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I read your post and instantly felt sorry for you and it is clear you are a bitter person to write such krap as you do.
He was only hated by the Rossi Fanboys for showing Rossi for what he is and how easily Rossi can be beaten by other riders on equal machinery
No one in the paddock hated him so just chill ok


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How do you find out who to report errors in geo data to? I found myself doubling back after RideWithGPS sent me up a road to a very closed bike path. I mapped the same path on Garmin connect and it did the same thing. The locked gate is at about the halfway mark on the Garmin link.
This is what it really looks like in a satellite image. This imaage is a little out of date, since Alton Pkwy is completed, and the immage show it as still under construction. The image of the "bike path" is accurate.

subset: commoncrawl


text: Hello all. Was just looking for some help on setting up some maps and stumbled across this site and am very impressed with forums! I have already found some great ideas. I am used to using Photoshop from my photograpy, but I am starting cold with Campaign Cartographer and Illustrator and while I am having fun with both I can tell I will need help. I am enjoying plowing through the topics here and think this site will be a great help, hopefully I will get to where I have ideas to give as well.


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News & Reviews
china's communist premier visits united states
Zhu tastes freedom
Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji stepped onto American soil at the Los Angeles airport last week for a nine-day U.S. tour that will include protest and dissent normally squelched by his government back home. Human-rights groups, pro-life organizations, and anti-trade forces prepared to protest the Chinese leader's visit at every stop of his six-city tour. The Colorado senate passed a resolution in anticipation of Mr. Zhu's April 10 visit to Denver. It called on local officials to raise with the premier human-rights issues, the transfer of missile technology, and trade issues. An April 8 New York Times report pointing to yet another security breach gave critics of U.S.-China policy fresh ammunition. The paper said an American spy gave U.S. officials evidence that China's intelligence service stole data used to improve China's neutron bomb in 1996. The report came as U.S. intelligence agencies are probing a separate suspected theft of designs of America's newest nuclear warhead, the W-88, from Los Alamos. airstrikes hit home in belgrade
Bombing diplomacy
As NATO jets roared overhead, about 1,000 Belgrade residents lined the city's Brankov Bridge, forming a human shield to protect the city's main and historic artery across the Danube. NATO missiles hit several downtown targets, including a Yugoslav army command post, and most of the city's residents escaped to underground shelters during lengthy air raids. The head of a Greek Cypriot mission said the strikes on Belgrade jeopardized his negotiations for the release of three American servicemen held by Yugoslav forces. Washington pledged security for Spyros Kyprianou, but on the eve of his team's departure from Athens to Belgrade, the downtown bombs looked likely to blow up the deal. NATO leaders said gestures of ceasefire on the part of President Milosevic might instead be the formation of a new human shield. Serb forces blocked the exit of ethnic Albanians in some parts of Kosovo. Reversing earlier expulsions last week, Serb forces escorted many Kosovars toward Pristina. church leader believed beheaded
Horror in Chechnya
A Baptist church leader in Chechnya is believed to have been beheaded. Alexander Kulakov disappeared on March 12, but church members who knew him well reported that they saw his severed head displayed at a local market. Amid fighting between Chechen rebels and Russian forces, locals say it is not unusual to see severed heads on display to frighten opponents. Mr. Kulakov took over leadership of Grozny Baptist Church after its pastor, Alexey Sitnikov, was kidnapped last Oct. 9. The Russian Baptist Union has advised all its members to leave Chechnya. Three Russian Orthodox priests have been kidnapped since March. American missionary Herb Gregg has been missing for over four months and is believed to have been taken by Chechen rebels in Dagestan, southern Russia. republican hawks: send troops
War footing
Several former GOP White House aides gave tacit approval to the war against Yugoslavia. But they said President Clinton and NATO officials would have to commit ground troops to get the job done. Most prominent on the panel of foreign-policy leaders was former UN Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, who denounced Yugoslav President Milosevic as "uncivilized." She compared the tragedy in Kosovo to Cambodia's "killing fields" and the Holocaust. The panel also included former assistant secretary of state Morton Abramowitz; Frank Carlucci, secretary of defense and national security adviser to President Reagan; Helmut Sonnenfeldt, an ex-National Security Council staffer; and William Howard Taft IV, a former ambassador to NATO. better double-check the filtering software
Don't talk to strangers
Al Gore, the self-proclaimed father of the Internet, discovered a new online crisis this month: His campaign's Web site violated the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. It contained a "Just for Kids" section that invited budding young Democrats to give their names, e-mail addresses, and zip codes. Collecting such data violates a new federal law for which Mr. Gore takes credit. "Many Web sites failed to meet a minimal requirement of protecting a privacy policy," the vice president complained last year. "The private sector," he chided, "needs to do more to implement meaningful, enforceable, privacy standards." Mr. Gore's cracker-jack team of "high-technology experts" raced to change the site in time for its debut after an AP reporter asked questions about it. Republicans jumped at the chance to tarnish Mr. Gore's carefully constructed cyber-chic image. "Instead of searching for hyper-links, the 'Father of the Internet' was still looking for 'controlling legal authority,'" hooted Republican National Committee Chairman Jim Nicholson. Kids can still send questions to Mr. Gore on the Web. The vice president even promises to surf on by every day and answer one or two. But the campaign added a disclaimer: "PLEASE ask your parents if it is OK to give us the following information before you submit questions." The new privacy law takes effect in 2001, after campaign season. Federal regulators-who are still figuring out how to enforce it-say it won't cover campaign Internet sites. lyons sentenced to 5-1/2 years
'It stinks'
A Florida judge sentenced Tampa Baptist pastor Henry Lyons March 31 to five and a half years in prison and ordered him to pay nearly $2.5 million in restitution to firms he was convicted of swindling while he was president of the National Baptist Convention U.S.A. He was led from the Pinellas County courtroom to begin serving his prison term immediately. Mr. Lyons's attorneys had sought to delay his sentencing until he is sentenced in federal court in June on related charges of fraud and tax evasion. Since the sentences likely will be served concurrently, his lawyers hoped he could do his time at a federal minimum-security facility for white-collar criminals. Instead, he likely will serve his federal time in the harsher climate of a state prison. In court, Mr. Lyons apologized for his crimes, especially for the theft of nearly $250,000 from the Anti-Defamation League to rebuild burned churches: "It stinks in God's nostrils, and I know it stinks in the law's nostrils, and it stinks to me." the 2000 bug squashed?
Y2K scenarios amount to '00'
Two big days in the countdown to Y2K have come and gone without a hitch. April 1 was the start of fiscal year 2000 in Canada, Japan, and New York State; April 6 started a new year in Great Britain. Experts have worried about the fate of everything from the Bank of Canada to the New York Lottery, but no serious calamities cropped up. Of particular concern was Japan, but things have recently improved there dramatically, according to Gartner Group analyst Andy Kyte. "It's clear that the last six months have seen a massive change," he said. Mr. Kyte said Japan, along with English-speaking nations like Australia, Canada, Britain, and the United States, is ahead of most of the world in battling the bug. One date that didn't go so well was March 31: the deadline President Clinton imposed last year on federal Y2K repairs. Eleven federal agencies failed to meet the president's own deadline for preparing critical computers for the year 2000. Nevertheless, the administration says that 92 percent of the government's 6,123 crucial systems are Y2K compliant and will work properly next year. All but one agency (the Agency for International Development) have repaired and tested at least 85 percent of their systems. On the other hand, Rep. Steve Horn (R-Calif.) the Y2K-watching chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, said he was encouraged by the high compliance despite the missed deadline. "Now we've got to do the real serious work, which is test it in an operational environment" he said. "If we can test it and it still works, that's fine. But time's a-wasting." anti-clinton ad costs church
Making them pay
David Little said he wanted to warn Christians about Bill Clinton back in 1992 when his church placed ads in The Washington Times and USA Today. They said, "Bill Clinton is promoting policies that are in rebellion to God's laws," and asked for donations to help pay their costs. IRS agents saw the ads and stripped tax-exempt status from the congregation, Church at Pierce Creek near Binghamton, N.Y. The church challenged the IRS in federal court and lost. U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman's ruling in favor of the IRS marks the first time a church has lost its tax exemption for partisan political actions. Religious-left activist Barry Lynn wants to consolidate that victory. He said he hoped the court decision would cause the IRS to collar the tax-exempt Christian Coalition. Coalition officials aren't backing down. They plan to distribute a record 70 million voter guides next year. "There is a long history of constitutional protections in the IRS code," Executive Director Randy Tate said. new economy surges, blue chips slip
When the chips are down
General Motors led the 1999 Fortune 500 for the 11th straight year, but this could be the beginning of the end for blue-chip stocks. Overall, profits at the Fortune 500 companies declined for the first time in seven years in 1998, due to the economic crisis in Asia, Russia, and Latin America. The days of General Motors and Coca-Cola leading the pack may be ending, predicts Fortune magazine. Younger high-tech companies such as Microsoft, Cisco Systems, and Dell, with their surging revenues, are wielding more influence in corporate America. Last year "will probably be considered a watershed year, the year when the New Economy fundamentally parted ways with the old and high-tech consolidated its role as the driving force behind the growth of big business," Fortune reported. Cisco climbed 61 rungs from No. 253 to 192, while Dell Computer shot up from No. 125 to 78. Microsoft, the top U.S. company in terms of market value, is ranked 109, up from 137 last year. (The Fortune 500 ranks companies by revenues.) Among the Internet companies, America Online came closest to making the list, ranking No. 535. The No-Comment zone
- An explosion at a Tampa power plant killed one worker and injured 45 people last week. The blast came during a test of a generator and tore a huge section from a building at the Tampa Electric Co. Authorities suspected a hydrogen gas leak caused the explosion. "I thought I was going to meet my maker or go to hell ... and it made me want to get right with God," said Robert Worley, a worker who escaped injury.
- Three-year-old Chelsea Tafoya clung to the rear windshield wiper, her foot braced on a ridge above the license plate, as her unsuspecting father raced his SUV a distance of 12 miles, sometimes reaching speeds up to 85 miles per hour. She was not hurt. "It's a miracle. God must have been watching over her," said Lincoln Tafoya of Santa Clara Pueblo, N.M. Frantic motorist Connie Romero attempted to signal Mr. Tafoya, then sped around his Ford Expedition to urge him to stop: "I was saying, 'Please, God, don't let this kid fall.'"
- Gerald "Ajax" Ackerman, mayor of Port Huron, Mich., since 1997, faces 14 counts of sexual misconduct involving children. Mr. Ackerman, a leather-clad biker who often cited his struggles with drug and alcohol addiction to encourage young people to turn their lives around, is accused of taking pornographic photos of 9- to 14-year-old girls and appearing with them in some of the photos. "The community just feels violated," said city council member Cliff Schrader. "They put a lot of faith and trust in Ajax." Mr. Ackerman resigned from office after his arraignment last week.
- Disney is ditching Dogma, a film the brass worried might offend Roman Catholics. But the co-chairmen of Disney-affiliated Miramax Films are setting up a separate corporation to purchase for $11 million the rights to bring Dogma to market. The film stars Ben Affleck and Matt Damon as angels who try to return to heaven after they are banished and Chris Rock as a trash-talking 13th apostle.
- The Justice Department appealed a ruling by U.S. District Judge Lowell Reed in Philadelphia that blocked enforcement of the Child Online Protection Act. The law requires commercial pornographic Web sites to verify that users are over 18 before showing them material deemed harmful to minors.
- Negotiations at the United Nations broke down over implementation of population-control goals set at the 1994 UN Population Conference in Cairo. Delegates from 170 countries are at loggerheads over abortion, contraception, and sex-education policies. if private businesses operated this way, the owners would be locked up, but it's ...
Good enough for government work
From bullets to buildings to Medicare payments, the 24 major federal agencies do not properly account for a majority of their $466 billion in assets, according to government auditors. Uncle Sam's financial statements "do not provide a reliable source of information for decisionmaking by the government or the public," said Comptroller General David Walker. The second annual government-wide audit by the General Accounting Office, an arm of Congress, said that some vital assets are missing. It shows most government agencies do not have the basic financial controls common in private businesses. "If small-business owners kept books like this, they'd be put in jail," said House Majority Leader Dick Armey, (R-Texas). The problems are many and varied: inadequate data on loans and liabilities (including veterans' benefits), poor computer security, vast underestimates for costs such as environmental and nuclear cleanups, and even lack of documented expenses on many day-to-day government operations. But is it good enough for government work? Things weren't quite as bad in Fiscal Year 1998 as in previous years. For example, the Department of Health and Human Services estimated that it made $12.6 billion in unnecessary Medicare payments in 1998-down from $23.2 billion in 1996. Despite all these problems, the Clinton administration says 13 of the 24 agencies will receive "clean" audits of their Fiscal Year 1998 financial statements. That compares with only one in 1993. campus outrages of the year
Life at PCU
Political correctness on college campuses is so entrenched that hardly anybody is shocked anymore. But the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) carries on, calling attention to the taxpayer-funded atrocities. This year, five incidents earned ISI's uncoveted Polly Awards for worst outrages: (1) The Feminist Majority at Ohio State University won for its bizarre reaction to a school newspaper cartoon spoofing Women's Studies. Feminist members went to cartoonist Bob Hewitt's house and tried to hold a bra-burning protest, but the flame-retardant bras wouldn't light. (2) The Anti-Racist Organizing Committee at the University of Texas won for its protest of racial-preferences opponent Ward Connerly, highlighted by the slogan: "Protect Free Speech-Shut Connerly Up!" When he spoke on campus, a mob of hecklers chanted and pounded on the walls while others inside interrupted him more than a hundred times by banging on desks, clapping, and shouting. (3) The entire Ivy League won for continuing to use I, Rigoberta Menchu, the bogus autobiography of a Guatemalan Marxist troublemaker. (See WORLD, "Academic icon exposed," February 13, 1999.) (4) Princeton University won an additional award for hiring animal-rights zealot Peter Singer as a bioethics professor. Nicknamed "Professor Death," he believes that some disabled people are inferior to livestock and are best killed off. (5) The student government at the University of Wisconsin-Madison won for using students' activity fee money to bail out protesters who were thrown in jail for disrupting a speech given by Wisconsin governor Tommy Thompson. Radicals joked about how having so much money to "play with" would be really cool. rare 2nd amendment victory
Judge shoots straight
When San Angelo, Texas, physician Timothy Joe Emerson was arrested for brandishing a gun in front of his wife and her daughter, the resulting court case may have set an important precedent. U.S. District Judge Sam Cummings dismissed charges that Mr. Emerson broke an arcane law that prohibits someone under a restraining order from owning a gun. Activists on both sides say this was the first time a judge specifically called a law unconstitutional because it infringed on an individual's Second Amendment rights. In his ruling, Judge Cummings said the right to bear arms is a protected individual right. (Federal prosecutors had argued that it applies only to an organized militia.) The judge based his decision on a "historical examination of the right to bear arms, from English antecedents to the drafting of the Second Amendment." Legal experts said this decision could spur heavy court challenges to other gun-control laws. "If appealed, this could be the springboard for a definitive Supreme Court ruling on the Second Amendment," said Stephen Holbrook, an attorney who successfully challenged provisions of the Brady Bill. Government lawyers planned to appeal.


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Heavy Deeds goes for Light Lunch
Heavy Deeds first formed as a band two years ago. But those two years got loaded with with life changes — jobs, projects, and relationships — that kept recorded material on hold. For some artists, the constant postponing would be a sign that the band just wasn't meant to be — but that never occurred to Chris Bierden or Chris Rose.
"Basically, everyone's life kind of shifted when this band got on its feet," says Bierden, nursing a cup of tea at a south Minneapolis joint. "But this isn't a side project to any one of us."
"It was a choice not to rush it," emphasizes Rose.
Personnel-wise, Heavy Deeds sort of reincarnates the guys' old indie-rock band with Rose's brother Alex, Vampire Hands, along with a couple of new recruits, Sara Bischoff and Molly Harrington.
Their debut EP, titled Light Lunch, is a sprawling five songs filled with warm guitars, reverberating synths, and group vocals deftly evoking the spirit of the late '60s and early '70s. It wouldn't sound out of place in rotation between Neil Young and the Band, and it's got summer anthems written all over it. Finally in physical form now, and just released Tuesday on Old Blackberry Way, the five tracks stretch out over a breezy 24 minutes. The band sums it up as "psych-fog."
"This is a roll-your-windows-down-and-cruise-the-street album," says Rose. "I would like to think it's going to fit the springtime mood that everyone's going to be in when it comes out."
For the most part, Rose seems to be your archetypical strong-and-silent leader. Between his moody, scaled-back solo project Robust Worlds and his hand in Web of Sunsets (with Bischoff and Sarah Nienaber), Heavy Deeds comes as something of a surprise.
"It's like the sunnier side of Chris Rose," jokes Bierden. "When I first heard these songs that he was bringing to us, I got really excited. I was struck with this vision, because I could kind of hear these overwhelmingly joyful sounds, with this group atmosphere, the five of us together."
Bierden, with his heavy mop of dark curls, seems to be the most excitable member of the group — and as the bassist for Poliça, he's also getting called out of town a lot. But the best part for Rose and Bierden about having their hands in so many different projects is that it keeps their perspective fresh — and it gives them an outlet for their creativity.
"I keep saying that I'm more happy with this than anything I've recorded in recent history," enthuses Bierden. "My feeling is that it started out as a Chris Rose brainchild, and now it's branched out into all these different people writing songs. That can get complicated, because we don't know what songs to keep working on, but it's a good problem to have."
"I've been the impatient one," says Bischoff, the band's percussionist, of the time it's taken to get Light Lunch off the ground. "For me and Molly, this was our first-ever band, and we just wanted to get it out there.... But the fact that it's taken so long, I've learned, is actually a good thing. It sounds so cheesy, but it's been a blessing in disguise. It's given us time to really figure out what we want to sound like and how our songs should flow."
Bischoff, who is also Bierden's girlfriend, talks easily and happily about her bandmates. She laughs good-naturedly at Rose and Bierden in a way that signifies the deep comfort she feels with Heavy Deeds and the music they've made together. Harrington, explains Bischoff, actually came to the band as Chris Rose's girlfriend's sister, and all the band members live within a 10-block radius of one another. It's one of those things where "band life" and "real life" are one and the same. "Take me home," demands the band on the slow-smoldering tune "One Drum." And, indeed, home they are.
"We always joke that we're a family band," says Bischoff with a laugh. "We better keep on liking each other!"
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Start off your daughter's cheer-tastic party with one of our Cheerleader Personalized Invitations! This purple card explodes with cheerleading fun from pom poms to a megaphone. You'll see your unique invitation greeting on the center of this 5X7 card, and we include one envelope for every invitation ordered. Also make sure to check out our matching party banner!
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great product
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These were exactly what my daughter was wanting to start her Cheerleading Birthday Party off right.
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|The Next Step Beyond Cfrp - Nanotubes? posted Thu Nov 16 2006 21:30:09 by N328KF
|Next Step After PPL-A, PPL-H Or IR? posted Sat May 6 2006 09:55:23 by Salim
|What Would Be The Logical Next Step For Allegiant posted Sun Nov 13 2005 15:26:06 by Vfw614
|Whats The Next Step For Aer Lingus? posted Tue Aug 30 2005 00:31:53 by EI321
|A Dogfight Over Airbus' Next Pilot (Business Week) posted Thu Feb 10 2005 08:32:06 by Jacobin777
|After A380 Ceremony...What's The Next Step? posted Wed Jan 19 2005 14:55:47 by MEA321
|Airbus' Next Project? posted Wed Jan 2 2002 18:25:25 by RayChuang
|Airbus' Next Airplane NOT Counting A380 posted Fri Dec 14 2001 23:26:25 by Rj777
|CX's Next Step...?!?!?! posted Thu Aug 23 2001 10:41:01 by Wolfy
|Next Step Of AA To Europe posted Fri Apr 27 2001 20:23:01 by Flying lsd


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Sunday Fun: Nesting
Tuesday I came home from a weeklong vacation and discovered that a bird had nested on top of my front porch light. All is quiet in the nest, no bird comes or goes, so I don't know to which species it belongs. If you have any ideas, please let me know…
In the meantime, I thought I'd share a few odd places birds have nested. It is against the law in most states to disturb a nest until the fledglings have flown, but it's amazing where some parents' choose to build their homes.
Not just for the feathered friends – my fav: the elephant…
Get Inspired by Nature: my fav – ashtray "do not use…"
and in the awe-how-cute category, view an adorable baby in its nest…
May 29, 2012 5:10 am
Perhaps you can carefully hold a camera above the nest and take pictures without coming too close? Perhaps there's new life at your doorstep
May 28, 2012 12:13 am
A perfect spot for a nest … warm at night, isolated and a ready supply of munchies attracted to the light … well chosen little birds
Kim permalinkMay 27, 2012 8:28 pm
I hope you get to see the birds peek over the top some day soon . . . and you have your camera ready!


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Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
Cambodia Calling: A Memoir from the Frontlines of Humanitarian Aid
by Richard Heinzl
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Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0470153253, Hardcover)"What's the matter? A mine? Some kid step on a mine? A blessure?"
"No. Not a mine."
We walk in and there's a mother standing by her child. It's a little girl. She's a very beautiful girl with straight black hair, maybe six or eight, big eyes, a bit younger than Smiles and just as lovely. But she's lying too still under a white sheet on the bamboo bed and her mother is talking in a monotone, staring off to the corner asking for help from Buddha. The little girl is staring at me, tracking every move I make. She's so weak, all she can do is move her eyes.
Sok Samuth approaches the bed and takes down the sheets. It's very sad what we see. The girl is inhumanly thin and her skin is peeling off. He pulls the sheet up over the girl's body again and the mother keeps up her monotone plea for Buddha while the little girl follows me, eye to eye. She wants me to make her feel better.
I checked the two pediatric textbooks we had at the Blue House. Nothing. It could be kwashiorhor—protein malnutrition—all by itself, but we weren't hearing about that out in the countryside. It was still lush and the harvests had been so good. Why would she be starving now? So maybe it is cancer. I think, What would Professor Jim Anderson do? How would my great mentor go after the diagnosis?
(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 12 Mar 2015 18:10:01 -0400)
"It is while in Uganda as a young and idealistic medical student that Richard Heinzl hears his true calling: to set up a chapter of Doctors Without Borders in his native Canada." "As a prerequisite to fulfilling his Medecins Sans Frontieres dream, Heinzl is set to a war-ravaged town in Cambodia to work for a year in the field to earn his wings with the organization. Cambodia Calling is this young doctor's story of setback and accomplishment in the exotic splendor of a remote and dangerous part of the world." "Compelling and visceral, Cambodia Calling offers a rare insight into the work and lives of MSF in the field. The author brings to life the isolated and impoverished village of Sisophon, where he works with locals to save lives in the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge civil war. Heinzl's experiences are peopled with a fascinating array of characters, many of them survivors of a brutal regime, who bring powerful insights to bear on war, madness and mortality. During his time in Cambodia, Heinzl bonds with the villagers, all the while facing obstacles of war and his own self-doubts, as well as learning to face the harsh reality of treating those who cannot be healed." "Heinzl's year in Cambodia is a vehicle for self-discovery too. The author begins to shed his idealism for a new and deeper understanding of himself and humanity in an uncertain time and place, where the powerful beauty of the tropics and the sometimes humorous and often poignant moments clash with the dehumanizing events engendered by war."--BOOK JACKET.… (more)
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Another robotic vacuum cleaner is about to hit the market courtesy of Japanese electronics manufacturer Sharp.
On May 8th, Sharp Electronics announced that it was making its new Cocorobo product available in Japan beginning in June, to be joined by China and other Asian nations in the following months.
A US and European launch is still in the planning stages according to Sharp, with no release date given. The announcement can be found, although it suffers badly from the Chinese menu translation problem thanks to Google Translate. The gadget press were all over the announcement. What the postings lacked in depth, they made up for with enthusiasm ("plucky robot that jabbers", "clean from the comfort of your sofa!").
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Strider, EDF 2025, Three Classics Hit PlayStation Consoles This Week
By Ryan Winslett 2 years ago comments
It's another busy week on the PlayStation Network for new games, featuring a red scarf-wearing ninja, some giant insects, a massive fantasy and even a few PSone/PS2 classics for gamers to sink their teeth into.
This week's big story is Strider, launching Tuesday on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. According to Sony Social Medial Specialist Ryan Clements, this reboot of the beloved action/platforming series has been a long time coming and, early on, it's looking like it might have actually been worth the wait.
The world has fallen under the tyrannical rule of Grand Master Meio, Clements begins the weekly new games announcement. As people suffocate in his steely grip, Special A-Class Strider Hiryu is sent into the wintry winds of Kazakh City to assassinate the director.
Well, the setup certainly sounds like what you would expect out of a classic action game. With any luck, the gameplay will prove to be just as old-school-perfect, allowing players to leap, climb and flip around the screen with grace as they dispatch one enemy soldier after another. I'm hoping this new version of Strider reaches the same heights as the Bionic Commando: Rearmed, a game that proved a little bit of a graphical overhaul, a few new twists and plenty of polish could allow a classic game to shine even in modern times.
If you'd rather be shooting giant insects in a B movie-style action game, then perhaps you'd like to give Earth Defense Force 2025 a look-see, launching this week for the PlayStation 3 in both physical and digital formats. This third-person shooter might strike series newcomers as a bit odd. The graphics aren't amazing, the gameplay isn't particularly refined and the dialogue is atrocious. That's all part of the charm for EDF, though, a series that many hail for being so bad it's downright good.
Forest Legends: The Call of Love brings its unique blend of puzzles and adventure to the PS3 this week while Gunslugs slithers onto the Vita with a heaping helping of run-and-gun action wrapped in classic aesthetics.
Rayman Legends finally completes the PlayStation trifecta this week, launching on the PS4, while three new classics are also added to the PlayStation Store. Mr. Driller visits from the PSone era to hook gamers with its crazy, drill-infused puzzles while Neo Contra lets players experience the series' PS2 offering in all of its over-the-top, bullet-flinging glory. Finally, classic platforming fans have a heck of a lot to be excited this week, as the pink-haired caveman makes his triumphant return as a PSone Import in Tomba! 2.
Forest Legends and Strider will each have a demo this week while those who yearn for epic questing on the PS4 will be happy to know that the Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn beta is finally ready to go live. No need to sign up or wait for an invite, as anyone with a PS4 can jump in on this beta once the client goes live Tuesday afternoon, Feb. 18.
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CHEER offers respite services by qualified home health aidesProgram offered at no cost to caregiver or eligible client
CHEER, in partnership with the Division of Services for the Aging and Adults with Physical Disabilities, provides respite service for caregivers who reside in the same home as the person they care for.
The respite program is designed to provide the caregiver with brief periods of relief from caregiver duties. CHEER performs an initial nursing assessment of the prospective client and can then put a qualified home health aide in the client's home on a regular basis to enable the caregiver to leave the home for a few hours, knowing their loved one is safe with a licensed professional caring for them. Service is available a couple times a week or weekly as needed.
At CHEER, home health aides can provide personal care and grooming services while the primary caregiver gets a break. CHEER is able to identify and certify people to participate in this program as long as they meet the DSAAPD guidelines.
There is enough state funding in this program to allow CHEER to take on a number of new respite clients at no cost to the client or caregiver, although donations are accepted to help support the program. For those CHEER identifies as eligible for the respite program, service may be provided free of charge.
CHEER is actively seeking new clients. Contact Home Services coordinators Barbara Grogan or Sarah Dutton at 302-854-9500.


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Space Security Index
The Space Security Index (SSI) is an annual report on trends and developments related to security and outer space, covering the period January to December of the previous year (see recent editions). The goal of the SSI is to improve transparency with respect to space activities and provide a common, comprehensive knowledge base to support the development of national and international policies that contribute to space security. The trends and developments are assessed according to nine indicators that are organized under three themes:
- The condition of the operating environment
- The space environment
- Space situational awareness
- Space laws, policies, and doctrines
- The type of actors in space and how space is used
- Civil space programs and global utilities
- Commercial space
- Space support for terrestrial military operations
- The status of space-related technology as it pertains to protecting or interfering with space systems, or harming Earth from space
- Space systems protection
- Space systems negation
- Space-based strike capabilities.
Each of the nine indicators is examined in a separate chapter that provides a description of the indicator and its overall impact on space security. A discussion of the prevailing trends associated with that indicator is followed by an overview of key developments throughout the year, and an assessment of their short-term effects on established trends and the broader security of outer space.
The report is managed and published by Project Ploughsares with support and funding from Secure World Foundation, The Simons Foundation, the International Security Research and Outreach Programme at Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, and the Erin J.C. Arsenault Trust at McGill University.
Governance Group
- Julie Crôteau, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada
- Dr. Peter Hays, Eisenhower Institute for Space and Defense Studies
- Dr. Ram Jakhu, Institute of Air and Space Law, McGill University
- Paul Meyer, The Simons Foundation
- John Siebert, Project Ploughshares
- Dr. Ray Williamson, Secure World Foundation
Advisory Committee
- Richard DalBello, Virgin Galactic
- Theresa Hitchens, Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland University
- Dr. John Logsdon, Space Policy Institute, George Washington University
- Dr. Lucy Stojak, HEC Montreal
Recent Editions
2013 Space Security Index Executive Summary Full Report
2012 Space Security Index Executive Summary Full Report
2011 Space Security Index: Executive Summary Full Report
2010 Space Security Index: Executive Summary Full Report
2009 Space Security Index: Executive Summary Full Report
2008 Space Security Index: Executive Summary Full Report


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All Day Andre OWNS NFL039s 039Biggest Bitch039
Posted by youtube 286 weeks ago
Luckiest guys ever Video muchosuckocom
Posted by salsamor 342 weeks ago
Crazy shit
Epic Asian Restaurant PRANK 039BooSack039 Part 1 Ownage Pranks
Posted by youtube 262 weeks ago
Full prank (Part 1 & 2) available on iTunes now! http://itun.es/i6v5qZ MERCH! http://districtlines.com/OwnagePranks (ON SALE FOR A LIMITED .....
Compilation Of Reporters Getting Owned
Posted by reddit 273 weeks ago
This is a bunch of videos of reporters getting owned........Its so funny i cant believe some of these happened. I got more funny vids on my homepag.....
Japanese marathon fail
Posted by youtube 279 weeks ago
collected by 2 users
Epic Burger Food Poisoning Prank Arab Guy Ownage Pranks
Posted by youtube 197 weeks ago
Download this prank on iTunes in high quality! :D http://bit.ly/MVKIcs I called a Burger King as an Arab guy to complain about the "Whobber"...
Profesjonalny rozadunek professional unloading
Posted by videosift 194 weeks ago
Confused Asian Restaurant Prank Ownage Pranks
Posted by youtube 208 weeks ago
LIKE/FAV if you enjoy the prank! :D Add me to facebook/twitter! I post on there when I'm doing a live prank show :) http://facebook.com/OwnageP...
Epic Parenting Fail at a Laundromat
Posted by failblog 209 weeks ago
Epic fail at a laundromat. Parent puts child in a washer and accidentally starts the machine. (The machine auto-locks when the washer starts so custom...
Russia Store Security WIN
Posted by reddit 211 weeks ago
Try and rob him. I dare you. More Fail and Win Videos: http://webfail.net Orignal Video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENvUm29oNbE&feature...
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May 28, 2016
The funeral for prominent Waynesboro businessman, Leo Turner, Sr., has been set for Saturday at 1 p.m. It will be at St. Luke Missionary Baptist Church, 405 Spring Street, Waynesboro.
The 81-year-old Turner died Monday. He was the first black alderman to serve in Waynesboro and the first black candidate to run for mayor.
Turner operated Turner Funeral Home for over 50 years. He served in the U.S. Army during the Korean conflict.
Turner spearheaded the establishment of Friends of Children Head Start 38 years ago. He received a resolution from the Mississippi House of Representatives in 2004, commending him for his dedication to children and education.
Click Here to access the online Public Inspection File
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This topic is archived and can not be replied to any more.
|How FR's O'Leary Flies High posted Wed Aug 29 2007 04:15:04 by VV701
|United Flies Out Of Bankruptcy:UA Flies High Again posted Fri Feb 3 2006 23:07:21 by Dsa
|Gulf Air Flies High On New Demand posted Sun Nov 25 2001 01:41:52 by GF-A330
|F9/YYC - Westjet Code Share To Come? posted Thu Mar 2 2006 18:42:40 by Mariner
|High Density 747s: Who Flies Them, How Many Seats? posted Mon Jul 18 2005 02:46:35 by Targowski
|Westjet Increasing Share Of Business Travelers posted Wed Jun 15 2005 20:04:17 by Hrhf1
|Why Don't JetBlue And Westjet Code-share? posted Tue Aug 7 2001 06:37:55 by Tupolev154B2
|El Al Loosing Market Share; Talks About Fleet posted Wed Aug 29 2007 18:17:40 by Laxintl
|WestJet U.S. Expansion posted Fri Aug 24 2007 05:46:37 by Jetblue32
|Jet And Air Canada To Code Share To India? posted Thu Aug 23 2007 18:17:58 by Sebring


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Centura Health has more experts in more places throughout the region. Start your health journey by finding the right one for you.
Welcome to Avista Internal Medicine.
Avista Internal Medicine provides primary care and internal medicine services to men and women age 14 and older. Our practice also welcomes seniors and we do accept Medicare.
We understand the importance of preventative care and encourage healthy lifestyle choices that help our patients prevent or manage disease. We specialize in diagnosing and treating adult diseases including cardiovascular diseases, endocrinology and rheumatology.
Our internal medicine specialists are all Board Certified in internal medicine and are also primary care physicians. Whether you are in need of a general check-up or have a more complex disease or condition, you can feel confident that we can provide the individual care you need, and often can complete lab work and other diagnostic testing right in our office.
Sign up and get online access to your health information.
The power to learn more about health & wellness is in your hands.
We look forward to helping schedule your appointment.
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The long-dreaded, much-feared sequester arrived in America on the first day of March with all the ferocity of a lamb. Automatic spending cuts of $85 billion were enacted, or at least authorized for gradual implementation by most federal agencies. Public reaction ranged from a yawn to a muted, "Meh … ."Investors certainly weren't cowering last week as the sequester neared. The Dow climbed on three of the five days. All three major market indexes improved for the week, although slightly and at a rate of less than 1 percent. No big whoop, but also nothing close to the meltdown that sequester fear-mongers warned us against.
We're not saying the sequester will be inconsequential. Any economic policy that is simultaneously condemned by Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress, and by President Barack Obama, cannot be dismissed as irrelevant. Then again, forced spending cuts — however indiscriminate and clumsily applied — are not an altogether bad thing for a government that finds itself more than $16 trillion in debt.
Yes, federal agencies will have to sacrifice. And yes, people will have to do without. But a review of what the sequester is bringing to Clark County reveals a situation that hardly warrants any sky-is-falling urgency.
Take the local health department, for example. Clark County Public Health officials expect a reduction of about 9 percent in federal funding, but federal dollars constitute only about one-fourth of the department's total budget.
The county's community development department could see reductions in funding for weatherization and energy assistance programs for low-income citizens, a matter of concern but not catastrophic when placed next to the federal debt. Overall, the county could lose about $1 million in federal funding, but County Administrator Bill Barron has said the county "will do the best we can to make sure our constituents and our citizens don't get negatively impacted by this." OK, give the guy a chance to prove it.
Several programs in the county's community services department could be impacted, but weeks could pass before we know how much or for how long. By then, Congress and the president might find another way to kick the can down the road.
Leaders of other agencies say, at worst, the sequester could really hurt, but for the time being, the severity of pain is unknown. At Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, Superintendent Tracy Fortmann said "the parks will remain safe and the resources will remain protected." No distress calls there.
Significant fears were expressed by officials at local homeless shelters. People could lose their housing vouchers, and some folks could become homeless again. But again, details of any impact of the sequester remain uncertain.
And lots of local residents will take a hit to the wallet. Clark County is home to about 3,000 federal employees, each of whom could be socked with unpaid furloughs, although about 900 federal workers at the Department of Veterans Affairs likely are exempt from the sequester.
In public education, teacher jobs, Head Start funding and other programs could be cut, but precise figures are unknown. The good news is that Congress and the president have several weeks to keep this problem from becoming a crisis.
The bad news is, well, it's Congress and the president we're all depending on.


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Images: JPAC Mission
Photo by Chief Petty Officer John Hageman
Forensic Anthropologist William Belcher (right), a recovery leader with the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, maps out a unit with assistance from the team during Phase Two Testing on the island of Betio, Republic of Kiribati. The team deployed for more than 30 days searching for remains and evidence of Americans lost during the World War II Battle of Tarawa. The command conducts global search, recovery and laboratory operations to identify unaccounted-for Americans from past conflicts in order to support the Department of Defense's personnel accounting efforts. (DoD photo by Mass Communication Specialist Chief John M. Hageman, U.S. Navy)
This work, JPAC Mission, by CPO John Hageman, identified by DVIDS, is free of known copyright restrictions under U.S. copyright law.
Date Taken:10.30.2012
Date Posted:10.30.2012 20:42
Photo ID:770392
Size:1001.69 KB
Location:BETIO, KI


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Top Chef Master's Hunky Host Curtis Stone Is Going To Be A Dad!
June 23, 2011 06:49 PM by Lisa Princ
If you didn't catch Bravo's Top Chef Masters this season, then surely you know Curtis Stone from his numerous appearances on The Biggest Loser or as one of the investors on America's Next Great Restaurant. The hunky, Australian chef just confirmed that he and girlfriend Lindsay Price are expecting a baby! Keep reading for more!
Top Chef Masters host has had a busy year with all his shows and events and now Curtis Stone is about to become even busier as he will soon be adding fatherhood to that list. The 35 year old Australian host and guest chef on The Biggest Loser recently revealed to People Magazine that he and his 34 year old girlfriend Lindsay Price are expecting a baby together.
Curtis Stone told the magazine: "We couldn't be more thrilled to be starting a family together. We are over the moon." Okay, so not only will this child be absolutely gorgeous (from both parents), he or she will also have some awesome cooking skills from his or her dad. This will be the first child for both Curtis and Lindsay – do we hear wedding bells chiming soon?
The couple, much to the dismay of all the single ladies out there, have been dating since 2009. They recently bought a mansion together and Curtis spoke earlier this year about the relationship saying: "She is a real sweetheart and I am lucky to have found her."
Congratulations to the happy couple on their upcoming baby, we look forward to hear all about the new little chef in the making!
Want more? Follow our tweets on Twitter and "like" us on Facebook! For other great Top Chef Masters news, please feel free to check out SirLinksALot: Top Chef Masters and then come and discuss the show on our reality TV message boards.
Visit our sister site SheKnows for more breaking news about celebrities and entertainment!
Photos Courtesy of Bravo!
Topics: Bravo Reality TV Shows, Top Chef Masters |
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Holiday Lesbian Affair
Dec 20, 2013 - Performers: Lea Lexis and Lyla Storm
- 545+ shoots
- 385+ hours
- 111,520+ photos
- Updates every Friday in HD
- One live show each month
- Access to member forums
- Kinks: 9.65
- Buy Kinks. One Kink = One Dollar - Less if you buy in bulk!
- Spend Kinks - Watch this or hundreds of other videos and only pay for what you watch.
AVN award nominated stars Lyla Storm and Lea Lexis return to Whipped Ass for a kinky lesbian holiday roleplay! Lyla tags along with her husband to his company Christmas party and meets their sexy lesbian accounting manager. No matter what Lyla does she can't seem to get her off her mind and dreams of having a lesbian affair while sleeping right next to her husband! Both girls are clearly hot for each other. Wet face sitting, tight bondage, spanking, strap-on play and deep doggie style anal are all included.
Post Comment
You must Join this site to post comments.
|Dec 20, 2013
Ho ho ho! Lyla Storm just in time for the holidays! All I have to do is a few clicks on my iPad to open the best present from Santa Kink. Boy, what a great gift! I'm gonna go turn on my toy train and watch it go around the Christmas tree. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!
Great! (5)
|Dec 20, 2013
This was a wonderful gift. Beautiful ladies and a awesome story.
Great! (5)
|Dec 20, 2013
tks the second and the third scene was amazing happy chrismas all the people
Great! (5)
|Dec 21, 2013
A wonderful shoot for the holidays. Loved the Princess Leia-esque hairdo Lyla was rocking in this scene, especially with the Christmas lights in it that was a nice touch! Thank you and Merry Christmas!
Great! (5)
|Dec 30, 2013
The introduction of the "Mega Dildo" has taken these scenes to a whole different level. Let's continue on this track!
Great! (5)
|Jan 6, 2014
Okay, but I hated the costumes. Sorry. :-(
|Jan 24, 2014
Loved this shoot! It had the perfect mix of charm and humor. I got quite a chuckle with the christmas lights in Lyla's hair. I love Lyla's enthusiasm, and Lea, sexy and seductive as always. Keep up the good woek!
|Jan 28, 2014
What can I say except this was fantastic. Thank you both very much,and you to Madeline for bringing them together. Also the date you decided to show it was my birthday, what a present.
Great! (5)


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Minnesota Timberwolves rookie Shabazz Muhammad was expected to be a top-10 pick—perhaps even No.1—after finishing his high school campaign. Over the course of one year at UCLA, however, character issues cropped up and he slid down to No. 14, just inside the lottery.
I said that to say he does not need to expose any further flaws in character, which is what it appears he did at this week's Rookie Transition Program. Muhammad was sent home after breaking a rule and bringing a female guest to his hotel room, according to a USAToday report from Jeff Zillgitt, which cited an anonymous source.
The NBA rookie, who has yet to receive a league check, will be fined for violating rules and failing to last through the four-day camp, USAToday reports. The camp is in place for players like Muhammad, with seminars, instructions and guest speakers, all of which is supposed to prepare incoming players for NBA life.
Rules of the program, which included no guest in hotel rooms, were explained to players only hours before Muhammad was sent home, according to USAToday. There was no word on whether any other players were forced to leave.
This is not the first time this has happened, however. In 2008, Mario Chalmers and Darrell Arthur, Kansas alums who have carved a place in the NBA, were sent home after they were found to have women and marijuana in their room. Each player was fined $20,000. Michael Beasley, who has had several run-ins since, also was fined $50,000.


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AUG 29, 2013 - E! Online
A Must Read - Share
The dog is back in the American Idol house.
Fox is expected to announce today that Randy Jackson will officially return as a mentor for the contestants, sources tell E! News...
Editor's Picks
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© 2011 Comunitee, Inc.


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Student Worker and Internship Positions
Are You Interested in an Internship or Student Worker Position with the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH)?
Thank you for your interest in the field of public health. In order to better match your skills and interests with the needs of our program areas, we would like you to complete an Interest Sheet. The Interest Sheet will store information to our "Student Log". The "Student Log" is available to a number of our managers & supervisors in our agency. If that program area has an internship project or student worker position open and they are interested in learning more about you, they will contact you directly.
To be eligible for an internship or student worker position with a state agency, students must be receiving academic credit for fulfilling an academic requirement at an accredited educational institution.
- Potential Student Workers: Please carefully read "Provisions of Student Workers" regarding academic credit hours.
- Potential Interns: You will be required to complete an internship agreement upon hire. This document will specify the duties, credits, compensation agreed upon, and will require a signature from a school coordinator or faculty advisor.
Are you ready to get started?
- STEP 1 - Set up an account and submit a resume on the
State Employee Resume Builder web site (http://www.mn.gov/mmb/careers/)
- STEP 2 - Complete the Student Worker Interest Form found here.
- STEP 3 - Check for CURRENT Student Worker openings by using the search button below.


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|Why Is It Unfashionable To Be A "Liberal"? posted Sat Nov 11 2006 05:13:59 by Singapore_Air
|Why Is It Always Termed "chemotherapy"? posted Sun Jun 11 2006 18:48:55 by Duke
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|Why Is It Cloudy In Dubai? posted Sun Nov 20 2005 13:36:24 by ACAfan
|Why Is It The Rains Fault? posted Mon Jan 10 2005 01:46:17 by Matt D
|Why Is It That... posted Thu Aug 12 2004 22:15:31 by Aviationfreak
|Orlando FL, Why Is It So Great? posted Tue Jul 13 2004 05:22:36 by Flymia
|Why Is It That We Speak English...SMILE posted Mon Jan 19 2004 10:56:20 by B747ca
|So why is it ok for Terri Schiavo to kill herself? posted Tue Oct 21 2003 17:15:49 by Galaxy5
|Licenses For Illegals: Why Is It Good? posted Tue Sep 9 2003 17:00:38 by Matt D


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'Bones' Final Season Is Pushed to Midseason. Find Out the Replacement
- 11:07 AM, May 21
Felicity Huffman and William H. Macy Are Honored with Stars at The Hollywood Walk of Fame
Photo credit: FayesVision / WENN
To fit your screen, we scale this picture smaller than its actual size. The original picture size is 723x1000 pixels and this photo has been viewed 2093 times since March 07, 2012


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Christmas is comming. I'm wondering what whistles and bells are really used on a HRM. I'm looking at Polar models. One of the M series keeps information for 2 people (that could benifit ME!) but the S series have cadence (he dosen't have that on his computer) computer downloading and much more.
He likes things pretty basic. (I just reset his bike computer after 3000mi. He never knew how far he rode, he just kept riding)
What HRM do you use...and how many of the functions do you use?


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Images: Cadets sweat to finish well [Image 3 of 3]
Photo by Sgt. Austan Owen
Jessica Wendt, an ROTC cadet at South Dakota State University, strains to complete one more pushup before her time runs out during the Army Physical Fitness Test on Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., June 26. Reserve Officers' Training Corps cadets travel from colleges across the country to JBLM every year to participate in the Leader Development and Assessment Course. How well the cadets perform during the assessment will contribute in determining where they rank on the order of merit list and could affect the branch they will work in once the cadets receive a commission as an Army officer.
This work, Cadets sweat to finish well [Image 1 of 3], by SGT Austan Owen, identified by DVIDS, is free of known copyright restrictions under U.S. copyright law.
Date Taken:06.26.2012
Date Posted:07.02.2012 16:36
Photo ID:617207
Size:2.7 MB
Location:JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, WA, US


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Would You Hire Ex-Felons?
What Is Your Company's Stand on Hiring Convicted Felons into Your Family of Employees?
What is your company's stand on hiring ex-felons? Does your company have an overall policy on hiring? A good interviewer should have the skills to uncover good, qualified candidates with excellent credentials for any job in question. However, many interviewers may end a candidate's interview process when he or she checks the "Have you ever been convicted of a crime?" box. If yours is like most companies, you do the best you can to avoid the entire issue of hiring ex convicts. Many companies do not want the hassle of trying to figure out what to do with such a candidate when he or she indicates some kind of criminal background in his or her past.
Why should I consider hiring ex-convicts?
It is a shame, sometimes, to leave the decision there because of pre-judging and bias. There are many highly qualified people who have had difficulties with the law and have been convicted of a crime. However, the normal reflex reaction of tossing out the candidate who has a record can severely limit your ability to hire the best candidate for the job. Regardless, the occurrences of such situations are only going to increase rapidly due to the increasing number of felons in the population.
Take a closer look at what hiring felons may mean
Would you find it difficult to believe that over 60 million Americans have some kind of criminal record? That is one out of every five Americans of any age, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics of the United States Department of Justice. If you were to run standard background checks, any of these would show up with a negative report. Moreover, of that number, over 13 million Americans have a felony of some kind on their record, again according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. The numbers are growing. If the current trend and rate to incarcerate continues (and there is no sign that it will not) of the generation of Americans being born now, 1 in 15 whites, 1 in 6 Hispanics and 1 in 3 African-Americans will serve prison time sometime during their lifetimes. That means that on average, starting in about 20 years, around 10% of the adult population will spend time in prison. What this means to company interviewers is that more and more of your candidates are going to show up at your door looking for a job but will have to disclose a criminal conviction experience at some time in their life.
All felons are not alike—just like everybody else!
If you include this segment of the population for consideration, you are going to have to make some determinations about individual persons and appropriateness. It helps to know that less than half of those in prison are there for violent crimes. Of the half convicted of non-violent crimes, about one-fifth are there for property crimes, about one-fifth are imprisoned for drug offenses and about 10% are for public order crimes. In fact, drug offenses account for two-thirds of the inmate growth in city and county facilities and 40% in state facilities. Most of these will never repeat the offense, which is predictable by attained level of education. Of the public order crimes, many are serving time for such things as speeding in excess of 20 MPH over the limit (felony speeding), tax-law violations, gambling, and subsequent offenses (usually second or third) of driving while drinking. With their lives now marked with a felony criminal record, most of this population would also never return to prison—again, as indicated on studies of recidivism (lifetime chance of returning to prison) and the impact of education on its reduction. The average stay in prison in most states is currently 22 months.
Where do we stand in Arizona and neighboring states?
Arizona prisons are actually in crisis due to the serious problems brought about by mandatory sentencing. Arizona is now eighth in the nation for incarceration rates (525 per 100,000 people), for the first time ahead of Nevada (at 462)—by eight states and California (455) by nine! In neighboring Utah, the number of people locked up is sixth from the bottom (207) with New Mexico (275) just a little behind. In numbers, Utah and New Mexico incarcerates only about 15% to 20% of the people that Arizona locks up. The rapid increase in Arizona means that more and more residents of Arizona will come for job interviews with a criminal record.
What can a company do to be better equipped to interview and hire ex-cons and bring into play that part of the labor and talent pool?
How can an Arizona company—or a company in any state—be more competitive at selecting the best candidate and use this rapidly growing pool of forgotten or ignored job candidates? Using the precursor of education, companies can be better equipped to be better at selecting personnel from this segment of the population in the same way as they do in any other segment. Education has proven to be a better predictor here, as with any segment of the population. Education changes the prejudice of what to expect when attempting to hire ex-felons, and many states have made it a high priority that felons make up all shortcomings in education and specialized training before being considered for parole. Thus, it is no different than the experience we have with the rest of the population in that the better the education levels attained, the better the problem solving and time managing skills of the candidate.
For most of the inmates preparing to re-integrate into society, completion of education, development of specific technical/vocational skills, in addition to better coping skills improves them as potential job candidates. But, getting these candidates into shape (before or after prison) will remain a challenge in Arizona, which is now 52nd among the states and territories in educational spending.
Paul Greener, president of the Correctional Education Association of Utah and high school instructor in coping skills, English and advanced writing at the Central Utah Correctional Facility explains:
"One of the first things that strikes anyone working inside a prison, is that for the most part the people you encounter make up a similar cross-section of society as you would expect to encounter on any street in any locale in the country. That fact comes as a real surprise to most. In interviewing and hiring ex-felons, the process remains the same–an assessment of the reliability, skills, and self-motivation of the candidate. The job interviewer must use the same assessment skills to hire ex-felons as would be employed when interviewing any other person."
He adds:
"I tell my students/inmates: 'A good education allows you to help run society instead of becoming a victim of it.' Dependability, judgment, and problem solving (all elements of solid job skills) are developed through corrective education. Not everyone gets the opportunity to attain an education at the same time. Some people do not have the chance to complete an education (or did not take the opportunity because of a misspent youth) until they are adults. A few may never get a proper, basic education. That shortfall brings many into the prison system. Once each inmate becomes accepting of educational needs and priorities, then normal progress and growth resumes. Nowhere is that more evident than in the prison-based high school classroom,"
How objective are you?
It may be worth some introspection to see how any prejudices play a role in your decision-making process as a recruiter, interviewer, or employer. As with overcoming any other social, ethnic, age, or gender stigma or prejudice, your workforce can be much more dynamic and high-performing if you can broaden your field of potential candidates while still interviewing for critical characteristics. Of course, there are obvious areas where someone with a specific problem would not be appropriate for specific jobs. For example, someone who has a record of identity theft would not be appropriate to oversee personnel or credit files. A person with a record of reckless driving and driving under the influence would not be appropriate to make deliveries in the company vehicle. Still, there are many who have seen so much bad in their lives that they would be fiercely loyal to having a chance for a normal existence in a normal job.
The decision about appropriateness in this population, however, is really no different than it would be for the population at large. It would be just as unwise to put a gossip in charge of personnel files.
Are there legal reasons why we must interview and hire ex-felons?
From a legal perspective, the courts have affirmed an employer's right to use an applicant's criminal history to influence employment-related decisions, but the courts also caution that employers face high hurdles in justifying the exclusion and should have an exclusionary policy that is no broader than necessary to accomplish the goals. With common sense and creativity, either jumping or going around those high hurdles is nothing with which a skilled interviewer needs to be concerned.
As with any or all prejudice, it takes time, adjustment, and new skills to overcome the disposition and to see beyond the prejudices to find the best job candidates. People with criminal backgrounds—probably one of the fastest growing minorities in the country, especially in states like Arizona—are going to be facing you as interviewees more often in the future than ever in the past. A good, skilled, open-minded interviewer who makes strong and timely decisions will find the best candidates no matter what the candidate's personal histories or experiences are.


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ATLANTA (AP) - School class sizes in Georgia have increased as districts struggle with funding cuts and falling tax revenue.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (http://bit.ly/12uOgKn ) reported Saturday that about 80 percent of Georgia's 180 school districts approved plans to surpass class size caps last year.
The newspaper reports Georgia cut $4.7 billion in school funding between 2008 and 2012 and gave districts permission to exceed class size caps, which were implemented before the recession to try improving student performance.
As funding for schools declined, the Georgia Professional Standards Commission says the state lost about 10 percent of its educators while the student population grew by about 3 percent.
State School Superintendent John Barge says increasing class sizes is a problem with educators trying to teach a more rigorous curriculum.
Information from: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, http://www.ajc.com
(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)


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wpscan is an opensource tool designed to make assessment over wordpress installations.
Last week I had to evaluate the security level of an exposed wordpress installation and I wanted to first try wpscan. Unfortunately the target was published but password protected since it wasn't publicly launched. wpscan doesn't support basic authentication out of the box but it's opensource and it's written in ruby… I added it.
Working on opensource projects is really amazing. You can contribute adding feature you need and if the maintainer doesn't think to include them in the mainstream, then you can eventually use your own fork (using github slang).
A bit of theory
When a web resource is protected by basic authentication, the server answers with a 401 HTTP status code that it means Non authorized and with a WWW-Authenticate HTTP header specifying the authentication method it supports.
In the case of basic authentication you will see something like
The client pops out to the user a modal window asking for a username and a password for the "My great protected resource" realm. Browser will create a string with the username followed by a ':' character and then followed by the password.
The aforementioned string is encoded using Base64 encoding function and sent to the server in an Authorization HTTP field.
Then the server reverts the Base64 encoding making the credentials in a clear form and then it double checks with something stored in its filesystem.
Base64 it is not an hashing function to protect web resources with a fair
enough security level. Base64 must not used in any case as alternative to a
password mechanism because it can be reverted in a clear text form with a
single line of code.
As you can see, your secrets are not secured using Base64 encoding.
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And a very bit of reality
However the wordpress powered site has its own password protected backend, the basic authentication layer was there only to avoid google bot to start indexing before real launch.
In this case, having a basic authentication in front of the webpage can be a fair compromise for a couple of days.
The problem is that wpscan doesn't support basic authentication and since it's a trivial ruby coding exercise I added it since I will face the same problem again and again (making also a pull request to mainstream repository).
Patchworking the code.
First thing when you work on other people code is understanding how the code it has been written. This is tough since you can't spend too much time in code reviewing and understanding if you do need to launch your scan in minutes.
wpscan source code is pretty organized. It can be optimized in my taste and the whole tool can be packed in a rubygem and this can be a further improvement in my repository fork.
I'll show git diff output command between the clean master and a branch I created to add the basic authentication support. I like most working on a separate branch following the workout described in this blog post
Let wpscan to understand the server needs credentials
First step, wpscan has a list of valid HTTP response code it can manage. We have to say it that also 401 is a response code it can handle.
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Of course we will add a variable holding basic authentication parameter value if it has been found. So it can be passed to inner methods.
Create the command line flag
This is the wierdest part. wpscan handles command line using patterns I found uncommons in ruby CLI utilities I hacked so far.
After adding the CLI option as the ones supported by GetOptLong, you have to create appropriate setter method handling the parameter value.
Please note that we make also the encoding at this stage so that options[:basic_auth] will hold (after it has been processed) the string we have to put in the Authorization HTTP header as response.
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Make wpscan to raise error if 401 is received and no credentials passed
This is trivial. In the main program we have to raise an exception if the target server answer us with a 401 status code and we didn't provide any credentials to be used.
Next time you have to use newly provided '-b' flag baby.
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The helper method has_basic_auth? is defined in the web_site module in a very simple code. If target answered 401 then it has been protected by basic auth (since I needed just basci authentication support, I generalized that a 401 status code required basic authentication without a deeper check in the HTTP response headers for the required authentication mechanism).
Authorize me
Last step: passing the Authorization HTTP header in response with the Base64 endoded credentials.
wpscan browser module uses Typhoeus::Hydra to make HTTP requests. Hopefully this third party framework allows us to hack response parameters very easily.
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Wrap up
Now my own wpscan fork has a '-b' flag that it can be used in the command line to specify username and password to enter basic authentication protected wordpress installations.
If you don't use the username:password form, the code will complain about the credentials format and raising a runtime error stopping execution.
wpscan is a great tool that it can be further improved but it must be a part of any web application security specialist toolbox out there.
Image by Eric M Martin
Enjoy it!


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Do you often get a bellyache or diarrhea after eating certain foods or when you're under stress or worrying about something? It happens to most of us every once in a while, but if you deal with it more often than not, you might have irritable bowel syndrome or IBS.
The brain in your gut
Health experts believe IBS symptoms are caused by faulty communication between the brain in the head and the brain in the gut. That's right — your gut has a brain!
About 100 million neurons line the intestinal tract and help control gut behavior independently of the brain. According to Dr. Michael Gershon, a neurobiologist at Columbia-Presbyterian, not only can the head send messages down to the gut, the gut can send messages up to the head. And those messages can make you feel miserable.
Dr. Gershon even wrote a book about it, called The Second Brain. In an interview he did a few years back with Stephen Colbert he said, "You have to have these two brains cooperating with each other to have peace in the body. When this goes wrong, people get to be very disturbed. The gut has a profound way of disturbing the brain. So quite really, people can be made to feel terrible from this organ. If you're chained by diarrhea to a toilet seat, for example, it can really do you in."
IBS causes
Being chained to the toilet is something we'd rather not even imagine. But it's an unfortunate reality for about 58 million people in the United States. A complex combination of factors, including psychological stress, anxiety, hormones, the immune system, or sensitivity to certain foods can interfere with the messages going back and forth. The result — terrible cramping, bloating, gas, and diarrhea.
Patsy Catsos is a registered, licensed dietitian with a personal and professional interest in helping "people with stomach problems get their lives back." She shares her expertise on her blog IBSFree.net and in her book IBS–Free at Last!
She points out that, "Differences in gut-brain biochemistry might help explain why people with IBS experience more pain from buildup of gas and fluid in the intestines compared to other people. It's also likely that events in the gut affect brain biochemistry, so it goes both ways."
Whatever the causes, IBS can be difficult to manage. Generally, the goal is to reduce symptoms using a combination of approaches such as medication, psychotherapy, and dietary changes.
Food and IBS
While Patsy believes multiple triggers are usually at play, as a registered dietitian her focus is on food. She says limiting FODMAPs carbohydrates can control IBS symptoms. "Many of my IBS patients feel much better when they avoid certain sugars and fibers that encourage gas, bloating, and irregularity," she says.
FODMAPs stands for fermentable oligo-, di-, and mono-saccharides and polyols.
FODMAPs carbohydrates include lactose, fructose, sugar alcohols, fructans, and galactans, which cause IBS symptoms because they are both fermentable and osmotically active.
- Fermentable – broken down by intestinal bacteria that produce a lot of gas and cause bloating
- Osmotically active – they pull water into the intestines and cause diarrhea
Some foods that contain FODMAPs
- milk
- apples
- pears
- wheat
- onions
- sugar-free gum
- beans
As Patsy pointed out to me, "It only takes a few days of experimenting with a low FODMAPs diet to find out for yourself if they are causing your symptoms. Once you learn which foods are the problem, you can usually manage symptoms by limiting portion sizes. It's rarely necessary to give up trigger foods completely."
An IBS friendly recipe
Patsy was kind enough to share an IBS friendly recipe for Pecan Shortbread Sand Dollars, which, she explains, is an "example of a good choice: it is wheat-free, lactose-free, and sweetened with IBS friendly granulated sugar."
Pecan Shortbread Sand Dollars
Not only a great cookie, this recipe makes a wonderful shortbread crust for your favorite bar cookie or fruit tart.
½ cup unsalted butter
1 cup oat flour, loosely packed
1 cup pecan flour, finely ground
½ cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon pure almond extract
- Preheat oven to 300° F.
- Place butter in a medium-sized, microwave safe mixing bowl; microwave for 15-30 to soften the butter. Add remaining ingredients and stir together with a wooden spoon until a soft dough is formed.
- Drop heaping teaspoons of dough onto ungreased cookie sheets.
- Bake for 20-30 minutes, until golden brown on the edges and firm to the touch.
- Remove from the oven, and use a spatula to transfer the cookies to a paper towel. Allow cookies to cool for 30 minutes, then store in an airtight container.
Servings: 12, 2 cookies each; yield 2 dozen
Nutrition Facts
Nutrition (per serving): 193 calories, 12.9g total fat, 9mg sodium, 16.7g carbohydrates, 1.6g fiber, 3.8g protein.
Recipe Tips
- Pecan flour can be hard to find. You can grind your own in small batches in your food processor or blender.
If you have any questions about IBS or other stomach problems, you can contact Patsy directly through her blog — or buy her book.
Sign up now for the Catching Health Newsletter


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As much as I wanted this guy (and I think others did, too), apparently he is "not ready for prime time."
He was assigned to the D-League by the Thunder.....so I guess the selection of Melo over him makes sense at least for now.
On a related note, aren't we all glad we dodged the Royce White "bullet?" Extremely high maintenance!!


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Edit Article
How to Make Shoes Look New Again
Shoes. Everyone has shoes. There are loads of different types-but they can all look dirty and old from time to time. Want to get your shoes looking fresh, clean, and newly purchased? Then read on...
This article has been tagged as a stub.
That means it's off to a good start, but still has room to grow into a more helpful resource. Until the article reaches its full potential, it will be hidden from search results. Can you help it flourish? If you think the article offers complete and accurate instructions, feel free to remove this tag.
1Get a clean rag or towel and wipe down your shoes to remove any loose dirt. Make sure you wipe the entire shoe very well, and don't forget to wipe the heels, inside, and the straps (if you have high heels/sandals/thongs). Don't be too rough though-scrubbing violently can result in stones and important pieces of the shoes falling off, and then they'll REALLY look old.
2If you have leather shoes, get some polish and give them a good polish. Don't forget any important areas, and repeat polishing until you are satisfied and the shoes shine. If you have sandals or high heels, get a rag/towel and use some mild soap. Rub them gently all over, but be sure to check the material first.
3Rinse the shoes if you used soap, and let them dry. That goes for polishing too-let them dry in a cool dry area for until they aren't wet with water or polish anymore. Then give them another rub with a clean towel and you're done!
Community Q&A
Ask a Question
- When you buy a new pair of shoes, ask the person selling them to you how you can clean them, and get some tips on how to protect them and keep them looking good. If the shop keeper doesn't know, ask someone who does, or look it up on the net.
- If the shoes are absolutely terrible and disgusting, just chuck them out.
- Always check the type of material and what you can use on it. Don't wreck a pair of perfectly good shoes, just because you couldn't be bothered to check whether the soap would be okay to use on them.
Things You'll Need
- A pair of old dirty shoes
- Mild soap
- A clean rag or towel
- Shoe polish (if they're leather)
Article Info
Categories: Stub | Care of Shoes
In other languages:
Português: Fazer Com Que Seus Sapatos Voltem a Parecer Novos
Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 69,051 times.
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text:
To me, it is obvious that Oswalt is not coming to the Red Sox. It is also obvious the team needs one more starting pitcher.
Also obvious, they dropped the ball dealing Scutaro. While Mortenson gives them the advantage of having a pitcher with options remaining, he isn't a very good option for the rotation. The Pawtucket staff has enough depth that it can be set aside for awhile as the Boston rotation is filled out.
I suppose it is possible they know more about Aaron Cook's health that I know (in fact, they had better know more than me). A healthy Aaron Cook is probably better than most of the remaining pitchers. After Oswalt, free agency has only Rich Harden, Jon Garland, and Javier Vazquez. Harden was a good pitcher, but the problems are obvious. He hasn't thrown 100IP in a season since 2009. Garland is usually worth more for IP, but is coming off surgery himself. Vazquez, who actually has had success in the AL despite his reputation, is strongly hinting at retirement. So there is only stopgap potential at best among these three.
The trade market has 4 notable names, and numerous worthless ones like Burnett and Peavy. The Nationals are apparently willing to move Jon Lannan. And the Cardinals need to move a SP to make room for Oswalt. If the Sox are not going to get Oswalt anyway, and apparently they are not, they should probably consider taking a Cardinals pitcher off their hands. The three most likely candidates are Lohse, Westbrook and McClellan. Lohse and Westbrook are both fairly similar as pitchers, capable of good seasons as well as horrific onces. Westbrook is owed less money. McClellan is the cheapest of all four, but has less than one season as a starter and should probably be ignored altogether (despite his awesome Frisbee-style curveball).
Lannan ($5mill) ould be had for Ryan Sweeney ($1.75mill), but probably shouldn't be. Dealing Sweeney either means Ross is a full time RF (and there is no set replacement until Crawford returns), and there is not much left to replace him in the OF. Internal option Kalish is already out. And the rest of the minor league OF is fairly weak, with options like Alex Hassan, Che-Hsuan Lin or maybe Jason Repko. Free agency is not much better, with primary options being Corey Patterson or Kosuke Fukudome. Fukudome might abe a good idea to replace Crawford, as he is always good for a monster April, but beyond that he is not a good choice. If the Sox could swing a subsequent deal for Jason Bogusevic of the Astros or Will Venable of the Padres, that would work. Or they could send Lars Anderson to Milwaukee for Carlos Gomez in a deal of prospects who have not lived up to their hype, but at least would fill needs. No idea what it would take to get Venable or Bogusevic, but probably more than Anderson.
Lohse ($11mill) or Westbrook ($8.5mill) are much easier to acquire, but the Sox might prefer to send some money back, and the only expendable salary is Bobby Jenks ($6mill), who is hardly worth trading for. The Sox would have to include something to St. Louis for this to work, but anything worthwhile might be prohibitive for Boston. Jenks and Bowden? Sure, but how much more and it's an overpay? Still, St. Louis has the obvious goal of moving money and a rotation spot for Oswalt, and the Sox do need someone capable of throwing at least 150IP while allowing minimal batting practice. And if the goal for the Cardinals is to move money, taking on Westbrook and including Jenks looks much, much less likely.
Gavin Floyd remains on the radar, but it is looking more and more likely KW simply holds him until July 31.
So either sign Harden or swing the deal. Lannan, as a soft-throwing lefty, is probably the worst fit and the most complicated to accommodate. Lohse is hardly one of my favorite pitchers, but of all the possibilities still out there, might be the best deal if St. Louis simply tries to move him to open a spot and save $5mill without asking for too much talent in return.


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"About that Fiscal Cliff"
John Stossel, Reason:
[…] I see the future: The politicians will meet and fret and hold press conferences and predict disaster. Then they'll reach a deal.
It will just postpone the reckoning, but they'll congratulate themselves, and the media will move on.
America, however, continues to go broke.
"They're not going to admit that we're bankrupt, and they won't admit that we're on the verge of a major, major change in our society," says Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas). "So they'll keep putting it aside, but then we'll eventually probably destroy the dollar."
The across-the-board cut, or "sequestration," was designed to be so distasteful that Congress would be moved to cut more deliberately. If it doesn't act, $110 billion in projected spending will be automatically cut—half from domestic spending, half from the Pentagon.
"They assume that they made it so bad that they wouldn't accept it, but I don't think they did," said Paul. "They're not even…talking about real cuts. They're talking about cuts in baseline budgeting."
Right, the old baseline budgeting trick.
"If they propose, let's say, a $10 billion increase for next year and cut it down to $9 billion, they say they're cutting 10 percent. But they're not cutting anything, they're only increasing it $9 billion instead of $10 billion. It's done on purpose so that people get confused."
Republican House Speaker John Boehner calls the fiscal cliff a "nightmare."
But why? Trillion-dollar deficits are more terrible.
Allow me to interject here: Boehner is looking for ways to capitulate, because we have, as I noted earlier today and have noted for some time now, essentially a single-party system, with factions in that party warring over who controls the primary levers at any given time. So of course Boehner will promote the left's narrative, joining them in the messaging of a dire need to "compromise," then accepting superficial concessions to justify the "surrender" (which to him is not a surrender at all; it's just getting a deal done!), just as he did when he capitulated on dept ceiling raises. And the establishment GOP will support the moves — we've already heard from the several in the "conservative" punditry that fighting a tax increase "on the rich" is not a hill worth dying on (and none of them ever are, from opposing amnesty to defense of traditional marriage to actually standing for the pro-life position you put in your platform to woo the godbotherers) — while demonizing as unhelpful fringe Hobbits those who don't recognize that we must act pragmatically here if we wish to save the country from such DIRE CIRCUMSTANCES as the NIGHTMARISH fiscal cliff.
Cuts of $110 billion would even be good for us because it would keep money in private hands, away from the bloated and freedom-killing bureaucracy.
"When government spending is about $3.8 trillion, you're going to cut $100 billion? That's a deck chair on the Titanic," said Russ Roberts of the Hoover Institution. "If they're actual cuts, I think that would be great. I'd cut 10, 20 percent across the board if I had my druthers. But across the board scares people because they think, 'Let's save the things that are really important and cut the things that are not so important.' (But) that never works."
It doesn't work because every cent in the budget is absolutely crucial to someone.
Lately the media are focused on the $400 billion in tax increases that make up four-fifths of the fiscal cliff. We're told that if the Bush-era tax rate cuts expire and the spending reductions kick in, catastrophe will follow.
"The tax increases sound scarier. But we have a trillion-dollar deficit!" Roberts pointed out. "So to me, the idea of raising taxes is probably a good idea. It says this spending that we've been doing is not a free lunch."
I'm not convinced that giving politicians more money is ever a good idea.
And won't the wealthy high-earners find a way around the higher rates? When rich people do that, much of their money goes to lawyers instead of consumer satisfaction.
Conservatives and libertarian recognize this. And while they may differ on military spending cuts, they nonetheless agree on some conscious or unconscious level that what we're watching here is yet more political theater — that of course the GOP leadership will capitulate, offering us the same rationales it always does before demonizing us for not understanding the realities of DC.
Marc Thiessen, WaPo:
With the "fiscal cliff" looming and no "grand bargain" in sight, talk in Washington has turned to a "down payment" — a package of spending cuts and revenue increases that would help us avoid the cliff and give leaders more time to strike a long-term deal. House Speaker John Boehner says such a mini-deal would serve as "a down payment on — and a catalyst for — major solutions, enacted in 2013, that begin to solve the problem."
Unfortunately, the opposite is true. Passing a down payment now could very well doom the chances for major tax and spending reforms next year.
[…] what should Republicans do? Resist the call for a down payment, and insist on real tax reform as the price for any new revenue from limiting deductions. If both sides can't agree on such reforms this year, they can do it next year. The Post reports this morning that "with tax rates set to rise automatically in January .?.?. Democrats say they have little incentive before then to cut a deal that falls short of their revenue goals. That means going over the cliff, at least for a short time, remains a possibility, they say."
If Obama and the Democrats want to take us over the fiscal cliff, let them lead the way. Once the Bush tax cuts expire, every American will pay higher taxes — which means the pressure for tax reform on both sides will be even greater. By contrast, if Republicans give away the revenues from deductions and loopholes today, they will alleviate that pressure and have no revenues left to pay for a simpler, fairer, pro-growth tax code next year.
Message to the GOP: A down payment means the death of tax reform.
[my emphasis]
None of which matters. Because John Boehner wants to be stroked by DC insiders and media leftists far more than he wants to engage in any fight that he believes will be used against him by those very same people whose good graces he so clearly covets. Even if he's holding the winning hand.
The narrative is being set for capitulation. Just as it always is.
Prepare to be relegated even further to the fringe, Visigoths and "purists." Because you just don't understand How DC Works.
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