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Former first bloke Tim Mathieson has accused first lady Margie Abbott of not doing enough charity work.
"I'm disappointed that she is not doing any charity work," he's told News Corp Australia.
"What is she doing? Because I did 60 charity events. I went out for three full years.
"She has not contributed to any of them.
"The spouse of every prime minister since (Edmund) Barton has done charity work."
But Mrs Abbott's spokeswoman on Saturday night outlined a range of charity and community events the first lady had attended in recent months.
She said Mrs Abbott had a long history of community involvement and supported organisations including the Royal Blind Society and Girl Guides.
"This community involvement has been part of her life as she has worked part-time at a local Sydney childcare centre and, along with Tony, raised their three daughters," she said.
"Those familiar with Margie Abbott know her quiet and understated approach is part of her genuine desire to draw attention to the charities and organisations she is involved with rather than herself."
Mr Mathieson is an ambassador for Kidney Health Australia, a patron of the Australian Mens Sheds Association, is involved with a national indigenous diabetes association and mental health group beyondblue.


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Java Draw Created Jun 28, 2012 640 x 460px Unless noted Copyright 2012 foxluver1.
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Phenomenally captured. Fantastic.
EXCELLENT!!!! I am truly amazed!!! 5/5 Collection!
Amazing draw, you are so so good at drawing animals. AWESOME WORK! 5/5
It's Soo amazing
i love the pattern on the dog and how bold it looks! :D 5/5!
The dog looks picture-perfect. 5h
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subset: commoncrawl


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U.S. News and World Report names Penn State top national university for veterans
U.S. News and World Report names Penn State top national university for veterans
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Today (Nov. 11) U.S. News and World Report released its Best Colleges for Veterans rankings, citing Penn State's University Park campus as No. 1 among National Universities.
U.S. News cited the University's military veterans benefit of priority registration for classes beginning with the spring 2014 semester, as well as the University's Office of Veterans Programs assistance with benefits, enrollment and career services.
"This is a tremendous accomplishment and one we have worked hard to foster. Our veterans deserve our support and assistance every day," said Penn State President Rodney Erickson. "Penn State's involvement with the military began more than 150 years ago through our charter and we have continued this extraordinary relationship with servicemen and servicewomen from all branches. It's truly a point of pride that we are able to educate these students both on campus and through our World Campus. They deserve nothing less."


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ENGG 210: Spectral Analysis
Can be used by undergraduates for A.B. course count only
An advanced treatment of digital signal processing for the analysis of time series. A study is made of parametric and nonparametric methods for spectral analysis. The course includes a review of probability theory, statistical inference, and the discrete Fourier Transform. Techniques are presented for the digital processing of random signals for the estimation of power spectra and coherency. Examples are taken from linear system theory and remote sensing using radar. Laboratory exercises will be assigned requiring the use of the computer.


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One appearance on CBS's hit show "Undercover Boss" just wasn't enough for two quick-serve industry execs. That's why Subway chief development officer Don Fertman and Checkers president and CEO Rick Silva are going back for round two this Friday.
The "Epic Bosses" episode catches up with nine executives from past seasons of "Undercover Boss", taking a look at what they learned and how their brands have since changed.
Both Silva and Fertman say their original appearance on the show shed light on many areas of the business that needed improving, spurring their respective brands to create programs to addres these issues.
At Subway, Fertman says his time spent working alongside the chain's Sandwich Artists reinforced the important role these front-line employees play at the brand every day.
"We already knew that our Sandwich Artists are a valuable interface with the customer, but we really got a sense of the scope of their job and their enthusiasm for customer service when I went undercover and behind the counter," he says.
Borne from a desire to understand how Sandwich Artists view their job and the company as a whole, Fertman and the Subway team created Sandwich Artist Roundtables, for which Fertman and other executives traveled the globe to get feedback firsthand from employees.
Fertman says the roundtables helped the brand not only uncover employees' focus on customer service, but also their hunger for tools to improve the customer service experience and find out how they're doing.
To meet these needs, Subway developed a Customer Experience Strategy to measure satisfaction; it then shares the findings with franchise owners and Sandwich Artists.
Though the first batch of roundtable meetings took place over a year, the brand continues to hold them periodically when it wants to test an idea with the help of Sandwich Artists.
"We realized it's very important that when you roll out new products or a new system or a new way of doing something that we get the input from the field so we know it's going to work at the store level and so we know it's going to be OK for the folks behind the counter to implement," Fertman says.
Similar to the Sandwich Artist Roundtables, Silva says his "Undercover Boss" experience played a hand in the creation of Checkers' GM Council.
The council is made up of the top 10 percent of general managers from both company-owned and franchise units. Each year, these GMs—around 80 of them—are treated to a "Best of the Best" cruise to reward them for their performance. They're also consulted each quarter on various ideas, and the corporate team sends them information about possible promotions and products to gauge their reaction.
"It certainly isn't perfect, but it's a way of getting direct feedback from the field," Silva says.
He also helped launch the Team Member Incentive Program, thanks to feedback from hourly associates he worked with on the show. Though the brand already had a bonus incentive program in place for the management team—including general, assistant, and shift managers—it didn't apply to front-line employees.
"It seems so obvious now looking back. How do you do it for part of your employees and not all of your employees?" Silva says. "We were being progressive and going beyond just general managers, so we thought we were really cool … and all of a sudden we have team members saying, 'That's really cool for you, but I'm not getting it.'"
With the expanded program, employees at units that meet monthly goals are awarded bonuses based on the number of hours they worked during the month.
Silva says more than 1,500 employees benefit from the program each month, and in the nine periods since it was launched, team members have earned more than $200,000 in combined additional pay.
Not only has the program improved employee morale, but Silva says it has also made management's job easier.
"Now everybody has a stake in it, so when [managers are] talking about improving speed of service … the team members have a financial incentive in making that difference," he says.
Other changes at the brand that have yet to roll out include the Coach to Grow program, as well as a learning management system.
The Coach to Grow program is a mentor system—being tested now—that pairs district managers with assistant managers and general managers with employees.
The learning management system is a technology that will allow the company to produce training information from a centralized location and give employees a clear path for career advancement.
"It will allow us to know who's doing really well from a training perspective and who's ready to be promoted," Silva says, "but it will also allow the employee … to have a very clear vision of what areas they need to work on" to move up int he company.
By Mary Avant
The five times weekly e-newsletter that keeps you up-to-date on the latest industry news and additions to this website.


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Canalside Concert Admission Fees A Big Change After 30 Free Years
Admission hasn't been charged, longer than some concert goers have been alive
As WBEN first reported 30 years of free concerts will come to an end this year when the Canalside series unveils this year's lineup and a $5 admission fee today.
The series--- which actually started in Fountain Plaza downtown in 1987 before moving to Lafayette Square the next year and on to Canalside in 2011 -- has been an admission free event for longer than some concert goers have been alive. (See list at bottom of page)
Buffalo city councilman David Franczyk says that could make for a big adjustment.
"People are used to it being free so that might be something for people to get used to," Franczyk says. " You know free for all these years so that might be interesting."
While Franczyk suggests the move could separate out those who just want to drink, Congressman Brian Higgins is opposed to charging a fee on more philosophical grounds.
"The public has paid for , through their tax dollars, the vast improvements that are made here (at Canalside) and they should be able to enjoy it... and imposing a fee, to me is blocking access for a public that has already paid admission."
But organizers have argued for a while that a fee might separate concert goers who are willing to pay for music, from more disruptive ones who show up to just socialize and drink.
Last August, approx. 2000 people rushed the barrier at a T-Pain concert, prompting an even closer look at Canalside concert admission fees. After that, Canalside General Manager Ryan Coate was quoted as saying they were already discussing the possibility of charging a small fee at Canalside.
"I'm not saying we'll never charge" he told Channel 2, "but we'll want the public's input on that, and to be on the same page as far as what we charge, if we were to charge, and what you get for that fee. But we're not there yet."
HEAR MORE: Empire State Development VP Sam Hoyt on the WBEN Liveline
The 2017 season will be the first with a fee, and the last at it's current venue. Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp. has plans to put a large, vintage carousel on the site where the stage currently sits, and Corp. Chairman Robert Gioia has said they will have to move the concerts beginning in 2018 to accommodate that.
The concert series did offer $55 VIP tickets last year with food specials and enhanced bathroom access, but a general admission fee has never been part of the equation. Information on ticket sales and Canalside access is expected to be part of the announcement Thursday evening when officials unveil this year's lineup of artists.
July 2 - September 17, 1987: 12 Thursday in the Park Concerts (Fountain Plaza)
July 2nd: Big Wheelie & the Hubcaps
July 9th: Slam
July 16th: Harold Travis & H.Q.
July 23rd: Buffalo Zew Revue
July 30th: USA Band
August 6th: Bobby Militello and RPM featuring Paul Viapiano
August 13th: Flashpoint
August 20th: White Lies
August 27th: The Boomers
September 3rd: Buffalo Jazz Workshop
September 10th: Bomplane and Raggat
September 17th: Phil Sims and the Buffalo Brass
June 23 - September 1, 1988: 11 Thursday at Buffalo Place Concerts (Lafayette Square)
June 23rd: The Scintas
June 30th: Bobby Militello & R.P.M.
July 7th: Flashpoint
July 14th: The Home Boyz
July 21st: Gamalon
July 28th: Frank Beach & The Duke Street Kings
August 4th: Billy McEwen & The Soul Invaders
August 11th: The Tweeds
August 18th: The Unity Band, featuring Cynthia Moore & Claude Kregg
August 25th: Only Humen
September 1st: Ladyfire
June 15 - August 31, 1989: 12 Thursday at Buffalo Place Concerts (Lafayette Square)
June 15th: Buffalo Zew Revue
June 22nd: The Pine Dogs
June 29th: The Sattalites
July 6th: The Tweeds
July 13th: The Unity Band
July 20th: The Party Squad
July 27th: Rock-A-Mania
August 3rd: Phil Sims and the Buffalo Brass
August 10th: The Home Boyz
August 17th: Billy McEwen and the Soul Invaders
August 24th: Ladyfire
August 31st: Only Humen
June 14 - August 30, 1990: 12 Thursday at Buffalo Place Concerts (Lafayette Square)
June 14th: Nik and the Nice Guys
June 21st: The Pine Dogs
June 28th: The Sattalites
July 5th: Beat City
July 12th: The Hurricanes
July 19th: The Jamie Moses Band
July 26th: David Kane and Them Jazzbeards
August 2nd: Billy McEwen and The Invaders
August 9th: Blue Note Jazz Quartet with DoDo Green
August 16th: The Unity Band
August 23rd: Outer Circle Orchestra
August 30th: Stan and The Ravens
June 13 - September 5, 1991: 12 Thursday at Buffalo Place Concerts (Lafayette Square)
June 13th: The Mamas & the Papas
June 20th: Billy McEwen and the Invaders
June 27th: The Sattalites
July 11th: Rocket 88
July 18th: The Lance Diamond Show
July 25th: The Hurricanes
August 1st: The Jamie Moses Band
August 8th: The Pine Dogs
August 15th: The Ravens featuring Barbara St. Clair
August 22nd: Emery Nash
August 29th: Gamalon
September 5th: The Road
June 4 - August 27, 1992: 14 Thursday at Buffalo Place Concerts (Lafayette Square)
June 4th: Be Bops, The Guess Who
June 11th: One Drop Reggae
June 18th: Billy McEwen and The Invaders
June 25th: John and Mary, The Great Train Robbery
July 2nd: The Hopping Penguins
July 9th: David Kane & Then Jazzbeards
July 16th: The Krackups, The Groove
July 23rd: The J.C. Thompson Band
July 30th: The Fibs
August 6th: Caribbean Extravanganza
August 13th: The French Ticklers
August 20th: Joyryde
August 27th: The Sattalites
September 3rd: Rattlesnake, The Steam Donkeys
June 3 - September 2, 1993: 14 Thursday at Buffalo Place Concerts (Lafayette Square)
June 3rd: The Sattalites
June 10th: Pulse with Special Guest Butch Rolle, Unity Band with Cynthia Moore and Lisa Rushton
June 17th: Diane Gaffney, Billy McEwen & The Invanders
June 24th: Lance Diamond, Goo Goo Dolls
July 1st: The Bel-Vistas, Leslie Spit TreeO
July 8th: The Great Train Robbery, Marvelous Sauce
(Monday Special Show) July 12th: The Jeff Jarvis Quintet, Bobby Militello – Organ Trio
(Tuesday Special Show) July 13th: Karaoke at Buffalo Place
(Wednesday Special Show) Jut 14th: J.C. Thompson Band
July 15th: One Drop Reggae
July 22nd: McCarthyizm, Lowest of the Low
July 29th: Heat Handlers, Shadows with Barbara St. Clair and The Hitman
August 5th: Where's Broadway, Outer Circle Orchestra
August 12th: John and Mary, Moxy Fruvous
August 19th: Crash Roosters, Blue Rodeo
August 26th: Rick Smith, Pat Shea & The Stone Country Band
September 2nd: The Sattalites
June 2 - September 1, 1994: 14 Thursday at the Square Concerts (Lafayette Square)
June 2nd: The Jamie Moses Band, Nick and the Nice Guys
June 9th: Big Happy Family, The Waltons
June 16th: The Excellos Featuring Mr. Conrad, Billy McEwen & The Soul Invaders
June 23rd: Pine Dogs, Skydiggers
June 30th: Tropical Explosion, The Sattalites
July 7th: Crash Rooster, Tinsley Ellis
July 14th: McCarthizm, Jonny Vegas
July 21st: Dance or Die, Hypnotic Clambake
July 28th: The Need, Hall of Fame Band
August 4th: Ansley Court, Wild Strawberries
August 11th: Wild Nik West, Stevie Ray Shannon
August 18th: Crumbs of Insanity, Pigfarm
August 25th: The Dreadbeats, King Apparatius
September 1st: Potter's Field
June 1 - August 31, 1995: 14 Thursday at the Square Concerts (Lafayette Square)
June 1st: Billy McEwen & The Soul Invaders, The Sattalites
June 8th: The Skeptics, 10,000 Maniacs
June 15th: Outer Circle Orchestra, Otis Rama & The Shama Lama Nik Dongs
June 22nd: Union, Burnin' Moon
June 29th: Planet 9, Boss Street Band
July 6th: Only Humen, Nik Fever – The Wrath of Polyester
July 13th: Plaster Sandals, Morganfields
July 20th: Willie & The Reinhardts with Dave Constantino, Downchild Blues Band
July 27th: Win Lose or Draw, Coupe De Villes
August 3rd: The Tails, Nullstadt
August 10th: Eden, The Saddletramps
August 17th: Willie Mays Blues Band, Marshall Badger
August 24th: Dee Dee Tompkins, Jim Yeomans Band
August 31st: Straight Forward, Bobby Militello
May 30 - August 29, 1996: 14 Thursday at the Square Concerts (Lafayette Square)
May 30th: Alpha Delta Nik, Three Dog Night's Chuck Negron
June 6th: Philosopher Kings, Sprit of the West
June 13th: De'Riff (formerly One Drop Reggae), Veltri & Morgano Rhythm & Soul Revue
June 20th: The Jump Kings, Hit 'N Run
June 27th: Leeron Zydeco and the Hot Tamales, JC Thompson Band &the Honky Tonk Angels
July 3rd: The CPR Band with the Perpetrators, John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band
July 11th: Gamalon, Buckwheat Zydeco
July 18th: Surfvivors, Lance Diamond and the Diamond Band
July 25th: Roadside Attraction, Universal Honey
August 1st: Shaft, Taylor Made Jazz Band
August 8th: Phil Sims and the Buffalo Brass Band, The Bobby Militello Quintet
August 15th: Scott Carpenter & The Real McCoys, Toler Bros. Legends of Southern Rock
August 22nd: McCarthyizm, Ominous Seapods
August 29th: Billy McEwen & The Soul Invaders, The Sattalites
May 29 - August 28, 1997: 14 Thursday at the Square Concerts (Lafayette Square)
May 29th: The Boys of Summer, Big Wheelie & The Hubcaps
June 5th: Velour, Echo & The Bunnymen
June 12th: C.O. Jones, Electric Chick Magnets
June 19th: Plaster Sandals, McCarthyizm
June 26th: Chanka Chank Cajun Zydeco Band, The Honky Tonk Angels, Dallas Alice
July 3rd: The Shadows with Barbara St. Clair with special guests – The Hitmen Horns, The Sattalites
July 10th: Animal Planet, Moxy Fruvous
July 17th: Johnny Hart & The Jumpstarts, Spirit of the West
July 24th: The Bebops, Gary Lewis and the Playboys
July 31st: Scott Carpenter & the Real McCoys, The Lance Diamond Show
August 7th: Buffalo Swing, Michael Civisca
August 14th: The Pine Dogs, Buckwheat Zydeco
August 21st: Only Humen, Billy McEwen & The Soul Invaders
August 28th: Coupe D'Villes, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown
May 28 - August 27, 1998: 14 Thursday at the Square Concerts (Lafayette Square)
May 28th: Flipside & The Legends of Rock – 'n – Roll, Switch
June 4th: Skydiggers, Moxy Fruvous
June 11th: McCarthyizm, Mary Black
June 18th: Saw Doctors, Squeeze
June 25th: N.Y. Rockin' Rodeo Band, Molly Hatchet
July 2nd: Electric Bushmen, Reggae Cowboys
July 9th: Fat Brat, Grass Roots
July 16th: Skin Tight Band, Buckwheat Zydeco
July 23rd: Great Big Sea, Michael Oliver & Go Dog Go
July 30th: Stone Bridge Band, Billy McEwen & The Soul Invaders
August 6th: The Shadows with Barbara St. Clair, Lance Diamond Band
August 13th: Scary Chicken, Blue Rodeo
August 20th: Dolly Watchers, Sass Jordan
August 27th: Danny Lynn Wilson, Popa Chubby
May 27 - August 26, 1999: 14 Thursday at the Square Concerts (Lafayette Square)
May 27th: 54-40, Riley, By Divine Right
June 3rd: The Flutie Brothers Band, Project R&B Revue
June 10th: Ron Hawkins & The Rusty Nails, The 7th Sons, Leon and the Forklifts
June 17th: Shawn Mullins, John Whelan
June 24th: Great Big Sea, Guster, Michael Oliver and Go, Dog, Go!
July 1st: Lance Diamond, Wendell Rivera and the Latin Jazz All-Stars
July 8th: Paul Revere and the Raiders, Tom Stahl
July 15th: Kelly Willis, Steam Donkeys
July 22nd: Billy McEwen & The Soul Invaders, Junction West
July 29th: The Reverend Horton Heat, Irving Klaws, 53 Days
August 5th: The Marshall Tucker Band, Tommy Z
August 12th: Fighting Gravity, bag., Bread Gone Wry
August 19th: Spirit of the West, Universal Honey, Alison Pipitone
August 26th: Spro Gyra, Straight Forward
May 25 - August 31, 2000: 15 Thursday at the Square Concerts (Lafayette Square)
May 25th: Black 47, Jackdaw, Mudtown Rudy
June 1st: Tugboat Annie, Velour
June 8th: Moist, The Sheila Divine, Oui*73
June 15th: The Robert Cray Band, Project R&B Revue
June 22nd: The Animals, Weekend
June 29th: 54-40, Johny Vegas, The Contortionists
July 6th: Blue Rodeo, Tara MacLean, Alison Pipitone
July 13th: Kim Mitchell, Shannon Curfman, Tommy Z Blues Power Trio
July 20th: Burning Spear, One World Tribe
July 27th: Sister Hazel, Major Healy
August 3rd: Leahy, Linda Rutherford & Celtic Fire
August 10th: The Billy McEwen Band, Stone Bridge Band, Swillberries
August 17th: Medeski, Martin & Wood, Them Jazzbeards, Redheaded Stepchild
August 24th: Bruce Cockburn, Willie Nile
August 31st: Lance Diamond, CO Jones
May 24 - August 30, 2001 (15th Anniversary Season) 15 Thursday at the Square Concerts (Lafayette Square)
May 24th: The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Mexican Cession, The Imports
May 31st: Andy Griggs, Steam Donkeys
June 7th: Kim Mitchell, Willie & The Reinhardts, The Urban Renewal Band
June 14th: The Jeff Healey Band, Tommy Z Blues Power Trio
June 21st: moe., D.J. Logic & Project Logic
June 28th: The English Beat, Femi Kuti
July 5th: The Billy McEwen Band, The Stone Bridge Band, Cruizin' Deuces
July 12th: David Wilcox, Tom Stahl, The Alison Pipitone Band
July 19th: Bo Diddley, Animal Planet
July 26th: The Sheila Divine, Crash Test Dummies, The Push Stars
August 2nd: Eddie Money, Swillberries, Rufus Maneuvers
August 9th: Pat Benetar, Seven Day Faith
August 16th: Great Big Sea, Jackdaw, Jennifer Marie
August 23rd: The Lance Diamond Show, C.O. Jones
August 30th: Donna The Buffalo, Soulive, The Waz
May 23 - August 22, 2002 (16th Anniversary Season) 14 Thursday at the Square Concerts (Lafayette Square)
May 23rd: Cowboy Junkies, Suzanne Vega, Jennie Stearns
May 30th: Blood, Sweat & Tears featuring David Clayton-Thomas, Doug Yeomans & The Lo Blu Flame
June 6th: Ben Folds, Ben Kweller, The Divine Comedy
June 13th: Rik Emmett, The Tommy Z Band
June 20th: Marcia Ball, The Filter Kings, Mark Stanley Band
June 27th: Spirit of the West, Jackdaw
July 11th: The Derek Trucks Band, Jazz Mandolin Project
July 18th: The Smithereens, The Bob Fera Band, Original Skin
July 25th: Average White Band, Junction West
August 1st: Maxi Priest, Outer Circle Orchestra
August 8th: Cracker, Lake Trout, Klear
August 15th: Don McLean, Tom Stahl & The Dangerfields, Leah Zicari
August 22nd: They Might Be Giants, Redheaded Stepchild, Katie Miller
August 29th: The Lance Diamond Show, C.O. Jones
May 29 - September 4, 2003 (17th Anniversary Season) 15 Thursday at the Square Concerts (Lafayette Square)
May 29th: Living Color, Antigone Rising, LP
June 5th: The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Voodoo Glow Skulls, The Pietasters, Catch 22
June 12th: Kim Mitchell, Michael Lee Jackson Band
June 19th: 54-40, Luther Wright & The Wrongs, More Than Me
June 26th: Default, Finger Eleven
July 3rd: Gord Downie &The Country of Miracles, Hawksley Workman
July 10th: Gov't Mule, Klear
July 17th: They Might Be Giants, McCarthyizm, Woven
July 24th: Reel Big Fish, Gob, Zebrahead
July 31st: North Mississippi Allstars, Flogging Molly
August 7th: G. Love & Special Sauce, Addison Groove Project, Kosmic Barnyard
August 14th: Aimee Mann, Martin Sexton
August 21st: Max Creek, The Billy McEwen Band
August 28th: April Wine, Honeymoon Suite
September 4th: Sarah Slean, Universal Honey, The Tom Sartori Band
May 27 - September 2, 2004 (18th Anniversary Season) 15 Thursday at the Square Concerts (Lafayette Square)
May 27th: Sam Roberts Band, The Clarks, Scott Celani
June 3rd: Black 47, Blackie & The Rodeo Kings, Tom Stahl & The Dangerfields
June 10th: Fuel, Seven Day Faith, Magna-fi
June 17th: Kim Mitchell, Anjulie, Agent Me
June 24th: Robert Randolph & & The Family Band, The Tommy Z Band
July 1st: Blue Rodeo, Universal Honey, The Old Sweethearts
July 8th: The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Willie & The Reinhardts
July 15th: Spirit of the West, Enter The Haggis, Andy Mac
July 22nd: Leon Russell, Billy McEwen Band
July 29th: Arrested Development, Lazlo Hollyfeld
August 5th: Sound Tribe Sector 9, John Brown's Body
August 12th: Vince Neil of Motley Crue, Sanity, Last Days of Radio
August 19th: Gavin DeGraw, Toby Lightman, Marc Brussard
August 26th: Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes, Universal Grille
September 2, 2004: Klear with special guest host Robby Takac, Last Conservative, The Juliet Dagger
May 26 - September 1, 2005 (19th Anniversary Season) 15 Thursday at the Square Concerts (Lafayette Square)
May 26th: Southside Johnny & & The Asbury Jukes, Gamalon
June 2nd: Theory of a Deadman, Submersed, Breaking Point
June 9th: Karl Denson's Tiny Universe, The Dears, Marjorie Fair, Jon Nicholson
June 16th: Howie Day, The Redwalls
June 23rd: Eric Burdon & The Animals, Cock Robin, Dollywatchers
June 30th: Little Feat, Stone Bridge Band
July 7th: Sarah Harmer, Hothouse Flowers, Maria Sebastian
July 14th: Dr. John, LeeRon Zydeco & the Hot Tamales
July 21st: G. Love & Special Sauce, State Radio
July 28th: Lowest of the Low, The Marble Index, Army of Me
August 4th: Lou Gramm, Willie Nile
August 11th: Great Big Sea, Stand
August 18th: John Waite, McCarthyizm
August 25th: Sam Roberts, Matt Mays & El Torpedo
September 1st: Spin Doctors, Sweatin' Like Nixon, Host Echo
May 25 - August 31, 2006 (20th Anniversary Season) 15 Thursday at the Square Concerts (Lafayette Square)
May 25th: Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, BeArthur
June 1st: Smash Mouth, Army of Me, Agent Me
June 8th: Mike Doughty's Band, Stephen Kellogg & The Sixers
June 15th: Soulive, Bedouin Soundclash
June 22nd: Blues Traveler, Carbon Leaf
June 29th: 54-40, The Trews
July 6th: India Arie, Eric Crittenden, Lazlo Hollyfeld
July 13th: Jeff Martin, Burning Paris
July 20th: Shooter Jennings, The Brakes
July 27th: Robert Randolph & The Family Band, Drive By Truckers
August 3rd: Violent Femmes, Stand, Mark Norris and the Backpeddlers
August 10th: Yonder Mountain String Band, Down To the Roots
August 17th: Donna the Buffalo, Tea Leaf Green
August 24th: Sloan, The Alison Pipitone Band, Johnny Nobody
August 31st: Eric Burdon & The Animals, Tom Stahl & the Dangerfields, The Ifs
May 31 - September 20, 2007 (21st Anniversary Season) 17 Thursday at the Square Concerts (Lafayette Square)
May 31st: Umphrey's McGee, Tea Leaf Green
June 7th: Son Volt, Just Jinjer, Dali's Ghost
June 14th: Augustana, Army of Me, As Tall As Lions
June 21st: Violent Femmes, Mobile, The Rev
June 28th: Joan Osborne, Will Hoge
July 5th: Sam Roberts Band, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals
July 12th: moe.
July 19th: Nickel Creek, Glen Phillips, Rob Falgiano
July 26th: Old 97's, Yonder Mountain String Band
August 2nd: John Butler Trio, Melissa Ferrick
August 9th: Keller Williams, Jonah Smith
August 16th: Soul Asylum, The Alternate Routes, Floozie
August 23rd: North Mississippi Allstars, The Wood Brothers
August 30th: The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Benevento-Russo Duo
September 6th: The Romantics, Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers
September 13th: Anders Osborne, Charlie Hunter Trio
September 20th: Dropkick Murphys, Jackdaw
May 29 - September 4, 2008 (22nd Anniversary Season) 15 Thursday at the Square Concerts (Lafayette Square)
May 29th: Galactic, The New Deal
June 5th: An evening with… The Disco Biscuits
June 12th: An evening with... Yonder Mountain String Band
June 19th: The David Sanborn Group, Gamalon
June 26th: Martin Sexton, Mike Doughty Duo, Scott Celani, Kevin McCarthy
July 3rd: Jakob Dylan & The Gold Mountain Rebels, Rob Falgiano Band
July 10th: Jimmie Vaughan, JJ Grey and Mofro
July 17th: Mickey Hart Band, featuring Steve Kimock and George Porter Jr., Tea Leaf Green
July 24th: Gin Blossoms, Dan Erickson, The Common Kings
July 31st: Spirit of the West, Babik, Penny Whiskey
August 7th: Zappa Plays Zappa, The Whigs
August 14th: Mike Gordon, Samantha Stollenwerck
August 21st: Saliva, Klear
August 28th: Candlebox, Agent Me
September 4th: Big Head Todd and the Monsters, Indigenous
May 28 - July 30, 2009 (23rd Anniversary Season) 10 Thursday at the Square Concerts (Lafayette Square)
May 28th: Gomez, Steel Train, Alberta Cross
June 4th: An evening with… The Disco Biscuits
June 11th: Robert Randolph & The Family Band, The Dana Fuchs Band
June 18th: Better Than Ezra, Tyrone Wells, Free Henry!
June 25th: Los Lobos, The Billy McEwen Band
July 2nd: Zappa Plays Zappa, The London Souls
July 9th: Los Lonely Boys, Mick Hayes Band, Hill Country Revue
July 16th: George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic
July 23rd: Neko Case, Jason Lytle, Alison Pipitone
July 30th: The Avett Brothers, Cornmeal
June 10 - August 12, 2010 (24th Anniversary Season) 10 Thursday at the Square Concerts (Lafayette Square)
June 10th: Alejandro Escovedo and The Sensitive Boys, Tift Merritt
June 17th: Ingrid Michealson, A. A. Bondy
June 24th: Martin Sexton, Ryan Montbleau Band, Civil Twilight
July 1st: Ed Kowalczyk (of Live), Sugar Red Drive, Son of the Sun
July 8th: Ozomatli, Rebelution
July 15th: Umphrey's McGee, Tea Leaf Green
July 22nd: G. Love & Special Sauce, Rogue Wave
July 29th: Robert Randolph & The Family Band, The London Souls
August 5th: Los Lobos, JJ Grey and Mofro
August 12th: The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Hit & Run, Will Holton
June 2 - August 4, 2011 (25th Anniversary Season) 10 Thursday Concerts (Lafayette Square/Erie Canal Harbor Central Wharf)
Lafayette Square
June 2nd: Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Son of the Sun, The Etchings
June 9th: Morris Day and the Time, The Missing Star, Autopunch
June 16th: Blues Traveler, Willie Nile, The Pillagers
June 23rd: Grace Potter & The Nocturnals, Fitz & The Tantrums, Southside
Erie Canal Harbor Central Wharf
June 30th: Lowest of the Low, Hey Rosetta!, Ron Hawkins and the Do Good Assassins
July 7th: Sloan, Johnny Nobody, The Found
July 14th: Court Yard Hounds, Alison Pipitone Band, Rob Falgiano Band
July 21st: Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes, Jamie Moses Band, Tommy Z Band
July 28th: George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic, Taylor Made, The Rod Nickson Project
August 4th: Tokyo Police Club, The Sheila Divine, Potter's Field
June 7 - August 23, 2012 (26th Anniversary Season) 12 Thursday at the Harbor Concerts (Erie Canal Harbor Central Wharf)
June 7th: The Cult, Against Me!, The Icarus Line
June 14th: Fitz And The Tantrums, ZZ Ward, Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds
June 21st: Built to Spill, Matthew Sweet, Hey Rosetta!
June 28th: Fountains of Wayne, Summer People, The Albrights
July 5th: Arrested Development, Aqueous, Outer Circle Orchestra
July 12th: Seether, Chosen Ones, Breakerbox
July 19th: Young the Giant, Bahamas, The Apache Relay
July 26th: Arkells, Gomez, Elliott Brood
August 2nd: The Jesus And Mary Chain, The Ruby Spirit
August 9th: The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Ron Hawkins and the Do Good Assassins, Wolf August 16th: Salt-N-Pepa,
Chae Hawk
August 23rd: Matt Nathanson, Lights, Voices
June 6 - August 29, 2013 (27th Anniversary Season) 12 Thursday at Canalside Concerts (Erie Canal Harbor Central Wharf)
June 6th: The Hold Steady, Hollerado, Johnny Nobody
June 13th: Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, St. Lucia, The Room
June 20th: Steven Page, The Truth, Son of the Sun
June 27th: Teddy Riley and Blackstreet featuring Dave Hollister, DJ C-Perfect, DJ Heat
July 11th: G Love & Special Sauce, Arkells, The Drowning Men
July 18th: Los Lonely Boys, Good Night Texas, Randle & The Late Night Scandals
July 25th: The Fixx, Wang Chung, Indians
August 1st: Yonder Mountain String Band, Railroad Earth
August 8th: Halestorm, Highly Suspect, Melia
August 15th: Evening with Todd Rundgren, Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds, This Is Fiction
August 22nd: Adam Ant and The Good, The Mad & The Lovely Posse, Wicked Grin, Prima Donna
August 29th: Lotus, Aqueous
June 12 - August 8, 2014 Thursday at Canalside Concerts (Erie Canal Harbor Central Wharf)
June 12: Dj Milk, Soul Rebels, Shaggy
June 19 Conehead Buddha, moe.
June 26 : July Talk , Sam Roberts Band
July 3: Boy & Bear , Hey Rosetta!, Gord Downie & The Sadies
July 10: Fitz and the Tantrums
July 17: The Oh Hellos , Lake Street Dive
July 24 : Extreme
July 31: Sheila E
August 8 BPO Rock Show: Earth, Wind & Fire + Michael Jackson
June 4 - August 20, 2015 Thursday at Canalside Concerts (Erie Canal Harbor Central Wharf)
June 4: Matt and Kim with Bearstronaut and Made Violent
June 11: Arkells with Robert DeLong and Milo Greene
June 18: Everclear with Fuel and American HiFi
June 25: Spoon with July Talk
July 2: The Sheepdogs with Yonder Mountain String Band
July 9: Mighty Mighty Bosstones
July 16: The BPO "Buffalo's All-Star Tribute to Stevie Wonder"
July 23: Bad Fish "A Tribute to Sublime" and Reel Big Fish
July 30: Iron and Wine with Ben Bridwell
August 6: Umphrey's McGee and Aqueous
August 13: Get The Led Out "The American Led Zeppelin"
August 20: En Vogue
June 9 - August 25 2016 Thursday at the Harbor Concerts (Erie Canal Harbor Central Wharf)
June 9: Charles Bradley & His Extraordinaries
June 16: Frank Turner with special guest July Talk
June 23: Public Enemy
June 30: Frankie Ballard
July 7: Dweezil Zappa Plays Frank Zappa
July 14: Shakey Graves and Preservation Hall Jazz Band & Wild Child
July 21: The Arcs and Mariachi Flor De Toloache
July 28: BPO "A Tribute to David Bowie"
August 4: Tritonal
August 11: Lowest of the Low and Serena Ryder
August 18: Coolio
August 25: Claypool Lennon Delirium
-Source: Buffalo Place, Canal Harbor Dev. Corp


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This recipe is intended as a baked dressing to accompany the Thanksgiving turkey . It can be used as stuffing (a practice I do not recommend for turkey), if you desire. It also makes a good stuffing for capon or pork.
- Yield
- Serves 10 to 12 as a side dish
- 2 baguettes (long French bread), stale, cut into 1-inch cubes
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 pound Country Sausages, preferably homemade
- 1 large onion, cut in large (3/4 to 1 inch) dice (2 cups)
- 5 stalks celery, peeled, split lengthwise and cut in large (3/4 to 1 inch) dice
- 2 medium apples, peeled, cored and cut in large (3/4 to 1 inch) dice
- 15 sprigs Italian parsley, leaves picked and very coarsely chopped (1/4 cup)
- 6 to 8 branches fresh sage, leaves picked and coarsely chopped (1/4 cup)
- 4 eggs
- 2 cups turkey or chicken stock
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1. The bread should be completely stale. If not, spread the cubes on a baking sheet and put in a low oven (250 degrees) for about 1 hour to dry them out. (I think this light toasting gives the dressing a better flavor.)
- 2. Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet. Add the sausage meat and brown it, breaking up meat into pieces about the size of a quarter. This need not be precise. Transfer meat from skillet to large bowl, using a slotted spoon. Add onion and celery to the skillet. After 1 minute, add the apples and cook 2 more minutes. Place in bowl with sausage.
- 3. Add bread cubes, parsley and sage to the bowl.
- 4. In a separate bowl, mix the eggs and stock with the salt and pepper. Pour this over the sausage mixture and gently toss all the ingredients. They should combine without mushing.
- 5. Generously butter a 16-inch baking pan (2 tablespoons). Spread the mixture in the pan and dot with more butter (4 tablespoons).
- 6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour. The top should have a nice golden brown crust.
Jasper White's Cooking from New England by Jasper White
Biscuit Books
Related Video
Nutritional Info
- Calories373
- Carbohydrates35 g(12%)
- Fat20 g(30%)
- Protein15 g(29%)
- Saturated Fat8 g(38%)
- Sodium674 mg(28%)
- Polyunsaturated Fat3 g
- Fiber3 g(14%)
- Monounsaturated Fat7 g
- Cholesterol96 mg(32%)


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Moya Brennan
Moya Brennan's Forum
Moderators: wonky_eggs, nessieq, mise, Grania, Banba Óir, All Moderators
Susann wrote: Thank God that Moya came yetserday to The Netherlands. Today many flights from Dublin are cancelled - e.g. the Aer Lingus flight to Amsterdam. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/bre ... king2.html
Susann wrote:Hello Kate, when and where will you go? My holiday in Ireland will start in about two weeks. I try to think positive and will keep my fingers crossed for you and me and all other people who are looking forward to going on holiday.
Today also in Germany some airports have been closed.
But here are some phantastic pictures from the volcanic eruption http://www.flickr.com/photos/yahooedito ... 3855495574
Hester wrote:Praying that it will be solved soon!!! And that you can all make it, Good luck Dave!!!....So looking forward to seeing Ness and Katie (and Christina, but fortunately she doesn't have to fly......)
nessieq wrote: Plus, as my mum says, 'You'd be a lot unhappier if your plane crashed!!'.
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Right-Wing Media Misrepresent Secretary Clinton's Comments About Benghazi Attacks
After Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that she's responsible for State Department personnel, right-wing media quickly claimed that President Obama was dodging responsibility for the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. But Clinton was actually pointing out that the State Department, not the White House, is responsible for diplomatic security while Obama has said that he is ultimately responsible for national security.
Secretary Clinton Says She Is Responsible For State Department Personnel
Clinton: "I Take Responsibility" For "The State Department's 60,000-Plus People All Over The World." Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave an interview to CNN about the Benghazi attack that left American diplomatic personnel dead:
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday tried to douse a political firestorm over the deadly assault on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya, saying she's responsible for the security of American diplomatic outposts.
"I take responsibility," Clinton said during a visit to Peru. "I'm in charge of the State Department's 60,000-plus people all over the world, 275 posts. The president and the vice president wouldn't be knowledgeable about specific decisions that are made by security professionals. They're the ones who weigh all of the threats and the risks and the needs and make a considered decision."
"In the wake of an attack like this, in the fog of war, there's always going to be confusion," Clinton said. "And I think it is absolutely fair to say that everyone had the same intelligence. Everyone who spoke tried to give the information that they had. As time has gone on, that information has changed. We've gotten more detail, but that's not surprising. That always happens."
She added, "What I want to avoid is some kind of political gotcha or blame game." [CNN.com, 10/16/12]
Right-Wing Media Twist Clinton's Words To Attack Obama
Fox's Doocy: Clinton Is "Falling On Her Sword" For Obama. Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy said Secretary of State Clinton's comments equated her "falling on her sword for the administration." Fox contributor Laura Ingraham said she jumped "on the grenade the day before the debate." [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 10/16/12]
Fox Nation: "For Barack Obama, The Buck Stops Not With President Obama, But With Hillary Clinton." Fox Nation posted video of Clinton with the headline, "It's Official: For Barack Obama, The Buck Stops Not With President Obama, But With Hillary Clinton" :
[Fox Nation, 10/15/12]
CNN's Erickson On Clinton's Comments: "Doesn't The Buck Stop With Barack Obama?" In his RedState blog, CNN conservative contributor Erick Erickson wrote that Clinton "is now going under the Obama bus," and gave Obama "needed plausible deniability" for the debate. He continued:
Except, doesn't the buck stop with Barack Obama? That's what Barack Obama said when attacking Mitt Romney over Bain Capital.
That's what the President said back in July. In the same interview, he went on to say, "one of the things you learn is, you are ultimately responsible for the conduct of your operations."
But then again, often what this President practices and what he preaches are two different things. [RedState, 10/15/12]
But Clinton's Statement That The State Department Handles Diplomatic Security Echoes What Officials Have Said On The Subject ...
CNN.com: It Is "The Practice" Of The State Department To Handle Diplomatic Security. CNN.com reported that it is the State Department's responsibility to handle diplomatic security arrangements:
With criticism growing, Vice President Joe Biden said during last week's vice presidential debate that the White House did not know of requests to enhance security at Benghazi, contradicting testimony by State Department employees that requests had been made and rejected. After the debate, the White House said the vice president did not know of the requests because they were handled, as is the practice, by the State Department. [CNN.com, 10/16/12]
Deputy National Security Adviser: "The State Department Is Responsible For Diplomatic Security, Not The White House." Foreign Policy blogger Josh Rogin wrote that administration officials testified before Congress that diplomatic security is the responsibility of the State Department:
The State Department security officials who testified before House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa's panel Wednesday never said they had made their requests to the president, Rhodes pointed out. That would be natural because the State Department is responsible for diplomatic security, not the White House, he said. Rhodes also pointed out that the officials were requesting more security in Tripoli, not Benghazi.[Foreign Policy, The Cable, 10/12/12]
... And Obama Has Taken Ultimate Responsibility For Keeping Americans Safe
President Obama: It Is "My Responsibility To Protect U.S. Citizens Both At Home And Abroad." In his statement announcing a military force being sent to Libya three days after the attack, the president stated:
These actions have been directed consistent with my responsibility to protect U.S. citizens both at home and abroad, and in furtherance of U.S. national security and foreign policy interests, pursuant to my constitutional authority to conduct U.S. foreign relations and as Commander in Chief and Chief Executive. [WhiteHouse.gov, 9/14/12]
Obama: "My Number-One Priority Is Always To Keep Our Diplomats Safe." At the Univision presidential forum, President Obama responded to a question about the Libya attack by stating:
[M]y number-one priority is always to keep our diplomats safe and to keep our embassies safe. And so when the initial events happened in Cairo and all across the region, we worked with Secretary Clinton to redouble our security and to send a message to the leaders of these countries, essentially saying, although we had nothing to do with the video, we find it offensive, it's not representative of America's views, how we treat each other with respect when it comes to their religious beliefs, but we will not tolerate violence.
And our goal now is not only to make sure that our embassies and our diplomats are safe, but also to make sure that we bring those who carried out these events to justice. [Univision presidential forum transcript, 9/20/12, via Latina Lista]
Vice President Biden: National Security Is Obama's "Most Important Responsibility." At the vice presidential debate, Vice President Biden responded to a question on the Libya attack by pointing out that national security is the president's "most important responsibility" :
When you're looking at a president, Martha, it seems to me that you should take a look at his most important responsibility. That's carrying forward the national security of the country. And the best way to do that is take a look at how he's handled he issues of the day.
On Iraq, the president said he would end the war. Governor Romney said that was a tragic mistake; we should have left -- that he ended it -- Governor Romney said that was a tragic mistake; we should have left 30,000 troops there.
With regard to Afghanistan, he said he will end the war in 2014. Governor Romney said we should not set a date, number one, and number two, with regard to 2014, it depends.
When it came to Osama bin Laden, the president, the first day in office -- I was sitting with him in the Oval Office. He called in the CIA and signed an order saying, my highest priority is to get bin Laden. [Vice Presidential Debate transcript, 10/11/12, via The New York Times]
Senior Obama Campaign Adviser Axelrod: Obama "Takes Responsibility For Everything That Happens On His Watch." Senior Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod appeared on Fox News Sunday and when discussing the Benghazi attack, stated: "At the top-line level, the president of the United States takes responsibility for everything that happens on his watch." [Politico, Politico Now, 10/14/12]


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| Join the party!
|Opiates for the masses
|From each
|To each
| The dismal science
|Economic Systems
$ Capitalism
|Major Concepts
Communism is a far-left materialist ideology which posits that history moves through stages driven by class conflict. Communist analysis maintains that feudalism, led by aristocrats, was transformed through class conflict with the bourgeoisie (business people/upper middle class) into capitalism, and that capitalism through class conflict between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat (working class) would lead to the creation of socialism and communism led by the proletariat. Communists believe that the means of production should be owned and controlled by the proletariat.
Modern communist thought took shape in 19th century Europe, when appalling working conditions and low wages were the norm and brought Europe on the verge of revolution. These conditions made communism a serious challenge to the status quo and won over many supporters. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels predicted that capitalism would simply become more and more oppressive in response to communism and result in revolution, but this linear process did not happen; Marx and Engels failed to predict that the pressure and threat of communism would result in political and economic reforms that lessened the threat of revolution.
During the 20th century, the arrival of more progressive and left-leaning governments and the development of a social safety net helped to diminish economic inequality, which undermined much of communist dogma. Former followers of Marx and Engels such as Eduard Bernstein abandoned communism and turned to social democratic politics.
It also didn't help that the communist regimes coming to "fruition" were very much intertwined with events that left mass graves frequent.
Western Communist parties after the fall of the Soviet Union are basically historical reenactment societies that don't realise they are.
- 1 What communism "actually is"
- 2 Communism in practice
- 3 Is Communism at all workable?
- 4 Communism and religion
- 5 Communism and rhetoric
- 6 Notable commies
- 7 See also
- 8 External links
- 9 Footnotes
What communism "actually is"[edit]
Early forms[edit]
Communism, as a political philosophy advocating the communal ownership of property, has been around almost since the dawn of politics, even the dawn of time. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels argued that early hunter-gatherer societies represent primitive communism. Such societies had no social classes or forms of capital.[1] Many religious groups and other utopian communities throughout history have practiced it on a small scale as well.
Karl Marx[edit]
The most (in)famous form of communism is derived from the ideas of Karl Marx. Marx, who had studied the German idealist Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, attempted to turn Hegel's idealism on its head in his own philosophy; he did something similar to the earlier communist ideas by attempting to take out the idealism and give them a materialistic footing (what later came to be called "dialectical materialism").
Marx himself is quoted as saying that "if anything is certain, it is that I myself am not a Marxist" in relation to how his teachings were being misunderstood or misapplied. However, a set of core beliefs called "Marxist" can certainly be ascribed to Marx, most notably the overthrow of capitalism, the importance of socio-economic factors and class conflict in history, and the rejection of religious or semi-religious justifications for the existing order. Marxism can also be differentiated from other branches of socialism by its insistence on "scientific socialism". Marx believed his contemporary socialists making arguments based on morality and justice (the sort attacked by Engels in Socialism: Utopian and Scientific) were missing the point entirely, to the extent that he reportedly would burst out laughing when anyone tried to talk to him about morality. For Marx, the contradictions inherent in the capitalist system made the emergence of socialism (and thus eventually communism) an inevitability.He saw himself as a scientist analysing the development of the political economy of his time, not a moralist agitating for its abolition.
The Marxist view of society focuses on economic and class relationships and the role of the workers, or proletariat. Marx theorized that human society develops from primitive communism to a slave society, then to feudalism, and then, after feudalism ceases to be productive, to capitalism. He claimed that capitalism, in a similar manner, leads to socialism, since once it is developed enough, the proletariat will be an organized force capable of revolution: "What the bourgeoisie, therefore, produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers."
A workers' revolution having brought about the dictatorship of the proletariat,[2] the State, which Marx defined as the embodiment of the bourgeoisie's end of the class struggle, would "wither away," bringing in communism, this being defined as a classless, and thus stateless, form of social organization. The Communist Manifesto[3] was his statement of purpose, though he later called parts of it (especially the ten planks) antiquated. It was mainly a propagandistic document, and thus did not go into detail in terms of economic theory, as does his later work, Das Kapital.[4] However, one thing that Marx made an explicit warning about was that attempts to do this in a society that had not yet undergone an Industrial Revolution would most likely backfire, which brings us to...
Vladimir Lenin[edit]
Vladimir Lenin, leading the Russian Revolution, paid large amounts of lip service to Marx, while instead taking more ideas from Blanquism (even though Marx hadn't thought too highly of the chances of revolution from a feudalistic society, and had coined the term dictatorship of the proletariat' in order for differentiate from the Blanquist minority dictatorship) and declared open class warfare on the bourgeoisie (and that he would bring "Peace, Bread and Land!"), in an attempt to take power. Lenin jumped the gun by leading a communist revolution with a small group of intellectuals without waiting for a significant working class to develop, trying to jumpstart a socialist state by "skipping" an entire step in the process Marx had described. In Imperialism: Capitalism's Highest Stage, Lenin argued that foreign capital intervention in backwards countries (colonies and semi-colonies) created the conditions for socialist revolution, which was contraty to what the Mensheviks thought (that the Revolution in Russia would first impose capitalism as a way for socialism to develop). Lenin basically asked: "why would you need to make a revolution to put a capitalist system when capitalism is already here"? Russia, although a mainly peasant and backwards country, had developed over the years a significant working class in the cities. Lenin saw this as the basis for the revolution in which workers and peasants would unite against the monarchy and the bouregoise.
This would become known as Leninism, a sort of forced Marxism on steroids, in which a small yet significant group of leaders, known as a vanguard, ensured "two revolutions for the price of one" by "telescoping" the capitalist and communist revolutions and took over the state and industry. In Leninism, the revolutionary party would lead the revolution. This party would be "the voluntary selection of the most advanced, more aware, more selfless and more active workers", which would handle the socialist state and transform society into "communism" (as the beginning of the idea of socialism and communism being different stages from revolution originated mainly from Lenin). Crucially, this idea of a vanguard party was a big criticism of left-wing socialists to the "mass" party structure of most socialist organizations, which had become a huge bureaucratic apparatus, with thousands of leased politicians and union officials who exercised absolute control of the press and labor organizations that adhered to socialism. A soviet state was established and opposition on both right and left fermented and soon exploded into the brutal Russian Civil War, which in practice, and mainly due to the harsh conditions faced by Lenin and his supporters (German invasion and civil war), resulted in elevating the Bolsheviks to become a new elite within Russia, while the workers and peasants —the same people the Bolsheviks claimed to represent— were subjected to the same dictatorial control as the Tsar's regime.
There was a total of one democratic election after the October Revolution, and when the Bolsheviks lost out to the moderate and liberal parties (the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks), they sent in the Red Guard and closed the Constituent Assembly.
It is true that Lenin's ideas (especially applying planned economy principles to agriculture) didn't really work, but though some reforms were suggested, Lenin and Trotsky killed most of those suggesting them. Then Lenin died.
Joseph Stalin[edit]
The revolutionary wave that the Russian Revolution started was diverted by the social-democrats in many countries: in Hungary they persecuted the communist leaders, in Italy they didn't seize power and instead made (indirectly) possible the way for Mussolini, while in Germany they outright murdered the revolutionaries Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht (aided by the Freikops, which would later be the basis of the Nazi party). This diversion meant that the Russian Revolution was becoming more isolated. Combined with the inexperience of the communist leaders in other countries, the prestige that the Russian Communist Party had gained, the seven long years of war suffered and the concessions made in the New Economic Policy, this created the conditions for a bureaucracy to form inside the soviet state. Stalin took over the Soviet Union and converted a brutal and repressive autocracy (as Lenin had abolished democracy and implemented Party dictatorship) into an extremely brutal and repressive autocracy, ruling by fear. Stalin first expelled the Left Opposition (led by Leon Trotsky) from the party and then exiled and persecuted them. Then Hitler rose to power in Germany thanks to Stalin's orders to keep the communists busy fighting the social-democrats. In Spain, the workers brought down the monarchy and instituted the Second Republic; in 1936 (thanks to Stalin's orders of creating coalitions with the capitalists known as "Popular Fronts"), the Popular Front won the elections, which caused the right-wing sectors of the army to commit a coup. The ensuing Spanish Civil war brought people from all over the world to fight against the fascists for the Republic. Stalin's zigzags with France and England and his policy of persecuting "trotskyists" and anarchists meant that the republicans were more busy fighting each other than fighting the fascists, and indirectly helped Franco win the war. With each defeat suffered, a socialist revolution in Europe was more improbable and the chances of another World War starting seemed more likely, thus Stalin's government grew more and more tyrannical with each day. So not only was the great Soviet experiment failing, Stalin stepped in and ensured it never would recover.
To summarize, communism is a classless, "democratic" (Marx called for 'self-government of the commune' in response to Bakunin's accusations that he wished for a minority dictatorship) and international society. There are different theories to how it should be organized, for example, the anarcho-syndicalists and De Leonists wish for a Socialist Industrial Union, while mutualists (inspired by the ideas of Proudhon) wish for a non-capitalist free market (often claiming that the capitalist market can never have anything to do with 'freedom'), other socialists wish for a system of workers' councils (though these can often be compared to the syndicalist unions), as in the "soviets" which represented the working class in Russia until Lenin's coup d'etat. The workers had also taken over factories, instituting elected and recallable factory committees which ran them under their ultimate control, before Lenin took over. Such "worker self-management" has also been a key part of socialism, in both libertarian Marxist and anarchist tendencies or schools of thought.
Mao Zedong[edit]
Mao Zedong's particularly gruesome take on Marxism easily ranks as the most devastating attempt to establish a Communist society, as far as the total number of human casualties is concerned. Having taken over mainland China in 1949, he developed a branch of Communist theory that was supposed to address China's specific circumstances, commonly referred to as "Mao Zedong thought." Since China was a mostly agrarian country without a solid industrial base, it lacked the distinct class of urban factory workers that was supposed to form the backbone of a Communist revolution, according to Marxism. Hence, Mao's own ideology emphasized the vast numbers of impoverished Chinese peasants as the driving force of the revolution in China, and concentrated on winning their support for the Communist Party of China. However, during the late 1950s, Mao ordered a vast industrialization program that was supposed to transform China's agrarian economy into a much more advanced one, taking a cue from Stalinism. This project, called the "Great Leap Forward," plummeted at the cost of up to 45 million lives.[5]
After being sidelined as a result of this failure, Mao eventually launched yet another attempt at rapid societal transformation in a bid to reestablish himself as the undisputed leader of China. Starting in 1966, his so-called "Great Cultural Revolution" again toppled China into chaos, as a fanatic youth movement set out to destroy Chinese traditional culture and the supposed last vestiges of the old elites. In practice, it was a reign of terror that consisted of completely random attacks against anyone and anything that drew the suspicion of the frenzied "Red Guards," among them no small number of their own operatives. Since the campaign had brought the country to the brink of civil war, Maoist ideology was mostly discredited as an actual guideline for governing the nation. Mao's eventual successor, Deng Xiaoping, effectively abandoned it by promoting pragmatic developmental policies, so that today's China is a booming capitalist economy ruled by a totalitarian oligarchy. However, because of Mao's status as a larger-than-life figure in Chinese politics and especially the CCP, Maoism was never officially denounced by Chinese authorities. Yet.
Apart from China itself, several other Communist movements in Southeast Asia, Central Asia and Latin America claimed an explicit adherence to Maoism. Despite significant political differences, Cambodia's Khmer Rouge was considered almost a recreation of Mao's Chinese Communist party (down to the extreme, culturally-motivated purges). However, many such parties are no longer exclusively agrarian in focus, placing a dual emphasis on both rural and urban workers.
Final remnants[edit]
As it stands, there are only a few remaining nation-states which proclaim themselves Communist, and it is obvious without comment how well the judgement of history will handle them. These systems are:
- Castroism in Cuba: Cuba actually boasts a very high average life-expectancy due to socialized health care, and has evaded the issues of overpopulation and pollution which have plagued China. However, Cuba's full economic potential never came to fruition, partially due to a U.S. economic and commercial blockade and the end of the Soviet Union.[6] Nonetheless, Cuba can boast some of Latin America's highest living standards, especially when compared to other Caribbean countries countries, such as Haiti and Dominican Republic.[7][8] Which isn't exactly an achievement, considering the rest of Latin America was ruled by tinpot military dictatorships while Cuba received absurd amounts of Soviet funding. Also, Cuba, as a dictatorship, holds many political prisoners.[9]
- Juche in North Korea: Called a "mauso-tocracy" by Christopher Hitchens, this society insists that Kim Il-sung is the Eternal President of the Republic, despite his noticeable lack of pulse, heartbeat, respiration, or brain activity since 1994. His grandson Kim Jong-un, therefore, is going to perpetually play second fiddle as Supreme Leader. Despite its clear influences, North Korea has actually removed all references to communism from its constitution, and today Juche is a bizarre mix of ultra-nationalism, militarism and Kim-worship. Still regularly used for red-baiting — those who exhibit any kind of leftist ideas are often told to go to North Korea if they love socialism so much!
- Maoism with Deng Xiaoping Thought in China: It's basically market-Leninism. Despite having the fastest-growing economy on earth, the Chinese industrial existence is, ironically, on par with the working conditions in Soho which repelled Marx when he was originally writing Das Kapital. You could say that the Chinese system is the only form of communism that actually works, but considering their record on civil rights (think June 4th and the one-child policy), that might be a bit of a stretch.
- Laos and Vietnam: Still ostensibly Marxist-Leninist. Vietnam has gone in the direction of China's market-Leninism. Laos, at the present, has only introduced limited market reforms.
Communism in practice[edit]worldview out of Marx's philosophy — what was later called Marxism-Leninism. But Lenin also deviated a good deal from what Marx had said, as detailed above.
This has become rather a touchy subject to bring up, as totalitarian socialist states have a good deal to answer for. Let these facts be submitted for the reader's consideration:
- Several countries with communist parties for an official governing body have been governed in a highly illiberal and undemocratic manner, characterized by one-party rule, lack of civil rights, and bureaucratic corruption.[10]
- The introduction of democratic government to totalitarian-backed communist countries has been inevitably followed by that country ceasing to be communist. Well-known examples are Poland, Hungary, Cambodia, and Yugoslavia.
- The planned economies of communist countries have proven themselves unable to match the levels of growth and economic benefits found in less strictly controlled economic systems. Of the five remaining communist states today, China and Vietnam have introduced market reforms. After these reforms were introduced, their respective economies expanded and living standards rose. On the other hand, Laos, North Korea, and Cuba have not allowed very many market reforms, and one can clearly see the state of their economies with North Korea struggling to meet even the basic needs of its citizens.
- Totalitarian communist governments have been responsible for a great many mass slaughters, often considered genocides. Prominent examples:
- In the Soviet Union during the premiership of Joseph Stalin, millions of Ukrainians starved to death. Debate continues over whether this was intentional or the result of the general incompetence of Soviet agricultural policy (the Holodomor happened in the context of a broader Soviet famine).
- Later, Stalin railroaded approximately a million people to the gallows in the Great Purge of 1936-1938.
- Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge were responsible for killing, by their own estimates, 800,000 people in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. The United Nations believes it's likely triple that number.
- The death toll from the Great Leap Forward in China under Mao Zedong has ranged from 18 million to (as previously mentioned) 45 million,[11] as consequence of economic upheavals caused by the government's attempts to "modernize" the country; a few million more died in the violence of the Cultural Revolution.
The question then becomes what role was played by which ideologue. Some, in particular Leon Trotsky and his followers, claim that the people performing these acts were not actually communists, for the reason that such figures as Joseph Stalin deliberately betrayed and deformed the "true" communist ideals, and that these betrayals were later compounded by many communist states putting them into practice. Others claim that the theories of Marx are impossible to put into practice and thus lead inevitably to economic ruin and despotism.
It is certainly true that Marxism has one of the key philosophical elements required of any totalitarian worldview: the notion that non-adherents are in denial or in some way mentally deficient. In Christianity this notion takes the form of the idea that non-Christians only want to continue living in sin. In Marxism it takes the form of false consciousness — the idea that any person who does not put the interests of his class uppermost has been duped by somebody-or-other and is in denial about what his true interests are.
Also, if one tries to assign most or all of the blame to Stalin, as Trotsky did, one must take into account that many of the above atrocities were committed by states that espoused Marxism-Leninism but explicitly rejected Stalinism.
On the other hand, variants of Marxism that do not claim to be a continuation of Marxism-Leninism, such as Catholic Liberation Theology and Eurocommunism, are much more benign, and many of these variants have accepted liberal democracy in lieu of violent revolution as a way to achieve communist goals.[12]
Is Communism at all workable?[edit]
It depends on what you mean by "Communism" and what you mean by "workable."
Certainly 20th century Communism has left a trail of nothing but blood and pollution in its wake; China's communism is barely recognizable under its outward trappings of state capitalism, and the Soviet experiment is (most charitably) seen as incomplete, cut off by Lenin's death and subverted by Stalin's brutality. Previous experiments in communism, whether fundamentally capitalist (Jamestown, VA) or utopian (the Oneida community) lasted only for a couple of generations at most before being torn apart by internal dissent.[13] In addition, the confusion of Communism and the politics of the Warsaw Pact community has essentially stained the name of communism, to the point that even if it was tweaked into a workable form, we'd have to find some other name for it.
Critics of Communism tend to fault it for its hyper-idealistic egalitarianism, based on the assumption that a state set up to fade away is a sitting target for authoritarians and slackers, and also assuming that there would be no incentive to excel in any given field. In addition, the planned economy aspects of Soviet Communism in particular have consistently failed, due to an ideology that proved unable to react to the slightest outside changes.
Again, advocates of Communism look at the failure of every attempt to implement Communism and argue that those societies were not really communist - either for immediate, local reasons or for the blanket reason that none of them have taken place in advanced industrial societies, which (for Marx, at least) would doom them to failure. In most cases, Communist governments didn't necessarily follow Marx's theories as set out, and corruption and cronyism were rampant; Marx certainly wouldn't have approved of that, or the use of tactics by the governing authorities that he considered reserved for the use of the proletariat at large, such as expropriation.[14] However, Marx's antipathy towards the bourgeoisie was used as an excuse to kill millions (especially in China and Cambodia, but more famously Ukrainian country folk in the USSR) because they were branded "petty-bourgeois counter-revolutionaries" for the crime of looking cross-eyed at the nomenklatura.
The question, then, becomes this: what does this "great apostasy" say about the viability of Marxism? Opinions run the gamut.
- Some (George Orwell, for example[15]) say that Marxism's highly theoretical and dogmatic nature can cause its more enthusiastic devotees to become isolated from the proletariat at large — thus almost ensuring that any successful communist takeover will result in a dictatorship of some sort.
- Some claim that while communism had its uses at the time, the nature of modern economies — even if you were able to separate the human rights issues — make it quickly outdated and solely the domain of moonbats. Having full state control of the economy can be workable and even helpful when your economy is small and dysfunctional, but when it starts growing the central bureaucracy grows increasingly incompetent at managing the affairs of the economy. Command economies very often follow the pattern of first causing mass deprivation and starvation, then growing rapidly with attendant increases in life expectancy, then stalling, then collapsing or stagnating, necessitating the introduction of market reforms.
- Some suggest that Marxism is by itself just a relatively harmless pile of bullshit, especially as concerns economics, but it can easily be hijacked by a dictatorial methodology like Leninism, so that when its economic methods do not work, anyone who tries to point out that the Emperor has no clothes on can be conveniently silenced.
- Some (greatly reduced in number since the Soviet gravy-train derailed) continue to support the core ideas of Marxism, and continue to work toward the proletarian revolution using a wide variety of methodologies, in sure and certain hope of the pure-communist society to come.[16]
- Some reject Marxism in its original form, but think the core ideas — such as class struggles (generalized into conflict theory) and the comparatively idyllic world spoiled by the ascendancy of one of these classes — are still worthwhile. Indeed, Marxist historical analysis, a distinctly different beast from communism in and of itself, is generally considered a useful tool for understanding quite a bit of history.
Also, although state-imposed collectivism did not work out so well, private corporations run as collectives[17] do just as well as companies based on a more traditional hierarchy, and even if Marx was somewhat naive about economics (and, in hindsight, every economist from the 19th century and prior looks rather naive about economics: forexample, the labor theory of value, the discrediting of which forms the basis for much of the modern economic critique of Marxism, was not unique to Marxism by a long shot, having been conceived by the father of capitalism himself, Adam Smith) his contributions as a historian and pioneering work in then nascent field of sociology shouldn't be overlooked or understated. It's reasonable to look at the train wreck of Communism-in-practice as an utter failure, but that doesn't mean there's nothing to learn from it.
The few examples when communism worked out relatively fine[edit]
- The communist and anarchists before and during the Spanish Civil War had created a very free and prosperous society, as recounted in George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia. Franco crushed them.
- In a similar vein, the Ukrainian Free Territory had an anarcho-communistic government during the Russian Civil War, although it was also destroyed militarily (not by the White Guards, even — in fact, the insurgent army fought Denikin's army successfully) but rather by the Bolsheviks themselves.[18]
- The Yugoslav workers' self-management worked out for a little while.
- The Israeli kibbutzim (if you can ignore their place in global capitalism).
- The Twin Oaks Community is currently working right now.
Derivative philosophies[edit]
Besides communism, there are a great many different ideologies and schools of thought based on Marx's views.
There still is a great deal academics find useful in Marxism as a research tool. For example, Marxist historians focus on economic relationships and progress in history, and believe economic motivations and class consciousness to be the most important underlying causes of change (or, in layman's terms, money in fact does make the world go round, but you'll always get screwed by the rich man). Marxist history is a school of social history, focusing primarily on the conditions of the (working class) majority rather than on the deeds of kings and leaders.[19] There are similar Marxist forms of sociology and cultural theory. Marx's outline of how capitalism works is still taught in economics, though it's not considered the whole story.
There are many variants on the idea of some underclass being exploited or oppressed by some upper class and the need for that underclass to unite and make a revolution. The second wave of feminism most active in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as radical feminism, views women as the underclass. Nationalism, particularly among colonized peoples, may view the colonized nation as the underclass; an example of this is the strong nationalistic elements in the ideology of left-wing governments in former territories occupied by empires. Identity politics abstracts the idea entirely and allows the selection of an arbitrary underclass, thus giving rise to such phenomena as "ethnic studies," "queer studies," "disabled studies," etc. The feminist, militant black, and gay rights movements of the later 1960's and 1970's were informed by a Marxist outlook, including the Black Panthers, as David Horowitz loves to remind us of constantly. So scary.
Libertarian communism is an elimination of the state similar to Marxist communism, but it claims to be a part of the libertarian family.
Communism and religion[edit]
Marx on religion[edit]
Karl Marx famously said that religion was "the opiate of the people." Or, in full:
""Religion is, indeed, the self-consciousness and self-esteem of man who has either not yet won through to himself, or has already lost himself again. But man is no abstract being squatting outside the world. Man is the world of man—state, society. This state and this society produce religion, which is an inverted consciousness of the world, because they are an inverted world. Religion is the general theory of this world, its encyclopedic compendium, its logic in popular form, its spiritual point d'honneur, its enthusiasm, its moral sanction, its solemn complement, and its universal basis of consolation and justification. It is the fantastic realization of the human essence since the human essence has not acquired any true reality. The struggle against religion is, therefore, indirectly the struggle against that world whose spiritual aroma is religion. Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo.
Of course, these are simply Marx's beliefs, and thus religious socialism still exists, as the system of communism is not opposed to religion in any way. Marx does not advocate the banning of religion, and instead says that it is simply a way to cope, and a way to see something bright at the end of the tunnel when one is faced with the injustices of feudal and capitalist society, and says that the criticism of religion is thus the criticism of the conditions that breed it. In an interview later on, Marx dismissed violent measures against religion as "nonsense," and stated the opinion (he specified that it was an opinion) that, "as socialism grows, religion will disappear. Its disappearance must be done by social development, in which education must play a part."[20]
As for the phrase itself, opium in Marx's time was an important painkiller, a source of extraordinary visions for 'opium eaters,' the cause of important conflicts such as the Opium Wars, and also used by parents to keep their children quiet. It is likely that Marx was alluding to all of these.
Despite Marx's view that religion could co-exist with communism, many communist states have cracked down on religious groups or banned them altogether. For example, the Russian Orthodox Church had for hundreds of years been a powerful institution in Russia and had many ties to the former czarist regime. Hence, in the mind of the Soviet leaders the church formed an institutional threat to its existence and had to be controlled. Albania under Enver Hoxha banned religion altogether, claiming that it had kept Albania back for a great many years. China tightly regulates religion within its borders, barring the Roman Catholic Church and other churches not under the direct control of the State, leading to a burgeoning Evangelical Protestant "house church" movement.
Religion in communism[edit]
Marxism, despite generally rejecting the supernatural, carries distinct millennial overtones about it. Although all sectors of Christianity at least nominally oppose orthodox Marxism due to its materialism, the amillennial denominations have been most vocal in their opposition to communism; specifically the Catholic Church, which has explicitly condemned "secular messianism," which it cited as a form of millennialism, and of which it cited communism as an example.[21][22]
Communism and rhetoric[edit]
Communists are frequently alleged to be the true force behind the UN or some other scheme for a New World Order or one world government. These conspiracy theories are sometimes tied into anti-Semitism and the idea of an international Jewish conspiracy due to the fact that many Jews were aligned with leftist politics.
Wingnuts also ascribe to the word "communism" quite a different meaning: "Any policy or belief that is insufficiently right-wing for my taste," or "any policy which promotes racial equality and integration." You can thank Joseph McCarthy for that.
Quotes about communism[edit]
""The Communists do not form a separate party opposed to other working-class parties. They have no interests separate and apart from those of the proletariat as a whole. They do not set up any sectarian principles of their own, by which to shape and mould the proletarian movement.
|—Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto
""A communist is someone who reads Marx and Engels. An anti-communist is someone who understands Marx and Engels.
|—Attributed to Ronald Reagan, though it's hard to believe that a Californian actor who thought trees caused pollution actually understood anything.
""One sometimes gets the impression that the mere words 'Socialism' and 'Communism' draw towards them with magnetic force every fruit-juice drinker, nudist, sandal-wearer, sex-maniac, Quaker, 'Nature Cure' quack, pacifist, and feminist in England.
|—George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier
Notable commies[edit]
- Salvador Allende, President of Chile 1970-1973, ousted by right-wing dictator Augusto Pinochet
- The Cambridge Five, Soviet infiltrators in Britain
- Fidel Castro, former dictator of Cuba 1959-2016
- Friedrich Engels, dictator of writing
- Antonio Gramsci, Marxist philosopher, inventor of "cultural hegemony"
- Che Guevara, henchman of Castro, t-shirt icon
- Woody Guthrie, folk-singer
- Enver Hoxha, dictator of Albania, 1944-1985
- Alger Hiss, Soviet infiltrator in the U.S.
- Jim Jones, cult leader of the People's Temple
- Kim Jong-il, dictator of North Korea 1994-2011
- Kim Jong-un, dictator of North Korea 2011-present
- Pyotr Kropotkin, zoologist and founder of Anarcho-communism.
- Vladimir Lenin, dictator of the USSR 1917-1924
- John Lennon, dictator of The Beatles 1960-1969
- Rosa Luxemburg, German communist activist
- Karl Marx (duh)
- Mengistu Haile Mariam, dictator of Ethiopia
- Ho Chi Minh, dictator of Vietnam 1945-1969
- Barack Hussein Obama, dictator of the United States from 2009 and onward
- Pol Pot, dictator of Cambodia 1975-1979
- Pete Seeger, folk-singer
- Joseph Stalin, dictator of the Soviet Union 1924-1953
- Kim Il-sung, dictator of North Korea, 1948-1972
- Josip Tito, dictator of Yugoslavia, 1945-1980
- Leon "Snowball" Trotsky
- Mao Zedong, dictator of China 1949-1976
See also[edit]
- List of forms of government
- Socialism
- Moral panic
- Equality - The general basis of the projected communist society, in which all permanent hierarchies are abolished, including that of class.[23]
- John Birch Society - the United States' most prominent anti-Communist organization (They didn't get the memo). A common figure of fun, even back then.
- John Ball - an early priest who favored a then-unnamed communism.
- Slavoj Zizek - anti-Stalinist Stalinist, philosopher, and filmmaker
External links[edit]
- Marxists.org, your one-stop shop for Marxist theory
- ↑ DeVore, Irven (1969). Man the Hunter. Aldine Transaction. ISBN 978-0-202-33032-7
- ↑ Marx was not deterministic, though he does occasionally seem as such, though he believed that socialists would have to actively help educate the workers, and fight for a revolution, rather than it just happening automatically, though crises and such would aid it.
- ↑ The Communist Manifesto at Project Gutenberg
- ↑ Whether Das Kapital be an economic treatise or the ravings of a nut is a hotly debated question.
- ↑ Dikötter, Frank (2010): Mao's Great Famine. New York: Walker & Company, 2010.
- ↑ http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/09/us-cuba-usa-idUSKBN0H422Y20140909
- ↑ http://databank.worldbank.org/data/download/GDP.pdf
- ↑ Cuba has the highest Human Development Index score in the Caribbean and the 2nd highest in Latin America http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/hdr14-report-en-1.pdf
- ↑ https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2015/country-chapters/cuba
- ↑ It is important to note that communist parties have historically formed a number of governments respectful of rights and democracy (e.g., in Moldova and Cyprus) and that it is not uncommon for communist parties to govern as part of broader left-wing coalitions (e.g., the French Popular Front in the 1930s and the communist wing of the African National Congress). However, these governments and coalitions have all been constrained by liberal-democratic, non-communist constitutions guaranteeing free speech, free elections, and the right to dissent.
- ↑ Mao and The Great Leap Forward, Rutgers University
- ↑ These are the Unitarians to Stalinism's Puritans.
- ↑ The last such movement of any significance, the Shakers, is on the verge of dying out, with only three members left in its last known community in Maine.
- ↑ The Communist Manifesto, chapter 2.
- ↑ In his book The Road to Wigan Pier, he compared Marxism to Catholicism, with the Hegelian dialectic taking the place of the Trinity.
- ↑ Similarly, some Christians continue to work toward the elimination of all sin so as to bring about a thousand golden years on Earth before Jesus returns to cast sinners into the Lake of Fire.
- ↑ Examples of companies run along collective lines include REI, King Arthur Flour, and the consortium responsible for Parmeggiano Reggiano cheese.
- ↑ "Why does the Makhnovist movement show there is an alternative to Bolshevism?"
- ↑ When this is applied to periods of history of which the only surviving records are of said kingly deeds, this must needs result in at least some speculation, which perhaps opened the door for the historical negationism so common among communist historians (most notably in the Soviet Union, where people questioning official Party history could be conveniently clapped in the gulag).
- ↑ It should be noted that Martin Luther said roughly the same thing of Jews, that they did not convert due to rotten treatment at the hands of the corrupt Catholic Church; when the Jews refused to give up their religion in favor of Lutheranism, Luther started calling for the synagogues to be burned.
- ↑ Catechism of the Catholic Church, 184.108.40.206.9.676.
- ↑ Pius XI, encyclical Divini Redemptoris. [1]
- ↑ However, without due diligence to proper farm management, some animals wind up more equal than others.


text: Dorjee Palden is perhaps the first Tibetan entrepreneur in India to operate a scrap collection business, which has long been dominated by Indians even in the heavily Tibetan populated settlements and monasteries. Palden's company collects newspapers, plastics, cardboard, plastic, milk bags, metal scrap, and old electronic equipment and appliances, which the company then separates and sells to local scrap dealers. He says that although the business has many challenges, he is able to keep his spirits high due to the support and encouragement he receives from the elders and others in his community.


text:
Some low ranked, non-aba schools in California produce terrible bar passage rates. Does anyone seriously think that has anything to do with the quality of education? Maybe it has a small impact, but the more likely cause of the low test scores is that the quality of students is low.
Don't forget there are many that still consider California's bar exam to be the hardest in the Country. So my hats off to all the online and distance educated law students in CA that have passed the CA bar, especially on first attempt!
For example the legally blind guy who got a 173 on his LSAT could have gotten into some elite schools. However, he was legally blind had a hard time getting around and had a wife (who had a good job in Chico) and kids who lived in Chico.


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two Two TWO times the blog! Via Vite & Ron's Roost
Tuesday, July 8, 2008 - 3 comments
So I realized I forgot to blog about my fancy lunch day last week - but then I also had a date this weekend at a restaurant I'd never been to - so you get TWICE THE BLOG!
Let's start with fancy lunch day - we have started something at work called FANCY LUNCH DAY. It's a day where we go to lunch at places that don't have paper napkins. This time around we went to Via Vite in Fountain Square.
Our crew was a little light this month because of meetings - but come on people - where's your dedication? Work is more important than FANCY LUNCH DAY???? I think not! Thank God I have my priorities straight!
I'll only comment on my entree since it's the only one I tasted. They have a lunch special that gives you a salad and pasta for $14 - which is pretty good considering the regular pasta is $13 (you do get a smaller portion). I got the salad - which was extremely good! I don't remember why - but I loved it! It was just a regular salad - not their goat cheese or anything like that...but tasty. Then I got fettucini with vodka sauce (hint of cream) and it was excellent! It wasn't alfredo but it did have just enough cream to make it awesome. I'd give the entree a 3 on my rating scale.
Then we went for dessert! We each got something different and all tried each others. 3rd favorite on my list was the Hazelnut Gelato. It was great and very tasty - better than I thought it would be - but for the same price as the other two - not my choice. 2nd was the Orange Tart - very very creamy and delicious - really nearly a tie for 1st! It was almost like a creme brulee texture without the brulee. The crust was light and flaky - it was very good and not at all overpowering with the orange (which I feared it might be). But #1 - Chocolate Panna Cotta! DELISH - and very deserving of my 4 star = Oh my...um...wow...I need a minute here...cuz that is amazing!
The dish was creamy, rich and just damn awesome and amazing. I want to go back just for that!
One caviat - not a bright waitress - I thought I knew what Panna Cotta was (and turns out I did) so I asked her and she said it was like a souffle. WTF?
So there you go - one down - one to go.
I had a date Sunday night - it was a first date - and he was...brace yourself...a WEST SIDER!!!! Yes - universal groans across the city are now being heard... But turns out - not all guys on the west side are dirty! Joe is a very nice guy and we had a nice time and are going out again Saturday night. (So you'll get a review of the fantastic Mt Lookout favorite RuThai's this weekend.) But who cares about the date - let's get to the dinner!
He took me to...brace yourself...Ron's Roost in Price Hill.
Needless to say - I was a little underwhelmed at the prospect of it all. I muddle my way through the Google Maps directions and venture over to the dreaded West Side. Will my lovely Tonka Truck be overwhelmed by spinners and hydraulics? Will I come away with an eviction notice and a job at Burger King?
But alas...none of those things happened! I found my way just fine and no Tonka Trucks were harmed in the making of this dinner date!
Ron's Roost is known for their fried chicken and I love fried chicken. But the thought of being on a first date and gnawing on a bone with grease and grissle just didn't sound like the best way to go. I mean - oh - there are so many inappropriate ways to go with that...but I'll take the high road for once and just let the jokes lie there...
(pause for you to think of them and laugh on your own - or comment them to me)
I got the crab cakes - it's a daintier meal.
The bread is homemade and wonderful - very light and airy and soft with soft butter (a pet peeve of mine is restaurants with butter from the fridge!).
I got the crab cakes with a baked potato and green beans. The cakes came with a great sauce that was a little spicy and very tasty. They weren't as good as the Lobster Cakes from Fresh Market but they were better than The Houston Inn from last week. The sides were bland as to be expected...
Overall the food wasn't bad - it wasn't great - but not bad. I wish I would have gotten the chicken - but I'll save that for next time.
Ron's Roost is - from what I hear - a staple of the West Side and I can see why. It's probably very consistent and it's moderately priced. I did bring the median age down quite a bit - but if you want to take your parents out to a great meal - try it! And please - try the chicken - even if you're on a date!
I'll give Ron's a 2.5 - the food isn't that great honestly - but it's got character...maybe if I'd had the chicken it'd be a 3. Any thoughts????
p.s. Went to Zip Dip after - DELICIOUS OF COURSE! But duh - how do you screw up a small twist cone?
3 comments
I can't wait for your review on RuthThai in Mt Lookout. I have a bottle of wine I want to BYOB to a restaurant and not get charged a corking fee so we might go there this weekend! Cute blogs..they really are entertaining.ReplyDelete
Oh - I can already tell you - RuThai's is FABULOUS! I go all the time and love it. The sushi is awesome but I have to say - the spicy fish is by far my favorite dish! GO GO GO!ReplyDelete
I'm a west side girl and 1. Ron's Roost is NOT in price hill. It's in Bridgetown. 2. I think I'm the only girl on the west side that doesn't like Ron's Roost and I cringe when I hear the words "hot slaw". 3. I married a west side boy...he's sweet, gorgeous, is a good husband and father, has all of his own teeth and makes pretty darn good money. ;)ReplyDelete
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