Victor Davis Hanson (born September 5, 1953) is an American classicist, military historian, farmer, and political commentator. He has been a commentator on modern and ancient warfare and contemporary politics for The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, National Review, The Washington Times and other media outlets.

He is a professor emeritus of Classics at California State University, Fresno, the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow in classics and military history at the Hoover Institution, and visiting professor at Hillsdale College. Hanson was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2007 by President George W. Bush, and was a presidential appointee in 2007–2008 on the American Battle Monuments Commission.

Early life
Hanson grew up in Selma, California in the San Joaquin Valley, and has worked there most of his life. He is of Swedish and Welsh ancestry, and his grandfather was killed in the Battle of Okinawa.

Academic career 1985–2004
Hanson received a B.A. in classics and general Cowell College honors from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1975, and his PhD in classics from Stanford University in 1980.

In 1985 he was hired at California State University, Fresno to launch a classical studies program.  In 1991, Hanson was awarded the American Philological Association's Excellence in Teaching Award, given annually to the nation's top undergraduate teachers of Greek and Latin. He was named distinguished alumnus of the year for 2006 at University of California, Santa Cruz. He has been a visiting professor of classics at Stanford University in California (1991–92), a National Endowment for the Humanities fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, California (1992–93), awarded an Alexander Onassis traveling fellowship to Greece (1999), as well as Nimitz Fellow at University of California, Berkeley (2006), and held the visiting Shifrin Chair of Military History at the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland (2002–03).

In 2004 he took early retirement in order to focus on his political writing and popular history.  Hanson has held a series of positions in ideologically-oriented institutions and private foundations.  He was appointed Fellow in California Studies at the Claremont Institute, a conservative think-tank in California, in 2002. Hanson was appointed Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, another conservative think-tank in California.  He was often the William Simon visiting professor at the School of Public Policy at Pepperdine University, a private Christian institution in California (2009–15), and was awarded in 2015 an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the graduate school at Pepperdine. He gave the Wriston Lecture in 2004 for the Manhattan Institute whose mission is to "develop and disseminate new ideas that foster greater economic choice and individual responsibility". He has been a board member of the Bradley Foundation since 2015, and served on the HF Guggenheim Foundation board for over a decade.

Writing

Since 2004, Hanson has written a weekly column syndicated by Tribune Content Agency, as well as a weekly column for National Review Online since 2001.  He was awarded the National Humanities Medal (2007) by President George W. Bush, as well as the Eric Breindel Prize for opinion journalism (2002), and the Bradley Prize from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation in 2008.

Hanson's Warfare and Agriculture (Giardini 1983), his PhD thesis, argued that Greek warfare could not be understood apart from agrarian life in general, and suggested that the modern assumption that agriculture was irrevocably harmed during classical wars was vastly overestimated. The Western Way of War (Alfred Knopf 1989) explored the combatants' experiences of ancient Greek battle and detailed the Hellenic foundations of later Western military practice.

The Other Greeks (The Free Press 1995) argued that the emergence of a unique middling agrarian class explains the ascendance of the Greek city-state, and its singular values of consensual government, sanctity of private property, civic militarism and individualism. In Fields Without Dreams (The Free Press 1996, winner of the Bay Area Book Reviewers Award) and The Land Was Everything (The Free Press 2000, a Los Angeles Times notable book of the year), Hanson lamented the decline of family farming and rural communities, and the loss of agrarian voices in American democracy. The Soul of Battle (The Free Press 1999) traced the careers of Epaminondas, the Theban liberator, William Tecumseh Sherman, and George S. Patton, in arguing that democratic warfare's strengths are best illustrated in short, intense and spirited marches to promote consensual rule, but bog down otherwise during long occupations or more conventional static battle.

In Mexifornia (Encounter 2003)—a personal memoir about growing up in rural California and an account of immigration from Mexico—Hanson predicted that illegal immigration would soon reach crisis proportions, unless legal, measured, and diverse immigration was restored, as well as the traditional melting-pot values of integration, assimilation, and intermarriage.

Ripples of Battle (Doubleday 2003) chronicled how the cauldron of battle affects combatants' later literary and artistic work, as its larger influence ripples for generations, affecting art, literature, culture, and government. In A War Like No Other (Random House 2005, a New York Times notable book of the year), a history of the Peloponnesian War, Hanson offered an alternative history, arranged by methods of fighting—triremes, hoplites, cavalry, sieges, etc.—in concluding that the conflict marked a brutal watershed event for the Greek city-states. The Savior Generals (Bloomsbury 2013) followed the careers of five great generals (Themistocles, Belisaurius, Sherman, Ridgway, Petraeus) arguing that rare qualities in leadership emerge during hopeless predicaments that only rare individuals can salvage.

The End of Sparta (Bloomsbury 2011) is a novel about a small community of Thespian farmers who join the great march of Epaminondas (369/70 BC) into the heart of the Peloponnese to destroy Spartan hegemony, free the Messenian helots, and spread democracy in the Peloponnese.

Hanson has edited several collections of essays, including (Hoplites, Routledge 1991), Bonfire of the Humanities (with B. Thornton and J. Heath, ISI 2001), and Makers of Ancient Strategy (Princeton 2010), as well as a number of his own collected articles, such as An Autumn of War [2002 Anchor], Between War and Peace [Anchor 2004], and The Father of Us All [Bloomsbury 2010]. He has written chapters for works such as the Cambridge History of War, and the Cambridge History of Ancient Warfare.

Carnage and Culture
Hanson wrote the 2001 book Carnage and Culture (Doubleday), published in Great Britain and the Commonwealth countries as Why the West Has Won, in which he argued that the military dominance of Western civilization, beginning with the ancient Greeks, results from certain fundamental aspects of Western culture, such as consensual government, a tradition of self-critique, secular rationalism, religious tolerance, individual freedom, free expression, free markets, and individualism. Hanson's emphasis on cultural exception rejects racial explanations for Western military preeminence and disagrees as well with environmental or geographical determinist explanations such as those put forth by Jared Diamond in Guns, Germs, and Steel (1997).

American military officer Robert L. Bateman, in a 2007 article on the Media Matters for America website, criticized Hanson's thesis, arguing that Hanson's point about Western armies preferring to seek out a decisive battle of annihilation is rebutted by the Second Punic War, in which Roman attempts to annihilate the Carthaginians instead led to the Carthaginians annihilating the Romans at the Battle of Cannae. Bateman argued that Hanson was wrong about Western armies' common preferences in seeking out a battle of annihilation, arguing that the Romans only defeated the Carthaginians via the Fabian Strategy of keeping their armies in being and not engaging Hannibal in battle. In a response published on his personal website, Hanson argued that Bateman had misunderstood and misrepresented his thesis. Regarding the Second Punic War he said that the Romans initially sought out decisive battles, but were reluctantly forced to resort to a Fabian strategy after several defeats at the hands of a tactical genius, until they were able to rebuild their military capacity, at which point they did ultimately did defeat Hannibal in decisive battles. He also said out that the Carthaginians themselves had adopted many 'Western' methods of warfare from the Greeks, which is why Hannibal was keen to seek decisive battles too.

United States education and classical studies
Hanson co-authored the book Who Killed Homer? The Demise of Classical Education and the Recovery of Greek Wisdom with John Heath in 1998. The book explores the issue of how classical education has declined in the US and what might be done to restore it to its former prominence. This is important, according to Hanson and Heath, because knowledge of the classical Greeks and Romans is necessary to fully understand Western culture. To begin a discussion along these lines the authors state, "The answer to why the world is becoming Westernized goes all the way back to the wisdom of the Greeks—reason enough why we must not abandon the study of our heritage".

Political scientist Francis Fukuyama, reviewing Who Killed Homer? favorably in Foreign Affairs, wrote that "[t]he great thinkers of the Western tradition—from Hobbes, Burke, and Hegel to Weber and Nietzsche (who was trained as a classical philologist)—were so thoroughly steeped in Greek thought that they scarcely needed to refer back to original texts for quotations. This tradition has come under fire from two camps, one postmodernist that seeks to deconstruct the classics on the grounds of gender, race, and class, and the other pragmatic and career-minded that asks what value the classics have in a computer-driven society. The authors' defense of a traditionalist approach to the classics is worthy."

Classicists Victoria Cech and Joy Connolly have found Who Killed Homer? to have considerable pitfalls. Reviews of the book have noted several problems with the authors' perception of classical culture. According to Cech, "[o]ne example is the relation of the individual to the state and the 'freedom' of belief or of inquiry in each. Socrates and Jesus were put to death by their respective states for articulating inconvenient doctrines. In Sparta, where the population of citizens (male) were carefully socialized in a military system, no one seems to have differed from the majority enough to merit the death penalty. But these differences are not sorted out by the authors, for their mission is to build an ideal structure of classical attitudes by which to reveal our comparative flaws, and their point is more what is wrong with us than what was right with Athens. I contend that Hanson and Heath are actually comparing modern academia not to the ancient seminal cultures but to the myth that arose about them over the last couple of millennia." According to Connolly, Professor of Classics at New York University, "[t]hroughout history, the authors say, women have never enjoyed equal rights and responsibilities. At least in Greece, 'the veiled, mutilated, and secluded were not the norm' (p. 57). Why waste time, then, as feminist scholarship does, 'merely demarcating the exact nature of the sexism of the Greeks and the West' (p. 102)? From their point of view, in fact, the real legacy of feminism is the destruction of the values of family and community."

Political views
Hanson was at one time a registered member of the Democratic Party but is a conservative who voted for George W. Bush in the 2000 and 2004 elections. As of 2020, he is a registered independent. He defended George W. Bush and his policies, especially the Iraq War. He vocally supported Bush's Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, describing him as "a rare sort of secretary of the caliber of George Marshall" and a "proud and honest-speaking visionary" whose "hard work and insight are bringing us ever closer to victory".

Hanson is a supporter of Donald Trump, authoring a 2019 book called The Case for Trump. Trump praised the book, in which Hanson defends Trump's insults and incendiary language as "uncouth authenticity", and praises Trump for "an uncanny ability to troll and create hysteria among his media and political critics."

Conservative views
He has been described as a conservative by some commentators for his views on the Iraq War, and has stated, "I came to support neocon approaches first in the wars against the Taliban and Saddam, largely because I saw little alternative." Hanson's 2002 volume An Autumn of War called for going to war "hard, long, without guilt, apology or respite until our enemies are no more." In the context of the Iraq War, Hanson wrote, "In an era of the greatest affluence and security in the history of civilization, the real question before us remains whether the United States – indeed any Western democracy — still possesses the moral clarity to identify evil as evil, and then the uncontested will to marshal every available resource to fight and eradicate it."

Race relations
In July 2013, then-Attorney General Eric Holder gave a speech where he mentioned that as a black man he needed to deliver "the Talk" to his son, instructing him how to interact with police as a young black man. In response to Holder's speech, Hanson wrote a column titled "Facing Facts about Race" where he offered his own version of "the Talk", namely the need to inform his children to be careful of young black men when venturing into the inner city, who Hanson argued were statistically more likely to commit violent crimes than young men of other races, and that therefore it was understandable for the police to focus on them. Ta-Nehisi Coates of The Atlantic described Hanson's column as "stupid advice": "in any other context we would automatically recognize this 'talk' as stupid advice. If I were to tell you that I only employ Asian-Americans to do my taxes because 'Asian-Americans do better on the Math SAT', you would not simply question my sensitivity, but my mental faculties."

American journalist Arthur Stern called "Facing Facts About Race" an "inflammatory" column based upon crime statistics that Hanson never cited, writing: "His presentation of this controversial opinion as undeniable fact without exhaustive statistical proof is undeniably racist." Journalist Kelefa Sanneh, in response to "Facing Facts About Race", wrote "It's strange, then, to read Hanson writing as if the fear of violent crime were mainly a "white or Asian" problem, about which African-Americans might be uninformed, or unconcerned – as if African-American parents weren't already giving their children more detailed and nuanced versions of Hanson's "sermon", sharing his earnest and absurd hope that the right words might keep trouble at bay." Hanson, in response to Sanneh's essay, accused him of a "McCarthyite character assassination" and "infantile, if not racialist, logic".

Obama criticism
Hanson was a critic of President Barack Obama. He criticized the Obama administration for appeasing Iran and Russia, and blamed Obama for the outbreak of the war in Ukraine in 2014. In May 2016, Hanson argued that Obama failed to maintain a credible threat of deterrence, and that "the next few months may prove the most dangerous since World War II."

Works
 Warfare and Agriculture in Classical Greece. University of California Press, 1983. . Rev. ed. 1998.
 The Western Way of War: Infantry Battle in Classical Greece. Alfred A. Knopf, 1989.  2nd. ed. 2000.
 Hoplites: The Classical Greek Battle Experience, editor, Routledge, 1991.
 The Other Greeks: The Family Farm and the Agrarian Roots of Western Civilization, Free Press, 1995.
 Fields Without Dreams: Defending the Agrarian Idea, Free Press, 1996.
 Who Killed Homer?: The Demise of Classical Education and the Recovery of Greek Wisdom, with John Heath, Encounter Books, 1998.
 The Soul of Battle: From Ancient Times to the Present Day, How Three Great Liberators Vanquished Tyranny, Free Press, 1999.
 The Wars of the Ancient Greeks: And the Invention of Western Military Culture, Cassell, 1999.
 The Land Was Everything: Letters from an American Farmer, Free Press, 2000.
 Bonfire of the Humanities: Rescuing the Classics in an Impoverished Age, with John Heath and Bruce S. Thornton, ISI Books, 2001.
 Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise of Western Power, Doubleday, 2001.
 Published in the UK as Why the West Has Won: Carnage and Culture from Salamis to Vietnam, Faber, 2001.
 An Autumn of War: What America Learned from September 11 and the War on Terrorism, Anchor Books, 2002.  A collection of essays, mostly from National Review, covering events occurring between September 11, 2001, and January 2002
 Mexifornia: A State of Becoming, Encounter Books, 2003.
 Ripples of Battle: How Wars Fought Long Ago Still Determine How We Fight, How We Live, and How We Think, Doubleday, 2003.
 Between War and Peace: Lessons from Afghanistan and Iraq, Random House, 2004. . A collection of essays, mostly from National Review, covering events occurring between January 2002 and July 2003
 A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War, Random House, 2005.
 The Father of Us All: War and History, Ancient and Modern, Bloomsbury Press, 2010.
 The End of Sparta: A Novel, Bloomsbury Press, 2011.
 The Savior Generals: How Five Great Commanders Saved Wars That Were Lost – From Ancient Greece to Iraq, Bloomsbury Press, 2013.
 The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won, Basic Books, 2017.
 The Case for Trump, Basic Books, 2019.
 The Dying Citizen: How Progressive Elites, Tribalism, and Globalization Are Destroying the Idea of America, Basic Books, 2021.

References

External links

 Victor Davis Hanson's Private Papers – Hanson's website; carries columns and essays by Hanson and colleagues
 Hanson's National Review articles  – archive at National Review Online
 Hoover Institution bio

1953 births
Living people
20th-century American historians
20th-century American male writers
21st-century American historians
21st-century American male writers
American columnists
American male essayists
American male non-fiction writers
American military historians
American people of Swedish descent
American people of Welsh descent
American political writers
American Protestants
California State University, Fresno faculty
California Independents
Critics of postmodernism
Farmers from California
Hillsdale College faculty
Historians from California
Hoover Institution people
Manhattan Institute for Policy Research
National Humanities Medal recipients
New Right (United States)
People from Fowler, California
People from Selma, California
Stanford University alumni
The Washington Times people
Theorists on Western civilization
University of California, Santa Cruz alumni
Writers from California

Victor Davis Hanson


Hayley Turner  (born 3 January 1983) is an English jockey who competes in flat racing. Originally from Nottingham, she is based in Newmarket.

In 2008 Turner became the first woman to ride 100 UK flat race winners during a calendar year. She went on to win eight Group races, including two Group 1 races and a Grade 1 race. She retired from racing in 2015 and became a regular contributor to ITV Racing. She came out of retirement in 2018 and since then has ridden four winners at Royal Ascot.

Background

Turner was born two miles from Nottingham Racecourse in north Nottinghamshire, one of six daughters of Kate and Richard Turner. Her mother was a riding instructor and she learnt to ride at an early age. She later rode out for local trainer Mark Polglase and attended a course at the Northern Racing College before becoming apprenticed to Michael Bell at Newmarket, Suffolk. Her first race ride was on Markellis at Southwell on 27 March 2000. Turner never finished the race; the horse broke a leg and was euthanised. Her first winning ride was her eighth, on Generate at Pontefract on 4 June 2000. Bell sent her to Tom Amoss, in New Orleans for three months of training. She also spent the winter of 2004 riding out for Godolphin in Dubai.

In 2005 Turner was joint Champion Apprentice with Saleem Golam with 44 winners. She rode her 95th winner in September of that year, thereby "riding out her claim", only the fourth woman to do so in Britain.

Racing career

In 2008 Turner became the first female jockey to ride 100 winners in a calendar year in Britain, when Mullitovermaurice won at Wolverhampton on 30 December 2008. That year also saw high-profile handicap wins on Furnace at Chester and Ascot and on The Betchworth Kid at Doncaster. She secured her first Group race winner on Lady Deauville in the Lando-Trophy in Germany on 16 November 2008. She was voted as Channel 4's Racing Personality for 2008.

In March 2009, Turner was badly injured in an accident on the Newmarket gallops. The head injury initially threatened to sideline her for the rest of the year, but fresh medical evidence allowed her to return to race-riding in mid-summer and she ended the year on 60 winners, her second highest figure. While unable to ride she made some guest appearances as a pundit on Channel 4 Racing.

The 2010 flat racing year continued to be successful for Turner; highlights included a first Group 1 ride on Barshiba in the Nassau Stakes at Glorious Goodwood, and winning the Group 2 Lancashire Oaks on the same horse at Haydock a month earlier; and a successful partnership with classy two-year-old Margot Did, which included two winners and second places in two Group 3 races and a Group 2.

In January 2011, Turner had her first race-rides at the Meydan racecourse in Dubai, as part of the annual Dubai Racing Carnival. In July 2011 Turner rode her first Group 1 winner, Dream Ahead, in the July Cup at Newmarket. and repeated the feat the following month winning the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes on Margot Did during York's Ebor Meeting. A few weeks later she broke her ankle in a fall at Bath. She received the 'Most Inspirational Sportswoman' Award at the 2011 Jaguar Academy of Sport Annual Awards.

2012 saw Turner ride 92 winners, her second-best season, at a strike rate of 12%, also a career second-best. On 31 May 2012 she became the first female jockey to ride on the Dubai World Cup night. She rode Margot Did in the Al Quoz Sprint where she finished well back in the field. On 2 June 2012 she became the second female jockey to ride in the Epsom Derby. She rode Cavaliero where she came last of the nine horses running. In August 2012, Turner won the Beverly D. Stakes in the United States riding the David Simcock trained I'm a Dreamer, becoming the first UK-based woman to ride an international Grade 1 winner.

In 2013 Turner was twice sidelined by injuries, breaking an ankle in July and then in September sustaining damage to her pelvis and three vertebrae in a fall at Doncaster.

At the end of the 2015 season, Turner retired from race riding to take up a role in broadcasting with At The Races. She regained her jockey's licence to ride in the Shergar Cup team event at Ascot in August 2016. In January 2017 she became part of the newly-formed ITV Racing team. Later that year she rode regularly in France, where a 2kg weight allowance for female jockeys had been introduced. In December 2017, Turner faced a British Horseracing Authority disciplinary panel when it emerged that she had opened an on-line betting account on her retirement and placed modest bets even though she still held a jockey's licence, which was a breach of racing rules. The panel suspended her licence for three months, acknowledging that the nature of her betting was no threat to the sport's integrity. After the suspension came to an end, Turner returned to regular race riding, with 44 winners in Britain 2018.

In June 2019, Turner achieved her first win at Royal Ascot when she took the Sandringham Handicap on 33/1 outsider Thanks Be. It was only the second time a female jockey had won at the meeting and 32 years since Gay Kelleway's win in 1987. Turner was given a nine-day suspension for her use of the whip on Thanks Be. The following year she won the same race again on another 33/1 outsider, Onassis. In 2022 she won the Palace of Holyroodhouse Stakes on Latin Lover, trained by Harry Eustace, and in 2023 she achieved her fourth win at Royal Ascot when Docklands, also trained by Eustace, won the Britannia Stakes.

By 2023, Turner had competed in the Shergar Cup a record sixteen times, twice winning the silver saddle as the leading jockey at the meeting (2018 and 2019).

Honours

Turner was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to horse racing.

Personal life

Turner lives near Newmarket. She has coeliac disease and follows a gluten-free diet.

Winners per year

Per calendar year
2022: 37
2021: 48
2020: 20
2019: 28
2018: 45
2017: 16 (including 10 in France and 1 in Mauritius)
2016:  1
2015: 44
2014: 40
2013: 60
2012: 92
2011: 88 (injury ended season early)
2010: 73
2009: 60 (missed several months injured)
2008: 100
2007: 56
2006: 36
2005: 53
2004: 34 (including Apprentice Championship with 27 wins during Turf season)
2003: 14
2002: 9
2000: 1

Major wins
 Great Britain
July Cup - (1) - Dream Ahead (2011)
Nunthorpe Stakes - (1) - Margot Did (2011)

 United States
 Beverly D. Stakes – (1) – I'm A Dreamer (2012)

References

1983 births
British female jockeys
Lester Award winners
Living people
People educated at Southwell Minster School
Sportspeople from Nottingham
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
British Champion apprentice jockeys
English jockeys
People with autoimmune disease

Hayley Turner


Patrick Leo Meehan (born October 20, 1955) is a former American Republican Party politician and federal prosecutor from Pennsylvania who represented parts of Delaware, Chester, Montgomery, Berks, and Lancaster counties in the United States House of Representatives from 2011 until his resignation in 2018. He succeeded Democrat Joe Sestak, who ran unsuccessfully for the United States Senate.

A graduate of Bowdoin College and Temple University, Meehan previously served as United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (2001–2008) and as district attorney of Delaware County, Pennsylvania (1996–2001).

In January 2018, following the revelation that he used taxpayers' money to settle a sexual harassment claim brought by a female staff member, Meehan announced that he would retire from Congress at the end of his current term, and not seek re-election in 2018. On April 27, 2018, Meehan resigned and said he would pay back the taxpayer funds used for the settlement. Democrat Mary Gay Scanlon won both a special and general election on the day of that year's midterms in November to succeed him.

Early life
Born and raised in Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania by his parents Leo and Julia, Meehan is one of four siblings.

He attended Bowdoin College in Maine, graduating in 1978 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. While at Bowdoin, Meehan was a standout hockey player and went on to work as a National Hockey League referee from 1979 to 1982. Meehan attended Temple Law School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and graduated in 1986 with his Juris Doctor degree.

Meehan's career in public service and politics began in 1979 when he worked with Republican candidate David Marston on his Philadelphia mayoral campaign. A year later, he worked on Roy Zimmerman's campaign for Pennsylvania Attorney General. Meehan went on to serve as Special Counsel to U.S. Senator Arlen Specter. He was a campaign manager for U.S. Senator Rick Santorum, Philadelphia D.A. Ron Castille, and State Attorney General Ernie Preate. After graduating from law school in 1986, Meehan went to work as an associate at the law firm Dilworth Paxson LLP.

District Attorney (1996–2001)
In 1995 and 1999, Meehan was elected the District Attorney of Delaware County as a Republican. During Meehan's tenure, his staff prosecuted several high-profile cases, including the Du Pont Murder Trial, (a case involving the murder of Olympic wrestler David Schultz by his millionaire benefactor John Eleuthère du Pont) and the 1996 murder of a 22-year-old college student named Aimee Willard (who was abducted from Route 476 and found in an abandoned lot in North Philadelphia).

While serving as District Attorney, Meehan set up the Special Victims Unit for Domestic Violence in Delaware County, offering victims protection from their alleged abusers by allowing the prosecution to occur without the victims testifying in open court. As D.A., he also focused on protecting youth by expanding the Youth Aid Panel program for first time offenders and creating a truancy project to limit youth-related crime during the day. Meehan established the United States Department of Justice's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC) in Pennsylvania. The ICAC is a special unit of detectives who investigate online predators on the web and bring them to justice; it has become a model across the country.

U.S. Attorney (2001–2008)
Meehan became the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on September 17, 2001, six days after the September 11, 2001 attacks. He was appointed by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the United States Senate. Meehan headed an office of over 200 lawyers and staff backed up by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service Office. As U.S. Attorney, Meehan made terrorism, gang-related crime, child internet safety, and public corruption priorities for his criminal division. Public corruption in Philadelphia in particular was brought to the spotlight in 2003 when an FBI electronic listening device was found in the Philadelphia Mayor's office.

In light of the September 11 terrorist attacks, Meehan formed the Anti-Terrorism Task Force (ATTF), later renamed the Anti-Terrorism Advisory Council (ATAC) in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to evaluate and prevent future terrorist attacks. This initiative was done in partnership with local, state and federal law enforcement and emergency responders. The ATAC has led large-scale exercises on biological attacks and the poisoning of the food supply in partnership with Saint Joseph's University in order to help Eastern Pennsylvania prepare for terrorist attacks.

Recognizing the expansion of gang-related activity in the eastern part of Pennsylvania, Meehan sought a $2.5 million Department of Justice grant to fight and prevent gang violence for the region. The unique "Route 222 Corridor Anti-Gang Initiative" brought together elected officials and law enforcement personnel with community groups to fight gangs in a rural area unfamiliar with big-city gang violence. The money was divided among enforcement, prevention and rehabilitation. The program aimed not only to increase arrests, but also to fund school programs and community centers to educate youth about alternatives to gang life.

Continuing the work he began while he was Delaware County D.A., Meehan made child safety on the internet a priority, sponsoring internet safety training seminars with Web Wise Kids and visiting local schools. Meehan's office prosecuted substandard nursing homes and elder care facilities, and nefarious lenders who offered ill-advised loans to disadvantaged homeowners. The U.S. Attorney's Office under Meehan was nationally recognized for its work in the field of health-care fraud. The office won more than half a billion dollars in settlements against some of the largest pharmaceutical companies and pharmacy benefit managers, ensuring better self-policing and oversight by the industry.

He announced on July 16, 2008, that he was joining the Philadelphia law firm of Conrad O'Brien Gellman & Rohn.

Public corruption cases
Though he has been active in a wide variety of areas, it has been several high-profile public corruption cases that have put Meehan in the headlines. Meehan has said, "Pay to play cannot be standard operating procedure in city government."

This was brought to national attention on October 7, 2003, when Philadelphia Police conducted a sweep of Mayor John F. Street's office and found an electronic listening device. It was later discovered that the "bug" had been planted by the FBI as part of a city corruption investigation. Street was never charged in the investigation. Philadelphia officials and the mayor were outraged, especially with the timing coinciding with the Philadelphia mayoral election on November 4, 2003. Street's campaign spokesman accused the federal government of attempting to influence the election (which Street ended up winning anyway). Meehan was applauded in the press and in the city for his handling of the situation, which resulted in twelve indictments including that of Street confidant Ronald White (who died before he could stand trial) and city treasurer Corey Kemp, who was convicted and sentenced to ten years in federal prison.

Other city officials prosecuted by Meehan's office included former city councilman Rick Mariano (who was sentenced to six and a half years in federal prison for accepting bribes and attempting to influence city contracts), the President of the Independence Seaport Museum John S. Carter (who was sentenced to 15 years for cheating the museum out of $1.5 million), Montgomery County accountant Denis Shusterman (for embezzling $10 million, he received a 14-year sentence), and State Senator Vincent Fumo (who was convicted on a 139-count indictment including fraud, conspiracy and obstruction of justice charges carrying a ten-year sentence).

Meehan was appointed to the United States House Committee on Ethics during the 113th Congress, summarily removed January 2018 by the Speaker of the House from the U.S. House Ethics Committee, and directed to repay to taxpayers the full cost of his secret sexual harassment settlement.

U.S. House of Representatives (2011–2018)

Elections

2010

Meehan began his campaign for Pennsylvania governor in 2008. On August 7, 2009, however, he announced that he was ending his exploratory bid and would instead run for Congress.  Reports indicated that another candidate, Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett, was too far ahead of Meehan in fundraising and endorsements.

Meehan ran in Pennsylvania's 7th congressional district election, vacated by Joe Sestak, who defeated U.S. Senator Arlen Specter in 2010 in the Democratic Party primary, but lost to Republican Pat Toomey in the general election. Meehan ran unopposed for the Republican Party nomination in the May 18, 2010, Republican primary.

To appear on the primary election ballot a candidate for Congress in Pennsylvania is required to collect valid signatures of 1,000 registered voters in the congressional district.  When evidence of fraud in some of Meehan's petitions was discovered by the Meehan campaign, Meehan alerted the Delaware County District Attorney. Michael Green, the District Attorney and Meehan supporter, turned over the matter to the office of the Pennsylvania Attorney General.  Because the Attorney General, Tom Corbett, is the Republican candidate for governor, Lentz requested that the United States Department of Justice take over the investigation. Paul Summers, a Republican campaign operative and volunteer, was charged with seven counts of forgery and seven counts of making false signatures. He was convicted on seven of the charges after pleading guilty as part of a plea-bargain deal.

Meehan defeated Democratic State Representative Bryan Lentz 55%–44%.

2012

Meehan won re-election to a second term with 60% of the vote over Democrat George Badey.

2014

Meehan won re-election in 2014, defeating Democrat Mary Ellen Balchunis with 62% of the vote.

2016

Meehan ran for re-election in 2016. He defeated Stan Casacio in the Republican primary. He defeated Democrat Mary Ellen Balchunis in the general election with 60% of the vote. The general election was held on November 8, 2016. As the election concluded, Meehan easily won another term with 219,314 votes, which was 59.7%. Meehan won all the counties in the 7th Congressional District that include Delaware, Montgomery, Chester, Berks, and Lancaster counties. This is Meehan's fourth term in the 7th Congressional District. This election was a rematch of the election between Meehan and Balchinis in 2014. The difference between this election and the one in 2014 is that this election occurred during a Presidential election year.

Meehan's 7th district had been considered the poster child for egregious gerrymandering and its shape compared to an alien character from the classic arcade game Space Invaders. In January 2018, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled the boundaries of the 7th and other Pennsylvania districts as unconstitutional.

On April 27, 2018, Meehan resigned from Congress amid sexual misconduct allegations.

Tenure
Meehan was sworn in on January 5, 2011. He was appointed to serve as one of  three freshman members on the House Republican Steering Committee and became one of the few House freshmen to chair a subcommittee. Meehan was ranked as the 35th most bipartisan member of the U.S. House of Representatives during the 114th United States Congress (and the second most bipartisan member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania) in the Bipartisan Index created by The Lugar Center and the McCourt School of Public Policy.

Meehan supported reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.

In February 2017, while serving on the Ways and Means Committee, he voted against a measure that would have led to a request of the Treasury Department for President Donald Trump's tax returns. The measure failed 23–15 on a party-line, with all 23 Republicans voting against the measure.

Committee assignments
 Committee on Homeland Security
 Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence
 Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Security Technologies (Chairman)
 Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
 Subcommittee on TARP, Financial Services and Bailouts of Public and Private Programs
 Subcommittee on Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and Procurement Reform
 United States House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
 United States House Transportation Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials
 United States House Transportation Subcommittee on Aviation
 United States House Transportation Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management
 United States House Committee on Ethics

Political positions

Economy
As far as fiscal policy, he voted for the Budget Control Act of 2011, Cut, Cap and Balance Act, and voted to defund NPR. Among bills that became law, he voted for the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act and to extend the Patriot Act.

Meehan has introduced the Jump Start for Job Creators Act, legislation that would encourage entrepreneurs to create jobs by increasing the maximum tax deduction for small business start-up expenses. Meehan has led the effort to preserve funding for the V-22 Osprey, an advanced military aircraft manufactured in Meehan's district.

In June, Meehan announced that six Chester County fire companies in Pennsylvania will receive $430,000 in federal grants to purchase new radios and rescue equipment.

In November 2015, Meehan's H.R. 1314, The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, was enacted into law, avoiding a government shutdown.

Healthcare
Meehan has voted to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Although he voted the bill out of Ways and Means Committee, Meehan opposed his own party and voted against the American Health Care Act of 2017, arguing that the bill's economic effects were insufficiently known and that the replacement did not adequately fund insurance for sick people.

Homeland security
On November 14, 2013, Meehan introduced the Preclearance Authorization Act of 2014 (H.R. 3488; 113th Congress), a bill that would authorize the United States Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) to establish preclearance facilities, conduct preclearance operations, or provide customs services outside of the United States of America to prevent terrorists, terrorist instruments, and other national security threats from gaining access to the United States.

On February 6, 2014, Meehan introduced the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards Program Authorization and Accountability Act of 2014 (H.R. 4007; 113th Congress), a bill that would make permanent the United States Department of Homeland Security's (DHS's) authority to regulate security at certain chemical facilities in the United States. Under the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program, DHS collects and reviews information from chemical facilities in the United States to determine which facilities present security risks and then requires them to write and enact security plans.

As a member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, Meehan chairs the Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence. Meehan has held hearings to investigate issues such as Iran's ties to terrorism and the risks posed by extremists in Pakistan.

Other
Meehan introduced legislation, titled the 'Critical Infrastructure Research and Development Advancement Act of 2013' (CIRDA), that passed the subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection and Security Technologies in 2013. The bill aims to make key improvements in security for important infrastructure. The measure calls for expansion in research and development for security technology as well as implementing a new strategy in dealing with cyber threats that the Department of Homeland Security faces. This bill would also streamline sharing of these technologies to many other branches of government, thus making them more secure as a whole.

In 2013, Meehan introduced a bill called the Critical Infrastructure Research and Development Advancement Act of 2013 (H.R. 2952; 113th Congress). If signed into law, the bill would require more oversight of the Department of Homeland Security's cybersecurity goals, according to Ripon Advance. The bill would require DHS to transmit to the Congress a strategic plan for research and development efforts addressing the protection of critical infrastructure and a report on departmental use of public-private consortiums to develop technology to protect such infrastructure. On January 16, 2014, the United States House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Security Technologies passed the bill, and in February the full Homeland Security Committee approved the bill. On July 28, 2014, the House voted to pass the bill in a voice vote.

Sexual harassment settlement
The New York Times revealed in January 2018 that Meehan used taxpayers' money to settle a sexual harassment claim brought by a female staff member.  After the alleged victim rejected his advances, Meehan allegedly grew hostile. The staff member began remote work to avoid Meehan's advances and ultimately left the job. Following the report, Meehan denied the allegations against him. He was removed from the U.S. House Ethics Committee.

A few days later in an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer, Meehan denied harassment and said he was not sexually interested in the staffer, though explained she was his "soul mate" and he had reacted poorly to learning she had a new boyfriend. Another two days later, on January 25, 2018, Meehan announced that he would retire from Congress at the end of his current term, and not seek re-election in 2018.  He said he would repay the taxpayer money if the Ethics Committee determines he committed sexual harassment.  He also responded regarding his prior use of the term "soul mate". On April 27, 2018, he abruptly resigned, saying that his intent is to repay the $39,000 settlement funds within 30 days of his resignation because "I did not want to leave with any question of violating the trust of taxpayers."

Post-political career
Following his resignation from Congress, Meehan worked as a consultant, forming the firm Harvey Run Strategies, and registered as a lobbyist.

Personal life
Meehan, his wife Carolyn and their three sons live in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, – in Chadds Ford as of 2017 and formerly Drexel Hill.

References

External links

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1955 births
21st-century American politicians
American prosecutors
Bowdoin College alumni
Chestnut Hill Academy alumni
County district attorneys in Pennsylvania
Living people
People from Cheltenham, Pennsylvania
People from Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania
Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania
Temple University Beasley School of Law alumni
United States Attorneys for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
Members of Congress who became lobbyists

Pat Meehan


The GameStick is a discontinued home video game console developed by PlayJam. It is a microconsole the size of a USB flash drive that plugs directly into the back of a TV through an HDMI port and ships with its own Bluetooth controller. Users can download content from a curated storefront via Wi-Fi, with content stored locally for offline access. The device is powered by the PlayJam Games Platform and runs its own version of the Android operating system. It is portable and aimed at casual to mid-core gamers. Like the Ouya, it was funded through Kickstarter.

Because of a change in production methods, the original release date of June 2013 was delayed, and units did not ship to retailers until early November 2013. The GameStick features an exclusive game and access to its app store, which mainly sells casual games. All systems can be used as development kits, allowing any GameStick owner to also be a developer, without licensing fees. The GameStick is part of the eighth generation of video game consoles.

Jasper Smith (chief executive officer of PlayJam) and the PlayJam development team began recruiting support early in the process. Before the project's launch, GameStick, based out of San Francisco, California, was said to have support from more than 1,000 developers. Game designers interested in the project could pledge $500 in exchange for a prototype unit and development kit one month before launch. As of February 2013, the game was successfully funded with over 5,600 backers and about $650,000 raised.

Design and specifications
The GameStick consists of the flash-drive-sized console and a wireless Bluetooth controller. The controller has two analog sticks, a directional pad, four face buttons, two shoulder buttons, four system buttons for power and menus, and a slot in which the console can be stored. A GameStick dock is also available; it allows faster internet access with an Ethernet port, charging access for both the controller and the console, additional storage space, and the ability to connect to various peripherals such as USB keyboards, webcams, microphones, and dance mats. The console contains an HDMI connector, an internal processor and memory, and wireless radios.

Up to four controllers can be connected via Bluetooth 4.0, as can wireless keyboards and mice. The GameStick also supports iOS and Android devices as controllers. The system itself is Android-based but iOS compatible. The device supports 1080 HD playback as well as XBMC DLNA with an optional firmware upgrade. The GameStick uses an interface similar to the tiled dashboard on the Xbox 360. The charger is a micro USB cable.

GameStick was the first third-party device to license ToFu Media Center, a derivative fork of XBMC Media Center.

Reception

The Verge praised the GameStick's minimalist design and low cost, but criticized its limited game selection, its locked-down software and hardware, and its under-powered CPU, which was unable to play the latest Android games. Similarly, Engadget cited the device's portability, low price, and slick design as strengths but was disappointed by the selection of games and the hardware, which it said could become outdated fairly quickly.

Shutdown
The GameStick website began displaying a message saying that they would be shutting down the service after two years of operation, stating that after January 9th, 2017, the storefront would be inactive.

In December 2017, the GameStick website showed only the goodbye message and presented an expired SSL certificate. It is unlikely the service will ever return and the device itself is indirectly discontinued. Attempting to visit the GameStick website will cause a redirection to a Turkish soccer betting website.

See also

 PlayJam
 Free-to-play
 Independent video game development
 List of OnLive video games
 Open source video game
 Homebrew (video games)

References

External links

Android-based video game consoles
ARM-based video game consoles
Eighth-generation video game consoles
Microconsoles
Kickstarter-funded video game consoles
Products introduced in 2013

GameStick


Karl Franz Durspekt (23 November 1913 in Vienna, Austria – 14 February 1978 in Vienna, Austria) was an Austrian football player and manager.

As the son of an engine driver, Durspekt worked as a type setter at first. Later he became a professional football player. When he was a young man, he lived about five years in Rouen (France). He spoke fluently in a French and in a Swedish manner. Further, Sweden became his second home. At the beginning of his career, he played for Admira Wien. During this time he won repeatedly the Austrian championship and the Austrian cup.

Durspekt participated in the Mitropa Cup 1934, losing the final to Bologna FC (3:2, 1:5). After the Anschluss that united Germany and Austria in 1938 Admira played for several seasons in the Gauliga Ostmark, one of the top flight regional leagues created through the reorganization of German football under the Third Reich. Durspekt contested with his club Germany's national final in 1939, losing 0:9 to Schalke 04.

After his time at Admira, he played for Florisdorfer Athletic Club (FAC). During the Second World War, he joined LSV Markersdorf an der Pielach. The club was regarded as a centre d'accueil for draftee soccer players. There are also other well-known German and Austrian soccer players like Max Merkel or Karl Sesta.

After the War he returned to FAC and ended his career as a football player. He played two international matches for Austria in 1935 (0:0 vers. Czechoslovakia, 3:6 vers. Hungary). After he ended his career, he went on to become a coach. He trained teams in Egypt, Greece, Sweden, Norway and in Switzerland among others. The Lunds BK, FC Locarno (1953–54), Åtvidabergs FF (1956–1957), Grazer AK, IK Start Kristiansand (1970) were some of his stations as football coach.

He died at the age of 64 in 1978.

References

1913 births
1978 deaths
Footballers from Vienna
Austrian men's footballers
FC Rouen players
Ligue 1 players
Austrian football managers
Austria men's international footballers
Austrian expatriate men's footballers
Expatriate men's footballers in France
Floridsdorfer AC managers
Lunds BK managers
Åtvidabergs FF managers
Grazer AK managers
PAOK FC managers
IK Start managers
FC Locarno managers
Men's association football forwards
Expatriate football managers in Norway
Austrian expatriate sportspeople in Norway

Karl Durspekt