text:
posted this on December 3, 2012, 12:18 PM
Most content on Ustream plays automatically. You should be able to view live streams and recorded videos without installing any additional software or doing anything special. If you are experiencing any issues watching content on Ustream, please read the problems and solutions below.
Many streams are now available in multiple bitrates. Ustream Pro Broadcasting accounts allow for multiple bitrate broadcasting. If you are watching on mobile the bitrate will adjust automatically. If you are watching on a laptop / desktop computer, you can manually adjust the bitrate you are watching.
We recommend viewing Ustream on an up-to-date version of Firefox or Chrome. Go here to get the latest version of Firefox or Chrome. One benefit of Chrome is that it already has Adobe Flash installed by default. If you need to use Internet Explorer and are having issues there are further Internet Explorer specific troubleshooting steps here.
Do not watch (monitor) the stream from the same machine you are streaming from
Go here and follow the steps outlined on that page to make sure that you have an up to date version of Adobe Flash Player installed. Do this on the same computer and browser that you are trying to watch Ustream on.
You can only watch a live stream if you have a consistent internet connection. Shared wi-fi networks, like what you might find at a coffee shop, are often too unreliable to view a live stream without interruption. We recommend viewing on the best possible connection you can find.
You can run a speedtest here to determine your download speed. It can be helpful to run the test several times to see if you are getting consistent download speeds.
When possible, plugging in via an ethernet cable can help you avoid the possibility of an inconsistent wireless connection.
A possible cause of choppiness or pausing playback is insufficient CPU resources on the broadcaster or the viewer side. Older computer's graphics cards may have a difficult time encoding and decoding live and recorded video. We recommend shutting down all other applications and browser tabs / windows while broadcasting and viewing if you are experiencing playback problems.
Watching content on Ustream can be fairly CPU intensive, especially the HD content. It is best to have a dual core system that is less than two years old that has a discrete (non-integrated) graphics card. Intel Core i3, i5 or i7 CPUs or the AMD equivalent are preferred. Netbooks or low power systems should be avoided. You can check the CPU load in the Task Manager (Windows) or Activity Monitor (Mac OS).
Hardware acceleration means that your computer's graphics card is used to render the stream on your screen rather than decoding and rendering in software. The advantage is typically smoother playback, less battery drain and less overheating. In some cases, hardware acceleration does not function properly and the stream will go black or you will see a "stuttering" or "skipping" effect where everything is jittering. If you see this symptom or are seeing low frame rate playback, try enabling or disabling hardware acceleration using these steps:
Particularly if you are watching at a school or in a corporate environment, it is possible that a firewall or content filter is blocking Ustream content. If you see a black screen instead of the live video stream, this is one of the possible causes. If you have any ad-blockers installed, disable those in your browser. If you can talk to your network administrator or control it yourself, this article explains which ports need to be enabled to allow Ustream viewing and broadcasting through your firewall. If you are using a VPN, try disabling the VPN and viewing while not connected with a VPN.
Most streams on Ustream are available for viewing on iOS and Android devices.
Basic/ Free accounts have basic mobile compatibility and Ustream Pro Broadcasting accounts are automatically optimized for mobile.
On Free / Basic accounts, the first viewer who begins watching from a mobile device may have to wait up to 30 seconds for the stream to load. On Ustream Pro Broadcasting accounts, every viewer should be able to watch the mobile stream instantly.
The following tips are recommended for mobile viewing:


text:
Vinny Vinny at Festivals
Who are Vinny Vinny? 9th May 2006 | By Boogaloo J Vinny Vinny are the ace face in the UK Indie/soul movement. The fresh rediscovery of soul music as a young person's pursuit is spreading across the country like an oil slick wave of All-Nighter's. Evenings filled with High energy dancing sparked off by music which captures both melody and fast tempo grooves, is converting the mindset of audiences everywhere. Read more about Vinny Vinny on Last.fm.
Similar Artists
ce la d'or , La Cosa Nostra , E Conspectu , Anders and the band of volunteers , The Revisionists ,
Popular Tags
rock , classic rock , alternative , artistartist , under 2000 listeners ,
- Camden Crawl 2008 - 18 Apr 2008 (Unspecified Stage) Less...

subset: commoncrawl


text:
A proposed statewide tax on the new recreational marijuana trade would steer an estimated $27.5 million per year into a special fund that provides construction grants for public school facilities across Colorado.
In addition to a 10 percent tax on consumer sales to support state and local regulation of the industry, Proposition AA proposes a 15 percent excise tax on the wholesale end between suppliers and retailers.
The campaign group in favor of the proposal, Committee for Responsible Regulation, estimates the excise tax will generate $27.5 million annually for the state's Building Excellent Schools Today (BEST) program.
Up to $40 million per year in future taxes could go to public school construction under the proposal, which is before Colorado voters in the Nov. 5 mail ballot election.


text:
Download Options
Chairman Tom Wheeler
February 2014 Open Meeting
Statement on Closed CaptioningRe:
Closed Captioning of Video Programming, CG Docket No. 05-231; Telecommunications for the
Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Inc. Petition for Rulemaking, PRM11CG.
Today's item on Closed Captioning offers a great example of why what we do at the FCC matters
– how our work has a meaningful impact on the lives of the American people.
We've heard from 12-year-old Tai Jensen, who described how her ability to develop problem-
solving skills, talk with her friends, and even learn a new language is dependent on the quality of
captioning on television. Claude Stout spoke about how closed captioning impacts everything from
relating to his children to deciding whom to vote for. As Claude said in one of our meetings – "Closed
captioning is what allows deaf people to hear."
Their stories remind us that reliable and consistent access to news and information for deaf and
hard-of-hearing communities is a right.
Thank you to Tai and Claude for sharing your stories, and thank you to everyone who made
today's action possible.
Members of the deaf and hard-of-hearing community, alongside industry—NCTA, NAB, and
MPAA—stepped up to the plate to help craft a set of rules that moves us toward improving captioning
quality, while also assuring that vital news and other types of programming provide captioning.
This remains a work in progress. For example, I recognize that consumer groups are skeptical
about whether the enhanced Electronic Newsroom Transcript procedures will be sufficient. At the same
time, distributors and programmers are concerned about whether a single complaint might lead to
unreasonable fines. With this accord, however, both have said, "Let's give it a try." We will, of course,
revisit the path that we've forged here to adjust it as new information becomes available. We all share the
same goal: full and equal access to video programming for all Americans.
Almost all of us in the hearing world have benefited from advancements in audio technology.
Today, we extend the benefits of new technology and new standards to deaf and hard-of-hearing persons.
While this process is not complete, our actions today are a strong step in the right direction. I
applaud the leadership of NCTA, NAB, and MPAA and thank the Consumer and Governmental Affairs
Bureau and the staff of the Disability Rights Office for their superb work on this item. Together with
their colleagues in the Media Bureau, the Enforcement Bureau and the Office of the General Counsel, we
have advanced the ball in a significant way.
Ensuring universal access is a critical and enduring value of this Commission. I am excited and
hopeful for the future as we continue to take steps to advance this mission.
Note: We are currently transitioning our documents into web compatible formats for easier reading. We have done our best to supply this content to you in a presentable form, but there may be some formatting issues while we improve the technology. The original version of the document is available as a PDF, , or as plain text.


text:
We Talk Over Microsoft's Gamescom Press Conference
Become Premium to Watch
This re-release seems unnecessary at first glance, but the conclusion of Kratos' journey serves up a level of spectacle that remains impressive in 2015.
Her Story is a bold and largely successful experiment in interactive crime fiction.
Rocksteady's gorgeous-looking third Arkham game refines its open-world format a bit and lets you drive a whole hell of a lot of Batmobile.
Game »
consists of 3 releases.
Released Apr 27, 2007
Although spelled differently in a variety of games, Adamant is often associated with a metal used in RPGs. The word derives from "adama" which means "invincible" in Latin.
Beverages that cause the imbiber to become intoxicated.
A fruit that often provides score or acts as a healing item in games.
A kind of protective clothing.
A narrow projectile.
Beards are visible facial follicle growth, commonly associated with adult male homo sapiens. In video games, beards are commonly found in character customization systems (i.e. Rock Band) or when pirates are involved (i.e. the Monkey Island series).
Belts in games range from magical objects that confer special abilities to decorative adornments.
Some games have readable books. Come and quench your thirst for knowledge.
The bread and butter of any self respecting archer, the bow is a stereotypical ranged weapon of olden times and fantasy settings.
A bridge is something that quickens your journey by allowing you to go over an obstacle, like a river or gorge, instead of making you go through it. It is made of a variety of materials like wood or steel.
A delicious substance that makes even the most cold-hearted person cry out, "Yum!"
The convertible of westward expansion. These babies do it all; carry your belongings and family, provide shelter, ferry you across rivers, loose wheels, break axles, catch fire, attract unwanted attention form the locals...
Crates sometimes contain things!
A piece of jewelry worn by placing one in a piercing in the ear. Traditionally the ear lobe.
Facial hair consists of anything from a mustache to sideburns. Facial hair has been a close friend of gaming from the beginning.
Gas or wind passed through the rectum. Famous fartists include Gon and Wario.
Link uses one. You do it in Animal Crossing. Lakitu uses it in most Mario installments like Mario Kart and Super Mario 64. Loads of games use fishing rods! Reel in that carp!
Whether it's a regular piece of colored fabric or the high-tech keystone of a base's defenses, the flag is the most important asset a team can have and the most precious thing the opposing team can steal. It is also used for racing games.
Chicken fried in batter, and often seasoned. Usually used in games to recover health.
A valuable item that is highly sought after, often used as a reward or incentive to complete objectives. Also used as a currency in many role-playing games.
A stack of hay often found decorating the countryside. Needles are often lost in them.
Whether it's worn for protection or style, helmets appear in various game genres.
Letters are a form of written communication, which in recent times have been superseded by internet communications.
A magic staff is a large, thick stick or stick-shaped object usually with a medallion or amulet connected to the top. It is mostly used for its magical capabilities, but can also be wielded as a light melee weapon.
Small spike nail traps that are used to hurt and halt pursuers during a chase. Usually deployed in groups to cover wider areas.
A map is a drawing on a piece of paper,or other writable surface that indicates the place of some object,or the look of a part of Earth.
This is a fictional magical ring from J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy novels. It's the One Ring created by Sauron to have dominion over Middle-Earth.
A delicious pastry usually filled with various types of fruits or meats.
A tube or hollow cylinder for the conveyance of fluid, gas, and sometimes other materials.
An implement for smoking. The bowl is filled (usually with tobacco) and lit with a flame, then the smoke is inhaled through the mouthpiece.
This edit will also create new pages on Giant Bomb for:
Until you earn 1000 points all your submissions need to be vetted by other
Giant Bomb users. This process takes no more than a few hours and we'll
send you an email once approved.
Because you're new to wiki editing, we sent your
submission off to our moderators to check it over. Most
changes are approved within a few hours. We'll send an
email when it is.
Once you've earned over points you'll be able
to bypass this step and make live edits to our system.
Until then, gain points by continuing to edit pages.
No changes were submitted, nothing was done! Please make changes to the wiki!
Thanks for continuing to improve the site. Some of your changes are
now live. However, some of your changes were sent to moderation because you do not
have enough points to make those live edits. You need points to
live edit the changes you commited.
For the changes that went through, our robot math gave you points for this
Thanks for continuing to improve the site. Your changes are
now live. Our robot math gave you points for this
Use your keyboard!
Log in to comment


text:
Press Releases
Major Grant to Fund Nursing Program
Release Date: 7/6/2009
CONTACT: Sylvia Blair
Executive Assistant to the President
Carroll Community College
Carroll Community College Announces Major Grant to Fund Nursing Program
Westminster, Md., July 6, 2009-Carroll Community College has received a grant from the state of Maryland for $1,115,279 which will allow the nursing program to accept students in the spring semester, also known as a "spring start." Traditionally, new students have only been accepted in the fall semesters. As a result, more nursing students will be admitted to the program, increasing the annual number of graduates.
The Nurse Support Program II (NSPII) grant is from the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission (HSCRC) and the Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC). The college received notification of the award in May and the grant was effective on July 1, 2009.
"The goal of NSP II is to increase the number of bedside nurses in Maryland hospitals. NSP II focuses on expanding the capacity to educate nurses, and therefore, concentrate on the nursing educational system, including schools offering nursing programs and hospitals" according to the MHEC website. HSCRC has contracted with MHEC to administer NSPII.
College President Dr. Faye Pappalardo said, "The grant is an indicator of the high quality of instruction in our nursing program and it is a significant contributor to growing the number of students who enter the nursing profession."
" We are thrilled to be able to use grant funds to enable expansion of our nursing program," said Dr. James Ball, vice president of Academic and Student Affairs. "We are truly grateful for the NSPII grant as it will enable the college to gradually take on the full cost of program expansion. This is an unprecedented five-year funding opportunity."
"In spring, 2010, the college will be accepting 32 additional students into the nursing program," said Nursing Director Nancy Perry. "Every year thereafter, the college will accept 40 additional students."
The grant largely supports new faculty, for whom the hiring process is underway. Each year, the grant gradually phases out and the college assumes 20 percent of the cost so that by the sixth year after the initial grant, the college becomes wholly responsible for the costs of educating the additional nursing students, said Dean of Mathematics, Business, and Sciences Judy Coen.
While not every community college in the state offers a "spring start," many within geographic proximity to Carroll offer it. "In the past, some students from Carroll County have chosen to enroll at area community colleges, but now with our "spring start", we believe we can keep the best of Carroll County in the county," said Coen.
The first graduating class in 2005 was 19 students. The nursing program has grown to 56 graduates in 2009, according to Perry.
The grant will also fund half the cost of a high fidelity birth simulator mannequin, while the college Foundation will provide the remaining funds to purchase the mannequin.


text:
News, trends and ideas we're tracking today.
Posts filtered on Tag
Blaze burns popular Rosenberg-area roadhouse
A fire heavily damaged a popular bar in Fort Bend County late Tuesday night. The fire broke out about 10:40 p.m. at Trav's Roadhouse on FM 762 near Bridlewood in the Rosenberg area, said Barbara Smolik, spokeswoman for the Rosenberg Fire Department. Smolik said the flames were extinguished about 3:30 a.m. No injuries were reported. Portions […] [Read More]
Growing gorge worries neighbors in Fort Bend
The erosion has left a natural gas transmission line completely exposed, adding to residents' concerns about safety. [Read More]
Arrests of two men clear eight burglaries in Houston area
Two men have been arrested for allegedly breaking into eight different homes in the Houston area, officials said. Juliano Giannotti, 20, of Katy, and Leith Kalef, 21, of Richmond, were arrested by the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office in connection with several home burglaries in the Harris and Fort Bend counties, officials said. Giannotti was […] [Read More]
Masked men rob Richmond family in 2.5-hour home invasion
Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office detectives are investigating a Thursday night home invasion in Richmond in which two men attacked a family who had just returned home, KTRK-TV (Channel 13) is reporting. [Read More]
Richmond toddler accidentally shot with father's gun
A toddler in Richmond was hospitalized Wednesday after being accidentally shot with her father's gun, KPRC-TV (Channel 2) is reporting. [Read More]


text:
July 21 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Iraq as of 1700 GMT on Thursday.
* Denotes a new or updated item.
* KIRKUK - Gunmen in a speeding car killed a government employee in front of his house in northern Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.
NAJAF - Three children were wounded in the cemetary in Najaf -- 160 km (100 miles) south of Baghdad -- when a bomb left over from fighting in 2005 exploded as they examined it, said Major General Abdul Karim al-Mayahi, the police chief of the city.
KIRKUK - A roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi police patrol killed one civilian and wounded two others southwest of Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.
MOSUL - Gunman threw a hand grenade at an Iraqi army checkpoint in eastern Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, late on Wednesday, killing one soldier, police said.
(Compiled by Baghdad newsroom)


text:
By Rudi WilliamsAmerican Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Jan. 27, 2000 Max Cleland, 57, used to be a 6-foot-2, 215- pound athletic hunk of a guy whose youthful goal was "to be something great and to do something good with my life." An accidental grenade explosion in Vietnam 31 years ago changed his life forever, but not his mission.
A U.S. senator from Georgia today, Cleland points proudly to a life of public service accented by a career-long concern for veterans, the military and the handicapped. He often says he turned his physical and emotional scars into purpose in his life -- his "stars." His autobiography, "Strong at the Broken Places," borrows from Ernest Hemingway: "The world breaks everyone, and afterward many are strong at the broken places."
Cleland's life journey began in June 1967 when he arrived in Vietnam for duty as a captain in the 1st Air Cavalry Division. His unit helped lift the 76-day-long enemy siege on 5,000 Marines at Khe Sanh during the 1968 Tet Offensive. Cleland recalled being thankful to be alive and unhurt when his unit was relieved on April 5. But just three days later, and a month before he'd have rotated home, his luck ran out after he and his team had unloaded a helicopter.
As the aircraft lifted off, he saw a hand grenade on the ground. Thinking he'd dropped it, he reached to pick it up with his right hand. He never made it.
"As the story goes, the guy behind me was peppered with shrapnel, but he didn't lose any limbs," Cleland said. "He was crying and saying, 'It's my fault, my fault, my grenade, my grenade!'" Apparently the soldier had been told or scared into thinking that loosening the pins on his grenades would make them easier to pull out in combat. The pins normally come bent so they don't come loose accidentally.
"So one of his grenades with the loosened pins fell off his web gear and blew me up," said Cleland. "I've had a helluva time coming to terms with that.
"The explosion blew off my right arm and right leg instantly and mangled my left leg so badly it had to be amputated," he said. "I was lucky to survive because my windpipe was cut, front teeth were knocked out. I was a bloody mess lying there on the ground -- dying."
"I remember somebody cutting off my uniform and trying to tie a tourniquet and the screaming for a helicopter medevac," he said. He fought to stay conscious. "I figured if I lost consciousness, I wouldn't make it back. I'd lost a lot of blood. My legs were smoking. I'd been so close to the grenade that the flash burn had seared the flesh. That's probably why I didn't bleed to death right there."
When the medevac helicopter landed at an aid station, four or five doctors rushed to save his life. He would spend the next 18 months in Washington at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the Veterans Administration Hospital "trying to put it all back together."
Cleland said he started "fighting like hell" to survive while lying on the ground wounded in Vietnam. "Anybody who says they're not going to fight for survival is wrong because when it's your life at stake, you're going to fight for it," he said. "I was still fighting for my survival in the hospitals. I had to fight for dignity and fight for a chance to live an independent life. I just had to fight for a long time. Every little bit of progress seemed to take years to accomplish." It took 10 years before he was able to get an apartment of his own.
He's stopped having flashbacks, but hasn't yet shaken a nagging dream of being sent back to Vietnam for a fourth or fifth tour of duty. In his dreams, he never gets out of Vietnam, even though he has orders to go home.
"I guess that's a deep psychological sense of being in prison," said Cleland, who received the Silver Star for combat gallantry and Bronze Star for meritorious service. "That's why I don't want to go back to Vietnam. A lot of guys do, but I don't, because in many ways, I was never able to leave."
He was determined to survive and run for public office. He was elected to the Georgia State Senate in 1970 at age 28. He learned to drive with artificial limbs and bought a car that year. As the senate's youngest member and lone Vietnam veteran, Cleland wrote the state law that requires public facilities to be accessible to the elderly and handicapped.
In 1977, President Jimmy Carter, whom Cleland had met while in the state senate, appointed him to head the Veterans Administration, now the Department of Veterans Affairs. Cleland is the youngest person and first Vietnam veteran ever to head the agency.
Of those days, he said, he's particularly proud of his role in establishing a psychological counseling program called "Vets Center." Centers were created to help veterans deal with post-traumatic stress disorder and other problems related to their Vietnam experiences.
Back in the '70s, he recalled with a smile, it seemed Vietnam veterans wanted nothing to do with the VA or any other government agency -- so the centers were disguised as nongovernment facilities. Today, more than 200 centers across the nation openly help veterans deal with the stresses and strains of service in Vietnam, as well as the Persian Gulf War and Somalia, he said.
"The centers also deal with families and the counseling service is free," he noted. "That's what I'm most proud of. I was able to call some attention to the health care needs of Vietnam veterans, but especially the psychological needs of dealing with the trauma of war."
In 1982, Georgia voters elected Cleland their secretary of State, the youngest in Georgia history. They elected him to the U.S. Senate in 1996, succeeding Sam Nunn.
"I'm honored to be alive ... and to have made it back from war. I consider myself one of the lucky ones," he told attendees at POW/MIA Recognition Day ceremonies at Arlington (Va.) National Cemetery in September 1999. He mentioned he'd visited the Army Central Identification Laboratory in Honolulu in 1998 to see what was being done to identify missing U.S. servicemen.
"I think we're doing all we can, but it's never enough," he told his Arlington audience. "For those of us who were soldiers, one of our fears is that somehow we'll be forgotten. But let it be known far and wide that this nation does not forget. Does not forget its disabled veterans. Does not forget its POWs, and, for certain, does not forget its MIAs and families they represent."
The number of young people who shy from military service troubles Cleland, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. The military is probably the nation's most people-oriented and people-sensitive organization, he tells young people during speaking engagements.
"The military is the greatest team I've ever been on," Cleland said. "I've played on basketball teams, baseball teams, political teams, and the military is the greatest team effort I've ever been a part of. Everybody is a part of the team and everybody looks out for the members of the team. If you want to be part of a great team, and accomplish great work, seriously look to the military.
"I have the fullest respect for those in the military," Cleland concluded. "They're putting themselves in harm's way, and we owe them an incredible debt of gratitude."


text:
Aug 18 2009
Ga-Ga's Hands
I've always loved Ga-Ga's hand's. Her nails. Her petite, thin fingers. Her rings.
When I was a little girl, I used to curl up on Ga-Ga's lap, hold her hands and say, "Ga-Ga? When you die, will you leave me all your rings?"
I wasn't concerned with the material value. At least…at least I hope I wasn't. Yeah. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I wasn't. I just always connected Ga-Ga's rings to her fingers…which were connected to her hands…which always held and patted and hugged me and gave me baths in her kitchen sink (not after I graduated from high school, though. I had to grow up sometime.) Her hands fixed me sliced peaches in parfait glasses and squirted Reddi-Whip all over the top, and they turned the TV channel to Mary Tyler Moore and Bob Newhart. And they rubbed Vicks Vapor Rub on my neck and chest if I ever so much as cleared my throat.
And that's why I always wanted to make sure she planned to leave me her rings. Because then I'd always have a part of her with me. Because even as a little girl I knew I could never, ever imagine life without her.
So when Ga-Ga came over to my house Saturday afternoon and rested her beautiful hands on a chair in the kitchen, I made a point of capturing them with my camera.
"I love your hands, Ga-Ga," I said.
She looked at her hands and laughed quietly. "Do you know why my hands look like this?" she asked me.
"Arthur Itis?" I asked. It's the kind of joke only the daughter of an orthopedic surgeon appreciates.
"No," Ga-Ga answered. "It's because I've been down many a road in my life. And not all of them were paved."
Then I laughed. Then I hugged her.
I couldn't possibly love a person more.
774 Comments
Susan O. On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:33 pm
Thank you for this lovely story. She sounds like a gift from God.
Gale On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:34 pm
You have some amazing people in your life.
Janice in Chagrin Falls On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:34 pm
Beautiful, as always. You help all of us stop to look at the little things in life. Thank you!
sadie clifford On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:35 pm
miss my nana.
yvonne On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:35 pm
Hands of love and care for so many years. Beautiful hands. Soulful hands. My mom has hands that bear the scars of many years of hard work caring for and loving others. I love those legs. Thanks Ree for this post.
Amy On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:36 pm
That is so sweet! I also love my grandmothers hands. I would always hold them in church when we sat together and just marvel at all the things she must have done. Raising 7 kids and taking care of over 18 grandchildren. I hope one days my hands can be like hers!
Jennifer On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:37 pm
I wish I had a grandmother like her. It's wonderful that the two of you are so close. What a beautiful photograph, and story!
yvonne On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:37 pm
Oops…I mean, I love my mom's hands. Ga Ga's hands are like my mamas. That's what I meant to say.
Daddy Scratches On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:37 pm
You're very fortunate to still have a living grandparent. I'm envious!
Beautiful story.
Cristy On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:38 pm
I sure miss my Nana. Thanks for the sweet story.
Andrea On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:38 pm
divine hands, I love my Mum's hands – lovely post
Dee Thompson On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:38 pm
Beautiful post, Ree. When I was in grad school I wrote a poem about my grandmothers hands, and it's one of my favorites. Your camera captured the subject much better, however.
alexandra On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:39 pm
There's nothing quite like a grandmothes hands. Or a grandfathers. My grandma gave my dad my grandpas ring when he passed away.
ali On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:39 pm
There is nothing like the love of a mamaw or ga-ga. I understand completely about the rings…when my grandfather died I wanted his wedding ring. He never had one so my mamaw gave me her first wedding ring. The one she and my papaw eloped with. It is the thinnest band of white gold, engraved with their names and dated 1940. So I have worn it on my left hand for about 20 years, never taking it off. My mamaw is still with us (so thankfully) but daily I wear a piece of her and my papaws love. To her it was a simple elopement ring that was replaced years later, but to me it is the best piece of jewelry I own.
HomefrontSix On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:39 pm
Wonderful picture – makes me miss my Grama. She, too, had been down many an unpaved road. Thanks, Ree.
Melody On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:39 pm
you sure can tell a lot from a person by looking at their hands.
Mimi On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:39 pm
Cherish those hands and the wonderful memories.
Joy Davidson On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:41 pm
This is so beautiful!
Kim139J On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:41 pm
Thanks for sharing. Grandmas are the best! Mine is the same way with her rings! They are a part of her as if they'd always been there.
suzi On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:41 pm
OMG Ree..I cant believe you talked about this very subject!
A few years ago…I was turning 38..an age I rememeber my Mom being when I was young..so she asked what I wanted for my Bday…and I did just what you are talking about…I saw this plaster casting kit for hands..etc…so we held hands and made a casting of our hands together! I love it! you can see every nail..etc..in detail of her hands with mine togther…it remains my most precious possession! Can I email you a photo of it? tell me how
CA Food lovin' mommy On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:43 pm
Beautiful post. I love my grandma too (and her hands).
Two Barking Dogs On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:43 pm
Family memories are the best.
ALISON On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:43 pm
i love the hands of women! so telling. my grandmother had hands simular to GaGa's. when she passed last year i received a table that sat beside her couch. i was just about to restain the beautiful Henredon table when i noticed her favorite color of nail polish on the side. so, water rings and all…..I will never touch it! thanks for sharing.
bettepat On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:44 pm
I think Ga-Ga's hands are absolutely beautiful….thinkin' that photo needs to be framed in the lodge somewhere! Such a portrait of wisdom and endurance, grace and love.
Alishia On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:44 pm
Love it. There is something special about grandparents.
Texcin On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:45 pm
Oh dear Ree,
You got me to crying. Thinking about my dear grandmothers. Luckily I did get one of my grandmother's rings. I wear it proudly. And 1 day it will be my daughters.
StephLyFrench On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:46 pm
(wiping tear from eye) I love my Granny's hands so much. My heart aches thinking about the day when I will no longer be able to see them except for in my memories.
mary On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:47 pm
oh i love this. both of my grandmothers had beautiful, weathered hands, but i was much to young to capture them like this. and the rings. and her quote. so good.
Liz On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:47 pm
Beautiful post. Made me have a flash memory of my grandmother's hands…and reminded me of watching them as she cooked, and crochet….thinking of her raising my father…
Corndog On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:47 pm
You are so lucky to still have GaGa…
pati mk On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:48 pm
That's a nice story. I never got to meet any grandparents. I envy my older sisters when they talk about grandma and nana because I never got to know them. You are truly blessed to have your mom, mother-n-law and Ga-Ga. My mom died right before my first was born, 23 years ago and I miss her everyday.
imustcook On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:49 pm
Sweet story Ree. Such a beautiful picture and also your Ga Ga's words… so thought provoking. You should get her stories….My Grandma passed before I could get them but I was old enough to know I should. Makes me sad. Don't wait!
Please visit http://www.buckupforwoundedwarriors.com
Support our returning soldiers !!!!!!!
suzi On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:49 pm
me again..figured it out..sent you the photos..
Cailan Matthews On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:51 pm
So sweet. I felt the same way about my papa's hands. He was a pastor and a farmer, and his hands were strong, thick, weathered, perfectly comforting. My hands were never happier then when they were in his.
Theresa in Alberta On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:51 pm
Beautiful……best of all she is still with you.
Melody On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:53 pm
Thanks for sharing
sweepea On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:53 pm
this explains a lot… about YOU, ree… and lovely Ga-Ga knows it.
zalyndia On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:54 pm
love the picture. wish i'd have captured one like of my grandmother's hands. Have you ever heard the song "daddy's hands"? oldie but goodie. Have a blessed day.
Kylee On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:54 pm
Reminds me of my gram. Oh how I miss her.
Rebecca On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:55 pm
My husband's great aunt was 99 years old when she died this past Christmas. She was a fascinating woman. An artist, she used to sculpt and paint until her poor eyesight and her hands wouldn't let her anymore. She was a flamboyant woman who loved bright colors, so I used to bring all of my nail polishes and little nail kit over to her house ever week and paint her nails bright, cherry red. She didn't even know my name the last couple of years, but she knew why I was there. Every week she would hold out her hands to me and sigh and lament how gnarled and twisted they were. And every week I would kiss them and tell her they were beautiful. That they created beautiful things to bring pleasure to other people. She would always smile and she'd sit back and admire her nails and hands and say "They really ARE beautiful, aren't they?"
Kathleen@ForgingAhead On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:55 pm
Beautiful post.
Corinna On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:55 pm
My Ga-Ga is my 2yo son. His first sound was "ga" so my then 3yo started calling him Ga-Ga. Now we all call him that.
penny On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:56 pm
Beautiful story, beautiful hands….
Susan On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:57 pm
You love your Ga-Ga the way I loved my Mizzie. She had the softed skin. I would stroke her cheeks and the skin felt like loose silk while she'd pull my little springy white blonde curls with the softest touch. I'd just melt right to sleep in her lap. I miss my little Miz.
Lisa On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:58 pm
How lucky you are to still have your Grandmother. I miss my Gram's hands so much. When she held my hand I felt strength, comfort, tenderness and love. Most of all, love.
Kristie A On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:58 pm
awesome photo! makes me want to go hold my Mamaw's hands
Nancy1340 On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:58 pm
Hummmmm, Sounds like Ga-Ga may have had sum kinda fun in her younger days. Might even be havin' sum kinda fun now too.
Good for Ga-Ga.
And Ree, I like her hands too.
Tara Little On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:58 pm
Wow. Beautiful picture, beautiful post! Thanks for sharing!
Tracey On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:58 pm
What a coincidence that you should post this. I just found the lyrics to a song called 'Grandma's hands' today.
Great post.
Karol On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:58 pm
Not only did you capture a beautiful photograph of your Ga Ga's hands, you also captured her heart. We are so very fortunate to have Ga Ga's, Nana's, Grandma's, etc to pass their wisdom down to us. Every day we have with them, is a day we can all become more compassionate and aware of their importance in the long healthy life they deserve. God bless Ga Ga!!
W. Lee On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:59 pm
This is my favorite of all your pictures. Nothing is more is more beautiful than family. I miss my Mama every day.
golonghorns On Tuesday, August 18 at 9:59 pm
Just Beautiful!
Tiffany D. On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:01 pm
This was so touching! I have always loved my grandmother's hands too.
RebekahG On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:02 pm
This brought tears to my eyes. My grandma just turned 92 a few years ago. She suffers from alzheimers. I have always loved her hands too! I know how hard they have worked!
Janet On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:03 pm
You made my eyes tear up Ree. You are so blessed to still have a grandmother, I miss mine so, so much. My hands I think are the fastest things to age..but they work hard to take care of my family, and at times they remind me of my Mimi's hands, so I'm not complaining. Lovely post, thank you.
Kendal On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:03 pm
You've got me crying too…I lost my Grandma almost one year ago, and your relationship with your GaGa sounds exactly like the one I had with my Grandma. I loved her more than anyone. God bless you and GaGa, you are so lucky to still have her.
Frieda On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:03 pm
I LOVE this picture…both sets of my grandmothers passed away by the time I was six. I wish I had something of theirs to remember them by…
laura On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:04 pm
i love it when there is a comon bond in the univers.
my great grandmother Emma (my 13yr olds name) lived with her daughter my granny. i woiuld sit next to her and she had the most soft wrincled hands u have have felt. she had 2 small bands for her weding rings. one white gold adn one gold. i would ask her if i could have her rings when she died. she would say it was up to her daughters she had 6. i would go ok. then i would ask her about her husband i new he had died from getting struck by lighting while he was in the broom corn shed in Oklahoma back in the early 1900's. i asked her if these were her real wedding rings. she said no. her son and daughter in law bought them for her a while back. the son was she was pregnant with when her husband died. she said that she had lost her rings one year while planing the vegetable garden. she said she dug the whole thing up looking for them but could not find them.
so after she died at 101 she had been still living w/ my granny. and some time had passed and i was gettting married i ask my granny if i could have one the rings. i got the gold one. this is a true story. see the comon bond that binds us all together.
Tug On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:04 pm
Oh my I miss my grandma… She was a beutician, and besides her 'regular lady', I was the only one that could fix her hair. I dance with my grandkids like she did me – no abandon, wherever we are. My daughter rubs her daughter's back to get her to sleep…just like I did her. Just like my grandma did me. I hope my mom remembers I want Grandma's rings too.
Lovely story, thank you for bringing up happy memories.
Carole On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:05 pm
Totally understand – you're very lucky Ree that you still have your grandmother. I felt the same way about mine and I miss her terribly.
Monie On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:05 pm
I love the image…it says so much. Thank you for sharing your sweet Ga-Ga story. What a blessing.
jill2good On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:06 pm
My mother died 5 years ago in a car accident (in which my whole family was also involved). I don't remember much (due to the passage of time and fuzziness caused by my pain killers at the time). In spite of this, I will never forget my mother's hands that last day — what they looked like, how it felt to hold them. There must be something about hands. Thank you.
Bobosaur Wrangler On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:06 pm
I love your Ga Ga too, and I've never met her. I love hearing stories about her, she is such a loving, vibrant, kind spirit. I love my own Noni and was just thinking about her today, and all the wonderful stories she tells, especially the ones about how she met Papa. Thanks for sharing your stories. <3
M.J. Jacobsen On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:06 pm
I'm envious, I miss my gramma every day. Glad you have Ga-Ga and that you have special memories to carry with you!
Jennifer On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:07 pm
Beautiful! I recently took pictures of my grandma's hands too. Very special. I really need to go see her. Maybe I should try to go tomorrow! Thanks!
tammy On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:08 pm
How sweet! That photo and Ga-Ga's comments brought tears. What a wonderful lady, and I'm so glad you have her in your life. I still have my almost 96 y/o Gma too… and she's still living in her own home. Very blessed!
Mamadallama On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:09 pm
well, that really brought back memories. and tears to my eyes.
Andrea On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:09 pm
I also love my Granny's hands and did a simular photo to yours. (link above)
Beautiful article and photos!
Diane Carol On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:10 pm
Oh Ree….this is so wonderful. Thank you. I would love to tell you the story of my dear Grandma…..just before she passed, she wanted me to paint her nails. It was something I had always done for this wonderful woman. Here she was….in her hospital bed….I had driven 3 hours to see her…and all she wanted was for me to paint her nails. After a quick run to the store, I did exactly as she asked. She was always such a lovely and elegant woman…but one that also scrubbed floors, loved us grandkids, made many meals….you know, the BEST kind of Grandma. It was one of my most lovely of memories….and your photo brought it all back. Thanks Ree…you always seem to capture the best in everything. Di
terrie On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:10 pm
I'm a hand person, I always notice peoples hands, and wonder about their story, my dad always said his hands look like they wore out tw bodies!!!
Chelsea D. On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:11 pm
*sniff* Love the photo and love the story. Thanks for sharing.
Rachel On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:13 pm
So you're probably never going to read this since you have a gazillion comments, but I am a huge fan of your blog and I just finally read on here that you went to USC too!! No wonder why I like you! Flight On!
jennifer On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:13 pm
They are truly beautiful hands.
COchick On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:14 pm
What a great story and picture to go with it. I never knew my maternal grandmother and my paternal "Granma" passed away when I was 15. I too loved her hands and the rings on them–but assumed that they went to some of the older grand daughters. To my surprise 14 years later I received her her wedding band and engagement ring and wedding band as a wedding present from my father. One of the best gifts I have received in my 45 years of life. Thanks so much for putting those thoughts and memories in my head on what otherwise was a kind of yucky day.
tj On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:15 pm
…What a Godsend… *sigh*smile*
…Blessings… :o)
sara On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:17 pm
My grandmother, mother, and I have the exact same hands. We also wrinkle our noses the same way. Oh, and we have the same noses, too.
I miss my grandmother, but not too much because she's still here in about 2,000,000 ways. And grandma, if you're reading this, I dusted today. Really, I did.
Margaret On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:18 pm
That is just truly special. Thank you so much for sharing this!
Tracy On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:18 pm
You are very lucky she is still with you. I wish my grandmother was still here. She passed away one month before my daughter was born (over a decade ago). She loved me unconditionally and I miss her a lot.
Annika Grace Nelson On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:20 pm
What a beautiful post. I love that picture. I often look at hands, too, and think of the work those hands have done. Have you ever heard the song, "Rockin' Alone in an Old Rockin' Chair" – there is a part in the song that goes "Her hands were all callused and wrinkled and old, A life of hard work was the story they told, And I thought of angels when I saw her there, Rocking alone in an old rocking chair." Thanks for the beautiful image.
mary landis On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:20 pm
Lovely post, Ree. Redemption for posting a dog you have posted before when we all wanted to know how the deck that we designed looked for the party.Don't get me wrong, I am a big big big dog lover. But you asked for our help, and why not show us what you did with our ideas?
Trista On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:20 pm
Thank you for sharing the beautiful photo. My grandmother passed in April, and before she died, I was telling my aunt that I would love a photo of her hands. Well, I never got around to doing it. Let's just say this photo is touching and familiar to me for the same reasons as yours. Thanks for sharing.
Neas Nuttiness On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:22 pm
Oh Pioneer Woman – this was so sweet, it kinda made me teary eyed!
Mama Pontius On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:22 pm
Hands have always been one of the first thing I notice about a person. You can learn a lot from the stories a persons hand can tell.
Debbie Peterson On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:22 pm
i have lost both of my grandmothers…wish I had this picture.I loved them both dearly.
Gina On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:24 pm
The relationship between a grandmother & granddaughter is one to treasure. You're very fortunate (as I'm sure you know) to still have her in your life.
Jen DeHaven On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:24 pm
I have a grandma who is very special to me, too. What a precious post.
Julie at Elisharose On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:25 pm
We buried my Me-maw on my 17th birthday. I think I miss her more now than I did then.
Rosemary Clark On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:27 pm
don't you just love soft crinkly old hands of a person you love? My Oma's (Dutch for grandma) were like that.
Llama On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:28 pm
So very sweet. I never had grandparents so I enjoy hearing your memories.
Cindy C. On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:28 pm
Veronica S On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:28 pm
I think hands tell a most wonderful story of life. I too took photos of my mom's hands, my hands and daughters at different times in our lives.
Precious memories.
skye On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:28 pm
this post is the most inspirational of all of yours you have written. I love the photograph and the story melts my heart. You are truly blessed.
Devon On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:28 pm
Loved this post! I am 44 and will NEVER have plastic surgery… I love the human body as it ages.. there is so much beauty revealed through life!
Trixie On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:29 pm
I remember my grandmother's hands. One time when we were in the truck with grandpa, she was complaining about the berry stains and was embarrassed because we were going to her county extension meeting. I told her I loved her hands because they showed she was never lazy. I probably didn't phrase it the best since I was 10 at the time, but what I meant was her hands showed all the love she had poured into the family over the years.
beckie57 On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:30 pm
This is one of the most profound posts ever. And the picture? Absolutely priceless. I am speechless…Thank you for sharing this snippet of your life.
Julia On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:31 pm
<3 Coincidentially I've been writing a little piece about my mother's hands over the last few days. (It's meant as a little thank you for all the support she's giving me.) They're strong, capable, loving hands and just by seeing them you can tell alot about the person my mother is. So seeing you writing an entry about Ga-Ga's hands made me smile.
Meredith On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:31 pm
Oh that warmed my heart. And I needed that tonight!
the Provident Woman On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:31 pm
Those are beautiful hands!
Lisa pelosi On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:32 pm
Beautiful post Ree. They say the eyes are the windows into the soul, but the hands really tell the whole story. Made me miss my Grammy.
TX gal On Tuesday, August 18 at 10:32 pm
Beautiful story to go with Ga-Ga's beautiful hands. I remember watching my Gramma's hands and loving her so much. Now I look at my own hands and see hers. I've never liked my hands because they aren't slender and graceful….more square and big but if I have just a fraction of the love she had in her heart, I'll be blessed. I miss her so very much. Treasure your Ga-Ga. What a special picture.


text:
2015 Chevrolet Colorado & GMC Canyon teased
Goes into production sometime next year
General Motors has released the first teaser image of the 2015 Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon.
The picture doesn't reveal much but it does confirm the mid-size trucks will feature a prominent grille and a rounded hood.
GM didn't have much to say about the models but described them as "capable, versatile and fuel-efficient alternatives" to full-size trucks like the Ford F-150, Ram 1500 and the Chevrolet Silverado / GMC Sierra. The company also revealed they will go into production at the Wentzville, Missouri assembly plant in 2014.
Little else is known about the models, but they are expected to be heavily influenced by the Chevrolet / Holden Colorado that is already available in international markets. There's no word on what will power the US-spec models but GM North America President Mark Reuss previously said "This is going to be a new truck -- a new size of truck with a new set of powertrains."
Sneak Peek: New Chevrolet Colorado, GMC Canyon Pickups
ACME, Mich. – At the Center for Automotive Research Management Briefing Seminars today, General Motors Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Dan Ammann provided the first look at the next-generation Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon, designed to be capable, versatile and fuel-efficient alternatives to full-size pickups.
Colorado and Canyon will join the all-new 2014 Silverado and Sierra 1500s, and the upcoming Silverado and Sierra HDs, to give Chevrolet and GMC the industry's most comprehensive lineups of pickups, helping customers choose the right truck for their needs.
Production is scheduled to start in 2014 at GM's Wentzville, Mo., assembly center.


text:
Legal Information
All clubs must be up to speed with ASA Laws and Regulations, from child safeguarding to judical matters.
This section aims to keep clubs informed of the current Laws and Regulations of the ASA, including any published ASA judicial decisions made under the ASA Judicial Regulations.
ASA Judicial Procedures
In order to assist clubs with and provide more information on the ASA Judicial Procedures, the ASA Office of Judicial Administration has produced guidance documents on the ASA's Mediation and Arbitration Processes which can be accessed by clicking on the links below.
Click here to view the Mediation guidance
Click here to view the Arbitration guidance
Changes to ASA Judicial Regulations
Following approval by the September ASA Sport Governing Board the following changes have been made to ASA Judicial Regulations 79, 102, 103, 104, 106, 108, 109 and 161 which are available below and are effective as of 12:01am on the 1st November 2014. Both the document containing the changes, which are highlighted for clarity, together with a clean version are available below.
Click here to view a copy of the highlighted changes
Click here to view a copy of the changes
Changes to ASA Regulations
Following approval after the July meetings of the Group Board and Sport Governing Board, changes have been made to ASA Regulation 61.
The changes below are effective from 8th September 2014:
61 Council Chairman
61.1 The Chairman at all meetings of the Council shall be the Chairman of the Group Board if he is present. In his absence the Chairman of the Sport Governing Board will act as chairman of Council. If both are absent the meeting shall elect a chairman.
61.2 If the Chairman of Council has a conflict of interest on any agenda item an alternate chairman will be appointed for that agenda item using the order of precedence set out in Regulation 61.1.
61.3 The Chairman shall have :
61.3.1 unlimited authority upon every question of order and shall be, for the purpose of such meeting, the sole interpreter of the Laws and/or Regulations governing the Council;
61.3.2 the right to vote on every motion. In the event of an equality of votes, he shall have the casting vote.
Changes to ASA Technical Rules
Following approval at the March meeting of the Sport Governing Board the following changes have been made to the Technical Rules of Synchronised Swimming. The changes are effective from 1st May 2015.
Click here to view a copy of the highlighted changes
Click here to view a copy of the changes
Regulations for Disciplinary Actions in Water Polo Events Conducted under ASA Laws Regulations and Technical Rules
The ASA Board have approved changes to the regulations for Disciplinary Actions in Water Polo Events, which are available below and are effective from 1st September 2013.
Click here to view a copy with highlighted changes
Click here to view a clean version of the changes


text:
Watercolor done on the island of Montserrat. 121/8 x 16 1/8 arches 100 % cold pressed 140 lb
This is really good; the balance between the girl and the water works well although both are complicated. Jim
Quick question: How long did this take you to complete?
Yes, all I could do is watch the wave with her. It has movement/action. Very nicely done, an interesting painting.
Interesting work. Congrats!
Beautiful composition. It is a nice balance between the girl and the sea.
Thanks Jim.
I worked from a photo I had taken. I did it over 2 sessions, each about 2 hours I think.
Did the water and wave first. Almost gave up at one point.
© 2015 F+W All rights reserved.Use of this site signifies your agreement to the Terms and Privacy Policy, updated March 2007


text:
State should consider DC-10 aerial firefighting unit
You've reached your 4 FREE premium stories for this 30 day period*
Register for 4 more free articles.
Are you a subscriber and having trouble viewing stories?
You must be logged in to post a comment.
If you already have an account, login here: Login
New user? Register Now


text:
The Golden Bull Grand Cafe, located in Gaithersburg, Maryland, has been a popular Montgomery County landmark for over 30 years. We offer casual to fine dining, perfect for an intimate dinner or gathering of friends in a warm and inviting family atmosphere.
Enjoy our house specialties of succulent prime rib, steak and seafood, all prepared to order. Be sure to indulge in our famous salad bar, featuring more than 75 items.
Golden Bull offers the best in banquet facilities for private parties and events, accommodating 25 to 300 guests. Whether its a Wedding, Bar Mitzvah, Anniversary, Birthday or Corporate function, fine food and great service will exceed your expectations. Call today and speak with one of our event planners about your next party or event.
Get the Bull Crab only here at the Golden Bull. Checkout our video now to see what you're missing if you aren't getting the "Bull Crab" today!
Learn more about our Crab Blast crab cakes and order them for take-out.
Are you planning a garden wedding? Visit our sister location, The Inn at Brookeville Farms in Olney, MD.
Golden Bull Grand Cafe - 7 Dalamar Street, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20877
© 2010 - 2015 - Golden Bull Grand Cafe - All Rights Reserved


text:
Search the collections
Where is it from?
- A Issued By Melbourne, Australia
Similar items over time
Next Page
Rosette - Phar Lap Appeal, Museum Victoria, 1980 Reg. No: SH 860335
- Summary:
- This blue, white and red ribbon rosette was produced by Museum Victoria in 1980 to be sold to raise funds for a new display case for Phar Lap, as well as to establish an acquisition fund to buy Phar Lap related objects for the Museum's History Collection.
- Description:
- 2 Phar Lap rosettes in red, white and black. The central badge is in black and white with writing and a picture of a horse. Marked on back with black texta. Safety pin attached.
Rosette consisting of a round clear plastic disc which contains a card printed with black text and a drawing of a horse and jockey. Around the outside of the disc are three circles of pleated blue, white and red synthetic ribbon. At the bottom is attached three lengths of the same coloured ribbon. On the back is a metal pin.
- Acquisition Information:
- Donation from Friends of the Museum, 1986
|12.50 cm (Width), 21.00 cm (Length)
More information
|Tagged with:
|fundraising, horse racing, museum history, horses, sport, racing industry, making history - phar lap
|Themes this item is part of:
|Leisure Collection, Public Life & Institutions Collection, Phar Lap Collection
|Primary Classification:
|Secondary Classification:
|Marketing & Publicity
|Tertiary Classification:
|Printed on front of rosette: PHAR LAP APPEAL/National/Museum/of Victoria.
|Issued By:
|National Museum of Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 1980
|Date Used:
|Australia, 1980
This item is part of the following themes:
Similar items
Previous Page
| More


text:
Reverend Horton Heat Tickets
Reverend Horton Heat has been bringing their blend of country and punkabilly to audiences all over the world. Known for outlandish stage antics and gritty compositions, Reverend Horton Heat is the truest definition of angst and attitude. Touring on their newest record Revival, Reverend Horton Heat is bringing his rock show on the road and he won't be apologizing anytime soon.
Reverend Horton Heat Tour Dates and Schedule
Thursday, 8:00 PM
Birmingham, AL
Friday, 8:00 PM
Atlanta, GA
Sunday, 6:30 PM
Cleveland, OH
Friday, 8:00 PM
Lincoln, NE
Tuesday, 8:00 PM
Flagstaff, AZ
Thursday, 8:00 PM
Tempe, AZ


text:
Happy Thanksgiving Sale! Receive 25% off ALL Irish Girlie Knits Designs pattern and ebooks, from Nov. 28-Dec. 2, no coupon needed (just add pattern to cart to see sale price).
The pattern can be purchased as part of the Merrily Collection, which can be downloaded here.
Ding dong merrily on high….
Merrily merrily merrily merrily life is but a dream….
These socks define merrily. Easy, festive, lighthearted. With an easy-to-memorize 8 round repeat, these socks will merrily fly off the needles!
Instructions are written for a cuff-down sock. However, they can easily be modified to a toe-up pattern. Sizes are provided for either a fingering weight yarn or a sport/dk weight yarn. Chart is provided on the last page.
Sport weight size has a gauge of 28 sts = 4" over st st, using a suggested needle size of US 2.5 (3.00 mm). Sport size needs ~250 yards of sport weight yarn.


text:
Rocky Mountain Research Station Publications
RMRS Online Publication - Journal
Articles, External Publications, and Special Reports
A primer of nonresponse in the US Forest Inventory and Analysis program
Patterson, Paul L.; Coulston, John W.; Roesch, Francis A.; Westfall, James A.; Hill, Andrew D. 2012. A primer of nonresponse in the US Forest Inventory and Analysis program. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment. 184(3): 1423-1433.
Nonresponse caused by denied access and hazardous conditions are a concern for the USDA Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program, whose mission is to quantify status and trends in forest resources across the USA. Any appreciable amount of nonresponse can cause bias in FIA's estimates of population parameters. This paper will quantify the magnitude of nonresponse and describe the mechanisms that result in nonresponse, describe and qualitatively evaluate FIA's assumptions regarding nonresponse, provide a recommendation concerning plot replacement strategies, and identify appropriate strategies to pursue that minimize bias. The nonresponse rates ranged from 0% to 21% and differed by land owner group; with denied access to private land the leading cause of nonresponse. Current FIA estimators assume that nonresponse occurs at random. Although in most cases this assumption appears tenable, a qualitative assessment indicates a few situations where the assumption is not tenable. In the shortterm, we recommend that FIA use stratification schemes that make the missing at random assumption tenable. We recommend the examination of alternative estimation techniques that use appropriate weighting and auxiliary information to mitigate the effects of nonresponse. We recommend the replacement of nonresponse sample locations not be used.
Keywords: missing data, post-stratification, non-sampling error, replacement procedure, bias
About PDFs: For best results, do not open the PDF in your Web browser. Right-click on the PDF link to download the PDF file directly to your computer. Click here for more PDF help.
Download Article
PDF File Size: 440 K
Title: RMRS Other
Publications: A primer of nonresponse in the US Forest Inventory
and Analysis program
Electronic Publish Date: February 29, 2012
Last Update: February 29, 2012
RMRS Publications | Order a publication | Contact Us


text:
The End of the Vietnam Paradigm?
Since the triumphant end of the war against Iraq, the predictions of those who had opposed it have become the object of much merry ridicule. For example, the Washington Times greeted the American victory with a daily feature inducting various false prophets into the "Desert Storm Hall of Shame." The New Republic's Jacob Weisberg, in a similar exercise, wrote: "Never in the field of human conflict have so many been so wrong about so much, so publicly." And in the same jocular spirit, the Washington Post observed that "the hand-wringing of the doomsayers" now "all seem[s] farcically gloomy."
Though most of the people cited in these articles deserve the ridicule, the accompanying merriment tends to point in the wrong direction, as if the lesson were about the human propensity to folly or the hubris of experts. The true lesson here, however, concerns a certain world view which has dominated the Democratic party and much of our foreign-policy debate since Vietnam.
One part of that world view was an assessment of Communism. It taught that Communism was less evil or less dangerous than the postwar architects of America's "containment" policy had believed. To be sure, no one this side of Jesse Jackson or the Institute for Policy Studies believed that Communist regimes were actually beneficent, but a great many people discovered that Communists were nationalistic, intent on modernizing their countries, willing to take help where they could find it, and, although rigid or severe, not appreciably worse than whatever anti-Communist force happened to be arrayed against them. The people who had learned this lesson, said President Jimmy Carter, counting himself among them, had overcome the "inordinate fear of Communism."
All this new wisdom of the 1960's and 70's was washed down the drain by the revolutions of 1989. From Leipzig to Tiananmen Square to Managua, the people living under Communism delivered a single message, and, moreover, its gist was confirmed by Communist officials in Moscow and Budapest and even by a few in Hanoi. The message was that Communism was every bit the human catastrophe that the much reviled cold warriors had said it was—a living hell of oppression, repression, penury, and injustice. And we even learned from voices within the Kremlin itself that Soviet foreign policy had been just as predatory as the cold warriors had charged, and not merely a frightened, defensive response to our own threatening gestures, as some of the most assiduous teachers of "the lessons of Vietnam" had explained.
Yet even as this part of the Vietnam paradigm was being laid to rest, the argument was becoming moot, for the bitter truths about Communism were rediscovered only in the course of its collapse. There was, therefore, very little accounting. Now that Communism had lost its bite, it seemed churlish to dwell on the errors of those who had prematurely overcome their fear of Communism. Moreover, the doves could point out that the sudden implosion of the Soviet empire showed that it had been more fragile than the hawks ever imagined, although this did not quite counterbalance the fact that the implosion had come just when the United States was practicing policies toward the Soviet Union exactly the opposite of what the doves had recommended.
In any event, the collapse of this part of the Vietnam paradigm still left in question what would become of the other parts. These included the idea that the use of force had lost its utility. Even small countries, it seemed, could find the means to thwart large ones. This was held to be especially true for America because of the peculiar ineptness of our armed forces, which were hopelessly top-heavy and paralyzed by inter-service rivalry. And even in the unlikely event that America could employ force successfully, we would so alienate other people that the victory was bound to be pyrrhic. Further, economic power had become more important than military power, and the costs of arms and war made the whole undertaking almost inevitably self-defeating. This was compounded by the fact that military expenditures necessarily came at the expense of domestic "priorities," the neglect of which would weaken our society, rendering any foreign success hollow. America could avoid these pitfalls only if it were less interventionist and more tolerant of perspectives different from our own.
Iraq's invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1991 created the first international crisis since the fading of the cold war and the first test of the lingering hold of the Vietnam paradigm. In the first weeks after August 2, it seemed that the hold had been broken. Most politicians and commentators, including liberal Democrats, supported President Bush's decision to send troops to Saudi Arabia in response to the Iraqi invasion. But throughout the fall, opposition mounted steadily, especially within the liberal community in general and the Democratic party in particular, so that by January, when Congress voted on authorizing the use of force, all the old arguments of the last twenty years could be heard in full cry once again—and this time they were even being echoed, for one reason or another, by a number of cold-war hawks.
Thus—to begin with the issue of how long the war might last—Jimmy Carter's Secretary of State, Cyrus Vance, cautioned that "we might find ourselves alone in a hard and dirty war that could be won, but not quickly. . . ." Another former State Department official, George Ball, exhorted Americans to "frontally face the fact that a war will be anything but the quick and easy one its proponents suggest." And Mark Shields of the Washington Post reminded us that "faith in a short, decisive war remains the most persistent of human illusions."
In a like vein, Tom Wicker of the New York Times wrote: "It will not be a quick or bloodless operation, and it might not even be successful." Nine days after the fighting began, Wicker's colleague, Anthony Lewis, declared that "The war is going to be longer and uglier than most Americans at first believed." This seems to have been taken to heart by the editors of the trendy magazine Spy who, given the exigencies of lead-time, went to press with an April issue featuring a report that the war was dragging on and turning sour. "Were We Nuts?! A Tidy Five-Day Gulf War?" read their cover headline.
Spy's misplaced certitude reflected a widely shared contempt for the American military. So blunt, for example, did Tom Wicker find America's lance that he assumed it could be used only for bluffing—and not even for this, for who would believe the bluff? "The President . . . is trying to convince Saddam Hussein that he faces a choice between war and retreat," said Wicker. "The trouble with this strategy is that it relies on convincing the Iraqi leader of something inherently improbable."
For his part, Senator Bill Bradley (D., NJ) scoffed at the military utility of the additional troops sent to the Gulf in November, and asked: "Is inter-service rivalry once again driving military decisions?" Only one day into the air war, John Steinbruner of the Brookings Institution wrung his hands over the possibility that such inter-service rivalry would lead to an ill-considered pounding of Iraq. "We have to keep the army and marines on a short leash," he intoned, ". . . self-restraint looms as a larger problem than the Iraqi opposition."
For self-restraint to become our key problem after just one day of fighting might seem to suggest that our military had done at least something right in designing new weapons. Yet in the very same essay Steinbruner urged us not "to draw any final conclusions about high-tech warfare from our performance." Echoing this point two weeks into the war, former Senator Gary Hart debunked the emerging "myth . . . that 'high-quality' weapons have proved their superiority over 'low-quality' weapons." Only a few days earlier, Anthony Lewis had warned that bombing would prove no more effective than it had in Vietnam because "the Iraqis have had five months to go underground . . . perhaps as deep as the Vietnamese."
While others merely denigrated the abilities of the American military, Senator Daniel P. Moynihan (D., NY), whose conversion from hawk to dove had long preceded the Gulf crisis, took it upon himself to represent our military and political leaders as pathologically bellicose:
Suddenly our institutions are acting as if to say, "Oh my God, we missed World War III. Maybe we can have it now here. Not there but here." . . . That borders on the edge of the disturbed. Dr. Strangelove, where are you now that we need you?
In the run-up to the fighting there was also much confident forecasting of (in Anthony Lewis's words) "ghastly American casualties." Others were more specific. The syndicated columnist team of Evans and Novak—a surprising recruit to the ranks of the doves—revealed that "the Pentagon's private estimate" was "a minimum of 20,000 American casualties." Apparently the Defense Department could not keep its numbers straight because another inside-dope columnist, Jack Anderson, reported that "top-secret Pentagon estimates" anticipated "as many as 30,000 dead in 20 days." Newsweek more temperately expected 5,000 dead and 15,000 wounded in the first ten days. But Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D., MA) declared that "the 45,000 body bags the Pentagon has sent to the region are all the evidence we need of the high price in lives and blood we will have to pay," and then he offered his own calculations based on "military experts": "At least 3,000 American casualties a week, with 700 dead, for as long as the war goes on."
Former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger (another cold-war hawk turned dove) pontificated that "in the event of an all-out assault on entrenched Iraqi positions, the casualties may be expected to run into several tens of thousands." Senator Carl Levin (D., MI) drew on his many years in the Armed Services Committee to predict "the deaths of thousands of American soldiers." Congressman Jim Moody (D., WI) informed his colleagues that a "minimum of 18,000 U.S. casualties, 3,000 dead" was a "certainty" if "fighting does include a ground war . . . and it could go far higher. One credible estimate capped it at 45,000 American casualties." Finally, Joshua Epstein of the Brookings Institution developed a "model" which enabled him to forecast with scientific precision: 3,344 to 16,059 casualties including 1,049 to 4,135 deaths. (An unbowed Epstein later told the Washington Post that the failure of his forecast was the fault not of his model but of the Iraqis.)
Edward N. Luttwak of the Georgetown Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), perhaps the most surprising opponent of the President's policy, and one of the most relentless, laid out a scenario based on assumptions he himself ridiculed for their "extreme" and "excessive" optimism. First he posited "a very elegant operation starting way to the west of Kuwait . . . to cut off the Iraqi forces in Kuwait." Then he added the assumption that "the softening-up air operations [would be] extremely effective and achieve the highest results ever achieved by any such [operation]" and that U.S. air supremacy would prevent any Iraqi counterstroke. "Let us further assume that all of our equipment works perfectly, all of our operational plans are very cunning, and all of our tactics are sound." Even so, Luttwak concluded:
If we allow only the casualties incidental to a perfect operation, that is people stepping on mines, stepping on our own unexploded munitions . . . if we assume only casualties caused by very brief fire fights with stragglers and holdouts, material accidents, mechanical accidents, etc. . . . then one must still estimate several thousand killed in action or permanently maimed, with the inevitable quotient of MIA's.
On top of the terrible losses we would absorb on the battlefield, it was said, we would suffer around the globe at the hands of terrorists under Saddam Hussein's command. As Evans and Novak saw it:
It is probable that after Bush orders the first shot fired, anything that looks American throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe could come into the cross hairs of a rifle sight or be blown up by a car bomb. . . . However swift and total a U.S. victory over Iraq may be, terror will be one of its most unpleasant and least avoidable adjuncts.
And as for the absence of terrorist acts during the months of crisis that had already elapsed, Evans and Novak explained that this only "displays Saddam Hussein's iron control."
Compounding the grievous price that the war would exact, it would also backfire. First, it would cause our allies to desert us. "President Bush has imperiled the international coalition," said Senator Bradley upon the November announcement of further American troop deployments to the Gulf. War "risks destroying the fragile international alliance that is united against Iraqi aggression," said Senator Levin. "The present coalition supporting sanctions may be difficult to hold together over time, but a war could divide the coalition even more quickly," said Senator Kennedy. "The United States is likely to become estranged from many of its European allies," said another erstwhile hawk, the former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski.
By fighting Iraq, furthermore, we would prevoke the enmity of the entire Arab or Muslim world. Senator Bradley foresaw that
a massive United States military victory in Iraq, killing tens of thousands of Arabs, would make the United States the main enemy of millions of Arabs for generations. It wouldn't be just Iraqis, Iranians, and Islamic zealots referring to our nation as the Great Satan or seeing the United States as a mortal threat. It would be many well-meaning people throughout the Arab and Islamic world.
"What value will the victory hold if we have permanently embittered a generation in the Arab world?" demanded Senator Paul Wellstone (D., MN). So too former President Jimmy Carter:
In the aftermath of the war, no matter what the outcome might be, an allied invasion will be viewed simplistically as a devastating attack by United States forces against the people of Iraq and Kuwait. Religious sensitivities among Muslim believers in all countries will be further aroused because of the dramatic presence and actions of Western powers in their holy lands.
In the same vein, George Ball observed that war would "leave the United States in the position of a pariah in the whole Middle East, with not a single friend except Israel." And Anthony Lewis worried that "military victory will turn to political ashes" since "millions of Arabs, whether they like Saddam Hussein or not, will react to an Iraqi defeat with feelings of despair, anger, resentment of America."
Just as the Arabs would come to hate us, they would come to love Saddam Hussein. Mark Shields reported that visits to the Gulf during the fall had convinced Democratic Senators Bob Graham (FL) and Richard Shelby (AL) that the Iraqi ruler had "captured the imagination of the Arab masses." Judith Kipper of the Brookings Institution concurred: "If he can stay alive during a war, he will emerge a hero of the Arab street. There's no question about it."
Even after the fighting had begun, and America's battlefield success was evident, these alarums continued. Brzezinski expected "a global wave of sympathy for Iraq." A month into the fighting, Wicker was sure that
On the important propaganda front . . . Saddam Hussein is proving a tough opponent who's scoring points just where it's most important for him to make them . . . the Middle East, the third world, and perhaps in Europe and Moscow.
And as the fighting neared its climax, Stanley Hoffmann of Harvard explained that even in victory
the coalition's ability to establish a new order in the Mideast may be impaired by the deep sympathy many Arabs will continue to feel for Saddam Hussein . . . as the champion of resistance to . . . America.
Not only would the war alienate our allies and embitter the Arabs, it would have an analogous effect here at home. "If George Bush takes the nation into war in the Middle East," announced Wicker, "he's likely to find out that its people will be anything but united in his support." Brzezinski warned of "bitter domestic divisions" that "could easily degenerate into ugly recriminations." And the columnist Carl Rowan declaimed: "I tell you, if [Bush] moves . . . right after January 15, this will be one of the least-supported wars that we've had, including Vietnam."
Domestic strife, it was further predicted, would be exacerbated by disruptions of oil supplies. According to Senator Kennedy, "A war could also do enormous damage to the world economy, sending oil prices twice as high as they are today, with potentially harsh and disruptive consequences for all nations." Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell (D., ME) also foresaw "a greatly disrupted oil supply and oil price increases." And Christopher Flavin of the Worldwatch Institute spelled out the economic consequences in more detail: "Worldwide gasoline rationing, . . . the financial collapse of developing countries, outright failure of the economic reforms in Eastern Europe, and a severe shock to the world banking system."
Beyond fostering domestic strife, war would bring instability to the Middle East and perhaps the whole world. "The devastating consequences," said Jimmy Carter, "will be . . . for decades to come, in economic and political destabilization of the Middle East region." Senator Mitchell also anticipated "increased instability in the Persian Gulf region [and] long-lasting Arab enmity against the United States." Senator Wellstone asked "what good will victory be if we destabilize regimes in Egypt, Jordan, and the North African states?" And Brzezinski worried that the most likely result of Bush's policy would be "geopolitical chaos in the region."
Indeed, said the critics, war would destroy the very "New World Order" that Bush had invoked as the goal of his policy. Wicker: "A U.S. attack on Iraq . . . would destroy the new possibilities for collective security in a post-cold-war world." Senator Tom Harkin (D., IA): "Rather than responding with brute force and military power, we need a new world order wherein we respond to the Saddam Husseins of the world with . . . economic and diplomatic isolation." Stanley Hoffmann: "Collective security will be the casualty, not the winner" of a war and "the cost of allowing [Saddam Hussein] to save face if he leaves Kuwait [in exchange for concessions] may be far less than blowing him away, and of blowing away in the process the future of collective security."
Princeton's Richard H. Ullman offered an alternative approach to collective security:
The ground rules of the New World Order should be plain. The unilateral use of military power to change state borders, to seize economic resources, and to right perceived wrongs is unacceptable. Governments that violate these rules will be punished. Punishment will take the form of economic pressure, applied internationally, that would be certain, severe, sustained, and enforced—pressure that would not work tomorrow or the next day, but would work eventually.
Indeed, the idea that economic sanctions would succeed in driving Iraq out of Kuwait became the standard theme of opponents of force. On this point, Democratic Congressman Richard Gephardt of Missouri was especially emphatic: "Iraq is under siege, cut off from all the world and all supplies. . . . The question is not whether he will give up, but when." Senator Kennedy went further, insisting that sanctions were not only
the best means at the least cost to persuade Saddam to withdraw from Kuwait. Sanctions are also the most realistic policy for achieving the long-run goal of dismantling Saddam's present and future arsenal of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons and ensuring that none of these weapons is ever used again.
Others made more cautious claims. James Schlesinger contended that in time sanctions would succeed in freeing Kuwait, but not if that objective were enlarged with demands for dismantling Iraqi weapons or requiring reparations. Cyrus Vance contended that "the sanctions are biting, and . . . if given adequate time . . . they can bring about a peaceful solution of this problem." But Vance also explained that the solution he had in mind envisioned "an international conference . . . convened by the UN Secretary General [to] . . . consider both security in the Gulf and Arab-Israeli peacemaking" (emphasis in original).
Brzezinski, so often at odds with Vance when they were both in the Carter administration, agreed with him about sanctions and negotiations. Although he favored sanctions, Brzezinski opposed an "airtight, seatight blockade . . . to strangle Iraq into complete capitulation" because "Saddam Hussein would then lash out." Instead he advocated "a protracted squeeze with some porousness in it, so that there is time for negotiations."
Many others joined Vance and Brzezinski in seeking a negotiated, compromise solution. Jimmy Carter declared that Iraq must abide by UN resolutions, but that "other disputes, compatible with this bottom-line demand, can still be negotiated, preferably among Arab leaders with Western backing" in which "reasonable concessions [will be] required by all contending parties." Governor Mario Cuomo of New York was quoted as saying: "You could negotiate something that . . . leaves them a little bit on the water, leaves them a little bit of the oil, and then puts in a United Nations task force." Cuomo later complained that his words had been taken out of context, but there was no such doubt about the stand of former Senator George McGovern who proposed that
If Saddam agrees not only to withdraw his forces but to forgo the further development of chemical and nuclear weapons, Iraq might be granted an opening to the Persian Gulf and sole control over Rumailah, an important oilfield.
And Stanley Hoffmann evoked the Cuban missile-crisis settlement as a model for a deal in the Gulf:
Just as we did not formally "reward" the Soviets for removing their missiles from Cuba by linking their retreat to the removal of American missiles in Turkey, yet we removed them afterward, we could suggest to Iraq that we would be willing to initiate (1) an international conference on the Arab-Israeli conflict; (2) an arms-control conference aimed at ending the shipment to the region of certain categories of weapons and at inspecting the nuclear and chemical facilities of all the Middle Eastern states; and (3) arbitration between Iraq and Kuwait, but only after Iraq's evacuation of its neighbor.
Like Vance and Hoffmann, virtually everyone who advocated negotiations endorsed the idea of linking the occupation of Kuwait to the Arab-Israeli conflict. "There is no way to separate the crisis in the Gulf from the Israeli-Palestinian question," proclaimed Jimmy Carter, by way of proposing "a carefully crafted peace conference under the bilateral sponsorship of the United States and the Soviet Union." Carl Rowan chimed in with, "We must have a comprehensive international conference to deal with not only Kuwait, but the future of Palestinians, the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, and much more." George Ball proposed "something similar to the Congress of Vienna for the Middle East" to cover "the Palestinian issue" as well as "numerous boundary issues" and "disarmament" and "security." This, he thought, "would enable Saddam Hussein to claim a little credit for it," thus affording him a "facesaver."
Other opponents of war took the position that America had no "vital interest" at stake. Still another former hawk, Senator Sam Nunn (D., GA) said:
We have an obligation as leaders to distinguish between important interests which are worthy of economic, political [responses] and interests that are vital, that are worth . . . calling . . . on our young men and women in uniform to sacrifice, if necessary, their lives.
Senator Joseph Biden (D., DE) asked:
Just what interests are at stake here? We have heard from the administration a number of suggestions: oil and our way of life. The principle of collective security. The stability of the Middle East.
But on examination, no argument can be sustained that any vital American interest is now in jeopardy.
Senator J. Robert Kerrey (D., NE) declared that "rather than threatening war . . . we should tell Iraq and the world we believe the wholesale loss of American and Arab lives is too great a price to liberate Kuwait." With exemplary candor, he drew the conclusion that "driving Iraq from Kuwait, as important and worthy as it is, should no longer be the first principle of our . . . policy" because it "tends to force us into a corner." Likewise, Charles Peters of the Washington Monthly argued that
the invasion [of Kuwait] is worth our best efforts to enforce the embargo—which could thoroughly sabotage Iraq's military, chemical, and nuclear potential—but that's all it's worth.
Some believed, as Anna Quindlen of the New York Times put it, that "we are going to war for oil," or that, as Senator Kennedy argued,
the principal reason driving the President's policy of war can be spelled out in three other letters: O-I-L. . . . Not a single American life should be sacrificed in a war for the price of oil.
Still another line of argument concerned the relative balance of burdens between America and its allies. According to Senator Timothy Wirth (D., CO), "We cannot and should not be policeman to the world." Senator Mitchell added:
Certainly, the United States has a high responsibility to lead the international community in opposing aggression, but this should not require the United States to assume a greater burden and a greater responsibility than other nations with an equal or even greater stake in the resolution of the crisis.
And Brzezinski maintained that "we should only go to war if the international community as a whole is prepared to go to war."
Still others cited America's domestic problems as a reason for opposing the war. Charles Peters, putting a class twist on a line that was more often expressed in terms of race, opined that "working-class Americans would be suckers to do the dying for America's ruling elite." Ron Walters of Howard University, citing the President's opposition to racial quotas, accused the Bush administration of
playing race politics in a manner that would continue to deny national resources to blacks, while black lives are disproportionately at stake as a result of his foreign policy. If no one will respect the nature of their sacrifice, then why should blacks especially be motivated to demand that their sons and daughters give it . . . ?1
And Edward Luttwak, sounding more like a liberal than like the conservative he usually is, decried the fact that engagement in the Gulf was "diverging] us from addressing the domestic problems that threaten the future of America far more fundamentally than Saddam Hussein ever could."
Looking carefully at all these arguments, we find that they reflect the major themes of the Vietnam paradigm. Thus, the argument for sanctions was in truth only a reprise of the Vietnam paradigm's aversion to the use of force, as well as its low opinion of the American military; the argument for compromise was little more than a reflection of its impulse toward appeasement; and the argument that America's "vital interests" were not at stake in Kuwait was but a recrudescence of its thrust toward isolationism. Although this is not the place for a lengthy rebuttal of these positions, suffice it to note that the champions of sanctions never sketched a plausible scenario in which Saddam Hussein would swallow the humiliation of bowing to Western terms before the coalition cracked; that any compromise woud have allowed Saddam Hussein to emerge with his status and therefore his power enhanced; and that if the outright annihilation of a member nation of the UN and the seizure of control over a substantial part of the world's energy reserves did not qualify as an attack on our vital interests, then little else would.
Most of the people who harped on these themes, and made the predictions that flowed from them, were, as we have seen, the same liberal Democrats who had been saying much the same things about every global crisis since Vietnam. To be sure, there were a few exceptions: President Bush received essential support in the House from liberal Democrats like Stephen Solarz (NY), Dante Fascell (FL), and Les Aspin (WI). These men, however, had already established reputations for independence of mind on such issues as Cambodia (Solarz), Nicaragua (Fascell), or defense policy (As-pin). On the other hand, of those who had been consistent doves since Vietnam, hardly any backed the President—not even among strong supporters of Israel, notwithstanding the obvious Israeli interest in seeing Saddam Hussein's military machine smashed. (Indeed, a majority of the Jewish members of each house, most of whom are liberal Democrats, voted against the President.)
For the most part, even Democrats who were not dovish by predisposition tended to be dragged along by the enormous weight of dovish sentiment within their party (reinforced by the doves' unmatched penchant for cutthroat politics within the party caucus, recently displayed anew in the efforts to block the elevation of centrist Dave McCurdy to the chairmanship of the House Intelligence Committee). Just as Congressmen Jim Wright and Tom Foley and Senator Daniel P. Moynihan, all former officers of the hawkish Coalition for a Democratic Majority (CDM), had each fallen in line with the party majority, so now Senator Nunn, the premier "defense Democrat," took on the role of leading opponent of the use of force in the Gulf.
Outside Congress, Democratic activist Ann Lewis, a leader of Jesse Jackson's presidential campaign, figured prominently in the Committee for Peace and Security in the Gulf, which supported the use of force against Iraq, but none of the Committee's other members, except perhaps former Representative Tony Coelho, was a dyed-in-the-wool dove. Richard Cohen of the Washington Post was another rare dove who supported the President's policy. With the cold war over, he seemed to see the world with fresh eyes, like Rip Van Winkle awakening from his long sleep. Thus, taking George McGovern to task for opposing the war, Cohen wrote in ingenuous consternation: "Incredibly, the isolationist chicken has roosted in the Democratic Left."
And so it had, about twenty years earlier, together with its twin, pacifism, when the selfsame George McGovern carried the Democratic standard under the slogan, "Come Home, America," and the promise to cut defense expenditures by a third. True, in the present case there were not many adherents of absolute pacifism or isolationism. But there were many who believed, as Stanley Hoffmann sympathetically paraphrased it in 1973, that the "irrelevance of military power to most of the goals pursued by states" is "increasingly obvious," and also many who believed, as Richard Ullman wrote in 1975, that "American physical security would not in any immediate sense be affected by drastic changes in the internal political structure of any other state or states."
The Gulf crisis showed that this perspective was still shaping our national debate. Indeed, far from having laid the Vietnam paradigm to rest, the end of the cold war seemed, as we have already noted, to have brought it new adherents—on the Right side of the political spectrum. With the Communist threat receding, some of them (like the columnist Patrick J. Buchanan) aimed to resurrect the traditional isolationism of the American Right. Others (like Luttwak) embraced the neoisolationist view that economic issues have surpassed political-military factors in importance. Still others (like Evans and Novak) seemed motivated by a solicitude for Arab sensibilities quite similar to the solicitude many on the Left used to show for the sensibilities of third-world revolutionaries.
Will, then, the Vietnam paradigm survive the Gulf War? The early signs are mixed. William Raspberry of the Washington Post set a standard of journalistic probity with a column titled "Eating My Hat" in which he criticized his own misreading of the Gulf situation. "It seems obvious," joked Raspberry, "that President Bush developed his stunningly successful strategy by reading every recommendation of mine—and then doing just the opposite." But Tom Wicker, whose errors of prognostication were unsurpassed, wrote a column defending himself, while such prominent Democrats as Nunn, Hamilton, and Cuomo have gone on insisting that sanctions alone might still have worked.
Others argue that the Gulf War has changed nothing. To Anthony Lewis, a lesson of this war "is that neither the United States nor the world can afford to repeat it." Eric Alterman of the leftist World Policy Institute declares that "the Vietnam syndrome remains in place" because "Saddam Hussein is a one-of-a-kind bad guy." And Buchanan cites, in full credulity, a report that "Military officials in Moscow . . . have made derisive comments about the allied performance." They may have made such comments, but it is hard not to believe they were whistling past the graveyard, just as Buchanan himself, along with Alterman and Lewis, may be doing.
Lewis's anxiety showed through in another recent column in which he wrote:
One result, if it comes, would be a special disaster. That is the encouragement, in America, of the delusory belief that military power can solve the world's problems.
Similarly, Ellen Goodman of the Boston Globe, confessed to
an unexpected, unrelenting worry about the meaning of an "easy" win. . . . Vietnam taught us to be reluctant about getting into another faraway war. What message will come from the Gulf? Don't be afraid?
Meg Greenfield of the Washington Post decried "the merciless taunting assaults" to which Gulf doves in the war's aftermath were being subjected for their errors. In response it is tempting to suggest that the errors of those who opposed the Gulf War be treated with the same gracious indulgence as were the errors of those who supported the Vietnam war. Be that as it may, it is important to understand why so many bright people could have made so many egregiously wrong predictions, and surely the explanation is that they were in thrall to some very wrong ideas that flowed from our Vietnam debacle. The question now is whether our triumph in the Gulf, and their embarrassment, will at last lay that destructive paradigm to rest.
1 See Arch Puddington's article beginning on p. 28 for a more extensive discussion of this line of argument.—Ed.


text:
Liverpool have confirmed three of their Barclays Premier League fixtures in January have been selected for live television coverage.
The Reds' trip to Stoke City will now be played on Sunday, January 12 with kick-off set for 4.10pm. It'll be broadcast live on Sky Sports.
Sky will televise the Anfield clash with Aston Villa on Saturday, January 18, with the game getting underway at 5.30pm.
Finally, the Merseyside derby with Everton at Anfield on Tuesday, January 28 will be shown live on BT Sport. Kick-off remains 8pm.
Submit your views in the box below. Alternatively, you can debate these issues with fellow fans on our Message Boards or blog about them on The Kop
The views expressed here are not those of Liverpool Football Club (read more)