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I wasn't too impressed with the suggested functions/classes for using mcrypt, so I wrote my own class. The encypted output is base64 encoded so it can be used in URLs, emails, etc. MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_256 is probably too secure for most uses, using a less secure algorithm should mean that the encryption will be faster and the encrypted output shorter (make sure to update iv_size in mcrypt_create_iv() and key length to match the new algorithm). If you are going to use only 1 passphrase, you should define it inside __construct($this->securekey) instead of when creating the object. Keep the class in a separate include file which is only readable by your webserver (or whatever needs it) for added security.
class Cipher {
private $securekey, $iv;
function __construct($textkey) {
$this->securekey = hash('sha256',$textkey,TRUE);
$this->iv = mcrypt_create_iv(32);
function encrypt($input) {
return base64_encode(mcrypt_encrypt(MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_256, $this->securekey, $input, MCRYPT_MODE_ECB, $this->iv));
function decrypt($input) {
return trim(mcrypt_decrypt(MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_256, $this->securekey, base64_decode($input), MCRYPT_MODE_ECB, $this->iv));
$cipher = new Cipher('secret passphrase');
$encryptedtext = $cipher->encrypt("hide me");
echo "->encrypt = $encryptedtext
";
$decryptedtext = $cipher->decrypt($encryptedtext);
echo "->decrypt = $decryptedtext
";


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September 19, 2006
Writely, Migrating to Google Accounts
Writely, Google's word processing tool, is finally moving to Google Accounts, after recently being opened to public.
"In a few days, we will update your Writely account to use your @gmail.com Google Account registration settings," says Writely Team in a mail.
"We'll send email to Writely users a few days before making the change with instructions about migrating your account. Please note that you can sign up now for a Google Account using any email address - including your current Writely address."
So if you use a Gmail address to login, the two accounts will be automatically merged. Otherwise, you can keep your Writely mail address if you create a Google Account using it or migrate to an already existing Google Account.
Writely review
Blogger, moving to Google Accounts
This blog is not affiliated with Google.

subset: commoncrawl


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Despite its legions of administrators with six-figure salaries, the University of Connecticut could not have handled the recent controversy about sexual assault among students worse than it did.
First UConn President Susan Herbst responded with mere indignation to a complaint by a group of students to the federal government that the university was indifferent to accusations of sexual assault. Herbst seemed to be purporting to know that all accusations had been handled properly by the university when the university had not yet reviewed the cases at issue.


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Home >
> Birch Bark Lodge Cotton Fabric - Birch Herringbone
Last Chance Fabric
Birch Bark Lodge Cotton Fabric in Beige from Moda Fabrics
About Birch Bark Lodge in Pine Green Herringbone: Check out this phenomenal new fabric print from within Moda Fabrics' Birch Bark Lodge collection, featuring a stylish alternating diagonal etch pattern in a dark forest green hue, set against a creamy beige background riddled with green dots and muted specks. This neat earthy textile possesses a unique rustic yet modern feel that is perfect for quilting or home decor! Try it today!
About Birch Bark Lodge: The Birch Bark Lodge collection from Moda Fabrics is a wondrous selection of neat fall inspired fabric patterns and prints designed by Holly Taylor, and available to you in a variety of breathtaking woodsy color schemes that will undoubtedly meet and satisfy all of your crafting needs! Keeping quality in mind, Moda Fabrics prints all Birch Bark Lodge styles on their very best 100% Cotton Fabric, an extraordinarily soft and smooth material that has endured a reputation of excellence throughout the years because of it's overall phenomenal quality and durability. To sum things up, Moda Fabrics' Birch Bark Lodge collection is a fabulous variety of woodsy autumn affected fabric patterns and prints that perfectly embody the cool and beloved spirit of the fall season. Order a few yards online today from us here at Beverly's, your one stop discount fabric shop!


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(NBC News) After weeks of fighting, Senators have announced a bipartisan plan to to raise the country's borrowing limit and re-open the government.
The agreement re-opens the government through mid January and extends the debt limit through February 7th.
It's also includes a mid-December deadline for lawmakers to address longer term spending concerns.
Senators had to step up after Republican leader John Boehner caved to conservative pressure yesterday, ending hope for a deal out of the house.
Copyright 2013 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


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read more
Contact John Wilson for reservations. Phone: 940.322.0739 or Email: firstname.lastname@example.com. read more
All Information Deemed Reliable But Not Guaranteed. The information contained within WFAR.com is intended to allow you to easily meet your personal real estate needs. Any other use of this data or content is prohibited. Examples of prohibited uses include, but are not limited to, "screen scraping" or "database scraping" to obtain lists of users or other information from the WFAR.com website.
© 2009 Wichita Falls Association of Realtors - All Rights Reserved
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Hotels in 27823 - Enfield NC
Only hotels in 27823 zip code are listed below. Search for cheap and discount hotel rates in Enfield, NC for your upcoming leisure or conference / group travel. We list the best 27823 hotels and motels so you can review the Enfield hotel list below to find the perfect lodging. Hotels in Halifax county and area code 252 are also listed.
27823 Hotels, Motels & Accommodations
Next: Show All Available 27823 Hotels with Pricing >


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After heavy rain over several days caused breaches along Dry Creek this week, Washington County officials have a better understanding of what work needs to be done to alleviate, and potentially prevent, damaging flooding when it rains.
"We dodged a bullet," said County Mayor Dan Eldridge on Wednesday. "We saw (Tuesday) morning that we still have issues down there."
There is already a plan to remediate 12 specific areas of the creek, which came about after the August flooding that destroyed or damaged dozens of homes along Dry Creek Road and many more elsewhere in the county.
That work has been ongoing and isn't complete. Now, Eldridge said, there will additional work added to that plan to address more problem areas that became apparent this week. Two of those are between Rock House Road and Arnold Road, which sent water flowing all around Bill and Wanalynn Chapman's home and farm as well as other property in that section of Dry Creek.
"There are three new areas that we are going to address. One of them is right above the Chapmans. That is simply a matter of the creek bed is full. The the stream channel is filled with cobble, so we going to clean that out so it can flow rather than being diverted onto their property," Eldridge said.
By mid-day Wednesday, most of the flowing water had receded back into the creek, but without the work to fix the creek, it could happen again with a heavy rain.
"Another area upstream we have a low-water concrete crossing."
That crossing is a driveway to a mobile home on the other side of the creek. Eldridge said it caused water to divert from the normal creek channel into residents' yards.
"We're going to do a change order to get that work done," while the contractor is still on site, he said.
Greg Quillen, an officer with the Tennessee Natural Resources Conservation Service, met with the project engineer Wednesday to evaluate the new areas and determine what work needs to be done, Eldridge said.
"We've all been down there. Everybody's keeping an eye on it to make sure it doesn't get in anybody's house," he said.
That also allowed officials to get a good look at areas that need to be remediated, but had not yet been addressed.
Eldridge said there isn't a time frame for all the remediation to be completed, but work will continue until it's finished. At the same time, more work will start soon to get five home foundations poured and ready for a student volunteer team from the University of Iowa to arrive during their spring break.
"We have 10 houses completed. The plan now is to have five more foundations ready by the end of February," Eldridge said.
Another part of the repairs in Dry Creek is the Rock House Road bridge, which Eldridge said is still in the works.
"We're waiting on the state grant," before work can proceed, he said.


text: New stories Upcoming Incoming 40° N++ Review: Hold On Loosely 18m ago - N++ might be hard, but it's all in how you look at it. | PS4 Comments (0) SoNautical Source 8.5/10 pastemagazine... 30° Summon Night 5 Physical Edition Presale Starts Next Week with Free OST CD 52m ago - Gaijinworks has today officially announced the physical edition of Summon Night 5 and released th... | PSP Comments (0) ValKilmer Source Ad Win a Pro-Painted Ghorgon! Now - Turbo Tape Games is pleased to announce a contest for an exclusive Ghorgon miniature hand-painted by Dave Taylor! | Promoted post Read More SiteBot 40° Nintendo NX Feature Wishlist 1h ago - Nintendo NX is Nintendo's new upcoming gaming platform that's supposed to live along side the Wii... | Wii U Comments (1) Luismacintosh Source 40° Emplacement Units Unveiled in New Company of Heroes 2: The British Forces Video 2h ago - EB: The final installment of the "Know Your Units" video series for Company of Heroes 2: The Brit... | PC Comments (0) HAMM3RofBUDDHA Source 40° Dragon Ball Xenoverse Now Available For A Lower Price On Best Buy 2h ago - The latest Dragon Ball game released earlier this year, Dragon Ball Xenoverse, is now available f... | PS4 Comments (1) TetsujinFranky Source


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I don't trust my tastebuds. Tiny but treacherous they always tell me what they want more than what I need. And they never learn. The carbs and cookies kill me every time but that doesn't seem to matter to them. As long as they get what they want they'll let the fat, fatigue and brain fog fend for themselves. Here are a few things you didn't know about your tastebuds and Read more →
Tiny but Treacherous
Who Would Have Thought
Several months ago theNorthGate and ThinkTank Inc. partnered to establish a National Circles Community here in Downtown Dayton. The opportunity has been life changing. Who would have thought a program dealing with poverty could be so enriching? Here's what I like about Circles and why you need to get involved: There are several things that make the National Circles Campaign unique and powerful. If you get the chance, you need Read more →
I'm a micromanager. I admit it. And if you're passionate about something you should be too. As producers, we owe it to our audience / customers to produce the best products possible which is going to require "excessive control or attention to details". "Micromanager" is a popular accusation seldom portrayed positively. To the extent I used to be afraid of or even hate the title. But not anymore. Here's the truth Read more →


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CHICAGO – R.J. Harris (Odenton, Md.), a junior wide receiver on the No. 5 University of New Hampshire football team, was named a College Sporting News Fabulous Fifty FCS All-America Team Honorable Mention selection Wednesday.
It marked the second All-America Honorable Mention honor this season for Harris, who received that accolade from Beyond Sports Network in December.
Harris led UNH in receptions (76), receptions per game (6.3) and receiving yards per game (83.7) despite missing three games due to injury; with those numbers, he ranked No. 20 in the nation in receptions/game and 31st in receiving yards/game. In other stats, Harris was second on the team in receiving yards (1,004) and receiving touchdowns (five). He also carried the ball 12 times for 127 yards and one TD.
On the Wildcats' list of single-season superlatives, Harris' 76 receptions is No. 6 and the 1,004 receiving yards is No. 9. And with those totals, he ascended to No. 2 in career receptions (210) as well as No. 5 in receiving yards (2,777) on UNH's all-time leaderboard.
After the three-game absence, Harris returned Nov. 9 against nationally-ranked James Madison University to record 10 catches for 183 yards and three TDs, all of which were season highs; he was named the New England Gold Helmet Award recipient for that performance in the 33-17 win.
In the NCAA first round game versus Lafayette University, he hauled in eight passes for 173 yards and one touchdown in the 45-7 victory. Harris followed that playoff performance with 85 yards on six catches at the University of Maine (41-27 win) and 11 catches for 110 yards at Southeastern Louisiana University (20-17 victory).
Harris' other 2013 accolades include All-New England Team and CAA All-Conference First Team.
UNH finished the season at 10-5 overall (6-2 CAA) after advancing to the NCAA semifinals for the first time in school history.


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Uniform Wares 351 Series (brushed/blue)
Uniform Wares
£437.50 ex VAT (rest of world)
£525.00 inc VAT (UK and EU)
This limited edition of the 351 Series is the newest addition to the Uniform Wares collection. The series includes five styles and three unique references.
The first style in the series is the 351/BR-01, which includes a satin-brushed, stainless steel case and bezel with a ceramic insert and a sapphire lens. The domed lens is designed to prevent glare and add clarity to the dial.
The dial and hands are accented by concentric regulator rings, inspired by the enamel work utilised in British pocket watches from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The watch is presented on an Italian-made rubber strap that is barrelled and pinched to resemble a traditional padded leather watch strap.
See the rest of the 351 Collection.
See all Uniform Wares watches.
Brand: Uniform Wares. Model: 351 Series BR-01. Case: 316L stainless steel. Case diameter: 39mm. Case thickness: 8.95mm. Lens: domed sapphire crystal lens. Hands: aluminium in a brushed finish. Strap: Italian moulded Oxford blue NBR rubber strap. Mechanism: Swiss made Ronda 1004 10 jewel movement. Accuracy: +/- 20 seconds per month. Water resistance: 5ATM. Manufacturers' warranty: two years.


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2013 Winner: Jordan Schnoebelen
Photo Contest
RSU Students, alumni, faculty and staff are invited to submit photos for a social-media driven photo contest.
Using the #HillcatNation hashtag, users can post photos to Twitter or Instagram. All photos with that hashtag are eligible for the contest.
Winner will receive a $100 Visa gift card.
Contest Rules:
Photo Entries may be taken at:


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Why luxury bedding is worth the money
There is nothing more comfortable and luxurious than getting a good night sleep. This is something which my mother did not realize until she came across luxury bedding. Every morning she would wake up with a grumpy face due to insufficient sleep, the cause of which was a hard and uncomfortable mattress. This was when I sat her down and explained the benefits that came with luxury bedding. Let me share them with you as well
- Having a silk as a part of your mattress is not only regal but also is shown to have several healing properties. Some of these include solving issues of thrush in women, menopause symptoms and anti aging qualities. Did you know that there is an element of protein in silk which helps in the hair and skin get a protective feel to it
- A better thread count of sheets makes it both durable and very cozy. A higher thread count means a higher quality and also means a higher level of comfort and softness. The end result is a good night's sleep.
- In fact I use satin sheets and realized that there is nothing more elegant or relaxed as that. They provide a tactile sensation that provides a great combination of softness and coolness. After using it for several years I realized that even my dry and itchy skin would find cool relief in a satin sheet. Now I combine my neutral shaded satin sheets with elegant black comforters to give a glamorous feel to my bed.
- Even when it comes to the duvet should be checked for the filling and soft clusters. It can integrate good sleep with pure indulgence
Whether you purchase a 7 piece comforter set queen bedding or any other remember that a luxury bedding can help you get something that is priceless and irreplaceable- a good night sleep.


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Seismic Data Portal API
The service aggregates publicly available data about earthquake events, including seismic waveforms, wave velocities, and arrival times at specified locations. The Seismolink web service provides information about seismic sensing networks and available resources for detecting and tracking events. Data are available in the specialized QuakeML format. API methods support retrieval of reports on seismic events, including search for specific events, lists of recent events, and details about each one such as location and magnitude. Methods also provide information about seismic waveforms detected, the velocity of their movement, and projected arrival times at specified locations. The API also supports identification of data providers within the Seismolink network.
XML (QuakeML)
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Shaken, Not Stirred: The Earthquake Data Portal API
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July 31, 2015
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has released its bank robbery statistics from 2007.
(Click on the link below for more information)
It appears robbing banks is a very lucrative business.
The statistics show in just one quarter, robbers made off with $23 million and cops recovered only $10 million of it.
More than 1,500 banks and other savings institutions were robbed in three months of 2007. An amazing number of crimes have not been solved.
Here are some interesting facts from the FBI site:
Robbers like to pull a job on Fridays more than any other day.
Branch offices get hit the most, by far.
The person most often killed in a bank robbery is the robber himself. Bank robbery deaths are very rare: only five deaths nationwide in the entire year and four of them were robbers.
The bank robbery capitals of the country are California, followed distantly by Florida, Georgia and Pennsylvania.
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Posts by Andy
Andy has been the Communications Manager at Park City Mountain Resort since 2011, after moving out west from Washington, D.C. He has skied the Park City area for over 20 years, and is thrilled to call himself a PC local and Park City Mountain Resort his home mountain.
— Posted by Andy on August 10, 2011
KSL-TV was up here checking out just some of what's going on at Park City Mountain Resort in the summer. Check out how they beat the heat and saw why the mountain's so cool this time of year.More
— Posted by Andy on July 27, 2011
Featuring made-to-order burgers, handcut fries and homemade shakes just steps from the PayDay Lift - Crescent can satisfy the meanest burger fix while keeping you within shouting distance of the Resort's summer adventures.More
— Posted by Andy on July 13, 2011
Entering my sixth week with the team, I'd only heard stories of the moose that were said to be hanging out higher up the mountain.More
— Posted by Andy on June 28, 2011
Ty Pennington and his crew from Extreme Makeover: Home Edition are building a new house in the area this week, and we are thrilled to donate a special Park City Mountain Resort antique to the home's construction.More
Official news and announcements from Park City Mountain Resort.
Samantha is new to Utah, joining the Park City Mountain Resort team in 2011 as the Marketing Coordinator.
When he's not up on the mountain checking on the cams, Eric is managing the interactive marketing for Park City Mountain Resort.
Dave has worked in the ski and snowboard industry since 2000 and joined the PCMR team in the spring of 2014.
Park City Mountain Resort
1345 Lowell Ave
PO Box 39
Park City, UT 84060
(435) 649–8111
© Park City Mountain Resort
Get snow reports, I Ride Park City updates and more by signing up for our newsletters.Sign Up
In Partnership With


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hey guys
i have almost the same problem but i had my wii softmodded. yesterday i decided to install priiloader on my wii because i couldn't play some of my games (the wii needed to updaate). when i had it installed suddenly my wii was semi bricked and to make it even worse my brother had accidently removed the homebrew channel from my sd card. i think i just have to remove priiloader to get my wii normal again but i cant remove it because i dont have the homebrew channel. if i try to reinstall homebrew channel with letterbomb my wii freezes
i hope you can help me with this issue


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What I'm Learning About ... Setting Goals
New Years' resolutions sometimes crumble within a couple of days. Here's some encouragement and helpful hints on how lowering the expectations we have of ourselves may enable us to stay closer to Christ and accomplish more—like working out and sleeping.
Of Goals and Grace
"Did you make any New Year's resolutions?" my friend Jill asked me when we were at my friend's New Year's Eve party.
"Yes, I've decided to try to get to bed earlier in the evenings," I responded, adding that I have the unfortunate tendency of getting a second wind toward the end of the night.
"So, you're saying you want to spend more of this year asleep?" she teased.
I laughed, then explained, "It's not like I want to sleep to avoid being awake. It's just that after ten days of great sleep at my parents' place over the holidays, I'm reminded of how much better I function when well rested. And frankly," I added, "it just seems a lot more attainable than all ...


text: Zac Stacy out for Remainder of Game vs. Bears Due to Head Injury From @jthom1 Nov 24, 2013 Share Tweet Next ARTICLE » Use your ← → (arrow) keys to browse more stories Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images 16 Reads 0 Comments Both Johnson and Stacy now out with head injuries. That makes three Rams players out w/concussions-head injuries. Continue Reading on @jthom1 »


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Wofford (7-8/2-1) at Chattanooga (9-8/3-0)
Game 18 | Saturday, Jan. 11, 2014 | 7 p.m. | McKenzie Arena | Chattanooga, Tenn.
Season Stats | Schedule | Roster | Tickets (Home) | Wofford
RADIO: The Mocs Sports Network flagship station is ESPN 105.1 FM the Zone in Chattanooga. Jim Reynolds is in his 34th season as the Voice of the Mocs.
VIDEOSTREAM: Links for live video (PPV), audio (free) and live stats are available on the GoMocs.com men's basketball schedule page.
Follow the action on Twitter @GoMocsMBB. Get interactive using the hashtags #GoMocs and #CHAOS. Tag @GoMocsMBB with your photos from the game, well-wishes for the team and more.
On the road again, the Mocs can't wait to get on the road again. Sorry Willie, not true but it is a fact of college basketball life. The squad heads to Appalachian State next Thursday (Jan. 16) before moving on to Wofford on Saturday (Jan. 18).
- Chattanooga is alone atop the Southern Conference standings at 3-0, a half-game ahead of Western Carolina and Davidson. Our next opponent, Wofford, is tied for fourth with UNCG at 2-1, and Georgia Southern (1-0), just a game behind.
- The Mocs are on a five-game win streak. It's the longest stretch since winning six straight from December 21, 2009 through January 14, 2010.
- Chattanooga is 3-0 in league play for the first time since 2010-11 when it opened at 7-0.
- Z. Mason is this week's SoCon Player of the Week after averaging 25.0 points, 13.5 boards and 4.5 blocks per game in the wins at Furman and The Citadel.
- Mason has six consecutive double-doubles, a DI era (1977-78 to present) school record. He is tied with Jerrelle Benimon (Towson) for the longest active streak in the nation. Julius Randle (Kentucky) has longest run of double-doubles this year with seven (11/8-27, 2013). Note courtesy Stats, Inc.
- Mason's averages in last six appearances: 23.0 points, 12.3 rebounds, 3.7 blocks and 1.5 steals per contest.
- Chattanooga is 16-12 (.571) in its history against Wofford with the first game coming in 1995-96. It is 10-3 at home against the Terriers. For more series information, turn to page three of the linked notes package.
- The Mocs are 363-213 (.630) all-time in SoCon regular season play, 222-65 (.774) at home.
- Mason (6 times), Ronrico White (twice) Martynas Bareika and Casey Jones have scored 20 or more points in a game this season.
- Chattanooga is 5-0 since White's return to the playing rotation after the holiday break. Over that span, he has topped double figures each game averaging 17.0 points, 3.0 rebounds and 2.4 assists in 24.8 minutes per game. He is shooting 45.8 percent (22-48) from the field including 52.2 percent (12-23) from 3pt range in those contests.
- White was fantastic in Thursday's win over Samford. He posted a career-high 28 points in 29 minutes making all 12 free throw attempts including 6-6 in the final 35 seconds of the game.
- Jones has scored in double digits in four in a row. His averages during that stretch are 15.3 points, 7.7 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game.
- Jones is second in the league in FG percentage at 58.3 percent. He is shooting 73.7 percent (28-38) over the last four.
- Mason has seven double-doubles this season including two 20/10 games. That's one shy of Johnny Taylor's school record of three in 2005-06. Lance Fulse (1987-88) and Keith Nelson (1990-91) own the season record with 12.
- Mason has 14 career double-doubles which ranks behind Keith Nelson (23, 1991-92), Lance Fulse (21, 1985-88), Nicchaeus Doaks (17, 2006-09), Taylor (16, 1996-97) in the DI era. That's tied with Mindaugas Katelynas (14, 2004-05).
- Mason leads the SoCon in blocks per game (2.6). Behind Mason, the Mocs (4.6 bpg) lead the league in blocked shots.
- Mason is one point shy of 900 for his career. For career and season record watches along with career active leaders, turn to page eight of the linked notes package.
- Chattanooga also leads the SoCon in scoring (79.2), rebounds (37.4), steals (8.3), turnover margin (+2.3) and offensive rebound pct (36.4%).
- For complete SoCon team and individual ranks, turn to page six of the linked notes package.
- The Mocs rank in the top 50 nationally in scoring and steals. Mason is 39th in blocks and 45th in rebounding.
- Head Coach Will Wade is 9-8 in his first season as a head coach. He is Chattanooga's 18th head coach, seventh of the DI era.
- Wade is 6-1 at home, 2-6 away and 1-1 in neutral site contests.
- He is 0-0 vs. Wofford, 3-0 vs. SoCon teams.
- Wade is a 2005 graduate of Clemson. He has worked with current collegiate head coaches Larry Shyatt (Wyoming), Oliver Purnell (DePaul), Tommy Amaker (Harvard) and Shaka Smart (VCU) at Clemson, Harvard and VCU, respectively.
- Wade's staff includes a former head coach, Wes Long (Queens, 2009-13), former Mocs standout Casey Long (2004-07) and Buffalo star Turner Battle. Casey Long was retained from the previous regime. He also welcomed back Mocs great Johnny Taylor (1996-97). Taylor, a Chattanooga native, led Chattanooga to the 1997 NCAA Sweet 16 before becoming the school's first NBA first round draft selection (Orlando). Taylor completed a 15-year pro career and returned to the Scenic City to complete his degree in criminal justice.
- Wofford is 7-8 overall, 2-1 in the SoCon.
- Common opponents: Georgia, Samford and The Citadel. Both schools lost at Georgia and topped Samford and The Citadel.
- The Terriers also own wins over Emory & Henry, Johnson & Wales, Winthrop and High Point.
- 3-6 on the road, but Wofford has won last two.
- Head Coach Mike Young is 176-180 in his 12th season in Spartanburg. He is 8-8 vs. the Mocs.
- Spencer Collins (13.6), Karl Cochran (12.2) and Lee Skinner (11.6) all average in double digits for Wofford. Skinner is the team leader on the boards grabbing an even eight per contest.
- Terriers lead the league in scoring defense (65.7).
GoMocs.com is the official website of the Chattanooga Mocs. The Mocs can also be followed on their official Facebook page (www.facebook.com/GoMocs) or on Twitter (@GoMocsMBB & @GoMocs). Find out how to join the UTC Mocs Club and support more than 300 student-athletes by clicking here.


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Posts For: July 14, 2014
Compassion and the Rule of Law
The surge of illegal aliens–and in particular unaccompanied minors from Central America–across the border in Texas has started a debate in which more than immigration reform seems to be stake. While most conservatives are decrying the situation as the result of President Obama's mistakes, some liberals are focusing on what they believe is the lack of compassion for the children that is being forgotten amid the politics. But as the plight of these desperate kids becomes publicized, Americans are being asked to make a choice between their charitable instincts and the rule of law.
The surge of illegal aliens–and in particular unaccompanied minors from Central America–across the border in Texas has started a debate in which more than immigration reform seems to be stake. While most conservatives are decrying the situation as the result of President Obama's mistakes, some liberals are focusing on what they believe is the lack of compassion for the children that is being forgotten amid the politics. But as the plight of these desperate kids becomes publicized, Americans are being asked to make a choice between their charitable instincts and the rule of law.
That's the conceit of a good deal of the coverage of the reaction to the border surge in which demonstrations by Americans angry about the arrival of busloads of illegals are seen as proof of the intolerance and anger at the heart of resistance to immigration reform. The deplorable condition of many of these children and the hardships and violence they faced on their way to the United States all demand the sympathy of any decent person. Once in this country, they deserve humanitarian aid. Republicans who have expressed reluctance to allocate funds to deal with the crisis may be right not to trust President Obama to use the $3.7 billion he has requested wisely. But so long as they are on American soil, there can be no question that the government and concerned citizens must do whatever is needed to see that they are housed, fed, and given the medical care they need.
But that isn't what's at stake in this debate. Nobody is saying that the kids shouldn't be cared for. But the notion, pushed by the United Nations and a growing volume of liberal commentators, is that we must treat these illegals as refugees and let them stay in America rather than being sent back home.
The argument for this proposition rests principally on the idea that the kids are in genuine danger from violence in their own countries. Looked at from that point of view, sending them back would be a death sentence. Thus, granting them asylum is being represented as not merely ethical but our obligation as civilized people.
But the problem with this reasoning is that if this position is allowed to stand, Central America and indeed, much of the rest of the world, might well empty out as immigrants seeking a better life pour into the United States.
It may well be that some of the unaccompanied minors who have come here recently in their tens of thousands would be in danger back home. But the laws regarding refugees were intended to provide a haven to those with a genuine fear of persecution because of their politics, ethnicity, or religious beliefs, not merely those who had the bad luck to live in a country where the rule of law has broken down. Violence is nothing new in Central American countries and even if it has surged lately, declaring that anyone who had fled these nations has a right to stay in the U.S. would render all existing immigration law and even the concept of borders meaningless.
Such compassion is, after all, relative. Those declaring that the United States must absorb children sent streaming over our borders by parents who hope they will be allowed to stay are not, after all, also advocating that war refugees from Syria, Iraq, or Afghanistan or conflicts in dozens of other countries also be taken in with no questions asked. The point of such demands is not merely humanitarian but to underscore demands that those already in the country illegally be allowed a path to legalization if not citizenship.
I have always been sympathetic to such arguments since it seems to me that 11 million people cannot be deported and therefore amnesty is what we're experiencing now. But the border surge and the subsequent demands to grant tens of thousands of illegal aliens who are minors asylum demonstrates the danger of signaling that illegals will not be deported.
Granting refugee status to the current group of unaccompanied minors will herald the start of future surges that no amount of border patrol or improved security will be able to halt.
If these children deserve compassion, and they do, then by all means the U.S. should extend it to them. If it means more aid to the countries where they must be repatriated or the creation of centers in those countries where they can be protected against predators and poverty, then so be it. But if they are allowed to stay we might as well kiss goodbye any hope of America being able to police its borders or to have a say in who comes or goes.
As the people of many Central American nations have learned to their sorrow, the collapse of the rule of law means is the beginning of the rule of predators and the end of compassion. If we are to avoid the same fate and to be of any use to those who understandably wish to come here–whether legally or illegally–we must not allow a false argument for compassion to undermine our rule of law.
They'd Rather Walk Than Live with Israel
What was Jerusalem's Arab population doing when Hamas fired rockets at the holy city in the last week? According to stories in both the New York Times and the Times of Israel, the answer was clear: they cheered even though they were in as much, if not more, jeopardy than their Jewish neighbors.
What was Jerusalem's Arab population doing when Hamas fired rockets at the holy city in the last week? According to stories in both the New York Times and the Times of Israel, the answer was clear: they cheered even though they were in as much, if not more, jeopardy than their Jewish neighbors.
Both stories brought to mind the memory of Palestinians taking to their rooftops in 1991 to cheer Iraq's shooting of SCUD missiles at Israel during the first Gulf War. The spectacle of Jews being forced to run to bomb shelters when the air raid sirens began to wail is something that cheers their enemies who are frustrated about Israel's relative wealth and power. But what makes these stories so poignant isn't just the fact that Hamas rockets don't differentiate between Jews and Arabs. It's that their hostility toward Israel seems to be more important than their own wellbeing and any desire to improve their economic lot.
The quotes from Jerusalem Arabs about their indifference to the possibility of being harmed by Palestinian rockets sound remarkably similar to those uttered by Gazans who have heeded Hamas's call to act as human shields for the terrorists. Of course, thanks to the Iron Dome missile defense system, this was just rhetoric. But their words provided more evidence of the implacable hate for Jews and Israelis that is felt by most of the Arabs. Just as Palestinians mocked the plight of the three kidnapped Israeli teenagers last month on social media and in demonstrations aimed at thwarting rescue efforts that proved futile after the trio were murdered, Jerusalem's Arabs think there is something meritorious in Hamas's practice of firing indiscriminately at crowded cities.
Such attitudes are the real obstacle to peace in the Middle East since it demonstrates that polls that indicate widespread Palestinian support for efforts to continue the struggle against Israel's existence are not mistaken.
Yet, as New York Times bureau chief Jodi Rudoren discovered when she decided to investigate Arab sentiment about the light rail line that connects Arab and Jewish neighborhoods in the capital, Jerusalem's Arabs would rather see improvements like the railroad destroyed than benefit from cooperation with Israel.
Days after they celebrated the murder of the three Israeli teens, Jerusalem Arabs rioted after a group of Jewish hooligans murdered an Arab teenager in a revenge attack. Rather than sense the futility of these horrors, Palestinians believed the death of one of their own required them to up the ante in terms of violence even though Israel's government and the overwhelming majority of its people condemned the crime. But rather than just demonstrate, they attacked the light rail line and destroyed stations and infrastructure that had been built to service their community.
While rioters generally don't think rationally, the targeting of the rail stations seems premeditated and aimed at proving the point. For decades since Jerusalem's unification in 1967, the municipality has underserved its Arab neighborhoods. But the creation of the light rail system, which was inaugurated in 2011, was part of an effort to provide services to Arabs and connect them to the rest of the city in a way that would obviously boost their economy. Yet, as Rudoren writes, it's clear that the Arab population resented it as a symbol of "occupation." By occupation, they are not merely referencing the unification of the city under Israeli rule or even that of the West Bank but the Jewish state's existence. Thus, it was hardly surprising that mobs would burn down the Shuafat and Es-Sahl stations and reduce the line's 23 stops to 16, meaning that many Arabs no longer have access to rail transportation.
That's a small price to pay for Arabs who clearly regard the continuation of the war against Zionism as a higher priority than the prosperity of Jerusalem's Arabs. But this isn't the first time such a choice has been made.
The rejection of the light rail has precedents going back to the 1930s when Palestinian Arabs rejected and sought to destroy the country's new electricity grid that had been constructed by the Jewish community. Just as one Arab social worker who used to take the light rail told Rudoren that he would rather walk than go on using a symbol of Israel's permanence, then some Arabs preferred to go without electricity. When international philanthropists purchased the greenhouses being left behind by Jewish settlers in Gaza after Israel's 2005 withdrawal so as to benefit local Arabs, the structures were burned to the ground within hours by those who were supposed to profit from them.
Israelis who have given up on the peace process to the dismay of foreign friends who believe this is wrong are simply dealing with reality. Stories like these show that despite the focus on the details of peace talks and negotiations about borders, peace will require more than a signed piece of paper. Though peace processers keep reassuring us that "everyone knows" what a solution to the conflict looks like, the statements made by Jerusalem's Arabs—people who have had more opportunity to live around Jews and benefit from Israeli prosperity and democracy than others in the West Bank and Gaza—paint a depressing picture of what it will really take. Nothing short of a change of heart on the part of Palestinians who cling to hopes of Israel's destruction and have been so inculcated in hate that they cannot see the humanity of people who live in their own city will make peace possible. Until then Jerusalem Arabs prefer to walk.
Kerry's False Iran Talks Narrative
Who are the obstacles to a new nuclear deal between the West and Iran? According to the New York Times, it's the extremists on both sides: Iranian mullahs and members of Congress, both of whom are said to want the negotiations to fail. But the problem here is that both the newspaper and the anonymous U.S. officials who were the sources for the piece assume the object of the exercise is a deal of any sort. Their American critics have a different goal: stopping Iran from getting a bomb.
Who are the obstacles to a new nuclear deal between the West and Iran? According to the New York Times, it's the extremists on both sides: Iranian mullahs and members of Congress, both of whom are said to want the negotiations to fail. But the problem here is that both the newspaper and the anonymous U.S. officials who were the sources for the piece assume the object of the exercise is a deal of any sort. Their American critics have a different goal: stopping Iran from getting a bomb.
The Times article advances the administration's agenda in which it has sought to portray critics of the Iran talks as warmongers determined to thwart progress in the same way that hard-line ayatollahs might. But the facile analogy tells us more about Kerry's mindset than anything else. Like Cold War-era liberals who urged the U.S. not to be too tough on Moscow, lest the real hardliners in the Kremlin get the best of the liberal Communists, the assumption that there is any real support in Tehran for reconciliation or willingness to give up their nuclear quest is probably a pointless diversion. Contrary to the Times, the recent statements of Iran's supreme leader–in which he stated that his country intends to increase the number of centrifuges enriching uranium, not reduce them–did not so much blindside his envoys as it made clear that the belief that they would accommodate Western demands was always a delusion. The supposed leader of the Iranian moderates, President Hassan Rouhani, is a loyal servant of Ayatollah Khamenei and helped deceive the West in the past. Whatever issues divide the Iranians, they are united in an effort to bluff the Obama administration into giving them another diplomatic victory.
On the other hand, the members of the House and the Senate that have warned the White House that they will oppose any deal that leaves Iran with a nuclear capability are not the problem. There is no difference between the stated positions of Democrat Robert Menendez, the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and President Obama. Both have said they will not settle for an agreement that will allow Iran to get a bomb. Menendez and the broad bipartisan majority of both Houses of Congress have put on record their opposition to a weak deal that would leave Iran's infrastructure in place with no credible guarantees to stop them from resuming their nuclear quest. But the motivation for the congressional critiques is not opposition to diplomacy per se so much as their understanding that administration diplomats have succumbed before to their zeal for a deal and may yet again.
At the heart of this dynamic is not the meme of extremists on both sides opposing compromise but the direction that the negotiations have taken. Kerry threw away the West's formidable economic and military leverage over Iran last fall and signed an interim nuclear deal that tacitly recognized its right to enrich uranium and loosened sanctions in exchange for concessions that could be easily reversed. The Iranians had every expectation that this pattern would be repeated in the current round of talks and have understandably refused to back down and agree to anything that would really limit their ability to go nuclear.
This places Kerry in a bind. The administration desperately needs an agreement because neither President Obama nor America's European allies have any appetite for continuing the existing sanctions on Iran's economy, let alone toughening them (as Congress would like to do) in order to bring Tehran to its knees. Having started the process of unraveling support for sanctions last fall, getting the international community to agree to a genuine boycott of Iranian oil may be beyond the capacity of this administration.
That's what Iran is counting on as it plays out the clock on the talks denying they will give Kerry any extra time during which he can somehow craft a deal. That leaves the U.S. vulnerable to a nuclear shakedown in which an agreement that would place no real obstacles in Iran's place might be presented to the American people as proof that Obama kept his word to stop Iran. While most Americans are hazy about the details of these talks, they should not be deceived into thinking this is an issue on which reasonable people can split the difference. An agreement that allows Iran to keep its nuclear program (something that the president specifically vowed not to let happen) and gives it access to its nuclear stockpile with only a brief "break out" period standing between the ayatollahs and the bomb is not a compromise. It is a Western surrender that will put nuclear weapons within reach of the world's leading sponsor of terrorism.
As time winds down toward the moment when another Kerry cave-in becomes the only way a deal gets done, it is imperative that Congress sends a clear message that it will never pass any bill lifting sanctions on Iran unless the negotiations produce an accord that is something more than a Western fig leaf covering Iran's nuclear ambition.
Obama and the New Global Instability
Today's Wall Street Journal published a trenchant front-page article that begins this way:
Today's Wall Street Journal published a trenchant front-page article that begins this way:
A convergence of security crises is playing out around the globe, from the Palestinian territories and Iraq to Ukraine and the South China Sea, posing a serious challenge to President Barack Obama's foreign policy and reflecting a world in which U.S. global power seems increasingly tenuous.
The breadth of global instability now unfolding hasn't been seen since the late 1970s, U.S. security strategists say, when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, revolutionary Islamists took power in Iran, and Southeast Asia was reeling in the wake of the U.S. exit from Vietnam.
The story went on to say this:
In the past month alone, the U.S. has faced twin civil wars in Iraq and Syria, renewed fighting between Israel and the Palestinians, an electoral crisis in Afghanistan and ethnic strife on the edge of Russia, in Ukraine.
Off center stage, but high on the minds of U.S. officials, are growing fears that negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program could collapse this month, and that China is intensifying its territorial claims in East Asia.
The Journal story should be read along with this story from the New York Times published earlier this month that reports this:
Speaking at West Point in May, President Obama laid out a blueprint for fighting terrorism that relies less on American soldiers, like the cadets in his audience that day, and more on training troops in countries where those threats had taken root.
But this indirect approach, intended to avoid costly, bloody wars like the one the United States waged in Iraq, immediately collided with reality when a lethal jihadi insurgency swept across the same Iraqi battlefields where thousands of Americans had lost their lives.
The seizing of large parts of Iraq by Sunni militants — an offensive hastened by the collapse of the American-trained Iraqi Army — stunned the White House and has laid bare the limitations of a policy that depends on the cooperation of often balky and overmatched partners.
While the militants from ISIS have moved swiftly to establish a caliphate from eastern Syria to central Iraq, the White House is struggling to repel them with measures that administration officials concede will take months or longer to be effective.
About these stories, I want to make several points, starting with this one: Mr. Obama said that if elected his approach would be characterized by "smart diplomacy." The result would be that he would "remake the world" and "heal the planet." And during the first summer of his presidency, Mr. Obama said his policies would usher in a "new beginning" based on "mutual respect" with the Arab and Islamic world and "help answer the call for a new dawn in the Middle East."
Some new dawn.
President Obama has not only not achieved what he said he would; the world may well be, as Senator John McCain put it this weekend, "in greater turmoil than at any time in my lifetime." Mr. Obama's role in this turmoil depends on the particular case we're talking about, but it's certainly the case that (a) his policies have amplified and accelerated some of the problems around the world while failing to mitigate others and (b) measured against his own standards, the president has failed miserably.
Beyond that, though, his underlying philosophy–non-intervention, ending America's involvement in wars instead of winning them, "leading from behind," consciously making America a less powerful force in the world–has been tested in real time, against real circumstances. And it's fair to say, I think, that not only has Mr. Obama failed (in part by being exceptionally incompetent at statecraft), but so has his left-leaning ideology, his worldview.
Finally, what Mr. Obama should have learned by now is that his confidence in his abilities were wildly exaggerated, based on nothing he had actually achieved. That the world is vastly more complicated than he ever imagined. And that being a successful diplomat is harder than being a community organizer. One might hope that Mr. Obama would be a wee bit chastened by now and learn something about modesty and his own limitations. But I rather doubt it, since he appears to me to be a man of startlingly little self-knowledge.
Every president learns that it's easier to give speeches than to govern well, to criticize others than to help build a peaceful and ordered world. But no president I'm aware of has suffered from a wider gap between what he said and what he has been able to produce. We've entered a perilous moment in world affairs, and we have as chief executive a man who is wholly out of his depth. These are not good times for this exceptional nation.
The Unions' Warning to Hillary Clinton
Arne Duncan can rest easy. The current secretary of education has lately been on the receiving end of the pitchforks-and-torches treatment from the major national teachers unions, but he's not really the target. They are calling for his job, not because they expect to radically alter the course of this administration but to encourage the others, as they say.
Arne Duncan can rest easy. The current secretary of education has lately been on the receiving end of the pitchforks-and-torches treatment from the major national teachers unions, but he's not really the target. They are calling for his job, not because they expect to radically alter the course of this administration but to encourage the others, as they say.
To recap: the Obama administration has been sufficiently deferential to the public unions that fleece the taxpayers to get Democrats elected at the state and national levels. The president's hypocrisy on school choice is not only a sop to the unions but particularly glaring–it's not unusual for a president to send his kids to private school, but it is rare that one does so while working assiduously to end opportunity scholarship programs in the same city simultaneously.
President Obama's choice for education secretary, however, made the unions slightly nervous. Obama calmed their nerves by making sure that Duncan would simply carry out Obama's antichoice crusade and not think too much for himself. But Duncan spooked the unions recently by saying something that is anathema to Democrats even if it was commonsense by any reasonable standard.
Last month, a California court ruled unconstitutional the union protections that made it virtually impossible to fire bad teachers and which have steadily degraded the quality of education in America's public schools. This was a victory especially for poor and minority students, which tend to be harmed the most by the Democrats' education policies. The courts were a last recourse for these students, thanks to the policymaking stranglehold the unions have over the state's Democrats. Duncan understood that this kind of ruling was the only way to effect real change, by forcing the hand of the school systems:
The ruling was hailed by the nation's top education chief as bringing to California — and possibly the nation — an opportunity to build "a new framework for the teaching profession." The decision represented "a mandate" to fix a broken teaching system, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said. …
Duncan, a former schools chief in Chicago, said he hoped the ruling will spark a national dialogue on a teacher tenure process "that is fair, thoughtful, practical and swift."
At a minimum, Duncan said the court decision, if upheld, will bring to California "a new framework for the teaching profession that protects students' rights to equal educational opportunities while providing teachers the support, respect and rewarding careers they deserve."
"The students who brought this lawsuit are, unfortunately, just nine out of millions of young people in America who are disadvantaged by laws, practices and systems that fail to identify and support our best teachers and match them with our neediest students. Today's court decision is a mandate to fix these problems," Duncan said.
But teachers unions have mostly become a job preservation program, with the education of the students a secondary, at best, concern. So they lashed out at Duncan for defending the minority students over which the unions were running roughshod. In other words, for doing (at least part of) his job:
Delegates of the National Education Association adopted a business item July 4 at its annual convention in Denver that called for his resignation. The vote underscores the long-standing tension between the Obama administration and teachers' unions — historically a steadfast Democratic ally.
A tipping point for some members was Duncan's statement last month in support of a California judge's ruling that struck down tenure and other job protections for the state's public school teachers. In harsh wording, the judge said such laws harm particularly low-income students by saddling them with bad teachers who are almost impossible to fire.
Now the American Federation of Teachers has joined the mob, yesterday approving a resolution calling for his job–unless Duncan follows the unions' proposed rehabilitation process, erasing even the façade of independence the administration would have from its union benefactors.
Duncan is to be commended for his comments. And he can take solace in the fact that the NEA and AFT attempts to wreck his career are not really about him anyway–a fact the reporting about this contretemps tends to miss. They are, instead, a warning shot. The unions want Hillary Clinton, or whoever turns out to be their next nominee, to see where the unions have drawn the line for a future White House. And Duncan is on the wrong side of that line.
For the teachers unions, anyway. He's on the right side of that line for the country, and for public education. The unions aren't interested in saving this particular ship, as long as their leaders and veteran teachers are guaranteed a lifeboat and a generous pension when it finally sinks.
U.S. Objective Should Be to Disarm Hamas
The United States has been a largely helpless spectator as the fighting between Israel and Hamas has continued this week. But rather than merely calling for restraint or trying to cajole Egypt into resuming its traditional role as broker between the two parties, Washington should be attempting to get at the heart of the problem: forcing the terrorists in Gaza to disarm.
The United States has been a largely helpless spectator as the fighting between Israel and Hamas has continued this week. But rather than merely calling for restraint or trying to cajole Egypt into resuming its traditional role as broker between the two parties, Washington should be attempting to get at the heart of the problem: forcing the terrorists in Gaza to disarm.
Secretary of State John Kerry is reportedly on his way to Cairo to persuade the military government there to play a more active role in diplomacy. However, Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi takes almost as dim a view of the Obama administration as he does of Hamas, an ally of the Muslim Brotherhood that he has been suppressing.
Sisi's cooperation is crucial to ending the fighting quickly since in addition to demanding the release of terrorists by Israel, the Islamists want the border crossings from Gaza into Egypt opened. They also would like the Egyptians to facilitate the transfer of cash from Qatar and other foreign backers of Hamas. If Kerry's message to Egypt is for Cairo to bend to Hamas's wishes, it's not clear whether Sisi will listen. But as much as Sisi accommodating Hamas in some way may seem the easy way out, it is doubtful that the Egyptian is so foolish as to think a rapprochement with Hamas will do his country or the cause of regional stability much good in the long run. Nor should Kerry be advocating such a policy.
The problem here is not whether Kerry helps construct another temporary fix that will merely set the region up for another round of rocket terrorism from Hamas the next time it wants to extract concessions from Israel or Egypt. Rather, the most constructive position that the U.S. could take would be for it to offer extensive help for Gaza but only if Hamas gets out of the terror business.
Just as the U.S. sought, with European and ultimately Russian assistance, for the Assad regime in Syria to be forced to give up its chemical weapons, so, too, now Washington should be working hard to force Hamas to give up its rocket arsenal.
To be sure, that may be something of a pipe dream. Hamas is at its very core a terrorist organization committed to violence and to use any tactics to achieve its goal of destroying Israel. But it must be understood that as much as the current conflict is driven by Hamas's intransigent refusal to end the war on the Jewish state, its ability to go on fighting that war has been enabled by past decisions by the U.S. and Egypt to tolerate its hold on Gaza and to allow a status quo in which the Islamist group was allowed to not only stay in power but also to amass the arms with which it could seek to threaten the peace of the region.
Though Hamas is routinely depicted as being under terrible economic and military pressure, as Avi Isacharoff writes in the Times of Israel, it is quite content with its current position. Hamas's leaders and their weapons stockpile are safe and sound in their bunkers and tunnels deep under Gaza's civilian population centers. Their firing of rockets at Israel has boosted their popularity among a Palestinian people that is still fixated on their hatred of Jews and Zionism. And the rising toll of Palestinian civilians killed as the result of Israeli efforts to suppress the rocket fire has led to more sympathy for Hamas. Nor are they particularly daunted by the prospect of an Israeli ground operation in Gaza since they think it is unlikely to capture their key strongholds and bunkers and will only make Israel's international position even more untenable and cause casualties on both sides to spike.
Thus, Hamas may feel like it can go on shooting at Israel indefinitely until Egypt or Israel gives up and makes a concession that will enable Hamas to declare victory, something that would also give it more leverage over their erstwhile Fatah partners in the Palestinian government. So while a cease-fire would be the best thing for civilians on both sides, it would be a catastrophe were the U.S. to be working toward a deal that would grant Hamas such a triumph.
As historian and former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren wrote yesterday on CNN.com, the U.S. objective should be a deal that will call for Israel to lift its maritime blockade of Gaza and a massive infusion of foreign aid in exchange for the surrender of all of Hamas's rocket arsenal and the return of control of the strip to the Palestinian Authority.
Without the demilitarization of Gaza and the end of its status as an independent Palestinian state in all but name—but one ruled by Islamist tyrants—there is no chance for peace for Gaza or the West Bank in the foreseeable future. Kerry, who devoted much of the last year to a futile and actually counter-productive round of peace talks that set in motion the series of events that led to the current fighting, must try and see beyond the immediate problems and realize that if the parties are not to be doomed to endless repetitions of this drama, the status quo in Gaza must be upended. If, instead, he signs on to yet another cease-fire proposal that will leave Hamas and its rockets in place, it will mean more than a guarantee of more fighting in the future. It will also ensure that any future peace efforts will be just as pointless as the ones Kerry just conducted. Rather than pressuring Egypt to help Hamas, Kerry should be marshaling international opinion behind a solution that will disarm the terrorists and give peace a chance.
Narendra Modi for President!
Narendra Modi, the new prime minister of India, promised in his campaign to clean up the notoriously slovenly ways of the Indian bureaucracy. According to the Washington Post, he is doing exactly that. As the Post explains:
Narendra Modi, the new prime minister of India, promised in his campaign to clean up the notoriously slovenly ways of the Indian bureaucracy. According to the Washington Post, he is doing exactly that. As the Post explains:
Babudom ["Babu" is the nickname for a member of the upper echelons of the bureaucracy] is now in peril. Modi signaled as much in the early days of his administration, when he summoned about 70 of the government's top civil servants, gave them his personal cellphone number and e-mail address, and said it was time for work. A circular appeared the next day with what has been called Modi's "11 Commandments" — orders to clean work spaces, shorten forms, weed out old files and review goals.
When the Home Ministry (roughly the equivalent of the Department of the Interior) cleaned out 150,000 files, they found some that went back to the British Raj. Then they allegedly compiled a list of bureaucrats known to frequent golf courses and stay at five-star hotels and sent it to the prime minister's office. It seems to be working. About 200 babus were members of the elite Delhi Golf Club. Many have now resigned from the club and others are teeing off at 5:30 a.m. The prime minister is given to calling ministers on their landlines just to make sure they are in their offices.
Barack Obama is totally uninterested in managing the government he heads. That's why he only finds out about, say, the mess at the Veterans Administration when he reads about it in the papers. But that's part of the president's job whether he likes it or not. And Republican presidential hopefuls for 2016 would be well advised to take a leaf from Modi's playbook. The federal bureaucracy is nowhere near as corrupt, convoluted, rule-ridden, and slothful as the Indian one, which is the gold standard of bureaucratic inertia and dysfunction. But it is corrupt, convoluted, rule-ridden, and slothful enough. The federal government was last fundamentally reorganized in the late 1940s and early 1950s by the Hoover Commissions. The world has changed profoundly in the last sixty years and the government has not. Promising thoroughgoing government reform and reorganization, while riding herd on the bureaucracy, is a winning issue.
Europe's Jews: Unwanted, Dead or Alive
When the historian and founding president of Brandeis Abram Sachar wrote a history of the Jewish journey from the death camps to the establishment of the State of Israel, he called it The Redemption of the Unwanted. I've always found the term to be depressingly appropriate, both as a profound statement on the flipside of the Jews being the "chosen people" and as an insight into postwar Jewry.
When the historian and founding president of Brandeis Abram Sachar wrote a history of the Jewish journey from the death camps to the establishment of the State of Israel, he called it The Redemption of the Unwanted. I've always found the term to be depressingly appropriate, both as a profound statement on the flipside of the Jews being the "chosen people" and as an insight into postwar Jewry.
Though the Holocaust was over, anti-Semitism was not. And while some Jews bravely chose to rebuild from the rubble–they were rebuilding not just European Jewry but Europe itself, though their European brethren would never concede as much–the Jewish people had understood their status. They were not fleeting victims or convenient scapegoats (or at least not only those things); they were unwanted, dead or alive.
That's how it must have felt in the days, months, and years after the war. But now that decades have come and gone, should they still feel that way? Europe's answer, repeated over the weekend, seems to be a clear yes. The main story of Sunday's bubbling over of European anti-Semitism was the anti-Jewish rioting–perhaps attempted pogrom is a better term–at a Paris synagogue, in which Jews were trapped until evening by anti-Semitic protesters who "tried to force their way into a Paris synagogue Sunday with bats and chairs, then fought with security officers who blocked their way, according to police and a witness."
The worst part is the sense of inevitability of the violence. Business Insider's report on the incident has to include one of the most absurd qualifiers you'll ever read in such a case. Here's their opening sentence: "French interior minister Manuel Valls condemned 'with the greatest force' attacks on two Paris synagogues Sunday by pro-Palestinian protesters who broke away from an otherwise peaceful demonstration."
It was an "otherwise peaceful demonstration"–you know, besides the attempted pogrom. (Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln….) And surely it is to be appreciated that the French government condemns pogroms. But is it ungrateful to point out that condemning the regular violence against Jews in France is just maybe not enough–not nearly? French Jews are voting with their feet because they feel unwanted, and they feel unwanted because the French state either can't do anything about France's horrendous anti-Semitism–a second synagogue was firebombed in Paris yesterday–or it won't. Either way, the message is clear.
France was not the only location of European anti-Semitism yesterday. And though it may have been minor in comparison–and though there were anti-Semitic outbursts outside Europe too–the symbolism of one of the other incidents must have been truly terrifying. It was in Germany, and here is what happened, according to the AP:
German police allowed an anti-Israel protester to climb inside a police car and shout slogans including "child murderer Israel" and "Allahu akbar!" — Arabic for "God is Great!" — through a police megaphone, a spokeswoman for Frankfurt's police said Sunday.
Police let the protester use the megaphone during a Free Gaza demonstration Saturday because he had offered to calm down a protest that had turned violent, spokeswoman Virginie Wegner told The Associated Press.
"We as police had come up spontaneously with this unusual method and he abused it — we didn't expect that," Wegner said, adding that police were investigating the incident. "Police are neutral during protests."
Instead of calming things down, the protester — whose identity was not revealed — shouted anti-Israel slogans in German and Arabic in downtown Frankfurt. A video that went viral shows a crowd following the police car, cheering and repeating the chants.
I doubt the Jews of Germany will soon forget hearing anti-Jewish slogans shouted from a police megaphone–in 2014. There are a couple of things wrong with the Frankfurt police's response. Obviously, letting a protester into the police car to access the megaphone was a boneheaded mistake. But then Wegner defends the police by saying, first, "we didn't expect that," and then saying "Police are neutral during protests."
Well, maybe they should have expected it, and hopefully will from now on. As for their neutrality, it is clearly neutrality in theory not in practice, and it is not doing law and order any favors.
Pogroms in Paris, thuggish intimidation in Germany: does European Jewry have a future? It's a question we keep asking, though I suspect we keep asking it because we don't like the apparent answer–like the kid who keeps shaking and re-shaking the magic eight ball until the right prediction comes up. Clarity might be more helpful, which the anti-Semitic incidents do provide. Europe's anti-Semites could not be clearer: their hatred of Jews has nothing to do with Israeli self-defense. It's just a convenient excuse to target the unwanted.
The Buck Stops Here, But It's All Their Fault
Charles Blow of the New York Times wins today's disingenuousness award for his column in defense of President Obama. The subject: does President Obama deserve his reputation for blaming either the previous administration or congressional Republicans for the nation's problems?
Charles Blow of the New York Times wins today's disingenuousness award for his column in defense of President Obama. The subject: does President Obama deserve his reputation for blaming either the previous administration or congressional Republicans for the nation's problems?
Blow huffily responds that this president is, in fact, a latter day Truman, a "habitual blame taker." For example, President Obama said in a 2013 interview that "ultimately, the buck stops with me."
But, as Blow neglects to mention, the president immediately added: "And, you know, I've said before—and I continue to say—you know, I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get Congress—and Republicans in Congress in particular—to think less about politics and party and think more about what's good for the country." That is, when it comes to preventing selfish and unpatriotic Republicans from destroying the country, President Obama takes full responsibility.
To be sure, Blow finds other places in which Obama invokes Truman. For example, in 2012, Obama shared what Blow calls "his philosophy of presidential responsibility": "as president of the United States, it's pretty clear to me that I'm responsible for folks who are working in the federal government and, you know, the buck stops with you."
However, as Blow chooses not to say, Obama was there in the midst not of taking responsibility for anything but of demanding that Mitt Romney take the blame for what Bain Capital did when Romney was not actively managing it.
In two of the other six quotations Blow hand-selects to prove that President Obama is positively eager to take responsibility for what happens on his watch, the president is at best holding himself accountable for (some day) cleaning up the mess that somebody else made. Concerning the bonuses A.I.G. executives, the president did say, again, "the buck stops with me," but only after saying "We've got a big mess that we're having to clean up. Nobody here drafted these contracts. Nobody here was responsible for supervising A.I.G."
Concerning the slowness of the recovery, here it is again: "the buck stops with me." President Obama said that in response to Wolf Blitzer, who had just reminded him of a statement he made when he took office: "if I don't have this done in three years, then there's going to be a one-term proposition." Obama's responded, "when I came into office, I knew I was going to have a big mess to clean up and frankly, I think the mess has been bigger than I think a lot of people anticipated." In other words, he took responsibility for pulling America out of the mess the previous administration had made, a responsibility he would perhaps have already fulfilled, he added, were it not for Congress (i.e. the Republicans): "we're going to need folks to move off some of these rigid positions they've been taking in order to solve these problems."
So in the week Charles Blow presumably spent googling up quotations that would demonstrate "how outrageously untrue" it is that the president rarely takes responsibility for failures, he was able to find exactly two cases in the past six years—one concerning the health-care website—in which President Obama held his administration accountable without blaming a Republican in the next breath.
Of course, President Obama was not to blame for all the problems he inherited. But that we are still discussing the "Bush hangover" in the middle of his second term is a testament less to the scope of the difficulties the country faced when the president took office than to the refusal of this administration to concede that its policies and leadership have anything to do with the foreign and domestic difficulties the country still faces.
For Israel, a Little Disengagement Can Go a Very Long Way
It was news in 2006 when Hezbollah was hitting Haifa with rockets from Lebanon: Israel's third largest city was now suddenly in reach of the Iranian terror proxy. Today, Haifa is being struck by rockets once again. But this time they are not coming from the northern border, but rather from far to Israel's south in Gaza. Indeed, the warning sirens have even been heard in Nahariya to the north of Haifa. Almost the entirety of Israel is within reach of rockets from the small Gaza enclave.
It was news in 2006 when Hezbollah was hitting Haifa with rockets from Lebanon: Israel's third largest city was now suddenly in reach of the Iranian terror proxy. Today, Haifa is being struck by rockets once again. But this time they are not coming from the northern border, but rather from far to Israel's south in Gaza. Indeed, the warning sirens have even been heard in Nahariya to the north of Haifa. Almost the entirety of Israel is within reach of rockets from the small Gaza enclave.
Prior to Israel's 2005 evacuation from Gaza, when that move was being debated in the Knesset, several of Israel's parliamentarians scoffed at the idea that retreat from Gaza would bring further rocket fire or greater insecurity. Rather, they insisted that this move was essential for bringing safety to the communities bordering Gaza. At the time Kadima MK Meir Shitrit scoffed "There is an argument according to which there will be a threat … a threat on the Negev communities, I have never before heard such a ridiculous argument." Similarly, Meretz's Ran Cohen declared "The disengagement is good for security. The right-wing people stood here and talked about kassams flying from here to there. I'm telling you … if we don't get out of the Gaza strip in two or three years, maybe after one year, the range will reach Ashkelon!" How grateful most Israelis would be if Hamas rockets had only gotten as far as Ashkelon. As it is, more than seventy percent of the country is now under Hamas's rocket barrage.
Yet, as much as disengagement from Gaza has been a security disaster for Israel, it is not at all clear what a feasible strategy for success might look like.
The prospect of permanently redeploying the IDF in the strip and sending Israel's sons to police the backstreets of Gaza's slums is virtually unthinkable. Equally, an attempt to overthrow Hamas and reinstate the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority there could also quickly unravel. Another alternative might be to permanently station Israel's military along Gaza's Philadelphi Corridor on the Egyptian border, so giving Israel greater ability to prevent the smuggling of weaponry into the strip. That, however, would mean that Israel would become solely responsible for Gaza's borders, whereas at least as things currently stand the military blockade of Gaza is given added legitimacy by the fact that the Egyptians also help maintain it; not that one would know this from the popular discourse on the subject.
This question of legitimacy is no small matter for Israel in its handling of the threat from Gaza. A permanent Israeli presence in Gaza could easily become the source of much international condemnation. But that has to be contrasted with the existing scenario where, in addition to the necessity a constant military blockade of Gaza, there is a pattern of intensive conflicts breaking out every two or three years. These see a high casualty rate—albeit far lower than the figures for other similar conflicts—and that in turn causes a level of hysterical condemnation from parts of the media, the UN, and the streets of Europe, that greatly undermines Israel's international standing.
It is with all this in mind that Israelis turn their gaze to low lying Samarian hills of the West Bank that overlook Israel's densely populated central region, where the country's international airport and the bulk of its energy infrastructure is situated. If a small-scale disengagement from Gaza can bring almost the entire country within range of Hamas rockets, then what might withdrawal from the West Bank bring? As Prime Minister Netanyahu noted on Friday, the West Bank could quickly become 20 Gazas. Even with the Iron Dome missile defense system, at present Israelis find themselves scurrying in and out of bomb shelters every few hours. How long can people realistically live like that? Besides, with every Iron Dome interception of a cheaply made kassam rocket costing tens of thousands of dollars, a war of attrition could quickly become completely unsustainable for the Israelis.
Preventing infiltration by militants attempting to breach Gaza's border with Israel has proven a difficult and resource consuming task. The winding West Bank border is far longer and much closer to large population centers than the Gazan border is. And given that Iranian supplied anti-tank missiles have been fired at civilian traffic from Gaza, it is quite conceivable that similar attacks could emanate from a Palestinian controlled West Bank. After all, with the sheer volume of weaponry that has made its way beneath Gaza's border with Egypt, it is highly likely that far more could cross undetected over the far lengthier Jordanian border with the West Bank.
Netanyahu's words on Friday about not relinquishing control of territory west of the Jordan River will likely make sense to a growing number of Israelis. A little disengagement from Gaza has put almost the entire country within reach of Hamas rockets; what might a dramatically larger disengagement from the West Bank lead to?
Can Turkey Hijack the Internet?
Turkey continues its march toward authoritarianism unabated. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has made clear that not only does he want to become president, but should he assume that office—and there is every reason to suspect he will given both the blind support Turkish Islamists give him and the power over the bureaucracy which he can wield to change the results of close elections—he will not act aloof from politics as the constitution demands, but rather will wield his power to privilege his supporters and punish those who oppose him.
Turkey continues its march toward authoritarianism unabated. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has made clear that not only does he want to become president, but should he assume that office—and there is every reason to suspect he will given both the blind support Turkish Islamists give him and the power over the bureaucracy which he can wield to change the results of close elections—he will not act aloof from politics as the constitution demands, but rather will wield his power to privilege his supporters and punish those who oppose him.
Indeed, Erdoğan is not shy about using whatever power he can accumulate, whether it is constitutional or not. Visiting Istanbul and Ankara late last month, businessmen to a man (or woman) said that should they become involved in politics either directly or by funding a party or cause which contravenes Erdoğan's vision, they can expect ruinous tax audits and judgments designed to dissuade and ruin. At the height of his purge of the military, one-in-five Turkish generals was in prison, never mind that the supposed evidence against them was blatantly fraudulent. Erdoğan and his then-allies in the Gülen movement controlled security forces and heavily influenced the judiciary—and so simply were not going to allow rule of law to get in the way of his agenda.
The prime minister has reserved special animus toward the free press. Turkey now ranks below Russia in terms of free press and is on a trajectory to fall below even the Islamic Republic of Iran. So much for the model of democracy to which President Obama, and former secretaries of state Hillary Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, and Colin Powell once referred. Erdoğan is smart: while he has come down like a ton of bricks on journalists and editors who have dared criticize him or give voice to his opponents, journalists who tow Erdoğan's line find themselves recipients of millions of dollars in largesse. Some have been so bold as to buy fancy villas alongside the Bosporus when just a few years ago, they were unknown and their journalism job would not suffice to pay the real estate bill. One veteran journalist estimated that only five percent of Turkish journalists working today can be considered professional or ethical in their work.
Erdoğan has previously lashed out at social media and Twitter. As is so often the case with Turkey, real repression follows months after the headline-grabbing bloviating when the international media moves on. Erdoğan, however, doesn't forget. According to Turkish Internet and privacy experts, it seems that the Turkish government is taking Internet surveillance and censorship to a new level:
Due to legal obstacles to prohibiting social-media sharing by political dissidents in Turkey, the government has a new strategy: to act as Internet pirates… Turkey will now try to hack into ISPs' systems and surveil users' browsing/sharing habits. With this aim, recently the Internet watchdog sent a "secret orders" memo to ISPs, to prepare the software infrastructure necessary for detecting users that share unwanted content on social-media platforms. The daily Taraf's article by Tunca Öğreten reveals the government's plans to intervene in Internet users' privacy and basic freedoms yet again.The method for intervening between the user agreement which secures the user's privacy regarding the service s/he signs up for is to hack into the HTTPS protocol and surveil user habits. The government's request from ISSs to establish a bug that will work as spyware is planned to enable browsing all users' behavior and data without their consent. This includes not only the content of social media updates a person shares but also the e-trade flow and all related data; and the system is planned to be open for immediate interventions.
The whole article is worth reading as the Turkish government increases its machinery of repression. And the response from Washington? Crickets.


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Mike Trout Autographed Memorabilia and Collectibles
Mike Trout is leaving a mark on MLB history with his impressive skill and talent on the diamond for the Los Angeles Angels. The youngest player ever to hit a career cycle at an All-Star Game, Trout is breaking records while making it look easy. With a long-lasting career projected to match those of Hall of Famers, Mike Trout is building a legacy that will last forever.


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|Library QCAT Maintenance: Wednesday June 26, 2013
|The library's web search (QCAT) will be unavailable for most of the day on Wednesday, June 16, 2013. This is to facilitate upgrades to the underlying systems.
We thank you for your patience.
|Publish Date:
|June 25, 2013, 12:04 PM
|ITServices Support Centre


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MILLBURY, Mass. —Joseph Lucier, of Millbury, was named to the Rensselaer Polytechnic lnstitute School of Engineering Dean 's List for the fall 2012 semester.
To attain the Dean's List at RPI, students must complete at least 12 credit hours of graded work during the semester. Receive no grade below a C and attain a semester grade point average of 3.00 or better
Lucier is a freshman with a double major in Aeronautical/Mechanical Engineering. He is the son of John & Melissa Lucier of Millbury.
Rensselaer is a unique residential undergraduate college embedded in a world-class technological research university. The School of Engineering remains at the core of the Institute. For more information, see their website.


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Below is the poem entitled ignorance of the truth is no different than fear which was written by poet
Castro. Please feel free to comment on this poem. However, please remember, PoetrySoup is a place of encouragement and growth.
Read Poems by
John Castro
Jeremiah 10 OH oh christmas tree oh christmas tree how have you lied to thee
santa claus is a black man jesus is white with blonde hair and blue eyes
how much longer must we listen to these ridiculous lies???
God is love God is good God is great
but i bet you didnt know that God can hate!!(Malachi 1:2-3)
you say open your heart come to God come to truth
but did you know your God delights in destroying you?(Deuteronomy 28:63)
you celebrate christmas and easter as if it were so
but the devil has kept you out of the loop out of the know
two calendar months were added to the year
ignorance of the truth is no different than fear
july for julius ceasar and august for augustus ceasar complete this revolution
but you believe in the pagan traditions with no proof or absolution
september was the seventh month
october was the eighth
november was the ninth
december was the tenth
do you still believe dec 25 was the day jesus was sent?
the bible says they have eyes but can not see and ears but can not hear (Ezekiel 12:2)
ignorance of the truth is no different than fear
you give gifts once a year and celebrate his birth
he died for all our sins is that all that he is worth?
you love to nail the law of moses to the cross
and in doing so youre sending a message saying the message is lost
jesus didnt come to abolish the law he came to fulfill them (Matthew 5:17)
but it is the devil in you that is determined to conceal them
Ezekiel 12:2
"Son of man, you are living among a rebellious people. They have eyes to see but do not see and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious people
Deuteronomy 28:63
Just as it pleased the LORD to make you prosper and increase in number, so it will please him to ruin and destroy you.
Malachi 1:2-3
. "Yet I have loved Jacob 3 but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals
Matthew 5:17
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.


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IRVING, Texas (AP) - Dallas linebacker Sean Lee has been ruled out of Sunday's game against Green Bay because of a neck injury.
Lee was a limited participant in the first two practices this week after injuring his neck against Chicago on Monday. He didn't practice Friday.
The Cowboys' defensive leader missed the previous two games with a strained hamstring, and saye he injured his neck on the first play against the Bears. He tried to play through it but went to the locker room for good in the second half.
Lee missed the last 10 games of 2012 with a toe injury and has been sidelined 16 games in his four-year career.
Linebacker Bruce Carter and receiver Dwayne Harris also were ruled out with hamstring injuries.
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Las Vegas PowerCase™ -CloseoutNow: $57.85
Compare: $89.00
Available options may differ from photo.
Are you sitting down? Danish-brand Urbanista offers up the Las Vegas PowerCase™ to double the life of the iPhone 4 and 4S in a super-slim, super light-weight frame. Amid myriad charging iPhone cases, none are as smokin' cool or as effective as this one. The sensible construction features a battery on its backside: simply slide the iPhone into it. The three included bumpers (in three colors) are slightly raised, protecting the screen. And the case itself charges by USB for its next usage.
PowerCase protects your iPhone 4 and doubles its battery life. Want a cold hard comparison? The Las Vegas PowerCase will take you from LV to the Grand Canyon and back without a black out. It works exclusively for iPhone 4 & 4s models with a 1500mAh Li-polymer battery cell (output of 5V/500mA). Offered with Black, Silver and Red interchangeable case bumpers.
Material(s): Silicone
Dimensions: 2.4" W X 0.6" D X 5.1" H
Manufacturer: Urbanista
When, after 20 years of founding notable brands such as Kronan Cykel, entrepreneur Johan Wahlbäck turned his sites to a new project, the idea of Urbanista® started to take shape. Johan simply sought to develop a modern and global brand he felt he could strongly identify with. The principles he valued the most in today's urban lifestyle: fitness and health. But Johan didn't want to sacrifice quality and the pleasures of life. As the first product under the Urbanista brand, Johan developed the bike 'Tokyo' — a light weight and foldable bicycle for the urban and mobile cyclist.
In summer of 2008, Johan came in touch with Daniel Roos, at the time a freelance art director. Together they continued to further develop the Urbanista concept. After 'Tokyo', came the shopping trolley DraMaten, followed by the headphone collection "Wear Your Music". When this first full product assortment launched under the Urbanista® name, the co-founders had landed on a firm direction: with a focus on design, color and mobility, Urbanista would offer well crafted products that simplify life in the big city. This range of stylish, compact and essential accessories offer just that to the modern urbanite.View other products from Urbanista


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With fabulous core area protection, Kali Protectives Kavaca Upper Body Armor provides serious upper body protection. In order to give you a precise fit, this upper body armor is developed using a unique articulating hinge system.
Kali Protectives Kavaca Upper Body Armor is a wonderful choice for every sportsperson. With its perfect design using removable carbon fiber shoulder protection, it is a top rated option for you. Now enjoy your adventure sports without any hassle as Kali Protectives Kavaca Upper Body Armor offers standard protection for your upper body.
Copyright © 2011 Shock Garden. All rights reserved. ShockGarden.Com is UpFront


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Editorial: More staffing at regional jails pays off in many ways
The West Virginia Regional Jail Authority's plan to hire more correctional officers is designed to save money, but it also should help provide a safer environment for the overcrowded facilities.
The 10 regional jails, including the Western Regional Jail in Barboursville, regularly take the overflow from the state's prison system, meaning many of the facilities often are housing more inmates than they were designed to hold. In recent years, manning those operations has resulted in routine overtime that costs the authority about $3.6 million a year, the Charleston Gazette reported last week.
Bringing on 100 new full-time workers to fill the overtime gap would cost about $2.4 million, which provides more than $1 million in potential savings.
But it also will help guard against burnout in these already stressful jobs.
"Our people are worn out," Executive Director Joe DeLong told the authority. He estimated many are scheduled for 48 hours or more each week. "They're tired, and they're leaving their guard down."
That is a concern because violence in the regional jails has increased with the overcrowding, including both inmate assaults on correction officers and inmate-on-inmate altercations. Those problems contribute to high turnover.
Long-term, the state will be working to reduce inmate population in the state prisons, thereby relieving some of the pressure on the regional jails. But until then, the regional jails need an adequate staffing plan that keeps correctional officers fresh and alert.
The hiring plan must be approved by the Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety and the Division of Personnel, but it seems to be a reasonable step.
The Herald-Dispatch welcomes your comments on this article, but please be civil. Avoid profanity, obscenity, personal attacks, accusations of criminal activity, name-calling or insults to the other posters. Herald-dispatch.com does not control or monitor comments as they are posted, but if you find a comment offensive or uncivil, hover your mouse over the comment and click the X that appears in the upper right of the comment. If you do not want your comment to post to your personal Facebook page, uncheck the box below the comment.


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Lodging close to Lake Eola Park are shown in the list below sorted in the order of their distance (closest first). Use our search tools to find cheap hotel rates near Lake Eola Park (Orlando FL) for your leisure or corporate trips.
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Below is the poem entitled Gliding on the light of Beauty which was written by poet
Eggins. Please feel free to comment on this poem. However, please remember, PoetrySoup is a place of encouragement and growth.
Read Poems by
Jayne Eggins
bagpipes started singing
of her Amazing Grace,
flowers started dancing
the twinkle on her face
feeble are some steps
but with unflinching pride
she picks up her head
and the lift in her stride
sweeping past her subjects
the moriahs drift her wake,
the beauty in her heart
breaks my breast to ache
with a kaleidoscope for eyes
she sees through to other worlds,
to the mosses of the leaves
and the shells within their pearls
rocks and anicent relics
hyroglif this scrolling mind,
in the letters from her heart
a life's mystery is defined
my Angel from the north
plays on the northern lights,
and I can always smile
as she reaches dizzying heights
shining in the stars
when they turn to light my sky,
is message to my spirit
to always remember I can fly
for Ann a true inspiration ...on the occasion of her 70th Birthday ... lol sorry for the confusion


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I'm glad to let you know that my brother Jehangir Mehta has successfully navigated four challenges (one per week) on the Next Iron Chef Redemption that started airing on Sundays at 9.00 p.m. EST on the Food Network. However we really need people to vote for him. One can cast ten votes per day from multiple devices.
The link for voting is: http://www.goo.gl/wZ3Em
Firoza Mehta
Filed under: Miscellaneous, News Tagged: | Next Iron Chef Redemption