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- Road Race
- Trail
- Triathlon
- Price Point Pro Builds
Sette Nix SPD Shoe
The Nix from Sette is a great option if you're looking for a little style in a clipless compatible shoe. The Nix features a durable, high grip outer sole with a recessed cut-away mount that will fit any SPD style two bolt cleat. Inside is a highly rigid plate that will withstand flexing even under high stress full power situations.
This is my 2nd time getting the Sette Nix. I had my original ones for almost 3 years. Prior to that I had its predecessor, the original Sette Nix, but they weren't called the Nix, it was something else and they were black instead of white. I got those OG shoes back in 2006! Loved them so much that I kept bugging the guys at Sette to bring them back. Why? Well its a simple matter of fashion. I just don't like traditional XC mountain bike shoes. They look like ballet slippers with buckles and straps. But with the Sette Nix they look like normal shoes with SPD compatibility. The title of my review is called "My second time around" for the reason that I had a pair that I still use from 2010. They're getting worn out but they're still intact. The stitching has never come undone, the shoe laces never broke, the big strap across the top is still in one piece. The only thing that has worn out some would be the soles. That's probably because I used the Sette Nix for DH racing and a few XC races. It's seen action in Mammoth, Southridge and dozens of runs at Snow Summit. Another reason why I love these shoes is the fact that I can walk in them. One of my favorite things to do after a ride is to go eat. I don't have to worry about changing shoes because I can get off the bike, walk into a burrito pace and get myself a 3 foot burrito with a diet coke! I don't have to worry about slipping or walking funny because the soles are shaped weird like traditional cycling shoes. I forgot to mention that my Sette Nix have seen a few hundred commuting miles. Did you notice that the Nix have a reflective material on the back so cars can see you at night, genius! Oh ya, going back to the title. I have a brand new pair of Sette Nix shoes, still in the box. Those would be my 2nd pair, but total of 3 Sette Shoes in the last 7 years. Sette continues to impress me with the quality of products they are coming up with. I love how they are breaking the grip of larger company's hands off my wallet. Do you realize how many Sette products I own just because it was the affordable alternative? Well let's go through some of the stuff I've owned at some point or another that came from Sette. Venom Vexx bars stem-still have that! 4 pairs of Sette shoes gloves saddle bags tools:headpress tool, star nut installer and a bunch of tire levers jerseys shorts sunglasses patch kits pumps Yep, I've owned all those items. But I digress, the shoes. Remember we were talking about them. Well the good thing about those is quality. For a "generic" brand...c'mon let's be honest here, Sette is not 661 or Shimano. But! Sette gives those bigger brands a run for their money. Just look at my list of Sette products, do you really think I'd keep buying Sette stuff if it didn't last? I know I'm cheap...well more like Frugal, but I also know and want quality. Sette speaks and makes quality products and this is why I keep coming back to them. By the way, these shoes, the Sette Nix,they're awesome. You should get them, you won't regret it nor will you look lame. In fact when you wear them you'll look pretty hardcore, or at least that's the level of confidence you'll have once you are riding with them.


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1996 - Centennial Boston Marathon
The historic centennial Boston Marathon in 1996 was monumental for many reasons. It was the not only the first time that the ChampionChip timing and scoring device was used in a major US Marathon, but it was the largest running event ever held at the time.
The starting field of 38,708 stood for more than seven years as the largest in the history of the sport. Included among the finishers were 16 Boston champions.

subset: commoncrawl


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Dan Harlan is one of magic's greatest creators. He's able to produce effects that are not only devilishly clever, but thoroughly entertaining as well. Stash is a perfect example.
(Spoiler Alert: Skip this next part and just watch the demo if you want to be surprised)
You borrow a dollar and display a Sharpie marker. You instruct the owner of the dollar to watch you carefully, keep their eye on the money and do NOT be distracted by the MAGIC marker!
Instantly, you uncap the pen with one hand!
You tap their bill twice with the pen and show her that a mustache has appeared on George's picture!
The spectator is holding the pen as you begin to fold the dollar. As you are folding the bill, you instruct the spectator to cap the pen. The moment they do, the dollar changes visibly into a brightly colored note! As you unfold the note, it reads, "Ready?", then "Okay, then..." and finally, "Please Uncap the pen." When they do, they are STUNNED to find their dollar INSIDE THE PEN! That's George alright... mustache and all!
WARNING: This effect will induce spontaneous profanity!
You receive the following with your purchase:
The specially modified Sharpie marker that automatically changes in the spectator's hands
Aquick release tool for resetting the pen
One perfectly pre-folded note ready to use
A full 30 minutes of detailed video instructions featuring Dan Harlan
The comprehensive video instructions are a joy to watch and make learning a breeze. There's nothing like learning one-on-one from the creator himself and you'll be able to access the video instructions immediately after you've completed your purchase!
Although "Stash" is designed for U.S. currency Dan has included creative variations and ideas that don't require a dollar.
STASH is a fun and offbeat routine that your audience will love. And it's so easy to do, it's bound to quickly become one of your favorite effects!
Get notified when back in stock click here.
Product 24/30


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Marshall Junior on course to follow in his dad's footsteps
Marshall Junior on course to follow in his dad's footsteps
Wind-cheater McFerran comes out on top at Revidge
Doherty extends lead over Young
Tommy Fleetwood follows up Open Championship with trip to Valhalla
Golf taster sessions at Southport Flower Show
Longridge player takes Silver Goblet again
Pines Trophy won by Southport & Ainsdale's England international
AS PART of an initiative to get more ladies into sport and to celebrate 125 years of the ladies' section Hesketh Golf club is holding a Ladies' Taster Day on Tuesday, February 18.
JAMIE REDMOND, Jack Ormesher, Jack Harrison and Tom Farrelly represented KGV College at the Regional Finals.
A HOST of footballing legends are set to take to the greens for the annual Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation Celebrity Golf Classic.
SOUTHPORT'S TOMMY FLEETWOOD completed the journey from his local municipal golf course to the winner's circle on the European Tour with a dramatic play-off victory in the Johnnie Walker Championship.
A SOUTHPORT golfer has received a limited-edition BOSS watch after scoring a hole-in-one during a recent competition at his club.
SOUTHPORT golfers Matthew Baldwin, Lee Slattery and Tommy Fleetwood faded at the business end of the Ballantine's Championship in South Korea.
GERRY BOND, one of the North West's most charismatic Golf Professional sadly lost his battle with Cancer on New Year's day.
HILLSIDE'S Emily Taylor is ready to take the plunge onto the Ladies European Tour after successfully coming through the gruelling qualifying school.
GLOBE-TROTTING golfer Tommy Fleetwood is enjoying his time off back home on Merseyside with family and friends – after revealing how he had to become a 'recluse' to save his career.
LANCASHIRE teenager Mina McQuhae, winner of the Lancashire Girls Millennium Trophy in 2010 and 2011, runner up in 2012, has been honoured by her local golf association.
GOLFING brothers Oliver and Adam Clarke are celebrating a double opportunity to progress their hopes of winning England honours.
LANCASHIRE reached next month's English Seniors' County Championship Finals after a dramatic finish in the northern regional qualifier at Heswall.
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Join in the conversation on our editor Andrew Brown's Facebook page Southport Visiter Andrew Brown or follow us on twitter @Visiter
Is there something happening in your area you would like us to report on? Then contact one of the team.
Editor, Southport Visiter
Andrew Brown is the editor of the Southport Visiter, Midweek Visiter, Formby Times, Ormskirk Advertiser, Skelmersdale Advertiser, and the Crosby Herald. Andrew was born and bred in Southport - a true Sandgrounder. Andrew was one of the founders of Southport's Charity Fun Fest.


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I hope your fantasy team is doing way better than mine. I'm currently 0-3 in a league where there are elite trash talkers and I can't stand it anymore. So far my waiver advice has been pretty good but I can't seem to follow it myself, so what am I going to do this week? Follow my own advice for once!
This week will see the most action on the waiver wires all season because it's officially time for they (fantasy owner dreaded) bye weeks in the NFL. The only teams having byes will be the Green Bay Packers and the Carolina Panthers, so if you're looking for players to replace them for the week, like me, then this can be of some help.
1. Alex Smith, QB Chiefs
Say you need to replace the 30+ point efforts of Cam Newton or Aaron Rodgers; Smith will be perfect as he currently has the 2nd highest fantasy points among Free Agent QB's in ESPN leagues. He'll be facing the winless New York Giants who got absolutely DEMOLISHED by Newton and the Panthers last week. Look for him to hook up on a lot of short passes and get you a decent amount of points to fill the void for the week.
2. Johnathon Franklin, RB Packers
This is a tricky pick up because A) He's on bye this week and B) that means Eddie Lacey and James Starks both have extra time to heal. Check to see the injury report for the Packers in the coming days and if you're set at RB for the time being this could prove to be a smart pick up in the future.
3. Kenbrell Thompkins, WR Patriots/ Donnie Avery WR Chiefs
Thompkins emerged from nowhere to catch two TD's last week from Tom Brady but with TE Rob Gronkowski possibly coming back for the game against the Falcons this week it could mean less red zone targets for Thompkins. That's why I listed Avery on here as well, because he's seeing a lot of action from Smith at QB and leads the team in receptions so far this season. Like I said earlier, the Giants passing D has looked suspect this season getting torched by Tony Romo, Peyton Manning, and Cam Newton. Look for Avery to do numbers this week.
4. Scott Chandler, TE Bills
This is hard to gauge because in the first two games Chandler had a combined six points but on Sunday against the Jets he doubled that with 79 yards receiving and a touchdown late in the game to tie it up. If he and QB E.J. Manuel can get on the same page it could be a match made in heaven for fantasy owners. He's worth a pick up if you're hurting at TE this week.
5. Cowboys D/ST
The Panthers D/ST is ranked fourth and currently on the waivers in my league. But with their bye this week they won't get you anything. The next best option? The Cowboys, especially since they play the Chargers this weekend. Phillip Rivers is always good for a turnover or two, seeing as he's pretty much the AFC version of Romo. The Cowboys have forced seven turnovers in the first three games of the season too.
I'll be back Thursday with another week of "Start 'Em/Sit 'Em" to get you ready to go for this week's match up's. Hopefully this helps and you can right the ship and not win the Sacko Trophy like I'm on pace to do this season.
Just Plain Joe is a die hard Atlanta Braves, Dallas Cowboys, Orlando Magic, and Michigan State Spartans fan. He almost won a Fantasy Football title last season. Want to talk more sports with him? Follow his Twitter.


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Tazo® Chai Tea Latte Concentrate
A rich blend of flavourful teas, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom and vanilla.
Tasting Notes
Creamy, sweet spice.
Enjoy this with:
A cinnamon scone and a dreamy look in your eyes.
- How to Brew
- Black Tea
- Ingredients
- Did You Know?
For Best Brewing
- Simply shake carton and mix equal parts of Chai concentrate with milk (or any milk substitute).
- Heat on the stove or in the microwave. Or simply pour over ice.
Black tea is the fully oxidized leaf of Camellia sinensis and requires the most processing. The brewed liquor ranges between dark brown and deep red. Black teas offer the strongest flavors and, in some cases, the greatest astringency.
Masala chai translates as "spiced tea." Chai wallahs are tea vendors who serve up hot, steaming cups of chai throughout India and South Asia.
- Product Details
You are a spicy one, aren't you?
Like a drive through an exotic marketplace with the windows rolled down, this blend of black teas will fill your senses, while the sweet cinnamon, spicy ginger and fragrant cardamom flirtatiously grab the steering wheel to take you in another direction.


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Writers and readers of LGBT romance come from all walks of life, with a shared certainty: Love knows no boundaries. Our members are career-focused individuals creating, publishing, and promoting LGBT romance.
Rainbow Romance Writers develops and promotes excellence in LGBT romance fiction, offering a virtual home to professional authors of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender love stories. Our members come from all walks of life but a love of literature is a common bond that connects us. As an active chapter of the Romance Writers of America, our chapter:
- Fosters artistic and professional success
- Helps members succeed as artists and professionals
- Advocates passionately for our rapidly expanding market online and at events both LGBT and romance-related
- Provides a dynamic resource for our members, the media, and the publishing industry
- Challenges assumptions, boosts visibility, and celebrates the scope of LGBT romance
Rainbow Romance Writers opens doors. We continue to push for research, awareness, and education in unexpected communities. With every story, our members build bridges with unexpected allies: romance readers expanding their horizons and LGBT readers discovering romance fiction for the first time.
We are changing minds, one heart at a time.
If you're already a member, just Log In to access our Forum.


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Once a week, I review a movie that I had previously not viewed. It could be a new one or an old one. It does not matter. What does matter is that you read and enjoy this simple blog post from a movie geek.
My weekend became very long Sunday night when it was 11 p.m. and I realized I had yet to watch a movie over the weekend. There was a heated debate between myself and I on whether or not I should stay up and watch Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.
In the end I won and stayed up to watch George Clooney's directorial debut movie. The movie is about game show creator Chuck Barris and his supposed secret life as a CIA Agent. Barris is played by Sam Rockwell with notable actresses Drew Barymore and Julia Roberts playing prominent roles.
Full disclosure here: I had already seen this movie. I was cleaning my apartment and I wanted something on in the background that I could tune into periodically. In doing this, I became completely lost as the movie moved forward. I hated the movie initially. Thought it was too confusing to get into.
My heart wouldn't allow me to just disregard the movie, however, and I forced myself to sit though the nearly two hour movie. In the end, I am glad I did. Rockwell, who I believe should land bigger roles, was amazing in his portrayal of Barris.
The other thing that surprised me was the directing job of Clooney. This movie is listed as a comedy on IMDB. To me, it was more crime drama with splashes of comedy thrown in throughout the movie. Very Cohen Brothers like in the making of the film.
Clooney has never been one of my favorite actors but he has directed some very strong films. I would put this one up there with Good Night and Good Luck and The Ides of March. He kept a storyline moving and very intriguing throughout.
The biggest question you have at the end of the film is whether or not you believe this whole thing actually happened to Barris or if he is crazy. The real Chuck Barris is still alive and when the book came out in the 1980's, it was vehemently denied by the CIA that Barris was ever part of their operation.
Obviously, the CIA is not going to admit classified information every happened. And Clooney doesn't go about trying to prove Barris is telling the truth or lying. He is just there to direct the story and let you decide. You end up in the end wanting it to be true because Rockwell makes you such a fan of Barris.
I doubt it is all true judging on how many things Barris was probably doing (drugs/booze) in his heyday on television but who cares. In the end, it makes for a great story and entertaining movie. Highly recommend you dig this one out from the archives and watch it.


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What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland's School Success - Anu Partanen - The Atlantic
Incredible image quality: Canon develops 35 mm full-frame CMOS sensor for video capture
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Antoine Smith - November 19 @ BlogTalkRadio.com/ColoredPeople 7pm Pacific/10pm Eastern
On Denzel Washington "He's reluctant hero. He's a guy who has issues—OCD, post-traumatic stress, he can't sleep at night. He's not slick in any way," Antoine tells Keeping It Reel with Film Gordon correspondent Wilson Morales.
Teedra Moses is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter. Moses was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, to a gospel singing mother, Shirley Moses.
The US War on Women continues as Republicans throughout the country have indeed pushed a plethora of legislation during the past few years that would result in limiting women's reproductive rights, access to health care access, and access to equal pay.
NHL On the Ice is back for the start of hockey season. Joining us to prepare you for the upcoming season is NHL.com fantasy writer Matt Sitkoff to talk about the season and fantasy hockey.
Nationally syndicated political writer Joseph Cotto's guest is John Derbyshire, one of America's most well known political commentators to discuss race and conservatism in America and politics
National League Rookie of the Year candidate Jacob deGrom has earned a spot with the Mets for 2015. Who else needs to stay, and who needs to go? Our season review takes a look at player by player on Out of the Blue and Orange.
Ann Crile Esselstyn & Jane Esselsty discusses plant-based diets and nutrition, and their book 'The Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease Cookbook'.
Tune in this Sunday to hear all about this year's "Wear It For Autism" event in London, as we hear from Anna Kennedy, owner of Anna Kennedy Online; an Autism Organisation supporting those with Autism and their families.
Filmmaker Michael Flores welcomes his team of Star Wars enthusiasts to discuss the recent news and rumors surrounding the production of Star Wars Episode VII.
IWS Radio covers three major events including Ask a Stupid Question Day, Good Neighbor Day, and Rabies Awareness Day...Time to laugh, ask stupid questions, pat your neighbor on the butt, and avoid rabies.
Italia Ricci, star of ABC Family's critically acclaimed hit series "Chasing Life", joins us in-studio for an exclusive interview about her life, the show and how her character April, which has made such a difference for the young adult cancer movement.
Celeste Yacoboni is the author of How Do You Pray and she is passionate about helping people discover a deeper experience of the sacred in their daily lives. Celeste is a Minister of Walking Prayer, ordained by the Center for Sacred Studies.
Author Doug Brunt may be best known as the husband of Fox News host Megyn Kelly, but he joins me this week to talk about his latest novel. Join me for an inside look at political campaigns.
How to Love Your Life with Medical Intuitive Jen Ward, founder of Jenuine Healing.
This week Next on the Tee with Chris Mascaro are Golf Digest Top 100 Instructor Eric Johnson and Callaway Golf's Director of Marketing Jason Finley.
Actress, musician, game inventor, model, biker, author, Power Rangers evil queen "Divatox" and Star Trek Deep Space 9's Hilary Shepard
Joy Keys provides her listeners with insight to improve their lives mentally, physically, monetarily and emotionally. Past guests on the show have included Meshell Nedegeocello, Blair Underwood, in addition to an impressive list of CEOs, humanitarians and authors.
Host Barry Moltz gets small businesses unstuck. He has founded and run small businesses with a great deal of success and failure for more than 15 years. This is a business radio show where he shares all the craziness of small business. It's that craziness that actually makes it exciting, interesting and totally unpredictable.
The Bottom Line Sports Show is hosted by former NBA stars Penny Hardaway, Charles Oakley, Mateen Cleaves. Tune in to get the inside scoop on what's happening in sports today.
Hits Radio covers basketball, sports culture and entertainment with past guests including Jason Kidd, Robin Lundberg and Chris Herren.
Listeners get an earful on The Halli Casser-Jayne Show, Talk Radio for Fine Minds. Whether it's the current political cocktail or the latest must-read award-winning book, Halli tackles all topics and likes to stir — and sometimes shakes — things up.
Official Internet radio show of forthcoming epic paranormal investigation book by Eric Olsen and "Haunted Housewife" Theresa Argie.
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Football Reporters Online is a group of veteran football experts in the fields of coaching, scouting, talent evaluation, and writing/broadcasting/media placement. Combined, the group brings well over 100 years of expertise in sports.
Host John Martin interviews the nation's leading entrepreneurs and small biz experts to educate small business owners on how to be successful. Past guests have included Emeril Lagasse and Guy Kawasaki.
Sylvia Global presents global conversations pertaining to women, wealth, business, faith and philanthropy. Sylvia has interviewed an eclectic mix from CEOs and musicians to fashion designers and philanthropists including Randolph Duke and Ne-Yo.
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Longer liveslead to smaller pensions
Increasing life expectancies are hitting pension annuities hard. All the more reason to shop around
Saturday 23 September 2000
Plans to use organs from foetuses for spare part surgery have sent alarm bells ringing among actuaries, who decide rates for life insurance and pension plans. The idea may sound like science fiction made flesh. But then so did bypass surgery and heart transplants in their time.
Plans to use organs from foetuses for spare part surgery have sent alarm bells ringing among actuaries, who decide rates for life insurance and pension plans. The idea may sound like science fiction made flesh. But then so did bypass surgery and heart transplants in their time.
Patterns of life expectancy are changing fast. There has been a 20-per-cent drop in the number of men dying between 50 and 60 compared with the figure in 1980, according to the Continuous Mortality Investigation Bureau, the actuaries specialist group.
Those changes are having a dramatic effect on pensions. More people now survive to receive them and they live ever longer in retirement. Meanwhile, low interest rates, and a shrinking gilts market have also cut back annuity rates. A man of 65 turning a pension fund of £100,000 into an annuity will only get a pension of about £9,000 a year. That is 40 per cent less than the £15,000 he would have got for the same sum 10 years ago.
"Annuity rates which decide your pension are at a 30-year low," says Tom McFail, pensions specialist at Wolverhampton-based financial advisers Torquill Clark. "Inflation is now running at between 2 and 3 per cent, but it could easily accelerate - and retirement can last a long time."
Even so, he warns: "Very few people can afford to postpone taking a pension until times improve. Experts talk of using drawdown - taking a little of the capital from your pension savings to provide you with an income in the hope that investment returns will push up the value of what is left. But that only makes sense for people with well over £100,000 in pension savings. Eventually, everyone has to turn at least three quarters of their pensions savings into income."
The post-war baby bulgers are now well into middle age and pensions worries. They will soon have to worry about just what form of pension they want their savings to provide.
The level annuity provides most money immediately, and that is what the vast majority of people take. But even a 3-per-cent inflation rate will cut your money's buying power by over 25 per cent within 10 years - and most people spend far longer as pensioners than that.
Escalating annuities start lower, but typically rise at a steady 3 or 5 per cent a year for as long as they are paid. But taking them means forgoing a lot of income later on. Assume you are a man of 65 who takes an annuity rising at an annual 3 per cent. In year one, you will only receive between 60 or 65 per cent of the income you could collect for the same sum by taking a level annuity.
In the case of investment-linked annuities, pensions groups can vary the pension according to the performance of the stock market. People should do better with them than with traditional annuities - on average. But they involve risk - and according to Tom McFail, only make sense if you have a pension fund of over £100,000. The crucial thing is to shop around for the best deal when choosing an annuity.
"Choose the wrong company, and you can get 25 per cent less than what a good group will give you," says Tony Quintin of the Annuity Bureau. "There are big differences even among the top ten rates. Men of 65 can get £9,356 a year on a basic annuity from Friends Provident, but only £8,430 from Scottish Amicable - 10 per cent less. Matching rates for women start at £8,511 from the Prudential, while Scottish Amicable offers 12 per cent less".
Annuity Bureau 020 7902 2300; Torquill Clark 0800 0561836
Money blogs
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Scotland could still declare independence – even without referendum, says Alex Salmond
Scottish referendum results: Cross-party consensus collapses amid Tory-Labour spat on the 'English question'
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Cookham, Maidenhead, SL6
Cranbrook, Kent, TN17
Belgravia, SW1W
Reading, Berkshire, RG7
Diss, Norfolk IP21
Crouch End, N8
Covent Garden, WC2H
Witney, Oxfordshire, OX29
West Hampstead, NW2
Pontcanna, Cardiff, CF11
Ipswich, Suffolk, IP7
South Kensington, SW7
Rye, East Sussex, TN31
St John's Wood, NW8
Littlebeck, Kettlewell, BD23
Little Crakehall, Bedale, DL8
Bakers Arms Hill, Arundel, BN18
Southwark, SE1
Torquay, Devon, TQ1
Clapham Common, SW4
Coates Castle, West Sussex, RH20
West Dulwich, SE21
Lisvane, Cardiff, CF14
St Katharine's Way, E1
Tintinhull, Yeovil, BA22
North Walsham, Norfolk, NR28
East Dulwich, SE22
Great Billing, Northampton, NN3
Windsor, Berkshire, SL4
Liskeard, Cornwall PL14
Alltmawr, Powys LD2
Kettlewell, North Yorkshire, BD23
Wandsworth, SW18
Wellow, Yarmouth, PO41
West Norwood, SE27
Rotherhithe, SE16
North Finchley N12
Manningtree, Essex, CO11
Wood Street, London, EC2Y
Chester Le Street, Durham, DH2
Plymouth, Devon PL1
Witham, Essex, CM8
East Molesey, KT8
Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, HD5
Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, PE28
Stroud, Gloucestershire GL6
Kensaleyre, Isle Of Skye, IV51
Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire WD3
Bath, BA1
Chiswick, W4
Cookham, Maidenhead, SL6
A state-of-the-art farm-building conversion on the former Cliveden Estate, with 11,420sq ft of internal space, cinema and wine cellar
Cranbrook, Kent, TN17
A three-bedroom, 15th-century cottage with original features in the picturesque village of Sissinghurst
Belgravia, SW1W
A six-bedroom terraced house with large south-facing roof terrace, cinema room and wine cellar
Reading, Berkshire, RG7
A new seven-bedroom home built in Queen Anne-style with swimming pool and parkland views in Mortimer
Diss, Norfolk IP21
A listed, four-bedroom farmhouse in the rural hamlet of Rushall with detached barn, four acres of gardens and paddocks
Crouch End, N8
A first-floor flat with two bedrooms, a spacious reception room and communal grounds in a leafy part of London
Covent Garden, WC2H
A three-bedroom flat with a spacious rootop terrace and balcony, accessed from a private gated courtyard
Witney, Oxfordshire, OX29
A Grade II-listed pile with six bedrooms, stables and 39 acres of grounds in Standlake
West Hampstead, NW2
A two-bedroom flat with boutique hotel-style interiors, close to the foodie haunt of West End Lane
Pontcanna, Cardiff, CF11
A two-bedroom flat in a beautiful old vicarage, with many original features, close to the city centre
Ipswich, Suffolk, IP7
A three-bedroom 16th-century home with an aga kitchen, private gardens and heated outdoor pool, in Hadleigh
South Kensington, SW7
A three-bedrom home in sought-after Queen's Gate Mews, with Italian marble-finished bathrooms
Rye, East Sussex, TN31
Surrounded by glorious countryside in the village of Udimore, sits this impressive four-kiln oast and barn conversion
Littlebeck, Kettlewell, BD23
A five-bedroom house in the picturesque village of Kettlewell, north Yorkshire
Little Crakehall, Bedale, DL8
An 18th-century former coaching inn with original staircase, open fireplaces and beams throughout
Bakers Arms Hill, Arundel, BN18
A Grade II-listed Georgian town house with three bedrooms and a south-facing courtyard, near Arundel Castle
Southwark, SE1
Feel on top of the world at this über chic penthouse on the 37th floor of one of Europe's tallest blocks.
Torquay, Devon, TQ1
A Grade II-listed Victorian villa with six bedrooms and two further cottages, all with spectacular sea views
Clapham Common, SW4
A grade II-listed, Georgian cottage with mature 50ft garden, perfect for summer entertaining
Coates Castle, West Sussex, RH20
A magnificent Georgian pile with turrets, seven bedrooms, a heated pool and four acres of gardens
Lisvane, Cardiff, CF14
Fairoak Farm has five bedroom suites, gym, outdoor swimming pool and golf course
St Katharine's Way, E1
Chic two-bedroom river-fronted flat with a private lift that delivers you directly to your home
Tintinhull, Yeovil, BA22
A spectacular seven-bedroom Tudor pile, once owned by Henry VIII, with 18 acres of land
North Walsham, Norfolk, NR28
A seven-bedroom Georgian property previously used as a picturesque wedding venue
East Dulwich, SE22
A split-level flat in a church conversion with two en suite bedrooms and 1,200sq ft of living space
Great Billing, Northampton, NN3
A three-bedroom bungalow situated behind an impressive stone wall, £645,000
Windsor, Berkshire, SL4
Windsor Castle overlooks this three-bedroom Victorian cottage located on one of Windsor's smartest roads
Alltmawr, Powys LD2
Chapel House is a former vicarage with nine bedrooms in the beautiful Upper Wye Valley
Kettlewell, North Yorkshire, BD23
A five-bedroom B&B and separate owner's accomodation with potential for conversion
Rotherhithe, SE16
Enjoy summer by the Thames in this two double-bedroom converted warehouse in Rotherhithe village
Wood Street, London, EC2Y
A one-bedroom, luxury apartment with private gym and concierge service in Moorgate
Chester Le Street, Durham, DH2
A four-bedroom house in Hermitage Gardens with three reception rooms and landscaped gardens
Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, HD5
A seven-bedroom Grade II-listed property with a separate self-contained apartment
Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, PE28
A five-bedroom Victorian house with three reception rooms and galleried landing, £695,000
Stroud, Gloucestershire GL6
A six-bedroom farmhouse with five acres of land in a former cloth-making village
Kensaleyre, Isle Of Skye, IV51
A secluded seven-bedroom detached house with large private garden, £490,000
Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire WD3
A three-bedroom cottage overlooking Sarratt village green with open fires and solid oak floors
Bath, BA1
A three-bedroom maisonette flat in a Grade I-listed, Georgian townhouse in a sought-after location
Chiswick, W4
A one-bedroom apartment located within a private gated development, north of Turnham Green


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Prices and availability are subject to change from the time and date that you print this page.
10/2/2014 10:49:49 AM. For Customer Service, please call 800.933.9904
A child sleeping soundly can be music to a parent's ears. We figured the embroidered dancers adorning the duvet of our Tulle and the Gang Bedding would be the perfect accompaniment to that. The dancers' tops and tutus are appliquéd in various patterns and materials. Round out the look with our coordinating 100% cotton Flat sheet that features embroidered ballet terms.
Queen Dancers Flat Sheet
- 200-thread count
- Embroidered dancers adorn the duvet cover
- Dancers' tops and tutus are appliquéd in a variety of patterns and materials including polka dots, stripes and lace
- Flat sheet and case include a variety of ballet terms embroidered on the top hem
- Duvet available in twin and full/queen
- Flat sheets available in twin, full, queen
- To order complimentary swatches, please email email@example.com
Details, details
Show 'em what you're made of
Care instructions
Extras! Extras!
At The Land of Nod, nothing is more important to us than providing safe, high-quality products to you and your family. We believe that kids' products should be able to handle everything kids throw their way (literally and figuratively). That's why all of our products have an 18-year quality guarantee. And, hopefully, your kids will no longer be sleeping in bunk beds by then.
Who's there?
A little old man who can't reach the doorbell


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Rated 4.6 out of 5Â by 88 reviewers.
Men's adidas Soccer Shoes
Copa Mundial Leather FG Cleats
Black/Running White (015110)
Size Chart
+ Save To Wishlist
Rated 5 out of 5Â by reppoh Amazing Boots. I have had my first pair of Copas for 5 years, I now have to replace them. I play on hard turf in central Texas. These boots get beat up, I play between 2 - 4 games a week. I have regular boots and sneakers that haven't lasted as long as my Copas. They are light, durable, and feel great. I have tried on other boots from Adidas and other brands but none feel as good as the Copas. Thanks Adidas! September 29, 2013
Rated 5 out of 5Â by SoccerLoverCrusher The Best Cleats Ever Made There is a reason why these cleats have been around for so long. It's because of their comfort, strength, durability, etc. One piece of advice, try the cleats on a the store before you purchase them because the leather on each pair may be a little different and if you have purchased a pair in the past, you probably have realized that the cleat stretches after multiple uses. I've had one pair of these cleats for over a year and I play hard each week and they are still in great shape. These are leather, so you may have to use a shoe freshener every once in a while. Overall, these are an incredible purchase for everyone. June 11, 2012
Rated 5 out of 5Â by austinteman Excellent for beginner to semi pro! I just got these at first i was wary because they were 90 bucks when i bought them (thought they would be cheap but it was all i could afford.) Anyways after a hour or so of playing when i first got it i was in love. You see i played with football cleats now im on Soccer Cleats i saw a huge differrence in my shooting and my speed. also i could not find any size at size 15 and this one had it and i was so happy because it was actually bigger than size 15 and it was so dang confortable. so bottom line you dont need to buy fancy 200 dollar boots just get these there confy and wiull do almost everything a other cleat would do August 21, 2011
Rated 5 out of 5Â by GForce Great fit, quality, and comfortable Excellent firm ground shoe with great feel. Works great on grass or on turf. Broke in easy after one day of playing (90 minutes). Very comfortable shoe... with other cleats I have had to add inserts for comfort, not with the Copa's. Buy one size down. I wear a size 10 for most Adidas shoes, but for the Copa Mundial I got a size 9 and still have a finger width of room in the toe. Also, this cleat is wider than most other Adidas cleats (which I think are usually too narrow), so I would call these normal width compared to other brand cleats. May 10, 2011
Rated 5 out of 5Â by Dangler Still a classic THE all time classic cleat. These were the first Copas I've purchased in probably 10 years, and, with the exception of a sizing issue, are still the best. Kangaroo leather provides the softest, most conforming fit. No bells, whistles or space age plastics, just a classic black cleat with classic style and exceptional performance. I used to wear a 9.5, but apparently Adidas has changed their sizing and I had to return those and get a 9. Return went smooth. July 11, 2011
Rated 5 out of 5Â by TheBatman The best Cheap. Leather. Great. What else can I say! Great for the price! Great for the player! Get a size or so smaller! Nothing better than the old school of Copa's! March 15, 2012
Rated 5 out of 5Â by Bonculus Couldn't be better I've had these boots for 12 years now, and they're still taking a beating and holding up! Once you get a pair and break them in, they truly learn your foot and wrap it like a glove. The Kangaroo leather is soft yet durable. I'm considering new cleats now since they are starting to wear a little bit, but I'm hesitating since these fit my feet so well. July 1, 2010
Rated 5 out of 5Â by JohnS Very dependable all around boot I have worn Copas ever since they were introduced. I like the fact that you can "wear them in" - in just a few hours. DO only buy a 1/2 size smaller - NOT a full size. If you want them to stretch faster, first stand in a bucket of hot water for 15 mins, then slowly dry them out - stuff with newspaper to dry. They work on all but the muddiest of fields, and are actually quite acceptable on artificial turf fields as well. If you take care of them, they will last about one year (with 3 to 4 times per week of use). The will after time begin to separate from the plastic sole - particularly on the outside of the boot. The toe lasts longer because of the three rivets. February 21, 2011
Rated 5 out of 5Â by abraham The best boots I've ever owned so far I have owned a pair of these boots for the last three years and I still love them as much as the day I bought them. Comfortable very reliable boot and very high quality materials. Just purchased a pair of the new Adizero F50's to add to the arsenal but know that my Copa Mundial which are now my backup boots are still to this day well worthy of being starters. July 4, 2012
Rated 3 out of 5Â by NUTTYCHEST copas while these boots are know for being such classic perfect cleats I had some problems with them: The long shoelaces are very annoying this seems like a weird problem to have but for me it made them hard to tie tight and in general is a bad design in the boot the front of the cleat opens up and you get dirt and grass stuck between the black shoe and the white lining around it the studs on the bottom is different then modern boots and i found myself slipping a little on firm pitches as for positives on the cleat it has a very durable and water resistant leather, they are solid (they dont feel too light. they look classy September 3, 2012


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Home of the Month: Garden House
Date: 01/16/2013
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- Sep
26 Casa Italia Indian Cooking Class
6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
- Sep
28 Heroic Brass - Thriving
5:00 pm - 6:00 am
- Sep
29 Fuzión Dance Artists Master Class with Larry Keigwin
9:00 am
- Sep
30 Cine Selby
5:00 pm
Can you dig it?
Third- and fourth-grade students of Temple Beth Sholom had a chance to brush up on their paleontology skills last week while digging for faux dinosaur bones.
Sound of scholars
Local students Caleb Upton and Matthew Vaadi received some help for their upcoming studies to the tune of $1,000 each from the Sarasota Chorus of the Keys. The scholarships were made possible through the Sheridan E. Brown Memorial Scholarship Fund. Both students plan to use the funds toward a career in music.
High Five Moments of the Week
The top five sports moments of the week.


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Did you think I was hiding these exchanges from you! Well, nope...here's another! This exchange will be using Maria's Flower Power Page Kit [COLOR="Red"](on sale for 20% off[)/COLOR].
If you make a quickpage, you will get this along with all other submitted pages by participants:
If you use any items from any of her Flower Power Add-ons [COLOR="Red"](also on sale for 20% off[)/COLOR], you will get a $1.50 coupon off anything in her store!
Remember that all participants get all quickpages submitted for this exchange so you'll get an entire album back! Check out our Quickpage Exchange Gallery to see what the participants have created.
- Each participant will submit at least 1 quick page but not more than 2 using this kit only (but you may include any commercial use supplies as well).
- Layouts should be created and saved at 12" x 12" and 300ppi starting with a transparent background.
- If you are familiar with creating a quick page in a transparent .png file, please submit it in that format.
- If you are not, we have a couple of tutorials to help you in this area: Paint Shop Pro & Photoshop
- If you are unable to create a .png file, please design your quick page by creating your layout and using a white or black area (whichever is of most contrast to your layout) for the photo placements. Save your layout as a flattened .jpg file at full resolution (unless you are submitting a png file already) . I will take what you submit and punch out the areas for photos and convert them to transparent .png files before sending them all back to the participants.
- Please name your files as follows to help me track these easier. YourForumName_KitName_QP.png so as an example, mine would be HollyS_flowerpower_qp.png.
- Save a preview of your quick page at 600x600 and upload it to the Quick Page Exchange Gallery for all the oooohs and ahhhs!
- I will need the preview .jpg at 600x600, and either the .png or .jpg file at the full 12x12 size sent to me. If you zip up your files and they are under 10 megs, then you can email the zip to me at email@example.com. If larger than 10 megs, you can upload your zip to any file sharing site of your choice (ie. http://www.4shared.com or http://www.yousendit.com), and email me the download link.
- Sign-ups are requested for this so that we know who is working on pages. Just post a note here to say you are planning on participating is enough.
- The submission deadline for this round is end of the day on Sunday, August 31st. Please be sure to send me the files by that time as well so that I can publish the album download links more quickly.


text: Midnight Mélange was inspired by the beauty and romance of Paris at night. "Paris in the daytime is beautiful, but Paris at night is spectacular. . . It's about dreams. It's about the contrast of dark and light," muses David Yurman, remembering his first moments of inspiration. The dramatic transformation of the city and sky as night descends is reflected in diamonds set in darkened silver.


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Happy anniversary to Miller Park and the 2002 All-Star Game – the impetus behind "now it counts," the All-Star Game incentive to compete for real in order to secure World Series home field advantage for the winning league.
July 9, 2002: the NL and AL each exhausted their pitching and found themselves unable to proceed beyond a 7-7 tie in the 11th. After an impromptu conference with managers Bob Brenly and Joe Torre, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig determined to let things be what they were and call the game.
The iconic image of Selig throwing up his hands has been entered into evidence by anti-Bud types as an indication of frightening ineptitude:
I have always had Allan's back on this one.
What was the dude supposed to do? The managers had burned through their rosters in (what was then) a fake competition. What didn't matter was who emerged victorious. What did matter was the safety of the players. The options were to risk injury to a non-pitcher by putting him on the hill, risk injury to a pitcher who had cooled off from a previous appearance, risk injury to a pitcher by extending him too long, or grab some guy from the stands to hurl. I suppose they could have tried to round up some BP pitchers to throw from behind a cage or set-up a pitching machine or have a home-run derby or something like that. But again, these guys were already extended 11 innings and the game meant nothing. It's the Gladiator theory: "Are you not entertained?" Done and done.
Whether Allan H. Bud Selig is an effective leader of MLB is argument that should exist without the All-Star Game inclusion. Personally, I think the guy is a good commish…and I LOVE that the All-Star Game has something riding on it.


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Sorry, an error on this design just occurred that we've never seen before. Give us a call at 1-800-436-8803 or email us for help.
The queen of the pantheon of Greek Gods would recognize these regal earrings. Four oval gems represent the four elements, four round gems the sparks of life. These drops are dramatic but also very wearable, with a post back. See Details
Gemvara jewelry is truly personal: you design it, choosing gems and metals to celebrate your story, and we craft it just for you. We'd love to help you find your perfect piece! (more)What quality are your gemstones?
They are all-natural and hand selected fine quality. (more)


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Politics and pop, past and present.
To celebrate the fortieth anniversary of Nixon's resignation, we talked with John Dean—he had been counsel to the president, and it was his Senate testimony that led to Nixon's resignation. His new book is The Nixon Defense: What He Knew and When He Knew It.
Jon Wiener: You set out to reconstruct the day-to-day history of Nixon's actions from the beginning of Watergate to the end, and you had a great source, the White House tapes. We know a lot about the tapes—the racism, the anti-Semitism, the plotting and scheming—but you listened to tapes no one else had heard before. How many tapes did you find–and how long did it take you?
John Dean: When I agreed to do the book, I was trying to figure out how anybody as savvy and intelligent as Nixon could have destroyed his presidency on a bungled burglary. But had I known how long it would take—four years—I might not have undertaken the assignment. I found a thousand conversations that no one had listened to except the archivists; there were partial transcripts for only 400. There isn't a page in this book that doesn't have something new to me—and I've been pretty close to the story since 1972.
What did you discover about the motivation for the original break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate complex: what were the burglars looking for? And, most important, did Nixon send them?
There's not a scintilla of evidence that Nixon had advanced knowledge. Nixon is concerned in the early days that he might have instructed Charles Colson to do this. But Colson tells him "no." The burglars' original mission was to break into McGovern's headquarters. That is traceable back to Nixon. He tells Haldeman to plant a bug in McGovern's headquarters. But the burglars started out that night with Gordon Liddy's original plan: to find financial information to embarrass Larry O'Brien, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, at his office in the Watergate complex. It's just as stupid as it sounds.
How bad would it have been if they had succeeded in finding that Larry O'Brien had taken illegal money? Would that have significantly damaged the McGovern campaign?
I really doubt it.
The first big decision was to pay hush money to the burglars. What did you learn about that?
Certainly Nixon knew it from the outset. On June 20, same day as the eighteen-and-a-half-minute gap, Nixon suggests they set up a "Cuban committee" to raise money for the Watergate defendants. What's ironic is that that plan could have been legal.
You were the president's lawyer. When did he call you? What did you know, and when did you know it?
I don't see the president until eight months after the arrests.
That's when you told him "there's a cancer on the presidency." What did you learn from the tapes about his reaction to what you told him?
The conversation took an hour and forty minutes. The transcript runs seventy-six pages, single-spaced. You have to remember that, when I tried to convince him to end the coverup, I was a young lawyer in my 30s. I couldn't shake him by the lapels; I had to try to persuade him with facts. Listening to the tapes for the first time, I could hear my amazed frustration. I would raise points and he would bat them down. I say, "Bud Krough is concerned he committed perjury." He replied, "Well, John, perjury's a tough rap to prove." I tell him there's no telling how much money these guys will want—and it's an obstruction of justice to pay them. He says, "How much could they want?" I pulled out of thin air what I thought was a pretty hefty number—I said, "It could cost a million dollars over the next two years." I waited for him to say, "That's outrageous!" Instead, he said, "I know where we can get that." And I now know that after I left the room, he called his secretary Rose Woods in and asked her, "How much do we have in the slush fund that only you and I know about?'"
The burglary at the Watergate was actually the second one conducted by the White House plumbers unit—the first had been at Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office in Beverly Hills. It was Nixon's obsession with Ellsberg leaking the Pentagon papers that led him to create the plumbers unit. Did Nixon himself connect the dots between the Ellsberg break-in and the Watergate break in?
He doesn't connect them until I tell him on March 17, 1973—the Watergate arrests had been on June 17, 1972. One of the amazing things I discovered is that neither Haldeman nor Ehrlichman tell him about the jeopardy the White House has—that the same people now in the DC jail had also been used to break into the office of Ellsberg's psychiatrist.
Nixon's plan was to blame the whole thing on you, to say you ran the cover-up. It was your word versus the president's. Fox News still seems to be making this argument. Could that have worked at the time—send you to jail, and leave Nixon in the White House?
I had nothing to do with the break-in or the cover-up. But there's a good possibility it would have worked to blame it all on me—if the tapes hadn't come out.
Nixon knew all his conversations were being taped—including planning the cover-up and arranging for the hush money. Why did he keep talking?
Occasionally it's clear he knows he's recording himself. But 98 percent of the time he's oblivious—because he doesn't think anybody will ever get access to the tapes. In April he instructs Haldeman to remove the system, but Haldeman reminds him that "Henry Kissinger might write a different history than you, so you might want to have a good record of national security matters." He agrees with that. Then he says, "Let's destroy everything except the national security material." Haldeman says, "Sure," but then never does it—because he gets consumed by Watergate himself.
What did you conclude about the eighteen-and-a-half-minute gap?
I concluded that "Who created the eighteen-and-a-half-minute gap?" is the wrong question. It's a mystery, but what difference does it make? The important question is what they erased. My book has a special appendix on that.
Finally: What was it like for you to spend four years listening to Nixon talking?
I told my wife Maureen, "Men in my family go deaf in their mid-70s, and I'm getting there. God forbid that the last voice I hear is Richard Nixon's." Fortunately, Jon, I can hear your voice, so I've come out the other side.
Read Next: Leslie Savan asks who's really to blame for the decline of the newspaper industry.
"Congratulations, Class of 2014, you're totally screwed"—that was the graduation message offered this season by Thomas Frank, Salon columnist and author of Pity the Billionaire. The average student-loan borrower graduating in 2014 is $33,000 in debt, according to the Wall Street Journal—the highest amount ever. And a new study of public universities shows that student debt is worst at schools with the highest-paid presidents.
The "most unequal" public university in America, according to the report, is Ohio State. Between 2010 and 2012 it paid its president, Gordon Gee, a total of almost $6 million, while raising tuition and fees so much that student debt grew 23 percent faster than the national average.
The only people on campus worse off than students with loans are the part-time faculty members—and they too were worst off at schools with the highest paid presidents. OSU, while paying its president $5.9 million, focused its faculty hiring on low wage part-timers, hiring 498 contingent and part-time but only forty-five permanent faculty members.
At the same time that the regular faculty has been shrinking, the number of administrators has been growing. During the period when OSU hired forty-five permanent faculty members, it hired 670 new administrators. A similar pattern is found throughout American universities.
The Institute for Policy Studies report, "The One Percent at State U: How University Presidents Profit from Rising Student Debt and Low-Wage Faculty Labor," examined the relationship between executive pay, student debt and low-wage faculty labor at the twenty-five top-paying public universities. Co-authors Andrew Erwin and Marjorie Wood reported that money spent on administration at the highest-paying universities outpaced spending on scholarships by more than two to one.
"The high executive pay obviously isn't the direct cause of higher student debt, or cuts in labor spending," Ms. Wood told The New York Times. "But if you think about it in terms of the allocation of resources, it does seem to be the tip of a very large iceberg, with universities that have top-heavy executive spending also having more adjuncts, more tuition increases and more administrative spending."
Why is this happening? "The motor force behind these trends is the hiring of 'professional administrators' whose primary commitment is to their own careers and advancement," says William R. Schonfeld, former dean of social sciences and emeritus professor of political science at the University of California, Irvine (where I teach history). "They take jobs as stepping stones to other positions higher on the ladder."
"To protect themselves," Schonfeld says, "they grow the bureaucracy. They are committed to goals which can be relatively quickly achieved—more funds raised this year from the immediate business community, as compared to building a strong foundation for long-term giving by alumni; new schools and academic units, as compared to the tedious and slow process of building true distinction."
The focus on quick results—not so different from corporations' focus on quarterly profits—is responsible for the increase in both the number of administrators and their growing salaries. At Ohio State, "We've been hiring financial VPs from Wall Street and HR heads from private corporations," says OSU's Harvey Graff, professor of english and history and Ohio eminent scholar in literacy studies.
Average pay for university presidents continues to rise, according to the annual Chronicle of Higher Education survey. Nine chief executives earned more than $1 million in total compensation in 2012–13, the Chronicle reports, up from four the previous year. The median total compensation of the 256 presidents in the survey was $478,896, a 5 percent increase over the previous year.
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So while university presidents are making huge salaries, Tom Frank explains, students "borrowed and forked over enormous sums in exchange for the privilege of hearing lectures…lectures that were then delivered by people who earned barely enough to stay alive. It is a double disaster of the kind that only we Americans are capable of pulling off."
The schools that followed OSU on the "most unequal" list were, in order, Penn State, and the universities of Michigan, Minnesota and Delaware.
What is to be done? The IPS study suggests that debt relief for college grads is the number-one task—and recommends Senator Elizabeth Warren's "Bank on Students Loan Fairness Act," which would refinance student loans at 3.86 percent—cutting almost in half the payments required of students currently carrying loans at 6.8 percent. Warren's bill would pay for the lower interest rates by adopting the "Buffett Rule," which would raise the marginal tax rate on income in excess of $1 million.
Also, the IPS study says, state legislatures should limit pay for administrators, and require that spending on non-academic administration be pegged to money spent on scholarships—the authors suggest the ratio should be two to one. "Bringing down spending on administration while increasing scholarships will help make college more affordable and discourage rapid tuition increases," the report argues. The authors also favor granting organizing rights to part-time adjunct faculty.
Read Next: Justine Drennan on the fight to save San Francisco's public university
August 8 will be the fortieth anniversary of Nixon's resignation. That's a good target date for the long-overdue appointment of a new director of the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, California.
The library has been without a director for two and a half years, ever since the departure of Timothy Naftali in 2011. He presided over the installation of the new, historically accurate Watergate exhibit—his number-one duty after the Nixon Foundation agreed in 2007 to bring the library, which opened in 1990, into the National Archives presidential library system.
Before that, Nixon had been the only president to refuse to cooperate with the National Archives, which ran all the other presidential museums. In 1974, Congress insisted that the Archives, rather than Nixon himself, have control of all of his presidential papers and tapes. The result was a seventeen-year standoff during which the Nixon Foundation ran a private museum in Yorba Linda that served as the nation's center of Watergate denial, defying the National Archives.
Now the standoff has returned. The Nixon Library has no director because the Nixon Foundation, run by old-time Nixon loyalists and family members, blocked the appointment of the candidate selected by the National Archives: Mark Atwood Lawrence, an associate professor of history at the University of Texas in Austin. Lawrence is a respected middle-of-the-road scholar who was fully qualified for the job; he's the author of The Vietnam War: A Concise International History, published in 2010 by Oxford University Press.
But the Nixon Foundation didn't want Lawrence. Ron Walker, chairman of the Foundation's board of directors, told Daniel Langhorne of the Orange County Register that he was concerned about Lawrence's "perspective" on Vietnam. "It was just different," Walker said. "I'm not going any further on that."
How different was it? Lawrence doesn't call Nixon a madman or a war criminal, but he does challenge those in the Nixon administration who argued at the time that an American defeat in Vietnam would do irreparable damage to US influence in the world. In the scholarly journal History: Reviews of New Books, the reviewer of Lawrence's book wrote that "for a subject that has all too often inspired overwrought critiques of the various parties involved in the conflict, it is refreshing to have a synthesis that adopts a more neutral and dispassionate view of the Vietnam War."
Lawrence wasn't exactly vetoed, but the foundation made clear their hostility to him, and eventually he withdrew his application.
The power to appoint directors of presidential libraries rests with the archivist of the United States, currently David Ferrio. He has been deferring to the Nixon loyalists and family members, but his responsibility is to the American people. The National Archives' mission is "to serve American democracy by safeguarding and preserving the records of our Government."
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The problem is now approaching a crisis because the foundation, which funds the exhibits and public programs of the museum, has announced plans for a $15 million renovation of the exhibits. Apparently, it prefers to do this without a director in place to oversee the historical accuracy of what it has in mind.
The number-one exhibit in need of revision, not surprisingly, is the one concerning Vietnam. Currently the museum devotes more space to the return of American POWs from North Vietnam than it does to the war itself. The result is an exhibit that suggests America was fighting in Vietnam to get our POWs back.
Redesigning the exhibits in Yorba Linda should be the work of a professional director committed to a nonpartisan and historically accurate museum, not one deferring to old-time loyalists and family members who want a shrine that celebrates the life of their hero. Archivist David Ferrio needs to make that appointment before the fortieth anniversary of Nixon's resignation on August 8.
Read Next: Will the State Department torpedo its last great program?
For more than a century, May 1 has been celebrated as International Workers' Day. It's a national holiday in more than eighty countries. But here in the land of the free, May 1 has been officially declared "Loyalty Day" by President Obama. It's a day "for the reaffirmation of loyalty"—not to the international working class, but to the United States of America.
Obama isn't the first president to declare May 1 Loyalty Day—that was President Eisenhower, in 1959, after Congress made it an official holiday in the fall of 1958. Loyalty Day, the history books explain, was "intended to replace" May Day. Every president since Ike has issued an official Loyalty Day proclamation for May 1.
The presidential proclamation always calls on people to "display the flag." In case you were wondering, that's the stars and stripes, not the red flag. Especially in the fifties, if you didn't display the stars and stripes on Loyalty Day, your neighbors might conclude that you were some kind of red.
During the 1930s and 1940s, May Day parades in New York City involved hundreds of thousands of people. Labor unions, Communist and Socialist parties, and left-wing fraternal and youth groups would march down Fifth Avenue and end up at Union Square for stirring speeches on class solidarity.
Socialists meeting in Union Square, May 1, 1908 (Courtesy: Library of Congress)
In the fifties, Loyalty Day parades replaced May Day parades. If you Google "Loyalty Day parade," you get a quarter of a million hits. Long Beach, California, claims to have "the longest consecutively running loyalty commemoration in the nation!" (Exclamation point theirs.) The Veterans of Foreign Wars started theirs in 1950, nine years before Ike's declaration. This year's Loyalty Day parade in Long Beach will be the same as always: high school marching bands, vintage cars, riders on horses and floats, as well as the required military color guard. Also clowns.
The first May Day proclamation made the Cold War context pretty clear: "Loyalty to the United States of America," Ike said, "is essential to the preservation of our freedoms in a world threatened by totalitarianism." That was the idea: "we" represented freedom, and "they" were "the enemies of freedom." Of course, in 1959 our "freedoms" included segregation for blacks and blacklisting for reds, and our "Free World" allies included dictators and tyrants like Chiang Kai-Shek in Formosa, Marcos in the Philippines, the Shah in Iran and whoever was running South Korea.
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Obama's proclamation in 2013 said that on Loyalty Day we should reaffirm our commitment to "liberty, equality, and justice for all." That's not terribly original, but it's not bad—especially if he really means "all" people. Skeptics might suggest his statement is an empty cliché; they might point to many cases where Obama has denied liberty, equality and justice to all (one example: US citizens killed without a trial).
In Los Angeles, where I live, the biggest parade on May 1 came in 2006, when 400,000 people marched down Wilshire Boulevard for immigrants' rights. They carred signs that said "Si se puede!" ("Yes we can") and "This land is your land/This land is my land." That May 1 was May Day—and it was a lot better than Loyalty Day.
Read Next: Peter Van Buren on life inside the new minimum wage economy
Elizabeth Kolbert is a New Yorker staff writer; her new book is The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History. This interview has been edited and condensed.
Jon Wiener: Your work on species extinction began with a report on a poisonous frog in Panama.
Elizabeth Kolbert: Yes, the Panamanian golden frog. It's New York taxicab yellow, with very dark eyes and thin limbs and long fingers. A decade ago, a fungal disease moved through Central America attacking frogs. That fungus is now all around the world, imported everywhere by people moving amphibians around. The Panamanian golden frog is now extinct in the wild—although some have been saved in a sterile facility in Panama.
How many species right now are headed for extinction?
Amphibians have the dubious distinction of being the most threatened class of animals—40 percent are classified as threatened with extinction, and very high numbers have already gone extinct. They are probably followed by mammals: one-quarter of all mammals are classified as endangered. As many as a third of all reef-building corals are endangered. Plus one-fifth of all reptiles, and one-sixth of all birds are endangered and facing extinction. And we have statistics only on a few groups; with most species of living things we don't even know what's out there.
The last wave of extinctions came when an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs and their world. What's different about the species extinction that threatens now?
Scientists say now we're the asteroid. This extinction event is unique because it's being caused by a living thing.
You got to go on many trips to exciting places to do your research. I loved your trip to One Tree Island on the Great Barrier Reef.
That was a wonderful experience. One Tree Island is made completely of dead coral, with some dirt on top of it. Scientists there were doing an experiment that required walking across the reef at low tide. We went out in the middle of the night. It was spectacular: the stars were so bright, and on the reef waiting for high tide were enormous loggerhead turtles, huge giant clams in amazing colors, bright blue starfish and ruddy octopuses in tide pools—the fantastic array of life that lives on a reef.
You quote Darwin saying, "Coral reefs rank high amongst the wonderful objects in the world."
Yes, and scientists say it is likely that the reefs will be the first entire ecosystem in the modern era to become extinct.
Is that because of global warming?
It's because we are changing the chemistry of the oceans. When we pour CO2 into the air we are in effect also pouring it into the water. And when you dissolve CO2 in water it forms an acid. We're acidifying the oceans. As a result the corals are having a hard time.
You didn't have to go to the Australia or Panama to find devastating evidence of species extinction—you went to a bat cave near your home in western Massachusetts.
Almost anywhere you go these days you're going to find tremendous upheaval in the natural world. Our bats in New England hibernate for the winter. It turns out they now have a fungus that irritates them and wakes them up. They don't have the fat reserves to get through the winter if they wake up. They need to stay in a deep state of hibernation. But they wake up, they fly around, and they drop dead. This fungus is spreading rapidly—it's in at least twenty-two states now, and a lot of Canada. It's also transported by people. As a result bat populations in the northeastern US have been plummeting.
You found another way we are changing the planet, and something new to worry about: ballast water!
We're moving a lot of species around every day. When you bring species together that have been living on separate continents or in separate oceans, bad things can happen. Our huge supertankers take on ballast water that has many small animals. Then they dump that water, often in an entirely different ocean. So we are moving species around the world—estimates are 10,000 species are moved every day in ballast water. That doesn't count species moved in planes, and in our luggage.
We have the endangered species protection act in America—it was passed a long time ago, in 1974, and is often ridiculed for protecting obscure fish or birds in places slated for real estate development. How successful has it been?
There have been some iconic successes: the California condor. For many species it has staved off extinction—absolutely. But to get a species listed has become very difficult. Many species are stacked up waiting for their listing. When you're officially designated an endangered species there has to be a recovery plan. That's good. But the problem now is that the kinds of threats that are emerging—climate change—make it very hard to come up with a rescue plan. We're getting into complicated territory.
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It's easy to feel hopeless about species extinction. Do you have an answer to the question "What is to be done?" Do you have a six-point plan? Do you have hope at this point?
I wrote the book to bring this issue into awareness. I didn't write it because I have a six-point plan. Unfortunately I don't think anyone has a plan. But an obvious first step is that we've got to agree to start minimizing our impact on the planet. To be honest, right now we seem to be moving in the opposite direction.
Read more of The Nation's special #MyClimateToo coverage:
Mark Hertsgaard: Why TheNation.com Today Is All About Climate
Christopher Hayes: The New Abolitionism
Naomi Klein: The Change Within: The Obstacles We Face Are Not Just External
Dani McClain: The 'Environmentalists' Who Scapegoat Immigrants and Women on Climate Change
Mychal Denzel Smith: Racial and Environmental Justice Are Two Sides of the Same Coin
Katrina vanden Heuvel: Earth Day's Founding Father
Wen Stephenson: Let This Earth Day Be The Last
Katha Pollitt: Climate Change is the Tragedy of the Global Commons
Michelle Goldberg: Fighting Despair to Fight Climate Change
George Zornick: We're the Fossil Fuel Industry's Cheap Date
Dan Zegart: Want to Stop Climate Change? Take the Fossil Fuel Industry to Court
Jeremy Brecher: 'Jobs vs. the Environment': How to Counter the Divisive Big Lie
Dave Zirin: Brazil's World Cup Will Kick the Environment in the Teeth
Steven Hsieh: People of Color Are Already Getting Hit the Hardest by Climate Change
John Nichols: If Rick Weiland Can Say "No" to Keystone, So Can Barack Obama
Michelle Chen: Where Have All the Green Jobs Gone?
Peter Rothberg: Why I'm Not Totally Bummed Out This Earth Day
Leslie Savan: This Is My Brain on Paper Towels
Mickey Rooney, who died April 6, had many fans, including 10-year-old Gore Vidal. "What I really wanted to be," Vidal wrote in his memoir Point to Point Navigation, "was a movie star: specifically, I wanted to be Mickey Rooney." The inspiration? Not the "Hey kids, let's put on a show" musicals Rooney made for MGM with Judy Garland—it was his role as Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Max Reinhardt and released in 1935, when Rooney was 14. "I wanted to play Puck, as he had," Vidal recalled.
Gore took his first step toward becoming a movie star in a 1936 newsreel, when he took off and landed a plane—under the supervision of his father, the director of Air Commerce for Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The idea was to show that anybody could fly a plane, even a kid. So Gore took off and landed for the cameras—and then faced the newsreel interviewer. But he had trouble speaking; "I resembled not Mickey Rooney but Peter Lorre in M," he recalled. "My screen test had failed."
Nevertheless Mickey Rooney's Puck changed Gore Vidal's life. "Bewitched" by the performance, he recalled, "I read the play, guessing at half the words; then, addicted to this strange new language, I managed to read most of Shakespeare before I was sixteen." Vidal became a writer instead of a movie star, and the rest is history.
Even today Rooney's Puck remains striking. David Thomson wrote in his Biographical Dictionary of Film that the performance remains "one of cinema's most arresting pieces of magic."
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I ran into Mickey Rooney on a LA–New York flight shortly after Gore Vidal's memoir was published. He looked old and tired. I asked him if he had seen what Gore Vidal wrote about him in his new memoir. He said "no," and made it clear that he was irritated at the unwanted interruption. I told him how inspired the young Gore had been by Mickey's Puck. Rooney paused, and then smiled his famous smile. "Gore Vidal—wow!" he said.
He thanked me, and I went back to my seat.
Read Next: Jon Wiener commemorates the life and work of Gore Vidal.
Peter Matthiessen, the legendary writer who died April 5, had one of his most important books withdrawn from publication for seven years as a result of attacks by government officials and the cowardice of his publisher, Viking Penguin.
It's a story overlooked in many of the obits. Published in 1983, In The Spirit of Crazy Horse provided a passionate and solidly documented account of the events that culminated in a 1975 gun battle on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota between FBI agents and members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) that left two agents and one Indian dead. The book also described the miserable history of government treatment of Native Americans in South Dakota.
The New York Times Book Review called In the Spirit of Crazy Horse "one of those rare books that permanently change one's consciousness." The Washington Post called it "extraordinary," "complex," and "powerful." The Los Angeles Times called it "A giant of a book...indescribably touching, extraordinarily intelligent."
In the trial following the shootout, Leonard Peltier, an Ojibwa-Sioux AIM activist, was convicted of murdering the agents; now 69, he is serving consecutive life sentences at a federal penitentiary in Florida. Matthiessen's book presented compelling evidence that Peltier was innocent. Others agree; Amnesty International, among others, has called for his release.
Shortly after the book's publication, South Dakota's governor, William Janklow, filed a libel suit against Matthiessen and his publisher, Viking Press, seeking $24 million in damages. He said the book was defamatory because it portrayed him as "a racist and a bigot." An FBI agent involved in the case, David Price, filed a second suit for $25 million, claiming he too had been defamed when the book portrayed him as "corrupt and vicious" in his treatment of Indians on the reservation.
Viking Penguin didn't wait for a judgment against them before taking action against Matthiessen. The publisher responded to the lawsuits by destroying the copies of the book it had in its warehouse and taking it out of print.
Litigation proceeded for seven years in four different courts in two states, with Martin Garbus representing Viking and Matthiessen. Matthiessen was supported by amicus briefs from Kurt Vonnegut, William Styron, John Irving, Alfred Kazin and Susan Sontag of PEN.
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The libel cases were finally thrown out of court in 1990. ''Speech about government and its officers, about how well or badly they carry out their duties, lies at the very heart of the First Amendment," declared Judge Diana E. Murphy of the US district court in Minneapolis. "It is this form of speech which the framers of the Bill of Rights were most anxious to protect. Criticism of government is entitled to the maximum protection of the First Amendment.''
Viking at last reissued the book as a Penguin paperback in 1991. In the meantime, the strongest and most eloquent case for Peltier's innocence, and one of Matthiessen's greatest books, had been kept from the public—for seven years.
Matthiessen was "horrified and indignant" over the destruction of his books, his wife Maria told me. "I did not agree to the destruction of my books," Matthiessen himself told me in a 1993 interview for The Nation. "I didn't know about it. They never should have withdrawn the book in the first place."
[Adapted from Jon Wiener, "Murdered Ink," The Nation, May 31, 1993.]
Read Next: Jon Wiener on the censorship of Hindu history books in India
When Penguin Books announced on February 11 that it would withdraw from India and pulp The Hindus: An Alternative History in response to a lawsuit claiming the book "has hurt the religious feelings of millions of Hindus," it was only the latest in a series of surrenders by distinguished publishers in the face of militant Hindu fundamentalism. The book, by Wendy Doniger, a distinguished professor of religion at the University of Chicago, had been described by Pankaj Mishra, writing in The New York Times, as "a salutary antidote to the fanatics" who seek "a culturally homogenous and militant nation-state."
Debates about alternative views of Indian history, William Dalrymple wrote in The New York Review of Books in 2005, "have in India become the subject of political rallies and mob riots." The most disturbing precursor to Penguin's decision came in 2005, when Oxford University Press withdrew a scholarly book, Shivaji: Hindu King in Islamic India, by James W. Laine, a professor at Macalester College in St. Paul. Oxford acted after an attack on one of India's leading centers of historical research, the Bhandarkar Oriental Institute in the town of Pune, southeast of Mumbai. As Dalrymple describes the incident, "Just after 10 AM, as the staff were opening up the library, a cavalcade of more than twenty jeeps drew up. Armed with crowbars, around two hundred Hindu militants poured into the institute, cutting the telephone lines. Then they began to tear the place apart. The militants overturned the library shelves, and for the next few hours they kicked around the books and danced on them, damaging an estimated 18,000 volumes before the police arrived."
The Institute's crime? Laine had thanked the institute in the acknowledgements to his book, which offended Hindu nationalists because, as Dalrymple explains it, Laine wrote that the parents of the seventeenth-century Hindu leader Shivaji "lived apart for most if not all of Shivaji's life," adding that some Indians "tell jokes naughtily suggesting that his guardian Dadaji Konddev was his biological father." That was taken as a suggestion that the Hindu hero was illigitimate. In respose to protests, Oxford quickly withdrew the book from the Indian market, and was promptly criticized by many leading Indian newspapers for succumbing to what one described as the "Talibanization" of India.
But the campaign against the Oxford book and author continued. The militants who carried out the attack in Pune held public meetings, Dalrymple reports, "announcing that they wanted every Indian named in the book's acknowledgments to be arrested, questioned, and tried." Election campaigns were underway, and the prime minister issued a "warning to all foreign authors that they must not play with our national pride. We are prepared to take action against the foreign author [Laine] in case the state government fails to do so." The Congress Party, heir to Nehru, "announced that they had instructed the CBI (the Indian equivalent of the FBI) 'to arrest Laine through Interpol,'" Dalrymple reports.
Wendy Doniger, author of the book Penguin has just withdrawn, is no stranger to Hindu fundamentalist protests, and not just inside India. In 2003 she gave a lecture on the Ramayana, the great Hindu epic, at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, where Dalrymple was moderator. He recalled that "midway through the lecture, a man stood up, walked threateningly toward the podium, and threw an egg at Doniger, which narrowly missed her. During the questions that followed the lecture, Doniger faced a barrage of insults from a group who had come with the egg-thrower, and who maintained that as a non-Hindu she was unqualified to comment on their religion."
After Penguin agreed to withdraw and pulp the Wendy Doniger book, PEN India declared that "the removal of books from our bookshops, bookshelves, and libraries, whether through state-sanctioned censorship, private vigilante action, or publisher capitulation are all egregious violations of free speech that we shall oppose in all forms at all times."
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Arundati Roy wrote an open letter to Penguin, which she said was "my publisher": in The Times of India, she declared, "Everybody is shocked at what you have gone and done….Even though there was no fatwa, no ban, not even a court order, you have not only caved in, you have humiliated yourself abjectly before a fly-by-night outfit by signing settlement."
But Wendy Doniger herself said in a statement released by PEN India, "I do not blame Penguin Books, India." They "took this book on," she explained, "knowing that it would stir anger in the Hindutva ranks, and they defended it in the courts for four years, both as a civil and as a criminal suit." The "true villain" of this case, she said, is not Penguin but rather "the Indian law that makes it a criminal rather than civil offense to publish a book that offends any Hindu, a law that jeopardizes the physical safety of any publisher, no matter how ludicrous the accusation brought against a book."
Arundati Roy replied that Penguin has "all the resources anybody could possibly need to fight a legal battle." Had the publisher stood its ground, she told Penguin, "you would have had the weight of enlightened public opinion behind you, and the support of most—if not all—of your writers." Many others agreed, including the National Book Critics Circle in the US, which had named The Hindus a finalist in 2009 for its nonfiction prize. It called on Penguin Books India to "reconsider its deplorable decision," calling it "a de facto act of self-censorship that will only contribute to a further rolling back of free speech in India."
Read Next: 2014 could be a rocky year for US-India relations.
November 15, 1969—"Vietnam Moratorium Day"—nearly half a million people gathered on the mall in Washington DC, to protest the war, and Pete Seeger was on the stage. "I guess I faced the biggest audience I've ever faced in my life," he told me in an 1981 interview. "Hundreds of thousands, how many I don't know. They stretched as far as the eye could see up the hillside and over the hill."
The song he sang was "Give Peace a Chance," John Lennon's first non-Beatles recording. He had wanted to sing it in the US, but Nixon's INS wouldn't let him in the country, so he sang it, and recorded it, at a bed-in in Montreal.
"I'd only heard the song myself a few days before," Pete recalled, "and I confess when I first heard it I didn't think much of it. I thought, 'That's kind of a nothing of a song, it doesn't go anyplace.' I heard a young woman sing it at a peace rally. I never heard Lennon's record. I didn't know if the people there had ever heard it before. But I decided to try singing it over and over again, until they did know it.
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"Well, we started singing, and after a minute or so I realized it was still growing. Peter, Paul and Mary jumped up onstage and started joining in. A couple of more minutes, and Mitch Miller hops up on the stage and starts waving his arms. I realized it was getting better and better. The people started swaying their bodies and banners and flags in time, several hundred thousand people, parents with their small children on their shoulders. It was a tremendously moving thing."
Pete Seeger's great work was not just singing the songs, but getting everybody else to sing them—getting his audience, us, to sing. A lot of us had that experience: for me it was at Coffman Memorial Union at the University of Minnesota, when I was a kid, and Pete was onstage alone with his banjo, and we were all singing, in harmony. Of his concerts, Robert S. Cantwell wrote, "Pete spread wide his arms as we sang to him, and it changed me. It was 30 years ago, and I have not changed back."
Read Next: Peter Dreier chronicles the life and legacy of Pete Seeger.
Dick Cheney came to the Nixon Library this week to talk about his new book, Heart—it's about his five heart attacks and his heart transplant. When our most hated vice president visits the library of our most disgraced president, you look forward to a good night. So my friend Howard and I went to Yorba Linda, expecting a festive evening of Obama-bashing and a twisted trip back through the glories of the Bush years.
It turned out to be mostly a book event. Signed copies were for sale; Cheney did a Q&A about his book and took a few friendly questions. But the evening ended up as it had to: with Obamacare.
The news of Cheney's heart transplant, in March 2012, had been welcomed by comedians everywhere. Jon Stewart declared it "the greatest joke setup ever." Jay Leno had the best line: "This weekend, 71-year-old former Vice President Dick Cheney received a heart transplant. And I thought this was nice: they let him shoot the donor himself."
On The Daily Show, Jon Stewart acted out the transplant surgery with himself as the surgeon; the old heart leapt out of Cheney's chest and bit the terrified surgeon on the neck.
David Letterman said, "Finally all of those midnight trips to the graveyard with the hunchbacked assistant have paid off."
Joan Rivers summed it up: "Rather surprised Dick Cheney got a heart, after lasting all these years without one."
The Cheney event was held in the Nixon Library's "East Room," an exact replica of the room in the White House, with giant chandeliers, ornate wainscoting and a dozen flags in a row—except that the Yorba Linda version had two giant video screens so the audience of several hundred could see Cheney. The Q&A, conduced by Frank Gannon, a former Nixon assistant, was surprisingly lighthearted, given the somber subject of the book. Gannon's list of questions couldn't have been simpler: Tell us about your first heart attack—you were 37. Now tell us about your second.
Howard whispered to me, "It's the organ recital." He was referring to the old Jewish joke about the dinner table conversation of the aunts and uncles: "My liver isn't doing so well," "My kidneys hurt," "I have angina."
"Your third heart attack was my favorite," Gannon said. It happened on the way into the House chamber in the Capitol to hear Reagan's 1988 State of the Union speech. "I passed out," Cheney said, and collapsed onto the floor. His press aide, who was with him, told him afterwards that "several of my colleagues, on their way to the speech, stepped over my body," and kept going. As he told the story, Cheney chuckled. Those darn Congressmen.
After describing his heart transplant, Cheney thanked his doctor, who is his co-author, and the donor, who is anonymous. Howard whispered, "Notice that he didn't thank God?"
The only question that got a big, excited response from the audience was, "Can you comment on Obamacare?" What was most significant in Cheney's answer was what he did not say—the things said by right-wing media at the time of his transplant. The New York Post for example had run the headline, "Beware Obamacare: It might've killed Cheney." The argument was that those dreaded "death panels" would have ruled that Cheney was too old—he was 71—and he would, therefore, have been denied a transplant. Breitbart.com said Obamacare required looking at cases like Cheney's "as an avenue toward survival of the fittest." The blog RedState declared, "A Poorer Man Than Dick Cheney Might've Died if ObamaCare was in Full Effect"—because of those death panels.
But as Gawker.com pointed out, pre-Obamacare transplant ethics already required that the age and future health of potential recipients be considered.
Cheney's answer to the question about Obamacare was limited to a criticism about the tax on medical devices: "It really worries me," he said, since stents had kept him alive for years. "I can't think of a worse notion. If you want less of something, tax it"—an argument that the device tax will stifle innovation. Obama replies that all the industries that gain a windfall from the expansion of medical coverage should be taxed to help offset the cost of that expansion. But thirty Senate Democrats have called for the repeal of the device tax, including Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar from Minnesota, which happens to be the home of Medtronic, one of the country's largest device manufacturers.
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In any case it's a tiny part of Obamacare, significant primarily as a Republican talking point.
Cheney had only one other argument against Obamacare: "A lot of Americans aren't going to have the ability to go with one doctor"—which, he said, was the key to his successful treatment. Therefore, he concluded, Obamacare is "a bad idea; if I had my druthers, I'd repeal it." This won lots of applause. My friend Howard said, "But 50 million Americans have no doctor at all, and they will get one under Obamacare."
The hour came to an end. The audience applauded warmly; Cheney grinned and waved goodbye, and we headed up the freeway, back to liberal L.A.
Read Next: Zoë Carpenter on the NSA's bad week.


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Conscious Culture and Fashion
October 2, 2014
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It doesn't get more vintage than sweats. Our sweatshirts and sweatpants recall the concerts and events for which they were commissioned. Our sweatshirt styles include hoodies, zip-ups, pullovers, short-sleeved and sleeveless, and both the sweatshirts and sweatpants fit snug, the way they were supposed to back in the good ole days.
The Dead,
John Fogerty,
Jerry Garcia,
Grateful Dead NYE 1980 Documentary,