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Let us, for the moment, look past all the critical love AMC's Breaking Bad has garnered over the last few seasons. Let's set aside the boatload of Emmys and the Peabody Award it has won. When we trim away all that red-carpet tangle, we're left with a very simple story—one that plays out, at times, like a parable. It's a tale of a reasonably decent man who, for a noble purpose, "breaks bad"—and how that bad, in turn, breaks everything it touches.
Bryan Cranston's Walter H. White stands at the center of this story—its tragic hero, its comic villain. He begins his journey as a high school chemistry teacher who lives a quiet, suburban life with his lovely wife, Skyler, his disabled son and (after a few seasons) newborn baby Holly. It's clearly not the life he would've chosen, but he pushes through day by day … until he learns he has incurable lung cancer. Walt's dying. And if he dies, there'll be no one to support his family.
So Walt signs away his soul. He teams up with Jesse, a former student and current petty criminal, and the two begin to cook methamphetamine—all with the object of funding Walt's experimental cancer treatment and provide for his fam.
Walt cooks. Walt deals. Walt cheats. Walt kills. And even when his cancer goes into remission, we still see Walt die a little bit every day, his humanity slipping from him like blood from a wound. He becomes inured to the horrors that surround him, accepting of the monsters he deals with—and the monster he's becoming. Breaking Bad is a study in brokenness, an illustration of evil. It is, in some ways, a brilliant rumination on humankind's depravity—the wrong we'll excuse if the end is "right," the lies we'll tell ourselves to forgive our own sins and stubbornly move down our own blighted paths.
"Breaking Bad, more than any other drama currently on television, is set in a moral universe," writes Scott Meslow of The Atlantic. "There's always been a kind of fatalism to Breaking Bad, from the plane crash over the White household that Walter inadvertently caused by letting Jane die, to the drug deal that Walter chose, both literally and metaphorically, over the birth of his daughter. Breaking Bad operates by the rules of science; every action causes an equal and opposite reaction, and at this point in the series, Walter is a man of very extreme action."
But while Walt's tale can be taken as that powerful parable, the path which we must take to get to the moral at the end is as dark and depraved as any we see on television. The violence and the murders and the sheer horror of this world is categorically oppressive, absolutely harrowing in its brutality and realism. Certain episodes explore sexual subplots. Viewers hear both s- and f-words (the former uncensored, the latter bleeped, at least when the show airs on television).
"If Walt and Jesse are horrible human beings, then what does that make us, the loyal viewers?" writes Matt Zoller Seitz for salon.com. "Complicit. They're our stand-ins. They are capable of almost anything, and there is almost nothing we won't watch them do. It's the line about how to cook a frog in a pan of water; the show's writers turned up the heat so gradually that it isn't until season two or three that you looked down at your arm and thought, 'Hey, are those blisters?'"
Breaking Bad tells us that we can't excuse evil for an uncertain future good. And by its own measure, we can't excuse Breaking Bad either.
Positive Elements
Spiritual Content
Sexual Content
Violent Content
Crude or Profane Language
Drug and Alcohol Content
Other Negative Elements
Pro-social Content
Objectionable Content
Summary Advisory
Plot Summary
Christian Beliefs
Other Belief Systems
Authority Roles
Discussion Topics
Additional Comments/Notes
Episode Reviews
Walt survived Season 4—the equivalent, his lawyer says, of winning "the Irish sweepstakes." But no matter: He wants to return to the drug trade. Meanwhile, the DEA circles ever closer to the operation's former core—flicking its uneasy eyes on hit man and cleanup guy Mike. Lydia, a bigwig for the operation's corporate cover Madrigal, asks Mike to kill 11 people to keep secrets safe. When he refuses, she hires another hit man to eliminate Mike.
"You know, it gets easier," Walter tells his horrified wife, who's only now starting to realize what kind of man her husband's become. "I promise you it does. What we do we do for good reasons. … There's no better reason than family." It's tragically flawed logic, of course, but family is indeed the episode's overarching theme. We see Mike play with his granddaughter. We see Lydia beg her own executioner to leave her body behind for the sake of her 5-year-old daughter. "She has to know I didn't leave her!" she begs.
One man commits suicide, electrocuting himself with a defibrillator. (He slumps to the bathroom floor, eyes open.) Another is shot in the head. (We see the hole and the gore coating the back of his neck; blood covers a painting behind him.) Still another is shot four times in the chest. Characters drink alcohol (on the job), and cigarettes serve as hiding places for other substances. They say the s-word twice, along with "a‑‑," "h‑‑‑" and "d‑‑n." Jesus' name is abused once, and there are a couple of misuses of God's name as well.
"Box Cutter"
Jesse and Walt's underworld employer, Gus, kills a henchman with a box cutter. He slices through the man's jugular and blood spurts from the wound like a fountain as he struggles, spattering everyone in the room. When he finally bleeds out on the lab floor (the scene lingers and lingers), Gus calmly orders Jesse and Walt back to work. And so they mop up the blood and dispose of the body by way of an acid bath. Viewers hear the chemical hiss and see it smoke … and witness the gory, pinkish aftermath.
A corpse is on display with a bullet wound underneath the eye and blood pooled beneath the head. A partly paralyzed character must, with the help of his wife, use a bedpan to defecate. (From the side we see the two pull down his pants and position the pan.) A secretary shows a great deal of cleavage. Walt's estranged wife lies to a locksmith to get access to Walt's condo. The s-word is uttered five times, joined by several other profanities and abuses of Jesus' name.
Like the statue referenced in the episode's title, Walt's world begins to crumble. For eight seasons, the former science teacher has been "breaking bad." Now all that badness is breaking him. Hank, Walt's DEA brother-in-law, is gunned down in the desert, despite Walt begging and bargaining for his life. Walt Jr. learns the awful truth about his father. Walt begs his son and Skyler to run away with him and his $11 million, but they say no and throw him out of the house—Skyler slashing Walt's hand through with a knife for emphasis.
"What the h‑‑‑ is wrong with you?!" Walt shouts at both of them. "We're a family!" He abducts Holly and runs, but then makes one bitter, brave call to Skyler (his profanity-laced tirade against her is designed to convince the police listening in that everything's totally his fault) and drops the little girl off at a fire station.
Hank is shot and killed. His partner's bloody body lies nearby. Both are buried in shallow graves. Jesse is beaten half to death. (We see the man's terrified reaction as one of his tormentors comes to get him, and see his brutalized face covered in cuts and bruises.) Characters smoke. Walt cooks meth in his underwear. We hear one f-word (bleeped), four s-words (unbleeped) and a host of other swear words, including "d‑‑k," "p‑‑‑," "h‑‑‑," "a‑‑," "d‑‑n" and "b‑‑ch." Jesus' name is abused five or six times; God's name gets the same treatment at least twice.
Readability Age Range
Drama, Crime
Bryan Cranston as Walter H. White; Anna Gunn as Skyler White; Aaron Paul as Jesse Pinkman; Dean Norris as Hank Schrader; Betsy Brandt as Marie Schrader; RJ Mitte as Walter White Jr.; Bob Odenkirk as Saul Goodman; Jonathan Banks as Mike
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Year Published
Paul Asay Paul Asay


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Blood and Guts on Capitol Hill
This week on Capitol Hill, the Physicians Committee, a former military doctor, and Georgia Rep. Hank Johnson led a demonstration showcasing the latest groundbreaking military trauma training. Human-based simulators—featuring lifelike skin, anatomically correct organs, breakable bones, and realistic blood flow—are designed to create an accurate and realistic experience, something that an anesthetized pig and or goat simply cannot.
The Cut Suit, worn by an actor, recreates the emotional stressors of a combat experience providing real-time feedback. Seeing a soldier on the ground, writhing in pain and calling out for help, illustrates the difference between working on a "conscious casualty" and an anesthetized animal.
Video of the Cut Suit in Action
The scenarios were so realistic that at least two people stood and left the room during the demonstration. Afterward, congressional staffers got up close and personal with the simulators, even participating in several "surgical procedures."
Better training for our soldiers means more lives saved on the field. As these extremely advanced training methods continue to gain congressional support, they will replace animal methods—to everyone's benefit.


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RRMC agrees to run methadone clinicBy Brent Curtis
STAFF WRITER | April 02,2013Rutland Regional Medical Center has agreed to run a new methadone clinic slated to open in the citys Howe Center.
The hospitals board of directors voted last week to move forward with a state Department of Health plan to open a drug treatment center that police and health officials say is needed to treat heroin and prescription painkiller addictions.
This is obviously good. The hospital stepped up and thats good, Rutland Police Chief James Baker said.
Baker, city officials and members of the citys legislative delegation voiced frustrations during the winter over setbacks in the clinics development that pushed its opening date from Oct. 1, 2012, to a year from that date and maybe longer.
RRMC spokeswoman Priscilla Latkin said Monday that Oct. 1 remains the hospitals target date.
While that date is later than hoped for, Baker and other officials said Monday they were just pleased to hear that the project is moving forward after an earlier plan for Rutland Mental Health Services to run the facility fell apart.
RMHS officials canceled their plans after the organization reached a financial impasse with the state.
Dan Quinn, CEO of RMHS, said last year the states plan of serving no fewer than 400 patients in the clinics first year would have cost his organization as much as $300,000 in uncovered expenses during the first two years of operations.
Under the new plan worked out with the hospital, the facility will open with enough staff to handle 400 people a year but will probably not come close to that number of patients during the first 12 months of operation, according to Deputy Health Commissioner Barbara Cimaglio.
Based on our plan we would start with 400 folks but we know theres not going to be that many, Cimaglio said. The start up is going to be a gradual process. Were not opening the doors with a fixed number of people.
Theres also no limit to how many people the clinic could serve in the future so long as they are residents of Rutland or Bennington counties the only two counties in the state unserved by existing methadone clinics.
How many people are travelling to Hanover, N.H., where the nearest methadone clinic is located is unclear.
But she said for every person not travelling long distances daily for medication needed to control their addictions to heroin and other opiate drugs there exists an opportunity.
When people can receive treatment locally they can get jobs and be productive citizens, she said.
email@example.com IN Local & StateRecovery takes time, patience and a desire to change. Full StoryMayor Louras wants the city to have a better idea on what to pay its department heads. Full StoryThe Rutland Town Select Board plans to appoint a new member next week who will serve until a... Full Story
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Banks Are Too Big to Fail Say ... Conservatives?
Members of the Federal Reserve don't usually make the rounds at partisan gatherings. But amid the tri-cornered hats and "#StandWithRand" buttons of last week's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC)—the largest annual gathering of conservatives in the country—was Richard Fisher, president of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank. In a Saturday morning speech, Fisher quoted Revolutionary War hero Patrick Henry, who once said that while "Different men often see the same subject in different lights," such quibbling had to be set aside in a time of "awful moment to this country."
Fisher described the current time as an era of economic injustice in which the nation's largest banks threaten our financial stability and act with immunity. He said that the Dodd-Frank financial reform law did not go nearly far enough to fix the problem, and that mega-banks still profited from being "Too Big to Fail." His solutions included a proposal to limit the total assets held by the biggest financial institutions, keeping them at a size that would make them "small enough to save." And he called on citizens of all political stripes to join him in this cause. "The American people will be grateful to whoever liberates them from a recurrence of taxpayer bailouts," Fisher concluded. It was an indication of just how bipartisan the support for breaking up the big banks has become.
It may be surprising that conservatives—whose party just ran a private-equity tycoon for president—would be clamoring for Wall Street banks to be cut down to size. But over the last few years, conservative intellectuals—from economists and central bankers to think-tankers and high-profile pundits—have come to the conclusion that the largest institutions remain Too Big to Fail and that, in ways big and small, receive unfair financial advantages over their smaller rivals. This sort of sentiment on the right is of course not new; the Tea Party was propelled by anger against bailouts. But what is new is the rare alignment of the ivory tower and the grassroots. What's more, these forces have penetrated the Beltway: Senate Democrats and Republicans are actively discussing legislation that would cap the size of banks, impose higher capital requirements, and separate commercial bank functions—taking deposits and making loans—from investment activities. With all the current gridlock in Congress, breaking up the banks may actually represent a rare moment of agreement between the right and left.
The roots of this emerging consensus starts with the 2008 financial crisis, whose subsequent $700 billion bailout of Wall Street's major financial institutions touched off frustration and anger across the political spectrum. Fueled by a deep skepticism of elites, the grass roots on both the right and left—the Tea Party, Occupy Wall Street—railed against the spectacle of taxpayer dollars handed to irresponsible institutions that caused the Great Recession.
The Tea Party's critique and the conservative academic diagnosis serve as a kind of a funhouse-mirror version of the way liberals talk about these issues. Rather than assailing corporate malfeasance, conservatives talk about government overreach. Fundamentally, what drives opposition to banks on the right is the sense that government has rigged the game to "pick winners and losers" by delivering giant subsidies to the nation's biggest banks and, after they get so big their collapse threatens the entire financial system, bailing them out when they run into trouble. "I've talked about this issue in more town hall meetings than maybe any Republican. There's been a serious erosion of trust in our institutions of power," former Utah Governor and presidential candidate Jon Huntsman said at a panel discussion in Washington earlier this month, "and that's directly tied to this whole subsidy issue." The theory is simple: If investors believe a mega-bank will get bailed out if it gets into trouble, without any losses forced on creditors, they have more confidence in lending to them than their smaller rivals, giving them a competitive advantage and incentivizing them to grow large.
You can quantify the subsidy by calculating the cost of funding for the biggest banks relative to community or regional banks. A recent study by the International Monetary Fund showed that mega-banks borrow about 0.8 percent more cheaply than their smaller rivals. According to a Bloomberg analysis of the findings, this amounts to a taxpayer subsidy of $83 billion a year, equalling virtually all of the annual profits enjoyed by the largest banks. Some have quibbled with the $83 billion number, but nobody but the banking industry doubts the reality of the subsidy; in fact, some put the number higher. Fisher noted in his CPAC speech that this creates an unlevel playing field for the biggest banks, who are favored by creditors. "Why should a prospective purchaser of bank debt practice due diligence if, in the end ... it is widely perceived that the issuing institution will not be allowed to fail?"
It's hard to argue with the evidence as to bank size. The nation's six top banks, which held assets equaling 18 percent of GDP in 1995, have now ballooned to 63 percent of GDP. And since the 2008 financial crisis, the banks that caused it have grown in size by between 20-25 percent thanks to a series of hastily arranged mergers and government-run, emergency-lending vehicles that nursed them back to profitability. Conservative Thomas Hoenig, whom Republicans nominated as vice chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), has measured U.S. mega-banks using the same accounting standard used in Europe, which places the full risk of derivatives trades on the balance sheet. Under this standard, three U.S. banks—Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, and Citi—are the three largest banks in the world.
This gives these mega-banks such a dominant position in the economy that they are virtually guaranteed to receive a bailout rather than be allowed to fail. "Big banks have too much power. In the middle of a crisis, no official wants to be the one who failed to save the financial system," argues conservative Arnold Kling of George Mason University, who has been out front on the need to break up mega-banks.
In addition, the availability of cheap debt allows mega-banks to finance their operations through borrowing instead of equity. Hoenig's apples-to-apples balance-sheet comparison of the U.S. mega-banks shows that they have an average capital ratio of 3.68 percent; for every $100 a mega-bank lends out, it borrows $97 and holds only $3 in stock or cash reserves. "That means that a 3.7 percent drop in the value of assets would cause the banks to be insolvent," said Neil Barofsky, former Special Inspector General of the TARP bailout program.
So not only does power get concentrated in the hands of a few financial firms, but those firms are encouraged by the implicit subsidies to take on outsized risks, and are assured of a bailout if things go awry. "If you're an institution and you think you can have a lot of leverage and put it on the government if it goes bad, you're going to have a lot of risk," explains Sheila Bair, a Republican and former chair of the FDIC. Conservatives say this scheme undermines economic freedom and makes it impossible for the market to function properly to reward prudence and discipline recklessness. "By breaking up the biggest banks, conservatives will not be putting asunder what the free market has joined together," argued conservative pundit George Will in a recent column. "Government nurtured these behemoths by weaving an improvident safety net and by practicing crony capitalism."
It is not just pundits who see the problem: The list of conservative economists who share this view is quite comprehensive, from Nobel Prize winner Ed Prescott and Glenn Hubbard to the late Milton Friedman co-author Anna Schwartz, and Luigi Zingales. They agree on both the nature of the problem, and that technocratic regulatory fixes like Dodd-Frank will not solve the problem. Classical Chicago School economists like George Stigler argued that interest groups would dominate regulatory agencies and use them to advance their commercial interests, a theory known as "regulatory capture." Regulators are both outgunned and simply confused by the stunning complexity of mega-bank activities. And law enforcement has been intimidated into letting banks off the hook for a seemingly unending series of criminal scandals. Attorney General Eric Holder recently admitted in Congressional testimony that the size of the largest banks has a material effect on this no-prosecution stance, telling senators that "if you do bring a criminal charge, it will have a negative impact on the national economy."
The problem on both the right and left has long been translating the fervor against the mega-banks into action. The Tea Party's sole prescription for solving Too Big to Fail was to simply let banks collapse. But conservative academics, despite their belief in regulatory capture, are more comfortable than the conservative grass roots with setting up simple rules that would eliminate subsidies, reduce bank size and end Too Big to Fail. "It's not possible to let all banks fail if it's a systemic issue," says Jim Pethokoukis of the American Enterprise Institute, who wrote one of the definitive conservative briefs for breaking up the banks in The Weekly Standard last year. "It's appropriate to counteract it through government policy, in trying to restore market forces and competition."
In favoring these policies, conservatives are re-connecting with their inner populist, defying the stereotype that Republicans support the banking establishment and abhor any regulation on industry. "If you are conservative you are skeptical of concentrated power," said former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal. "Republicans should go to the populist right on the issue of bank breakup."
The new surge of interest in ending Too Big to Fail on the right has converged with an existing effort on the left, and it's translating into legislative action. Sherrod Brown, the populist progressive senator who just won re-election in Ohio, has been discussing solutions to the mega-bank problem with up to ten Republican senators. Against all expectations, his main partner is David Vitter, a Republican and fellow member of the Senate Banking Committee. "I looked across the committee room one day, he was questioning [Treasury Secretary] Ben Bernanke," said Brown in an interview about his Republican colleague. "He was really tough on higher capital standards. I figured he could be an ally, he did have a concern that banks were too big, too economically powerful and too politically powerful."
The unlikely duo began working several months ago. They started by urging the Federal Reserve and other regulators to use their power to increase capital standards on the largest banks, which typically deal in riskier activities and therefore require more of a backstop. The idea of forcing banks to cover their own responsibilities has been bolstered by a recent book from economists Anat Admati and Martin Hellwig called The Bankers' New Clothes, which endorses stronger capital standards and has earned praise on the left and right. Bank capital rules, based on international standards and modified by national regulators, are often impenetrable and easily gamed through fancy accounting; Brown and Vitter would like to see the rules simplified. "Wall Street banks—not Main Street taxpayers—should be on the hook for their own mistakes," Brown and Vitter wrote.
In January, Brown and Vitter unanimously passed legislation on the Senate floor requiring the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct a study to determine whether mega-banks enjoy borrowing subsidies from their Too Big to Fail status, the subsidy conservatives believe to be at the heart of the problem. While the House never took it up, GAO agreed to conduct the study. GAO's reputation as an authoritative source in Washington could change the political dynamic on the subsidy question. "We may see more support for dealing with this after the GAO study," says Jim Pethokoukis. "It could free up those supporting quietly to be more vocal."
At the end of February, Brown and Vitter announced they would work on legislation to incorporate much of the thinking about how to deal with runaway banks. Brown tried this once with an amendment to Dodd-Frank with Senator Ted Kaufman that would have capped mega-bank assets to a percentage of GDP. It received 33 votes in 2010, with only 3 Republicans supporting. Brown's discussions with colleagues leave him thinking Brown-Kaufman could get at least 50 votes today, and the bipartisan nature of the Brown-Vitter effort could mean that whatever results will have an even better chance at broad support. In a floor speech announcing their joint effort, Vitter said, "I don't know if we quite define the political spectrum of the United States Senate, but we come pretty darned close. And yet, we absolutely agree about this threat."
Vitter has a stated interest in tightening capital requirements, but Brown's ideas on capping bank size, will play a part in the legislative discussions as well. Brown and Vitter are looking at other options from across the political spectrum. For example, conservative Thomas Hoenig of the FDIC believes that the safety net for banks has grown too large, and should be confined to the commercial banking system. "Spin the higher-risk trading activities out to a different organization, so the safety net is not directly exposed to those institutions," Hoenig opines. Incredibly, this is now the position of former Citigroup head Sanford Weill, whose bank lobbied to eliminate the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act, which set up separations between commercial and investment banks. Jon Huntsman and Sheila Bair want to see a fee assessed on Too Big to Fail banks to cover the implicit subsidy from lower costs to funding in the market.
"We're working all of these ideas on separate tracks," Senator Brown said. He wants to build support across all these ideas: breaking up banks, ramping up capital standards, dealing with the implicit subsidy, and walling off commercial and investment activities. He believes that each advance helps the other, and that with such a entrenched problem, attacking on all angles is the most prudent strategy, increasing the odds that one reform actually might get through.
Despite the convergence of opinion between the grassroots, conservative thinkers, and lawmakers, the obstacles to reform are obvious. Financial institutions didn't grow to their current size without obtaining substantial political power. Wall Street showers lawmakers with contributions and lobbies against any restrictions on their activities in the legislative or regulatory sphere. More important, government officials constantly hear and internalize the industry perspective on financial issues, a "cognitive capture" that sidelines reform voices. "This town sings with an upper-class accent," quips Sherrod Brown.
This is a particular problem for conservatives wanting to change their party's dominant viewpoint, even if it would help minimize the perception that Republicans are the party of bankers and the one percent. "I interviewed Mitt Romney during the campaign and asked him about this," says Pethokoukis. "He was simply not aware of a problem with bank size. He just wasn't prepared to answer."
Complicating this further is the fundraising advantage Republicans gained from Wall Street in 2012, a reversal from 2008. Conservative Matthew Continetti writes of a double bind for Republicans. Policies that may be attractive to the public, like breaking up the banks, contrast directly with institutional funding sources for Republican campaigns. Already, a backlash to the populist surge against the banks is forming on the right; a consulting firm called Hamilton Place Strategies (made up of aides to the last three Republican Presidential nominees) released a paper last month arguing in favor of big banks' role in society.
But the academic conservative consensus has at least broken through the industry talking points and gotten traction on Capitol Hill. As a party, the GOP has recently been more responsive to its grassroots. That's the dynamic we saw during Rand Paul's recent 13-hour filibuster. Neoconservatives objected to Paul's more isolationist, civil-libertarian stance against targeted killing policies, but within hours, practically every Senate Republican enthusiastically endorsed Paul's filibuster—even Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Because Republicans fear their base, if the base clamors for a crackdown on Wall Street banks, the political dynamic could work in favor of the reformers, even if big-money contributors object.
This was evident in previous trans-partisan coalitions during the Dodd-Frank debate, particularly in the movement to audit the Federal Reserve, led by liberal firebrand Alan Grayson and libertarian Ron Paul. In one of the only truly bipartisan successes of the Obama era, Grayson-Paul passed both houses of Congress with overwhelming support. Grassroots activist intensity from both parties made the issue impossible for insiders to combat. With the consensus forming on the right, and newly elected Senator Elizabeth Warren providing high-profile advocacy against Too Big to Fail on the left, reformers on both sides could be able to muster a groundswell of support. "People are more educated about this, much more than five years ago," said Sherrod Brown. "I just saw the power of the Internet in my own campaign. We can do that again here."
Another major obstacle to the entire effort is a White House that believes they solved this problem with Dodd-Frank. That was the assessment of Treasury Secretary Jack Lew (a former Citigroup executive) in his confirmation hearing in February. Under Tim Geithner, the Treasury Department actively halted Brown-Kaufman (one anonymous Treasury official said it would have passed with their support). Overall, the Too Big to Fail issue ranks low on the administration's priority list, below immigration reform, gun safety, and the federal budget. Senator Brown has not yet held direct discussions with the White House on his legislation, and only a few with Treasury. "You need more leadership from the administration to make this happen," said Sheila Bair. "We didn't have much on Dodd-Frank."
Reformers of both parties agree that Dodd-Frank does not go far enough to deliver the changes needed to end Too Big to Fail and create a safer banking system, especially since only around a third of the rules under the law have even been implemented (banks successfully delayed many rules and gutted others as they worked through the labyrinthine rule-making process). "There has to be a broader attack," said Sherrod Brown.
Regardless of the outcome, the bipartisan movement to end Too Big to Fail has already paid dividends. Regulators who deal with mega-banks every day, who are typically quiet and cautious in their public pronouncements, have begun to identify the problem and challenge the industry. This directly results from the positive feedback loop generated by the reformers, believes Simon Johnson, former chief economist for the IMF. "The political atmosphere matters," he said. "Regulators are watching the political debate, and an insistent effort gives them great support to do the right thing." It also helps to have an issue where some conservatives actually want to get to a solution instead of reflexively blocking anything that deviates from the status quo. Because they view taking down big banks as a proxy for taking down Big Government, they favor government action to achieve the goal. And that creates opportunities for strange bedfellows and bottom-up alliances.
Even if the current legislative effort ends in failure, it could assemble evidence and refine solutions to be used when the mega-banks generate another crisis. "Ultimately this is an 'End of Days' plan, something you can take off the shelf for next time," says Neil Barofsky. Nobody wants to wait that long, and if both parties continue to work together, maybe they won't have to.
Thu, 2013-03-21 14:19
CITIBANK needs to "FAIL"!!! What they do to some of their customers is heinous! Take my mother for example, when she was 85-years-old, with documented Dementia, her "Trusted" banker booked her into a HELOC loan that she did not need! It was a $10,000 loan, for 30 years, with a 3 year prepayment penalty! The Banker was also the notary public on the loan!!! That's not legal! $4,500 of the loan went to pay Citibank off for an overdraft, to the tune of 26.25%! Although my name was also on the account, Citibank REFUSES to provide any documentation to support their claim that my mother was ever overdrawn in the first place! I think they all need to rot in prison!!!!!!!!!!!
Thu, 2013-03-21 15:36
So let's get this straight...The right has been arguing against Bank regulation for years now, so much so that Big Banks caused a global financial meltdown that lead to a Great Recession here in the US and an utter disaster in the housing market, and they are now speaking as if the idea of regulating the Big Bank is a brand new idea? Just last year during the election, the Right was screaming for the repeal of Dodd-Frank, and now they say it hasn't gone far enough? It's just amazing that people keep voting these idiots back into office when these same idiots with the same ideals were the ones who failed us. Vote Liberal or Conservative, but let's stop voting for extremists and career politicians!
Fri, 2013-03-22 15:36
The inventor of the game Monopoly made a very wise move in codifying the rules of the game. One player may act as Banker, but must keep Bank funds (which are theoretically unlimited) separate from his/her own funds, and all Bank-to-player transactions must be handled as if the Bank were NOT a player, with NO favoritism to the player who happens to be the BankER.
A market economy ought to act the same way, but in fact, the bankERs play for themselves with the BANK'S money all the time. In fact, the Banks themselves are players, since they pay and collect debts, try to make a profit, etc. Perhaps all banks should be nationalized, so that they could play their roles as financial referees impartially. Second choice, if not nationalized, regulated as they were under Glass-Stiegel.
delia ruhe
Fri, 2013-03-22 16:27
The public in greater numbers needs to get behind this, as there is no long any reason for Congress and the White House to keep dragging their feet. The Republicans need to do themselves a great huge favor and use this issue to demonstrate that they can respond to the concerns of their constituents instead of holding voters in contempt.
Given the amnesia of the American public, it's also important for people to continue to remind themselves of the details of the crisis that led to this moment, and they also need to make an effort to understand something about the banking system. I know that not even bankers understand completely the way in which many of the "innovative" financial instruments work, but it is possible to get an intelligent grasp of their general principles.
To that end, I would recommend that people surf over to PBS FRONTLINE and rewatch (or watch for the first time) "Money, Power, and Wall Street." I recently watched it for the third time and found it a great accompaniment to reading several useful books on the crash, regulator Shela Bair's book a particularly useful one. Since FRONTLINE appears to be showing so many reruns of previous shows these days, I hope they think about rerunning this 4-hour special.
Fri, 2013-03-22 17:31
Large-corporation capitalism—as contrasted with SBA corporate capitalism—needs A LOT of regulation. We have two many large-corporation mergers and two many acquisitions by large corporations of other large corporations that are in a completely different line of business. And CEO salaries, bonuses, stock options, and benefits being several hundreds of times those of ground-level employees is creating an ever-more-huge gap between the haves and the have nots—this is deadly for our American middle working classes.
Sat, 2013-03-23 12:37
"those firms are encouraged by the implicit subsidies to take on outsized risks"
Not quite. "those firms are encouraged by the implicit subsidies TO COMMIT ACCOUNTING CONTROL FRAUD." See the work of William R. Black. (Not sure that this comment technology accepts URLs, so Google "black ruat caelum"),
Black should certainly be appealing to conservatives, since after the S&L bubble, which was about 1/7 the size of the bubble that preceded the crash of 2008, he successfully prosecuted literally thousands of bank executives for accounting control frauds. Of course, this was back during the Reagan era [genuflects], when we still had the rule of law. So I thought Black was worth a mention.
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Home >
> 36 Clear Glass Ornament Balls 70mm - (6 boxes of 6)
Clear Ornaments
Clear Ready to Decorate 2-5/8in. wide Glass Ornaments.
These glass ornament balls are clear in color, come in a total of 36 ornaments(6 packages of 6), and are made with a quality sturdy glass. The opening measures about 5/8in. wide and comes with a light silver topper with string included. Since these glass ornaments are clear in color they are perfect for a variety of crafts and have and endless amount of uses for decorating with. These clear glass ornament balls are typically used for Christmas but can be used to celebrate any Holiday! From a spoooky mummy for Halloween to an adorable white Easter Bunny these glass ornaments are perfect for using when crafting with kids.
Here are a few links to some of our fun How-Tos using these ornaments.


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The Sports Network
DATE & TIME: Friday, Nov. 2, 9 p.m. (et)
FACTS & STATS: Site: Memorial Stadium (63,186) -- Berkeley, California.
Television: ESPN2. Home Record: Washington 4-1, California 2-3. Away Record:
Washington 0-3, California 1-3. Neutral Record: Washington 0-0, California
0-0. Conference Record: Washington 2-3, California 2-4. Series Record:
Washington leads, 48-39-4.
GAME NOTES: The roller-coaster ride that has been the Washington Huskies'
season continues this Friday night at Memorial Stadium, when the Huskies
battle the California Golden Bears in a Pac-12 matchup.
For the second time this season Washington downed a top-10 team last weekend
with a 20-17 win at home against then No. 7 Oregon State. The Huskies, who
also defeated a top-10 Stanford squad earlier this season, had taken down two
teams with that high of a ranking twice in a single season four times
previously, the last occurring in 2001. The Huskies are 4-1 at home this
season but have been sorely outplayed on the road with blowout losses to LSU
(41-3), Oregon (52-21) and Arizona (52-17).
California has had much more consistency in its season although that has come
in losing efforts rather than winning ones. After a 49-27 loss on the road to
Utah last weekend, the Golden Bears are just 3-6 overall this season and 2-4
in conference play. The team's conference record is better than only
Washington State in the North Division.
Washington leads this series by a 48-39-4 margin. The Huskies have won three
straight games in the series, including a 31-23 win at home last season. The
loss continues the struggles California head coach Jeff Tedford has had
against Washington. Tedford is 6-31 in his career against the Huskies.
After a stellar sophomore campaign, Keith Price has had his share of growing
pains. Price threw for 33 touchdowns last season but has only eight this
season to go along with nine interceptions. Price's numbers in passing yards
(1,530) and completion percentage (60.1) are also far behind the strong
numbers he posted last year when he threw for 3,063 yards and completed nearly
67 percent of his pass attempts. Price's struggles have really hurt a team
that ranks third to last in the conference in both total yards (322.3 ypg) and
scoring (20.6 ppg).
Price has relied heavily on passes to wide receiver Kasen Williams and his big
tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins. Williams has hauled in team-highs in
receptions (46), yards (503) and touchdowns (four), but is averaging only 62.8
yards per game. Seferian-Jenkins is just behind Williams at 59.8 yards per
game. Overall he has caught 40 passes for 478 yards and three touchdowns.
After those two, Bishop Sankey has been the third most productive receiver
with 18 receptions for 106 yards.
Sankey though has made much more contributions in the running game. He has
rushed for 666 yards and nice scores in taking over for Jesse Callier, who
was lost early in the season with a torn ACL. Sankey has been a more than
capable runner and one of the more consistent players on the offensive side of
the ball.
Defensively speaking Washington has been near the middle of the pack in the
Pac-12, allowing 386.4 yards and 28.0 points per game. The Huskies have been
very poor in terms of getting pressure on opposing quarterbacks with a
conference-low 11 sacks. Against Oregon State, the Huskies were a bit more
opportunistic than usually recording four interceptions.
Marcus Peters has been the most dangerous player in terms of pass protection
with a team-high in both interceptions (three) and passes defended (eight).
Sean Parker, John Timu and Justin Glenn are tied for the team lead in total
tackles with 45, while Shaq Thompson is right behind with 44 stops, including
a team-high 4.5 tackles for loss.
If there has been one consistent part of California's offense this season it
has been the play of wide receiver Keenan Allen. After catching five passes
for 61 yards last week against Utah, Allen now owns the career record at
California for receptions with 203. Allen has also caught a pass in 33
straight games, which is the longest streak in the Pac-12. Overall, Allen
has caught 61 passes for 737 yards and six touchdowns. Chris Harper is the
next most productive receiver with 29 receptions for 380 yards and a pair of
Throwing those passes to Allen this season has been the wildly inconsistent
Zach Maynard, who has completed a solid 61.8 percent of his passes for
2,039 yards and 12 scores, but has also been picked off nine times and has
looked less than comfortable in the pocket on many occasions.
California has been a team that relies more heavily on the run this season.
C.J. Anderson and Isi Sofele have each piled up some hefty rushing totals.
Anderson has a team-high 513 yards and four touchdowns. Sofele has had the
most carries on the team (109) and has racked up 477 yards. Brendan Bigelow
has added a level of explosiveness to the running game with his ability to
break off big runs. Bigelow has 343 yards this season on only 27 carries.
Against Utah he had a 57-yard rushing touchdown, which gives him three scoring
runs of at least 50 yards this season, the first time that has been
accomplished by a California running back since Jahvid Best in 2009.
The Golden Bears give up slightly more points per game (28.3) than Washington
and just over 30 more total yards a contest (416.7).
Five different players have reached at least 50 tackles this season for the
Golden Bears. Josh Hill (63) and Nick Forbes (63) are the two leaders, with
Steve Williams (56), Robert Mullins (50) and Michael Lowe (50) not far behind.
Marc Anthony hasn't reached 50 tackles, but is tied with Chris McCain for the
team lead in tackles for loss with 6.5. McCain is questionable for this game
with an ankle injury. Three different players have snagged three interceptions
with Williams, Lowe and Kameron Jackson all showing a nose for the ball.
Playing against the best teams in the conference has made for some impressive
wins and devastating losses for the Huskies this season. California is not one
of those premier teams but until Washington can prove that it can play well
somewhere other than CenturyLink Field it's tough to assume a win on
the road.
Sports Network Predicted Outcome: California 25, Washington 21


text:
Philadelphia Flyers (20-17-4) at Phoenix Coyotes (20-11-9), 8 p.m.
(SportsNetwork.com) - The Philadelphia Flyers aim to rebound from the first loss of their extended road trip on Saturday night as they visit the Phoenix Coyotes.
The Flyers had pushed their overall winning streak to four straight games by taking the first three of a six-game trek before falling in defeat to the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday.
Wayne Simmonds had a goal and Steve Mason made 29 saves in the 2-1 setback. It marked the first time in nine games the Flyers failed to score at least three goals.
Mason had a five-game win streak halted as the Flyers fell to 7-2-1 in their last 10.
"We could have done some better things as a team, but I thought we played pretty decent," said Simmonds, who has eight goals and four assists over his last eight games.
Playing without Matt Read due to an upper-body injury, Philadelphia lost fellow forward Michael Raffl during the first period with a concussion.
The Flyers wrap their road trip on Tuesday versus New Jersey, while the Coyotes have split the first two of a six-game homestand after getting blanked 2-0 by the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday.
Mike Smith allowed both power-play goals on 31 shots for the Coyotes, who had a six-game point streak halted (2-0-4). The loss marked the first time in seven games that Phoenix did not play past regulation.
"It was one of those games that was all about execution and we didn't execute like we needed to," Smith admitted after his club's first shutout loss of the season. "It cost us the game."
The game may have also cost Phoenix scoring defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who suffered an upper-body injury in the first period after he was hit from behind and into the glass by the Blue Jackets' Derek MacKenzie.
Ekman-Larsson is day-to-day, but Phoenix could get captain Shane Doan back in the lineup tonight. The forward has been cleared by doctors to play for the first time since Dec. 4 due to a bout of Rocky Mountain Fever.
Doan has 12 goals and 11 assists in 27 games this season.
Phoenix has won five of its past seven at home versus the Flyers and also notched a 2-1 win at Philadelphia back on Oct. 11. Ekman-Larsson had a go- ahead power-play goal in the second period, while Phoenix backup goaltender Thomas Greiss made 36 saves.
Smith could face the Flyers tonight and is 4-6-1 versus them with a 3.77 goals against average in 12 games (10 starts).
Mason was solid with 29 stops, but fell to 3-7-0 with a 3.13 GAA in 10 career starts versus the Coyotes.


text:
The concept of Wyrmberg and the line of succession of its lords seems very similar (parallel perhaps?) to the concept of Stormhold and the line of succession of the its lords from Neil Gaiman's novel, Stardust. Was this the result of some session at the pub where these two authors discussed the concept and then both set out to see who could write the better version? Or am I missing the mark here?
P.S. Apologies if this has been asked before, but I have not completed the book yet and am trying to avoid spoilers. That said, I wanted to get this question asked before life happened and it slipped out of my mind. Also, as a new member, I assume that I'm breaking some kind of rule, and I apologize. After this, I'll go look around for a FAQ.


text:
If you know the original version of the song, be prepared to get mildly weirded out.
Played in a minor key, "Nothing Else Matters" is a brooding 'us against the world' manifesto. "Nothing Else Majeur" is relentlessly cheerful. James Hetfield isn't a grizzled road dog but a giddy school boy joyously expressing how much he digs his chick.
Metallica's self-titled black album, where "Nothing Else Matters" first appeared, was a polarizing affair back in the day. The dedicated metal-heads who made Metallica a platinum-selling act despite a complete lack of media exposure were annoyed by the group's bid for mainstream success. Outside of the thrash underground, millions of fans were stoked by the Black Album's straight-ahead riffs and Hetfield's arena-god menace. Depending on musical taste, Metallica's self-titled disc was either the end of a great band or the beginning of a string of successful grunge albums.
"Nothing Else Majeur" makes that fan dichotomy even more pronounced, which is kinda hard to believe.
I don't understand the process of changing the key of a song, but no matter how it's done this is pretty wild. Even though I'm not a fan of "Matters", "Majeur" throws off listener expectations in a goofy yet satisfyingly mind-warping way. You've heard the song a million times, but throw in a key change and it goes from an old radio chestnut into something else entirely. It's kinda like taking a longer slightly more complicated ride home from work. You still arrive at your destination, but you can't just put your brain on auto-pilot to get there.


text:
Gear Care and Maintenance
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Posted 10 February 2012 - 23:21
Sierra Nevada Delivers Flight Test Vehicle Structure
One of NASA's industry partners, Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC), recently delivered the primary structure of its first Dream Chaser flight test vehicle to the company's facility in Louisville, Colo., where it will be assembled and integrated with secondary systems. This is one of 12 milestones to be completed under SNC's funded Space Act Agreement (SAA) with NASA's Commercial Crew Program (CCP).
"It's rewarding to see our partner's ideas and concepts come to fruition," said CCP Program Manager Ed Mango. "The company's delivery of its flight structure will allow them to make more strides toward launching NASA astronauts on American vehicles to the International Space Station."
The Dream Chaser flight test vehicle, a full-scale prototype of the company's planned winged spacecraft, will be used to carry out several remaining NASA Commercial Crew Development Round 2 (CCDev2) milestones, including a captive carry flight and the first free flight of the craft.
"SNC is proud to have met its schedule and cost targets in the delivery of our first flight structure as we continue to make preparations for our vehicle's first full-scale flight," said Mark Sirangelo, head of Sierra Nevada Space Systems. "The Dream Chaser Program is making great strides toward developing a safe and cost-effective space system that will provide our country with the capability to safely transport crew and critical cargo to and from the International Space Station."
The all-composite structure was designed by the SNC team and built in conjunction with SNC Dream Chaser team organizations AdamWorks of Centennial, Colo., Applied Composite Technology of Gunnison, Utah, and Scaled Composites of Mojave, Calif.
"Our team now includes more than a dozen heritage space companies and seven NASA centers whose combined strength has continued to allow us to exceed the program's expectations," said Jim Voss, SNC's vice president for Space Exploration. Voss is a former space shuttle astronaut and was a member of the second crew to live aboard the International Space Station.
Dream Chaser's CCDev2 flight tests will be conducted with the assistance of NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif., under a Reimbursable Space Act Agreement (RSAA). During the captive carry test, a Virgin Galactic White Knight 2 carrier aircraft will drop the Dream Chaser flight test vehicle to measure its performance. SNC flight operations will be managed by the program's Director of Flight Operations Steve Lindsey, who joined the Dream Chaser team in 2011. Lindsey is a veteran of five shuttle missions and was chief of NASA's Astronaut Office from 2008 until his retirement from the agency in 2011.
All of NASA's industry partners continue to meet their established milestones in developing commercial crew transportation capabilities that will ferry U.S. astronauts to and from the International Space Station reducing the amount of time America is without its own system.
Posted 23 March 2012 - 19:58
Posted 25 March 2012 - 12:23
Posted 19 April 2012 - 18:53
Posted 21 April 2012 - 13:39
Posted 26 April 2012 - 04:39
Sierra Nevada News & Press Releases
Sierra Nevada Corporation Completes Wind Tunnel Testing of The Dream Chaser Orbital Crew Vehicle at Texas A&M University
Sparks, NV – April 24, 2012 – Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) Space Systems has successfully completed wind tunnel testing of a scale model of the Dream Chaser® orbital crew vehicle in the Oran W. Nicks Low Speed Wind Tunnel at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. Aerodynamic data generated from this testing, coupled with data from computer simulations, will define the characteristics of the Dream Chaser® lifting body vehicle during the approach and landing phase of flight. This information will assist engineers in preparing for the Dream Chaser® vehicle's first free flight test scheduled for the third quarter of this year.
"The Dream Chaser® Program thanks the Texas A&M wind tunnel team for their support of this testing, which produced results that exceeded our expectations. As the only lifting body vehicle currently funded by NASA under the Commercial Crew Development Program, we are thankful for the opportunity to verify our computational data in such an advanced facility. This is an important step in preparing for the vehicle's first free flight," said Mark Sirangelo, Corporate Vice President of SNC's Space Systems.
"The Department of Aerospace Engineering has been privileged to work with high caliber engineers from Sierra Nevada Corporation Space Systems and to be part of the wind tunnel testing of the scale model of the Dream Chaser®," added Dr. Dimitris Lagoudas, head of the University's Department of Aerospace Engineering.
The Dream Chaser® team is proud to include several Texas A&M graduates. Dr. Merri Sanchez, Senior Director of Space Exploration Systems, and John Curry, Director of Systems Integration, Test, and Operations for the Dream Chaser® both attribute their success in advancing the field of human spaceflight to their experience as students at the University. "Texas A&M provided the foundation for us, as students, to excel in careers in aerospace engineering. We are proud to be working with the University on the Dream Chaser® Program, they are providing critical data that will inform the future of manned spaceflight," said Sanchez and Curry in a joint statement.
For more information on the Dream Chaser® Space System, please visit: http://www.SNCSpace.com
Posted 28 April 2012 - 13:46
Sparks, NV – April 26, 2012 – Sierra Nevada Corporation's (SNC) Space Systems has signed several Space Act Agreements (SAA) with NASA's Johnson Space Center dating back to May 2011 to assist in both the technical development of, and operations support for, the Dream Chaser® Space System. SNC has received funding awards from NASA in both rounds of the Commercial Crew Development Program and has chosen to re-invest capital back into the space agency through SAAs with individual Centers, including Houston's Johnson Space Center, to leverage NASA's experience and expertise in human spaceflight.
Johnson Space Center's Engineering and Mission Operations Directorates are currently receiving funding from SNC. These agreements include work in a variety of areas such as thermal protection and the use of the Christopher C. Kraft, Jr. Mission Control Center. Additional SAAs are being developed with several other Directorates within the Center.
"Thanks to the work of those at Johnson Space Center, America was able to put men on the moon and the International Space Station into orbit. As the Dream Chaser® Program develops a vehicle to backfill the capabilities of the Space Shuttle, it will not be without a significant contribution from the experts at Johnson Space Center," explained Mark Sirangelo, Corporate Vice President of SNC's Space Systems.
Several SNC executives will visit the Houston area to participate in the Rotary National Award for Space Achievement (RNASA), where Sirangelo will be the keynote speaker for the prestigious event. "We are investing in Houston. In 2011, SNC opened its Houston office and continues to create dynamic partnerships with the area's diverse aerospace industry, including the expansion of our investment in the Johnson Space Center," said Sirangelo.
Posted 29 May 2012 - 20:37
Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser spacecraft tested at Broomfield airport
Sierra Nevada Corp. today launched initial flight tests for the Dream Chaser, a spacecraft meant to transport crew and supplies to the International Space Station.
The tests took place this morning at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport in Broomfield, according to a news release from the company. Sierra Nevada is a private space technology company, which includes a branch in Louisville. The craft could be seen haning by a tether from a large helicopter.
The Dream Chaser Program is meant is to provide spaceflight capability by transporting up to seven crew members and cargo to and from the International Space Station, according to Sierra Nevada's Web site. The craft would be fully reusable.
Rocky Mountain Metro Airport director Kenny Maenpa said the full-scale flight test was conducted by tethering the Dream Chaser to a heavy-lift helicopter. The test was meant to check the craft's aerodynamic performance, he said.
The test is just one step in the Dream Chaser's development. The airport was chosen for the initial test, because of its nearness to Sierra Nevada's Louisville location, but there will not be further tests at the Rocky Mountain Airport site, Maenpa said."We're pleased and happy to make our land available for the test," he said.
Maenpa said the airport hopes to provide facilities for further commercial spaceflight projects.
"The governor has been supportive of this type of activity and dedicating Colorado as a place to go into the commercial space transport business," he said.


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Will this work with iPad 4th gen via lightning to USB cable?
I know that it will work with the 30 pin adapter, but will it connect to the iPad 4th generation model with the Lightning to USB adapter cable via the USB printer cable (the cable you would use to connect to a computer)?
- Asked by Anthony T from Broomall
Line 6 Mobile Keys 25 Controller
Product No Longer Available
2 Answers from the Community
No, but it will be able to use the 30-pin to Lightning adapters you mentioned. The keyboard comes with a cable that plugs into the 30-pin connection, but the Lightning to 30-pin adapter works great with the newer devices. It wouldn't connect via the USB cable, since the keyboard also has a cable with a male USB connection, made to plug into devices (like a Mac, for instance) that have a female USB port. The keyboard itself doesn't have a female USB port where the Lightning to USB cable would plug in.
- Answered by Janna P from Clackamas
Any piano with midi should work you just need GarageBand it is free
- Answered by Kevin Z from Union


text: If you have information of suspected fraudulent insurance information, the division website provides the information necessary to commence an investigation. You may call (907) 269-7900 or 1-800-INSURAK (1-800-467-8725) to speak with an investigator. You are asked to provide a detailed letter explaining the situation and why you believe that the person(s) may have presented to an insurer a written or oral statement in support of a claim for payment or other benefit under an insurance policy, knowing that the statement contains false, incomplete, or misleading information concerning a matter material to the claim. The corroborating documentation requested included: The name, address, and telephone number of any suspects or witnesses; color copy of any photos or video concerning the matter; and the name of the insurance company, if known.