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Istanbul Shore Excursion: Istanbul by Night Turkish Dinner and Show
Read what other Viator.com travelers think about the Istanbul Shore Excursion: Istanbul by Night Turkish Dinner and Show. What they loved, what they liked and what they think could be improved, it's all here to help you make the most of your next trip.
Click here for tour details, schedule and pricing
Wonderful evening! The driver picked us up on time and escorted us to the restaurant. We enjoyed a traditional 5 course meal, a bottle of wine and a very entertaining show.
Our tour operator was right outside the port right on time. We had wonderful seats and the food was delicious! The show was lots of fun and even had audience participation. The man at the end carried on a bit longer than probably necessary but he was funny!
A great night, the food was good and the entertainment excellent.
a very enjoyable evening , show was fantastic and the dinner was great food and great service all round
Our driver picked us up as scheduled. He pointed relevant landmarks and buildings on our way to the restaurant. We had a great seating location. The dinner was delicious with a bottle of wine and bottled waters included in the price. The show was fun and entertaining. A great night!
Amy C
So worth it! We were the only ones on our bus and we got there well in advance of the cruise ship crowds (on our second course when they showed up). Beautiful restaurant and delicious food. Show included 4 belly dancers, 3 folk dancing groups (the Cossacks were my favourite) and lots of singing!
Great evening with a nice dinner and great show. We would highly recommend this excursion.
Brilliant! Small group of 8 compared to busload on ship tours.We were picked up at port in van,whisked to the excellent venue ahead of ship excursions,given a great spot on balcony.Great service from our waiter as we were served good food and drinks and then treated to outstanding show with local Turkish culture,some good pop singing at the end with this guy who could sing any country's songs in their language and the amazing belly dancers-4.Outstanding value-not to be missed!
This being our first Viator Tour we didn't know what to anticipate. We were on a HAL cruise and usually used the ships tours but in comparing the pricing for the same venue we decided to try Viator and we were glad we did. We were met at the pier by the driver and much to our delight three additional couples also booked this tour. Good driver, clean comfortable mini-bus type vehicle and right on time. We did get to see some of the city on our way to the show. We arrived at least 30 minutes before the other big group tours and were seated on the balcony overlooking the stage. Our delicious meal and drinks were served in the normal sequence in a relaxed time frame. The big tours were jammed into long tables on the main floor and we observed the meals being served out of sequence. Talked to passengers later who took the ship's tour and they were disappointed at their seating and not receiving the complete meal.
This was a great introduction to Turkish food and excellent entertainment - belly dancers, knife throwers, folk dancers (even some audience participation with the belly dancers if you are brave enough! ) It was concluded by an entertainer who sang songs from around the world, based on the nationalities in the audience. As we exited the building our driver was there to meet us and a short walk to the van and we returned to the ship. Excellent night, great ambience, hospitality, food and we do recommend this trip.
The van pickup was very late (45 minutes) which is very frustrating when there is no way to call them in the evening to confirm meeting location and time. Otherwise, the food, service, and entertainment was outstanding!
wonderful...Driver picked us up at the ship and returned us as well in a clean van on time
The food was good, as was the show.
Same tour as the ships at a better price
The show was good, although the tour guide turned up half an hour after the time given to us and there were others also waiting for the same tour who had the same time as us. Food was just ok, thought the dessert could have been a bit more authentic.
Night Tour with dinner, Picked up on time in very clean and modern minivans. Dinner was fun. Large crowd treated to a range of dancing acts from folk dancing to belly dancing. Meal was enjoyable and we were picked up and dropped of back to the ship. This tour could be enhanced by the addition of a short tour to see some of the floodlit buildings. The advertisement suggests that his is actually part of the tour
Our evening was a delight. Our driver was waiting at the cruise terminal on time. We arrived for the show early and were seated and served dinner just as the masses started to arrive. The food was good, the dacing was delightful and even better was the master of ceremonies who got the entire house singing and participating even though we were representing many different countries and cultures. The driver was waiting for us after the show and we arrive back at our ship before the cruise lines group returned.


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Riding Shotgun
In the American west of the 19th and early 20th centuries, riding in a horse-drawn stage coach was an important and popular mode of transportation. Think of stage coaches as the Greyhound Bus of that era.
It was dangerous, in that the stage coaches routinely carried mail and money from one bank to another, so they were serious targets for bandits who wanted to steal the money or from the passengers.
One man sat up top and drove the horses and coach, and another man invariably rode up there next to him as a lookout and carrying a shotgun for discouraging any untoward advances by bandits or indians against the coach or it's passengers.
Thus the term "riding shotgun" came in to the lexicon of American English and is still with us even though stage coaches no longer are.
In America, when a group of people go somewhere together in a car someone invariably calls out "Shotgun!", thereby staking their claim on the front passenger seat. That way they get the view and the coolest air from the air conditioner.
Alas, folks don't carry shotguns with them any more. Well not legally anyway, but the term is known by and used by most Americans.
I often ask Lovely Wife drive when we're going somewhere together. I usually have my camera in hand and can take the occasional photo or two out of the passenger window without worrying about driving.
The brand of shotgun I take on these trips is Nikon.
If something really appealing comes up, she can pull over so I can quickly get out and snap a few shots, photographically speaking.
These two photos were simply taken after rolling down the window while stopped at a traffic light, first in Melbourne and then again in Palm Bay, where we live.
They aren't great, but things like this appeal to me simply because they are scenes I've seen many thousands of times as we've driven here and there over the years.
I wish I had done this in years past in the different places that we have lived. I don't have many photos of the every day street scenes in those places, and I wish I did.
Lovely Wife tends to believe in the "famous people die in threes" maxim.
I don't necessarily believe that one, but it is totally bizarre how I can write a post to be posted in a day or two, and then see someone else talk about that very subject on one of the blogs I read, before I post mine.
Over at Our Seven Qtpies, Qtpies7 talked about a German foreign exchange student that is staying with them.
I had written and slated this post to be on here today, and the other day she talked about how their visitor had never heard of "shotgun" before and how they had to explain it to him.
I guess great minds do work alike.

subset: commoncrawl


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Secretary Sebelius Remarks on Public Service
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius spoke at an awards ceremony for Georgetown graduate students in the… read more
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius spoke at an awards ceremony for Georgetown graduate students in the university's public policy school, despite her invitation meeting with criticism from some Catholic leaders and anti-abortion groups. She did not address the controversy directly, but she did discuss the history of tension between religion and public policy in the U.S. She also told graduates that they had chosen a difficult but important career. close
*The transcript for this program was compiled from uncorrected Closed Captioning.
People in this video
- Edward B. Montgomery Dean Georgetown University->Public Policy Institute
- Kathleen Sebelius Secretary Department of Health and Human Services
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Telephone lines were open for comments on President Obama setting new federal employee travel and conference spending…
Senator Johnny Isakson on the Government's Role in the Housing Market
Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA) talked about his legislation that would do away with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the…


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Yamaha Pop-Style Solos: Flute, Oboe, Mallet Percussion - Book & CDItem #: AL.00-14610
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Written by John O'Reilly, Steve Bach.
Band Method. Voicing/Format: Flute/Oboe/Mallet Percussion (Book and Compact Disc). 9x12 inches. 16 pages. Published by Alfred Publishing. (AL.00-14610)
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This enjoyable collection features 15 solos with piano accompaniment or play-along CD/cassette. The pre-recorded accompaniments feature orchestrations which provide a sparkling showcase for the young performer while they help solidify rhythmic accuracy and improve intonation. And they make practicing more fun too! Correlated with the Yamaha Band Student, Book 1.


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To us, practicing sustainable, community-based farming is just as important as growing good food.
Aaron and Mary Brower are first-generation farmers. In the age-old tradition of apprenticeship, we learned responsible farming methods from master farmers.
We believe small farms play a pivotal role in the work of preserving local food supplies, decreasing energy consumption, and bringing neighbors together in authentic communities.
Much of the 80 acres of woods, rolling grassland, and gardens that make up Bluestem Farm were fallow for nearly 50 years. During that time, the farm's many habitats were protected in an interconnected patchwork vibrant with plant and animal life.
Today, we're carefully transitioning the land back to working farmland in a way that continues to protect wild spaces, pollinators, and birds. Our farming practices include careful rotational grazing, certified organic growing methods, and minimal inputs. As of September 2014, we are proud to offer our members and customers certified organic vegetables and plentiful, varied diets straight through the long winters of northwest lower Michigan.
Our food is special not only because it is healthy, local, and environmentally responsible, but also because it is delicious. As cooks as well as farmers, we delight in the beauty, quality, and excellence of our food.
We chose the name Bluestem Farm for the native Midwestern grass by the same name.
Want to learn more about our work? Our year-long column on an early year at Bluestem Farm appeared in the magazine Edible Grande Traverse: summer, fall, holiday, winter, and spring.
(231) 459-8968
(at Adams Road)
7 miles east of East Jordan, Michigan
Delivery Locations
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What happens to the muscles on the side after a components release? Do they weaken?
There are three side muscles–the external oblique, the internal oblique, and the transversus abdominis. The most common version of the components release hernia repair cuts the external oblique muscle as it inserts onto the vertical rectus abdominis muscles. The side muscles become more compliant (stretchy) with the external oblique cut, allowing the rectus abdominis muscles to be brought to the midline for the hernia repair.
Immediately after surgery, the external oblique muscle is not attached to anything, and theoretically the abdomen could feel weaker. However, with the repair of the hernia the abdomen once again can increase its internal pressure. This new sense of a "core" for the patient is a bigger gain than the loss of the external oblique function. Most patients feel improved immediately after a components separation hernia repair, despite the pain of surgery.
Over time, the external oblique sticks back down to the underlying internal oblique muscle, and regains some of its function. The two intact muscles hypertrophy or bulk up over time, becoming stronger to compensate for the loss of the external oblique.


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Take Two for December 20, 2013
ProPublica: How short-term loans turn into life-long debt
Whitney Curtis/AP Images
AmeriCash Loans of Missouri is seen on Dec. 12, 2013 in St. Louis. High-cost lenders, like AmeriCash, exploit laws to sue tens of thousands of Americans every year. The result: A $1,000 loan grows to $40,000.
Five years ago in St. Louis, a single mother took out a payday loan for $1,000. That small-scale loan ballooned rapidly, and became a $40,000 debt.
She's certainly not alone. Thousands of Americans have similar stories of how high-interest loans spiraled out of control. Now, a Propublica investigation looks at how lenders are turning to legal action to collect on those debts. For more, we're joined by Paul Kiel, reporter with Propublica.


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County offers free dump day
By 10/18/2007 00:00:00
County commissioners are encouraging local residents to take advantage of upcoming free dump days to dispose of trash and even tires at no charge.
County Commissioner Precinct 4 is offering this service on Saturday, Oct. 27, from 8 am to noon or until space in the dumpsters runs out.
The dump day will be located at the corner of Hwy 287 and Farm to Market 664.
There is a 10 tire limit and the site cannot accept freon, car batteries, chemicals, or liquids.


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It will be a relaxed little contest with plenty of time to sew, and very few rules.
The Rules:
- You apply one of the three improvisational pleating techniques, or invent your own (it has to be improvisational though - no measuring :-))
- If you have a blog, you can blog about it whenever you like in the coming weeks. Include the button above in your post(s), and link up to this page, so that your readers know you are participating.
- On May 21, I will open a link party where you can upload a picture of your creation.
- On May 24, uploading ends and voting begins, and you can send over your friends and followers to vote for you.
- On May 26, the contest closes and two winners will be announced: (1) the creation with the most votes, and (2) my own favorite from the creations made from a StraightGrain pattern (free or paying).
The Non-rules:
- You can use whatever fabric and pattern you like.
- You can make whatever you like: a garment, a bag, a blanket, a sleep sack, a pillow cover, ...
- You can send in as many creations as a you like.
- It is an international contest.
- You do not need to have a blog to participate. (You will need a www address to partipate in the Link Party, but this can also be your FB page, flickr account...)
The prizes
- The always generous people of Birch are giving away 3 yards of Flight voiles of your choice. This awesome prize will go to the creation with the most votes.
- I will also chip in with a surprise pack of voile fabrics - I will announce later which ones, but I can tell you already that they will be really nice :-) They will go to my own favorite creation made from a StraightGrain pattern.
That is all there is to it... Now pleat it! :-)


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UPDATE: Here's the official word from Yahoo spokesperson Terrell Karlsten. They're claiming they don't upgrade users to IE7 and their reasons for switching your settings? Everyone else does it.
Yahoo! Messenger's update process does not download IE7 to a user's computer. As part of the Yahoo! Messenger update process, people have the choice to download Yahoo! Toolbar, set Yahoo.com as their homepage and set Yahoo! Search as their search engine. This is an industry-wide practice….IE7 is not bundled into the Yahoo! Messenger update process.
UPDATE 2: Jarrod's added a comment that suggests that IE7 was not added as part of the download, as he first described to us. All other aspects described below are known to be accurate, including changing the default browser to IE, changing the default homepage to Yahoo and changing the default search engine to Yahoo. The post has been updated.
The power struggle between Yahoo and Google for your desktop just took an evil turn, with evidence that suggests Yahoo is covertly trying to switch Google search users without their explicit permission.
Over email, Jarrod Hunt of Text Link Brokers explained how a recent upgrade to Yahoo Messenger includes an innocuous "auto-update†option. When the user gives Yahoo permission to "update†– what they think is just Yahoo Messenger –
the updater downloads IE 7 (which we already know to be buggy) and then proceeds to hijack many browser preferences – including search engine settings.
The updater's first sneaky switch is to associate all web links to IE instead of the user's default browser – in Jarrod's case all links started opening in IE instead of Firefox. The next step in the process is an ambiguous error message saying your search settings have been changed and would you like to either "fix settings†or "allow changeâ€. Thinking you are about to have your browser settings switched away from your default; most users – like Jarrod – will click "fix settingsâ€. Upon doing so, they'll find their homepage is now switched to Yahoo as the default!
If you think that's sneaky, wait until you see what happens next!
Not only does Yahoo hijack your homepage, it also switches IE's default search engine to Yahoo, without permission. Jarrod didn't even realize that this had changed until the Google Toolbar displayed a warning that an attempt had been made to switch the default search engine from Google to Yahoo.
Can you believe that such a battle is going on for your search settings? Is Yahoo deliberately using old-school spyware tactics to try and win new users, are they that desperate?
I'm emailing Yahoo for a response. Maybe they'll blame Microsoft on this one, maybe it's an isolated incident. Or, maybe it is what it is – a battle for your browser, which just turned a little more sinister.


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Port La Belle, United States of America
1563 Oxbow Drive, Port La Belle, FL 33935, United States of America – Show map
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No booking fees • Save money! Best price guarantee — enter dates to see these prices!
1 property in Port La Belle
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8 verified reviews
We verify all reviews from guests who have stayed at Port Labelle Inn. Find out more.
They speak your language!
Port Labelle Inn's staff speaks: Spanish, English
Booking is safe
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Outdoor Pool (all year)
Tennis Court, Hiking, Cycling, Fitness Center, Bikes Available (free)
Food & Drink
Snack Bar
WiFi is available in all areas and is free of charge.
Free public parking is available on site (reservation is not needed).
Room Service, Packed Lunches, 24-Hour Front Desk, Baggage Storage, Laundry, Meeting/Banquet Facilities, Business Center, Fax/Photocopying
Non-smoking Rooms, Facilities for Disabled Guests, Elevator, Soundproof Rooms, Heating
Spanish, English
From 3:00 PM
Until 11:00 AM
Cancellation and prepayment policies vary according to room type. Please enter the dates of your stay and check what conditions apply to your preferred room.
Children and Extra Beds
All children are welcome.
All children under 12 years stay free of charge when using existing beds.
One additional older child or adult is charged USD 10 per person per night when using existing beds.
There is no capacity for extra beds in the room.
Additional fees are not calculated automatically in the total cost and will have to be paid for separately during your stay.
Pets are not allowed.
Cards accepted at this property
Hover over the cards for more info.
Guests are required to show a photo ID and credit card upon check-in. Please note that all Special Requests are subject to availability and additional charges may apply.
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The staff was friendly. Seating areas are plentiful. The pool area is nice.
Older bathrooms and mattresses. The pool looked clean but upon entering noticed many worms crawling around.
The staff was very friendly and helpful.
The breakfast could have been better.
There isn't a single thing I can say that I liked about this establishment. I can't believe that I stayed here, and I can't believe that booking.com failed in making it known how absolutely run down, filthy, and what an abomination the Port Labelle Inn is. I couldn't have imagined how this could have been worse.
The room was filthy with peeling paint, a smoke alarm barely hanging in the ceiling, bugs, door handles and hardware barely attached, with missing screws. The linens reeked of mildew, and only a handful of the lights in the room worked. The bathroom was mildewed, the shower drain missing hardware and covered in filth. The Bates motel would have looked like a 5 star competition when viewed after staying at the Port LaBelle. If I didn't have a mandatory event to attend, and this wasn't the only hotel available because everything else was booked up, I would have immediately left and paid any sum of money to find another place to stay. The filth I experienced at a Tough Mudder the following day was a walk in the park compared to my 8 hours at this hotel. The pictures I took of the room were laughable in that absolutely disgusting and depressing kind of way. AVOID AT ALL EXPENSES.
wifi don´t work, cockroach and incredible mess in room,
the first week I had a really nice room with a good view and the internet was good.
the second week the room was dirty and smelled of mold, the internet was very slow and kept dropping off.
The manager was pleasant, polite and accomodating.
No coffee pots in the rooms!! I detest getting dressed and walking to the lobby to get my morning coffee.......I Especially detest it when I book a room because it advertises that the room includes "coffee making facilities"
Delightful place off the beaten path.
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Schools may get some relief from problems attributed to a year-to-year variance in test scores when the state Department of Education calculates another year of achievement profiles in October.
The State Board of Education voted Monday to use 2001 Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards, or AIMS, test scores as a base line when measuring how much progress students make on the high school math test. The board's reasoning was that the test curriculum had changed between 2000 and 2001.
The decision follows an April 28 vote to use an average of 2000 and 2001 scores as the base line to compute the percentage of advancement students make in reading, writing, and elementary and junior high math scores.
"In 2000, students thought it was a high-stakes test," state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne said of AIMS, which was then in line to be a graduation requirement. "Between 2000 and 2001, we put it off. And in 2001, students weren't trying as hard, and scores were down."
AIMS is scheduled as a graduation requirement beginning for seniors in 2006. The Arizona Learns Accountability law measures whether students achieve a year's worth of growth annually, using the latest three years of AIMS scores compared with the base line scores. The 2000 AIMS scores were used for all subjects in the first profiles that came out October 2002. Schools are
labeled "underperforming" to "excelling."
Joe O'Reilly, executive director for student achievement support in the Mesa Unified School District, said the move will smooth out highs and lows, but probably won't have a dramatic overall effect on school profiles.
"It looks like scores do vary year to year," he said. "So the two years will average out a high or low year. While it will affect individual schools, it's not clear whether some schools will be helped. Some schools would do better with the 2000 base line."


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UBM Sells Second Property This Week
Penton and NewBay also make deals.
Penton and NewBay Media each made M&A news this week, while UBM has agreed to sell a second property since Monday's announcement that CEO David Levin intends to step down in 2014.
UBM Live, a division of the events and communications conglomerate UBM serving the meetings and events space, plans to sell its International Confex event and related properties to the Media Mash Group, according to multiple reports. The show attracted more than 7,000 qualified buyers and 500 exhibitors to London's ExCeL Center in 2013.
UBM Channel, another division of UBM which produces digital content and events for the IT market, was bought out by management earlier this week.
Penton Sells "Non-Core" Assets
Penton's Clymer and Intertec Manuals were sold to the U.K.-based Haynes Publishing Group for $9.25 million, the companies announced today. Publishing more than 400 manuals for the motorcycle, marine, personal watercraft and snowmobile, and farm equipment markets, the titles add to Haynes already-extensive automotive and motorcycle repair portfolios.
"Selling Clymer to a more natural owner is another step in Penton's evolution," says Nicola Allais, senior vice president of Penton, in a statement. "The company continues to exit non-core print assets and focus on its strategic plan in events, digital, data and marketing services in its priority sectors."
NewBay Adds to Signage Portfolio
NewBay Media purchased Signage Solutions and associated assets from Partners Publishing last week, adding to its position in the signage market.
The acquisition will complement NewBay's existing signage properties including Digital Signage and AVNetwork.com.
Signage Solutions Publisher Ben Skidmore will join NewBay's sales team as part of the deal.
"Our goal is to continue to be the number one resource for all digital signage professionals," says Adam Goldstein, executive vice president and publishing director for NewBay. "[Signage Solutions] gives us unparalleled depth and reach into the market."
"By working with Ben and his team at Partners Publishers' Representatives," he adds, "we can expand our reach into select markets and deliver more options to our marketing partners and readers."


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Fullscreen web browser designed for internet kiosks in public spaces.
xStand is a web browser designed to present web-based content or run web applications in full screen mode. Mostly used for public access terminals in museums or libraries, xStand can also be installed in the office lobby of a company or an organization.
Since xStand is built with the Apple Safari Engine also named WebKit, users can benefit from all the features that this modern technology has to offer. xStand was developed with the intention to create a browser that would provide the same ease of use as other browsers, while adding maximum security and protection from user interference.
xStand has a wide range of functions which will allow you to customize your kiosk application to suit your individual needs and requirements. All you have to do is to decide what content you want to display and leave the rest to xStand. No programming skills are necessary. Configuring it can be accomplished within a couple of minutes.
As an option, you can install a full website on the hard drive of the iPad.
About adnX
We have been building innovative applications since 2001. Visit our website to discover our library of solutions for Mac, iPhone and iPad.
What's new
Improved reliability
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- Jun 01, 2014
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text:
Three-day career fair being held in West Bend
A three-day career fair is being held in West Bend this week.
Russ Darrow Toyota is hosting the event.
They're looking for people with experience in food and beverage, retail sales, insurance and real estate, or those just out of college or the military.
The fair runs 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday.
Interviews will be held on site.
Copyright 2013 by WISN.com All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


text:
when u started amul masterchef india season 3 audition ?
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text:
We are made of Stories
Bring your stories back to you. Place them in your hands for the telling, the capturing, the celebrating. Sit down with Stories in Hand and begin to ask yourself the questions inside. No matter how you tell your stories (notebook and pen, scrapbook pages, painting, collage, video), with Stories in Hand as your companion, you'll be inspired like never before.
With contributions by renowned artists Cathy Zielske and Nisa Fiin, Stories in Hand will spark your memory and influence your imagination as you tell the stories of your life.


text:
St. Louis City Hall History and Art
Photography Credit: Except where otherwise acknowledged, all photographs of architecture, art, decorations, fixtures, statues, monuments, memorials, landscape, and City events used on this website are © Robert E. Bilbrey and used by permission.
|Holidays and Events
History and Trivia From St. Louis Public Records
|St. Louis City Hall History
1981, St. Louis City Hall,
America's City Halls Project,
Historic American Buildings Survey --
From American Memory, The Library of Congress
|St. Louis City Hall Art and Monuments
First Floor
|City of St. Louis Historic Land Deeds
City Hall
City Parks


text:
Arlington, VA --- The Arlington County Board accepted an Urban Agriculture report from its Urban Agriculture Task Force, at work session held Tuesday evening. The report includes 27 recommendations for a Food Action Plan, as well as an inventory of existing food and agriculture programs in Arlington, and a resource list for further research.
"Issues surrounding healthy and sustainable food production, distribution, consumption and disposal impact the lives and livelihoods of Arlingtonians as never before," said John Vihstadt, chairman of the Urban Agriculture Task Force. "We have tapped the views and expertise of the local community in crafting a range of proposals and look forward to continued citizen engagement on these and other urban agriculture initiatives in the months ahead."
The Food Action Plan covers a wide range of topics related to urban agriculture, from expanding community gardens and access to farmers markets, to composting and backyard hens.
The Task Force presented its top priority recommendations:
The topic of backyard hens is included in the Food Action Plan, but not as one of the priority recommendations. The Task Force did not achieve consensus on the topic; their Plan includes two minority reports, which present alternative viewpoints and recommendations on the issue of backyard hens.
>>Read the full report or view the Task Force's slide presentation.
After the work session, which included a question and answer period, the County Board accepted the report from the task force, and directed the County Manager to conduct a staff review of the recommendations.
In 2012, the Arlington County Board created the Urban Agriculture Task Force, appointing 19 Arlingtonians who represent a broad range of interest groups. The Task Force was tasked with developing a Food Action Plan for Arlington County, tailored to our community's specific needs. Task Force conducted extensive research, including visiting local farms, markets and food establishments.
The Task Force also engaged in community outreach, including hosting an OpenArlington online forum; hosting a booth at the 2012 Arlington County Fair; attending all Arlington farmers markets; hosting three community conversations at Arlington libraries; participating at Latino Roundtable; and meeting with Committee of 100 and other civic organizations.
Task Force members:
Arlington, Va., is a world-class residential, business and tourist location that was originally part of the "10 miles square" parcel of land surveyed in 1791 to be the Nation's Capital. Slightly smaller than 26 square miles, it is the geographically smallest self-governing county in the United States, and one of only a handful with the prized Aaa/AAA/AAA bond rating. Arlington maintains a rich variety of stable neighborhoods and quality schools, and has received numerous awards for Smart Growth and transit-oriented development. Home to some of the most influential organizations in the world -- including the Pentagon -- Arlington stands out as one of America's preeminent places to live, visit and do business.


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Online registration for District Council is now closed. On-site registration will begin at 4:30 p.m. at Lenexa Christian Center. We hope to see you there!
Due to catering deadlines,
REGISTRATION FOR Cafe 242 IS CLOSED.
(NOTE: Registration for the golf tournament, FreshAIR and for Prepare/Enrich is also closed.)
© 2014 AGK Ministry Network - All Rights Reserved


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Have full access to trakt wherever you are. Check in from the movie theater or a friend's house. See what's trending at this exact moment. Never miss what's on tonight. Save interesting things to watch later. Interact with the community.
In addition to the media centers and mobile apps, the trakt developer community is amazingly talented and has created lots of great apps, mashups, and libraries all based around the trakt API. We'd love to hear about your project.


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Tea for You
Casual Cozy Tea in Five Points has intimate charm
1023 Park St., Five Points
Caron Streibich covers dining out throughout Northeast Florida. If you have information about new restaurant openings, menu changes or other food-related news, contact her here. Streibich is also the host of our regular Folio Weekly Bite Club gatherings. Follow the Bite Club on Facebook or Twitter to learn more about it.
Sometimes a casual lunch calls for fine china, dainty doilies, gold-rimmed teacups and floral-print linens.
Located across the street from historic Sun-Ray Cinema, Cozy Tea's family-owned-and-operated tea room feels like it could be your grandmother's parlor: charming, familiar and cozy.
They serve several varieties of tea sandwiches including shrimp salad, smoked turkey, egg salad, cheese spread and cucumber; I enjoy the curried chicken salad on wheat with golden raisins and almonds and the vegetarian sandwich of cheese spread, organic mixed greens, English seedless cucumber, tomato and carrots. Side items are available for an additional charge.
Other lunch offerings include warm quiches, a savory lentil and vegetable pie, vegetable samosas (an Indian pastry stuffed with spiced potatoes and peas), salads and an assortment of soups — tomato herb, roasted corn with butternut squash, sour cream baked potato and spring vegetable with fresh ginger. A hot cup of soup pairs nicely with a salad or sandwich.
Portions are relatively small yet satisfying and reasonably priced. Everything is made in-house, down to the handmade gourmet truffles. Peruse the case dedicated solely to truffles, scones and dessert offerings like fluffy vanilla cake over a creamy English custard with berry compote, bread pudding with vanilla bean ice cream, carrot cake with caramelized pineapple and white chocolate frosting — and several other drool-worthy choices.
The warm lemon-glazed cookie, with pieces of white chocolate and almonds, drizzled with the most perfectly citrusy lemon sauce, is sure to please. Craving something more? Try sour cream blueberry butter cake studded with blueberries throughout and dusted with powdered sugar.
Scone varieties include blueberry, pineapple lemon, cherry coconut, apricot cream, vanilla sugar and cranberry orange. Heighten your experience by asking for sides of freshly whipped cream and jam.
If you're into tea, study the bookshelf with seemingly infinite flavors and varieties. I usually order a pot of the aromatic jasmine green tea but occasionally try one of the chai choices. (If you don't finish your pot of tea, ask for a to-go cup for 50 cents.)
Open Monday through Saturday for lunch, Cozy Tea is large enough for a big group outing and fast enough for a quick, healthful lunch or tea with co-workers.


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December 19 2014 Latest news:
The scene of the fire at Calthorpe. PHOTO: ANTONY KELLY
By Sophie Wyllie
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
An elderly man has died in a fire which broke out in the kitchen of a cottage in a north Norfolk village.
Fire engines were called to the home at Calthorpe near Aylsham at about 3pm on Monday.
Crews from Cromer, Aylsham, North Walsham and Sheringham wore breathing apparatus and used hose reels to tackle the blaze for about an hour. They got the man out of the building in The Street, but medical crews were unable to revive him. Ambulance and police were also at the scene.
Sgt Gary Hagg, from Norfolk Police, said the next of kin had not been informed yet and the age of the man was not yet known. Officers remained at the scene because the building was not secured. Investigators are now probing the cause of the fire.
Joy Hale, ambulance service spokesman, said: "We were updated by police at the scene that a person had been rescued from the building and was in cardiac arrest. Fire officers were performing CPR on the patient once he had been removed but unfortunately, despite everyone's efforts, he was declared deceased at the scene."
Joanne Wayling, landlady af the Erpingham Arms, in Eagle Road, Erpingham, said: "When I came home at 5.45pm I wondered what had happened. It was a surprise because there were lots of sirens and such like. All the emergency services were there."
She said a lot of the customers at the pub had been talking about what had happened and had mentioned that they had seen a helicopter and fire engines in the village.
● Fire officials have also revealed that the cause of a fire, which severely damaged the downstairs of a Downham Market home, was a toaster which was accidentally switched on.
Crews from Downham Market, Outwell and King's Lynn were sent to the property on Railway Road after the fire started at around 1.30am on Sunday. A male was taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn suffering from smoke inhalation.
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Associate Goliath Admin Panel Screenshot:
How Associate Goliath Works:
Step 1: Fill in your Amazon associate id and other fields
Step 2: Click the blue button.
Step 3: Nothing! Associate Goliath will do the following things,
a) Go to Amazon
b) Find products that match the criteria you entered.
c) Visit each product page one by one
d) Retrieve the product title, product image, total rating (with stars), price,
e) Create a post on your Wordpress blog for each one of the products!
Sample Post:
Early Testimonials:
Why some Amazon affiliates make peanuts,
In one word? Automation!
Doing keyword research and writing your own "unbiased" reviews may
By the time you are finished writing a single review for ONE Amazon product,
Quite simply, they are out-muscling you.
Amazon already WANTS you to use their content on your site. So why not leverage
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- Amazon has already found some of the hottest online niches
- merchants have already created in-demand products that solve people's problems
- Amazon have already written the product descriptions (content) that sells
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"Duplicate content" refers to the same content being shown on the
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What Amazon domains are suported?
Version 2.0 supports Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk
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You need to have a Wordpress blog that you host on your server. Your server
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What if I purchased the personal license and now I want to have
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Sometimes, things happen. A server may not be configured properly to work with
I reply to emails extremely fast and many customers say that, with me and my
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|© 2002-2008. Blurty Journal. All rights reserved.


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im bore.madbored. i was gonna go to the movies but every one cancled on me so now im stuck here writing in this...again. i need sumthing to do. i was jus looking at cristinas journal shit. damn shes writes alot. how the hell can u have that much going on. i donno. i wish mah life was interesting like that.but its not thats y i am writeing in here. i could say i hat emah life and shit like that but i dont. actually i love mah life...sumtimes.others i jus wanna die! seriously. but imn ot gonna talk bout hat rite now. mabey next time when i think u should no. but yes yes yes. i have nuthing to say. im in mah den its dead sient and im home alone. its mad exciting(not).but im gonna go now i dont wanna bore u.
~*mad hate*~
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|© 2002-2008. Blurty Journal. All rights reserved.


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Added Jul 29, 2013
by nadia22
Atlanta, Georgia...
My Twist 'n' Go Bandz are wire headbands handmade from recycled materials, and should be handled with care to insure long lasting enjoyment. Wearing a Twist 'n' Go Band is perfect for any occasion because it will spice up any hair style. We all have those days when we can't spend all day on our hair. That is where Twist 'n' Go Bands come in handy. Its quick , easy to use, and looks fantastic!
Try one today!
Size: one size fits all
Length: Approximately 35 inches
Material: Stretch Tule
Color: Reg and Green
If you have any questions feel free to contact me.
Thanks for stopping by!
Jul 30, 2013, 04.03 PMby nadia22
Thank you! :o)
Jul 29, 2013, 05.04 PMby Ellen Hatteland
Sweet and lovely – very nice ;)
Add to Favorites no one added it
Pattern of the Week
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TEHRAN - Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Saturday Tehran will hold talks on neighbouring Iraq with Washington "in spite of distrusting Americans", the ISNA news agency reported.
"We will ... talk with America about Iraq because of requests by the Iraqi people and government, but with consideration of Iraqis and the Islamic world's interests and in consultation with Islamic countries," Ahmadinejad said during a meeting with Syria's visiting First Vice President Faruq al-Shara.
"We basically do not trust Americans," he added.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Tuesday gave a tacit blessing to talks between the Islamic republic and the United States, but said the Islamic republic wanted Washington to leave Iraq.
The idea was first floated just over a week ago by Ali Larjani, head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, its nuclear chief and one of the country's most visible officials.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday she was "quite certain" that US officials would hold direct talks with Iran on the turmoil in Iraq, but could not say when.
In an interview with the Washington Post, US envoy to Baghdad Zalmay Khalilzad, who would lead talks with Tehran, accused the Islamic republic of aiding Iraqi militia and insurgents groups.
The White House suspects Iran waited months to accept the US offer, first approved last November, in order to deflect pressure from Tehran's atomic energy program, which has been referred to the UN Security Council.
The United States charges Iran with seeking to obtain nuclear weapons, while Tehran insists its programme is meant only for peaceful purposes.
Copyright © 2006


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December 18, 2014
News 12 at 6 o'clock, July 31, 2007
BURKE CTY, Ga.---Dogs on the loose in large numbers are a growing problem in Burke County. Some people even say the strays have been attacking livestock. And the problem is, nothing's being done.
There's no Animal Control in Burke County, so that means the dog population is increasing by the day. Some of these dogs are so vicious that they've attacked goats. Burke County citizens are anxious for something to be done.
"This is happening all over Burke County right now," said Lisa Williams, who works with animals all day. She's pushing for an animal control facility in Burke County because the dog population is overflowing, leaving many dogs with no food or water.
"With all the legal aspects and routes that I'm taking, I'm not being heard," she said. "I've never had such a brick wall presented to me before."
If one female dog has a litter of puppies, and those puppies reproduce and so on, it could mean over 11,000 new dogs in one year. Just imagine what 11,000 dogs could do to a county.
That's why residents in Burke County have started a petition to get local government to approve funding for an animal control facility.
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Average Rating:
Total Reviews: 9
Showing 1-9 of 9
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By totati99
on August 08, 2014
Comment about ingredients - i am just surprised that unsalted butter is not specified. Did everybody used salted butter?
By Chef #652982
Poway, CA
on August 08, 2014
Manassas, VA
on December 18, 2012
This cake is great, I made it for my mother's birthday dinner, and since she can't eat gluten this was a perfect birthday cake. It looks festive, and tastes fantastic!!
By critterlover
on May 15, 2012
Everyone loves it and gives it 10 stars!!! I had a tough time finding the crushed almonds, without buying a ton, so I chopped them in the food processor! Surprisingly simple, and such a unique texture and beautiful taste. The cake was loved by all and they all want a printing of the recipe. Thank you! Love your show!
By kcghost
olathe, KS
on October 20, 2011
The cake is so good it is amazing. The butter cream frosting is simply incredible. Do not settle for the store bought stuff. Sure it is easier, but for once in your life man up and do the right thing. Yuo can make the frosting and the cookies days ahead of you want, but don't assemble until ready to serve.
By astarte64
on October 03, 2011
My entire family loved this dessert. I wasn't thinking about what the almond meal would do to the meringue, so when it came out fairly flat compared to the meringues I'm used to making, I made another batch. Oh well, extra goodies for me! Everything about this cake was beautiful and delicious.
By iamsquidney
on June 06, 2011
The buttercream didn't work out for me.. Recent recipes with buttercream never have. I guess it's just me. Haha. I added powdered sugar to give it more of an icing texture. But the rest of the cake was fabulous! I impressed my family and really all I had to do was line some peaches up in the right way. Woop. :)
By jrssin1
on June 06, 2011
This cake was wonderful! I made it for Memorial Day and the whole family raved over it. The look of it was so elegant and beautiful - it made me look good! Perfect summer cake. I will definitely make it again. Thanks, Laura!
The Woodlandst, TX
on June 05, 2011
Excellent Cake the Best inside outside and tasting everything Congratulations Laura....... I just love
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Wednesday, November 3, 2004
Abstract: In this program, we will look at the tremendous educational and awareness raising events conducted in communities large and small as our great Nation came together in the spirit of this year's theme, "Join the Voices for Recovery… Now." We will highlight Recovery Month community forums, walks and runs for recovery, Major League Baseball games, music-based activities, and other events that celebrate that addiction is treatable and recovery is possible.
Ivette Torres, Associate Director for Consumer Affairs, Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
Recovery Month promotes the societal benefits of prevention, treatment, and recovery for mental and substance use disorders, celebrates people in recovery, lauds the contributions of treatment and service providers, and promotes the message that recovery in all its forms is possible. Recovery Month spreads the positive message that behavioral health is essential to overall health, that prevention works, treatment is effective and people can and do recover.
National Recovery Month 2014


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- Customer Service
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Long Sleeve Broadstripe Rugger
Classic stripes of the Long Sleeve Broadstripe Rugger are crafted in 100% yarn-dyed cotton. We brought in reinforcements at the shoulder and elbow and added decorative top-stitching for each. With a canvas collar, ribbed cuffs, ventilated underarms, side gussets, extended back, this enzyme washed rugby shirt will feel broken-in at the first wear.
- 100% cotton
- Yarn-dyed stripes and enzyme washed
- Canvas collar, ribbed cuffs
- Elbow patches, reinforced shoulders with decorative stitching
- Ventilated underarms, side gussets and extended back
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D'Arcy's Pint
Made popular by its Horseshoe sandwich, D'Arcy's Pint in Springfield is like no where else. Dine in a cozy neighborhood style pub while dining on authentic Irish food, traditional American classics and the local favorite, the horseshoe sandwich; you can even relax in their beer garden while trying a variety of delicious ales. Welcome to D'Arcy's Pint, sit and stay awhile.
CITY: Springfield
Italian Village
For more than 50 years Italian Village Pizza & Pasta has been a social gathering place for great food and fun in Carbondale. Thousands of locals, Salukis and area visitors have provided their autographs and notable memories on the walls of their main dining rooms. Enjoy delicious pizza, complimentary ice cream, and a full salad bar, all in the presence of good company!
CITY: Carbondale
Cristaudo's Cafe & Bakery
Situated in one of downtown Carbondale's oldest buildings, Cristaudo's Cafe and Bakery is definitely worth a stop! Treat your taste buds to the sweet flavor of their famous sugar cookies, or enjoy a delicious sandwich during lunch. And, if you give them enough notice, Cristaudo's will prepare vegan and gluten-free baked goods to your liking!
CITY: Carbondale
Mo Wallace BBQ
Located in the heart of Carbondale's Town Square, Mo Wallace is one of the most beloved hole-in-the-wall stops in Southern Illinois. Feast on the mouth-watering selection of soul food and finger-lickin' barbecue, and enjoy the company of the friendly staff. This truly is one of Carbondale's culinary gems!
CITY: Carbondale
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Blair's Big Gamble
In late March, shortly after the bombs began falling in Baghdad, George W. Bush and Tony Blair strode to a pair of lecterns in an industrial hangar in Maryland. Outside, it was a spring day on a mountaintop so beautiful that Franklin D. Roosevelt had called the place "Shangri-La," but just about the only sylvan touch indoors was a carved wooden sign that looked fresh from Jellystone Park. camp david, it declared.
"America's learned a lot about Tony Blair over the last weeks," Bush began, lowering his voice, narrowing his eyes, smiling faintly, and jutting his head forward in that way he has, as if he were about to reveal some pleasant little secret. Pausing portentously between sentences, he intoned, "We've learned that he's a man of his word. We've learned that he's a man of courage, that he's a man of vision. And we're proud to have him as a friend." As Bush spoke, Blair aimed his electric-blue eyes at him. When the paean ended and Bush turned his way—not just looking over at him, but up—Blair smiled shyly and gave a modest nod.
When they'd first met, two years earlier and at the same place, everything seemed awkward, and not surprisingly, for it was hard to imagine two leaders with such different personalities and pedigrees: the British Labour Party leader and the right-wing Republican oilman; the onetime Oxford guitar-strumming rebel and the Yale frat-boy conformist; a man interested in ideas and someone who'd scorned deep thinkers as "all hat and no cattle"; the famous "Friend of Bill"—Clinton, that is—and the man who'd never forgiven Clinton for licking his father. "Where Mr. Blair is an intellectual lawyer with an earnest interest in social responsibility, Mr. Bush is a former oil executive with an earnest interest in baseball statistics," the Financial Times sneered at the time.
But now, here they were: soul mates. Blair had become the first foreign leader to spend two nights at Bush's ranch in Texas—Vladimir Putin got to stay only one. After September 11, Blair was one of the first foreign leaders Bush called. Eight days later, when the president spoke to a joint session of Congress, Blair had the best seat in the House, next to Laura Bush. In the days leading up to the war in Iraq, the two leaders talked almost daily. So close had they become that on March 27 the Israelis urgently called in the British ambassador in Tel Aviv; they feared that, in the wake of the war against Saddam Hussein, Blair, eager to placate his own party, British Muslims, and the Arab world generally, might single-handedly tilt the Bush administration toward the Palestinians.
Five years earlier and a helicopter ride away, Tony Blair had stood alongside another president, one who was engaged in a very different, more personal war—for his own political survival. Revelations about Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky had threatened Blair's trip to Washington, his first as prime minister; perhaps there'd be no President Clinton to see. At first blush, it was another case of opposites: Blair the squeaky-clean family man, Clinton the self-destructive roué. But while others were busy distancing themselves from Clinton, Blair gave him a bear hug, describing him as "someone I can rely upon, a man I am proud to call not just a colleague, but a friend." There are different versions of what Clinton told Blair that day as they left the stage. "I'm going to make you very proud of what you did in there" is one. "I owe you one," goes another.
One thing you can say for certain about Bill Clinton and George W. Bush: few people like them both. But to Tony Blair both are first-rate. After the divisive international debate over Iraq, Blair's dream of being a bridge between the United States and Europe may be in ruins, but his ability to negotiate the chasm between the 42nd and 43rd presidents is almost as impressive. Impressive, that is, to everyone but Blair. "They're very different people, but so what?" he asks me, in the first of two interviews— one on his plane home from the Azores, the other at 10 Downing Street. "We all have different friends."
People debate just how and why Blair pulled it off, and whether it reflects loyalty, bravery, servility, affability, or necessity—i.e., the Realpolitik faced nowadays by any British prime minister, who knows that whatever international influence he wields must come largely through the United States. Blair himself has called anti-Americanism of the sort rampant in Europe "a foolish indulgence," and said that the "special relationship" between his country and the United States is "an article of faith" with him.
Few people disagree, however, about "tense and grey," "haggard and tired," and "pale and drawn." There are also regular updates on his cough; sometimes, it seemed that catarrh was being followed as closely as Qatar.
The accounts made Blair sound like Roosevelt at Yalta: anemic, wasting away, exhausted, spent. But Blair always bounces back. Standing around in shirtsleeves on "Blairforce One," the chartered British Airways Boeing 777 he takes to his frequent summits, and swigging from a bottle of mineral water—reportedly, he stopped drinking alcohol for the duration of the war—he appears plenty energetic to me. It is mid-March, and we are returning from Blair's meeting with President Bush in the Azores. There, Bush had warned that unless the United Nations authorized war against Iraq in the next 24 hours the "coalition"— really, the Americans and the British—would go ahead without it.
Blair is nearly seven years Bush's junior, but standing with him earlier that day the prime minister seemed far more fully formed. Bush lurched from thought to thought, his tone changing just as frequently; Blair spoke in perfect cadences, with short, sharp gestures to match. Bush labored to sound grave, something Blair knew how to do. Bush slouched, while Blair stood straight. Off-mike, Bush emoted and blinked and frowned and twitched and dissociated; Blair's demeanor was impeccable. Bush appeared eager to ingratiate; Blair was past, or too preoccupied for, that.
But to listen to Blair, all that surface stuff means absolutely nothing: Bush's lightweight image is "complete bull … just nonsense," he says. "He's not someone who will … What's the best way of putting this? … I was about to say, 'He's not someone who will philosophize,' but actually that's not true, because he does," Blair tells me. "But 'directness' is the best way I can describe it. He has a very, very direct way of stating exactly what he feels about a situation. He is highly intelligent, and it's not clotted by so many nuances that the meaning is obscured." (On another occasion, over a beer in a pub in Sedgefield, according to a reporter, Blair put it more bluntly. "He doesn't dick around," Blair said.)
Secretary of State Colin Powell, who calls Blair "a remarkable politician" and "a brilliant man," has seen that rapport firsthand. "They will walk into the lodge at Camp David and plop into two sofas—just two old buddies talking to one another, without any of the preliminaries or folderol often seen in high-level diplomatic exchanges," he tells me. "They're essentially inside each other's thinking. They complete each other's thoughts." Having come to a decision, according to Powell, Blair proceeds with conviction and determination. "In that way, he is very much like guess who. George Bush," Powell says.
Blair says that, among his other virtues, Bush has a sense of humor. He gives me an example: "The other day he says to me on the phone, 'So, you still have all these problems with the left-wingers?' I said, 'Yes, quite a few problems with the P.L.P. [Parliamentary Labour Party],' and he says, 'Let me tell you what I'm doing. I'm going to pick up the phone and call 60 or 70 of them, and I'm going to say to them, "Look, I was wrong about [the] Kyoto [global-warming protocol], I'm going to sign up Kyoto, and I'm going to return America to an agrarian society."'"
Using his personal bond with Bush, Blair helped persuade the president, most of whose advisers were very much inclined to go it alone, to take his case to the United Nations, not once but twice. In the process, Blair became the war's most eloquent champion, convincing skeptics in a way Bush never did.
Unlike Bush, Blair repeatedly defended the policy, often before astonishingly hostile audiences. Indeed, they were audiences selected specifically for their hostility, apparently in the belief that he would score points for his courage. In these crowds, war was never an option, no one need ever make hard choices, George Bush was no better than Saddam Hussein, and, because they, too, had weapons of mass destruction, the United States and Britain were every bit as bombworthy as Iraq.
On one TV show, a young questioner addressed Blair, coolly and contemptuously, as "Mr. Vice President" and "the Right Honorable Member for Texas North." On MTV, a Swedish student type said he could make anthrax in his bathtub, so why didn't Blair bomb Sweden? On a third program, an audience of glowering women—the wife of a "human shield" in Iraq, for instance, and a mother whose only child died at the World Trade Center—lit into him. Blair was unfailingly low-key, courteous, patient, respectful. Still, a few of the women "slow-clapped" him afterward. Had they been in Baghdad, they'd probably have hit him with their shoes.
On March 18, the House of Commons debated going to war, and Blair made his case. He also made one of his greatest speeches, displaying a ferocious eloquence in place of what the British press snidely calls his usual "emollient" manner. Ignore Saddam Hussein today, he warned, and you'd face a far more lethal Saddam Hussein, possibly in league with terrorists, tomorrow. He lamented the failure to win a second U.N. resolution, but blamed that squarely on Paris, a theory which played well in the gallery. As one tabloid reporter put it, persuading the English to take on Iraq was hard; urging them to fight the French was not.
From the outset, Blair had the votes, for the Tories favored going to war. What he needed, for symbolic reasons, was a clear majority of his own party, in which large elements have long had a hate-love relationship with him: they hate him for moving the party to the center and (they feel) betraying its soul; they love him for getting them all elected, and in the majority. He turned to his old friend Clinton, commissioning him to write an editorial for that morning's Guardian. "Trust Tony's Judgment," it urged. Ultimately, the rebels collected 139 of the 410 Labour votes: unprecedented, to be sure, but still manageable. "You've got another landslide," Bush told Blair afterward.
On March 20, while Blair sat awkwardly across a dinner table in Brussels from French president Jacques Chirac, he appeared, via tape, on British television. The setting was simple, and the props were few: no flags, no lapel pins, no family pictures. Blair's rhetoric was stripped-down, as well: the country was too divided for anything Churchillian. There was no "good evening," no "good night," and no reference to God, just a quiet call to arms. Britain, he said, had never "been a nation to hide at the back."
Peter Mandelson, who has served in Blair's Cabinet and probably will again, says a Tony Blair comes along only once in a generation. As one of Blair's closest friends, he's biased, but it's hard to argue with his conclusion. Having already revolutionized British politics, poised to be the first Labour prime minister ever to complete two terms, he has also become a giant on the world stage. He has given his nation a degree of influence far in excess of what it probably warrants, and he just turned 50 years old.
In the United States, Blair now enjoys a level of name recognition and popularity unmatched since Churchill. "The American Prime Minister," Time magazine has called him. He has been nominated for the Congressional Gold Medal, an honor previously bestowed on the Wright brothers, General Douglas MacArthur, Mother Teresa, Pope John Paul II, and Nelson Mandela. British tourists in America, even those who don't like Blair, find themselves smothered with affection.
"It's a profile in political courage we haven't seen in a long time," says James P. Rubin, the former State Department spokesperson, who now lives in London. "The last one was [former Israeli prime minister] Ehud Barak, and look what happened to him. But he wasn't as savvy as Blair."
In Britain, too, Blair's stance has won him new admirers, even among those who opposed the war. For years, the rap on him was that he stood for nothing except his own political survival. He was "Tony Blur," the subject of "The Which Blair Project." But in the past few months a new, more determined Blair has emerged, one who seems to feel freer to be bold. If Bush sees Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein as threats to American security, Blair sees them as excuses to remake the world. Or at least guide the only superpower in remaking it, striving to keep it responsible and engaged with everyone else.
"He seemed like such a 1990s figure: the showman, obsessed by public opinion, more celebrity than politician," says Matthew d'Ancona, a deputy editor and political columnist for The Sunday Telegraph. "When 9/11 came along he was able to adapt to it. He saw it as an opportunity to make his mark, to free himself from the constraints of focus groups and polling, and actually participate in history."
Once the shooting started, even the Daily Mail, the voice of "Middle England" (the British version of Richard Nixon's "Great Silent Majority"), lined up behind Blair. Voters, tired of packaged politicians, like passion, even if they think it wrongheaded; passion was Margaret Thatcher's trump card. Thus, even when support for the war was low, Blair's personal standing rose.
At four o'clock in the morning on May 2, 1997, Tony Blair, the youngest prime minister–elect in nearly 200 years, got a call from President Clinton. Blair's smashing victory was really a win for them both; it proved that Clintonization—modernizing traditional left-wing parties by moving them to the political center, later known as "the Third Way"—was exportable. "Blair is the younger brother Clinton has been yearning for," Sidney Blumenthal, then a staff writer for The New Yorker and later a Clinton aide, wrote at the time.
At this point, though, the two were strangers. "You have to build me in some private time with this guy," Clinton told staffers before he and Hillary visited London a few weeks after Blair took office. "I just don't know him."
Clinton attended a Cabinet meeting at Downing Street, and the two first couples—two pairs of lawyers immersed in politics— dined together at Le Pont de la Tour, Sir Terence Conran's palace of a restaurant by Tower Bridge. The press clamored for pictures of the two world leaders jamming together—Clinton on his saxophone, Blair on his guitar—but it was something that the ultra-serious Blair aides never allowed.
For Clinton, it was all a welcome respite from the Paula Jones affair. Indeed, it seemed that whenever Clinton and Blair met over the next year or two a bimbo haunted the room. In Washington in February 1998, it was Monica Lewinsky. Her ghost stalked the gala dinner the Clintons threw for Tony and Cherie Blair, by all accounts one of the social high points of the Clintons' White House years. Steven Spielberg, Harrison Ford, Tom Hanks, and John Kennedy Jr. and his wife, Carolyn Bessette, were there, and Blair sat next to Barbra Streisand; Stevie Wonder saluted the missus with "My Cherie Amour."
But it was a phrase from Sir Elton John, who also performed that night, that captured the emerging bond between the two couples: "How wonderful life is while you're in the world." In his toast, Blair likened Hillary Clinton to the late Princess Diana, then turned to the embattled president. "Bill, I'm pleased to call you a good colleague and proud to call you a good friend," he said. Standing in the wings, a Clinton aide was moved to tears.
At the press conference the next day, during which Lewinsky vied with the timeless Saddam Hussein for attention, Blair heaped on still more praise. Clinton and Blair bonded further over golf, the peace process in Northern Ireland, and the war in Kosovo. "They were kids in a candy store, free diplomatic electrons bounding around the crowd, speaking their own language and sharing everything" is how they looked to one American diplomat, who saw them huddled together at the funeral of Jordan's King Hussein in 1999.
But as the 2000 presidential election approached, British officials pondered what might happen if a political opposite such as George W. Bush succeeded Clinton. Blair's sympathies lay with Al Gore, not surprisingly, even though, according to one story, the vice president had read off file cards the first time the two men met. Officially, though, Downing Street was strictly neutral. And, hedging its bets, it set out to learn more about Bush. In the late 90s the British ambassador to the United States, Sir Christopher Meyer, made two trips to Texas, where he met Bush and Karl Rove. Meyer and Bush hit it off, and the ambassador was well positioned to brief Downing Street when Bush finally became president.
The Texan, Meyer told Blair, seemed affable and easygoing, but had his mother's steel. He lacked Clinton's glibness and intellectual pyrotechnics, Meyer said, but was every bit as good at working a room. At foreign affairs he was a neophyte, getting tripped up as a student cramming for finals might. But Bush was not afraid to ask and to listen, both of which he'd probably do plenty of with Blair. In his personal relations, loyalty was what most mattered to Bush; he still remembered Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak's complaining when they'd met that Clinton called only when he wanted something. Unlike some around him, then, Bush understood—and even respected—Blair's ties to Clinton; they suggested the kind of steadfastness he admired. In Texas, Meyer related, Bush had been playing on a small stage as a "Division One striker," the soccer equivalent of a Triple A outfielder. But underestimating him would be a huge mistake. He recommended informal contacts between Blair and Bush.
Their first Camp David meeting, in February 2001, featured informality of the most premeditated kind. Bush wore a leather bomber jacket with a fur collar and the Camp David seal; Blair wore a blue pullover, blue suede shoes, and jeans so tight his hands wouldn't fit comfortably into his pockets. "He put the charm offensive on me and it worked," Bush said of Blair. Asked what they had in common, Bush told the press, "Well, we both use Colgate toothpaste."
"They're going to wonder how you know that, George," Blair shot back.
It was a bizarre start to an odd coupling. "They're not on the same planet, really," says Blair's biographer John Rentoul of The Independent. But to Jonathan Freedland of The Guardian, ego—Blair's—was an unspoken adhesive. "With Clinton, it was master and pupil, with Blair always written of as the junior partner," Freedland says. "Now he can be the experienced statesman."
In the afternoon, the two went for a long walk. Blair detractors thought it symbolic that, when, reportedly, Bush let out a shrill whistle to call his spaniel, Blair hurried after him. That evening the two couples and some of their aides watched Meet the Parents, a comedy starring Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller. Rather than suggesting this occurred because they had nothing more to say, the White House depicted it as the ultimate compliment—normally, Bush would have gone straight to bed. (In fact, Condoleezza Rice fell asleep watching the movie.) "The world must be a fairly safe place if the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Britain can spend their first evening together chortling in front of a lightweight caper about a botched marriage plan," the Mail declared. Six and a half months later came September 11.
Blair, who heard the news as he was about to speak to trade unionists in Brighton, watched the second aircraft hit the World Trade Center. He spoke from the stage for two minutes. Then, fearing that London, too, might be hit, he headed there in his armor-plated Jaguar. On television that night, he said that Britain stood "shoulder to shoulder" with America.
Early the next morning, Bush called Blair. "I like your style," Bush later wrote him in a note. Over the next several days, Blair, seeking to put together an international coalition against terrorism, met with or spoke to more than two dozen world leaders. On September 20, he flew to New York, reading the Koran along the way. There, he spoke at a memorial service for Britain's dead in the World Trade Center attack. Kofi Annan and Bill Clinton were present; when tight scheduling forced Blair to cancel a visit to a local firehouse, Clinton, along with Cherie, pinch-hit for him.
Blair then went to the White House and, after dinner with the president and time in his private quarters, accompanied him to Capitol Hill. "I am so honored the British prime minister crossed an ocean to show his unity with America. Thank you for coming, friend," Bush said to a joint session of Congress, prompting one of two standing ovations Blair received.
A strong bond between the two men, though Blair generally ducks the issue, is religion. Both Bush and Blair are devout Christians who keep their Bibles handy. Some Englishmen consider Bush's religious fundamentalism to be primitive—"that kind of overt evangelical praying when the car won't start," as one religious member of Parliament put it to me. But however different their creeds, each man apparently finds his faith emboldening. "The good thing about [Bush] is that once he does really think that an issue has to be tackled he has big reserves of courage for doing it, and he won't really be diverted," Blair says.
There was little in Blair's background to presage the Christian interventionist he became. His father, Leo, a lawyer and law professor, was an atheist; the little religion Blair got came from his mother, who occasionally took him to church. It was at Oxford that Blair embraced both Christianity and socialism, really in tandem. The spark came from Peter Thomson, a liberal and charismatic minister, with whom Blair spent long nights, fueled by caffeine and nicotine, discussing life, theology, and social betterment. Thomson, in turn, was a disciple of John Macmurray, a Scottish socialist and philosopher, who stressed the importance of community and the duty to heal. Blair has called Macmurray's writings among the great influences in his life. Thomson, now a chaplain with a social-welfare agency in Melbourne, describes Blair as someone of "enormous moral fiber." "This is not cowboy, off-the-top-of-the-head stuff," he says, referring to Blair's decisions regarding Iraq. "This is a very, very committed human being. And when I say 'committed,' it's not just to an ideology. It's a commitment to life."
When Blair became a devout Christian, he did not broadcast it to his classmates. "I said, 'Do you believe in God?' and he said, 'Yes, absolutely,'" one of them recalls. "To me, he was a longhaired student who played guitar in a band; being a superficial student, I didn't associate rock singers with Christ. We called [religious students] the 'God Squad' and didn't go near them."
"Christianity is about justice," Blair wrote in 1993, by which point he had become one of the Labour Party's brightest prospects. His commitment to what the British call "Christian Socialism" was not just a matter of conviction, but good politics: it was another way for him to differentiate the "New Labour" party he was developing from an "Old Labour" party whose fierce atheism had cost it the support of "Middle England."
Politically, it was a delicate maneuver: pointing out one's faith, while keeping a certain distance from it. "I can't stand politicians who wear God on their sleeves," Blair wrote in 1996, when he was effectively prime-minister-in-waiting. "I do not pretend to be any better or less selfish than anyone else; I do not believe that Christians should only vote Labour." But in the same article, he let it be known that he found prayer "a source of solace" and read the Gospels—"a most extraordinary expression of sensitive human values"—and he accused the Tories of having "too selfish a definition of self-interest." One line he cut from the piece—probably just being careful—encapsulated his credo: "Jesus was a modernizer," he'd written.
Blair's faith is an extremely divisive issue in England. To the secular, it makes him seem flaky and sanctimonious. To those more religious than he, it is inconsistent, superficial, and, oddly enough in the context of Iraq, unilateral: they say Blair does what he pleases, ignoring religious authorities and teachings, whenever he considers it "the right thing to do."
Several years ago, for instance, Cardinal Hume of England and Wales told the Anglican Blair to stop taking Communion in Roman Catholic churches when he worshiped there with Cherie, who is Catholic. Blair said he would, but added, "I wonder what Jesus would have made of it." In a country where public displays of religiousness are considered uncouth and political culture is distinctly secular—on the £10 note, the flip side of Queen Elizabeth is Charles Darwin—Blair knows better than to flaunt his faith. He has refused to discuss his flirtation with Catholicism, for instance, and Downing Street revealed virtually nothing about his audience in February with the Pope, to which he went accompanied by Cherie, their four children (Euan, 19, Nicky, 17, Catherine, 15, and Leo, 3), and Cherie's hairdresser.
It was left to the Vatican, normally a bastion of discretion, to furnish most of the details, along with a photograph of the two men together. That picture appeared in The Mail on Sunday, over a caption reading, "The Pope Has an Audience with His Holiness." It also ended up on the cover of Private Eye, the satirical magazine, complete with cartoon bubbles. "Peace be with you," the Pope, who opposed the war in Iraq, tells the prime minister. "You must be joking!," Blair, hands clasped reverentially, replies.
Few questions arouse the normally unflappable Blair more than whether he and George Bush pray together. That might be all right in the United States, but to the "chattering classes" of the United Kingdom it conjures up images of a half-demented Richard Nixon on his knees with Henry Kissinger, and threatened to give Operation Iraqi Freedom the look of a Christian Crusade. When talk-show host Sir David Frost asked Blair about it on television in September 2002, recalls one of those watching, "you could hear Blair's sphincter tighten." He said that they didn't pray together, but someone close to him told me that they probably do.
Still, some of what the young and unguarded Blair once concluded about his faith is something to which George W. Bush could easily subscribe. "Christianity is a very tough religion," he wrote in 1993. "It is judgmental. There is right and wrong. There is good and bad." (Other passages from the piece might not go down quite so well with Bush, to wit: "To radicals, Christianity has always had especial validity. Radicals want change, and change—personal and social—lies at the heart of the Christian religion.")
"I can't say it's something we've discussed," Blair says on our plane ride of his and Bush's respective religious beliefs, "but it's something we share."
As he always does, Alastair Campbell, the former London newsman who is Blair's director of communications, political strategist, and protector, hovers nearby, ostensibly involved in a separate conversation. But when the topic turns to religion, his ever sensitive antennae home in. Campbell, who worships a soccer team more than any church, has never forgotten the 1996 article and how it was construed to mean that Tories were too selfish to be good Christians. Ever since, he has tried to steer Blair clear of the topic. "Is he on to God?" Campbell asks Blair—the "he" being me. "We don't do God," Campbell declares. "I'm sorry. We don't do God."
There have been occasional blips in Blair's friendship with Bush. In July 2002, the London Times reported that the "special relationship" between the two was "under considerable strain" after Blair had passed on to a friend something Bush had supposedly told him after a meeting with Chirac: "The problem with the French is that they don't have a word for 'entrepreneur.'" Downing Street declined to comment.
Potentially more problematic was Clinton's speech last October to the annual Labour Party conference in Blackpool, England. Blair's relationship with his party, shaky at best, had grown rockier with his Iraq policy, and he turned for help to Clinton, who'd come to town with actor Kevin Spacey in tow. Once Clinton finally got onstage—he'd lingered so long in the wings that Blair had to go fetch him—he delivered, giving a performance which, as The Independent put it, "made both his Oscar-winning pal and Mr. Blair" look like amateurs.
The speech was partly a love letter to Blair. "When the prime minister spoke yesterday I thought to myself, I hope I'll be able to give a speech like that when I grow up. It was just unbelievable," Clinton began. He then suggested, without mentioning the president by name, that when it came to Iraq only Tony Blair could hold George Bush in check. "As an American, and a citizen of the world, I am glad that Tony Blair will be central to weighing the risks and making the call," he declared. He then insisted that the United Nations should be central to any resolution of the matter, and that war be used only as a last resort.
But Clinton was only getting started. (So rapturously was he received that the speech was likened afterward to a sexual experience. "I need a cigarette," said Dr. John Reid, then chairman of the Labour Party.) He then launched a broadside against the Bush administration, saying he disagreed with it "about nearly everything." He even attacked its legitimacy. "They won it fair and square: five to four at the Supreme Court," he said. Blair called Bush immediately afterward, but not, he insisted to me, to smooth any ruffled feathers in Washington; the conversation had been scheduled "ages and ages" before.
Blair struggled to defend going after Saddam Hussein. At times, he grumbled to colleagues, he'd have been better off without some of the American "help" he received; he complained that Bush made things worse for himself—and confirmed unflattering European stereotypes of him—by using such rhetoric as the "axis of evil."
Although several traditionally Conservative papers—the Telegraph, for example, and Rupert Murdoch's Times—have backed Blair on the war, he still has his conservative critics, such as Matthew Parris, a political columnist for The Times. Three years ago Parris described Blair to me as an essentially shallow man, a crusader in search of a crusade. In remaking Iraq, Blair has found his cause all right, Parris claims, attaching himself to it with such ferocity that he's become "unhinged." What he sees as Blair's Manichaean worldview, his pathological optimism, his fervent belief that he's always right—all are evidence of what Parris calls "the Madness of King Tony."
In fact, Blair was warning about Saddam Hussein when George W. Bush was still dealing with the Texas Legislature. In November 1997, Blair told the House of Commons, after Saddam had driven out American U.N. arms inspectors, that "it is absolutely essential that he backs down on this, that he be made to back down.… If he doesn't back down, we will simply face this problem, perhaps in a different and far worse form, in a few years' time."
Blair described to Paddy Ashdown, then leader of Britain's Liberal Democratic Party, what he'd learned from British intelligence about Saddam's arsenal. "It really is pretty scary," Blair said, according to the 2002 book The Ashdown Diaries. "He is very close to some appalling weapons of mass destruction. I don't understand why the French and others don't understand this."
In December 1998, American and British planes bombed Baghdad for four days, a prelude to the recent campaign that was largely overlooked as Clinton simultaneously contended with the impeachment process. Four months later, speaking in Chicago, Blair laid out what he called "a doctrine of international community." Because of "dangerous and ruthless men" like Saddam and then president Slobodan Milos vevi´c of Yugoslavia, he stated, the criteria for military intervention should change: "acts of genocide can never be a purely internal matter." The concern should be not only national survival, but "a more subtle blend of mutual self-interest and moral purpose in defending the values we cherish."
John Kampfner, political editor of the New Statesman and author of the forthcoming book Blair's Wars, says that Blair has long been alarmed by Iraq, but thought that sanctions, periodic surgical strikes, and a coup from the inside would solve the problem. Only when Bush pushed for regime change, he says, did Blair, seeking to preserve his ties to the United States, take it up, too. John Lloyd of the Financial Times offers a slightly different thesis. Blair's liberal interventionism and Bush's neoconservatism came to the same conclusion, he says: that you could bring democracy—or at least some less hideous form of government—to Iraq if you had the will to see it through.
Friend and foe alike believe that Blair never thought he'd have to extend himself so far on Iraq. He expected that the U.N. inspectors would find some weapons or some germs, and that the Europeans, particularly the French, would sign on as well. That goes back to Blair's faith, or perhaps to what some see as his excessive faith in himself: he is, as Matthew Norman of The Guardian describes him, "so vain and deluded about his charm and persuasiveness as to verge on demented."
Blair, who has much more credibility than Bush in the Arab world, will have to be the principal voice of reconciliation with it. Like Iraq, Blair faces a mammoth job of postwar reconstruction: he must mend fences with Europeans, with British Muslims, with the United Nations, with Arab states, and with his own party—all tasks that could jeopardize his beautiful friendship with the White House.
Shortly after the fighting began, I revisited London's Imperial War Museum, whose very name suddenly resonated with those convinced the war was all about oil. I'd have thought the fighting would have brought out the crowds, but the place was far emptier than it had been three weeks earlier. Why see guns and bombs and tanks in a museum, the man in the cloakroom explained, when you can watch them live on television?
On display was "Anthem for Doomed Youth," an exhibition on the English soldier-poets of World War I. Another war had suddenly made their poems topical again. This time British soldiers would die in sand and mud rather than on the rich European soil in which Rupert Brooke had imagined himself being buried. But, when that started to happen, Blair only helped himself further by keeping a low and dignified profile. He mourned the dead quietly. He visited soldiers' families without huge trains of reporters in tow. He pledged that packages could be sent free to British boys in Iraq—as long as they were "sensibly sized." Even when the Saddam statues toppled, he stayed largely out of sight.
In his office on Downing Street, I ask the prime minister how he felt when the 25-foot model in central Baghdad took a tumble. He pauses awhile, looks upward, and smiles. "The beginning of the end?" he says. "A sense of … I suppose a sense of renewed confidence in why what we were doing was right … even though it's only a symbol.
"The reason I hesitated is that I don't feel any sense of triumphalism now at all," he continues. In fact, he says, he only glanced at the television, then moved on. "I think we did the right thing, I think it's going the right way, but I'm now on to the next problem, which is making sure that everything's sorted out in the aftermath. That's what I tend to be like."
Three weeks of warfare after I first saw him, Blair, in striped shirtsleeves and sipping tea, still seems fresher than the press reports him to be. "Fortunately, I feel better than they describe me," he says with a laugh. He even had time to promote tourism in Britain by lending his character—and his voice—to a forthcoming episode of The Simpsons. Nearby were all the family photographs that had been omitted from the sets for his televised speeches. One of them shows him kissing Leo, who is, he says, his only recent cause of sleepless nights.
A few days before we met, Blair had seen Bush in Northern Ireland, and for domestic political purposes, happily so: the president had finally come to see him, and to help with one of his thorniest problems. Bush talked about everything Blair would have wanted: his commitment to the "Good Friday agreement," between Catholics and Protestants; the "vital role" the U.N. would play in postwar Iraq; re-activating the Middle East peace process.
Bush had been strikingly confident and even eloquent that day with Blair in Ulster, a far cry from the awkwardness of their two previous summits. Perhaps it was the turn the war had taken, but watching the two, I couldn't help but think that Bush had learned something in the interim by watching the man at his side. On the streets of Belfast, I spotted an anti-Bush poster to which someone had appended a cartoon bubble. "Tony, U can get off u knees now," Bush was saying. To me, though, it had been Bush who had been at Blair's feet—studying.
The usual slew of domestic problems—complaints over the public health service, mass transit, hikes in student tuition—will soon re-emerge. But Blair is enjoying what one commentator has called a "Baghdad bounce." He has become, according to the Telegraph, "the strongest prime minister in living memory"—strong enough to run for a third term in 2005 and, maybe, to realize a pet project: scrapping the pound and adopting the euro.
The real difficulties, however, could come with the Americans. Blair and Bush could clash over the role of the U.N. in Iraq, or installing Ahmad Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress to lead postwar Iraq, or mending fences with France and Germany, or taking further pre-emptive actions—against Syria, say, or Iran. Or, most likely, over Israel.
Blair calls himself a "staunch" supporter of Israel, which, like all principal members of the coalition—including Spain and Australia— knows all about terrorism. "I understand what it's like, especially if you're a democracy and your citizens are being blown up in buses and cafés—you've got to take action," he tells me. But in the Labour Party, his is a minority view. Sit in on the House of Commons and you hear something rarely encountered in Congress: unrelenting, unabashed Israel-bashing. Listen and you'd think that Israel was solely responsible for every problem in the Middle East, and certainly every problem with the Palestinians. Lump Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, and Ariel Sharon together, as one Labour M.P. did in one debate, and you'll hear hardly a peep.
The senior member of the House of Commons, Tam Dalyell, even tells me he thinks Blair is unduly influenced by a cabal of Jewish advisers. He mentions Mandelson, Lord Levy (Blair's chief fund-raiser), and Jack Straw, an Anglican who had a Jewish grandparent.
Facing repeated demands to show "even-handedness" in the Middle East, Blair has enthusiastically backed the peace plan devised by the U.S., U.N., European Union, and Russia, the so-called "road map," which envisions a Palestinian state by 2005, and pushed Bush to commit to publishing it before he was inclined to do so.
The Israelis oppose the plan, at least as it stands. This could force Bush to choose, in effect, between Britain and Israel. And it's unclear which side Bush—reluctant to offend hyper-Zionist Christian fundamentalists and eager to attract a few more Jewish votes in 2004—would pick. But Blair thinks he and Bush see things the same way. And then there's that special bond. "I trust him, and that is extremely important at our level of politics," Blair says. "Though you will often say that about people, to really mean it about someone in his position is important."
But was it unusual too? "Well, let me put it in a diplomatic way," he says. "When you go through something like [the Iraq war], you really find out whether you can or can't trust somebody." He starts to laugh. "Don't ask me to go through all the world leaders and rate them on scores of 1 to 10, because I won't do it. But you know what I'm saying."
Blair says someone recently sent him what he calls Churchill's "wonderful" description of the relationship between the United States and Great Britain, from a speech to the House of Commons in August 1940, as America was beginning to help Britain fight Hitler's Luftwaffe. "Like the Mississippi, it just keeps rolling along," Churchill said of the bond. "Let it roll on full flood, inexorable, irresistible, benignant, to broader lands and better days." That, Blair says, "is where I think it is, today, too."
I ask Blair whether anything in poetry, music, literature helped him get through his recent trials. There were, he says, but they are "private things." But he says that he is heartened by letters from Iraqi exiles, and that, among his regular religious readings, he continues to turn to the Koran.
"The remarkable thing about the Koran is that, if any Christian or Jew reads it, everything it talks about is entirely identifiable to us," he says. "It contains lavish descriptions of the Old Testament stories, of Jesus, of Mary. The reflection you constantly take from it is how sad it is that there is such huge misunderstanding between these religious beliefs that in fact share so many common values and so much common heritage.
"One of the things that I think is so important out of this," he continues, "is that we show through what we do in Iraq after liberation that we have indeed made the condition of people better—we made it more free, we made it more prosperous, we made it more just, we protected their rights—and let that stand as an example of how in fact the best motivations of people from our religion and the best motivations of people from the Muslim religion are in the same line of tradition."
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