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Two follow up items
From:[email protected] To: [email protected] CC: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Date: 2014-10-13 20:32 Subject: Two follow up items
Madam Secretary, I hope all is well and congratulations on a fantastic event in Pennsylvania. I was on the phone with the Wolff team for some DGA work and they couldn't have been more pleased. Obviously the press was fantastic as well! Two things I wanted to relay: First, I hope the most recent binder was helpful. I know there were A LOT of big and small issues in there, including an ambitious schedule for interviews. Understanding that everyone has incredibly busy schedules before Election Day, I think it makes sense to push the interview timeline later and spend as much time as we need in November to align on the needs and structure of the campaign architecture and a hiring process that meets those needs, as well as other key operational pieces like media and technology. Hiring should not be rushed, so if giving you and everyone else the time to discuss, reflect and and agree on a process that meets your needs slows things by a week or two, that’s perfectly fine, assuming you’re comfortable with it. Let me know if you agree (or want to try something different) and I can work with Cheryl to ensure we have time on the schedule in November. Second, I also understand that you wanted to learn more about what's happening on technology and the website, so below is a quick snapshot of the state of play. I've also attached the memo that was in the most recent binder. Feel free to call if you want to discuss this in more detail, or we can set up a conference call to discuss as a group. This is an important aspect of planning, so by all means I want your flag on any issues or questions. *The big picture: * We are laying the groundwork for a website that can go up if and when you decide to announce an exploratory committee. The purpose of this site is to allow visitors to donate, sign up, and invite other people to the site via social media (this would be the "new" feature). All the features of this site will be fully tested and backed up. A significantly expanded--and very different looking--website will go up if/when you officially launch your campaign, with many more features, some of them new. This is all outlined in the attached memo. *Eric Schmidt's company "Groundwork"* Eric has a small staff of about ten people in Brooklyn working on two key tools for the web page, which are listed below. Both tools would be great to have in the exploratory site and would help the site work better in the future; however, we are prepared to move forward without them and have tested backup alternatives from the Obama campaign that are ready to use at any time. I deliberately told Eric's team that we would need any tools he might create by mid-November so there is plenty of time to test them should you decide to use them. As of this week, they still say they will meet that deadline, but I remain cautious/skeptical until the tools are complete and tested. These tools are: *1. Sign up function*: this tool will allow a committee to more dynamically optimize sign up pages in the future. For example, it would permit a committee to find out if sign up page A generates more sign ups than page B. *2. "Quick donate"*: this is the tool that would allow a committee to save someone's credit card information so that any future donations can be made in one click. This is obviously a huge revenue booster. Contrary to what Eric sometimes implies in his conversations with others, his team is NOT building a complete website. Speaking candidly, it's fantastic that Eric has devoted resources to creating these new tools, but we are not relying on him to have these tools available; we would consider anything his team delivers as "gravy". This is by no means meant to disparage his team’s work, but rather to help you understand where they fit into the big picture. Eric’s team may continue to build new tools well into next year and/or the campaign may choose to hire some of his staff, but this is not integral to what your tech strategy should be. *The website team* The team building the website itself is led by Dan Ryan, the website developer for President Obama's 2012 campaign, and Teddy Goff, President Obama's Digital Director. We are operating under the precautionary assumption that legally we cannot begin designing the visual part of the site until 4-5 weeks before you decide to announce an exploratory committee, since they are candidate specific and would require contracting with designers (there's also a risk of leaks). So, the back end architecture is being built (and can be used by any candidate should you not run), but what you can see on a screen and interact with will not be developed until a month before your exploratory is officially constituted. The features for the site will be a mix of off-the-shelf tools from major web companies, as well as tested tools used by the Obama campaign. *Leadership* One of the reasons I think the CTO should be slated early in the hiring schedule is that she or he should act as a guide on the technology strategy as a whole, working with you and the campaign leadership from the start to develop a true vision for the role tech will play and actual projects the campaign should invest in. It's important that the campaign not simply hire engineers and invest in technology for its own sake, but rather work with technological experts to identify specific ways that technology can make the campaign more efficient and then develop a plan and timeline to build solutions. For example, we know right now that developing the tools that will make volunteer offices “paperless” will save thousands of hours of data entry and administrative work. We also know that developing new technologies to target emails more effectively will yield millions more dollars. The question is whether these solutions can practically be built and whether they can be built in time to be useful. The CTO can be a vital early partner in answering these sorts of questions. Technical experts like Eric will come to a campaign with different and valuable points of view and a campaign should routinely consult them via some sort of tech “working group”. A CTO firmly grounded in the realities of the campaign and the end-user’s experience will be able to synthesize this input and guide a campaign’s ultimate vision. I would suggest that we discuss how to make the process of hiring the CTO as enriching as possible for all of us, from who we consult for prospects to perhaps asking the final candidates to present their ideas so you can see different perspectives. Regardless, I think this person should be seen as an early hire to bring some concrete thinking to the myriad of technological possibilities. Thinking through the process of hiring this person and who else you want to consult should be a priority action item after the election. I hope all of this is helpful and don't hesitate to call with questions. Best, Robby |
ISLAMABAD: The first month of the fiscal year 2013-14 has witnessed a substantial growth of 25 per cent in revenue collection from a year ago, officials told Dawn on Friday.
The upward swing in revenue collection was expected because of new revenue measures mostly at source deduction of taxes taken in the budget 2013-14, reviving hopes that the revenue collection target for the current fiscal year will be achieved.
The provisional revenue collection has reached to Rs134 billion in July 2013 from Rs106.876bn collected during the same month last year, reflecting an increase of 25.2pc.
For 2013-14, government has projected Rs2475bn revenue collection target as against the collection of Rs1940bn for the fiscal year 2012-13, showing an increase of 27.5pc.
To achieve the current fiscal year target, government has imposed Rs210bn worth of new taxation measures in the budget.
Last year, the FBR revenue collection witnessed more than Rs440bn shortfalls in revenue collection.
A senior tax official told Dawn that FBR was expecting huge revenue from two policy measures of the present government—upward price adjustments in petroleum products, electricity tariffs etc.
This will jack up the inflation in the country, which will cross the double digit in the next few months. The increase in inflation as well as petroleum products prices will yield additional revenue for the government exchequer.
The government has projected inflation at 8pc which was already crossed in the first month of the current fiscal year. Last year, inflation was brought down to single digit which led to low collection especially in the sales tax.
Provisional figures shows that direct tax collection witnessed the highest growth of 73.44pc in July 2013 as its collection reached to Rs37.9bn this year from Rs21.85bn in the corresponding month of last year. The introduction of seven new withholding taxes, upward revision of existing tax rates of many other withholding taxes have yielded the dividends for the FBR in the first month.
Despite increase in the general sales tax rate from 16pc to 17pc, the GST collection witnessed a modest growth of 10.53pc in July 2013 from a year ago. The GST collection edged up to Rs70.6bn in July 2013 from Rs63.873bn during the same month last year.
The federal excise duty witnessed a growth of 46pc as its collection reached to Rs8.9bn in July 2013 from Rs6.089bn over the corresponding month of last year. The increase is mainly driven by upward revision in the tax rates for cigarettes, and introduction of capacity based tax on aerated waters etc.
The customs collection recorded an increase of 9.56pc to Rs16.5bn in July 2013 from Rs15.06bn over the corresponding month of last year. The decline may be because of slow down in imports proceeds. The imports become costlier owing to massive depreciation of the rupee. |
A touted redshirt freshman quarterback. Three proven receivers. An experienced offensive line that’s gone through the rough patches together. A scary defensive line. An All-America caliber safety.
All of those things would have appeared on a preseason scouting report of Florida State’s 2013 national championship team.
All of them are present again heading into 2016 — with the additional wrinkle of a returning All-American tailback.
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This is not to say that Jimbo Fisher’s team will pull an exact replica of that loaded 2013 team, one that dominated all 13 regular-season opponents before surviving Auburn in the BCS championship game. That’s an unreasonable bar.
“There was an unbelievable chemistry and hunger and drive and a lot of big-time leadership on that team,” Fisher said this spring. “That still has to develop here.”
Derwin James
But it would be a mistake to overlook the ‘Noles in this year’s national title conversation just because they endured a 10-3 rebuilding season in 2015 while divisional rival Clemson won 14 straight games en route to the national title game. Not with FSU returning 17 starters, not to mention its usual crop of highly talented freshman and sophomore contributors.
“We’ve got a lot of guys that have played a lot of football,” Fisher said. “We still only have 12 seniors, but at the same time we’ve got a lot of young guys who’ve played a lot of ball.”
Of course, the great unknown for the ‘Noles is redshirt freshman quarterback Deondre Francois. In FSU’s spring game, the dual-threat talent from Orlando made some eye-opening pinpoint completions but also threw two bad interceptions. He’ll need to do more of the former and less of the latter for the ‘Noles to reach the playoff.
More recently, he drew praise for his performance in a scrimmage Wednesday, the first since Francois’ primary competitor, veteran Sean Maguire, suffered a foot injury that will likely make Francois the Week 1 starter against Ole Miss.
The last time a redshirt freshman started Week 1 for FSU, Jameis Winston completed 25 of his 27 attempts against Pitt. Francois doesn’t need to do that, mostly because of who he’s got around him. Star running back Dalvin Cook, needlessly overlooked in last year’s Heisman conversation despite rushing for 1,691 yards (including a staggering 7.4 yards per carry) and 19 touchdowns, is the face of FSU’s offense, and speedy sophomore Jacques Patrick should be able to carry more of the load.
Dalvin Cook
Meanwhile, Francois will be throwing to a stacked group of mostly veteran receivers — Travis Rudolph, Bobo Wilson, Kermit Whitfield and Auden Tate.
And defensively, the ‘Noles are once again brimming with talent. Defensive ends DeMarcus Walker (who had 10.5 sacks in 2015) and Josh Sweat will form one of the nation’s most feared tandems. Sophomore safety Derwin James is an All-American in the making.
It’s that defense, in fact, that pushed FSU over Clemson as my ACC champ. The Tigers have presumptive No. 1 NFL Draft pick Deshaun Watson, who’s obviously far more proven than Francois, but the Tigers are also rebuilding quite a bit on defense after six starters from last year’s 14-1 team turned pro early. Even with stud defensive linemen like Christian Wilkins, it’s hard to imagine the Tigers won’t struggle a bit. Which means their offense will need to be clicking every single week.
The ‘Noles, by contrast, should be able to win with the conventional formula of a strong running game and salty defense. They do play a tougher schedule than Clemson, with non-conference games against Ole Miss and Florida, but they don’t necessarily have to go undefeated if they beat the right teams.
The potential party-crasher in the ACC is Louisville. Bobby Petrino’s third team boasts star power with quarterback Lamar Jackson and is loaded with skill talent. It could certainly knock off either or both the Tigers or ‘Noles.
But a 10-win season feels like the Cardinals’ ceiling, whereas FSU and Clemson are shooting for at least 12. And if things go as I’m predicting, the ‘Noles just might become FBS’ first-ever 15-0 team.
NEXT: STEWART MANDEL’S 2016 ACC PREDICTIONS |
: Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha on Thursday said that some "sweeping conclusions" were drawn from a "narrow set of facts", missing the "structural reforms" transforming the economy.His remarks came a day after his father Yashwant Sinha lambasted the NDA government for “economic mess” and questioned the current methodology to calculate the GDP."The methodology for calculation of the GDP was changed by the present government in 2015 as a result of which the growth rate recorded earlier increased statistically by over 200 basis points on an annual basis. So, according to the old method of calculation, the growth rate of 5.7 per cent is actually 3.7 per cent or less."Jayant, in a blog for The Times of India, wrote that one or two quarters of GDP growth was inadequate to ascertain the long-term impact of the structural reforms underway.The "New India" requires the structural reforms, according to Jayant, for a "billion-strong" workforce and to enable them to lead better lives.Yashwant had, in the Indian Express on Wednesday, written that he would fail in his national duty if he didn't speak against "the mess the finance minister had made of the economy".While Yashwant referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's demonetisation drive as "an unmitigated economic disaster", Jayant said that GST, demonetisation and digital payments were game-changing efforts to formalise India’s economy."In the long term, formalisation will mean (a) tax collections go up and more resources are available to the state; (b) friction in the economy is reduced and GDP goes up, and (c) citizens are able to establish credit more effectively as transaction records are digitised," Jayant wrote.Jayant reflected on the benefits of innumerable schemes, including the rural electrification scheme announced by PM Modi recently, accruing to the people of the country."India is well on course to achieve 100% village electrification by 2018 with the number of villages remaining to be electrified having decreased to only 4,941 villages by 2017 from 18,452 in 2014," he wrote.Jayant opined that "structural reforms" undertaken by the Modi government since 2014 constituted the third generation of reforms - first being the 1991 economic reforms and "second in the 1999-2004 NDA government".Jayant's father Yashwant had also said that his opinion was shared by a number of people, who are currently part of the ruling party, but they won't "speak out of fear". |
(John McDonnell/The Washington Post)
Updated 2:08 p.m.: The Capitals placed Jeff Schultz on unconditional waivers Tuesday for the purpose of buying the defenseman out of the final year of his contract.
Schultz, 27, will receive a compliance buyout, which means the $2 million Washington owes him over the next two years will not count against the salary cap. The blue-liner had one year remaining on his four-year, $11 million contract and would have carried a $2.75 million salary cap hit in the 2013-14 season. General Manager George McPhee, who previously stated his dislike of compliance buyouts, declined to comment Tuesday through a team spokesman.
Under the new collective bargaining agreement, teams are permitted two compliance buyouts that can be used either this offseason or next. Assuming Schultz clears waivers and the Capitals are able to buy him out, the team will have one compliance buyout remaining that they can use either before this year’s window closes at 5 p.m. Thursday or next summer.
Buying out Schultz will give Washington a little over $9 million in space under the $64.3 million salary cap. That additional room will provide important flexibility as the Capitals look to re-sign restricted free agents Karl Alzner, Marcus Johansson and perhaps bring in a new player once unrestricted free agency opens at noon on Friday.
Washington’s move to buy out Schultz makes sense from both a salary-cap management and roster perspective. In late May, Schultz made it known that he requested a trade from the Capitals because of a lack of playing time over the past two seasons.
Schultz, who played 399 regular season games for the Capitals through the first seven years of his NHL career, is glad to know he will have the chance at a fresh start.
“It’s nice to have it happen now and I can look to the future,” Schultz said in a phone interview Tuesday afternoon. “I’m excited. I’m excited to move on and restart the game of hockey for me. The last month and a half of the year was tough just practicing all the time not knowing. I’m looking forward to starting over again. I want to get back out there and play.”
The Calgary native’s role in Washington diminished rapidly over the past two years. A 2004 first-round pick, Schultz was a top-four defenseman for the Capitals as recently as the 2010-11 season but he quickly fell out of favor with Dale Hunter the following season. Under Adam Oates in the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season, he fell down the depth chart and became a consistent healthy scratch. He’s hoping to show once again he deserves a regular place in an NHL lineup.
“It’s hard, you get out of the rhythm of things when you’re not either in the lineup or playing a regular shift,” Schultz said. “I think the biggest thing is just getting back out and playing and trying to get my game back to where it was. It starts with getting on a team, seeing where I fit in and going from there.”
McPhee said last month that he was attempting to accommodate the defenseman’s trade request, but a trade wasn’t in the offing. It makes sense that the Capitals would buy out Schultz rather than use $2.75 million of their salary cap space with a player who had no defined role in the lineup.
“We’ve told our players over the years, if you don’t want to play here we’ll move you,” McPhee said. “It’s that simple. This is a great place to play. Great place to live and work, great fan base. If you don’t want to play here, that’s fine we’ll move you along.”
More from Post Sports
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The Caps’ 2013 draft class |
Opinion Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Hero for Our Time
Rich Lowry is editor of National Review.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali should be the perfect feminist hero. Viewed from a certain level of abstraction, it is hard to imagine one person who fits the role on so many levels: She’s an escapee — literally — from an abusive patriarchy. She’s an African immigrant who made her own way in a Western country, the Netherlands, starting from nothing. She’s a fierce advocate for women’s rights. She’s a target for deadly violence by angry men who want to shut her up. She left her religion and became a scourge of its repressive practices.
All this — her searing personal experience, her Third World background, her secularism — would seem fit to make her a rock star of contemporary feminism. Except for the blemish on her record: Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a dissident from the wrong religion.
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Raised a Muslim in Somalia, subjected to genital mutilation and married off to a distant cousin, she is famously a critic of Islam. She has excoriated it for years at extraordinary risk to her own safety, and makes the case again in her latest book, “Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now.”
When she collaborated on a short film in the Netherlands in 2004 cataloging abuses against Muslim women, her fellow filmmaker Theo Van Gogh was assassinated by an Islamist who left a note threatening Hirsi Ali pinned to Van Gogh’s chest — with a knife.
That would be enough for most people to get the message, but Hirsi Ali wouldn’t be silenced. She is truly a hero of our time. She is defying the jihadi censors, the misbegotten hate-speech laws, and the polite conventions of Western debate that all tend to limit what can be said about the relationship of Islam to modernity.
When all respectable people nod sagely at the cliché that Islam is a “religion of peace,” she says, “No, it’s not.” When all respectable people — and many discreditable ones — recoil and insist, “You can’t say that,” she says, “Yes, you can.”
Our society, and especially the left, tends to reflexively celebrate dissenters. But some heretics are more welcome than others. In the case of Islam, the pieties of multiculturalism clash with what should be an imperative of feminism (i.e., forcefully standing up for the basic rights of women in Muslim societies), and feminism tends to lose out.
“The concern,” as one feminist wrote of Hirsi Ali, “is that her intervention into the issue of gender equality in Muslim societies will strengthen racism rather than weaken sexism.” In the fashionable neologism designed to be an all-purpose conversation-stopper, she is “an Islamophobe.” Brandeis University notoriously rescinded a planned honorary degree for her last year, and the Muslim Students Association at the school huffed, “she incites and supports insensitivity and irresponsibility.”
If Hirsi Ali had had a strict Baptist upbringing somewhere in the southern United States and left to tell the story of its hypocrisies and closed-mindedness, she would be welcomed and celebrated in such precincts as Brandeis, without anyone uttering a peep of protest.
This is the “Book of Mormon” effect — no one cares about offending the inoffensive. It’s only debate over a religion that is home to dangerous fanatics ripping apart the Middle East and threatening the West that must be carefully policed.
Even people not otherwise known for their solicitude for religious sensibilities are uncomfortable with her criticisms of Islam. In his interview with her this week, “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart worried that “people single out Islam,” when Christianity underwent its own difficult reconciliation with modernity. True enough, but the Thirty Years’ War — the horrific intra-Christian bloodletting that issued in the rough sectarian truce of The Peace of Westphalia — was 400 years ago.
If Islam is on the same trajectory, it is badly trailing the pace. Ayaan Hirsi Ali is unsparing in her prescription. As she writes in a Wall Street Journal excerpt from her new book, “the fundamental problem is that the majority of otherwise peaceful and law-abiding Muslims are unwilling to acknowledge, much less to repudiate, the theological warrant for intolerance and violence embedded in their own religious texts.”
Hirsi Ali’s specific views are hardly unassailable, and they are changing. In one of her earlier books, she pronounced Islam beyond reform and urged moderate Muslims to become Christians. She has backed off that. Still, her notion of religious reform bears an atheistic stamp. If change in Islam depends on getting Muslims to admit that Muhammad was not The Prophet, as she writes in “Heretic,” the cause is indeed hopeless. The umma is not going to dissolve itself into a gooey Unitarian Universalism.
Hirsi Ali recalls the dissidents from communism in the 20th century like the great Whittaker Chambers. Their personal experience redoubled their commitment to the fight for freedom and human dignity. They, too, were often dismissed as fanatics and as embarrassments to polite opinion. But their intellectual contributions, and the examples of their own bravery, were indispensable in the long ideological struggle.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is not just a heretic; she is also a believer. She has more confidence in Western civilization and its values than people who have never had to live outside it, or face down the enemies who want to destroy it. If she doesn’t get the recognition she deserves, so much the worse for her detractors. |
Some 200 Palestinians armed with bats and iron chains raided the illegal West Bank outpost of Gaon HaYarden Friday and burned Jewish holy books at the site, the settlers said.
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The Arab attackers clashed with Jewish youths at the outposts before torching a hut and a tent that included a prayer corner and holy books. Security forces rushed to the scene and broke up the violence.
The Palestinians arrived at the outpost in dozens of vehicles and razed it. A leading member of the Jewish Hilltop Youth movement vowed to rebuild the outpost after the Shabbat.
Op-Ed Abbas’ hate education Yoram Ettinger Op-ed: While speaking softly, Palestinian leader carries horrendous stick of hate education Abbas’ hate education
"There were a few youths at the site when some 150 to 200 Palestinians carrying PLO flags and armed with bats and iron chains raided it," an outpost resident told Ynet. "We managed to escape unharmed."
A short while later, clashes broke out between the settlers and the Palestinians, with both sides hurling stones and burning tires at each other. IDF troops at the site dispersed the crowds while sustaining stoning attacks. The area was declared a closed military zone and two settlers who defied the order were held for questioning and later released.
Arab leader: It's our land
Majed Fahim, the head of the Kfar Malek municipality told Ynet that the outpost in question was set up illegally on Arab land.
"Today we decided to come out after Friday prayers and reach our land, where this outpost was established, in order to remove the settlers from the site," he said.
"I know that we managed to make them run away this time, but they will likely return again as they did in the past," he said.
Fahim admitted that after the settlers left the area, a group of Palestinians burned their tent.
Elior Levy, Ynet's Palestinian affairs correspondent, contributed to the story |
In WordPress 4.2, we’re upgrading tables to utf8mb4 , when we can. Your site will only upgrade when the following conditions are met:
You’re currently using the utf8 character set.
character set. Your MySQL server is version 5.5.3 or higher (including all 10.x versions of MariaDB).
Your MySQL client libraries are version 5.5.3 or higher. If you’re using mysqlnd , 5.0.9 or higher.
The difference between utf8 and utf8mb4 is that the former can only store 3 byte characters, while the latter can store 4 byte characters. In Unicode terms, utf8 can only store characters in the Basic Multilingual Plane, while utf8mb4 can store any Unicode character. This greatly expands the language usability of WordPress, especially in countries that use Han character sets. Unicode isn’t without its problems, but it’s the best option available.
utf8mb4 is 100% backwards compatible with utf8 .
Due to index size restrictions in MySQL, this does mean we need to re-create a handful of indexes to fit within MySQL’s rules. Using a standard configuration, MySQL allows 767 bytes per index, which for utf8 means 767 bytes / 3 bytes = 255 characters. For utf8mb4 , that means 767 bytes / 4 bytes = 191 characters. The indexes that will be resized are:
wp_usermeta.meta_key
wp_terms.slug
wp_terms.name
wp_commentmeta.meta_key
wp.postmeta.meta_key
wp_posts.post_name
And from Multisite:
wp_site.domain
wp_sitemeta.meta_key
wp_signups.domain
Of course, the Multisite (and wp_usermeta ) keys obey the DO_NOT_UPGRADE_GLOBAL_TABLES setting. The upgrade will only be attempted once, though we’ll probably add a check in a future WordPress version to see if we can upgrade now (say, if you’ve upgraded your MySQL server since upgrading to WordPress 4.2).
If you’re a plugin developer and your plugin includes custom tables, please test that your indexes fit within MySQL’s limits. MySQL won’t always produce an error when the index is too big, so you’ll need to manually check the size of each index, instead of relying on automated testing.
EDIT: One more thing…
If you’d like to upgrade your custom tables to utf8mb4 (and your indexes are all in order), you can do it really easily with the shiny new maybe_convert_table_to_utf8mb4( $tablename ) function. It’s available in `wp-admin/includes/upgrade.php`, and will sanity check that your tables are entirely utf8 before upgrading. |
Hyderabad
Hyderabad's three year wait for growth in real estate is over. While India's major real estate markets are all reporting negative growth, Hyderabad stands apart. The Hyderabad real estate has out-performed realty markets of Bengaluru, Chennai, Gurgaon and Mumbai. According to a recent study on the Housing Sentiment Index Apr-Jun 2015, Hyderabad is the only city to witness an increase in sentiments in the quarter.
Although, first time home buyers kept away from investing in new properties due to project delays and uncertainty over the Telangana region, homes in the resale market remained in demand among serious buyers. This showed that investors were keen on buying ready properties, preferably in areas with established infrastructure.
Another reason which contributed to improved sentiments is the expanding list of investors from across the country that showed interest in Hyderabad real estate, especially the western corridor. This includes expansion of Amazon and Google campus and Micromax which decided to invest another `500 crore in the city based plant. Not just private investors, government pushed initiatives such as Pharma City and IT SEZ in East and South Hyderabad are expected to create housing demand in the city.
Central most preferred, north most positive
Almost 23 per cent of the total respondents want to invest in Central Hyderabad because of ease of connectivity to all important corners of the city, including the western quadrant, after-work life at Banjara Hills and shopping hub at A S Rao Nagar.
Metro boost
With consistent and ongoing metro construction, North Hyderabad realty is getting a fresh lease of life. Once operational, the connectivity from the south part of the city to north and west would improve significantly and bring travelling woes to an end for daily commuters.
Affordable property remains in demand
Majority of the buyers in the city preferred properties ranging between `20-40 lakh, followed by the `40-60 lakh budget, which witnessed maximum change in sentiments in the last three months.
Infra edge
While the expanding city and it’s afford able housing may not inspire PE funds looking for fast growth, it remains a very good example of well planned urban housing. Pankaj Kapoor, MD, Liases Foras says, “Hyderabad is the only city in India where there is infrastructure built in advance. Maybe the traditional sources of money chasing land and residences here are holding off, but in the long run, it's the only city that is not saturated, and at appealing price points with livable spaces. In a city like Bengaluru, middle income people cannot buy homes in prime social areas anymore, but that is not the case here. Hyderabad has peculiar symptoms of being cyclical, we see a quarter of growth and a quarter of slow-down; and we have seen this for four quarters now. “
Dipal Gala and Surbhi Gupta, Times Property, The Times of India, Hyderabad |
Joshua Carman (Photo: Greene County Jail)
Police say a man and woman were seen having sex on the roof of a downtown parking garage — while someone else took pictures.
Joshua Carman, 39, and LaDawna Carman, 33, were charged Wednesday with three counts of sexual misconduct after police say workers at Hammons Tower saw them having sex on the roof of a nearby parking garage on St. Louis Street in April.
According to a probable cause statement, police were dispatched to the parking garage about 10:30 a.m. on April 7. As the officer was walking up to the roof, he encountered a topless woman in the stairwell along with two men — one of whom had a camera around his neck, the statement says.
LaDawna Carman (Photo: Greene County Jail)
The officer identified Joshua and LaDawna Carman as the suspects and asked them about having sex on the roof, and they denied it, according to the statement.
Police then contacted the witnesses at Hammons Tower, and they showed police photographs they had taken from their offices of the couple having sex on the roof of the parking garage, the statement says.
The witnesses told police the encounter started with Joshua taking topless photos of LaDawna on the roof of the garage. Joshua then handed the camera off to the other man, who took pictures while the couple had sex, according to the statement.
The witnesses told police that after the couple finished having sex, the three individuals gathered around the camera to apparently review the photos, the statement says.
Joshua and LaDawna Carman do not have attorneys listed for this case. The probable cause statement says they were arrested that morning in April, but they have since been released.
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Islamabad: After Justice R.M. Lodha Committee report recommended legalizing betting in India, Pakistan has outdone it by legalizing match fixing for their players. PCB made this announcement in Islamabad today.
Khullam Khulla Fix Karenge Hum Teeno, Ab Duniya Se Nahi Darenge Hum Teeno
Speaking to media, PCB Chairman Shahryar Khan said,”We have taken this decision for all round improvement in standard of Pakistan cricket. So far, 1 or 2 players used to fix the match behind everyone’s back and others felt robbed. Now with legal match fixing, every player will try to fix the match to the best of his ability which will raise the standards and increase competition in the team.”
When we asked whether they are influenced by recent developments in India where there was a suggestion to legalize betting, Mr Khan said, “It is not a competition with India, we aren’t looking at what they are planning. We are just doing what we need to do for a strong Pakistan team and we can’t have a strong team if we have less than 11 players eligible to play cricket. We had to ensure we have as many players to choose from as possible.”
A huge controversy erupted in Pakistan recently when Mohammad Amir, who was banned for 5 years over spot fixing, was recalled to the national side. ODI captain Azhar Ali and opening batsman Mohammad Hafeez refused to join the training camp initially though they later relented and are part of the current tour to New Zealand.
As per our experts, PCB has taken this decision to avoid any future embarrassing moments like this one as Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif are also showing great form in domestic cricket and can be recalled any moment.
When someone asked whether this will result a drop in viewers interest if they know every match is fixed, Mr Khan smiled and asked us back, “You think they don’t know every match was fixed till now? Knowledgeable crowd isn’t restricted to Chennai; Lahore crowd is pretty smart too.”
After this move, Pakistan expects to host international cricket once again as the security provided by bookies to the players will be way more superior to anything Pakistan police can provide. |
One of the suspects being escorted by police
Image Source: Nippon News Network
Two men in Chiba, Japan were arrested earlier this week after one of the men allegedly uploaded a video to his Twitter account that showed the two suspects in a beef and rice bowl restaurant (gyūdon) engaging in a game of rock-paper-scissors that caused one of the men to throw up into a water pitcher that belonged to the restaurant.
According to police, on January 3 of this year, the two suspects, Kento Yoshitane and Genta Kurokawa, both 20-years-old, interfered with the business of a beef and rice bowl shop located in the Chiba city of Funabashi when from about 6:20 a.m. until about 7:30 a.m., they engaged in a rock-paper-scissors game that required the winner of each round to chug water.
This water chugging game reportedly caused one man to throw up into a plastic bag that he had in his possession. Additionally, one of the men, it has not been revealed if it was the same man, threw up into one of the restaurant’s water pitchers.
After the suspects left, the shop reportedly had to shut down for about an hour in order to clean and disinfect the items that had been contaminated by the two men.
A video showing the events described above was uploaded to the Twitter account of one of the suspects on January 22. The suspect also reportedly had another similar video that had been filmed at a different beef and rice bowl shop already posted on his Twitter account.
Excite News reports that the uploaded video caused many people on Twitter to criticize the actions of the two men. Although it is not explicitly stated in reports, it seems likely that this video is what eventually led to the arrest of the two men.
As of February 28 police had arrested both suspects. They are currently facing charges of having forcibly interfered with the ability of the restaurant to conduct business. The suspects have both admitted to these accusations. Yoshitane was quoted by police as saying “Our fooling around went too far and we didn’t at all consider that our actions could cause trouble to the shop.”
Although the original video that was uploaded to Twitter has been taken down, TomoNews Japan has recreated the events described above in the video below.
Sources: Excite News, Sankei News, TomoNews Japan, Toyo Keizai Online |
As might be expected, the West’s public acceptance of defeat in Aleppo came quietly, but it has now come.
The events of the last few week can be summed up quickly.
Following the US climbdown in the first week of October after the Russian warning of Russia’s readiness to shoot down US aircraft carrying out bombing strikes against Syrian bases, a final attempt was made to scare and embarrass the Russians into getting the Syrians to call the Aleppo offensive off.
This centred on a failed and actually farcical attempt to isolate and embarrass the Russians at the UN Security Council (discussed in detail here), combined with empty threats to bring war crimes prosecutions against the Russians, and more empty threats of further sanctions against individual Russian officials (additional sectoral sanctions are out of the question).
A meeting of the US National Security Council took place on Friday, with some US officials telling the media anonymously that military options would again be discussed and presented to Obama for his consideration.
This was a completely empty claim since Obama had publicly rejected these same military options the previous week. The same US officials were therefore obliged to admit that it was “extremely unlikely” that Obama would approve these options, and he would probably “not make a decision”.
Meanwhile Boris Johnson, Britain’s hapless Foreign Secretary, appeared to float an idea for a “no bombing zone”, though typically he never did so clearly or openly and most of the details had to be provided in off the record conversations to the British media.
The idea behind this “no bombing zone” was that the US and the Western powers would unilaterally announce a prohibition on bombing by the Syrians and the Russians in any part of Syria. In the event that the Syrians or the Russians disregarded this announcement and continued bombing, the US and the Western powers would retaliate by launching strikes against Syrian bases and military facilities where no Russians were believed to be present.
It is not clear who was the originator of this plan but its half-baked nature suggests it was probably Boris Johnson himself.
The “no bombing zone” is simply a “no fly zone” without the aerial bombardment. The US has never imposed a “no fly zone” without an aerial bombardment. We have a detailed discussion of what a “no fly zone” involves and why an aerial bombardment is an integral part of it from no less a person than Hillary Clinton herself.
The US military would never agree to enforce a “no fly zone” (or a “no bombing zone”) without an aerial bombardment since by failing (in US parlance) to “degrade” the Syrian air defences through an aerial bombardment the US would be placing its aircraft and pilots enforcing the “no fly zone” (or “no bombing zone”) at risk.
In a situation where the air defences in question are not merely Syrian but Russian – and therefore far more capable of shooting down US aircraft – the whole idea of enforcing a “no bombing zone” without an aerial bombardment to “degrade” these defences is inconceivable. Only a complete civilian with no understanding of how the US military conducts operations would conceive of it, which is why its author is very likely to be Boris Johnson himself.
The “no bombing zone” would in fact depend for its enforcement on launching long range cruise missile strikes on Syrian bases from US warships, which for geographical and political reasons would have to be based in the eastern Mediterranean.
Some of the Russian air defence systems in Syria are probably capable of shooting down these cruise missiles. The S-300MV Antey-2500 recently deployed to Syria was designed for this very purpose.
The Russians say it is in Syria to protect Russia’s naval facility in Tartus. That suggests its units have been stationed along the Syrian coast, in other words precisely in the area where they would most effectively intercept US cruise missiles launched from US warships from the eastern Mediterranean.
That already puts the viability of enforcing the “no bombing zone” with cruise missiles from US warships in the eastern Mediterranean in question.
The key concern of the US would however be that the Russians have also warned that in case of US missile strikes on Syria killing Russian personnel they would retaliate with missile strikes of their own against facilities in Syria they know to be staffed by US personnel.
There are persistent rumours the Russians have already done just that. This was supposedly done in retaliation for the US air strike on the Syrian military near Deir Ezzor. That is rumoured to have killed three Russian advisers stationed with the Syrian troops there. In retaliation the Russians are supposed to have launched a cruise missile strike on a Jihadi headquarters staffed by Western military personnel – including some from the US – all or some of whom were killed.
Even if this strike never happened – and it has never been confirmed that it did – someone is spreading rumours about it. Quite conceivably it is the Russians as their way of making clear that it is something they are prepared to do.
It is inconceivable that the US political and military leadership would put the lives of its personnel in Syria at risk in this way, especially in a situation which could easily escalate into a full-blown military confrontation with the Russians.
One way or the other the “no bombing zone” faces the same insuperable problems that a fully fledged “no fly zone” does. An editorial in The London Times has now admitted as much.
Quite simply, what makes it impractical is that it risks a head on confrontation with the Russian military in Syria. That is something that neither the West’s political nor its military leadership is prepared to risk.
All this became entirely obvious at a meeting of Western foreign ministers in London on Sunday convened by Boris Johnson directly following Kerry’s meeting with Lavrov on Saturday in Lausanne.
It is clear that Kerry found Lavrov in Lausanne completely immoveable, with Lavrov sticking to the well-known Russian position that there can be no more unilateral ceasefires by the Syrian army, and that a precondition for a ceasefire is the separation of Syrian opposition fighters from Jabhat Al-Nusra – as the US has repeatedly promised and as has repeatedly failed to happen.
In the face of this, and with military options ruled out, the Western foreign ministers in London were left with nothing other than to accept the inevitable, which is that the Syrian government is going to recapture eastern Aleppo.
This became clear from the subsequent news conference, which significantly only Kerry and Johnson attended.
Both Kerry and Johnson admitted that there is no support in Europe for military action in Syria and that this option has been ruled out. Here is what Kerry had to say about it
“I haven’t seen a big appetite in Europe of people to go to war. I don’t see the parliaments of European countries ready to declare war. I don’t see a lot of countries deciding that that’s the better solution here. So we are pursuing diplomacy because those are the tools that we have, and we’re trying to find a way forward under those circumstances. Easy to say, where’s the action? But what is the action? I have a lot of people who have a lot of trouble defining that when you really get down to trying to do it.”
And here is what Boris Johnson had to say about it
“And to the gentleman there, look, no option is, in principle, off the table. But being no doubt that these so-called military options are extremely difficult and there is, to put it mildly, a lack of political appetite in most European capitals and certainly in the West for that kind of solution at present. So we’ve got to work with the tools we have. The tools we have are diplomatic….”
As to what has forced the West to take the “military option” in Syria off the table, Kerry spelled it out. It is what The Duran has reported (see here and here), and what the Western media has ignored
“…..when a great power is involved in a fight like this, as Russia has chosen to be by going there and then putting its missiles in place in order to threaten people against military action, it raises the stakes of confrontation….”
With no military option available, and with all forms of pressure on the Russians having failed, there is nothing more the West can do.
That this is so was most clearly admitted by Boris Johnson. All he could come up with to save the Jihadi fighters in Aleppo was plead with the Russians for mercy
“And it is up to them (NB: the Russians – AM) to seize this moment to recognise the opportunity and, in my view, to show greatness and to show leadership…..it’s really up to them now to listen and to show mercy – show mercy to those people in that city, get a ceasefire going, get the negotiations going in Geneva, and let’s bring this slaughter to an end.”
(bold italics added)
When a Western foreign minister – even one as preposterous as Boris Johnson – is reduced to pleading with the Russians for mercy, then it is obvious that the game is over and the ‘Great Battle of Aleppo’ has been lost.
Kerry in fact all but admitted as much. His comments make it clear the US now accepts the Syrian government is going to recapture eastern Aleppo, and that the Jihadi fighters there are doomed. All he could say was that it would not be the end of the war.
“Now, some people ask what happens to Aleppo if it were to fall. Well, the Russians should understand, and Assad needs to understand, that that does not end the war. This war cannot end without a political solution. So even if Aleppo were to fall, even if they have utterly destroyed it, which they are doing, that will not change the fundamental equation in this war because other countries will continue to support opposition, and they will continue to create more terrorists, and Syria will be the victim in the end as well as the region.”
That continuing the war after the Syrian government recaptures eastern Aleppo is now the US objective was previously confirmed by the same US officials (quite possibly Kerry himself) who spoke anonymously to the media last week. Here is how Reuters reports it in a despatch dated Friday 14th October 2016
“The ultimate aim of any new action could be to bolster the battered moderate rebels so they can weather what is now widely seen as the inevitable fall of rebel-held eastern Aleppo to the forces of Russian- and Iranian-backed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.”
The US and its allies do have the means to prolong the war in Syria at least for a time even after the Syrian government regains control of eastern Aleppo. As Mark Sleboda and I have previously said, it is precisely in order to create a safe zone for the Jihadis in north east Syria – and therefore to prolong the war – that the Turkish military with US support invaded north east Syria in August.
Whatever Jihadi entity is eventually created in the Turkish controlled safe zone in north east Syria, it cannot however convincingly claim to be the government of Syria. That will always be the government in control of Syria’s great cities, first and foremost Aleppo and Damascus, and the densely populated region of western Syria in which they are located and where the great majority of Syria’s people live.
It is now clear that for the foreseeable future the government of Syria will be the government of President Bashar Al-Assad, which is and always has been the legitimate UN recognised government of Syria.
With the recapture of eastern Aleppo the future of this government will have been secured. That means that for the foreseeable future the regime change project in Syria is dead. |
The Xbox One underneath your TV set could soon replace your TiVo or other digital video recorder, according to a report from long-time, well-connected Microsoft watcher Paul Thurrott. In a post discussing the death of Windows Media Center on the PC, Thurrott cites unnamed sources that the Xbox One's live TV functionality will expand to include TV recording "most probably this year."
The report comes just a month after Microsoft announced an official tuner allowing the Xbox One to accept over-the-air broadcast signals through a USB connection. That device also comes with the ability to pause live TV for up to 30 minutes (though that content can't be saved long term) and to stream live programming to a tablet or phone via SmartGlass.
If Microsoft is indeed planning to roll out DVR capabilities on the Xbox One, we have to wonder why it took them so long. There's no technical reason that the Xbox One can't record TV signals coming in from the external HDMI passthrough and store them for later viewing on a portion of its 500GB hard drive or an external USB drive. Such a feature would certainly help differentiate the system from the competing PlayStation 4, which doesn't offer any live TV passthrough options.
A DVR function would also represent a big step up from the current uses for Xbox One's HDMI passthrough, which include Kinect-controlled channel switching, a built-in program guide, and the ability to snap live TV alongside a game. On the other hand, a built-in DVR that lets users easily skip commercials on recorded programs might not sit well with many content providers that partner with Microsoft to sell content through the Xbox video store and other platforms.
If the report is true, next month's Electronic Entertainment Expo would be a great chance for Microsoft to officially announce the plans and maybe finally justify the system's sports-and-TV-filled introduction from two years ago. Plus, it would fill the Windows Media Center-shaped hole that the cancellation of that product has created. |
As part of a recently announced legal settlement with representatives of the Muslim community, the NYPD has agreed to purge materials critical to understanding the threat to New York City from domestic Islamic terrorism. The plaintiffs in Raza v. City of New York and Handschu v. Special Services Division charged that the NYPD had targeted Muslims for surveillance solely because of their religious affiliation. Among other things, the settlement stipulates that the NYPD must remove from its website a comprehensive 2007 report authored by senior analysts Mitchell D. Silber and Arvin Bhatt.
Radicalization in the West identified homegrown Islamic terrorism as the primary extremist threat to New York City. As then-police commissioner Ray Kelly noted in a preface, the report’s aim was to assist policymakers and law enforcement officials around the country by providing a thorough understanding of the danger posed by domestic terrorists. It also sought to help intelligence and law enforcement agencies better understand the radicalization process. Based on a rigorous analysis of almost a dozen jihadist plots across the U.S. and Europe, the report identified the enemy’s ideology on its own terms. The report didn’t say that jihadism had nothing to do with Islam; nor did it suggest that Islam was a “religion of peace.” Its sole concern was assessing the jihadist threat, not undertaking an Islamic exegesis.
From the day the report was released, Muslim groups pounced. “By afternoon, American-Muslim organizations had issued press releases criticizing the report,” Time noted in 2007. “The Council on American-Islamic Relations said it cast suspicion on all U.S. Muslims, even though the report repeatedly stresses that there is no obvious way to profile would-be terrorists.” What did they find so objectionable? According to the complaint filed in Raza, the report provided the “analytic underpinnings” for the NYPD’s Muslim Surveillance Program. The plaintiffs asserted that the program “stigmatizes an entire faith community and invites discrimination. It specifically singles out Muslims for profiling and suspicionless surveillance because of their religious beliefs and practices.” The Raza plaintiffs sought to have the program shut down, arguing that it operated on “a false and unconstitutional premise: that Muslim religious belief and practices are a basis for law enforcement scrutiny.”
Now, the NYPD has agreed not only to remove Silber and Bhatt’s report from its website, but the terms of the settlement also require the NYPD to assert that it does not, has not, and will not rely upon the report to open or extend investigations. Within 24 hours of the settlement, however, events conspired to underscore the danger it potentially presents. In Philadelphia, a self-identified jihadist attempted to assassinate a policeman. Edward Archer fired 13 shots at Officer Jesse Hartnett, striking him with three. Archer reportedly told investigators while in custody that he “follows Allah, and that is the reason he was called upon to do this.” Further, according to Philadelphia police captain Richard Ross, Archer “believed that the police defend laws that are contrary to the teachings of the Quran.” In 2012, Archer allegedly traveled to and spent several months in Egypt. According to his mother, he was a devout Muslim who had practiced the faith for an extended period of time. Despite Archer’s words and actions, and the reports of Philadelphia law enforcement officers involved in the investigation, the city’s mayor declared during a press conference, “In no way, shape or form does anyone in this room believe that Islam or the teaching of Islam has anything to do with what you’ve seen on the screen.”
Tragic as it nearly was, the Philadelphia shooting couldn’t have been timelier. Archer fits the exact profile that Silber and Bhatt sketched in their report—as do most examples in recent memory of American jihadists. Religious ideology is not incidental to jihad; it’s central. For Islamists, jihad is an intrinsic part of a pious Muslim’s religious duties. All Muslims are not jihadists, but all jihadists are self-identified Muslims. Yet, New York mayor Bill de Blasio appears willing to pursue the see-no-Islam policy preferred by Philadelphia’s mayor. And, according to a 2013 report from Judicial Watch, a similar purge of materials linking Islamic ideology to jihad has already occurred at the federal level, with apparently disastrous consequences, given the mushrooming domestic jihadist threat.
More than any other area of government, national security and defense must be insulated from political correctness. To remove analyses that might give us insight into our enemies represents a dereliction of duty by our political representatives. Political correctness can and will get Americans killed. If we are to defeat the threat from Islamic terrorism, we must dispense with euphemisms, take off our blinders, and see our enemy clearly. |
I'm as much a fan of true-crime as anyone, and this case in particular has enthralled me for years. And I'm not alone, which why another JonBenét Ramsey documentary is coming out. This one will be a mixture of fact and fiction, and people interested in the mystery of this particular murder should probably figure out which aspects of the JonBenét Ramsey case will Casting JonBenét fictionalize? The project premiere at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival later this month, and arrive on Netflix sometime in the spring. Not quite a documentary and not quite invented narrative, Casting JonBenét has described itself as a "sly and stylized" take on the 6-year-old beauty queen's unsolved murder on Christmas Day 1996. And while that's a very intriguing soundbite, what does it actually mean?
The Ramsey case is already so memorable to so many, and its been made even more familiar by the flood of coverage it received in 2016 for the 20th anniversary of the tragedy. With a case that iconic, what can you really make up? It's impossible to know for sure until the project hits Netflix, but the angle chosen by Casting JonBenét does give us some clues.
The documentary hybrid is helmed by director Kitty Green, who elected to build around a perspective of the tragedy that hasn't yet been explored as deeply as the others: the community that the Ramsey Family lived in. Green didn't have access to the family themselves, which is just as well, because that element of the case has been pounded into the ground. Nor did she focus much on the police force. Instead, she turned her attention to the city of Boulder itself. More so than anywhere else in the nation, Boulder, Colorado was rocked by the murder of JonBenét Ramsey, happening as it did right among them.
Green spent much of her time interviewing residents about the case — "elicit[ing] responses, reflections and even performances from the local community," according to Vulture — but, since we're now two decades out from the crime itself, I envision most people having difficulty reconstructing exact conversations or reporting precisely how they felt in any given moment. These potential memory gaps are the elements that I think Green will fill in, spinning out fictionalized interactions from the threads provided in interviews, and basing characters on the individuals she interviewed instead of replicating them exactly. That way, she isn't held to a standard of being completely accurate about conversations she wasn't present for, and everyone involved can speak more freely. It's a theory, but I think it fits given what we know about the documentary so far.
It's an approach that I imagine would allow audiences to lose themselves within an element of a story they thought they knew by heart, allowing them to see it through another pair of eyes. And who knows? Maybe seeing how the community has been shaped by this tragedy, both then and now, will provide some insight to someone, somewhere, on who might have committed this terrible crime over 20 years ago. |
Everybody wants to know what the next bubble is, and there's an easy way to tell: Just watch where Harvard grads are going. Then short the hell out of that.
It's called the Harvard M.B.A. Indicator — though it applies to undergrads, too — and it's one part psychology, another part economics. The idea is simple enough: It's a bad sign when more Harvard grads go to Wall Street.
Harvard is a magnet for Organization Kids who excel at coloring between the lines. After graduation, they want to do something prestigious, something remunerative, but mostly, as Kevin Roose points out, something that gives them new lines to color between. That might be Silicon Valley, or it might be Teach for America — or it might be Wall Street, if, that is, the getting looks good.
And the getting looks best right before a crash. Which is when, the argument goes, the Harvard M.B.A. Indicator hits its highest levels, like it did in 1987, in 2000-2002, and in 2005-2008. See, as economist Hyman Minsky explained, financial stability is destabilizing. The longer markets are calm, the more people plan on them staying that way. People take bigger risks and take on bigger debt because it doesn't seem like anything can go wrong — until it does, and all this leverage turns small losses into big ones due to forced selling from margin calls.
But this era of complacency can last a long time. And it's when Wall Street exerts its strongest gravitational pull on Harvard kids. The money keeps getting better and better, and it looks like it always will. All they have to do is follow the Excel-filled road laid out before them.
That's why the more Harvard grads that head for Wall Street, the worse a sign it is for markets. It usually means that the irrational exuberance is about to give way to rational panic.
The good news now, though, is that Harvard kids aren't flocking back to Wall Street in anywhere near the numbers that they did before the financial crisis. As you can see in the chart below from the Harvard Crimson, "only" 31 percent of seniors will be working in finance or consulting next year; down from a high of 47 percent in 2007.
(Courtesy Harvard Crimson)
But the better news is that this share has flatlined around 30 percent the past few years despite buoyant markets. That's partly because post-bailout Wall Street doesn't have the same cultural cachet it once did. And partly because tech looks just as, if not more, lucrative. Which is another way of saying that for all Dodd-Frank doesn't do — and that's a lot — it has, together with higher capital requirements, made big banks a little less profitable.
The Harvard Indicator isn't blinking crimson just yet. |
Indianapolis, Aug. 8, 2016—Fraternities have reached out to the North American Interfraternity Conference (NIC) for insight around inclusion as the needs of transgender college students have recently received increased attention. The NIC has established a working group to review the student development and legal perspectives in this area.
We have heard from fraternities that they would like more education in this area,” said NIC President & CEO Judson Horras. “They are listening to their members and constituents and seeking out greater information around potential policy options and their implications.”
The Transgender Inclusion Working Group will:
Conduct a scan of existing membership inclusion and/or anti-discrimination policies of fraternal organizations, higher education associations, universities and other such groups.
Survey interests and concerns, interviewing experts and constituents.
Obtain legal insight around impact on the Title IX exemption of single-sex fraternities and sororities, as well as exposure to discrimination-based claims.
Outline leading practices and provide member fraternities with a report enabling them to make informed policy decisions.
The charge of this group is not to recommend a specific policy or set an industry-wide standard. Each NIC fraternity is a sovereign organization that selects its own members based on its guidelines. The group will provide information and leading practices to fraternities to support their members.
Many organizations across society—from campuses to businesses to government entities—are currently working through these same policy questions,” said Horras. “Fraternities are selective organizations that get to choose their members, and we have an opportunity to be more inclusive.”
We welcome input on this topic. Please reach out to Patrick Jessee, Executive Director of Delta Sigma Phi and Chairman of the work group, or Heather Kirk, NIC Chief Communication Officer, to provide information or your perspective throughout August.
###
Founded in 1909, the NIC is the trade association representing inter/national men’s fraternities. The NIC’s member organizations boast more than 6,000 chapters located on more than 800 campuses in the United States and Canada, with approximately 375,000 undergraduate members and nearly 5 million alumni. |
Newly declassified files from the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta confirm the extent to which American officials supported the killings of hundreds of thousands of Indonesians in the 1960s, as the U.S. worked to keep Southeast Asia from falling into Communist control.
The U.S. supported a narrative pushed by the Indonesian military that blamed Communists for a failed coup in 1965, targeting the anti-American President Sukarno.
This narrative emboldened the Indonesian military, paramilitaries and others to oversee the killings of 500,000 Indonesians who were suspected Communists, including students and union members.
"These newly released documents make clear that U.S. officials had detailed knowledge of the mass killings in Indonesia in 1965-66."—Phelim Kine, Human Rights Watch
"The U.S. was following what was happening very closely, and if it weren't for its support, you could argue that the army would never have felt the confidence to take power," said John Roosa, author of the book Pretext for Mass Murder, about the events, in an interview with the New York Times.
In a secret cable sent from the Embassy to Washington, D.C. in November 1965, an official detailed the efforts of provinces to repress suspected members of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and its executions of prisoners as a means of controlling prison populations.
"Both in the provinces and Djakarta, repression of the PKI continued, with the main problem that of what to feed and where to house the prisoners," wrote a political affairs counselor. "Many provinces appear to be successfully meeting this problem by executing their PKI prisoners, or by killing them before they are captured."
According to some of the 39 cables released by the National Security Archive on Tuesday, Washington also withheld aid from Indonesia until Sukarno was removed from power, and called the rise of his successor, the military dictator Suharto who had ordered many of the mass killings, "a fantastic switch."
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Following the release of the documents, Human Rights Watch called for a full accounting of U.S. involvement in the killings. "These newly released documents make clear that U.S. officials had detailed knowledge of the mass killings in Indonesia in 1965-66," said Phelim Kine, the group's deputy Asia director. "The U.S. government now needs to release the remaining documents, not only for the historical record of one of the 20th century's worst atrocities, but as a long overdue step toward bringing redress to the victims."
A headline on the story in the New York Times on Wednesday suggested that the U.S. merely "stood by" while the killings took place without intervening—a characterization that was criticized by Adam Johnson of FAIR as glossing over the extent to which the U.S. was involved. |
OWNERS of Industrial properties across Logan have been warned — a Water Meter Thief is at large. This year, 47 water meters have been stolen from properties across the city in Logan, with 15 in September. The thefts have occurred from Yarrabilba to Underwood and all points in between but mainly at industrial premises. The figures were up from 29 last year and 14 the year before.
Division 2 Cr Russell Lutton, whose electorate has been hardest hit, said the thieves were skilled as they were able to turn the water off to the premises then disconnect the meter.
“This causes great inconvenience to the property owner and considerable cost to council as we have to provide a replacement meter,” he said. “We believe the stolen meters are being sold for scrap metal. Council has taken up the issue with Logan Police and they will be on the lookout for thieves.
“If your neighbour has a collection of water meters in the garage they have probably got some questions to answer.” |
ZIMBABWEAN dictator Robert Mugabe was yesterday said to be fighting for his life in a Singapore hospital with an undisclosed illness, amid reports he had agreed to hand over power to his feared Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa.
The Zimbabwe Mail, quoting a senior official of Mugabe's ZANU-PF party, said the President was undergoing intensive treatment in Singapore and that some members of his family had joined him after boarding a chartered private jet on Saturday.
The alarm was raised when the government postponed a cabinet meeting set for today.
Read Next
Mugabe spokesman George Charamba said in a statement: "The Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet, Dr Misheck Sibanda, wishes to inform all members of cabinet that sitting has been moved from Tuesday, April 10, to Thursday, April 12, 2012."
Mugabe, 88, was ostensibly in Singapore to oversee enrolment in a postgraduate course at Singapore University for his daughter Bona. University registration starts in September.
A June 2008 US diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks last month said Mugabe has prostate cancer that has spread to other organs. He was urged by his physician to step down in 2008, but has stayed in the job.
The Tehran Times yesterday said Mugabe had entered into a "gentlemen's agreement" to hand over power to Mnangagwa, 65, who helped orchestrate Mugabe's battle against white rule in the 1970s.
The former head of the Zimbabwean Central Intelligence Organisation was appointed campaign manager by Mugabe during the 2008 presidential election and was widely blamed for the brutality after his rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, edged ahead in the first round of voting.
He is infamous for his role in the brutal crushing of the Zapu party in the 1980s, in which thousands of civilians were killed.
The Mail said Mugabe's failing health had forced the ZANU-PF party to press for early elections and accelerate a plan compelling foreign firms to surrender majority shareholdings, but he had not so far loosened his grip on power.
In any case, ZANU-PF would be hard pressed in elections that must be held by next year, but which could come this year, if it fielded a candidate other than Mugabe, who has been in power since Zimbabwe gained independence from Britain in 1980.
The Times said the pact between Mugabe and Mnangagwa was alleged to have taken place at State House in Harare in April 2008, after the President failed to secure an outright majority over Mr Tsvangirai.
The Mail quoted a British-based Zimbabwe analyst, who wished to remain anonymous: "Mugabe's health impacts entirely on Zimbabwe's political landscape. Everything revolves around his health and his age."
Agencies |
After getting cranky on one algolia blog post, and having a Search Disco episode with Julien Lemoine CTO of Algolia, I’m left fascinated by the solution.
Algolia presupposes that we’re all going to want instant search (aka search-as-you-type). So they’ve built extremely good, hosted instant search. Everything you’d want to do with instant search is there. Just read this amazing post on query understanding
Typo tolerance, “Doug Trunbull”
Prefix search “Doug Turn”
Prefix with typo tolerance “Doug Trun”
Decompounding (sometimes this can be typo tolerance) DougTrun
A query-time lemmatizer, and more…
It’s like instead of search, you have autocomplete on steroids. Couple this with saner default ranking than Elasticsearch or Solr, and you’re left with a pretty compelling product.
I say all that as a pretty rabid Lucenist. I wrote a book about Relevance in Lucene. I’m very biased towards Lucene, as I’ve seen many compelling solutions built with Solr and Elasticsearch as well.
One thing though that I’ve learned about Lucene-based search is you can, with a good team, build just about any searchy thing with it. Yet it does take a team. Lucene-based search isn’t really meant to work well “out of the box” for your solution. Regardless of how easy Elasticsearch has made it, Lucene-based search is a framework, not a solution. It’s a set of really amazing search-focussed data structures that you can cobble together relatively easily to do Your Thing™. Even if Your Thing™ means altering details as low-level as how the index gets stored to disk!
Another way to say that is you could build Algolia in Elasticsearch (or get close enough). You can’t build Elasticsearch in Algolia. You gain from Algolia focus on a specific problem. You sacrifice deep customizability and extendability of open source. Yet another way to say it is to compare to search solutions to web apps. In many ways Algolia is like building a site with a site builder like Wix. Lucene is more like building your own web app with developers behind it, and all the associated low-level considerations, annoyances, but also power.
Case in point is Algolia’s performance comparison to Elasticsearch. In Algolia’s tests, Algolia claims up to 200x performance improvement. On average, there is more of a 10-20x performance improvement (still impressive). However, Algolia chose the lowest common denominator in instant search in Elasticsearch: fuzzy queries and prefix queries. As is written in Elasticsearch: The Definitive Guide another common approach that improves speed tremendously is to use ngrams. Basically avoid the query-time fuzzy work and build a giant data structure that can handle it.
Now ngrams have their own problems. They grow your index. However, in the case of 2 million documents with lots of short text, it might not bloat the index that much. And I suspect it would have improvements of orders of magnitude in performance. If a bloated index became a problem, we could produce fewer ngrams of larger size. There’s also caching to consider: I bet both solutions cache results for each keystroke query. So I wonder how that colors the Algolia vs ES consideration.
We might even reverse terms placed in the index to get suffix queries to catch earlier typos. Or do exotic things with fuzzy queries and ngrams simultaneously. We might even write a Lucene query that focusses on typos. Look at all the power here!
The point though is I’ve made you start to think about how you’d solve the problem. Algolia already has built a solution! Why not just run with theirs? Well there’s a couple of reservations I would have going whole-hog into the Algolia camp:
Turn-key can often turn into lock-in. There are examples of hosted search solutions (and databases being acquired and the new owner (In FoundationDB’s case Apple) not being interested in supporting the existing business.
You care about “things not strings.” Algolia’s solution strongly focusses on specific string matching. Lucene’s approach to relevance focusses more abstractly on terms as features of content, using TF*IDF as a feature similarity system (our book largely discusses relevance in these terms).
You’re doing anything close to non-traditional. You have a specific query language to implement. You need to explicitly map vernaculars between experts and lay-people. You want to do learning-to-rank. You want to do use controlled vocabularies, build semantic search. You have specific Geo concerns. All these are features you can build into Solr/ES and you’re locked into what Algolia gives you.
You want to deeply manipulate the search engine’s behavior. This is a huge part of Lucene’s sweet spot.
But there’s a couple of reasons I would strongly consider Algolia
You have a small team, but good search is important. Algolia works pretty well out of the box. It’s got a good level of configurability of ranking that can include both text and numeric values like popularity with some geo support.
You primarily need to support single-item lookups. Algolia’s approach is ideal for cases such as needing to lookup “banana” and match on bananas. Algolia may not make sense for users that type “minion fruit” and expect bananas.
You need to support typos. Lucene solutions to this are awkward. I hope that they’ll get better and faster, but fuzzy searching is not Lucene’s sweet spot.
Here’s a couple pieces of Algolia marketing I would disagree with:
Algolia likes to point out that hosting Elasticsearch is going to be hard. I think with options like Bonsai and Elastic Cloud, this is hardly the case. With a good ES host, you basically have a good “API in the cloud” that’s just as easy to work with as any other service.
Algolia wants you to believe Elasticsearch is not a good search engine. It’s only good at big data analytics and “big data search” (not sure what that means). In the spirit of finding “things not strings” I would disagree. It just takes work and understanding what’s special about your search solution.
Algolia hopes everything is going to become instant search. Yet in my experience, the preponderance of search experiences (even many driven by Algolia) are autocomplete first to select keywords, and then keyword search. This is still in Lucene’s sweet spot for search.
I believe the benchmarks Algolia provides, but it’s noted that they don’t try faster instant search strategies on Elasticsearch. We can’t recreate their benchmarks ourselves. Algolia seems trustworthy, but I wish I could test this independently. I also would like to see them rerun against newer Elasticsearch versions.
But Algolia points out important weaknesses in Lucene’s relevance model
Typos and fuzzy matching: To the extent that the world wants instant search with typo tolerance, Lucene-based search is hard to get working. I’ll also believe it’s slower than Algolia’s focussed solution (though I can’t recreate the benchmarks).
Elasticsearch/Solr defaults for relevance are hard to tune. As Algolia rightly points out, the dismax ranking function yields fairly confusing results. We write about that phenomenon here. You can and should get away from these defaults, but I wish search made more sense out of the box.
Elasticsearch and Solr primitives for relevance feel low-level. Algolia’s feel higher level and more focussed on creating a common understanding between the business and developers. This is one big reason we built Quepid. Even still, with all the options in Solr/ES you’ll still get blank stares from the business when you start speaking in terms of boolean queries, function queries, and what-not.
My big takeaway is I’m actually pretty enthusiastic about Algolia for the right use cases. But you need to be certain it’ll satisfy your needs. I hope this has made you a more informed shopper. In our relevance consulting practice we’d love to help you figure out which solution is right for you. Be sure to get in touch to discuss which solution (Solr, Elasticsearch, Algolia) is right for your needs! |
We're back for another round of "Talk is Cheap," only this time without the inimitable Nick Powell. We made do with what we had though. Joe Giglio and I held up the fort.
This week's Giants podcast focused on minicamp takeaways, what to realistically expect from the Giants defense and guessing the starters at five key positions. Enjoy and subscribe to "Talk Is Cheap" on iTunes or on Stitcher so you don't miss an episode.
TALK IS CHEAP, Episode 5: An inside look at Giants rookie minicamp
Jordan Raanan and Joe Giglio talk about the first weekend of Giants minicamp, including which rookies stood out the most. Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher.
Jordan Raanan may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JordanRaanan. Find NJ.com Giants on Facebook. |
With the increase in factory farming and the broader visibility on animal rights issues because of the internet, there has been a growing movement toward vegetarianism and veganism across the world, as animal lovers are coming to terms with both a planet in peril and the rise of anthropogenic, or human-driven, environmental impacts, as well as the prevailing acknowledgement that animals, primarily domesticated ones, deserve better treatment.
First-time author Tracey Stewart adds a delightful voice to the dialogue of animal advocacy with her recently released book, "Do Unto Animals: A Friendly Guide to How Animals Live and How We Can Make Their Lives Better." Though a lover of animals her whole life, it was her husband, Jon Stewart, formerly of "The Daily Show," who saw a need in her that she had suppressed due to her family's expectation that she strive for practical pursuits, rather than for endeavors that fed her soul. With his encouragement, she felt empowered, and she returned to school, getting a degree in veterinary technology.
When the Stewarts had kids, the passion for animals became a family endeavor, and the local animal shelter became a regular destination. Stewart chronicles her own family's immersion in the world of animal activism, but her personal experiences frame a larger template in her beautifully rendered book, which includes lovely hand-drawn illustrations by Lisel Ashlock, as well as recipes, crafts and home projects that will benefit members of the animal community.
'Adopt, don't shop'
Stewart leads with an overview of dogs, a species for which she — and much of the world — has a deep love. For all the animals she profiles, Stewart highlights the importance of rescuing versus purchasing. "Adopt, don't shop" is a much-used mantra, but it is worth emphasizing that so many wonderful animals — millions each year — are destroyed because people choose breeders over shelters and fosters. Mutts are worthy of love and often exhibit a better genetic makeup than many breeds that have been cruelly served from inbreeding. She offers some delightful no-breed names for those who feel their dogs need a label: "the Bearded Schnitzel and the Bed-Headed NewYorkie."
Stewart includes plenty of practical advice, as well, ranging from behavioral guides to potty-training tips, and she always emphasizes reward-based training over punishment-based. "Shock collars, choke collars or physical domination have more in common with animal abuse that with teaching dogs to trust humans," she says, as it risks increasing anxiety and, thus, aggression.
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She does not ignore cats, though she admits the species did not enter her world until one came into her life along with Jon Stewart. Beyond cats and dogs, she believes exotic pets — reptiles, fish, etc. — should remain wild and enjoyed as such for as long as their fragile ecosystems allow, emphasizing that the more exotic animals that are pulled from their natural habitats, the more vulnerable those systems are to collapse.
A good third of the book is dedicated to farm animals, and many of those she introduces are special animals that have found their way to the Farm Sanctuary that the Stewarts have opened in rural New Jersey following Jon Stewart's retirement from television. Stewart says that in industrialized countries, the human relationship with farm animals has changed in profound ways. "The growth of the industrial farm has not only adulterated the foods we eat but also has horribly mishandled the animals in its care."
'Survivor' stories
For Stewart, this is unacceptable, and she says concerned citizens need to push hard against the heartbreaking realities of factory farming, examples of which she lays out for each type of farm animal that pays the ultimate sacrifice for our tables. If not a vegetarian or vegan before her poignant reminders of the animal souls that count on humans for compassionate husbandry, then the reader may very well consider that path after reading the book. The touching "survivor" stories of individual creatures that now reside at the Stewart farm are profoundly moving and inspiring.
"Do Unto Animals" makes one think and makes one want to be involved in the awakening toward a more compassionate and sustainable coexistence with the creatures who have the misfortune of sharing this planet with our notoriously selfish species. The Stewarts aim to lead the way, one lucky animal at a time. |
QUEENSLAND recovered from the calamity of an early hat-trick to steal control from South Australia on the opening day of the Sheffield Shield summer at Adelaide Oval on Friday.
The Bulls tumbled from 0-27 to 3-27 in three balls, but responded with two big partnerships and will resume at 4-314 on Saturday morning.
Nick Stevens (134 not out) was the backbone of the Queensland fightback, pairing first with Marnus Labuschagne (83) in a 99-run stand and then Chris Hartley (80 not out) to steer the Bulls out of trouble on a tough afternoon for South Australia’s bowlers.
HUSSEY SCREAMER HELPS VICS DOMINATE AT ‘G
Stevens cracked his maiden first-class century in his fourth match for Queensland having come into the clash with just 27 Sheffield Shield runs, including two ducks and a highest score of 25. But the 20-year-old was a picture of composure on a friendly Adelaide Oval batting wicket, showing no signs of nerves in the 90s and punching a sweet cover drive off Johan Botha to seal his century.
media_camera Sayers clean bowls Queensland opener Joe Burns. Photo: Mark Brake.
Stevens should have fallen on 112 when he edged leg-spinner Adam Zampa (1-84) to first slip but Mark Cosgrove grassed the crucial chance. Adding to the pain for South Australia, the drop came with 15 overs left in the day, just as the new ball was due.
It was the only real South Australian error after Queensland steadied from the Chadd Sayers hat-trick that rocked the first session. The Redbacks attack worked hard but found little penetration with an ageing ball after Sayers ripped through the top order.
Sayers wrote himself into history by claiming the wickets of Joe Burns, debutant Ben McDermott and Peter Forrest with the final three balls of his sixth over to leave the Bulls reeling.
In South Australia’s 800th Sheffield Shield match, the 27-year-old became just the 10th Redback to claim a hat-trick — and the first in 37 years.
The last South Australian to register a hat-trick was Andrew Sincock, in 1977, against a touring India side at Adelaide Oval. The last in Sheffield Shield competition was Wayne Prior, against NSW, during the 1975/76 season. Other notable South Australians with hat-tricks for the state include George Giffen, in 1887/88 and Clarrie Grimmett, against Queensland in Brisbane in 1928/29. |
Automatically Generated Transcript (may not be 100% accurate)
Very special edition. We'd love playing. -- The nice thing. But we are here for eight greater purpose. This afternoon. Alleviate okay neat -- family. -- -- -- And Anderson. Try and of the pain. That we know. His family as. His having sacrificed his life. Murder trial of terror. Frankfurt Germany last week at the airport. On his way to deployment in Afghanistan. What we're doing this afternoon is something -- rather unique. Ten different it's it's been described as a debate perhaps a -- conversation. Would it would be a a more accurate way describing what is going to be going on between now and 4 o'clock this afternoon -- -- only one. An eruption for the news at the bottom of the hour otherwise this will be a commercial free. Broadcast this afternoon and I'm joined in the studio today first of all -- Nationally syndicated talk show host Mike Gallagher who. I guess probably feels very much at home in the WORD studio is like old home with -- camera -- and also joined in the studio by doctor Roy short. Who is the dean of the school of religion. And -- Bob Jones University doctor short pleasure to have you here as well sir thanks so much for having me with you today and we're joined also of course of by a very famous individual. Who has a history. With Mike Gallagher and my guy will maternity used to introduce our other guest at. And before we do that Bob let's go over a little background if we could before we bring Shirley on the -- because you and I had this discussion this week because. I've been down this road a few times with the west Borough Baptist Church three previously right right I've offered -- air time on my radio show in exchange for their written promise not to protest outside the funerals of the Amish school children who were slain in Pennsylvania. I gave the maritime. In exchange for their promised not to protest outside the funerals of the Virginia Tech massacre victims. And then most recently I gave the maritime. An hour not two go protest outside the funerals of the Tucson shooting victims. In the attempt on congresswoman Gabby Gifford and what does not come without criticism. A lot of criticism in fact a lot of the the -- you know I and I do understand the criticism as you do meet you again at you know them the morning team here -- and -- said object to this they think it's giving airtime to. Terrorists it's giving you know you're doing a deal with a double your consortium with the enemy and all kinds of stuff happens ransom and blackmail. To me it's real simple there's a there's a very simple reason to do this if we if our radio show. In this case this radio station and news radio WORD can prevent. One family from being hurt. It's worth it and ended the way I see at the radio show isn't that significant certainly not by comparison to the grief. And the anguish that a family is going through like a family of senior airman. They called me and so and what's important is to is to bring somebody. With the the expertise in the wisdom and the background of doctor -- short into this conversation. Because the last -- and and believe me -- as you'll find out a moment does not mind debate you -- -- being challenged other not shy she welcomes it and we had Dinesh D'Souza who's the president of King's College in New York City. Where I spent a lot of time where -- broadcast from quite frequently. On with surely last time. And many people said it was a provocative thought provoking. Positive hour because if he wasn't just west -- having unfettered access to the airwaves it was somebody with a biblical worldview could challenge. Or refute some of the things that surely has to say and that's the role I think the doctor short plays today. I had lunch with some Bob Jones and students this afternoon -- who shared with me that doctor short. Is is by no means. Intellectually inferior anybody could Phil Hickey can go toe to toe with the best of them is a couple of -- is. His students can attest I am I am on not a surprise -- and there's a get a full coming full circle there's a connection. Between the patriarch of the west Borough Baptist Church Fred Phelps. And Bob Jones universe is a -- bring all that full circle let's bring on to this broadcast on what is a very difficult hour and ultimately this is not an easy decision. For anybody but again we think it's for the greater good news to spare the all the family. The Specter of having to deal with these people in any way shape or form so we'll deal with the potential -- and the way I see it we're sort of taken it on the chin. On behalf of the -- family and I. From my perspective by the way before we get started. This is a no brainer the way I see it if my radio show or your radio show can be used. To do something that the US Supreme Court cannot do -- illustration of the Supreme Court and and the Phelps family successfully. Petition that one they were sued and they they prevailed in the US Supreme Court a week or two ago. So we're doing what the Supreme Court can't do that is keep them from a funeral we're proud that I at least yet. I am to -- -- and as you rightly pointed out my other tipping point for me in the decision making process frankly was that was the pain that this family is already experiencing. To me -- to be able to give them an opportunity to be there could be able to to bury this heroic serviceman who died. Defending the very freedoms that we're talking about today. In dignity and with grace. If I can do something to to alleviate ameliorate in some small way their pain. And I'm willing to do well I'm. And I was challenging you guys this week -- -- -- into the studio and a likable of the China closet and the way I am right but I challenge -- castle at least and I challenge you when you accepted the challenge to put her on. But I respect and understand wrote Russia's position as well wishes position this is a very difficult thing to do all right. So doctor -- short you ready for this idea so ready to dive in Atlanta and this is the first of this is gonna be the first kind of a debate of its kind that you've been engaged. Pretty much so with somebody of this of this this particular account. Right all right let's bring her on national surely roper Phelps joins us from her file from her home in -- peca Kansas because -- stopped or just before I understand you got on an airplane hello surely surely how aria. I is okay now. Is this when our our start. It's okay. If -- doesn't -- know what it is okay if I just addressed the view about things like this. Are you know you you we've got you and I've been down this road before so you are not gonna give you short trip again all the aren't as as they would say surely the Supreme Court feel free to make your opening statement that. Thank you thank the members of I thirty edit. I. I don't really -- -- itself broke her right now is gonna backward and English -- now. So much for doing -- remember remember what Borough Baptist Church is only determined to make sure that the word of god is as a play. In the national discussion. And nation whose destruction of evidence. We need is -- of life and quality Airways has been shut down the only thing we use our hands and are these are. You know our guests are calling. That we know lot of things Leno had to walk we know how to work -- -- and our money wisely. Get around this country and we have had more than 45300. Tickets. So about that Supreme Court and this gentleman that you say it was biting our freedom yeah well. We knew we thought our free sweet spot for that First Amendment because this nation and her military. Military man military lawyers captain in the air force -- the air force is an airport element. It was a military judge is dragged -- across the country in front of the eyes of the nation. No one spoke for the First Amendment certainly no military fighting for it it was the military who hated the first -- and put it on trial because we said. You don't Obey your guide you're going down like -- -- MBA like -- it will go down like. So dad did began back in the day at Bob Jones university and after awhile. He had to go because at Bob Jones University. A did not believe -- god made -- one black all. People. Well apartment faces the earth and that one -- Shelby. The home born into strange episode current among them when my dad and another -- a lot of black lady there that wanna do it in order that would let her in. He went. And then when they. That airman. That of that. The very day that airman was ill. With another airman. Could talk and doomed America's airports. There -- nine retired. Air force general. That put their hands. Again then military. I -- punished west for those nine military generals filed a complaint telling the Kansas. Supreme Court that they should hey. Allow licenses of and of the attorneys hero was -- is that our. Blake position. Is for the United States Supreme Court. You know we won that case you know we didn't filed that case reading glasses Supreme Court it was saying we had to get and the First Amendment for the US to. She got together and openings don't nine airmen but it those nine general. But at target on those young men -- insurance and would -- that the shooter. Surely I would like you had to give doctors short an opportunity to respond to what you had to say about about BJU. Yes good afternoon there surely glad to good to spend little time here talking. It's your for your father did attend Bob Jones for three semesters and he he did not graduate he he simply dropped out voluntarily back in the in the late forties. And I would do wise annually and the other units -- -- and. Right and and I think key and a number one it's it's really irrelevant that you bring up the race issue here. Because. If you're talking about authorities. As -- excuse me ma'am can you just be played enough to to listen for little. If if by the if you're talking about the race issue in the south back in the forties and fifties. You need to remember some things and ask how many public colleges. Accepted. It's black students at that particular time. And number two you need to remember what the Bob Jones University position on race is. Even today I happened to be here in the seventies. And if I -- if I remember correctly when I was a graduate assistant the first black individual who was accepted at BJU was my. He was one of my advice he is he's he's my friend today still lives here in Greenville -- really need individual who was not out of animosity or anything of the sort. That was basically the cultural thing of at the time and in recent years within the past decade Bob Jones University has changed their position. Through all those years we had students of other races who were here showing that that we did not believe that we were a superior race there were other reasons behind it. And then with cultural changes and everything we did say. It is time to allow that so so that's really irrelevant and to be honest with you that's not even on the table today because that's -- we're talking about. Archaeological mission at the table here for something because for the benefit of people who might may not be familiar with what you you guys do what Phelps -- the Westbrook Baptist Church does and I was. Very -- to hear you say it was sad about the death of senior -- they called it because frankly it never heard you express a lot of compassion for the soldiers. Were -- -- them. Their hands I have eleven children. Bag because I feel bad about what you've done to your children and George please let you add the collecting you'd -- America and -- -- I got mine got a question and let something that strikes to the heart of all -- issued against then once and the the so called terror. It was a culture and not a culture is different. But the word of god never changes added that the job of the church is his stick by the standards of god forbid that people don't have. Purchased from god that they would call that standard this station wouldn't be heading to America back. Let's talk for a moment about some of the picket signs that are are very infamous we associated with the west Borough Baptist church of -- because -- right. God is it got it you it is a sign either god hates dead soldiers -- god loves dead soldiers remind. It thank god thank god we're at all and not that surely. I mean these banks fault they introduce a man of god that being executed he says by my judgment in front of your face that's how do you know who I am. And what I think. When he's killing our soldiers it's time for you to say what our policies are working doctors raise our children for the devil we need to do better. Georgia you you know surely I was glad you started out -- understood correctly said you know that you wanna make the word of god a place the national discussion. And you're you're a 100% right that that's what we need to do and as is I'm in charge of training undergraduate students at Bob Jones University that is the whole point. But the point you're not but it got well within the point is when we interpret the word of god we need to be sure that we have proper principles for -- I'll get out the nonviolent can't find out one thing I. The interpretation. Okay -- I don't hear you just on if you get me give our respect to -- and I'm speaking Nantucket so so we need we need to have proper principles of interpretation and and we need prod the proper principles of application. And so two games to -- it seems like. They're married. To. It sounds like a total loans a quarter. When you say people are involved in a sexual league -- a sexual type of lifestyle that is -- and let's listen ma'am. You don't do that the government have to thank candidate you got -- Mary bike and they're going to the future it in their bedroom -- in the quarter. Ma'am can I can I just ask you for little respect continued just listen until I finish my statement I won't hurt I don't take several ministers just told Iran that can't just just told us. So my point is it is a total -- quarter to say. That that people have an abhorrent lifestyle I agree a 100% the Bible says homosexuality. Is not the way -- originally intended it to be and Genesis to. God did -- I got god calls it an abomination and god said that those who are. They engaged -- that kind of lifestyle as well as liars as well as people who misrepresent him -- -- -- -- -- -- that everybody wants those are the facts read read that I know and I tried OK -- just hold on. And so so the point is to to make that statement. And then to say people are dying in a foreign country in war. And then to say now the application is that means that is a judgment for we needed direct word from god. Or rules so thing grabbing them why we need some things that brings the two together we can't we. Judge has been that they chose duke got caught up then what war in their -- that's -- 58. They know now gotten to know and that was born in their -- what you guys I indignation. My indignation is based upon an agent and I've fury. I wish there are surely want to know personally about senior airman nick all the do you know what kind of a Christian he was. As though that the word of god is absolutely. Never changing here's what I ago. I don't think he's a young man and that his life was cut off -- -- half over and god has not know moment there are no collateral damage. With Scott. When you look at it dead soldier you don't have to look any further. And the fact that he's in debt and he was fighting for a country that has made got their number one it -- Short she says that that that he was his life was cut short because god has as well that this is God's decision to punish this country boards are breaking out as well that's the case surely why this specific. Implementation of God's judgment in this manner that is against soldiers why not against people who die and it as a result of DUI's. Why not that were killed in flyers. I hope I don't. Because you don't you're happy why do we make the point of the order because you don't call the guy who died at the DU I KP well. You know that he would that dumb drunk and he got just what he -- are. Like you should likewise know that these guys who are going over a fight voluntarily report they can debate got their number one enemy are dumb drunk. Who should stay home and not dare put their hand by. Still feel that's why you're specifically are you -- idea -- -- fighting for that Mary. You're fighting for facts to America that's that's what they're fighting or you're not even a person -- we -- God you know that it's all the military all the time it would said that groups that filed amicus brief it would. All manner of military generals involved in song. That and win this K. And other -- back where we are not seen by anyone not hurt by anyone out on the public sidewalk. You're talking about the war you're talking about -- voters. We are talking about war and we're talking about dead soldiers don't have sat back in action in you don't have a first and then. Artists in this hour again a very special hour here on WORD and I'm Mike Gallagher along with Bob McLean who's the host to this afternoon show on the ground and we -- -- don't you're not listening to our voices right now that it got because. Yeah I -- yeah yeah. You you're supposed to be the first member Robert -- your -- people don't listen to our program as well unfortunately for you got make it's that they cannot not go away. Well people people the option to listen and listen surely can't do that has got almighty so far too short one for big. Exactly and talking to her at that and it'll strike. You know part that. Into doctor angle is cultural and with Russia from Bob Jones university and and and you know I wanna do all of a sort of 12 here because. I'd love for you to answer this question surely -- W a million times and and this'll be a million and one -- -- I'd like to ask -- short to respond as well. Why do you what do you suppose god thinks of the decision to intentionally inflict. Pain and harm and suffering upon an already grieving family by your presence outside these funerals. All right so first you said it's an intentional. Infliction you know perfectly well that we don't. Single mean about in our bodies that we are people of goodwill and good heart. That our intention is to get a nation who hear these words heed -- warning here he'd. And here you know rod and who have appointed day. You got to do. It backs or you aren't going down with the rest of the rebels so why they want it ratcheted Canada -- heard these thing we -- I don't I never did until the child. Did that he's -- I am god alone I -- I make alive I wounded I appeal. He -- that -- and you'd say anything other than that don't call yourself a cricket. Quite -- at the time that the death of the people in the dark Shalala and a second time. At the death of the people who pilots -- mingled our blood with their sacrifices he set this same saying just what we say. You'd think those people are worse -- and you know doctor Sharon -- if you don't potential go to hell yeah. There's often a phrase what would Jesus do what you when you get those Jesus Christ would think about a group of people holding a sign up saying thank god for dead soldier son is -- Seattle beat cry let let him answer please I -- out. Trapped -- -- New Hampshire what do you suppose is that it is is the he is God's position if you had to presume and I know we don't wanna preserve for the almighty but do you think god smiles upon a group of people who hold signs up and say. The your son is burning in hell and thank god for dead soldiers and knowing. Say your going to -- vehicle had -- sign about the dead people we can't do any. So what you -- opposes the godly responsive to what surely her family do. But that isn't a great question now Mike and of course you know the the Bible does say that that. When when god saves an individual he puts within them the holy spirit and he begins to produce Christ's likeness within that individual. And without it's it's it was really get a really good that you know surely -- brings up this aspect to Christ's likeness because if that person -- really Chris -- and that's what they wanna do. But that's where we need to be very careful because. You know we can we can define Christ's likeness as we want to or. We can go to the Bible and say well what what are Christ like characteristics -- -- Rea I am more like Jesus Christ what am I going to be light. And of course we we find like you know glaciers chapter five talks about the fruit of the spirit the holy spirit at work in a life and you realize it's. Love and joy and peace and there's a gentleness there. When we think of Jesus Christ himself offended very interest thing. That's the people that he was most personally dying every -- When he was on earth where those religious leaders who thought that they had him all figured out but they were actually. They were actually denying the very thing that he said because the people who were. A sexually illicit people who were tax collectors and anti Roman anti god. They were the ones that he he handled with the with the kid gloves if you will they were the ones that he was really kind of nice to with grace and with great. Wait a second I was here when I actually. -- are actually electric wheel well when you're you're thinking of the lady there in John that he dealt with. And so forth where we're Jesus didn't come to her and carry some kind of sign. Whenever he realized she needed now and he can't afford -- -- and -- -- -- that this right now but then don't touch that she created and Nomar weld as short as am I am airwaves ma'am not at that doesn't that doesn't seem what do what -- you know what your organization. Is doing there there is they'll show shall we say this is if you know they're -- a lot of things in America today. That -- right -- a court Ellis are innocent man is an angry there -- there are lot of art art art art that's and it's and it was in in it was in Matthew 23. Who was with the religious leaders that he this supposedly knew the most that he had the harshest words for in the entire -- Because they weren't religious leaders they were liars. And and that's what I want or maybe we know what -- thought maybe we need to put the shoe on our our foot if it really fits this. That that -- think we need to remember you know. Okay Mandela just listen a second okay. There there are laws in the United States that are legal there are things that are legal but it doesn't necessarily mean it is immoral or right to do that. That tiny and I think that where do you think what are your baby's you'd doesn't mean do your base are they then you -- -- that doesn't mean you married. And that's where we need to reach out with compassion to these people and we reach out. That's. Gonna -- to be million dollars and that talented group that they might have. Now. Ma'am do you get your your you know your super rude maybe you don't learn anything -- you -- this -- now are you wearing -- well surely let me in -- just for a moment here because typically on the. A lot of -- -- trying to calm as he spit them out you can't really exactly lied when he doesn't he in new windows win highlight word coming out of his mouth surely don't try to apply. Don't Mary bags that don't -- your baby you surely don't tell that I'd had that the left field. Flintstones was going to be easy -- surely take take it's surely take a breath because I'm okay I fear for your blood pressure on my blood pressure is great and I'm sure you want to call this in New York who suited. You're very right. I have one I'm popped probable and I expect to hang on just -- -- you can -- a -- short of the blindfolds on paying everybody and then that they well yeah it is not right when I can't wait a second timeout. Timeout. Typically at this point in the program. We provide. Some news today I suspect we may be making it as well but be that as it -- it's time -- take a quick news break. Surely Phelps roper from west Borough Baptist Church stay right where you are in Kansas. Doctor short from BJU in the studio -- Mike Gallagher here with me I'm Bob -- we're right back. After this. -- dearly appreciate very much welcome back everybody 334 now 26 minutes before 4 o'clock this is -- Bob McLean -- special addition. Here on this Friday afternoon. As you know senior airman -- golden from Williamson South Carolina are down the road in Anderson county. I gave his life. He was killed by a Muslim terrorists on his way to deployment in Afghanistan last week while at the airport in Frankfurt Germany. He has to be buried. Here in South Carolina tomorrow. The folks from the west Borough Baptist Church in Topeka Kansas had announced their intention. You -- and protests and demonstrators they've done at various military funerals and other sites all over the country over the past few years. In an effort to spare the family any further pain. I called Shirley Phelps surely -- felt by the department surely Phelps roper. In not Kansas. Mike Gallagher working with me we managed to. To essentially make an arrangement. We're surely and the representatives of west or to give them an error an hour of air time for debate and discussion. On issues that that are of concern two of them and to us as well. That's what you're listening to right now we are joined on the program this afternoon by the aforementioned. Shirley Phelps roper. Who was the -- lead attorney for west Borough Baptist Church in their recent Supreme Court case I'm Mike Gallagher nationally syndicated talk show host to -- here of course. A daily Monday through Friday here on WORD. And by doctor Roy short who has the dean of the school of religion and Bob Jones university and and it much suggestion -- it's a good when we would like to give you an opportunity. To have some input into the program as well so if you have a questions either for -- for us here on our panel -- four. Four surely you can call those in now to 232 WORD in Greenville 2329673. In Spartanburg and -- 574. WRD and -- and it turned back over to demy can surely and and and doctor short. And I let's be clear surely in and make sure for the benefit of listeners who were who perhaps will call again WORB radio took a rather unusual approach but I I collected that was discouraging people from listening -- But but surely there's no question you you do these deals and we've done three before you and me. Where. You'll agree not to go protest outside the funerals of the slain soldiers or any these these high profile. Murder victims because you wanna reach as many people as you can write you figure a radio audience saves you the trouble of going to the protest going to approach -- Look Everett certainly by now this nation is settled on the fact that we what do you detect it we have done 45300. Plus tickets. Every single day for twenty years we've been on these streets. So we -- when it comes to this question of this 21. Times now. We have had some some one might you'll spend the most high profile one of Canada's station that might be about if yours but. But we are it's not about beating up in their -- and true. When you're talking like this you're flushing out saying -- answering issues that people don't otherwise necessarily understand what they see a sign. They don't understand sometimes why does that sign say you're each -- babies or you know you're going to hell or whatever. And so. It's good to be able to -- about it I do greatly appreciate that and but we didn't we don't have those mechanisms and we have to do this job. Well and by the way let me just hasten to point out because some people may be under the the -- African journalism and -- incorrectly understanding the sequence of events here surely did not call us. And -- and and essentially say. You know a put is an -- green mail position where she said you know what we won't go to this funeral and Anderson if you'll give us radio to and that's not the way this trash. And -- hair -- they wouldn't dare do that she's cold and just be wrong. You know that the lord our god opens the door we eat in tax your heart. We ought to deal with the Genesis of this years ago I was interviewing surely on my radio show and I was trying to figure out a way to try to stop. Them from going to a funeral right and I -- surely what about first offered by Republican -- collection given some money for their church of course she rejecting. Said he would bias that there had been listening into. And -- new air conditioner I guess that your dad -- now we need so -- you -- you wouldn't take an end and I'll tell you that Westbrook has not as I understand it ever except money from other people they don't know contributions. So that I thought we you know what I just did this on the fly and believe in my -- sort of you know blanched at the idea and rightly but I said what do I get you some airtime what do you come into my studios. And we agree -- to give you -- to to voice your views and you'll promise the contract. Rick -- and I'll tell you that Westbrook is always adhered to the letter of that contract. Not to go to the funerals of these -- and. -- the spirit and it will have the whole situation alone. So to me it's a trade often and and doctor short of interest in in in your assessment of this kind of a deal you know you're kind enough to come in and and sort of be. Sorry surely the voice of reason in this country. -- but button what do you make of a radio show or station making the deal like this in order to prevent the -- family and other travelers from being subjected to this because again the courts can't stop on the trot out. Well at -- I'm actually you know go back to the point -- before that. That there are some things in this country that are legal but it doesn't necessarily mean they're more roller right and so -- if -- -- there aren't they Ali. The felt totally would you would like to get the gospel out. You know I I pastor the church in Utah very close to a major air force base that train track pilots for the air force. And so I dealt with a lot of air force families I've dealt with a lot of men who. -- put their lives on the line just on the practice range Audi in Utah to keep our country free so people like the Phelps family can do what they what they're doing. But but my point is you know that the Bible keeps talking about it is believers who need to -- -- genuine Christ's likeness. And in in a spirit of doing something right it's not just to say. I I as a preacher -- hellfire and brimstone preacher and that's all I preach. And no wonder nobody wants to come and listen to me it is rather I have to learn you know first first Peter 315 I'm sure you're very familiar with -- -- surely but it says. Always be ready to give an answer that's -- you know we get our English. An apology to -- -- get -- gives and you Whitney unit that's right here and it's is the last couple phrases that I constantly teller ministerial students I know we are very right heir apparent authority UN team that because our that a new power it that's been -- -- it would not -- -- visionary and I'll turn right now what it really mean. Over the table than they have those cords and he told -- you are a U turn my house into again -- Andy did you he called them viper. You go oh my god he called hypocrites so many times. Exactly and that was the religious leadership of the day who said. We are speaking for god but they had so. I have the right that you like -- reveal that. Atlantic so okay so let's go back -- will not say no words let's let's go back to -- -- thank -- he didn't elaborate god that you keep my commandments and they are not read that. Okay first ever 3-D science ass and then they are not -- that. First Peter three that's fifteen says we are to do it with -- and fear and actually the word meek in this has to do with strength under control. Like if you have a spirited horse. There is an awful lot of fire there. But they -- that really is of no value unless you keep that horse under control early you have to admit there's not a lot of uniqueness to the Phelps family. And you hit that big you're just got that wrong I know what weaknesses most of with the biggest -- ever and you know he came down there. And he raised more -- with those people. And don't spam. When he came down on that map in broke those tablets because they had. Bonds strike don't court and the minute they thought he wasn't markets might don't ordered. The preachers are a sleep at we -- Bob I was at a Lady Gaga concert last night picketing. And you. You if you haven't been there you have not keen to state. Have your next generation the last generation of doomed apparently you have those children by stealing the -- bottom left with no hope. And nobody. I've got to end. Dressed like women. Massive amounts of them. A -- immaculate picture you little Lady Gaga concert surely. I had my flags all my regalia in my army time. Did you -- your -- dot com did you -- I was about to ask you you had -- surely this is -- and I -- I thought oh my gosh our -- or just some of -- -- so it's it's seventeen minutes before four -- -- as promised to go to the phone because we have a number of people who -- back. -- and have questioned source here on the -- acclaimed show on WORT this afternoon -- Mike Gallagher. With Shirley Phelps roper from west Borough Baptist church and doctor Roy -- -- dean of the school of religion -- Bob Jones university and we're joined now by David. Who is an easily David welcome to user. I guess. We'll be sure it won't make a statement. I know what it means to be -- -- it saves and but for the grace of god they're gonna I would be just sort of does setters and it was almost exactly no one's sin greater than other. And I say if I heard your message I would have never about runaway and we -- warrant or garbage you you have -- didn't but I met. Well Christ said. In the prophecy of Isaiah is it when he's seen me as I really am I have no formula coming -- that you'll. I have my questions do you that was about urge you to interpret our -- or you don't that I'm about it by the older you'll excuse the so like it'll. Okay how much Bob what do you get models got he got fat -- agree worked for steal credit report from Carter. And the -- commandments has nothing to do with a -- a war and the soldiers inspect it once. Why don't window. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- And other crimes it and they don't do with the war in had to do with breaking that little girls accept them. Murdering her spot I'm giving you one example Steven Green. Killing their mother and father regulatory -- with the -- I am right there and they bury a body that they killed her now is not part of the war. Anything you can be up for going to war you win in mangalore he went with a walk us. Suddenly went all but bare in a foreign country as a military soldiers standing on his watch his post everyday look at about the old girl. I think after her in this country get back. Maybe -- examine them. Dog David -- you and I -- -- -- -- for David -- me -- for an erupting that we got a lot of callers and I wanna be heard them -- thank you for taking time to Collison and surely I would just ask. What about the millions of soldiers who served without committing a crime. During their service. -- that's entity that thinking you. Their crime against god and not crimes against anyone except god in this third and saw that I play regularly. And -- military Clinton -- again their innocent what to do with their military service. -- got that I'm furious with your voters because you costing them. What they are as a microcosm of you know. About shall not commit adultery Christ said if you divorce and remarry your living in the country you know computer Atlanta with that doctor Burton and you -- -- at 60% bought three. -- your your changing the topic as you Angela I'm. The -- that topic longer before I'm telling you that it's all connected. You can't every standard of gotten that that's our job and say god bless America surely need not helping you whereas the blessing. Okay take take a breath surely take a breath. We're gonna take another caller this is an accountant who joins us. Via his cellphone hello again welcome here on Obama clincher -- Mike Gallagher surely Phelps roper and doctor Roy short from BJ year. I'd -- I might. Lou I sure. A conversation like this started out pickpocket thing I -- suggested that we should open up in prayer. And maybe it's still not today. Surely. The opening -- I'm the only prayer I have at this hour of this country that they gadget of the audit -- upon this nation. And that is saying the finish towards its rotten to the coordination -- dead right Rob Jones. You know and I don't do that they'll be trying to run on the program. I don't know acute and got the caddie and -- I don't know Blair held no dot org and not here now nobody's nobody's running you surely can do you have a question -- I don't know it just -- comment that I think we should open air and pay your closet before you. -- program. -- I suspect a lot of people have a prayer in their heart when when they are confronted with. This kind of -- challenge and frankly I don't know again do we you think of western try to. Doing that might tell me where I've said something wrong that is not scriptural word. Surely you're you're too smart not to appreciate how repulsive it is for your family stand outside -- a host of a church. And hold up horrible signs to try to horror. I'm not hot at a church we're at a busy intersection and we're talking about what you're talking about what you mean yes I don't like your water. You need it you don't when he army telling unique you. Feel -- job that you send him to help that you're contact rating him for the devil is the thing that's responsible. That god is not my -- And then he can't does not have any accident. When he says he'll give you long life that -- set before you that they have blessing and a curse a blessing if you'll Obey the commandments of god and -- you won't. And that -- just -- big dolphin nation but your national proud that. Has sent their destruction. Doctors are responding and she just said that mean what well I would I would just go back to yet just because you've you've quoted a lot of my app for sure they. -- -- like weather tires and Jermaine and -- I -- because I don't know just because that person quotes a lot of Bible verses doesn't mean correct you can you can string together a number reverses. And you know you've you've done an awful lot of that dinner you know we. Have proud that in this country that institutionalized. We almost certainly -- that important right rate would like said that all three. But that's where I'm asking that that that we need to be wise and our application and when we put two and two together. We need to be sure why they're where they're coming out to the -- darkness and then it. Reproach to Asia and and I got this this record surely you do in Iraq to mr. seems to disagree I'm asking. This guy's got to. Dipping January 15 sampling lines Bob Papa need to be caught on where he. He's not interrupting you gonna ask you again believe that well that Carroll talked. I think you would Prague then or not I'm asking you not to in Europe doctor short please and I want to thank you you to respond shortly we're not gonna Kutcher I'm gonna help -- -- plenty of opportunity to respond to I don't make you know let's take well actually I think notes as we don't know what's. The back -- the phones and bring in Brian. He joins us this afternoon from -- hi Brian how warrior on WORD in the publicly -- They've air live view in my hand you -- -- They certainly -- -- due respect. -- -- -- Our -- agree review button homosexuality. In the bubble and I agree roses so -- scout Leo. Well let these get out that a lot of -- France comeback and this sort of military they weren't -- or on the city shelter they were up for our freedom. And the bottom army is. It. Almost say shrouded bet you we need what is it is it is infertile why else would it would -- -- but it will not or. The I didn't really get Arabic country. For -- a publisher. Are you kidding me. I got what I know I have to trying to hold I guess the question surely I guess the question that that Brian is working his way around use is that. You you guys have the wrong motivation in in the direction picture taking with your protests at these military funerals would you would you disagree without. I'm active military is who you're trusting and and these youngsters who you braced for the devils don't have anything going for them all the arrogance and the pride of this plan saying that they're dying for my right -- There you say that the you can only die for your own then -- aside for anyone else let me just finally coronation is proud of their said. You're wasting your time. Doesn't doesn't it bother you that your protesting at the funerals of American soldiers who fought and died to protect the very freedom that many think you're abusing. Oh my god you're kidding me I thought to protect my freedom. Where we're at a poker where would anyone -- act are all they put me on trial they -- with the defendant in that case I would bet that you know that they did before. I don't beat back. You're not gonna convince me or tricked me into being ashamed. And out of pocket straight I'm telling children celibate I'm not trying to show you mentioned you merely your appearance -- and then tell me that in order surely you don't have a core I don't go through and anything else you are and he might let me doesn't blow -- got a mathematical. I American soldiers who fought and died to protect the very freedom that many think Europeans and figure out. And I can't they're not fighting hard life you. Know -- that policy of obedience to god he would not need a standing army. God is that fish and they keep their nation day and never send an enemy to you like -- and he's got. Militarily necessary -- exactly exact if you're old if you would -- -- not it would be unnecessary. And if you don't Obey god it worked as did you if god did not keep being death. How they knew way -- key needing getting out of -- A lot of progress surely some practical questions about west Borough Baptist Church -- Britain all right -- people get very -- a lot of people get offended because they say it was a Westbrook is not a Baptist. North church it's really just an extended family the Phelps family led by the patriarch Fred. But let me ask you how big is your -- is how big is your country congregation in -- can surely. Well let our congregation. Is the right answers it's the exact right side but when we meet on -- Sunday. -- about that India about an on the members. It gets smaller and smaller all the time being -- there's about 38 members today -- -- that because I happen to fill out a report just. How many of those how about those are related by blood. To me by blood or Mary -- bad blood or marriage correct. About 80%. So that means that those ones who aren't like he. And you know you follow me -- there's surely on Twitter you can follow the rain at that BBC's. And he says right on his -- Twitter profile. I'm not related Getty what did that ABC are thankful. So there are only six jury members of the church and are not related by blood or marriage. Members now you know. Got the elderly got yes that's exactly right only 38 members did. How -- you -- -- surely I mean it's not cheap to fly around the country and and prone to. Actually it's not cheap tells us this highly educated we got CC and grew up boxes secular education and all the time that we all have good job that we work to repair our way and we do not ask. The truth to that answer is so. We have nothing. Except what we receive from the lord our god but we're not asking meaning he's and it says they went forth making. Not being from the heat then surely you -- you -- on trial surely pay you 150000. Dollars to defend ourselves and we won't ask. We won't ask you fourth day. Surely you make in the damages in a recent Supreme Court case how much have you who received -- west Borough in in terms of judgments and and damages so over the years. That I -- the army many say that so it's really clear. He. Row. You have received you know in wow settling intelligent people -- love to laugh about it. Well and that's -- that's why I'm asking the question. Now I had a reporter what they say is that period has let it go out of the people get mad at you I said lady you think I want my children. To get yet so I can go in a place where you -- our debt. And then I can do in going to the court whereas the jury's gonna be a jury of your peers not mine and that means I'm gonna have -- -- a rubber band going in and out an out here. And just so I can have you give me money to -- I got a good idea why don't just work for a living probably. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Here's an Elkhart county you don't -- a great deal of scripture this nephew Julian but we trust me -- I am far from being a biblical scholars. But -- -- -- you should be and I would agree with that it in Matthew seven it says judge not that you be not judged. By about that -- well edit everything like yeah yeah. Okay that you get the guys that know they're going because all they can go and pick it doesn't -- she did go and pick. Thank you set a standard cried out I'm so glad to let you know that Christ without on the streets everyday and he sent them by -- -- a little old in cities cities that's what we do. We're out on these streets every day so you say don't -- -- in fact we hear that almost more than anything except god loves everyone and there is no got. -- not to GB not jet lag. Meaning to tell us these judgments of god that's which means that you have as I -- very statement. Judge -- so when you substitute. Nor judgment. For not righteous judgment which is judge all these matter spiral right just act which in my judgment. That we -- substitute your standard for God's standards. -- -- And entered when you're welcome women like doctor short responds that. Okay well well our time is almost gone so tell you what if you give me thirty seconds. To speak without interrupting maybe you go another thirty without in Iraq and we have a clock right in front of the stuff so I can accept an offer you are okay. OK I think surely did that really what you need to be doing is what we teach your students have Bob Jones University to do. And that is we need to -- good positive presentation of the gospel because. Jesus Christ saves sinners from their sandman and and when you go out and you tell someone they're a sinner that is fine and you are being biblical because god tells people they're sinners. But at the same time he tells them they are helpless he tells them that there is hope because Jesus Christ died in the cross to save them. And they need to see or have the same view of sand that got hasn't -- in. And then they need to turn to it to gods only hope which is Jesus Christ and when they cry out for help. That I will turn around America. But when when people start getting a negative attitude about you and when they start they when they start putting me in the same bushel basket with you as being a -- -- That that is that is causing the heat and a blast from the very name of god and that happens to be a Bible verse that says that kind of stuff happens. And that's why would implore you if you have all this money at all this time and all these tens of thousands of opportunities to picket. How about just going out and talking one to one with people and saying you know what you you are -- this nation is bad and god. God does not like CN. Which you know what they're there really -- hole because Jesus Christ is the world's only savior. And -- and let me help people let let me have you come to my church and find people who love god who sing the great hymns about the blood of Jesus Christ in the -- Christ. Okay in my thirty seconds are up. Yeah -- -- the day here's a quick answer we are not in the beginning of the church age. We are at the time of the fullness of the gentiles and at that time of the restitution of all things. Christ said will he find that they thought the year he said. It will be like Sodom and it'll be like the -- to Vivian -- Almost no one will believe this report who have believed our report -- rule is the arm of the lord revealed. So our beauty is found that I'd say as that. We find that that's what we in fact are doing. Whether we liked it or not seeing the final you're rise. We're stopping up your ears and where hardening your heart because you hate -- you will not -- you will not have that and crises is to rule over you. So now you get this. Structured so the rationale than is not a way yeah absolutely. And energy they just written -- -- don't have -- and adoptive. Surely -- thank you Charlie with what we're under we're under a minute ago let's confirm you will not be an Anderson tomorrow he will not yet protesting outside the funeral senior airman Nicole right. In fact when I. Cancel my ticket and we cancel all of our tickets are not going anywhere near that yet but and it it. And we and we thank you for that surely we thank you for -- time to do as well. -- thank you that is right but Bob -- that it will surely felt over from the west Borough Baptist Church when believers to be. Perhaps well intentioned perhaps not certainly in in the estimation of the many. Misguided doctor Roy short. Dean of religious. School of religion of Bob Jones University thank you very much sir I can -- joining us this particular have bombing pleasure to have him here and -- to work and my congratulations on doing this as an it was in these -- is very difficult -- good for you could've done it without you -- -- this time we're back on the other side 4 o'clock. |
Wealth is more concentrated in America than at any time since 1929. Tax specialists like Blattmachr have done their part, but the tax code itself -- written and approved by Congress -- also stacks the deck. Consider just a few examples. Hidden in a 1985 law was a subsidy for cushy executive transportation. Senior executives aren't charged for personal trips on company jets, but they must pay income tax on the value of the flight, which is counted as income, just like salary and bonus. The value of the flight, however, is not based on actual costs but on a formula required by Congress, one that discounts the value so deeply that it makes personal use of a company jet more attractive than any other form of pay. It allows a C.E.O. to travel in a corporate jet coast to coast for $260. But the company gets to take a tax deduction on the jet, thus removing funds from the federal treasury. The cost to taxpayers for that coast-to-coast flight is thus at least $3,500.
Or consider how billions of dollars in investment partnership profits go untaxed every year because neither Congress nor the I.R.S. requires the partnerships to answer one simple question: does this partnership have a domestic tax-exempt partner? If that question were asked, and the answers recorded, the I.R.S. could easily track down a commonly used tax dodge. It would take about $100,000 a year to make the change to the partnership tax form and enter the data in I.R.S. computers. The potential recovery in tax dollars would be in the tens of billions annually. But neither Congress nor the I.R.S. has allocated the money to change the question.
Blattmachr's genius is in seeing the whole and these holes in the whole. He then sells this genius to his clients. One of his early insights was that it is entirely and legally possible for the superrich to reap unlimited stock profits without paying a cent of capital gains tax. The rich can do this by manipulating charitable trusts. These trusts are a common enough device used by generous people who own an asset, usually stock, that has appreciated in value. Instead of selling the stock, paying capital gains taxes, and then investing the after-tax proceeds, a person can instead donate the stock to a charitable trust that he controls. The trust can sell the assets tax-free and invest the untaxed proceeds. The income from that investment -- typically 6 percent annually -- is paid to the donor for life. When the donor dies, what remains in the trust goes to charity.
Blattmachr took this clever gimmick and supersized it. He figured out a way to turn that nice little 6 percent annual income stream into a torrent -- 80 percent returns a year for two years. So on stock gains of $100 million, the owners would get back at least $96 million, as opposed to the mere $72 million they would have gotten if they had sold the stock outright and paid capital gains taxes. Then the trust would fold, and some charity would get the remaining $4 million. The government would get less than nothing since the gift to the charitable trust would create an income tax deduction.
The technique was so aggressive that when other tax lawyers got their hands on the plan, one of them sent it to the Treasury Department in a plain brown envelope. Treasury responded by instituting new rules, blocking the way to the treasure. But Blattmachr quickly charted another route through those rules, drawing up a new map that allowed billions more dollars to escape capital gains taxes -- until the government blocked it, too.
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Blattmachr's treasure maps do more than just lighten the burden of taxes for his clients. Often his strategies allow money to pass without showing up anywhere in the official income statistics. Were these and similar transactions counted, then the incomes of the rich would appear to be much larger -- and the share of their incomes going to taxes much smaller.
Blattmachr is a master at exploiting the opportunities. Always adept with numbers -- growing up he dreamed of becoming a mathematics professor -- Blattmachr distinguished himself at Columbia University law school with his easy grasp of complex theoretical concepts. ''Many lawyers . . . are often bewildered when trying to foresee what the full impact of implementing certain actions will be,'' Blattmachr once wrote. ''I have found that those who have studied mathematics can approach and master both the legal principles and their effect in a way which most others cannot.''
At Columbia in the late 60's, he set about studying Soviet law, certain he would find that it was unprincipled, written to advance the interests of the ruling elite. But he discovered his thesis was wrong. He concluded that ''on paper, Soviet law was very well drafted, grounded in sound principles.'' It was, he came to realize, the administration of Soviet law that was monstrous.
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He was fascinated to find that the U.S. tax code was something like the Soviet's opposite: an intensely political law that favors the ruling elite but is administered objectively. Its secrets and intricacies have fascinated him ever since, says Mitchell Gans, a Hofstra University law professor and Blattmachr's good friend. ''It's Saturday morning, and Jonathan and I have been reading, separately, the latest I.R.S. notice,'' Gans says. ''The phone rings, and Jonathan will say: 'Did you read that? It doesn't make sense. Why is this rule this way and that rule that way? What could they have meant by this?' And pretty soon, two hours have gone by.''
Blattmachr is always on the hunt, and Congress often makes his job easier. In 1997, Congress passed what its sponsors promoted as a tax cut for the middle class and especially for families with children. Buried in that law were many tax breaks for the rich, some subtle and some huge, notably a sharp reduction in the tax rate on long-term capital gains, the source of more than two-thirds of the incomes of the 400 richest Americans.
But some loopholes are too big, even for his liking. He was the first to expose one such opportunity buried in the first tax-cut bill sponsored by President Bush. The loophole -- invisible to all but a very few whose brains could conceive the pick-up-sticks consequences of the proposed law changes -- would have allowed the very rich to avoid paying capital gains taxes at all and would have cost everyone else dearly. Thanks in large part to Blattmachr's sounding the alarm, the Senate did not change that part of the law.
Blattmachr also has warned that proposals now in Congress to repeal, rather than reform, the alternative minimum tax would further shift the pile of pick-up sticks to the superrich. ''There are lots of things you would not even think about because of the alternative minimum tax,'' Blattmachr said in his Park Avenue office. ''But if you repeal it, then there are all sorts of things to start thinking about.''
And with that he began musing aloud about manipulating the rules on municipal bond interest, some of which can become taxable under the alternative tax. He is just one of thousands of lawyers and tax engineers who, with the alternative tax repealed, would put their minds to work helping the rich pay less. Since there is no free lunch and since the bill for government has to be paid, that means Blattmachr's clients simply leave part of their bill on your table. |
Over the last three decades, Zambia, largely flying below the international radar, has become something of a beacon of hope for democracy enthusiasts and Africa optimists alike. The country has avoided the kind of political violence that has plagued its neighbors, including Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe. It has also conducted largely peaceful elections and is the only country in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) that has twice achieved a democratic transfer of power to an opposition party since independence. In fact, Zambia is one of only four SADC countries to ever experience a transition of political power at all, the others being Lesotho, Malawi, and Mauritius. Meanwhile, its economic performance has, at times, been impressive, averaging around seven percent real GDP growth per annum as recently as December 2015.
That doesn’t mean that everything in the country is going well, however. Absent the kind of negative headlines generated by its more repressive neighbors, leaders in Zambia have had tremendous leeway to implement more covert forms of control. In fact, the country has been backsliding on many indicators of democracy over the past decade. That reality has become especially stark in recent weeks, which have seen an increase in abuses by Zambian security forces and in outbursts of political violence overwhelmingly perpetrated by the ruling Patriotic Front (PF). Indeed, slightly over a month away from the country’s general elections on August 11, it seems that Zambia’s democratic façade, always fragile, is crumbling.
Perhaps no event captures Zambia’s democratic reversals more than the Zambian Revenue Authority’s decision, late last month, to shut down the country’s most popular independent newspaper, The Post, which has a reputation of giving equal—and, some would argue, favorably biased—coverage to the country’s main opposition movement, the United Party for National Development (UPND). The rationale for the closure was that the newspaper failed to pay some 53 million kwacha (around $5 million) in taxes, an allegation that The |
No. 1-ranked flyweight Jussier da Silva defeats Shinichi “BJ” Kojima in July 2009 - Daniel Herbertson for Sherdog.com
Edmilson de Oliveira Vieira da Silva died at 9:30 p.m. on Jan. 15 in the intensive care unit of a hospital in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. Four days earlier, he was riding his motorcycle on a federal road when a drunk driver ran over him.He left behind a wife, daughter and two sons -- one of them being Jussier da Silva , the world’s top-ranked flyweight and current Shooto South America 123-pound champion.“My father was everything to me,” Silva says. “He was the only person that supported my decision to become a fighter, and he always told me that someday I would have something much bigger than what I’m seeing today.”Silva knows a life much harder than the typical fighter. He lives in a tiny house accessible only by foot or motorcycle; the only “road” leading to his home is far too narrow and rough for cars to traverse. Inside that small home, Silva lives with his mother, sister and 4-year old son, Pedro Davi “Formiga,” who already shares his father’s noms de guerre. The financial pressures of being a single father and the primary breadwinner for a packed household force Silva to work a schedule that might break lesser men.A typical day includes an intense six and a half-hour training session with the Kimura Nova Uniao team, led by MMA and Brazilian jiu-jitsu coach Jair Lourenco, boxing coach Netinho Pegado and wrestling coach Pedro Cunha. Of course, training does not pay the bills, so before every session, Silva works as a messenger for the local hospital where he earns the Brazilian minimum wage -- roughly the equivalent of $250 a month.“The money isn’t enough for everything, especially since an athlete needs supplements and some money to take care of his body,” Silva says. “I can only help my family, but I can’t always pay all of the bills, so it’s tough.”It beats the previous job he held, working as a delivery boy on the same streets that claimed his father’s life. Shuttling around on a motorcycle may sound like fun, but Brazil’s streets are often a congested mess on which traffic laws are more passive suggestions than concrete rules.“Eight hours of risk every day -- pure adrenaline,” Silva says. “Today my job is more satisfactory, especially since my bosses understand the importance of the sport in my life.”Despite teetering on the edge of financial ruin, Silva remains grateful to have bosses who do not hassle him about his second job. That characterizes Silva in a nutshell -- a man appreciative for all he has to his name, a man resolute in the belief that his hard work will bring better days. Remember, this is not some prospect fighting on regional shows while going through the standard issue hard knocks. Silva, the best flyweight on the planet, has no sponsors, not even one. Such is the reality facing many Brazilian fighters, which is why America is viewed as the Promised Land.Not long after his father’s death, it appeared as if Silva’s life was taking a turn for the better. An American organization offered him a five-fight contract, including a proposed catchweight bout against Mike Easton for a purse far bigger than any Silva had ever earned. Contract offers from America bring equal amounts of enthusiasm and trepidation for Brazilian fighters, however, as it means they must grapple with the local consulate in search of a visa.“I was very frustrated because they think that we are making excuses to go live in the U.S.,” Silva says. “You need to have the plane tickets to go and come back already bought. You need to show that you have a secure job, a place to live … the process is very difficult, and sometimes they don’t even look at your paperwork before denying you.”Despite collecting all the necessary documentation and filling out a mountain of confusing forms, Silva was denied a visa by the consulate because he had only a contract offer and not a signed agreement.“I believe I lost the biggest opportunity of my career because I would have fought in the U.S., made a very good purse and maybe earned opportunities to fight in other, even better promotions,” Silva says.Instead of fighting in the U.S. and establishing himself at the forefront of the burgeoning American flyweight scene, Silva will defend his Shooto South America 123-pound title against Alexandre Pantoja on Saturday in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The bout was in peril when word hit the Internet that Silva was seeking donations to help him cover the cost of his plane ticket to the event. A year full of disappointments and tragedy for Silva seemed set to add another unfortunate chapter. However, thanks to help from Lourenco, close friends and a PayPal donation drive that went viral via Internet forums and Twitter, Silva raised the funds to pay for his flight.“I was very surprised and very, very happy. What surprised me the most was to know that people who don’t even know me and maybe don’t even watch my fights helped me,” Silva says. “I’m very thankful to them and hope I can find some way to contribute back to them. I still don’t know how, but I hope I can.”Silva seems genuinely concerned about finding an avenue through which to repay supporters. One would almost expect him to show some bitterness over his lack of sponsorship or the fact that he lives in a tiny home in the middle of nowhere, but he remains his usual soft-spoken, respectful self.Some successful fighters build hype by spewing rhetoric; others recklessly spend their winnings on all the trappings of imaginary wealth. Silva’s favorite part of the day consists of returning home to play with his son before reading the Bible and rolling into bed.In Silva’s mind, securing a better future for himself and his family begins and ends with fighting in the U.S. Dominick Cruz made $18,000 in taking the World Extreme Cagefighting bantamweight title from Brian Bowles -- a paltry sum in comparison to what the premier UFC stars make. However, it would represent a life-changing purse for Silva. Better yet, he might even find a sponsor or two.“I definitely want the Shooto world title,” Silva says, “but my dream is to fight in America, especially the WEC if they open the flyweight division, because the fighters there are recognized and very well paid.” |
Once again outrage has been sparked by a cartoon in a special issue of French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo.
The magazine, published to mark the anniversary of a terrorist attack at its offices in which 12 died, prints a cartoon of Alan Kurdi, the little Syrian boy who tragically died trying to reach Europe with his family. The image of the toddler's dead body lying on a beach marked a shift in public attitudes to the refugee crisis. In the cartoon Alan Kurdi is depicted as an adult chasing two women — arms out-stretched. The text reads ″what would little Alan have grown to be?″, ″an ass groper in Germany″.
Many have accused Charlie Hebdo of making a literal racist point that all male Syrian refugees are destined to become sexual predators in European countries. Such an accusation is ridiculous. A little knowledge of Charlie Hebdo′s history, its political stance on the Front National, throws out that conclusion. In fact the cartoonist is trying to make the exact opposite point: that not all male Syrian refugees are future sexual abusers. It is trying to say that European governments, the press and the general public, are fickle — capable of immense sympathy when shown the photo of a little dead boy on a beach, but also whipping up a racist witchhunt, after the attacks in Cologne.
Most of those leading the witchhunt against Charlie Hebdo seem to be doing it on the basis that the cartoon, and the intentions of the cartoonist, are something that they are not. If the debate around the cartoon had centred on its taste, appropriateness or crassness I would have more sympathy.
There may well be a debate to be had about the appropriateness of Charlie Hebdo′s cartoons in general; I would be interested in having such a debate. Indeed I am disappointed that none of Charlie Hebdo′s critics are as concerned about the treatment of the issue of sexual assault in the cartoon, as they are about its treatment of refugees. Jonathan Freedland in the Guardian (Saturday 16 January) starts by accepting Charlie Hebdo was seeking to expose Europe′s hypocrisy on migrants, and takes up the question of taste. However he winds up conceding that it is wrong to publish anything that racists could take as their own. He defeats his own argument, however, by citing Ronald Reagan′s misappropriation of the chorus of Bruce Springsteen′s ‘Born in the USA’ as an example. Who on the left would want to ban Bruce Springsteen! Almost anything can be misappropriated by the right. The left should not take its cue on what we can say, draw or do, from what the right might do with it. |
Absence may make the heart grow fonder, but distance also clarifies the mind. A fortnight’s visit to Japan put the impact of Brexit on Britain’s reputation around the world in a dazzling light.
On the face of it, Japan ought to be a far better model for post-Brexit Britain than the oft-cited city-states of Singapore and Hong Kong. A proudly independent island-nation of 125 million people off the coast of Asia, trading with the world and highly resistant to immigration, if Theresa May has ever been there she must surely have noticed that Japan ticks most of her boxes. Few, if any, Japanese think of themselves as “citizens of the world”.
Yet, at event after event, meeting businessmen, diplomats, bureaucrats, students and journalists, this correspondent heard an utterly consistent message: “We have always admired you British. So why have you now gone mad?”
If you travel in the United States you will hear plenty of people who side with the Brexiters. Some Americans, after all, helped finance and organise the Leave campaign. Others instinctively share Eurosceptic distrust of Brussels bureaucrats and see parallels in their own hatred of Washington.
Not in Japan. There, the questions came thick and fast about Brexit and what we British thought was the point of it. For example, I was asked, by a former senior diplomat: “Why do you want to make yourselves weaker and more vulnerable?”.
He went on to point out that “We Japanese also have a ‘special relationship’ with the United States over security, but we have long envied the fact that your EU membership has added to your leverage with the Americans: why are you giving that up?”
He and other said: “We’d like to have a closer relationship with other countries in Asia, on security as well as economics, but both China and our history stands in our way. How we wish we were like you, dealing with France and Germany instead. Now that President Macron has been elected, can’t you change your mind?”
Business figures acknowledged that their arguments that Britain should stay in the single market are a matter of self-interest and convenience for Japanese firms that have invested in our country, but they wondered, “doesn’t that make the single market and customs union matters of self-interest and convenience for you, too?”
“We keep hearing your ministers say that all countries have ‘access’ to the single market, often citing Japan, but don’t they realize that the single market and the EU’s common external tariff are precisely why we have built factories in the UK? ‘Access’ from outside the EU is much inferior to access from within the single market.
“Oh and by the way, why is your now tighter immigration policy also penalizing us Japanese?” A Japanese journalist now moving to London as a special correspondent for their newspaper reports having to pay £1,000 for the visa, plus a £500 deposit for use of the NHS, and reams of paperwork for bringing in their possessions – none of which applied the last time they resided in London in the 1990s. As this special correspondent has a European beat, they now wonder whether their successor might be better placed in Paris, Berlin or Brussels.
Most of all, the refrain was pained and somewhat despairing: “Emmott-san, we always used to think of the British as being deft diplomats and full of good common sense. Now you seem awkward, incompetent, chaotic and often nonsensical. Please tell us that you are going to come back to your senses soon”.
My answer was consistent too. “I really wish I could.”
Edited by Sam Ashworth-Hayes |
Graham Fraser is Canada’s Commissioner of Official Languages.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau caused a flurry of comments with the announcement that the vacant position on the Supreme Court will be filled following an evaluation by a panel that considers applications from eligible lawyers and judges.
Oh, and by the way—and this has raised some eyebrows—all the applicants must be functionally bilingual.
I think this is an essential requirement for serving on the Supreme Court, and long overdue.
The announcement has provoked some predictable reactions: that requiring bilingualism is unfair; that candidates should be chosen because of their legal skills, their knowledge of jurisprudence and their competence, not because of their language skills.
First of all, unfair to whom? Those who claim that requiring bilingualism is unfair are usually thinking of regional balance, because the requirement is unfair to lawyers and judges who never took the trouble to learn Canada’s other official language. I tend to think about whether it is fair to Canadians and their lawyers whose cases are before the Supreme Court. The court system needs to be fair to someone who has argued a case in French at every level in Quebec and now has to decide whether to plead part of the case in French and part in English, or to trust that the interpreter will grasp the nuances of the argument. Let’s ask Sébastien Grammond and Mark Power, who put it in a paper for the Institute of Intergovernmental Relations at Queen’s University: “Francophone litigants before the Supreme Court face a challenge that is not shared by their Anglophone counterparts: to attempt to persuade judges who do not understand the language in which arguments are presented.”
In fact, bilingualism is not merely an asset, it is an essential qualification for a Supreme Court judge. Canadian laws are not written in one language and then translated—they are drafted simultaneously in both languages. And when there is a variation in the meaning, it is the Supreme Court that decides which version better conveys the intention of Parliament.
There is also the question of understanding the documentation of the cases before the court. As a general rule, one third of the cases that come from provincial courts come from Quebec, and there are cases from other provinces that have been argued in French. In 2009, 22 of the 62 cases heard by the Supreme Court were argued partly or entirely in French. Those cases have been argued in French, the factums are in French, and in some cases the decisions are only in French. A judge who does not read French has to depend on a memo—known as a “bench memo”—written by one of his or her clerks, presuming that the judge has hired a bilingual clerk. The clerks are often the very best graduates law schools have to offer, but they are still fresh out of school.
Being “functionally bilingual” does not mean being able to write decisions in both languages or carry on dinner conversation in both languages. It means being able to go through the documents in a case, understanding the facts and grasping the nuances of the arguments being made before the court. Anyone who is not able to do that and has to rely on interpretation is simply not as competent as someone who can.
There is also the question of being able to work with colleagues. In a group of people, the presence of one unilingual person means that the whole group has to function in that language. A unilingual Anglophone judge—there has never been a unilingual Francophone judge—means that all of the conversations in conference must occur in English.
Fifty years ago, it was that fundamental unfairness in the federal public service that led then-Prime Minister Lester Pearson to announce that the policy of the government would be to have a public service where everyone could use the official language of their choice in the knowledge they would be understood. Now, half a century later, people still argue that the requirement of bilingualism is unfair to unilingual English-speaking lawyers and the provinces they practise in—without thinking of the unfairness to French-speaking judges who are obliged to work in English.
For decades, ambitious politicians and public servants became bilingual because they understood that it was not only a leadership requirement, it was a leadership skill. It was necessary in order to understand the country as a whole. Ambitious lawyers and judges now know that bilingualism is not merely an asset, it is essential. And in Canada, as a former French ambassador once observed, French is the language of ambition. |
Furious 7 races into theaters this weekend. As members of the comics community, though, we're always thinking into the future. On Friday, we talked to James Wan in an exclusive interview and asked him if he would like to work with Furious 7 star, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson again on his upcoming Shazam film, where he'll play Black Adam.
CB: I do hear whispers that you might be in talks for a DC or Warner Brothers movie. Is that true?
Wan: There's lots of talks about lots of things so who knows what is true. CB: Would you want to direct Dwayne Johnson again in Shazam?
Wan: Well, put it this way: I freakin' love Dwayne. He's an awesome guy and I would love to work with him again in a heartbeat. I know Dwayne wants to find something for me and him to do again in the future. -----
So, it's a possibility. Wan certainly sounds keen to the idea of working with Johnson again!
Make sure you check out our full interview with James Wan by click right here! |
~Midlifurrs ( Member )
Full Name: Mid Life Furrs
User Title: Watcher
Registered since: Oct 22nd, 2013 08:19
Current mood: drained
Artist Profile:
Midlifurrs is a group for furrs whose fursona is between the ages of 30 and 45 or otherwise classified as being in the mid-life for their species. We are here to highlight the mundane nature of adult life.
If you are looking for people to RP with who deal with normal mid life experiences this is the place to look.
"My wife promised to reduce my child support payments if I took the kids out to eat once a month." ~Paradox Wolf
This group was started in honor of an email on Furcast about an 18 year old whose fursona is about 30.
This group is maintained by
Like most FA groups, most of the activity here is in the Favorites, but we do accept recommendations for submissions.
Statistics Page Visits: 94
Submissions: 0
Comments Received: 7
Comments Given: 1
Journals: 1
Favorites: 0 |
This Christmas I was paired up with an awesome Secret Santa. When I first saw the massive box arrive on my doorstep and felt how light it was, I half expected to open it up and find that it was empty. Thankfully, my SS is way better than that. When I opened the box I found a ton of packing peanuts (score!) and a uniquely decorated box with a Reddit alien and christmas tree hand drawn on the outside. I opened that box up, and found more packing peanuts (surprise!) and a thoughtful card alongside two awesome gifts: a set of craft beer glasses, and a reusable hand-warmer. Thanks, SS for my new goal of brewing a different beer style to fit each one of my new glasses! I'm also very excited to try out the hand warmer when I go snowboarding this winter.
I also received a smaller package from Amazon with an awesome CD by The Clarks entitled "Another Happy Ending". Catnik wrote that it's her favorite band, and not a lot of people know about them. I was really happy to discover a new band, and after giving it a listen I enjoyed how they are like a groovy Carbon Leaf mixed with a little Matchbox Twenty. Thanks for the cool CD!
Cheers to you, Catnik, for being an thoughtful SS and an awesome artist! |
If you are mining Ethereum you might have noticed that your hashrate recently dropped if you are using AMD Radeon RX 400/500 series cards. Seeing your mining hashrate drop is nothing new for Ether miners and it is usually due to the growing DAG (directed acyclic graph) file size. The Ethereum DAG is a key component for the proof of work algorithm and is generated for each epoch at around every 30,000 blocks. Back on June 1st, 2017 we were mining on DAG epoch #126 and three weeks later we have already moved onto DAG epoch #130. When the move to DAG epoch #130 happened it seems that the AMD Radeon 400/500 series cards took a performance hit while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1000 series cards and older AMD Radeon 200/300 series cards did not.
The bad news is that the AMD Radeon RX 470/480 as well as the Radeon RX 570/580 cards took the biggest performance hit. These cards use the AMD Polaris GPU and over the past several days the community has tried to find ways to overcome the Polaris hashrate drop that recently happened. Claymore’s Dual Ethereum AMD+NVIDIA GPU Miner is one of the most popular miners out there and it appears that Claymore can’t ‘fix’ the hashrate drop on the ‘miner software level’ according to a recent post.
“I see the speed drop. I checked possible workarounds, at least for Polaris, they failed. So probably this hashrate drop cannot be fixed, at least on miner software level.” – Claymore
We’ve reached out to AMD and shared some of our benchmark data and hope to they are looking into this issue as well. Chances are they are looking into a solution at the driver level! While we wait for AMD’s response we fired up Claymore’s Dual Ethereum AMD+NVIDIA GPU Miner v9.5 and test seven AMD and NVIDIA graphics cards to see how the perform on future DAG epoch numbers. We did this by running Claymore’s miner in benchmark mode to check the hashrate on our GPUs on future epoch numbers. You can try this out yourself by specifying “-benchmark x” where x is the epoch that you’d like to run.
We tested DAG epoch 130, 140, 150, 170 and 199 on the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060/1070/1080 ‘Pascal’ GPUs as well as on the AMD Radeon RX 470/480/580 ‘Polaris’ GPUs and then the AMD Radeon R9 Nano ‘Fiji’ GPU.
The results were pretty startling to be honest. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060/1070/1080 hashrate barely budged in our performance testing, so NVIDIA card owners or those that have one ordered should be happy. The AMD Radeon RX 400/500 card owners won’t be too happy to see what the benchmark shows will happen. The hashrate on the AMD Radeon RX 580 that we are testing is 27.0 MH/s currently and that will drop down to 25.6 MH/s by DAG epoch #140 and then 22.7 MH/s at DAG epoch #150. This is around a 16% performance drop in the hashrate in the next 90 days assuming the Ethash DAG changes every 4.5 days.
If you look way out into the future you can see fairly large hashrate drops by the time you get to DAG epoch 170 and 199, but we wouldn’t freak out just yet. The AMD Radeon R9 Nano with the ‘Fiji’ GPU has some small gradual performance decreases up until DAG epoch 170, but takes a performance hit around DAG 199.
AMD might be able to work some magic on the driver side. AMD and NVIDIA are both rumored to be working on bringing dedicated mining GPUs to market here soon, so now that they are spending money to focus on miners we can likely assume that driver support will be improving. If a magic driver fix is not possible get ready to see people selling Radeon RX 400/500 series cards and switching to GeForce GTX 1060 and GeForce GTX 1070 models!
Other GPU Stories on Ethereum Mining on Legit Reviews: |
I don't count any transgender women among my close LGBTQ and feminist friends. I'm not proud of that. I'm also not alone.
As a bisexual woman, I frequent LGBTQ parties and events, hang out at lesbian and gay bars, and even produce LGBTQ news coverage for my job. Yet, while I have friends who identify under every term in the LGBTQ spectrum, virtually none are trans women. And few of my LGBTQ friends count trans women among their own close friends. I get that we all gravitate toward those in our social circles for any number of subjective reasons, but could the absence of trans women in our circles reflect a larger problem among feminists and queer women?
I think it does. Feminist and queer spaces have long excluded certain queer people, however intentionally or unintentionally. When those spaces are inclusive, they often privilege some gender presentations over others. Discrimination within the LGBTQ community is subtle, but it's insidious.
"When I go to a [queer] party, I'm often the only person assigned male at birth," Red Durkin, a trans activist and comedian, told me. "I think the philosophy of queer spaces as being more all-inclusive is something that the practice of it hasn't lived up to."
We may not purposefully exclude anyone, but there is no doubt that we privilege certain identities (my cis, feminine, white one included).
"A lot of lesbian and dyke spaces and a lot of feminist spaces are masculine-centric, [which] plays a big role about which trans people are welcome in the space and which are not," Julia Serano, a trans writer and activist, told me. "I've found that trans men and trans masculine people are way more welcome in queer spaces than trans women.... [A] large portion of the anti-trans sentiments are anti-feminine."
Then, of course, some feminists actively work to exclude transgender women altogether. Case and point: the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival. The festival, which wrapped in early August, enforces a "womyn-born womyn" policy, barring anyone who doesn't fit that definition from attending. MichFest invoked this policy in 1991, when trans attendee Nancy Burkholder was kicked out after she was outed. It has taken activism over the past two decades, including Camp Trans, to counteract the festival's discriminatory policy. Durkin, for her part, initiated a Change.org petition calling on artists to boycott the festival, which garnered nearly 3,000 signatures.
Some feminists argue that trans women have been socialized as men and are physically threatening in "safe spaces," and they say that "feminine-presenting women are agents of the patriarchy," Annika Penelope, a trans activist, told me. "I certainly was in a lot of assigned-male-only spaces," she said, "but because I was always aware that I wasn't male, it's not like I internalized any of those messages."
These feminist arguments are more than mere transphobic platitudes. They readily translate into physical violence outside these spaces, particularly for trans women of color. According to a 2012 report by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP), 53 percent of anti-LGBTQ homicide victims are trans women, and 73 percent of all anti-LGBTQ homicide victims are people of color. This is why I reject any "sisterhood" that excludes trans women and doesn't value trans feminism in our community.
Feminists and queer people alike have benefitted from the notion that biology is not destiny, so we ought to expand our understanding of feminism and LGBTQ equality to include trans feminism -- that is, "feminist perspectives on transgender issues, or transgender perspectives on feminist issues," Serano told me. She wrote about it further in Ms. last year, arguing:
These strands of feminism represent a move away from viewing sexism as an overly simplistic, unilateral form of oppression, where men are the oppressors and women are the oppressed, end of story. |
Belief in black magic is still strong in rural parts of Pakistan (Picture: AFP)
A father-of-six is on the run after allegedly strangling five of his children to death in the hope the sacrifice would grant him magical powers, including alchemy.
Ali Nawaz Leghari, 40, is said to have killed the two girls and three boys, who are aged between three and 13, overnight on Thursday in the small Pakistani village of Saeed Khan.
And police say that Leghari, who had serious money problems, was undertaking a spiritual journey known as ‘Chilla’ in the hope that he could learn various forms of black magic like alchemy.
MORE: Death penalty sought for couple who ‘had sex and ate pizza as they tortured three-year-old son to death’
MORE: Father charged with murder after daughter, 5, is thrown from bridge to her death
‘The man’s financial condition was bad but he was also learning black magic and it seems that he made the sacrifice to excel in the craft,’ Qamaruddin Rahimo told AFP.
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Mr Rahimo said that Leghari had initially attempted to poison the family’s dinner but had been stopped by his wife. But while the wife and eldest son were out of the house, Leghari allegedly sedated the remaining five children and then used a rope that was found at the scene to strangle them.
Belief in black magic is particularly strong in rural parts of Pakistan including the impoverished southern Sindh province where the killings took place, the Digital Journal reports. |
Former heir apparent and other senior members of one-time Libyan regime sentenced in Tripoli after controversial trial criticised by human rights groups
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of Libya’s former dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, has been sentenced to death by a court in Tripoli in a mass trial of former regime figures widely criticised by human rights groups and observers.
Saif Gaddafi, once seen as his father’s heir apparent, was condemned to death along with eight other figures from the former dictatorship, including the former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi and Gaddafi’s last prime minister, Al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi.
The trial, which opened in Tripoli in April last year, has been mired in controversy after human rights groups and the international criminal court questioned its standards.
There is uncertainty about whether the sentence will be carried out, as Gaddafi is being held by a militia in the mountain town of Zintan that is opposed to Libya Dawn, the militia coalition in control of Tripoli.
Gaddafi has been held in Zintan since he was caught trying to flee Libya in the aftermath of the 2011 revolution. The militia has refused to hand him over to Tripoli.
He was accused in the trial of recruiting mercenaries, attacking civilian targets from the air, forming armed groups and shooting into crowds of demonstrators. Among the charges he was convicted of were incitement to murder and rape.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Muammar Gaddafi-era officials wait for their trial in a prison cage in Tripoli. Photograph: Xinhua/REX Shutterstock
The ICC indicted Gaddafi, along with Senussi, for war crimes and crimes against humanity but judges in The Hague refused Libya permission to try him. However, the ICC gave permission for Senussi to be tried in Libya, and the former intelligence chief – held in custody in Tripoli – was one of 28 defendants in court. Four of the Muammar Gaddafi-era figures were cleared of charges.
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the International Bar Association issued statements criticising the proceedings, with IBA director Dr Mark Ellis saying several trial monitors were arrested and questioned by security forces.
Gaddafi’s ICC-appointed lawyer, John Jones, condemned the trial process. “It’s a complete show trial, a farce,” he said. “This trial is effectively being run by Libya Dawn militias.”
Abdullah al-Senussi: spy chief who knew Muammar Gaddafi's secrets Read more
Jones said the videolink set up in Tripoli to allow Gaddafi to be tried had worked on only three occasions, leaving him in the dark about the proceedings. “They [Tripoli prosecutors] are relying on confessions from defendants extracted by torture. It was condemned by Libya’s own ministry of justice as illegal.”
In London, Senussi’s 17-year-old daughter, Salma, said her father had been denied a proper trial. “It’s like a nightmare every day waking up fearing to hear this. I ask the world for only one thing: for my father to have the law. We just want proper justice.”
Salma – in London with Senussi’s wife, Fatma, and his nine-year-old son after fleeing Libya – said her mother was too distressed to talk but was upset with the ICC judges for ruling that Senussi was getting a fair trial. She said: “I am angry with the international criminal court; it did not give my father a chance.”
Senussi was convicted in absentia in France in 1999 concerning the bombing of a French airliner over Niger in 1989 in which 170 people were killed. However, for ordinary Libyans, his name will always be associated with the 1996 massacre of 1,200 inmates at Tripoli’s Abu Salim prison.
Senussi’s London-based lawyer, Ben Emmerson QC, said “extreme fear, insecurity and intimidation” had dominated the trial. “The death sentence just handed down against Abdullah al-Senussi is the most deplorable decision in a case in which every one of his basic rights to a fair trial and due process have been completely ignored,” he said.
There are unlikely to be immediate executions after Sadiq al-Sur, head of the attorney general’s investigation department, said lawyers could appeal against the sentences. The nine death sentences are in two parts, with each defendant sentenced to die by firing squad and also fined 50,000 dinars (£23,481).
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi, former prime minister of Libya, arrives for a hearing at a courtroom in Tripoli in September 2013. Photograph: Reuters
Civil war engulfed Libya last July, with Libya Dawn militias seizing the capital and the internationally recognised government fleeing to eastern Libya and losing control of the trial process.
The ICC chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, said in February that although Libya Dawn militias now controlled Tripoli, she had no evidence the case against Senussi – which Libya was given permission to hold in 2013 – had been affected.
Her office said in a letter to Senussi’s lawyers: “Despite the fact that the groups allegedly associated with Libya Dawn are in physical control of Tripoli and therefore the judicial and correctional facility system, there does not appear to have been any significant disruption to the trial proceedings.”
The verdicts, after a chaotic and secretive trial process, underline the failure of Libya to implement the democracy promised in 2011 when, with assistance from Nato air strikes, it overthrew the Gaddafi dictatorship. The proceedings are also a blow to the prestige of the ICC and its decision that Libya was fit to hold the trial.
Divisions have emerged over the conduct of the trial between the ICC and the United Nations, which ordered the court to investigate Libya war crimes in 2011.
The UN support mission for Libya, which monitored the trial until it left the country with the onset of civil war last summer, reiterated its belief on Tuesday that the case had failed to meet international standards.
UN observer at Gaddafi trial held on suspicion of 'black magic' Read more
The UN catalogued a list of failings, including reported intimidation of witnesses, a lack of access to lawyers and no presentation of witnesses or documents in open court.
UN officials said the authorities in Tripoli had failed to ensure that trial sessions were broadcast in their entirety, despite Libyan law being amended to allow it.
Claudio Cordone, from the UN mission, said: “Given these shortcomings, it is particularly worrisome that the court has handed down nine death sentences.”
Controversy at the trial reached a new level in June 2014 when a UN trial monitor was taken prisoner by the militia guarding the courtroom and accused of black magic. Although the monitor was later released without charge, it set the tone for the trial.
The ICC, meanwhile, has already faced criticism for achieving only two war crimes convictions in its 13-year-history, while South Africa last month defied its orders and refused to arrest Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir, indicted for genocide, during his visit to Pretoria.
Its most high-profile case, against Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta, who was accused in connection with post-election violence that killed 1,200 people in 2007 and 2008, collapsed last year due to lack of evidence. |
I have been interested in biometrics since 1996 when a little company called Comparitor Systems became one of the first infamous internet era penny stock scams. The New York Times detailed how: "In early May (1996), Comparator became one of the most amazing stock stories on the Nasdaq market, leaping from 3 cents a share to a peak of $1.75...the company had not developed a new fingerprint identification system, as it had said, but had instead stolen a prototype of a system developed by others..."
Comparitor may have been a scam but this was my first exposure to biometrics technology (and how something can go viral over the internet). The technology seemed promising and I believed that it would ultimately replace passwords.
I didn't think it would take 17 years but it does look like our standard alphanumeric password protection standard may finally become obsolete.
Earlier this year we saw headlines such as Ars Technica's "PayPal exec aims to "obliterate passwords from the face of the planet" and the BBC's "End of the line for online passwords, says PayPal" where PayPal President David Marcus stated that "We want to move away from passwords, and get to embedded fingerprint scanners on mobile phones." Moreover, he correctly predicted that: "You're going to start seeing that type of experience later this year, with a mass roll-out in the year to come."
After Apple's acquisition of Authentic last year which included its patent portfolio of biometric technology it should be of no surprise that Apple announced that iPhone 5s would have fingerprint scanning technology and posted a video on Youtube ("Apple - iPhone 5s - The new Touch ID fingerprint identity sensor").
It was a major news event this week including coverage by the Wall Street Journal which quoted PayPals' Senior Director of Platform Raj Mata in "Apple's Latest iPhone Puts Focus Back on Fingerprint Security."
"The industry has always struggled with balancing online security with ease of use - and one has always come at the expense of the other."
However, in a post-Snowden world, one has to wonder how tech firms like PayPal define "security"...namely obtaining fingerprints of millions of Americans (and users worldwide for that matter) and if a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court Order or the like can compel these companies to hand over this sensitive data.
ZeroHedge for instance sent out a Tweet half jokingly that "The NSA unveils its brand new fingerprint database" that received almost 600 retweets.
The New York Times had additional coverage of online reaction in, "New iPhone's Fingerprint Scanner Prompts Concern and Nervous Laughter Online."
What the major news outlets missed this week was that the United States Patent and Trademark Office just published eBay's (misspelled or possibly obfuscated?) patent application 20130232066, "Finger Print [sic] Funding Source Selection" whereby a "user selects a funding source that the user wants to associate with a specific user finger."
More specifically, "Each finger of a user can be uniquely associated with a funding source for a user account with a payment provider, such that the user can select or change a funding source by simply having the desired finger print read, such as on the display of a smart phone."
"Examples include one or more different credit cards from one or more credit card companies (e.g., Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, etc.), one or more bank or debit cards, one or more gift cards, one or more loyalty/reward points, one or more bank accounts (e.g., savings, checking, money market, etc.), one or more accounts with a third party payment provider, which may include the current payment provider, such as PayPal, Inc. of San Jose, Calif., etc…"
So if I understand the patent correctly, if you only use your AmEx card when shopping at Whole Foods, and want to purchase one of their new artificial eggs, you can actually create a function for "this little piggy went to market" and PayPal's wallet would seamlessly process funds from your AmEx account.
I assume there would be an opt-in function similar to Amazon's Instant Checkout so that if an "instant checkout" is not selected you would be reminded that a specific finger is associated with a specific account prior to processing the transaction.
Other recent Patent Applications by eBay include this one - "Biometric Authentication of Mobile Financial Transactions by Trusted Service Managers," filed filed March 12, 2012 and this one - "Offline Mobile Phone Payments," which has a "application (that) may be launched to the foreground using fingerprint identification, and other biometric measures;" filed on December 30, 2011.
Although PayPal has filed some patent applications outright, the majority of patent application coming out of PayPal appear to have been assigned to eBay. Even David Marcus, President of PayPal had his 3 patents assigned to eBay.
Interestingly Sebastien Taveau, the inventor of the "Finger Print Funding Source Selection" who assigned his rights over to PayPal/eBay, is no longer employed by PayPal.
While the patent application was just published by the USPTO, it was filed back on March 1, 2012. Approximately nine weeks after it was submitted to the patent office, Validity Sensors Inc. ("the leader in Natural ID authentication, providing the most durable, flexible, highest performing, and cost effective fingerprint sensors and authentication solutions for notebook and Ultrabook® computers, handsets, tablets, and access control solutions.") announced, "Mobile and Security Veteran and Head of PayPal Mobile Ecosystem [Sebastien Taveau] Joins Validity Sensors as CTO to lead the development of Natural ID solutions" (link).
Validity and PayPal are both members of members of the FIDO or Fast Identity Online Alliance, a group formed earlier this year to create standards that will "change the nature of online authentication." Its mission statement it part states that it is "Developing technical specifications that define an open, scalable, interoperable set of mechanisms that reduce the reliance on passwords to authenticate users."
Curiously, Apple is not a member of this standards group. Apple is of course the manufacturer of the phone itself and its native applications which includes the Touch ID fingerprint identity sensor. Apple's technology could easily become the defacto standard.
Some might feel it's redundant after logging into their phone with their finger to use additional authentication applications such as PayPal's. Although PayPal's latest patent application does seem to add value by offering an additional level of convenience.
However, since not all phones have native biometric capability, PayPal needs to roll this technology soon so that they are not eclipsed by phone manufacturers such as Apple. Once mobile users begin relying on PayPal's technology on their legacy mobile phones they will demand it on their next generation phones.
About the Author
Brian Cohen has been an active member of the eBay community since May 1998, and he currently trades under the member name Bidofthis.com. His first AuctionBytes article was published in May 2002. Brian's reporting on Bitcoin in 2013 has been referenced in numerous publications including The Register, Tech Week Europe, TechCrunch and PC World. Brian can be contacted through his website at BidofThis.com where he always has a "little Bid of This and little Bid of That." |
At $80, the Jabra Halo Smart is in a bit of a gray area. It’s hardly what the majority of users would call “cheap,” but it still comes in well below other wireless offerings from companies like Jaybird. They’re not fitness buds, nor are they focused on sound or comfort.
Jabra, much to its credit, went a different route entirely, eschewing the focuses of most Bluetooth earbud makers for one specially tailored to the company’s strong suit: making and taking calls. The headphones are designed with business users in mind — or, perhaps, more accurately, those seeking the business-casual equivalent.
The Halo Smart’s major architectural feature is a collar that sits on the back of the wearer’s neck, not entirely unlike an electric oxen yoke. It’s an attempt to solve a few of the issues currently plaguing Bluetooth buds. After all, going completely wireless means sacrificing both battery life and weight, due to the need to duplicate much of the electronics in each ear. There’s also the issue of what to do with them when not in use.
Jabra’s solution is to just wear the things around your neck all day. After all, with a listed battery life of 17 hours, it’s not like you’re going spend much time sitting around the charging unit waiting for the battery to top off. The company’s even built magnets into the sides of the collar, so the earbuds don’t have to dangle from your sides like electronic pigtails.
There are four buttons on-board. The one on the left mutes calls and loads your smartphone’s on-board voice assistant, while the trio on the right handle power and volume/track advance.
The collar might work for some users. And heck, I guess it’s not so bad for an office environment. The Halo Smart certainly looks a fair deal less goofy than many of the other wireless headsets out there. That said, I felt a little dorky walking down the street with, essentially, a Bluetooth collar around my neck, and I’m not really sure whether snapping the earbuds up with the (somewhat weak) magnets made things better or worse.
As advertised, the call quality is solid. Not the best I’ve experience on a headset by any stretch, but certainly clear, and it did a decent job helping mask some of the wind noise as I walked down the streets of Manhattan yelling “buy!” and “sell!” into my headset like a lunatic (I like to pretend I’m an important business person sometimes). And, even with the different tip sizes available, the Halo Smart doesn’t exactly offer the most comfortable fit.
As for the headphones themselves, it’s pretty clear that the Halo Smart wasn’t designed for music first. There are plenty of much better sounding Bluetooth earbuds on the market — but if you’re eyeing Jabra, odds seem pretty good that listening to music isn’t your first priority. If it’s lower on your list, playback is perfectly serviceable.
It’s not a bad little headset for $80, so long as you don’t mind rocking the collared look — and if music isn’t your first priority. |
Every 10 years or so we see someone step into NASCAR that has “Superstar” written all over him. Is Kyle Larson the next Jimmie Johnson/Jeff Gordon?
The 21 year-old from northern California is looking every bit the part of NASCAR’s next star. In Sunday’s race at Talladega, the young rookie driver brought his #42 Chevrolet to a 9th place finish. He looked anything but a first time driver at Talladega as he out performed NASCAR stars such as Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and the Busch brothers, Kyle and Kurt.
Larson’s Mom is a Japanese-American whose parents spent time in a US Japanese internment camp. Larson attended his first race when he was just a week old. He surely doesn’t remember that but he probably remembers that he began racing at the age of 7 (Go Karts). After originally hoping to race in the Indy Car Series, Larson was signed by the Earnhardt Ganassi Racing Team in 2012.
His career has been on the rise since. He became the first Asian-American driver to win the Rookie of the Year in the Nationwide Series in 2013. He won his first Nationwide race last season taking the trophy home in the Treatmyclot.com 300, beating NASCAR Sprint Cup stars Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch.
After winning the Rookie of the Year Award in the Nationwide Series, Larson was moved up to the Sprint Cup Series where he has replaced Juan Pablo Montoya in the #42 car. He’s carried over that same Nationwide Series success to the Sprint Cup Series.
Comparing Larson through 10 races to the careers of Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson is a reach for sure but there’s no denying the potential we’re all seeing. Let’s look at the rookie seasons of Gordon and Johnson.
Gordon – 30 races – 7 top 5’s, 11 top 10’s. Finished 14th in points.
Johnson – 36 races – 3 wins, 6 top 5’s, 21 top 10’s. Finished 5th in points.
Larson – 10 races – 2 top 5’s, 5 top 10’s. Sits 13th in points.
He has the patience and ability to get the best finish he can just like a Jeff Gordon. He has the calm coolness of an unflappable Jimmie Johnson. Here are two quotes after Sunday’s race that indicate traits we often see in Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon.
A little Jimmie Johnson: After Sunday’s top-ten finish, which gave Larson his 5th top-ten finish this season, Larson was cool as a seasoned veteran saying this after the race. “Yeah it was cool.”
A little Jeff Gordon: “I just wanted to stay out of trouble. We’ve been making up a lot of points throughout the year after Daytona, and to come back to another super speedway, I was really nervous. I’m glad to get a good finish and stay up there in points.”
Larson currently has more top 10 finishes than Tony Stewart, Clint Bowyer, Denny Hamlin, and Brad Keselowski. That’s pretty telling evidence of a rookie driver quickly finding his way around. He’s certainly separated himself from a very strong Sprint Cup Rookie crop and has now managed his way into the Chase discussion.
As that Christmas Carol goes, “Do you see what I see?” The answer is a little bit of Jimmie Johnson and a little bit of Jeff Gordon. Oh the future looks bright for this young man.
On to Kansas for some Saturday night racing.
My picks:
1) Matt Kenseth
2) Jimmie Johnson
3) Kyle Larson
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Aaron Ramsey will give Arsenal a major boost this week by signing a vastly improved five-year contract with the club. The Wales international has agreed a deal worth in excess of £100,000 a week, more than doubling his current salary and making him the second-highest paid player at Arsenal, behind only Mesut Özil.
Ramsey had more than two years remaining on the deal he signed in December 2012 but it is a measure of how highly Arsène Wenger regards the 23-year-old midfielder that the Arsenal manager was keen to extend the player's contract at the earliest opportunity as well as approve a significant wage increase.
It is understood that negotiations have been taking place between Ramsey's agent, David Baldwin, and Arsenal for the last month, and the club are set to announce confirmation of the new contract in the next 48 hours.
In another piece of good news for Arsenal supporters, Ramsey has returned to full training this week, after being sidelined for more than two months with a thigh injury. There is no possibility of Ramsey featuring in the FA Cup quarter-final at home against Everton on Saturday but there is an outside chance that he will be in the squad that travels to Bayern Munich next Tuesday, when Arsenal will need to overturn a 2-0 first leg defeat to reach the last eight of the Champions League.
Ramsey's new contract – which follows the announcement that Per Mertesacker and Tomas Rosicky have signed extended deals – is the fourth he has signed at Arsenal since joining from Cardiff City for £5m six years ago, at the age of 17, and reflects his growing status not only at the club but in world football. His sensational form earlier this season, when he scored a remarkable 15 goals for club and country by the end of November, brought widespread acclaim and led to interest from leading clubs on the continent, including Barcelona and Real Madrid, as well as Manchester City.
Arsenal, however, have no intention of losing a player whose best years are ahead of him and who is regarded as central to the club's future success. Wenger hugely admires Ramsey's attributes and has invested a great deal of time in developing the player he convinced to join Arsenal ahead of Manchester United as a teenager.
Even when Ramsey fractured his fibula and tibia in a challenge with Stoke City's Ryan Shawcross at the Britannia Stadium four years ago, and took an extended period to recover psychologically as well as physically from the trauma of that career-threatening injury, Wenger's faith in the player never wavered. This season has been vindication for the Frenchman.
After finishing the previous campaign strongly, Ramsey's outstanding performances in the centre of midfield helped to propel Arsenal to the top of the Premier League and made him a leading contender for the Professional Footballers' Association's Player of the Year award until his season was disrupted by injury.
Ramsey picked up a thigh strain in the 3-1 victory at West Ham United on Boxing Day and aggravated the problem in training at the end of the following month. He has not played since but now hopes to return in time to play a major part in the run-in. |
To the Parents I Knew Four Years Ago: I'm Sorry
I have come to realize many things since having three children. For example, I now know that I can read "We're Going on a Bear Hunt" seven times in a row without going insane. No matter what people say, throw-up is throw-up and I don't care if it is my daughter who is throwing up but her throw-up makes me want to throw up. I am a really fast diaper changer. And it's true: love does not split, but grows with additional children.
But perhaps one of the biggest realizations I've made as a relatively new parent (my daughter turns 4 in March, my twin boys turn 2 in May) is how incredibly judgmental I was pre-children.
You, the woman at Kohl's who pushed a cart with your screaming toddler draped on the rack underneath it, ignoring her as she scraped her feet on the floor because she couldn't have the toy she wanted: I judged you.
Girlfriend with children who had Nick Jr. on the entire time I visited: I judged you.
Parent at the park who did not pack an organic, free-range, all-food-groups-represented, no-dessert lunch complete with sandwiches cut in cute little shapes, who instead fed your children chicken nuggets, cold French fries and (gasp) chocolate milk? I judged you.
Not out loud, of course. But internally, I was smug. I thought things like I would never have children who would behave in such a manner in public. Or, Doesn't she know the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no TV until the age of 2? Or, How can he possibly be feeding his children that crap? Has he not read any of Michael Pollan's books?
And what's worse, now that I'm a parent, I realize internal smugness isn't so internal. As a parent, I know when I'm being judged. I can sense it, even when nothing is being said out loud. It's in the look. The double-take. The whisper to the companion they're with.
It's hard not to care about what other people think. But still, that quiet judgment can sting, especially on days when my nerves are shot and my children are in the worst moods -- a combination that often leads to a situation judge-worthy by many.
But now, as a parent, I do things judge-worthy even when my children are being good. Last Thursday is a perfect example: My son had a physical therapy appointment a good half-hour drive away. On the way back from the appointment both of my boys fell asleep -- we had eaten lunch out, complete with Oreo cookies and Popsicles for dessert, (judge!) after the appointment and it was close to their naptime. Of course they fell asleep. My daughter, however, who has long given up naps (!), was still awake.
When I pulled into my driveway, I had two choices: Wake up the boys and deal with their short tempers having only slept for 25 minutes, or sit in the van with them while they slept, bribing my daughter with apps on my iPod and promises of candy once inside if she would just sit and be quiet for a half hour longer (!). I chose option B without blinking. And I left the car running (!) the entire time.
When the boys woke up, they were furious because of the cricks in their necks -- thanks to the car seats we bought without good head support to the side simply because they were cheaper (!). My daughter was at her wit's end with being trapped in a car seat in a car that wasn't going anywhere just because I wanted some peace and quiet (!). I took everyone inside, plopped them on the couch, got out some gummy candy and turned on "Little Bear." Two episodes. (!!)
Pre-children: I was going to cloth diaper.
Post-children: I did with my daughter, sort of, but not with my twins.
Pre-children: No TV until age of 2 and then only 30 minutes a day.
Post-children: Ha.
Pre-children: Only organic, healthy, homemade food.
Post-children: My kids love Wendy's.
Pre-children: Public tantrums are unacceptable.
Post-children: Removal of the child is only sometimes doable; predicting when a tantrum is going to strike is often impossible.
Pre-children: Complaints about childrearing and its hardships annoyed me (this was your choice, no?) and saddened me (parenthood is supposed to be a wonderful thing!).
Post-children: Parenthood isn't wonderful 100 percent of the time.
My day-to-day routine isn't what I envisioned it would be four years ago. Some of the things I imagine I'm judged on now are minor, others, a little more major. But mostly they are simple faults and I now know that they don't make me a bad parent. Sometimes I leave dirty diapers on the changing table. My children's socks don't always match. I forget to brush my daughter's hair. I use TV as a way to take a breather. I utilize the fast-food drive-thru. I bribe. I'm sometimes too easy. I'm sometimes too hard. I sometimes make the wrong decision, give the wrong punishment, ask too much, ask too little. But within all these minor and major faults is a singular truth: Most days, I'm doing the best I can. And I honestly believe that's a truth that can be applied to most parents: Most days, we're all doing the best we can.
Because here's another realization I've made as a parent: Everyone's situation is different. There is a story behind every action and inaction. Every parent has his or her own style. Every child has his or her own temperament. What might be a stellar day for my family has been a downright awful day for another -- perhaps the parent's job is in danger, their parent is sick or they just had an argument with their spouse. Perhaps the child is failing math or being bullied at school, or the toddler hasn't slept for two weeks. This can explain the short-temper in the grocery store or the harsher-than-necessary punishment, or the lack of care when it comes to sweets or TV or a late bedtime. We don't know, can't know, someone's entire story.
That said, I believe there are absolutes in parenting so yes, sometimes, I still judge. (And I realize that the irony of this piece is that in writing about not judging others, I'm now judging those who judge.) I know that, for some, it's impossible to provide their children with life's basic necessities: food, clothing and shelter. But I believe we, as parents, must try. I believe we must do what we can to protect our children from harm. I believe we should always love our children, even when, especially when, we don't like their actions, we disagree with their decisions or we're just having a difficult day with them.
But everything else is minor. Everything else doesn't matter. There are children who are abused, who go to bed hungry, who have never known love, and four years ago I was judging the toddler who watched an hour of "Sesame Street"?
I feel bad about my pre-children smugness. I feel bad about the sting I may have, unknowingly, made another feel. I feel bad -- and laugh out loud at the thought -- that I, at one time, before I had children, believed I knew better. Parenting is difficult enough -- there's no reason we should judge one another, not for the things that don't matter, anyway, and not for the things we see a snippet of rather than knowing the full story. |
NORWALK, Conn. — Start in Room 4, just beyond the reception area: A man is having blood drained from a bruised finger. Over in Room 1, a woman is being treated for eye trouble. Next door, in Room 2, a boy is having his throat swabbed.
For more than eight hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, an assortment of ailments is on display at the tidy medical clinic on Main Avenue here. But all of the patients have one thing in common: No one is being treated at a traditional doctor’s office or emergency room.
Instead, they have turned to one of the fastest-growing segments of American health care: urgent care, a common category of walk-in clinics with uncommon interest from Wall Street. Once derided as “Doc in a Box” medicine, urgent care has mushroomed into an estimated $14.5 billion business, as investors try to profit from the shifting landscape in health care.
The office here is part of PhysicianOne Urgent Care. Bankrolled by two private investment companies, PhysicianOne has grown into an eight-clinic operation, the largest of its kind in Connecticut, with plans for even greater expansion. |
A Tennessee school district said this week that it allowed students to fly Confederate flags because it did not cause a “disturbance” — even though some black parents fear for the safety of their children.
A mother in Rutherford County who wished to remain anonymous told WKRN that she was shocked when her 14-year-old son told her that students were permitted to wear clothing with the Confederate flag.
She said that she personally saw students flying the flag from their cars while on the Stewarts Creek High School campus.
“I felt sad and hurt when I saw that,” she explained. “I just don’t think it should be in schools.”
WKRN visited the school and confirmed that one of the flags had “heritage not hate” printed on it.
But the mother said that the “heritage” message did not help her feel secure about her son’s safety.
“I don’t think it is the appropriate place for my child to be subjected to this,” she insisted, adding that she contacted the district and officials refused her request to ban the flag.
Rutherford County Schools spokesperson James Evans told WKRN that the students had a First Amendment right to fly and wear the Confederate flag on campus.
“As a school district, we can’t prohibit such items unless it is causing a disturbance at school,” he argued.
In 2009, a school near Knoxville, Tennessee was sued by a student who claimed his First Amendment right had been violated after he was suspended for wearing a Confederate flag T-shirt and belt buckle.
The student claimed that the flag was part of his heritage, but a federal appeals court ruled in 2010 that banning the flag was a reasonable way to prevent disruptions and violence.
“We hold that the dress code’s provision banning displays of racially divisive symbols, and its application to the Confederate flag, is narrowly tailored to the state and school district’s substantial interest in educating students in the public school system,” 6th Circuit Judge Eric Clay wrote at the time.
Judge John Rogers agreed in his concurring opinion: “A plainly reasonable interpretation of a Confederate flag T-shirt or jacket is one of racial hostility or contempt, regardless of the subjective intent of the wearer.” |
No. And I find it interesting that the same people who accuse me of putting God's word under a "linguistic padlock" are the same people who believe that God's inspired word only exists in "original autographs" that decayed into dust centuries ago. The same people who accuse me of being ethnocentric believe that only people who study Greek and Hebrew can possibly know what God "really said."
The following is from Sam Gipp's The Answer Book.
QUESTION: If there is a perfect Bible in English, doesn't there also have to be a perfect Bible in French, and German, and Japanese, etc.?
ANSWER: No. God has always given His word to one people in one language to do one job--convert the world. The supposition that there must be a perfect translation in every language is erroneous and inconsistent with God's proven practice.
EXPLANATION: This explanation comes in three parts: the Old Testament, the New Testament, the entire Bible.
(1) The Old Testament:
It is an accepted fact that, with the exception of some portions of Ezra and Daniel, the Old Testament was written in Hebrew. It is also accepted that it was divinely given to the Jews.
Thus God initiates His pattern of operation. He gave His words to one people in only one language.
God, apparently unintimidated by modern scholarship, did not feel obligated to supply His words in Egyptian, Chaldean, Syrian, Ethiopian, or any other of the languages in use on the earth at the time the Old Testament was written.
(2) New Testament:
It is also an accepted fact that the New Testament was written in Greek, Koine Greek to be exact. Again, the Lord apparently saw no reason to inspire a perfect original in all of the languages of the world extant at that time.
Only this time, instead of giving His Book to a nation, such as Israel, He simply gave it to the Christians who were told to go out and convert the world (Matthew 28:19). His choice of Greek as the language of the New Testament was obvious in that it was the predominant language of the world at the time.
(3) The Entire Bible:
It is obvious that God now needed to get both His Old Testament and His New Testament welded together in a language that was common to the world. Only English can be considered such a language.
The English language had been developing for many centuries until the late sixteenth century. About that time it finally reached a state of excellence that no language on earth has ever attained. It would seem that God did the rest. He chose this perfect language for the consummation of His perfect Book.
First England and later the United States swept the globe as the most powerful nations on earth, establishing English in all corners of the globe as either a primary or secondary language.
Today nations who do not speak English must still teach English to many of their citizens. Even nations antagonistic to the West such as Russia and Red China must teach English to their business and military personnel.
Thus in choosing English in which to combine His two Testaments, God chose the only language which the world would know. Just as He has shown in His choosing only one language for the Old Testament and only one language for the New Testament, He continued that practice by combining those two testaments in only one language.
But let us not forget the fact that, by choosing the English language, God has given us a mandate to carry out the great commission. He did not give us a perfect Bible to set placidly on the coffee table in our living room to let our guests know that we are "religious." He did not give it to us to press a flower from our first date, or to have a record of our family tree. He gave it to us to read! And to tuck under our arm and share with the lost world the good news of Jesus' payment for sin that is found inside.
Let's get busy! |
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan stands by previous government statements acknowledging and apologizing for its aggression in World War Two, Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said on Friday as tension mounts again with China.
Japan's Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida gives a speech during a seminar in Tokyo January 17, 2014. Kishida spoke about Japan's diplomacy for 2014. REUTERS/Yuya Shino
China’s ties with Japan have long been poisoned by what Beijing considers Tokyo’s failure to atone for its brutal occupation of parts of China before and during World War Two and what it sees as whitewashing of events such as the 1937 Nanjing Massacre in school textbooks.
“The Abe government is firmly upholding views on history held by prior governments,” Kishida told reporters, referring to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, when asked about Japan’s stance on its war-time history.
“We have already explained this. But I believe we need to continue explaining firmly, carefully and repeatedly.”
Deteriorating relations between Beijing and Tokyo have been fuelled by a row over a chain of disputed islands in the East China Sea. Ships from both countries frequently shadow each other around the islets, raising fears of a clash.
Ties have deteriorated further since China’s creation of an air defense identification zone and Abe’s visit to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine honoring war criminals among the war dead.
A 1995 statement by then-Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, issued to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of World War Two, said Japan “caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries, particularly to those of Asian nations”.
In 1993, then-Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono put his name to a statement apologizing for the involvement of Japan’s military in forcing “comfort women”, as they are known in Japan, to work in wartime brothels. Most of the women were Asian, many Korean.
Beijing has stepped up its efforts to convince the outside world, especially the West, that Japan is not sincere at facing up to its wartime past and remains a threat to regional peace.
“Some might ask what is the significance of Abe visiting a shrine with 14 Class A war criminals,” said Xiao Jingquan, former curator of a memorial hall in Pingdingshan in northeastern China where Japanese troops killed hundreds of villagers in 1932.
“This is an affront to the shared interests and wellbeing of the human race. Of course we oppose this,” Xiao told foreign reporters on a government-organized trip to sites of Japanese atrocities in northeastern China.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said on Friday China was “gravely concerned” about reports Japan was seeking to revise history textbooks, a sensitive issue as China says such books do not accurately reflect what happened in the war.
“The issue of Japanese textbooks in substance is about what kind of historical perspective Japan wants to teach its next generation, and whether it will respect historical facts and reflect on its invasion crimes,” Hong said.
“The Nanjing Massacre and the forced use of comfort woman are serious crimes against humanity from Japanese militarism of the World War Two period. The facts cannot be denied and history cannot be revised.”
China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre in which China says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in the then national capital.
A postwar Allied tribunal put the death toll at 142,000, but some conservative Japanese politicians and scholars deny a massacre took place.
Japan’s Education Ministry has revised its modern history textbook approval standards, requiring that they respect the government stance, Kyodo news agency reported on Friday.
Kyodo said the changes were made at the request of Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party, which believes accounts of the Nanjing Massacre and the comfort women are biased. It did not say how. |
Fears Of Violence At Cleveland Convention Stir Memories Of Chicago In 1968
Enlarge this image toggle caption Patrick Semansky/AP Patrick Semansky/AP
As the Republican National Convention arrives in Cleveland this weekend, the traditional mood of enthusiasm is mixed with anxiety — not about the party's presidential ticket, but about the threat of violent disruptions.
A survey of Republican activists in swing states by Politico this month found that nearly half expected there to be some kind of violence around their convention this year.
"It's really more a matter of how bad it will get," said one Iowa Republican.
Surely such talk was on the minds of at least two visitors in Cleveland in the past 48 hours. Joseph Clancy, the head of the Secret Service, and his boss, Jeh Johnson, secretary of homeland security, toured the convention site and surrounding areas and tried to offer assurances.
"We look at all the possibilities that are out there," said Clancy, "whether it's a sniper attack or whether it's a mass attack or large protests, small protests or even medical issues."
On Thursday night, the world witnessed yet another kind of deadly terrorist attack, this time a truck plowing through a crowd on a Mediterranean promenade.
The week before, a demonstration in Dallas occasioned the slaying of five police officers. In the past year, strikes by ISIS or its affiliated groups and individuals have claimed the lives of hundreds of unsuspecting civilians in Europe and the United States.
That's one reason security arrangements around the convention hall and its perimeter have reached record levels. Miles of tall, iron fencing have cordoned off blocks of downtown. Thousands of law enforcement officers and other security personnel are deployed nearly everywhere.
Area hospitals have canceled vacations for key personnel, scheduled extra staff and stockpiled emergency room supplies — preparing for everything from heat exhaustion to trauma wounds. The four largest hospitals have mapped out responsibilities for certain areas and kinds of care, working in cooperation with Johnson and Clancy's agencies and others as well.
Yet the threat of terrorism is only one reason this convention feels like a target. There is the specter of assassination that has loomed over American politics since the martyrdom of the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, in 1865. That is the chief reason the Secret Service is such a presence in Cleveland, as it has been at every national party convention for more than a century.
And there's another cloud that casts a shadow over the proceedings here this coming week. It forms from the many pronouncements from various activists and advocates who see this moment of national attention as an opportunity to air their grievances and make their mark.
Most of these groups and individuals are nonviolent. They are citizens seeking to be heard. Our democratic history has generally encouraged such expression, or at least tolerated it. But there have been exceptions, including some in the not-too-distant past.
There were 1,800 people caught up in mass arrests at the Republican National Convention in New York in 2004 and roughly 800 arrested at the GOP's 2008 gathering in St. Paul, Minn.
But the benchmark for disruptive protest has long been the 1968 Democratic gathering in Chicago. The party was in meltdown after incumbent President Lyndon Johnson announced he would not seek another term. A long primary season had not produced a clear-cut successor.
It was also a time of change, heightened awareness and emotional conflict in the country. American involvement in Vietnam was at its apogee. College students and other young men were resisting, or at least questioning, the draft.
Riots had scorched the inner cities of major metro areas after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. that April, following on equally destructive outbreaks of violence in the previous summer.
All of these factors combined to draw tens of thousands of young protesters to Chicago in the final week of August. They rallied in Grant Park and then spilled into the streets as it became clear that their favored anti-war candidates would not come close to winning the Democratic nomination.
Inside the hall, shouting and shoving matches became fistfights between delegates. Host city Mayor Richard Daley ordered a Chicago congressman to seize the gavel from the convention chairman and bring the proceedings to order. Daley also ordered thousands of police and Illinois National Guardsmen to clear the streets of demonstrators. They did so, but not before beating many with batons and using tear gas on many more. News people and medical personnel who witnessed the melee were also roughed up.
Sometimes called the "Battle of Michigan Avenue," these events were later labeled "a police riot" by an independent commission. But the greatest damage to the city and the Democratic Party came from the television images of the mayhem beamed 'round the world and seared into the memories of a generation of Americans.
So despite all the horrific events in other cities in recent months, it was still the legacy of Chicago 1968 that animated discussions of security here in Cleveland this month.
One Ohio Republican responding to the Politico survey said "far-left agitators in Cleveland will make the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago look like a fourth-grade slap-fight."
Setting such hyperbole aside, there are reasons for concern. In the aftermath of recent shootings by and of police officers, a number of grass-roots organizations have shown interest in demonstrating in Cleveland next week. Some are critical of policing methods in minority communities; others are supportive of police and all they do. There are other groups focused on the policies of the Republican Party, or more particularly on the positions and rhetoric of Donald Trump, the GOP's presumptive nominee.
Have the grievances and resentments of our own time reached such a pitch that major political events such as conventions must expected to be disrupted? Those who remember 1968 tend to think that no issue today affects so many people, or galvanizes as many into political action, as the Vietnam War did then. The draft laws of that time meant the war touched the vast majority of American families in a highly personal way. The war also exacerbated race relations, which were still raw from the deadly and destructive violence that flared across the mid-1960s.
Will Cleveland, the convention and the divisiveness of the Trump nomination be an equally toxic mix?
Some may say so, but others note that while the country today may be dyspeptic it is far from the turmoil of 1968, when political assassination claimed not only King but also Robert F. Kennedy, a sitting senator and leading presidential candidate.
It should be noted that organizers of the group Black Lives Matter, which has been at the forefront of protests against police violence, have not made the Cleveland convention a focus of their efforts. But that has not stopped others from doing so.
An added element of tension arises from the prospect that protesters and counterprotesters may be carrying firearms. Ohio has an open-carry law allowing lawful owners of firearms to show them in public. At least some gun clubs have encouraged their members to respond to any perceived threats to their rights, or to the convention, by showing up at protest sites with their weapons in plain sight.
Police have said that while firearms are banned from the convention site itself, they cannot prevent people from bringing their legal arms to the protest sites.
In Chicago, half a century ago, the protesters frightened many people with their numbers and emotional intensity. The police overreacted, using disproportionate force. But in all of that confrontation, no one was killed.
It is hard to imagine that this would be the case if protests in Cleveland become uncontrollable and firearms are involved.
As the convention is poised to begin, no one knows how much turmoil to expect. No one knows if any kind of violence will ensue. But merely asking such questions may be disturbing enough to keep some people away from downtown Cleveland this week. |
What the heck is an INDC? With less than five months to go before the nations gather in Paris to try and stop the world topping two degrees of warming, this is what everyone is worrying about. An INDC, or Intended Nationally Determined Contribution, are the plans for cutting emissions each country nation agreed to submit to the UN ahead of the November 30th opening of the Paris climate conference. The good news is that 45 countries now have their INDCs submitted, covering 58% of the world's emissions. The bad news -- and the problem -- is that no two INDCs are alike, and nobody seems to have any definite idea what they actually mean. Everyone seems to be making their goals up as they go along.
The confusions are many. Some are pledging cuts against different points in the past. The EU is pledging to cut against 1990 levels, and the US against 2005 levels, dates which both conveniently help exaggerate their cuts. Others are pledging against the future. China, Singapore and Mexico are setting dates by which their emissions will peak, and Ethiopia and Morocco are pledging cuts against a "business-as-usual" model -- in other words, what they would be emitting if they didn't do anything. Several INDCs have two numbers, with one being the cuts achievable with financial or technical support and the other without. Serbia is being accused of fiddling its numbers, and New Zealand will rely on buying carbon credits on the international market, to the displeasure of its threatened Pacific island neighbors.
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The invaluable Climate Action Tracker is analyzing and rating each INDC as they come in, and doing the same for unofficial and previously made pledges. The rankings are based on the UN's stated goal of holding warming to 2 degrees Celsius. It currently ranks most INDCs as "Medium", which means that they're only adequate if other nations commit to do more. "If all nations adopted a medium position, warming would likely exceed 2 degrees Celsius." Only Ethiopia and Morocco are regarded as "Sufficient", and only tiny Bhutan -- which hasn't submitted an INDC -- is a "Role Model", pledging to cut more than necessary. Russia, Canada and South Korea's INDCs are "Inadequate". Based on current pledges, Climate Action Tracker reckons we're headed for 2.5 to 3.8 degrees of warming by 2100.
The confusion is such that the EU is organizing a conference to be held in Rabat, Morocco, in October to try and work out who is saying what and what it all means, and to "highlight the scale of the gap and sort the climate leaders from the laggards." But it seems uncertain who, if anyone will turn up. Diplomats are starting to sound alarmed. Miguel Cañete, the EU's commissioner for climate action, told The Guardian that there is “no plan B – nothing to follow. This is not just ongoing UN discussions. Paris is final.” He urged world leaders to force their ministers to come to terms at Paris. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon told reporters in late June that "the pace of the UNFCCC negotiations is far too slow... It's like snails, moving (at a) snail's pace."
Fortunately, the INDCs are not binding documents. Nations still have until October 1st to get theirs in, after which the UN will analyze those they have received and deliver a verdict on their aggregate effect by November 1st. This will then be the baseline around which the Paris conference will negotiate. Presumably, everything will go much easier if every country has already pledged to do enough, but it is not required that they do so. Time remains for nations to set an example, and for pressure to be brought on governments. But the current state of the INDCs does seem to reveal the lack of a shared global vision on what cutting emissions even means, and makes the conference itself all the more important and precarious.
Does the insufficiency of the pledges made so far foretell doom before the conference has even begun? Or does the very fact that pledges continue to be made show that the nations are serious? Do we need a common basis for measuring emissions cuts, or can every nation cut differently as long as they cut enough? Do you still feel optimistic that the world can make a deal in the end? |
Donald Trump has won the presidency, and rapper Azealia Banks is feeling fine.
Back in January, the Harlem-based femcee announced that she would be supporting Donald Trump for president, saying on Twitter, “I think Trump is the only one who has the balls to bust up big business. Hillary is too tied in with them and Bernie has no clout.”
The 25-year-old received a lot of criticism for her support of Trump, but now she says, she feels “vindicated” and “inspired” by the president-elect.
Banks posted on her Instagram account, “First off, I would like to apologize to Donald Trump for all the stupid jokes I made. Secondly, I would like to apologize for all the other times I was dumb enough to let the liberal media sway my opinion of you. Thirdly I’m f–king proud as F–K of you.”
No stranger to controversy, Banks was banned from Twitter back in May for calling singer and former One Director bandmate Zayn Malik “a faggot.” This time, she took shots at Jay-Z, Beyoncé, and Pharrell Williams for their support of Hillary Clinton.
“I’m really laughing because Jay Z and Beyoncé really were up there shucking and bucking for Hillary and she STILL lost,” Banks wrote on Facebook. “She had Pharrell old jiminy criket looking ass up there with his sambo hat on going hard in the paint. B–ches was not in formation. Hillary even tried to say she had HOT SAUCE IN HER BAG. She even pulled out all of the most typical s–t and still lost.”
She even went after Katy Perry and Lady Gaga too.
“America deserves a WAAAAAAAAY better first female president then trash ass Hillary. Now that cow has lost for the SECOND time, let’s set her back out to pasture… Y’all NEVER listen to me. LOL,” Banks added. “They said Katy and Gaga was backstage crying I would have laughed real hard and loud right in their faces.”
The best part about Banks’ victory lap was her realizing the impossible odds it took for Trump to win.
“TRUMP BEAT THE MEDIA. THIS IS DEEPER THAN POLITICS. HE BEAT THE F–KING MEDIA. HE IS MY F–KING HERO RIGHT NOW. I AM ELATED.”
To say that Banks is relieved Hillary lost would be an understatement.
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When faced with questions during his confirmation hearing, U.S. Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch confirmed that he believes President Donald Trump‘s attacks on judges were “disheartening” and “demoralizing.” If those words sound familiar, they should. The language exactly mirrors what Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said Gorsuch said when the two met back in February.
At the time, Trump blasted Blumenthal for totally “mischaracterizing” Gorsuch’s comments, essentially he accused the Senator of making them up. Even though Gorsuch’s team confirmed the statements, Trump continued to harp on the idea that Gorsuch’s statements were somehow taken out of context. Well, on Tuesday afternoon, Gorsuch confirmed on the record in front of a panel of Senators that he did indeed think attacks on judges’ integrity were “disheartening,” and “demoralizing.”
You might recall back on February 9th, Trump even went on to blast Blumenthal over his military service when he brought up Gorsuch’s comments.
Sen.Richard Blumenthal, who never fought in Vietnam when he said for years he had (major lie),now misrepresents what Judge Gorsuch told him? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 9, 2017
Trump has drawn criticism from both conservatives and liberals for repeatedly criticizing judges. For example, he called the federal judge who struck down his immigration travel ban, a “so-called” judge. He also attacked another federal judge during the campaign over his Mexican heritage.
The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 4, 2017
During Tuesday’s hearing, Blumenthal repeatedly asked Gorsuch about these attacks. While Gorsuch wouldn’t talk specifically about the cases or get into politics, he did comment about attacks on judges in general.
“I care deeply about the independence of the judiciary,” Gorsuch said. He added that judges must take some level of criticism.
“Presidents have tried to pack the court. We have a First Amendment, people can speak their mind,” Gorsuch continued, “When anyone criticizes, the honestly, the integrity, the motives of a federal judge, well, I find that disheartening, I find that demoralizing.”
There is no reading between the lines on this one: Gorsuch was reacting to Trump’s comments. Trump can’t hide behind the “dishonest” media or a Democratic Senator “mischaracterizing” this statement this time. |
Although Holly Holm was choked unconscious by Miesha Tate in the co-main event of UFC 196 last Saturday, the former champion was holding her own against "Cupcake" and showed a champion's heart in defeat.
"The Preacher's Daughter" seized the bantamweight title when she shocked the world and KO'd Ronda Rousey at UFC 193. Holm, who has has won multiple world titles in boxing, was expected to dominate Tate but found herself struggling to deal with Miesha's calculated plan of attack. Tate's grappling proved to be problematic for Holm, as she eventually secured a rear-naked choke in the fifth round to relieve the 34-year-old of her title.
Jon Jones, who has watched Holm grow and evolve over the years at Jackson-Wink MMA, believes the loss to Tate is a road-bump in her career and claims she'll bounce back stronger than ever.
The former light heavyweight champion spoke to FOX Sports in the aftermath of Holm's loss.
"I'm not worried about Holly too much. I know for a fact that her best is yet to come. It really is. She will hold the belt again," Jones said. "Holly's an amazing champion. She's an amazing person, an amazing citizen. She will be back from this so much stronger. Holly, she's a rookie in this sport and with that being said, she's one of the greatest of all time already. So her potential is just sky high. I mean there's no cap on her potential."
"Bones" says that one of his teammate's defining qualities is her obsession to sharpen and hone the weakest areas of her game. The 28-year-old believes this is what sets Holm apart from other fighters on the roster and says she will refine the holes in her grappling, which was ultimately the area that cost her the fight at UFC 196.
"One thing I always say about Holly â she's obsessed with what she's not good at," Jones said. "A lot of people get good at something and they want to do it all day long. Like Conor (McGregor) for example, he's a great boxer and that's what he likes to do I imagine. I don't think he has a wrestling coach or jiu-jitsu coach, I don't know I doubt it.
"Holly is always working on her wrestling and jiu-jitsu. Now she's going to be obsessed with these things. She's going to be obsessed with these positions where she fell short tonight and she's going to come back way stronger."
Holm was expected to beat Tate and rematch Ronda Rousey in a mega-money fight by the end of the year but, with those plans now scrapped, it's likely for "Rowdy" to return against Miesha Tate in a championship rematch. |
Netflix, Epix, and the End of the Exclusive: Why Reed Hastings’s Competitors Will Get Their Hands on Some of His Biggest Movies
Netflix has a lot of TV shows, a lot of old movies and a lot of kids’ stuff on its digital service. New movies? Not so much. Most Hollywood studios keep their recent releases away from Reed Hastings.
One big exception: Netflix does get newish movies from Paramount, Lionsgate and MGM, via Epix, the pay-TV channel Viacom controls. So when you’re cruising the Netflix streaming menu and see titles you recall hitting the theaters in the last couple years, there’s a very good chance they came from Epix.
Right now, for instance, Netflix subscribers can watch “Thor” and the most recent “Transformers” movie, both put out last year via Paramount. Coming up, “Captain America.” Next year, they’ll get “The Hunger Games” and “The Avengers.” All from Epix.
Right now, Netflix is the only online subscription service that offers Epix movies. But that exclusivity goes away at the end of August. Redbox Instant, for instance, will feature Epix movies when it launches later this year. Viacom would love to convince someone like Amazon to carry the movies, too.
So what does that mean for Netflix, which makes a big deal about paying for exclusive content? No big deal, says Hastings. “Epix is not a particularly large source of total viewing,” he told analysts on his earnings call last night. (That call didn’t go too well: Netflix shares are down more than 25 percent today after yesterday’s earnings report.)
But in Hastings’s most recent letter to investors, he’s more enthusiastic about Epix. “Our current feature film offering is better than ever,” he told shareholders, citing “Thor” and “Transformers,” along with non-Epix movies. And my Netflix home screen designates the new “Transformers” as “most popular,” so I guess someone’s watching it.
We’ve seen Hastings try to straddle the fence like this in the past, when Netflix lost its access to the Starz pay channel, and with it, the ability to show movies from Sony and Disney. Netflix said it was willing to pay big money to keep Starz. But when it didn’t get the deal, it told investors that few people watched the movies anyway.
My gut: It really does work both ways for Netflix. Hastings’s users may not spend a ton of time with “Thor” and his super-friends. But I bet their presence on the Netflix menu helps reassure users — See? We really do have big Hollywood movies! — and that’s probably worth quite a bit to them.
If so, Netflix users will be reassured for a while, whether Hastings likes it or not. Netflix has a five-year deal with Viacom that runs through the middle of 2015.
That agreement has to be extended every year, but it’s not a negotiation: People familiar with the deal tell me it has a “put” mechanism, which means it’s up to Viacom to decide whether Netflix gets Epix, at a prearranged price. My hunch is that they will keep cashing Hastings’s checks. |
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, as we continue on the crisis in Honduras, where tens of thousands of protesters poured into the streets Sunday to denounce alleged election fraud and to support opposition presidential candidate Salvador Nasralla, last week the electoral commission pausing the counting of the votes when the incumbent president, Juan Orlando Hernández, was trailing opposition candidate Salvador Nasralla, who is now calling on the military to stop the crackdown on protesters.
We’re joined by Honduran human rights activist Zenaida Velasquez. She’s one of the founders of the Committee of Relatives of the Disappeared in Honduras. Her sister, Ilse Velasquez, was a teacher who was killed during a demonstration in March 2011. Her brother, Manfredo Velasquez, was abducted and disappeared by Honduran security forces decades ago, in 1981.
Joining us from Honduras is Matt Ginsberg-Jaeckle, one of the founding members of the Honduras Solidarity Network, a member of the group La Voz de los de Abajo and a longtime friend of murdered environmental organizer Berta Cáceres.
We welcome you both to Democracy Now! I’m going to begin with Zenaida Velasquez. What do you understand is happening right now? And what are you calling for, Zenaida?
ZENAIDA VELASQUEZ: Good morning, Amy.
What is happening is the risk of a general strike in the entire country, because they are opposing all this curfew that certainly is mostly a coup d’état. And so, the possibility of having a general strike, because the people say, “If they are imposing this curfew to us from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., so there’s us act from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and do a general strike, that we have to stop this rigged electoral vote, this blatantly rigged electoral result.”
It’s incredible how they have hacked the system three times. And then, all of a sudden, when they reactivate the system, Juan Orlando is ahead of Salvador Nasralla. This is completely outrageous. It’s blatant, really, that they are talking about this, when, on Sunday—actually, Monday, early morning, about 2 a.m., finally, the first results were given, and Salvador Nasralla was winning for five points, after counting 67 percent of the acts, and then the rest, 33 percent, was going to be done the rest of the days. And it was—it’s a week already. It’s more than a week already, and they are still playing with those results. And that’s why the people is completely frustrated and angry.
And the most amazing thing is that it is mostly youth. Yesterday, we had between 500,000—500,000 to 600,000 people on the streets only in Tegucigalpa. And it’s mostly youth. It’s about 80 perceent of the youth that are doing this, accompanied, of course, by the rest of the people. But as I was saying, San Pedro Sula, Santa Bárbara, Copán, Choluteca—everywhere—they were demonstrating, and they say, “Who is afraid of anything here?”
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to bring Matt Ginsberg-Jaeckle into the conversation. Matt, can you tell us just where you are in Honduras and what you see happening on the ground?
MATT GINSBERG-JAECKLE: I am in Tegucigalpa. I’ve been here for several days. I’ve been in the country for about 10 days. And it’s really eerie and surreal. It’s hard to know what word to pick to describe what’s been happening in these days.
I spent a good portion of the last few days doing human rights monitoring, both in the protests and at the Hospital Escuela, the main public hospital in Tegucigalpa, which is really ground zero to see how this military siege is playing out. Ambulance after ambulance, truck after truck, taxi after taxi come pouring through the gates, bringing wounded protester after wounded protester. And these are protesters being wounded by live ammunition, Amy. It’s unreal. There’s not enough room for them in the emergency room. They’re leaving some people that are shot just in the leg, waiting for up to an hour because they have so many other cases to attend to.
And it’s a state of complete impunity. I was at the Hospital Escuela when the curfew was called. They gave one-hour notice. And we were in the middle of documenting severe violations of human rights, when we had to all be rushed out to get home safely ourselves.
But I also want to emphasize there’s another side of what’s going on here. One moment is the moment that we’re there and watching these grave violations of human rights. The other moments are the moments that we’re seeing this brave people that are refusing to give up and are refusing to accept this fraud. The night after, what’s—it’s actually been called, that first night of the toque de queda, or curfew, has been called the Black Night, because of the amount of death, because of the amount of blood that was shed. That next day, there was what’s called the cacerolazo, the banging of pots and pans. And when you step outside the doors in Tegucigalpa, it sounded like there wasn’t a single household in the whole city that wasn’t banging on pots and pans. It was a symphony of pots and pans, of joy, of yelling, of open defiance. In many neighborhoods, people were flooding out of their homes in open defiance of extreme levels of militarization, and making very clear that the will of the Honduran people is not broken. And the next day after that, there was over 100,000 in the streets, as you’ve already reported.
AMY GOODMAN: Matt, can you describe a case that you intervened in? You saw the military chasing a group, beating a man. Describe what happened and where it was.
MATT GINSBERG-JAECKLE: Yeah. So we were along the Boulevard Centroamerica. It was on Thursday. And the military was chasing after a group of protesters that had been maintaining a blockade. The military had, through extreme, excessive use of tear gas, been able to dislodge the blockade and was chasing after a number of people. It was a group of approximately 10 young women, plus a couple, a middle-aged couple. And they turned around the corner and started running as fast as they could. And right after them came military, that were yelling with foul language, yelling, “We’re going to get you, you”—I won’t use the actual language they used—and running at full speed.
So I decided—me and a colleague of mine decided to run as fast as we could after the military. Unfortunately, we were a few steps behind them. By the time we got to them, the man was already bloodied in the face, but we were able to insert ourselves between the military and the man and his wife, who were the ones that the military had caught up with, and told the military that we were from international human rights and to please stop and let us know if there was accusations, and that if there wasn’t, that they needed to leave these people alone. And the military responded to that by swinging their bat towards me in an intimidating manner, but finally deciding to run back down the hill.
AMY GOODMAN: And the woman who was killed, the teenager, 19 years old, Kimberly Fonseca, on Friday night, can you tell us her story?
MATT GINSBERG-JAECKLE: Yes. She was—unfortunately, that wasn’t one of the cases I personally documented. I know that she was one of the people that was out banging pots and pans and out in the neighborhood when the curfew had been called, showing defiance, and that she—the military opened fire and shot her, I believe in the head. And she was pronounced dead on the site. I went to the morgue to try to verify the details of the case, but there’s two morgues here, and the one that I was at, in Hospital Escuela, is the one they—where people go to after they’ve died in the hospital, not the one they’ve been brought in dead to. But she’s one of, I’m hearing, six cases now. I know that there—I’ve been able to confirm at least four of those cases of people around the country who have been killed by live ammunition by the military.
AMY GOODMAN: Zenaida Velasquez, The Intercept is reporting the president of Honduras is deploying U.S.-trained forces against election protesters. And, of course, the amount of money the U.S. has poured into the Honduran military and other security over the last years, since the coup d’état in 2009, is well over $100 million, could be $200 million. What are you calling for now?
ZENAIDA VELASQUEZ: We are calling to stop—to stop this military aid. Juan Orlando is preparing. He has also—apart from the army, he has an imperial police that obeys to him. And he has prepared these police to kill. I know that the order is to kill, to shoot the people directly, to kill them. And the other rumor that is going on, Amy, is that today he’s back—he will be back in Honduras, after being in the United States searching for help, more help, and support, and that they are going to decide that he’s the winner. And if all these protests, if all these demonstrations, if all this outcry from not only Honduras but international outcry is not heard and he is declared the winner, I think we will see rivers of blood, because those people are going to kill. They have been given the order to shoot directly to the people. And so—
AMY GOODMAN: And, Matt, the demands of the people on the ground? We only have 20 seconds.
MATT GINSBERG-JAECKLE: The demands of the people on the ground, first of all, there were 5,000 tally sheets of votes that were introduced directly from the electoral tribunal’s headquarters in Tegucigalpa right after the system went down for eight hours. And it was at that point that they tended to reverse. They want every single one of those scrutinized. They want the illegal and scrupulous—unscrupulous regime, scurrilous regime, of Juan Orlando Hernández to come to an end. It’s a dictatorship. He was an illegal candidate from the beginning. The people want the restoration of democracy and an end to the human rights abuses and state of siege.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to have to leave it there for now, but of course we’ll continue to cover this developing story, Matt Ginsberg-Jaeckle of Honduras Solidarity Network and Zenaida Velasquez, Honduran human rights activist. |
By Printus LeBlanc
On Tuesday, September 6, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the Trump Administration would be phasing out the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The program allowed illegal immigrant “children” to stay in the U.S. without fear of deportation. The administration is ending the program because several states have threatened to sue the federal government over the constitutionality of the program.
A similar program known as Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) was already ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge and upheld by the Supreme Court. Most legal experts believed it was a given that DACA would be ruled the same way because the judge that ruled on DAPA would be the judge to rule on DACA.
It appears the Trump administration may have worked out a deal with the Attorneys General who were threatening to sue. Right after the announcement, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced that it was dropping its lawsuit against DACA. However, the states could easily bring the suit anytime they feel like it and therefore bringing an abrupt end to the program.
Instead, President Donald Trump used political capital to stop the suits and give Congress a chance to address the issue. On Twitter he stated, “Congress now has 6 months to legalize DACA (something the Obama Administration was unable to do). If they can’t, I will revisit this issue!” Doesn’t sound like the heartless monster the media is making him out to be, does it?
Of course, the President must be careful when negotiating with Congress over DACA. Many Republicans and all Democrats have been pushing amnesty for some time now. For some reason, establishment Republicans believe in the accuracy of the 2012 autopsy report on the embarrassing election loss. The report argues Republicans must grant amnesty to win over the Hispanic vote.
They believe the report, despite the fact that in 2016 President Trump spit on the autopsy and did everything the report said not to do and still tore down the Blue Wall to win the election the Republican establishment couldn’t even make a dent in.
Make no mistake about it, the amnesty debate is not about compassion. The debate is not about families or the economy. If it was about families, why would the Obama administration institute a policy that encourages parents to hand their children over to human traffickers? Human traffickers are not known for their compassion. No, the debate was always about increasing the number of Democrat voters.
This was easily proven in the debate over the 2013 Gang of Eight Amnesty bill. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) attempted to introduce an amendment to the bill that would strip the citizenship language from the legislation. The illegal immigrants would still be granted legal status and allowed to work, but not citizenship, meaning they would not be able to vote. This was a non-starter for the Democrats and the combined force of Republican leadership and Democrats stopped the amendment from moving forward.
President Trump must understand one thing. First, the President must remember the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), also known as the Simpson–Mazzoli Act. The act granted amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants with a path to citizenship. The legislation was also supposed to secure the border and stem the further flow illegal immigration but failed in every regard. Sound familiar?
The swamp will try and sell the President on the same notion. Codify DACA into law now and the border wall and security will come later. The President must not allow this. The 1986 amnesty doomed California to the semi-communist state it is now.
The goal of the opposition is to do the same thing to Texas, Arizona, and Florida that they did to California, therefore, putting the Republican Party in the permanent minority. There is no path to a majority in the House, Senate, or the winning the Presidency if that happens. Just as a matter of survival of the two-party system depends on there being no path to citizenship.
Because the President has some leverage in this situation, he should demand a few things first. All of these actions must happen prior to DACA being codified into law. Not only must the actions be passed by Congress, they must also be funded long term to ensure there is no bait and switch. Trump must ensure three things happen to ensure his base is happy:
President Trump should DEMAND the passage of Reforming American Immigration for Strong Employment Act or the RAISE Act. The border wall must be funded. If citizenship is to be granted, the illegal immigrant must leave the country and go back to their home country and start the process the legal way, if they meet the new standards under the RAISE Act. If the illegal immigrant does not wish to do that, they may obtain legal status, but there can be no path to citizenship.
Vice President for Policy at Americans for Limited Government Robert Romano stated, “The first and only matters Congress should be dealing with at this stage are the Cotton-Perdue legislation ending chain migration and re-introducing a skills-based legal immigration system, building and finishing the southern border wall, shutting down sanctuary cities and providing additional resources for immigration enforcement on the border and in workplaces. The question of what to do with the tens of millions already here illegally cannot be considered at all when there have been zero attempts by Congress to provide adequate resources for immigration enforcement including the border wall. The first and only priority to fixing our broken system must be securing the border and ports of entry and putting America first and American workers first.”
Romano added, “There can be no path to citizenship for those who came here illegally and remain here. Any attempt in Congress to address this issue will most likely fail as has every other attempt at so-called comprehensive immigration reform.”
The President has leverage and he should use it — to get the RAISE Act passed and the border secured. The Democrats and a few Republicans are going to try and pass amnesty. The President has a stronger base than the Republicans on Capitol Hill and he should remind them of that. Trump should stay strong, call on his supporters to let Congress know what they should do, and get his agenda done.
Printus LeBlanc is a contributing editor at Americans for Limited Government. |
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has appointed eight people to a medical marijuana advisory board created under a new state law.
The Republican governor announced appointments to the medical cannabidiol board Wednesday, though one slot remains vacant. The positions are unpaid and not subject to Senate confirmation.
The board was one of several provisions in a medical marijuana law that went into effect this summer. It expanded Iowa's existing cannabis oil program by allowing the sale and manufacturing of such oil within the state.
Iowa's new law also allows use of cannabis oil for several ailments. The board can recommend adding or removing medical conditions and is expected to work with state officials on creating the new manufacturing system.
Iowa still bans smoking marijuana, vaporizing it or eating pot-laced food. |
McGarry has yet to make much money for his cooking, but that could change soon. Once he turns 16, he can take his California High School Equivalency Exam and, with his parents’ consent, work full time at a restaurant like Alma. And while McGarry may be singularly focused on his cooking — “he doesn’t want to be the kid chef,” Meg says — he also seems to recognize the value of his unusual story in achieving his ultimate goal. He is hoping to expedite his professional development by traveling across the globe to work in some of the world’s top kitchens. And he is hoping to make this possible by starring in a reality show in which he is paid to travel across the globe to work in some of the world’s top kitchens. “I get to learn from these chefs and experience all of these different places, but I don’t have to pay a lot of money for it,” McGarry said. David Bernad, who is developing the show, said: “Flynn is very confident kid, but he also knows that he doesn’t know everything and has a lot to learn. So the idea of the show is that it’s his journey to being the youngest Michelin starred chef in the world.”
McGarry’s real precociousness, in fact, may be his ability to confront his own ambition. Twice during our conversations, he spoke about how he tries to avoid reflecting too much on all the things that are happening, to not pay attention to the media or let it freak him out. At the same time, he’s a willing participant in it; he told me he was convinced that self-promotion — whether it’s a show or a magazine article — was an integral part of being a creative person nowadays. “You can’t really do anything without selling out, to an extent,” he says. “And I don’t consider this selling out, because I want to do it. I was like: ‘I want to do a travel show. I want to meet these chefs. I want to talk to them, and I wouldn’t be able to do it otherwise.’ I could get into these kitchens, maybe, and work there, but I’d have to find a place to live, and all the plane tickets and stuff. And also, I’m 15, so my mom has to come with me, too.”
McGarry’s eventual plan is to move to New York at 17, work at Eleven Madison Park or somewhere like it for a year, maybe a year and a half, and then start work on his restaurant by 19. The remainder of his teenage years seems to him a respectable stretch of time in which to learn and develop. Then again, “now that I think about it,” he says, “time moves very quickly for me, so it’s not that far away. I don’t think I can wait too long, because the real estate [in New York] keeps going up and up and up. You can’t wait forever to do it, because if you wait forever, your opportunity might just be gone.”
He paused for a moment. “I know people are always like, ‘You shouldn’t mark what you want by someone else’s [standards]’ — like three Michelin stars or four New York Times stars — but it’s kind of like a goal to look up to. This is what I want. I want to have one of the best restaurants in the world, or whatever, which is kind of a very high goal to have, but I like pressure. So to say I want the best restaurant in the world would put enough pressure on me to try as hard as possible to have the best restaurant in the world.” |
Fishermen and the environment of Niger Delta continue to suffer the consequences of a massive Shell oil spill in the Niger Delta - one of the worst in years. The oil giant says 1,200 barrels had been recovered as of Tuesday.
Traveling to the affected areas of the Niger Delta in Nigeria, Reuters witnessed the devastation in the delta which covers 20,000 km² within wetlands of 70,000 km².
Crude is everywhere, enough in some cases to fill Jerry can with the black gold.
"We saw dead fish, dead crabs ... This spill occurred 7-8 nautical miles from the shore ... so the volume runs into thousands of barrels," Alagoa Morris, head of the Niger Delta Resource Center for Environmental Rights Action, told Reuters.
Morris was referring to the Shell oil spill at the site on the Okolo Launch on Bonny Island in late November where an estimated 3,800 barrels of oil have leaked into the data, according to an investigation by Shell and government officials.
According to the oil giant, the spill was caused by a failed crude theft.
While Shell shut down its 28 inch pipeline carrying Bonny Light crude on November 22, the company has discovered that the origin of the leak happened on a smaller 24 inch pipe, which was shut last year.
Shell continues the recovery effort of the spilled oil and so far managed to clean up 1,200 barrels, a spokesman told Reuters.
Home to 20 million people and 40 different ethnic groups, the Niger Delta is the largest wetland in Africa and contains one of the highest concentrations of biodiversity on the planet. The unique ecosystem also has more species of freshwater fish than any ecosystem in West Africa. This fragile environment now suffers.
"We can't go fishing anymore. It has destroyed our fishing equipment," Boma Macaulay, a fisherman from Bonny told Reuters, adding that it was the worst spill in at least five years.
Shell claims that it is committed to environmental recovery efforts, but says that significant environmental damage in the Niger Delta is the result of sabotage of facilities that result in oil spills. In the last five years some 70 percent of all oil spills have been the result of sabotage, Shell claims.
READ MORE:Shell ignored ‘risk & hazard’ of Nigeria pipes, downplayed size of 2008 spills – court documents
But Shell's reputation is tainted in the region from oil spills over previous years. In November, a week before the most recent oil leak, Amnesty International revealed that Shell has repeatedly made false claims about the size and impact of two major oil spills at Bodo in Nigeria that happened back in 2008. The aim of the company was to minimize its compensation payments for the damage caused to 15,000 people whose livelihoods were devastated by oil pollution, the NGO claimed. In a high-profile compensation case in England’s High Court, the Shell did confirm that the two spills had been far greater than the previously believed. Yet Shell did not give a revised figure, which now stands at 4,144 barrels. |
Uber
After coming under fire for questionable privacy practices, Uber announced Thursday it's updated its privacy policies to make them simpler and "easier to understand."
Uber, which pairs drivers with passengers via a smartphone app, was blasted in the press last fall for boasting it could track a reporter without her knowledge using a feature called "God View." With the resulting backlash, the company announced it had hired a third-party data-privacy expert to review its policies and provide recommendations. And now we're seeing the results of that intervention.
The new privacy policies "explain more clearly and concisely what data Uber asks for, and how that data is used to provide or improve our services," Uber's managing counsel of data privacy, Katherine Tassi, wrote in a blog post Thursday. "Users will be in control: they will be able to choose whether to share the data with Uber."
Since Uber was founded in 2009, it's gone from operating just in San Francisco to being in hundreds of cities in 57 countries. With that fast growth, Uber has become the target of criticism for things like drivers allegedly assaulting passengers, the company reportedly partaking in unfair competition with rivals, and the whole God View debacle. Uber is now trying to show it's a company passengers can trust.
Uber hired well-known data privacy expert Harriet Pearson and her law firm Hogan Lovells in November. One of the firm's recommendations for Uber was to simplify its policies. So the ride-hailing company has now cut its privacy statements in half, Tassi said. Uber spells out when it needs users' location data, such as when it's connecting drivers with passengers, and when it uses riders' contact details, like when users want to split their fare with another passenger.
Tassi also mentioned that when users agree to the company's privacy policies, they consent to Uber accessing their location data even when they're not actively using the app for a ride. Also, the ride-hailing company says it may tap into users' contact lists for "promotional" offers.
"These changes would allow Uber to ask for access to a rider's location when the app is running in the background and get people on their way more quickly," Tassi wrote. "In addition, these changes would allow Uber to launch new promotional features that use contacts -- for example the ability to send special offers to riders' friends or family."
Uber's new privacy statements go into effect July 15. Users don't need to do anything to agree to the new terms. Uber says continuing to use the app "on or after" that date will show the company that they've "acknowledged and consented" to the new policies. |
A federal program allowing schools in high-poverty areas to serve all meals for free will soon be available in Wisconsin.
The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act is probably best known for requiring nutritious meals at school, but the 2010 federal legislation also contains a Community Eligibility Provision that makes it easier for some schools to get free breakfast and lunch by reducing paperwork.
Eligible, high-poverty districts would not have to fill out applications for free meals, says the Department of Public Instruction's Karrie Isaacson. Instead, income data is cross-referenced from other state anti-poverty programs.
“And if they are identified on that list, they already participate in FoodShare, W2 cash benefits, which tells us they already qualify for free meals,” said Isaacson.
The reduction in paperwork is designed to increase participation in the school breakfast and lunch program.
To be eligible, districts and individual schools must have at least 40 percent of their students in poverty. Isaacson, who is part of DPI's school nutrition team, says 113 school districts of 426 are eligible for the program in Wisconsin.
“There are 659 individual schools sites that are eligible to participate,” she said. “At this point we have received approximately 10 applications from schools so far. But they have until June 30 to apply, so we anticipate that number to grow.”
The Community Eligibility Provision was first tried in 10 other states before going nationwide. |
EXCLUSIVE: Tony award winning actress Cynthia Erivo has been tapped as the title character in Macro/New Balloon’s film Harriet, the biopic on famous abolitionist and warrior Harriet Tubman. Seith Mann attached to direct from a script by Gregory Allen Howard.
Tubman is an American hero who escaped the shackles of slavery and subsequently helped free others from servitude through a channel of safe houses and secret routes known as the Underground Railroad. She also served a spy for the Union during the Civil War and fought for women’s right to vote.
The pic is being co-financed by Macro, New Balloon, and Stay Gold Features. Debra Martin Chase is producing along with Howard, Founder/CEO of Macro Charles D. King, Daniela Taplin Lundberg, and Kim Roth. Exec producers are New Balloon’s Elizabeth Koch, Kristina Kendall, Nnamdi Asomugha and Bill Benenson as well as Poppy Hanks.
Erivo starred in the Broadway production of The Color Purple, which earned her a Tony for leading actress. She is also up for the Best Musical Theater Album Grammy this weekend and is set to perform the Memoriam tribute with John Legend. On the film side, Erivo is currently working on the Steven McQueen-directed thriller Widows, opposite Viola Davis and Moonlight‘s André Holland. She is repped by UTA, Authentic Talent and Literary Management, Claire Hoath, Friends At Work, and Peikoff/Mahan |
After a brief pitstop in Canada to take part in his first campaign debate, Conservative leadership candidate Kevin O’Leary is heading back to the United States.
According to an event listed online, O’Leary is scheduled to appear alongside other members of TVs Shark Tank cast on Wednesday at BUILD Studio on Broadway in New York.
“Join Mark Cuban, Barbara Corcoran, Kevin O’Leary and Daymond John of ‘Shark Tank’ as they visit the BUILD studio. On the show, each ‘shark’ invests their own money into the best new business and products that America has to offer. What is the best item they have invested in? Tune in to find out,” states the event.
The event listing says that BUILD is a live interview series where fans “sit inches away from some of today’s biggest names in entertainment, tech, fashion and business” as the guests share stories behind their projects and passions. The event will be live-streamed at AOL.com/BUILD.
O’Leary was in Halifax Saturday night for an unofficial leadership debate held by the Nova Scotia Progressive Conservative Party.
CBC News published an analysis on Saturday which suggests O’Leary spent the majority of the first week of his first political campaign in the U.S.
“You know I’m actually a household name in the United States,” O’Leary told CBC News about his schedule that week, “and because of what’s happening in trade and immigration I’ve become a spokesperson for Canada on American networks.”
CBC News’ analysis of O’Leary’s schedule shows that he launched his campaign in Toronto on Wednesday Jan. 18, and by Thursday morning he was in New York City. In New York he appeared on Good Morning America. O’Leary then attended a three day conference in Florida.
Ari Laskin, press secretary for the O’Leary campaign, told iPolitics that O’Leary will be campaigning in Toronto before heading to New York, and then campaigning in Vancouver later in the week.
“As with every other candidate in this race, Mr. O’Leary has a day job. While the other candidates go to the House of Commons to represent their local constituents in Parliament, Mr. O’Leary is a successful international businessman,” he wrote.
“On Tuesday evening Kevin will be traveling to New York, after a full day of campaign activities in Toronto. On Wednesday he will be doing a series of events with the Sharks, celebrating the $100 million investment milestone of Shark Tank. This will include taping of an appearance on the Rachel Ray Show and a special with 20/20…On Thursday, he will be flying to Vancouver for a series of campaign activities on Thursday and Friday.” |
If you want to see Israelis and Palestinians attempt to make peace, you should head for the National Theatre in London – because you certainly won’t see them doing it anywhere else, least of all in the land they both call home. On stage, it’s all there. The sweat, the tears, the angst are laid bare in Oslo, the Tony-award winning play whose London transfer is just beginning. It tells the improbable story of the secret back-channel opened up by two Norwegian diplomats in the early 1990s, which ultimately led to the White House lawn, where Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin shook hands, watched by a smiling Bill Clinton, 24 years ago.
Trump's ambassador to Israel refers to 'alleged occupation' of Palestinian territories Read more
I saw the play just before I headed to the region, where I’ve spent the last week criss-crossing between Jerusalem and Ramallah, Tel Aviv and Jericho. In light of the conversations I’ve had with officials, current and former, on both sides, I’m afraid Oslo looks more and more like a period piece – a nostalgic reminder of a time when peace between these two peoples appeared to be just within reach.
No one thinks that now. “The peace process as we knew it has ended,” the former Israeli foreign minister Shlomo Ben-Ami told me ruefully. “At the moment, the peace process is dead,” echoed the former Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qurei, now immortalised as one of the secret peacemakers in Oslo (and still chain-smoking as intensely as his onstage avatar). Those whose days were once consumed with position papers and maps, security plans and phased implementation periods now sit idle in offices hushed with inactivity.
Israeli politics is focused elsewhere, whether it’s the corruption allegations that threaten to topple Benjamin Netanyahu or a national debate that’s shifting ever rightward: Netanyahu recently promised that Israel will never dismantle or evacuate another Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank. “We are here to stay forever,” he said.
Meanwhile, many Palestinians, especially younger ones, have walked away from politics as it was conventionally understood. In a powerful, if gloomy, essay in the New Yorker, headlined “The decline of the Palestinian national movement”, Hussein Agha and Ahmad Khalidi, both sometime negotiators, write that “the entire notion of peace negotiations has been discredited and consigned to outright condemnation, deep disbelief and profound apathy among Palestinians.” Others have noticed a change in the next generation of the West Bank elite, who are retreating into the internet or dance or rock-climbing – anything to escape the futility of perennial conflict. The peacemakers now comprise a legion of old men, looking back on their mistakes.
The result is that even some of those most dedicated to the two-state solution – the defining goal of peacemaking efforts over three decades – are looking elsewhere. I watched the veteran Israeli novelist AB Yehoshua tell a Jerusalem audience that he has wanted to see two states, Israeli and Palestinian, side by side for 50 years, but he has to accept that it’s just not happening. “It’s time to think of something else.”
How has this come about? How have the dreams that animated those players on stage in Oslo turned to dust? One explanation is difficult for campaigners against Israel’s 50-year-long occupation to stomach. They – we – always warned that the occupation was “unsustainable”, and yet Israel is proving that it is very sustainable indeed. The economy is thriving, while a lull in violence means that – for now – most Israelis feel secure day to day.
Internationally, things have rarely been more comfortable. Sure, Netanyahu faced loud street protests during his tour of South America this week, but India and China – once allies of the Palestinian cause – are doing plentiful trade with Israel. Even the supposedly leftist Alexis Tsipras of Greece has embraced Netanyahu, hosting and visiting him and sealing a major natural gas deal between the two countries. If one reason for Israel to end the occupation and make peace with the Palestinians was to improve its international standing, that motive has lost its urgency.
The leading Sunni Arab states now regard Iran as a greater enemy than Israel
Those who might once have exerted pressure – pushing Israel, as the stronger party, to the negotiating table – have got other things on their mind. Diplomats report that these days when Israeli ministers meet their foreign counterparts, the Palestinian issue scarcely gets mentioned: it used to be the first item on the agenda. Though they don’t say so out loud, the leading Sunni Arab states now regard Iran as a greater enemy than Israel; their focus is pushing back Tehran and securing their own regimes rather than helping the Palestinians. The European Union has enough on its plate, while the US foreign policy establishment has its hands full ensuring Donald Trump does not set off a nuclear war with North Korea. The peace process needs the international community, says Ben-Ami: “Yet there is no such thing. The international community is in disarray.”
More deeply, there is the gap between the two sides. When the last serious talks ended, it was because the maximum Israel was prepared to offer fell short of the minimum the Palestinians were prepared to accept. That stalemate endures. If anything, the gap is wider now, as Israeli positions in particular have hardened.
Does that mean these two nations are doomed to stay stuck in the status quo, one that sentences the Palestinians to apparently eternal occupation? Tony Blair, still active in the region, reckons the best prospect is a regional one, as those Sunni states already enjoying close, if furtive, military ties with Israel formalise the new dispensation with a peace accord. Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states would join Jordan and Egypt, and pressure the Palestinians to sign on too. That, at least, is the theory. Netanyahu talks of this “outside-in” approach too, but there’s precious little evidence of it in practice.
Or there could be a change of paradigm, a shift away from the two-state ideal to a civil rights struggle inside the single-state reality that exists on the ground – with, perhaps, a lead role for those Palestinians who don’t live in the West Bank but are citizens of Israel, living inside the state’s pre-1967 borders.
Still others reckon that some game-changing event may come along and shake everything up once more, taking advantage of the presence of the octogenarian Mahmoud Abbas as perhaps the last Palestinian leader with enough national legitimacy to sign a deal before it’s too late. After all, they say, the peace process has been pronounced dead before – yet has shown an uncanny knack for resurrection.
That would be quite a twist. But as audiences at the National Theatre are about to discover anew, this longest-running of dramas is one story that refuses to have a happy ending. It remains a tragedy without end.
• Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist |
Supergirl is ready to fly… for the Eye.
RELATED Fall TV Spoilerpalooza: Exclusive Scoop on 42 Returning Favorites, Including Arrow
CBS has given a series commitment to an hour-long drama about Kara Zor-El, the DC Comics heroine who escaped the planet Krypton amid its destruction. Having hid all this time on Earth the powers she shares with “her famous cousin” (as the official logline cheekily puts it), 24-year-old Kara decides to embrace her superhuman abilities and “be the hero she was meant to be.”
The pilot (which was first announced two weeks ago) was penned by Ali Adler (No Ordinary Family) and Greg Berlanti (Arrow), both of whom will exec-produce alongside Sarah Schechter (of Berlanti Productions) and Warner Bros. TV.
Though there was some talk that the series might not actually be titled Supergirl, TVLine has confirmed that is the name. (So much for my suggestion The Blher.)
Laura Vandervoort of course recurred as Kara on Smallville, but now is the star of Canada’s Bitten. In her stead, who would you cast as 24-year-old Supergirl? |
Three days after the defence ministry said a suspicious Pakistani boat was intercepted off the Gujarat coast before it blew itself up, unanswered questions are straining the credulity of the official version of events.
ICG Rajratan, the coastguard ship that was involved in the operation, is now back in Porbandar, Gujarat, and the defence ministry is reportedly planning a full review of the intelligence intercepts and the sequence of events that followed. That would be a useful exercise because it is not healthy to allow the fog of mystery to shroud over efforts to combat terror. The video footage from the ship and part of the debris it has carried back will hopefully throw more light into the episode.
But at this point, there are two theories about what really happened. One if the official version, which says it was a suspicious boat that blew itself up. The other is the sceptics' version, advanced most notably by Praveen Swami writing in The Indian Express, which says it was more likely a smuggling boat carrying liquor or fuel and in a case of mistaken identities and intentions, Indian Coast Guard used lethal force against the small boat and sank it.
These questions about the entire episode need clarification.
1) Did the boat have explosives?
The defence ministry statement on day 1 said in the title the boat was carrying explosives. But the text of the statement was silent on the matter. It has since then been pointed out that if the boat was carrying explosives, the boat itself would have been blasted into smithereens in the fire that engulfed the vessel. The raging fire itself could have been caused by fuel that was being transported or the fuel from the boat's fuel tank.
2) What do we know about the boat's terror links? Was it in touch with 'handlers' in Pakistan or elsewhere?
The Times of India has reported today, citing unnamed intelligence sources, that communication intercepts showed the boat was in touch with Pakistan army through a contact who was also speaking frequently with someone in Thailand.
3) Was there a second boat?
The Times of India reported that Indian agencies had been tracking a second vessel had followed a similar route from Karachi. Following the interception of the first boat, the second one apparently beat a hasty retreat.
4) Did the boat blow itself up?
This is the part that most people are finding in hard to believe. The boat was either a sinister vessel with terrorists and explosives or it was a case of mistaken identity and the passengers were innocent fishermen or small-time smugglers. In all these scenarios, it doesn't make sense for the crew to sink the vessel themselves. If they were terrorists and had ammunition on board, the crew could have offered resistance. If they were fishermen or smugglers, it made far more sense for them to surrender. Security experts have pointed out that if they were indeed terrorists, they might have been under instruction to blow up the sensitive cargo upon detection, to avoid a traceback to the origins of the cargo. This is of course plausible.
The Coast Guard has reiterated that the crew of the vessel set it on fire and sank with it.
5) Did the episode happen under bad weather?
The defence ministry statement on 2 January said the boat and persons could not be "saved or recovered" due to "darkness, bad weather and strong winds". But no weather warnings had been issued to Indian fishermen in the region and metereological data for the period has shown ideal conditions during this period
Weather data is of course much broader and doesn't necessarily rule out isolated winds strong enough to have made for difficult conditions.
6) When intercepted, how many people were seen on the boat and did they return fire?
The defence ministry statement on 2 January said four persons were seen on the boat and when chased by the Coast Guard ship, they hid themselves below the deck compartment. Coast Guard Inspector General (North West) Kuldeep Singh Sheoran has now said only one person was visible on the deck and he was seen instructing the others.
The official also told PTI that the person spotted on the deck did not look like a fisherman and the boat itself did not have nets or other fishing paraphernalia.
At least one report has said citing unnamed officials that the crew on the boat had returned fire when intercepted.
7) Fishermen didn't see anything?
1,055 boats and fishing trawlers at sea at the time of the incident and no one has reported seeing or hearing anything. Fishermen talk to each other on radio and normally if a Pakistani boat is seen on the Indian seas, the information spreads through the community. Nothing of the sort happened, according to this report. This of course, doesn't prove anything conclusively.
8) Was the intelligence not shared?
Were the officials in Gujarat and Maharashtra kept in the dark about the intelligence even as the Coast Guard conducted the operation? There are claims and counterclaims about this. An unnamed Gujarat police official was quoted by The Indian Express as saying they were kept in the dark. "You don’t need to be a genius to figure out we should have been told, because, if the fishing boat was actually carrying explosives and managed to evade patrols on the seas, we should have been in position waiting for it," the official said.
Coast Guard officials are now saying the intelligence was indeed shared and cops knew about it. Gujarat cops are not commenting on record.
9) How was the small fishing vessel able to dodge a powerful coast guard ship for an hour and a half?
Was the vessel fitted with engines more powerful than typically seen on fishing boats? Or is the case that in the dark of the night, a small boat running for its life can keep a strong coast guard vessel at bay for more than an hour? There is no conclusive answer to this at this point. |
UPDATE: The Department of Water Management has updated its list of results to reflect about 20 more households, including two where lead levels exceeded the federal standard. These include a home on the 5400 block of South Harper Avenue and one at the 10400 block of South Vernon Avenue. The latter declined retesting but samples taken from the home on Harper showed lead levels that were, at times, twice the federal action level. Water officials say they will work with residents to identify the sources of lead in their water but when it’s due to home plumbing or lead service lines, the remediation costs will be left up to the homeowner.
The accompanying map reflects these changes.
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The City of Chicago has released its first group of results from lead testing of home water.
The results come from 70 homes throughout the city where people called to ask for water testing. None of the posted results exceed the federal standard of 15 parts per billion.
About five other residences, whose water did exceed what’s called the EPA “action level” are being retested, according to city water commissioner Barrett Murphy. Those results will be posted at a later date. Murphy says more than 100 additional results also aren’t quite ready to go online.
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“We can only post after we have finalized the results, notified the consumer and IEPA and the Illinois Dept of Public Health,” he says.
The results represent only a small fraction of the number of people who’ve requested testing this year. Murphy says more than 2,700 residents have called 311 asking for home lead testing for their water. But the process has not gone smoothly.
Until mid-May, residents had to go through a multi-step process that required an initial request, followed by the need to respond to robocalls that some residents didn’t understand. Consequently, Murphy’s department streamlined the process to require just one call to 311 to make the request for home lead testing.
The commissioner says that more than 1,600 residents who requested the tests before the change were not fully registered through the robocall system. He says his department has recently sent postcards to that group allowing them to check a box and send the postcard back to confirm testing. They can also simply call 311 and use the simplified registration system now in place.
The results of these tests, Murphy says, can not be used for official federal compliance samples that are gathered every three years.
Those compliance tests only check the first liter of water out of the tap, which is considered a limited standard. The city’s self-testing program requires residents to gather three liters--the first and two more at three and five minute intervals. It’s considered a better, more complete assessment of lead presence. But Murphy says the city will not substitute the voluntary samples from homeowners for its current system of gathering federal compliance samples.
Murphy says the city will continue to use some former water department employees to submit samples for the federal compliance testing because they know how to collect the samples and their homes represent continuity in testing.
The commissioner says he hopes to have more than 1,000 results from the voluntary home testing program posted by the end of the year.
Monica Eng is a WBEZ food and health reporter. Follow her at @monicaeng or write to her at [email protected] |
Stanford students show that phone record surveillance can yield vast amounts of information
Two computer science graduate students have found that the NSA's mass collection of phone records can yield much more information about people's private lives than the U.S. government claims. New research shows how "metadata" surveillance can be used to identify information about callers including medical conditions, financial and legal connections, and even whether they own a gun.
National Security Agency Stanford computer students Jonathan Mayer and Patrick Mutchler examined phone records to learn what the NSA can find out through surveillance.
The National Security Agency's mass surveillance of telephone metadata could yield detailed information about the private lives of individuals far beyond what the federal government claims, according to new Stanford research.
Two Stanford computer science students were able to acquire detailed information about people's lives just from telephone metadata – the phone number of the caller and recipient, the particular serial number of the phones involved, the time and duration of calls and possibly the location of each person when the call occurred.
The researchers did not do any illegal snooping – they worked with the phone records of 546 volunteers, matching phone numbers against the public Yelp and Google Places directories to see who was being called.
From the phone numbers, it was possible to determine that 57 percent of the volunteers made at least one medical call. Forty percent made a call related to financial services.
The volunteers called 33,688 unique numbers; 6,107 of those numbers, or 18 percent, were isolated to a particular identity.
Privacy issues
The metadata issue has taken on urgency in the wake of last summer's revelations about surveillance of American citizens by the NSA. Privacy experts have questioned the federal government's assertions on the subject.
President Obama has said, "They are not looking at people's names, and they're not looking at content."
L.A. Cicero Jonathan Mayer
Federal judges have split on the legality of the NSA's telephone metadata program.
Computer scientists like Stanford's Jonathan Mayer say that metadata are extremely sensitive and revealing.
Mayer is a doctoral student in computer science and a cybersecurity fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. His co-author on the research paper is Patrick Mutchler, also a doctoral student in computer science at Stanford. Their faculty adviser is John C. Mitchell, a computer science professor.
They contend their research shows that metadata from phone calls can yield a wealth of detail about family, political, professional, religious and sexual associations.
"It would be no technical challenge to scale these identifications to a larger population," said Mayer.
At the outset, Mayer said, they asked, "Is it easy to draw sensitive inferences from phone metadata? How often do people conduct sensitive matters by phone? We turned to our crowdsourced MetaPhone dataset for empirical answers."
They crowdsourced the data using an Android application and conducted an analysis of individual calls made by the volunteers to sensitive numbers, connecting the patterns of calls to emphasize the detail available in telephone metadata, Mayer said.
"A pattern of calls will, of course, reveal more than individual call records," he said. "In our analysis, we identified a number of patterns that were highly indicative of sensitive activities or traits."
For example, one participant called several local neurology groups, a specialty pharmacy, a rare-condition management service, and a pharmaceutical hotline used for multiple sclerosis.
Another contacted a home improvement store, locksmiths, a hydroponics dealer and a head shop.
'Unambiguously sensitive'
The researchers initially shared the same hypothesis as their computer science colleagues, Mayer said. They did not anticipate finding much evidence one way or the other.
"We were wrong. Phone metadata is unambiguously sensitive, even over a small sample and short time window. We were able to infer medical conditions, firearm ownership and more, using solely phone metadata," he said.
All three branches of the federal government are now considering curbs on access to telephone metadata, Mayer noted. Consumer privacy concerns are also salient as the Federal Communications Commission assesses telecom data sharing practices, he added.
Media Contact
Jonathan Mayer, Center for International Security and Cooperation: [email protected]
Clifton B. Parker, Stanford News Service: (650) 725-0224, [email protected] |
Two Questions to Ask After Each Project is Completed
Know what the biggest difference is between an adequate project manager and a great project manager? The great project manager always learns from every project and applies that learning to the next project.
Here’s a simple technique to help you learn from every project too. After each project completion, before you send the project team members on to other things, get all of the project principals together and have a postmortem review. You can kick around as many ideas as you like during the review, but make sure you answer these two questions:
What did we do right that we want to make sure we do again in the next project? What could we do better next time?
In each question, the wording is critical.
What did we do right?
Most postmortem project reviews dwell on the negative, but in all of the projects I’ve seen — even the project disasters — there were always a few things that were done right. It’s important to recognize those things because unless we specifically emphasize them on the next project, there’s a strong likelihood that they won’t be repeated. Overemphasis on negatives in a project review is counterproductive. Everyone walks away from the review with a bad attitude, and no one really learns anything. By stressing the positives, the project team can reinforce the good things that were done, and the team members can leave the review with an upbeat attitude.
What could we do better?
Of course it’s important to learn from project mistakes as well, but it’s too late for blame. Don’t focus on what went wrong — instead focus on how things could be done differently to make them more successful. There’s a subtle difference here. If you talk about things that went wrong, then people get defensive and even antagonistic. But if you recognize the things that went wrong only as a jumping off point to generating ideas for doing things better, then the defensiveness is defused, and team members honestly look for better ways to prevent that kind of mistake on the next project. Even though the bad things that happened on the project come up in the review, the review team doesn’t dwell on them, and so the result is more upbeat and positive.
This works for meetings and events too
I’ve used the same two-question review after a long meeting and after a special offsite event. By asking the two questions at the very end of the meeting or event, we were able to generate a lot of ideas for future improvement, and we ended on an up note. Everyone likes improvement — we just don’t want it to come at our own personal expense. Approaching improvement in this way makes the process much easier to accept, and everyone walks away encouraged.
And that’s how progress is made: reinforce the good things, and figure out ways to improve upon the bad things. |
The W.H.O. will now oversee tests on 100 more women in normal labor in China, India and South Africa, and then on 170 women in obstructed labor.
In a telephone interview from Argentina, Mr. Odón described the origins of his idea.
He tinkers at his garage, but his previous inventions were car parts. Seven years ago, he said, employees were imitating a video showing that a cork pushed into an empty bottle can be retrieved by inserting a plastic grocery bag, blowing until it surrounds the cork, and drawing it out.
That night, he won a dinner bet on it.
At 4 a.m., he woke his wife and told her the idea that had just come to him. (His own children were born without problems, he said, but he has an aunt who suffered nerve damage from birth.)
His wife, he recalled, “said I was crazy and went back to sleep.”
The next morning, a somewhat skeptical friend introduced him to an obstetrician. “You can imagine these two guys in suits in a waiting room full of pregnant ladies,” he said.
The doctor was encouraging, so he kept working. Polyethylene replaced the bag his wife had sewn, and the jar was replaced by a plastic uterus.
With the help of a cousin, Mr. Odón met the chief of obstetrics at a major hospital in Buenos Aires. The chief had a friend at the W.H.O., who knew Dr. Merialdi, who, at a 2008 medical conference in Argentina, granted Mr. Odón 10 minutes during a coffee break.
The meeting instead lasted two hours. At the end, Dr. Merialdi declared the idea “fantastic” and arranged for testing at the Des Moines University simulation lab, which has mannequins more true-to-life than a doll and a jar. |
I talked about Gamergate a bit in the last Personal Time video I did. Someone made a comment and I responded, but it’s a very long essay so I’m reposting said comment here as well:
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People have been crabbing about the issues related to Gamergate for a long time, and part of it is that there’s a lot of obvious disconnect between the mainstream media and gaming enthusiasts, even as more and more people are becoming familiar with video games. Some of that disconnect exists between game journalists and gaming enthusiasts too, though, which is strange and why I compare this whole thing to having a bass fishing magazine write articles about “toxic masculinity”, as if bass fishermen would want to hear someone’s opinions about the morality of their hobby. Why would gamers want to read articles about how video games are morally wrong?
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Stranger still, you find that some games are actually tackling social issues, so there should be more shades of gray here. I mentioned once before that Fallout: New Vegas has a fair amount of social commentary, some of it having to do with gender or even the sex industry. However, when a figure like Anita Sarkeesian reviews these games, she glosses over that content and complains about the “toxic masculinity” of some completely random aspect of the game. She looks for some scene where a woman is in scanty clothes and just declares the whole game sexist, even though the game actually uses that stuff as elements to discuss the issues in the first place. To many gamers, Sarkeesian appears to be unaware of what she’s reviewing in the best case, and in the worst case she’s intentionally misleading her audience.
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By the law of averages, Gamergate doesn’t have bad people on either side. Those against Gamergate are in circles that report that Gamergate is composed of Nazis or something, and that all Gamergate supporters care about are harassing and attacking people who they’re politically against. And were that true, fair enough, because you can’t allow it to stand if an angry mob is to tear people apart. Yet the trouble is that people against Gamergate formed their own angry mobs and tore people apart. All the while, those strongly opposed to the movement accused every positive aspect of Gamergate of being a lie.
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Meanwhile, within Gamergate, it became assumed that anyone who was against them was a player similar to Anita Sarkeesian - someone either oblivious or willfully dishonest, most likely leaning towards the latter. Unfortunately, this doesn’t fit the bill for everyone against Gamergate because plenty of people against Gamergate couldn’t care less about gaming or journalism and are fundamentally speaking up against letting mob rule tear people apart. Ironically, Gamergate supporters have also been speaking out against mob attacks on people.
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So at the end of the day, EnderPryde really does hit the nail on the head when he talks about how the two sides aren’t really united in any way shape or form. Contrary to insistence, Feminism DOESN’T have a single definition. To some radicals it does mean the destruction of all men, but others think of Feminism as synonymous with egalitarianism. For some, Feminism broadens to include issues of race too, or even issues of healthcare coverage or things you wouldn’t think of as “Feminist”. Eventually, “Feminism” just means, “supporting things I like” and if you don’t like french toast you’re a misogynist because, goddammit, I like french toast and how dare you impugn upon my personal preferences!
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At this point it actually becomes impossible to talk about “Feminism” because the word has ceased to have any real meaning. If you say, “I’m tired of these Feminists,” you might specifically be referring to two or three people you know personally who think that Feminism means enjoying the right breakfast food, but to thousands of other people it sounds like you’re standing against fair wages, against healthcare, against other races, against dogs in silly hats - individual perceptions vary, and here comes a thousand angry e-mails.
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But then Gamergate is the same way. Suppose you are one of the people who joins Gamergate because you’re tired of Feminism. Well, what ARE you against? Moral policing? Female characters in games? Maybe you’re worried that they’ll start doing exploitation genres of video games to get good press coverage - but… if you’re worried about that, isn’t that Feminism? If women are going to be in games, you want them to be serious and treated like real characters, not just hackney additions to get Anita Sarkeesian to praise the thing. To a lot of people that’s Feminism, isn’t it? And even this conundrum aside, Gamergate still means different things to people who don’t want to talk about gender politics.
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So what do the two sides stand for? Gamergate is for ethics and for fair debate, and they’re worried that their demographic is being marginalized and condescended to. They worry their hobby is going to be pressured by this condescension. And to be fair, when the press pumps out ten articles about how “Gamers are dead” because of gaming’s “toxic culture”, it’s pretty clear that there’s a lot of condescension going on.
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But what do the feminists stand for? They’re for ethics and fair debate, and they worry their demographic is being marginalized and condescended to. They worry that their hobbies are going to be pressured by this condescension. And to be fair, people in minority groups can have it pretty rough depending on the demographics relative to them. My fiance Kenza has told me stories about how a few of the other kids used to throw rocks at her because she was a Muslim, and though the majority of people wouldn’t do something like that, it still sticks with her. She worries for her little sister and the rest of her family. Imagine having been in that situation and seeing this Zoe Quinn girl getting harassed - the thought doesn’t occur, “what did Zoe do?”
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So what does Gamergate even mean to the people involved with it? Depends on who you ask. There are some real assholes out there, and some are trying to motivate people to fight for causes that nobody should have any real stake in if they knew what they were getting behind. Even worse, if people from either side could reach across the aisle and respect each other as humans, you might find plenty of similar ideals and goals between them.
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As for me? I do blame those elements of the press who intentionally widened these divisions and stoked this as a conflict of wrong and right. That’s not everyone in the press, of course, because there were plenty of articles taking a much more analytical approach to this thing. There were also a few non-journal names who were chasing fame before dropping off the face of the earth. Regardless, there are definitely some people who were ideological and they didn’t care about reality or how this thing might negatively impact the entire industry. You could blame the masses, but the masses are the masses, and as I watched it develop early on, it could have easily blown over had nobody attempted to rally a base.
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Look back at the madness of all this and you see Gamergate supporting and even funding a variety of causes that people would think of as “Feminist”. Those people were disparaged as charlatans. So all gaming websites may take a hit to ad profits because they’re noted as being more controversial and ideological, which is bad for the whole industry. That’s not good for gamers. A lot of women not currently in the hobby are probably now fearful to enter the hobby, thinking they aren’t welcome, because the press has been incessantly describing a few assholes as though they were representative of the entire hobby. That’s not good for getting more women into gaming. It’s been a deconstructive couple of months.
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I guess the bottom line is, if your intentions are positive, you should try to keep your message equally positive, lest everything wind up negative. Yes, we fear loss and that fear spreads easily, but fear isn’t really constructive. |
I make this light salad when in a hurry; when no inspiration – corn cabbage salad, even when something sometimes aches I turn to this salad, but most frequently when I feel like I should eat something nutritious and healthy, I take out a head of cabbage, sharp knife and start chopping.
So, you guessed it, this cabbage corn salad is my favorite dish – well, one of many, but I do make it quite often. I make it so frequently that I don’t need measuring spoons anymore, and over the years I even developed a few versions of this salad. Three, more precisely. They are all nice, and they all have the same basic ingredients, and depending on the time of the year and occasion when you make it, corn cabbage salad can be a true raw super food dish (I make this variation most of the time, especially during the early spring) and all it needs as a side are few olives and toast of some good wholegrain bread. Then, you can make it with a red cabbage and toasted sesame seeds, serve it with some nice red wine during a fancy dinner, or you can even add a few spoons of sour cream and mayonnaise in and serve it on your New Year’s Eve dinner table – I know I will ;)
Corn Cabbage Salad Recipe
Corn Cabbage Salad Print Author: JasminCookBook Ingredients 1 onion (or smaller leek)
¼ of a cabbage head (approximately 200 g /7 ounces)
200 grams / 7 ounces frozen sweet corn
2 tablespoons lemon juice (or 1 ½ teaspoons of vinegar)
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 or 4 tablespoons sesame seeds
*3 tablespoons of vegan sour cream and 3 tablespoons of vegan mayonnaise for the third salad version Tools knife
wooden board
grater
measuring spoon
small cooking pot
colander
glass serving bowl
*skillet for frying sesame seeds for the second and third salad variation Instructions First thing you should do is to put the small amount of water (about one cup) in a pot and wait until it boils. Take the pot off the heat and only then add the frozen sweet corn. This way, the corn will defrost, but it will stay raw. Now take one sharp knife and onion (if you prefer, you can replace it with one smaller leek, or even make a combination of these two alliums), cut it into smaller pieces, put it in a glass bowl and immediately add lemon (or vinegar) and salt. This way the onion will absorb the lemon, it will get milder taste and people will not notice that you were eating it ;) Ok, as for the cabbage goes, you can chop or grate it. If you plan to eat corn salad right away, you should grate it. Grated cabbage is moist and tender right away; but if you’re making your salad a few hours before serving, the thinly chopped cabbage is better solution. It will slowly release its juices and become soft just in a time for serving. Add the cabbage with olive oil into the bowl. Drain the corn through the colander and add into a bowl together with sesame seeds. Mix everything together and set aside for at least 15 minutes for the flavors to meld together. Taste it and add seasoning if necessary. 3.5.3208
Red Cabbage Corn Salad Variation
For this variation of corn salad you should replace green cabbage with the red one, regular onion with the red onion and lightly toast the sesame seeds in a skillet. This way salad will resemble a cabbage slaw, but with a sweeter orient touch.
Sour Cream Mayonnaise Cabbage Salad Variation
This version is heavier and calorie-dense salad. It’s basically the same corn cabbage salad, but with an addition of vegan mayo and sour cream and lightly toasted sesame seeds. It tastes wonderful though and it’s perfect to serve around the Christmas time, at least in my home…
Enjoy! |
Imagine telling 25,000 people they can’t use their cellphones or cameras at the exact moments they want to.
That’s the task of the Ryder Cup cellphone police — “Mobile Device Policy Enforcement” is what’s emblazoned on their lime-green bibs — out in force this week at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska.
“There are rules and we have to enforce them, said Mark Ehlenz of Stillwater, one of scores of such phone cops.
As smart phones — and sharing of the images they record and their users share — has proliferated, the PGA of America, which puts on the Ryder Cup, and other golf organizations have struggled to stem the tide of inevitability.
“I’m sorry, but that’s the policy, and it’s posted in many places,” Ehlenz told a woman whose camera he confiscated on the back nine Saturday morning. Standing behind the ropes in the spectator gallery, the woman was taking pictures of players as they walked past in the fairway of the 16th hole.
EVOLVING RULES
Rules have changed in recent years and vary among events.
At the Masters, for example, cellphones and cameras are essentially banned from the premises of the hallowed grounds of Augusta National Golf Club. Meanwhile at the Ryder Cup, the rules are more liberal.
“We want people to use their phones,” said Jeff Hintz, tournament director of the Ryder Cup at Hazeltine. “We know people need to communicate with work or family, and we know they want to share this incredible experience here. But we still need some rules.”
There are two problems with cellphones and cameras, from the PGA’s perspective:
First, the clicks, beeps, ring tones and associated banter of the users can disrupt golfers, who are accustomed to silence when they address the ball and swing the club.
Second, the PGA and major broadcast media, most notably NBC and The Golf Channel, have inked contracts over the exclusive — exclusive — rights to the images, moving or still, and sounds of the event. (In fact, those rules extend to any form of communications; technically, most credentialed media are prevented from tweeting actual details of competition as it’s happening.)
100-YARD RULE
The policy the PGA has arrived at for the Ryder Cup, which is posted throughout the course, is known as “the 100-yard rule”: During competition, all mobile devices and non-credentialed cameras most be out of sight if players are within 100 yards. In addition, phones must be in “golf mode,” silent, except for vibrations.
Those rules are looser than in 2012, when the Ryder Cup was last played in America. That year, at Medinah Country Club in Illinois, “several hundred” phones were confiscated, Hintz said. “There was lot more ringing, and we really struggled to keep everything fair for the players.”
At this year’s PGA Championship in New Jersey, when the 100-yard rule was in effect, that number was below 100, he said. Numbers weren’t readily available for how many iPhones and the like have been taken since competition began Friday.
At Hazeltine, the cellphone cops, often in groups of threes accompany groups of players along the ropes as as the golfers progress along the course. Usually, cellphones disappear at the sight of their bright bibs with nothing said — the desired outcome. Often, as when Team USA Vice captain Tiger Woods was walking the course Saturday with players Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed, temptation was tougher for the spectators.
‘PUT ‘EM AWAY’
The enforcers often made their presence more well known. “Put ’em away. Put ’em away.” That usually worked, since gawking fans often were focused on the image on their phones or cameras.
But sometimes, they decide to take action, either entering the gallery to approach someone directly, or taking the ultimate action: seizing the device.
“I was just taking pictures,” pleaded the woman, who refused to give her name.
Ehlenz took her camera and wrote her out a claim slip. She would be able to retrieve it when she left for the day.
It was the second camera he had confiscated before noon. He had taken two cellphones. |
If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever. –George Orwell There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest. –Elie Wiesel
The principle aim of intellectual history is to show how ideas have developed over time, and how they both arise out of, and actively shape, that development. Ideas are not mere superstructure, as Karl Marx supposed; they influence people, often profoundly, and that too is a part of history. We saw earlier how the histories of Vico, Voltaire, Gibbon, and Condorcet arose out of the Enlightenment, and how they contributed to the ideology of the French Revolution. We also saw how that legacy generated new kinds of historical thought: Liberalism in Tocqueville and Conservatism in Burckhardt; Historicism in Ranke and Hegel; Romanticism in Michelet and Nietzsche, and Positivism in Marx. As our story moves into the twentieth century, we are again compelled to discuss a tremendous political and social upheaval, for the years 1914–1945 saw a series of disasters such as the world had never known, and that very nearly ended civilization in Europe.
The crisis began in 1914, with the First World War, which emerged out of circumstances too complex to be addressed even cursorily here. In the barest possible terms, the war was a consequence of German unification in 1871, which made Germany the strongest power, by far, in Europe. This imbalance tempted German leaders to aim at European hegemony, and compelled France and Russia to ally against it out of mutual fear. Austrian rivalry with Russia in the Balkans drove it to seek alliance with Germany, while Britain and the Ottoman Empire, both of which tried hard to remain neutral, were compelled to choose opposite sides in the early months of the war. The United States joined much later, and only reluctantly. As all the world knows, the war was touched off by, (in Otto von Bismarck’s memorable phrase) “some damn fool thing in the Balkans,” which, for reasons which can never quite be satisfactorily explained, compelled Germany to invade France a few months later.
More important, for our purposes, is the experience of the war, and its consequences. It was by far the largest and most destructive war that had yet been fought in Europe, or probably anywhere else. It mobilized about seventy million soldiers, of whom more than nine million were killed, in addition to something like six million civilians. It was also the first instance of that characteristic scourge of the twentieth century, total war—which is to say, the mobilization of an entire society in an all-or-nothing struggle for national survival. Every aspect of life, civilian or military, became subordinate to the war effort, and no activity that tended toward victory was thought improper, up to and including the extermination of civilians. Soldiers themselves were spent like so much living ammunition, as charges across the “no man’s land” separating the trenches were bloodily repulsed time and again, only to be repeated a few hours, days, weeks, or months later. It was not uncommon for a single battle to see casualties in the neighborhood of a quarter-million men. News of these catastrophes was met, at home, with shocked disbelief, angry accusations of incompetence, and calls for renewed sacrifice. The high command would be shaken up, hundreds of thousands of additional recruits called up, taxes raised even higher, and the whole bloody, futile business repeated. Hideous new weapons, like poison gas and flame throwers, were developed to break the stalemate, as well as the first bombing planes and battle tanks. Toward the end of the war, a new breed of soldier was seen for the first time. These so-called “storm troopers,” described by Ernst Junger in his war journal The Storm of Steel, were tasked with the incredibly dangerous mission of sneaking across no man’s land, infiltrating the enemy trenches, and sewing enough panic and confusion that a large-scale offensive could be launched behind them. These “aristocrats of the trench” would be much-admired by later fascist ideologues.
So desperate was the struggle that the states on the losing side of it all, without exception, were overthrown. The German Empire, in particular, was abolished by its own high command in the closing days of the war, on the theory that a new (Weimar) Republic could get better terms from the allies than a monarchy, while the Russian Empire was overthrown by Communist insurgents and replaced by the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics.
The peace that concluded the war was no less ruinous. Germany was saddled with massive reparations, forbidden to raise an army, and deprived of much of its territory. Since the treaty specifically condemned Germany as the aggressor, and laid on it the sole responsibility for the war, it had the effect of uniting the entire German public in opposition to what they regarded as a draconian and hypocritical peace. In that sense, the war did not end in 1918—it was simply continued through other means. Worse, the Germans knew how close they had come to winning. They actually had won in the East, and imposed their own draconian peace on Russia. The cost of peace, the new Bolshevik government learned, was about half of Russia’s European provinces. If they had only been able to stalemate in the West, Germans were fully aware, they would have finished the war with enough territory to make them a super-power in the twentieth century. As it happened, since all of this territory was German, and not Russian, when they lost the war, the allies were able to completely redraw the map of Eastern Europe. They used the opportunity to create a dozen or more new ethnic states, such as Poland and Czechoslovakia, whose weakness and inexperience tempted Germany and Russia alike with the prospect of easy conquests. Thus both Germany and Russia had good reason, as they would soon have the means, to contest the Versailles settlement.
The 1920s were largely prosperous in Western Europe and in America, though Germany and Russia faced serious political instability in the first half of the decade. However, a combination of stock market speculation, disastrous fiscal policy, and nonsensically circular war loan repayment plans, brought on the worst economic disaster of industrial history: the Great Depression. As banks closed, firms went under, and unemployment pushed into the double digits, an increasingly angry, confused, and desperate public clamored for protection. Writers like John Steinbeck, George Orwell, and Arthur Koestler protested the suffering they saw around them. In one particularly egregious instance, which seemed to underline the insanity of the times, American farmers soaked huge piles of fruits and vegetables with kerosene and burned it rather than sell it at a loss, while, at the same time, people in the cities were standing in huge bread lines, and many could not afford to eat with any regularity at all. As the crisis persisted, it became more and more difficult to argue that the market was the best guarantee of prosperity. In democratic countries, charismatic leaders, such as Franklin Roosevelt in the United States, David Lloyd George in Britain, and Edouard Daladier in France, provided the protection that people demanded by expanding the welfare state, raising taxes and tariffs, and engaging in massive government expenditure. In other countries, democratic governments were overthrown entirely—in Italy by Benito Mussolini, in Germany by Adolf Hitler, and in Spain by Francisco Franco. Meanwhile in Russia—which had never had a democracy to speak of—Stalin consolidated his power in a series of bloody purges of the Communist party. The effectiveness of these measures varied from country to country, but they were everywhere corrosive to core principles of liberalism, including the right of individuals to express their political opinions without fear of intimidation or harassment, to be secure in their property, and in general to pursue their own good in their own way.
By the late 1930s, it had become a common (though by no means universal) feeling that democratic governments could not cope with this unprecedented crisis. The countries that did cope with it most effectively—Japan, Germany, Russia—were, as a rule, dictatorships, where huge sections of the economy had been effectively nationalized. Russia, in particular, looked attractive by contrast. Its five year plans were rapidly transforming what had been a backward and overwhelmingly rural economy into an industrial powerhouse, it was based on an explicitly anti-capitalist ideology, and it had full employment and robust public services. The crimes of the Stalin regime, by contrast, were little known, and those that were known were often glossed over as necessary evils. It was not until the 1950s, when Soviet tanks crushed a democratic uprising in Hungary, that the monstrousness of the Soviet regime became too obvious for any informed observer to deny, though, of course, many people did recognize it much earlier than that. Some bolder spirits, on the other hand, declared that the entire notion of human rights, individual freedom, and limited government, was simply mistaken, and that totalitarianism pointed the way toward the scientifically managed, technocratic society of the future. These were, in short, dark times for democracy.
The Weimar Republic—the first real democracy that Germany had ever had—was particularly hard hit. As the bottom fell out of the economy, and Germans had to endure, for the second time in about a decade, hyper-inflation, double-digit unemployment, and a real fear of (and, often actual) hunger and homelessness, many people turned to the Communist Party, which had said all along that capitalism was doomed to failure. Others, long opposed to Communist ideology, and fearing for their property, their freedom, and their lives in the event of a Communist revolution, turned to a radical, anti-Semitic demagogue who promised to make Germany great again. While the parliamentary parties debated the finer points of the law in the Reichstag, Hitler hypnotized huge crowds with his message of national renewal, and denounced Communism as a Jewish conspiracy. Who could doubt his sincerity? He was, after all, a combat veteran who had been wounded during the war, and had gone to prison once already for his political convictions. On any given night his S.A. bully boys could be seen getting into fist fights with rival Communist gangs. In short, a large part of Hitler’s appeal was that he made other politicians look weak and indecisive. “In this time of crisis,” his message went, “Germany needs a doer, not a talker.”
What he planned to do, as he explained very clearly in his 1924 manifesto, was to expand, either through diplomacy or force, the then-current borders of Germany to include all German-speaking central Europe; to then invade the Soviet Union, exterminate its population, and extend Germany’s borders to somewhere near Afghanistan; and, finally, to send out colonists to settle and exploit that land, on the theory that the rising population of this vastly extended Reich would guarantee its superpower status, without which no nation could be assured of survival. In order to accomplish all of this, he had to secure three preliminary objectives: build a powerful army; strike a bargain with France and Britain, or else attack and destroy them; and get rid of all “undesirables” within Germany itself, so that the army (which had never, he believed, really been defeated in the First World War) could not be “stabbed in the back” a second time.
These undesirables included, very prominently, the Jews, since in Hitler’s mind Jews were the archetypal race-enemy of the pure Aryan volk, and in any case a Jew was a communist and a communist a Jew, from which it followed that a war against the Soviet Union was a war against the Jews, and every German Jew was therefore an enemy agent. His hit list also included vocal dissenters such as actual Communists and Jehova’s Witnesses, as well as people whom he simply did not like, on account of his eugenic fantasies, such as cripples, the mentally ill, gypsies, “wreckers,” homosexuals, and also people from every walk of life who simply opposed Nazi policies, told one subversive joke too many, or happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Such enemies of the people would have to go. Hitler’s goal, in all this, was to create an idealized version of the type of society he had known as a young man during the First World War—a completely militarized, egalitarian meritocracy, where the only virtues that mattered were the military ones, where the individual counted for nothing, and where everyone was united in the common effort of an all-or-nothing struggle. In the meantime, a new generation was growing up—one that had not experienced the first war, but who understood all too well that their country was in crisis, and who were ready to answer Hitler’s call for unity, sacrifice, and brotherhood.
Where Stalin’s foreign policy was cautious to a fault, Hitler’s was one gamble after another. As long as he could persuade Britain and France that he genuinely desired peace, they bent over backward to keep him happy, and let him annex one territory after another. They believed, as most people did after the first war, that the disaster had been caused by the cynical calculus of Realpolitik, and that, if the great powers had just taken the time to talk it out, it could have been averted. They were determined not to repeat those mistakes. Hitler, however, had drawn the opposite conclusion—that the problem was not too much, but too little, ruthlessness. Whatever else happened, no one would be able to accuse him of repeating that mistake.
All the world knows how the German armies went from victory to victory in the early days of the war, until they were checked by the freezing Russian winter, and also at Stalingrad and Normandy, then driven back toward their own country, and finally crushed between the Soviet and American armies. We also know how the Nazis deported millions of people to their concentration camps in Poland, where they were variously used as slave labor, subjected to hideous medical experiments, or simply murdered en masse. Although our story has purposefully ignored the Pacific, which saw more than its share of horrors as well, we must not conclude without mentioning the first use of atomic weapons, which were to loom so large throughout the rest of the twentieth century. The European theater of the war alone killed something like fifty million people, and was without question the most devastating conflict the world has yet seen. Standing amidst the smoking ruins of a once-great civilization, an educated European might well wonder how it had ever come to this.
The following period, sometimes called “the short twentieth century,” (1917–1991) was characterized by two persistent conflicts: that between the United States and the Soviet Union (“the cold war”), and that between the former subjects of Europe’s colonial empires, who saw the war as an opportunity to at last rid themselves of foreign domination. For thinking people generally, and for intellectuals specifically, it has been an obligation to come to grips with the challenge of these events, either as they were actually experienced, or as they have been remembered. Thus the defense of freedom from totalitarianism, of truth from demagoguery and propaganda, of science from spurious claims to appropriate it in the service of ideology, and of ethnic, political, and religious minorities from state persecution, of life itself from nuclear weapons, and, above all, of the ethical individual in the face of all these threats, have all been, in one way or another, central concerns of the twentieth century. Self-evident as these concerns may seem to us, who have grown up with them, they are in fact the product of a specific series of events, between the years 1914 and 1945. As we have seen, an earlier age had quite different concerns, as, we may be sure, another one will after us will. The ethical landscape, like the intellectual, is forever shifting beneath our feet, in dialogue and in tension with the real decisions of individual human actors. I hope these themes, so characteristic of the twentieth century, as well as our own, will become more apparent as we examine, in the next group of articles, the ways that a new group of historians struggled to come to terms with the past.
This post is the sixteenth is a series on the philosophy of history; the previous article in the series is here, the next is here.
Daniel Halverson is a graduate student studying the history of Science and Technology of nineteenth-century Germany. He is also a regular contributor to the PEL Facebook page. |
Buried deep in American Airlines' Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing is a striking asset -- a town house in one of London's most expensive residential streets that property experts say could be worth up to $30 million.
The five-bedroom house in London's high-end Kensington district is a throwback to the airline's expansion two decades ago and stands a 10 minute walk from the former home of Princess Diana, with gentry and diplomats as neighbors.
UK regulatory filings show the house has been used as a residence for senior executives, including the current chairman and chief executive Thomas Horton, since the airline bought it in the early 1990s.
Listed as "London Residence LON6526," the five-floor house is one of eight owned properties declared by parent company AMR Corp when it asked for protection from creditors on November 30, sagging under $30 billion of liabilities.
The plush residence in Cottesmore Gardens -- recently named Britain's 10th most expensive address by property firm Zoopla --
could become a thorn in the airline's side as it fights its way through bankruptcy. Corporate restructuring usually involves sacrifices by staff, retirees and creditors.
Robert Mann, an airline consultant with RW Mann & Co, who is a former fleet planning executive at AMR, said the ownership of the house is far from the biggest problem the airline is facing but added it would raise eyebrows and should probably be sold.
"As part of an overall debt-clearing exercise, yes it probably should be sold and leased back if they really want to stay there. If you can realize 17 million bucks, you ought to do it."
Confirming ownership of the house, American Airlines said it is used by the senior official in charge of its international business "and for corporate functions from time to time."
Contacted last week, it initially declined to say whether it planned to keep the house, but in response to further Reuters queries said its ownership of the property was being reviewed.
"AMR can confirm that it's a property it purchased in the 1990s when property values were lower," the airline said.
"However, as we work through our Chapter 11 reorganization, we are focused on achieving a competitive cost and debt structure and will, of course, review our use and ownership of this and all our real estate as part of that process."
A union representing 30,000 workers at American Airlines and American Eagle expressed outrage over the property.
"In the current economic downturn, many Americans have lost their houses. In this bankruptcy, AMR's executives should lose their house," said James C. Little, president of the 200,000-member Transport Workers Union of America, which is on the airline's creditors' committee.
"However, the typical pattern for this company is workers keep it afloat through concessions, bring in outside work and boost productivity while managers pocket hundreds of millions in bonuses and live posh lifestyles. This would have been Marie Antoinette's favorite airline."
Many large companies own or rent property for executives posted overseas, though AMR's filing lays considerable stress on efforts to cut costs before filing for bankruptcy.
In its request for Chapter 11 protection, AMR said it had already shed billions of dollars in cumulative annual costs over the past 8 years to cope with the "relentless pressures of ever intensifying competition and rising fuel prices."
The airline said it had pursued "every effort short of Chapter 11 to reform its cost structure."
DISCREET ENCLAVE
Lined by cars such as Porsches and Range Rovers, Cottesmore Gardens in west London is a quiet side street.
The airline's house would be worth between 12.5 million pounds and 16 million pounds if it came to the market today depending on the internal state of repair, said Kit Allen, a director of house sales at property consultancy Savills .
A source at international real estate group Knight Frank said the house could fetch as much as 20 million pounds.
"This is a very discreet enclave that is ideal for high-profile residents wanting to live in relative anonymity," said the source, who asked not to be named.
The street houses a private school and the most recent electoral records show the Cottesmore Gardens set includes an earl, the former chief executive of one of Europe's largest companies and a prominent former investment banker.
Disgraced Canadian media tycoon Conrad Black was a neighbor until 2005 when he reportedly sold for 13 million pounds.
A Reuters reporter who visited the property on December 1, found no one at home. A few steps lead up to imposing black double doors below a renovated facade in immaculate condition.
The property appears to be a normal family home, with a high-spec kitchen in the basement and a living room, complete with chandelier, on the first floor.
AMR Corp filed for creditor protection after failing to win a deal with pilots to pare labor costs.
Employees were notified on the day of the bankruptcy filing that future retirees can no longer get a lump sum distribution because the pension plan is underfunded.
The airline has started rejecting leases for aircraft and is trying to relieve itself of two real estate leases including one for a terminal at Chicago Midway airport.
Apart from the group's Texas headquarters, its credit union and a handful of reservation offices, nearly all the airline's offices and airport facilities are leased rather than owned.
(Additional reporting by Kyle Peterson in Chicago, Paul Hoskins and Tom Bill in London; Writing by Chris Wickham and Tim Hepher; Editing by Janet McBride) |
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Fracking firm IGas say Greater Manchester could become part a fracking ‘centre of excellence’ - with 300 wells.
The firm says they believe 3,500 jobs could be created around the north west region if they opened 30 shale gas sites, each with ten wells, in the region.
A report commissioned by the firm also says drilling for gas could give the economies of Greater Manchester, Cheshire, Liverpool and Warrington a £10bn boost.
The report’s figures are based on 300 wells being drilled in the region between 2017 and 2031.
It says that an average of £466m would be generated for fracking for shale gas per year over 20 years with the first three wells would be sunk by 2017.
In total the firm believes five trillion cubic feet of shale gas sits under the north west - termed the ‘Ocean Gateway’ area by IGas.
The firm also believes Greater Manchester firms could benefit from fracking through the industry’s supply chain.
The report acknowledges there may currently be a shortage of people qualified to work in fracking in the north west - but suggests skills taught to enter the industry could be taught at the region’s colleges.
IGas chief operating officer John Blaymires said: “The findings of this report highlight the Ocean Gateway region is sitting on a potential £10bn investment opportunity.
“We’re looking to develop the capacity from within the region to meet the supply chain requirements so that as many local people and firms as possible benefit from our capital investment.
“The north west has a huge opportunity to become a centre of excellence for shale gas development and technologies.
“Over time local companies will be able to export those skills nationally and ultimately abroad as other nations follow Britain’s lead in developing a safe and sustainable industry.”
The report into possible benefits of fracking was commissioned by IGas, who have carried out test drilling at Barton Moss in Salford, and firm Peel Environmental Ltd, who own the land around the site.
Hundreds of protestors set up camp in the area over several months earlier this year in a bid to disrupt the test drilling over concerns fracking could pollute the area’s water table, damage wildlife habitats and cause earth tremors.
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In Idiotsitter, Charlotte Newhouse plays a woman tasked with making sure a house-arrested rich adult-child, played by Jillian Bell, doesn’t get into trouble; while as writing partners, Newhouse and Bell are prone to egg each other on. It’s a relationship that is on full display in the writing of their frequently ridiculous show wrapping up its first season on Comedy Central tonight. The dynamic was honed at the Groundlings, L.A.’s famed improv and sketch theater where they first started working together. This is why Vulture asked comedian/Oscar winner Jim Rash, who himself is in a Groundlings-born writing partnership (with Nat Faxon), to interview Newhouse and Bell. The three talk partnerships, writing processes, and karate companies.
Jim Rash: Are we all here?
Charlotte Newhouse: Is Jillian here?
J.R.: No, not yet. I think she’s doing “fashionably late” to the conference call.
C.N.: That’s guff right there. What are you doing, right now?
J.R.: I’m at our office in Santa Monica, our little shabby rinky-dink office.
C.N.: Oh, you guys have an office? That’s so cool.
J.R.: We’ve had it forever. It’s like literally at the Santa Monica Airport above this restaurant. You’ve wrapped, right? Or are you still shooting?
C.N.: No, we wrapped last May.
J.R.: Oh good lord.
C.N.: Originally, they were going to air it in July, so we were going to have this crazy turnaround and then they switched it so that Another Period had the summer airing and we had the winter airing. We had this huge waiting period when we were done. Like Michaela [Watkins] started shooting Casual and her first day was our last day of shooting and now she’s already in her second season and we’re just airing our first season. It’s so weird.
J.R.: That is weird! Where is this girl?
C.N.: I think if she doesn’t come on in the next five minutes, we hang up and we don’t talk to her for a month! And that’s going to be hard because she’s my writing partner.
J.R.: I’m so onboard. Nat [Faxon] and I haven’t spoken in years and we’re still quote-unquote “writing together.” We just do it by facial expressions. One of us says something out loud and the other one either nods or shakes their head.
Jillian Bells’s manager: One moment for Jillian.
J.R.: Oh my God, Charlotte.
C.N.: She’s got her manager connecting her.
J.R.: She’s using her people.
Jillian Bell: Hello!
J.R.: Oh, hi! Thank you, guys, for getting on this conference call. Jillian, clearly you waited until the last second to be the last on the line.
J.B.: Yeah.
C.N.: And had your manager connect you, which we appreciate as well.
J.R.: Mm-hmm. Hollywood! WeIl, I think everyone has the numbers for this quarter in front of them. Should we start going through them?
C.N.: Yup!
J.B.: Oh shit.
C.N.: Do you not have them, Jillian?
J.B.: Yeah, I have them. You guys just go ahead.
J.R.: Oh, I was going to have you read the first two numbers, but I’ll do them first. We’re all concerned about office supplies.
C.N.: Super-concerned.
J.B.: Yes, we should be buying more? Less?
C.N.: Oh, Jesus. Focus.
J.R.: What would be the company that we are discussing? What do we sell?
C.N.: I hope it’s office supplies.
J.B.: Honestly, I think it’s karate.
J.R.: Did you say karate? “Hi, welcome to our karate company. ‘I’m sorry, what do you sell there?’ We sell karate. ‘Wait, like lessons?’ No, no, no. Just the concepts behind karate. ‘It doesn’t seem tangible.’ It is tangible.”
Okay, I’m going to jump in. Do you remember the first time you guys met? Because I assume it was at the Groundlings?
J.B.: It was.
C.N.: Jillian was in Sunday Company. I was in Main Company. And I’d just seen her do a show and obviously was obsessed with her. We’d only had one conversation and Annie Lennox was playing. And we both talked about how we liked the song “Walking on Broken Glass.” So, we all had our first writing meeting for the holiday show and I pitched this weird idea where we’re women who hate the holidays and our families. Someone gets a karaoke machine and they’re all singing Christmas carols, but then by accident, “Walking on Broken Glass” comes on. We get really into it and start smashing all the glasses over our husbands’ heads. Jillian wasn’t like, “That’s weird.” She goes, “Yeah, and then we put all the glass shards in a line and we take off our shoes and we walk across it.” It was like, boom! Writing partners forever!
J.R.: I remember during workshop, leaning over to whoever was next to me and saying, “This sketch will never work.” I then remember rehearsing onstage and leaning to whoever was next to me, and going, “This’ll never work.” Cut to, we’re doing the scene that night, I take a moment to lean over to the person next to me to say, “This isn’t going to work.” And then it was a huge hit.
J.B.: I’m so excited about your perspective of our sketch and how you were so negative about it. Your nickname at the time was “The Asshole 3.” It was just that you were an asshole three times about a certain thing. And then, if you remember, the audience threw up because they were laughing so hard at our sketch.
J.R.: In my defense, it was because of the Rule of Three. I swear, in my head, it was always “Be an asshole three times.” Everything that happens in threes is funny.
Do you remember your biggest fight? And did it happen while you were shooting Idiotsitter? I hope.
J.B.: No, I don’t think we fought during shooting. Did we?
C.N.: No, it wasn’t really a fight. We usually envision things the same way. But there was one scene that we just saw differently. Do you remember this, Jillian? It was episode two with the flash cards and we couldn’t wrap our heads around the other person’s idea. And the crew was just standing there for a half-hour.
J.B.: Oh, right! You really see how much we see eye-to-eye because it’s literally talking about flash cards, which is the smallest thing. I thought that we should hold them a certain way and she saw them as being held a different way.
C.N.: And you saw yourself at your desk and I saw you on the other side of my desk. That is minutia that held up the shooting for a long time.
J.B.: We clearly have no problems.
J.R.: Where did we land with the issue?
J.B.: You won, didn’t you?
C.N.: I won. I won.
J.B.: What do you and Nat fight about?
J.R.: Oh, you know, typical things.
J.B.: Like who’s gonna keep the Oscar?
J.R.: Yeah, like who’s going to keep the Oscar, even though they gave us each one. Who gets to keep both? I don’t understand why we can’t just split them up.
C.N.: We’d just started writing together, when you guys won your Oscar. And we were like, “That’s going to be us someday. We are Nat and Jim. We’re Nat and Jim!”
J.B.: We definitely decided who is who, also.
C.N.: I’m Nat.
J.B.: And I’m definitely Nat. Both of us are Nat.
J.R.: What was the process where you were like, “Neither of us wants to be Jim?”
C.N.: It wasn’t like, “Neither one of us wants to be Jim.” We’re both were just like, “I’m totally Nat!”
J.B.: We did have that one moment when we were like, “Oh, God. Can you imagine if we had to be Jim?”
J.R.: It might be because I was doing that “be an asshole three times” thing. That really chipped away at my likability.
What was it like when you guys started working with a writers room on Idiotsitter?
C.N.: It was a big shock.
J.B.: That was definitely the toughest part of the whole process because we’re so used to sharing a brain. To open that up and have all these other opinions, you feel like an asshole sitting there going, “Oh, no, that’s not the show.” And you also want them to feel that they can create in the space, so you don’t want to shut everything down.
J.R.: There’s probably a growing pain to everyone understanding you guys’ voice.
J.B.: Obviously for a Comedy Central–type show, my character was being a sort of frat boy. So, there are so many ideas. With her character, we wanted to go just as weird, just a different kind of weird and they struggled with that a little bit.
C.N.: And we would be like, “Come on, guys. We can write this character, too.”
J.B.: We had days where we were like, “Come in with ten Billie ideas tomorrow.”
J.R.: Pitching out ideas, was there one where everyone got excited and it was like, “I’m not making it?”
C.N.: Jillian, tell them your murder-mystery one. Jillian loved this idea.
J.B.: I don’t remember how we landed on it happening but it was something where the next-door neighbors came over. And we end up playing a game with them and we think it’s a murder-mystery thing, but, really, the people that live next door are in a cult and they got a signal at the same time that this is the time to go. So, they start dying off slowly — killing themselves off. We think it’s part of the game. There are so many dead bodies.
J.R.: Oh my God. I’d be like, “We’re doing that!” After that sort of fell apart —
C.N.: It never died. It got to the point where everyone was so fervent about it, we were like, “You know what? Just pitch it to Comedy Central.” And Comedy Central said, “No, thank you.” And the pro-murder-mystery camp kept going with it. It wasn’t like they came back and they were sad, they were just like, “We’ll make it different.”
J.R.: “Oh, we have this idea called ‘murder party.’”
J.B.: There was one sad day where we realized it was gone. When we had picked our ten episodes, we needed to map stuff out on the whiteboards. The idea was always in this right corner on this one whiteboard, but we needed that space, so we had to erase it. So, all of us took pictures of it on our phones, so we could save the idea forever, but it was gone.
J.R.: It’s an interview law that I ask this question. I’m always like, “Why do they ask that?” So, I’m going to ask it: Who’s the practical joker on set?
C.N.: Was it Gareth [Reynolds]?
J.R.: Oh, you really have an answer!?
C.N.: Yeah, we have a writer.
J.B.: You think Gareth?
J.R.: Oh my God, this got serious. Now I know why they always ask this question.
C.N.: There was someone who would take gaffers tape and tape over the names on all the chairs — like, the director’s chair, writer’s, whatever — and they would give them different names, like Jillian Bell became Tinker Bell. And the joke was they would never do it to me. Like everyone got a fun name except me.
J.R.: Well, that makes sense.
J.B.: I was going to say my favorite bit with Charlotte was that I would always call her an extra in front of the whole crew.
C.N.: And they’d all speak to me like an extra. They’re like, “Ma’am, can you move over a little bit?” And I’m like, “But I’m in the TV show!” “Just little bit. You’re in the way of the light.”
We also had a bit that no one really liked, which was we’d go, “Best Patrick Swayze movie?” And they’d say their opinions. But it was wrong or right depending on what we thought. So, we’d be like, “Wrong! Wrong! You, best Patrick Swayze movie?” And someone goes, “Dirty Dancing.” “That is correct.”
J.B.: Our poor crew.
J.R.: Do you guys improvise through writing or do you separate stuff and take passes?
C.N.: We ideally do it all together, but we had to start doing it on our own. Right, Jilly?
J.B.: It’s funny. I always think of when we found out that Jessica St. Clair and Lennon Parham improvise everything and then they write it. We don’t have one specific thing that we do. Sometimes we’ll talk about an idea and then one of us will write for 15 minutes. And then I’ll take it for 15 minutes. And then we come back to it and we’ll improvise a little bit.
C.N.: How do you guys write? Jillian, they have an office!
J.R.: We have a super-fancy office. We do a little bit more of what you’re saying. We beat stuff together and I don’t mean writing. We beat off and then we get down to writing. It’s just one of those things guys do. That’s what Nat told me guys do and it seems normal to me.
J.B.: Your motto is “Rub one out, write one out,” right?
C.N.: That’s why they have their own office.
J.R.: Oh, if you walked into our office with a black light, you’d be like, “No, thank you.”
C.N.: Disgusting.
J.R.: You know what? I want that on the record, but off the record, I would say, it’s a very clean place. Off the record, it’s a nice, clean place. On the record, there’s jizz everywhere. But anyway, Nat’s got three kids so I sometimes get obsessed and will go and write for a bit and then bring it back to him either to have it judged or accepted or fixed. We should do just a fun little series, where it’s the four of us.
C.N.: I want to say that Jillian writes with Nat and I write with you.
J.R.: Yeah, we do a mix-and-match session and just see what comes up.
J.B.: I like that.
C.N.: Okay, wow. That was easy.
J.B.: What if we did that and then realized we were with the wrong partners all along? And we gave up our show over it.
C.N.: Jillian!
J.B.: And then you guys threw your Oscars in the trash.
C.N.: Jillian, you just took the Asshole Award away from Jim. You really did.
J.B.: Who should I thank with my new award?
C.N.: No one. This is not the time.
J.B.: Nat, first of all.
J.R.: Well, I feel like now that you’ve won the award, we’ve come to a good place. This has been highly enjoyable. Everyone name their favorite part of this interview. Jillian, you go first. What was your favorite part?
J.B.: Um, I liked the jizz part. That was my favorite.
J.R.: It’s easy going blue. But people love blue. Even in print, jizz is funny. Charlotte?
C.N.: Mine was when Jillian was really late and her manager connected her and we got to talk about her behind her back.
J.B.: Oh, that’s not nice. Now you’ve got the Asshole Award.
J.R.: For me, I think my favorite part — because I want this to come full circle — Jillian, by now you’ve probably found your printout for the meeting with the numbers. I have concerns with our karate company. We have a wonderful product, but money’s going out the door. Jillian, can you pinpoint what you think is the biggest problem with our karate company?
J.B.: Yeah, I think, not enough supplies, honestly.
J.R.: I need you to get specific.
J.B.: Not enough office supplies.
J.R.: Okay, so you’re still sticking with that because I do see that we bought 14 cases of pencils.
C.N.: We bought them in bulk.
J.R.: It’s a lot.
J.B.: And all of those are for breaking. All of those are to hold between your hands and have somebody chop.
J.R.: That stands to a bigger point, which is the problem with our karate philosophy because we’ve asked people to just break pencils and then we give them the highest belt for that. It seems pretty easy. Charlotte, what’s your biggest concern?
C.N.: Advertising.
J.R.: Yeah.
C.N.: I want more ads. I want us in the ads. We are the face of karate. We need people to know that this is what karate looks like.
J.R.: And Jillian, I remember you were really big on these catchphrases. You had it written down. Can you just rattle it off, if they’re in front of you?
J.B.: Yeah. “Karate, more like ‘karat-hey.’ Because we start with hello.”
J.R.: Yeah, love that one. That’s one.
J.B.: The other one was “Hi-Ya doing?”
J.R.: Taking those quickly apart. My concern about “Hi-Ya doing?” is if I’m a customer and I call Hi-Ya Doing Karate and our assistant goes, “Hi-Ya Doing?” it’s going to be a Who’s on First situation. Why don’t you guys call me and I think you’ll know where I’m going with this. Jillian, give me a call.
J.B.: Bring, bring, bring.
J.R.: Hi-Ya Doing?
J.B.: Fine, how are you?
J.R.: I’m fine. Hi-Ya Doing?
J.B.: I’m doing good.
J.R.: Yeah, I know. What I’m saying is how can we help you? You’ve reached Hi-Ya Doing.
J.B.: I’m good.
J.R.: See what I’m saying? These are my concerns, folks.
C.N.: When we get a season two, you’ll be in it?
J.R.: Thank you. This is so petty, but I’ve been just writing down whenever I see mutual friends on the show just so I have it. It’s just a list for me.
J.B.: We have a part where you’re the dean of a college. A community college.
J.R.: Okay, I’m in. I just want some lines I can crush. I just threw up in my mouth.
J.B.: We’re going to give you only crushers. We always say when we’re pitching ideas, “And then the crusher enters. Crushes that line.”
J.R.: At this point, people are like, “Hmm, I want to hear about jizz again.”
This interview has been edited and condensed. |
The Gadget: It's a snowboarding multitool with screwdriver and wrench, as well as a tape measure, bottle opener and tobacco pipe.
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Price: $30
The Lowdown: I'd never go riding without this multitool. The device is sturdy, and the screwdriver's been helpful countless times I'd want to adjust bindings quickly. The handle and spring loaded release for the tool are easily useful with gloves on, and lock at 90 and 180 degree positions for more screwing speed or power. The tape measure is a bit short at 22 inches, so not that great for measuring between the feet when setting wide stances. The entire thing is extremely durable, except the plastic lid for the bits, wrench and pipe. The pipe itself works really really well, as you can see from the photos above where it is being demonstrated, packed, with basis leaves and pencil shavings. The aforementioned plastic shield working as a built in wind shield during lift rides. (You'll still need a pipe lighter and not some cheap bic, though, on the mountain.) If I could redesign it, I'd lose the tape measure, and wrench and build in the lighter.
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[Bakoda]
Snowmodo is our snow sport winter meet up at Lake Tahoe, with prizes, discounts, tons of fun snow activities, a party and GADGETS. If you can make it (and people are coming from TEXAS) please RSVP. I'll let you wear my hat (below). |
Scientists want two commonly used pesticides banned around the world for helping cause the mass deaths of bees and harming the planet's ecosystem.
A panel of independent scientists, operating as the Task Force on Systemic Pesticides, found the pesticides neonicotinoids and fipronil are harming the environment, posing a similar threat as DDT did in the 1960s.
The scientists, who eventually want the use of these pesticides to be phased out globally, say regulatory bodies must at least mandate more precautionary measures and tighter regulations around their use.
Neonics are a popularly used preventative pesticide, being sprayed over crops or coated on plant seeds before there is a pest problem, according to the task force.
They represent 40 per cent of the insecticide market, and global sales tallied more than $2.79 billion in 2011.
'Life would be awful' without bees
After being treated with systemic pesticides, plants absorb and transport them to all their parts: leaves, flowers, roots, stems, pollen and nectar.
The pesticides are then picked up by insects, like bees and butterflies.
We’d be eating porridge, rice, bread — not much else. Life would be awful. - Dave Goulson, one of the report's authors
"Seventy-five per cent of the crops that we eat are pollinated by insects of one type or another — mostly by bees," said professor Dave Goulson, one of the report's authors.
Pollinators, like bees and butterflies, are heavily affected by pesticides.
In bees, exposure can can cause problems with navigation, learning, food collection, disease resistance and reproduction. Exposed bumblebee colonies have grown more slowly and produced fewer queens.
"So, if we didn’t have those bees — if we don’t look after them — then we won’t have most of the fruits that we like to eat, most of the vegetables that we like to eat," said Goulson. "We’d be eating porridge, rice, bread — not much else. Life would be awful."
But not everyone supports the idea of a ban on neonicotinoids. CropLife Canada, a trade association that also represents developers and distributors of pest control products and plant biotechnology, opposes a ban saying the varroa mite is the primary culprit behind declining bee health. It says there is no correlation between pesticide use and bee health.
Beekeeper loses 65 million bees
David Schuit, a former bee hive inspector, lives in Hanover, Ont., and owns Saugeen Country Honey, a family beekeeping business that started in 2007.
David Schuit, owner of Saugeen Country Honey near Hannover, Ont., says he has lost more than 65 million bees over two years. (Saugeen Country Honey/Facebook) Since 2012, the family has lost more than 65 million bees, said Schuit. He estimates he now owns about 2,000 and attributes the monumental decline to the liberal use of neonicotinoids on nearby farms.
Health Canada's Pest Management Regulatory Agency tested the soil on his property for traces of neonicotinoids, he said. In some soil outside the honey house, he said the agency found traces of the pesticide.
"This is no joke. This is reality," he told CBC News. "We need neonicotinoids banned now"
The pesticide exposure impacts a bee's memory, he said, and they struggle to do simple tasks, like find the hive entrance. Bees also have a harder time breeding, and Schuit can't manage to maintain enough queen bees for his business.
Frequently, he comes across Canada geese and other bird carcasses on the fields. He said the birds die after eating exposed seeds coated with the pesticide.
He posts photos and videos documenting the deaths of his bees and the frequency of exposed seeds on the company's Facebook page.
"It's an environmental disaster in the making," he said.
This year, he's moved most of his hives out of the immediate area and into what he calls bear country, "where you can't put a plow on the ground."
There, he said the bees look a lot healthier.
90% goes into environment, not crop
But not just pollinators are exposed. Any animal that munches on the plants or seeds is also at risk. There's also soil and water exposure to take into account.
More than 90 per cent of the pesticide goes into the environment rather than the crop, said Goulson.
Far from protecting food production, the use of neonics is threatening the very infrastructure which enables it. - Dr. Jean-Marc Bonmatin, one of the report's lead authors
In soil, what is known as the pesticide's half-life — or the amount of time it takes for half of the compound to disappear — can be years.
Farmers who use the product annually build up toxicity in the soil, so the pesticide gets into groundwater and then streams, he said.
Soil contamination also exposes terrestrial animals like earthworms. The study's authors claim pesticides have caused behaviour changes in exposed earthworms, like feeding inhibition, as well as death.
Freshwater snails and water fleas suffer the most from water contamination.
"Essentially, we're contaminating the global environment with highly toxic, highly persistent chemicals," said Goulson.
DDT-like threat
While the affected animals may seem insignificant, Goulson warns that biodiversity is essential for humans.
Seventy-five percent of crops humans consume are pollinated by insects, mostly bees, says professor Dave Goulson, one of the authors of a report calling on a worldwide ban of two pesticides linked to declining bee populations. (Stephen Ausmus/Reuters) "We are witnessing a threat to the productivity of our natural and farmed environment equivalent to that posed by organophosphates or DDT," Dr. Jean-Marc Bonmatin, one of the lead authors of the report, said in a written statement.
"Far from protecting food production, the use of neonics is threatening the very infrastructure which enables it, imperilling the pollinators, habitat engineers and natural pest controllers at the heart of a functioning ecosystem."
DDT, which stands for dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, was a liberally used pesticide in the early 1960s. It was banned in 1972 to protect wildlife and people from its toxic effects.
The study points out that some neonics are 5,000 to 10,000 more toxic to bees than DDT.
Health Canada has recommended steps to minimize bee exposure to neonicotinoid during the 2014 spring planting season. The measures for planting treated corn and soybean seeds include:
Reducing dust from coated seeds.
Safer seed planting practices.
Labels with enhanced warnings.
Health Canada said it will closely monitor the 2014 growing season and may take further action after evaluating the outcomes of the new measures.
Health Minister Rona Ambrose called the research done by her department to date "inconclusive."
She also said that Canada is working with the U.S. government on the issue of neonicotinoids and their effects on bees and other pollinators.
"We are constantly absorbing new science and reassessing. If there is a danger to Canadians, then we will act further," she added on Tuesday at an event in Toronto.
The Worldwide Integrated Assessment of the Impact of Systemic Pesticides on Biodiversity and Ecosystems will be published in the peer reviewed Environment Science and Pollution Research journal in a few weeks. The date is still to be determined by the journal. |
Declan Kidney ran a lot of red lights on Thursday evening to get away from the Brian O'Driscoll question. When Declan is rattled, he has a tendency to finish his sentences with the word "okay?".
Declan Kidney ran a lot of red lights on Thursday evening to get away from the Brian O'Driscoll question. When Declan is rattled, he has a tendency to finish his sentences with the word "okay?".
It isn't so much a question as a warning. A kind of shorthand invitation to desist from whatever line of interrogation is being pursued.
Kidney would have known that stripping the captaincy from Ireland's greatest rugby player two weeks before the Six Nations commences would light a small firestorm of speculation, yet he seemed remarkably ill-prepared to face it.
If anything, he sounded like a man just pulling open the shower curtain to find TV cameras at the bathroom door.
Declan, it was clear, had no compelling reason to demote O'Driscoll. To be fair, he didn't peddle the line – as others did – of making a decision with the 2015 World Cup in mind. This was a relief. The notion that Ireland's captain for that tournament might need to be in place 32 months in advance is, to put it mildly, fatuous.
Sam Warburton was a revelation for Wales at the 2011 tournament, exactly three months after being first given the job of captaining his country.
In any event, who is to say how an Irish team sheet will even look three Six Nations tournaments from now? The only thing Ireland (or any country) can realistically plan at this remove from the next World Cup is what they hope to wear. Anything else is hypothetical.
imply
What Kidney did imply on Thursday was that the decision on O'Driscoll was franked by a desire to facilitate his return to full fitness. Or, as Declan specifically put it, to give him "the space" to focus on simply being a player.
This would be credible but for two reasons. Firstly, few sportsmen on this planet have displayed a greater natural facility for leadership than Brian O'Driscoll since first appointed Irish captain by Eddie O'Sullivan in 2003. Secondly, O'Driscoll – palpably – did not feel a need for any such "space".
His reaction to the demotion was, naturally, cushioned in gentle politesse and, even if Ireland bomb in the upcoming tournament, O'Driscoll won't be throwing Kidney under a bus any time soon. It isn't his style.
But if you doubt that this week's announcement was a personal slight on Ireland's Grand Slam captain, you weren't paying much attention to the words of old colleagues like Shane Horgan and Reggie Corrigan.
Both, remember, are former colleagues not just of O'Driscoll but Jamie Heaslip too. And both believe Kidney has been guilty of a shocking call.
Not from fear that Heaslip might come up short of doing a decent job. None exists. He handled the responsibility well in November and his status in Irish rugby is reflected in him holding the most lucrative of all the current IRFU player contracts. But, as Horgan observed, Kidney's decision now places Heaslip in an invidious position within the Irish dressing-room, essentially trying to fill the boots of a man who – presumably – will still be there.
Just this week, Wales' Jamie Roberts described O'Driscoll as the best on-field leader he'd "played with or against". And it certainly isn't beyond the bounds that, should the Clontarf man come unscathed through a full Six Nations programme, Warren Gatland might yet offer him a second term as Lions captain.
There can, then, be no denying he will feel wounded now, needlessly jettisoned from a role in which he has excelled for almost a decade.
Kidney's observation that there was "nothing to say that Brian won't be back as captain in the future" sounded disingenuous, a cheap bouquet tossed his way to cover the gaping cracks of the decision. O'Driscoll turns 34 on Monday. This is, quite probably, his final tournament in an Irish shirt.
So why the nuclear call from a coach whose own contract expires two months from now? O'Driscoll was guardedly critical of the Irish management after last summer's tour of New Zealand, specifically the tangled lines of communication emanating from the coaching staff. Reading that criticism, Kidney could not but have felt a cold wind inside the chest. For the buck stopped with him.
If there was confusion, it had to carry his fingerprints.
That's not to say it was a factor in this week's decision, but you do have to wonder if a certain distance had grown between the Grand Slam coach and captain. Before the November defeat of Argentina, all manner of discord was being hinted at from within the Irish camp and Horgan spoke on Thursday of recent instances in which O'Driscoll "protected" his coach.
What that means, we can but guess for now.
But on Thursday, Kidney's instinct was certainly not to protect O'Driscoll. He may be comfortable with his reasons.
The rest of us can but wonder if they're sound.
Irish Independent |
VANCOUVER — If you were not yet convinced just how much of a gem Vancouver’s Commodore Ballroom really is, then the folks at Billboard just provided you with another reason.
In its July 2 issue, the famed music magazine named the Commodore one of North America’s 10 most influential clubs alongside New York’s Bowery Ballroom, Chicago’s Metro, Los Angeles’ Troubadour and San Francisco’s Fillmore.
The Commodore is the only Canadian venue to make the list, which was cobbled together after Billboard consulted with influential talent agents from the Windish Agency, Billions Corp., William Morris Endeavor, the Agency Group and Paradigm Talent.
“Based on their answers, which were remarkably consistent, we chose these clubs, which can each be defined as influential, a career building block, or just plain cool,” wrote Billboard’s Ray Waddell, adding the list was then verified by Drive-By Truckers’ Patterson Hood, who gave it his seal of approval.
The Commodore certainly fits all of the criteria: Good vibe, great sound, a seasoned history and so many other intangibles that make a club special.
“Obviously we’re very excited,” Commodore Ballroom general manager Gord Knights said. “We’ve always worked toward that goal to be in the Top 10, but we’re also very conscious of the fact that it takes a lot of work every day to make that happen.
“The Commodore has always been looked at as the cornerstone of our live music scene and a strong part of our culture in Vancouver,” he added. “I don’t think there would be a place like the Commodore in Vancouver if we didn’t have the music scene we have here.”
Opened in 1929, the Commodore is the oldest venue on the list.
With its bouncy horsehair dance floor and its ideal concert layout, the club has been the breeding ground of many local, national and international stars, from Bryan Adams to The Guess Who to U2 and beyond.
“Coming up the ranks with Canadian bands, the Commodore was easily the most exciting tour stop on a club level,” said Commodore talent buyer Erik Hoffman. “In Canada, it’s our version of the Fillmore. It’s been the launching ground of so many amazing acts, both domestic and international. There’s new history constantly brewing here.”
The 10 most influential clubs in North America according to Billboard :
1. Bowery Ballroom — New York, N.Y.
2. 9:30 Club — Washington, D.C.
3. The Troubadour — West Hollywood, CA
4. The Empty Bottle — Chicago, IL
5. Metro — Chicago, IL
6. The Fillmore — San Francisco, CA
7. Great American Music Hall — San Francisco, CA
8. The Commodore Ballroom — Vancouver, BC
9. Showbox at The Market — Seattle, WA
10. The Music Box — Los Angeles, CA
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Blog: vancouversun.com/sound
twitter.com/AwesomeSoundVS |
Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander says a challenge to the government's prized citizenship bill by the Toronto lawyer who successfully challenged Justice Marc Nadon's appointment to the Supreme Court of Canada doesn't stand a chance in court.
In an interview on CBC News Network's Power & Politics on Tuesday, Alexander said the challenge "doesn't have much of a hope."
"There is no constitutional issue here," he told host Evan Solomon.
Bill C-24 would give the government powers to strip Canadian citizenship from dual nationals “who were members of an armed force or an organized armed group engaged in armed conflict in Canada.” Citizenship would also be revoked from dual nationals who have been “convicted of terrorism, high treason, or spying offences.”
Toronto lawyer Rocco Galati warned MPs, senators and the Governor General, in separate letters sent on Monday, not to pass Bill C-24 until the government referred a key provision of the bill to the Supreme Court for a legal opinion.
At the heart of Galati's challenge are provisions contained in the citizenship bill that would strip dual nationals of their citizenship and bar them from reacquiring it.
Galati said he would apply for a judicial review with the Federal Court if he did not receive a response from the Governor General by Monday.
Revoking citizenship from dual nationals
Galati, who also appeared on CBC News Network's Power & Politics Tuesday, said the federal government does not have the power to remove the citizenship of persons born in Canada.
"They are acting completely outside of the Constitution in a renegade, reckless and flagrant manner. And they know it," Galati said.
Revoking the citizenship of dual nationals is "offensive," "unconstitutional" and simply "beyond the government's authority," he argued.
The lawyer from Toronto said the bill would give the government powers to revoke the citizenship of dual nationals, but not of those who acquired citizenship after immigrating to Canada as permanent residents.
"Where is the logic in that?" Galati asked.
Alexander noted that Galati represented a relative of former Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr, who is now serving a sentence of eight years behind bars in Canada after pleading guilty to five war crimes.
"He also defended, a senior member, the patriarch of the Khadr family, who was a senior member of al-Qaeda," Alexander said.
Galati once represented Khadr's older brother, Abdurahman Khadr, who was held for a time as an enemy combatant at Guantanamo Bay.
"His objection here seems to be to the idea that committing an act of terrorism, treason, or espionage says anything about your qualifications to be a Canadian citizen. We think it does," Alexander said.
Galati said the minister's comments were "neither here nor there."
The Canadian Bar Association has also raised "serious concerns" with the citizenship bill.
In a 30-page submission to Parliament in April, the Bar Association said the citizenship bill raised “serious human rights concerns” and key provisions in the bill were “likely unconstitutional.”
Alexander said the concerns came from “a small section” of the Bar Association and did not represent the views of Canadians.
The Bar Association will once again give its views on the citizenship bill before a Senate committee on Wednesday. |
At age 12, Kylia Booker knew enough to keep her head down and her mouth shut. Braid your sisters’ pigtails. Get them on the school bus. Walk half a mile to the convenience store to buy groceries with the food-stamp card. Don’t let anyone know you and the babies are home alone ’cause Mama is in jail again. Continue reading
Overlooked As women go to jail in record numbers, who's watching out for their kids? No one.
At age 12, Kylia Booker knew enough to keep her head down and her mouth shut. Braid your sisters’ pigtails. Get them on the school bus. Walk half a mile to the convenience store to buy groceries with the food-stamp card. Don’t let anyone know you and the babies are home alone ’cause Mama is in jail again. For nearly a month, Kylia and her two young sisters lived alone in a rented house in Arlington. No one involved in jailing their mother — not the police, not the courts, not the sheriff’s department — ever checked on them. It was not the first, the last, or even the most dangerous time that the Booker sisters were overlooked by adults who put their mother in jail. “We were really thrown to the wolves, if you think about it,” says Kylia, now 21. When her mother got arrested, she says, “it was always worse for us.” No one in the criminal justice system is responsible for the safety of children whose mothers go to jail, an investigation by The Dallas Morning News has found. Not in North Texas, and not in most communities across the country. While the moms may have committed crimes, the kids are innocent. Most were born and raised in tough circumstances they didn’t choose. When their mothers get locked up, the children often suffer. No agency tracks or monitors the children of people who are arrested, not even of women who are solo caretakers. So no one knows how many kids are home alone because of a parent’s arrest. No one knows how many go to foster care. Or get handed off to inappropriate guardians. Or end up on the streets. Since 2014, the U.S. Justice Department has recommended that police and jailers take steps to ensure that kids are kept safe after a parent is taken into custody, even if the children aren’t present during the arrest. But in and around Dallas, few police departments have adopted policies on how to handle the children of arrestees, they told us in response to a survey. Nationally, a few police departments have, experts say — but most address only kids present when the handcuffs come out. The problem is growing. One 2005 study estimated that almost 250,000 children nationally had single mothers in jail. Since then, the number of women in jails jumped by more than 15 percent, to 109,100 in 2014, according to the Justice Department. In Texas, the number of women in jail has soared by almost 44 percent since 2011, to 5,670 at the end of last year, according to state data. Women now account for about 14 percent of the overall jail population. Women in Texas jails Despite seasonal fluctuations in jail populations, data show the population of women has steadily increased. SOURCE: Texas Commission on Jail Standards Most women in jail — up to 80 percent by some estimates — are mothers, many with more than one child. Many were primary caregivers before they got arrested. “We have to think about the consequences of putting someone in jail — not just the mom, but the consequences for the family and children and community,” says Liz Swavola of the Vera Institute of Justice in New York. To find out what happens in Texas to the children of jailed mothers, The News interviewed lawyers, law enforcement officials and advocates, surveyed hundreds of inmates, and searched thousands of pages of court records. We sent surveys to 760 women from North Texas sentenced within the past four years and serving time in state prison. We received detailed responses from more than 100, who had an average of three children. More than half of the women who responded said that officials did not call in child welfare workers when they were arrested.
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Many turned their children over to family, friends or acquaintances in hopes of avoiding the state’s notoriously troubled foster care system. Last year, an investigation by The News found that state workers failed to check on thousands of infants and children believed to be in imminent danger of abuse or neglect. Several imprisoned mothers we surveyed asked for help tracking down teens who had run away from foster homes. One described what has become a common scenario in Texas: Her children had to sleep in a state office until child welfare workers found places for them to go. In North Texas, the children of jailed mothers account for a significant number of kids in programs for the homeless, says Mark Pierce, who manages that effort for the Dallas Independent School District. “I’ve seen it so many times,” he says. “These are great kids, it’s so hard on them.” Kylia Booker (right), 21, relaxes at her sisters’ Denton home and spends time with her youngest sister, 15-year-old Ja’Bria Roland. (Andy Jacobsohn/Staff Photographer) Kylia, with 16-year-old sister Jessicah Roland, shares a close bond with her sisters. (Andy Jacobsohn/Staff Photographer) Jessicah naps while Ja’Bria plays a game at the home they share with older sisters Ciarra Booker and Cenecia Booker, who goes by Neci. (Andy Jacobsohn/Staff Photographer) Ja’Bria holds the phone for Neci as she gets a haircut from Felicia Griffin at Hair Couture Salon in DeSoto. (Andy Jacobsohn/Staff Photographer) Kylia (left), with older sisters Neci and Ciarra, were sometimes left unsupervised, even as very young children. (Andy Jacobsohn/Staff Photographer) Ciarra, 28, with Ja’Bria, remembers her upbringing and that of her sisters in detail. (Andy Jacobsohn/Staff Photographer) An unpaid ticket The voices of these children are rarely heard — which is why the five Booker sisters agreed to tell the story of their mother’s arrests and their own abandonment by the criminal justice system. They told it over months, chatting in a bug-infested apartment complex, sharing Flamin’ Hot Cheetos at a QuikTrip, trying tacos near the juvenile courthouse, driving almost three hours to visit their mother in prison. Kylia, the middle daughter, is the most reflective. Ciarra, the eldest at 28, remembers all the details. Neci, the disciplined 23-year-old, plans for their futures. Jessicah and Ja’Bria — ages 16 and 15 — entertain their older sisters and rarely put down their cellphones. The sisters finish each other’s stories. Like soldiers, they share a tight, tough bond. The Bookers’ lives began in turmoil. Their mother, Malishia, had the first of her daughters when she was just 15 and living in a housing project in East St. Louis. She later had two sons, who were raised by their fathers’ families there. By the time she was living in Dallas in 1997, there were three little Booker girls: Ciarra, just shy of 9, Neci, 4, and Kylia, then 23 months old. They were sometimes left unsupervised; neighbors complained to social workers, while their mom tried to hold down a customer-service job near Irving. But their family’s spiral into outright chaos began with the most minor of problems: an unpaid traffic ticket. The offense was so small that the ticket itself isn’t included in the reams of court and jail records we reviewed over the course of months to help piece together the sisters’ story. On Dec. 10, 1997, Malishia was pulled over near DFW International Airport and arrested on a warrant for the unpaid ticket. She spent at least a day in jail. There is no record anyone asked her about her girls. A concerned neighbor, not the police, called Child Protective Services. Malishia Booker’s frequent arrests resulted in her kids sometimes being kept by their grandmother, sometimes by the two youngest girls’ father — and sometimes on their own. (Andy Jacobsohn/Staff Photographer) Child welfare workers separated the girls. Ciarra went to live with her maternal grandmother. But Lula Booker worked the night shift in customer service for American Airlines and was raising a disabled son; she couldn’t manage all three girls. Social workers placed Kylia and Neci in different foster homes. It took a year, but after the girls pleaded with a judge to be kept together, they were given into the custody of their grandmother — who turned them back over to their mother in the courthouse parking lot. Jail population Nobody’s mother is supposed to stay long in jail, which generally holds people who have been accused but not convicted of a crime. Sometimes, people serve short sentences there for minor offenses. But since 2010, the number of women incarcerated in jails has been growing at a faster rate than any other correctional population in the U.S. Because of the traditional turnover in jail populations, however, researchers looking at female inmates and their families have tended to focus on state and federal prisons, where convicts usually serve longer sentences for more serious crimes. Federal studies of prison populations show dramatic differences in who cares for the kids of male and female inmates. Men almost always rely on their children’s mothers to take care of them. Women turn far more often to grandparents, relatives and friends. Their children are five times as likely as men’s to end up in foster care. Lawyers often advise women awaiting sentences in jail not to discuss their kids for fear they could be accused of child neglect on top of their existing charges. For the same reason, some experts say, women do not always tell court personnel if their kids are home alone.
Where are the kids? We asked women in prison what happened to their kids when they were arrested. Click on the letters below to read a few of their stories. Tell us your story.
x Leslieann Griffin The 12-year-old girl came home from school one day in Garland and her mom was just gone. Leslieann Griffin was in jail. Her daughter had no idea that months before, her mother had pleaded guilty to criminal charges for stealing from her employer. Griffin had stopped making restitution payments for nearly $50,000 worth of clothing, Coach purses and jewelry she’d illegally charged to a company credit card while working for a transportation firm in Grand Prairie. She had violated her probation and was now being held without bond. Neither police nor child welfare workers checked on her daughter while she was in jail, according to Griffin. “If I had been living alone, I’d have had no way to contact her,” Griffin says. “She could have been alone for days.” In fact, Griffin’s boyfriend was living in her home and broke the news to her daughter, who lived with him for at least a week. The child’s father (who lived in a different city) had learned what happened and came to get her. He did not respond to requests for comment. During the boyfriend’s one visit to the jail, he told Griffin what happened to her daughter — and then broke up with her.
x Holly Martin Holly Martin told us that she feared her children had been living on the streets since her arrest in Grayson County in 2015. It was partly true, and finding them took months. The News located Emiley Thompson, her oldest daughter, through court records and Facebook. Emiley’s friends call her “Lil’ Bit.” We traded messages for months, and talked briefly on the phone. She texted: “My lifes not been easy by far and the majority of that is because of fake twisted poor excuse people with a badge.” Emiley is an adult now, and had a handful of people she was able to crash with while her mom was initially jailed, she told us. She eventually went to stay with her dad in a town north of Dallas, near the Oklahoma border. For her brother and sister, both under 18, it’s been even harder. Their father died recently and they had no one else. Her brother got in trouble with the law and went to a juvenile detention boot camp for a while. Everything has been tough since their mother went to prison for drugs in 2011. After her first incarceration, she struggled to find a safe place to live with her kids, Martin says. They ended up living with people involved in the drug trade; she was charged with child endangerment in Grayson County and sent back to jail. The system doesn’t do enough to help women avoid falling back into addiction and criminal activity after completing prison, Martin says. What would help families like hers? “Figure out ways to help people get clean before it gets to the point of no return,” she wrote.
x Yuryana Cornejo Tapia-Juarez Three-year-old Elijah Blu Cornejo was playing in a park in Oak Cliff when the police arrived. They were there to arrest Mommy. Before taking Yuryana Cornejo Tapia-Juarez to the Dallas County Jail on drug charges in February 2016, police allowed her to call her sister, asking her to pick up Elijah. Which she did — and then promptly turned him over to Child Protective Services. What would happen to Elijah now? The day after his mother’s arrest, social workers drove him to a nice home on a cul-de-sac to live with Abby and Matt, a couple who said in an interview that they view foster care as their Christian mission. They spoke to The News on the condition we not use their last name. He was scared when he arrived, and cried out for Mommy. They told him that the Apostle Paul was once in prison, like his mom. “Is Mommy with Paul?” Elijah asked. In the backyard, he pretended to be arrested, clutching a Nerf ball behind his back as if he were wearing handcuffs. Just because people make mistakes doesn’t mean they’re bad people, his foster parents told him. They tracked his mother down at her court-ordered drug treatment program and paid for phone calls between mother and son. A year after Yuryana’s arrest, everyone suddenly wanted Elijah. His foster parents. An old boyfriend who said he was the father (a DNA test proved him wrong, court records show). Yuryana’s aunt and uncle in Florida, Carmen and Isidro Soto. Isidro installs flooring and paints houses; Carmen takes care of their sons, 12 and 17. They passed background checks and home visits, and traveled to Dallas several times for supervised visits and court hearings, according to court testimony. Both the Sotos and the foster parents initially said Yuryana could remain part of Elijah’s life. She had trouble making up her mind who should get him. Matt and Abby went to court seeking permanent custody that would end her parental rights. When the case went to trial this month, they paced the hallway outside the courtroom. Inside, Carmen sat with her hands folded in prayer. Yuryana never arrived —- jail officials blamed a paperwork error — so the pressed blue shirt and black dress pants Carmen brought for her lay slumped on a court bench. The two sides were supposed to argue about Elijah’s best interest. But the foster parents’ lawyer failed to file a key document; the judge dismissed them from the case. Matt and Abby left the courthouse in tears and filed an appeal. Carmen and Isidro were now Elijah’s guardians. This meant another fast goodbye for Elijah, this time to his foster family. He sobbed as a social worker picked him up in a black Nissan, took him out for chocolate-chip ice cream, then dropped him off with Carmen and Isidro. The Sotos left for Florida immediately. They wanted to take Elijah to the beach so he could wiggle his toes in the sand.
x Marlene Gonzales When a stranger left a 6-year-old girl in a driveway in Lubbock, the homeowner promptly called 911. Police and child welfare workers arrived to investigate the case of little Catalina Maree. Hours later on Sept. 30, 2016, officers found the child’s mother, 31-year-old Marlene Gonzales, disoriented and begging for gas money at a Lubbock convenience store, according to a police report. She was holding her newborn son, Isaiah. He, too, went into protective care. Gonzales was arrested on an old drunken-driving charge and transferred to the Potter County Jail. She wasn’t eligible for bail. In a journal, she drew hearts near the names of her children: “Love you guys always. My days seem endless here. Under this bunk I lay here, hoping I haven’t been forgotten.” But where were her other four children? Her parents and siblings, who live in Amarillo, scrambled to find out. Their task was made harder when she died in jail last October. Officials reported her cause of death as hyponatremia, dangerously low sodium levels after she allegedly drank too much water. The Gonzales family is dubious. It took months — and help from a lawyer and a detective — for them to find their daughter’s kids. One was in the custody of child welfare officials in New Mexico, where she had an abusive boyfriend. Three others, it turned out, had been taken in by the families of their fathers. Because Gonzales’ parents have their own criminal records, they were unable to get custody of any of the children. The last time they saw Catalina Maree was when a child welfare worker brought her to Marlene Gonzales’ funeral, to say goodbye.
Rocks in her pocket Kylia wiped the vomit off Malishia’s face as she lay in the back of a police car, handcuffed. It was Oct. 15, 2007, and the police had doused Malishia with pepper spray, Tasered her and arrested her in front of her girls — in front of their whole neighborhood in suburban Arlington. She had gotten into an ugly fight with Jesse Roland III, a drug dealer who went by the street name Cisco. He was also the father of her two youngest girls, though he didn’t live with the family. The fight started, the girls recall, because Jessicah, 7 at the time, had been out with her dad when he thought police officers were about to stop and frisk him. At 7, Jessicah had drugs planted on her by her father, who feared officers were going to frisk him. When her mother found out, chaos ensued. (Booker Family) Jessicah remembers that Cisco hid a little baggie of white rocks in her pocket and said, “Don’t tell Mommy.” She didn’t keep his secret. Their mom went wild. She chased Cisco through the subdivision, threatening him with a knife. Neighbors called police. Malishia had been drinking; she was combative. When police told her they were taking her to jail, she knocked an officer down, according to the police report. She was face down and handcuffed when they broke out the pepper spray. The police report indicates Malishia told the officers that Cisco had been violent in the past — he had served time for attacking her when she was eight months pregnant. But the police didn’t call child welfare to the scene that night; a note in the police report suggested officers send a copy later to state social workers because there didn’t seem to be enough beds in the house. Instead, police left the girls at Malishia’s house — with Cisco. A spokesman for the Arlington Police Department defended this decision in an email to The News: “Officers on scene had responded to a violent call, made assessments about how to handle the call based upon what they were seeing and being told, and decided that the children would be safe with their father for the evening.” If both parents had been arrested, the spokesman said, an officer would have attempted to release the children to immediate family after consulting child welfare workers. The department also has victim’s advocates who can respond to scenes where children are present. The procedures many police departments use to hand off children at the scene of an arrest are haphazard, experts say. Officers must usually call Child Protective Services if they suspect child abuse or neglect, but other cases are left to officers’ discretion. Police often turn children over to whichever adult steps forward to take them, our survey and police reports show. Unlike state welfare agencies, most departments don’t require vetting of prospective guardians, so someone involved in criminal or drug activity — or even with a history of abuse — can take the kids. The police do their best, says Dean Habel, a deputy chief at the Farmers Branch Police Department, which we spoke to as part of our survey of local law enforcement. His department doesn’t have a specific policy on arresting mothers. He recalled one sharp-eyed patrol officer who noticed an empty baby seat in the car of a woman he had stopped on suspicion of drunken driving. He took the time to ensure the child was somewhere safe after arresting the mother, Habel says. But, he adds, “it could have just as easily gone the other way.”
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A child in charge Kylia and her sisters did not spend much time with Cisco after Malishia was arrested that day — in swooped their grandmother and eldest sister, Ciarra, then 18 and living in an apartment nearby with a girlfriend. Both were furious that the cops would even consider leaving children in Cisco’s care. He had never had legal custody, and his felony convictions would have made him ineligible to be an approved caregiver under state rules. Once again, no one in jail or court appears to have asked Malishia who was taking care of her kids, records show. Cisco stayed in Malishia’s house for a few days, pawning a television and washer-dryer she had leased. After about a month, a Tarrant County judge gave her five years of probation. All she had to do was stay out of trouble. But soon police were knocking on their door in Arlington again, in January 2008. While jailed, Malishia couldn’t make payments on the rental appliances Cisco pawned. The store filed a misdemeanor complaint for theft of service. Police noticed Kylia, Jessicah and Ja’Bria were home, and because Malishia was so cooperative, the arrest report states, they allowed her to call a friend down the street to take care of them. She was in and out of the Arlington jail before the girls got home from school that day. But a few weeks later, the girls returned from school to an empty house. Malishia had turned up late for a Tarrant County court hearing. The judge threw her in jail on the spot. Authorities said she had violated her probation, so she was not eligible to post bail. She doesn’t recall anyone asking about her kids. That is how Kylia ended up in charge at age 12. Their mother says she assumed the girls would call their grandmother. But they didn’t want to tell Grandma, they say now, because it would have worsened the relationship between the two adults in their lives. And the sisters would rather struggle on their own than risk ending up in foster care. Kylia knew how to fix grilled cheese and get her sisters ready for school, she says. She could call Ciarra if she were scared — but she doesn’t remember being afraid. Left: Top: “We were really thrown to the wolves, if you think about it,” Kylia says. When her mother got arrested, she says, “it was always worse for us.” Top right: Bottom left: Youngest sister Ja’Bria is along for the ride as Neci gets a haircut. Bottom right: Kylia chats with Jessicah as they wait for service at an auto shop in Denton. (Andy Jacobsohn/Staff Photographer) “I always felt like I was a grown-up,” Kylia says today. Later that year, Kylia left a deep-fryer plugged in; it caught fire and burned down the rental house. Nobody was home, so no one was hurt. But now Kylia wonders: What would have happened if Malishia had been in jail then? Suggested safeguards In Montgomery County, Texas, in 2012, a letter carrier discovered siblings — ages 11 and 5 — living in an abandoned, garbage-filled school bus in the woods while their parents were serving prison time. The next year, a mother in South Carolina made headlines when her three young children were found home alone while she was jailed on check fraud charges. Law enforcement officials know kids are being overlooked. In 2014, the Justice Department published a booklet of policy suggestions called “Safeguarding Children of Arrested Parents,” in conjunction with the International Association of Chiefs of Police. The following year, it published additional guidelines for keeping kids safe during arrests, titled “First, Do No Harm.” The suggested policies say officers should ask people being booked into jail for the names and ages of their children, along with contact information for those who will be caring for the kids. Police officers or child welfare workers should follow up to make sure the children are safe. “Is it easy to do? No. Is it the right thing to do? Yes,” says Yost Zakhary, who was president of the police chiefs’ organization when the report came out and is the city manager of Woodway, a suburb of Waco. He says he believes agencies should adopt these policies to help officers in the field who are wrestling with questions about how to handle children: “Do we take the kids? Do we call CPS? Who do you give the children to? “And do we know that they’re any safer with that person than they would be coming with us?” Courts and jails often have information about children — but don’t use it to help them, critics say. Inmates sometimes fill out forms listing dependents when seeking a public defender or when they want their kids to visit them in jail. Almost every time the Booker girls’ mother was jailed in Tarrant County after 2007, she filled out an affidavit of indigency. Each time, she listed her five daughters as dependents, with names and ages. No one checked on them. View note Bad news Despite everything, the two youngest girls ended up back with Cisco after their mom’s arrest in 2009, surviving off Cheetos, their grandmother says, and witnessing him snort cocaine. Malishia’s probation had been revoked after drug tests showed she was using marijuana and she failed a treatment program; she would spend three years in prison. Lula Booker quickly took in the four youngest girls — but she needed help. That is how the girls met Barb Haflich — a.k.a. Miss Barb — the social services coordinator for the Denton Independent School District. Miss Barb couldn’t fix their mother’s legal troubles or their own trauma. But she could get them bus rides, lunches, clothes. She could help them stay at the same school, after they had moved around so much. (Kylia says she attended almost a dozen over the years.) Barbara Haflich, Denton ISD social worker and homeless liaison, helped the sisters stay in the same school while assisting with bus rides, meal and clothes. (Andy Jacobsohn/Staff Photographer) “They were vulnerable,” Haflich says. “What I could do for them is guarantee educational stability.” The reason school districts have a “Miss Barb” is a federal law guaranteeing school enrollment and assistance for homeless youth, including those who have no permanent residence because a parent is in jail or prison. Miss Barb was the one adult outside the family who helped make sure they were OK, the girls say. “School was grounding for me,” Kylia says. “That was our safe haven.” Left: Top: The sisters arrived at the Christina Melton Crain Unit in Gatesville this spring to visit their mother, Malishia, in prison. Right: Bottom: Malishia is serving a 20-year sentence for aggravated assault against a public servant, kidnapping and evading arrest. (Tom Fox and Andy Jacobsohn/Staff Photographers) Responsibility The Booker girls’ mother says she feels both angry and guilt-stricken about what has happened to her daughters. “I hope my children have learned what not to do by my example,” Malishia told The News during a prison interview. “They are survivors. But this has been unfair for my children because they try to fill roles that they should not have to.” Women like Malishia don’t get a lot of sympathy in the criminal justice system. As the chief public defender for Dallas County, Lynn Pride Richardson says she gets really tired of telling judges, jailers and prosecutors that a female defendant needs to get home to take care of her kids, only to hear, “She should have thought of that before ...” A lot of the women her office represents are victims of family violence and trauma, she says. “These people are overwhelmed by so many issues, you need compassionate judges and decision makers,” she says. “It’s not easy to dig yourself out of poverty.” One potential solution she sees to the problem of overlooked kids: getting their mothers legal representation for Dallas County bail hearings when they first enter jail. Women in jail in Tarrant County In Tarrant County, females account for an increasing share of the population. SOURCE: Texas Commission on Jail Standards In Dallas, magistrates set most defendants’ bonds using a schedule that takes into account the seriousness of the alleged crime and any prior convictions — but does not account for a defendant’s family responsibilities or ability to pay. Having a lawyer should help women make their cases for getting out of jail on personal recognizance or bail they can afford. A federal judge in Houston recently ruled that by failing to take into account arrestees’ individual circumstances, the Texas bail system is “fundamentally unfair” to poor people. The lead plaintiff in that lawsuit? A mother heading home to her children who was jailed for an unpaid traffic ticket. Other counties in Texas are starting to use risk assessment evaluations instead of a cash bail system. One recent study found that in Tarrant County, which uses purely cash bail, defendants sat in jail longer than in Travis County, which uses a risk assessment tool to determine who is eligible for bond. Tarrant is also the most populous county in Texas without a public defender’s office. Another change Richardson and other advocates would like to see: Stop punishing women for speaking up about their kids at home by piling on child-neglect charges. “We can’t have a system that turns around and prosecutes them for it,” Richardson says. A new change in the law may make it easier for families to step up and help jailed women. In Texas, relatives who take in children do not receive the financial stipend that unrelated foster parents do. But now low- and moderate-income relatives are supposed to get at least some financial assistance, though less than unrelated guardians.
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When Texas Gov. Rick Perry made news last year for saying that those who opposed the education of immigrant kids didn't have a heart, it was widely seen as a gaffe that helped bring down his presidential campaign.
But three weeks after the 2012 election, the GOP-dominated House on Friday passed an immigration bill aimed at expanding visas for college graduates focused on science and technology – a proposal that could serve as the precursor of comprehensive immigration reform, complete with "heart" as it echoed appreciation of immigrant contribution.
The GOP's dramatic philosophical turnaround on immigration policy has been pilloried by critics on both the left and right as tokenism after Hispanics soundly broke for Obama.
Yet with Rick Perry's Texas likely to emerge as the state to challenge Obama's vision of a stronger federal government, the lessons from the state, particularly on immigration, are being taken more seriously after what many Republicans saw as a withering election defeat on Nov. 6.
QUIZ: Could you pass a US citizenship test?
To be sure, the GOP is being pulled in a dozen different directions as it preps its backbench of state leaders to take a more definitive role in guiding the party back to electoral viability. For one, the GOP's Washington establishment wing and its conservative tea party wing are drawing vastly different forensic conclusions from the wreckage of the race, including how, or if, to polish its immigration rhetoric.
Mitt Romney's departure from the national stage, writes Steve Peoples of the Associated Press, has "left the GOP rudderless, lacking an overarching agenda, and mired in infighting, with competing visions for the way ahead …"
Yet particularly on immigration reform, Texas has emerged as one potent example of how Republican ideologies can not only coexist, but thrive in a diverse population, including huge numbers of legal and illegal Hispanics.
One major example: Mr. Perry won reelection in 2010 in part by winning 38 percent of the Hispanic vote, at a time when Perry – who in most ways is more conservative than Romney – had thrown his lot in with the tea party.
The Texas example shows that "it's possible to conceive of a Republican party that includes conservatives but doesn't pander to nativists," writes Texas Monthly's Erica Grieger, the author of the upcoming book "Big, Hot, Cheap and Right: What America can learn from the strange genius of Texas."
"Republicans don't need to win the Hispanic vote to win an election, even in a majority-minority state like Texas,” she writes. “They just need to stop losing it so aggressively."
Of course it's easy for Texas Republicans to ballyhoo their inroads with the Hispanic voting demographic. After all, the state was carved out of Mexico, and Anglo and Hispanic cultures are culturally, economically and socially intertwined, much more so than in states that have seen more recent migrations of undocumented immigrants like Georgia, Ohio, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania.
But in modern times, politicians like former Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Mr. Perry have supported pro-immigration legislation, including, in Perry's case, a DREAM Act that helped illegal immigrant kids go to college. Texas Republicans have also been careful to use inclusive language, as in the case of Bush, spoken in Spanish.
Texas is already providing some answers to the GOP leadership vacuum, as well. Tea party favorite Ted Cruz, a small government conservative, former editor of the Harvard Law Review and now US Senator-elect, gave a speech this week that hinted at a potential presidential run in 2016. Other emerging conservatives have strong immigrant roots, including, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.
"As a senator from Texas, the largest and most important state in the Republican firmament, Cruz has a special role in the post-Romney debate," the New Yorker's Ryan Lizza wrote recently.
In his speech Thursday night, Mr. Cruz, who was born in Canada to a Cuban father and American mother, described what he called "opportunity conservatism." He talked about how the American ideal of personal transformation was betrayed by Mitt Romney's "47 percent" remark, which he said underscored a misguided idea that there's a "fixed and static pie" where "the rich are rich and the poor are poor."
"The essence of the conservative message should be we want a dynamic nation where anybody with nothing can achieve anything," Cruz said.
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An immigrant's dream, writ into conservative philosophy, observed from the border frontier of Texas – it's now up to Republicans nationally to decide whether Mr. Cruz's vision is one they can support.
QUIZ: Could you pass a US citizenship test? |
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ST. LOUIS (KTVI) - Summer in St. Louis means its convention season and that's big business for the Bi-State region.
'Yeah we got about 1500 people in St. Louis for our national conference, a little more than 1500,' says Gary Arnold, President of Little People of America. 'It's a national conference that we hold.'
Since 1957 the little people of America have been getting together, this year in the Gateway City for a national conversation.
'When we talk about language we're trying to get people to stop using the word midget,' says Arnold. 'We refer to it sometimes as the "M" word.'
Across the river, the small town of Freeburg, Illinois is home to numerous trophies and state championship honors for their high school team with a nickname that's not acceptable for this group.
'Newspaper reporter covering the team began referring to the team as the Midgets from Freeburg and is kind of struck a chord with the community and that's how it got started,' says Andrew Lehman, Superintendent Freeburg.
Some 85 year after it's beginning, Wednesday a group from the Little People of America organization delivered a petition with more than 3,800 names asking the board of education to boot the mascot for a new name.
'Is that even a consideration?' asks Patrick Clark.
'Well I can't say no to that but it's also not,' says Lehman. 'Again that's for the board to decide.'
Superintendent Andrew Lehman says he'll give the petitions to the board for review.
On a day after the Washington Redskins lost their trademark, and South Carolina considers confederate flags, one group says the name should go.
'It was a common term to identify people of short stature but that's changed, and I think it's time for the school to change also,' says Arnold. |
What if I told you…that someone would eventually make a documentary about Rick Pitino’s infamous restaurant bathroom sexual encounter with the woman who later married Pitino’s assistant, and later still tried to extort him and was sentenced to seven years in jail for that? Well, if you bet the someone in question would be Barstool Sports, you’re correct.
That’s just one of a slew of topics the site plans to cover in short-form documentaries. As founder Dave Portnoy and CEO Erika Nardini told Digiday’s Sahil Patel, they intend to boldly go where ESPN usually doesn’t. They kicked the series off with a 10-minute short on the drunken antics of Buffalo Bills’ fans (including the chapter on the infamous dildo-throwers, which is pictured above) released a couple of weeks ago, and they have much more in the works:
“It’s the perfect documentary for us,” said Barstool Sports CEO Erika Nardini. “It’s on a subject matter that most people would view as funny or crass, and we’ve turned it into something that’s cinematic but still funny. You’ll see that in other things that we do.” Since its release, “#BillsMafia” has collected 7 million video views across BarstoolSports.com, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. It’s the first of six documentary shorts that Barstool plans to release by the end of the year, all covering topics in Barstool’s wheelhouse. Topics include the sex scandal involving Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino, the “Balloon Boy” hoax and the controversy surrounding NFL linebacker Manti Te’o’s nonexistent dead girlfriend. “ESPN’s not doing a ‘30 for 30’ on Te’o’s dead girlfriend or ‘Six Seconds of Fury’ with Rick Pitino; we will,” said Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy. “Traditional documentaries mostly appeal to a far more established audience,” added Nardini. “We’re appealing to the same guys who follow us on Instagram and love ‘Saturdays are for the Boys,’ and saying we’re going to give them a documentary, too.”
Social media views are notoriously unreliable , so take those stats with a grain of salt (especially as they’re presented without the average amount of time viewers watched for), but it’s clear the Bills’ film at the least managed to attract an audience. And it’s quite possible these other ones will too; Barstool has a prominent brand and a substantial audience, these subjects seem like a fit for both, and there are plenty of people who want to watch more on subjects like the Pitino scandal. Portnoy’s quite right that none of those particular subjects seem likely to draw the standard 30 for 30 treatment either, or even a 30 for 30 short. 30 for 30 certainly isn’t extensively profiling dildo-throwing fans.
It will be worth keeping an eye on how these later documentaries are constructed, though. The documentary on the Bills’ fans got decent access, but it had plenty of willing participants. Will Barstool be able to get any sort of access to the key players in stories like the Pitino or Te’o ones? Or will this just be people opining about it from afar? The latter approach might work too (especially as it’s been long enough since those stories that there will probably be some people eager to hear about them again, or for the first time), but it would be quite different from what we’ve usually seen in the sports documentary field. And Patel notes that while Barstool is fronting the costs for these, it may be harder to make that money back from a sponsorship on touchier subjects like the Pitino one.
In any case, there certainly seems to be more of a plan for video here than we’ve seen in other recent shifts in that direction. And it’s easy to see why Barstool would greenlight short documentaries on subjects that fit their brand and audience; there’s a lot to suggest that might work, and in the case of this first one at least, it appears to have done pretty decently. It will be interesting to see how the later ones come together and how the views stack up for them, though. And it will be worth watching how they’re received, and if Barstool keeps going with this plan after this initial wave.
[Digiday] |
Have you ever noticed how frustrating it is to argue with people about politics on the Internet: like trying to use your head to knock down a brick wall? Well, keep in mind that the feeling is probably mutual.
But also consider the practical utility of that brick wall: the rational interest many people have in being close-minded and wedded to false beliefs. As economist Bryan Caplan has written:
“...irrationality, like ignorance, is sensitive to price, and false beliefs about politics and religion are cheap. If you underestimate the costs of excessive drinking, you can ruin your life. In contrast, if you underestimate the benefits of immigration, or the evidence in favor of the theory of evolution, what happens to you? In all probability, the same thing that would have happened to you if you knew the whole truth.”
Just as holding a comforting false belief is rock-bottom cheap, so is expressing a socially-advantageous false belief.
False beliefs about economics and political philosophy may be devastating in aggregate, but for the individual the cost of choosing to embrace fallacy is negligible. So, as Caplan argues, it is perfectly rational for many to stubbornly cling to false but “emotionally appealing” beliefs. There are no individual, internalized costs that could possibly outweigh whatever emotional benefit the false belief might have.
Caplan wrote the passage quoted above in 2006. Last year, British writer James Bartholomew coined a term and crystallized a concept that is highly complementary to Caplan’s analysis: virtue signaling.
Virtue and Vanity
Most of what passes for political discourse on the Internet does not consist of actual attempts to persuade. Rather, the opiners are like preening birds, chirping for anyone within earshot to signal that, “I am a decent, virtuous person,” usually adding, “unlike the troglodyte rightwingers or degenerate leftists I’m denouncing.”
Such virtue signalling is socially profitable. When others in your social set detect that you faithfully subscribe to that set’s orthodoxy, they become better disposed toward you. This can result in professional, social, even romantic opportunities.
And just as holding a comforting false belief is rock-bottom cheap, so is expressing a socially-advantageous false belief.
But in addition to this rational interest, there is a compulsive, pathological component to virtue signaling as well. That part is baggage from the way we are all raised as kids.
Political Tattling
When children are free to learn from undirected experiences, they learn to conceive of truth as something that guides the successful pursuit of their own goals. But in the domineering, tightly-directed environments of school and the modern household, we condition our children to conceive of truth as received wisdom handed down by authority.
Thanks to this conditioning, we have all become approval-junkies, always on the lookout for our next fix of external validation.
Children are largely deprived of the noble joy of discovering truths as revealed by successful action. Instead they are left with the ignoble gratification of pleasing a taskmaster by reciting an answer that is marked “correct.” And this goes far beyond academics. For the modern child, learning “good behavior” is not about discovering through trial and error what kinds of behaviors are conducive to thriving socially. Instead, it’s about winning praise and avoiding censure from authority figures.
Thanks to this conditioning, we have all become approval-junkies, always on the lookout for our next fix of external validation: for the next little rush of dopamine we get whenever we are patted on the head by others for being a “good boy” or a “good girl,” for exhibiting the right behavior, for giving the right answer, for expressing the right opinion.
This is why the mania for virtue signalling is so ubiquitous, and why orthodoxies are so impervious. Expressing political opinions is not about hammering out useful truths through the crucible of debate, but about signaling one’s own virtue by “tattling” on others for being unvirtuous: for being crypto-commies or crypto-fascists; for being closet racists or race-traitor “cucks;” for being enemies of the poor or apologists for criminals.
Much of our political debate consists of our abused inner children basically calling out, “Teacher, teacher, look at me. I followed the rules, but Johnny didn’t. Johnny is a bad boy, and he said a mean word, too. Teacher look what Trump said. He should say sorry. Teacher look what Hillary did. You should give her detention.”
You can’t expect much enlightenment to emerge from this level of discourse.
An Alternative Approach to Advancing Liberty
This may make the situation seem hopeless for advocates of the freedom philosophy. How can we convince the public about the virtues of freedom, when they are only concerned with signaling their own virtue and are so heedless of argument and reason?
One solution might be to focus on how the freedom philosophy can benefit people in their own lives individually.
For example, children thrive and develop wonderfully under freedom: when their parents adopt unschooling and peaceful parenting. Parents can deny this; they can cling to their false authoritarian beliefs about child rearing. But, unlike with public policy questions, being wrong on the question of parenting is extremely expensive on the individual level. Parents can choose to virtue signal that they, like all “decent” people, support public schools and condemn their kids to a decade-plus sentence of forced desk labor, but only if they pay the cost: ending up with alienated, stressed-out, frivolous kids with no spirit of enterprise.
The seeker of self-improvement actually has skin in the game.
Unlike with policy debates, parents actually have a direct, internalized stake in arriving at the right answer to the parenting question. Once parents accept that the freedom philosophy is true when it comes to their children, it will be easier for them to see how it is true for society in general. And children raised in freedom are more apt to recognize its virtues across the board as well. It’s hard to imagine an unschooled kid growing up to be an authoritarian adult.
Also, adults who have already been institutionalized by schools and made neurotic by domineering parents often imbibe a docile, dependent, permission-based mindset that holds them back in their career and in life in general. And they often find themselves gravitating toward unfree environments, routines, and relationships that compound the damage done in their childhoods.
Understanding the freedom philosophy (especially the character-building nature of liberty and the character-corroding natures of both power and servitude) can be an individual’s first step toward breaking free from these destructive mindsets and environments. (Indeed, even many libertarians have not deinstitutionalized themselves in this way.) And again, concerning this question, the seeker of self-improvement actually has skin in the game, and so has every interest in being open to a philosophy that can turn his/her life around.
This is the kind of approach that the exciting company Praxis has taken: using the freedom philosophy, deschooling, and the spirit of entrepreneurship to help launch the careers and change the lives of young people from all across the country.
Imagine a world-wide libertarian community that consists of fewer Internet virtue-signalers and would-be politicos, and an ever-rising number of entrepreneurial, wealth-building, value-creating, life-affirming individuals who astound and inspire all who know them. What exemplars of, and walking arguments for, the greatness of liberty such men and women would be.
Maybe freedom lovers should stop expending so much energy bashing our heads against the brick wall of policy disputation, and instead try the open door of appealing to self-interest: by promoting the freedom philosophy, not just as a political philosophy, but as a life philosophy. |
Abortion is illegal. And protecting, committing, funding, or participating in the act is criminal. Period.
The truth of my assertion can easily be seen in America’s founding documents, for example:
In the Declaration of Independence, our founders were acknowledging a “self-evident truth” wherein they stated, “All men are created equal with certain unalienable rights.” Did you catch that? They were not “born equal,” but rather “created equal” by their Creator with certain unalienable rights – chiefly life. And we all know every human being is created in the womb of their mother.
After Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez said last week that the party’s position on abortion is:
“Every Democrat, like every American, should support a woman’s right to make her own choices about her body and her health,” he continued, “That is not negotiable.”
Next, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer unequivocally asserted, “Let’s make no mistake about it, we’re a pro-choice party.”
This followed by Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin appearing on CNN seeming to back both positions, arguing, “We need to be understanding of those who take a different position, because of personal conscience, but as long as they are prepared to back the law, Roe vs. Wade, prepared to back women’s rights as we’ve defined them under the law, then I think they can be part of the party.”
In other words those who are opposed to abortion are only welcome in the party if they are prepared to support policies that safeguard abortion.
And for the unaware Senator in Illinois, there is no legislation that made abortion legal, there is only a Supreme Court “opinion” with no legislative authority.
This ignorance was not shared by America’s Founding Fathers. Take, for example, Declaration of Independence signer, Benjamin Rush, who was also a doctor. He stated that life’s “first motion is produced by the stimulus of the male seed upon the female ovum … No sooner is the female ovum thus set in motion, and the fetus formed, than its capacity of life is supported.”
In the Constitution we find the framers securing and guaranteeing protection of all life in the 5th Amendment: “No person shall be deprived of life…without due process of law.” This applies to every living person, and we know abortion violates this right by killing babies before they’re born, let alone before due process.
Today, we know far more about our biological development than Benjamin Rush could; we can actually see our children inside their mothers, we can hear their hearts beating when they’re no bigger than jellybeans. We can craft 3-D models of your child’s face before they’re born.
As an American I work very hard to protect the rights of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness for my fellow Americans. I have many sincere friends who believe very strongly in the Democratic Party and platform. With equal sincerity I ask of the friends and family members that I love very dearly, “Are you able in good conscience to be counted with this capital felony mindset, that others can choose if you, your children, or your fellow man deserve Life, Liberty, or the Pursuit of Happiness?”
Learn more about your Constitution with Jake MacAulay and the Institute on the Constitution and receive your free gift.
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I couldn’t think of a way to easily excerpt this excellent piece of satire, so I’ll just repost it with apologies in advance and ask WUWT readers to go to wendymcelroy.com and give her props. -Anthony
==============================================================
My hat is off to the commenter at Watts Up With That who first dubbed the faked Heartland memo “The Protocols of the Elders of Heartland.” That quip says it all, really.
The second-best quip about the phony memo come from Megan McArdle at the Atlantic: “Basically, it reads like it was written from the secret villain lair in a Batman comic. By an intern.”
But, thinking of secret protocols and secret villain lairs made me wonder, what could this mysterious and elusive “institute” be doing with their anonymous funding? So I’m pleased to leak my very own Heartland strategy memo:
Top Ten Things Heartland Institute Will Do With $6.4 Million in Funding
10. Build a secret oil-powered nuclear-powered coal-powered lair on a South Pacific Island.
9. Arrange Arctic polar-bear hunting expeditions for wealthy contributors. With bazookas for top donors.
8. Train an armada of millions of kamikaze pigeons to fly into wind turbines, gumming up the works.
7. Replace Mitt Romney with a remote-controlled animatronic robot. Oh wait, that’s been done.
6. Exploit our Microsoft connection to install mind-controlling stroboscopic subliminal video messages in Windows Phone 7. People do use Windows Phone 7, don’t they?
5. Create the “Happy Children Fund” to provide subsidized tobacco products to pre-teens. Better yet, put it in their school lunches.
4. Genetically engineer a breed of SuperFlatulenttm cattle to emit a Gaia-destroying flood of methane into the atmosphere.
3. Re-train the armada of pigeons to defecate on solar panels. Maybe do this before #8.
2. Hijack a nuclear warhead and hold the world to ransom for one million dollars!
1. Send an obviously faked-up memo to DeSmogBlog to make them look ridiculous. Oh wait…
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AUSTINTOWN, Ohio - Governor John Kasich is expected to sign a bill in to law that would allow Ohioans with a concealed carry permit to take them in to bars and restaurants that serve alcohol.
But opponents fear it will set a dangerous precedent. Michelle Burchett, a manager at Bill's Place of Mahoning Avenue believes that guns and alcohol don't mix, "My thoughts are that it is just asking for trouble, and I think that it is pretty ironic that you can bring a gun in to a bar, but you can't smoke in a bar. It's unbelievable."
House Bill 45 makes it clear that concealed carry permit owners who want to take their hidden weapon in to a business that serves alcohol must agree not to drink in the bar or restaurant. But some argue that won't stop them from having a drink at home or at a party before heading out.
Boardman Township Police Chief Jack Nichols says he's not concerned about anyone who has taken the time to get a conceal carry permit, "It seems like the folks that go through the trouble to obtain the permit they're law abiding citizens. And the people who are the bad people who are going to cause problems aren't going to get a permit anyhow. They're going to carry a gun wherever they want to carry it."
State Senator Joe Schiavoni, a Democrat in the 33rd District says despite the new law bar and restaurant owner still have a choice about whether they will allow weapons in to their business. They would just need to post a sign at the entrance of their establishment saying no weapons are permitted on the premises, because that is their right under the law. |
Virgin Atlantic, the airline that stopped Australian human rights lawyer Jen Robinson last Thursday and told her she was on an “inhibited list” that required approval from the Australian High Commission to return home, has told Crikey that “security services” were responsible for the incident and directed further questions to the British Home Office. The […]
Virgin Atlantic, the airline that stopped Australian human rights lawyer Jen Robinson last Thursday and told her she was on an “inhibited list” that required approval from the Australian High Commission to return home, has told Crikey that “security services” were responsible for the incident and directed further questions to the British Home Office.
The stopping of Robinson, who was later allowed to board her Heathrow flight to Sydney via Hong Kong without any contact being made with Australia House, caused a furore that Attorney-General Nicola Roxon says prompted the government to request the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade – initially suspected by Robinson of being behind the incident – to seek an explanation from the UK.
The term “inhibited” is used by the US Department of Homeland Security to refer to passengers who should not be given access to aircraft or “sterile” areas of international airports without additional on-the-spot government approval.
Virgin’s statement appears to sheet home responsibility to UK security services. The company’s Australian office told Crikey that its UK head office had advised:
what happened with Ms Robinson was absolutely a matter of security so therefore something we can’t really comment on. As the airline we don’t make decisions on security issues like this, we only act on a response from the security services which is what happened with Ms Robinson last week. This was not an airline issue, it was a security issues and something that security services or the Home Office could perhaps comment on?
Last Thursday evening ABC journalist Jeff Waters contacted the UK Border Agency and was told that the stopping of Robinson was nothing to do with UK authorities. Clearly Virgin’s statement contradicts that. We now have DFAT, the UK Border Agency and the airline all blaming another party for Robinson being stopped.
A response is being sought from the Home Office.
(Visited 21 times, 1 visits today) |
Ms. Hagan has long been considered a vulnerable candidate, and outside groups have already spent millions on ads linking her to unpopular Obama administration policies here.
Outside groups have also paid for a number of ads attacking Mr. Tillis and blaming him for cuts approved by the legislature last year. This week, the liberal group Progress North Carolina Action opened a new front in an email blast, accusing Mr. Tillis of campaigning for the Senate instead of trying to solve the state budget impasse, which has stretched out a legislative session that lawmakers had hoped to wrap up by late June or early July.
In an interview on Thursday, Mr. Tillis’s campaign manager, Jordan Shaw, said the candidate was proud of his record in the statehouse. The campaign, he said, would focus on Mr. Tillis’s legislative achievements, such as tax cuts and a decision to take North Carolina out of a federal program that granted extended benefits to the unemployed, a move, he said, that helped businesses avoid steep tax increases. The resulting business climate, Mr. Jordan said, has played a role in an unemployment rate drop from 10.4 percent, when Mr. Tillis was elected speaker in January 2011, to 6.2 percent today.
Mr. Shaw noted that some of Mr. Tillis’s legislative successes came when Bev Perdue, a Democrat, was governor, and required at least some level of cooperation with Democrats.
“His approach is more about getting results more than it’s about ideology or partisanship,” Mr. Shaw said.
Mr. McCrory was elected in December 2012 on a similar promise of practical problem solving, and a reputation as a Republican moderate.
Mr. McCrory, however, did not serve as much of a brake on the 2013 legislature, and in 2016 he will be up for re-election facing the same challenges as Mr. Tillis. |
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On Tuesday, the United Nations took a rare step and weighed in on a reproductive rights bill currently languishing in the New York state Senate and urged legislators to pass the legislation before the session ends tomorrow.
The bill, called the Reproductive Health Act, would remove language from New York law that makes getting an abortion after 24 weeks a criminal act—even when the pregnancy is a threat to the woman’s health or when the fetus is not viable—and another statute that criminalizes self-induced abortion. The two statutes in question, which have been on the books since before Roe v. Wade made abortion legal, make New York one of only a handful of states that explicitly make it illegal for a woman to end her own pregnancy.
The legislation, which has been introduced and defeated in several prior sessions, was approved by the state Assembly in January, but has since been stuck in the state Senate. New York’s legislative session ends June 21, meaning lawmakers have just over 24 hours to move on the law.
“Criminalizing abortion in the later term has a chilling affect on providers, because they are terrified of taking one misstep and ending up in jail,” says Farah Diaz-Tello, senior counsel for the Self-Induced Abortion Legal Team, which has been pushing for the passage of the Reproductive Health Act and sent a report to the UN on the topic. “The big picture affect is that abortion is first and foremost a crime, with exceptions.”
It’s now clear the United Nations agrees. In a letter to UN Secretary General António Guterres, several special rapporteurs from the UN’s office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights write that New York’s current law puts women’s “lives and health at risk.” “The treatment of abortion as a criminal matter often produces collateral consequences, including the imprisonment of women who have had miscarriages,” reads the letter.
They argue: “Concerns have been raised regarding the impact that criminalization of ‘self- abortion’ is likely to have on low-income women, who due to limited means and reduced access to health care are most likely to seek to terminate their own pregnancies and consequently most likely to be harmed by the current legislation. In addition, there have been situations of criminalized abortion bringing, or threatening to bring, within the remit of the penal system women who do not consent to invasive emergency medical procedures and women whose pregnancies end unintentionally, including as a result of accidents and miscarriages.
“Further concerns have been raised about the anachronistic treatment of abortion in New York law, given all abortions after 24 weeks are criminalized except for those that would threaten the life of the patient. This legal framework pre-dates and does not accord with Roe v. Wade (41 U.S. 113 [1973]), the seminal U.S. Supreme Court decision on abortion, in which it was established that any state’s abortion regulations must protect not only the life of the patient but also her health. Neither does the New York law enable the performance of later abortions in the case of severe and life-threatening foetal impairment, an additional allowance made by Roe.”
That’s why, the letter advocates, the New York state Senate should move quickly to pass the Reproductive Health Act. “We welcome this proposal and urge the New York State Senate to pass the bill in order to ensure that women’s rights are guaranteed in New York State.” |
When Jarvis Jones left high school and signed with the USC Trojans, many thought he would go down as one of the greats in the legendary history of the program.
But then a neck injury changed everything as medical doctors with USC would not clear Jones to play again. Even some with second opinions said that he should never play football again.
So Jones did what anyone elite athlete would do. He decided to get some opinions from medical professionals on his own. His search led him to the Georgia Bulldogs and, as they say, the rest is history.
And with every NFL team awaiting to bid for his services with the upcoming NFL Draft, the story just got a lot better for Jones and a lot more ridiculous for the Trojans.
Independent NFL medical personnel officially cleared Jones today for “unrestricted play” and even said that he was misdiagnosed at USC. Craig Brigham conducted the medical evaluation and reported that Jones never had a significant spinal-cord contusion refuting the findings by USC doctors who diagnosed Jones with spinal stenosis in 2009. Brigham determined Jones had a very mild incident of spinal-cord concussion or a stinger and believes the situation has long since been resolved.
Brigham refers to Jones’ two season as a star for Georgia as further evidence of his medical conclusion. He also concluded that Jones can continue to play even if other similar injuries occur thus clearing him “without restriction”.
So now the ball quickly bounces into the court of all of those who dealt with Jones at USC. Was there something else that determined their diagnosis? Did politics play into their decision? Are the medical professionals affiliated with Southern Call just that inept in their jobs?
Whatever happened, it will be very interesting to see their comments on the NFL’s clearance today. If they even give one.
But even greater than the misdiagnosis is the fact Jones will now understand how it feels to be blitzed like he normally does. Because every NFL team is now pinning their ears back and ready to rush to the forefront to select this great defender.
————————
M Shannon Smallwood is a member of the Football Writers Association of America and the US Basketball Writers Association.
Follow him @woodysmalls. |
What’s the point of loving Pompeii if we let it fall?
The ancient Roman city preserved in ash by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79 has never been more popular. The Neoclassical imitations and fashion for “Pompeiian red” that its beautiful art inspired when Pompeii first captured imaginations in the 18th century were enjoyed by an elite. Nowadays, Pompeii is pop culture, its totemic name resounding from blockbuster exhibitions to terrible disaster films to an episode of Dr Who. And at the site itself, the crowds keep coming.
Crisis has become the new normal at Pompeii
Yet when I joined those crowds with my family recently, we were filtered ruthlessly between fenced off sections of the city. Huge areas of Pompeii are now closed off to visitors, behind ugly wire fences put up by a Neapolitan construction company after a series of collapses due to heavy rains in 2013 and 2014 caused worldwide consternation.
An emergency restoration project funded by the EU and Italy got under way to put right seeming years of neglect. The result, right now, looks like a neverending project that is scarring Pompeii as much as saving it. Those fences for starters! They have been slapped up carelessly all over the place, blocking off not only places where work is going on but where there is no visible sign of restoration. It looks more like an urban building site.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Plastic sheets cover the remains of a house at Pompeii. Photograph: Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters
This is no whining TripAdvisor review. Our visit was not “ruined” by the construction works. Nor will yours be. Pompeii is the most revelatory and intimate archaeological site in the world. It opens more windows on ancient lives than anywhere else (except perhaps for nearby, and currently better-presented, Herculaneum). Archaeologists really should stop claiming such implausible finds as a “British Pompeii”. Unless they find an entire lost city of brothels, wall paintings, bakeries and a beautiful posh laundry, these comparisons are daft.
Yet here I go, enthusing about Pompeii, just like the museums that put on the Pompeii exhibitions and the TV documentaries exploring its wonders, while all the while the site is in jeopardy. Crisis has become the new normal at Pompeii.
Since the global alarm of four years ago, restoration seems to have settled into a slow, messy compromise. For an emergency project that was supposed to save endangered buildings – and quickly – the project shows no sign of nearing completion. How long will those fences be there? Is every part of the city closed off actually dangerous – and if so why aren’t the works proceeding with more urgency?
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tourists stand on an ancient Roman cobbled street at Pompeii. Photograph: Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters
The day I saw it, some rebellious visitors were squeezing through one of the fences to explore the house beyond. It was understandable. Pompeii is beginning to feel like nearby modern Naples, a city notorious for corruption and organised crime. Paradoxically, the need to avoid infiltration by the Camorra syndicate in an area where its Mafia-like influence is pervasive has apparently slowed down the whole Pompeii project.
Palmyra must not be fixed. History would never forgive us Read more
As the deadline to use EU funds approached this past winter, it transpired that only €21m out of the €105m originally on offer (including a large Italian contribution) had been spent. Organisers have blamed the need to screen every company and contract against corruption for slowing everything down – but so has local rivalry for the juicy jobs. That EU deadline passed on 31 December.
Now the site seems sluggish again. Some of the buildings I was able to see, including the Fullonica of Stephanus, have been successfully restored with EU aid. Yet so many others I saw on previous visits, before this unending emergency, are now out of view. This is one of Europe’s – the world’s – irreplaceable wonders. What’s the point of decrying the attacks on antiquities by Isis if democratic Europe cannot maintain Pompeii adequately?
At least get some nicer fences. |
Is Pittsburgh America's Most Livable City?
Sean Posey I Urban Issues I Commentary I February 8th, 2014
American news coverage of the meteoric rise of Chinese industrial might invariably focuses on the soot and smog ridden manufacturing cities of the Middle Kingdom. Photographs of cities like Shenzen and Harbin flash across televisions screens looking like stills from some level of Dante's Inferno. While this might promote some smugness among Americans, it was only a few generations ago that American manufacturing cities resembled hellish nightmares, where the environment and the working class were abused in equal measure. Most notable among those was Pittsburgh, America's "steel city."
In a little over a hundred years, Pittsburgh went from "hell with the lid off," to a symbol of America's collapsing steel sector in the 1980s, to today - where the "Burgh" has been rebranded "America's most livable city." But is it? What's behind this Rust Belt "success story"?
The day when Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was shrouded in haze and surrounded by towering steel mills is long over. Today, "eds and meds," a robust non-profit sector, biotech, and robotics are part of a diversified economy that is light years away from the economic monoculture of a few decades ago. Especially in the last ten years, Pittsburgh has weathered the recent economic downturn far better than most cities. Along with that, the city has successfully - almost miraculously - rebranded itself, with a large dose of help from the media.
Pittsburgh has recently been branded the "miracle city," "America's smartest city," and "America's most livable city" - the latter by Forbes and The Economist.[1] The accolades have come in droves, but the city's renaissance is both decades in the making and highly uneven.
Already by 1940, population growth had flat-lined in the city. Pittsburgh's job growth also trailed other major metropolitan areas. [2] The city fathers began to plan for a post-war physical renewal of the city and for a transition to a much more diversified economy. This included urban renewal projects for the downtown area, the first real efforts at environmental remediation, and the creation of new skyscrapers and underground parking garages. Known as "Renaissance," this was the first of two post-war renewal plans. In the 1970s, a second more informal plan known as Renaissance II got under way. One of the most important outcomes of Renaissance II was the creation of a civic coalition that helped galvanize the initial plans for a Pittsburgh beyond steel, something that never happened during Renaissance I. According to social historian Roy Lubove, "Renaissance II was an extraordinary episode in American urban history. It marked a widespread commitment on the part of a city's public and private leaders to abandon its industrial past and create a new economy and cultural identity."[3]
Despite a forward thinking civic and business coalition, the demise of the local steel industry in the 1980s utterly devastated the city. By 2000, the city had lost eighty percent of its peak steel workforce.[4] The collapse of the steel industry essentially drove an entire generation from the city. By the eighties, over ninety percent of the city's neighborhoods had lost population. [5] The city went from a peak population of 676,806 in 1950 to 305,704 in 2010. Yet, after over three decades of investment and restructuring, Pittsburgh's fortunes began to change in the new century.
Compared to its Rust Belt compatriots, the city does indeed look good. Pittsburgh's downtown weathered deindustrialization far better than almost any other similar city, and it retains a large daytime workforce. Some of the most prestigious Fortune 500 companies are headquartered in the city. Aside from Pittsburgh's well-known "eds and meds sector," a robust energy sector, a steel technology cluster, and a vibrant biotechnology industry are all part of the city's new economy.
Pittsburgh also retains its enormous cultural offerings, including a theater scene, dance and ballet, first-rate museums like the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Andy Warhol Museum, and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History-one of the top-ranked natural history museums in the nation. The city also boasts an impressive number of historic landmarks, including the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden, which includes the world's only Platinum-certified LEED greenhouse.
Despite its enormous population loss, Pittsburgh's neighborhoods on the whole are stronger and more intact than those of cities that have suffered similar population declines like Detroit, St. Louis, Cleveland, and Youngstown. The city's incredible gains in education are undeniable. In 1970, Pittsburgh ranked fifty-fifth in high school graduation rates out of 120 metro areas, but in 2006 they were number three. In 1970, Pittsburgh ranked sixty-nine among metro areas in percentages of people with college degrees, by 2006, it was number thirty-six.[6] In 2009, the city was chosen as the host site for the G-20 summit. Pittsburgh had truly arrived.
The question of whether or not Pittsburgh is the most "livable" city is hard to answer. Forbes loves its "most" lists, especially when they convey something negative. Cities of course either tout their high rankings or question the entire system when they rank lowly on one or another list. However, examining Pittsburgh's merits is certainly fair game. "Livable for whom?" might be the better question.
Make no mistake: Pittsburgh's still has notable problems. For over a decade, the city has been an Act 47 city-classified as a financially distressed municipality. Despite immense progress, the city still has a large pension shortfall. Considering Pittsburgh's size, it has an extremely small foreign-born population-below six percent-typical for a Rust Belt city. From the 2012 Census estimates it appears the city finally has stopped shrinking, though it gained only about 150 people between 2010 and 2012. As the Pittsburgh Post Gazette put it, "If the city of Pittsburgh is no longer the anchor dragging down the county's and region's population, it's hardly the engine driving a resurgence, either."[7]
Pittsburgh's "invisible communities," as I refer to them, are suffering from a variety of socioeconomic problems that essentially are part of an entirely different city than the one described by Forbes or The Economist. While the city might be the "next big food town," according tobon appétit, it is already a city with enormous problems for low-income communities trying to access healthy food. [8] Pittsburgh leads the nation in percentage of residents living in neighborhoods with "low supermarket access."[9] The problem extends to the region as a whole. Pittsburgh's "Just Harvest," an anti-hunger advocacy and organizing group, refers to statistics that "depict a region in which access to healthy food appears to be more of a privilege than a right of all citizens."[10]
Pittsburgh's invisible communities are also disproportionately affected by crime. As a whole, the city has lower violent crime rates than most Rust Belt cities of its size. Violent crime is concentrated in more distressed neighborhoods like Homewood, the Hill District, and in neighborhoods on the north side. Pittsburgh's overall murder rate is around 5 per 100,000, but the murder rate for black men is 284 per 100,000-that's 50 times the national average. [11]
While Pittsburgh diverges from Cleveland in many ways, its dismal African American infant mortality rate mirrors its neighbor to the north. In the U.S. as a whole, black children are twice as likely to die in infancy than white children. In Pittsburgh, that number is five times. For Allegheny County as whole, the infant mortality rate for blacks is worse than infant mortality rates in Mexico or China.[12] And this is happening in a city with a robust health care sector and some of the best hospitals in the region-University of Pittsburgh Medical Center is the number one ranked hospital in the state.
The aforementioned problems are of course connected to Pittsburgh's extreme poverty problem. While The Economist and Forbes rolled out their most livable columns, the U.S. Census Bureau announced that Pittsburgh led the nation in poverty rates among African Americans ages 18-64, and also has the highest percentage of black children under the age of five living in poverty.[13]
Pittsburgh's recent history is in many ways a mix of remarkable success and remarkable failure. The city's title of "America's most livable city" seems to be a story of haves and have-nots. Pittsburgh's initial experience with deindustrialization is comparable to many other Rust Belt cities, but the city's political, business, and non-profit communities managed to make organized and thoughtful plans for a post-industrial Pittsburgh. There is much for other cities to learn from here. However, it took Pittsburgh decades to bring the city to the position it is today, and clearly it has a long way to go. The city's different demographics also make it hard to compare to places like Detroit, Cleveland, or St. Louis. The "Burgh," both hobbled and hopeful, has moved to the head of the pack of America's former industrial giants-but not everyone is coming along for the ride.
References |
For the Kochs, that agenda comes first and elections come second. Although they’ve made compromises with the political establishment in the past, they have been incredibly successful by maintaining discipline on the ideological front. As Mayer writes, the Kochs had a three-prong plan:
“The first phase required an ‘investment’ in intellectuals whose ideas would serve as the ‘raw products.’ The second required an investment in think tanks that would turn the ideas into marketable policies. And the third phase required the subsidization of ‘citizens’ groups that would, along with ‘special interests’ pressure elected officials to implement the policies. It was in essence a libertarian production line, waiting only to be bought, assembled and switched on.”
Judging by the agenda for the Democracy Matters 17 summit, which you can read below, Brock has no similar plan. As my colleague Clio Chang wrote last week, he certainly does not approach the level of ideological commitment that drives the success of the Kochs.
Instead, Democracy Matters 17 seems largely devoted to perpetuating the Clintonian brand of Democratic politics. There are panels devoted to assessing what happened in 2016, but they are staffed by old hands and political centrists. No one speaking on any of the panels worked with the Bernie Sanders campaign, whose wing of the party is conspicuously absent from the gathering. Instead, the path forward will be analyzed by Clinton veteran (and close Brock ally) James Carville; the flagrant opportunist and rumored Trump appointee Harold Ford Jr.; and Jon Cowan, the president of the centrist neoliberal think tank Third Way, which has pushed for deregulation and embraced Wall Street. Other speakers at the summit include Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel (under fire for his horrible handling of a police brutality controversy in his city), LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, and Pizzagate victim James Alefantis.
Bernie Sanders’s campaign is not entirely absent. Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, who endorsed Sanders in the primary, will be there, but he’ll be discussing the race to lead the Democratic National Committee with his opponent Tom Perez, in a panel moderated by Brock. Reading the agenda for Democracy Matters 17, you get the sense that the conclusion being drawn from the 2016 campaign is that we need more candidates like Hillary Clinton and that Democrats should embrace more conservative policies. This is not so much an ideology but a general election strategy. Where are the discussions of minimum wage, criminal justice reform, and universal health care?
You get the sense that the conclusion being drawn from the 2016 campaign is that we need more candidates like Hillary Clinton.
Building a political action network based around elections rather than ideology is difficult. Elections have definitive end dates and are candidate-dependent, which means that it is hard to do consistent and sustained work. Being election-focused can also make candidates and parties appear untrustworthy in the eyes of voters, as they shift on issues and ideas based on public polling, rather than a desired set of outcomes. (Hillary Clinton’s political career is evidence for this point.)
As the Koch network has shown, emphasizing certain ideological positions can also have the side-effect of helping you at the polls. The Kochs and their allies have been fixated on passing right-to-work laws in states in the Upper Midwest for decades, weaking the power of unions. Donald Trump’s victory in states like Michigan and Wisconsin can be read as being tied to the passage of those laws.
But the Democracy 17 summit is not set up to push policies that will help Democrats win elections at the state and national level. Instead it’s set up to raise money for Brock’s groups, which will continue to operate as loosely defined political entities that push establishment Democrats at the cost of progressive policy that can benefit the lives of voters—and can win elections, given the proper infrastructure. Saying Democrats need a Breitbart or a Koch network is an elevator pitch to donors—it’s venture capitalist shorthand. There’s much at the summit to attract the interest of millionaires, but nothing to build a movement with. |
''After an incident like this, you certainly evaluate the measures you have in place,'' said Mark O. Hatfield Jr., a spokesman for the Port Authority. ''But there are a number of issues to deal with here. This is not a Federal nuclear laboratory, which you can completely shut down to public access. Within an environment like this you have to provide access and egress for a large number of people.''
''I think that our track record over the past 26 years has certainly been an excellent one,'' he added. ''And, while no one will be satisfied until it's perfect, I think it is safe to say that this is the most secure office building in Manhattan.''
According to the Port Authority police, the three robbers, all carrying duffel bags, entered One World Trade Center, the north tower, about 8 A.M. They took a passenger elevator to the 11th floor and walked to a freight elevator near Bank of America, whose money exchange center there is not open to the public. After the freight elevator doors opened, the robbers confronted seven people in the elevator, including the two Brink's security guards, who were delivering six currency bags to the bank, said Chief Frank Fox of the Port Authority police. He said the bags contained more than $3 million in cash, including some foreign currency.
The police said the robbers seemed to know what they wanted. One robber held a gun, telling everyone that they would not be hurt if they remained calm. Another grabbed a gun from one of the security officers and told all the passengers to get down.
According to Chief Fox, the robbers then tied the hands and feet of everyone in the elevator, ripped open three of the currency bags and stuffed the money into their duffel bags. He said the robbers appeared to know just which bags they wanted, and did not touch the other three.
Officer Cheryl Cox, a New York police spokeswoman, said the men took only bags of foreign currency.
The robbers took a passenger elevator down to the lobby, sending their victims in the freight elevator up to the 22d floor, which is uninhabited because of construction. The police were notified by one of the security guards, who managed to break the plastic ties around his feet.
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Though all three robbers remain at large, Chief Fox said that investigators had bank videotape that clearly showed the robbers' faces after they took off their ski masks and began to leave the 11th floor. Some tapes also showed other people, indicating that the cameras were hidden in public areas and that the suspects wanted to blend in. Investigators added that the tight security in the building -- and the robbers' clear knowledge of the security guards' routine -- led them to believe that it was an inside job.
''The joint F.B.I. and N.Y.P.D. task force will be investigating this,'' said Chief Fox, adding, ''There is really good security in this building. We don't know exactly how they bypassed security. They could be employees.''
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Lewis D. Schiliro, the acting director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's New York office, said the police were offering a $1,000 reward for the arrest and capture of the robbers, and Brink's added its own $25,000 reward.
Howard Safir, the New York City Police Commissioner, added, ''We will expend a great amount of resources to find these perpetrators.''
A representative of Kroll Associates, the security company that was consulted after the terrorist bombing in 1993 to evaluate and enhance the protection at the center, said yesterday that Kroll would have no comment on the robbery.
Since the bombing, every one of the 40,000 employees who work at the Trade Center has had to show an identity card to security guards to get on elevators. Visitors are required to show a picture identification and to be buzzed upstairs by the company they are visiting.
But Scott Waldman, a 27-year-old lawyer who works in the complex, said that guards had waved him through on several occasions without checking his identification and that messengers often arrived at his office unannounced.
''I'm not shocked that this happened because there are plenty of days when you can wave an ID in front of them and they just let you in,'' he said. ''Often they are talking to each other and don't even look. You can give them anything.''
Security experts said that it would be hard for any system to stop the robbers who appeared yesterday morning, noting that they appeared to have compromised the complex's security system from the inside.
''This was a very bold, well-thought-out and well-executed robbery where the robbers had several levels of obstacles to overcome,'' said Greg Longworth, senior vice president for investigations for Strang Hayes Consulting, a security firm in New York. ''It's obvious that this wasn't a random attack. Someone had inside information.'' |
The NFL draft starts Thursday night, and during the coverage you’ll probably hear about safe and risky picks. In some cases, the risk is specific to the player. Perhaps Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston is a risk for his history of alleged off-the-field misconduct, while his counterpart at Oregon, Marcus Mariota, comes with worries that his stock was inflated by the Ducks’ spread offense. But some of the risk is also considered intrinsic to certain positions, while other positions carry a reputation for being particularly low-risk.
The trouble, though, is that there’s no way to prove which positions consistently offer good returns on draft investment — at least not with football data in its current state. And in large part, that’s because we can’t really evaluate on player performance as accurately for the so-called non-skill positions.
For instance, taking a quarterback (like Winston and Mariota) might seem like a hazardous bet to make early in the draft. But it’s possible that QBs only appear risky relative to other positions because we can more readily measure a quarterback’s performance statistically. In other words, when Ryan Leaf posts a 39.0 quarterback rating as a rookie, he’s easy to identify as a bust, but his linebacking equivalent might be harder to recognize.
Here’s another example. You could use Pro-Football-Reference’s Approximate Value (AV) to estimate the odds that a player’s performance will live up to the expectations of where he was drafted, and break those numbers down by position:
You’d find that the average offensive lineman meets or exceeds the median AV expected of his draft slot about 59 percent of the time — the NFL-wide average across all positions is, by definition, 50 percent — while the average receiver provides positive value for his pick slot only 41 percent of the time. And quarterbacks wouldn’t be far behind receivers on the “risky” list, beating expectations at a rate of only 43 percent.
But there’s another clear pattern in the AV data: The positions that seem like the riskiest picks are also the ones where we have the most data to differentiate between good and bad performances. Coincidence? Probably not.
An offensive lineman’s AV is based solely on his team’s offensive performance, his own playing time and any accolades he receives (like Pro Bowl or All-Pro nods). So, short of being outright benched, there’s very little he could do to distinguish himself negatively under the structure of the study above (or those like it). A skill-position player struggling to meet expectations, on the other hand, can be identified via his inferior yardage, touchdowns, turnovers and the like. (To the extent that those metrics are even good descriptors of player performance.)
It’s similar to the phenomenon that causes linemen to boast a far higher Pro Bowl “retention rate” than other offensive positions, particularly quarterbacks. The less information voters have to go on, the more they rely on a player’s priors (and perhaps rightly so). And the same can go for the draft, where certain positions can feel safer simply because we don’t have glaring, easily-quantifiable evidence to the contrary.
The answer, of course, is more data. When Chase Stuart conducted a more granular (if anecdotal) look at offensive tackles using ProFootballFocus grades, for instance, he found what seems to be a healthy bust rate even for a position often tagged as one of the most reliable. Then again, PFF grades aren’t universally accepted as gospel, either; besides, they only go back to the 2007 season (as opposed to 1950 for AV).
That’s why, for now at least, it may not be possible to truly say whether certain positions are more or less likely to live up to their draft-day expectations. It’s another unanswerable question to throw onto the pile of things about the NFL draft that we just don’t know. |
"My first exorcism was when I was 13," said 17-year-old Brynne on The Anderson Cooper Show yesterday. Brynne has allegedly cast out demons from dozens of people. Along with 17-year-old Tess and 20-year-old Savannah, she claims to have the ability to identify and expel evil.
Brynne is the daughter of Texas preacher Reverend Bob Larsen, a well-known spiritual guide who claims to have cast out over 15,000 demons over the course of his career. Brynne claims to have performed her first exorcism at a church in Africa, under her father's watch, at the age of 13. The three girls are Larsen's newest apprentices -- he gives them hours of training each week and insists that the girls have exorcised dozens of people already.
"One of the tell-tale signs of demonic possession that Hollywood gets right is the eyes," Tess told Anderson Cooper. "The pupils dilate sporadically... You look in someone's eyes, and after the [exorcism] training, you can see the evil."
Tess allegedly performed her first exorcism on a 15-year-old friend at a sleepover who had complained of "splitting headaches for no reason" (an apparent symptom of possession). The girl in question was said to have been a strong Christian who had recently wandered away from God.
On the show, Cooper seems rightfully doubtful -- and it certainly doesn't help the girls' case that they are looking to become the stars of a new reality show about their special powers. And given the public's taste for stories of the supernatural, the girls may not have a hard time finding a network to host them. Nicki Minaj's provocative staged "exorcism" was arguably the most talked-about moment of the 2012 Grammys, sparking both applause and anger (Minaj was slammed by the Catholic League after her performance). With the season finales of The Secret Circle, Vampire Diaries, and Supernatural approaching, could 'Teen Exorcism Squad' be the next supernatural-themed TV hit? |
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