text:
In the competition between native applications for mobile phones vs. Web applications, hardware support often makes native apps an obvious choice for programmers. But the World Wide Web Consortium is tackling one area, touch-screen support, in an effort that could help Web apps catch up.
The W3C published an editor's draft of a new touch-screen standard for Web apps today. The draft specification is designed also for devices such as drawing tablets that don't have a screen, but today's hot market for smartphones makes touch screens the more important focus.
A standard--if designed well and adopted--would make programmers' lives easier by making it possible to write Web application software that would work on multiple browsers. And with touch screens expanding from the high-end smartphone market to lower-end models and to tablets, touch screens are becoming a dominant technology for user interfaces.
Of course, touch screens work to an extent with mobile browsers today. But they chiefly just reproduce the mouse era, and touch screens can be different. Multitouch is one obvious difference, but the draft specification also accommodates subtleties such as the pressure of a touch event and the radius of the spot being touched.
The specification defines how a browser would report information in a standard way to a Web application, letting programmers write software that responds to the events. And as with many Web specifications, it uses a real-world browser as a starting point. In this case, Apple's Safari.
"Editor Doug Schepers did the sensible thing and started with Apple's specification," said Peter-Paul Koch, a consultant who closely monitors browser issues and in particular mobile browsers, in a blog post.


text:
Visiting Angels knows that providing care for your loved one requires a holistic approach. This holistic approach entails care for the individual, both inside and outside of the home. By utilizing modern technology, our social care program helps families stay connected by using platforms like Facebook, Skype, FaceTime, etc., to remain active and engaged.
Adopting a digital social life may not come so easily to older adults who have difficulties grasping new technology. However, recent studies have shown the following emotional and mental benefits digital tools can have on the elderly:
The Visiting Angels' Social Care Program teach seniors to:
Because of this program, I was able to experience two of the greatest joys in life – becoming a grandmother and seeing my son become a new father. Skyping and Facebooking with my son and his family are now a normal part of my life. It helps me feel like I'm still an important part of their lives even though I'm miles and miles away.
— Kathryn
— Kathryn
* Washington, D.C. based Phoenix Center
** Journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking
Contact your local Visiting Angels home care office for more information about our social care program.
Thank you once again for the fine service your agency has provided for my mother.
Thank you once again for the fine service your agency has provided for my mother.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Joseph and Jeremy Gonzales are doing something different with their Gonzales Land and Cattle operation in Lovington, New Mexico, and it's got neighbors noticing.
There is a marked difference in this patch of the southeastern New Mexico community with vibrant, green fields of alfalfa. How are these producers beating the odds against the drought and perpetual wind that nearly all farmers and ranchers face in New Mexico?
The secret is in the water – not how much is used but how it is applied. Thanks to the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), the Gonzales brothers replaced their antiquated and inefficient pivot systems with the Low-Elevation Spray Application (LESA) system.
EQIP is one of dozens of programs offered by the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) private farmers and ranchers as well as the Tribes and Pueblos in New Mexico can use to improve their agricultural operations. "We are beginning, young producers and a little help allows us to implement practices such as the LESA system," said Jeremy.
The brothers used this technical and financial assistance and added a 21st Century spin to their operation. Instead of having to physically drive to the pivot system or turn a nozzle, Joseph or Jeremy can grab their smart phones, press a few keys, and their center pivots kick-on and shut-off. Yeah, there's an app for using the center pivot.
The Gonzales brothers admit that they were uncertain at times about becoming full-time producers. The thought of expansion was daunting but not overwhelming. They slowly built up to 260 acres. Jeremy, 31, and Joseph, 26, are not typical New Mexico farmers. This state has the oldest median age of farmers in America – at nearly 60 years of age.
The LESA system provides a lengthened nozzle extension from the center pivot lines, which offers a more even spray pattern so that most of the water dispensed reaches the soil. Traditional center pivot systems spray from a higher plane and are subject to solar and wind evaporation.
Irrigation technology
"Even with the drought and persistent heat and wind we have actually seen yield increases. We feel we are getting more of the applied water into the ground. No wind loss and decreased evaporation surface area seem to be the main factors for the yield increases," said Jeremy.
In addition to the LESA system, the Gonzales brothers have installed Low Energy Precision Application (LEPA) systems, such as bubblers or drag socks. A bubbler is a nozzle that disperses water evenly over the ground and drag socks drag on the ground to disperse water. The landowner or operator decides which option to use since they both are effective. These types of nozzles are less forceful than those that dispense water directly on the ground, which would cause the soil to erode. The Ogallala Aquifer is the Gonzales' main source of water. The Ogallala water level is less than half of its capacity, so water conservation is smart and necessary.
Gonzales Land and Cattle also has installed flow meters, chemigation valves, and computerized pivot panels. The flow meter allows for a better measurement of the proper amount of water needed. The chemigation valve stops pesticides and herbicides from entering ground water. The computerized pivot panels allow the brothers to operate their equipment remotely. The new panels are beneficial and allow them to program their watering schedule more efficiently, especially in between alfalfa cuttings.
Additionally, the computerized pivot panels have a text messaging feature that alerts the Gonzales brothers to any problems the system could encounter. They are better able to keep track of how the pivots are performing without doing physical checks. Gonzales Land and Cattle is influenced by 21st Century technology. As beginning farmers, the Gonzales brothers are eager to learn about the latest technology and apply it to their farming operations.
The growth hasn't been in just the crops; the Gonzales brothers also have grown. "I never grew up from playing in the dirt; it (farming) is like playing with my Tonka (trucks) in a huge sand box. It's just that my toys got bigger," said Joseph.
Other beginning farmers like Jeremy and Joseph can contact the nearest NRCS office to learn about opportunities specific to their operations. The NRCS District Conservationist and staff can help map out a conservation plan; provide Technical Assistance and explain what programs can best help make an agricultural operation grow. New Mexico NRCS has a Field Office in every county except Los Alamos. Visit the local NRCS office or check the web at: www.nm.nrcs.usda.gov.


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A typical day in my archeology job is anything but typical. It can be anything from a full day of excavating, to a day working in the lab or doing public presentations. I wrote about all of the various things I may do during a day in last year's Day of Archaeology post. This year, I'm starting a large scale research project, so my day of archaeology is a lot more library driven.
I start out my day by getting on the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville library website. Because I am stationed in Blytheville, which is about a 6 hour drive from Fayetteville, I have access to the library as an employee of the University, but I have to search for the books I want on their website and then have them mailed to me. It makes the process for books a bit longer, but is better than having to drive to Fayetteville whenever I need something. The library website also has access to an excellent variety of journals and journal articles that can be viewed online or downloaded. I like to use journal articles for research as they are generally a bit more current and specific to a topic than books, so this works out well even from the other side of the state.
Blytheville, Ar is located in the New Madrid Seismic Zone, which is a spot in the middle of a continental plate that produces earthquakes. From what I've been reading, no one is really sure why earthquakes happen here, but they certainly do. I haven't felt one myself yet, but last year there was an earthquake large enough to be felt and shake things in houses about 75 miles SW of Blytheville. Historically the earthquakes here can be very large. In 1811-1812 there was a series of 2 large (~M7) earthquakes centered on the city of New Madrid, MO and then thousands of aftershocks for the following years. Large earthquakes like this also happened in the 1450's and 900's. In the delta region of the Mississippi River (where we are only a few feet above the water table) there are hundreds of feet of sand covering the bedrock below. Because of this, when a large earthquake strikes, the shaking of the wet sand causes it to become a liquid that moves up to the surface of the ground and come out almost like a volcano, covering the area around the crack with wet sand. This phenomenon is called a sandblow. You can see these sandblows all around this area in farm fields. Often the crops don't grow as well in these areas because the sand doesn't have as many nutrients in it and it doesn't hold water as well as the surrounding silt.
When the wet sand comes up out of the earth and covers the surface is when it gets interesting in terms of the archaeology. Sometimes what is on the surface is an archaeological site. If the sand covers the site and is fairly thick, it prevents the site from being destroyed by plowing. Due to the huge amount of farming that is done in the Delta (where the soil is excellent for growing a variety of crops), many archaeological sites are at least partially destroyed by plowing and planting crops. Many sites are almost on the surface as they are only a few hundred years old, so any plowing hurts them and deep plowing or leveling can destroy them completely. If a sandblow is covering the site, it mitigates these effects. It can also cause the site to be unknown completely if it is totally buried.
As a research project, my station plans to look at these buried sites in a variety of ways. First, we want to do some survey to try to find completely buried sites. There are known sites here and there along the Bayou, but we think that there may well be more that are deeply buried. To find them we want to put in deep shovel tests in areas that look like a good location for an archaeological site (generally higher areas near the Bayou or another water source). If we find these sites, we want to bring in a specialist to do geophysical survey so that we can try to see if there are any possible cultural features that could be excavated to tell us more about the people who lived on the site.
We also want to look at the ways in which different groups responded to the large earthquakes. Did the people move away from the site? Did they stay and rebuild? Did they leave but then come back again later? We hope that by looking at a variety of sites we'll be able to see some of these things archaeologically.
During this initial background literature search, I have come across reports of a number of archaeological sites in this area that have been excavated in which the people who lived at the sites seem to have reacted in different ways. I'm very excited to find out if we will see the same kinds of things in our project.
After the literature review, I am going to write up a research plan/agenda for the project. I want to be able to present it to the landowners and farmers that we'll be working with as well at to the Native American groups whose ancestors lived in this area. The background is an important part because it explains why we want to do the project and why it should work the way that we think it will. Using geology and seismic data I can talk about how the earthquakes would cause the sandblows and how they work and using other archaeological reports I can talk about what other researchers have done, what worked, what didn't and how we plan to do our project.
So despite seeming a bit boring for awhile while I sit at my desk in my office day in and day out, this is the first step to starting what could be a very interesting and long-lasting line of research that could produce some really interesting results. Hopefully next year for A Day of Archaeology I can update you on what step of the project we are on by then.


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Deaven House
(MAP) 945 Poplar Avenue, Hershey Pa. 17033
*** 2008 Preservation Award Winner ***
Receiving the Hershey-Derry Township Historical Society's 12th Annual Preservation Award is the Deaven House at 945 Poplar Avenue, Hershey, PA. The history of the Deaven House begins in the mid-1950s when Mr. & Mrs.Thomas Deaven began to build their dream home on historic Pat's Hill. The couple was committed to building their home almost exclusively by themselves, employing their craftsmanship especially in the area of carpentry and stonemasonry. They built an architectural treasure that is representative of the many historic stone houses that can be found in Deny Township.
The home stands on land that had once been the Robinson Patrick farm Milton S. Hershey purchased the farmland from Patrick, in 1909. It was the view from Pat's Hill overlooking his "model town" that prompted him to build his dream hotel on that historic site 25 years later.
A retired carpenter, Deaven drew up his own plans On a sheet of ordinary wrapping paper. He worked out changes as he was building, in some cases adding features and removing others His wife, Emma, a daughter of Robinson Patrick, was his able assistant as he made his own doors window sashes, frames and siding because, he said, he wanted to give his house a "professional look." One of the outstanding details of the Deaven House is its exterior stonework that includes two stone fireplaces one on the outside wall and one in the basement.
This unusual and endearing home was purchased by Dick & Audrey Mann in December, 1962, when they became its first occupants. The couple has a great deal of reverence for its builder and for their home's place in the history Of Hershey.


text:
Author(s): Helen Garner
Helen Garner's gritty, lyrical first novel divided the critics on its publication in 1977. Today, Monkey Gripis regarded as a masterpiece--the novel that shines a light on a time and a place and a way of living never before presented in Australian literature: communal households, music, friendships, children, love, drugs, and sex.
When Nora falls in love with Javo, she is caught in the web of his addiction; and as he moves between loving her and leaving, between his need for her and promises broken, Nora's life becomes an intense dance of loving and trying to let go.
Helen Garneris one of Australia's finest authors. In 2006 she received the inaugural Melbourne Prize for Literature, and in 2016 she won the prestigious Windham-Campbell Prize for non-fiction. Her novels include Monkey Grip, The Children's Bach, Cosmo Cosmolinoand The Spare Room.
I rolled and rolled in the water, deafening my ears while I thought of, and discarded, all the reasons why I shouldn't go. I popped up, hanging on to the rail, hair streaming on my neck.
'OK. I'll come.'
Javo was looking at me.
So, afterwards, it is possible to see the beginning of things, the point at which you had already plunged in, while at the time you thought you were only testing the water with your toe.
'Garner is a natural storyteller.' James Wood, New Yorker
'Her use of language is sublime.' Scotsman
'This is the power of Garner's writing. She drills into experience and comes up with such clean, precise distillations of life, once you read them they enter into you. Successive generations of writers have felt the keen influence of her work and for this reason Garner has become part of us all.' Australian
'Its embattled characters are so real that by the last page you feel not just that you have read a magnificent novel but that you have experienced life itself.' The Timeson The Spare Room
Helen Garner was born in Geelong in 1942, and has been writing and publishing since her first book, Monkey Grip, came out in 1977.


text:
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Want free DIY guides, gardening tips or tool hacks to help get you growing, making or doing?
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The Tomato ? Mushroom Cultivation ? Seaweed ? Natural Beekeeping ? Wild Food?Designed to be read with a pot of tea by your elbow and a notebook beside you,?Milkwood?draws on rich seams of knowledge and experience to bring the essence of these five subjects into your home – with a friendly, let's-get-going format…?'This book may change your life, and your community.' ~ Costa Georgiadis


text:
Guests: Joan Walsh, Hampton Pearson, Ed Rendell, Cliff Stearns, Donna Edwards, Todd Harris, Steve McMahon, Bob Shrum, Robert Reich
CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: The big chill.
Let`s play HARDBALL.
Let me start with this horrific day for the American economy. The
stock market dropped 275 points today, wiping out all the gains of the
year. We have fallen back to where we were in January. Why? Because the
jobless rate rose today. For the first time in a year, that vital number
went up instead of down.
The underlying news is worse. The American economy created just
69,000 jobs last month, less than half the number predicted. And it turns
out the economy produced less than a third that number in the combined two
months earlier. This recovery has run out of steam. We`re in a stall.
Got it?
What`s the political power of this? What will the president do? What
will the Fed do? What will the American people demand they do? Action.
That`s the word I`m interested in, "action." What action can we expect?
What action can we hope for?
Let`s get to the two people who should know the answer, former Clinton
labor secretary Robert Reich, who`s authored the book "Beyond Outrage," and
recent Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell. They both join us now.
Let me start with Robert Reich. If you were running the show right
now, if you were in the president`s ear and had the power to set or at
least recommend economic policy action steps, what would they be?
ROBERT REICH, FORMER SECRETARY OF LABOR: Number one, Chris, I`d say,
Even if the Republicans are not going to join me, I, the president, am
going to propose, number one, that the first $20,000 of income be exempted
from payroll taxes effective immediately, a shot in the arm for consumers.
Number two, I`m going to propose that we -- as a country, we use the
fact that borrowing costs are now unprecedented at a low point because
everybody else in the world is pouring their money into dollars. That
means we can borrow, and we can have a major infrastructure program to fix
our crumbling highways and roads and bridges and ports.
And I`m going to hire to make sure that all -- that a large portion of
the people, 23 million people who are now unemployed or underemployed --
I`m going to hire as many of them to fix America as possible. And then
we`re also going to have a WPA, Works Project (SIC) Administration, and a
Civilian Conservation Corps to take the long-term unemployed and put them
to work on our parks and our playgrounds and in our schools as assistant
teachers, or whatever.
You know, I`m not going to sit back. And if the Republicans don`t
want to go along with this, if they want to be called the "nattering nabobs
of negativism," that is fine.
MATTHEWS: Oh!
REICH: I just want the American people to understand that I`m going
to move forward on this.
MATTHEWS: From your words to God`s ears! Let me go to Ed Rendell.
Governor, I don`t know how you can beat that band because that sounds like
music to me. I mean, let`s go out there and do it. The Republicans may
oppose it, but what the idea -- what you`ve been talking about for years
now -- I hate the word "infrastructure," but everybody knows what it means.
We are behind the Europeans. They`ve got the Chunnel. They`ve got
the TGV, the trains that go 300 miles an hour. We ride that Wild West
buckboard called the Amtrak, which is nice, but it is certainly yesterday.
They`ve got -- put a big tunnel to go to New York from New Jersey. Get --
tell that governor to get out of the way and put that thing in! Why don`t
we -- we have bullet trains in Asia.
Everybody`s ahead of us now, and we`re put-putting along here like
it`s 1953. Your thoughts, Governor?
ED RENDELL (D-PA), FMR. GOV., MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, well,
Secretary Reich is absolutely right. It`s the time for action. And the
president should understand -- what the American people, I think, are
looking for in this election is, what`s next? What are the plans? We know
the economy`s improved, but it`s stalled. What`s next?
Governor Romney is suggesting that we cut taxes. First of all, that`s
never worked in the last 60 years. But even if it were to work, it`s two,
three, four years down the road. We need action now.
And I think Bob`s plan is a good one, particularly infrastructure --
25,000 jobs are produced for every billion dollars of infrastructure
spending. Every expert agrees with that.
Chris, if we did a $200 billion infrastructure improvement program --
and I`m not just talking about roads and bridges, our electrical grid, our
broadband, our dams, out levees, everything we need to fix, we`re falling
apart -- number one, it would make us more economically competitive.
Number two, it would make us safer. And number three, if you do the math,
it`s five million good, well-paying jobs on the job sites and back in
American manufacturing factories.
MATTHEWS: Oh! Let`s go -- today the president told Congress to
RENDELL: Let`s go!
MATTHEWS: ... to stop obstructing his limited -- I have to call it
limited -- jobs agenda.
RENDELL: Limited.
MATTHEWS: Let`s watch what he said.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My message to Congress
is now`s not the time to play politics. Now`s not the time to sit on your
hands. The American people expect their leaders to work hard, no matter
what year it is.
Congress should pass a bill to help states prevent more layoffs so we
can put thousands of teachers and firefighters and police officers back on
the job.
Congress should have passed a bill a long time ago to put thousands of
construction workers back on the job rebuilding our roads and our bridges
and our runways.
OBAMA: Instead of just talking about job creators, Congress should
give small business owners a tax break for hiring more workers and paying
them higher wages.
MATTHEWS: Well, Robert Reich, let`s get to the politics. Why is he -
- if he`s going to -- if the Congress on the Republican side, Boehner and
the rest of them, are going to say no to Spam, why not ask for steak? I
mean, if they`re going to say no, go all the way!
MATTHEWS: Why the chicken -- I hate to use the word, but I can`t --
you know what I`m saying, the chicken. Why not go for something big? If
they`re going to say no, make them say no to something worthwhile, say no
to! They`re not going to say yes to anything. Your thoughts.
REICH: Chris, that`s exactly right. And I think what the president
needs to form is a very, very clear contrast in the public`s mind between
his desire to go forward and create jobs and what the Republicans want to
do, which is basically award tax breaks to the very rich. They`re not
going to create jobs. They`re not the job creators.
MATTHEWS: I know.
REICH: Award tax breaks to big corporations that are now sitting on
$2 trillion of cash they don`t even know what to do with. The reason
they`re not creating jobs is because there`s not adequate consumer demand.
And also, what do they want to do -- what the Republicans want to do
is cut the budget already. That`s austerity. That`s austerity economics.
We saw what that got Europeans in terms of making that European situation
even worse and creating a recession in all of Europe...
MATTHEWS: Yes, I know. Well, now he`s...
REICH: ... because of those budget cuts.
MATTHEWS: ... pointing to that.
REICH: So what -- so what -- you know, what -- what the president
needs to do is say, That`s what their agenda is, here`s what my agenda is.
I`m going to get jobs back. If they want to say no, then you make sure I
have a Senate and I have a House of Representatives that will say yes.
MATTHEWS: Well, here they are. Here`s Boehner and Cantor, the joy
boys here, with some strong words for the president this morning. Let`s
watch them in action. This is easy stuff for opposition.
REP. ERIC CANTOR (R-VA), MAJORITY LEADER: These job numbers are
pathetic. And you know, the American people really deserve better, and I
think under right -- the right leadership, we can do better.
REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: And it`s clear that
the policies that we`ve seen are not working.
I`m not an economist. All I can say is that if they would have taken
our advice and worked with us, the economy would be better.
MATTHEWS: Well, Governor, he`s not crying there, I have to tell you
that, Boehner -- this is something that`s not bringing tears to his eyes.
It`s probably put a spring in the step of Romney.
Now, you were in the news today, or I don`t know how many -- in the
last several hours you made -- no, you didn`t -- Bill Clinton made the
news, but he was marching to your tune, saying, Don`t go after Bain
Capital, don`t go after the Massachusetts experience of Romney. Play -- in
other words, defend your own record, build on your own record, don`t go
Are you sticking with that? Is the former president -- well, let`s
hear it. Let Bill Clinton speak for himself. He took an axe to that whole
thing when he was out there with Harvey Weinstein the other night. Let`s
watch him.
BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don`t think
that we ought to get in the position where we say this is bad work. This
is good work. There`s no question that in terms of getting up and going to
the office, and you know, basically performing the essential functions of
the office, a man who`s been governor and had a sterling business career
crosses the qualification threshold.
MATTHEWS: So there you go. Mr. Clinton, I don`t know what he`s -- I
don`t know what he`s doing. Governor, you know him pretty well. He`s
basically saying, Don`t go down the negative route, go the positive route.
You can`t win by bashing this guy on Bain Capital and what he did as
governor several years ago. You`ve got to win this positively.
RENDELL: I think the president`s doing two things. Number one,
exactly what you said, Chris, he`s saying, Get out there and talk about
what we`re going to do. And we do have good plans, the plans that Bob just
outlined, the plans the president outlined.
And you`re dead right. Don`t do just $50 billion of infrastructure
improvements over the next 18 months. The CBO says we can afford almost
$200 billion of new spending for the next 10 years. Let`s have a plan
that`ll transform America, make us economically competitive, 10 years of
five million jobs each year, good, well-paying jobs. Do something bold.
That`s what the American people are looking for.
The second thing the president`s doing is very smart. He`s going to
be, of course, for President Obama. But he`s building up credibility by
saying that Mitt Romney was a good businessman, et cetera. So when he does
differentiate, when he does give the American people reasons to support
President Obama, they`re going to say, Well, Bill Clinton, he didn`t try to
trash the other guy, he`s just giving us arguments why Barack Obama`s
better. It`s great politics.
MATTHEWS: You know, I wouldn`t have agreed with that two or three
days ago, Robert Reich, but you know, I think now, with the depths that
this economy`s fallen to, the fact we`re now seeing a rising unemployment
rate, we`re seeing a pathetic creation of new jobs just -- less than half
than was predicted for this month, a revised look at what happened the
previous two months, where it looks like we created hardly any jobs, you
got to say that this recovery shouldn`t be called a recovery anymore.
We`re not into a second dip, technically. We haven`t had two quarters
of declining GDP, but nothing`s happening. So if the president doesn`t do
anything between now and November, nothing will happen. Is that fair?
REICH: No, I think the -- I think it`s clear the president has got to
put forward an affirmative, clear, concrete message how he`s going to get
jobs back, paint the Republicans as negative. But I think he also has to
go after Romney.
I mean, with all due respect to my former boss, I think my former boss
is dead wrong. I mean, Bain Capital is part of the JPMorgan, part of the
Wall Street-ification of the entire American economy. Finance has taken
over from productivity.
I mean, you`ve got financial entrepreneurs instead of product
entrepreneurs, which is one reason that we got into the trouble we got into
in 2008 and one reason this economy is having such a difficult time getting
out of it.
MATTHEWS: So you say play offense and also develop a strong program
for the future. You got to do both.
REICH: Absolutely. Absolutely.
MATTHEWS: Governor, you want to respond?
REICH: Absolutely.
MATTHEWS: First of all, Governor, I got to ask you about Bill
Clinton, who you still call the president. Fair enough. He`s still the
ongoing once and future president. But here he is, the president, former
president Clinton, again with Harvey Weinstein on that other network,
saying nice things about Donald Trump. Let`s watch.
HARVEY WEINSTEIN, GUEST HOST, "PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT": I know Donald
Trump to be a sane, smart businessman, but he has this benefit. Romney
comes, and he talks about that birth certificate again. How do you put
that out of the minds of the American public...
CLINTON: I don`t know.
WEINSTEIN: ... once and for all? And doesn`t he realize how uncool
he is?
CLINTON: I don`t know. You know, Donald Trump has been uncommonly
nice to Hillary and me. We`re all New Yorkers and...
WEINSTEIN: Me, too.
CLINTON: And I like him, and I love playing golf with him. But the
evidence is pretty clear that President Obama was born in Hawaii, and this
whole election should not be about any of these side issues.
MATTHEWS: Well, there he`s giving the president the benefit of the
doubt, Governor. He`s saying "the evidence is pretty clear."
MATTHEWS: Would you say that was a strong endorsement of his fellow
RENDELL: Chris...
MATTHEWS: ... the fact that he was native-born -- "the evidence is
pretty clear" here that Donald Trump might be wrong. I`m just teasing, but
it is a strange way to phrase it for a very articulate fellow like Bill
RENDELL: Let me tell you, we want Donald Trump to keep it up.
RENDELL: I mean, I think Donald Trump says some important things.
But every time he says this stuff, it drives independent voters into our
I would disagree with Bob about one thing. I think President
Clinton`s right in the sense that I don`t think this is the time to attack
Mitt Romney.
We can use that material for counterpunching. If Mitt Romney stands
up in a debate or he stands up and makes a policy speech and says, As
governor of Massachusetts, I did a great job with the economy, we can raise
our hand and say, Governor, but you were 47th out of 50 states in job
creation? That`s not a very great job on the economy, particularly in a
well-educated high-tech state like Massachusetts.
So I think let`s counterpunch, but let`s go on the offensive by
telling the American people what we`d do.
What the American people are looking for is who`s the best bet to get
them out of this. And I think it`s Barack Obama because I think he has the
best plans.
And I would pin the tail on that Republican Congress. I would say,
They don`t want to do anything. They`re more interested in politics than
getting this economy charged up. Let`s roll. Let`s get this done.
MATTHEWS: Well, I think that`s what the agreement of you two
gentlemen, is, get the economy rolling, more money, in fact, a lot -- a
major, historic commitment to building this country up in terms of its
RENDELL: No question.
MATTHEWS: ... electric grids, its mass transit, its highways,
everything. I don`t know...
RENDELL: Broadband.
MATTHEWS: ... why we`re not doing it. As you point out, the low
interest rates, Robert, is so critical, the fact that you have people ready
to work, you have capital ready to be used...
REICH: This is a perfect time.
MATTHEWS: ... you have low interest rates. This is the time that --
look, we built the Empire State Building in 1931. I mean, that to me still
remains the great example of what you can do with...
RENDELL: And Chris?
MATTHEWS: Yes, sir?
RENDELL: Chris, you remember what they said 75 years ago when they
said, We`re going to build a bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge? People said,
No, you can`t do it. It`s too dangerous. It`s going to be too expensive.
But we did it. We used to big things. We were a country that no challenge
was too hard for.
MATTHEWS: I agree.
RENDELL: We got to get back to doing it.
MATTHEWS: Build, baby, build. And I got to tell you, the Golden Gate
Bridge -- I offer it as an example of the one case in which mankind has
improved on nature, the Golden Gate Bridge. It is stunning today...
RENDELL: Absolutely.
MATTHEWS: ... every time I go near it.
Thank you, Robert Reich. Thank you, Ed Rendell, for joining us.
REICH: Thanks, Chris.
MATTHEWS: Coming up: John Edwards hints at a comeback. Now, there`s
a man with optimism! But after such a dramatic fall, could he actually
rise again? Maybe we all need John Edwards`s hopefulness.
And why did House Republicans push a bill yesterday banning gender-
based abortions? Is this something about the Asian-American community?
Are they willing to say what they`re really talking about here? It`s a
particular issue here in that community, and I just wonder if the
Republicans are playing this as a game.
The HARDBALL "Strategists" will be here, by the way, on what happens
when a top surrogate, like Bill Clinton, gets a bit off-message.
And "Let Me Finish" with a make-or-break moment for the president. I
think that`s what he`s in right this moment.
This is HARDBALL, the place for politics.
MATTHEWS: Well, here`s another muscular foreign policy move from
President Obama. "The New York Times" reported today that since he first
took office, this president has secretly stepped up cyberattacks against
Iran. The attacks on the computer systems over there that run Iran`s
nuclear enrichment facilities began under former president Bush, but
they`ve grown increasingly more frequent and more sophisticated in the
Obama administration.
We`ll be right back.
MATTHEWS: Well, John Edwards may have gone free yesterday, but can he
rebuild his political career? Three jurors who spoke with Matt Lauer this
morning believed he was guilty of the crimes he was charged with but said
they didn`t think they had the evidence to convict.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think that he had some knowledge.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think he definitely had some knowledge of the
money, where the money was going.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was just smart enough to hide it, and we
could not find the evidence.
MATT LAUER, CO-HOST, "TODAY": Raise your hands if you think John
Edwards was guilty on at least some of the counts against him. OK, raise
your hands if you think John Edwards is a bad guy. Interesting.
MATTHEWS: Well, they chose wisely there. Is Edwards planning a
comeback, or is he out of touch with public opinion on that?
Let`s ask our two next guests. Bob Shrum`s a long-time Democratic
strategist who first met John Edwards in 1997 while working on his `98
Senate campaign, which he won. And Salon`s Joan Walsh is an MSNBC
Now, what`s with John Edwards? Is he all delusion? Is he a guy that
has so much optimism that he doesn`t really connect with reality, like
talking yesterday about, God still has a plan for me, and all that? What
was all that about, after basically beating the judge by a few feet?
BOB SHRUM, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Yes, well, the people don`t have a
plan for him. Look, he can maybe redeem himself as a person, if he doesn`t
talk about himself. And that`s what was wrong yesterday. Whatever he
does, it can`t be about him.
He has to be quiet. He has to quietly give himself to a cause he
genuinely cares about, stay in the valley for a while, no publicity, no
Oprah-like interviews. He has to do something good not because it`s good
for his image but because it`s right. And maybe he can never undo the
verdict, the non-judicial verdict that`s been rendered on him, but he might
change some people`s lives.
If it looks for a moment, though, like he`s manipulating this, he will
tarnish himself even further.
MATTHEWS: Yes, I wondered last night, Joan, whether he was really
making a call-out to rich contributors out there saying , the lord`s not --
by the way, whatever your religious beliefs, you have got to wonder about a
guy who starts describing what God`s plans are for -- that`s certainly a
strange thing to start talking about.
JOAN WALSH, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: Well...
MATTHEWS: I think God would like to make his own plans, and he
doesn`t like having somebody basically predict them.
WALSH: Yes.
MATTHEWS: But your thoughts, Joan, about that strange sort of
egotistical moment last night when he began acting narcissistically.
WALSH: Oh, it was a terrible moment, Chris. I really -- I honestly
couldn`t believe it.
I speak as somebody who supported him in 2007 and I speak as somebody
who voted to put him a heartbeat away from the presidency in 2004. You
know, I apologize to the American people for that. We didn`t know. But
when he started speaking, like Bob says, yesterday, I literally couldn`t
believe it.
I knew he was a narcissist, but it was so wrong. And it was wrong
from the minute he started, maybe a thank you to the judge and the jury and
to his family for standing by him, maybe. But that performance just showed
a man who is so out of touch with -- with the world, with himself, and is
just so full of himself.
I mean, love your children, go out and love your children. Be a good
father. Go out and help the world, help the children of the world. God
bless you. Go do that. Don`t tell us about it.
MATTHEWS: Yes. But don`t say your favorite kid is the one you had
with your girlfriend.
WALSH: Well, that and then that.
MATTHEWS: That was too strange.
WALSH: I mean...
MATTHEWS: That was too strange.
WALSH: Oh, it was so -- it was so bizarre.
MATTHEWS: Let`s take a look. Here he is speaking for himself in, I
have to say, a narcissistic fashion yesterday.
JOHN EDWARDS (D), FORMER U.S. SENATOR: I don`t think God`s through
with me. I really believe he thinks there`s still some good things I can
And whatever happens with this legal stuff going forward, what I`m
hopeful about is all those kids that I have seen, you know, in the poorest
parts of this country and in some of the poorest places in the world, that
I can help them, in whatever way I`m still capable of helping them.
And I want to dedicate my life to being the best dad I can be and to
helping those kids who I think deserve help.
MATTHEWS: Well, public opinion in this country is certainly not on
John Edwards` side.
In April, a CBS News/"New York Times" poll found that just 3 percent
of the country has a favorable opinion of him; 41 percent has a negative
view of that. That`s not too good.
By the way, he hasn`t been out talking to the poor kids of America.
He`s been hanging around the bars and restaurants of Chapel Hill, which is
not a bad way to spend your time, but it`s not exactly stuff -- you know,
it`s not exactly stuff that gets into the 12 apostles, you know?
SHRUM: Well, I don`t think he`s trying out for the 12 apostles. He`d
be lucky to kind of get into the lower ranks of heaven.
MATTHEWS: Well, wait a minute. I want to go after you, Mr. Shrum,
because you`re one of my close friends.
But you believed in this guy.
SHRUM: Sure.
MATTHEWS: Bunny Mellon believed in him. I have talked to her.
People fell for this guy. That was his cute manner, was that sort of
little boy manner. Why did you fall for him?
SHRUM: When I met him -- when I met him in 1997, I thought he was a
person of extraordinary talent.
MATTHEWS: Why?
SHRUM: He was articulate. He was smart.
Look, nobody thought he could beat Lauch Faircloth in North Carolina
in 1998.
MATTHEWS: Right.
SHRUM: And he went out and did it.
And he came to the Senate and John McCain was very impressed with him,
Ted Kennedy was very impressed with him. But then over time, he never
fulfilled that potential in...
MATTHEWS: Did he ever read a book? Did he ever read a newspaper?
SHRUM: Well, I think he read a newspaper.
MATTHEWS: I don`t believe that. I don`t believe he reads anything.
SHRUM: I don`t think he worked very hard.
MATTHEWS: I watched him.
SHRUM: To be honest, I don`t think he worked very hard at being a
senator. I watched him in the 2004 campaign, when quite frankly we should
have picked Dick Gephardt for vice president.
MATTHEWS: Yes. Let me tell you, I...
SHRUM: We went to the -- I went up to his debate practice. He wasn`t
ready for that debate. He had to go back to his room.
Elizabeth had to make him study those books.
MATTHEWS: Of course he wasn`t ready. He is never ready.
SHRUM: Elizabeth had to make him study those books.
MATTHEWS: Oh.
MATTHEWS: This is what I teach people about politics. And you have
done it a million times.
Study, study, study, learn what you`re talking about before you run
for anything.
Joan, I was out on this bus out in Iowa during the 2004 campaign. I
finally get in to see him. I`m looking all through the bus. I don`t see a
piece of paper, not a briefing note, a newspaper, a magazine, no indication
of any intellectual life.
He was all B.S. It was all cute. It was all hair. It was nonsense.
And they -- and he fell for his own B.S. He believed he was some kind of
sparkling savior of the nation, based upon what? What?
WALSH: Based upon...
MATTHEWS: What was there?
WALSH: ... being a good-looking Southern guy at a time that we all
thought that, you know, the next president, like Bill Clinton, should come
from the South, and all of that kind of, frankly, garbage.
MATTHEWS: Bill Clinton was a Rhodes Scholar.
WALSH: Right. No, no, no, there`s no comparison.
MATTHEWS: Bill Clinton was a Rhodes Scholar.
WALSH: Look there`s no comparison, but there was that glamour.
SHRUM: John Edwards is smart, by the way. He is smart.
WALSH: He has to be smart. He honestly has to be smart. He is
pathological. We all thought the...
SHRUM: He`s very self-involved.
MATTHEWS: No, Joan.
SHRUM: When I told him in the 2003 that he shouldn`t -- that he
shouldn`t run for president, he wasn`t ready, and that I wasn`t going to
work for him, I was going to work for John Kerry, he said something to me I
have never forgotten. It was stunning. He said, "I will never forget even
on my death bed what you have done to me and my family."
And from that moment...
WALSH: I`m sorry. I don`t mean to laugh.
SHRUM: No, I mean, it was an extraordinary statement.
WALSH: I know. It really is.
MATTHEWS: He does have a sense of his own power, though, like he is
Mephistopheles. He will bring the darkness upon your people.
SHRUM: Yes, well...
WALSH: On his death bed, really.
SHRUM: Sadly, sadly, he`s in the dark valley. I`m glad he wasn`t
convicted because his family has been through a lot of tragedy.
MATTHEWS: I know.
SHRUM: And it would have been very tough.
MATTHEWS: I think he`s read too much of "The Count of Monte Cristo."
Anyway, thank you very much.
The great avenger.
Anyway, thank you, Bob Shrum.
Joan, I love it when you`re sympathetic to the beautiful young men of
this world. Anyway, just kidding.
WALSH: Oh, stop.
MATTHEWS: Up next, wait until you hear how Donald Rumsfeld -- I`m
off, I know -- Donald Rumsfeld, he`s back and he`s pooh-poohing President
Obama`s decision to get bin Laden. I would say President Obama has a
slightly better foreign policy track record than Rummy. Typical Rummy
there, by the way. It`s up in the "Sideshow," where he belongs.
And this is HARDBALL, the place for politics.
MATTHEWS: Back to HARDBALL. Now to the "Sideshow."
First, that proposed ban in New York City on sodas larger than 16
ounces is causing noise. "The Daily Show"`s Jon Stewart is perplexed.
JON STEWART, HOST, "THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART": Let me get this
STEWART: As a New Yorker, I can go on my lunch break to -- I don`t
know -- Carnegie Deli...
STEWART: ... and order 14 pounds of pastrami garnished with seven
pounds of beef tongue.
STEWART: From there, right over to Hooters for quick basket of
chicken wings battered, deep-fried and tossed in hot sauce and melted
butter served with a bowl of cheese. Top it all off with a little bit of
frozen hot chocolate. This is legal, until it melts.
STEWART: Mr. Mayor, I know you can be intimidated by these large-
sized drinks. You and I are both, let`s face it, small.
STEWART: We might see a generously proportioned sugared beverage and
think of it as a drowning hazard.
STEWART: But it`s not fair. It`s not fair.
MATTHEWS: Actually, Mayor Bloomberg marked today as National Doughnut
Day, officially NYC Doughnut Day, with a proclamation.
I think there`s some sugar in doughnuts, Mr. Mayor.
Next up, during a debate on a pension billion in Illinois Tuesday,
Republican state Representative Mike Bost took to the floor to argue it was
just too soon to bring that bill to a vote.
MIKE BOST (R), ILLINOIS STATE REPRESENTATIVE: Total power in one
person`s hands, not the American way! These damn bills that come out of
here all the damn time, and I got to try to figure out how to vote for my
I`m sick of it! Every year, we give power to one person! It was not
made that way in the Constitution! He was around when it was written!
Enough! I feel like somebody trying to be released from Egypt. Let my
people go!
MATTHEWS: I think he just had one of those 16-ounce sugar drinks.
MATTHEWS: Anyway, Bost said he doesn`t normally act that way. Again,
I think it was a sugar attack.
Anyway, finally, former Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said that
President Obama made a gutsy call on how to kill Osama bin Laden. In an
interview with Charlie Rose, his predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld, however,
said the decision should have been a fast one, an easy one, thanks in part
to past administrations.
DONALD RUMSFELD, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: You spend billions
of dollars and lives trying to track down Osama bin Laden, and you have 40
to 80 percent or whatever Bob said confidence in your intelligence.
CHARLIE ROSE, HOST, "THE CHARLIE ROSE SHOW": Eighty-seven, I think he
said, yes.
RUMSFELD: It seems to me that it is a 15-minute decision, and the
first 14 are for coffee. Could it be wrong? You bet.
ROSE: Yes, with enormous consequences. Ask Jimmy Carter. Failed
RUMSFELD: Listen, our special forces in the Jimmy Carter era were so
early in their evolution. The investment that the Obama administration
benefited from, the capabilities they have were developed during their
predecessors. And each president has...
ROSE: Predecessors meaning the Bush administration you served?
RUMSFELD: And -- yes, exactly.
MATTHEWS: Wasn`t that fellow Rumsfeld the guy who said Saddam Hussein
had nuclear weapons? How long did that decision take for him? Hmm. Let`s
remember these guys` track records.
Up next: Republicans in the House try to ban gender-based abortions,
but are they really just going after the Asian-American community here and
can they really change that culture on these issues? We are going to talk
to two members of Congress on either side of the ban.
You`re watching HARDBALL, the place for politics.
HAMPTON PEARSON, CNBC CORRESPONDENT: I`m Hampton Pearson with your
CNBC "Market Wrap."
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Dow tumbles 275 points, wiping out all gains for the year. The S&P loses
32. The Nasdaq falls 80 points. As you heard earlier, there were just
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That`s it from CNBC, first in business worldwide -- now back to
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the ultimate war on women, Mr. Speaker.
If we don`t allow women to be born, we cannot talk about any other rights.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You talk about a war on women. This is a war on
ethics. Woe to you if you vote against this bill.
MATTHEWS: Well, welcome back to HARDBALL.
The bill in question we`re talking about here, the members were there
on the floor, was a bill that would ban and criminalize gender selection as
a reason for abortions. Although 246 House members voted for the bill the
other day and 169 against it, it didn`t get the requisite two-thirds in the
procedural rule in which it was brought up.
So, here we go. Let`s take the two -- talk to two congressmen on both
sides of the bill. We have got Cliff Stearns of Florida, who voted for it,
and we have Donna Edwards of Maryland, who voted against it.
I want Mr. Sterns to make the case.
What community in this country is engaged right now in gender
selection in terms of abortion?
REP. CLIFF STEARNS (R), FLORIDA: Well, it`s across the United States.
Dr. Puri of the University of California has shown through evidence by
interviewing women from 2004 to 2009 that a lot of them made this decision
based upon sex selection.
MATTHEWS: Which community, though? Which community is it?
STEARNS: Well, the immigrant community is one of the large ones that
he looked at because of that problem.
MATTHEWS: Is anyone else involved in this, to your knowledge, besides
Asian women who come to the United States who have that culture they bring
with them that prefers boy children? Does anyone else -- do you have any
evidence beyond that community of this practice?
STEARNS: Well, let me -- you talk about the...
MATTHEWS: No, I want the answer to that question.
MATTHEWS: Do you have any evidence beyond that community?
STEARNS: Yes.
The National Academy of Science has done a study from the last census
in this country. And they found, statistically, there`s a deviation that
shows more of these abortions occur and that there is sex selection.
So I think, if the National Academy of Science shows that evidence
pretty strongly, I think that`s a testament to the facts.
MATTHEWS: But you don`t have any evidence of cases. In other words,
if you were going to go to court, you wouldn`t have cases, would you?
MATTHEWS: In other words, you`re talking about a law here. My
problem is this. You don`t want to punish the woman. You want to punish
the doctor.
But in this case, a woman could -- if she did have this intention
because of her background or values or whatever they are -- and I`m
certainly not for them -- if there was such a case, she would simply go
from doctor to doctor who wouldn`t ask her the question and she`d proceed
with the abortion.
So what do you accomplish with this law? It couldn`t be enforced.
STEARNS: Well, I will tell you what you accomplish, Chris. There`s
one thing you`re missing.
This same law has been passed in all the Western civilization
countries, including Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Sweden,
Norway. I can go on.
In fact, when you go to the Asian community, it`s banned in China,
it`s banned in Singapore, it`s banned in Thailand. I mean, all these
countries have banned it. So to think that the Democrats voted against a
bill that was prevalent in all these countries, both in the European
community, as well as the Asian community, is -- really flabbergasts all of
MATTHEWS: Yes. Well, they don`t ban abortion in China. Let`s get
that straight.
REP. DONNA EDWARDS (D), MARYLAND: Chris...
STEARNS: No, they don`t ban -- but they ban sex selection.
MATTHEWS: You`re only allowed to have like one kid.
STEARNS: Yes, they ban sex selection.
MATTHEWS: Yes. OK.
Let me go. I think this -- I think you guy are sporting for trouble
here, because I think this is about one community. And I don`t certainly
like what I see in that community, if they do this, and the evidence shows
they did. But the idea -- first of all, I don`t know who is against having
girl children.
STEARNS: Well...
MATTHEWS: I mean, I don`t even know who is out there. Who do you
know that doesn`t want to have a girl -- a grandchild or a daughter? Who`s
out there doing this?
STEARNS: Chris, the whole point of what your question is, why did we try
to pass this bill and we had 246 people that think it`s the right bill. I
thought we were talking about the bill. The bill is the same that`s passed
all through Europe, all through Asia.
Are you arguing against the bill yourself?
MATTHEWS: I know why you`re doing it. You`re doing it to try to
find moderate Republicans from swing districts you can nail.
STEARNS: No.
MATTHEWS: This is pure politics.
STEARNS: This is pure principle. And those people that voted
against this bill are -- woe to them because they`re immoral.
MATTHEWS: You see what he just did, woe to them. What are you,
REP. DONNA EDWARDS (D), MARYLAND: Woe to me, I voted against it.
STEARNS: I wish I was Lincoln. I wish I was Lincoln.
EDWARDS: The study he cites they interviewed 65 women out of
millions across this country, 65 women. And that`s the basis for national
policy here. I mean, this is really ridiculous.
This continues -- the Republicans on one hand don`t want us to say
there`s a war on women, yet every single week there`s some new measure to
ban abortion, to end family planning. They don`t want to provide for
family planning, but then they want to prevent so-called sex-based
abortions, finding a problem that really doesn`t exist in this country to
merit the level of national policy. This is really ridiculous.
STEARNS: Chris, can I answer that?
MATTHEWS: Sure, go ahead, sir.
STEARNS: First of all, the United Nations agrees with this bill. I
mean, Donna is saying this is a war on women. This is not a war on women.
In fact, the United States has said that you based abortions based upon sex
selection. That they said is a war on women.
EDWARDS: Cliff, you just agreed to end family planning for the work
that the United Nations is doing across the country. I mean, let`s stop
this already.
The Republicans every single week in this Congress, Chris, the
Republicans put forward yet another measure that says to women, you don`t
have privacy in the decisions with your doctors, we`re going to criminalize
the doctor, we`ll make doctors mind readers.
STEARNS: Let`s stay on the facts.
MATTHEWS: Let`s stay on the facts. I want to know your background
on this. If you could pass a law in this country to get a constitutional
amendment passed that banned abortion, would you do it?
STEARNS: Well, certainly.
MATTHEWS: Certainly, so you`re totally against a women`s right to
make a decision in this regard.
STEARNS: Well, I`m pro-life, that`s absolutely correct.
MATTHEWS: This is one way -- this is one step forward in terms of
your ultimate goal.
STEARNS: No, no, this is not talking about one step forward. This
is talking about basic moral values. Do you think it`s wrong to abort a
baby because she`s a female? And that`s a question that Donna has to ask
in her inner heart --
MATTHEWS: Well, if it`s morally wrong -- why don`t you punish the
STEARNS: We can punish the doctors.
MATTHEWS: Why not the women?
STEARNS: The way the bill is set up is the doctor has no right to
question the motivation of the girl.
EDWARDS: Because that`s not what this is about, that`s why. So you
punish the doctors, you ask the doctors to be mind readers, to sit and
figure out when a woman comes to the office --
MATTHEWS: What should be the punishment, sir? I had this with
people who say they are pro-life. I think we`re all pro-life.
STEARNS: Yes.
MATTHEWS: What should be the punishment for a woman who chooses to
have an abortion?
STEARNS: Well, I`m not talking about abortion.
MATTHEWS: Answer that question before we go on.
STEARNS: No, no, no, Chris.
MATTHEWS: You want to outlaw it, call it murder, use terms like
that. What should be a punishment for a woman who chooses -- goes to a
doctor, they don`t go door to door, she goes to the doctor and asks for
this procedure, what should be the punishment for that?
STEARNS: If we`re talking about abortion, we have the Hyde rule
which says you can have an abortion for incest, the life of the mother.
MATTHEWS: Go on.
STEARNS: And things like that and rape. So we already have that in
place. But the question is --
MATTHEWS: So, what should be the punishment for a woman who wants an
abortion because she doesn`t want to deliver the child, period? What
should be the punishment?
STEARNS: Let me ask you --
MATTHEWS: So, you don`t want to answer this, do you?
STEARNS: I want to ask you a question is --
MATTHEWS: No, I just ask the questions.
MATTHEWS: You want to outlaw abortion and you don`t want to do it
because you know deep down you know the average voter, even in your
district, which maybe conservative doesn`t believe the woman is guilty of a
murder, they really don`t think it should be a murder charge, they don`t
think it should be fineable, because deep down people are troubled by this
issue. It`s a difficult moral dilemma and that`s why we let the person
make the decision, it`s so difficult.
That`s why we don`t make all these laws that you want to pass. Why
don`t you let the women answer it?
STEARNS: It`s your show. Let me answer the question.
MATTHEWS: You won`t answer it.
STEARNS: I`ll answer the question the way I want. It might be your
show and you can do all the talking but I can answer the question the way I
The question is: should there be a law preventing a woman making an
abortion based upon sex selection to eliminate female embryos. And that I
agree is wrong and I think you agree and Donna also agrees.
MATTHEWS: What should be the punishment for the woman doing that?
STEARNS: It should be against the law. Just like it`s against the
law in all of Europe --
MATTHEWS: What should be the punishment?
STEARNS: I think the punishment should certainly be very serious.
MATTHEWS: What should it be for the woman? What should it be for
the woman?
STEARNS: It should be more than a civil case. It should be
something very serious --
MATTHEWS: So, should it be a criminal matter for the woman as well
as the doctor?
STEARNS: I think so. You are killing an embryo and sometimes four
or five months into gestation --
MATTHEWS: Look, I agree with the value. I just think we get
involved in personal decisions here.
STEARNS: I understand. But you just said you agree with the bill.
You just said that.
MATTHEWS: No, I don`t believe in punishing people for having
abortions, unlike you. I couldn`t be more different.
STEARNS: But, Chris, you just said that you agree that sex selection
is bad --
MATTHEWS: Of course it is.
STEARNS: OK, that`s the bill we`re talking about, that`s the bill
that`s going to come back on the floor not under suspension.
MATTHEWS: Please come back.
STEARNS: All right.
MATTHEWS: You are a good sport even though I think you got to
rethink where the moral decision -- I think sometimes you guys on the far
right think women are incapable of a major decision like this, so you
punish the doctor who you presume is a male. I really think you got a
problem with this and you don`t want to admit that it`s a moral conflict
here. But that`s why we leave it in the hands of the woman because it is
so difficult.
Let me go back to Congresswoman Edwards. Let her speak on this.
That`s why we let the woman decide. It is so hard for anybody else to
EDWARDS: Of course. This is a really difficult decision. It really
needs to be between the doctor and the woman. We don`t need the government
in the doctor`s office making those decisions.
MATTHEWS: Especially when they can`t handle the question like you
EDWARDS: We don`t need to punish women. We can educate women about
sex abortion, but we don`t have to punish women or doctors.
MATTHEWS: Thank you so much.
STEARNS: Can I have the last word? Can I have the last word?
MATTHEWS: Quickly.
STEARNS: The basic question is if all of Europe and most of Asia has
this same rule that you cannot have sex selection as an abortion, why can`t
we in the United States pass the same bill?
MATTHEWS: It`s always amazing when you guys on the right want to
import the values of other countries. Any time we do it, any time we do
it, any liberal tries to do it or a progressive tries to do it, you say
they`re bringing foreign values into this country.
Anyway, thank you, nice try. Congressman Donna Edwards, and
Congressman Cliff Stearns, who`s now a world federalist when it comes to
abortion policy.
Up next, why is Bill Clinton off-script? He`s praising Mitt Romney`s
work at Bain and talking up -- talking up Donald Trump? What`s with this
guy? Is he really helping the Obama campaign? Let`s see.
We`ll be right. That`s ahead.
MATTHEWS: We`ll be back in a minute to talk about Bill Clinton.
He`s supposed to be President Obama`s top surrogate. He`s gone a bit
We`ll be right back.
MATTHEWS: OK, this is a great question.
We`re back.
What was Bill Clinton thinking? That`s an old question, of course,
by criticizing the Obama`s campaigns attack on Bain Capital and saying nice
things as hell about Donald Trump.
It`s a big question for our strategist Steve McMahon. Great Friday
afternoon question. He`s a Democratic strategist. Of course, Todd Harris
is a Republican strategist.
How fun is this to watch the Democratic Party come apart other these
stupid things like Donald Trump and Bain?
TODD HARRIS, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: You know, when you`re an ex-
president, it`s sort of like being an 85-year-old man, you can wear your
pants up to here and socks up your knees, you just don`t give a damn what
anybody thinks.
MATTHEWS: But George Bush Sr. showed up in those crazy socks in the
White House.
HARRIS: That`s right. You just don`t care. Unfortunately, for the
Obama campaign, the former president of the United States loves talking to
the media. And he is so smart and you know this wasn`t a mistake.
MATTHEWS: He`s not Joe Biden.
Here he is talking to Harvey Weinstein, a guy he probably likes to be
friendly with, a big Hollywood producer, with 70 Oscars.
Here he is talking to him about Donald Trump.
HARVEY WEINSTEIN, MOVIE PRODUCER: I know Donald Trump to be a sane
smart businessman. But he has his benefit. Romney comes and he talks
about that birth certificate again. How do you put it out of the minds of
the American people once and for all? And doesn`t he realize how uncool he
BILL CLINTON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I don`t know. You know, Donald
Trump has been uncommonly nice to Hillary and me. We`re all New Yorkers.
WEINSTEIN: Me, too.
CLINTON: And I like him and I love playing golf with him, but the
evidence is pretty clear that President Obama was born in Hawaii. And this
whole election should not be about any of these side issues.
MATTHEWS: If it`s pretty clear -- he didn`t exactly lock it in, did
STEVE MCMAHON, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: The former president is in a
different business now and he runs with people in New York. He raises
money for his foundation. He golfs with Donald Trump. He hangs out with
venture capitalists.
So, I`m not surprised to hear him say this. What Bill Clinton, Todd
is right, you know, it`s like being the 85-year-old man, you get to say
whatever you want, you`re an ex-president, you don`t have to worry about
it, but it certainly isn`t not doing the Obama campaign any good right now.
MATTHEWS: We`re noticing. Just quick to this -- I wouldn`t call it
a pile on, but it`s a pile away from Obama. Nobody is making any special
effort to give away credits so they can help Obama.
I mean, Cory Booker, Ed Rendell, all these heavy weights now in the
party are just saying, yes, I don`t agree with him. I don`t agree with
HARRIS: Within the Democratic, what you hear time and again is that
the White House and Obama in particular has never made any special effort
to reach out of any of these people.
MATTHEWS: They`ll get asked at midnight. Roosevelt would sit around
all night hanging out with Southern congressmen and senator, writing checks
when he lost at poker, knowing they would never catch the check because
they got his signature on it.
But is he doing that?
MCMAHON: All that maybe true. But the Democrats who are walking
away from the president on this are all Democrats from the Northeast who
hang out with all the venture capitalist guys.
MATTHEWS: The equity people.
MCMAHON: All of their friends are equity people and so, they`re
doing this to choosing friendships over the president on this one point.
They all support the president, they all think he`s done a great job, and
they all want him to be reelected, and they`re all campaign for him when
they`re not --
MATTHEWS: Anyway.
HARRIS: The single worst moment of Obama campaign so far was
produced by Harvey Weinstein. Who would have guessed?
MATTHEWS: Thank you, guys. It`s not a great day, 275-point drop in
the Dow today. What a bad day today for this economy.
Steve McMahon, thank you.
MCMAHON: Thank you.
MATTHEWS: Todd Harris, I know the difference between you.
When we return, let me finish with why President Obama needs to do
something to get the economy rolling again now. No more just blaming the
other side.
You`re watching HARDBALL, a place for politics.
MATTHEWS: Let me finish on this tough hard note it`s come to, I`m
talking about this coming election. There was a sense on the part of the
Obama administration and the White House out in Chicago that the main
thrust had to be negative in this campaign. The economy is not going to
perk up. So, the goal had to be going at Romney as hard as possible.
You couldn`t rely on defense, only a good strong offense guaranteed
the best chance of victory.
Well, I think today`s hard economic news, the pathetic number of new
jobs this past month, the even worse number of new jobs and the figures
coming in for the previous two months must be a wake up call. Quote, now
hear this: there is little way that Obama will win the election in the
middle where it will be fought among middle of the road voters by telling
people that things are bad, but it will be even worst under Romney.
You can`t sell out of the frying pan into the fire. Why? Because
the American people are at their core an optimistic people. We don`t
believe the only alternative to a bad outlook is a worse outlook. And
that`s why you can`t put it together.
In fact, we`re not put together that way. We have to believe. We
have to have faith. We have to see a better day coming if we make the
right decision.
Well, Romney promises a fresh start. If he is to beat him, President
Obama needs to promise fresh hope. And the only way he can do that is to
do something. Words won`t do the trick.
It`s June 1st, time for a summer offensive, but it must be based on a
policy, an economic policy, not a political one. The president needs to
take action that gets this economy moving again, that`s what voter wants
and what he or she will vote for.
That`s HARDBALL for now. Thanks for being with us.
"POLITICS NATION" with Al Sharpton starts right now.
Copyright 2012 CQ-Roll Call, Inc. All materials herein are protected by
United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed,
transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written
permission of CQ-Roll Call. You may not alter or remove any trademark,
copyright or other notice from copies of the content.>
Guests: Joan Walsh, Hampton Pearson, Ed Rendell, Cliff Stearns, Donna Edwards, Todd Harris, Steve McMahon, Bob Shrum, Robert Reich


text:
Beat the Streak Report: Thursday, May 20
I think my least-favorite scenario when it comes to Beat the Streak is when I submit my seemingly fool-proof pick, forget about baseball for a few hours, totally miss out on news that the player who I picked was a late-scratch due to some injury that on the surface looks questionable at best, only to then look at the next morning's box score and find out that said player heroically scrounged up the strength to pinch-hit for one courageous at-bat, strike out swinging to a pitcher who hasn't topped 93 on a fastball since forever to simultaneously press reset on my mythological streak button.
Thanks, Manny.
Time for Thursday's picks.
Oh, hello there …
? Robinson cano: .462 AVG (12-for-26) lifetime vs. Rays starter James Shields
? Jason Bartlett: .389 AVG (7-for-18) lifetime vs. Yankees starter Andy Pettitte
? Ryan Braun: .375 AVG (9-for-24) lifetime vs. Pirates starter Paul Maholm
? Dustin Pedroia: .750 AVG (6-for-8) lifetime vs. Twins starter Francisco Liriano
? Chase Utley: .667 AVG (6-for-9) lifetime vs. Cubs starter Ryan Dempster
Feeling kinda spicy?
? Geoff Blum: .400 AVG (6-for-15) lifetime vs. Rockies starter Ubaldo Jimenez. Yeah, I feel totally confident taking a lifetime .251 utility player vs. the unstoppable force that is Ubaldo.
You'll thank me later …
? Prince Fielder: .081 AVG (3-for-37) lifetime vs. Pirates starter Paul Maholm
? Adrian Gonzalez: .105 AVG (2-for-19) lifetime vs. Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw
? Hanley Ramirez: .125 AVG (2-for-16) lifetime vs. Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright
? Mark Teixeira: .158 AVG (3-for-19) lifetime vs. Rays starter James Shields
Leaderboard time!
Carlos Gonzalez's 0-for-5 spot vs. the Astros yesterday sucked all the wind out of "lukehartzeim"'s 27-game streak, leaving "blakerockwell" all alone atop the leaderboard with a 28-game run thanks to Joe Mauer's 1-for-4.
"blakerockwell" is officially 49.1 percent on his way to that gold-plated pony.
Top MLB streakers
? Russell Martin: 14 games
? John Buck: 10 games
? Jeff Mathis: 10 games (DL)
? Jhonny Peralta: 9 games
? J.J. Hardy: 8 games (DL)
? Prince Fielder: 8 games
20 Comments
Morning all, as much as I talked up Ryan Braun last night, I think I am going with Pods in the early game ( still got half hour to decide). He hits .306 v righty, ( but has never faced Talbot) .318 on the road and .390 in day games. Good luck to all.
I'm so demoralized. I took Manny Ramirez on BTS because of his 15 for 30 success of Garland in the past. I find the shock of Ramirez not starting and was disappointed but I felt at least my 9 game streak will stay intact. It could have been worse if I had taken Shin-Soo Choo who went 0 for 2 with 2 walks and a HBP. Then I wake up to a BIG O next to "your current streak" and find out that Ramirez was pinch hit in the 5th inning, struckout and was then removed form the game. That was just enough to ruin my streak and I'm very deflated. I can't imagine what the person who lost a streak of 20 on Ramirez must be feeling. Ah I can't stand Joe Torre! If I lost a streak I'd rather lose because of an 0 for 4 instead of a sneaky pinch hit performance. If Ramirez is hurt why use him at all? I also lost my streak on streak for the cash which is on espn.com because I took the Dodgers and did not know about Ramirez not starting and the major bat lost in the line up.
took austin kearns today to get my streak back up to 2. he has quietly been hitting the ball well for a struggling indians team
I thought Ryan Braun would at least get 15% of bts picks today…yet he doesn't and Pujols gets more picks. I'd have to say Pujols is in the running for the streak breaker of the year award. We'll see what he does today. Made a last second switch from Braun to Butler to ride the momentum of the Royals win last night when he had a clutch rbi double in the 9th and it paid off.
I had the same pinch hit scenario with Utley last week. That stopped my streak of 6, which I've topped out at 3 times. Going with Tejada and Uribe today to get to a streak of 2 in BTS and HRBTS respectively.
Werth out today against cubs. damn Utley just hit a bomb.
Thank goodness I picked Utley today, I was going to go with werth and he isn't playing and Utley just hit a homerun so that gets me back to 2, haha. Gotta start someone though right. I joined the bloggers group so we'll see how I do now. The longest so far this season streak wise for me is 10. Hoping to build on that streak now. GL to all today.
Thank goodness I picked Utley today, I was going to go with werth and he isn't playing and Utley just hit a homerun so that gets me back to 2, haha. Gotta start someone though right. I joined the bloggers group so we'll see how I do now. The longest so far this season streak wise for me is 10. Hoping to build on that streak now. GL to all today.
Uh, oh. Werth is pinch hitting. Good luck to those who picked him.
wow 10% taking Pujols. I guess they dont read the blog, o by the way hes 0-1 with surprise surprise a WALK!!! I got mccutchen tonight to get me to a 15streak, gl all
Darn! I was hoping AP goes 1-for-0 with 2 walks and HBP. Nate Robertson sucks moose hole. Let's hope for all star performance from Paul tonight.
Braves win!
Braves Reds best game of the year. Braves rally from down 9-3 in the ninth to win with a brooks conrad walk off grand slam wooooooooo go braves, and go mccutchen tonight.
Ichiro gets a hit on a pop up to third baseman on his last at bat. Interesting. Sometimes its all luck. All luck, I tell you. Maybe Ichiro's speed does make luck happen little more often but wow that was close. It was a very had idea going against triple dead zone of Ichiro for this year: LHP and day game at home. I remember last year where he was going hitless in all day games at the least until the last month. I wonder what changed.
well there you go, Ryan Braun goes hitless wiping out a nice chunk of the leaderboard, as well as jason werths 0-1. the cutchinator extends me to 15 games with a relaxing first inning single, see yall at the finish line. way to get off the snide mr. feldman lets see if you can get to a 2 game streak now.
Big Vlad extended my streak to 6, and what a nice way to do it, with a homerun.
Friday I will be looking for the hot bat of Helton.
I'm going with Ichiro on Friday. He is 2 for 2 against LeBlanc but the problem is he isn't hitting lefties. Will do some research to see how he hits at night and what not.
Morning guys, anyone else notice that Evan Longoria is a "Pick of the Day" because of his .373 BA at HOME. This is a nice little nugget of info to file away, but unless I missed something, the Rays are on the ROAD today in Houston…Conspiracy? LOL
He'll probably go 3-4 anyway because Brett Myers is usually batting practice these days, but still…The info provided should be relevant to THAT DAY'S game.
LOL Leeungaretta. I didn't even notice they were playing in Houston. I'm going with AL hitters during this weekends inter league play. Players from NYY, TB, MIN and TEX are on my radar. Good Luck!
I got back to 1 on beat the streak with Utley but lost on survivor with the Giants. Lincecum gave up 5 Earned Runs and they lost 8-7. I stopped playing HR beat the streak because my highest streak in that game is 1 which occurred seven times and all 7 times it returned to 0 the next day. That included a day I picked A-Rod and it turns out you can lose your streak in that game even if the player you picked never made an out. A Rod went 1 for 1 with a single and 3 walks and that game perhaps counts singles, doubles and triples like outs and I quit after losing my 7th 1 game streak. That game is junkshoot if there ever is one as It's impossible to predict home runs. The others have real chances at streaks.


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Tanya Taylor Review | Fashion Week Fall 2013
Tanya Taylor Fall 2013
Tanya Taylor Fall 2013
"I like to get things done with," Tanya Taylor told us during her Fall 2013 presentation at the Museum of Modern Art on Wednesday evening, one of the earliest slots on this season's schedule. "I like to be ready and then kind of sit back and watch everyone else's shows."
Taylor's show — her third — preserved the '60s bent that we've seen from her in past efforts, this time filtered through the lens of artist Jean Pierre Raynaud. "He used a lot of grids. He was an architect and a horticulturalist to begin with," she said — which explains her use of plaid and floral prints. But there wasn't anything frilly here: a check coat couldn't prevent the black leather dress underneath it from looking tough, and the pointy metal cap-toes on some of Taylor's pumps could have looked a little lethal if they hadn't been paired with straight-legged orange trousers or little black socks.
Now that her own presentation is over, the designer plans to go to Alexander Wang and Honor ("Friends' shows," she said), and after Fashion Week there's the small matter of her April wedding in Barbados to attend to.
"I'm going on my bachelorette party," she said. "Big bachelorette party with 13 of my girlfriends next Friday, so that's a good way to unwind." The wedding itself will be in Barbados, and Taylor has known what she's going to wear for some time. "The dress is Elie Saab Haute Couture from the Fall collection that he's designing for me. I'm very excited."
Who wouldn't be? A look at Taylor's Fall 2013 wares here in the gallery.
Source: FirstVIEW


text:
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Found 37 resultsTitle
Filters: Author is Joel A Fein [Clear All Filters]
Using community-based participatory research to develop the PARTNERS youth violence prevention program." Prog Community Health Partnersh. 2010;4(3):207-16."
Before and after the trauma bay: the prevention of violent injury among youth." Ann Emerg Med. 2009;53(4):490-500."
Feasibility of an interactive voice response tool for adolescent assault victims." Acad Emerg Med. 2009;16(10):956-62."
Translating community-specified indicators of program success into measurable outcomes." J Public Health Manag Pract. 2009;15(6):E22-30."
Adolescent decisional autonomy regarding participation in an emergency department youth violence interview." Am J Bioeth. 2005;5(5):70-4; discussion W14."
Heart rate and posttraumatic stress in injured children." Arch. Gen. Psychiatry. 2005;62(3):335-40."
Characterization of interpersonal violence events involving young adolescent girls vs events involving young adolescent boys." Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2004;158(6):545-50."
Posttraumatic stress disorder and injury." Clinical Pediatric Emergency Medicine. 2003;4(2):148-155."
Persistence of posttraumatic stress in violently injured youth seen in the emergency department." Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2002;156(8):836-40."
Emergency department evaluation of acute stress disorder symptoms in violently injured youths." Ann Emerg Med. 2001;38(4):391-6."
Violence prevention in the emergency department: clinician attitudes and limitations." Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2000;154(5):495-8."
Interpersonal violence." Curr. Opin. Pediatr.. 1999;11(6):588-93."


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or, When a Bad Brand Goes (Even Further) Wrong
I was reminded of this 3-year-old post from my old blog after reading a piece from Stuff White People Do, entitled "describe racism as political incorrectness." The original post was about an effort to re-brand a staple of US advertising lore as detailed in this story. I was (and remain) not impressed with the effort. By the way, out of curiosity I revisited Uncle Ben's office to engage him in chat. Below is a transcript of our conversation:
[PPR_Scribe]: hello
[Ben]: Did you have my ORIGINAL CONVERTED® Brand Rice for dinner?
[PPR_Scribe]: no, not tonight
[Ben]: Away accepting another award for my rice. Nice that people still recognize the value of wholesome goodness when they taste it.
[PPR_Scribe]: where are you?
[Ben]: It is difficult to type and eat rice at the same time. Let's talk when I am done.
[PPR_Scribe]: what are you doing?
[Ben]: Currently being fitted for a new blue suit. Upon returning and hanging up my new coat, will be in touch.
[PPR_Scribe]: so…you're accepting an award, eating rice, and being fitted for a suit? at the same time?
[Ben]: State dinners would be more diplomatic if they always served my ORIGINAL CONVERTED® Brand Rice. Can we pick up this conversation when I return?
[PPR_Scribe]: i have the feeling you really don't want to chat with me at all…
[Ben]: Am attending the Beau Brummell Celebration in London. Will be my pleasure to chat upon my return.
[PPR_Scribe]: well, ok then. bye
[Ben]: Can you come by the office in person?
[PPR_Scribe]: um…no, i'm not really comfortable with that. why?
[Ben]: Out of office for rice harvesting season. My, those combines are loud. Will reply when I return.
[PPR_Scribe]: now you're just being difficult…
[Ben]: Away accepting another award for my rice. Nice that people still recognize the value of wholesome goodness when they taste it.
[PPR_Scribe]: (???)
Uncle Ben's Cabin
It is an oddity of the history of advertising that Black folks have been featured so often as part of companies' brand identity. Apparently, at one point in time nothing could prompt a consumer to snatch a product off of a grocery shelf like a demeaning characterization of a smiling Negro. Of course, two of the better known Black characters are Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben. (No relation? It's hard to say as neither has ever had a last name. This blogger is trying to match-make them, though, so I hope they are not already kin…) I've talked before here about my relationship to the whole history of "racial naming." Suffice it to say that for certain generations of Blacks, it is not endearing for White folks to refer to us as Uncle or Aunt (unless we are, in fact, their uncle or aunt.)
Uncle Ben's image is most often discussed as part of the broader "Uncle Tom" racist caricature, seen in everything from advertising to film. This wonderful site sums up the image well. Aunt Jemima is often discussed as characteristic of the "Mammy" caricature. The same site linked in the previous sentence also provides a good description of Mammy depictions in advertising and elsewhere. The interesting thing about the pancake lady is that she underwent a make-over in the late 80s. Slimmed down, dressed up, no kerchief wrapped round her head. According to the company's History web page, today "the Aunt Jemima products continue to stand for warmth, nourishment and trust – qualities you'll find in loving moms from diverse backgrounds who care for and want the very best for their families. "
That's Chairman Uncle Ben
Enter the rice man's makeover. According to the NYT story:
A racially charged advertising character, who for decades has been relegated to a minor role in the marketing of the products that still carry his name, is taking center stage in a campaign that gives him a makeover — Madison Avenue style — by promoting him to chairman of the company.
You can visit his virtual office here. I didn't last very long in his office. With each click the sour taste in my mouth grew fouler and fouler. I expected at any minute to see a cheesin' and shufflin', bow-tie clad older virtual Black man jump out from his task of sharpening pencils to greet me by name. This blogger was braver than I, actually using the "chat" feature to engage the new Chairman in conversation. (If you can call it that.) Here's an excerpt of their exchange:
[Guest]: Hi
[Ben]: In Packaging Department. viewing the new box. It is a remarkable likeness. Will speak with you shortly.
[Guest]: That's great.
[Ben]: It is difficult to type and eat rice at the same time. Let's talk when I am done.
[Guest]: I don't like rice.
[Ben]: Am attending the Beau Brummell Celebration in London. Will be my pleasure to chat upon my return.
[Guest]: Wait — I thought you were in the packaging department!
[Ben]: In Packaging Department. viewing the new box. It is a remarkable likeness. Will speak with you shortly.
Obviously still some bugs to work out. But my guess is Ben's neither overseeing efforts in the Packaging Department nor sipping wine at some event in England, but–like I said–in an inner office sharpening pencils or involved in some other non-task his higher-ups assigned him as part of his "promotion." Back to the Times:
"This is an interesting idea, but for me it still has a very high cringe factor," said Luke Visconti, partner at Diversity Inc. Media in Newark, which publishes a magazine and Web site devoted to diversity in the workplace.
"There's a lot of baggage associated with the image," Mr. Visconti said, which the makeover "is glossing over."
Uncle Ben, who first appeared in ads in 1946, is being reborn as Ben, an accomplished businessman with an opulent office, a busy schedule, an extensive travel itinerary and a penchant for sharing what the company calls his "grains of wisdom" about rice and life. A crucial aspect of his biography remains the same, though: He has no last name.
And the "cringe factor" just multiplies and multiplies. For example, asks one commenter to this site, "Does anyone else see irony in the company's name — MasterFoods?" And several commenters elsewhere in the blogosphere have re-dubbed the company "Massafoods."
I am no advertising executive. But this does not appear to be a re-branding effort that is destined to bear much fruit. Or grains of converted rice, as the case may be.
Ben There; Dumb, That
I do not buy Uncle Ben's Rice. Never have. (And at this rate, never will.) I also do not buy any Aunt Jemima products. And if any of the products below were still available today, I wouldn't buy them either. I come by this aversion to financing my own denigration honestly. As a child when we would travel the country by car, my father would drive 50 miles out of the way to avoid having us stop at a Sambo's Restaurant for a meal or bathroom break.
The restaurant, perhaps not surprisingly, is also involved in a re-branding effort. This site attempts to set the story straight. Sambo's, we're told, was based on the names of the eatery's founders, and the use of the book's characters came about only later. (The whole story of The Story of Little Black Sambo is an interesting tale in its own right, but beyond this blog post. Begin here for further reading.) I'm not sure how helpful this re-telling is for understanding the restaurant–or the book and its many incarnations, for that matter. Why and how did folks running the company think that adorning their restaurant with images of "picanninies" would be a good marketing move? How do they now think that hearkening back to India's colonial past would be a better or more sensitive move?
Beauty and the Brand
Companies, universities, and all manner of other entities spend millions in efforts to establish, redirect, and update their images. The book that I discuss in my still-draft blog post about re-branding is about what is being called "the attention economy." In the Information Age, the scarce commodity that becomes extremely valuable is human attention. Not money, not information, not even "knowledge." And certainly not an awareness of history. What matters is eyeballs to content. And when that is what matters, image is everything. (The book I'll talk about speaks of this in terms of "fluff over stuff.")
So what do we make of companies' apparent reluctance to totally excise images of slavery and Jim Crow in trying to focus consumers' eyeballs on products on crowded grocery shelves? I have framed the Uncle Ben's effort as a potential fiasco, a massive marketing mistake. But what if it is, instead, a savvy business move? What if the company has discovered via its focus groups that images that remind people of the good old days of subservient, happy Blacks (who could sho-nuff cook!) continue to be comforting and endearing to many modern consumers?
Perhaps advertising's racist past not even past, but only an old package in need of re-branding.
For further information on this topic, see the book Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben, and Rastus: Blacks in Advertising, Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow.


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Looking through the various guest appearances and recurring roles for season 3-5 I come up with the following names as good potential signers:
Sara Gilbert (Leslie Winkle)
Charlie Sheen (himself)
Octavia Spencer (Octavia)
Analeigh Tipton (herself) <----I want!
Sara Rue (Stephanie Barnett)
Christine Baranski (Beverly Hofstadter)
George Smoot (Himself) *2006 Nobel Prize winner
Wil Wheaton (himself)
Katee Sackhoff (herself)
Yeardly Smith (Sandy)
Stan Lee (himself)
Judy Greer (Dr. Elizabeth Plimpton)
Mayim Bialik (Amy Farrah Fowler)
Steve Wozniak (himself) *National Medal of Technology winner
Eliza Dushku (FBI Special Agent Angela Page)
Melissa Rauch (Bernadette Rostenkowski)
George Takei (himself)
Keith Carradine (Wyatt)
LeVar Burton (himself)
Brent Spiner (himself)
Aarti Mann- Priya Koothrappali
Neil deGrasse Tyson- Himself (American astrophysicist and science communicator)
Rick Fox- Glenn
Brian Greene- Himself (American theoretical physicist and string theorist)
Michael J. Massimino- Himself (American engineer and NASA Astronaut)
Leonard Nimoy- Himself (voice only)
Stephen Hawking- Himself
I suspect the scientists and astronauts would be quite popular autographs, especially if they weren't commons.
As for Stephen Hawking, how about a thumbprint card in lieu of an autograph?


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Gender: Female
Age: 17 (almost 18 :))
Live in: Australia
Real name: Carmon
Fave Animes: Inuyasha , Bleach, Hell girl, black blood brothers, vampire princess, moon phase, death note, Shakugan no Shana and black cat, there's probably more but i can't think of them at the moment. ^-^
Current obsession: Photography, which is really annoying as my camera really sucks
Likes: Randomness, funny stuff, vampires, Anime , manga, books (especially urban fantasy!), lollies, my friends, science, photography, creative writing
Dislikes: Rude comments/answers (is why i like the O, Everyone here is so friendly ^-^), Tomatoes, planning and school sport. Other stuff to but i can't be bothered typing it up.
Dream job: Forensic scientist or Working with genetics
Eye colour: Blue
Hair colour: Well it's currently red, but naturaly it's a horribly mousey brown colour.
Fave colour: Black, purple and red
Fave T.V show: Tie between the new Docter Who, Supernatural and how i met your mother
Fave Food: mangoes and smoked salmon
Fave computer game: Plants vs Zombies
Grade/Year: 1st year university
Current uni subjects: well seeing as this semester's nearly over i'll tell you next semester's: Philosophy, intro to forensics, intro to human anatomy and physiology, cell biology.
Item at the top of my wish list: A really good digital camera.
(aka all my fave characters)
So i couldnt be bother typing up two lists so i'm remerging them.
This is a list of all my fave characters (best first)
Character - Anime/book/series/movie/etc
Sesshomaru - Inuyasha
Zelman Clock - Black Blood Brothers
Janx - Negotiator Trillogy
Lestat de Lioncourt - Vampire Chronicals
Edward Elric - Fullmetal Alchemist
The Doctor - Doctor Who
Spike - Buffy
Bones aka Crispin (i think) - Night Huntress series
Byakuya Kuchiki - Bleach
Inuyasha - Inuyasha
Bankotsu - Inuyasha
Rin - Inuyasha
Nathanial - Anita Blake series
Kotaro Mochizuki - Black Blood Brothers
Kisuke Urahara - Bleach
Jiro Mochizuki - Black Blood Brothers
L. Lawliet - Death Note
Diansi(spelling?) - Negotiator trillogy
Jason - Anita Blake
Jakotsu - Inuyasha
Yafuri Chao - Black Blood Brothers
Kogura - Inuyasha
Ren Ichimoku - Hell Girl
Mimiko Katsuragi - Black Blood Brothers
Damn it! I know that there's heaps more but i cant think of any at the moment T_T
Email adress: [email protected]
Some more stuff about me; here and here
Lolz this is obviously an edited pic. You can see the original here.
VWBSZWAS stands for: Vampirewerewolfbrainsuckingzombie with a straw (It's a loooooooooooong story.) Bye for now and please read my posts and comment. You rock!!! ^-^


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A thirty-something Michigan woman miraculously survived a crash with a semi-truck and being dragged about 50 yards before both vehicles came to a stop, according to reports.
The woman, in a Jeep Wrangler — can't tell if the top was off or not, but if so, wow — collided with the trailer, carrying 40,000 pounds of a cargo at an intersection in Van Buren Township, about half an hour west of Detroit.
Her Jeep was pinned underneath the trailer. When rescue crews still arrived at the scene, she was still conscious and communicating.
The driver was airlifted to a hospital where she is being treated.
Photo via WDIV


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We continue our week-plus look at this year's Sportshuman Of The Year nominees with the athletic embodiment of our financial crisis: Lenny Dykstra. Handsome devil, and charming too.
Lenny Dykstra
Featured black men on the cover of his magazine.
Charged charter flight to his mother's credit card.
Hammered by HBO. (Finally.)
Filed for bankruptcy.
Played dirty.
Slept in car.
Pawned the rest of his belongings.
Erin Andrews


text: Eutech Instruments is a leading ISO9001-certified company dedicated to manufacture of sensor-based instruments for water quality analysis. We provide sales and service support for all range of our products over 70 countries worldwide. Today, Eutech is a pioneer in the development of ASIC-based (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) instruments, and is internationally recognised for its achievements in sensor technology.


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NYSP Website Policy: Links
The New York State Police website provides links to websites of local, state and federal government agencies and other organizations. When you click on these external links, you will, in effect, leave the New York State Police website.
A link does not constitute an endorsement of the content, viewpoint, accuracy, opinions, policies, products, services or accessibility of that website.
Other websites operate under the auspices and at the direction of their respective owners. Once you link to another website, you are subject to the terms and conditions of that website, including, but not limited to, its privacy policy. Therefore, if you have a question or comment about any of these sites, please contact the site owner directly.


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This is a live, online support and education group for people with an ostomy. It offers them the opportunity to discuss issues that may arise during and after treatment, to share their personal experiences, and to provide practical and emotional support for one another. This group is open to everyone.
Discussions are led by a social worker and a nurse.
The group meets every other month on the third Thursday of the month from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm.
This group is for people undergoing treatment for colorectal cancer with an ostomy.


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First Annual Mosaic Conference: Diverse Voices in Intellectual Property Scholarship
Date: Friday-Sunday, November 14-16, 2014
Location: Marquette University Law School
First Annual Mosaic Conference: Diverse Voices in Intellectual Property Scholarship
Date: Friday-Sunday, November 14-16, 2014
Location: Marquette University Law School
The First Amendment Law Review at the University of North Carolina School of Law is delighted to announce a Call for Papers for its Symposium Edition, First Amendment Networks: Issues in Net Neutrality.
ansitional justice is a field that brings together academic and practitioner approaches to post-conflict, peace-building and post-authoritarian settings considered to be 'transitioning' towards democracy. This field includes the study of truth commissions, international criminal justice, human rights movements, post-authoritarian democratization and reparations (Teitel, 2000; Hayner, 2002; De Greiff 2006). Consolidated in the decade after the cold war, this field has often treated liberal democracy as a default goal of transitional processes (Miller 2008, Arthur 2009).
On March 30-31, 2015 the Wolf Law Library will host a conference that looks beyond the basics of managing law repositories. The conference is an opportunity for Law School Repository Administrators to gather information and communicate with other professionals about advanced topics relating to open access repositories. It will address issues such as:
The Searle Center on Law, Regulation, and Economic Growth invites paper submissions for its Eighth Annual Conference on Innovation Economics, which will take place June 18-19, 2015. The submission deadline is Feb. 9, 2015.
The Northern Kentucky Law Review and NKU Chase College of Law seek submissions for their symposium, "The New Era in Gaming Law," on March 20, 2015 in Highland Heights, Kentucky (just 7 miles from Cincinnati, Ohio).
Call for Papers: International Symposium on the Legacy of the ICTR
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda ("ICTR") is organising an International Symposium on the Legacy of the ICTR to be held in Arusha, Tanzania on 6-7 November 2014 (the "Symposium").
Call for Abstracts: 2015 bioIP New Scholars Workshop
The American Society for Law, Medicine & Ethics (ASLME) is pleased to announce the first annual bioIP New Scholars Workshop on May 7, 2015 at Boston University School of Law.
The Workshop will offer a unique opportunity for three new scholars (in their first decade of teaching) to present their draft scholarship for in-depth critique and commentary by respected senior scholars in the field.
This conference will explore how legal professionals, as judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys
and other legal officials, handled different forms of knowledge about emotions in the practice of law, in accordance with, or in opposition to, general social and cultural attitudes and public
opinion. It will further investigate the presence and absence—and their meanings—of emotions
in the courtroom, as a fundamental aspect of criminal law practices. It will take into
consideration not only the emotions which were shown, expected and provoked but also the
Conference Theme: The notion that people are 'under observation' has multiple connotations. Bringing together two hitherto unrelated streams of scholarship interested in observation —eHealth and surveillance studies— this conference aims to inspire cross-fertilisation and bring new insights into the legal, ethical and social meanings of being 'under observation'.