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New products introduced over the last week include Franklin Templeton's new Global Allocation Fund and Neuberger Berman's Global Equity and Global Thematic Opportunities funds.
In addition, two of Van Eck's gold ETFs topped $13 billion in AUM, while Adams Express announced an annual target distribution; the Options Industry Council announced that August 2011 options were nearly double those of August 2010; and Rydex shuttered two funds.
Here are the latest developments of interest to advisors:
1) Franklin Templeton Launches Global Allocation Fund for U.S. Investors
Franklin Templeton Investments (BEN) announced Tuesday the launch of the Franklin Templeton Global Allocation Fund for U.S. investors, combining Franklin Templeton investment management teams with its Multi-Asset Strategies group.
The fund seeks total return by investing in a diversified portfolio of equity and fixed income securities, supplemented by a tactical strategy that may include cash and financial derivative instruments, to allow the fund to adjust its exposure to asset classes, geographic regions, currencies and market sectors.
The management team manages risk in seeking to improve the fund's overall risk/return profile, and uses the fund's multimanager structure in pursuing multiple sources of returns.
2) Neuberger Berman Debuts Global Equity and Thematic Opportunities Funds
Neuberger Berman Group LLC announced Wednesday the launch of two funds, the Neuberger Berman Global Equity Fund (NGQAX, NGQCX, NGQIX) and the Neuberger Berman Global Thematic Opportunities Fund (NGHAX, NGHCX, NGHIX).
The Global Equity Fund, managed by Benjamin Segal and Saurin Shah, invests primarily in mid- and large-capitalization companies in both developed and emerging markets. The team seeks to control volatility by assessing political, economic and business risk facing each company being considered for the portfolio.
The Global Thematic Opportunities Fund invests primarily in equity securities of companies in both developed and emerging markets. The portfolio managers seek to identify significant and underappreciated trends across the globe, and utilize proprietary research to identify undervalued companies.
Portfolio managers are Tony Gleason, Alexandra (Sandy) Pomeroy, Richard Levine, and William Hunter.
3) Two Van Eck Gold ETFs Reach Combined AUM Over $13 Billion
Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX) and Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF (GDXJ), both distributed by New York-based investment management firm Van Eck Global, have combined over $13 billion in assets under management (AUM), it was announced Wednesday.
The Gold Miners ETF seeks to replicate as closely as possible, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the NYSE Arca Gold Miners Index. The index provides exposure to publicly traded companies worldwide involved primarily in the mining for gold, representing a diversified blend of small-, mid-, and large-capitalization stocks. As such, the fund is subject to the risks of investing in this sector.
The Junior Gold Miners ETF seeks to replicate as closely as possible, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners Index.
The index provides exposure to a global universe of publicly traded small- and medium-capitalization companies that generate at least 50% of their revenues from gold and/or silver mining, hold real property that has the potential to produce at least 50% of the company's revenue from gold or silver mining when developed, or primarily invest in gold or silver.
4) Adams Express Commits to Annual Distribution Of 6%
The board of directors of the Adams Express Co. (ADX), a Baltimore-based closed-end investment company, announced Thursday that, effective immediately, the company is committing to distribute annually to its stockholders an amount equal to 6% of the average month-end market price on the NYSE of the company's common stock for the trailing 12 months, calculated as of October 31.
For comparison, the company paid total distributions at an annual distribution rate of 5.2% in 2009 and at an annual distribution rate of 5.1% in 2010.
The company will make its distributions using the same payout schedule it has used for many years. In circumstances in which the net investment income and realized capital gains exceed 6%, distributions paid to stockholders may be greater than 6%.
5) OIC Announces August Volume Nearly Double That of August 2010
The Options Industry Council (OIC) announced September 1 that 550,049,407 total options contracts changed hands in August, a 94% increase over August 2010 when 283,487,110 contracts were traded.
In addition to August setting a new monthly record, several other records were achieved throughout the month, including three consecutive daily volume records.
This is the first time in history monthly volume has surpassed half a billion contracts. Furthermore, August saw the top four of the ten highest volume days for both total options and equity options. On August 8, 41,535,580 contracts were traded, establishing a new daily volume record and marking the first time over 40 million contracts were traded in one day.
Average daily volume for August came in at 23,915,191 contracts, 85.60% more than the 12,885,778 contracts traded during August 2010. YTD volume for August stood at 3,115,816,555 contracts compared to 2,561,734,543 contracts traded in the same period last year, representing a 21.63% increase. YTD average daily volume was 18,546,527 contracts, up 20.91% over 15,339,728 contracts in August of last year.
OIC also reported equity options volume experienced an increase of 91.41% with 501,947,732 contracts exchanged in August compared to 262,234,107 contracts for the same year-ago period. Equity options volume on average each day in August was 21,823,814 contracts, up 83.09% compared to 11,919,732 contracts for the same month last year.
Year-to-date equity options volume for August stood at 2,888,506,287 contracts compared to the same point last year when 2,362,307,730 contracts were traded, representing a 22.27% increase.
6) Two Rydex Funds Closing to New Investors
Rydex SMID Value Separate Account, managed by investment veteran Jim Schier, has closed to new investments. Rydex Small Cap Strategy, also managed by Schier and his team and using a similar strategy, is nearing capacity constraints and will be closing soon.
Read last week's Portfolio Products Roundup at AdvisorOne.com


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Welcome to Maia Financial.Watch our 2019 sponsorship of passionate young Australian cycling team Team Bridgelane.
Partnering with Industry
Aquaculture and AgricultureAssets Funded:
Aquaculture nets, harvesting systems, orchards infrastructure, plant and equipment, fish net, harvesting equipment, sweeper, barge, protective net, sprayer, harvester, agricultural equipment – gener, tractor.
EducationAssets Funded:
Musical instruments, building infrastructure, Wi-Fi and network infrastructure, classroom fitout, interactive whiteboards, projectors and furniture.
Business ServicesAssets Funded:
AV equipment, video conferencing equipment, CT scanners, network equipment, software – application, plant and equipment, laptop – PC, Desktop – PC, photocopier, server, data storage device, fitout.
HealthcareAssets Funded:
Diagnostic imaging – CT/PET Scanners, MRI, x-ray, ultrasound, cath labs, endoscopy, scientific equipment, sterilisation systems, patient care and services – beds, wheelchairs.
TelecommunicationsAssets Funded:
Networking and satellite communication equipment, software – application, PHS (portable hand held system, data storage device, antenna, generator, server, accessories, network equipment.
Local Government and CouncilsAssets Funded:
IT equipment and telephony, such as laptops, desktops, tablets and phone systems from your preferred manufacturer, parking meters and automated car parking systems, gym equipment, surveying equipment, lighting and solar systems.
Manufacturing and TradeAssets Funded:
Plant and equipment, fitout, racking and warehousing, waste management, generators, wine barrels, wine filter, plant and equipment, laptop - PC fitout, wheel loader, refrigeration unit, prime mover, tractor, vehicle, trucks.

subset: commoncrawl


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If you don't a have a license to fly a plane but would like to experience the world from the perspective of a pilot, then playing a flight simulator game is your best option and you don't even have to leave home. Today's airplane simulator games employ high quality graphics that mimic real life situations. If it wasn't for the absence of inertial forces, which are expensive if not impossible to simulate, one could easily convince oneself that they are flying a real aircraft.
The gamer is situated inside a cockpit of realistic design and dimensions. The control panel contains the same instrumentation as the cockpits of real planes. Missions and scenarios on the ground and in the air are borrowed from real life.
The point is to control a plane in the sky and on the runway, like a real pilot. Routine activities during flight include paying attention to readings such as velocity, altitude and turbulence and optimizing the flight based on those. Before landing, the descent angle must be correct and the landing gear in order. Compliance with instructions from the control towers is one of the rules.
Airplane simulator games are by no means limited to commercial flying.
Combat missions during war allow a gamer to experience what it's like to be a fighter pilot, shooting down planes and bombing targets. A gamut of weapons is available, not limited to missiles, bombs and guns. Due to the nature of aerial combat, fighter pilot missions are usually the most challenging.
Free flight airplane missions are also available. The make it possible to fly around the globe and to remote locations, fly through the clouds during a storm, see different cities from different altitudes and perspectives and even fly beyond the earth's atmosphere into outer space. Such missions are unstructured and have exploration as their theme.
Daredevil missions are another category. They involve stunts like loops, nose dives and other difficult maneuvers that one typically sees during air shows. The gamer, of course, is required to accomplish all those without crashing the plane. A flight simulator game with stunt missions are known to invoke the most intense adrenaline rush.
Before choosing a flight simulator game, ensure that system requirements are met, otherwise it will run slow.
Look for airplane games that have missions of interest to you. Some games feature thousands of missions. But a few excellent missions are better than thousands of mediocre ones. Flight simulator games that allow you to create your own custom missions are more desirable.
How realistic it is, is by far the most important attribute of a flight simulator game. The view from the cockpit should resemble that of a real plane. 3D capabilities are preferable. Special effects like velocity and acceleration are must have's. If the game does not feel realistic it will bore the player quickly and you don't want this to happen to you.


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In a technetium-labeled red blood cell bleeding scan, blood is taken
from you, and a small amount of radioactive material called technetium is added
to the blood. The blood with the technetium is then injected back into
your bloodstream.
Red blood cells with the technetium attached to them accumulate
at the location of active bleeding. A machine scans the body to find where the
technetium accumulates. This method of finding bleeding is sometimes
more effective than angiography. The technetium-labeled red blood cell
bleeding scan may find slow bleeding that can't be seen using
The technetium-labeled red blood cell bleeding scan is used:
Next Section:
Previous Section:
Last Revised:
July 19, 2012
Healthwise Staff
Medical Review:
Adam Husney, MD - Family Medicine & Jerome B. Simon, MD, FRCPC, FACP - Gastroenterology
This information does not replace the advice of a doctor. Healthwise, Incorporated disclaims any warranty or liability for your use of this information. Your use of this information means that you agree to the Terms of Use. How this information was developed to help you make better health decisions.
To learn more visit Healthwise.org
© 1995-2012 Healthwise, Incorporated. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated.


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Here is a brief guide for making healthy food choices using the USDA's food guide. Healthy choices from each of the food groups, in appropriate amounts, will help you have a balanced diet. For a personalized food and activity tracker, see the interactive website: www.ChooseMyPlate.gov.
Limit fats and oils, including those used in cooking. When you do use fats, choose oils that are liquid at room temperature (unsaturated fats), such as canola oil and olive oil. Avoid hydrogenated oils (trans fat) and foods that contain them. Choose margarines that have no trans fat and come in a soft tub or squeeze bottle.
Limit sweets and high-fat snacks. Most of these foods are high in fat and sugar and should be limited to occasional use. Choose fruit instead of sweets as often as you can.
Other Works ConsultedU.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S.
Department of Agriculture (2010). Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010, 7th ed. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing
Office. Also available online:
Next Section:
Previous Section:
Last Revised:
January 25, 2013
Healthwise Staff
Medical Review:
Kathleen Romito, MD - Family Medicine & Rhonda O'Brien, MS, RD, CDE - Certified Diabetes Educator
This information does not replace the advice of a doctor. Healthwise, Incorporated disclaims any warranty or liability for your use of this information. Your use of this information means that you agree to the Terms of Use. How this information was developed to help you make better health decisions.
To learn more visit Healthwise.org
© 1995-2012 Healthwise, Incorporated. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated.


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Silver Mezuzah - Paisley
The Italian art of silver and gold-smithing has been around for many generations. To truly be considered an artist, the skill must have been passed down from father to son. Starting from the age of ten a boy would help in the workshop preparing and interweaving the silver threads.
In Italy, a person who wanted a piece of jewelry would give five silver coins to the silversmith. Three coins were melted for the jewel itself and the two other coins were the jeweler's fee. After two days of preparing the silver into threads and small silver domes, the jewelry was crafted in another day. Till this day modern silversmiths use ancient methods to make jewelry, maybe more advanced that 500 years ago, but still very old.
Size: 3.5 inches.
Takes a 2.5 inch scroll. (Available below)
Customer Reviews
all the silver mezuzahs i ordered are even more beautiful than the photos. I am extremely happy with all of them
BEAUTIFUL mezuzahs!


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Insurance denied
Jacqueline Ruess was lying on a bed inside a hospital in Boca Raton, Florida, still woozy from anesthesia but hoping that, maybe just this once, she'd caught a break. She'd had laparoscopic surgery in order to examine a growth her gynecologist thought might be ovarian cancer. Ruess, who was 34 at the time, in the fall of 2001, feared that her two young boys, whose father died from a congenital heart defect three years earlier, were on the verge of losing her as well. "It was probably the darkest week of my life since my husband passed away," she recalls. But as Ruess regained consciousness, she saw her own mother at her bedside, looking relieved. She began to process what she was hearing: You're going to be OK. The growth was on the fallopian tube, not her ovary—a far less worrisome situation. Soon after, a pathology report would confirm that the tumor itself was benign. "The only thing I could think about was my boys," Ruess says, "and the great relief in knowing I was going to be around to raise them after all."
But four months after Ruess's medical crisis passed, she faced a financial one. The Insurers Administrative Corporation (IAC), the company in Phoenix that managed Ruess's health care policy, completed what it says was a routine review of her records and discovered what it called evidence of a preexisting gynecological condition. Because Ruess had not disclosed the symptom on her application, her insurer said she had never been eligible for coverage of gynecological problems. The result: Ruess was on the hook for the cost of her surgery, which, including doctor and hospital bills, amounted to more than $15,000.
Ruess was flabbergasted. "I was—please forgive me for lack of a better term—pissed off," she says. What IAC called a preexisting condition was a one-time notation in her file regarding "dysfunctional uterine bleeding"—that is, irregular periods, a common issue that at some point affects between 10 and 30 percent of women in their reproductive years. At the time she experienced erratic periods, Ruess had lost her husband and her father had died, too, which is why her doctor attributed the symptom to stress. Reassured that there was nothing medically wrong, Ruess quickly put the problem out of her mind and didn't even bother to fill the prescription for the birth control pills her doctor had given her to regulate her cycle. Even though there was a question on her insurance application about "abnormal menstruation" in the past seven years, she didn't think it applied to her because her symptom hadn't been attributed to an underlying medical problem. "It never crossed my mind to mention it on the form," Ruess says, noting that she'd been forthright about a more serious issue, her son's asthma, when she applied to another insurer for a policy for him. She'd correctly predicted that he would be declined coverage because of it. "If I was going to hold back anything," she says, "I would have held back that information." Here, too, she'd acted in good faith, she explained to IAC. Her irregular periods had nothing to do with the growth on her fallopian tube. The insurer, she felt, was simply looking for an excuse to avoid paying her bills.
But IAC wouldn't budge and further informed Ruess she actually owed a few hundred dollars to her insurer, because her premiums should have been higher. Frantic, Ruess contacted attorneys, journalists, even the governor of Florida. "I probably spent 40 to 50 hours a week on this," she says, staying up late, dashing off letters to anybody she thought could intervene on her behalf. Ruess learned that under Florida law, insurers are allowed to rescind the policies of those who misrepresent their history, even if they did it inadvertently. "I am a healthy and honest 34-year-old widow raising two small children alone," she wrote in a formal complaint to the Arizona Department of Insurance in April 2002. "I am desperate." (A spokesman for IAC says that had the information on Ruess's application been "complete and accurate," she'd have been advised that the policy would have limitations, and she could have opted to apply elsewhere.)
Ruess never expected to find herself in such a circumstance. She'd grown up in a comfortable, middle-class household; even after her husband died in 1998, she was able to remain an at-home mom because of his generous life insurance policy. She'd taken pains to make sure she and her sons were insured, first with a policy carried over from her husband's job (the federal COBRA law allows a spouse to continue coverage for three years after a death), and then by carefully researching and purchasing insurance at a cost of $350 a month for her and one of her sons. (She was able to get coverage for her asthmatic son from the state.) In other words, she did everything right. Yet she was facing major debt and was soon to be without thorough coverage altogether. Ruess says she told a supervisor in IAC's underwriting department that she hoped he'd never find himself or a family member in a similar situation. "I couldn't believe that I was an American citizen," she says. "As a middle-class woman who was more than willing to pay for my medical benefits, I was getting the short end of the stick." And the statistics suggest that women such as Ruess, who buy their insurance on their own, are particularly vulnerable to winding up in similar straits.
The health insurance crisis affects millions of Americans. At any given moment, the United States Census shows, 47 million people are uninsured. Some 25 million more are underinsured, meaning their benefits aren't sufficient to meet their needs, according to a recent study by the Commonwealth Fund, a health care policy foundation in New York City. Combine those two groups and the total suggests that almost one fourth of Americans don't have adequate health benefits.
But it's those who must purchase their own coverage, typically because they are self-employed or work for a company that doesn't provide benefits, who are in a uniquely precarious position. More than 27 percent of people who are self-employed have no insurance, compared with 13 percent for those who work for large companies. If you're buying your own health insurance, not only will you pay higher premiums than those who get a bulk rate as part of a group policy, but insurers in most states have much greater leeway to turn you down if they think their odds of losing money on you are too high. When confronted with an applicant who has any kind of medical history (including routine issues such as allergies, a past cesarean section delivery or acid reflux), insurers are usually perfectly free to charge much higher rates or to deny coverage altogether—leading to an entire category of women who are essentially uninsurable.
A woman might not realize she is uninsurable until she needs coverage and finds that no one will sell her a policy. Or she might be hit with this information after months or years of dutifully paying premiums, when filing a major claim provokes the insurer to review her records. Such practices are not only legal but, from the standpoint of the insurance companies, also entirely logical: They are good for business.
History explains how we got here. During the Great Depression, hospitals suddenly found themselves full of patients too poor to pay their bills. So they began offering insurance policies based on a simple principle: Everybody pays a modest premium, so there is enough money to cover the large medical bills of the small minority of the population with serious health problems. If, heaven forbid, you got sick, you were covered, and hospitals stayed in business.
But commercial insurers, who joined the game in the 1950s, had another obligation: pleasing shareholders. The simplest way to make money was to try to attract healthy customers, who were less likely to rack up big medical bills. That way, insurers could charge lower premiums yet still clear a profit. Excluding sick people wasn't so easy when insurers agreed to cover the employees of a large corporation. But denying coverage to risky prospects who sought coverage individually was simple. If an applicant had a history of illness, weighed too much or worked in a job that carried greater-than-usual physical risks such as mining or construction, the insurer would charge higher rates or simply refuse coverage. And once a few insurers started screening applicants, the others were forced to follow suit—or chance winding up with all the sickest people, a certain path to bankruptcy. Within a decade, such weeding out of the infirm or those likely to become so was common practice.
To exclude people they deem poor risks, insurers today use sophisticated techniques. They can tap into databases that reveal your past prescriptions and use "predictive modeling"—a complex, computerized algorithm—to estimate how likely it is that your medical bills will exceed the amount you pay in premiums. Every insurer has its own list of medical conditions for which it may charge higher premiums (have you ever been treated for anxiety, an eating disorder, an ulcer, fibroids or even irritable bowel syndrome?) or, in some cases, nix coverage. An Aetna field guide for underwriters, for example, lists 71 serious conditions—including insulin-dependent diabetes and cystic fibrosis—for which it typically refuses coverage automatically. More than 50 others are not excluded by rote but might affect coverage decisions, depending on your case history. HealthNet, another insurer, notes that migraine sufferers are sometimes covered. If you haven't taken a prescription medication in a year or visited the emergency room in two years, you get a preferred rate. But if you have, you will either be charged a higher premium or declined altogether.
Cancer is not on Aetna's automatic exclusion list; HealthNet generally will cover you, depending on the type of cancer, if it has been 10 years since you've finished treatment. But most experts acknowledge that people who have cancer or have recently beat it have a tough time finding individual coverage—a fact Angela Clay of Atlanta discovered the hard way. Clay, 33, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma eight years ago, while she was living in South Carolina. She survived, thanks to a regimen of chemotherapy, radiation and stem cell treatment, for which she was covered through her job at the time. After she moved to Atlanta in 2001, she had coverage through her job as a teacher in a day care center.
Then another center offered her an assistant manager position in 2004—a step up with better pay but no benefits. Clay figured she'd simply buy insurance. "I'd go online once a month and fill out applications," she says. The numerous insurers she has tried turned her down, she says, and one told her she had to be in remission for 10 years to receive health insurance. "I've got more than two years to go," Clay says.
Clay still has no coverage and so must put off nonemergency medical care, including the follow-up she needs to be sure the cancer hasn't returned. "I'm very worried," she says. "I know I need checkups for my health. It makes me feel vulnerable." She sees a doctor only for emergencies, such as a severe boil she developed in January. (She's still paying off the $800 it cost to have the doctor drain it, at $20 a month.) Clay fears the stress of living without insurance will further harm her health. "It's hard for me to focus because I have this on my mind," she says.
Even if you've never had a catastrophic illness like Clay and think of yourself as 100 percent healthy, you could still be at risk of being shut out. Juliann Delozier of Murphy, Texas, is a 32-year-old, nonsmoking mother of two—who, in every obvious respect, is in perfect health. UniCare, a Chicago insurer, approved coverage for her children but not for her. "They would not tell me over the phone why I had been denied; I had to wait to receive a letter in the mail," she says. The letter said the company would not offer her a policy because of her "history of infertility." Delozier says she'd taken two drugs, Metformin and Actos, to help her ovulate so she could conceive both of her children. She doesn't know why having taken these drugs disqualifies her, especially as she's not planning to have any more children. A spokesman for UniCare declined to discuss it, saying only, "These are decisions made on a case-by-case basis." Delozier is angry. "Why am I, a hardworking citizen who wanted to bear children and needed the aid of a medication to do so, being penalized by health insurance companies? It is totally unfair," she says.
Because every insurer has its own criteria for underwriting, persistence sometimes helps. Delozier was eventually able to get a plan from Humana. But many people can't get coverage regardless of how hard they try because their past or present medical problems may recur or are so expensive that insurers see them as a losing proposition. That is why, over time, federal, state and local governments have tried to help. Some states offer private insurance through special high-risk pools; a few others allow residents to enroll in Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), or make available other forms of public insurance. There are also two federal laws (COBRA and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) designed to help people keep insurance they already have and prevent insurers from excluding those with preexisting conditions. Some states have similar laws.
Such initiatives definitely make a difference; Medicaid and SCHIP cover about 70 million people, for instance. But they don't protect everyone. Over the years, opponents of such programs have fought to limit their reach, either because they lead to more government spending or because they would limit the profits private insurers could make. Meanwhile, families such as Kyla Hebert's are left without even these options. Hebert, a 25-year-old mother of two from Pasadena, Texas, has a daughter, Katie, who was born three and a half years ago with severe developmental delays and disabilities. MRIs have revealed brain lesions, which are thought to affect everything, including her hearing (she is partially deaf in one ear) and her ability to eat and digest food. (Katie survives on a mostly liquid diet.) Hebert, a nursing student at night, has no insurance. Hebert's husband works for a bank, which does offer a plan, but the couple can't afford it. The policy would cost a third of Josh Hebert's take-home pay and, even then, would cover only routine pediatric care. Katie has needed, among other things, genetic testing (which runs about $3,000 per test) and ongoing occupational and speech therapy (which costs about $500 a week). None of that would have been covered.
Hebert thought about purchasing private insurance but was told that Katie wouldn't be accepted in her current condition. "I filled out an application, but an agent told me, 'You might not want to put it through because she'll have an official denial on her record.'" (The fact that a policy wasn't issued could telegraph to other insurers that she might be a bad risk. If Katie's health improves, the broker advised, she'll stand a better chance of being insured in the future.)
So Hebert turned to the state's public insurance programs and found out that her family was considered too well-off to be eligible. The Heberts, although struggling, had a monthly income too high for Medicaid and about $260 above the cutoff for SCHIP. Hebert then went to what she considered a last resort: her state's high-risk pool, the supposed safety net for people too sick to get coverage on their own. "I thought, This is exactly where we need to be. It sounded perfect for us," she says. But only people without access to group insurance can buy into the pool. Because the Heberts technically had access to a policy at her husband's bank, albeit an inadequate and unaffordable one, they couldn't enroll.
The Heberts finally got some coverage for their kids (the parents remain uninsured), but only when they began paying for child care. This expense made their remaining income low enough that both of their children qualified for SCHIP. But that was after months without insurance, during which the Heberts were forced to ration Katie's care—skipping the occupational and speech therapies, canceling her auditory brain stem test that would check for further hearing impairment and postponing an appointment with an orthopedist who would help her learn to walk better. "I didn't know there were responsible, hardworking people who wanted insurance, were willing to pay for it but couldn't get access to the coverage they need," Hebert says. "It is surreal."
Families such as the Heberts are among many people hoping for change. During the past couple of years, a backlash against the exclusionary practices of insurance companies has been brewing, following revelations in the Los Angeles Times that California companies were systematically reviewing high claims among individual consumers—and one was even awarding bonuses to staff who came up with grounds for cancellations. One carrier, HealthNet, agreed to pay $9 million to a breast cancer patient whose chemotherapy was interrupted because the company annulled her policy. Such lawsuits prompted the state to investigate, and it separately brokered agreements with five major insurers to reinstate coverage for 3,370 people who lost policies. But a more sweeping change is necessary, and in this election year, there is serious talk of universal health care.
Photo Credit: Mark Heithoff


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Since you all might be sick of looking at "penis" at the top of my blog, I figured I'd get a post up before Christmas – just cuz I'm nice like that. 😉
I got all of my Christmas cards in the mail (finally!) today. Hooray!
And Jody and I met with Ava's Waldorf preschool teacher tonight for parent-teacher conferences. Who knew we'd already be in for that with a 3-year-old. The conference went very well. It was great to hear more about Ava from someone else's perspective and how she well she's acclimated to preschool. I may blog more about the conference another time (when I have more time to spare).
We're packing up and heading out tomorrow morning (or afternoon based on how quickly we get our crap together) for a road trip to southern Kansas to celebrate Christmas with Jody's side of the family. We're only driving half-way there tomorrow, then the rest on Sunday since the thought of trying to do 9 hours of driving in one day with two small children is not my idea of a good time. 😉 I think breaking up the trip will go much better for all of us.
We haven't yet turned Julian's rear-facing car seat around (even though he's a year old now), because he's stayed relatively content with riding that way and it's much safer that way (12 mos. and 20 lbs. is actually the minimum requirement for rear-facing). However, I think we are making the switch tomorrow which will hopefully keep him riding happily longer and will also allow Jody or me (the passenger seat) to recline and move back the seat a bit more, which will hopefully keep me/Jody riding happily longer as well. 😉 I'd love to keep him rear-facing longer just because it is so much safer, but with all of this driving ahead of us, for my and Jody's comfort (neither of us like riding with our legs all scrunched up and our seat-back straight up) and for the sanity of all, I think this is a good time to make the change.
I'll likely be blogging during the trip as Jody will have two (count them – one, two) laptops (from work) with him. (Woot!) They may not be lengthy posts, but I might upload some pictures and whatnot. Then again, I might have some great wisdom to share. Ya just never know. 😉 Speaking of pictures, Jody bought a new P&S camera yesterday. It seems to be a vast improvement over our old one, though I can't even remember at the moment what kind it is. Anyway, it's going on the trip with us.
I must get myself to bed in the very near future so I can get up and pack our bags in the morning. Oh, and finish laundry too.
Wishing you all a safe and happy long holiday weekend. 🙂


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One Dead Hen
Unabridged Audiobook
Written By: Charlie Williams
Narrated By: James Clamp
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Date: October 2012
Duration: 6 hours 32 minutes
When the world gets more frightening, what do you do? Do you hide in your basement, watching 24-hour rolling news about the latest crimes? And what happens when it comes knocking on your door? Do you double-check those locks? Or do what Hamlet did, taking arms against a sea of troubles and, by opposing, end them? Pub doorman-turned-recluse Royston Blake has never heard of Hamlet, but when headless corpses start turning up all over Mangel, he decides to do just that. And what better way to fight evil than by becoming a cop? Who cares if they all say you're the worst kind of copper a town needs? What matters is results, right? And that means catching a killer. One Dead Hen is the fourth installment in Charlie Williams' acclaimed Mangel series.


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- (adj) engaged in, involving, or reflecting deep or serious thought; "a pensive mood"
Pensive (पेन्सिव) meaning in Hindi (English to Hindi Dictionary)
- चिंताग्रस्त, ध्यानपरायण, उदासीन, धयान मगन
Pensive Origin
- late Middle English: from Old French pensif, -ive, from penser 'think', from Latin pensare 'ponder', frequentative of pendere 'weigh'.
Pensive in a sentence (word usage in recent newspaper)
- BJP-backed independent candidate Preeti Mahapatra in a pensive mood after she lost the Rajya Sabha election in Lucknow on Saturday.
- It usually starts with the girl worried, pensive and full of self-doubt. It's just not working out for her. Till she meets the seven day cream. Applies it.
- MS Dhoni Biopic Poster Features a Pensive Sushant Singh Rajput.
- He sounded tired, pensive, almost despondent.
- In another image, 26-year-old Anna looked pensive while filming alongside Teen wolf star Jackson Heywood.
Mnemonic trick to remember the meaning of pensive
- imagine a image with "pen" in your mouth – you will look pensive
Pensive Pronunciation


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Handcycle (HC) is a competitive division open to athletes who are paraplegic, quadriplegic or double above-the-knee amputees, and race using a hand cranked cycle on the bike, and a racing chair for the run. Handcycle athletes must use a recumbent handcycle on the bike course and a racing wheelchair on the run course. Conduct and standards for handlers of HC athletes is governed by the International Triathlon Union Rules.
The HC Division is a competitive division. Race awards with respect to the HC Division will not be based upon age-groups within the HC Division but will be given to the top female and male finishers of the HC Division.
Handler Information:
A Handler acts as an aid for the swim start, swim finish, and transition but does not compete in any leg of the race. For more information, please see below the rules and guidelines on becoming a Handler. HC athletes are allowed up to two Handlers in the Handcycle Division.
Please see below for a list of Frequently Asked Questions below. For further inquiries, please contact the race specific email or
Click here to see a list of races that are Handcycle Approved.
Securing Handlers shall be the responsibility of the Handcycle athlete and the Handler(s) must be identified as a Handler and wear the required credentials to be supplied by race personnel. Conduct and standards for handlers of HC athletes is governed by the ITU Paratriathlon rules.Back to top
Each HC athlete's swim conduct shall be consistent with Article IV of the IRONMAN Competition Rules.
IRONMAN reserves the right to seed HC Division athletes at the swim start of the Race (i.e., early start, late start, designated wave, etc.)
HC athletes may use wetsuits during the swim segment of the Race at any given water temperature.
Prior to the start of the Race, HC athletes must obtain prior approval from the Event Director with respect to all special requests related to swimwear and/or accessories to be used during the swim segment of the Race. Any change thereafter will be grounds for disqualification.
The use of snorkels is prohibited (DSQ).
For our US events only, Snorkels may be worn due to a medical condition supported by documentation from a physician. Any athlete granted permission to use a snorkel will not be eligible for age-group awards and will not be eligible for IRONMAN World Championship slots or IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship slots. Please note that while we are allowing this usage during the 2016 season for our US events, beginning in 2017 snorkels will not be allowed under any circumstance for any IRONMAN or IRONMAN 70.3 event.
The use of any flotation devices is prohibited (DSQ).
Each HC athlete's cycling conduct shall be consistent with Article V of the IRONMAN Competition Rules.
Handcycles must meet the specifications outlined in Section 17.13 of the International Triathlon Union Competition Rules.
Race Officials reserve the right to reject any bicycle/handcycle not meeting IRONMAN's safety standards.
HC Athletes are required to maintain control of his/her handcycle and to operate at a reasonable speed so as not to threaten the safety and well-being of aid station volunteers, spectators, the public, Race Officials, and other athletes. Operation of a handcycle in a dangerous or reckless manner will be grounds for disqualification.
An approved helmet is required during the entire bike segment of the Race (including in and out of the transition area). Any HC athlete riding without an approved helmet or chinstrap fastened will be disqualified.
Each HC athlete's running conduct shall be consistent with Article VI of the IRONMAN Competition Rules.
Standard racing chairs are required. The standard racing chair requirements are set forth in Section 17.14 of the International Triathlon Union Competition Rules.
An approved helmet is required during the entire wheelchair (run) segment of the Race (including in and out of the transition area). Any HC athlete riding without chinstrap fastened will be disqualified.Back to top


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i took pictures. some polaroids (too tired to scan last night) and some digital. we are branching out at ban.do. get ready world . . . here we come!
Monday, April 6, 2009
what did you do this weekend?
Posted by jen gotch at 1:21 PM
11 comments:
- Jenny said...
Lovely portraits.
- April 6, 2009 at 2:46 PM
- Ruta said...
i adore the lacy shirts. soo pretty.
- April 6, 2009 at 6:19 PM
- iheartkiwi said...
so excited for new ban.do happenings! i just got my first ban.do (annie get your gun) in the mail and i love it! i'm thinking of wearing it in my wedding. keep up the wonderful work.
- April 7, 2009 at 9:23 AM
- Carla said...
Love these. They reminder of modern old day masters. Beautiful Carla
- April 7, 2009 at 9:53 AM
- amy b.s. said...
oh, i'm excited for the branch out!
- April 7, 2009 at 11:11 AM
- ryan manning said...
is that who i think it is
- April 8, 2009 at 7:43 AM
- sandig said...
- April 8, 2009 at 8:41 AM
- elle moss said...
beautiful portraits!
- April 12, 2009 at 4:30 PM
- onesilentwinter said...
she is stunning!
- April 16, 2009 at 12:43 PM
- KTS said...
I have a sudden urge to watch a Victorian film, like Nicholas Nickleby, while sipping something syrupy sweet.
- October 6, 2009 at 9:27 AM
Looking for a great present for your mother, thomas sabo charms the woman who gave birth to you, raised you, and was there for you every step of the way? What can you give her that she would love, and at the same time would cheap thomas sabo charms remind her of you, and her grandchildren?Give Mom personalized jewelry - personalized jewelry thomas sabo charm is a great gift for a Mother and it could be personalized with different things, thomas charms such as a names, initials, birthstones and many other things. The best thing about it is that it can be personalized with Mother's name, or names and initials thomas sabo charms uk of her kids and grandkids. This will make the piece of jewelry one of a kind, and your Mom will know sabo charms that you picked the gift just for her.
- August 17, 2010 at 11:10 PM


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Management, Architecture, Programming, QA, Coach, GIS, EAI
If you try to delete large folders with explorer it could run for several minutes. Also when you try to suppress the moving to recycle bin via SHIFT + DEL.
From all variants to do this, rmdir in command prompt is my favorite
rmdir /s/q <foldername>
btw: deleting of files with good old DOS-del is also a fast way – particularly when you redirect the output:
del /f/s/q *.* > nul
Powered by:
Skin design by Mark Wagner, Adapted by David Vidmar
Copyright © Marko Apfel


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iPad App Indexes Live TV
When you watch television, you can't search in real time for keywords and find out which networks have content on the topics that matter most to you, the way you can on the Web... unless you have the Boxfish iPad app (free).
An innovative concept drives Boxfish: read all the closed captioning that's airing on television and index it so that television programming becomes searchable in real time. It looks at both live broadcasts, like news programs, as well as anything on air at the moment, even if it's pre-recorded. (It doesn't consider online videos or other kinds of non-live television services, like Netflix or TiVo.)
Boxfish started in the U.K. as well as the U.S., where it scans information from about 1,600 channels. It runs the data it collects through a natural language software program to find key words and terms.
One of the biggest differences between how Boxfish indexes television content and how Web search companies index online content is that TV doesn't have any metadata. Additionally, there's the pesky question of how much live television—broadcast news in particular—is influenced by the trends that are already being reported online on sites like Twitter.
The company only started indexing the telly in November 2011. And looking at the app, I had a hard time trying to figure out what sort of value I would get from using Boxfish, in part because I don't have live television and I rely on radio and Internet services for real-time information. TV watchers, however, can see which channels are running stories about Hurricane Isaac, for example, and flip to them while the report is in progress.
I'd love to hear from some readers who stick close to the tube for information. What do you think of Boxfish? Post your thoughts in the comments below.
For more from Jill Duffy, follow her on Twitter @jilleduffy.


text:
Uh oh.
It looks like you're viewing the Handmade Cinema site with a browser or device that can't display Flash content.
You might consider upgrading your browser, or checking back on a computer that has Flash capabilities.
Click here to access the limited mobile version of the site
All text © 2012 Gregory Zinman


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Nathan Nothin' here.
A while back Zer0_II got in touch with me about re-bootin' ole DM. I hadn't heard from him…he'd kinda fallen off the face of the Internet, if not Mother Terra herself…so I was kinda surprised & very glad. He wanted to try re-uploading old posts that were long dead.
We had more than 350 comments waiting for moderation, i.e. waiting for us to répondez s'il vous plait. Well, I re-upped all my posts, plus some that I had archived from other poster. I moderated all the comments that pertained to said posts. There are now only (only???) 76 comments yet awaiting response. These are mostly posts from Zer0_II that I don't currently have. & now he's disappeared again.
Where's Zer0_II?
He posted up a picture of his broken monitor, so that could be part of the problem. He said he was going to be getting his hands on one shortly, but that was a while ago. I've emailed him several times but have not heard anything in return. So if you posted a comment requesting some older files, please be patient. Everything will (probably) be worked out.
In the meantime, if anyone is interested, over at my blog Nothin'Sez Somethin'. I've started a project that was also the brainchild of Zer0_II that never came to fruition, namely Music Around the World. The goal is to travel country by country around the globe, 225 countries or more in all, & post up music from every country. I am slowly making my way through Europe at the time. Today (March 14) I am visiting the 13th country so far, Denmark. If this sounds like something you might enjoy, stop on by, & as for Digital Meltd0wn, hang in there. There is plenty to find here, & more to come. I'll try to post up some new tastes here when I have time during my globe-spanning journey.
Just an update for all the faithful, if anxious, followers.


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Psoralen plus ultraviolet light therapy
(PUVA) combines a type of medicine (psoralen) with
ultraviolet A (UVA) light to treat atopic dermatitis.
The psoralen makes the skin more sensitive to the ultraviolet light. PUVA can
be an effective treatment for severe
atopic dermatitis.
An example of a psoralen is methoxsalen (Oxsoralen).
psoralen medicine is taken 1½ to 2 hours before exposure to UVA light. This
treatment is repeated 2 to 3 times a week, and treatment length varies. The
dose of medicine is not increased, but the amount of light can be
During photochemotherapy, you stand in a booth that
contains light tubes that give off UV light. Goggles should be worn to protect
your eyes during treatment. Men need to shield their genitals to avoid an
increased risk of genital cancer.
As your skin recovers from treatment,
it should be checked frequently (at least once or twice a year) for signs of
damage or skin cancer.
PUVA is usually only used for adults
who have severe and hard-to-treat cases of atopic dermatitis. It typically is not
recommended for children.
PUVA is effective in managing
hard-to-treat atopic dermatitis.
Risks related to PUVA treatment include:
Because of the side effects, PUVA
is not generally recommended for children unless all other treatment fails to
control severe atopic dermatitis.
Complete the special treatment information form (PDF)(What is a PDF document?) to help you understand this treatment.
Last Revised:
April 17, 2012
Healthwise Staff
Medical Review:
Adam Husney, MD - Family Medicine & Amy McMichael, MD - Dermatology
This information does not replace the advice of a doctor. Healthwise, Incorporated disclaims any warranty or liability for your use of this information. Your use of this information means that you agree to the Terms of Use. How this information was developed to help you make better health decisions.
To learn more visit Healthwise.org
© 1995-2012 Healthwise, Incorporated. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated.


text:
Important Fraud Update
Alfred University is currently receiving reports of fraudulent check activity. If you receive an unexpected check that looks like it is from Alfred University you should assume that it is fraudulent. If someone tries to pay you for personal goods or services (e.g.: items on Ebay or craigslist, cosmetics, etc.) with a check that looks like it is from Alfred University assume that it is fraudulent. If someone tries to pay you or get you to cash a check and give them all or part of the money you should assume that the check is fraudulent. The University has fraud protection on all of its bank accounts which ensures that any check not actually issued by Alfred University will not be honored. The University does not assume any liability for any losses associated with these fraudulent checks. These losses include, but are not limited to, money that your bank may charge you for cashing or depositing the fraudulent check and fees requested by the fraudulent check issuer. If you have a questionable check that you would like to report to Alfred University, please contact the business office at email@example.com.


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"I have a question for you, Keith," Roxanne interjected as we were concluding our interview on serodiscordant relationships (see When Opposites Attract, March/April issue). "Is it love? When someone who is HIV-negative decides to get involved or have sex with you after you disclose your HIV status to him or her, does that mean that they love you?"
The logical answer, I would think, would be yes. In an ideal situation, if someone who is HIV-negative chooses to become intimate with someone whom they know is HIV-positive, it should be safe to assume that the person's primary motivating factor is love or at least a fairly deep like for the other person, right? I mean, for what other reason would someone risk contracting a life-threatening, heavily stigmatized virus such as HIV?
Well, while working on that article, one of the underlying themes of more than a couple of the interviews that were conducted did, in fact, suggest another possible reason. And, while for the most part it was HIV-positive women who seemed to fall victim to this disturbing phenomenon, the HIV-positive gay men who were interviewed also alluded to having experienced it as well.
The "it" which I am referring to here is the "power dynamic" that seems to exist in many relationships where one person is HIV-negative and the other is HIV-positive -- also known as a serodiscordant relationship. It can be best described as the pressure an HIV-positive person feels to conform to whatever structure the HIV-negative person desires for the relationship, simply because he or she wants to feel or be loved. Not surprisingly, the common risk factor among those who became trapped in such desperate situations appears to be a lack of self-esteem and self-worth that is the result of the ever-present stigma associated with HIV.
Roxanne, who spoke of how her sex life vastly improved after she was diagnosed with HIV and found no shame in discussing her rendezvous with multiple sex partners, admits that what she really wants more than anything is a solid, committed relationship with one man or woman.
"But people try to take advantage of you when they know you are HIV-positive," she claims. "I've even had men flat out ask me to pay them to be with them, telling me 'you know that nobody else is gonna be with you 'cause you got this virus.' The sad thing is that for a while I believed them and sometimes I went along with it. Until one day I thought, 'he must be crazy. I don't have to pay nobody to be with me.' "
Tony Stackhouse, a nationally recognized poet, author and vocalist, has never had anyone demand money of him, but confesses to frequently feeling expendable in his relationships because he is HIV-positive. "Dating brings out the best and worst in everybody," he claims. "HIV-positive brothers, myself included, have so many issues related to a lack of self-esteem and self-worth that we are, more often than not, impossible to date in any serious capacity. But, in all honesty, I think that HIV-negative men present just as much of a challenge. They come with a whole other set of issues."
Tony actually decided against having his most recent experience with dating an HIV-negative man printed in the original article because, at the time, they were facing serious complications in their relationship. They have since parted ways and, while he was still very skeptical about sharing the specifics of their breakup, Tony had no problem admitting that the most pressing problem they faced was his HIV status.
"For the most part, I'm out about my status," says Tony, who speaks publicly across the country regarding life as a Black gay man living with HIV. "But he made me feel like I should hide it. He was so uncomfortable with me being openly HIV-positive that he would never come to my shows. In the beginning, he didn't even tell a lot of his friends that we were dating because he didn't want them to think that he was HIV-positive as well. It was wild."
Tony now realizes the emotional toll that this relationship, like many of the others he had been in with HIV-negative men, took on him. "It was really tough at times," he says in retrospect. "But I wanted to be in a relationship so bad that I was willing to work through it. And it didn't help that he was smart, fine as hell, financially secure, and willing to be with me knowing that I was HIV-positive. I didn't really think that I could do any better and he didn't do much to convince me otherwise."
Aside from the emotional compromises, Tony also talked about the compromises that he made sexually in order to make his partner feel comfortable. "From the beginning, I was clear with him that while I can be versatile, I am mostly a top. He said that he was versatile as well but, when it came down to it, he was so uncomfortable with bottoming for someone who is HIV-positive -- even with a condom -- that we never did that. So not only did I hold back from mentioning my HIV status as much when I spoke or performed publicly, I also stopped performing in bed the way that I really liked so that he could be comfortable and, hopefully, see just how serious I was about being with him."
"Obviously," Tony says in a defeated tone, "it wasn't enough."
Tamara Wilson could also relate to the sacrifices that many HIV-positive people articulate that they make when dating someone who is HIV-negative. Her story, though, is probably unlike any other that you've ever heard and yet it is probably no different.
At 29 years old, she was an office manager for a Jackson-Hewitt income tax agency during tax season and a receptionist at their corporate office through the rest of the year. She and her steady boyfriend of two years had just purchased a house together and all was well, or so she thought.
Tamara admits that she and her beau were a serious party couple who drank, used drugs and hung out just about every Thursday through Sunday. They never missed work, however, and made enough money to support their extravagant lifestyle and maintain a fairly happy relationship. Everything would change just a few months shy of Tamara's 30th birthday, though, when she was the unsuspecting victim of the first major tragedy of her life -- rape.
She was immediately tested for HIV following the incident but when the suspect was caught and found to be HIV-negative, she put the possibility of being positive completely out of her mind. That is until she received a visit from a Department of Public Health worker who informed her that she had, in fact, tested positive for the virus that causes AIDS.
At that moment, the fabulous life that Tamara had come to know began to crumble. Not only did she learn that she was HIV-positive, but she also learned that her boyfriend's daily trips to the trunk of his car and the subsequent short drive around the neighborhood weren't the result of a secret drug addiction after all. He was taking drugs, but not the kind that she suspected. He had known that he was HIV-positive before they met and had kept it a secret from her up until that point.
But that's a different type of serodiscordant relationship altogether -- another article in and of itself.
The point is that the depth of this series of traumatic experiences left Tamara heartbroken and clinically depressed. She stayed in the house for more than two months straight -- taking no visitors or phone calls, eating very little, neglecting her personal hygiene and not reporting to her job. It wasn't until her family orchestrated a strategically planned intervention that she eventually broke out of her shell, but only enough to allow her to regain some semblance of a normal life. The damage that had been done to her self-esteem would prove not so easily reversible.
Then in 2004, still extremely vulnerable and somewhat desperate for love after several failed relationships, Tamara met the man of her dreams -- or so she thought. According to her, he was the textbook description of tall, dark, and handsome. A devout Muslim and single parent to 11 of his 17 children, Ahmed (as we will call him) embodied everything that Tamara had prayed for. More than anything she wanted a family and this one came ready made -- big time. Throw in the fact that her newly found knight-in-shining-armor made reference to her as the queen of his throne and mesmerized her with the sex of her life, and Tamara was what many would call "hooked."
They dated seriously for several months and eventually moved in together. She even began to frequent the mosque with him. Though it didn't necessarily appeal to her, she studied and adopted the lifestyle of Islam in an effort to show Ahmed how sincere she was about being with him. He was okay with her HIV status, as long as she didn't tell any of his fellow Muslim brothers and sisters. Muslim people, she learned, view people who are infected with HIV as dirty (or at least the ones Ahmed fellowshipped with did).
In hindsight, Tamara believes that Ahmed was playing on her vulnerability from the very beginning. And, once he knew that he had her at his beck and call, she began to experience a side of Ahmed that she never would have imagined existed.
Tamara's self-esteem was so low and her desire for a family and love from a man so strong that she allowed Ahmed to convince her that she could be cured from HIV if she changed her diet and drank a daily concoction of herbs that he made for her. For almost a year she stopped visiting her doctor, stopped taking her antiretrovirals and became submissive and obedient to the life that Ahmed's Allah was mapping out for her. By this time he had officially become her husband.
Chastisement from Tamara's neighbor and friend, who was also HIV-positive, snatched her back to reality. She convinced Tamara to return to her routine doctor's visits so that she could at least know how she was doing physically. Tamara obliged, but the detour from taking care of herself and treating her HIV would cost her. Her T-cell count had dropped from over 800 to 202. Her viral load had gone from undetectable to somewhere in the tens of thousands. Not knowing how to leave, or even if she really wanted to, Tamara resorted to hiding her medication in the Weber grill on the back porch to keep Ahmed from knowing that she had disobeyed him.
Eventually, after much heartache and disappointment (and a couple of fights that placed both of them in the county jail), Tamara parted ways with Ahmed. Now she is struggling to regain control of both her physical and emotional well-being.
"I'm learning to love myself now," she tells me from her hospital bed in a suburb of Chicago. "I had to go through all of that to learn that nobody is going to really love me until I start loving myself."
Roxanne, Tony, and I could not agree with her more.


text:
Once upon a time, John McCain was favored to win the Republican nomination. His straight-talking appeal and his cultivation of the Republican Party's right wing put him first—at least in the early conventional wisdom. Then, last summer, his campaign seemed to spontaneously combust in a puff of fund-raising troubles and staff intrigue. But McCain has slowly made his way back into contention. The usual line is that he has done it by being "the old McCain," the one that New Hampshire voters (and many journalists) fell for during his 2000 Presidential run. Unlike Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, or Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor, two of his chief competitors, he holds a press conference after nearly every campaign event. Just before a recent trip to South Carolina, he invited a dozen reporters for lunch at his Arlington, Virginia, campaign headquarters (on the thirteenth floor, naturally).
Rather than trying to woo religious conservatives, an awkward alliance at best, McCain is focussing more on his natural base of independents (in New Hampshire) and veterans (in South Carolina). Instead of trying to run a by-the-numbers conservative campaign, he is emphasizing issues on which he has taken what he believes to be principled but unpopular positions. He is the only one in the Republican field who seems eager to talk about Iraq. "My friends, here's the news," he told a small crowd in Seneca, South Carolina, a few days after returning from Thanksgiving with the troops. "We are winning in Iraq. We are winning in Iraq. We are winning in Iraq."
Over lunch in Arlington, McCain had given the stock explanation for what caused last summer's difficulties. "The problem, which was my problem, was that our fiscal expectations weren't met by reality," he said—in other words, he couldn't raise enough money. But the next day, as I travelled with McCain around South Carolina, he told me that his campaign's brush with death had less to do with fund-raising than with his role in championing the ambitious immigration-reform bill, supported by the White House, that died in Congress this year. "It wasn't the budgetary problems. That was an inside-the-Beltway thing," he said, referring to press coverage of his campaign's setbacks. McCain gets animated whenever he discusses the immigration issue. After a town-hall meeting in Anderson, South Carolina, he recalled how the Irish were discriminated against in America. As he quoted a placard that hangs on the wall of an aide's office ("Help Wanted—No Irish Need Apply"), he jabbed his finger in the air with such emphasis that he knocked my voice recorder to the ground and erased our conversation. "It was immigration" that hurt his campaign, he said when he continued, after a series of apologies on both sides. "I understand that. I was told by one of the pollsters, 'We see real bleeding.' "
There were two major factions in the immigration debate in Congress. A bipartisan coalition wanted a bill that included tough border-security measures, which everyone favored, as well as more controversial provisions concerning temporary-worker permits for undocumented aliens and a way for them to attain citizenship. Conservatives, led by Tom Tancredo, a Colorado congressman and Presidential candidate, demanded a bill that dealt only with security. McCain seems torn by how to address the issue, and he makes a small but telling concession to the Tancredo faction when he argues that security legislation must indeed come first. "You've got to do what's right, O.K.?" he told me. "But, if you want to succeed, you have to adjust to the American people's desires and priorities."
During another conversation, when I asked McCain what he had learned from the arguments about immigration, he said, "I think the main lesson is that Americans had no trust or confidence in the government. So when we said, as part of this comprehensive solution, we need to secure the borders, add temporary workers, and address the twelve million people here, they just didn't believe us, O.K.?" He argued that the mismanaged response after Hurricane Katrina, the Washington corruption scandals such as those involving the lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and unchecked government spending had undermined public confidence. "So what you have to do is prove to them that you're going to secure the borders. And then I think that at least most of them—except for the Tancredos, who want to stop all immigration—would say, 'O.K., I'm going to address these other issues.' "
McCain's standard answer to immigration questions is that he "got the message." But every so often this practical McCain, bending to the mood of the primary electorate, gets shoved aside by the quixotic McCain, the one who never seems happier than when he's championing a lost cause. At one stop in South Carolina, at Clemson University, a student engaged McCain in an argument about whether his plan rewarded illegal immigrants for breaking the law. McCain was by then in a combative mood. Minutes earlier, a professor had asked about a piece of Internet-crime legislation that he argued would group terrorism researchers with actual terrorists. "Am I a terrorist?" the professor asked, his querulous tone suggesting that McCain hadn't answered the original question. The questioner was wearing tennis shoes, jeans, a pink polo shirt, and a gray blazer, and McCain looked at him carefully. "With those sneakers, you're not a snappy dresser," McCain replied after a pause, as audience members gasped and laughed. "That doesn't mean you're a terrorist. Though you terrorize the senses." To the student with the immigration question, McCain patiently explained that some illegal immigrants had faced unusual circumstances, and he mentioned a woman who has lived in the United States for decades and has a son and a grandson serving in Iraq. When the student said that he wanted to see punishment meted out to anyone who has broken the law, McCain stopped trying to find common ground. "If you're prepared to send an eighty-year-old grandmother who's been here seventy years back to some country, then frankly you're not quite as compassionate as maybe I am," he said. Next question.
McCain could stop discussing the controversial parts of his immigration plan or he could drop his support for them altogether, admitting that he was simply wrong, as Romney has done with abortion and other issues. I asked McCain about Romney, who had once expressed support for the comprehensive legislation backed by the Bush Administration—it sounded "reasonable," he'd said—but now rails against it as "amnesty." McCain said, "Both he and Rudy had the same position I did. In fact, Rudy was even more liberal. But, look, if that—" He paused and shrugged. "I don't want to be President that bad."
Later that night, at the CNN/YouTube debate in St. Petersburg, Florida, immigration declared itself the dominant and obsessive issue of the Republican primaries, and the issue also clarified some essential differences among the candidates. The two formerly moderate Northeasterners, Romney and Giuliani, taunted each other about who was tougher on illegal immigrants. On the other side were McCain and Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, who told their opponents that illegal immigrants "need some of our love and compassion" (McCain) and that "we are a better country than to punish children for what their parents did" (Huckabee). The Romney-Giuliani exchange prompted Tancredo, whose platform calls for restrictions even on legal immigration, to giddily declare that his opponents were trying to "out-Tancredo Tancredo."
The emergence of Trancredoism as an ideological touchstone for two Republican front-runners is a stunning development, another indication of the Party's rejection of nearly everything associated with the approach taken by George W. Bush. As a border-state governor, Bush boasted of his relationship with Vicente Fox, who became the President of Mexico, and he and his political adviser Karl Rove later argued that Republicans needed a pro-Latino vision for immigration reform. His strategy of cultivating immigrants as integral to the future of the Party seemed to work, and Bush did surprisingly well with Latino voters: in 2004, he won some forty per cent of their vote—double what Bob Dole achieved just eight years earlier.
In the late nineteen-nineties, when the Republican Party began embracing Bush's pro-immigrant message, Tom Tancredo was a relatively anonymous backbencher. "When I first started on this, when I came to Congress, nine years ago, I found that I could get few, if anyone, to pay attention to the issue," Tancredo told me as he was being ferried between campaign events in New Hampshire. "I remember going into a Republican conference meeting and asking if I could show a video that a night-vision camera had taken of people coming across the border in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, in Arizona. You had all of these campers parked, people sleeping, and in between were probably hundreds and hundreds of people, most of them carrying guns. And I was showing this and it was two hundred and twenty-two members of the Republican conference, and there were four left at the end of it. And it was a three-minute video. They walked out murmuring things, you know"—he made a mumbling sound—" 'immigration, immigration, immigration.' "
When I asked Tancredo about Bush's argument that Republicans risked losing a generation of Hispanic voters if they adopted an immigration policy that many regard as nativist, he laughed and said, "It doesn't seem to be holding its own very well, considering what happened the other night at the debate. If you think for a moment that Romney, Giuliani, and Thompson"—Fred Thompson, the former Tennessee senator—"haven't polled the heck out of this thing, you're wrong. They have. And they are there now because the polls tell them this is where they should be."
The rise of Tancredoism has been aided and abetted by a number of factors, including an absence of strong leadership in the Republican Party and the greatly diminished power and popularity of the President, whose approval ratings fell as the war in Iraq went wrong and the government failed to act effectively after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast. In December, 2005, the nativist wing of the G.O.P. in the House—marginalized by Bush's semi-successful rebranding of his party as progressive on immigration—passed legislation requiring seven hundred miles of fence along the Mexican border, and reclassified as felons illegal immigrants. (The bill set off huge immigrants'-rights protests in dozens of cities in 2006.) The post-Bush, pre-Tancredo era of the Republican Party had begun.
Another catalyst was the peculiar dynamics of this year's Republican Presidential campaign. In 1999, when Bush made his initial foray into Presidential politics, he already had credibility with conservatives, largely based on his tax-cut promises and his religious convictions. It gave him latitude to be heretical on other issues. By contrast, the 2008 Presidential campaign features five leading Republican candidates, each of whom is viewed with suspicion by at least part of the so-called base. Unlike Bush in 1999 and 2000, Romney, Giuliani, Huckabee, McCain, and Thompson have spent most of the campaign trying to establish their bona fides with conservatives. The effect has been to push the field farther to the right, especially on immigration.
Anti-immigrant passion also owes much to the disproportionate influence of a few small states in the nominating process. National polls show that, as an issue, immigration is far behind the Iraq war, terrorism, the economy, and health care as a concern to most Americans; a recent Pew poll shows that, nationally, only six per cent of voters offer immigration as the most important issue facing the country. But in Iowa and South Carolina, two of the three most important early states, it is a top concern for the Republicans who are most likely to vote. "It's the influx of illegals into places where they've never seen a Hispanic influence before," McCain told me. "You probably see more emotion in Iowa than you do in Arizona on this issue. I was in a town in Iowa, and twenty years ago there were no Hispanics in the town. Then a meatpacking facility was opened up. Now twenty per cent of their population is Hispanic. There were senior citizens there who were—'concerned' is not the word. They see this as an assault on their culture, what they view as an impact on what have been their traditions in Iowa, in the small towns in Iowa. So you get questions like 'Why do I have to punch 1 for English?' 'Why can't they speak English?' It's become larger than just the fact that we need to enforce our borders."
Mike Huckabee is the latest victim of the Republican shift on the immigration issue. We talked on what should have been a happy day for Huckabee. According to at least one poll, he had taken the lead from Romney in Iowa, and was enjoying a sustained burst of positive media coverage. "Oh, man, it's been unbelievable," he said in his winning, Gomer Pyle-like voice. "We're up in New Hampshire and I've got more press coming to the events than I've got people. I'm not kidding. It's unbelievable. We have so many people coming we can't fit them in the places." But Huckabee's excitement was tempered by Romney's persistent attacks on his immigration record as governor of Arkansas, and he seemed to be grappling with the intensity of the question among Republicans. "It does appear to be the issue out here wherever we are," he told me. "Nobody's asked about Iraq—doesn't ever come up. The first question out of the box, everywhere I go—Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida, Texas, it doesn't matter—is immigration. It's just red hot, and I don't fully understand it."
Romney has not been similarly reflective in trying to discern the source of the issue's power. Rather, he has quickly and easily adopted the negative code words of the anti-immigration movement—"sanctuary cities," "amnesty"—and has tried to attach them to Giuliani and Huckabee. In doing so, he became the first top-tier candidate to seize the Tancredo mantle. My own sense, from talking to Huckabee, a Southern populist, and McCain, a border-state senator, is that they are genuinely appalled by Romney's tactics, not only because of the damage to their campaigns but also because of the damage they believe he's doing to the Party's image. Romney's communications director, Matt Rhoades, said, "Both Senator McCain and Governor Huckabee have decided that to win in 2008, Republicans need to be more like the Democrats when it comes to illegal immigration. That's the wrong course. McCain-Kennedy"—Edward Kennedy was a sponsor of the initial legislation—"was the wrong course. Governor Huckabee's plan to give tuition breaks to illegal immigrants was the wrong course. America doesn't need two politicians with records on illegal immigration that are in tune with Senator Clinton."
"He's clearly distorted my record as well as my position," Huckabee told me. "But I'm not interested in getting in a war with him to see which of us can be the meanest son of a gun running for President." He went on, "My experience has been—not just in politics but in any realm of life—when people keep saying something over and over, and louder and louder, it's to compensate that they don't want you to know that's really never what they believed." Nevertheless, last week, Huckabee, too, found his inner Tancredo: he announced the Secure America Plan, which included tough language about enforcement and pressuring illegal immigrants to return home. This leaves McCain as the only Republican candidate who hasn't folded in the face of Romney's attacks. At the press lunch in Virginia, after McCain had discussed his warm relations with several candidates, a reporter asked about Romney. "I've never known him," McCain said icily. "I've never had a relationship with him."
Barack Obama, during a recent interview with the editorial board of the Boston Globe, predicted that the Republicans will run next fall on two issues: terrorism and immigration. When I asked a leading Republican strategist and former Bush lieutenant if he agreed, he said merely, "I hope not." He argued that it was incorrect to think that immigration was the second most important challenge facing the United States. "We need to address other issues, like the economy, health care, and education," he said. When I asked Tancredo if he was leading his party "over a cliff" or "to the promised land," he laughed and said, "I see manna out there."
The evidence so far, though, points to a cliff. In several election contests in the past two years, Republicans tried and failed to deploy immigration as a campaign weapon. This November, Republicans in Virginia and New York who ran on the issue were defeated. Not even Eliot Spitzer's misbegotten plan to issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, which was thought to be ruinous for Democrats, has damaged the Democratic Party; rather, the Party increased its numbers in local races around the state. McCain says that last year he saw how toothless the issue was in Arizona. "Congressman J. D. Hayworth had a pretty good opponent," he said of the former Republican from Arizona, who lost his seat in the 2006 midterm election. "J.D. ran just on the issue of immigration, in a moderate but Republican district. Arizona State University is there, in Phoenix. And J.D. got beat by four points in the general election. There was a guy who was going to take Jim Kolbe's seat"—an Arizona congressman who retired last year. "Jim was there twenty years, and had always carried the district well. The Republican candidate was another one where immigrant, immigration, anti-illegal immigration was his theme. He lost by twelve points. So I think there is a lesson in some of those elections when people use anti-immigration as a major part of their campaign. But I also know that it galvanizes a certain part of the Republican Party."
Far from fearing the immigration issue, some Democratic strategists are quietly cheering how the subject has played out. Simon Rosenberg, a Democratic strategist who has closely studied the politics of the issue, says simply, "The Bush strategy—enlightened on race, smart on immigration, developed in Texas and Florida with Jeb Bush—has been replaced by the Tancredo-Romney strategy, which is demonizing and scapegoating immigrants, and that is a catastrophic event for the Republican Party."
Besides McCain, who was the original Republican sponsor of the comprehensive immigration bill, South Carolina's Lindsey Graham is the Republican most associated with the legislation. Graham negotiated the details of the final version of the bill, which went down to defeat, and as a consequence he has become a target of ridicule on the talk-radio right. On the afternoon of the YouTube debate, Buddy Witherspoon, a Republican National Committeeman, was finishing a two-day tour of South Carolina, announcing his campaign to run against Graham in the June Republican primary. Witherspoon's sole issue is immigration. After watching McCain's testy forum at Clemson, I travelled a hundred and twenty miles to see Witherspoon in Aiken, a town of about thirty thousand. I found him setting up for his speech in front of a government office building at the end of an alley that abutted a shopping thoroughfare where tourists occasionally passed in a horse-and-buggy, casting curious glances. Exactly thirteen people were there to listen to him, including a ten-year-old who had accompanied his grandmother.
Dean Allen, a plump and friendly fellow sporting an American-flag tie, told me that he runs something called Spirit of Liberty; he's also helping Witherspoon's campaign. "Some of these people may be coming in here to get jobs washing dishes, but some of them are coming in here to hijack airplanes," he explained. "If you're down there trying to look at the people coming across the border, maybe a lot of them are just motivated by economics, and they want a job washing dishes or cutting grass. But I can't tell Jose Cuervo from the Al Qaeda operatives by looking at them, because they cut their beard off. It's like trying to get fly manure out of pepper without your glasses on, you know? I mean, not a racist thing, but they're all brown with black hair and they don't speak English and I don't speak Arabic or Spanish, so if they don't belong here and they don't come here legally, I want to know who's here." He echoed McCain's observation that the anti-immigrant feeling is strongest in states with new Hispanic populations. "The illegal Hispanic population, it's definitely growing," he said. "I can tell you just from how many you see when you walk in Wal-Mart, and you drive down the street and you see buildings now with writing in Spanish that says 'tienda,' which is Mexican for 'store.' You didn't see that even a year or two ago."
After speaking for forty-five minutes, Witherspoon walked across the street with me to Tako Sushi and we sat outside, where heat lamps warmed us. Witherspoon is tall and bald, and he spoke quickly, like a man full of opinions he's been eager to vent. In his speech, he had run through many of the issues that have been festering on the right: the Law of the Sea treaty; an alleged plan to combine Canada, the United States, and Mexico into a super-state; the Patriot Act. But he was most exercised about immigration and about Lindsey Graham's betrayal on that issue. "There's a lot of unrest in South Carolina," he told me gravely. "And people are concerned that the Senator no longer represents the views of mainstream South Carolinians in a lot of ways. Immigration is the No. 1 issue, no question there. We're concerned about illegal immigrants coming in here and—well, under the Bush Administration, it's now seven years into his term, and he hasn't done a lot about it." He was not impressed by Bush's big-tent philosophy of courting Hispanics as the future of the Republican Party. "The big tent is great. But that doesn't mean 'cause it's a big tent you should include everything under the tent."
When I talked to Graham a couple of days later, he did not sound alarmed by the Witherspoon challenge. With more than four million dollars in his campaign account, he can afford to be somewhat, but perhaps not entirely, relaxed. His pollster, Whit Ayres, has been monitoring the issue closely, and Graham was eager to share the results. His role in the immigration debate has indeed hurt him. "What's happened for me is my negatives have gone up about ten points," he told me. "My approval rating has come down about eight or nine points. That's the consequence to me."
But the numbers told another story, too. Graham read me one of the questions that his pollster asked about immigration. The poll tested voters' opinion of three different proposals to deal with illegal immigrants: "arrest and deport"; "allow them to be temporary workers, as long as they have a job"; "fine them and allow them to become citizens only if they learn English and get to the back of the line." In two separate polls, the majority supported the third option. The average for the first option was only twenty-six per cent.
"What it tells me is that the emotion of the twenty-six per cent is real, somewhat understandable, but if not contained could destroy our ability to grow the Party," he said. "And I don't think you need to be a rocket scientist to figure out that if you're going to win a general election you have to do well with Hispanic voters as a Republican." He continued, "My concern is that we're going to have an honest but overly emotional debate about immigration, and we'll say things for the moment, in the primary chase, that will make it very difficult for us to win in November. There's a fine line between being upset about violating the law and appearing to be upset about someone's last name."
Graham, who is one of McCain's staunchest supporters, had not yet seen a new poll by the Pew Hispanic Center, which reported that the gains made among Hispanic voters during the Bush era have now been erased. Nevertheless, he had a warning for Republicans: "Those politicians that are able to craft a message tailored to the moment but understanding of the long-term consequences to the country and to the Party are the ones that are a blessing. And the ones who live for the moment and don't think about long-term consequences, demographic changes, over time have proven to have been more of a liability than an asset." He added, "Be careful of chasing the rabbit down a hole here." ♦


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BMW 535d Power Steering Pump Replacement Cost
Know what price you should pay to get your vehicle fixed.
What is a power steering pump?
The power steering pump pressurizes and circulates power steering fluid through the power steering hydraulic system, allowing the steering wheel to turn with greater ease.
How does the power steering pump work?
Power steering pumps create hydraulic pressure, and a hose transfers the pressure to the steering gear, where it can be used to assist in turning the wheels. Another hose then returns the used fluid to be pressurized.
This process happens continuously, and the power steering pump pressurizes fluid any time the engine is running.
What are the symptoms related to a bad power steering pump?
If you have a power steering fluid leak, you'll likely see a puddle of it on the ground under your car. If the fluid level gets too low, the car will get harder to steer, especially at low speeds. The power steering pump may also start making a screeching noise when you turn the steering wheel.
Can I drive with a power steering pump problem?
A vehicle can be driven with leaking power steering components, but you'll need to make sure there's enough fluid for the system to function. If the fluid is leaking fast, have the car towed to a repair shop to prevent damage to the power steering system.
How often do power steering pumps need to be replaced?
In most vehicles, the power steering system will last well over 100,000 miles before any failures occur. Mechanical issues and leaks in the power steering system are usually avoidable if you stick to the maintenance schedule in your owner's manual. But because of the pressure in the system, parts of it will eventually wear out.
How are power steering pump issues diagnosed?
Most power steering issues will create the same symptoms, so it can be difficult to diagnose one part without examining the whole system. When symptoms emerge, the power steering fluid is inspected and topped off, and the condition and tension of the power steering pump belt is noted.
The system may need to be bled of air before diagnosis. Any leaks will become very obvious at that time, and noise from the pump would indicated that it has failed mechanically.
Power Steering Pump Replacement Cost Estimates
The average cost for a Power Steering Pump Replacement is between $1765 and $1911 but can vary from car to car.
How is a power steering pump replaced?
To replace the pump, the power steering fluid will first need to be drained. The serpentine or power steering belt will be removed, the hoses will be taken off, and the pump will be unbolted from the engine block.
A new pump will then be installed, the lines attached, the belt reinstalled, and the fluid refilled. The system will be bled of air and checked to ensure a complete repair.
RepairPal recommendations for power steering pump issues
When having the power steering pump replaced, the power steering fluid hoses and related components should be inspected. Any debris from the pump may have worked into the steering system, requiring replacement of the hoses, and at least a flushing of the steering rack or gearbox. It's also smart to replace the plastic fluid reservoir at the same time.
What to look out for when dealing with power steering pump issues
Power steering components are subject to high pressure, heat and speeds. Using parts that are built to meet or exceed OEM standards will help ensure the longevity of the system. Inferior parts tend to lead to repeated replacement.
Can I replace the power steering pump myself?
Replacing a power steering pump can be a good repair for the advanced DIYer — but it involves a lot of work. You'll need to drain and refill the power steering system, and bleed the system to purge any trapped air. A torque wrench is usually necessary, as the brass washers must be tightened to specification to prevent leaks.
If the power steering pump mounting bolts are integrated into other components, requiring extensive disassembly, consider letting a certified technician handle this job to prevent damage to the engine.
- Repair shops in Sterling, VA
- Repair shops in Dulles, VA
- Repair shops in Leesburg, VA
- Repair shops in Herndon, VA


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|Home > States & Groups of States
|The concept of state is signigicant within the realm of international law. The definition of state has been addressed often and primarily consisits of a group of individuals within a particular geographic boundary who share a governmental system. Often, groups of states may join together in order to achieve a particular goal, such as economic cooperation. Resources in this category relate to issues of state as well as to particular groups of states.


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DANILA Skirt is designed for the modern woman who embraces conservative fashion and contemporary styles. A perfect casual look for any occasion. Wear it with the matching top for a glamorous look, or pair it with a simple top for a minimal twist.
Please be informed that colours may differ slightly due to camera flash / computer settings
Domestic Delivery Postage fees for domestic delivery are as below:We calculate based on weight.West Malaysia – Starts from RM 6 Sabah, Sarawak & Labuan – Starts from RM 9 FREE delivery is offered for domestic orders above RM 250. International Delivery We charge based on Registered Mail/Air Shipping (2-3 weeks) & Pos Laju International (4-7days) postage fees.


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Cities Move to Rein In Horse-Drawn Carriages
Efforts to Ban the Vehicles on Cruelty Grounds Are Gaining Steam
NEW YORK—Efforts to ban horse-drawn carriages from city streets on animal-cruelty grounds are spreading at a fast clip across the country, imperiling a popular way for tourists to take in the urban sights.
In Chicago, one influential member of the City Council has introduced legislation prohibiting the buggies that clop along the Magnificent Mile. Lawmakers in Salt Lake City last month narrowly defeated a ban, but approved new regulations after a horse collapsed in the street last August and later died....