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Meg Loncharic: Summer wedding ahead for Robison, Mullen
Spreading like wildfire is news of Denise Illig Robison's engagement to Michigan native Frank Hamilton Mullen.
Denise has known Mullen -- "Butch" to friends and family -- for 52 years, as he is the widower of her college classmate and former roommate Ann Mullen. Ann succumbed to lung cancer two years ago after suffering for 10 years with the disease.
Russell "Robbie" Robison, Denise's husband of 43 years, died of Alzheimer's disease three years ago. He knew Mullen well as a family friend and co-worker at Griggs Steel of Troy, Mich.
The family-only wedding will take place in late summer at St. Peter Cathedral, and the couple plan to reside in both Grosse Pointe, Mich., and Erie.
Denise has garnered the respect of the Erie community for her diversity of talents, positive attitude, genuine personality and dedication to public service.
Among the high-profile jobs she's held through the years was press secretary to the late Sen. Edward Kennedy in the 1960s. She also served as Deputy Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Aging in Gov. Tom Ridge's administration.
Before that, she served two terms on Erie City Council. Denise was the first female Republican to serve on council.
She is a past president of the Junior League of Erie, an organization committed to training philanthropic leaders in the Erie community on improving the community through effective action of those volunteers.
Denise also served as northwestern vice president of the Pennsylvania Breast Cancer Coalition and, as a breast cancer survivor herself, has counseled many women stricken by the disease.
The accompanying photo of the couple was taken at the Flagship Niagara League's Mariner's Ball, "A Salute to the American Spirit," which she chaired in June 2012.
New this year
First ladies get their turn in the spotlight in a new C-SPAN historical series, a 35-part feature series: "First Ladies: Influence and Image." C-SPAN is teaming up with the White House Historical Association for this first-of-its-kind, two-season original series.
Premiering Monday at 9 p.m. on C-SPAN and C-SPAN 3, the 90-minute programs will tell the stories of the women who served as first lady.
The show will profile all of the American first ladies, from Martha Washington to Michelle Obama.
Teachers on Tap
Teachers by day, performers by night. Once again the Erie Playhouse will present "Teachers on Tap" -- a concert of Broadway show tunes performed by some of the talented teachers who perform on the Playhouse stage. There will be one performance only -- on March 2 at 7:30 p.m.
The $26.50 ticket price includes beer selections, root beer, pub snacks and a complimentary logo pint glass.
At this annual event at the Erie Playhouse, an outstanding teacher who has performed on stage is honored. Previous honorees include Doris Snell and Bob Martin.
Many Playhouse favorites will grace the stage, including Kate Amatuzzo, Ken Brundage, Patty Corella, Chris Dearbeck, Jerry Gill, Leah Johnson, Bob Martin, Chris and Julie Moore, Kate Murosky and many more.
The Erie Playhouse will pay tribute to Judy Matthews for her years of dedication in the classroom and at the Playhouse. She will receive the Doris Snell award.
Wife of former Playhouse Managing Director David Matthews, Judy has graced the Playhouse stage in more than 40 shows as an actress, music director and choral director. She conducted the orchestras for "Into the Woods," "Hello, Dolly!" and "West Side Story," to name a few.
On stage, her major roles include Domina in "A Funny thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," Miss Adelaide in "Guys and Dolls," and Paulette DePaul in "Over Here." Most recently Judy appeared in the ensemble of "Les Mis�rables," under the direction of husband, David.
Judy's career in education has spanned more than 50 years. A cum laude graduate of Slippery Rock University, she continued with graduate work at Westminster College.
Judy has served as a student teacher supervisor at Mercyhurst University, staff developer and teacher in New Castle schools and in the Wattsburg Area School District.
Judy will complete her work at Mercyhurst this spring and she and David will permanently retire to their home in Florida, not far from their favorite place on earth -- Walt Disney World. Judy has plans to stay busy in Florida, volunteering at local schools.
Preconcert dinner
LifeWorks Erie is partnering with the Erie Philharmonic to offer a preconcert dinner on March 9 before the Viva Italia! concert at the Warner Theatre.
The Festa Mobile will feature light Italian delicacies prepared by Michael Farsace, owner and chef of Mi Scuzi Ristorante Italiano.
LifeWorks CEO Rochelle Krowinski said that a festimobilia, or movable feast, instead of a formal dinner will be featured, with tapas and wine. The dinner begins at 5 p.m., with the concert to follow at 8 p.m.
The performance stars the Erie Philharmonic Chorus, under the direction of Dr. Gabrielle Dietrich, and soloists from the Pittsburgh Opera.
Brent Weber of the Erie Opera Theatre will give a presentation on Rossini's great choral work, Stabat Mater. It will be on the Philharmonic's program that night.
He was a Pittsburgh Opera apprentice for three years and sang with the group from 1988-94. He also performed Stabat Mater in Washington, D.C.
Tickets for the dinner and concert are $50 per person. If you already have a ticket for the Phil concert, the cost is just $35.
To make reservations, call Brittany Hall at the Phil office at 455-1375.
Philharmonic conductor Daniel Meyer recently made a presentation at LifeWorks Erie about the orchestra, which will celebrate its 100th anniversary next season.
Tammy Batchelor and Pam Davis, of the Erie Philharmonic board of governors, are already at work to bring back the Viennese Ball. They are looking at May 2014 at the Marriott's Ambassador Center Crystal Ballroom. The Philharmonic orchestra will take center stage with a repertoire of Viennese waltzes.
POSTSCRIPT: The worst thing that can happen in a democracy -- as well as in an individual's life -- is to become cynical about the future and lose hope. -- Hillary Clinton (b. 1947), American politician, former U.S. Secretary of State
MEG LONCHARIC's column appears in the Sunday Living section. Call her at 454-8000; send e-mail to email@example.com; or write to her in care of the Erie Times-News, 205 W. 12th St., Erie, PA 16534.


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Black Like Me
$24.98 (DVD), Video Service Corp.
"Black Like Me" (1964) is a dramatization of a 1961 memoir by journalist John Howard Griffin, who disguised himself as a black man and journeyed through the segregated South to observe firsthand the bigotry routinely aimed at black people in that time and place. James Whitmore — whose best-known starring role until then was the 1954 giant bug movie "Them!" — drew praise for his nuanced portrayal of Griffin, renamed John Horton for the film.
The movie is well-made; well-intentioned; ahead of its time in its frank dialogue and nonlinear editing; gorgeously filmed in stark black-and-white; presents a bygone South thanks to its tireless location shooting; has a frenetic, dramatic jazz score by Meyer Kupferman; and excellent performances. (Even the extras seem to be in on the overarching story.)
But "Black Like Me" has two flaws — one forgivable, one not as much.
Its fluctuating audio quality can be overlooked as a byproduct of the location shooting.
But I can't believe that every time Whitmore, in his darkened skin, walks into a luncheonette or nightclub or boardinghouse or bus station, everybody doesn't say, "Who's the white guy in blackface?" Whitmore is terrific; he's just not convincing as a black man.
Roscoe Lee Browne plays a luncheonette patron who reckons that Horton's mother was a Florida Navajo. Will Geer and David Huddleston play truck drivers who give Horton a ride, with differing results. Thelma Oliver does a heartbreaking turn as a girl who shares a dance, but wants more, with Horton. Though imdb.com doesn't verify it, I could swear that's William Duell (Sefelt in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest") as a gas station manager who accuses Horton of stealing.
Extras include a second disc with a documentary about Griffin.
Trouble With the Curve
$35.99 (Blu-ray/DVD/Ultraviolet), Warner Home Video
The one I feel sorry for in all of this is the director, Robert Lorenz. He was in the catbird seat. He had a movie coming out starring his boss, Clint Eastwood, giving one of those career-twilight performances that critics and Academy voters notice. The movie's Sept. 21 release date approached. But 22 days earlier, it happened: Eastwood's "chair" gag at the Republican National Convention in Tampa. Pretending to speak with President Obama in an unscripted bit, Eastwood did more harm than good for his candidate — and "Trouble With the Curve."
You can't blame reviewers for later reviewing Eastwood's RNC stint instead of the movie. After all, when Eastwood's character Gus — a retirement-age baseball scout with failing eyesight and parental regrets — pounds a truck-stop table yelling for the check, or kicks his living-room table to pieces in anger, it reminds you of the guy onstage at the RNC, stammering in sentence fragments. And, let's be honest, Eastwood was trading on his movie persona at the RNC, even invoking his most famous line: "Make my day."
"Trouble With the Curve" is an okay movie with a very good Eastwood performance. He looks every minute of his 82 years, and more power to him. The movie comes closer to feeling like Eastwood's swan song than the shaky "Gran Torino," which Eastwood directed, produced and hired his son to score. (Are you getting the impression Eastwood has a hard time turning over the reins? That may be why a deserving career-capper like "Targets" or "The Shootist" has eluded Ol' Squint.)
But "Curve" betrays itself. By the end of Act 2, there's a number of unresolved threads: Eastwood's and Amy Adams' daddy-daughter issues; Adams' and Justin Timberlake's off-to-a-bad-start romance; Eastwood's job security; and his risky hunch that a star prospect can't hit a curveball. When they all get tidied up in Act 3, it screams of Hollywood happy-ending-itis.
Extras include two featurettes.
$24.98 (Blu-ray), Somerville House
In what might be construed as a rare bid for international stardom, French movie idol Alain Delon proved he had the charm and ability to go the global distance in the quaint 1975 swashbuckler "Zorro," a French-Italian co-production filmed in Italy.
Delon is magnetic; he could have been Bond, Bourne or anything in between. His good looks aside, Delon moves well as the masked hero, but especially, he is a riot as Zorro's pampered alter ego, Miguel.
The film has excellently staged action sequences that sometimes tumble into slapstick, in a good way.
Stanley Baker ("Zulu") is menacing as a power-mad military despot intent on marrying the heroine (Ottavia Piccolo). He and Delon do Tyrone Power and Basil Rathbone proud with a protracted swordfight that even references ye olde candle gag. But a Zorro theme song heard throughout the film wears out its welcome after the first few bars.
Extras include trailer and restoration comparisons.
Mark Voger can be reached HERE.

subset: commoncrawl


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A Final Question
At last we have a new president—and one who obviously "gets it" about the need for America to change over to a Clean Energy system and renew our national ideals and sense of purpose in the process. With that in mind, I am now going to begin to revise and update Hot, Flat, and Crowded for a new edition and to write the new chapter, Chapter 18. Thanks to all for your contributions; I'll take up a number of them in the new chapter.
A final question: What is President Obama leaving out? What should he do on the clean energy front that he isn't already doing?
— Anonymous (not verified)
March 11th 2009, 9:48 am
March 11th 2009, 9:48 am
My original posting should have read:
I think you were too easy on stock market bubbles. They should be controlled early. The S&P500 was allowed to grow at 26%/year from 12/31/1994 to 12/31/1999.
We could make the conversion to renewable energy much easier and faster if we used financial and welfare incentives to reduce birth rates.
I think you might find some of my summaries and analyses of UN, CIA, and EIA data interesting and perhaps useful at:
Dr. James M Pickett, retired biologist
Bozeman, MT
— James M Pickett
— James M Pickett (not verified)
March 11th 2009, 12:25 am
March 11th 2009, 12:25 am
I think you were too easy on stock market bubbles. They should be controlled early. The S&P500 was allowed to grow at 26%/year from 12/31/1994 to 12/31/2000.
We could make the conversion to renewable energy much easier and faster if we used financial and wefare incentives to reduce birth rates.
I think you might find some of my summaries and analyses of UN, CIA, and EIA data interesting and perhaps useful at:
Dr. James M Pickett, retired biologist
Bozeman, MT
— James M Pickett (not verified)
March 11th 2009, 12:07 am
March 11th 2009, 12:07 am
Dear Tom,
We are teaching a class on Global Climate Change to high school students and are trying to implement some 21st century skills. Extending your metaphor about the world being flat, we are trying to make our classroom flat by joining your Chapter 18 discussion forum. We are looking forward to connecting with experts like you and your readers.
We just finished your book in class and are exploring all sorts of ways to show students how to exploits all aspects of your great book. On a personal note as high school teachers, we also appreciate the resilient mindset that is implicit in your thesis. You explain the problems well and show the opportunities available to us. Given that life presents us all with numerous problems, we like how you model an open mindset (in contrast to a fixed mindset) about celebrating the opportunities residing in any given setback or problem. In this light, your book helps us to show students of the dramatic and exciting position that they are in to be agents of "out-greening" and "knowledge workers" who will make the leaders of their future cities create safe and healthy places to live work and live.
The largest idea that we have to share with your Chapter 18 forum involves our planning of an Earth Day for our school this year. This Earth Day will not be the traditional type of Earth Day celebrations. In fact, we appreciated your anecdote about the disconnect you felt after the recent Earth Day celebration on the Mall; with this in mind, we will forgo the frisbees and the music and have instead distilled your thesis into the title for our upcoming day: Earth Day in the Age of Globalization. We have a separate planning page on our class wiki and invite you and your readers to suggest ideas. We have traditional activities to energy audits planned for the day. We would also like to invite you to campus that day. Maybe you could give a short talk before we all head out to separate projects on campus. Click the link below to see how eclectic and 21st century our Earth Day events are. Do you want to attend? Our email addresses are: firstname.lastname@example.com or email@example.com
Other insights that we enjoyed in your book include the passage from The Onion in Chapter Five; perhaps there is more opportunity for satire to awaken our American culture to this problem. Maybe the day the issue leads an opening scene on Saturday Night Live might represent the tipping point we need to enact serious solutions. With that in mind, what role could art play? There have been some artists who attempt to bridge the disconnect with Americans as they leave lights on and fail to realize the connection to the awful ways we retrieve "hell fuels" and use them to fire our power plants. We have shown some portions of the documentary, Manufactured Landscapes, to begin this awareness. Have you seen this film? There are profound images showing your thesis about Hot, Flat, and Crowded. Also, given the role that provocative images played in moving the American public during the Civil Rights movement, could disturbing images of hilltop mining practices motivate the American public to pay a higher gas tax to help solve the real, larger problem? Again, complementing your point that the Civil Rights movement helped change the country by changing the laws, didn't that change occur when Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson could not have conversations about human rights around the world when disturbing images of protesters in the south were filling the screens of new TV sets around the world? Could images, such as the ones from Manufactured Landscapes, help Americans make the change to a smart electrical grid?
Again, Using Hot, Flat, and Crowded in class provides a great context for understanding global climate change.
Our class wiki page is http://saproblemsolvers.wikispaces.com/
We have broken down our topic into five categories, and students are working in teams as we prepare to share what we learned about this topic with our community; you can learn more on how these teams are extracting specific takeaways from your book to help them better understand the context of Global Warming:
Alternative Energy:http://saproblemsolvers.wikispaces.com/Chapel...
Action Plans:http://saproblemsolvers.wikispaces.com/Chapel...
We look forward to any comments and/or suggestions that you and other Chapter 18 Forum members might have as we move forward and present the opportunity for our students to become the "Re-generation--redefining green, and rediscovering, reviving, and regenerating America."
Gerry LaPlante and Bill Sullivan
firstname.lastname@example.com or firstname.lastname@example.com
— Bill Sullivan (not verified)
March 10th 2009, 2:36 pm
March 10th 2009, 2:36 pm
— Chakravarthy (not verified)
March 10th 2009, 12:08 pm
March 10th 2009, 12:08 pm
Hope this isn't too late:
I'd like to add an idea for chapter eighteen. I'm a mother of four in Phoenix, Arizona, transplanted (pun intended) from a farming/ranching background in South Dakota. Interestingly I married a farmer, turned builder (who is now considering farming again) a here in Phoenix. After recently selling a small busineess, and knowing I wanted to make a tiny differece in creating a better future for all children, I recently took a permaculture class. (Check out the Phoenix Permaculture Guild www.phoenixpermaculture.org.) This is an incredible group of volunteers. (Example: email this am: request to come help elderly woman remove ripe citrus from her trees and deliver to food bank.)
This class was a life changing event, helping me to understand what I suspected - that we all can make changes at home, that will hopefully inspire our friends, neighbors and then even communities, cities and why not- natons - who knows? The permaculure group also teaches many of the concepts currently in your book in regards to solar power, reducing energy costs and in general making our own homes energy efficient. One home at a time. We also learned how easy it is to grow our own food and harvest rain water. This group (I'm sure they are all over the nation) sponsor two farmer's markets each Wednesday evening and Saturday morning. And with our new LIght Rail system here, it is really easy to hop on and head downtown to support our local growers, while feeding our families.
I agree with a previous contributor for this chapter, that it does start with the young. Crazy as it sounds to most I know, I have gone back to ASU to get my Masters in Education and am interning in inner city schools. My point is this: we need to empower all families to understand that they can make a difference at home starting today. They can grow their own food in the middle of the city , raise chickens (two per family is legal) or support local growers and eat fresh, delicious, healthy produce. That is my long term goal, to incorporate these simple ideas into a curriculum that can be taught from school to school. In the meantime, I hope teach my young class these eco-friendly concepts, for their future.
Perhaps you could suggest some of these resources by city, so people know there is a way to get involved. We all aren't engineers or bio-scientists, but rather just families who want to know how we can help.
Thanks for starting the conversation, and giving us all hope! ET is starting to happen here.
— Tori M (not verified)
March 10th 2009, 9:47 am
March 10th 2009, 9:47 am
Our idea to get in your face with is The World Flag Project www.theworldflag.org to use as a tool and resource to learn about our problems and share the solutions while keeping track of them. When Mother nature and economics meet, restructuring will begin out of nessesity. We do not have the time or luxury to point the finger somewhere else except right back at ourselves. We Americans, as the multicultural melting pot of the world can change the world so that the new americum is sustainable.
I thought of something today during Toms Lecture here at Portland State Univ. The thought was how our problem is the same as the problem a family has with a troubled dog. If the dog acts really bad, perhaps bites someone or chews something...maybe pees on the floor. So the family calls a trainer or an amimal behaviorist to fix the problem... The trainer comes to the house and most of the time the people have a rude awakening to find out that the dog is just fine, and it is the people that are the root of the problem... Our situation as americans is just that. Its not the big corporations...they are just a relection of what we have become... it is us that needs to change and retrain ourselves to have a new standard of living and a new lifestyle. If the people will lead The Leaders will follow!
We are all Passengers!
Together we can apart we won't.
The World Flag Project
Teaching Unity - Sharing Diversity
— John Carroll (not verified)
March 9th 2009, 6:35 pm
March 9th 2009, 6:35 pm
This is a very important book.
There is a need for informed and concerned adults to develop policy to support a transition, a change in how we are and how we behave. To solicit ideas to develop Chapter 18 is a great idea. But I have low expectations that current decision makers, our political system, and corporate will or can change.
So while the missionary work and adult work of working the system goes on..and this is critical, there is a more important task. It is to start educating the young about how to live a new way. In school (grade, middle, high and college), in our parenting, in their mentoring and project work, in the jobs for which we hire them.Only a new generation will make the changes we need. Can /has this book been developed into class teaching materials?
I am thinking to do it for myself, but I cannot be the only one to request it. A whole army of teachers teaching a new generation a different way. This would make change possible.
— Cliff Roe (not verified)
March 8th 2009, 6:18 pm
March 8th 2009, 6:18 pm
From our perspective, one of the most important comments included here was from Ron Erickson, posted on February 22nd, 2009. As an entrepreneur, he sees the small business entrepreneurial community as the chief driver to implement the green revolution, subject to it having the right tools and means. We couldn't agree more.
Like Ron, our team is composed of a group of small business entrepreneurs. We have more than 50 years collective experience in launching and running our own companies, including raising millions of dollars from investors, building teams, markets, etc. Ron mentioned in his posting, and history backs that up, that small business is the real engine of job creation in our country and around the world, not big business nor big government.
Every entrepreneur we know, including ourselves, would agree with him that obtaining adequate funding is by far the number one problem for small business entrepreneurs, and thus its lack represents the biggest barrier to creating a mass movement of new "green companies" in our country. Solving that problem is critical to an effective greening campaign.
So we agree with Ron that the small business entrepreneurial community could drive the green revolution in this country, and given the right incentives would be encouraged to do so. However, even though we agree with him about the need for those tax incentives, that is nowhere near enough. We feel that much more needs to be done to nurture and support that effort on a nationwide basis, in particular on the funding question, but also with a support infrastructure (a la business incubation).
Most importantly, we feel there needs to be a system to facilitate the flow of institutional capital down to the local level, something that very rarely happens today for two primary reasons:
a) to the investor, the cost of evaluating a potential investment (a process called "due diligence" or "vetting an investment") is quite high and not justifiable for small investments, (it costs nearly the same amount of time and money to do a $20 million investment as a $200,000 one and if you are an investor that needs to place a $ billion, you can't waste your time on the small stuff) and
b) more importantly, once the investment is made, the investors normally do not have a way to get their money back (with or without a profit) unless the company is sold or goes public (what Ron meant by "exits"), something that's rare for small companies
As a result of those two problems, institutional investors (including pension funds, venture capital firms, foundations and others) almost never invest in small local companies. If someone could find a way to solve those two problems for those investors, then the gateway to such funds could be opened. That is precisely what we have done with our CEED Program. (www.ceedprogram.com). How we do that is covered below. But first, let us give you the big picture about the CEED Program.
First of all, CEED stands for Community Energy and Economic Development. Its chief goal is to drive a nationwide effort of creating thousands of green companies, who in turn need to hire many thousands (if not millions) of new green collar workers.
In order to successfully accomplish that goal, the CEED Program was designed from the ground up to incorporate the key beneficial features of the two most successful business models for launching and maintaining small businesses. Those are the franchise model and the business incubation model.
Success rates for small businesses formed under these two models run far higher than for stand-alone individual enterprises, mostly because both of these models provide a support infrastructure that helps the entrepreneur succeed whereas the alternative is sink or swim on your own.
The key benefit of a franchise business concept is that you have a larger, central organization (the franchisor) that develops the basic business concept and then teaches that to their franchisees. They also provide a common brand and lots of other resources. With this "hand holding" the franchisee stands a much better chance of surviving than those without such a support structure. The success of the franchise business model can readily be seen on every main street in America (think fast food, for example).
Business incubators are special organizations whose role is to provide a host of support services to a variety of independent companies that they help to incubate. Like franchising, it entails a central organization that provides a degree of "hand holding," but in this case it is in the form of business advisory services and shared physical resources (office space, telephones, computer networks, faxes, answering services and reception, common conference rooms, etc.) Like franchises, incubators yield much higher survival rates for fledgling businesses than their stand-alone counterparts. For more information on incubation, see www.nbia.org.
The CEED Program has combined the best features of both. Although the CEED Program is not a formal franchise network, it can best be thought of as a business that would most closely resemble a nationwide franchise network whose franchisees (called CEED companies) are green business incubators.
That is, The CEED Development Co. (TCDC - the company developing the CEED Program and equivalent to the franchisor in this scenario) is establishing a nationwide network of local companies called CEED companies (the equivalent of franchisees). CEED companies in turn are responsible for incubating dozens of new green companies in their community, with the help of both TCDC and their local small business community.
Thus TCDC makes use of the best elements of a franchise business concept in the form of a comprehensive support structure for the CEED companies, who in turn employ the best elements from the business incubation world to facilitate the development and growth of green businesses in their communities. TCDC will provide them tools and guidance on how to do that in each community and most importantly, a means to funding.
A detailed explanation about how we can bring institutional funding down to the local level is described in greater detail on the CEED Program website.
This page contains multiple downloadable documents that cover the whole CEED Program concept: www.ceedprogram.com/downloads.html. The document that drills down into the funding part in particular is entitled "CEED Community Fund" which can be directly downloaded at www.ceedprogram.com/docs/CEED-Community-Fund.pdf.
The CEED Program was only recently developed and has been largely kept under wraps while being put together. But during that time it has been quietly introduced to and has already garnered considerable attention and support from members of Congress, governors, state legislatures, senior union leaders and more. It is now time to share it with the public. If you are interested in the concept and would like to know more about it, or perhaps even become involved in your local community, please visit the website at www.ceedprogram.com.
— The CEED Develo... (not verified)
March 8th 2009, 6:17 pm
March 8th 2009, 6:17 pm
Mr. Friedman,
I enjoyed your book immensely. I live in British Columbia, where the Provincial Government brought in a revenue-neutral carbon tax last summer. When the tax was introduced, the price of gas was over $1.40 pre liter. The day after the tax was introduced, the price rose to $1.50/ liter. The high price of gasoline was already encouraging behavioral change amongst people. For many, the carbon tax was seen as piling on another tax on people who were already feeling the pinch of high prices. A common argument was that high prices were doing the job and we didn't need another tax. Today, the price of gas is below a dollar per liter. The fluctuations in the market are not predictable and this supports the argument for a predictable, long-term tax on carbon. Currently, the tax is set at $10 per tonne and it will rise to $30 per tonne in four years. For large volume users of natural gas or gasoline, this is having a large impact on their revenues and some are starting to take the issue seriously. For the average consumer, the carbon tax is too small to be noticeable and most people have forgotten that is included in the price, especially after gasoline prices dropped. It makes me wonder if a larger carbon tax would be really effective. Some have argued for a $50/tonne tax and this might make sense even if it seems to be very high. The point that I would make to Mr. Obama is that a carbon tax on its own is not enough to encourage behavioral change; the tax rate needs to be sufficiently high that action becomes an imperative.
— Max (not verified)
March 8th 2009, 2:06 pm
March 8th 2009, 2:06 pm
I've just watch a new documentary film called "Consuming Kids," which I'd highly recommend to anyone interested in what has been shaping our culture of consumption for the past couple of decades. It led me to the conclusion that maybe we should consider passing laws regarding what should be allowed in the advertising realm.
For instance, maybe we shouldn't allow advertising companies to put babies through fMRI scans while showing them ads and watching for which ones activate the pleasure receptors in their brains. - Just a thought
— Mark Mazzocchi (not verified)
March 8th 2009, 1:40 pm
March 8th 2009, 1:40 pm
Mr. Friedman,
I suggest that chapter 18 deal squarely with the issue of overpopulation -- in the U.S. as well as other parts of the world. Without efforts to limit population growth, much of the green revolution that you propose in HFC will be stalled by increasing demands for resources from growing populations.
Please discuss 'price signals' that would encourage responsibly dealing with the population issue. For instance, the U.S. government does lots of things with the tax code (with deductions, child credits, etc.) to reward having more than 2 children per couple. And school taxes are usually the same no matter how many children from a household are sent to public schools. The incentives for having larger families need to be altered via price signals.
Also, I'd like to see more emphasis in your chapter 18 about promoting living more simply (e.g., smaller houses, fewer appliances and electronics, etc.). You're still too focused in HFC on the supply side of the energy equation. As an example of living more simply, my wife and I have found that we can mostly avoid using our electric clothes dryer altogether (by using old fashioned drying racks); we're saving money, helping the planet, providing needed humidity to the house in winter, and keeping electric demand down.
Finally, before a smart electric grid is fully implemented, how about some suggestions (technological and behavioral) for helping people better manage their electric load? (e.g., encouraging people to enroll in 'off-peak' metering programs or encouraging them to not run too many appliances at the same time). Technology can't do all the 'smart' electric management in one's house; the most powerful energy management tool will still be homeowners' brains.
— AJ (not verified)
March 8th 2009, 1:33 pm
March 8th 2009, 1:33 pm
I just heard your talk here in Santa Barbara, Mr. Friedman, and enjoyed it thoroughly! I have read your books and columns and never realized how animated you are on a stage. You held the audience with your passionate words and I walked out listening to folks talking about what they could do to help? I want to get the Republicans in Congress out of the way, so we can get started on some of this important ET work. Could you go give this talk in Congress?! Or are they just determined to obstruct. Maybe we could get things moving, if you promised stock options, along with the carbon tax, in the new ET technology!
— Jeannette DeConde (not verified)
March 8th 2009, 3:35 am
March 8th 2009, 3:35 am
Mr. Friedman,
"Hot, Flat and Crowded" is very timely, on the mark and inspiring.
Let us know when the proper time arrives for gathering the 'million people on the mall'. I think a lot of people are ready to march on this issue! For starters I would encourage everyone to vote (in the first global electronic election) for Earth by turning off your lights during Earth Hour 2009 March 28, 8:30-9:30 PM (see www.earthhour.org).
Re CLEAN ENERGY
1. I would caution elected leaders to craft wording of incentive programs for producing clean energy so as not to exclude methods which may be invented in the future or are not widely known today. Legislation written to favor only certain known technologies such as solar, wind, etc., may prevent or slow introduction of 'surprise' methods of generating clean power which may be invented as human ingenuity focuses on this issue. From this standpoint, where possible, it is better for legislation to define the obvious generic 'clean energy' criteria/requirements than to name technologies.
2. By decoupling revenue and profits of Electric Utility companies from being based on how much energy they sell (Megawatt hours), and provide revenue/profit incentives for reducimg power consumption to less than the forecast. Thus fewer new power plants are required resulting in an overall reduction in environmental impact and, potentially, lower electric rates. Federal persuasion or other means may be useful in getting more State power regulatory commissions to change their rules and regulations to encourage conservation.
3. Refering to your second bullet item, page 213, HF&C:
If the cycle efficiency of large steam electric power generating plants is increased, the total emissions (including CO2) per megawatt of power produced is reduced accordingly, as well as reducing the waste heat rejected to the environment. Legislation should encourage innovation to develop means to increase the cycle efficiency of existing (and new) power plants.
4. With reference to the 11-05-08 NYT article by Jim Molavalli, why couldn't the US utilize low cost incentives to promote electric cars such as those used in Norway: No initial tax; no annual road tax; no freeway tolls; free parking on public streets; and use of bus and taxi lanes?
On other subjects, I would emphasis the following areas:
The growth rate of human population must be brought under control ASAP to keep the total poplulation from reaching the 9 to 10 billion predicted in this century. For starters, in addition to increased emphasis on family planning and education, I would recommend a 'price' signal be sent to the American public through the IRS as follows:
- Starting in year 201x, income tax deductions for 'new' children would be limited to 2 per family.
- Families who already have more than 2 children would continue to get deductions for each child.
- Due to the variety of family structures, the legislation would probably need to be written as no more than 2 children per particular mother.
- No deductions would be available for more than 2 children regardless if triplets, quadruplets, etc., are born.
- No more than 2 deductions would apply to immigrants arriving in the US with more than 2 children.
-Number of deductions for children could be lowered to 1 and then none in the future at specific population targets.
2. Over-consumption
Over-consumption is primarily a matter of education, so I would encourage a massive educational program in the schools on the terrible effects of over-consumption on other peoples and ourselves, but especially on the damages to the environment worldwide.
Regardless, there will be those individuals who will not self discipline their appetite for energy and 'things'. ('Green' energy is absolutely necessary.) A significant part of our (over) consumption is due to shifting production to low cost producers around the world. Doing so has accomplished two things:
A. We can buy more 'things' for a given amount of income (and debt).
B. We have bypassed the (labor and) environmental regulations and laws of the US (and other developed nations) and exported our pollution and environmental degradation to other countries, where it is conveniently 'out of sight, out of mind' for many people.
There needs to be a method of adding a cost ('price signal') to the price of imported and domestically produced goods to account for 'environmental degradation'. If the 'price signal' applies equally to foreign and domestically produced goods, I suspect it should not violate any WTO rules. Products which cause destruction of virgin rain-forests, such as plantation-grown palm oil for instance, should be banned outright or priced out of the market.
3. I would refer you to "The Commonwealth of Life - Economics for a Flourishing Earth, Second Edition" by Peter G. Brown, Professor, McGill University.
Best Regards
— DW (not verified)
March 7th 2009, 8:25 pm
March 7th 2009, 8:25 pm
My suggestion for Chapter 18 comes from hearing your recent presentation at Book Passage in Marin, where I was unable to aks my question directly. Since I just bought the book, I have not yet read it but have read many,many of your editorials. My comment/suggestion relates to what I call the "Dueling Medias". While Obama is an eloquent speaker and can capture the world popularity, his success here at home will be greatly dependent on how his image, ideas & programs are presented in the media. You and others in the more liberal media help his efforts tremendously. However, there are many other outlets in the conservative media, Rush Limbaugh being one of the worst, and even within the current Congress, that have an avowed mission to see Obama fail, And they will do anything in their power, which unfortunately does not seem to be constrained by truth or logic, to help bring about his failure. This sets up two media voices in direct conflict with eath other. Since his ideas and programs deal with many of your concepts in Hot, Flat, and Crowded, I would love to read your thoughts about this conflict, its validity and its impact on the degree of success that we, Obama, you and all of us, might be able to achieve in the coming four years.
I look forward to your continued beacon shining light and reason onto the problems of our world today. Thank you!
— Dennis H Furby (not verified)
March 7th 2009, 3:43 pm
March 7th 2009, 3:43 pm
Definitions as Wikipedia pages for TF's alt energy ideas or concepts; Energy Internet, Intelligent Grid and smart homes etc. The Green Energy Revolution, ( not a garden party, Mao). Conservation has become a progressive value that the cons abandoned for power it corrupted them, absolutely. An analytical president is our opportunity to accelerate GR.
— Bob Winet/ Ranc... (not verified)
March 5th 2009, 4:58 pm
March 5th 2009, 4:58 pm
Regardless of the debate over man-induced climate change, effects of overexploitation are undeniable, tragically by the time we fully understand and implement subversive measures it will be far too late to restore sustainability in the ecosystem.
The 6, 7 billion human animals on this planet are "animals" as any biologist would have to admit. They, like any other animal, will destroy its environment rather than curtail reproduction or reduce its food intake. Mankind is only following natures pattern, reproducing until the resources to do so are exhausted, then face extinction or significant decline, as millions of life-forms have before.
But we should not give up, there is hope... will there be change?
— Anonymous (not verified)
March 4th 2009, 6:50 am
March 4th 2009, 6:50 am
I'm an American Buddhist monk currently in Nepal. I'm nearly done with your book and I love it.
The problem right now is that higher taxes on energy aren't realistic given the global economic situation. So, how about massive X prizes? How about a billion dollars to the state that can reach a target of 30% renewables by 2020? Another billion for large scale reduction in water waste and another billion for habitat protection could stimulate even more innovation.
Of course, federal standards and regulations would be best, but billions of dollars in a pot at the end of the rainbow would stimulate states to do on a larger scale what many of them are doing already. And given that there are hundreds of billionaires in America, I think a few could spare the change.
I've blogged about your book and this idea on my site: www.amonkamok.typepad.com.
— Rinchen Gyatso (not verified)
March 4th 2009, 12:07 am
March 4th 2009, 12:07 am
I'm not completely through the book and I'm not sure if this has been suggested already and it is obviously a massive shift... but as long as we are brainstorming and enlisting the entrepreneurial ideas of the masses in true Freidman form, here's what I mean:
Instead of relying on the government and energy producers to create massive green power facilities, what if every home was equipped with the ability to produce electricity? We keep the existing grid in place, but instead, back feed it. We decide that new homes must be built this way and tax dollars are spent on retrofitting existing homes. Homeowners first use the electricity they produce and any extra goes to the grid while any over usage results in a payment. Each homeowner's incentive is to use less then they make in order to avoid a payment. This would also shield against attacks or blackouts, as our power supply would be provided by millions of tiny power plants.
Obviously way too complicated for anything more in a blog post, but what do you think?
— Brendan Adams (not verified)
March 2nd 2009, 1:21 pm
March 2nd 2009, 1:21 pm
Mr. Friedman,
Thanks very much for all your books (read them all), but specially for this one.
I just hope that every world president and leader could read it and act upon. Especially President Obama who with his leadership and your ideas can be the greatest president in history. I just wish you could be one of his adviser.
I'm a firm believer that this governments have all the the tools to make it happen, and become again a world leader. However I'm not sure if congress is listening, and I'm afraid that they are taking us to our own economic destruction because of their lack of vision, understanding of the matter and greed base on their own interest.
My questions to you is simple:
How can we make congress listen? Name us movement groups, so those of us that care about the world and support your ideas can join and let congress know that a green revolution must take effect ASAP, that Energy Technology is here and that we want it. That we are tired of dirty fuels and the companies that turn around them. That we want better and cleaner cars, efficient and clean power greed's, less deforestation and no dependency from petro leaders, a cleaner planet for our kids and the conservation of all species.
Please let us know how to help, show us the way
— Fernando Sanchez (not verified)
March 2nd 2009, 12:17 pm
March 2nd 2009, 12:17 pm
I am a big fan of what Obama is doing in general. I recognize that there are mistakes in the stimulus package, and the bank bailout program probably needs to be strenghtened. And exiting Iraq will be challenging.
As for green energy, I completely agree with both your and Obama's sentiments. As the global economy continues to crumble, however, I am quite worried that this concern over being green may suffer a similar fate as to what happened back in the early 1980's. Economic survival is becoming the watchword for so many around the world these days, the need to go green may be something of a casualty. I hope I'm wrong, but if oil prices stay low (a function of a weak economy), world leaders will focus much more on just getting people back to work. The idea that green jobs is going to stimulate our economy -- that will only work if those jobs lead to producing a competitive product. Hopefully the move towards wind power will just continue to strengthen, but solar as a meaningful source of power is becoming more distant as the economy worsens.
I can see OPEC countries cheating on their quotas to raise revenue in their individual countries at the expense of the cartel, further driving down the price of oil. Morgan Stanley now expects oil prices to fall to $25 a barrel. Obama really needs to understand the power of supply and demand in pushing green jobs too much in a weak economy. I like his ideas on conservation (improving insulation in federal buildings is a small example of an idea that provides jobs and is smart), but expecting breakthroughs in new technologies with oil going back possibly to pre 2003 levels? That's pretty tough.
I had argued previously that a gas tax should be implemented to keep gasoline prices at the $2.50-2.75 level (much higher in a stronger economy, with the proceeds originally going to research), but it's now probably too late to do that. Until recently consumers would have viewed that as an acceptable level for gasoline, but we've probably waited too long and the economy has deteriorated too far to do that now.
For now, the main focus should be on smart ways to conserve power. The use of LED lighting, better insulation, tax credits for buying fuel efficient cars, these are all good, low cost ideas. But global standards need to be established, China and India must participate, and at this point we probably should require other countries' involvement in anything we do (at least as it applies to our exporting industries, or industries exposed to imports).
Things have gotten particularly ugly in the economy, and I would worry that all this green momentum could get placed on the "back burner." Obama will not get his budget through as announced. Even though the Democrats hold most of the cards, lobbyists will sink their teeth into enough items that there will have to be compromises. If forced to choose, it sounds like he'd pick healthcare over energy (a reasonable position to take if necessary, as healthcare really threatens to bankrupt the country and 47 million Americans have no coverage). I hope the green movement continues as strongly as it had gotten -- of course it's critical -- but you may see greenhouse gas emissions declining simply because the global economy is now very weak.
— Rick S (not verified)
March 1st 2009, 10:47 pm
March 1st 2009, 10:47 pm
Ideas for President Obama, no matter how controversial…
• As you suggest, create price floor "dirty energy" carbon tax, leading to investment in clean technologies and efficiency of energy use
• Consider national development of fast neutron reactor technology as specified in "Fossil Fools" and "Beyond Fossil Fools", by Joseph M. Shuster, in addition to investment in other clean technologies
• Indicate need to reduce world-wide human population – provide world-wide education via computers to reduce poverty and incentive to have children as a means of support in old age, provide birth control education and methods worldwide, encourage maximum family size of two children
• Overhaul transportation system of goods and people, considering phase in of a new electrified rail-based highway system, and standard dual mode vehicles that can go on/off rail, to achieve much higher efficiency, zero emission travel. More details if desired.
• Use Obama database and the internet to create and educate a volunteer corp to assist in home efficiency and local/vegetarian diet planning to assist families in adopting greener lifestyles. Create list of approved vendors to enable easy and affordable acquisition of related products.
• Continue broadband connectivity build-out to enable on-line collaboration technologies to enable business and educational communications, smart grid / smart building / automated meter reading, intelligent transportation, public safety, and other uses.
• Have National Science Advisor / National CTO create and maintain single web site, enlisting volunteer leaders and teams in each area to communicate objectives, milestones, status, answer questions, and provide opportunities for involvement.
• Feedback welcome (firstname.lastname@example.com)
Questions back to you, Tom.
• For all the best ideas you collect, what prevents President Obama and the American people from making moving these ideas forward?
• What can we as individuals and groups do to enable the President to remove the barriers and enable him to successfully move forward?
— An Engineer (not verified)
February 27th 2009, 8:58 pm
February 27th 2009, 8:58 pm
I think President Obama should be advised as to what the best plans for greening America are, and then just present them to the public. The public is very enthused about this, but all they really know is what they hear from advertisers. Of course, if they knew that greening America involves some sacrifice, they may think twice about it. But because of the public's enthusiasm, and because we now have a charasmatic President who can get his message accross, I think the public will latch onto what the president says about greening, and understand that sacrifice will be part of it.
I am a dentist, and I always give patients a little "goody bag" which includes oral hygiene products. When I ran out of these plastic bags, I ordered the extra large, reusable, green grocery shopping bags, with my practice name on it, for my give aways. What an incredible response! More than 90% of my patients comment that they really need it for their shopping. In other words, the green message has gotten out and the public is in agreement with it.
Since it will take a lot more than switching to reusable bags, the President should tell the people very plainly what it will take.
The public is ready to hear it. Right now, trust of the president is incredibly high, while trust of the established industries is at an all time low. Tell the people now!
— Dr APF (not verified)
February 27th 2009, 8:55 pm
February 27th 2009, 8:55 pm
Hi all
First - 18 is " Chai" in Hebrew which means "live" - so it is good title for this chapter
Second - You just vote for an Afro American president but for some reason you have forgotten Africa.
The Us should give 20B$ not to GM but to Africans to buy GM cars. If you need to invest so much money on automobiles - why give it for free to GM ? Give it to Africa - let's say Kenya for instance your government will give them money lets say 1B$ to buy American cars or buy wireless infrastructure form Cisco or mini laptops from Dell or what ever else they have in mind that US has and Africa need.
This way you spend the same amount of money but :
A. The US will be leading the world - Africa will be grateful - Bilateral agreements and so on
B. The US companies will have orders for their merchandise - will hire employees.
C. The world will be a better place to leave
It is looking to me a much better way to spend your tax money
Eli Cohen
Jerusalem Israel
— Eli Cohen (not verified)
February 26th 2009, 4:02 pm
February 26th 2009, 4:02 pm
The first an most important thing the President needs to do is realize that it will take decades before renewables will be a major source of electrical power and decades before a majority of cars will be powered by either electricity or hydrogen fuel cells. 10 million electrical cars would only reduce the demand for oil by about 3%.
He also needs to learn that science and factual observations demonstrate that CO2 is not a pollutant and is not causing global warming. Cap and trade legislation is the very last thing we need; the EU has proved that it doesn't work and only damages the economy!
He needs to create jobs by opening up the off shore and ANWR to drilling.
— bill allen (not verified)
February 26th 2009, 3:38 pm
February 26th 2009, 3:38 pm
I think you should focus Chapter 18 on what we need to do, to start preparing for a Hot Earth later this century, which can support a human population of maybe 1 billion rather than the current 7 billion. That's what Obama's not doing, because he's only in power for a few years. Tinkering with green living is good, but we are probably beyond the tipping point towards a Hot Earth. Readers that want to delve deeper into this today should read James Lovelock's new "The Vanishing Face of Gaia, A Final Warning". It's a scary read, but we need to start preparing now if we are going to transition to a sustainable Earth, which means a much smaller human population and probably very few farm animals / pets. I am a meat lover, but animals just put out too much CO2 /methane and require too much feed.
— Mike (not verified)
February 25th 2009, 7:24 pm
February 25th 2009, 7:24 pm
Mr. Friedman
You have often pointed out that Americans love sports; they like to know the score and to win. President Obama should give the country a goal, like 350 ppm CO2, tell them what the score currently is 380 ppm (we are losing by 30 points), and most importantly tell the country what we need to do to win.
People could be reminded of the score everyday and how we are doing by putting a big scoreboard on the White House, in Times Square and in the corner of every Google search result page and cable TV broadcast.
— Matthew A. Heller (not verified)
February 23rd 2009, 10:17 pm
February 23rd 2009, 10:17 pm
Fairness in taxation is a topic that needs to be examined.
I wonder if you will be willing to undertake a exercise reviewing how much of their income people pay as taxes. Assuming a family of 4 with income of 25K, 50K, 100K, 250K, 1M and 10M. Assuming that each owns a house and spends the average for their income level what percentage of their income they pay in taxes. As taxes I would include all taxes, income, SSN, medicare, state, sales taxes, property taxes, etc. It would be interesting to see what percentage of their income each one pays as taxes.
— DK (not verified)
February 23rd 2009, 10:08 pm
February 23rd 2009, 10:08 pm
I think the fundamental change in the economy can be brought about only by first making a fundamental change in the thought process.In my view it is first important to drive this thought that only a non-bubble solution can bring us out of this economic mess.I think energy initiatives are looked at long-term goals.No there are not!They need to be done now and at a scale which is large and at the same time simple.With this mind I would suggest making energy initiatives a part of the daily life of a common man.Think of using solar power at home using do-it-yourself kits as a daily routine.Just imagine building and installing a solar panel at home as a cooking activity.What do we do for cooking?We go to a grocery shop and buy the raw materials and cook at home.Same way why can't making a solar panel be as simple as walking to a shop nearby and doing it ourselves.It benefits the individual in terms of savings in their electricity bills,empowers small businesses and also in-line with government's goals as well the global goal.If the savings are not appreciated by the individual for the effort involved the government can chip in to provide tax savings for such initiatives.Apart from these direct benefits it lays the platform for a sustainable energy transition as it gives the existing energy service providers using coal technologies enough time to transition to renewable sources as these initiatives are not going to completely eliminate the electricity bills.
So my idea here is to drive using solar panels at home at a retail level and make it part of every individual's daily or weekend routines.
— Karthik (not verified)
February 22nd 2009, 1:05 pm
February 22nd 2009, 1:05 pm
Job growth in the United States depends upon the availability of new capital. Money can come from the government or the private sector. Hopefully, many new jobs will be created by the stimulus package. But will large private venture capitalists put money where it is most needed to create new jobs anytime soon? Sadly, the answer is no.
The most difficult component of start-up company creation and small company growth is funding. Organized, institutional venture capital in the United States is venturesome by name only. The vast majority of venture funds invest in operating companies well beyond the start up stage. Institutional venture capital is risk adverse. In the current environment that aversion is exacerbated by the lack of public market "exits," like initial public offerings or sales to other companies; in addition large venture capital investments raise liquidity concerns while the money is tied up for longer periods.
America's Fortune 500 companies, in the aggregate, have created no net new jobs in the past 30 years. According to most experts, start up companies generate more jobs proportionally than the rest of the private sector. The Kaufman Foundation issued a January, 2009 report in conjunction with the U.S. Census Bureau which confirmed the central role of start ups in new job creation.
The financial capital for start up and small enterprise comes from entrepreneurs themselves and from the individual or so-called, "angel" investor. "Seed" round investment comes from these angel investors and family and friends. These entrepreneurs will create new businesses for the new energy "green" economy, digital media, health care, information technology, and every other field imaginable — where they perceive opportunity.
So, here's my idea: zero capital gains for investment by individuals in start up and small enterprises. The zero capital gains treatment would be for individuals only with investments of any amount up to $250,000 in start up and small companies. I leave it to the tax policy wonks to determine the nuance regarding the use of funds from 401(k) or IRA accounts and the definition of small business.
This tax incentive would dramatically accelerate the growth of the economy and unleash the promotion of new ideas and new technologies which would both stimulate and benefit the nation. (Moment for disclosure: I have been an entrepreneur and active angel investor for over 25 years.)
Could it be enacted? It should enjoy broad bi-partisan support. It will generate new tax revenues from the ordinary incomes paid to employees in new jobs. It will ignite anew the innovative spirit. In my view, the proposal should grow net tax revenues through new jobs. It gets capital now sitting on the sidelines into investments that build a new economy, not just prop up faltering sectors.
There is some political momentum in this direction. During his campaign Obama supported reduction of capital gains for start ups and small business. Clean energy enterprise and all start up and small business enterprise would benefit from this approach.k
— Ron Erickson (not verified)
February 22nd 2009, 12:39 pm
February 22nd 2009, 12:39 pm


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Auburn Resorts
Displaying 3 Hotels in Auburn
Holiday Inn Express & Suites Auburn - University Area
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4.4 /5 (282 reviews)
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Holiday Inn Express & Suites Opelika Auburn
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Neoseeker : Movies : Television : The Dead Zone - The Complete Fifth Season
The Dead Zone - The Complete Fifth Season
- Directed by Michael Robison
===Story=== After a near-fatal car wreck, Johnny Smith (Anthony Michael Hall, in a role played by Christopher Walken in David Cronenberg's 1983 adaptation) is left in a coma for six years. When he awakens, he discovers that he has developed amazing psychic powers, allowing him to see into the life of anyone he happens to touch. Stephen King's thrilling novel comes to life once again in this series created for television. This collection includes the entirety of the fifth season with guest appearances from David Ogden Stiers, Martin Donovan, and Sean Patrick Flanery. ===DVD Features=== *"The Other side of the Camera" explores the directorial debut of series stars Chris Bruno (Sheriff Walt Bannerman) and John L. Adams (Bruce Lewis) and how they made the challenging and exciting move to the director's chair for Season Five. *"A Day With JLA" is a guided tour of a typical day on set with series star John L. Adams (Bruce Lewis). *"Articles of Faith" Commentary with Actor/Producer Anthony Michael Hall, DVD Producer Robert Chynoweth, Writer/Supervising Producer Michael Taylor *"Revelations" Commentary with Actor/Director John L. Adams, Writer James Morris, Writer Shintaro Shimosawa *"Independence Day" Commentary with Director Chris Bruno, Actor Dylan Bruno and Executive Producer Shawn Piller *"The Hunting Party" Commentary with Executive Producer Tommy Thompson, Executive Producer Lloyd Segan and Writer Adam Targum
|Anthony Michael Hall
|Johnny Smith
|John L. Adams
|Bruce Lewis
|Sean Patrick Flanery
|Greg Stillson
|David Ogden Stiers
|Reverend Eugene 'Gene' Purdy
|Martin Donovan
|Malcolm Janus
|Laura Harris
|Miranda Ellis
|Don S. Davis
|Senator Harlan Ellis
|Michael Kopsa
|Jake Truax
|Kevin Durand
|Chris Bruno
|Sheriff Walt Bannerman
|Kristen Dalton
|Dana Bright
|Benjamin Ratner
|Boyd Lumely
|Fulvio Cecere
|Agent Gribbins
Recent threads
- Luke Cage - Season 1 Sep 30
- Arrow - Season 5 Sep 29
- TV Show suggestions? Sep 29
- The Strain Sep 29
- Genre: TV
- Theme(s): Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi (Futuristic)
- Director: Michael Robison
- Producer: Lions Gate Films
- Length: 492 min
- Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Theatrical Release North America Jun 18, 2006
DVD Release North America Jun 5, 2007


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Photocurable ink composition for injet printing, and printed material
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First Salmon Since '76!
Canadian Princess Resort - August 13, 2013
When you love to fish you have to fish, no matter what obstacles might stand in your way! Our guest David is visually impaired but his lack of sight did not stop him from reeling in a beautiful Chinook salmon! David and his cousin Douglas came from Bellingham, Washington to fish with the Canadian Princess Resort. They were fishing on the Nootka Princess.
"The last time I caught a salmon was in 1976!" said David.
The two were excited to be visiting Ucluelet for the first time, but we have a strong feeling it won't be the last time.
Tight Lines,


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Currently Browsing: Social Media
Sep 18, 2011
Wine Beer Washington Weeklyread more
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Washington does #CabernetDayread more
Jul 3, 2011
I didn't know Jack: 2009 Saviah Jackread more
May 19, 2011
Seattle Beer Week: Print vs Online GuidesWhen it comes to planning for Seattle Beer Week 2011, you can search via the web and/or bring along the printed Seattle Beer Week Guide in the center of Seattle Weekly. In years past, I studied ahead of time online and relied on my published Seattle Beer Guide when I was on the road. Sorry Seattle Beer Collective and Seattle Weekly, this year's print is #FAIL. If you simply rely on this printed guide... read more
Mar 29, 2011


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Popular Diets
Season 8: Daniel Wright and Rebecca Meyer
Biggest Loser Contestant Romances
Daniel and Rebecca started a long distance phone romance after both contestants had left the show. Daniel was able to compete in seasons seven and eight of Biggest Loser. He and Rebecca met during their time at the ranch on season eight. Rebecca remained at the ranch long enough to take advantage of the makeover portion of the show. At an appearance on the Jay Leno Show, Rebecca revealed that she and Daniel were a couple. She and Daniel were visibly affectionate during the season eight finale when Rebecca took home the at-home prize for her weight loss of 140 pounds. They now live together in Des Moines.Next Prev Slide 5 / 10
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text: I thought I knew most of what there was to know about Amelia Earhart and her doomed final flight, but this well-researched account, Amelia Lost by Candace Fleming, is both surprising and fascinating! Starting with a haunting account of the coast guard cutter Itasca's fruitless wait for Earhart to land on tiny Howland Island the morning of July 2, 1937, this book is hard to put down. Earhart's early childhood was a happy one, but by the time she was in high school, her father had descended into alcoholism, sending the family into poverty and shame. Fleming implies that Earhart's desperate wish to fly was at least partly a result of a need to free herself from the unpleasant realities of everyday life.


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Daily Journal
A Veterans Affairs policy change will permit some veterans to obtain their prescription drugs from the VA when the prescription was written by a private physician.
The change has only limited application, but temporarily diverts efforts by First District Congressman Roger Wicker to improve veteran service in obtaining prescriptions drugs.
Under this short-term policy, about 200,000 veterans nationwide are eligible. They must be new patients of the VA who have waited for a first appointment more than 30 days, and have signed up with VA before July 25, 2003.
They will not be able to obtain the first prescription until Sept. 22, 2003, to allow the VA time to identify and contact eligible veterans, and to put new systems and procedures in place to deliver the benefit, according to veterans newsletter "Gulf1."
"It's a step in the right direction but it doesn't go nearly as far as my legislation would," wicker said. "My proposal would simply allow veterans who are eligible for prescription drug coverage through the VA to use the prescription of a private physician if they so choose – very simple."
A $1.8 billion cut in the VA medical appropriations bill has made the American Legion very unhappy.
"We have neither the heart nor the will to ensure that all United States veterans receive the medical care they earned and we owe them," national commander Ronald Conley wrote in a press release.
Wicker stands behind the congressional commitment to veterans.
"The House-passed appropriations bill provides an increase of $1.4 billion over last year in veterans health care," he said. "For the last five years Congress has increased the appropriation for the Veterans Health Administration by $1.6 billion per year. What the facts show is that we have a very good track record of increases in terms of veterans spending."


text: nonnative continues their casual lifestyle fashion for the 2008 A/W collection. Present is a variety of garments which can be implemented in any wardrobe making dressing up simple for the average guy. Combining windbreakers, knits, and even a touch of tweed, the designs are minimal and ready to be worn. Although nonnative came be compared to various other Japanese outfits, there is something very essential about their apparel. The full lineup can been seen on nonnative.com.


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Designed for high filtration of common household allergens. Fits Hoover upright vacuums, including the WindTunnel uprights, that use "Type Y" or "Type Z" bags. Includes 3 bags per pack. Type Y Allergen filtration.


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Joy Marion Snyder and Reace Donald Ragland III were married June 28 at Garth Newel, Warm Springs, Va.
The bride is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Michael Evans Snyder of Harman. Parents of the bridegroom are Mr. and Mrs. Donald Ragland Jr. of Newport News, Va.
The Rev. Douglas Burgoyne of Richmond, Va., officiated the outdoor ceremony. Readings were given by Kari Anderson Miller, Elizabeth Ragland Bunin, sister of the bridegroom, and Enoch Evans Snyder III, brother of the bride.
Article Photos
bride is the former Joy Snyder
Accompanying music was provided by Mr. and Mrs. Christian Hearn on guitar and mandolin. A dinner reception following the ceremony was hosted in Herter Hall at Garth Newel.
The bride is a 1995 graduate of Elkins High School, West Virginia Wesleyan College and the University of Virginia Curry School of Education. She has worked as a math specialist in Charlottesville City Schools and recently taught middle school in Virginia Beach.
The bridegroom is a 1987 graduate of Warwick High School in Newport News, Va., and a graduate of the College of Charleston in Charleston, S.C. He is the owner of MPI Fastech LLC in Virginia Beach where the couple resides.
The couple spent their honeymoon on a camping tour of the southwestern Virginia mountains and hiking the Appalachian Trail.


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NE Fargo - 117th to 122nd Ave
The Traffic Calming Program (TCP) undertook a streamlined speed bump project in the Summer of 1996 to address traffic problems identified by residents along NE Fargo from 117th to 122nd Avenue.
The goal of the project was to enhance street safety and livability by reducing the 85th percentile speed of vehicles using NE Fargo closer to the legal maximum speed limit of 25 miles per hour (mph). Speed bumps are the only devices considered for streets like NE Fargo, which are classified as Local Service Streets, are not transit or primary fire response routes and have vehicle volumes between 400 and 1700 vehicles per day. Speed bumps have proven to be effective tools to reduce vehicle speed without affecting access. It is not an intended goal to reduce traffic volume on low-volume Local Service Streets.
NE Fargo, 117th to 122nd Avenue, serves a single family residence neighborhood. 117th, to the west, is a Neighborhood Collector street. 122nd, at NE Fargo's east end, is a Major City Traffic street. NE Fargo, 117th to 122nd Avenue, has both sidewalks and curbs. There is also a horizontal curve at the west end. A large portion of the daily traffic on NE Fargo is believed to be cut-through traffic.
Open House
Residents along NE Fargo were invited to open houses' September 9-11, 1996 to review and comment on the proposed speed bump installation. Seven households were represented at the open houses. The majority of those who attended expressed approval for the proposed project. There was concern expressed that the bumps were too abrupt. A petition was available at the open house for residents along NE Fargo to sign and was circulated after the open house by a local resident. Of the 28 households along the street, 20, or 71.4%, signed the petition requesting speed bump installation.
Three 14-foot speed bumps, at 400 to 480 foot spacing, were constructed along the 0.23 mile stretch of NE Fargo, 117th to 122nd Avenue, in May and June of 1997 by the Bureau of Maintenance.
As the graph shows, vehicle speeds, previously concentrated between 26 and 31 mph, have been shifted into the range of 17 to 25 mph. The 85th percentile vehicle speed before the project was 33 mph. After bump construction the average 85th percentile speed is 26 mph and ranges from a low of 24 mph (near the bumps) to a high of 28 mph. Before installation of the speed bumps 64% of drivers exceeded the posted speed limit of 25 mph and 9.8% exceeded the limit by 10 mph or more. Since bump construction 20% of drivers exceed the posted speed limit and 1.4% exceed the limit by 10 mph or more.
Traffic volume measured before bump construction was 570 vehicles per day (vpd). After bump construction volumes averaged 460 vpd. Traffic volumes measured on side streets adjacent to NE Fargo showed no increases from volumes measured before speed bump construction.
Traffic Calming on NE Fargo, 117th to 122nd Avenue has successfully reduced the 85th percentile closer to the posted speed and enhanced street safety and livability.


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If one asks physicians to list general forms of therapy most will start with drugs and surgery, some will add physiotherapy and nutritional therapy, but few will consider change of environment, hydrotherapy, talking with the patient (Scott calls this the "doctor prescribing himself"), and recreational therapy as a part of management of a patient's problem. Dr. Shirkey in this book on pediatric therapy has not limited his contributors to discussion of therapy only with drugs or surgery although these naturally occupy most of the book. This is particularly impressive, for the editor, who is chairman of The American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Drugs and well known for his work with drugs, might be pardoned if this were a book on drug treatment only.
He starts out with a chapter on drug treatment which includes sections on drug reactions, the placebo, dosage and prescription writing, but throughout the book emphasis
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Hockey Hall of Fame
Hockey and its players from Canada and around the world are celebrated at the Hockey Hall of Fame in the Financial District. The museum's most popular display is the 1892 silver Stanley Cup, North America's oldest professional sports trophy.
As well as a unique collection of objects and images connected with the sport, there is a comprehensive archive of documents, a library of books and periodicals, multimedia exhibits and interpretive programs.
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Rumsfeld's 'Slice of History'
In an interview, the former secretary of defense explains how Washington feuds harmed Iraq policy, and why the surge was less vital than you think.
'I'd read other folks' books about things I'd been involved in . . . and I'd think, 'My goodness, that's not my perspective,'" chuckles former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in an interview last Friday. "I remember talking to [former Secretary of State] George Shultz and he said, 'Don, that's the way it is. Everyone has their slice of history and you need to write yours one day so that it is part of the records.'"
History, meet Mr. Rumsfeld's view. With today's release of "Known and Unknown"—the 78-year-old's memoir of his tenure as defense secretary under George W. Bush and Gerald Ford, his years in the Nixon administration and his three terms as an Illinois congressman—"Rummy" is offering his slice of history. As befits a man who has spent decades provoking Washington debate, his chronicle is direct and likely to inspire some shouting.
The usual Rumsfeld critics (including some in the Bush family circle) are rushing to categorize it as a "score-settling" account, but that's a predictable (and tedious) judgment. At the heart of Mr. Rumsfeld's book is an important critique of the Bush administration that has been largely missing from the debate over Iraq. The dominant narrative to date has been that a cowboy president and his posse of neocons went to war without adequate preparation and ran roughshod over doubts by more sober bureaucratic and strategic minds.
What Mr. Rumsfeld offers is a far more believable account of events, one that holds individuals responsible for failures of execution. He describes a White House with internal problems, at the heart of which was a National Security Council overseen in Mr. Bush's first term by Condoleezza Rice. Ms. Rice's style of management, argues Mr. Rumsfeld, led to indecision, which in turn led to the lack of a coherent post-invasion plan, to a sluggish transfer of power to Iraqis, and to a festering insurgency. If nothing else, this gives historians something valuable to ponder as they work on an honest appraisal of the Bush years.
Mr. Rumsfeld tells me that he sees his 815-page volume as a "contribution to the historic record"—not some breezy Washington tell-all. In his more than 40 years of public service, he kept extensive records of his votes, his meetings with presidents, and the more than 20,000 memos (known as "snowflakes") he flurried on the Pentagon during his second run as defense secretary. Mr. Rumsfeld uses them as primary sources, which accounts for the book's more than 1,300 end notes. He's also digitized them so readers and historians can consult the evidence first-hand at www.rumsfeld.com.
And yes, he has every intention of using this material to change history's view of past controversies—some that go way back. One example: The book notes a "particularly stubborn . . . myth": the charge that, as White House chief of staff, Mr. Rumsfeld pushed President Ford to appoint George H.W. Bush as CIA director, in order to banish a rival. Mr. Rumsfeld cites the memo he provided the president—"at [Ford's] request"—evaluating the strength of CIA candidates. It shows that, in fact, he placed the elder Mr. Bush "below the line" on his list—meaning, he was not a "top recommendation" (ouch).
Mr. Rumsfeld devotes an early chapter to his meditations on the purpose of the National Security Council (NSC), accompanied by his judgment that National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice did a poor job of airing and debating substantive disagreements between the State and Defense departments. Rivalries between State and Defense are nothing new, yet Ms. Rice's most "notable feature" of management, writes Mr. Rumsfeld, "was her commitment, whenever possible, to 'bridging' differences between the agencies, rather than bringing those differences to the President for decisions."
"Condi Rice is a very accomplished human being," he says in our interview, and "she had an academic background. Blending things and delaying things is okay in the academic world. She developed a very strong relationship with the president, which is critically important. And yet one of the adverse aspects of the way things functioned—and I wouldn't use the word 'dysfunction'—is that things did get delayed, and the president didn't get served up, in a crisp way, options that he could choose among."
The memoir relates notable instances when this dynamic played out, but none with more consequence than the muddled plan for postwar Iraq. The Defense Department pushed early on "to do what we'd done in Afghanistan"—where a tribal loya jirga had quickly anointed Hamid Karzai as leader. "The goal was to move quickly to have an Iraqi face on the leadership in the country, as opposed to a foreign occupation." Mr. Rumsfeld's early takeaway from NSC meetings was that "the president agreed."
Yet Colin Powell's State Department was adamantly opposed. It was suspicious of allowing Iraqi exiles to help govern, claiming they'd undermine "legitimacy." It also didn't believe a joint U.S.-Iraqi power-sharing agreement would work. These were clear, substantive policy differences, yet in Mr. Rumsfeld's telling, Ms. Rice allowed the impasse to drag on.
The result was the long, damaging regency of Paul Bremer as the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority—which Mr. Rumsfeld believes helped inspire the initial Iraq insurgency. Mr. Bremer, who set up shop in one of Saddam's opulent palaces, continued to postpone the creation of an Iraqi transitional government. He instead appointed a "governing council" of Iraqis but refused to give even them any responsibility. The result: delays in elections and in building post-Saddam institutions.
"You are always better having a president look at each option, at the pros and cons, and make a decision among them, than trying to merge them," says Mr. Rumsfeld, especially when positions are "contradictory to a certain extent."
Mr. Rumsfeld also faults today's Washington culture, with a hyperaggressive Congress and more "litigious society." During his earlier Washington years, recalls Mr. Rumsfeld, Henry Kissinger wrote clear memoranda outlining "the pros and cons" for the president. But in the modern NSC there's a reluctance to write things down—lest it land in an investigation.
The lack of clear decision-making also led to blurred authority, which Mr. Powell's State Department used to get the upper hand in turf battles. Ms. Rice used it too, in late 2003, to wrest more personal control over postwar operations via her "Iraqi Stabilization Group"—a job for which Mr. Rumsfeld writes that Ms. Rice and her staff did not have "the interest or skill."
Officially, Mr. Bremer reported to Mr. Rumsfeld. But he "viewed himself as the president's man, had a background in the State Department, and a relationship with Condi Rice," says Mr. Rumsfeld. So Mr. Bremer chose what guidance he preferred, which Mr. Rumsfeld describes as the equivalent of having "four or eight hands on the steering wheel." Critical issues—whom the U.S. should support, who should have power, how quickly to turn over authority—lingered. I ask Mr. Rumsfeld why he didn't simply fire Mr. Bremer. He says he couldn't. Mr. Bremer was "a presidential envoy" and served at Mr. Bush's pleasure.
Mr. Rumsfeld somewhat shields the president in his book. When the president was brought options, insists Mr. Rumsfeld, "he was perfectly willing" to make decisions. Then again, the book makes clear that Mr. Bush was aware of the ugly conflicts between State and Defense. And there's no getting around Mr. Bush's responsibility as wartime manager and Ms. Rice's boss.
Mr. Rumsfeld is less blunt about his own department's mistakes, though he does sidle into them. One question is why it took so long to replace Gens. George Casey and John Abizaid, on whose watch the Iraqi insurgency grew. Mr. Rumsfeld's memoir notes that no one on the NSC or the Joint Chiefs had recommended they be removed by the autumn of 2006, Mr. Rumsfeld's last months on the job. Yet he does acknowledge a visit in September of 2006 from retired Gen. Jack Keane, a key architect of the surge, who warned that the two generals were not "sufficiently aware of the gravity of the situation." When I ask Mr. Rumsfeld if they were indeed left in Iraq too long, he concedes: "In retrospect, you could make that case."
He isn't as willing to acknowledge that he was slow to address Iraq's insurgency. It was never one insurgency, he says, but rather it "evolved, and took different shapes." The first wave, he says, was "Saddam and his Baathists attempting to regain power" aided by "criminals" whom Saddam had released from jail. Then came the influx of terrorists—"facilitated through Damascus"—coming to fight against Americans. Al Qaeda joined the fray, as did a Shiite uprising under Moqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army. "We couldn't lose any battles over there, but we couldn't beat them militarily," he says. "Because there was no one to beat. It was a totally unconventional asymmetrical circumstance."
Mr. Rumsfeld thus takes an unorthodox view of the significance of President Bush's surge, which began to take effect in early 2007. He argues that by 2006 things were, in fact, improving in Iraq. The Anbar Awakening—which Mr. Rumsfeld credits as beginning in the fall of 2006—"had convinced a lot of Sunnis they didn't want to be associated with al Qaeda," and "the government of Iraq was evolving the ability to take on some of the radicals" with the help of Iraqi security forces that had become "very capable."
As a result, he argues, the force of President Bush's surge was as much "psychological" as anything else. "The president's decision galvanized the opinion in Iraq. It said: 'Look, if you think it is going to go to the insurgents, you are wrong.'" The fact of the statement, argues Mr. Rumsfeld, mattered as much as did the increase of troops "tactically or strategically."
Though viewed by many as the spear of Mr. Bush's "freedom agenda," Mr. Rumsfeld also expresses misgivings about "nation-building." He disagrees with the "Pottery Barn rule"—attributed to Mr. Powell—that "if you break it, you own it," arguing Iraq was already broken under Saddam. While he acknowledges that the U.S. had security obligations to Iraq, he expresses discomfort with Mr. Bush's broad promises for democracy, and he worries that countries too frequently develop an overreliance on the U.S.
This is part of his answer when I ask what went wrong (again) in Afghanistan. He notes that committed "Islamists" don't just "disappear." "We've given them a chance, a good chance, to fashion a country that can have the kind of security that the Taliban didn't permit. The Afghan people have to decide."
Mr. Rumsfeld's critics are bitter that his memoir didn't go the obvious commercial route, serving up a grand apology for his role in the wars. Yet readers might be appreciative to find themselves in possession of a serious memoir, more in keeping with the older Washington tradition of Dean Acheson or Henry Kissinger. As might the historians.
Ms. Strassel writes the Journal's Potomac Watch column.


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The waiters race celebrates the French holiday called Bastille Day.
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A Mexico man is in serious condition this afternoon, a day after his tractor trailer veered off state Route 12 in Watertown, Jefferson County sheriff's detectives said.
Lynn C. Rasbeck, of 5 Fraser Road, was driving a 1999 International tractor trailer south on Route 12 when he lost control.
The truck, which was carrying a hot load of blacktop road surface, went off the west shoulder of the highway and overturned about 11 a.m. Thursday, Detective Tim Dowe said. It then traveled another 200 feet before landing on the passenger's side, trapping Rasbeck inside.
When the tractor trailer overturned, the blacktop spilled onto the side of the road in someone's front yard near a small creek, Dowe said.
A Mercy Flight helicopter flew Rasbeck to University Hospital in Syracuse. He was in critical condition Thursday after the crash, but by this morning Rasbeck was in serious condition, a nursing supervisor said.
Detectives said Rasbeck works for Riccelli Enterprises, of Syracuse, which owns the tractor-trailer he was driving. Rasbeck was on his way to a paving job in the Lewis County village of Copen Hagen when the crash happened in the town of Watertown, Dowe said.
Jefferson County sheriff's detectives are asking anyone who saw the crash or was nearby at the time to call them at (315) 786-2673.
Staff writer Catie O'Toole