text: Who is Jesus?History in Perfect TenseLeander E. KeckNarrated by Tim Lundeen Book published by University of South Carolina Press In Who Is Jesus? Leander E. Keck discusses the quest for the Jewish Jesus of history and challenges readers to think seriously not only about Jesus' historical existence but also about his ongoing moral and theological significance. Rather than asking and answering questions solely about Jesus as a historical figure, Keck considers Jesus' current identity as well and, in doing so, responds to and expands upon the historians' reconstruction. Setting the context for his study, Keck clarifies the difference between the way Jesus is presented in the gospels and the way critical historians portray him. He then explores, from four perspectives, Jesus' contemporary moral and theological pertinence. Keck looks initially at Jesus as a first-century Jew, conscious of the difficulty and importance of recovering Jesus' particular form of Jewishness. He then considers how Jesus' mission was energized by his grasp of the kingdom of God. Taking issue with current assertions that Jesus did not expect the imminent arrival of God's kingdom, Keck contends that Jesus clearly expressed a conviction that God's definitive reign was impending and would transform the lives of those who responded affirmatively to his message. Keck goes on to probe the meaning of the crucifixion of Jesus, in light of the biblical understanding of God's holiness, a theme largely neglected today. Keck concludes his discussion by looking at Jesus' role in the moral life of the Christian community. Noting that Jesus' influence is not limited to his teachings or deeds but includes the entirety of his being, Keck eschews the phrase "ethics of Jesus" in favor of "Jesus ethic." He suggests that it adequately accounts for the centrality of the person of Jesus in the lives of his followers and for their willingness to suffer voluntarily for others. REVIEWS:"This book is vintage Keck—cogent, learned, instructive, nuanced, stimulating, provocative. A good antidote for facile answers to hard historical and theological questions about the reality and significance of Jesus of Nazareth, it is critically acute and theologically perceptive. The book is an essential addition to the library of anyone interested in the Jesus of history and his contemporary meaning. Take and read!" —Paul J. Achtemeier, Union Theological Seminary "Leander Keck invites readers into his own exploration of major issues in the study of Jesus: his Jewishness, his teaching, his death, and his significance for the moral life. While it engagingly maps the scholarly quest of the Jesus of history, Who is Jesus? is equally attentive to the present tense. A welcome contribution for students and scholars alike." —Beverly Roberts Gaventa, Princeton Theological Seminary "By focusing on the theological as well as the historical significance of Jesus, Keck sets the discussion of Jesus on a new and better track. Written with clarity and insight, this work shows the significance of Jesus for faith as well as scholarship. Put aside all those other books and read Keck!" —Frank J. Matera, The Catholic University of America |


text:
You can use it to write and organize your thoughts, ideas, and projects.
(use ←, ↓, ↑, → keys.)
Watch the "Getting started" video first,
if you haven't seen it (< 90 seconds).
To start a new tree, click on (top left).
Spreadsheets are such a powerful tool for handling numbers, that their first users seemed to have superhuman powers.
Gingko is like that, except it's for handling
knowledge and ideas.
There is no other tool that lets you work on the big picture and the details in the same flow.
Whether it's a project report, or your third novel, with gingko you'll be able to write better, faster.
And much more.
For more detailed examples, look right →.
Gingko is powerful, but it's quite simple to use.
You only need 3 keyboard shortcuts:
/Ctrl + Enter
Ctrl + <arrow>
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On the Mac, use Cmd
For more info on formatting, search, tags, and images, look at this card's children →
We've gotten hundreds of emails recently from people raving about Gingko… and saying "if only it had feature X."
Overwhelmingly, "X" was either offline mode, or more than 3 levels. So we've made those our top two priorities.
We also have many other features coming, which we've listed on the right.
The simplest way to show how gingko lets you work with ideas and words faster than any other tool, is with an example:
Does this sound familiar?
Blog posts are challenging to write, because we need to keep them brief and to the point.
Here is a method that works*:
Seem like more work?
You'll be surprised by how quickly you can write the second and third columns, once you know what you really need to say.
Stick to the word count limit at each step, even if it feels restricitve. You determine first what you want to say, and then you can think about how you want to say it.
Start with your "Executive Summary" on the far left. Then add sections such as Marketing, Product Development, etc, to the middle column. Add more details to each of those sections by adding more details to the right column.
Gingko is great for screenwriting and playwriting, because it follows the natural progression of "Logline > Act summaries > Scene summaries".
So far, we haven't found a single case of a project big or small, where we couldn't use gingko to help in some way.
We use gingko for everything here. This ranges from 125 word blog posts, to our core development and marketing cycles.
We use gingko to organize our grocery lists, recipes, planning our trips, creating slideshows, planning Adwords campaigns, and even (experimentally) as a functional programming language!
Admittedly, gingko is our hammer, and we might be "seeing nails everywhere". But we hope that by pushing the limits, we can see what needs to be added to make gingko more powerful and more useful to you.
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
Direct Credit CardChecks
Featuring Stephen King, Mario Batali, Peter Kaminsky, Mark Bittman and more.
Edited by John Donahue.
OVERVIEW: Look who's making dinner! Twenty-one of our favorite writers and chefs expound upon the joys—and perils—of feeding their families. Mario Batali's kids gobble up monkfish liver and foie gras. Peter Kaminsky's youngest daughter won't eat anything at all. Mark Bittman reveals the four stages of learning to cook. Stephen King offers tips about what to cook when you don't feel like cooking. And Jim Harrison shows how good food and wine trump expensive cars and houses. This book celebrates those who toil behind the stove, trying to nourish and please. Their tales are accompanied by more than sixty family-tested recipes, time-saving tips, and cookbook recommendations, as well as New Yorker cartoons. Plus there are interviews with homestyle heroes from all across America—a fireman in Brooklyn, a football coach in Atlanta, and a bond trader in Los Angeles, among others. What emerges is a book not just about food but about our changing families. It offers a newfound community for any man who proudly dons an apron and inspiration for those who have yet to pick up the spatula.
2011 Algonquin trade paperback. 326 pages.


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April 08, 2004
University of Alaska Regents to Meet in Sitka
Aril 08, 2004
Regents of the University of Alaska will meet Wednesday and Thursday, April 14-15,
the UAS campus in Sitka.
The 2-day session will begin Wednesday at 8:00 a.m. with the full board in executive session for about an hour. About 9:00 a.m., President Hamilton will deliver his President's Report, then discuss the progress of the committee on Accountability and Sustainability. Public testimony is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. After lunch with the Sitka Chamber of Commerce the full board will hear a presentation on research at 1:30 p.m. Committee meetings will be held from 2:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. A community reception will be held from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the Alaska Raptor Center.
Thursday morning, the full board is scheduled to hear public testimony from 8:00 a.m. to 9 a.m., after which the Board will discuss the approval of honorary degree recipients at UAA and consider consent agenda items. Committee meetings are scheduled for 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. The board will go back into session at approximately 10:30 a.m. to complete consent agenda items and other items of concern and will adjourn at 12:00 noon. The board will then hold a luncheon with the Sitka Campus Advisory Council and afterwards conduct tours of the Sitka Campus and university lands in the Sitka area.
Agenda items are listed here by the committee of origin:
Academic & Student Affairs Committee
- Consider approval of the two new degree programs at UAA: Bachelor of Science in Geological Sciences and Bachelor of Science in Physical Education.
- Consider approval of three new degree programs at UAF: Certificate in Yup'ik Studies,
Associate of Applied Science in Yup'ik Studies and Bachelor of Science
in Social Studies. - Consider approval of the Associate of Applied Science in Fisheries Technology degree at UAS.
- Consider approval of a reorganization of the Engineering Schools and Colleges at UAF.
- Consider adopting revisions to selected Regents' Policies.
- Receive a report on current activities and emerging issues that will influence the operating budget guideline recommendations.
- Hear update on the activities of Developmental Education across the UA system.
- Discuss Megan's Law and how it affects the UA campuses.
Human Resources Committee
- Discuss the conflict of interest Policies, Regulations, and State Statutes applicable to the Board.
- Consider approval of collective bargaining agreement between UA and United
Academic-AAUP/AFT - Consider adopting revisions to selected Regents' Policies.
- Discuss Regents' Policy on probationary periods for newly hired staff.
- Receive report on staff classification/compensation study, human resources review and the UA Choice health benefits plan.
Finance & Audit Committee
- Discuss the conflict of interest Policies, Regulations, and State Statutes applicable to the Board.
- Consider approval of the Capital Budget Development Process.
- Consider adopting revisions to selected Regents' Policies.
- Receive a report on current activities and emerging issues that will influence the
operating budget guideline recommendations. - Provide advice and consider consenting to the appointment of an Internal Audit
Planning and Development Committee
- Receive a report on the process of establishing endowed chairs.
- Discuss development activities at the University of Alaska.
All meetings of the Board of Regents and its committees, except for executive sessions are open to the public.
Messages can be left at the Sitka Campus: phone 907-747-6653, fax 907-747-7768.
Messages should indicate that they are for participants in the Board of Regents' meeting.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Wendy Redman 907-474-7582


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It's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, from NPR News. I'm Audie Cornish.
And I'm Melissa Block. It's time now for All Tech Considered, which today takes us to the small farming town of Harrodsburg, Ky. It's the home of something called Willow Glass - glass that's super thin and flexible, and soon to find its way into the high-tech marketplace. It's made by Corning in the same plant that developed Gorilla Glass; that's the stuff Apple uses to make the protective cover for its iPhone. NPR's Noah Adams visited the town, and sent this report.
NOAH ADAMS, BYLINE: Harrodsburg is in central Kentucky - 8,000 people - surrounded by fields with stone fences, cattle, corn, and quite a bit of tobacco ready for harvest.
ZACK ISON: We just finished housing the crop today. We got done at lunchtime today; finally got it all in the barn.
ADAMS: How long have you been farming tobacco?
ISON: My first crop that I raised, I was 15 years old. I'm 30 now.
ADAMS: This is Zack Ison. He always knew he was going to farm, but he understands about his friends from high school who went the other way.
ISON: The reason that a place like Corning comes to this area is to hire guys that have grown up on farms. They know how to work.
ADAMS: There's also now a Wausau Paper plant here, and Hitachi has a big operation. Corning has been in town 60 years. They have 250 hourly union workers and now, 100 engineers in Harrodsburg. Half of them have arrived from outside Kentucky. I talked with two of the veteran engineers: Stephanie Sisk, who's from Georgia; Shawn Marcum, from New York state.
STEPHANIE SISK: One of the things we love to do is, we raise cattle on a 150-acre farm. So when, particularly, our Asian colleagues come over, we like to bring them over for supper because they're so - it's such a different concept for them. (Laughter)
SHAWN MARCUM: When you tell someone where I live and where I work, they're surprised that we have this high-tech manufacturing operation in the bluegrass area that's known for bourbon and horses and farmland.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Four thirty-five crate change requested.
ADAMS: Corning has production in 15 countries, but the folks here in Harrodsburg say they've got the go-to shop. And Gorilla Glass might prove that. Gorilla Glass is already protecting 1 and a half billion personal devices. It started with the iPhone early in 2007.
CASEY DUFFEY: Apple's a sexy operation. It's a great thing to be associated with that customer.
ADAMS: This is Casey Duffey. He's the plant manager at Harrodsburg. The word had come down from headquarters - Corning, N.Y.: Steve Jobs will not have that old, scratched-up, plastic screen on the brand-new Apple iPhone. Steve Jobs wants hard and silky-smooth. He wants glass. This was in January; the iPhone introduction was promised for late June. The iPhone did come out on time with the glass Corning had never made before.
DUFFEY: Now, we didn't have the glass that ultimately we used for Apple, ready. But we had compositions and expertise in this area that led us to believe that we could develop something pretty quickly.
ADAMS: We put on eye protection and go out into the Corning plant and up to the top floor, to watch sand from West Virginia glowing and melting into glass.
TERRY OTT: Now, you start to get a little bit of a feel for the temperatures that are involved - when you stand closer. At this elevation, we're easily well over a thousand degrees.
ADAMS: Terry Ott is the engineering manager for the plant. He won't talk about what other minerals are added to the mix, except to say they're all on the periodic table.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Four thirty-seven...
ADAMS: This Corning Glass plant in Kentucky is always running - all day and all night. The big work is done by robots. We watch a full sheet of new glass slide into a vertical work space where it will be scored, and the edges removed.
OTT: And the robot will come up and grab it, and pivot to separate it, and then pass it down the line.
ADAMS: That robot looks like a big, yellow duck.
OTT: (Laughter) Yes. You know, in this case, it's very similar to what - the robots that are classically used in the auto industry and everything else, just adapted for our purpose.
ADAMS: We move on to a different production line, and Terry Ott shows me a large roll of just-finished Willow Glass. It's glass about as thin as a dollar bill. Terry Ott, the top engineer, is uncharacteristically reverential.
OTT: So this is 200 to 100 microns thick; roughly, a meter wide; and basically, spooled as one, continuous ribbon. This is relatively revolutionary for a pristine, untouched glass.
ADAMS: Willow Glass from Corning is soon to be on the market. And an engineer at Harrodsburg might well go home after work these days imagining interactive white boards in every classroom in the world, huge highway and airport signs, antibacterial countertops in hospitals, computer displays you can roll up like a poster. And in Kentucky, you get to think about this sort of thing maybe out on the porch, watching the cows come back across the field at feeding time.
Noah Adams, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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I'm not sure how many of you are going to read this post in full. In my experience, baking blogs are often an exercise in unashamed food pornography, and I've pretty much provided you with the money-shot right here. In fact, I can already picture people scrolling straight down to the recipe and racing off to grab a jar of Nutella from the kitchen cupboard so they can get started straight away.
You know what? I wouldn't blame them. This recipe really is that good 😉
That's not to say it's not just a little bit naff, but surely that's the joy of a Ferrero Rocher? Turn up to a dinner party with a box of them and your host may well turn up their nose (these aren't quite quite Earl-Grey-infused single estate cocoa truffles), but I can think of few people who can resist the guilty pleasure of unwrapping the golden foil, popping one (or three) of these little treats in their mouth, and biting into their smooth, crispy crunch.
The Ferrero Rocher came into the world in 1982, just a couple of years before I did. While I was learning to walk and talk, these chocolates were establishing themselves as the height of eighties sophistication; pyramids of golden balls sitting proudly alongside hedgehogs of tin-foiled grapefruit pierced with cheese on a stick. Nowadays we might smirk at what passed for chic in those distant shoulder-padded days, but with over 3.6 billion Ferrero Rocher produced worldwide in 2010, I think the Ambassador might just be having the last laugh.
If you've read this blog recently, you'll know I've become slightly obsessed by hazelnuts; from cupcakes to frosting, ice cream to brownies and everything in between, incorporating a sprinkle of nuts here and a dollop of Nutella there. A couple of weeks ago, one reader (aka the incredibly talented Procrastobaker) mentioned her addiction to Ferrero Rocher, and the idea of a homemade version started to take seed.
Head online and you'll find a number of different recipes for Ferrero Rocher. Two of the highest ranking results are in Serbian (although they substitute Nutella with the less appetisingly named Eurocrem) but even armed with my Google translator I couldn't quite make sense of the detail; a shame as the accompanying photos are truly gorgeous. Recipes from My Food Obsession and Almost Bourdain proved a little easier to follow, although the latter incorporates a few too many chopped nuts for my liking, losing the creamy swirl of Nutella against the whole nut centre. My version below is a combination of the two, but have a play around to find the ratio of ingredients you like the most; this recipe is fairly forgiving and pretty much any combination of Nutella, chocolate and nut will taste good.
Making your own sweets is so much fun, and looks impressive for very little effort. There's no baking involved in this recipe – just a little chopping, rolling and melting – and the process is pretty therapeutic. Once you've got the hang of it you can experiment a little too – try coating or drizzling them with dark chocolate as in the photo above.The quantities provided below should make about thirty chocolates, taking into consideration the fact that a fair amount of mixture may disappear as you make them up . . .Homemade Ferrero Rocher(makes 25 – 30 generous sized chocolates)Ingredients:120g hazelnuts
200g Nutella
70g ice cream wafers
250g good quality milk chocolateMethod:Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C. Spread the hazelnuts on a baking tray and toast for 10 minutes, shaking once half way through. Remove from the oven, leave to cool then rub vigorously in a kitchen towel to remove as much of the papery skins as possible.Put 30 whole hazelnuts to one side, then finely chop the rest. Put the Nutella in a small bowl and stir in half of the chopped nuts. Pop in the fridge to firm up – around one hour.Line a plate with baking parchment or tinfoil. Chop the ice cream wafers and mix with the remaining chopped nuts. Remove the Nutella mixture from the fridge and, working quickly, roll small teaspoons of the mixture into balls, pushing a whole hazelnut to the centre of each one. Roll each ball in the mixture of chopped nuts and wafer til fully coated then pop onto your prepared plate and freeze until firm – around one hour.Melt the milk chocolate gently in a bain marie then allow to cool to room temperature. Remove your chocolate balls from the freezer and, working quickly, drop a ball into the melted chocolate, coating completely. Because the balls are part frozen, the chocolate should firm up around them almost instantly. Repeat with the remaining balls then transfer to the fridge to set completely.Once set, place the chocolates in individual gold wrappers, stack into a pyramid and give the Ambassador a call.


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Wilmington is the largest city in the state of Delaware, United States, and is located at the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine Creek, near where the Christina flows into the Delaware River. It is the county seat of New Castle County and one of the major cities in the Delaware Valley metropolitan area. Wilmington was named by Proprietor Thomas Penn after his friend Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, who was prime minister in the reign of George II of Great Britain. Interstate 95, which splits Wilmington roughly into eastern and western halves, provides access to major markets in the Northeast and nationwide. Interstate 495 is a bypass just east of the city, and Interstate 295 is south of the city, crossing the Delaware River into New Jersey.
"If you have ever have the chance to visit Delaware during the summer time, it is by far the most beautiful state in the lower 48. Yes it does have cold winters but the summer time makes it all worth it. As some of you may already know one of the leading causes of automobile accidents in Wilmington is wildlife. Majority of wildlife related accidents are caused by Deer. One day while driving down the road and an deer out of no where came walking across the freeway. With no room to turn or sway my vehicle, I hit the deer head on with my new Ford Pickup. I just purchased it a few months ago and I was so upset. I called the police to report the accident and in return that dispatched a tow truck driver to the scene. The damage was very bad, I remember the hood being bent so far up I couldn't see out my own windshield. After talking with the tow truck driver, I realized my new truck was totaled.
I asked him, what would I need to do to get my claim handled correctly. The driver happened to have a business card for these guys. He said "here call Pinnacle. I have referred numerous customers to them and they have all been very pleased with their work." So I took Pinnacle Auto Appraisers business card and held on to it. After a week, I finally heard back from the insurance company and they made me an offer on my truck. During the last few days I decided to do my own research to compare with the appraisal the insurance company provided. I was not happy with their offer. It was almost $5,000 less than what I saw my book value to be and also what is was selling for. I told the insurance company I wasn't going to accept and called Pinnacle. After speaking with the appraiser, I felt much better. He explained to me how the process works and that they would handle the negotiations for me. After just a few days I received the appraisal and it looked very professional. After not hearing from Pinnacle Auto Appraisers for a few days, I finally got a call from my Certified Auto Appraiser. Not only did he get more money out of them but he got almost $4,200 just like I expected. These guys know their stuff and if you want a company that will handle it for you, hire these guys. Great Job! ~ Christian C. - Wilmington, DE
We bring our expertise and experience to the table for large corporations as well as the common car enthusiasts. Whether you are disputing a total loss claim or looking to purchase a classic or exotic car: We can help value what you own!
If you live in Dover and Wilmington, Delaware or in the surrounding areas we offer certified auto appraisals on classic cars, fleet vehicles, lease turn-in, total loss, diminished value, stated value, pre-purchase inspections, charitable donations, motorcycles, recreational vehicles and more! Please contact us today for more information.


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5 comments:
- Anonymous said...
Interesting. Pretty recent since Till departed from Calvinism.
- February 12, 2007 at 9:28 PM
- Anonymous said...
This does seem to happen fairly often, as some of the DC members can attest...the more deeply you study Christianity, the less sense it makes.
- February 13, 2007 at 12:17 AM
- Anonymous said...
The problem people have with the bible is in trying to solve the paradoxical nature of God. What seems impossible in our four dimensions becomes resolvable in extra dimensions. God's ways are not our ways and God's thoughts are not our thoughts.
You cannot fully comprehend God. - February 19, 2007 at 9:44 PM
- Emiliano M said...
I don't think that a Christian reasonable intelectual journeys must lead away from Christianity... Merely away fundamentalism, american evangelicalism and Crationism and ID... I wanted to see where Van Till is now in his intellectual journey! I really like him!
Nice blog by the way, even though I'm a Christian i might show up here from time to time
Paz de Cristo - February 7, 2009 at 4:50 PM
- Lamar Boll said...
I'm not at all surprised by the unfortunate outcome of either Van Till's intellectual journey or yours. It's nothing new. Having studied these issues pretty deeply myself, I could have predicted it. The intellectual options are, after all, limited. While I've never read "The Fourth Day", I have read portions of his later "Science Held Hostage" and all of his more recent essay "Partnership: Science and Christianity as Partners in Theorizing." Van Till's writing is always graceful, subtlely nuanced, and informative, but, having compiled 20 pp. of notes and analysis on the latter essay, as well as having read his responses to Phillip Johnson's work, I find his position intellectually untenable for a variety of reasons. I've always said, however, I have more intellctual respect for an honest atheism than I do for any form of "middle ground" theistic evolutionism.
Lamar Boll - September 21, 2009 at 4:43 PM


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The Earth Exploration Toolbook Wins SPORE Award
On September 29, the Earth Exploration Toolbook (EET) was awarded the Science Prize for Online Resources in Education (SPORE) for being an innovative, free online resource for science education.
The EET is a National Science Foundation- (NSF) funded, free online Web site that provides resources for educators and students to access and effectively use data and data analysis tools related to the Earth sciences.
Science magazine is published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and awards the SPORE prize "to encourage innovation and excellence in education, as well as to encourage the use of high-quality on-line resources by students, teachers and the public."
Participants were judged by the editors of Science and a panel consisting of teachers and researchers in relevant fields, chaired by the Editor-in-Chief of Science. Winners were invited to write an essay describing their resources for publication in Science.
"The overarching goal of the Earth Exploration Toolbook is to enable students and educators to investigate and answer scientific questions that are of interest and relevant to them and their communities," said Tamara Ledley, a senior scientist and chair of the Center for Science Teaching and Learning at Technical Education Resource Centers (TERC). "As we prepare students to become the policy makers, scientists and citizens of tomorrow, we need to assure that they have the skills to explore and draw conclusions from valid scientific data."
The EET includes 43 chapters that each focus on a different set of Earth science data and/or a data analysis tool. Data are accessed from sources such as the National Climatic Data Center, the U.S. Geological Survey, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the National Geophysical Data Center, the National Snow and Ice Data Center, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA.
"These datasets are collected by scientists to conduct scientific research and are generally difficult to find and use," said Ledley.
"The Earth Exploration Toolbook provides step-by-step instructions so that teachers and students can conduct analyses around scientific concepts or issues using these datasets and various tools."
Each chapter has a specific "Case Study" and a set of "Teaching Notes" that provide a summary of learning goals, background information, national science and geography standards. Chapter examples include: "Analyzing Plate Motion Using EarthScope GPS Data," "Detecting El Niño in Sea Surface Temperature Data," "Exploring Characteristics of Wetlands," "Measuring Distance and Area in Satellite Images" and "Climate History from Deep Sea Sediments."
Ledley explained that the EET has been used to educate teachers on how to use data analysis tools and integrate these resources into their curriculum through a professional development program funded by the NSF National STEM Education Distributed Learning (NSDL) program and the NSF Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program.
"I think that teachers find that they can really engage their students in thinking through and exploring scientific concepts when they are using real data and even more importantly addressing scientific issues that are relevant to their lives," said Ledley.
The inspiration for EET developed out of a (NSF-POWER program) project led by Ledley in 1998, to teach high school students about the influence of El Niño on polar oceans. Ledley explained that there was a lack of a mechanism and process that students could use to search for relevant data. Although Ledley eventually found the appropriate data in a particular archive, the format of the datasets prevented the students from gathering the specific data that they sought. Ledley had to work with the technical support staff of the archive to obtain the data.
"All of this defeated the purpose of having the students actively involved and vested in the investigation," said Ledley.
Three years later, Ledley attended a meeting with a group of scientists and educators who were a part of the effort to develop the Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE). Ledley explained that the group had difficulty in determining how Earth science datasets could be more accessible to students--which was the same challenge that arose when she led the El Niño and polar ocean study.
"The idea to develop an online resource that would give educators the information they needed to access and effectively use Earth science datasets was conceived at that meeting," said Ledley.
Ledley cites positive feedback from educators and their experience using EET, quoting an educator who noted the following:
"After implementing the first few activities related to EET chapters, it was apparent that students were highly engaged in the problems addressed by the activities. Reflection statements submitted by students and classroom discussions indicated a new level of interest in the content and development of valuable new skills working with the tools."
Regarding future plans for EET, Ledley said, "We would like to partner with other scientific research projects (ranging from large scale research projects to individual scientists) to develop the outreach component of their effort and make the data they collect accessible and usable by educators and students. We would also like to continue to provide professional development programs that facilitate the use of Earth Exploration chapters."


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In Freeform tables, a total row appears at each breakdown level and can show two totals:
Under Column Settings, there are options to Show Totals and Show Grand Total. If these settings are unchecked, totals will be removed from the table. This may be desired in cases where totals don't make sense, for instance, in certain calculated metric scenarios.
Static row totals behave differently, and are controlled under Row Settings.
Questions | Answer |
Which 'total' are the gray column percentages based on? | This depends on the Percentages setting selection under Row Settings:
How does the Include Unspecified (None) setting impact totals? | If the Include Unspecified (None) setting is unchecked, the None/Unspecified row will be removed from the table, the Table Total, and will carry through to any calculated metrics that use 'Total' metric types |
When custom table filters are applied to a freeform table, do all of my calculated metrics and conditional formatting account for the filter? | Not currently. Include Unspecified (None) will be accounted for, but custom table filters will not impact the following:
In calculated metrics, what does the Grand Total metric type reflect? | Grand Total continues to refer to the Grand Total, and does not reflect filters applied to a table or the Table Total. |
What total is shown when data is either copied and pasted from a freeform table or downloaded via CSV? | The total row will reflect the Table Total only and respects the column Show Totals setting. |


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Vice President
First Lady
Mrs. Cheney
News & Policies
History & Tours
Your Government
Graphic version
Email Updates | Español | Accessibility | Search | Privacy Policy | Help
For Immediate Release
Office of the Vice President
October 25, 2004
Remarks by the Vice President and Mrs. Cheney at a Town Hall Meeting
Alex Menzek Field House
Minnesota State University, Moorhead
Moorhead, Minnesota
MRS. CHENEY: Thank you so much. Now, please have a seat. Boy, is it going to be here in Minnesota on a beautiful day like this? What a gorgeous day. (Applause.) Looks like Bush-Cheney country to me. (Applause.)
Well, I know you've all been looking at the poll data and you know it's close, but we're ahead. (Applause.) Going to count -- going to count on every one of you getting out there, getting all your friends, all your families, those of you have haven't voted, be sure to get to the polls. But I want to tell you about one other poll. I have four grandchildren, and my oldest granddaughter sent me an email this morning telling me that the Weekly Reader Poll, which has been correct every presidential election since 1956 shows a landslide for President Bush. (Applause.)
Well, you are a great crowd. And I'm just so pleased to get the assignment that I've had all year here in Minnesota -- I get to introduce Dick. And it is my assignment because I've known him for so long. (Laughter.) I have known Dick since he was 14 years old and his job that summer was sweeping out the Ben Franklin store in Casper, Wyoming. (Laughter.) And I've known him since he was digging ditches at the Central Wyoming Fair and Rodeo Grounds, and I've known him since he was building power line all across the West to pay his way through school. And I like to talk about all those jobs because you know when you grow up working hard, you learn some really important lessons. And one is that the men and women of this country, the hard working people of this country ought to get to keep as much of their paychecks as possible. (Applause.)
Well, again, it's a great day to be here in Minnesota. It has been such an honor for me these last four years. I've had really what I think of as a front row seat on history. I guess, in a way, we all have. We watched our great nation rise up after 9/11, comfort those whose lives have been altered forever by that event, watched our President move us ahead, go on the offense, go after the terrorists who had harmed us on that day -- it's the kind of thing we never want to see happen again. But all of us know the terrorists will try. We know they'll try. And I ask myself when I think about this election -- and I'm a mother, I'm a grandmother -- I don't see too many grandmothers here today. (Applause.) Oh, grandmother power. That's good. I think of my children, I think of my grandchildren, and I ask myself who is it that I want to have standing the doorway when those terrorists try again, who is that I want in charge of our security. And, oh, absolutely it is George Bush. It is. (Applause.) It is for sure not John Kerry and not John Edwards.
AUDIENCE: Booo!
MRS. CHENEY: It is George Bush, and, ladies and gentlemen, it is my husband, Dick Cheney, the Vice President of the United States. (Applause.)
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much.
AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you all very much. Well, thank you, that's a great welcome. And it's true Lynne has known me since I was 14, but she wouldn't go out with me until I was 17. (Laughter.) I tell people that we got married because Dwight Eisenhower got elected President of the United States. In those days, I was a youngster living in Nebraska with my folks. Dad worked for the Soil Conservation Service. Eisenhower got elected; he reorganized the government; Dad got transferred to Casper, Wyoming. And that's where I met Lynne, and we grew up together, went to high school together and recently celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary. (Applause.) But I explained to a group the other night that if it hadn't been for Eisenhower's election victory, Lynne would have married somebody else. And she said, right, and now he'd be Vice President of the United States. (Laughter and applause.) No doubt in my mind.
Well, we're delighted to be here today. I know we got some North Dakota folks here, as well. (Applause.) I guess, we're in the Red River Valley. I see Governor Hoeven here. It's great to see you, Governor, as well as Norm Coleman. (Applause.)
But it's a pleasure to be back in this part of the country. And what we do at these town hall meetings usually is I'll talk for a little bit. I promise not to go on too long. I try to zero in on one issue, and when we open it up to questions so you can have an opportunity to get a few questions in that you can -- if you want to make comments, or offer up advice, I can take it straight to the top. (Laughter.) Whatever is on your mind this morning.
But what I'd like to do is spend a few minutes talking about what I think is sort of front and center, as least for me and for my perspective in this campaign, and that's the question of the war on terror, national security. The decision we're going to make a week from tomorrow will be to select a Commander-in-Chief, in terms of who is going to be in charge of safeguarding the nation, guaranteeing the safety an security of our kids and grandkids for a good long time to come. And while that's just a four-year term, obviously, I think we're at one of those points in our history that comes up periodically where we're faced with a new threat and we have to devise a new strategy to deal with that threat, and we put in place -- as we did, for example, right after World War II, after we'd won the tremendous victories in the Pacific and Europe; then all of a sudden we found ourselves faced with the Cold War -- with a Soviet Union that was armed with nuclear weapons and that occupied half of Europe, that constituted a significant threat to the United States. And we had to put together a whole strategy to deal with that. And we did successfully, and it was then supported by Republican and Democratic administrations alike for the next 40 years, until the end of the Cold War, the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, and of course the rest is history.
I think we're at again one of those sort of break points if you will in American history where we're putting in place a strategy, institutions, alliances, a way of thinking about and dealing with the threat that we now face that may well be the foundation, if you will, of our national security for the next 30 or 40 years. And that's what I want to talk about today. Because I think that goes to the heart of the issue in this campaign, and the one that, above all others, is vital.
I don't mean by saying that to in any way take anything away from the other important issues on the economy, health care, education -- so many of the other issues we're discussing out there. And I'm happy to talk about those, but I wanted to focus in on my opening remarks this morning on that question of our national security going forward.
9/11, it's important to remember, was the worst attack ever on American soil. We lost more people that morning than we lost at Pearl Harbor. And it forced us to come to grips as a nation with the fact that we're faced there with an adversary, an enemy motivated by an extreme ideology that's on the far fringes of radical Islamic view, if you will, that is by no means representative of Islam in general -- extremist jihadists who want to kill infidels. And we're the infidel, and they're prepared to die in the process. It's a different kind of threat than we ever had to deal with before.
We also learned that morning that it was possible for a group of individuals to come into our country with relative ease, to equip themselves -- in this case with boarding passes and box cutters -- and 19 men in a matter of about an hour and a half, two hours then do great devastation in New York and Washington, and, of course, Pennsylvania.
Coming out of that is the more disturbing proposition that we now know to be the case that our adversaries are trying to acquire deadlier weapons to use against us. We know from people we've interrogated that we captured that have been part of the al Qaeda organization, we know from training manuals we've found in Afghanistan that they're trying to get their hands on deadlier weapons, on a chemical or biological agent, or even a nuclear weapon if they can. The biggest threat we face today is the possibility that at some point we'll see a group of these terrorists in the midst of one of our own cities with that kind of deadly capability. And we need to get our minds around that proposition and that threat if we're going to devise a strategy that is adequate to the task of defeating it. And that's partly what this campaign is all about because I think at bottom is the President does have such a strategy. We've been pursuing such a strategy. And frankly, I have serious doubts about whether or not John Kerry, based on his record, would pursue that same kind of aggressive strategy that I think is essential to keep America safe.
What is the strategy? Well, first of all, of course, we moved aggressively to strengthen our defenses here at home, created the Department of Homeland Security, biggest reorganization of the federal government since the Defense Department was created back in 1947. We passed the Patriot Act to give law enforcement better tools, tools that are already available to prosecute organized crime and drug trafficking, lets us use those same tools now against terrorists. We passed Project BioShield. This gives the federal government the authority and the funding to be able to develop defenses against potential biological attack. Obviously, we've tightened up on airline travel and at our ports and harbors, and the inspection of ships coming into the United States and our borders, and so forth. All of that is defensive in nature.
The President looked at all that, and then looked at the nature of the threat, and we concluded that there's no such thing as a perfect defense, that you can be right 999 times out of 1000, and given the nature of the threat we face, the possibility of terrorists with weapons of mass destruction in one of our cities, we can't afford to give them even that 1/1000 of a chance. We have to do everything we can to deny them even that possibility.
You can't do that just on defense. You've also got to go on offense. We've got to go after the terrorists wherever they plot and plan and train, or organize. And we've obviously done that. But the further step, the third step that the President decided on has been vital, and that is that we would go after those states that sponsor terror, those who provide support and sustenance and sanctuary for terror, that provide funding or training, or weapons for terrorist organizations. That was new. We had not done that before.
So if you look at that basis proposition and see how we executed, obviously, first, we went into Afghanistan, and we took down the Taliban. And we closed the training camps where some 20,000 terrorists -- we estimate -- had trained in the last '90s, including some of those who attacked us on 9/11. We captured and killed hundreds of al Qaeda. And we're now in the business in Afghanistan of sort of the fourth step of the strategy, if you will, of standing up a democratically elected government to replace the Taliban regime that we took down. Why did we do that?
Well, you don't want to go in and take down the old regime and wrap up the terrorists and then turn around and walk away. What you'll have left behind is another failed state. And it will once again become a breeding ground for terrorists, as it did after 1996, when Osama bin Laden moved in to set up shop in Afghanistan. To do that, we've been working very hard to get a democratically elected government in place. The Afghans registered 10 million people to vote, and two weeks ago, about oh, better than 40 percent of those registered to vote now are women -- a unique departure in Afghanistan, given their history. And a little over two weeks ago they had the first election in the 5,000-year history of Afghanistan. (Applause.)
So that effort is well underway. That new government will be in place by the end of the year. The other piece of the equation, if you will, is we need to stand up and train an Afghan army, security force capable of defending Afghanistan both internally and externally. And that process is well underway, as well, too. Once we've done that, once we've been able to turn over to them responsibility for governance and for their own security, then there will be no need for us to stay. We've got to stay long enough to make sure we get the job done. That's where we are in Afghanistan today. I think it's a major success story.
We look at Iraq -- somewhat different circumstances. There you had in Saddam Hussein a regime that had been in business for about 30 years, obviously, a brutal dictatorship. It violated the U.N. Security Council resolutions for 12 years. This was a regime that had started two wars, that had produced and used weapons of mass destruction previously against both the Iranians and against the Kurds, and a regime that was carried on the state sponsor of terror list of the State Department for the last 15 years, provided a home to Abu Nidal, to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, was making $25,000 payments to the families of suicide bombers in Israel, and had a relationship with al Qaeda. That's what we had in Iraq.
And what was of special concern -- again, remember the threat I talked about at the outset, terrorists equipped with WMD, that Iraq, in our minds, represented the greatest likelihood of a nexus, if you will, between on the hand terrorists and on the other hand, that deadly technology that had been developed over the years by Saddam Hussein. And so we moved in Iraq. We took down the old regime. And of course, Saddam Hussein today is in jail and the world is a lot safer for it. (Applause.)
Now, we're also now in the next step in Iraq a little farther behind than with respect to Afghanistan. But there we're in the business of standing up an Iraqi government. There have been Iraqis -- an interim government that's been in place now since June. They now run all the ministries. They've got a Prime Minister and a President. They're in the business of getting ready for elections come January. That will -- the election will elect a constitutional assembly to write a constitution for Iraq, and by the end of next year, they should have final elections that will put in place a democratically elected government there.
Now, I don't want to underestimate for anybody how hard this is. It is very difficult. This is not easy to do, to go to a part of the world that doesn't have much experience with self-governance, or democracy, the kinds of values that we're trying to instill there. And you've got adversaries actively and aggressively trying to thwart that process. We've got elements of the old regime. We got a guy named Zarqawi, who is an al Qaeda affiliate, a terrorist. He used to run one of the training camps in Afghanistan before he fled to Iraq. The fact is, they'll do everything they can between now and January to try to disrupt that political process that's moving forward. We can't let them do it. We're also working very hard there to stand up and train Iraqi forces. There will be about 125,000 trained and equipped by the end of this year. And we'll keep doing that right on through next year, as well. And once we've got a government in place, a democratically elected government in place and they're able to provide for their own security, then obviously, our chore will be completed, our mission will be completed there, as well, too.
I think it's absolutely essential that we complete those missions. I think it's far better that we're taking on the terrorists and the adversaries and those who have supported terror over there, rather than have to face them here at home in the streets of our own cities. (Applause.)
It's important for us, as well, to recognize that this is a global problem. This is not something that affects only the United States. Since we were struck a little over three years ago, you've been attacks in Madrid, and Casablanca, in Mombassa in East Africa, in Istanbul, in Baghdad, in Jakarta, in Bali, in Beslan in Russia, back in Jakarta again. This is a global, worldwide problem. There's a network out there, some of them trained in those camps in Afghanistan in the '90s. They -- it's a loose affiliation. It's not a hierarchical kind of structure, more like a franchise. But it's deadly, and they are committed to do everything they can, obviously, to defeat the United States and what we believe in and what we stand for. So we can do it. I'm absolutely convinced we can prevail in this conflict. But it takes strong leadership to make it happen. (Applause.)
Now, you know what George Bush will do. He's the guy who came up with the strategy. He's been running the show for the last three-and-a-half years. I think the record is there for anybody who cares to look at it, but the President, obviously, is the architect of the strategy. He's the one who has been executing on it, and he's done a superb job.
I might add, by the way, there's one other debt of gratitude that is owed out there, and that's to the men and women of the Armed Forces of the United States. They're doing a fantastic job. (Applause.)
Now, the question before the house is, what does John Kerry bring to this equation. And of course, he has got -- he's properly -- it's his prerogative to run for President. And he's been doing it now for a couple of years. So there's the record there during the course of the campaign. But he also has a record that stretches back 20 years in the United States Senate, and even before that when he was a candidate for Congress, for example, back in the '70s. You can go back and look at John Kerry's record and see how he has dealt with national security issues over the course of that period of time. Has he demonstrated the kind of commitment and determination and beliefs that would indicate that he would be effective as Commander-in-Chief now aggressively pursuing the war on terror? And, frankly, I don't think his record demonstrates that kind of commitment. And let me just run over some of the key points. In the '70s when he ran for Congress the first time, he ran on a platform that we should never commit U.S. troops without U.N. authorization. You have to ask the United Nations before you could deploy U.S. forces. In 1984, when he ran for the Senate the first time, he had a platform of cutting or eliminating a great many of the weapons systems that Ronald Reagan used to keep the peace and win the Cold War, and that we use today in the global war on terror. Wrong side of those issues. In 1991, when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and stood poised to dominate the Persian Gulf, John Kerry voted no against using U.S. force to be part of an international coalition that had, in fact, been blessed by the U.N. Security Council at that point, that met all the tests he could conceivably ever want, and he still voted no. In 1993, right after the World Trade Center attacks, he was a member of the Senate intelligence committee -- as best we can tell didn't attend a single meeting of the -- public meeting of the Senate intel committee for the year after the attack, and advocated, supported, and at one point introduced an amendment to cut billions of dollars out of our national intelligence budget -- a series of positions that he's taken over the years that strikes me as demonstrating pretty conclusively that this is not a man who would pursue the kind of strategy that I believe is necessary if we're going to win and prevail in the global war on terror.
Most recently, he was interviewed in The New York Times, and this was a couple of weeks ago. It ran in the Sunday magazine. He was asked about his aspirations with respect to war on terror -- how did he perceive it, how did he look at it. What he said at the time was, it was his hope that you could get terror back to the point where it was just a nuisance -- once again. And he compared it and said like illegal gambling or prostitution. Those were his words. That was his comparison.
And I asked myself when I read that, I said, well, when was terrorism ever just a nuisance? How about four years ago when the USS Cole was attacked off Yemen and lost 17 sailors and nearly lost the ship? Was that a nuisance? Or six years ago when they simultaneously blew up two of our embassies in East Africa and killed hundreds of people including a number of Americans? Was that a nuisance? Or maybe 1993, the first attack on the World Trade Center? Or 1988 when they took Pan Am 103 out of the skies over Lockerbie, Scotland? Or maybe 1983, 21 years ago when a suicide bomber driving a truck loaded with explosives took it into the ground floor of a building in Beirut and took down a building that killed 241 Marines? When was terrorism ever just a nuisance?
And if you're mind set says you can get terrorism back to where it can managed to some acceptable level, then it strikes me that you're not -- you haven't really come to grips with the nature of the adversary we're dealing with here. You've still got a pre-9/11 mind set, instead of a post-9/11 mind set. The President and I know our job isn't to reduce terror to some acceptable level; our job is to defeat it. And that's what we're going to do with George Bush. (Applause.)
Now, I was interested yesterday -- it was last night, I saw something that I wanted to -- since I was going to be here, a little bit more on John Kerry's record. (Laughter.) He doesn't like to talk about it so we're going to have to. (Applause.)
Just two more quick points here, he likes to talk about -- and he did, he actually brought this up last night, sort of burnishing his credentials in the counterterrorism area, talked about a book he'd written 10 years ago. It's a book called The New War. Anybody here read the books? Well, not very many people have, I guess. (Laughter.) But in it he talks about Yasser Arafat as a statesman and a role model. Now, I've never looked on Yasser Arafat quite in that light. He talks about the primary answer to terrorism being law enforcement. Now, law enforcement is a part of the answer. But if you think only law enforcement is the way to respond to terror, you've got a pre-9/11 mind set -- go arrest the guy that set off the bomb, but don't go after those who sponsored him in the first place. That's a mistake, not the right way to go.
There's no mention, for example, in the book of al Qaeda; no mention in the book of Osama bin Laden. It's a book about terrorism, but it doesn't obviously sit very well with the problems we're faced with today.
In the second presidential debate, Senator Kerry also tried to, I think, demonstrate his expertise in how committed he is to working with other nations and said that when the question of whether or not we ought to authorize the use of U.S. military force was pending before the Senate, this is in Iraq, to use force in Iraq, he went to New York and met with the members of the U.N. Security Council. And he said, quote, "I talked to all of them." He's made the same claim before, saying he met with the entire Security Council and we spent a couple of hours talking about how to deal with Saddam Hussein. That's John Kerry's verbatim record on the subject. A reporter for The Washington Times in a story published just this morning decided to check on Senator Kerry's meeting with the U.N. Security Council. He got hold of five ambassadors on the Security Council, and four of them said, they'd never met Senator Kerry. (Laughter.) So he apparently talked to a few individuals up at the Security Council, but there was never a meeting with all of them. And an official at the U.S. Mission to the U.N. remarked, we were as surprised as anyone when Senator Kerry starting talking about meeting with the Security Council. It didn't happen.
So the problem here, I think is --
AUDIENCE: (Inaudible.) (Laughter and applause.)
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Now, the press is going to attribute that to me. (Laughter.) It was that guy back there from North Dakota. (Laughter and applause.)
But this is -- this the challenge of our times from a security standpoint. It is very important. I think you have to talk about the threat in order to understand what it is we're attempting to deal with here. It's not an effort to scare anybody. It's just realistic. We used to talk about the Soviet threat during the days of the Cold War and we had to do to defeat that, and we did -- very successfully. And we'll beat this one, too.
But it's important for us to make the right decisions and the right judgments going forward. And as I say, I think on November 2nd, that goes to the heart of what is at stake in terms of the choice we're going to make when we pick the President for the next four years. I think George Bush is the man to do that. He's got a strategy for victory. He'll execute on it. John Kerry doesn't. (Applause.)
Now, with that what I'd like to do now is open it up to questions. We've got some folks out here in these attractive orange jerseys. (Laughter.) I better take back the attractive part. But they're volunteers. They've got microphones. And if you've got a comment you want to make or a question you'd like to ask -- and feel free to direct questions to Lynne, too -- we'd be happy to try to respond. And just get their attention, then I'll call on the numbers as they indicate. Somebody over here, number two.
Q Welcome to Minnesota, Mr. and Mrs. Cheney. Senator Edwards when he was in Minnesota last week made some interesting remarks about snowmobiles. He says that he would ensure that we could go into national parks and national forests and ride on snowmobiles, yet the Edwards and Kerry website indicates just the opposite to that statement. Is this credible at all, what they say on this issue?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: I don't believe it is credible at all. It sounds like one of those issues he discussed with the U.N. Security Council in the meeting they had. (Applause.)
I know a little bit about the snowmobile issue. I'm from Wyoming. (Applause.) One of the memorable trips, when our oldest got married, was we took the entire wedding party through a complete tour through of the whole circuit of Yellowstone, those of you who have ridden through there, in January. It was cold, but it was a fantastic trip that still is one of the highlights of the family.
And we've been fighting hard in the Bush administration to get snowmobiles back in, because of course, you know the Clinton administration tried to ban them. And we're making significant progress. And snowmobiles will be operating in Yellowstone this year. (Applause.) But you're absolutely right, their website indicates that, in fact, they don't support that. They support the ban, and that has traditionally been Senator Kerry's position. He doesn't like snowmobiles. Anybody who grew up in Wyoming, or North Dakota, or Minnesota understands a snowmobile is a pretty important piece of equipment, as well as a recreational vehicle.
Yes, number three.
Q I'm from Crookston, Minnesota. I'm a farmer from up there, and a sugar producer, as well. And first of all, I would just like to thank you for your support on the agriculture issues these last four years -- tax cuts, disaster packages. We really appreciate the things that you've done for us. (Applause.)
My question comes along the lines, of course, of sugar and how important sugar is to the seventh district up here. And when you were in East Grand Forks, you spoke about the importance of sugar to this region. And in a question on trade, you've mentioned that it was your administration's preference to deal with sugar within the realm of the WTO versus bilateral and regional trade agreements. Would you reaffirm that for the sugar growers here today, and tell us exactly what your stance is on that?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Sure. Yes, our preference is to deal with sugar through the WTO, at the WTO-level, I guess, would be the right way to describe it. I think those are the words I used the other day. That's not always possible, obviously. In some cases, we've done bilateral trade agreements. We just did the Australian free-trade agreement, which is a bilateral agreement. Their sugar is totally excluded. It's not part of the agreement. (Applause.)
Working through the WTO, we got a commitment this past summer from the Europeans to end their subsidy that they provide to sugar exports from Europe, which we think is a significant step forward, and also -- as I say, that was done within the context of the WTO Round.
The biggest issue -- the one that comes up, I think, probably most significantly now is CAFTA, dealing with the Caribbean agreement that is now pending -- has not been approved yet, probably will be considered next year by the Congress. And basically what has been done there is to work out an arrangement with those five Central American countries, I think it's El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, Guatemala, I believe -- I think it's those five -- and to work out an agreement that does affect, does allow some sugar imports into the United States under the agreement. It's the equivalent of roughly one day's production. It's about a hundred thousand tons a year. The trigger in the Farm Bill for imports has been at 1.4 million tons. Now, last year in '93 [sic], we imported about 1.1 million tons. So there's about a 300,000-ton cushion there. As I say, 100,000 tons of that would be affected by this agreement. The agreement does not change or alter in any way, for example, the duty on above-quota imports. That's protected. In agreements that have been negotiated recently with respect to Chile, Morocco -- one other country that I can't recall right now, we've made provisions so that there will not be any sugar imports coming in there. There shouldn't be any coming in through those arrangements. So we've very sensitive on the sugar issue.
The broader context, I think, it's very important for everybody to understand how important exports are to agriculture across the board, that one out of every three acres in production in America today is for the export market, that we produce so much, we're so prolific in terms of agriculture that in virtually every sector our economy -- soy beans, corn, wheat, beef cattle, dairy -- we need access to export markets. And the trading operations, the negotiations -- negotiating those agreements is crucial. But our preference is to work through WTO whenever we can. We think that's the best way to go. The heart of that strategy, the target has been to go after the European agriculture subsidies, which we think are fundamentally unfair to our producers, and that have been sort of left aside, if you will. The Europeans have resisted making any change to those for years now. And the President has put that front and center, that we want a fair, level playing field, if you will, for our producers. We're convinced if we got that, we can out-compete anybody in the world. And we
are very sensitive on the sugar front. On agriculture in general, we think it's very important for us to pursue sound a policy there, but we don't want anybody left hanging out, having to pay the price for the successes we enjoy in terms of negotiating those agreements. So we'll do our best to keep it a level playing field and make certain we take care of sugar. (Applause.)
I might -- I might add, contrary to what you're going to hear from the opposition, Senator Kerry has historically year after year after year, been an opponent of the sugar program, and in the 1990s introduced a bill to get rid of sugar subsidies. And so he is not -- he's a Johnny Come Lately, just like snowmobiles. (Laughter.)
Number four.
Q Hi, I'm a 22-year-old college student. Recently, John Kerry seems to be using scare tactics to persuade about a possible draft, to frighten young voters such as myself, about -- to support him. What is this administration's plans to make sure there's enough soldiers abroad to ensure our safety at home?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Okay. Yes, this question on the draft is -- well, where is that guy from North Dakota? (Laughter.) It's hogwash is the best way I can think of to describe it. Anybody who has been associated with the all-volunteer military in recent years, whether you served in it, senior leadership of it, or civilians -- I was Secretary of Defense for four years back in '89 to '93 -- that all-volunteer force has given us the most magnificent military in the world today. It's superb. (Applause.)
And what happened -- the benefits of it, initially, of course, we got -- made the transition from the draft to the all-volunteer force back in the '70s in order to avoid some of the problems that had arisen in connection with the Vietnam conflict, and the belief that the draft was somehow unfair and inequitable. But it had far-reaching ramifications inside the military itself. You take an organization and they all of a sudden have to compete for personnel, they've got to be able to attract good people to come be a part of the organization, people who have got the right skills, or can acquire the right skills in order to be effective, functioning members of the organization, the organization thinks about how it's organized and incentives that are out there, and initiative, and how they treat people. The military didn't use to be that way. In a sense, the personnel was a free good when you had a draft. You didn't have to attract anybody. In effect, you could compel service. And there has been a qualitative, I think, change in the whole culture, if you will, of the military. And it is all due to the fact that we've gone to the all-volunteer force.
Now, this notion that somehow if we have to increase the size of the force, we'll have to go back to the draft -- not true. Today, the U.S. active duty military is 1.4 million personnel. That's active duty. We've got about another million Reserve and Guard -- National Guard. When I was Secretary, we had 2.1 million. We had 700,000 more people on active duty than we do today. And we did it with the all-volunteer force. It's perfectly and entirely possible to do that. So don't let anybody run around and tell you there's a quote "secret plan" here to resume the draft. There isn't. The only two people I know who have supported it legislatively were Charlie Rangel, a Democratic congressman from New York, and Fritz Hollings from South Carolina, also a Democrat.
The other day, the House of Representatives sort of wanted to test everybody on it -- there was a lot of talk about the draft -- said, okay, let's bring it up. Who wants to vote for the draft? Two people did -- both of the other persuasion. The fact of the matter is, there's no interest in returning to the draft. It doesn't make any sense at all. We can meet whatever requirements we have to meet with the all-volunteer force. And any suggestion to the contrary by John Kerry or anybody else is hogwash, just not true. (Applause.)
We have anybody back here.
Q Mr. Vice President, welcome to Moorhead, Minnesota. I have a question about Iran and their nuclear capabilities. They're still developing quote, unquote "peaceful nuclear capabilities" but yet we think otherwise. President Bush was asked in the second debate what he was going to do about it, and he said they would not get nuclear weapons, period. Senator Flip-flop -- I mean, Kerry -- would like to supply them with nuclear fuel to help their program along. What is the Bush-Cheney policy on this?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: That's a good question. The question is on Iran and Iran's nuclear aspirations. They have been trying to develop nuclear technology now for some time. They claim they need it for peaceful purposes to generate power. They're already sitting on an awful lot of oil and gas. Nobody can figure why they need nuclear, as well, too, to generate energy.
The concern is that what they really are trying to do is establish the enrichment process. But they won't stop at the level you enrich to for a civilian reactor. They'll take it all the way up to 85 percent, 90 percent -- the enrichment level that you need for nuclear weapon. And they are subject right now to the Nonproliferation Treaty, which means they're subject to inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency. They have been asked to basically come clean and give up their nuclear aspirations, that is they'd be allowed to go forward with their civilian program, but there would be enough transparency so we'd know that they weren't pursuing the military option, as well. The British, the Germans, and the French have been negotiating on behalf of the Europeans with the Iranians directly on this issue. Periodically, it comes before the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency. It was up there in September -- there was a meeting on the subject. If they don't come into compliance, and they're not in compliance now, then the next step is a meeting, I believe, in November, where the Board of Governors will then consider a resolution to take the whole matter before the U.N. Security Council. That's the next step. And the U.N. Security Council at that point would then decide whether or not to impose economic sanctions. We've already imposed unilateral economic sanctions ourselves. But the next step, in effect, cutting off trade for them with the outside world would be, obviously, a pretty heavy blow. And we'd like to try to resolve it peacefully, diplomatically if we can. We think that's preferable. But nobody is very interested in having an Iran sitting in its location where it does under this government equipped with nuclear weapons. So it's a priority for us. I say, we're trying to work it diplomatically. And that obviously would be a priority for us in the second term. (Applause.)
Q Greetings and welcome. Would you please discuss with us the administration's thoughts on school vouchers and the progress of that?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: I'm going to ask my schoolteacher wife to talk about that.
MRS. CHENEY: To me -- for a second. It's always seemed really important to have choice for parents when they are thinking about schools. And the President when he put No Child Left Behind into place has a provision in there when schools don't improve and don't improve and don't improve, the parents have the choice to send their child to another public school. And the interest in having private choice is alive and well, too. The administration has been behind an experimental program in the District of Columbia, which I was happy to see the support for, and to see it get through Congress. The District of Columbia spends $13,000 a year now per pupil. Can you imagine that? It's just an enormous amount of money. It's the highest in the country, and the schools perform almost always at the lowest level. If you rank all the states and the District, they're down at the bottom. This is a clear indication of a place where we'll get a chance to see how well public and private choice works.
The experiment in Cincinnati has also been worth watching. There has been some great data out of Harvard University, a man named Paul Peterson, studying it, showing that parents are much more satisfied when they're actually able to control where their children go to school. So it's something we're working on. Dick and I have supported it privately, too. There has been for years a program in Washington to provide private scholarships to children who are needy to go to private schools. So it's moving along. It's slow moving, but I'm really happy to see that we've got public choice in No Child Left Behind, and to see this experiment in the District of Columbia.
MODERATOR: Mr. Vice President, we have time for -- we have time for one more question, Mr. Vice President.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Okay. Right down front here.
Q You're both great Americans. (Applause.) You have a longstanding record as a public servant. Can you compare this administration with President Bush to past ones in which you've served?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: That's a tough question. (Laughter.) It's interesting -- I never started out with the idea of a career in politics. I went to Washington originally as a student. I was a PhD candidate. I was trying to write a dissertation because I wanted to become a professor. So we went to stay 12 months in 1968 -- we stayed 36 years or thereabouts. It has been a very special privilege.
When I think about administrations, now, I've worked I guess, for four different Presidents, and watched a couple of others up close from the perspective of the Congress. I was -- of course, Gerry Ford's Chief of Staff. I was in the House for 10 years from Wyoming; Secretary of Defense, and now as Vice President. Each one is unique in many, many respects. Your academic background -- you're a political scientist, you're trying to figure out ways to generalize across administrations, what things can you say that apply to the entire run of presidencies over -- throughout our history. And what I'm struck by more than anything else is how different each one of them is, how much they're affected by the times in which you govern. Stuff happens, and all of a sudden -- you run a campaign in 2000 and talk about a range of issues, and get sworn in, and go to work and make some progress. We got No Child Left Behind passed. We got a tax bill through that first spring, and then all of a sudden, bang, 9/11. And there's a great big chunk of resources -- time and energy -- that has to go to dealing with the aftermath of that, and the global war on terror which wasn't really on the horizon when we ran.
I think back to Gerry Ford, a man I have enormous regard for, who took over at a very, very difficult time in our history, the aftermath of the worst constitutional crisis we'd had since the Civil War. The President had to resign -- Nixon did. And Gerry Ford never planned to run for President. He got named to be Vice President, served nine months and all of a sudden, he's President of the United States. But he had the skills and the confidence, and the good judgment, and I think great credibility with the American people. He was the right guy at the right time to take on that task. The personality stands out so much for me when I think back to those days in the mid '70s when I was working for him, that the personality of the man in the Oval Office, or the woman, is the other thing that dominates each presidency. And each one is unique, and each one is different. They get there with a whole different set of experiences. They are shaped by those experiences, but also obviously very much by the way in which they came to the office, by the kinds of problems they're asked to deal with once they get there. And I guess I look on it as part of the blessings we enjoy as Americans that we have the unique and distinguishing feature of our civilization, and that's the way we select our leaders and hold them accountable. And there are other democracies in the world, but we're the first. And I think we do it better than anybody else. It's hard to tell sometimes in the middle of a campaign when there's a lot of fur flying. But it's, I consider, just a very, very special privilege to have had the opportunity over the years to work for men like President Bush, and the first President Bush, and Gerry Ford. I watched Ronald Reagan up close for eight years from the perspective of the Congress. It has been a tremendous experience. And I think as a nation, we've been privileged to have some great individuals step up and take on the world's toughest job. (Applause.)
AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you all very much. We really appreciate your being here this morning. And we look forward to having North Dakota and Minnesota in the winning Bush-Cheney column on November 2nd. (Applause.)
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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – New York Giants coach Joe Judge has spoken with quarterback Daniel Jones and several other players about a video taken last weekend in which they were shown without masks during the current spike in COVID-19 cases.
Judge said he had no problem with the players going out to dinner Friday. However, the rookie head coach refused to say whether there would be repercussions for not wearing their masks.
The 38-year-old said the team would handle the matter internally.
Daniel Jones, injured running back Saquon Barkley, receiver Sterling Shepard and some other players had dinner at a New York City restaurant in private. After it was over, some went to a closed bar at the invitation of the owner. They were filmed there without their masks on.
"I've had a lot of in-depth conversations with the guys involved, as well as the rest of the team," Judge said Tuesday as the Giants (1-6) started preparing for a Monday night game at home against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (5-2).
"They understand kind of the consequences of anything you do right now in this COVID environment, as well as the public eye, of how they're looked at and how we have to be careful. We have to make sure we make the right decisions."
Neither Jones, nor Barkley nor Shepard has talked to the media this week. Jones is scheduled to speak on Thursday and Shepard on Saturday.
Barkley, who is out for the season with a torn ACL in Chicago on Sept. 20, also came under fire. A person resembling him was seen in the video riding a bike in the street.
Judge said the third-year running back has been riding a stationary bike to prepare for his knee surgery. It will probably be done this week in Los Angeles, the coach said.
Safety Nate Ebner refused to talk about the video on Tuesday. Cornerback James Bradberry said he heard about the video, but he has not seen it.
"I really don't want to put my energy and time toward that because I know what type of guys they are," Bradberry said. "I know they go about their business every day and handle it like a pro, so I'm going to let the coaches and whoever upstairs handle that situation."
The Giants have not had their facility closed or games postponed since reporting to training camp this summer.
"The only thing I'm going to say on that is this group of guys has been very responsible from the very beginning," Judge said of his team. "They've tried to do the right thing the entire time."
More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL


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Mum blasts disabled seating in Scottish football grounds
Football fanatic Finlay Sangster (9), travelled down to Hampden on Monday to see Scotland play against world champions Germany, but was left disappointed when his view of the pitch was obstructed by advertising billboards.
As a wheelchair user, Finlay was seated at ground level with the pitch, and extra advertising billboards meant that he couldn't see the match from the disabled seating area.
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Hide AdFinlay's mum Gail told the Leader that others in the area were forced to leave the match, as they were unable to watch it from their vantage point.
She said: "Luckily for Finlay, his dad put him on his knee so that he could see. But there was a grown man next to Finlay who was unable to see, and didn't have the option of being lifted out of his wheelchair. It's a disappointment. It was a big game and Finlay had travelled all the way down there. he is a huge football fan.
"I personally feel that disabled fans are a bit of an afterthought when it comes to seating in Scottish stadiums. They are the last people considered. It's a bit rubbish that advertising would be more highly prioritised than supporters."
Gail added that, at a recent trip to Manchester's Old Trafford she was impressed with the seating arrangements for disabled supporters, and saw a stark difference to the seating provided in Scottish stadiums that they have visited.
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Hide AdShe added: "We have taken Finlay to Hampden, Ibrox and Parkhead, and at each of them the seating for wheelchair users isn't great. Usually Finlay can see, but it's not ideal. At Old Trafford the seating was about fifteen rows up, and we had a fantastic view.
"When Finlay got up on Tuesday morning he just said to me 'Mum, it was atrocious".
When a friend of the family tweeted a picture of Finlay's view at the game, it was retweeted more than 100 times.
The Scottish Football Association released the following statement on Monday evening: "The Scottish FA apologises unreservedly to those supporters accommodated in the South Stand accessible areas whose view was seriously restricted by the double television production.
We will offer a full refund to those supporters affected and will review matters ahead of the European Qualifier against Poland next month.


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Miss Piggy Upsets Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood in CMA Awards Commercial
Brad Paisley are Carrie Underwood are facing some downright nasty competition (if one believes they are truly competing for their jobs as CMA co-hosts). In the just released commercial for the November 9 broadcast, Miss Piggy throws open the audition room door and proclaims the job hers.
"Feast your eyes on the new host of the CMA Awards," Piggy declares with her usual pomp and circumstance as Paisley, Underwood, the Osmonds and the kids from 'The Middle' look on. "Still here?" she asks last year's co-hosts as she struts by, laughing. Underwood and Paisley can't believe the rudeness.
"And I thought you were a ham," Underwood tells Paisley as Piggy exits. This all seems to be for show, as the two country stars were assured the gig months ago. The commercials are a creative way to remind viewers to tune into Nashville's biggest night next month. Last week, Donnie and Marie Osmond auditioned and thought they had the job wrapped up. Now they sit in the green room worrying. Who can keep up?
All of the biggest stars will be on hand to present or perform during the November 9 telecast from the Bridgestone Arena. There are always a few surprise appearances, and it doesn't seem far-fetched to wonder if the tone of these commercials is building to a hilarious segment featuring Piggy and the Osmonds.
Watch the New CMA Awards Commercial Starring Miss Piggy


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If the term "big band," especially tied to a pop star, conjures the dreaded image of one of those zoot-suited groups with the word "Daddy" in its name, fear not. Ex-Squeeze keyboardist Holland's 16-piece outfit (give or take) churns out an eclectic mishmash that rarely resorts to nostalgia, and in fact shows that the roots of rock and roll could well be its future.
With Holland's two-fisted piano playing and impressive songwriting range matched by saxophonist Phil Veacock's stellar arranging, that would be enough to ensure a solid album. But Holland is more bandleader and emcee (still hosting his own music show on BBC) than frontman or singer, so he enlisted a couple dozen friends to take center stage on the 22 tracks here – friends like Eric Clapton, Dr. John, Taj Mahal, Mark Knopfler, Van Morrison, David Gilmour, Jamiroquai, and George Harrison, in his last recorded session.
That "Horse To Water," co-written by Harrison and his son, Dhani, was cut less than two months before George's death is astonishing, given the ex-Beatle's spot-on delivery. It, in fact, ranks among the best items in his all-too-sparse catalog of the past 20 years.
Guitar chores on that and most of the CD are handled by the versatile Mark Flanagan, and while much of the focus is on Holland's piano and the horn arrangements, he shines when he gets the spotlight – on the infectious Paul Carrack turn "It's So Blue;" on Paul Weller's superb take on Billy Preston's "Will It Go Round In Circles;" and the tasteful fills behind Eric Bibb's beautiful vocal on "All That You Are." For balance, some of the CD's highest highs have no guitar to speak of – Dr. John and Holland's boogie duo, "The Hand That Changed Its Mind;" "Town and Country Rhythm and Blues," featuring ex-Squeeze mate Chris Difford; and Knopfler's rockabilly romp, "Mademoiselle Will Decide." Yes, rockabilly, not to mention Chicago blues, ska, soundtracky pop – all get the big band treatment; it's not just for swing anymore.
Histrionic vocalist Mica Paris does her best to destroy "I Put a Spell On You," but David Gilmour's stinging solo redeems it, as does a great string/horn arrangement. Some covers seem a bit uninspired; certainly Taj Mahal's talents could be put to better use than yet another version of "Outskirts of Town," and it's too bad Mick "Simply Red" Hucknall had to settle for "T-Bone Shuffle." One would have assumed the same of "I'm Ready," the Willie Dixon chestnut, but Steve Winwood sounds great here (but when doesn't he?).
Others better forgotten are a too-loungy ska attempt at "I'm In the Mood For Love" by Jamiroquai; Stereophonics' nothing-special rendition of the Beatles' "Revolution;" and John Cale's hackneyed stab at Johnny Mercer's "I Wanna Be Around" – the only time, thankfully, the CD resorts to kitsch. Another Willie Dixon retread that needn't have been mounted is "Seventh Son," featuring – as if you didn't expect him – Sting. Can we all just agree to a two-year moratorium on guest appearances by Sting? (Do I hear three?)
The album's closer, Ray Charles' "What Would I Do Without You," features Eric Clapton on guitar and vocals, sounding considerably more inspired than he does on his own records. Which may be Holland's real role here. After being rocketed from style to style, singer to singer – perusing a CD booklet filled with pictures of Jools with this legend and that (as if having them on his CD wasn't proof enough that he knows them) – one may well ask, "What's the unifying thread?" Well, Jools Holland is – the guy whose name is on the CD. He brings all this talent together and, usually, brings out the best in it. And it may be a stylistic crazy quilt, but it's his crazy quilt.
This article originally appeared in VG's April '02 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.


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Built by Grandpa and Left to Rot, This Vacation Rental Was Resurrected as a Retro Wonderland
Grandpa's Pool House was a labor of love for innkeeper Eva Slattery.
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Persons using assistive technology might not be able to fully access information in this file. For assistance, please send e-mail to: firstname.lastname@example.com. Type 508 Accommodation and the title of the report in the subject line of e-mail. Brief Report: Tularemia Associated with a Hamster Bite --- Colorado, 2004In April 2004, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) was notified about a boy aged 3 years with diagnosed tularemia associated with a hamster bite. Tularemia has not been associated previously with pet hamsters. CDPHE conducted an investigation to determine whether other owners of hamsters were at risk. Clinicians and public health officials should be aware that pet hamsters are a potential source of tularemia. During January 2--February 8, the boy was exposed to six hamsters that his family had purchased from a pet store in the Denver metropolitan area. Each hamster reportedly died from "wet tail disease" (i.e., diarrhea) within 1 week of purchase. One hamster bit the child on the left ring finger shortly before it died. Seven days later, the child had fever, malaise, painful left axillary lymphadenopathy, and skin sloughing at the bite site. After treatment with amoxicillin clavulanate failed, the patient underwent excisional biopsy of a left axillary lymph node 49 days after symptom onset for persistent painful lymphadenopathy and intermittent fever. Tissue culture yielded a suspected Francisella tularensis isolate, which was confirmed by real-time polymerase chain reaction and timed-release fluorescence at the CDPHE laboratory. Convalescent serology was positive at a titer of 4,096, and the isolate was identified by CDC as type B. No other risk factors for tularemia exposure were identified, including no other animal contact, no exposure to game meat, and no known mosquito, tick, or fly bites. The patient improved after treatment with ciprofloxacin. Workers at the pet store reported an unusual number of deaths among hamsters but not other animals during January--February; no carcasses were available for testing. One of two cats kept as store pets had a positive serologic test for F. tularensis at a titer of 256. Neither cat had appeared ill to store employees. Lists of employees, pet suppliers, and customers who purchased hamsters during December 2003--February 2004 were obtained from the store owner. Fifteen of 18 customers were located and interviewed. Eight of these had hamsters that died within 2 weeks of purchase, but all carcasses had been disposed of and were unavailable for testing. One customer and one employee who had febrile illness after being bitten by hamsters from the store were negative for F. tularensis by serologic testing. The same customer's hamster was available, and it was also negative for F. tularensis by serology and culture. Approximately 80% of the 50 hamsters at the pet store came from customers who had pets with unanticipated litters. The other 20% were purchased from two small-pet breeders. These breeders were contacted, and neither reported an unusually high number of deaths of hamsters or other animals. One breeder also supplied animals to two pet stores in Wyoming. The Wyoming Department of Health had not been notified of any tularemia cases linked to these stores. Confirmation of a hamster as the infectious source was limited by the delay between the patient's illness onset and diagnosis and subsequent lack of availability of implicated hamsters for testing. Nonetheless, the hamster that bit the patient was the most likely cause of infection because no other exposures or risk factors were identified. The positive serologic test for F. tularensis in a pet cat at the store suggested that other animals in the store might have been exposed to F. tularensis. In addition, the proximity of the onset of the patient's illness to the timing of the hamster bite, reports of illness among hamsters, and the deaths of hamsters at the pet store indicated an infected hamster as the likely source of illness. A possible scenario, similar to an outbreak of tularemia that involved zoo primates (1), is that infected wild rodents infested the store and spread the infection to hamsters by urinating and defecating through metal screens covering hamster cages. The infected cat might have had a subclinical or unrecognized illness after catching or eating an infected wild rodent. The storeowner was advised to set traps for wild rodents and to inform the state health department of any recurrent animal deaths or reports of ill customers or staff. No other cases have been identified. Although tularemia has been associated with hamster hunting in Russia (2), it has not been associated previously with pet hamsters in the United States. However, clinicians and public health officials should be aware that pet hamsters might be a potential source of tularemia. Moreover, because F. tularensis is a potential agent of biologic terrorism (3), clinicians should have a heightened awareness of tularemia. Reported by: J Pape, K Gershman, MD, Colorado Dept of Public Health and Environment. J Petersen, PhD, Div of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases, National Center for Infectious Diseases; DD Ferguson, MD, JE Staples, MD, EIS officers, CDC. Acknowledgments This report is based, in part, on contributions by S Dolan, Children's Hospital, Denver; S Leach, Colorado Dept of Agriculture; staff of the Colorado Dept of Public Health and Environment laboratory. References
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