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Economic Statistics for 30 Apr 12
The following statistics were released today on the state of the US economy:
Personal income rose 0.4% in March, while personal spending rose 0.3%. The PCE Price index, an inflation measure, rose 0.2%. One a year over year basis, personal income rose 3.2%, personal spending rose 4.0%, and the PCE Price index rose 2.1%.
The Dallas Fed Mfg Survey shows slowing growth, with the business activity index falling to -3.4, while the production index fell to 5.6.
The Chicago PMI shows growing business activity in the Chicago Area, with the Business Barometer Index at 65.2. This report is widely seen as a precursor to the national PMI due out tomorrow, but there is often substantial divergence between the Chicago and nationwide reports.
Dale Franks
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Tolerance is not a one-way street
Apparently T-shirts are a "human right" now (via The American Conservative):
The owner of "Hands On Originals," a well-known t-shirt company in the region, declined to print the shirts for the city's Gay and Lesbian Services Organization (GLSO) because it would conflict with their Christian convictions.
The privately owned company is now accused of violating Lexington's Fairness Act – which protects people and organizations from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
An attorney for the Alliance Defense Fund who is representing the T-shirt company says:
"No business owner should be forced to violate his conscience simply because someone demands it," he said. "The Constitution absolutely supports the rights of business owners to decline a request to support a message that conflicts with their deeply held convictions."
But the city says:
"Hands On Originals" will be "required by law to participate in the investigation."
"We have subpoena power and have the backing of the law," he said. "We are a law enforcement agency and people have to comply."
Should the company be found guilty of discriminating against the homosexuals Sexton said they could be subjected to fines.
Yes, friends, a city has a "human rights commission" which is considered a "law enforcement agency" that can force compliance with a law that would do precisely what the ADF lawyer claims it shouldn't have the power to do.
You'd think there'd be a solution that could be reached well before this is escalated to the use of government coercion, doesn't it? That is if all the GLSO wanted to do was buy T-shirts.
And, a solution was offered:
GLSO wanted "Hands On Original" to print shirts for the city's fifth annual Lexington Pride Festival. The store offered to find another company that would honor its price – but that wasn't good enough for the GLSO.
"Our feeling on that is, separate but equal wasn't okay during the civil rights movement and it's not okay now," Aaron Baker told the television station. Baker is board president of GLSO.
That's right, it is agenda time. This isn't about T-shirts at all. It's about forcing their one-way version of tolerance on someone. The irony is that GLSO appears to have absolutely no tolerance for the principles of the owners of the T-shirt company.
Which set me to wondering. Here's a hypothetical for you. What if the owner of the T-shirt company was gay? And what if Westboro Baptist Church placed an order for 10 dozen T-shirts which said "God hates faggots" on them? What if the T-shirt shop owner refused the order because of his principles?
Same reaction?
I'd guess no. In fact, I'd guess precisely the opposite reaction.
The T-shirt company owner wrote an op-ed for the paper explaining his point of view:
"I decided to pass on the opportunity because, as a Christian owner, I cannot in good conscience endorse groups or events that run counter to my convictions," Adamson wrote in the op-ed.
Adamson, who has been in business for more than 20 years, wrote that he "does not expect, or even ask, people to agree with my view."
"All I ask for people is to respect my right as an owner to not produce a product that is contrary to my principles," he wrote.
Adamson called on people to stand up for the rights of small business owners not "to be forced into producing a product with a message that conflicts with their beliefs and consciences."
The reaction was anything but tolerant or understanding of a differing view:
"Hands On Originals" has faced a barrage of attacks since the accusations were made public. More than 2,000 people have joined a boycott movement on Facebook. Another group is trying to buy the company's mortgage so they can be evicted.
The Fayette County public school system placed a temporary hold on buying t-shirts from the company until the issue is resolved. The University of Kentucky is also reviewing its future business with the t-shirt maker.
Even Lexington's openly gay mayor has condemned the privately-owned t-shirt company, telling the Lexington Herald-Leader "People don't have patience for this sort of attitude today."
"I'm against discrimination, period," Gray said in a statement released to television station WKYT. "It's bad for business and bad for the city. I support the Human Rights Commission in a full and thorough investigation."
Real tolerance is apparently unacceptable. The hypocrisy of GLSO is palpable. And trying to use the coercive power of government is disgusting.
Tolerance isn't a one-sided principle. If one wants people to tolerate their beliefs and lifestyle, it is incumbent upon them to do the same for others. If they actually believe in true tolerance, that is.
What is clear here is GLSO doesn't.
More disgusting, at least to me, is the inclusion of this ridiculous city level "human rights commission" as a law enforcement agency and it's obvious intent to force "compliance" against the conscience and principles of the owner.
There was a problem (GLSO wanted T-shirts, T-shirt company refused due to conscience), an offered solution (T-shirt company offers to find another producer at same price) which was reasonable and a rejection of that solution because the group has an political agenda and wishes to force the company to violate its principles and conscience. And which side does government take?
The side that wants to use its coercive power to force that violation.
Let freedom ring.
HT: papajj
Twitter: @McQandO
Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman and the digital lynch mob
I have to admit watching this "discussion" over the who, what, when, where and how of the shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman with disgust. I refrained from commenting on it when it first hit the news because I have learned enough over the years to recognize stories where one needs to let it develop a bit for all the facts to come out.
Of course that didn't at all stop the usual suspects from pouncing on what seemed a perfect story with which they could push their favorite racial themes (Jesse Jackson's "Blacks are under attack" for instance) and for others to involve themselves in something that they really have no business involving themselves in.
It has laid bare the polarization within this country and how extreme it has become.
The story, if you've taken time to research it, is nothing like the cut and dried "whitey killed a black man because he was black" meme the race baiters are pushing. In fact, if you've bothered to research the story, it appears that race had little if anything to do with this tragedy. It is not a racial issue, even if it has been portrayed as such by the Al Sharptons, Jesse Jacksons and Louis Farrakhans of this world.
George Zimmerman, if anything, appears to have been an overzealous neighborhood watch person with a history of calling in suspicious activities he saw in his neighborhood. Treyvan Martin, who lived 250 miles away from that neighborhood, was apparently acting suspiciously (rummaging through garbage cans, etc.) when Zimmerman spotted him. I doubt that Zimmerman cared one whit what Martin's skin color was at the time. Apparently somewhere during that time, a confrontation took place, a fight ensued and Zimmerman killed Martin with a shot to the chest.
A witness has come forward saying he saw Martin on top of Zimmerman punching him in the face. Martin, aged 17 and 6 foot 3, was not the innocent "child" the media has tried to portray. He was a probably bigger than Zimmerman and was on a 10 day suspension from school. Obviously that doesn't justify killing him but it sheds a little different light on the situation.
I can't get inside the heads of either of these people but is it reasonable to assume, given the situation, that Zimmerman might have feared for his life? Possibly. I don't know – and neither does anyone else.
Does that justify the shooting. Again, I don't know.
But of course all the race pimps do. Just ask them. And so they've essentially initiated a vendetta against George Zimmerman, who, by the way, isn't white even though that assumption was immediately made by many given his name. Zimmerman's mother is Peruvian and of Indian stock.
An example of the thoughtless incitement that is going on can be found with none other than Spike Lee who, uninformed jerk that he is, published Zimmerman's address on Twitter. Numerous threats to Zimmerman have been published on Twitter as well. The New Black Panthers have put a $10,000 bounty on Zimmerman's head. Louis Farrakhan tweeted that the "law of retribution may soon be applied", a not-so-veiled threat against Zimmerman.
The irony, of course, is this is a typical lynch mob mentality being stirred up here. These are calls for violence outside the law.
No one is claiming that George Zimmerman isn't at fault here. He may very well be. We don't know yet. That's for a court of his peers to decide. Certainly not a marginally informed and inflamed mob. If something happens to Zimmerman before his day in court, you can most likely look to the digital lynch mob for the source. I've always considered the racist white lynch mobs of the past to be one of the most horrific and disgusting manifestations of the racism of the past. I find what is happening now no less horrific or disgusting.
There's also another reason this is on the national radar. And it has nothing to do with race. I'll let my favorite leftist hack columnist at the New York Times lay it out for you:
Florida's now-infamous Stand Your Ground law, which lets you shoot someone you consider threatening without facing arrest, let alone prosecution, sounds crazy — and it is. And it's tempting to dismiss this law as the work of ignorant yahoos. But similar laws have been pushed across the nation, not by ignorant yahoos but by big corporations.
If you are inclined to want to see guns controlled or banned and citizens required to flee any sort of confrontation vs. defending themselves, Paul Krugman is right there with you and has the goods on this now "infamous" law.
Except, as usual, it is a mish-mash of half-truths and innuendo cobbled together to make you think that corporate America is actually the villain in all of this.
We talked about this case on the podcast last night. What is going on right now is all too predictable. And it again points out how polarized this country is. And it isn't getting less polarized.
Final thought. As I recall, President Obama was supposed to be the "post-racial" President, or that was his claim. Yet he has inserted himself in two local incidents that I know of (the Skip Gates incident being the first) and inflamed the incidents with his remarks. That, my friends, is not leadership.
But then, he's not a leader, and those of us who have actually been in leadership positions in our lives have known that from the beginning. Instead he has difficulty denying his liberal roots and not succumbing to their siren call.
He's an agitator. And, as usual, he's stepped in on something he should have stayed out of and made it far worse. Inserting himself has given impetus, cover and justification for the Frarrakhans, Lees, Jacksons, Sharptons and the New Black Panthers to do what they're doing. Instead of calming the waters and talking about trusting the legal system and letting it do its work, he's done exactly the opposite.
Congrats, Mr. Prez. If anything happens to Zimmerman, you're on the hook too as far as I'm concerned.
Twitter: @McQandO
If you're going to have to apologize, don't say it. But if you do say it, man up and live with it and the consequences
There are going to be very few times Bill Maher and I essentially agree. Today would be one of those days. Apparently he doesn't like the world Media Matters has created. He begins his NYT piece defending Robert De Nero's recent nonsense.
THIS week, Robert De Niro made a joke about first ladies, and Newt Gingrich said it was "inexcusable and the president should apologize for him." Of course, if something is "inexcusable," an apology doesn't make any difference, but then again, neither does Newt Gingrich.
Mr. De Niro was speaking at a fund-raiser with the first lady, Michelle Obama. Here's the joke: "Callista Gingrich. Karen Santorum. Ann Romney. Now do you really think our country is ready for a white first lady?"
The first lady's press secretary declared the joke "inappropriate," and Mr. De Niro said his remarks were "not meant to offend." So, as these things go, even if the terrible damage can never be undone, at least the healing can begin. And we can move on to the next time we choose sides and pretend to be outraged about nothing.
This is an example of the left's propensity toward faux outrage at every utterance from the right backing up on them. And, since Mr. Maher has been the target of that, he's all for settling this once and for all.
In essence, Maher wants to be able to say anything he wants and not have to apologize for it.
I agree.
Please, do so. And don't apologize. That is fine with me.
But … and you knew there had to be one … that doesn't mean what you say is consequence free. You still get to pay the price for what you say.
That's really what Maher wants to see go by the boards, make no mistake about it. No-penalty "free speech".
Sorry, no such thing. Never has been, never will be.
However, the faux apologies to address the faux outrage (and hypocrisy), yeah, I can do without those. They're only trotted out when the consequences of stupid, degrading or demeaning speech put the speaker in an untenable situation.
Here's an idea – think before you speak? Exercise a little self-discipline?
Nah … way to restrictive, huh?
Twitter: @McQandO
The will to power, exemplified
Stanley Fish, writing in the New York Times today, offers a refreshingly honest view of "slutgate", moral equivalency, and double standards. It is, in fact, a bold statement of what we've always imagined the Progressive view is, though they have, in the past, been ever so careful not to admit it. It is, frankly, nice to see such honesty. As Mr. Fish explains:
Schultz and Maher are the good guys; they are on the side of truth and justice. Limbaugh is the bad guy; he is on the side of every nefarious force that threatens our democracy. Why should he get an even break?
There is no answer to that question once you step outside of the liberal calculus in which all persons, no matter what their moral status as you see it, are weighed in an equal balance. Rather than relaxing or soft-pedaling your convictions about what is right and wrong, stay with them, and treat people you see as morally different differently. Condemn Limbaugh and say that Schultz and Maher may have gone a bit too far but that they're basically O.K. If you do that you will not be displaying a double standard; you will be affirming a single standard, and moreover it will be a moral one because you will be going with what you think is good rather than what you think is fair. "Fair" is a weak virtue; it is not even a virtue at all because it insists on a withdrawal from moral judgment.
I know the objections to what I have said here. It amounts to an apology for identity politics. It elevates tribal obligations over the universal obligations we owe to each other as citizens. It licenses differential and discriminatory treatment on the basis of contested points of view. It substitutes for the rule "don't do it to them if you don't want it done to you" the rule "be sure to do it to them first and more effectively." It implies finally that might makes right. I can live with that.
There you have it. Conservatives are evil, progressives are good. It follows, therefore, that because progressives are good, then what they do in combating conservatives is right. Conservatives, being evil, deserve no respect and no attempts at courteous disagreement. They deserve nothing more than to be driven from the public sphere by any necessary means. Progressives are good, and if they commit what would otherwise be questionable acts, it is only the depravity of their political opponents that drives them to it.
Make no mistake: If the Stanley Fishes of this country could imprison you for holding contrary political beliefs, they'd do it in a second. After all, you are "on the side of every nefarious force that threatens our democracy". This is, of course, justification for a tyranny of the very worst sort. As C.S. Lewis pointed out:
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
Progressivism, for all its puffing about equality and justice, is nothing more than totalitarianism cloaked in modern, politically-correct pieties.
It's nice to see a progressive honestly admit it.
The thing is, it is not possible to have a sustainable, self-governing polity when a substantial portion of the electorate denies the fundamental morality or legitimacy of their opponents. The ultimate outcome of such a belief in a society has historically been an inevitable slide to civil unrest, resulting in either totalitarian repression, civil war, or dissolution into competing states.
I am increasingly beginning to wonder which of those three outcomes is most likely in our case.
Dale Franks
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The problem with "Progressivism"
Stanley Fish lays it out pretty well:
If we think about the Rush Limbaugh dust-up from the non-liberal — that is, non-formal — perspective, the similarity between what he did and what [Ed] Schultz and [Bill] Maher did disappears. Schultz and Maher are the good guys; they are on the side of truth and justice. Limbaugh is the bad guy; he is on the side of every nefarious force that threatens our democracy. Why should he get an even break?
There is no answer to that question once you step outside of the liberal calculus in which all persons, no matter what their moral status as you see it, are weighed in an equal balance. Rather than relaxing or soft-pedaling your convictions about what is right and wrong, stay with them, and treat people you see as morally different differently. Condemn Limbaugh and say that Schultz and Maher may have gone a bit too far but that they're basically O.K. If you do that you will not be displaying a double standard; you will be affirming a single standard, and moreover it will be a moral one because you will be going with what you think is good rather than what you think is fair. "Fair" is a weak virtue; it is not even a virtue at all because it insists on a withdrawal from moral judgment.
I know the objections to what I have said here. It amounts to an apology for identity politics. It elevates tribal obligations over the universal obligations we owe to each other as citizens. It licenses differential and discriminatory treatment on the basis of contested points of view. It substitutes for the rule "don't do it to them if you don't want it done to you" the rule "be sure to do it to them first and more effectively." It implies finally that might makes right. I can live with that.
It should be shocking, by the conventional narrative, that the White House of a "liberal" president would be a hostile work environment for women, but it is not at all a surprise to anyone familiar with the history of the Democrats and the Left, going back at least to the 1960s, when a prominent Democrat politician got a pass from the media for abandoning a young woman (possibly pregnant by him) to drown in his car. The same man went on to later fame as the top slice of bread in a "waitress sandwich," and yet was so lionized by the Left that not that long ago, at the time of his death, a woman(!) wrote that Mary Jo Kopechne might have been happy to undergo the terror as her lungs filled with the brackish water of Martha's Vineyard had she only known what a great legislator he would turn out to be.
To see similar hypocritical Leftist misogyny, we need only go back to the last time a Democrat was in the White House. Whenever a woman came forward with allegations of inappropriate sexual conduct by Bill Clinton, the response of the Clinton defenders, both in and out of the media, was to attack her credibility, character, and virtue. Advisor James Carville famously said of Paula Jones (the young Arkansas state employee whom Clinton as governor had his state police guard procure to his hotel room for the purpose of orally pleasuring him), "Drag $100 bills through trailer parks, there's no telling what you'll find." Evan Thomas of Newsweek dutifully complemented the slander by declaring her on national television "just some sleazy woman with big hair coming out of the trailer parks," though he later was compelled to apologize in print. (One wonders how residents of trailer parks felt about that, but I guess empathy for them is for the little people.) When Kathleen Willey accused the president of groping her in the White House, and was physically threatened for her trouble, feminist icon and (former) scourge of sexual harassers Gloria Steinem said that it was no problem — he was entitled to a freebie, after which Cathy Young of Reason magazine reported on "the death of sexual harassment."
It got worse.
And it has. Just take a look at what Simberg said and then take a look at this so-called "war on women" the left has ginned up recently.
Jeff G. at Protein Wisdom explains:
Fish's single standard, distilled and properly understood, is that liberals are (they'll claim) morally superior by virtue of their very belief in their own political identities — which identity is tied to an ideology that, manifested politically, privileges governmental theft, sanctioned inequality as a function of tribal identity, and a giant foundational question beg: namely, that moral superiority comes from being on the left, so therefore being on the left means you can really do no fundamental moral wrong. Progressivism (that is, the leftist political home to philosophical anti-foundationalism), as Fish sees it, is the "non-formal" — that is, I suppose, situationally free-floating — antidote to restrictive "conservative" or classically liberal universalism*. That that restrictive conservative/classical liberal universalism is, as we know from the Declaration and Constitution, the foundation upon which this country was imagined and later framed, well, that's irrelevant. Those documents are hoary totems, and their impulses Enlightenment fantasies. And we can "fundamentally transform" the country simply by denying it its institutionalized powers by force of will.
Or, progressivism (don't let them continue to coopt the word "liberal") leads to tyranny because it isn't based in any moral principles but instead based in power. Its goal isn't a better or more moral world, modern progressivism is based on doing whatever is necessary, by whatever means they can get away with, to gather and wield power. Progressivism uses the same tactics and means that every tyranny the world has ever seen used to gain control of the political system.
Victor David Hanson points out that the right has handcuffed itself (or allowed itself to be handcuffed) by the left:
Conservatives are put into awkward positions of critiquing liberal ideas on grounds that they are impractical, unworkable, or counterproductive. Yet rarely, at least outside the religious sphere, do they identify the progressive as often immoral. And the unfortunate result is that they have often ceded moral claims to supposedly dreamy, utopian, and well-meaning progressives, when in fact the latter increasingly have little moral ground to stand upon.
Morality isn't just something based in religion. Essentially "moral" means a concern with the principles of good and bad behavior as applied to everything.
What progressives have tried to do for decades is tie the word to religion even as they denigrated religion unmercifully (specifically Christianity). They've made "morality" a bad word, one that causes the public to shy away from those talking about it. We've also been indoctrinated by them to believe that intolerance is one of the worst of secular sins (although they'd never use such language) and we have no right to be intolerant. Well, unless we're a progressive.
Add in moral equivalency (used whenever it is useful to the left) tied to their multicultural riff and their tendency to redefine key words to their own advantage, and the goals of progressivism start to become clear.
Back to Protein Wisdom:
To the progressive, your social and political worth — in fact, your very claim to morality — comes from your various identity politics alliances. That is, your morality is a function not so much of what you do, but rather of where you claim to stand, and with whom.
Progressivism cares not about fairness or equality in the sense those words are used under a political paradigm that adheres to classical liberalism; instead, it seeks to redefine "fairness" and "equality" (and "tolerance") as based on the outcomes it desires, a deconstructive procedure it then justifies by tying those outcomes to its own self-serving descriptions of what comes to count as moral. It is circular reasoning made perfect. Might makes right. The ends justify the means.
The progressive movement is a tyrannical movement aimed at completely remaking America and taking it away from its foundational philosophy of individualism, equal rights and freedom. Principles that work and made this the most prosperous and free nation on earth.
What the right and libertarians identify as "hypocrisy" on the left is simply what you see described above at work – a principle free attempt to take power by any means necessary. There are no foundational principles at work for them in reality … anything is "OK" as long as it advances the cause. Although they'll claim they are driven by principles (but their "hypocritical" actions in the wake of those declarations always show them to be false principles), they're essentially malleable talking points used to take in and gain the support of the gullible. However, as Saul Alinsky taught them, they will use the other side's principles against them at every opportunity (see the Rush Limbaugh kerfuffle).
What we had, what our founders created, what it stands for, is rejected by this bunch:
"Hopefully, more and more people will begin to feel their story is somehow part of this larger story of how we're going to reshape America in a way that is less mean-spirited and more generous," Obama said.
This is the real problem we face in America. Jeff G. calls it "un-American". In the strictest sense of the word and given the fact that it rejects everything our founders believed in – I agree.
Twitter: @McQandO
Cambodia: Remembering the Killing Fields and the Communist drive for "equality"
Douglas Levene takes a look back at what happened in Cambodia under Communist leader Pol Pot. He makes the point that although some would like to label it "genocide", it simply doesn't fit the definition. Cambodia is 95% Khmer and what happened was "Khmer on Khmer" violence. It wasn't genocide:
Rather, what happened in Cambodia is what happened in the French Revolution, and in Stalin's purges and mass collectivization campaigns, and in Mao's Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution, only on a proportionately larger scale. It was mass murder in the name of equality. It wasn't "genocide"; it was Communist utopianism carried to its logical extreme. The Khmer Rouge, who called themselves Maoists, believed that the most important social and political value was equality and that in order to create their new, classless society in which everyone was equal, it was necessary to exterminate anyone who might be smarter, or better educated, or wealthier, or more talented than anyone else. Thus, they killed the educated, the bourgeoisie, the middle classes, and the rich; movie stars, pop singers, authors, urban residents, and workers for the former government; and anyone who protested — as well as the families of all the above. Towards the end, they also killed cadres who were thought to be a political threat. Whatever their crimes were, the Khmer Rouge do not seem to have been motivated by racial, ethnic, or religious hatred.
The standard leftist cause these days is "equality". We're seeing it play out right here in this country today with the demonization of the rich, corporations and other capitalists entities. And while it is easy to attempt to wave away what happened in Cambodia as an extremist example carried out by a splinter Communist group, in fact Stalin's and Mao's purges were driven by much the same goal. All were striving for a "communist utopia" and they murdered extensively in its name. Certainly there were other reasons, such as Stalin's paranoia, but the murder regime had already been established and was functioning when those victims were added to the collective total.
Given that, Levene wonders why the world insists then on claiming "genocide" as the reason for Cambodia's Killing Fields:
However, I suspect that the most important reason for the usage worldwide is that many people in the international media, international agencies, and international NGOs (not to mention academia) are reluctant to face up to the crimes committed by Communism in the name of equality. To do so might call into question the weight attached by them to equality as the most important social value and undermine the multicultural faith that evil is predominantly the product of inequality, racism, ethnic hatred, or religious fanaticism. That cannot be permitted, so such crimes must be either ignored or mislabeled. And, of course, the remaining Communist regimes in the world are only too happy to cooperate in characterizing the killing fields as the products of irrational paranoia on the part of Pol Pot and his gang rather than the perfectly rational result of the quest for perfect equality.
While there certainly are examples of "evil" driven by "racism, ethnic hatred or religious fanaticism", few match the scale of the evil perpetrated by Communist regimes. Marx called for it in his "Communist Manifesto":
'The violent overthrow of the bourgeoisie lays the foundation for the sway of the proletariat.'
And they simply carried out his instructions:
'What the bourgeoisie, therefore, produces, above all, is its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable.'
Cambodia unfortunately saw a communist group take Marx at his word:
'The theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property.' … 'When, therefore, capital is converted into common property, into the property of all members of society, personal property is not thereby transformed into social property. It is only the social character of the property that is changed. It loses its class character.'
The Khmer Rouge attempted to impose these dicta in the quickest and most basic of ways – through murder of all those who represented the hated "bourgeoisie" in an attempt to make society "equal". As Leven says, they carried out the "perfectly rational" pursuit of Marx's utopia. A violent overthrow of the existing culture, the murder of those who weren't politically and ideologically pure or were members of the bourgeoisie class and the abolition of private property in favor of common property in order to equalize society. And, of course, it yielded the horror that became Kampuchea, with its killing fields, mass graves and torture rooms.
While certainly not on the obvious scale of the Khmer Rouge, the left continues the same sort of pursuit here. Equality has become its ideological banner, and it constantly touts it as its cultural goal in the West. Stealth Marxism – not really so stealthy to those who have bothered to look.
Ironically, it is as much a religion to those who believe in it as any featuring a deity. It requires an abiding faith that at its base the Marxist principles are sound and will someday be "properly" implemented despite the numerous examples of the horror and death it has consistently brought. As much as they deride the faith of Christians and their belief in "heaven", Marxists and Maoists and all the assorted different communists still pursue their "heaven" on earth and as a result continue to fill the mass graves its pursuit requires.
Cambodia was not genocide. Cambodia was just the timeline of Communism (and all the other Marxist "isms") in other countries speeded up for the convenience of the self-declared proletariat.
All in the name of "equality".
Twitter: @McQandO
Politics has become a "reality show" of diversion
Over at United Liberty, Louis DeBroux articulates something that has been driving me crazy:
It truly is almost unbelievable. Our national debt is at $16 trillion and rising, with annual deficits of more than $1.5 trillion. Our national debt is now greater than our GDP, and at a level greater than what Greece was at when its economy collapsed. Our lauded entitlement programs are bankrupt, yet our politicians seek to expand them. Unemployment is still well above 8%, the longest such period of sustained unemployment at that level since the Great Depression. We're barely past Valentine's Day and gas is more than $3.50 per gallon, and expected to rise above $4, and possibly as high as $5/gallon, by summer. Iran appears the be rapidly closing in on getting a functional nuclear weapon, and has been threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world's oil supply flows. We have a president hell bent on destroying the fossil fuel industry, much like his signature achievement, ObamaCare, is crippling the health care industry.
Our own government has been selling assault weapons to Mexican drug cartels, and is now directly responsible for the deaths of dozens of Mexicans and Americans, yet they act as if it were of no more import than having incorrectly filled out some government form (actually, they'd probably find that a much more grievous sin). The dollar is weak and the economy anemic, despite the trillions spent on the stimulus, auto union and Wall Street bailouts, and slush funds for the politically connected.
Yet with all of this, what stories are dominating the headlines? That would be the religious beliefs of Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum regarding birth control, and now the furor over Rush Limbaugh's comments about a college "coed" called to testify before Congress on the topic of birth control.
It is enough to make you tear your hair out. There is so much that should be at the forefront of the news and we're talking about what? Go look at Memeorandum for the past few weeks. It's appalling.
And who benefits by these diversionary and divisive discussions?
Well certainly not the nation. In the case of the current diversion of the day, we see the usual hypocrisy from both sides as Rush Limbaugh is crucified for calling a woman a "slut" while one of Obama's major donors is given a free pass by the same people for calling Sarah Palin a far worse name (and worse, won't condemn the use of the word). After all, he's one of theirs.
It is a cycle of wash, rise, repeat. On just about any given week you can find someone on one side or the other saying something outrageous and the other side whipping themselves into a frenzy of outrage and condemning it while demanding the other side condemn it too. Tit for tat politics. Juvenile nonsense.
Why any of this is seen as major news can only be understood in a "reality show" culture. We've become a nation of voyeurs who like scandal and enjoy watching the lives of "celebrities" whose only claim to fame is their screwed up life. And that apparently now translates to our politics.
Instead of paying attention to the important things about our political world, most are more interested in the "he said, she said" stupidity of situations like that of the Limbaugh debacle. Apparently politics has become just another reality show where we prefer to be entertained by the unimportant but controversial instead of doing the hard but boring work of understanding our real problems and looking for solutions.
Unemployment, economics, energy, government … boring!
Limbaugh calls someone a slut. That's the ticket.
And, naturally, aiding and abetting all of this is the "if it bleeds it leads" media who have decided that sensationalism trumps substance.
We're 16 trillion dollars in debt folks and that number is going to go higher if we don't do something.
B..b…but Limbaugh called someone a "slut"!
Never mind.
Turn up the volume and get the popcorn.
Twitter: @McQandO
Chanting "USA, USA, USA" at a high school game between two American high school teams is now a "racial slur"?
See if you can make sense out of this story … I can't.
Seems the "right" not to be offended has surfaced again with the usual absurd results. Unless the "minority students" mentioned weren't Americans.
And since when has "USA" been a "race"? Were the "minority students" Hispanic? That's not a race either.
See if you can sort it out. These type stories give me a headache.
Twitter: @McQandO
Concession prices too high at theaters? Then don't buy them
But suing to make the theaters reduce the price? Really?
Joshua Thompson loves the movies.
But he hates the prices theaters charge for concessions like pop and candy.
This week, the 20-something security technician from Livonia decided to do something about it: He filed a class action in Wayne County Circuit Court against his local AMC theater in hopes of forcing theaters statewide to dial down snack prices.
"He got tired of being taken advantage of," said Thompson's lawyer, Kerry Morgan of Wyandotte. "It's hard to justify prices that are three- and four-times higher than anywhere else."
I usually don't go to movies. Believe it or not, since I've gotten older, I've begun to get motion sickness in a theater if there is a lot of action on the screen. It's weird but that happens to me (also happens with first person shooter games).
But, when I did go, I never went to the concession stand. I agree with Thompson, prices are too high and I'm not willing to pay them. However, I'm also not willing to use the force of government to "force" prices down, for heaven sake.
The way consumers make this point is to quit buying the stuff. Yeah, it takes will. It takes perseverance. It takes a collective action over time. But what it should never take is bringing government in to it.
The suit accused AMC theaters of violating the Michigan Consumer Protection Act by charging grossly excessive prices for snacks.
The suit seeks refunds for customers who were overcharged, a civil penalty against the theater chain and any other relief Judge Kathleen Macdonald might grant.
So who gets to decide what is a fair price? A judge? Or the consumer? How does the consumer decide what a "fair price" is? By not paying what he or she considers to be an unfair price. That's how. Not by going to the state and attempting to use its power to force a lower price.
No one forces anyone to go to a movie, pay what they're asking or eat their snacks. Everyone of those is an individual decision and choice. Just as we decide not to buy other products we can't afford or think are priced too high, it is up to us to make the same sort of decision at a theater concession stand. If enough refuse to buy, it will eventually come to the attention of the theater chains. That's how pricing is set by markets (you know, all that talk about pricing signals and such?). And the state has no business being involved in that system whatsoever, either legislatively or judicially (and the law suit probably won't go anywhere, I understand that, but I'm addressing the mindset).
Twitter: @McQandO


text:
Road Closures from CDOT
DENVER — Flooding has forced the closure of several highways in north and eastern Colorado.
CDOT has closed many roads and will have engineer inspections crews on duty Saturday and for the next several days to review the structural integrity and damage of roads and bridges, said spokeswoman Ashley Mohr.
LINK: Real-time traffic updates
"CDOT continues to encourage motorists to exercise extra caution when traveling across the Front Range, as some highways may appear structurally sound but could have been damaged by water, rocks, or debris. In addition to driving carefully, motorists should not pull over to view flood damage, as it creates a safety hazard on the highways," Mohr said.
The following is a current list of highway updates as of 8 a.m.:
Recent Highway Openings
– I-70 eastbound off-ramp to Quebec Street – Repairs Complete
– SH 46 four miles east of SH 119
New/Updated Closures
– SH 55 between SH 138 and I-76
– SH 138 between SH 113 and SH 55 near Sterling
– Boulder Canyon Drive is closed to ALL vehicular, cyclist and pedestrian traffic. CDOT has deemed the roadway and surrounding terrain extremely unstable and unsafe for non-authorized travel.
Ongoing Closures In Northeast Colorado
– U.S. 6 south of Sterling between MP 383 and 392
– U.S. 34 between Greeley and Wiggins
– SH 39 between Goodrich and I-76
– SH 63 in Atwood
– SH 71 near Snyder
– SH 144 between US 34 and Weldona
Ongoing Closures in Northern Colorado
– I-25 ramps at SH 119
– I-25 Frontage Road south of Loveland at MP 256.670
– U.S. 34 between Glade Road and Estes Park
– U.S. 34 eastbound from Granby to Estes Park- essential travel only, checkpoints in place
– U.S. 34 from 37th Street to County Road 49 in Greeley
– U.S. 36 between Boulder and Estes Park
– U.S. 287 between SH 402 and 5th Street in Loveland
– SH 7 between Lyons and Estes Park
– SH 14 between Ted's Place and Walden
– SH 60 at CR 46
– SH 66 between 53rd Street in Longmont to Lyons
– SH 66 between CR 13 and CR 19
– SH 119 between Boulder and Nederland in Boulder Canyon
– SH 119 between County Line and I-25
– SH 170 between SH 93 and Eldorado Canyon State Park
– SH 257 between SH 60 in Milliken to US 34
Ongoing Closures in the Denver Metro Area
– U.S. 40 at Floyd Hill (MP 269.5 to 270.5)
– SH 72 (Indiana Street) between 72nd Avenue and 80th Avenue
– SH 72 between SH 93 and SH 119 in Coal Creek Canyon
You can also find current road conditions by following CDOT on Twitter at: @ColoradoDOT

subset: commoncrawl


text:
When I purchased "The Elmsley Count Project by Liam Montier & Big Blind Media - DV" it arrived on my doorstep before I even knew I placed the...Read More ->
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text: I want debate and a vote on the 'gun bill' by David Webb 8 Apr 2013 View Discussion Share This: In response to Support For Gun Bill Filibuster Grows To 13 : Most Senators manage to stand for nothing by their actions and claim to stand for everything. I favor the 60 vote threshold in the Senate. We hired these Senators to do a job. Their job is to debate and cast a vote on bills not use procedural tricks to play games under the guise of who knows what agenda by either side. A no vote on a bill, especially one as important as the 'gun bill' gives both sides a dodge on casting their vote. This hamster wheel of legislative trickery and kabuki theater has to end.


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Rahm Emanuel for president? 'No, never, not. Not interested'
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall email@example.com September 22, 2011 1:40PM
Chicago mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel campaigned at Wishbone restaurant on north Lincoln ave. Thursday January 27, 2011. | Rich Hein~Sun-Times
Updated: November 30, 2011 12:19AM
Rahm Emanuel's decision to deliver the keynote speech at the biggest Democratic fund-raiser before the Iowa Caucuses is fueling speculation that Chicago's new mayor may be laying the groundwork for his own run for president in 2016.
On Thursday, Emanuel tried to put that speculation to rest.
The mayor was so eager to shoot down the rumor about his upcoming Iowa trip, he volunteered a denial — without even being asked whether he has presidential aspirations.
A reporter simply asked about Emanuel's role as featured speaker at the Jefferson Jackson Dinner on Nov. 19 in Des Moines and whether there was anything "in it" for him.
That provided the opening for Emanuel to launch into a denial reminiscent of Lyndon B. Johnson's infamous, "I shall not seek and will not accept the nomination of my party" withdrawal from the 1968 presidential race.
"No, never, not. Not interested," Emanuel said.
"I've done two trips already at the request of the . . . president's re-election campaign. They've asked me to be a surrogate. I'll do it. [But] I'm not interested [in running for president]. I love this job. I love the people of the city of Chicago. I love working on behalf of the taxpayers. Not interested."
Not even in 2016?
"[Not] even if you did that dance step you just did," the mayor told an overzealous TV reporter. "I'm NOT" interested.
So why accept the Iowa speaking invitation?
"The president and his campaign asked me to speak on his behalf as a surrogate, as I've done before," the mayor said.
The Nov. 19 speech will mark the second time that Emanuel, the former White House chief of staff, has hit the campaign trail on behalf of his former boss.
In July, the mayor spoke at a New York fund-raiser for Obama. The president's re-election campaign chose Emanuel to speak at the Iowa dinner in response to a demand from Iowa Democrats for a big name who could boost ticket sales.
After raising $7 million in just 13 weeks for Richard M. Daley's 1989 campaign for mayor, Emanuel went to work as a fund-raiser and then top adviser to President Bill Clinton. His 18-month stint as Obama's chief of staff ended when he resigned to run for mayor.
The mayor has said repeatedly that two stints in the White House are enough and that he has no designs on the Oval Office.


text:
Medical Assistant
For students who want a meaningful career in the healthcare field, the Medical Assistant program teaches the foundations of patient care procedures, medical office administration, and medical clinical practices. With this program, students can perform a wide array of clinical and human relations functions that help to improve patients' experiences. Graduates of the program are prepared for successful integration into any medical office. Students who complete this program successfully are eligible to take national certification exams. Learn more about our Medical Assistant program.
Health Claims Specialist
As a vital part of the healthcare industry, health claims specialists (also called medical billers and coders) are responsible for processing insurance claims for healthcare facilities. In this program, students are trained in medical terminology, insurance forms, diagnostic codes, procedural codes, and procedures for processing medical claims. They may work in a variety of settings, including doctors' offices, hospitals, or insurance companies. Students who complete this program successfully are eligible to take national certification exams. Learn more about our Health Claims Specialist Program.
For students interested in the field of law, our Paralegal program prepares students to work in a number of legal settings, including private law firms, corporations, and government offices. Students of the Paralegal program gain a strong foundation in legal concepts in areas such as civil litigation, trust and probate, real estate law, and commercial law. Legal research, analysis, and writing are also an important part of this program. Read more about our Paralegal program.
Computer Networking Management
This program provides students with the foundation they need to enter the world of information technology (IT). With training in desktop support, operating systems, network administration, and network security, students will be ready for a variety of careers in the IT industry. Students who successfully complete the program are eligible for the Microsoft® Certified Professionals exam and select CompTIA exams. Learn more about our Computer Networking Management program.
Professional Fitness Trainer
Fitness is important for everyone. This program teaches exercise programming, interpersonal communication, and marketing skills that are necessary to become a successful professional fitness trainer. With this program, students will learn how to perform fitness assessments, design safe and effective workouts, support nutrition in healthy lifestyles, and develop a client base. Students who complete this program successfully are eligible to take national certification exams. Read more about the Professional Fitness Trainer program.
Your privacy is important to us.
Any information you share will be treated responsibly.


text:
Nickelodeon (usually abbreviated as Nick, and originally named Pinwheel from 1977 to 1979), the American cable television network owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International
Evi is our best selling mobile app that can answer questions about local knowledge, weather, books, music, films, people and places, recipe ideas, shopping and much more. Over the next few months we will be adding all of Evi's power to this site.
Until then, to experience all of the power of Evi you can download her app for free on iOS, Android and Kindle Fire here.


text:
The past year has been almost as good for tech stocks as it's been for the broader stock market.
Indeed, Google GOOG 0.4992240525026644% Google Inc. Cl C U.S.: Nasdaq USD537.5 2.67 0.4992240525026644% /Date(1416607206988-0600)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 2197775 AFTER HOURS USD537.89 0.389999999999986 0.07255813953488371% Volume (Delayed 15m) : 20474 P/E Ratio N/A Market Cap 367465726478.511 Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee 1355410 More quote details and news » (ticker: GOOG), hardly an original choice, has gained 50% over the past year, more than doubling the gains of the Nasdaq.
So where's an investor to turn now, especially if expected Federal Reserve tapering and other factors help signal an end to the bull market?
A piece by StreetAuthority's David Sterman argues that two stocks— Broadcom BRCM 0.5123927550047664% Broadcom Corp. U.S.: Nasdaq USD42.175 0.215 0.5123927550047664% /Date(1416607207070-0600)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 6520881 AFTER HOURS USD42.3 0.125 0.2963841138114997% Volume (Delayed 15m) : 36377 P/E Ratio 56.99324324324324 Market Cap 24967599548.3398 Dividend Yield 1.1381149970361588% Rev. per Employee 665259 More quote details and news » (BRCM) and EMC EMC 0.13395847287340926% EMC Corp. U.S.: NYSE USD29.9 0.04 0.13395847287340926% /Date(1416607220222-0600)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 10018240 AFTER HOURS USD29.9943 0.0943000000000005 0.3153846153846154% Volume (Delayed 15m) : 155590 P/E Ratio 23.855114089676082 Market Cap 60843780046.4977 Dividend Yield 1.5384615384615385% Rev. per Employee 376510 More quote details and news » (EMC)—are a nice blend of both growth and value.
"Each company is in the midst of near-term headwinds that are dampening 2013 profit growth, but each has a catalyst that could help them regain favor in 2014," writes Sterman.
Take Broadcom, for example. Sterman points out that the maker of communications chips was a growth juggernaut in the past decade, as sales rose from $2.7 billion in 2006 to $6.8 billion in 2010. "Since then, growth has sputtered, as sales rose less than 10% in 2011 and 2012, and are likely to grow less than 5% this year and the first half of 2014," he writes.
The stock failed to keep up with rivals such as Qualcomm QCOM 1.0748126149059538% Qualcomm Inc. U.S.: Nasdaq USD71.47 0.76 1.0748126149059538% /Date(1416607200038-0600)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 14938755 AFTER HOURS USD71.47 % Volume (Delayed 15m) : 207493 P/E Ratio 15.109936575052854 Market Cap 118826092079.591 Dividend Yield 2.3506366307541624% Rev. per Employee 846230 More quote details and news » (QCOM) in the area of wireless chips, which set the stage for especially weak near-term sales guidance. As a result, this stock now trades near multiyear lows.
But as Sterman sees it, "investors are being too myopic, focusing on likely weak results over the next few quarters, and should instead be focusing on the next few years."
One of the stock's key catalysts will be a growing rollout of advanced telecom networks, known as LTE (Long-Term Evolution).
"Right now, investors are assuming that Broadcom will show little traction with this effort. Assuming a worst-case scenario, analysts at Morgan Stanley have put aside the wireless business and believe the rest of the business is worth $31 a share, roughly 20% above the current price. And what if Broadcom gains traction in LTE? If the company secures 'LTE wins in (the second half of 2014) with major customers, and maintains dominant share of connectivity,' then shares will trade up to $42, according to these analysts."
Meanwhile, one Morningstar analyst is making a distinction between Netflix NFLX -2.1350573151518444% Netflix Inc. U.S.: Nasdaq USD360.28 -7.86 -2.1350573151518444% /Date(1416607200217-0600)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 2537140 AFTER HOURS USD359.97 -0.309999999999945 -0.08604418785389142% Volume (Delayed 15m) : 16829 P/E Ratio 93.09560723514213 Market Cap 21705428223.7293 Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee 2232560 More quote details and news » (NFLX), the immensely popular video-streaming site, and the stock, which is now trading at around $320 a share, or over 80 times Morningstar's 2014 earnings-per-share estimate.
"Netflix has become a momentum stock," says Michael Corty, a senior equity analyst at Morningstar, during a video taped in the Website's Chicago studio. "Even CEO Reed Hastings in his recent quarterly letter referred to being concerned about investor euphoria in the shares."
Corty thinks that Netflix is "extremely overvalued," arguing that it should be worth about $180 a share.
When even the CEO is warning about euphoria, that's a good sign to take some or all the chips off the table.
Finally, Mark Hulbert, who also writes a monthly piece for this Website, weighed in with an interesting piece on the MarketWatch site about the limitations of using investor sentiment to gauge market moves.
Currently, the average recommended equity exposure among a subset of Nasdaq-focused stock market timers tracked by the Hulbert Financial Digest (as measured by the Hulbert Nasdaq Newsletter Sentiment Index) is 93.8%, "which is tied for the highest it's been in quite some time."
To a contrarian, such bullishness often is viewed as a time to get out of the market and await a serious downturn.
But according to Hulbert, such bullishness only tells us little more than that the market is vulnerable to a short-term decline "lasting little more than a month—maybe three."
"Note carefully that this does not mean that such a pullback couldn't develop into something more major," he writes. "When the next bear market does eventually begin, of course, it will start with a short-term decline. My point instead is that, if a bear market does begin, it won't be because of exorbitant levels of bullish sentiment.
"So, yes, current sentiment situation is alarming—if you're a short-term trader. If you're a longer term investor, you should be focusing on fundamental factors rather than worrying about current sentiment levels," he concludes.
E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com


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Arizona State starting tight end Zach Miller did not practice and wore a walking boot on Tuesday, three days after spraining his left ankle in the Sun Devils' loss against Louisiana State.
Coach Dirk Koetter did not offer a prognosis for Miller, who was injured when an LSU defender rolled on the ankle during a third-quarter play.
"Nowadays, any time a guy sprains his ankle, they put him in a boot until he can walk without a limp," Koetter said. "You don't tape the thing up and tell him to get back in there anymore.
"I don't like to put limits on these guys for when they might get back. No one wants to play more than Zach Miller, and he'll get back when he can."
Miller, a sophomore, said the ankle felt better, but he was not able to put any weight on it.
"I have to go day by day and see how it feels," Miller said.
In other injury news, defensive end Kyle Caldwell (quadriceps), tailback Randy Hill (ankle) and receiver Terry Richardson (shoulder) did not practice.
Kicker Jesse Ainsworth has been so touchback-reliable in the first two contests — 13 of the junior's 16 kickoffs have been downed in the end zone — that the coverage unit has to guard against assuming the ball will not be returned.
On Ainsworth's last kickoff against LSU, three players covered hard, but the rest did not, Koetter said. Fortunately for ASU, the trio of Josh Barrett, Stephen Bisnett and Alex King prevented a big return.
"It can be a double-edged sword," Koetter said. "If guys take it easy, they have a chance to return it a long way. We told the guys not to assume Jesse will kick it out every time.
"We'll play games where wind is more of a factor, but it's a great deal to have a weapon like (Ainsworth)."
The offensive and defensive schemes of Saturday's opponent, Northwestern, are uncommon. But they will help the Sun Devils get ready for teams down the line, at least on offense.
The Wildcats' Utah-style spread offense is being used at Oregon, a Pac-10 foe ASU plays on Oct. 8. Northwestern often lines up defensively with three linemen, three linebackers and five defensive backs.
"They will give us looks and stuff that we don't see a lot but we will in the future," Koetter said. "We might as well prepare for it now."
Punter Chris MacDonald — who has averaged 48.5 yards on four kicks this year, with two inside the 20 — was placed on the watch list for the Ray Guy Award.. . .
Koetter is not concerned about his team overlooking Northwestern.
"When you are coming off a game like the one we just lost, you're really, really hungry to get back in the win column," Koetter said. "Our guys will be ready to play on Saturday."


text:
Hi, my name is Matt, aka "electragician" from various forums on the internet.
Among other things, I am a husband, father, motorcyclist and sometime gamer. I'm also an unabashed fan of open source software and the Linux operating system. Specifically, I am a proponent of OSS's use on the general purpose desktop and I firmly believe it to be a truly competitive option for this task. The mixture of cost effectivness, wide array of desktop environment choices and associated footprints, blazing fast speed and tight security all serve to make any proprietary operating system pale in comparison.
Linux can give old hardware a new lease on life and it can coax every possible bit of performance out of the most modern of computers. It runs on everything from a $25.00 Raspberry Pi single-board computer to the largest multi-million dollar super-computing cluster.
I also have a continuing interest in Android, Tizen, Firefox OS and other open source mobile technologies and the platforms they run on. While I don't believe we're actually in a post-PC world, I will be the first to admit that these devices certainly have their uses.
This site won't win any beauty contests, but it is designed to load fast and be readable on (hopefully) any device capable of rendering HTML.


text:
Antidepressant Therapy in Treating Bipolar Type II Major Depression
This study has been completed.
University of Pennsylvania
Information provided by (Responsible Party):
Robert DeRubeis, University of Pennsylvania
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
First received: January 15, 2008
Last updated: July 22, 2014
Last verified: July 2014
- Full Text View
- Tabular View
- No Study Results Posted
- Disclaimer
- How to Read a Study Record
No Study Results Posted on ClinicalTrials.gov for this Study
|Study Status:
|This study has been completed.
|Study Completion Date:
|June 2013
|Primary Completion Date:
|June 2013 (Final data collection date for primary outcome measure)


text:
Katsuyori Shibata
Real Name
Katsuyori Shibata
Date of Birth
November 17, 1979
Place of Birth
Back in 2000, the world of professional wrestling was saddened by the death of Masakazu Fukuda. While working a tournament match, Fukuda was hit by a flying elbow drop from Katsuyori Shibata. The blow proved to be fatal, as Fukuda had to be taken to the hospital, where he died a couple of days later. New Japan finished the tournament and dedicated the event in his honor.
April 28, 2014
Just two months after undergoing surgery for his elbow, Shelton Benjamin is back in action. He is currently in New Japan, where he is working a big tournament for the company. The former WWE star has done well thus far, recently defeating Katsuyori Shibata and advancing to the next round.
March 22, 2014


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Mickey Herskowitz, George H W Bush (Foreword by)
About this title: Prescott Bush is father of a U.S. President, grandfather of a U.S. President, and grandfather of a state governor. "Duty, Honor, Country" looks at the principles that Prescott Bush passed on like family heirlooms to his five children, including George H.W. Bush, the 41st President of the United States.
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text: Cruz: 'Mike Lee and I Are Gonna Fight with Every Breath in Our Body' to Stop Obamacare by Debra Heine Sep 18, 2013 7:46 PM PT Share This: Print Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Mike Lee (R-UT) were on Hannity Wednesday night to discuss the ObamaCare fight now that they have gotten what they wanted and the onus is on the Senate to pass the continuing resolution defunding it. Cruz declared, "Mike Lee and I are gonna fight with with every breath in our body. As Churchill said, we will fight on the beaches, we will fight on the streets, we will fight at every step to stop the biggest job killer in America." Lee made the point that once the CR passes the House, "the only people who can produce a government shutdown are Harry Reid, the Senate Democrats and the President of the United States." Feisty interviews vs. tepid statement from Lee and Cruz by John Hayward Sep 19, 2013 7:23 AM PT Share This: Print In response to Cruz: 'Mike Lee and I Are Gonna Fight with Every Breath in Our Body' to Stop Obamacare: Unfortunately, this pugnacious spirit was not in display in the statement Cruz and Lee, plus Marco Rubio, released after the House launched its defunding resolution. "Harry Reid will no doubt try to strip the defund language from the continuing resolution, and right now he likely has the votes to do so," said the fight-fight-fighting Senators. "At that point, House Republicans must stand firm, hold their ground, and continue to listen to the American people." What they said isn't necessarily inaccurate, and some of the House blowback has been a little over the top, but I can't think of a worse way Cruz, Lee, and Rubio could have said it. They had to be well aware of the House grumbles that all the hard work gets lumped on them, while the tough-talking Senators grow a lot more mellow when it's time for an actual legislative fight. Dumping a statement that could easily be characterized as "waving the white flag already," just hours after the House did what Cruz and company have been calling for, was an immense tactical error. The media gets the sort of "Republican feud" story they love, anonymous aides rush to reporters with bushels of sour grapes, the Democrats are relieved to know they won't have to spend that much political capital to keep ObamaCare alive, and suddenly nobody's really talking about ObamaCare any more. This isn't generally how the Democrats gear up for a tough fight, even when they're far more divided than Republicans are, as in the case of gun-control pushes. The sense of pugnacious certainty and moral inevitability they display minimizes their expense of political capital over the long term - given how unpopular gun control is, it's remarkable Democrats haven't paid a steeper price for pushing it. That's because they don't roll into the fight by making statements that they'll probably lose, or handing the press golden opportunities to highlight internal squabbles within the party. It all reminds me of the salesman's strategy: Always be closing. Sometimes it seems like the Republicans never start closing. They don't act as if voters just need a bit of sweet persuasion to get behind a principled crusade. They're defensive even when playing offense. And I don't think they truly appreciate the power of repetition and constant effort. Obama's broken-record rhetoric about the debt ceiling sounds tedious to those of us in the know... but to many average voters, it sounds consistent. The one hundredth time he repeats some sound bite might be the first time a particular voter hears it. This was a good moment for Senate Republicans like Cruz and Lee to rush eagerly into the battle they keep saying they want, not remark that they'll probably lose, and tell their House colleagues to chin up. House Republicans Need to Simmer Down by Debra Heine Sep 19, 2013 9:12 AM PT Share This: Print In response to Feisty interviews vs. tepid statement from Lee and Cruz: Cruz, Lee and Rubio didn't say anything in their letter that wasn't true. Here's the statement in its entirety: Today's announcement that the House will vote to defund Obamacare is terrific news," said Sen. Cruz. "Just a few weeks ago, this was deemed impossible. We commend House leadership and House Republicans for listening to the people and for taking decisive action to stop Obamacare, the biggest job-killer in America. Harry Reid will no doubt try to strip the defund language from the continuing resolution, and right now he likely has the votes to do so. At that point, House Republicans must stand firm, hold their ground, and continue to listen to the American people. President Obama has already granted Obamacare exemptions to big corporations and Members of Congress; he should not threaten to shut down the government just to deny those same exemptions to hard-working American families." Acknowledging the obvious fact that Reid isn't going to throw in the towel on day one isn't exactly "waving the white flag." The onus is on the House GOP to "stand firm" because they are the majority. Just because they kicked the can into the Senate, doesn't mean they're off the hook. As DrewM explained at AoSHQ, "everyone knew that the point was to create pressure through the threat of a shutdown or an actual one to force Democrats to accept the GOP's terms." They need to apply pressure by showing some unity and resolve on their side of the aisle. If these House Republicans didn't know this, we need to come up with a stronger epithet for them than "the stupid party." The fight has just begun and there are various tactics that Republicans can use to beat back ObamaCare (see here and here) - but fighting amongst ourselves is not one of them. advertisement Breitbart Video Picks advertisement advertisement Most Popular Fox News National Protests dwindle in Ferguson, heat up in California26 Nov 2014 Family: 12-year-old boy would still be alive if police hadn't 'reacted quickly' and shot him26 Nov 2014 Throngs of Ferguson protesters dwindle to small groups as community seeks return to normal26 Nov 2014 Global jihadists tweet in bid to recruit Ferguson protesters26 Nov 2014 Men allegedly plotted to bomb Gateway Arch, kill Ferguson officials, report says26 Nov 2014 advertisement Send A Tip Sign up for our newsletter


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O & B Cafe on Front Street - if I choose to eat here, will it be as disappointing as Canteen in Bell Lightbox?
- t
- TeacherFoodie Apr 4, 2012 04:56 PM
Looking for a good spot for an early dinner on a Tuesday evening and am considering O & B. Have also looked into menus for Mercatto, Gabardine and C'est What and they also seem to be in the right area and price range. Another possibility is Beer Bistro which I have tried before and found to be good for the prices.
Moderate pricing - no more than $20 per entree.
Appreciate your opinions and/or recommendations!
re: TorontoJo
+1 for The Garbadine...
O& B Cafe isn't all that great, my experience is generally mediocre oversalted production line versions fo what could be good dishes. However the wine prices are reasonable and the decor and vibe are good so I tend to use it as a default for business meetings where drinking might be more important than eating.
I really like the O&B Cafe at Front - the selection is much better (nothing extraordinary though) and I have found that the place runs a bit smoother than the Canteen. I've been to Luma at the Lightbox, which was also quite good but will agree that Canteen is a bit disappointing in terms of portion size and price.
Gabardine's quite tasty too so I don't think you'd go wrong with either. Mercatto and Beer Bistro (high ceilings) tend to be a bit on the noisier side. You could also check out Bannock, another O&B close by, which fits your price range and they also do comfort food although I'd say the food there is not as typical as what you'd get at the O&B Cafe (but still very good!)
re: bluefirefly
At Canteen I was unimpressed with price, portion size and quality. My panini there was terrible. I have made better at home.
re: TeacherFoodie
Yah. I loved the caprese Caesar I tried (with basil and bocconcini cheese garnish) but the soup I had was underseasoned, and the cannelloni was swimming in oil.
Yes. It will be, nad maybe more so thanks to the crowd it seems to draw.
I generally go to one of the places on Wellington (swish, lucien etc)
There is also Teronni and Biff's in the area which are in your range and good places. I would take Biff's over O&B Cafe, both are O&B, but Biff's more interesting if you like French.
I ended up going to the Gabardine. Myself and three others. I found the service to be good, but the waitress was not very friendly. She came across slightly snobby. I had the deep fried beer cheese croquettes, the burger and fries, and the donuts for dessert. I wouldn't order the croquettes again - the flavour was a little strange - I think it could use something else in the batter to give it a bit more excitement (a spice or herb). The burger and fries were very good, although one of my other friends found the burger to be salty (I did not, maybe because the fries were salty I did not notice). The burger was moist and juicy. A bit of a disappointment was that they did not have the homemade ketchup that my brother-in-law suggested I ask for. The donuts were good, but had a bit too much cardamom IMHO. I would return but I would try something else next time. I do recommend the burger though.
re: TeacherFoodie
the terrine, pate, rillette, ploughman's lunch and trout are all hits in our books. We also enjoy the fish pie, chicken pot pie, black cod and liver and onions....
i never have a restaurant burger as I just never enjoy them out for some reason....
I've been to the O&B Cafe on Front twice (both times at lunch). The chicken burger was quite good, but the margarita pizza was not good at all.


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Update: Read our exclusive interview with Trent Reznor at the link.
As promised by Trent Reznor, tons of details on his six LP, 39-track OST for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo have been revealed tonight, including a particularly special surprise. Composed with his cohort of the Oscar-winning The Social Network score Atticus Ross, we have a song to stream now, as well as the full tracklist, pre-order details, party announcement and much more. We'll kick things off with a message from Trent Reznor himself on his official site:
For the last fourteen months Atticus and I have been hard at work on David Fincher's "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo". We laughed, we cried, we lost our minds and in the process made some of the most beautiful and disturbing music of our careers. The result is a sprawling three-hour opus that I am happy to announce is available for pre-order right now for as low as $11.99. The full release will be available in one week – December 9th.
Update: One can now stream the eight-minute trailer below.
First up, heard in the epic red band teaser trailer, the full Immigrant Song cover by Trent Reznor and Karen O. can be streamed below or when you pre-order the album on iTunes, or just buy separately for 99 cents. Stream it below, followed by the tracklist and cover art and much, much more.
The iTunes pre-order mentioned above is only one option. On the official website, Reznor has revealed four editions. The deluxe will run you $300 and includes the following:
- Choice of Apple Lossless, FLAC or 320 kbps MP3
- The full album on six pieces of 180 gram vinyl
- Deluxe book package with metal cover in a hard plastic "ice" slip cover
- Exclusive custom 8gb metal razor blade USB pendant, inspired by Lisbeth's razor blade necklace
- USB drive contains the full album in high-fidelity 96k audio
- Fold-out poster by Neil Kellerhouse
- Numbered limited edition of 3000
- Personally signed by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
- Ships February 6, 2012
Then there are digital and CD versions which cost $12-14 dollars and also arrive on December 9th. Check out those details below.
Digital: $12
320 kbps MP3 – Delivered via download link in your receipt on Fri. Dec. 9th
HD Digital: $14
Choice of Apple Lossless or FLAC – Delivered via download link in your receipt on Fri. Dec. 9th
Digipak: $14
The full album on three CDs
Eight panel digipak with custom "ice" slipcase
Six panel insert
Includes digital version delivered in 320 kbps MP3 on Fri. Dec. 9th
You can even download a six-song, 35-minute sampler on the site or stream it below. Followed by that, we have the full tracklist.
1. Immigrant Song
2. She Reminds Me Of You
3. People Lie All The Time
4. Pinned and Mounted
5. Perihelion
6. What If We Could?
7. With the Flies
8. Hidden In Snow
9. A Thousand Details
10. One Particular Moment
11. I Can't Take It Anymore
12. How Brittle The Bones
13. Please Take Your Hand Away
14. Cut Into Pieces
15. The Splinter
16. An Itch
17. Hypomania
18. Under the Midnight Sun
19. Aphelion
20. You're Here
21. The Same As the Others
22. A Pause for Reflection
23. While Waiting
24. The Seconds Drag
25. Later Into the Night
26. Parallel Timeline (Alternate Outcome)
27. Another Way of Caring
28. A Viable Construct
29. Revealed In the Thaw
30. Millenia
31. We Could Wait Forever
32. Oraculum
33. Great Bird of Prey
34. The Heretics
35. A Pair of Doves
36. Infiltrator
37. The Sound Of Forgetting
38. Of Secrets
39. Is Your Love Strong Enough?
As if this is not enough, Reznor has also revealed some sort of pre-party related to the Dragon Tattoo premiere in some cities. Check out the site here, which lists dates in Stockholm, Chicago, New York, London, Los Angeles. You can RSVP on the site for Stockholm, with the rest coming soon.
Directed by David Fincher and starring Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgård, Steven Berkoff, Robin Wright, Yorick van Wageningen, Joely Richardson, Alan Dale and many more, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo arrives in theaters on December 21st, 2011.
Which OST version did you pre-order? Are you a fan of the full Immigrant Song?
Every week we dive into the cream of the crop when it comes to home releases, including Blu-ray and DVDs, as well as recommended deals of the week. If we were provided screener copies, we'll have our own write-up, but if that's not the case, one can find official descriptions from the distributors. Check out […]
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we've taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit the interwebs. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming […]
Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it'd be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city's most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you're not […]
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Would you name your dog BAJIRAO ?
Asked by Shilpa, 11 Jul '07 05:31 pm
Earn 10 points for answering
Answers (10)
Why not ?? Ive one dog and a cute cat also.Answered by Nisha, 11 Jul '07 05:36 pm
if I give name 2 my dog- BAJIRAO...i will call my cat - MASTANI..
if I give name 2 my dog- BAJIRAO...i will call my cat - MASTANI..
Never.Answered by sumati gayki, 23 Nov '09 01:24 pm
I have named my dog already allu baji.Answered by ranju, 14 Jul '07 10:52 am
Yeah... bajirao... good suggestion... may be the female dog as mastani...Answered by Insane Guy, 12 Jul '07 12:08 am
Naming the dog is the prerogative of the owner. Names have to be kept right from day1 so that the dog also responds to calls. There are better names to dogs than this, why not these names?Answered by krishnaswamy thattai renganathaiyengar, 11 Jul '07 10:17 pm
My dog name is Shilpa .... (So Cute)Answered by iniyavan gajapathy, 11 Jul '07 06:10 pm
Thats cute.....Answered by Abhiroop Banerjee, 11 Jul '07 06:04 pm
Perizaad Zorabian's pug is called Chintamani. Bajirao is funnier!
Perizaad Zorabian's pug is called Chintamani. Bajirao is funnier!
Ok, sure I will, but why BAJIRAO afer all ? what harm has caused by him to u?Answered by Prashant Ramateerth, 11 Jul '07 05:46 pm
Is it your Boss's name?Answered by ganesh kola, 11 Jul '07 05:36 pm
Never. There are pet names for dogs, let us not keep human names for dogs because it is derogatory for them.Answered by Aditya Misra, 11 Jul '07 05:35 pm


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They were extremely friendly, helpful, & knowledgeable. It is a seemingly small showroom, but I was pleasantly surprised by their selection - Everything from standard to high-end, including latex & organic cotton options!
DexKnows Mobile profile for Medford Mattress in Medford, OR.


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HerRoom Response: Sue, it's possible that your strap was on all the way through the hoop when you put it on. We agree that you need to make sure your straps are securely through the back hooks before wearing it.
sue from dc
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- Written by Christopher Fox Graham
- July 17th, 2014
During election season, voters are used to seeing candidates doing dumb things to win office. Stupid comments, gaffes and awkward videos go viral and guillotine campaigns. But at least such foolishness doesn't happen in our Arizona Congressional District 1 — until Wednesday — when Arizona Rep. Adam Kwasman, [R-District 11], killed his campaign for Congress.
Note to future political campaign managers: Kissing babies wins votes. Yelling at children loses votes.
Kwasman went to Oracle near Tucson to join those protesting unaccompanied illegal immigrant children who were reportedly being bused to Arizona due to overloaded federal facilities in Texas.
More than 50,000 children have illegally entered the United States this year, most fleeing gang violence in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
Unaccompanied children from Mexico are subject to an immediate hearing and can be turned back at the border, but under the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act unanimously passed by the Senate and signed into law by President George W. Bush in December 2008, unaccompanied children from countries that do not share a land border with the United States are entitled to a hearing before being deported to their home countries.
"Bus coming in. This is not compassion. This is the abrogation of the rule of law," Kwasman tweeted after he saw the bus and cut his speech short.
"I was able to actually see some of the children in the buses and the fear on their faces," Kwasman told reporters afterward. "This is very, very sad state of affairs that we have."
The problem? The bus was not filled with immigrants, but Arizona children heading to a YMCA summer camp. A reporter told him mid-interview after it was clear Kwasman had no idea he had been yelling at American citizens — the children of voters.
If only there was some sign, some clue, that the bus may have been filled with Americans — like "Marana Unified School District" which was written on the side of the bus. The immigrant children are being bused in chartered Greyhounds, which have toilets useful on long, interstate trips.
"I saw a school bus with plenty of children on it," Kwasman said, before the reporter pointed out again that the bus was filled with American schoolchildren, after which Kwasman admitted he may have had made a mistake.
According to reporters, the children were not terrified, but laughing and taking photos on their phones from the bus.
Had the bus been filled with Spanish-speaking immigrant children, they likely wouldn't have understood the signs and slogans in English, and may have instead thought the protesters holding them and big American flags were welcoming them to the United States. No one will ever know because no immigrants ever arrived and federal officials said none were scheduled to.
Kwasman's tweet was later deleted (but can still be found here). Kwasman's interview, however, has made major headlines across the country. The campaigns of his opponents — Arizona Rep. Andy Tobin [R-District 1], Republican businessman Gary Kiehne and U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick [D-District 1], issued press releases attacking Kwasman for his behavior.
Kwasman hasn't yet issued a reply, perhaps because his campaign for Congress is effectively over. Rarely are famous last words so elegantly recorded.
Christopher Fox Graham
Managing Editor
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