ashamed if I were' 45
11:16 AM — Olympic diver Tom Daley, who was named Attitude magazine's "sexiest man in the world," has said he is not gay, although he would not be ashamed if he were.
5th August 2013
Tom Daley: 'I really appreciate my gay fans' 20
1:42 PM — Olympic diver Tom Daley says he "really" appreciates having gay fans.
19th July 2013
Tom Daley named Attitude readers' sexiest man in the world, ahead of Beckham and Prince Harry 39
7:22 PM — British Olympic diver Tom Daley has been named the sexiest man in the world by the readers of Attitude magazine in a poll for the magazine's summer special issue.
27th May 2013
Helen Mirren attends gay festival following drummer rant debacle 9
12:09 AM — Dame Helen Mirren has been seen in attendance at the As One in the Park, gay outdoor festival today, and even joined drummers on stage, following a drama when she went on a rant at drummers promoting the festival two weeks ago.
13th May 2013
Graham Norton, Alan Carr and Clare Balding in Bafta wins 2
12:10 PM — Gay TV presenters Graham Norton, Alan Carr and Clare Balding all won awards at last night's Baftas.
5th March 2013
Yorkshire: Man admits to breaching sexual offences prevention order after searching for gay porn and Tom Daley images 20
2:38 PM — A man has admitted to breaching the terms of a sexual offences prevention order after he told police officers that he had been searching the internet for gay pornography and images of Olympic diver Tom Daley.
21st January 2013
Olympic diver Chris Mears: I have made some good gay friends through Tom Daley 30
6:20 PM — Olympic diver Chris Mears says his friendship with fellow diver Tom Daley now means he has several gay mates.
25th December 2012
Feature: The top 15 stories that changed LGBT life in the UK in 2012 6
12:59 PM — As 2012 draws to a close, PinkNews.co.uk takes a look back at the most important UK stories of the last twelve months. This year has been an exceptional one for LGBT news in the UK so we've decided to extend the number of stories to 15!
7th December 2012
Laurence Watts' 2012 LGBT Predictions Scorecard 13
10:28 AM — In December of last year, Laurence Watts set himself the task of predicting LGBT news events that were likely to happen in 2012 - here is his scorecard for the year.
28th November 2012
Wales: Footballer fined £500 for anti-gay Tom Daley tweet 12
1:17 PM — A Welsh footballer has been fined £500 and handed a one-match suspension for sending an abusive message to Olympic diver Tom Daley on Twitter.
21st September 2012
Scotland: Teenager apologies to TV weatherman for anti-gay abuse 15
8:24 PM — A 16-year-old boy has issued a public apology to a Scottish weather forecaster Sean Batty for posting homophobic remarks on his official Twitter account.
20th September 2012
CPS: New Twitter abuse rules following Tom Daley case 16
11:54 AM — The Director of Public Prosecutions is to issue new social media rules on abuse, after Team GB diver Tom Daley received offensive Twitter messages about his late father – and of a homophobic nature, earlier this summer.
4th September 2012
Celebrity Big Brother's Julian Clary receives homophobic abuse on Twitter 28
11:44 AM — According to Unreality TV, derogatory terms words including "freak", "faggot" and "arse bandit" have all been posted by trolls to the star's official Twitter account in the past few days.


text:
I am designing a week-based menu application. I am wondering if I should just do this:
class MenuWeek(models.Model):
sunday = OneToOneField("MenuDay")
monday = OneToOneField("MenuDay")
#etc through Saturday
class MenuDay(models.Model):
# some stuff here, but not a foreign key to MenuWeek
instead of this:
class MenuDay(models.Model):
week = ForeignKey("MenuWeek") # (with no OneToOne's defined in MenuWeek)
Is the first way a good way to implement a short "fixed-length" list relationship between parent and child or should i just stick with ForeignKey in the MenuDay and enforcing length through forms validation? I'm thinking the administration may be cleaner, the first way, where its clear which day of a week you are editing.


text:
Nupoor11 (Nupoor .gaur)
Fan of 3 Teams
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Joined: 21st, Aug 10
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Swansea City Vs. Arsenal
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Nupoor11 wrote in In Real Madrid v Barcelona
Madrid got so mancy chances which shudve been converted !!
Even barca was better than madrid a couple of years ago, but things change !! They arent inevitable !!
Didnt expect manu to win with such a cheap act !! a draw would have made fans happy !!
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text:
Selling some stock iPod equipment.
I have charging dock for iHome and the iPod to computer USB cable. I have TWO of each.
$5 each. All brand new.
Pic taken with Photobooth so my tag is reversed.
Post: 1564
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: San Francisco
put on some clothes.
Post: 474
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: So Cal


text:
An explosion rocked a heavily traveled section of Manhattan's East Village on Thursday, injuring at least a dozen people and leveling parts of a building, authorities said.
In March 2015, a sinkhole swallowed a tour bus in northern Brazil. The incident happened near a flooded river. Everyone aboard escaped safely.
According to a survey conducted of producers, agents and executives by The Hollywood Reporter, there are at least six actors earning as much as $20 million per picture. Click on to see how much today's biggest stars command.
Tired of your job? Using feedback from employees, Glassdoor lists the best companies to work for in 2015. Here are the Top 25.


text:
Jennifer Kerber comes to the Government Transformation Initiative after gaining experience at the TechAmerica Foundation.
Jennifer Kerber is the new executive director of the Government Transformation Initiative, the group has announced. She will lead the non-profit coalition as it works to improve the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of the federal government.
Kerber's work will ultimately lead to the creation of a Government Transformation Commission or Task Force, said David Walker, GTI board chair and former U.S. Comptroller General.
"Jennifer Kerber's proven track record for fostering public and private sector collaboration and dialogue will be an asset to the GTI effort," Walker said. "We are confident that her experience on the Hill coupled with her passion for improving the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of government will make a positive difference in our efforts. We are delighted to add her to our team."
Kerber previously served as president of the TechAmerica Foundation.
Posted by Michael Hardy on May 08, 2013 at 12:10 PM
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Meet 100 women and men who are doing great things in federal IT.
Click here for the full list
Unisys Federal Systems' Venkatapathi Puvvada, this year's Eagle award winner for industry, stresses the importance of community.
Experts tell committee that business models, not technology, are the main obstacle to better sharing across systems.
Protests have delayed SEWP V, but industry experts say the contract vehicle offers agencies service and value that are hard to find.
The power of the individual informs FCW's coverage each and every day, but with the Federal 100, we take time to really spotlight and celebrate it. Get to know each of this year's winners.
The latest version of the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act purportedly protects companies from liability and individuals from government intrusion.
Popular CIO is headed for the private sector.
The Census Bureau hasn't established a time frame for its cloud computing plans, including testing for scalability, security, and privacy protection, as well as determining a budget for cloud services.
President Obama's proposal to boost government coordination with the private sector got a warm welcome in the House Homeland Security Committee.
The spy agency wants to better integrate cybersecurity into its traditional human intelligence operations.
8609 Westwood Center Drive, Suite 500Vienna, VA 22182-2215 703-876-5100
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text:
Ratings based on 163 Verified Reviews
They paid and stayed. We double-checked.
3.5 Room cleanliness
3.4 Service & staff
3.3 Room comfort
3.4 Hotel condition
They paid and stayed.
We double-checked.
We double-checked.
for Everyoneby A verified traveler
Posted Mar 24, 2015
Location is pretty convenient to stores and restaurants. The staff is helpful and friendly....just be sure to ask for the kitchen utensils at the front desk.
by A verified travelerfrom El Paso, TX
Bad, I would not come back.Posted Mar 16, 2015
The beds are not queen beds they are full beds, very uncomfortable.
for Everyoneby A verified travelerfrom Canada
Nice hotel with kitchen facilitiesPosted Mar 9, 2015
Pros: Good location, close to Metro green line.
Cons: change all mattresses; Check fridges & stoves to make sure they work properly; provide dishes & cutlery to guests as they arrive
Location: Close to transportation, enabling tourists to explore any part of LA.
The hotel is now replacing the mattresses. Although comfortable, made a lot of noise upon sitting or turning. Overall stay enjoyable. Loved the Colombian dark roast coffee . Would go again.
Comment from Hotel Management
Mar 26, 2015 by Manager, Hotel Management
Thank you so much for posting a review of our property. It's great to hear that you enjoyed our hotel and our fully equipped kitchens. Thank you again for posting your review. I do hope that you will return to our hotel, or any of our other brand locations, in the future.
for Everyoneby A verified traveler
good locationPosted Feb 24, 2015
staff friendly, nice location, shops very close by
Comment from Hotel Management
Mar 17, 2015 by Manager, Hotel Management
Thank you so much for posting a review of our hotel. I am pleased to hear that you found our staff to be accommodating and that your enjoyed our hotelâs location. The staff and I would like to thank you again for posting your review. We look forward to welcoming you back in the future!
by A verified travelerfrom california
staff was great , room was poor!Posted Feb 16, 2015
first off I'd like to say the staff was very friendly.when I checked in there was a gentleman there was polite .but there's something about waking up in the morning and having to clean a half inch of scum out of the bath tub before I can take a shower unacceptable ! good location close to LAX
by A verified traveler
Posted Jan 3, 2015
Good location near LAX. Requested double beds but got king size and small sofa couch instead. When requested roll away bed, front desk indicated that they did not have any onsite. For the price, it was below average.
Comment from Hotel Management
Jan 19, 2015 by Manager, Hotel Management
Thank you so much for posting a review of our property. Please accept our apologies that a roll-away bed was not available during your stay, and that my staff was unable to provide you with the room you requested. Still, we are glad to know that we were able to provide you with a room at a good location. I will work with my staff to ensure that we are better accommodating guests by providing them with the correct rooms moving forward. Thank you again for sharing your experience with us. We would love to see you again, should your travels bring you back to our area.
for Personal Eventby Cyrillefrom Punaauia
Tres moyen !!Posted Dec 14, 2014 on Hotels.com
Pas super !!! Pour le prix il y a mieux à los angeles. Je n'y retournerai jamais.
for Familiesby Geoffreyfrom Paris
Correct dans l'ensemblePosted Nov 22, 2014 on Hotels.com
Dans l'emsemble bon sejour, supermaché et starbuck a coté tres pratique car jamais de café dans le hall comme on nous l'avais annoncés. Nous avions reservés pour 4, nous n'avons eu droit qu'a 2 chaise, pas pratique pour manger tous ensemble et ce malgré notre demande d'en avoir 2 autre qui nous as eté refusé. De meme pour la vaiselle qu'il faut reclamé, et qu'on as du s'y reprendre a 2 fois pour tout avoir, la premiere fois nous n'avions eu qu'un couteaux et trois fourchette!! Et le ménage n'est pas passer de la semaine. La porte des toilettes ne fermais pas! Mais pour 1 semaine ca a été, nous n'avons pas entendu les avions, pourtant l'aeroport n'est pas loin, tres pratique pour les depards!
for Business Travelersby Dorothy
Posted Nov 21, 2014 on Hotels.com
for Couplesby A verified traveler
worest everPosted Nov 18, 2014 on Hotels.com
Worest ever
Comment from Hotel Management
Jan 31, 2015 by Manager, Hotel Management
I appreciate you taking the time to write a review of our hotel. I am sorry to hear that you did not enjoy your stay with us. We continually work to improve our hotel, so I am grateful for your feedback. We hope that you will stay at our hotel, or any of our other brand locations in the future.


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Eurostyle Raina End Table
Eurostyle Raina End Table
Additional Documents
Weights & Dimensions
|Shape: Round
|Design: Table
|Style: Modern
|Distressed: No
|Hand Rubbed Finish: No
|Base Material: Metal
|Top Material: Glass
|Tray Top: No
|Solid Wood Construction: No
|Number of Items Included: 1
|Hidden Storage Compartment: No
|Drop Leaf Top: No
|Magazine Rack: No
|Drawers Included: No
|Exterior Shelves: No
|Cabinets Included: No
|Base Type: Pedestal
|Wheels Included: No
|Reclaimed Wood: No
|Adjustable Height: Yes
|Eco-Friendly: No
|Country of Manufacture: Imported
|Assembly Required: Yes
Still have questions about this product? We're here to help
Eurostyle Raina End Table
About the ManufacturerEurostyle is about smart, affordable European design. They have grand ideas for small spaces – their furniture folds and stacks – and many pieces are multi-purpose – dining tables that convert into desks, storage pieces that can be room dividers, versatile side tables that are at home in the living, dining or bedroom. The smooth, clean geometric shapes of Eurostyle design gives your rooms a trendy up-to-date look. Eurostyle designed furniture uses a combination of metal, glass and bold colors to make your rooms stylish and sophisticated symbolizing your self confidence. Eurostyle rooms look spacious and airy, warm and welcoming for you and your guests. So – go ahead and make a strong fashion statement with the latest contemporary furniture designs from Eurostyle.
|5 star
|4 star
|3 star
|2 star
|1 star
raina end table
jill from ypsilanti, MI– Verified Buyer
it was so easy to assemble, it was done in about 5 minutes. A nice feature is that you can use it in the high, or lower position. good buy for the money!
Great coffee table
Lisa from Miami, FL– Verified Buyer
great little coffee table that goes up and down...love it!
Stylish accent tables
Marjorie L from Dunwoody, GA– Verified Buyer
These look great in two corners of an office. They are large enough to use as writing or snack tables for two people. The black glass is stylish and unique.
Fantastic color...
Daniela from Vienna, VA– Verified Buyer
Fantastic table. I bought it in red and we love it...
Wobble big time
Felix from New York, NY– Verified Buyer
The size of the table is perfect for the corner of my room by the window. My laptop is on it and I can have a light meal while reading emails. However, the table is so unsteady and wobbly that I am too afraid of putting anything that could spill.
OUR SKU # EY2239Raina End Table is also sometimes listed under the following manufacturer numbers: 21188BLK, 21188CLR, 21188FRS, 21188RED, 21188WHT


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Orkney Nature Festival 2015
The Orkney Nature Festival team are very pleased to announce dates for the 2015 Nature Festival - Wednesday 13th May to Sunday 17th May. Work on the programme is going on across the county at present, so it can be launched at the end of March.
This year's Festival is a bit shorter than those in 2013 and 2014, but there will still be just as much of Orkney's wonderful wildlife to show off. It promises to be great.
For anyone wishing to get involved with organising the 2015 Festival, or to suggest events, then please contact Alison Nimmo at the RSPB Office - email@example.com or call 01856 850176.
Photo: Red-throated diver (Chris Gomersall, rspb-images.com)
RSPB Scotland is very grateful to the European Regional Development Fund and Heritage Lottery Fund who provided the funding to develop and run the 2013 and 2014 Festivals through the Enjoy Wild Orkney project, and to Anne Bignall who was responsible for the very exciting programmes in each year. Visit the hide at RSPB Scotland's nature reserve at The Loons in Birsay to see what Anne is working on just now!
It is wonderful that there is commitment across Orkney's wildlife and tourism organisations to make sure that the Festival has a future. It looks like mid May will be a firm highlight in Orkney's calendar for some years to come!


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PJM Lifestyle
Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning?
Editor's Note: see the previous reflection in this series on country music and American values: "3 Reasons Why I Like Country Music"
Alan Jackson's "Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning?" ("on that September day") is a loving and poignant tribute to the victims of the 9/11 atrocity. Debuting at the CMA Awards festival two months after the terrorist attack, it is country's version of Billy Collins's poetic memorial "The Names." Like Collins ("Yesterday I lay awake in the palm of the night"), Jackson is modest and understated ("I'm just a singer of simple songs/I'm not a real political man"), but the political and communal messages are powerful. Listing the reactions of ordinary Americans, Jackson charts a range of caring responses to the terror attack. These include patriotism, gratitude to heroes, the turn to God for answers, and a reassessment of what matters most in life:
Did you burst out with pride for the red, white and blue
And the heroes who died just doin' what they do?
Did you look up to heaven for some kind of answer
And look at yourself and what really matters?
"I didn't want to write a patriotic song," Jackson told his interviewer Linda Owen at Today's Christian. "And I didn't want it to be vengeful, either," he explained, "but I didn't want to forget about how I felt and how I knew other people felt that day."
Whether he intended to or not, Jackson did end up writing a patriotic song filled with solicitude for his country and its people. There is one potentially vengeful, or realistically self-protective, response mentioned ("Did you go out and buy you a gun?"), but most of the emphasis is on holding loved ones close and affirming membership in community: phoning one's mother with a message of love, standing in line to give blood, speaking to a stranger on the street. Nowhere, of course, does Jackson imagine that ordinary Americans might have felt satisfaction at the thought of America being so wounded, or that their first impulse would have been to blame America and glorify the terrorists.
For many if not most Americans, the assumption of inviolability and non-involvement had crumbled with the Towers. The feeling of immunity or even apathy toward the possible irruption of terror on American soil had been replaced in the minds and hearts of decent people by an unexpected conviction of responsibility, coupled with a deep sense of anger, sorrow and resilience. "No man is an island, entire of itself," John Donne wrote in the 17th Devotion, "every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main." Wherever many of us were on that September day, we were also in New York. I was marooned (no boats, no planes) on the tiny Greek island of Tilos, but rapidly understood that Tilos was a part of the North American continent.
A Radical Ranking of Disney's 8 Best Animated Features
You may remember my experience last week where I received the strange basket of apples with a cryptic note from Valerie. I ate one of the apples and fell into a deep sleep, after which I received the strangest ideas for how to improve Walt Disney World. So I wrote them down, and my editor posted them here.
Well, I decided to try a second apple from the basket. One bite of this next apple, and I passed out again. I woke up with the inspiration to rank some of Disney's best cartoons. Get ready, because I guarantee you that you've never seen Disney's films in this light…
8. Wreck-It Ralph (2012)
Just picture it: a large, virile character roams the world, and though people see him as a bad guy, he's really good inside, and in the end, he saves the day!
Am I talking about Wreck-It Ralph? Of course I am, but in reality I'm talking about the man whose life I'm convinced the movie is a metaphor for: our wonderful ally Vladimir Putin. Just think about it.
7 Ways to Radically Improve Walt Disney World
The basket of apples appeared on my door step. At first I wasn't sure where they came from until I saw the note card that read VJ's Organic Co-Op, Washington, DC. The note inside the envelope read:
Dear Chris,
Try these apples. I guarantee you've never tasted anything like them.
Love, Valerie
Valerie? I wasn't sure who this Valerie was, but I figured organic apples couldn't be all that bad. I made sure to wash one of them thoroughly, and I took a bite.
Whoever Valerie was, she was right. It didn't taste like any apple I'd ever eaten, and soon after the first bite, I fell asleep, right there on the kitchen floor!
When I woke, I had all these ideas in my head on how to improve my favorite place on the planet — Walt Disney World. So I wrote them down, and here they are:
7. An Updated CircleVision 360 Film For China At Epcot
Epcot's China pavilion does a wonderful job celebrating the rich history of its home country, but there's very little mention of the successes of the last sixty or so years. Wonderful triumphs like the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, and defeating those pesky students in Tiananmen Square don't get the mention they deserve at Epcot.
To remedy that problem, I propose that Disney replace the current Reflections of China film with an informative and interesting documentary I'll call Forward: China from Mao to Now. The film will look back at the great history of the People's Republic of China from the earliest days of the revolution to China's bright future.
Of course, such a short film would not have time to delve too deeply into certain aspects of the nation, so concepts like human rights and economic freedom would probably have to go by the wayside. But I think a CircleVision 360 movie dispelling the myths about the People's Republic would be worth seeing, don't you?
What Happened to East Germany's Brutally Effective Secret Police After the Wall Fell?
On November 9, 2006, as the free world celebrated the seventeenth anniversary of the Berlin Wall's demise, an 83-year-old man died in a peaceful slumber at his home in the German capital city. The man was Markus Wolf, who during the Cold War led the foreign-intelligence section of East Germany's secret-police apparatus: the Ministry for State Security (Ministerium fuer Staatssicherheit), known colloquially as "the Stasi." The Stasi's most renowned spymaster, he controlled thousands of agents, whose purpose was to infiltrate important Western institutions and government positions. Often mistaken as the inspiration for John le Carre's shadowy Karla character, Wolf for years remained a mystery to Western intelligence services, who didn't even have a picture of him until the late 1970s—several decades into his career. Historians have marveled at his success in leading the Stasi's foreign wing, known as the HVA, or Hauptverwaltung Aufklaerung. Perhaps his most well known accomplishment is having one of his agents, Gunter Guillaume, become a trusted aide to Willy Brandt, the West German chancellor.
Seven years after Wolf's death and twenty-five years after the Wall's, the West still doesn't appreciate the breadth and depth of the Stasi's brutality. (The KGB still reigns in the popular imagination as the ultimate secret-police force.) Formed after the Second World War in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany, the Stasi grew to become the most potently effective Eastern bloc intelligence organization. They possessed a more impressive informant network than even the KGB. When East Germany crumbled, the Stasi employed upwards of 190,000 unofficial informants. By 1989, approximately one out of every 90 East German citizens was a Stasi informant. Referred to as inoffizielle Mitarbeiter ("unofficial collaborators"), most were simply ordinary German citizens, tasked with reporting everything they could about possible (real or imagined) anti-regime activity, as well as details about family and friends. Even children were involved in spying on their parents.
My Favorite Insane Tweet Today
Sometimes I like to ironically retweet Communist, anarchist, and other varieties of far left slogans. Often times the sentiments are anachronistic or conflict with the more prominent, popular progressive sentiments of the day. Occasionally some truth manages to get out. This one really provoked a smile in its honesty:
The capitalist system controls your life thus it is idiotic to blame yourself for your misery.
— Ann Landers (@Ann__Landers) October 25, 2014
No matter what's going on in your life or what decisions you've made that have gotten you there, there's always someone else to blame! How is any ideology with this at its core not appealing?
Like a Serial Killer, Mao Zedong Manipulated Everyone
Editor's note: this is part 3 in an ongoing series exploring the history of dictators and their evil ideologies. See the previous installments: Part 1:"Why It's OK to Be Intrigued by Evil Dictators" and Part 2: "Does Everybody Want Freedom?" Have ideas for who you'd like to see Robert explore next? Get in touch on Twitter: @RobertWargas and @DaveSwindle
Celebrating its centennial, The New Republic recently mined its archive and republished an intriguing piece from its February 27, 1965, issue: an exclusive interview with Mao Zedong by the American journalist Edgar Snow. As TNR correctly notes, as far as interviews go this would be analogous to a Western journalist today being granted exclusive access to Kim Jong Un. The sit-down took place almost seven years before Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger arrived in Peking to re-establish relations with China.
Though the interview has value as a journalistic artifact, it isn't the most satisfying piece of reportage when it comes to Mao the man. Snow, who was not exactly Red China's greatest critic, wasn't allowed to quote the Great Helmsman directly, and most of the discussion concerns issues of policy and military strategy. These are big subjects, and big subjects always make for big answers laden with propaganda.
Mao comes across as intensely theoretical; he seems genuinely infatuated with Marxist theory and its rigorous application to world affairs. When asked about the Vietnam War, for instance, Snow writes that Mao "repeatedly thanked foreign invaders for speeding up the Chinese revolution and for bestowing similar favors in Southeast Asia today." He "observed that the more American weapons and troops brought into Saigon, the faster the South Vietnamese liberation forces would become armed and educated to win victory."
Does Everybody Want Freedom?
A few years ago, on a rainy summer's day, I was browsing around a secondhand bookshop on the east end of Long Island, breathing in the musty wonder of the overstuffed shelves, when an elderly man approached me. I had in my hand a first edition of William Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. The man started up a friendly conversation about the Second World War, asking me whether I had watched a recent television documentary on the subject.
He continued talking, perhaps unaware that he wasn't allowing me to respond. I didn't take this as an insult. Most people prefer to hear themselves talk; this isn't necessarily a sign of malice or rudeness on their part. I find it's especially true of the elderly, who are usually lonelier and thus more desperate for the ear of a stranger. So I stood there and listened as politely as I could, not altogether uninterested in his views of fascinating matters like the Nazis and other dictatorships, which are subjects that I could eat with my breakfast cereal.
Pacepa's Seeds of Knowledge, Part 5: The Drug of Disinformation
The Introduction to Pacepa's Seeds of Knowledge: Starting Down the Yellow Brick Road…
Part 1: The Mask of Marxism
Part 2: Getting to the Heart of Social Justice
Part 3: Who Needs a Brain?
Part 4: Are Conservatives Cowards?
"The August 1991 coup in Moscow collapsed three days after it had started, providing the ultimate, ironic proof that nothing, not even a coup, could succeed any more in a society whose vital arteries had been calcified by 70 years of disinformation and dismal feudalism. The main loser was the Communist Party."
– Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa
Both the Democrat and Republican parties have been disinformed by Marxism. The Liberal wing of the Democrat Party has been duped into putting their faith in Marxism's many forms (socialism, economic determinism, progressivism), while the Republican Party has legitimized Marxism as a form of party politics instead of a murderous, atheistic religion that empowers despots. The Conservative movement, by and large, is slow to recognize Marxism's true nature, because we are a nation that has been drugged by Disinformation. Pacepa continues:
At the end of the 2001 summit meeting held in Slovenia, President George W. Bush said: "I looked the man [Putin] in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy." Unfortunately, even President Bush was deceived by disinformation. Putin consolidated Russia into an intelligence dictatorship, not a democracy. During the Cold War, the KGB was a state within a state. Under Putin, the KGB, rechristened the FSB, is the state. Three years after Putin enthroned himself in the Kremlin, some 6,000 former officers of the KGB—that organization responsible for having slaughtered at least 20 million people in the Soviet Union alone—were running Russia's federal and local governments.
…Is it too far-fetched to suggest that this new Russia calls up the hypothetical image of a postwar Germany being run by former Gestapo officers, who reinstate Hitler's "Deutschland Über Alles" as national anthem, call the demise of Nazi Germany a "national tragedy on an enormous scale," and invade a neighboring country, perhaps Poland, the way Hitler set off World War II?
That is the secret power of disinformation.
Pacepa share these thoughts with me mere weeks before the Ukranian revolution and secession of the Crimea to Putin's Russia. Disinformation is wielding its power on the American homefront as well. In his critique of Thomas Piketty's new book Capital in the Twenty-First Century, David Brooks embraces Piketty's idea of a tax on the wealthy's investment capital in order to create intellectual equality among the classes:
Think of how much more affordable fine art would be. Think of how much more equal the upper class would be.
His musings aren't that far off from those of Russian intellectuals, who are "making do" with their government's clampdown on free media and the right to protest. In exchange for their rights, these Russians whose intellectual arteries have been "calcified by disinformation" are being doted upon by their increasingly despotic government:
All sorts of entertainment is being lavished on Russia's hipsters. Their favorite public parks have splashy, beautifully designed restaurants and clubs, comfortable biking areas and luxurious places to chill. Sanctions or not, Fedoseyev's friends can still dine out at restaurants full of expats, take shopping trips to Milan, or buy their electronic gadgets online. Fashion Week this weekend was another party blooming with charming models and celebrities; the usual hipsters clubs, Solianka, Simachev, Oldich Dress and Drink or Strelka, felt as cuddly and crowded as ever.
To paraphrase Brooks, it would seem that the fine art is quite affordable in Russia these days. Like junkies seeking a quick fix, Russian intellectuals pursue disinformation at the expense of their freedom. Is Brooks suggesting we do the same, or have we already succumbed to the addiction? In either case, what we need to know now is: What is the antidote to disinformation?
Pacepa's Seeds of Knowledge, Part 4: Are Conservatives Cowards?
The Introduction to Pacepa's Seeds of Knowledge: Starting Down the Yellow Brick Road…
Part 1: The Mask of Marxism
Part 2: Getting to the Heart of Social Justice
Part 3: Who Needs a Brain?
Our well-meaning conservatives do not seem to know that today's socialism is just an undercover form of Marxism.
Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa
Our ongoing conversation focused on the Right Wing reaction, or lack thereof, to Marxism on the Left, to which Pacepa commented:
A few conservative commentators, like Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, and PJ Media writers who deeply understand Marxism (Roger Simon, Ron Radosh, Michael Ledeen and Victor Hanson are just a few) have warned that Marxism is infecting the country and the Whistleblower, a small but courageous magazine, dedicated a whole issue to "Marxism in America ." But neither the Republican Party nor the Tea Party has even mentioned the danger of Marxism. Why?
Many people, even some on the right – especially those with something to lose, such as re-election or position, or popularity, or money – are simply intimidated by the left, and especially by our idiotic and treacherous "mainstream" news media.
While Ann Coulter would probably agree, at least to a certain extent, with Kupelian's explanation, fear of being Palin'd (or is it Couric'd?) isn't enough of an explanation. We still live in a free market economy with free access to alternative media outlets. The problem isn't just ego, as Pacepa explains, it's also ineffective P.R.:
…I would only mention that most American youths are fascinated by Marx's utopian "to each according to his need." They are also galvanized by the prospect that the Democratic Party can force rich Americans to pay a part of their own health care, mortgages, loans and school tuition, and it seems that the Republican Party does not know how to handle this new generation.
This is partly because the Republican Party approaches Marxist channels as legitimate political entities instead of fronts being used to launder dangerously corrupt ideology:
Soviet communism has been regarded, both in the West and within its own borders, as a form of government that, although dictatorial, ruled the country through a political party and based its decisions on a political ideology. Only a handful of people working in extremely close proximity to the Soviet and East European rulers knew that after Lenin died his Communist Party gradually became irrelevant.
To the Soviet intelligence bigwigs of Pacepa's era, "the Communist Party was nothing but a 'yakkity-yak,' a place where people sat around beating their gums." The same goes for many of the pro-Marxist outlets today. How many on the Right of the political spectrum have found their comfort zone in the "yakkity-yak" of party politics? Not that long ago I observed:
Politics may be a popularity contest, but pundits like Glenn Beck shouldn't have to tell the American public about Cloward and Piven, nor would they have to if you'd stop giving into lunatic liberal logic in favor of a seat at the cool table in the Capitol cafeteria.
Pairing that observation with Pacepa's knowledge leads to the question: Has the Right (Republicans/Conservatives/Tea Partiers/et. al.), along with the rest of America, been collectively drugged into political irrelevance by generations of Marxist Disinformation?
Pacepa's Seeds of Knowledge, Part 3: Who Needs a Brain?
Hiding the ugly face of Marxism has become a real science.
– Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa
We get it: Intellectuals who fall to the Left of the political spectrum dig Marx. Cultural critics like Ben Shapiro and Ben Stein have already made the excellent argument that academia is ideologically corrupted by said intellectuals, arguments that can be backed up by practically every conservative college graduate in the country. Now the focus has turned to public education, specifically the battle over Common Core Curriculum Standards (CCCS). You know what I'm talking about: Those crazy grammar assignments or math problems-cum-memes that pepper your Facebook and Twitter feed, usually accompanied by sarcastic comments like "Common Core is making me stupider."
From a governmental point of view, Obama's CCCS look like Bush's No Child Left Behind on steroids: high-impact grant funding legislation that increases federal influence at the local level. Public school districts must report boatloads of data showing quantifiable achievements if they are to be rewarded with government funds. Many Americans doubt that a quality education can be quantified, but as Stalin was fond of saying: "Bureaucracy is the price we pay for impartiality."
Which brings to mind Pacepa's remark:
After the Kremlin expelled Romania's King and declared the country a Popular Republic, the new government nationalized the school system, and decided to create its own type of intellectual — the "new man".
Romania had its intellectuals before the Revolution. Most fled to Western Europe with death sentences hanging over their heads, still more wound up in gulags, and yet others elected to support the communist regime. A new generation of intellectuals would grow up behind the Iron Curtain, cultivating a subculture all their own filled with bootleg records and western media. They'd take menial bureaucratic jobs that would give them enough time to think and write – secretly of course – and maintain the culture their government denied them. Today's Russian intellectuals have inherited the complacency of their parents' generation, willing to "make do" as the government clamps down on free speech. It would seem, as Pacepa puts it, that their "vital arteries [have] been calcified by 70 years of disinformation and dismal feudalism."
The harsh reality is that most citizens of the former Soviet Union do not know how to defend freedom because they've been educated to live without it. As the Wizard so kindly explained, the Scarecrow didn't need a brain; he needed his intelligence to be quantified through a degree conferred by an authoritative source. This doesn't mean that public education is a sham; on the contrary, this should illustrate how powerful an education can be in the hands of the educators as well as the minds of the educated.
We've discussed Marxist influences in our contemporary culture, but do we have the courage to confront Marxism in our daily discourse? Stay tuned for the next installment of Pacepa's Seeds of Knowledge.
Pacepa's Seeds of Knowledge, Part 2: Getting to the Heart of Social Justice
Editor's Note: See the introduction here and Part I here to this ongoing series explaining the insights of Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa, the highest ranking defector from the Soviet bloc
Most East European governments concealed their road to Communism by posting innocuous nameplates at the door, such as People's Republic or Popular Republic.
Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa
"People's Republic" is such a chummy term. In fact, Marxism in general, with all it's "redistribution of wealth" sounds so compassionate, at least to a Western, Judeo-Christianized mind. A Chinese mind familiar with Mao's Great Leap Forward, for instance, may have a different take on the benevolent-sounding idea of a "People's Republic" given the facts:
"State retribution for tiny thefts, such as stealing a potato, even by a child, would include being tied up and thrown into a pond; parents were forced to bury their children alive or were doused in excrement and urine, others were set alight, or had a nose or ear cut off. One record shows how a man was branded with hot metal. People were forced to work naked in the middle of winter; 80 per cent of all the villagers in one region of a quarter of a million Chinese were banned from the official canteen because they were too old or ill to be effective workers, so were deliberately starved to death."
Mao couldn't lie his way past a free press in the West. Nor could Khruschev, as Pacepa explains,
The 1963 missile crisis generated by socialist Cuba gave the socialist mask of Marxism a dirty name in the West, and few Marxists wanted to be openly associated with socialism anymore.
But, socialism is still hot. China is still The People's Republic and "we're all socialists now," right? The last installment ended with the question: How have intellectual Wizards manipulated Marxism to acculturate the American mind leftward? Pacepa answers:
[Marxists] therefore began hiding their Marxism under a new cover called "economic determinism," …a theory of survival rooted in Marx's Manifesto (another theory of survival), but it pretends that the economic organization of a society, not the socialist class war and the socialist redistribution of wealth, determines the nature of all other aspects of its life.
When economic determinism lost credibility because of the devastating economic crisis in Greece, our Democratic Party began replacing it with "progressivism," which has become the latest cover name for Marxism. …Today's Progressive Movement was born in New York's Zuccotti Park. It was first known as the "Occupy Wall Street" movement, which advocated the abolition of "capitalist America."
Marxists in the West successfully propagate progressivism under the guise of "social justice" that demands the redistribution of wealth to the less fortunate. Ironically, most people of the Judeo-Christian West accept this Marxist notion out of the goodness of their hearts. However, putting faith in the Marxist lie that human beings don't have a heart (and therefore are incapable of compassionate decision making) requires handing over all financial power to the Marxist Wizards who proceed to dole out your funds as they see fit.
This speaks to the heart of the question, but how have the Marxist Wizards rendered us so seemingly brainless?
Pacepa's Seeds of Knowledge, Part 1: The Mask of Marxism
Editor's Note: See the introduction to this series here: Pacepa's Seeds of Knowledge: Starting Down the Yellow Brick Road…
"Seen through the perspective of history, Marxism was actually such a raw, ill-defined and malleable philosophy that one could make of it whatever one wished."
- Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa
For Lenin, Marxism was a tool to enact his own version of the Russian autocracy his Communist Party claimed to destroy. Lenin exercised his autocratic power in much the same way as the Czars: through his own secret police, the Cheka. "Lenin's new political police was the fastest expanding Soviet organization after the Revolution: it had started out with only 23 men, but within a couple of years it had numbered over 200,000 employees."
Stalin, who had grown up under the watchful eye of the Czar's secret police, was so acculturated to the concept that he embraced it with full fervor, crafting Lenin's brigade into the GPU, a secret police force answerable only to Stalin himself. The GPU deported Trotsky. Re-christened the OGPU, it weeded out Lenin's Bolshevik party. Then, re-named the NKVD, the secret police force liquidated the Red Army and Supreme Military Council. 3 name changes and 7 million lives later, the NKVD (later to be re-named "KGB") secured a firm stranglehold on Soviet Russia. Yet Stalin, adored by his people, remained above the fray, the "Little Father" to his people, thanks to the disinformation campaign mounted and executed by the intelligence wing of the NKVD.
The malleability of Marxism explains why, despite mounds of physical evidence, Marxist ideology is still ardently defended by those who claim to be Marxists, but who haven't had the "privilege" of living under Marxist rule. An architectural plan can look great on paper to an unskilled eye. The most ardent voices who speak out against Marxist regimes are the ones who've had the unfortunate experience of living under them. They're the skilled eyes who can easily tell that the blueprints will generate a crumbling structure.
If acculturation is the key to an individual's interpretation of Marx, it is easy to understand why Marxism is so popular among the young upper-classes who have never struggled, nor suffered economically. It's easy to be a Marxist when you've got the latest smartphone and can Tweet out your wants, needs, and location of the nearest FedEx where you can pick them up. It becomes harder to defend the philosophy when you're living under the autocratic ruler who you empowered, whose government and economy have rendered technology unaffordable and/or unaccessible, and who has stripped your town of its grain and redistributed it to more productive, and therefore more worthy, citizens.
So, what of this side of the globe where Marxism walked down the yellow brick road of liberalism? How have intellectual Wizards manipulated Marxism to acculturate the American mind leftward? Stay tuned for the next seed of knowledge from Pacepa.
Pacepa's Seeds of Knowledge: Starting Down the Yellow Brick Road…
Pilot Episode, Scarecrow & Mrs. King (1983)
I dig spy movies. TV shows, too. Most kids growing up in the last decade before the fall of the Berlin Wall have fond memories of their first TV heroine being Jem or She-Ra. Mine was Amanda King. At 8 years old I wanted to partner up with an ultra-cool spy like Scarecrow (code named as a member of the Oz Network - as in Wizard of) and take down the Evil Empire in our midst. So, of course, when my editor Dave Swindle approached me with the opportunity to partner up with KGB defector Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa for a little intelligence gathering, how could I refuse?
Pacepa's latest book, Disinformation reads like a Russian epic. The chronicle of facts detailing the Soviet disinformation campaign that disarmed American intellectual, political and academic circles over the course of the 20th century should be a must-read in any conservative's common core. Having relied on it heavily for my PJ Lifestyle series on the Intellectual Love Affair with Marxism, I finished the book wanting to understand exactly where America is at on the road to socialism, and if the facts fit, why so many conservative outlets hesitated to give Pacepa's book the time of day. So, I began my interview with 15 questions; a few weeks later Pacepa sent me a 12 page reply to the first question on the list. Tolstoy would've been proud. "I'm out of touch with this generation… you speak their language," he commented rather poetically. He also gave me an assignment: to decode his knowledge into what the Dude would call "the parlance of our times."
Like Jay Carney, I have an affinity for the Soviet spectrum. Unlike Jay Carney, the goal of my interest is to avoid becoming a citizen of the next socialist empire to tear apart the globe. So, in the interest of achieving that goal, I seek out primary sources who can give me real information on the warning signs that appear within a culture whose political and popular leadership are driving them dangerously close to the brink of socialism with the goal of autocracy in mind.
The prophet said, "Stop at the crossroads and look around. Ask for the old, godly way, and walk in it. Travel its path, and you will find rest for your souls." God has designed a path; we choose to walk down it and eventually realize what we've been preparing for all along. My path began in front of a TV and wound up here, in front of a screen that connects millions today with seemingly ancient truths. I invite you now to walk this yellow brick road with me as we study Pacepa's seeds of truth and, perhaps, get a chance to plant a few of our own so that we can all find the rest we so desperately need.
Editor's Note: "Part 1: The Mask of Marxism" is scheduled for Monday at 8:00 PST.
Take This Sign and Shove It
I have little to add to John Hinderaker's analysis of the Bundy ranch standoff, except this: if the Bureau of Land Management, a federal agency, thinks it can establish "First Amendment Areas" while it goes about its business, it and the rest of the federal bureaucracy need to think again. First, the moral case for Bundy (who, as Hinderaker correctly notes, doesn't have a legal leg to stand on):
Over the last two or three decades, the Bureau has squeezed the ranchers in southern Nevada by limiting the acres on which their cattle can graze, reducing the number of cattle that can be on federal land, and charging grazing fees for the ever-diminishing privilege. The effect of these restrictions has been to drive the ranchers out of business. Formerly, there were dozens of ranches in the area where Bundy operates. Now, his ranch is the only one. When Bundy refused to pay grazing fees beginning in around 1993, he said something to the effect of, they are supposed to be charging me a fee for managing the land and all they are doing is trying to manage me out of business. Why should I pay them for that..?
So let's have some sympathy for Cliven Bundy and his family. They don't have a chance on the law, because under the Endangered Species Act and many other federal statutes, the agencies are always in the right. And their way of life is one that, frankly, is on the outs. They don't develop apps. They don't ask for food stamps. It probably has never occurred to them to bribe a politician. They don't subsist by virtue of government subsidies or regulations that hamstring competitors. They aren't illegal immigrants. They have never even gone to law school. So what possible place is there for the Bundys in the Age of Obama?
Well, this is what you get with gangster government. But, just as in the 1930s, when corrupt big-city machines like Tammany Hall worked hand-in-glove with both politicians and criminals — but I repeat myself — it's going to take the public to rise up and destroy the rackets. Where is the Tom Dewey of our time, the two-fisted racket buster who sent legions of crooks to the slammer? We're still waiting.
But a "First Amendment Area"? That's something every American needs to denounce, as loudly as possible. No federal agency has the right to do this, and in a decent administration, the bureaucrat who thought up the idea and ordered the signs posted would be publicly defenestrated pour encourage les autres. There is, however, no accountability in the Obama administration and its corrupt enablers in Congress, for whom everything is a racket — either a source of personal enrichment or an opportunity to mete out some punishment to the regime's ideological enemies.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
The BLM's stunt violated every one of the amendment's proscriptions except the "establishment" and "free exercise" clauses, and Obamacare is working hard on those. For the record, here's the official spokesdroid's explanation for the zones:
While anybody can express their free speech any time on open public lands in accordance with the codes and ordinances that exist, there are temporary closures of some of the public lands related to this impound operation and those are in place for public safety. So we identified two areas where the public could safely and conveniently express their opinions without having to go through the codes and ordinance process and apply for permits.
So this is the country we live in at the moment: militarized local cops and weaponized federal agencies, whose bureaucratic whims are enforced at gunpoint. It's not the country I grew up in, nor one in which any right-thinking American would want to live.
On the other hand, not everything is a plot against the Republic:
Conservative is the New Liberal
Michelle Goldberg over at the Nation published an excellent article on the #CancelColbert controversy arising out of what she has dubbed the "New Political Correctness":
It's increasingly clear that we are entering a new era of political correctness. Recently, we've seen the calls to #CancelColbert because of something outrageous said by Stephen Colbert's blowhard alter ego, who has been saying outrageous things regularly for nine years. Then there's the sudden demand for "trigger warnings" on college syllabi, meant to protect students from encountering ideas or images that may traumatize them; an Oberlin faculty document even suggests jettisoning "triggering material when it does not contribute directly to the course learning goals." At Wellesley, students have petitioned to have an outdoor statue of a lifelike sleepwalking man removed because it was causing them "undue stress." As I wrote in The Nation, there's pressure in some circles not to use the word "vagina" in connection with reproductive rights, lest it offend trans people.
Radicals thrive on crisis. The crises they are generating are evidence of how truly free we are as a nation. Panicking over statuary is as #FirstWorldProblem as you can get. Yet we should not be fooled: The chaos of radicals always has a serious motive.
Nor is this just happening here. In England's left-wing New Statesman, Sarah Ditum wrote of the spread of no-platforming—essentially stopping people whose ideas are deemed offensive from speaking publicly. She cites the shouting down of an opponent of the BDS movement at Galway University and the threats and intimidation leveled at the radical feminist Julie Bindel, who has said cruel things about trans people. "No platform now uses the pretext of opposing hate speech to justify outrageously dehumanising language, and sets up an ideal of 'safe spaces' within which certain individuals can be harassed," wrote Ditum. "A tool that was once intended to protect democracy from undemocratic movements has become a weapon used by the undemocratic against democracy."
Whether it is in a public forum or a private business (as with last week's case of Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich) "no-platforming" is the desired outcome of the radical-induced chaos. Whether it is used against the presumed liberal (feminism) or conservative (anti-BDS) cause, the outcome is the same: a clampdown on free speech and individual expression, marketed as kind-hearted, feel-good social legislation. Orwell would not be surprised.
The End of the Dowager Democrat Disinformation Era
The hypocrisy of the intellectual elite is finally being called onto the cultural carpet. This past Tuesday, Jennifer Rubin at the Washington Post observed: "There has been so much political turmoil among Republicans that it is easy to lose sight of the intellectual disarray on the left." PJM's Ed Driscoll quoted The Daily Beast's Lloyd Grove speaking of modern liberals: "…Think aesthetics as politics, and academic credentials as peerage. Think of a latter-day Americanized version of Downton Abbey—where everyone knows his or her place, and our betters look best."
It is amazing to see how quickly the liberal/socialist/Marxist wing of the political spectrum has imploded. Only one generation ago they donned tie-dye and preached "Damn The Man." Today, their Gen-X children (Barack and Michelle included) have embodied The Man to their own damnation and that of the middle class, the working poor, and all those for whom they claim to care so much (at least during election season).
Driscoll cited Grove's observation that contemporary liberals are living
…a world away from job-craving America, and light years from the mid-twentieth century Democratic Party.
Indeed, this gap gives added credence to Professor Fred Siegel's critique that "today's liberal gentry see the untamed middle classes as the true enemy," …It's not that the Democrats don't know that they have a problem with the non-government employee middle class, but it's just that they really are not bothered by it. As the New York Times framed the issue, "many in the party pay so little attention to white working-class men that it suggests they have effectively given up on converting them."
Obama, Disinformation Czar: In Amerika, We Have No Enemies
Good and evil do exist, just not in the realm of political conversation — in America, that is.
Thursday, Crimean parliament member Refat Chubarov posted his outrage over the vote of 78 out of 100 of his fellow parliamentarians to secede from Ukraine and reunify with Russia. Even the failures of Google Translate can't bungle the shocking truth out of his statement:
Those of my colleagues – Deputies of the Verkhovna Rada of the ARC who voted just crazy!
clear that they do the will of others …
Mind left them!
Only an expert intelligence agent, like Vladimir Putin, could have staged such a successful political takeover. First, he sends in armed, masked gunmen, then follows them with Russian troops who supposedly arrive to save the day. As a result, "Crimean lawmakers unseated the provincial government Feb. 28 under the eye of armed Russian soldiers and appointed pro-Russian politician Sergei Aksyonov, whose party got four percent of the vote at the last election in 2010, prime minister."
True to his KGB roots, Putin's disinformation campaign is well underfoot on both sides of the Atlantic thanks to Kremlin-backed Russian news media. Too bad for the dictator, not all of his subjects are loyal. In a bold move that took the Internet by storm, Russia Today news anchor Liz Wahl submitted her resignation from the state-controlled news show live on air, stating: "I am proud to be an American and believe in disseminating the truth and that is why after this newscast I'm resigning."
The best the American president can do, however, is paint a picture of moral equivalency while calling on the UN to mediate Putin's illegal land grab. In a statement that included an acknowledgement of Russia retaining its "basing rights in Crimea," President Obama placed the new Ukranian government on the same level as Putin's Russia, urging, "Let international monitors into all of Ukraine, including Crimea, to ensure the rights of all Ukrainians are being respected, including ethnic Russians."
The New Morality: Crying Over Served Cake
In this day and age, why would you be stupid enough to use your religious beliefs as an excuse to deny someone services?
There are plenty of ways to avoid entering into a business transaction without having to appear discriminatory at all. When I worked for a private repair shop and encountered a client who seemed to be more trouble than they were worth for whatever reason, we used to simply say, "I am sorry, but we cannot provide service." If people questioned why (which they did, very often and with plenty of attitude), we just kept repeating the same phrase: "I'm sorry, we cannot provide the service." No one interpreted us as being discriminatory, or went as far as attempting legal action. We were simply annoying, so they moved onto a business that was willing to enter into the transaction. No harm, no foul.
That is the beauty of the free market: You have choices. If a bakery simply said "I am sorry, we can't provide that service," and left it at that, a gay couple denied service might interpret the owner's choice as being discriminatory, but they wouldn't have a leg to stand on in court. You can't sue based on an inference. Progressives, however, rely on the courts to push their agenda because Big Government is their god. So the minute you breathe a hint of something that could be misconstrued as an opportunity for a lawsuit, they gain home-court advantage.
By simply saying, "I am sorry, we can't provide that service," you may be opening yourself up to some annoying picketing and internet memes, but what's the worst that will do? Throw you in the same court as Chick fil-A? We all know how well that protest worked out. The bottom line is, you're letting the free market decide your fate, not the courts.
FCC Monitors Your News, Komrade
On Thursday, Glenn Beck declared:
"Ask yourself the question: Why isn't anyone talking about this? This is one of the most disturbing stories I have ever heard in my entire broadcast career," Glenn said on radio this morning. "The FCC has now decided that they need to monitor the newsrooms. They need to figure out how story selection works in the newsroom."
The renegade broadcaster's vitriol comes in response to a Fox News story (covered by PJ Tatler's Bryan Preston) on the Multi-Market Study of Critical Information Needs (CIN) proposed by the FCC last May that was supposed to commence this week in Columbia, South Carolina:
The FCC explained that it wanted information from television and radio broadcasters "to ascertain the process by which stories are selected, station priorities (for content production quality, and populations served), perceived station bias, perceived percent of news dedicated to each of the eight CIN's and perceived responsiveness to underserved populations."
The FCC has identified eight CINs, or key topics that the government believes should be covered.
According to the actual FCC report, the eight CINs are:
1. emergencies and risks, both immediate and long term;
2. health and welfare, including specifically local health information as well as group
specific health information where it exists;
3. education, including the quality of local schools and choices available to parents;
4. transportation, including available alternatives, costs, and schedules;
5. economic opportunities, including job information, job training, and small business
6. the environment, including air and water quality and access to recreation;
7. civic information, including the availability of civic institutions and opportunities to
associate with others;
8. political information, including information about candidates at all relevant levels of local governance, and about relevant public policy initiatives affecting communities and neighborhoods.
It is a story so bizarrely ridden with bureaucratic newspeak that it reads like a spoof from the pages of The People's Cube. If only we were so lucky.
FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai, who first raised awareness of the CINs in the Wall Street Journal, warned:
The FCC says the study is merely an objective fact-finding mission. The results will inform a report that the FCC must submit to Congress every three years on eliminating barriers to entry for entrepreneurs and small businesses in the communications industry.
This claim is peculiar. How can the news judgments made by editors and station managers impede small businesses from entering the broadcast industry? And why does the CIN study include newspapers when the FCC has no authority to regulate print media?
Paul, George, Ringo & the Prophet John
As the world mourned the loss of Soviet evangelist Pete Seeger last week, I encountered stories of real Soviets who found God, not in the hammer and sickle of the USSR, but in the smuggled bootleg lyrics of the Beatles.
How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin is a fascinating narrative detailing Soviet Baby Boomers' covert love affair with the Fab Four. Interviewing a variety of Russian Beatlemaniacs, including many post-Communist music scene movers and shakers, over the course of nearly two decades, British filmmaker Leslie Woodhead discovered that The Beatles were much more than a band in the U.S.S.R. For many Soviet teens, The Beatles were a glimpse at independence, freedom, and even God.
The idea that a rock and roll band could provoke the understanding of the intertwining of God and freedom, let alone inspire a search for the divine, is one that is largely lost on an American audience. After all, as Soviet teens risked Kremlin hellfire to listen to Beatles tracks, their American counterparts in the Bible Belt were throwing their records on bonfires, forced by a religious hierarchy that saw John Lennon and his band as a threat to Christ. Rock music then became the stuff of hippies, the class that scoffed at religious institutions and, like The Beatles, sought divine encounters and self-empowerment through eastern religions.
Arguably, the advocates of Beatles burnings did more to harm Christ's reputation and following than John Lennon ever could. After all, as he explained, his ironic quip about Jesus was more of a warning than a declaration:
"I'm not anti-God, anti-Christ or anti-religion. I was not saying we are greater or better. I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I'm sorry I said it, really. I never meant it to be a lousy anti-religious thing. From what I've read, or observed, Christianity just seems to be shrinking, to be losing contact."
Ironically, it's a warning that post-Soviet leaders like Vladimir Putin have heeded with their own political purposes in mind.
Can You Imagine the Media in a Communist USA?
About one week ago, the left-wing webzine Salon published an article by one Fred Jerome titled "Let's Nationalize Fox News." Jerome's article, it turns out, is excerpted from a new book published by HarperCollins, Imagine: Living in a Socialist USA. It is important for what it reveals about the old communist mentality, still alive in Jerome's mind.
The Salon site does not provide any information about the author. The book says only that he is a journalist and author of a few books, who was subpoenaed by the House Committee on Un-American Activities in the '60s.
So it's left to me to provide a more accurate appraisal of Mr. Jerome. As readers of my memoir might recall, I knew Freddy Jerome as one of the leaders of the NYC young communist movement during my high school years. I recalled the last time I had contact with him. When I was in the city during vacation while in college, Freddy met me to discuss putting together a trip to Cuba. He demanded that I first join the new Marxist-Leninist group he was forming. When I refused, he turned and said, as he went on his way, "I have nothing to do with enemies of the working class."
Fred Jerome came from major communist stock. He was the son of the late cultural commissar of the CPUSA, V.J. Jerome, the man most well-known for trying to keep the Hollywood Reds in line. Fred Jerome broke with the CPUSA in the '60s, and was one of the founders of the Maoist "Progressive Labor Party." If ever the cliché "like father, like son" rings true, it is the case with Fred Jerome. In this brief excerpt, Jerome reveals how news organizations would function in a "socialist" America — except, it is indistinguishable from how they actually functioned in the old Soviet Union, or how they function in communist Cuba today.
Indeed, Jerome's article could be taken as a model for the old Soviet Pravda [truth] or Izvestia. We all know the old joke, "There's no truth in Pravda and no news in Izvestia." That was an old Russians saying, a response to the masthead which actually said, "Proletarians of the world, unite." After reading Jerome's prescriptions for the press, one could put that on the masthead of his would-be newspaper before it is even written.
Jerome writes:
So news (and views) in a socialist society will be brought to you by a plethora of noncommercial sponsors. The government media will report on and discuss, for example, the major government plans for production, how to improve education, and more. But other media—newspapers, TV and radio stations, and Web sites sponsored by workers' organizations, cultural organizations, youth groups, sports teams, and neighborhood groups will report on issues specific to their interests.
How Amiri Baraka's Death Reveals Something Deeply Sick About American Culture
The African-American poet Amiri Baraka (born Everett Leroi Jones) died yesterday. Already, the press is whitewashing — or should I say, in deference to the deranged late race hater, blackwashing — his real record of obscenity.
Leading the charge, naturally, is NPR, whose obituary tells us that he was "controversial," and that he "co-founded the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s. His literary legacy is as complicated as the times he lived through, from his childhood — where he recalled not being allowed to enter a segregated library — to the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center. His poem about that attack, 'Somebody Blew Up America,' quickly became infamous."
"Controversial" and "complicated" may be satisfactory to some of the network's listeners, but even they could not ignore his most recent infamy — his poem after the attack on the United States on 9-11. NPR tells us Baraka "hurls indictments at forces of oppression throughout history," and then prints some of the verses which indicate that what Baraka did was something else — indict the United States for being the real terrorist nation.
He was, in other words, a black Noam Chomsky who expressed in verse similar ideas as the noted radical linguist.
The following verse exemplified his belief that Jews knew in advance of the attack, and told their fellow religionists, and Israelis, to stay away:
Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers To stay home that day
Why did Sharon stay away?
Who? Who? Who?
That was too much for the state of New Jersey, which quickly removed his title as poet laureate of New Jersey — which they gladly handed him when he wrote even more offensive verses throughout his career.
The plaudits and prizes he received, indeed, show something deeply sick about American culture, as well as the American academy. He was a full professor at Stony Brook — SUNY, and had grants from the National Endowment for the Arts as well as the Guggenheim Foundation. No wonder NPR's obit tells us his work was "achingly beautiful."
Turning to the New York Times obituary, we learn that his Black Arts movement "ought to duplicate in fiction, poetry, drama and other mediums the aims of the black power movement in the political arena." We also learn that "critical opinion" about Baraka was "divided," which is one way of putting it. We also find out that "Mr. Baraka spent his early career as a beatnik, his middle years as a black nationalist and his later ones as a Marxist. His shifting stance was seen as either an accurate mirror of the changing times or an accurate barometer of his own quicksilver mien."
Whatever he called himself — and he certainly blended black nationalism with Marxism — one thing was constant. He was a bitter, vile and open antisemite, who hated Jews over and above anything else he believed. The Times, of course, says only that his works "were periodically accused of being antisemitic, misogynist, homophobic, racist, isolationist and dangerously militant."
Note that slippery word "accused," with the implication that of course conservative, white and deluded right-wingers would make such a spurious charge. So they tell us his was a "powerful voice" and that he was a "riveting orator." I guess the obit writer does not remember Adolf Hitler, about whom the same things could well be said, and who antisemitism was admired and equaled by Baraka. At least the obit included the judgment of Stanley Crouch — a black man who, like Baraka, wrote about jazz and blues, but who is the polar opposite of Baraka. Crouch said that his writing was "an incoherent mix of racism, antisemitism, homophobia, black nationalism, anarchy and ad hominem attacks relying on comic book and horror film characters and images that he has used over and over and over."
The Slacker Manifesto
Rolling Stone recently published an essay titled "Five Economic Reforms Millenials Should Be Fighting For" by twenty-something author Jesse A. Myerson. It won't take long to read, though you might develop a headache while doing so.
Essentially, young Jesse wants communism, and he wants it now. There are several wonderful takedowns of this youngster's astounding ignorance about communism and the misery, degradation, and death that result in the countries that have attempted to force it on their people, but I'd like to address the why.
Why does communism sound so lovely and appealing to teenagers and young adults? You can argue that our school systems and our universities are seething with Marxists, and you'd be right. But if all those teachers were agitating for forced labor camps and mass executions, you wouldn't see young people getting excited and marching around holding signs.
Communism ends up with forced labor camps, starvation, and mass murder, but it starts out sounding like Mom's house. Young Jesse wants a guaranteed income, housing, and food. This is what adults provide for children. Jesse's entire "Five Economic Reforms" are a cry to keep living at home, to have his needs taken care of by parental figures, to remain forever a child.


text:
Few things seemed sweeter to us that first summer on Cape Cod than birdsong, awakening us at dawn and serenading us at dusk – sounds of nature we seldom heard while living in midtown Manhattan.
The night of the tsunami was unfurling much as our previous five nights had along the North Shore of Oahu.
It is 3:30 one Friday morning when I am awakened by moonlight streaming through the palladium window of our bedroom.
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text:
Police: Boy, 12, robs lemonade stand with BB gun
The boys "got into a wrestling match over the money box" before the older boy took $30 and ran away
Associated Press
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — Authorities say a 12-year-old boy used a BB gun to rob a 10-year-old who was running a lemonade stand in western Pennsylvania.
Johnstown Sgt. Patrick Goggin says the 12-year-old approached the stand Monday with what appeared to be a handgun in his pocket and threatened the younger boy. Goggin says the boys "got into a wrestling match over the money box" before the older boy took $30 and ran away.
Three other children chased the boy home and helped police track him down. That's when police determined the boy had a BB gun.
Police aren't identifying the suspect because he'll be charged in juvenile court where most cases remain confidential.
Johnstown is about 60 miles east of Pittsburgh.
Copyright 2013 Associated Press
Copyright 2015 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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