text:
By Charles M. Brown
My own interest in Iraq goes back to Desert Storm, when, as a nineteen-year-old Army reservist fresh out of a semi-rural high school, I was very nearly deployed to Saudi Arabia as a medic. This aroused my curiosity about Iraq. After I did some work in several homeless shelters run by Catholic Worker activists, I gravitated toward their allied movement against sanctions. For three years, I was dedicated to the anti-sanctions cause. I traveled to Iraq in 1998 in order to see sanctions first- hand, and upon my return to the United States, I made two national speaking tours on the college activist circuit, in 1998 and 1999. (At the time, I was completing my undergraduate degree in Middle East Studies at Western Washington University.)
I intended to use the knowledge I acquired in my academic work to aid my "real" job as an anti-sanctions activist. But I got derailed when I realized that, in order to return to Iraq with the group I represented, the Chicago-based "Voices in the Wil- derness," I and other group members could not speak publicly about issues that would embarrass the Iraqi regime. These included its horrendous human rights re- cord, its involvement with weapons of mass destruction, and the dictatorial nature of the regime. We were allowed to speak only of one thing--the deprivations suffered by ordinary Iraqis under the sanctions regime.
This one-dimensional depiction of life in Saddam's Iraq was pure Baathist propagan- da, and I (as well as other group members) knew it. As I came to see this as a com- plicity and collaboration with one of the most abusive dictatorships in the world, I tried to get the rest of my group to acknowledge that our close relationship with the Baathist political regime in Iraq damaged our credibility. I failed to persuade them, so I quit. Unfortunately, it seems that my former colleagues have regarded this de- cision as a kind of political "defection," and it has cost me several friendships, which were apparently contingent on my continued willingness to toe the pro-Baathist line.
Since then, I have returned to university with the objective of becoming a profession- al historian of Baathist Iraq. I am no longer a political activist, and it will likely be some time before I assume that role again, if I ever do. In this article, I wish to look back at this rather peculiar aspect of the American peace movement and offer an honest and firsthand account of how it worked from the inside.
The Pedigree:
My group, Voices in the Wilderness (henceforth, Voices), was founded in 1996. Its name is an allusion to the biblical prophet Isaiah, who cried out for justice in a wil- derness of injustice (Isaiah, 40:3). The name clearly embodied the group's view of Iraqi sanctions--sanctions that were acts of injustice perpetrated by the United States government upon the people of Iraq. Someone had to cry out for justice--jus- understood to be the unconditional lifting of sanctions--and Voices members saw themselves as modern-day Isaiahs calling America to its conscience.
Voices preached by its actions, more particularly, by conducting regular trips to Iraq to deliver medical and other supplies, all in violation of the UN sanctions regime as well as several U.S. laws and presidential executive orders. The quantity of aid we brought to Iraq was always a paltry, symbolic amount, but the real emphasis of Voices was to have group members "witness" the detrimental effects of sanctions for themselves, by visiting Iraqi hospitals, schools and other areas, always in the presence of official "minders" of the Iraqi regime. These orchestrated trips pro- vided the grist for group members, who returned home to educate their communities on the horrors of the U.S.-imposed sanctions. In my case, the propaganda fed to me in Iraq by regime spokespersons was my primary source of information on sanctions, which I then imparted to audiences all across the United States. The same was true of my colleagues.
The story of Voices is one of a simplistic utopian vision of peace being applied to an intractable humanitarian and political catastrophe. This may be a trait that cuts across the entire peace movement, but Voices had its own unique characteristics, which reflected its distinct pedigree within the larger peace movement. Voices was formed from the remnants of what has been dubbed the "Catholic Ultra-resistance," [1] those Catholic radicals centered on the Catholic Worker movement and the personalities of Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, and, especially, the radical priests Daniel and Philip Berrigan. Almost without exception, the founding members of Voices were drawn from the Catholic Worker movement, which has always seen U.S. government's foreign--as well as many domestic--policies as violent, and therefore, morally unacceptable.
The Catholic Worker movement developed a doctrine of nonviolent resistance, and its actions drew national attention during the Vietnam war. The Berrigan brothers became famous by stretching the meaning of nonviolence in their antiwar actions. In 1968, they "nonviolently" entered a draft board office in Catonsville, Maryland, and used homemade napalm to burn the files of recent inductees mobilized for the Viet- nam war. This action was seen as a way to end (or at least retard) the war-making process; because the action was against the war, it was seen as inherently nonvio- lent. The Berrigans performed this and other acts that extended Gandhi's definitions of nonviolence on the basis of their own belief that Catholic ethics summoned them to perform radical actions for peace.
Such provocative actions were, for the Berrigans, not just protests against the war, but also dramatic prayers for peace. This peculiar combination of high drama and liturgy manifested itself again in the Plowshares movement, beginning in 1980. The Berrigan brothers, as well as Catholic (and non-Catholic) radicals, would sneak onto military bases housing the U.S. nuclear arsenal and bang away on missile casings until they were arrested by military police. By such acts, they were symbolically "beating swords into plowshares." This movement is still active, and its members frequently end up in federal prison for performing such acts of "nonviolence."
Voices belonged very much to this tradition with its emphasis on symbolic acts. The group's trips to Iraq with symbolic amounts of medical aid were, to Voices, what the burning of draft files was to the Berrigans and what the beating of nuclear weapons into "plowshares" is to the Plowshares movement. In fact, many individual Plow- shares veterans supported Voices and occasionally joined it. Daniel Berrigan him- self gave Voices a ringing endorsement:
All of these interrelated social movements are characterized by "dramaturgy"--the combination of drama and liturgy, with ostensible prayers for peace and dramatic protest action in the face of significant jail terms. For some of these activists, drama- turgical protest has become nearly synonymous with other (traditional) Catholic sacraments, as exemplified by the title of Jesuit priest John Dear's popular volume, The Sacrament of Civil Disobedience. [3]
The Voices' specific dramaturgical protest involved travels to Iraq in direct violation of a U.S. government travel ban. The point of the ban was to prevent Americans from aiding the Iraqi economy, on the theory that the regime, once weakened, would either comply with UN disarmament requirements, or perhaps fall altogether. Voices always highlighted the fact that it was breaking the law. The penalties for Voices' Iraq delegations could have reached twelve years in federal prison and $1.25 million in fines and fees. Voices tempted the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to levy these penalties against them every time its members went to Iraq, perhaps hoping for the maximum penalties in order to bring the maxi- mum amount of publicity to its cause.
But the Treasury Department only imposed fines on a few members, and in amounts far less than the staggering maximums that we in Voices boasted about when we made our post-trip presentations. To my knowledge, the government has never suc- cessfully collected a fine. For example, in December, 1998, Voices was notified that it was to be fined a total of $163,000 by OFAC. Nothing further happened until Bert Sacks, a Seattle member, was actually served with a $10,000 fine by OFAC in May, 2002. Sacks declined to pay the fine, seeing it as unethical to give money to the government he saw as responsible for the situation in Iraq. [4]
So, with its own version of Berrigan-esque "dramaturgy," Voices fancied itself as heir to the mantle of the Catholic ultra-resistance, the Berrigans, and the Plowshares movement. There was just one problem. We refused the punishments that we defied the government to impose on us. The Berrigans were sentenced to significant jail terms and served years in prison for their protest activities. Voices always refused the (few) fines levied on it and escaped serious consequences. Because of this, and despite tracing its heritage to the radical priests, Voices never achieved even a fraction of the Berrigans' dramatic impact. The U.S. government's decision to not pursue Voices (as it did the Berrigans) lessened the group's impact and probably reflects the fact that Voices never represented a serious threat to the sanctions re- gime or the government's policy of containing Saddam Hussein.
The Cause:
When the issue of Iraq sanctions first crossed our radar screens sometime around 1995, the default position in the peace movement rapidly came into focus. Sanctions were imposed by the UN at the behest of the United States in order to secure U.S. control over Iraq's oil. The United States did not care about the "fact" that the sanctions apparently killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis by withholding necessary foodstuffs and medical supplies. The peace movement was in search of new issues in the post-Cold War environment, and this one seemed serviceable. Then-U.S. ambas- sador to the UN Madeleine Albright's unfortunate and oft-quoted interview on 60 Minutes only helped us frame the sanctions issue in a very simplistic fashion. Al- bright was asked this question: "We have heard that a half million children have died (as a result of sanctions against Iraq). I mean, that is more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?" Albright did not contest the claim, but simply answered: "I think this is a very hard choice, but the price, we think the price is worth it." [5] That was the perfect grist for our mill.
What did we know about Iraq? Hardly anything. Stephen Zunes, a "progressive" activist academic, once acknowledged that "peace activists largely share with most Americans a profound ignorance of the Middle East, Islam, and the Arab world." [6] This was certainly true for our group, but we didn't give it much thought. We saw ourselves as people of action, not reflection. Did we really need to learn the intrica- cies of Iraqi history and politics and plumb the broader political and economic is- sues? Who wanted to sit in the library when there were prayer vigils to organize? We opted to march, fast, and hold our signs. Here was a new cause, in need of cham- pions, and that's just what we were. Iraqi sanctions had to go!
Voices' arguments about sanctions were straightforward--and utterly simplistic. In retrospect, I am embarrassed to think that I propagated them. Voices held that sanctions were violence that the U.S. government committed against Iraq, through the exercise of raw power. The Iraqi political regime was entirely helpless and pas- sive and had no ability to respond to the economic pressure the UN had put on Iraq since 1990. Voices was oblivious to deliberate Iraqi obfuscation on disarmament and to Saddam's domestic policies, designed to maintain his iron grip over the Iraqi people for as long as possible. It was our stubborn view that the regime had little or no ability to control or direct Iraq's destiny. We saw the U.S.-sponsored sanctions as the primary cause of violence in Iraq and so overlooked (or denied) Saddam's dec- ades-long legacy of severe repression.
Even worse, we were quite willing to consider the Baath regime as a reliable source of value-free information on Iraq. Group members had neither the training nor the inclination to dissect Baathist propaganda, and we in Voices regularly parroted this propaganda in our public presentations, as if it were fact. We willingly disseminated the propaganda, but without much editing or critical reflection. Little effort was ex- pended in learning more about general trends and issues in Iraqi history, culture, and politics. As a result, our presentations were rife with factual errors and mis- statements.
I was known as something of a bookworm within the group, but I realized, even be- fore my trip to Baghdad, that I understood hardly anything about Baathist Iraq. I also was bothered by the fact that my colleagues seemed untroubled by our igno- rance.
For example, the background reading for delegation members bound for Iraq con- sisted of a page-and-a-half of text covering the several dozen centuries of Iraqi history between Nebuchadnezzar and Saddam Hussein. I will always remember the words of my mentor at Western Washington University, Leonard Helfgott, regarding my plans to go to Iraq with Voices: "Have you read Hanna Batatu's book on Iraq? [7] You must read it before you go. If you finish it, you will know more about Iraq than anyone in Washington State!" I confess that I left without finishing Batatu's 1,000-page-plus tome, and I paid for my inattention by being led astray by my friends in Voices. The most glaring example I saw of gross unfamiliarity with Iraq was a Voices group member who was wholly unaware that the Iran-Iraq war had ever taken place. [8] This latter episode revealed that the larger context of the violence in Iraq--a context that long predated the sanctions--mattered very little to Voices.
Works on contemporary Iraqi history and politics that did not take the injustice of Desert Storm as their point of departure were not only ignored, but were very often denounced as pro-American or even pro-Israeli propaganda, created to serve the "violent" U.S. (or Israeli) policies toward Iraq. For example, some members of Voices dismissed the important works of Kanan Makiya, the most prominent Iraqi dissident intellectual in the United States, as "pro-Israeli." [9] Toward the end of my involvement with Voices, I circulated copies of two articles that showed how the Iraqi regime had misrepresented the extent of the damage caused by sanctions. [10] These too were rejected as "pro-Israeli." In an intellectual climate where the only morally acceptable works for Voices either supported or ignored the role of Sad- dam's regime, the group found itself with a very short reading list.
Because of our collective ignorance of Iraqi history and politics, we were largely un- aware of the service we rendered to the regime. Not only did Voices members meet senior Iraqi officials (including Tariq Aziz), but the group was publicly thanked for serving as an official channel of information from the Iraqi regime to the American people--thanked by Saddam Hussein himself. [11] We had no interest in Iraqi dissi- dents, exiles, and opposition groups who had documented Saddam's past aggression, genocide, and flaunting of UN Security Council (UNSC) resolutions. Voices simply parroted Baathist propaganda, and the regime learned to use us (and other peace movement groups) for just that purpose.
For example, not only did we demand the complete unconditional lifting of sanctions, but we also bought into the regime's notion that weapons inspections were a pretext for U.S. domination of Iraq. We even imported the regime's fantasy that the UN weapons inspectors were American and/or Israeli spies. The U.S. concern over weapons of mass destruction was simply a pretext for continuing the sanctions, so that American oil companies could secure control over Iraq's nationalized oil re- sources. By going beyond our declared agenda of advocacy for the Iraqi people and bringing this kind of regime propaganda back to the United States, we played right into Saddam's hands.
Our myopia arose largely from the fact that we accepted, or at least did not publicly challeng, the demonstrably false notion that Saddam's political regime acted in the best interests of the Iraqi people. We could not imagine that the Iraqi regime might use, or even exacerbate, the sanctions crisis for its own political ends. For example, we simply ignored Iraq's own periodic suspensions of oil exports. There were five instances of oil export suspension beginning in 1998, by which the Iraqi regime for- feited approximately $3.4 billion. [12] These suspensions seriously diminished Iraq's ability to generate the revenue needed to provide medical aid supplies and war rep- arations and greatly retarded humanitarian recovery efforts. It was a case of the regime itself exacerbating the suffering of the Iraqi people.
But then we, like the Iraqi regime, were always antagonistic towards the Oil-for- Food program (known sometimes as UNSC Resolution 986). One Voices founder, Bob Bossie, in a group meeting to evaluate the program, determined: "The biggest problem [Voices] face[s], as I see it, is Resolution 986." [13] The reason was explained by founding member Chuck Quilty in an interview conducted for this article: "The problem [Voices] saw right away was that 986 would be used by the United States to say that humanitarian problems in Iraq were taken care of and allay any of those who might be concerned that sanctions were killing innocent people." [14] They abhorred the program because it improved the lot of ordinary Iraqis, and therefore, diminished U.S. culpability. To be perfectly frank, we were less concerned with the suffering of the Iraqi people than we were in maintaining our moral challenge to U.S. foreign policy. We did not agitate for an end to sanctions for purely humanitarian reasons; it was more important to us to maintain our moral challenge to "violent" U.S. foreign policy, regardless of what happened in Iraq. For example, had we been truly interested in alleviating the suffering in Iraq, we might have con- sidered pushing for an expanded Oil-for-Food program. Nothing could have inter- ested us less. Indeed, we even regarded the paltry amounts of aid that we did bring to Iraq as a logistical hassle. When it suited us, we portrayed ourselves as a human- itarian nongovernmental organization and at other times as a political group lobbying for a policy change. In our attempt to have it both ways, we failed in both of these missions.
We were so preoccupied with our own agenda that we didn't notice or care that the regime made use of us. When critics asked us whether the group was being exploited by the Iraqi regime, we obfuscated, and, in so doing, put Saddam and his minions on the same level as the U.S. government:
Silence in the Wilderness:
What led us to maintain so studied a silence over Iraq's horrendous human rights record? Travel to Iraq was central to the method of Voices, and we were wholly de- pendent upon the regime's good graces to gain necessary travel permits and visas to enter and travel throughout the country. In fact, until about 2000, there was a policy within the group barring us from publicly criticizing the violence of the Iraqi regime when speaking in the name of Voices. [16] This was a particularly ironic stand for a group dedicated to ending violence along Gandhian principles.
In order to advocate for the Iraqi people, we had to remain silent on such significant issues as the legacy of the genocidal Anfal campaign against the Kurds, the regime's crushing of the 1991 intifada, the wide-ranging and systematic abuse of human rights, and especially, Iraq's refusal to comply with the disarmament requirements of UNSC Resolutions 687 and 1441. If we were seen by the Iraqi regime as hostile to its interests, then there would be no reason for it to allow us access to Iraq. And without direct access to Iraq, we would lose our special credibility to criticize sanc- tions. In other words, we could continue our chosen form of activism only if we col- laborated with the Iraqi regime.
Despite the lifting of the gag order on regime behavior after 2000, we continued to understate the issues of human rights and Iraqi bad faith in its negotiations over sanctions:
Clearly, we were not so na�ve as to be completely ignorant of the existence of Iraq's dark side. We acknowledged, but then dismissed, the character of the regime, as if its authoritarian, self-serving, and brutal nature did not somehow inform its diplo- matic efforts. It was here that we lost much of our potential audience. Because we could not balance our public presentations by acknowledging the regime's criminal character, our audiences were increasingly made up of other activists, and we wound up preaching to the converted. Our uncritical treatment of the Iraqi regime was not a case of ignorance. It was the result of a deliberate choice we made among our prior- ities. We had to decide which moral challenge we wanted to make. We chose to limit that moral challenge to the U.S. policy of maintaining sanctions against Iraq. We were never particularly interested in or suited to challenging Saddam and his regime over their invasion of two neighboring states, the systematic genocide against the Kurds, or Saddam's consolidation of one of the most violent internal security sys- tems in the world.
We often justified this choice in terms of American patriotism: We felt an obligation to challenge U.S. policies because we were trying to help the United States become a more responsible member of the world community. Because we were U.S. citizens (for the most part), we felt we had a special responsibility to attempt to modify U.S. policies. We had no control over Iraqi policies, so we convinced ourselves. Needless to say, this was wholly disingenuous on our part. Who, if not foreign nationals, could apply pressure on the Iraqi regime to change its behavior? Iraqis certainly could not. And often such pressure succeeded. For example, when UN officials applied such pressure over the periodic terminations of oil exports, it usually worked, and oil flowed again soon afterwards. [18] Voices' unwillingness or inability to criticize the regime effectively turned us into its unwitting apologists. It was tragically ironic: Voices and the regime did not share a single value. Voices was an attempt by Cath- olic radicals and their disciples to promote their vision of world peace; Saddam Hus- sein's only apparent desire was to maintain his iron grip over Iraq. Voices and the regime agreed only that the sanctions crisis was rooted in U.S. policy. Yet that single point of agreement became the fulcrum of Voices' venture in Iraq. This was yet an- other case of politics making for the strangest possible bedfellows.
My Break and the Aftermath:
I can remember the exact instant when I decided to leave the utopian fantasy world of Voices. I was on a train from Bellingham, Washington, where I lived at the time, to Portland, Oregon, to visit a friend. It was the Spring of 2000, and I was reading a new article on sanctions by Amatzia Baram. Baram proceeded to shatter the myth that 1.5 million Iraqis had died of sanctions-related disease. He did it by checking Iraqi claims against recent Iraqi census data. Since 1991, Iraq's population, even by Iraqi figures, had grown way too fast for there to be anything near the number of sanctions-related deaths claimed by Iraq. Baram's conclusions contradicted every- thing I had heard in Iraq and from Voices:
If this were true--that the Iraqi regime was obfuscating as much on sanctions as it did on weapons--then my trip to Iraq and all the subsequent work I had poured into anti-sanctions activism had been in vain. I desperately searched for anything that could support Voices' take on the sanctions and disprove Baram. But I found noth- ing, and I began to seriously rethink my role in the group, as well as some of my most basic political assumptions.
But my split with Voices was not simply the outcome of reading Baram's article. From the outset, I had expected that Voices would cultivate knowledge on all things Iraqi, as we set about our task of ending sanctions. I expected the better academic works on Iraq--the landmark studies by Baram, Batatu, and Marion and Peter Sluglett--to be on the office bookshelf. Instead all I found were uninformed tracts by Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, and Edward Said.
I had also expected a deeper concern for the people of Iraq. But Voices would have nothing to do with the UN humanitarian effort. The closest it got to UN headquarters in New York was the sidewalk across the street. There, Voices' activists, bellowing at the top of their lungs, preached against the American-induced apocalypse in Iraq. It was a mystery to me how such soapbox sermons, often quoting scripture, could possibly help the people of Iraq.
In the end, I concluded that the Voices campaign against sanctions was a case of misplaced radicalism. Voices had borrowed the concepts developed by the Berrigan brothers against the war in Vietnam and applied them to their agitation against the Iraq sanctions. But this hand-me-down rhetoric was not suited to a deep understand- ing of the sanctions crisis in Iraq (and it might be the case that the Berrigan-style rhetoric was ill-suited for a better understanding of the war in Vietnam as well). Voices was acutely aware of its Catholic ultra-resistance heritage and wanted to ensure that it continued. It needed a cause. Unfortunately, it picked the wrong one. Voices' tragedy is that there may no longer be any causes amenable to its concepts and methods, and that the really important policy debates of our time have left it irrelevant and anachronistic.
So I left Voices, and I am no longer affiliated with it in any way. Perhaps it is poetic justice that I am now training to become a historian of Baathist Iraq. I now spend hours pouring over the documents of the defunct regime; perhaps this time I'll get it right. My studies mitigate my embarrassment over my years of misguided activism. But political na�vet� is not the worst skeleton to have in one's closet, and in any case I have left the closet wide open, for all to see.
Since I left Voices, it has lost its cause. Voices enjoyed a strangely symbiotic rela- tionship with the regime of Saddam Hussein, which is now gone. I once asked Kathy Kelly, one of Voices' cofounders, what we would do if sanctions were to end or be significantly modified. She replied that the group would likely disband. Members might elect to channel their activism into nongovernmental organizations bringing aid to Iraq, but Voices itself would evaporate. Most of the members of Voices migrated to the issue of Iraq from other issues, and I suppose they will most likely migrate somewhere else. No doubt they will detect creeping U.S. militarism elsewhere and doggedly protest it with symbolic gestures that have little or no meaning, except for themselves.
End Notes:
[1] Francine du Plessix Gray, quoted in J. Justin Gustainis, American Rhetoric and the Vietnam War (Westport: Praeger, 1993), p. 67.
[2] Daniel Berrigan, at: http://www.nonviolence.org/vitw/old_site/vwhoweare.html.
[3] Baltimore: Belknap Press, 1994.
[4] "American Fined $10,000 for Admitting to Bringing Medicines to Iraq," Voices press release, at http://www.nonviolence.org/vitw/old_site/pages/214.htm. Sacks' final legal disposition is still pending. Sacks' legal response can be found on the Citizens Concerned for the People of Iraq (a Seattle-area anti-sanctions group) website, at http://www.scn.org/ccpi/ofac/ReplyToOFAC17Jun02.html.
[5] "Punishing Saddam," produced by Catherine Olian, 60 Minutes, May 12, 1996.
[6] Stephen Zunes, "The American Peace Movement and the Middle East," Arab Studies Quarterly, Winter 1998, p. 30.
[7] Hanna Batatu, The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978).
[8] This conversation took place with a Massachusetts-area Voices member at the al-Fanar Hotel, Baghdad, Sept. 1998.
[9] Interview with Chuck Quilty, via e-mail correspondence, Dec. 2001. Makiya's major works on Iraq are Republic of Fear: The Politics of Modern Iraq (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998) and Cruelty and Silence: War, Tyranny, and the Arab World (New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1993).
[10] Amatzia Baram, "The Effect of Iraqi Sanctions: Statistical Pitfalls and Respon- sibility," Middle East Journal, Spring 2000, pp. 194-223, also at http://www.mideasti. org/articles/baram.html; Michael Rubin, "Sanctions on Iraq: A Valid Anti-American Grievance?" Middle East Review of International Affairs, Dec. 2001, at http:// meria.idc.ac.il/journal/2001/issue4/jv5n4a6.htm.
[11] Saddam Hussein, "A Letter from President Saddam Hussein to an American Citizen," Oct. 18, 2001. This speech was located on the official regime web site at http://www.uruklink.net/iraq/e2001/eletter.htm. However, all Iraqi regime web pages went down in the first week of the war. This speech highlighted Voices' bringing the Iraqi regime's official condolences for the September 11 attacks to the American people (no official condolences were sent to the U.S. government).
[12] The figure of $3.4 billion lost to oil export suspensions was derived by averaging total Iraqi oil production in the four weeks prior to the suspension and multiplying this figure by the price of oil at that time. This loss of Oil-for-Food revenue is ap- proximately equal to forfeiting an entire six-month phase of the program. Statistics were obtained from the U.N. Office of the Iraq Program website, where the relevant Oil-for-Food production statistics are broken down by week from Phase IV (Aug. 29 � Nov. 27, 1998) to the present. For oil exports from 1998-2000, see: http://www.un. org/Depts/oip/background/oilexports98-00.html, and for statistics from 2001-present, see: http://www.un.org/Depts/oip/background/oilexports.html.
[13] Quoted in Kathy Kelly, "Voices in the Wilderness: Nonviolence and the Ongo- ing War against Iraq," in G. Simon Harak, ed., Nonviolence for the Third Millenni- um: Its Legacy and Future (Macon: Mercer University Press, 2000), p. 178.
[14] Interview with Chuck Quilty, via e-mail, Oct. 5, 2001.
[15] Ramzi Kysia, "Frequently Asked Questions," Voices, at http://www.nonviolence.org/vitw/old_site/Frequently%20Asked%20Questions.htm.
[16] Interview with Chuck Quilty, via e-mail, Sept. 10, 2001.
[17] David Smith-Ferri, "Dancing with the Devil: Rumsfeld's Four Lies about Iraq," Aug. 28, 2002, Voices, at http://www.nonviolence.org/vitw/old_site/pages/240.htm.
[18] I am grateful to Amatzia Baram for this point.
[19] Baram, "The Effect of Iraqi Sanctions," p. 195.
The Problem of Rogue States:
Iraq as a Case History
The Middle East & the Arabs
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three Page Two Page One
War & Peace in the Real World
Page Two Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
Charles M. Brown is a graduate student at the University of Utah, where he is working toward the Master of Arts degree in Middle Eastern Studies.
The original version of the article appeared in the Middle East Quarterly (Summer, 2003) and can be found on the Internet website
maintained by the Middle East Forum.
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Rolling with Reuleaux
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subset: commoncrawl


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"I am the daughter of the earth and water, and the nurseling of the sky; I pass through the pores of the ocean and shore; I change, but I cannot die. For after the rain when with never a stain, the pavilion of heaven is bare, and the winds and sunbeams with their cover gleams, build up the blue dome of air, silently laugh at my own cenotaph, and out of the carvers of rain, like a child from the womb, like a ghose from the tomb, I arise and unbuild it again." ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley
Gentle light peeks shyly over the horizon, whispering its arrival with growing confidence. The white crests of breaking waves prance like palomino ponies, brazen in their showy display. The wind carries it's voice, the gulls soar from their lofty perches. The day has begun. Wispy clouds glide by overhead, disappearing, to then manifest again, cloaking the mountain tops. Billowing cumulus clouds froth on the horizon, stained pink and burgundy, with gilded tips of gold.
The inspiration for this shoot was born in nature, of the rawness of wind and wave. The concept and design were woven together in the simplicity of this idea – rustic, organic, natural, honesty of materials, of the earth and ocean. Our wish was to evoke this through all the senses, from the feel of the organic cotton gowns which barely swathe the wind nymphs, the sight of the banquet table decorated with rocks veined with quartz, reindeer moss and mica dust, the smell and taste of the sumptuous fruits of the sea.
A simple and sublime palette of gentle neutrals, of cool blues and greys, creates a feeling of calm and serenity creating a harmonious aesthetic brought further to life with the unglazed porcelain, battered silverware, sea glass escort cards, and buttery stone-washed softened linens and hand dyed muslin fabric.
Featured on OnceWed
Credits ~ Production, Art Direction & Styling: Pearl & Godiva | Photography: Tec Petaja | Cinematography: Story of Eve | MUA: Kathryn O'Neill | Hair: Marie Maye | Bespoke Muslin Gowns: Sarah Foy | Lace and Silk Tulle Gowns: María Luisa Rabell | Bespoke Headpiece: Opal & Owl | Stationery & Calligraphy: Chelsea Petaja from Oh my Deer Handmades | Florals: Hanako Floral Studio | Food Styling: Jette Virdi | All props sourced by: Pearl & Godiva | Models: Christie from Oxygen Models & Stella from Morgan the Agency | Location: Coumeenole Beach, Dingle, Co.Kerry. A special thank you to Slea Head Farm


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UK Property Law
Get UK Property Law Questions Answered by Experts
Thanks for responding.
Communications from my Landlord come from the same address as those from the Managing Agent. When I made some casual online enquiries, I can see that both companies have at least one director who is the same person. I would just need some clarification on how separate the two entities must be.
There is actually no requirement for there to be a managing agentunless it is specified in the lease it is not at all uncommon to have theshareholders and directors the same provided there is not a conflict ofinterest.
The freeholders can decide to appoint one of their own volition
Indeed, it is not uncommon for leaseholders themselves to beshareholders and directors of Freehold companies or management companies.
There is nothing actually wrong per se in what is happening hereprovided there is no element of self-interest when it comes to the landlordcompany appointing the managing agent company.
However you will usually find that the managing agent company isappointed in the lease
DISCLAIMER: Answers from Experts on JustAnswer are not substitutes for the advice of an attorney. JustAnswer is a public forum and questions and responses are not private or confidential or protected by the attorney-client privilege. The Expert above is not your attorney, and the response above is not legal advice. You should not read this response to propose specific action or address specific circumstances, but only to give you a sense of general principles of law that might affect the situation you describe. Application of these general principles to particular circumstances must be done by a lawyer who has spoken with you in confidence, learned all relevant information, and explored various options. Before acting on these general principles, you should hire a lawyer licensed to practice law in the jurisdiction to which your question pertains.
The responses above are from individual Experts, not JustAnswer. The site and services are provided "as is". To view the verified credential of an Expert, click on the "Verified" symbol in the Expert's profile. This site is not for emergency questions which should be directed immediately by telephone or in-person to qualified professionals. Please carefully read the Terms of Service (last updated February 8, 2012).


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About Englewood Hospital and Medical Center
2010 Press Releases
Taking the Helm (courtesey of Advance for Nurses)
Unit-based teams at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center are improving the patient experience and charting a new course in performance excellence
By: Lilyan Cohen, BSN, RN, & G. Elaine Patterson, EdD, MA, FNP-C; Courtesy of Advance for Nuses (Vol. 10 • Issue 2 • Page 7A)
Facilities value high patient satisfaction scores, and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) encourages them. Increasingly more, nurse leaders want to achieve them too to ensure the patient is as safe as possible and has a great outcome.
Englewood Hospital and Medical Center is no different. We developed a unit-based performance excellence team to address the patient's experience on our 48-bed cardiopulmonary unit (6 Dean). We chose to use the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) scores to measure our performance.
HCAHPS was developed to create a measure of how patients perceive hospital care, which CMS determined would be a publicly reportable measure of quality (Press Ganey).
CMS not only wanted a tool which would provide consumers with valuable information when choosing a hospital for care but would also provide additional information for already established hospital quality improvement initiatives. The HCAHPS survey asks questions about the hospital experience and the frequency of patient staff encounters, using a 4-point scale - never, sometimes, usually and always. While the survey uses 10 domains to survey the patient experience, our unit chose those that were aligned with our organizational goal: to be the premier hospital in Bergen County.
Tapping the Experts
With the support of the senior leadership at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, Englewood, NJ,and the help of Mary Beth Edmond, MBA, RN, senior nurse executive from Juran, a global healthcare performance improvement and quality management organization, our first step was to pick the team.
We chose unit staff from all disciplines and from all three shifts. According to the Studer Group's toolkit, every employee's interactions with patients affect the way patients perceive their hospital stay. Because of this, the team consisted of frontline staff that included RNs, nurse assistants, rehab, respiratory, doctors, transport, dietary, unit secretaries and environmental services.
Problem & Goals
We kicked off our first meeting July 8 with Edmond; Edna Cadmus, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, senior vice president for patient care services; Madelyn Pearson, MA, RN, NEA-BC, vice president for patient care services; Eva Matos-Botex, MA, director of organizational development; and Carlos Maceda, FACHE, director of material management. We spent the morning discussing the problem, goals and how we would achieve those goals. We started by developing statements that concisely expressed where we were and where we wanted to be.
Problem Statement: Based on the Press Ganey report on May 20, 2009, Englewood's HCAHPS patient experience scores for 6 Dean were below the Bergen County, NJ, benchmark for this question: "Would you recommend this hospital?"
Goal Statement: To meet or exceed the highest percent scores for Bergen County on "How would you rate this unit overall?" and "Would you recommend this hospital?"
Life on the Unit
We reviewed the relevant HCAHPS metrics of "response to call lights," percent of "always" responses on room and bathroom cleanliness, percent of "always" on area around your room quiet at night, pain management, explanation on new medications, compliance with discharge instructions, and communication with doctors and nurses.
Edmond gave an overview of Lean Concepts, Value Stream Mapping, Voice of the Customer, 8 Deadly Wastes and more. In the afternoon Edmond, Matos-Botex and I made rounds on 6 Dean for more than 3 hours looking in the store rooms, checking supplies, room layout, nursing station layout, chart organization and noise level.
We weren't allowed to talk about solutions, which was hard to do when you are slowly walking through the unit and finding waste and hearing some of Edmond's ideas she had used in the past.
Edmond and Matos-Botex were able to see real-life examples on 6 Dean: a patient being treated by a rapid response team and three staff helping; a patient on a stretcher in the hallway calling out; and another patient trying to climb out of bed.


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Hi !!!
Thanks your very much for your help, its works :D
Have a nice day!
Type: Posts; User: zagg; Keyword(s):
Hi !!!
Thanks your very much for your help, its works :D
Have a nice day!
In Zimbra 7, I use postfix_transport_maps= and relay_domains= in main.cf for relay per domain to external smtp.
After upgrade to Zimbra 8 I have "relay denied" when I use my transport table...
Same problem here on 2 Zimbra server.
I have followed tips on wiki (erase clamd DB and re-running fleshclam but not working .....)
Please help !
Hello all,
I have the same problem, since few weeks my Zimbra server receive a lot of blizzard spam every days :-(
How can I use your plugins in Zimbra for tag or stop this fishing mail please...
Its works ! After recreating certificate, Zimbra work very good.
Big thanks for your help !
Ok many thanks !
I will try this night because I have restored a backup a working version of my Zimbra server.
I hope this works and I can use Zimbra 6 ;-)
I come back after trying.
Thanks for your answer.
I have already try to find if a process listening on a port used by Zimbra.
All service are stopped, no other apache,smtp,pop.... running of the server (I have...
Hello all,
I have a really big problem :
I can't upgrade my server with Zimbra 5.0.21_GA_3150 ont Centos 5 to the last Zimbra 6.0.4_GA_2038
Upgrade process seem to be work good but at the end I...
Hello again,
I have been folowed tuto but I have always this message when relaying :
Nov 26 17:16:27 vm01 postfix/smtpd[15412]: NOQUEUE: reject: RCPT from xxx.com[82.x.x.x]: 554 5.7.1...
Ok thanks !!! :)
Hello All,
I use Zimbra Community with a lot of domains and its work very good.
But today I need to "relay" to another SMTP server only a domain that not
on the Zimbra server. (for make a SMTP...
Yes! its works great !
Thank you bdial for your quick answer.
I want to reset a calendar from a normal account on my Zimbra server.
I don't find a zmprov command do to this. Its possible ?
Thanks in advance.


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This is another of the pin-uops I currently have up on Ebay for sale. This time something different, Cheetara the female Thundercat. I sort of have a fondness of this cheesball cartoon. It had a great voice cast and an awesome opening title sequence, maybe my fave after the old Spider-man cartoon and Johnny Quest...unfortunately the show was never as well drawn or animated.
I'm surprised it hasn't had a comeback yet like He-man.
Hello I'm Mike Manley, welcome to my studio Blog. I am veteran comic, animation artist and created and edit Draw! Magazine. This blog is a chronicle of what's happening in my studio at home or in school,follow as I show my process and as a cartoonist, painter, teacher and more. I've just graduated with a Masters In Art from he Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. Follow my process and path as an painter, cartoonist and teacher and find out how they inform and enrich each other!
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Thunder, Thunder, Thundercat H*****
Posted by Michael Manley at 10:37 AM
1 comment:
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


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July 23, 2009 | Tom Tritton
By now most readers will have heard about the July 9, 2009, Pew Research Center report on the attitudes of Americans on science and scientists. At one level the news is good: Americans hold scientists in high esteem and believe science contributes to our economic well-being.
At another level, though, the Pew report reveals the seeds of future problems: scientists think other folks don't know enough about science, and all Americans become wary of one another on tender issues like evolution and climate change.
The latter point on ideological division mirrors the way contemporary society deals with all manner of challenges: draw a line in the sand, and line up people on one side or the other. The antidote is to resist the idea that everything can be reduced to simple categorization lacking in nuance, subtlety, and intricacies of understanding.
On the matter of general scientific understanding, you might like to try out the Science Knowledge Quiz administered by Pew as part of the study. My hunch is that anyone who reads Periodic Tabloid would likely achieve 100% correct answers, but take a look for yourself. The survey showed a broad scoring range among the citizenry at large, but please let me know if I'm overestimating how much scientifically educated people actually know.
Posted In:
By posting your comment, you agree to abide by CHFs Comment Policies.
Chemcraft Chemistry Set
©2010–2016 Chemical Heritage Foundation


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Lindsay Lohan Charged With DUI and Cocaine Possession
Actress Lindsay Lohan was arrested in Beverly Hills, Calif., and was charged with DUI and possession of cocaine.
After Lohan's car struck a curb, she was taken in another car to a hospital for treatment of minor injuries. Police received a 911 call about the accident and arrested Lohan at the hospital.
Officers said they found in her car a "usable amount" of a drug they've tentatively identified as cocaine.
This was the 20-year old girl's third accident in about two years. Her publicist said, last December, that Lohan was attending AA meetings. She had checked herself into a rehab center for substance abuse in January.


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April 2011 Indie Next List
"Wallander, coming to an age where retirement becomes inevitable, realizes that life is not without end, that neglect of his physical needs is taking its toll, that his mind may not be as sharp as before. Amid all these thoughts he gets personally, not professionally, involved in a police investigation of his daughter's father-in-law, a former Swedish Naval officer. Wallander is still a capable, if sometimes wayward, detective, but this novel focuses more on the man himself, as he comes to terms with his age, his past, and his deep love for his daughter and granddaughter."
— Jean-Paul Adriaansen, Water Street Books, Exeter, NH
A retired navy officer has vanished in a forest near Stockholm. Kurt Wallander is prepared to stay out of the relatively straightforward investigation--which is, after all, another detective's responsibility--but the missing man is his daughter's father-in-law.
With his typical disregard for rules and regulations, Wallander is soon pursuing his own brand of dogged detective work on someone else's case. His methods are often questionable, but the results are not: he finds an extremely complex situation which may involve the secret police and ties back to Cold War espionage. Adding to Wallander's concerns are more personal troubles. Having turned sixty, and having long neglected his health, he's become convinced that his memory is failing. As he pursues this baffling case, he must come to grips not only with the facts at hand, but also with his own troubling situation.


text: Hey guys Im new here and I just wanted to say wassup!!! I REALLY love music and recently got a guitar and am ready to get to playin. I am a pretty smart dude, but I don't know sh*t about playin a guitar. Hopefully this board will help me get started! I will prolly take lessons soon its jus so hard not to wanna jump right into the songs I love but theres no friggin way. I think people who are good at this are either born w/ talent or have worked their ass off so Im ready to work! Thanks guys and catch u on the forums! :)


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August 15, 2014
Barri Bronston
Phone: 504-352-2534
Tulane University President Mike Fitts will take the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge presented to him by Tulane head football Coach Curtis Johnson today at 3 p.m. outside the Wilson Athletics Center on Ben Weiner Drive. Fitts plans to be dressed for the occasion in his usual suit and tie. Coach CJ will do the honors of "icing" his president in order to promote awareness of ALS.
Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118 504-865-5000 email@example.com


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IRVINE, Calif., May 6. WHILE the World Championships will end July in splendid fashion, August is certain to get off to a sizzling spark, thanks to the second edition of the Mutual of Omaha Duel in the Pool, scheduled for Irvine, Calif.
The event, matching the World Championship teams of the United States and Australia in a dual-meet format, is scheduled for Aug. 2. When the United States and Aussies met two years ago, the Stars and Stripes came away with a dominating victory.
"The Mutual of Omaha Duel in the Pool is becoming our sport's version of the Super Bowl," said Chuck Wielgus, USA Swimming Executive Director. "When Australia and the United States go head-to-head, it determines the best swimming team in the world."
The Duel in the Pool will feature combined team scoring, with the winning team honored with a traveling trophy. Any world records set during the competition will result in a $25,000 bonus. In the first edition of the event, Michael Phelps established a global record in the 400 I.M. and an American mark in the 100 butterfly.
Held at the Woollett Aquatic Center, which seats 2,600, the meet is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. (PDT). NBC Television will air three hours of coverage, split between August 6 (4:30-6 p.m.) and August 7 (1-2:30 p.m.). Contested in a long-course format, the meet will include 14 events with a scoring system of 5-3-2-1 on an individual basis and 7-0 in relays. Athletes can swim up to four events, including relays.


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אנחנו בפייסבוק
Statement marks first time US president says publicly that he supports gay marriage. Gay advocacy group: He made history
Published: 05.09.12, 22:50 / Israel News
"It is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married," Obama said in an interview with ABC's Robin Roberts.
Related articles:
This is the first time Obama has said publicly that he supports gay marriage, an issue that is divisive for many Americans. Pressure built on the president to clarify his views after Biden and other cabinet members came out in favor of allowing gay and lesbian people to wed.
The president, who ended the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy that prevented gays from serving openly in the military, said watching members of his staff who are in committed same-sex relationships and thinking about "soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained" had affected his thinking.


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Do you have a question about consumer credit? You may find an immediate answer by using the search engine. If you can't find what you're looking for, please fill out the form, being as specific as possible.
Please note: The Ask Experian team cannot respond to each question individually. However, if your question is of interest to a wide audience of consumers, the Experian team will include it in a future column.
Our policies
The information contained in this column if for educational purposes only and is not legal advice. You should consult your own attorney or seek specific advice from a legal professional regarding your particular situation.
Please understand that Experian policies change over time. Column responses reflect Experian policy at the time of writing. While maintained for your information, archived responses may not reflect current Experian policy.
Credit Advice
Topics addressed on October 31, 2007:
When deciding which debt to repay, it doesn't matter if it is old or new
Dear Experian,
Is it better to pay off old debts first, or to pay new debt? I have a lot of old debts. Sometimes I ignore them due to paying new bills, but then the old ones are there for a longer amount of time.
Dear CHA,
It doesn't matter whether the debt is old or new. Not paying any debt is very negative. The harsh reality is that you have to pay all of them to make your credit report better.
You need to focus on two things. The first step in solving your debt problems is getting control of your spending. The first is not creating more debt. If you are still buying things with your credit cards, stop. If you are getting loans to buy things, stop. You must not take on new debt.
The next step is to take a hard, honest look at your financial situation. You can't solve your money problems until you know exactly what your personal financial situation is. What is your income? What are your expenses? Where can you cut back on expenses? What other sources of income might you explore other than your regular job?
You might be surprised at how much money you waste that could be used to pay off your debts. For example, I often talk to people who have a $5 cup of coffee every morning. That's more than $1,500 a year.
There are excellent non-profit credit counseling organizations that can help you identify those kinds of things, assist you in establishing a budget and guide you in putting together a financial plan.
During that process, you will probably identify which debts to pay off first. I normally recommend paying off the debt with the highest interest rate first. But, it can be as simple as picking the smallest one or the largest one and putting everything you can toward it until it is gone, while still making minimum payments on the rest of your accounts.
Some people like to start with the smallest debt because it will be the fastest to get paid off, which gives them a sense of accomplishment and increases their confidence that they can pay off the rest. Others start with the biggest debt and hammer it out. Once it's gone, the mountain seems a lot smaller.
Either way, you have to start somewhere.
Eventually, your debts will get smaller, the negative information will be deleted from your credit report and you will be able to rebuild your credit history. Even better, you'll have more money to spend because you won't be paying all that interest,
Thanks for asking.
- The "Ask Experian" team


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The following is a court-television show to be aired sometime in the future.
Announcer: There are no actors, and there is no script. The charges are serious, and the verdict will be binding. You are about to witness a trial in The Court of the Offended.
Announcer: Today's case is Vemealone vs. Timized. The plaintiff, Ms. Lea Vemealone is suing Mr. Vic Timized for $20,000.00 worth of psychiatric treatment for depression. Ms. Vemealone alleges her depressed state is the result of continued religious harassment by the defendant. Presiding over today's trial is Judge Sue Demall.
Bailiff: All rise for the Honorable Sue Demall
Bailiff: You may be seated.
Judge Sue: So, Ms. Vemealone, you were harassed by Mr. Timized?
Lea: Yes, Your Honor. Vic and I work together at Price Marketing. I'm a data entry clerk and Vic is in Customer Service. Vic would often approach me and try to force his religious views upon me. He tried several times to get me to join his cult, or whatever it is.
Vic: Your Honor, I'm not a member of a cult. I belong to ---
Judge Sue: You just stop right there and shut your mouth. You are not going to proselytize in this courtroom. This is MY COURT, buddy boy, and don't you forget it. Keep the name of your religious group to yourself. --- OK Lea, you were telling me that tricky Vic over here was proselytizing at work. Go on ---
Lea: Well, as I was saying, Vic would come up to me out of nowhere and start a religious conversation. He would imply that I was going to hell because I was not a member of his cult. He would try to give me little papers with stuff about God on it mocking my beliefs. It got to the point that I hated to go to work. I finally had to seek counseling.
Judge Sue: There there. It will be OK. --- And what do you have to say for yourself Mr. Timized? Are you in the habit of harassing people about religion?
Vic: Actually, I think it has been a misunderstanding. I do talk about my faith to those who will listen, and I answer questions when asked, but I have never forced my faith on anyone.
Judge Sue: Why would Ms. Vemealone be so traumatized if it were as innocent as you make it sound?
Vic: I think Lea might be a little overly sensitive about those things.
Lea: There he goes again. Calling me names and making fun of me. How can you allow him to do that?
Judge Sue: Mr. Timized, you are to refrain from trying to humiliate Ms. Vemealone in this courtroom. IS THAT CLEAR?
Vic: Your Honor, I most definitely was not trying to offend anyone.
Lea: Sure Vic, then why were you always harassing me and being critical of my beliefs?
Vic: But I never did anything of the kind, Lea. All I ever said was ---
Judge Sue: HEY!!! You SHUT YOUR MOUTH! You direct your comments to me and leave that poor girl alone.
Vic: But she asked me ---
Judge Sue: What part of SHUT UP did you not HEAR? (pause) Now Lea, try to hold back those tears. Can you give me an example of Vic's harassments?
Lea: (sniffle sniffle) Sure Your Honor. One day Vic came up to me and invited me to one of his cult practices.
Vic: I was selling tickets to a spaghetti dinner for my ---
Judge Sue: HEY YOU!!! ONE MORE TIME AND YOU GO TO JAIL! Do not even TRY to mention the name of your cult in THIS COURT. (pause) Now Lea, please go on.
Lea: Well, when I said I wanted nothing to do with his weird religious group, he started harassing me at every opportunity. I was feeling ill one day and he tried to place some religious spell on me, to cure me, or something.
Judge Sue: Do you remember that incident, Mr. Timized?
Vic: I think she is referring to the time she sneezed and I said, "God bless you."
Judge Sue: Well, maybe she DOES NOT BELIEVE IN YOUR GOD. Did you ever think of that? How dare you assume that everyone must believe the way you do.
Vic: I really didn't mean anything by ---
Judge Sue: I think we all know what you meant. Now just shut up you religious fanatic and let Ms. Vemealone finish.
Lea: Thank you Judge. One day, I was feeling a little down. While sitting in the break room, Vic came in to get a cup of coffee. I told him I was depressed. Instead of just showing a little sympathy, Vic commanded me to respond to some spiritual dictate because of how his God feels. I was humiliated.
Judge Sue: That is horrible. What gave you the right to say something like that to the poor girl, Mr. Timized?
Vic: She said she was sad, so I said, "Smile. God loves you."
Judge Sue: Appalling! You arrogant jerk. As if you know whom God loves.
Vic: Well, Your Honor, I know that God loves everyone.
Judge Sue: YOU DO NOT KNOW! You are so arrogant. You think you know, but you do not know. I admit I do not know, because I am humble. Anyone who thinks they know is conceited and self-aggrandizing. I am not like that, Vic, because I admit I don't know. I know your type. You think you know everything.
Vic: That is not true Judge. There are many things I don't know.
Judge Sue: Don't tell me what you do and do not know, you pompous fool. --- Now, what else has he done, Lea?
Lea: Once, when we were at the cola machine, he asked me to change, and then handed me a piece of paper with something about God on it. I ran off crying.
Vic: Your Honor, I asked her for change, not to change. And the piece of paper I handed her was a dollar bill.
Lea: Yes, it was a dollar. But he handed it to me with the side that says IN GOD WE TRUST facing up. I knew what he was trying to say. Like the time he told me to turn or burn.
Judge Sue: Did you say that Mr. Timized?
Vic: When she told me she was going to lay on the beach for a few hours to try to get a suntan, I told her she should turn often or she might burn.
Lea: That is true. But once again, I knew what he was trying to say.
Judge Sue: I think we all know what your type is trying to say, Mr. Timized.
Vic: My type?
Judge Sue: Yes, your type. You are one of those FUNDA-MENTAL-CASES. You think you have all the answers. You are the type that thinks God should be involved in everyday life. What a distorted individual you are. I have heard enough. I find in favor of the Plaintiff. Mr. Timized is to pay Ms. Vemealone twenty thousand dollars for psychiatric fees.
Announcer: What is your impression of the verdict?
Lea: Justice was done. Maybe this will send a message to those know-it-all religious funda-mental-cases.
Announcer: What about you?
Vic:I think it is one big misunderstanding. I never intended to hurt Lea, or anyone else. It is very unfair to make me pay for offending someone I never intended to offend. Not only that, but I have been offended myself. They implied that I am mentally ill. I was being called a funda-mental-case. It doesn't seem fair.
Announcer: You are one sick piece of work.
Announcer: Well, there you have it. Sick Vic beaten by lovely Lea. Until next time, goodbye from Court of the Offended.


text:
More New and Used
from Private Sellers
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Meatball Sundae : Is Your Marketing out of Sync?
ISBN13:by Godin, Seth
Portfolio Trade
Questions About This Book?
Why should I rent this book?
Renting is easy, fast, and cheap! Renting from eCampus.com can save you hundreds of dollars compared to the cost of new or used books each semester. At the end of the semester, simply ship the book back to us with a free UPS shipping label! No need to worry about selling it back.
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Returning books is as easy as possible. As your rental due date approaches, we will email you several courtesy reminders. When you are ready to return, you can print a free UPS shipping label from our website at any time. Then, just return the book to your UPS driver or any staffed UPS location. You can even use the same box we shipped it in!
What version or edition is this?
This is the Reprint edition with a publication date of 4/24/2012.
What is included with this book?
- The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any CDs, lab manuals, study guides, etc.
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Related Products
Bestselling business author Godin delivers his most far-reaching and provocative book, explaining what works in marketing these days, what doesnt, and what to do about it.
Author Biography
Seth Godin is an entrepreneur, a sought-after lecturer, a monthly columnist for Fast Company, and an all-around business gadfly. He's the bestselling author of Permission Marketing, Unleashing the Ideavirus, The Big Red Fez, Survival Is Not Enough, and Purple Cow.


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By NEMS Daily Journal
OXFORD – Matthew Hyde Maynard of Tupelo was sentenced to 70 months in prison for the 2011 armed robbery of Merchants & Farmers Bank on North Gloster.
Maynard, 26, was indicted Nov. 15, 2011, on three counts associated with the bank robbery.
He faced up to 42 years in prison and $750,000 in fines if convicted on all counts.
He pleaded guilty to two counts on March 15, and the government agreed not to prosecute a more serious part of Count Two, brandishing a firearm in a federal crime of violence, and to drop the third count at sentencing.
Last week, Chief District Judge Michael P. Mills sentenced him to 10 months on Count One and 50 months on Count Two to be served consecutively, and at the same time as a prior state sentence.


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Evan Yan's blog Blog for evanyan https://blogs.oracle.com/evanyan/feed/entries/atom 2011-04-08T18:33:38+00:00 Apache Roller https://blogs.oracle.com/evanyan/entry/put_your_patch_upstream Put your patch upstream evanyan 2007-07-11T00:13:05+00:00 2007-07-11T07:13:05+00:00 Today is a Sun patch day for us engineers working on Java Desktop System. We invited gnome hackers to join us, review our patches, and push the less controversial ones upstream.

 We keep trying to put our patches upstream, i.e. put them back to the community code base. Putting patches upstream not only contributes to community, but also helps us lower our maintenance cost.

 Take Mozilla for example, when we worked on Mozilla 1.7, because of the tight schedule and some other reason, we held many patches ourselves, especially on accessibility module. The good thing was, we made Sun Mozilla 1.7 much more accessible. While the bad thing is when community code base move forward, we had to spend much time to update our own patches to make them comply with the latest code. Sometimes it was painful, because there could be conflicts and regressions, since our patches were held locally and weren't tested with new code. And since those patches were not reviewed by community hackers, some of them also had potential problems. When Firefox comes out, we had to abandon many of the former patches.

 Fortunately, we're working on HEAD now, all of our patches to Mozilla are put upstream (except some branding ones). When a new version of Firefox comes out, we can deliver our Solaris packages at the first time without wasting time on maintaining old patches.

 Wish today a successful Sun Patch Day.
 https://blogs.oracle.com/evanyan/entry/mozilla_cvs_account Mozilla CVS account evanyan 2007-06-28T08:40:10+00:00 2007-07-30T07:31:35+00:00
I have been granted with Mozilla CVS account. That means I have the check-in permission to Mozilla CVS repository now. And it's also a recognition for my work, I think.

It has been quite some time for me to get the account. I have been working on Mozilla, mainly on accessibility module, for more than one year. For some reason, patch for accessibility module do not need super-review before it can be checked in. That makes super-reviewers do not know much about our work. While to get a CVS account, super-reviewer's vouch is a compulsory requirement. So it is not easy. Thanks a lot to Robert, Aaron and Ginn for vouching me.

Accessibility is interesting, and it touches many other places in Mozilla code base, especially layout module. Learn more, have more fun.

 https://blogs.oracle.com/evanyan/entry/how_to_build_a_l10n How to build l10n builds for mozilla applications evanyan 2006-12-13T05:36:57+00:00 2006-12-13T13:46:44+00:00
From mozilla web page, you can easily find out how to build a mozilla application(like Firefox and Thunderbird) with the default locale en-US. But it's not so easy to get how to build a l10n version. Here it is.

1. you have to check out mozilla/tools/l10n/l10n.mk besides mozilla/client.mk.

$ cvs -d:pserver:anonymous-AT-cvs-mirror.mozilla-DOT-org:/cvsroot co mozilla/client.mk mozilla/tools/l10n/l10n.mk

2. do l10n-checkout before checking out the real code.

$ make -f client.mk l10n-checkout MOZ_CO_PROJECT=browser

3. create l10n files, replacing ab-CD with your locale, like zh-CN.

$ make -f tools/l10n/l10n.mk create-ab-CD MOZ_CO_PROJECT=browser

4. add this line into your .mozconfig file.

mk_add_options MOZ_CO_LOCALES=ab-CD

Then, do what you like as normal building.

$ make -f client.mk checkout
$ make -f client.mk build

 More detail information available here.


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|System z on Facebook
System z and the state of cloud, security and mobile: Hot news from Pulse 2013
Pratin Ashtekar 2700046SAG email@example.com | | Tags:  green smartcloud omegamon systems qradar vikram_gulati tep tivoli management itm siem system_z_software zenterprise z screen | 3,934 Visits
Pulse 2013 was a fantastic event for System z customers and there was a lot to take in. Amongst many new ideas and updates, I was struck by the speed of mobility's move into the enterprise and its impact on driving cloud adoption. I also heard a lot about security, including customers such as Equifax talking about the need to be able to anticipate and react quickly to threats. I came away convinced that security intelligence is essential to keeping enterprises secure.
Forrester analyst John Rymer led a session in which he shared the results of a survey Forrester had conducted with customers on their requirements from a private cloud. Several of these customers reported that they are now moving their mission-critical enterprise workloads to the cloud and they are looking for an infrastructure that can provide high levels of reliability, availability, security and scalability. All of these, by the way, are salient features of a System z mainframe!
System z sessions were well attended and there was standing room only in many of them. The highlight of the session on "Cloud Ready on System z" was a demo on quickly and easily deploying images and managing the administration of that process, including approvals via the various capabilities in the Cloud Ready offering. The solution provides capabilities for provisioning, backup and recovery, monitoring, service lifecycle management, and automation. It's also very quick to get up and running via the services of an IBM business partner. Customers seemed glad to hear about the support for multi-tenancy and multi-disk and that other platforms could also be managed by Cloud Ready.
The Tivoli for zEnterprise session focused on the factors that make System z a great platform for a highly resilient, scalable and affordable private cloud, such as capacity on demand, which is critical if zero downtime is a requirement for an enterprise cloud. The session included scenarios showing how data centers could realize up to 80% in savings by moving certain workloads to a cloud on the mainframe. The speaker also discussed the benefits of automation capabilities from Tivoli, such as SmartCloud Provisioning, to deploy patterns onto the mainframe. These were shown to save up to 75% in labor hours for a typical banking workload.
Last, but not least, was the System z "Meet the Experts" panel with some of IBM's most knowledgeable experts answering questions from the audience. Security came up again and the panelists noted that it was important to leverage the tools that come with the mainframe to secure the platform based on each business's unique usage. Being proactive in securing the "pipe" to the mainframe was also called "critical." Some customers said that they needed to able to assess security across all platforms from a single pane of glass. SIEM (security information and event management) tools, such as QRadar, were suggested as helping to show the state of affairs across all platforms.
Overall, I came away full of new ideas and new ways of looking at some ongoing challenges. The performances by Carrie Underwood, the talk by Peyton Manning on leadership and decision-making, and the System z reception were icing on the cake. My time at Pulse 2013 was enjoyable and very well spent.
For more information on Cloud on System z, visit ibm.com/SystemzCloud
You can also check out other updates on PULSE 2013 and view photos from the event on our official System z Facbook page: facebook.com/IBMSystemz


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When Disney was Disney
Movies | In Secretariat the family movie kingpin has finally made a movie for all ages again
Disney's Secretariat (rated PG for mild language) hearkens back to the kind of movies that made the studio beloved by families all across America. It's hopeful, it's cheerful, it's funny, and there's nothing in it to keep you from seeing it with either your 88-year-old grandmother or your 8-year-old daughter. Even better, both are likely to enjoy it.
By approaching the true story through the life of housewife-turned-racehorse-owner Penny Chenery (Diane Lane), director Randall Wallace keeps the tension high despite the fact that almost everyone already knows the outcome. The movie is less about the horse than it is about Chenery and her struggle to balance being a good wife and mother with fulfilling her personal dream (some viewers may debate whether she achieves that balance, but mothers everywhere will feel for her).
Even in its treatment of 1960s politics, Secretariat's big heart manages to be kind to all sides. The daughters are anti-war and pro-peace-signs, but they show respect for their parents' views. The parents are conservative red-staters, but they smile and wink at one another, believing the girls will feel differently when they're older.
A couple of cornier moments (a Scarlett O'Haraworthy "I'll never go hungry again" speech from Lane elicited titters, not tears, in my screening) are brief and easily forgotten when John Malkovich walks on screen as hilarious horse trainer Lucien Laurin. And though the story isn't overtly spiritual, the soundtrack, along with some wonderfully apt quotations from Job will make Christian viewers feel like they're in the inner circle for once.
For more on the film and director Randall Wallace, see "A different calling."


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Shot in high definition you are swept through the center of London – a dizzying rush of sights and sounds taking in both the ancient and the modern.
This is quite possibly viewed full screen so press that button, sit back and take it all in. It will save a fortune in air tickets.
Pick your favorite way to stay updated


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The Immunological Niche: Effect of immunosuppressant drugs on stem cell proliferation, gene expression, and differentiation in a model of spinal cord injury.
Our understanding of the effect of immunosuppressive agents on stem cell proliferation and differentiation in the central nervous system is limited. Indeed, even the necessity for long-term immunosuppression to promote the survival of stem cells grafted into the "immunoprivileged" central nervous system (CNS) is unknown. Grafting multipotent stem cells into the injured CNS often results in a failure of the cells to survive. If the cells survive, often they differentiate into astrocytes, a cell-type not considered beneficial. We recently grafted human stem cells (hCNS-SC) into spinal injured mice and observed behavioral improvements coupled with differentiation of these human cells into neurons and oligodendrocytes. We also observed mouse-human synapse formation and remyelination. The mice we used lacked a functional immune system, enabling us to grafting human cells into the mice without the use of immunosuppressants. When these same cells were grafted into spinal injured rats with a normal immune system, we had to immunosuppress the animals. Exposure of these human stem cells to immunosuppressive drugs resulted poor cell survival. The cells that did survive predominantly differentiated into astrocytes. Did the immunosuppressive drugs we used alter the ability of the human stem cells to differentiate into useful cells?
All cell-based therapeutic approaches are dependent upon either immunosuppression in an otherwise normal animal or testing for proof of principal in an immunodeficient animal model. This has quite significant implications for animal experiments or human trials, where continuous immunosuppression is required to obtain successful graft survival. No one knows if there are direct effects of immunosuppressant drugs on neural stem cells.
Stem cells may also respond differently to immunosuppression depending on their "ontogenetic" age (embryonic vs. fetal vs. adult). There is a common perception that "young" ES cells will have greater potential than "older" stem cells. Stem cells isolated at different ontogenetic stages might respond differently to immunosuppression.
We predict that the immunosuppressive drugs will exert direct effects on stem cell proliferation, gene expression, and fate determination, both in cell culture and when grafted into animals with spinal cord injury. We will also test if "ontogenetic" age alters the responsiveness of stem cells.
The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) recognizes that the field of stem cell biology is in its infancy. CIRM has requested a broad range of research to fill in key gaps in our understanding of basic stem cell biology and the possible use of these cells as therapeutics. Grants are to be judged on impact (extent the proposed research addresses an important problem; significantly moves the field forward scientifically; moves the research closer to therapy; and changes the thinking or experimental practice in the field), quality (is proposed research planned carefully to give a meaningful result; are possible difficulties are acknowledge; does the timetable allows for achieving significant research) and innovation (to what extent the research approach is original, breaks new ground, and brings novel ideas to bear on an important problem).
We believe that the projects proposed here target several of the areas CIRM cites as beneficial to the State of California. This proposal addresses the critical area of immunosuppression and stem cell survival in animal transplantation models. Future therapies using human stem cells will have to surmount the possible rejection by the host of cells derived from another source. If traditional immunosuppressive drugs are to be used, we will need to understand whether these drugs have a direct effect on stem cell proliferation and fate determination (or differentiation). Furthermore, these projects will allow for a direct comparison of stem cells from different ontogenetic stages and the ability to improve functional outcome after spinal cord injury. Thus we may gain insight into whether embryonic derived stem cells are more useful than adult derived stem cells as a therapeutic tool.
We have shown that fetal human central nervous system derived stem cells (HuCNS-SC) transplanted into a mouse model of spinal cord injury (SCI) improve behavioral recovery. Transplanted human cells differentiated into myelinating oligodendrocytes and synapse forming neurons. These data suggest that efficacy is dependent upon successful cell engraftment and appropriate cell fate. The strain of mice (NOD-scid mice) are immunodeficient, which allows transplanted human cell populations to engraft and promote behavioral recovery in the absence of confounds due to a rejection response and allows us to avoid using immunosuppressant drugs. Clinically, however, it is clear that transplantation of therapeutic human cell populations will require administration of immunosuppressants (IS) such as CsA, FK506, or Rapamycin. These immunosuppressants work by altering signaling pathways which are also present within stem cells. Hence, in addition to promoting engraftment, IS have the potential to affect stem cell proliferation and/or differentiation. In Aim 1A, we tested this hypothesis in a cell culture model and found that HuCNS-SC fate and proliferation were altered by exposure to different IS. CsA and FK506 decreased the number of astrocytes in culture compared to control conditions, while Rapamyin increased the number of astrocytes. All three IS increased the number of ß-tubulin III positive neuron-like cells.
In Aim 1B, we tested whether cells of the inflammatory system (neutrophils and macrophages) could also directly influence stem cell proliferation and fate. To test this possibility, we exposed either fetal or embryonic neural stem cells to cell culture media from co-cultures of neutrophils or macrophages. We found that neutrophil-mediated release of inflammatory proteins promotes astrocyte differentiation of fetal derived neural stem cells but not embryonic derived neural stem cells. One way inflammatory cells might be working is via oxidative stress (e.g. hydrogen peroxide). Interestingly, excess hydrogen peroxide promoted more extensive cell death of embryonic derived versus fetal fetal derived neural stem cells, suggesting an intrinsic difference in the vulnerably of these two cell populations to oxidative stress. Conditioned media from neutrophils was found to reduce proliferation in fetal neural stem cells but not embryonic derived neural stem cells. In addition, we found neutrophil conditioned media promotes human fetal NSC astrocytic fate and migration towards sites of injury epicenter in an animal model of spinal cord injury; followup cell culture experiments enabled us to determine that neutrophil synthesized complement proteins were having a direct effect on stem cell fate and migration, resulting in a patent filing. These data demonstrate that fetal NSCs and ES-NSCs are very different by nature and nurture.
In Aim 2, we evaluated the hypothesis that IS could alter stem cell proliferation and/or fate in vivo, independent of rejection from the recipient's immune system. HuCNS-SC were transplanted into NOD-scid mice, which have no immune system and hence cannot mount an immune response to the foreign cells. These animals received different immunosuppressants (CsA, FK506, Rapamycin, or vehicle) daily after transplantation until sacrifice 13 weeks later to determine if the total number of surviving human cells, or the end cell fate of the transplanted cells would be altered due to exposure to IS drugs compared to the vehicle control group. Behavioral recovery was assessed via open-field walking assessment, horizontal ladder beam testing, and video based "CatWalk" gait analysis. IS administration did not affect behavioral recovery by any of these measures compared to HuCNS-SC transplanted animals that received vehicle as an IS. Spinal cords were dissected, sectioned, and immunostained using human-specific markers in conjunction with cell lineage/fate and proliferation markers. Cell engraftment, proliferation, and fate were quantified using unbiased methods. The average number of engrafted human cells in uninjured animals was 319,700 vs 214,900 in vehicle treated injured controls. Human cell engraftment in any IS group was not significantly different than vehicle injured controls. Interestingly, 67% of human cells differentiated into Olig2+ oligodendrocyte-like cells in the uninjured controls, while 45% were Olig2 positive in vehicle treated injured controls. IS treatment did not alter Olig2 cell numbers in injured animals. 9% of human cells differentiated into GFAP positive astrocyte-like cells in the uninjured controls, compared with 9% in vehicle treated injured controls. IS treatment did not alter GFAP cell numbers in injured animals. Quantification of proliferation and other lineage markers is ongoing. The important finding thus far is that when administered to whole animals with a human stem cell transplant, a range of immunosuppressant drugs does not appear to significantly alter stem cell fate.
- Stem Cells Transl Med (2013) Immunosuppressants Affect Human Neural Stem Cells In Vitro but Not in an In Vivo Model of Spinal Cord Injury. (PubMed: 23981724)