text:
Amazon ReferralsAugust 29
August 28
<object> tag, will be under scrutiny for patent violation. As Ronaldo Ferraz put it, HTML supported the <object> tag by that point, so how come Microsoft couldn't come up with examples of prior art?
People have been saying for years that the U.S. patent system is broken. Interesting to think that it took a lawsuit to prevent the
 tag from being deprecated in XHTML 2.0.
A Second Voice: Designing For The FutureAugust 27
Standards: Designing For the FutureAugust 27
Ian Lloyd is a member of the Web Standards Project and runs a site about web accessibility called Accessify. His full-time role is senior web designer/developer with Nationwide Building Society, a UK-based financial services organisation which, despite the protests below, doesn't do a bad job of making its web pages accessible and standards-compliant.
Designing for the Future, and the Training Gap
How do you encourage unenthusiastic developers/mark-up authors to adopt forward-thinking web development methods?
How do you engage people who consider their work on the web as just that: 'only work', something that pays the bills but doesn't exactly leave them beside themselves with excitement?
I am but one individual in a team of many (in my place of full-time employment) and I am from a strange breed - I have a passion for the web! What happens when you are part of a team that is not as uniformly enthusiastic to learn?
This is a problem that faces many IT managers and standards advocates working in the corporate sector. Though we're doing good things in adopting accessibility practices and optimising our code, it's still very difficult to get a site to conform to all the major standards in the real world. Why is this the case?
Learn from Textbook Cases
Andy King's book Speed Up Your Site includes numerous tricks and tips for committed web developers. Jeffrey Zeldman's Designing With Web Standards is a tome of practical, well-thought-out techniques. Both not only explain how to improve the way we develop sites for maximum efficiency and future-proofing, but they also clearly detail why the problems exist in the first place.
These are just two books among many that have made me think and re-think about how I build personal sites and company projects. I devour the content of these books and regurgitate it - metaphorically speaking - wherever I can. Sometimes these tips and tricks find their way on to the corporate work, but invariably they're resigned only to my personal work.
Most of my learning happens on the toilet. Sorry! As unappealing as that is, that's where I pick up most snippets of information (they say that the seat of learning is Oxford but I beg to differ - it's the downstairs loo). Because I have a passion for what I do, I've made it my business (no pun intended) to learn how to construct table-free page layouts, make pages accessible for keyboard-only users, provide different views of a page through alternative style sheets, and more. I don't have to. But I want to make things work better, faster and cleverer. But we're not all like this. Most people would rather read a newspaper on the toilet. Or maybe nothing at all. But that's quite enough of our potty habits for now. Shall we move along?
Individuals Lead the Way
It's true that most corporate sites fall way behind the personal web sites of mark-up and standards gods and goddesses (e.g. the aforementioned Zeldman, Owen Briggs, Ben Henick, Simon Willison, Dan 'Waferbaby' Bogan, Jeremy Keith to name but a few personal favourites among many).
This is because it's far easier for an individual to introduce a novel or clever way of doing things - there are no committee decisions (and therefore no split decisions or arguments). As well, no matter how progressive and forward-thinking the company you work for (and I believe Nationwide qualifies here), there will always be an issue with introducing 'new' methods. Let's just overlook the fact that many of the methods that I've alluded to are actually a number of years old (CSS2, hello?) - it's all about perception. If other people, and by that I mean 'corporates', are not doing it, then it must be new, right?
Look at just a handful of the things happening on these forward-thinking personal web sites:
- Totally CSS-based page layouts
- Gone are the tables that were never intended for layout purposes (tables are for data, folks - layout grids are an abuse of the mark-up, an abuse that we've come to live with and accept a bit like an irritable auntie with an equally irritable terrier that visits every weekend). Now we can view such sites on a PC, a handheld device, using a screen reader and more, and we get the added bonus of quicker-loading pages.
- More usable forms
- The
<legend>elements are supported by most modern browsers, and in the right hands they can make a form far more usable and accessible. And they're definitely semantically sound.
- Data tables that work
- Using elements like

, and attributes such as summary, scope, ids and headers, data tables become meaningful to blind users accessing the content with a screen reader (rather than a jumbled mush of words and numbers).
Training is the Weakness
Let's assume, for example, that browser support is not the issue, that you've taken a stance and agreed to support browsers that support web standards (while not completely turning your back on the older browsers). Let's assume you've already said that your company is going to focus on getting things right for IE5+, Netscape 6+ (or Mozilla/Gecko derivatives) and Safari. Now inadequate browser support is no longer an issue. You should be able to do things right, right? The browsers you've settled on are up to the job so what's stopping your company from moving forward? One word - training.
You may have a few individuals in a department that have a passion for doing things according to the relevant standards and as efficient as possible; but you are equally as likely to have a whole group of people - probably a much greater percentage - who do not share that passion. They may have learned HTML five or more years ago and are still using the same methods (tag soup) that they always have. Every team is different, but here are some that you may identify with:
- Fear of change - they know where they are with the 'old school' methods
- They believe that the new methods are more complicated
- They don't understand semantic mark-up (in fact they have never even heard the word 'semantic' before)
- Their job is just a job and learning new things is either a bore or an intrusion into their personal free time (they just don't get that whole toilet-seat-learning thing).
- They see themselves as 'back-end' people who would rather spend their energies optimising a SQL query than worrying about how the results might be rendered on screen, since "that's for the UI guys to take care of..."
But perhaps the biggest reason is:
- No-one's told them or shown them how.
And if we are indeed talking about people who otherwise won't actively go out and learn for themselves, not only can you discount the likelihood that they'll take a book home, you can also rule out them picking up new techniques from reading the weblog of an influential and knowledgeable individual. Perhaps you even know people who have been working on the web in one way or another for a number of years who would respond with: "What on earth is a weblog?"
When Simple Mark-up Causes Maintenance Woes
When I look at the mark-up on a well-conceived site, I understand the structure intuitively - "Ah, I know what that

 means… Ah, so that nested

 is the sub navigation" and so on. Editing such pages is - or at least should be - much easier than hacking away at one that relies heavily on the placement of
s for layout. Although the page may be 50% smaller than its old-school counterpart, and it may be simpler to edit, what happens when someone else wants to maintain the page that has been so carefully crafted?
Here's where I begin to fly in the face of common consensus - it being that if you code to web standards, it makes for easier maintenance of your site to those joining a project later. My experience has, thus far, shown the opposite to be true. It pains me to admit this.
No matter how simple the mark-up is, cleverly crafted pages can leave some people struggling. "Er, what are all these

 thingies? I don't get it ... why can't we use a table like everyone understands?". And just wait until they get a load of the Box Model Hack in your CSS file (or any other CSS hack, for that matter)! It's not unknown for sites/web pages to go far forward in terms of standards compliance, only to be brought back down a level because the new, simpler methods are not properly understood by those who may need to maintain these pages.
Change Come from Within
From my experience though, once people do finally 'get it', they wonder why they didn't do things more simply before. There is a definite 'Eureka!' moment, but if the person or persons concerned do not want to learn, you may never reach it. So they have to be told, enlightened - it needs a push on your part rather than a pull on theirs. But that's not easy either.
Enforced training is not always gratefully accepted though (unless it involves a trip abroad and a nice expense tab, of course) and often the training is hideously outdated. The techniques described in Zeldman's, King's and other people's books are not taught in any residential training that I have ever seen. The latter are still stuck in the old school "Let's give 'em
 tags and nested

s" approaches.
Bottom line is - there are still too many people who only understand the old school methods of web design, and only when these people can get enthusiastic about adopting new methods will we be delivered to the promised land of perfect mark-up.
No Easy Solution
"So train them yourself!" I hear you screaming at the page. Perhaps it should be up to individuals to lead the way after all, but this may not be possible for a number of reasons:
- no time to train (everyone's busy)
- no skill in training (it doesn't matter how knowledgeable you are if you bore everyone to death)
- someone more senior than you doesn't want to hear it from an 'underling'
- it's just not a sexy and exciting topic for a lot of people!
Perhaps we need to send uninitiated developers to a 'Designing with Web Standards' boot camp (are you listening Jeffrey?) and leave them in the hands of a capable trainer who can be trusted to enthuse and inspire others to greatness. Any training course today is liable to be of the "Here's a
 tag, use it to make nice red text" variety - and that doesn't help anyone.
So what's the solution? Unfortunately, I don't come with the answer, only my very evident frustrations.
One comment I received prior to publication was that "it has to come from the top down". If management says this is how it should be done, and there are financial gains for doing so (a higher annual pay raise, for example) then you've got one big incentive right there.
The dream of writing mark-up based on standards is not a pipe dream, but it can be a nightmare getting other people to follow suit. I just hope that venting these frustrations might spark conversation among passionate people on the web about what can be done. In the meantime, if anyone can prove me wrong about the standard of training available (particularly in the UK) then I'd love to hear from you! I could fill a room with developers who are not yet up to speed on these new techniques - just don't bore them to death in the process, yeah?
The text of this article ©Copyright 2003, Ian Lloyd, all rights reserved. Everything else falls under this site's standard license.
Semantics and Bad CodeAugust 26
Jason Kottke has written a thoughtful piece on the difference between standards and semantics, and if you're just learning this stuff by way of my site (heaven forbid) or some of the many others out there, it's worth your time to read it and consider his points.
Let me start out by saying that Jason is absolutely correct. You are allowed to use
 tags in your valid XHTML. You are allowed to continue designing with tables. As long as you lowercase your tags and watch your nesting, there is nothing stopping you from building your XHTML sites without a lick of CSS.
But if this is all you're doing, you are like the driver of the VW Beetle carefully pulling to a stop at the light, failing to move for the Mack truck barrelling toward him at 120km/h. Sure he's following the letter of the law, but the light was put there for his safety. He's completely missing the spirit in which it was written.
The W3C has a commitment to backwards compatibility. XHTML is meant to work back to 4.x and older browsers. (Which is debatable given the 2.0 issue, but please, let's focus.) This requires a certain amount of support for deprecated elements. Tables will always be with us, because they were created for tabular data; you will be able to author table-based sites for years to come. But stay with me now, here's where it gets tricky.
XHTML is a clean slate: it's HTML, but it's XML. It's the best of both worlds, but it's halfway between. HTML has a long and ugly history of visual hacks, proprietary extensions, and general abuse. The browsers that support it are lax, overly tolerant, and encourage sloppy coding. XML, on the other hand, is defined by a tight set of rules; it is structurally complex, rigidly demanding, and doesn't offer any presentation cues whatsoever. It is completely reliant on external styling, and in this case that styling happens to be CSS.
The move from HTML to XML requires a huge shift in developer mindset. There are a lot of obstacles to overcome yet, not the least of which being solid browser support. We've only started down the road, and XHTML is how we'll get there. Here's the path, in 3 steps:
- XHTML allows for easy introduction to proper coding methods by weeding out bad techniques, while requiring no more than a simple change in syntax. Drop your tags' case, watch your nesting, and close everything. Easy. The first step is one which most are willing to make because it requires the least.
- Once developers latch on to this, they will realize sooner or later that the next step is to move toward a separation of content and presentation. This is where most are stuck today, and until the baseline browser moves up a generation from 5 to 6 (or 7), there will generally be dissent and lack of cooperation. Some are aware of this step, some aren't, but it's the next big paradigm shift and it has already started happening en masse.
- After making the prior transition, the next step is full-on XML rendering, which is going to be a real doozy. Validating only your home page and allowing lax code on other less-prominent pages is a practice that will have to stop. What happens when the switch is flicked between HTML rendering (which, chances are, is how your site is being parsed right now) and XML is that if you have an error in your code, just the slightest little bug, your site won't render at all. You will see a happy little error message, and that will be that until you fix it. Seems a bit harsh doesn't it? Well, consider that programmers have been dealing with compile errors from sloppy code for decades; welcome to their world. Not only does your own code have to pass muster, but code from third parties and external sources must play ball too. This one will take years, folks.
Standards, as Jeffrey Zeldman notes in the highly recommended Designing With Web Standards, are a continuum. You've gotta get on the bus sooner or later, but once you do there are a lot of stops along the way. You've made the transition to XHTML? Great! How's your separation of content and presentation coming along?
Don't stop with the easy stuff, this is one rabbit hole that goes real deep.
You've got help along the way - hey, I'm just finding out about this stuff myself. I don't have all the answers, but the more I read the further I go into Wonderland. There are a lot of very knowledgable authors publishing on the subject, and as long as you keep learning, sooner or later we'll all get there.
OverflowAugust 23
overflow: auto; on each comment block (
.comments-body) I finally ended up using
overflow: hidden; Any URIs longer than so get chopped at the right of the comment block, the magic number being around 60 characters. Why
hidden instead of
auto? After all, the latter would add scrollbars, ensuring truncation doesn't occur.
But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that truncation was exactly what I wanted. URIs are the only bits of text within
.comments-body that could possibly be affected, so why not truncate? It's cleaner looking, enough of the link shows up for the user to get the idea, and they'll still get the full URI in the status bar. Otherwise I'd have to live with ugly vertical and horizontal scroll bars in any comment block that needed them, and that just looked odd.
Which just goes to show that there's always more than one way to tackle a problem.
RSI and DiscomfortAugust 22
I can't sit still, and not because I'm excited or restless. I'm uncomfortable.
The human body wasn't built for the long hours the average white-collar worker puts in front of the screen daily. A lot of ink has been devoted to the subject of keeping yourself healthy while in front of the computer, so here are a few personal notes on the subject.
RSI, or Repetitive Strain Injury, is something you're most likely familiar with. Long periods of typing or even using the mouse cause sore tendons, and without proper care your hands and arms can become almost unusable.
The funny thing is that it comes and goes. I've seen reports that suggest it may not be permanent. My own experience has been that as long as I'm not over-doing it and pushing myself beyond a comfort limit, the pain will ease over time. Long stretches of intense work obviously further the problem, but a few moments of rest after a marathon-length e-mail and the odd break away from my desk throughout the day go a long way toward healthy joints.
But a recent problem that I'd never encountered prior is, for lack of a better term, numb ass syndrome. I just can't sit in one spot for long. I go back and forth between crossing my legs, placing my feet flat on the floor, hunching over, leaning back, and just about everything in between. No positions are comfortable. The only remedy is a good long walk.
It didn't used to be like this. I've recently changed some habits, and the unfortunate result is that I end up stuck in a chair for far longer, and with far fewer breaks. My saving grace used to be half-hour long excursions to get lunch around the noon hour. I've been taking fewer of those, and I'm paying for it.
Some quick Googling reveals the following tips for relief of numb ass. As well as these, I'll be making a point of getting out around noon of every day for at least a few minutes. We'll see how this goes.
- Avoid sitting for prolonged periods of time, as this causes postural strain.
- Take frequent breaks to stand up and stretch.
- Place both feet flat on the floor when sitting.
- Avoid crossing your legs - this habit can lead to an imbalance in the pelvis.
- Sit back on the chair. It is very important that you give your back the proper support.
- Adjust your chair so that your knee is slightly higher than your hip. If your chair is not adjustable you will need a footrest.
- Don't sit in a chair that is too large, too high or too low.
- Avoid leaning forward with your back arched. Work toward not being a slouch.
JAWS PetitionAugust 21
Via Dreamlettes:
We, the undersigned, request that the developers of JAWS® for Windows please provide us a free/cost effective, stripped down testing alternative. This will lead to more websites being tested to suit your software, resulting in an increased audience and hence increased requirement for JAWS.
Signed. I suggest you do the same.
Browser DependenciesAugust 20
Interview, Open ComponentAugust 19
DMXZone publishes an interview with yours truly (goofy head shot and all), and thoughts on rich-text web-based editors.All things considered, I think my photo came out okay . That's right, I got the DMXZone treatment that we're all coming to know and love. Bruce Lawson asked some great questions, and I think I managed to give some rather thoughtful answers in my interview. Go read a few scattered thoughts on coding CSS, the on-going success of the Zen Garden, and Comic Sans MS. Meanwhile, Molly may be over-doing it just a tad, but colour me flattered. § A recurring thought of mine that might be worth consideration, if you're a coder: there exists a graphical, rich-text editing component by a certain software giant out of Redmond that comes bundled with its flagship browser. This component has caught on like wildfire thanks to its price and universality. Many large-scale content management systems, weblog tools, and other web-based applications use the component to allow a familiar Word-like editor for their, well, less-than-technical clientele. The problem with this component is that no matter how well-intentioned a page author is, they are shackled by the markup that it spits out. And it's ugly. Oh, is it ugly.  tags, unquoted attributes, the whole nine yards. Alternatives exist that allow customization of the code, but they're pricey and can't compete with a free component in this space. A CMS vendor already charges a certain price; adding an extra $159 per license just for an editor is not an option. It occurs to me that an open-source, hackable version of this component would be an incredibly Good Thing for broader standards adoption. Offering it free for commercial purposes would ensure consideration, and if it were easily hackable for custom purposes, it might be integrated in a heartbeat by a huge number of very expensive and well-deployed software systems. I can't give you any leads for Google. I don't know what the component is called, and I can't remember who provides alternatives. I'm sure someone reading this site knows what I'm talking about and can fill in that gap. My point however is to say that if an open alternative existed, a lot of people would be very happy, and the creator might see a very large amount of indirect benefit as a result. It's just a thought. § ]]>
Oh Just Die AlreadyAugust 18
On Netscape Navigator 4.x and the Zen Garden
A reader asks:
I was looking at the (beautiful) designs in the Zen Garden a moment ago and thought I'd throw Netscape Navigator 4.8 at them. Nothing! (So far as I can tell) The textual content was all there, of course, but not an iota of style.
Is there any prospect of getting a version of the Zen Garden page to 'inline' the styles so we can see how 'backwards compatible' they are?
(I have sites where a significant number of the visitors are locked in to NN4 and other old browsers…)
A responsible designer considers his/her audience. If a big chunk of your users run older browsers, you'd better make sure you're giving them something to look at.
In the case of the Zen Garden,
@import prevents NN4 from trying anything foolish. It thinks it knows CSS, but it just can't keep up. So I (unabashedly, and unapologetically) serve up an unformatted XHTML document to NN4.
Well, I happened to have the Garden files loaded in front of me when that e-mail came in, and wouldn't you know, I got curious myself.
Here's what you do: load a design, any design. In the URL, you'll see 'cssfile=/0xx/0xx.css' plus some other junk. Change 'cssfile' to 'nn4', and the style will then be pulled by a
<link> as well as an
It's not pretty. You'll notice some of the designs won't even start to apply themselves - NN4 chokes on the Box Model Hack, so its CSS engine seems to die when it encounters an instance of it. Don't even bother trying any of this in a standard-compliant browser, it'll load the same stylesheet twice and really make a mess of things.
I'm always sorry to hear about anyone stuck supporting this relic; sometimes I'm forced to as well. As Zeldman points out in DWWS, transitional layouts are still very necessary in real-world situations. Netscape Navigator 4.x is Mostly Dead, but if we learned anything from the Princess Bride, it's that Mostly Dead also means Partly Alive.
Despite mainstream sites and their continued misguided efforts at being 'backward-compatible', the consolation is that NN4 usage is at all-time lows and rapidly fading. According to Upsdell, current usage is hovering around 1% and shrinking, down from 3% a year ago. If that's not insignificant, I don't know what is.
ReUSEITAugust 15
Microsoft Drops ByAugust 14
update: and the link goes to Lloyd Dalton for his amusing answer. Thanks all for playing along!
Speculate away. Free link in my sidebar for a week to the most interesting answer.
Inaccessible Site DemonstrationAugust 13
Designer's WishlistAugust 12
I'm currently subscribed to www-style, the W3C's mailing list for CSS development. CSS-3 is being developed this very moment by engineers and programmers. Why aren't a few designers involved in building a language meant for style? I honestly don't know. Maybe none of us were ever asked. Maybe none of us ever volunteered.
Mike Pick started a wish list today with linked text boxes and alpha-channel runarounds, two features he'd like to see carried over from the print world. Both are logical to the designer, and already work in existing software applications. Here, then, are a few more to add to the pool.
Element Awareness
Visual design is all about proportion. If I have to guess at arbitrary values for text blocks of varying lengths, I can't properly design how they relate to each other. I may want
#elementTwo to be 500 pixels high because
#elementOne is, but if the user has a different default font size than what I designed for, my plans go out the window.
If I was able to apply
height: inherit(#otherElement); to a specific element, the problem would be solved.
Better Vertical Alignment
vertical-align property has been around since CSS level 1, but it's currently a poor concept in general use. You may only apply it to inline elements (and later, table-cell elements) — we need block-level vertical alignment too, guys. Why can't we apply it to both?
Type Improvements
Credit where credit is due: CSS handles type really well right now.
line-height and
letter-spacing attributes and
first-letter selectors go a long way toward addressing what designers traditionally do with type. But since there's always room for improvement, here are two things I wish to see addressed. Compare the following:
It's possible you're scratching your head and wondering the difference, but trust me, typography geeks will see it. You may only see one intended effect, but there are two problems (assuming the size is the same!) with this demonstration.
The first is that I have no idea which font the top word renders in. Theoretically, you should be seeing Helvetica. But if you don't have it installed, chances are you're seeing Arial instead. The fact that I have to guess at this highlights a big problem. Typefaces are important, and to some designers, having to dish up Arial as a substitute for Helvetica is almost as reprehensible as serving Comic Sans as a substitute for Caslon. This problem isn't really the W3C's to solve, but someone has to figure it out.
A proprietary solution exists in Microsoft's WEFT, but when was the last time anyone actually used it? Thanks to licensing issues involved in embedding fonts, the whole process of selecting a character subset from a font that's actually safe to embed is almost onerous enough to invalidate the method.
The second problem with the above example is something the CSS working group can address. Notice the difference in spacing between the two words? The top is loose and looks about as good as setting type with any imaging program before adjusting. The second is tightly-kerned and far more refined. In Photoshop, as with any high-end design program, I can adjust the space between each letter individually. Yes, this is important.
While kerning in the style sheet would quickly become a burdensome task for any longer passages — and really, who kerns body text? — I should at least have the option of adjusting my display text; that is, my headlines. A possible interface might look something like
kerning(5): -10, +5, -20;. The first value would apply to the space between characters five and six, with the subsequent values affecting those between six and seven, and seven and eight, respectively. Units could be percentages of an em, or for maximum obfuscation they could be full em values (and the designer would just have to put up with three-digit decimal values).
What do you want to see out of CSS? What kind of functions do you find in traditional design software that you wish existed in CSS? If the list grows to significant proportions in the comments, I'll consider submitting some of these to www-style.
A Second Voice: Build it, and They Will ComeAugust 10
Accessibility: Build it, and They Will ComeAugust 10
Nic Steenhout is a long time disability rights activist. He has been the director of a Center for Independent Living for several years. CILs are non-profit, non-residential advocacy and service organization operated by and for people with disabilities. He has been interested in web accessibility issues since images first came in the picture (pun intended).
Accessibility on the web raises questions, disagreements, and passion. Let me tell you why I personally cannot compromise on accessibility.
First, let me point out that I am a person with disabilities. I have several disabilities, but the most obvious is that I use a wheelchair. I do not have a vision disability, but have more than a handful of friends, employees and consumers who do. I cannot help but draw parallels between my experience with brick and mortar stores' lack of access, and my friends' experiences on the web. I can't get in the building, they can't get into the website. Different, yet similar. Let's continue.
It's Your Responsibility
Why is accessibility important to you, the designer? In many cases, it's the Law (for US based companies, at any rate). While there is currently one case creating a precedent against the Americans with Disabilities Act applying to US based online businesses, this will likely change in the near future. The spirit of the ADA is not being followed by judges who see it as a brick & mortar law, when it is in fact a civil rights law. The disability community is working hard to push one that would represent that aspect. But the ADA is only one law that addresses online presence; there is also Section 508 (of the Rehabilitation Act). I won't go into details of that, but basically if the group you are working with receives federal funding, they had better be compliant.
If you're only the designer, why does it matter if your client insists on a non-accessible site? Consider this: in brick & mortar lawsuits it's common practice to sue the owner as well as the architect, contractor, and anyone else involved in construction of the building. It's only a matter of time before non-accessible sites will start being named in lawsuits. You can bet that as the site's designer, you will be named in the suit as well. You have a responsibility to make accessibility happen; don't ask your client, chances are they don't even know what you're asking about. If you develop solid habits when you design, it's easy to make a site comply not only with priority 1, but WAI priority 2. (Priority 3 is much more finicky, but not impossible) Feed your clients accessible websites, perhaps even despite what they think they want.
…but it's such a small market! It's easy to dismiss accessibility concerns with a statistic. You may have good eyesight, but how's your Vision? Approximately 10 million people with visual disabilities (blind and low-vision) live in the US alone. And the market share is growing, especially considering many folks prefer to shop online for products and services. An accessible web site is so much easier than fighting with transportation and figuring out a product at the store. Also consider that these 10 million people have family and friends who will often patronize a particular business because they know it's more accessible to their loved ones with disabilities. And let's not forget we live an aging society where soon a large percentage of people will have vision issues.
You Don't Want to Consider Accessibility!
But how can we consider all cases? Some debaters are fond of using extreme imagery of folks with multiple and very significant disabilities (e.g. Deaf and Blind and paralysed "from the neck down"), arguing they will never receive the full experience that someone without a disability will. Of course not, but frankly we people with disabilities grow tired of other folks shrugging off their responsibility by using the extreme example. A little goes a long way, and making no attempt at all in this direction because "you can't please everyone" is an excuse for the idle.
Okay! I got your attention, put that flame thrower back in the closet! Seriously, we say we're all for accessibility, as long as we don't have to work too hard at it. That last bit is unstated, yet comes through loud and clear in most discussions. In fairness, it is indeed a lot of work to go back into a site and retrofit for access. Just like it's difficult, time consuming and costly to remove a 28" wide door and replace it with a 32" wide door. Had the proper width door been planned for from the beginning, well, you wouldn't have had the problem to start with!
One major issue stems from the fact that more and more frequently, we don't have the option of seeing products at a "real" store. Products or services are only accessible online, which means a person cannot visit the physical store. Without that option, a site that isn't accessible shuts out a whole lot of people. And whether consciously done or not, that is discrimination.
As my good friend Dan Wilkins says: A community that excludes even one of its members is no community at all. Of course, this is not a question of community, but one of business. I would argue that without the community supporting the business, there is no business. But that's another discussion.
Challenges to Consider
I was asking Denise, a colleague of mine, about the problems she encounters on the web. She pointed out that sites using Flash don't let her go anywhere. And while there may be more accessibility features in the most recent versions of Flash, it's still not really an accessible technology. She was also telling me that a number of sites have a splash page with one big graphic, and no alternate text or anything to give an inkling as to what she is supposed to do from there.
What I found very telling is that when I asked Denise if she could give me a few websites that she found particularly non-accessible, she couldn't. Because if it's not accessible, she moves on to another site! (and promptly forgets where she was). These companies never had a chance to even showcase their products to her.
Drawing another parallel with brick & mortar, I'll tell you about Pete. Pete was my car mechanic in Illinois. Pete is probably one of the best, most affordable, and honest mechanics there is. A gem. But Pete's garage was not accessible. It had one step in front of the entrance. It's not much, only 6". A mere step for you who are walking, you won't even notice it. Yet it means that I can't get in. And in the middle of winter, when it's -20°F, or in the middle of summer, when it's over 100°F, having to wait outside is not only unpleasant and inconvenient, but can be outright dangerous.
I asked Pete to put in a ramp. He then asked me, "why should I put a ramp in? You're the only customer I have in a wheelchair." I asked him why he thought that was. Of course if your potential customers can't get in, you won't have them as a customer! He agreed to build the ramp. And when he did, I recommended him to all my friends. Pretty soon, his customer base increased by nearly a dozen people. Not bad for investing $300 in cement.
The point of this is that while you can track who visits your site(s), you cannot track if they have a disability or not. So you can't excuse accessibility by claiming you don't have any blind visitors. But you can rely on the fact that if you build it, they will come. Word of mouth is big in the disability community.
Spreading the Word
Of course, awareness is a big problem. The issues surrounding the need for web accessibility seem to be a closely guarded secret. Frankly, before I landed in this wheelchair, I was blissfully ignorant of accessibility issues. I am not faulting anyone who doesn't know about the issues for not fixing their sites. But the moment one becomes aware, one must think about starting accessible/universal web design.
I also fault people with disabilities in all this. If accessibility is such a secret on the web, it is in part because we don't speak up enough. I have no compunction telling someone when their site (or restaurant, or…) is not accessible, but I find that a majority of other folks with disabilities aren't that vocal. If more people took the time to email site owners with faulty design, we would see the word and requests for accessible sites grow.
On the other hand, having been on the receiving end of the rejection that usually follows my requests for accessibility, I know that it is difficult to keep on advocating. Typically, email asking for a site to be more accessible are either ignored, or sent canned answer like "thank you for bringing this to our attention, we'll look into it." Months later, of course, they haven't changed a thing. It's a brush off. Every once in a while, we get an outright we don't care about it, shove off (in so many words or not).
In Summary
I probably could go on and on and you wouldn't be the first one to rightfully accuse me of having diarrhea of the mouth/fingers. Let's draw this to a conclusion for now. Here are a few parting thoughts/recap:
- Making accessible sites is not that difficult.
- Even if you opt to only fulfill WAI Priority 1, you'll have a site that is at least usable.
- Making accessible sites is the right thing to do.
- Shunning (on purpose or not) people just because they have a different way to do things is bad, and you're not bad people.
- Making accessible sites benefits everyone.
- There are more and more people surfing on devices that need a little help, like PDAs, cell phones, etc.
- Making accessible sites brings in $$$.
- In today's market, I cannot accept the argument that a market share is too small to be worth catering to, especially considering the very low cost of building accessible sites. Every dollar in sales is important to today's companies.
- We must pass the word about accessible/universal design.
- Until more and more people demand accessible sites, and more and more designers demand tools providing accessible design features, it won't happen on the scale it really needs to.
For more on the subject, here are some sites of interest:
- SitePoint on Accessibility
- W3C's Web Accessibility Guidelines
- Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act
- A List Apart on Accessibility
- Web Page Backward Compatibility Checker (which can give you an idea of how your site looks on text only browsers)
- Dive Into Accessibility
- Building Accessible Websites by Joe Clark
- Designing with Web Standards by Jeffrey Zeldman
So… That's that for now.
The text of this article ©Copyright 2003, Nic Steenhout, all rights reserved. Everything else falls under this site's standard license.
Cross-Site CSS FilesAugust 6
File this one under goofy fun.
One of the more interesting ideas popping up in discussion of the Zen Garden has been standardizing a set of markup for weblogs. Since the data types contained within a weblog are pretty consistent across the board with few deviations, a central repository of CSS-based design would be possible. You could design a style sheet for my site without ever having seen it, if our markup matches.
While this wasn't a goal in either project, a quick bit of inspiration last night led me to try loading some Zen Garden .css files into this site to see what would happen. I've made a couple of small changes to mezzoblue's
ids to better illustrate this effect, but each change was in an effort to move to more meaningful names:
#rhs became
#linkList, and so forth. The fit isn't perfect due to wildly different data, but hey, it ain't bad for hijacking style sheets which were never intended for this purpose.
Anyway, enough theory. Take a look:
- arch4.20 (original)
- Wicked Grove (original)
- Gothica (Original)
- Atlantis (Original)
- White Lily (Original)
And a couple of non-official Garden designs that work in this context:
Digital Web Article PostedAugust 6
In Defense of Fahrner Image Replacement, my first article for Digital Web Magazine has been published. Feel free to discuss in the comments.
Particularily good comments in the past 24 hours:
#6 — "Most browsers are configured not to print background images, so your headers may come out blank in the print (this is also true of people who surf the web with images disabled in their browser). The first can be solved with a print stylesheet (does IE5/Windows support these?) but the second is a bit nasty." — Simon Willison
#12 (on a new FIR variant) — "The best part is that this technique works in JAWS (tested, and approved), and there is no additional hacks or markup needed in your HTML or your CSS. The text-indent takes care of it all." — Mike
#25 — "Regarding the recipe example: the first person I thought about on the accessibility side was not the blind user who is read to, but the low vision user who may be using a visual browser and text zoom" — Ed Nixon
#33 — "There are a significant number of people who for good reason surf without images. The primary reason is just download speeds over slow connections (which I hear quite a bit from English and other European surfers) and the over abundance of images on the web. Then there's privacy concerns, filtering, and lastly those people who can't take advantage of visual media." — Michael
#39 (on solving real-world problems before the theoretical) — "What's the point of discussing which materials to use for building homes on Mars if we did not yet figure out how to get there in the first place?" — Didier Hilhorst
#42 — "…let's just say that JAWS and Windows Eyes are currently the top two screen reading applications on the market. As having a near monopoly, they are free to to handle things just about however they want. […] Getting their software to play ball with CSS is *way* at the bottom of their list, and that is a problem." — Nic
#53 — "I'm posting this comment from Lynx right now. It's a beautiful thing when even a text-only browser has full access to my site, and it's actually usable." — me
Writing Assignments, FIRAugust 5
There's good news, there's great news, and there's Amazingly Great news. The good news first.
mezzoblue's conversion to an XHTML/CSS layout would have happened eventually, but it was rushed for a specific reason: I'm getting paid for it.
Which leads to the great news. We all lamented the loss of glasshaus when their parent company went belly-up. Useful titles like Cascading Style Sheets: Separating Content from Presentation became hard to find, and we lost a valuable resource.
Apress is picking up the pieces. Right now, at this very moment, the original authors of Separating Content from Presentation are hard at work revising their original drafts, and a second edition is expected out later this year.
And this is how the two are related: I am contributing. mezzoblue is my case study, and this site and the process of building it will be included in the second edition of the book. More will be posted as it develops.
And speaking of writing assignments, later this week my first article for Digital Web will be published. As the coordinator of a project that relies heavily on the Fahrner Image Replacement technique, naturally it's near and dear to my heart. It gets its fair share of bruising from detractors, so my article goes a long way toward explaining why we need it, and how to work around the problem spots.
Which leads to the Amazingly Great news. We may have finally beat the accessibility problem, and dropped the superfluous
 all in one shot.
Two great minds, Seamus Leahy and Stuart Langridge have each independently come up with a solution that relies on
overflow: hidden; to hide the text. For the sake of a name, I'll tentatively dub this the Leahy/Langridge Method, although Todd and Doug should be credited for their initial work. FBLL Method anyone?
A quick box model hack ensures these work in IE5+, but further browser testing is necessary. These look super promising, and both should be credited for their original thinking.
(to be fair, Seamus approached me two weeks ago, so he was First if anyone's counting. But let's not go there.)
ConversionAugust 4
Can I share something with you?
It's a bit of a dirty little secret.
So there's this guy, see, and he created this project. And lots of people liked the project, and he became known for the project. And all was well, except that he was living a lie.
See, his project involved this new-fangled technology that some people like and others don't and some people are afraid of and others aren't. But he wasn't even using this technology himself, except in the 'bad' way that he was trying to free everyone else from!
Okay, so there's only so far I can take the figurative speech. Mezzoblue is now CSS from the top down, with minimal, as - semantic - as - it - gets - while - still - looking - as - good - as - it - does markup. This has been on the backburner for a long time, and should explain the relatively infrequent posting of late.
What, you assumed it was all along? You're not alone, most did. But it wasn't. It was as old-school as they come. Have a look, if you don't believe me.
I've fixed some things, broken others, and generally this whole site is in a state of transition right now. You'll still find some pages on the old code base, but I'm getting around to it. While I can't exactly claim to be re-designing in public, I am on the hook for a few loose ends yet.
Some notes.
- Fahrner Image Replacement heavy, especially the top header.
- Low- to no- javascript. I've ditched everything but my hit counter and the cookie functions for Movable Type. This works for and against me, but it makes a nice difference.
- Your load time should be faster; I'll have to crunch numbers, but I believe I've dropped from a 100k+ home page to around 65k — 75k, after considering all the external files. Not quite half, but not too shabby.
- Image improvements here and there. You should be noticing this by now. I've solved some of the problems bugging me, and done some close work on the type and alignments.
- XHTML 1.0 Strict. Comments pages won't be expected to validate, but the rest of the site eventually should pass with flying colours.
- View my source. Go on. Live a little.
- Or view it unstyled.
IE6, Firebird, and Opera 7/Win give me thumbs up, but your mileage may vary. Any nit-picks (especially Mac browsers) should be accompanied by URLs to screenshots, please.
There. One more black spot coming off my record. I'm getting dangerous with this stuff.
Force-Feeding Medicine, XHTML 1.1August 1
On constructive criticism, and XHTML 1.1 vs. MIME types.
It's great having people pick apart your work with unsolicited advice, isn't it, Andy? And by great I mean it's as much fun as having your eyes gouged out with lobster forks. And by fun I mean cringe-inducing.
As a veteran of the odd "doing work for the Common Good and being taken to task after doing something wrong" paradigm, all I can offer is a sense of solidarity, and these words of advice: At the end of the day, if you change one thing to make one person happy, you will inevitably have changed the very thing another was perfectly happy with.
And a word to those who are quick to hit the Contact button. On any site. Honey first, to make the vinegar go down easier. Don't drown your message in unpleasantness, or it will go unheeded. §
While there are purportedly no real-world benefits to using XHTML 1.1 in 2003, it can't hurt to start experimenting now.
What I want: a way to serve up
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="application/xhtml+xml; charset=iso-8859-1" /> selectively to browsers that can handle it. I'd like both ASP and PHP variants. I tried someone else's PHP on the Zen Garden a month or so back, but I never got it working properly; does anyone have a link or two on this? §


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Pecan Pie
- 1 cup white sugar
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup corn syrup
- 1/3 cup salted butter, melted
- 3 whole eggs, beaten
- 3/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup finely chopped pecans
- 1 whole unbaked pie crust
- Whipped cream
- Whiskey Maple Cream Sauce, recipe follows
- Whiskey Maple Cream Sauce:
- 1 1/2 cups whipping cream
- 5 tablespoons real maple syrup
- 3 tablespoons light corn syrup
- 1 tablespoon whiskey
DirectionsWatch how to make this recipe.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Mix the white sugar, brown sugar, salt, corn syrup, butter, eggs, and vanilla together in a bowl. Pour the chopped pecans in the bottom of the unbaked pie shell.
Pour the syrup mixture over the top. Bake the pie until it's no longer loose and jiggly, 1 hour 10 minutes, being careful not to burn pecans and crust. (Cover with foil for part of the baking time if it browns too quickly).
Allow to cool for several hours or overnight. Serve in thin slivers with freshly whipped cream. Serve with a drizzle of cold Whiskey Maple Cream Sauce.
Pour the whipping cream into a saucepan. Add the maple syrup and corn syrup and stir over moderate heat until thickened and reduced by about 1/3, approximately 15 minutes. Stir in the whiskey. Refrigerate mixture until it is cold and thick. Drizzle over warm pecan pie.
Recipe courtesy of Ree Drummond
CATEGORIES:View All
Cooking Tips
More Recipes and Ideas
Pecan Pie
Recipe courtesy of Food Network Kitchen
Pecan Pie
Recipe courtesy of Food Network Kitchen
Pecan Pie with Chocolate-Cinnamon Whipped Cream
Recipe courtesy of Rachael Ray

subset: commoncrawl


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and lastly, if our young quarterback turns out to be the quarterback I think he is, --and that's a big if—that's a big piece of the puzzle
Thats a MH quote from a short list of reasons why Browns fans should be encouraged from this afternoon's Press conference. (3/14/11).
MH aint a stupid man. He's not gonna go out of his way and keep building up Colt if he is even remotely entertaining spending our 1 on a QB.
This puts the nail in the coffin for me.


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Area Deaths
VIVIAN HERFINDAHL, 88, Tioga, died Monday in a Tioga nursing home. Funeral Saturday, 11 a.m., Zion Lutheran Church, Tioga. Visitation Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., in Fulkerson Funeral Home, Tioga.
MARCELLA BROWN, 99, Devils Lake, died Feb. 2 in a Rugby hospital. Funeral Saturday, 10 a.m., St. Joseph Catholic Church, Devils Lake. Visitation Friday, 3 to 6 p.m., rosary and Scripture service Friday, 5 p.m., both in Gilbertson Funeral Home, Devils Lake.
KRISTI SELENSKY, 53, of Sidney, Mont., died Monday in her home. Funeral Thursday, 10 a.m., Assembly of God Church, Sidney. (Fulkerson Funeral Home, Sidney)
AALIYAH RED FOX, 1-day-old daughter of Samantha Pamonicutt and Rockey Red Fox Jr., Minot, died Monday in a Minot hospital. Funeral Thursday, 11 a.m., Four Bears Community Center, New Town. (Langhans Funeral Home, Parshall)
KENNETH HAUGEN, 69, of Alexander, died Tuesday in a Fargo hospital. (Fulkerson Funeral Home. Williston)
TRIPP DAHL, 2-year-old son of Dana and Denise Dahl, Epping, died Saturday en route to a Fargo hospital. Funeral Friday, 11 a.m., Epping Lutheran Church, Epping. Visitation Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., in Fulkerson Funeral Home, Williston.
MARTHA HALL, 84, Minot, formerly of Chaseley, died Monday in a Velva nursing home. There will be a private family service. Visitation Thursday, 1 to 7 p.m., in Thompson-Larson Funeral Home, Minot.
JAY GOETTLE, 43, Farmington, Minn., formerly of the Lansford area, died Jan. 26 in El Paso, Texas. Memorial service Saturday, 2 p.m., St. John Catholic Church, Lansford. (Brose Funeral Home, Mohall)
VERNON PIETSCH, 66, rural Minot, died Tuesday in his residence. (Thomas Family Funeral Home, Minot)
LILA HANSON, 88, Williston, died Tuesday in a Williston nursing home. (Fulkerson Funeral Home,Williston)
MICHAEL MARDON, 59, Williston, died Sunday in his Williston residence. No local funeral services will be held at the family's request. (Fulkerson Funeral Home, Williston)


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Let the chic, romantic French capital captivate you on Paris city breaks. Choose from our carefully selected hotels to suit every budget, close to superb shopping or the city's top attractions.
Plan and book your holiday with British Airways, online or by phone. Enjoy all these great benefits:
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Escape to one of the most romantic, stylish and exciting cities in the world on Paris city breaks. Take in iconic landmarks, visit world-renowned museums, shop for cutting-edge fashions and dine on exquisite cuisine.
On weekend breaks in Paris, avoid the queues at the Eiffel Tower and climb to the top of the Montparnasse Tower for breathtaking panoramic views. See the dazzling spectacle of the illuminated Champs-Élysées and Arc de Triomphe by night. Stay at one of our ideally located hotels for shopping at the luxurious Galeries Lafayette department store, or close to the city's superb restaurants and thriving nightspots.
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Fall in love with romantic Paris. Take a gentle boat cruise along the Seine or a stroll down the famous Champs Élysées. Immerse yourself in its world-renowned art and culinary scene. Or simply watch the world go by over coffee and croissants at a pavement café. Then travel by car or train to historic Rome. Marvel at the magnificent Colosseum and Sistene Chapel. Shop until you drop and let Rome's restaurants awaken your taste buds.
Spend a romantic break in bewitching Paris. Stroll hand in hand down the famous Champs Élysées and see the twinkling lights of the awe-inspiring Eiffel Tower at night. Marvel at the Mona Lisa in the world-renowned Louvre and sample the legendary French cuisine at multiple Michelin-starred restaurants. Hire a car in Paris or take a train to the alluring city of Barcelona. Gaze in awe at Gaudi's architectural treasures. Unwind on beautiful beaches and feast on tantalising tapas.
From romantic breaks to holidays filled with culture and exemplary dining – Paris fulfils every need. Take in its iconic sights and admire the artistic masterpieces at the Louvre and Pompidou Centre. Stroll through lush parks and set your taste buds alight at some of the finest restaurants in the world. Why not book Paris car hire with us or take a train to Madrid? Magnificent monuments, superb shopping and a renowned bar scene await in this cosmopolitan city.
Lose yourself in romantic Paris. Take in the beautiful historic buildings during a romantic boat cruise on the Seine. Gaze in awe at the illuminated Eiffel Tower by night. Marvel at the Mona Lisa at the famous Louvre and dine at world-renowned restaurants. Hire a car with us or take a train to chic Milan and explore this epicentre of Italian fashion. Milan is almost unrivalled for shopping, while magnificent architecture and pretty, bohemian neighbourhoods add to the city's appeal.


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About the Author: Andrew Lewis is a Program Officer at the U.S. Department of State Foreign Press Center (FPC).
The State Department's Foreign Press Center's role is to help foreign journalists in their coverage of the United States. It's with this in mind that the FPC invited several journalists from Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean to the U.S. for a week-long tour engaging the issue of transnational crime, especially trafficking in persons, drugs, and arms.
Our friends in Mexico perhaps know the human cost of trafficking all too well. Over 10,000 (including some journalists) have been killed so far since that country's shift to an aggressive stance against criminal enterprise. But the surprise for our other journalists was that these criminal enterprises had infiltrated their countries as well.
For the interviewees, responding to questioning by journalists on FPC tours is never a cakewalk. We typically ask our embassies around the world to recommend highly motivated, highly professional journalists for participation, and their questions often probe difficult aspects of the relationship between the U.S. and their countries.
Some of the toughest questions this group has asked so far involve numbers. With what degree of certainty can we say how much money arms traffickers earn from their trade, or how do we reliably estimate the number of drug abusers in the U.S.? Reliable statistics, especially explaining illegal activities, are notoriously hard to obtain.
Next to the hard data, an intimate look at both the highs and lows of human emotion was on the itinerary. We spent a day with the Fulton County Drug Court in Atlanta, Georgia. Exposure to institutions like these give the journalists a sense of what U.S. communities are doing to combat not only drug production and transport, but the demand side of the problem as well. Some defendants, former addicts clean for years, told us stories of healing themselves, rebuilding families and finding jobs. Others, mostly relapsed and unmotivated offenders, were sent to seek motivation to stick with the program in what Judge Doris Downs, who presides over the court, hoped was their last stint in jail.
Dealing with some of the most serious offenders and yet boasting an impressive success rate, journalists found both parallels to their own countries in the Fulton County program. In Costa Rica, successfully recovered addicts campaign against drugs, much as successful drug court participants share their stories with peers as inspiration. Yet in Guatemala, even completely clean former addicts struggle with discrimination in finding employment.
We will spend the remainder of this trip continuing to explore multiple perspectives on these issues. The Atlanta Police, the Georgia branch of D.A.R.E., and CETPA, an organization addressing substance abuse by Latinos, are all on the agenda. This tour has been a professional as well as cultural exchange for our guests, and we'll hopefully be able to round things out with the only appropriate introduction to Atlanta: hot dogs, cheese fries, and super-sized cups of Coca Cola when the Braves play the New York Mets tonight at Turner Field.
Ron in New York writes:
Transnational Organized Crime (TOC) doesn't discriminate in criminal enterpize, geography or target groups. It is all about the money. Seize the cash and assets from TOC and use it to finance education, healthcare and other needed services. We will see TOC drop and people's futures improve.
Rosey writes:
Thanks for in all feedback & other inform to sharing;..........


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City hears Lakeshore Boulevard land transfer offer
MARQUETTE – Though he died in December, Marquette resident and business owner Clark Lambros is leaving behind more than memories.
Addressing the Marquette City Commission Monday on behalf of the Lambros family, Marquette resident Michelle Butler offered up a future city park, to be dedicated to Lambros, the owner of Vango's restaurant.
"Tonight I am here to continue the legacy of a longtime Marquette resident and businessman, Clark Lambros," she said during the commission's public comment period. "We, the family, would like to make a large portion of our property on Lakeshore Boulevard available to the city so that it can be enjoyed by its citizens in perpetuity as a park."
The park would be located on a roughly 14-acre parcel of land along Lakeshore Boulevard, bordered by both Lake Superior and the Dead River. The park, according to Butler, would be called Clark's Park, in honor of both Lambros and his son of the same name.
In addition to telling her there were no shortcuts to good cooking, Butler said, Lambros always told her to give back to the community that supports you.
"As many of you know, Clark Lambros passed away Dec. 14. Clark's heart had become very weak, but he was always filled with a lot of love for Marquette and for this community.
"Clark was not always the face behind our good deeds, but he was always the deciding voice."
Butler said she and Lambros' daughters – along with a pair of local architects – had discussed the donation with city officials, who she described as being "very supportive" of the concept.
In conjunction with the city, Butler said, the Lambros family would cosponsor an application to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Trust Fund for the purchase of the land.
"As a family we will provide the funds necessary to match this grant request so that the purchase of the property will come at no cost to the city," she said. "The profits from the sale of this land will then be used by our family to physically construct the park and amenities so that not only is the land in the public domain, but the physical park infrastructure, as well. We're committed to covering expenses in the application process and are poised to carry out the work with the city's support so that a final application can be presented to the commission, for your approval, at your March 25 meeting."
The property in question has about 1,500 feet of frontage on Lake Superior, Butler said.
During the commissioner comment section at the conclusion of Monday's meeting, the city's elected officials offered thanks to the Lambros family.
"He's from a generation when people did things like this," Commissioner Don Ryan said of Lambros. "He was a unique member of our community and contributed in many ways. Hopefully this is something that we can see through to fruition."
Kyle Whitney can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 250.


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October 29, 2011 at 7pm to December 11, 2011 at 7pm – Santa Monica Playhouse Albie Selznick ('Rabbi Ben' from "Suddenly Susan" and a lifetime member of the Magic Castle) stars in this Magic Show with a story which runs six weekends at the historic Santa Monica Playhouse. Al… Organized by Michelle | Type: magic, show, /, play
October 30, 2011 to December 22, 2011 – From your computer anywhere in the world Maintain your schedule of Torah study with FREE classes in WebYeshiva's fourth annual Fall semester. Our classes begin Sunday, October 30. Just because Elul is almost over does not mean it's time to… Organized by WebYeshiva | Type: classes
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iHerb Customer Reviews
Savings of: $3.39 (20% off)
Great for Food Allergic Kids!
Posted by Reviewer3175277 on Jul 28, 2008
My son is allergic to dairy and nuts. Both he and my toddler twins love these calcium bears, and they supply 75% of the RDA of calcium for kids under 4 years old. Now I don't have to worry so much about the toddlers drinking enough milk (they actually dislike it), and with milk running almost $4 per gallon, it's actually cheaper to give them Yummi Bears, too.
Best Children's Calcium Supplements Ever!
Posted by Reviewer2719715 on Mar 12, 2009
Hero's Yummi Bears Vegetarian Calcium w/Vitamin D is a wonderfully delicious and fun way for my kids to get the recommended amount of calcium in their diets. Great product!
Excellent calcium supplement for kids
Posted by Reviewer2563139 on Dec 03, 2006
It's a excellent calcium supplement for kids. Cute shape, good flavor. My kids like it very much.
I recommend this.
Posted by Reviewer1413559 on Apr 16, 2008
These were good, but not great.
Nice bears!
Posted by 4734276135233697735 on Apr 05, 2015
Not really sour, not chewy, a bit chalky, which didn't bother me.
Good yummi bears calcium
Posted by 5238752515546516415 on Sep 19, 2012
The taste is great. My kid like it.
Good % of daily calcium needs
Posted by MrsTurnip on Apr 14, 2013
I bought these because of the higher calcium content. My son loves these as well, since they look and taste like regular gummies! Excellent value for money.
Very good vegetarian product
Posted by Reviewer2978597 on Nov 30, 2007
This is a very good vegetarian product, my son likes a lot. Hope your store has more vegetarian or vagan products in the future.
Posted by 5559407543880689755 on Dec 11, 2012
Posted by Reviewer2589276 on Feb 21, 2013


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Togo's® Nutrition Facts
Hot Roast Beef Sandwich, Large size
on wheat bread
WHEAT BREAD: (Enriched Bleached Wheat Flour (Malted Barley, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Whole Wheat Flour, Water, Hydrogenated Vegetable Shortening (Soybean, Cottonseed Oil), Yeast, Sugar, Salt, Contains Less Than 2% Of The Following: Dough Conditioner (Datem, Ascorbic Acid, Potassium Iodate L-Cysteine, Azodicarbonamide, And Enzymes), Cracked Wheat, And Caramel Coloring). SEASONED ROAST BEEF (Coated With: Salt, Sugar, Spices, Garlic Powder, Caramel Powder, Modified Food Starch. Ingredients: Beef, Water, Salt, Sodium Phosphate). SALAD DRESSING (Vegetable Oil (Soybean, Canola), Water, Vinegar, Sugar, Corn Syrup, Modified Food Starch, Beta Carotene, Paprika, Egg Yolk, Salt, Xanthan Gum, Sodium Benzoate, Potassium Sorbate and Calcium Disodium EDTA as Preservatives, Spice), Lettuce, Tomato, Onion, Pickles (Cured Cucumbers, Water, Distilled Vinegar, Salt, 1/10 Of 1% Sodium Benzoate Preservative), Turmeric Natural Flavoring), Pepperoncini (Pepperoncini, Water, Vinegar, Salt, 1/10 Of 1% Sodium Benzoate (Preservative), Turmeric and F.D. & C. Yellow #5, Sodium Bisulfite added to Promote Color), Salt, Pepper.
Allergy Data: Contains Eggs, Soy and Wheat.
* Medifast Official Site - Over 1 million have lost weight with Medifast!
* Fitness Equipment for Professionals by Power Systems
calories fat carbohydrate cholesterol sodium protein nutritional information food labels Togos Great Sandwiches fastfood restaurants Sandwichs 7 roastbeef roasted redmeats sliced shaved lunchmeats
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Results from Day Two of the U.S. Paralympics Cycling National Championships
Another unofficial world record was set today with Barbara Buchan's (Bend, Ore.) time of 4:34.565 in the pursuit. Meanwhile, U.S. Paralympics Cycling Resident Athlete Greta Neimanas (Colorado Springs, Colo./Chicago, Ill.) finished the pursuit with a time of 4:00.384.
The complete day's results are as follows:
Men (Pursuit)
Name, hometown/classification, time
Daniel Nicholson (Richmond, Va.)/CP3 4:18.720
Michael Farrell (Colorado Springs, Colo.)/CP4 4:05.814
Bruce Gordon (South Bend, Ore.)/LC1 5:31.070
Sam Kavanagh (Bozeman, Mont.)/LC2 5:13.880
Matt King (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and pilot Anton Quist (Washington, D.C.)/B1-34:43.788
Scott Smith (Tucson, Ariz.) and pilot Denny Vaughn (Tuscon, Ariz.)/B1-3
Clark Rachfal (Annapolis, Md.) and pilot Dave Swanson (Tuscon, Ariz.)/B1-3
Women (Pursuit)
Jennifer Schuble (Homewood, Ala.)/LC1/LC2/CP4 4:16.645
Greta Neimanas (Colorado Springs, Colo./Chicago, Ill.)/LC1/LC2/CP4 4:00.384
Allison Jones (Colorado Springs, Colo.)/LC3/CP3 4:49.746
Barbara Buchan (Bend, Ore.)/LC3/CP3 4:34.565
The trials will wrap-up on Friday, June 6th with the road time trials at Bear Creek Lake Park in Morrison, Colo., at 8 a.m.
Team nominations will take place Friday evening following competition
For additional information or to arrange an athlete interview, please contact Beth Bourgeois, U.S. Paralympics, at (719)866-2039 or email@example.com.
About U.S. Paralympics:
U.S. Paralympics, a division of the U.S. Olympic Committee, is dedicated to becoming the world leader in the Paralympic sports movement and to promoting excellence in the lives of people with physical disabilities. Visit our Web site at http://www.usparalympics.org/.


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Badrodin - Names Directory
Common first names for surname
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John Roland Miller, 53, of Eldorado passed away 3:25 p.m. Dec. 23, 2012, at Memorial Hospital of Carbondale.
John was born Dec. 2, 1959, in Ansbach, Germany, to Roland E. and Marie (Kelley) Miller. He was a mechanic by trade. He served in the U.S. Army and really enjoyed helping others.
He is survived by his mother, Marie Miller of Harrisburg and Lorene Riley and his children, Tiffany Nicole Riley and Amanda Jo Riley of Eldorado; stepson Scott Lee Riley of Harrisburg; brother, Chris Miller of Mt. Vernon, Ind.; sisters, Anne Ryder of Mt. Vernon, Ind., and Sara Gordon of Marion.
He was preceded in death by his father and a brother Bob Miller.
Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012, at Colonial Terrace Funeral home with visitation 10 a.m. to service time. Burial will be in St. Marys Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers memorial contributions may be made to a scholarship fund for his children and will be accepted at the funeral home. Condolences and expressions of sympathy may be sent to the family via the website www.colonialterracefuneralhome.com
Location, ST | website.com


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When I opened my own haunted house for the first time this last Halloween, I admittedly had no idea what I was in store for. I have an abandoned barn on the back of my property, and I thought that it would be fun for the local kids to have some extra amusement during the holiday. After getting all of the proper licenses and permits, I set to work renovating the barn.
Originally my plan was to set up all of the decorations and create the entire thing myself, which I soon realized would be impossible. I ended up hiring a few of the local high schoolers, and it took us two months of solid work to have the place up and running in time for the 31st. We pulled out all of the stops—from hiring people to dress up in full makeup to purchasing a low lying fog machine. Despite the extensive work, it was worth it when a good portion of the town ended up coming out during the three week span we were open.


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Bill do you think that you could get the same flavor of pepperoni by doing a fresh sausage version rather then a cured version? I know that the texture would be different between the two.
R-2 Bayou,How long did you cure the Pepperoni???Tony
Awesome! I did the Ruhlman recipe years ago. It came out pretty good. If I were to do it again, I'd use a wider casing. What diameter are you using?http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,12584.msg121272.html#msg121272


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Partner: UNT College of Visual Arts + Design
Resource Type: Presentation
Collection: UNT Scholarly Works
- A Collective Case Study of Veterans Inside an Arts and Crafts Room and their Perceptions Regarding Empowerment
- This presentation is part of the faculty lecture series UNT Speaks Out on Coming Home. The author discusses methods and findings from a project she participated in related to how veterans narrated their experiences through art. Her component of the study evaluated participants and described what they gained through creating arts and crafts. digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc139459/
- UNT Speaks Out on No Child Left Behind: The Impact of NCLB on Arts Education
- This presentation is part of the faculty lecture series UNT Speaks Out on No Child Left Behind. This presentation discusses the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act and its impact on arts education. digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc67601/


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Canada 'Cuts and Runs': The Afghan People Will Win - #26
Twenty US Soldiers Involved in Kandahar Killings
"An Afghan committee says that up to 20 US soldiers have been involved in the Sunday killing of at least 16 Afghan civilians in Kandahar Province.."
Breaking: Panetta Orders US Marines in Helmand to Disarm
"US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has ordered the disarmament of the US marines meeting with him in Helmand Province."
Jack Cafferty: Military Industrial Complex Has This Country by the Throat (and vid)
"How much is enough?' he said Tuesday. 'The United States has been in Afghanistan for more than ten years. And President Obama insists we will remain in Afghanistan until the end of 2014. Why? What will be accomplished by staying in that godforsaken hellhole for another 20 months that hasn't been accomplished in 10 and a half years?..."
and Canada?
Canadian Training Mission Meant to Free Up US Soldiers For Combat: Documents
"Since the Canadian training mission in Afghanistan began last year, the federal government has said the purpose is to help Afghan army and police develop the skills needed to take responsibility for the country's security in 2014. But shortly before visiting Afghanistan this past Christmas, Gov Gen David Johnston was told another reason 950 Canadian troops have been deployed to Kabul and two other central Afghan cities:
to free up US soldiers for combat.
The statement is found in briefing notes that were prepared in advance of Johnston's visit to Afghanistan, Kuwait and HMCS Vancouver in the Mediterranean and obtained by Postmedia News through Access to Information. According to the briefing note for Johnston, 'location and billets were based on...where it was assessed that Canada could get the greatest effect on the ground and free up American forces to move to a combat role.'
It's the first time such an objective has been mentioned. The Department of National Defence did not respond to questions.."
Ha! What a joke!
The goal of the "training mission" is to "train 352,000 Afghan soldiers by the time Canada and its NATO allies leave in 2014."
But suddenly the opizishin is outraged to discover that the "training mission" is also freeing up US soldiers to fight! Why didn't Peter McKay tell us this?
Who could possibly have imagined that Canada's "training mission" would result in enhancing the ability of NATO and its Afghan stooges to kill more Afghans?
Jack Harris and John McKay are shocked - shocked! - that instead of Canadians handing out lollipops to school children they are actually assisting in NATO's continued military assault on Afghanistan!
Peter MacKay Vows to Keep Canadian Trainers in Afghanistan Despite Upheaval
"Liberal Defence Critic John McKay, whose party supported the training mission, said every incident involving an American or other allied troop puts Canadian forces at risk while endangering the work and sacrifice that has clearly been made.
'We spent billions and billions of dollars in Afghanistan, and we have 158 dead and hundreds with injuries, but we don't seem to be any closer,' he said. 'We might be approaching enough is enough. I don't think we're quite there yet, but I'm hoping that the senior leadership in our military and in our government has talked to our counterparts and been very blunt with them.'
NDP defence critic David Christopherson, however, said the incidents should be the last straw, and that as other countries change their timetable for withdrawal, Canada would be well advised to do the same. 'The recent events in Afghanistan are certainly tragic and it certainly underscores the no-win situation,' he said. 'It is time for our troops to come home."
Jack Harris and John McKay are shocked - shocked!
They're also accomplices. But wasn't that Jack Layton's position all along...that combat was actually the wrong mission for Canada, and that we should play a more 'constructive' role? The fact of the matter is that whatever we do in the context of Afghanistan lightens the load on US military expenditures. They really mean it when they pat us on the head to say we're quite valuable as allies.
Some of my righteous dude Liberal friends actually supported the CIA, ISI, and Saudi's covert interventions in 1980s Afghanistan. And today they are just rabidly anti-NDP as usual and taking no real stands on anything significant. I find debating with Liberals is like trying to staple jello to a wall.
So, did any of the anti-NDP supporters here actually vote in any of the last several elections in protest of Canadian troops in Afghanistan? Or are the comments here just a lot of hot air?
I know which party I voted for, and it's the only party in Ottawa on the record as calling for withdrawing combat troops from the CIA's 30 year-long project in Central Asia. I guess that gives me the right to complain about our troops having been there ever since the Libranos secretly slid them into a U.S.-style combat role in Kandahar beginning in 2005 after a lot of stuttering and stammering to the NDP's questioning in Parliament.
I can't speak for anyone anywhere else Fidel, but there were no such candidates in my riding that one could select from to register a protest. Actually I think it might be fairer to say NDP non-supporters. Saying 'anti' like that makes us sound like anti-christs or something.
I can't speak for anyone anywhere else Fidel, but there were no such candidates in my riding that one could select from to register a protest.
So you're living in an Amish community? Jehovah's?
Actually I think it might be fairer to say NDP non-supporters. Saying 'anti' like that makes us sound like anti-christs or something.
So, I think what you're saying is that you didn't actually cast a vote of protest for any candidate whose party is on the record for opposing Canada's participation in the U.S.-led military occupation of Afghanistan. Is that right?
What do you think about Canadian troops still there in Afghanistan now that it's 2012? If you don't vote for a party promising to bring the troops home, then why would you even complain about it in a public forum like this one? I'm pretty sure our amazing willpower alone couldnt stop them from murdering Afghans from 2005 on, and that's one of the reasons why I voted NDP every chance I had.
Roadside bomb kills 10 civilians in Afghanistan
At least ten Afghan civilians, including six women and four children, have been killed and two others wounded when a roadside bomb went off in Afghanistan's southern province of Uruzgan, Press TV reports.
Sayed Hamdard Maruf, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said the incident took place at around 11 a.m. local time (0630 GMT) on Thursday in the Deh Rawud district of the province, located some 370 kilometers (229 miles) south of Afghan capital city Kabul, when a vehicle touched off a buried explosive device.
On Wednesday, eight civilians lost their lives in a similar incident in the neighboring province of Helmand.
So you're living in an Amish community? Jehovah's?
Actually, a Jehovah candidate would have been a step up from the Cons, Libs and Dipsters on the issue of Afghanistan involvement if you understand anything of that religion. But no, here we didn't have any party available that took a stand against Afghanistan involvement, and even then it represents but a single issue one way or another, which although important enough to get out of bed for if it actually meant changing anything, still represents scarce meat on the bone when considering every other foreign policy issue of contention.
So, I think what you're saying is that you didn't actually cast a vote of protest for any candidate whose party is on the record for opposing Canada's participation in the U.S.-led military occupation of Afghanistan. Is that right?
Impossible to do for reasons already elaborated on.
What do you think about Canadian troops still there in Afghanistan now that it's 2012? If you don't vote for a party promising to bring the troops home, then why would you even complain about it in a public forum like this one? I'm pretty sure our amazing willpower alone couldnt stop them from murdering Afghans from 2005 on, and that's one of the reasons why I voted NDP every chance I had.
Our skills and reputation as a peacemaker give Canada the basis for an active role after our troops withdraw in 2011.
and from the NDP Platform:
We will end Canada's combat involvement in Afghanistan, and we will bring our troops home. In its place, we will commit to an on-going civilian development program focused on women, youth and children; regional diplomacy; the rule of law and human rights; institution building and humanitarian assistance.
What do they have to say on the matter of our latest military re-alignment to the peacemaking role in Afghanistan...from south to north away from the previous mission of actual combat operations? I think these statements provide us with a clue in the absence of elaboration on their website. Such statements are quite difficult to come anywhere in fact. Even google fails us in this regard. The above quote from the platform however constitutes almost precicely the sum total of their remarks about policy in Afghanistan, after 10 plus years of war and many billions of dollars in public expenditures, lives lost, bodies and minds forever maimed.
The Afghan People's Right to Resist - by John V Walsh
"The news of the latest US atrocities against the Afghan people struck like a thunderclap over the weekend. Here were whole families killed for sport by a US soldier - although many reports say it was a detatchment of soldiers and that seems the more likely story.
As FAIR reported here, the media treated this as simply a public relations disaster like the urination on the bodies of slaughtered Afghans by the soldiers of the Empire or the 'accidental' burning of the Koran. This is not war; it is an occupation. Every occupation is built on a mountain of corpses.
Let us be perfectly clear. The right to resist occupation by any and all means is enshrined in international law and somewhere deeply in the human brain. And that includes resisting by force. So whose cause is just? It is the cause of those Afghanis who are fighting to throw off a bloody Occupation. That has to be recognized. It may not be a slogan around which to build a movement of millions. But it is surely the truth and we must point it out at every turn..."
Afghans Furious As US Massacre Suspect Flown to Kuwait
"...It was the demand of the families of the martyrs of this incident, the people of Kandahar and the people of Afghanistan to try him publicly in Afghanistan,' said Mohammad Naeem Lalai Hamidzai, a Kandahar lawmaker who is part of a parliamentary commission investigating the shootings.
Meanwhile, American military defense lawyer Michael Waddington says the decision to remove the soldier from the country may complicate the situation. The prosecutor won't be able to cross-examine statements from Afghan witnessesw unless the defense is able to cross-examine them he said.
Witnesses to the atrocity say that several drunken American servicemen were involved. Since then Afghanistan has been shaken by mass protests..."
Taliban Halts Talks with the US, Karzai Wants Security Control A Year Earlier
"The Afghan Taliban says it has suspended talks with the US.."
Who else could the CIA, ISI, and Saudis possibly have been holding talks with besides the Taliban?
We can bet those clandestine talks behind closed doors in swanky hotel rooms of Islamabad and Karachi did not include groups representing Afghan women, nor the other 80% of the Afghan resistance, And never mind Karzai's political opposition. Uncle Sam and their cold war pals in Pakistan's army intelligence only see the Taliban, their former proxy government in Kabul, as legitimate opposition. All other Afghans will be told to go to hell.
New Order of the Day in Afghanistan: Cut and Run - by Scott Taylor
Canada is leading the race to abandon ship...an inglorious ending looms large on the horizon, cutting and running seems to be the order of the day.."
and so the end draws near - ten years of blood and treasure and phony opposition has brought us to this point..
This headline is absurd. No, Canada is not leading the way out of Afghanistan. Other countries withdrew some time ago.
Our corrupt stooges who repent not of their stoogeries are only following Warshington's lead as per usual. And the talk in Warshington is of maybe leaving Afghanistan. Some day in the distant future. Our obedient lapdogs in Ottawa would never dream of taking the lead on anything. They are incapable of it - their craniums were opened and brains siphoned-off to the states along with the oil some time ago.
'US Led Forces Give No Value to Afghan Lives' (and vid)
"Interview with Mohammad Doud Miraki, author and Afghanistan expert:
'It is my sincere opinion that they do not want peace in Afghanistan..'
The War Is Over, The War Is Lost, Bring Them Home - by Clancy Sigal
"...The Afghani war is over. Yet the President, his cheerfully on-message advisers, and most of the stenographer media refuse to call it a night when the situation on the ground, with its secret night-raids and fuckedup soldiers, can only get much worse. What are we waiting for, an engraved invitation to leave?"
The Horror, The Horror - by Pepe Escobar
'We must kill them. We must incinerate them. Pig after pig...cow after cow...village after village...army after army..' Colonel Kurtz in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now
"...And forget about 'stability'. The 'Afghan security forces' that will theoretically be in charge by 2014, or even before, are doomed. Their illiteracy rate is a staggering 80 per cent. At least 25 percent become deserters. Child rape is endemic. Over 50 percent are permanently stoned on hashish, or steroids.
This was Afghanistan's Haditha moment - as in Iraq, or My Lai as in Vietnam..."
Afghan Massacre Suspect on Flight to US
"An American soldier suspected of shooting 16 civilians in Afghanistan on Sunday is being moved to a military base in Kansas, officials say. The transfer to a 'safer' detention facility sparked fury among Afghan lawmakers who urged a public trial in Afghanistan. It also drove hundreds of Afghans into the streets across the country in further protests against the rampage..."
and take all the rest of your mad murdering military home as well NATO!
'United States Seeks Indefinite Stay in Afghanistan' (and vid)
Interview with Conn Hallinan of Foreign Policy in Focus magazine
Well it doesn't surprise me at all. The original idea of the US going into Afghanistan really didn't have anything to do with 9/11 or for that matter al-Qaeda or the Taliban.
What it had to do with was that the US has always wanted to have a military imprint in Central Asia and obviously Afghanistan is typical for that. Not only does it border Iran and Pakistan, but Central Asia...
And the original plan was to run a gas pipeline from the Caspian Basin across Afghanistan through India and Pakistan. So, I'm not at all surprised that the US has declared that intends to maintain a military presence. Whether they can do so is entirely another matter.
Wait a minute WAIT-A-Minute! 9/11 was the worst attack on America since Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor! And the CIA and Pentagon capitalists knew nothing, we repeat, NOTH-ing about it!! It was complete and total SURPRISE attack, as in Jim Naybors "Surprise-surprise Sargent Carter, we got the saaaaame room" kind of surprise. Elvis bin Laden and the CIA's expendible jihadi assets in Afghanistan orchesrated it all. Remember all the good guys from the 1980s and 90s who helped Afghans rid their country of the evol empire? At least, that's what lapdog newz media have repeated constantly for the last ten years. And then they turned on us, like a son goes against the father. 9/11 is now the realm of legend and myth. And we have to fight them on their terrortory so that they don't attack us here at home, like Hitler said just before he ordered the army to be merciful toward civilians in their humanitarian war against Poland. But this is unprecedented for sure.
It's obvious that what Hallinan says and what lapdog newz media say about 9/11 are two very different things. One of them is lying like Joe Goebbels.
Wait a minute WAIT-A-Minute! 9/11 was the worst attack on America since Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor! And the CIA and Pentagon capitalists knew nothing, we repeat, NOTH-ing about it!! It was complete and total SURPRISE attack, as in Jim Naybors "Surprise-surprise Sargent Carter, we got the saaaaame room" kind of surprise.
Whoa, wait just one sec here - are you saying they did Pearl Harbor too!? This is big.
Fidel wrote:
Wait a minute WAIT-A-Minute! 9/11 was the worst attack on America since Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor! And the CIA and Pentagon capitalists knew nothing, we repeat, NOTH-ing about it!! It was complete and total SURPRISE attack, as in Jim Naybors "Surprise-surprise Sargent Carter, we got the saaaaame room" kind of surprise.
Whoa, wait just one sec here - are you saying they did Pearl Harbor too!? This is big.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Elvis bin Laden, Hamid Karzai, the Khadrs, Zawahiris, Ali Mohamed, Gulbby Hekmatyar, Rabbini, Moussaoui etc all fought for the CIA in the 1980s and 90s Afghanistan. They were on the side of ordinary humble Afghans against the evol Sovs. Those guys were fighting for freedom and democracy in the Stan.
And then for some strange reason those ruthless motherfuckers transformed themselves into social democrats and decided that to become vigilantes with social consciences in avenging imperialist-infidel oppression of ordinary Palestinians on that special day on 9/11/01. And what a special day it was. 9/11 was the ultimate surprise attack against the vicious, most high tech empire with the most extensive intelligence network in world history. They were taken by complete surprise on that infamous day.
Never forget.
US committed to continue talks with their former proxies, the Taliban: White House
US and Taliban negotiators were believed to have had preliminary contacts aimed at establishing an office for the Taliban in the Gulf state of Qatar to launch peace negotiations.
Next up the Yanks will be pushing for the Taliban to have a seat at the UN, like they did with the Khmer Rouge in "Democratic Kampuchea."
What a farce!
'Sick Savages': 3/11 Afghans Will Never Forget
"...Everything seems to be falling apart for US strategists..."
The US Empire's Achilles Heel: Its Barbaric Racism - by Glen Ford
"...These three latest atrocities have brought the US [and Canadian] occupation to the point of crisis - hopefully a terminal one. But the whole war has been one atrocity after another, from the very beginning, when the high-tech superpower demonstrated the uncanny ability to track down and incinerate whole Afghan wedding parties - not just once but repeatedly. Quite clearly, to the Americans, these people have never been more than ants on the ground, to be exterminated at will..."
'US Killing of Afghan Civilians, Gruesome' (and vid)
"This is nothing new. Because we have already, in the past, cases where the US forces raped people - raped men as well as women and covered up their murder. And this has been in fact the modus operandi of these crimnal gangs. Unfortunately they have committed similar crimes in the past.."
Questions Mount Over US Account of Massacre - by Patrick Martin
"Nearly every fact asserted by US officials in Kabul and Washington has been challenged either by the villagers where the massacre took place, by the Karzai government in Afghanistan, or by those acquainted with the arrested soldier, Staff Sergeant Robert Bates, 38...But the more important warcriminals are those in the White House, [Ottawa], The Pentagon, the CIA and throughout the US political establishment who are responsible for more than ten years of war in Afghanistan, and who are plotting new wars in Syria, Iran and elsewhere."
One prime prerogative of all empires is that it is subject to no laws or accountability other than its own, even when it comes to crimes committed on other nations' soil and against its people. That was the imperial principle that finally compelled America's withdrawal from Iraq, and it is apparently what caused the US to quickly remove the accused shooter from Afghanistan. It may be understandable why the US perceives it in its interest to preserve this imperial power, but it should be equally understandable why its victims react with increasing levels of suspicion, resentment and rage.
Murder Is Not An Anomaly In War - by Chris Hedges
"The scale of our state-sponsored murder is masked from public view. Civilians and combatants merge into one detested, nameless, faceless mass. The psychological leap to murder is short. And murder happens every day in Afghanistan. Military attacks like these in civilian areas make discussions of human rights an absurdity.."
or an imperative
Beatings, Sexual Abuse, Electric Shocks: US Torture Camps 'Still Operative'
"A new report reveals that US forces continue to send detainees to prison where torture is practiced, despite NATO's promise to suspend prison transfers last September. The report carried out by the Afghan Independent Rights Commission and the Open Society/ Foundation, documents numerous cases of torture in Afghan detention facilities between Feb 2011 and Jan 2012.
The document has credible evidence in 11 recent cases where practices such as 'beatings, suspension from the ceiling, electric shocks, threatened or actual sexual abuse, and other forms of mental and physical abuse' were commonplace."
don't worry Canada's own detainee/torture issue is deeply buried courtesy of our pols.