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2/13/2013 (3 years ago)
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)
Pope Benedict XVI's Message for Lent is what will help us go through a papal transition of saying farewell to his holiness and saying hello to his successor: "Believing in Charity Calls Forth Charity."
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)
2/13/2013 (3 years ago)
Published in Year of Faith
Keywords: Lent, Pope, Message, Benedict XVI, Papal, Prayer, Fasting, Almsgiving
HYTHE, KENT, UK (Catholic Online) - One fine morning ten years ago in St Peter's square in the Vatican I saw a man in a black cassock walk across the square. He had white hair and the build of a famous cardinal I knew. "That can't be. It is!" I walked up to him and asked him, "Are you Cardinal Ratzinger?" With a very warm smile he said, "Yes I am!"
Any intelligent premeditated question I had prepared for that moment went out of my mind and I felt like a total idiot staring in face of one of the brightest theological minds of third millennium.Â
He must have seen my awkwardness because he joked about how young I was when he visited my hometown of St Paul, Minnesota.
I like many have been touched by this gentle soul, this humble worker in the Lord's vineyard, this utterly amazing Pope.
For Lent, God is taking my Pope away.
In the middle of Lent I am getting a new Pope.
Believing in charity calls forth charity.
This is the Lenten message my Pope has asked me to think about, the Lenten interior and spiritual plan for the whole Church.
I believe in God. I believe God. I believe God's plan is to bring about the maximum charity in my soul and the souls of all the faithful. I believe God's plan for me to believe in charity and thus to bring it about is to not be shaken by receiving a new Pope in Lent.
As I am grateful for the gifts and blessings of Pope Benedict XVI, the awesome spiritual bombs the B16 has dropped and the explosive ripples of grace have blessed this generation, I am also truly grateful, sincerely and totally thankful IN ADVANCE for the next Pope.
I don't know who it will be, but I know that God is good and that he is leading the Church. He is the unseen head of the Church and that his goodness will demand an amazing Pope for our times.
Of course, the traditional practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving that we hear about in the Gospel today, Ash Wednesday, are very important to help us all believe in charity so to call it forth.Â
These are not just traditional forms of Lenten penance, but three gifts which so coherently and perfectly respond to the three wounds that we have.
Sin has caused a treble wound of a break in the relationship between God, others, and ourselves. Prayer mends the relationship with God; almsgiving the relationship with others; fasting with our own being, especially our flesh.
In this sense the Gospel for Ash Wednesday is perfect for every year because it is the unchanging spiritual program for every Lent.
We won't ever change out of the ways that we are broken or the ways in which we personally and collectively need to repent. However, every year the Holy Spirit asks of us something new. The Lenten message of the Holy Father is always the place to look for what is unique to this year's Lent. So - the Holy Father has given us a spiritual program of papal transition.
I suggest we follow it. Â
These are the two things that will bring us through Lent this year from the Holy Father's message: faith and charity. This Pope has been the Pontiff of faith, hope, and charity, as he has written a major encyclical about each of the theological virtues.
Here are the Holy Father's words for us this Lent about faith and charity:
"The relationship between these two virtues resembles that between the two fundamental sacraments of the Church: Baptism and Eucharist. Baptism (sacramentum fidei) precedes the Eucharist (sacramentum caritatis), but is ordered to it, the Eucharist being the fullness of the Christian journey. In a similar way, faith precedes charity, but faith is genuine only if crowned by charity. Everything begins from the humble acceptance of faith ("knowing that one is loved by God"), but has to arrive at the truth of charity ("knowing how to love God and neighbor"), which remains for ever, as the fulfillment of all the virtues (cf. 1 Cor 13:13).
"Dear brothers and sisters, in this season of Lent, as we prepare to celebrate the event of the Cross and Resurrection - in which the love of God redeemed the world and shone its light upon history - I express my wish that all of you may spend this precious time rekindling your faith in Jesus Christ, so as to enter with him into the dynamic of love for the Father and for every brother and sister that we encounter in our lives. For this intention, I raise my prayer to God, and I invoke the Lord's blessing upon each individual and upon every community!"
Father Samuel Medley, SOLT, is a priest of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity, and is currently based in Hythe, Kent, United Kingdom. He is a speaks to groups around the world on Blessed Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body. Visit his homily blog http://medleyminute.blogspot.com or his blog on sexual ethics http://loveandresponsibility.orgÂ
By Fr. James Farfaglia
The consideration of Jesus' baptism, gives us an opportunity to remember our own baptism. If you do not know the date of your own baptism, it is a good idea to go through your personal files and find out when it occurred. CORPUS CHRISTI, TX (Catholic ... continue reading
By Fr Samuel Medley, SOLT
I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; My face I did not shield from buffets and spitting. HYTHE, KENT, UK (Catholic Online) - I didn't steal any cookies mommy! says a little boy whose mother asked him if he was hungry, wiping the ... continue reading
By Catholic Online
The Spirit makes one man a teacher of divine truth, inspires another to prophesy, gives another the power of casting out devils, enables another to interpret holy Scripture. The Spirit strengthens one man's self-control, shows another how to help the poor, teaches ... continue reading
By Deacon Keith Fournier
It is not accidental that the Bible, from beginning to the end, uses marriage as a metaphor and a symbol to reveal the plan of God for the whole human race. Marriage was God's plan from the beginning as we see in the first book of Genesis. Throughout the Old ... continue reading
By Deacon Keith Fournier
"A sower went out to sow. And, as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep, and when the sun rose it was scorched, and it withered for ... continue reading
By Michael Terheyden
How we interpret the Bible is of immense importance! It directly affects what we believe about Christ, the Church, and our faith, but it is also related to many of the grave problems in our society and the world. Yet, despite the gravity of this situation, we have good ... continue reading
By Deacon Keith Fournier
We celebrate the Feast of Christ the King. It is one of many opportunities the Catholic Church year offers to each one of us to consider the creature called time, receive it as a gift, and begin to really live our lives differently. This is one of ... continue reading
By Deacon Keith Fournier
On the Solemnity of the Feast of Christ the King, the Sunday which marks both the end of the Church Year and the end of the Year of Faith, inaugurated by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Pope Francis greeted thousands of the faithful and presided over Holy Mass and the ... continue reading
By Father Randy Sly
Becoming a House of Prayer is the best discipline we can take on. St. Ephraem of Syria states that Virtues are formed by prayer. Prayer preserves temperance. Prayer suppresses anger. Prayer prevents emotions of pride and envy. Prayer draws into the soul the Holy ... continue reading
By Deacon Keith Fournier
If this day you only knew what makes for peace- but now it is hidden from your eyes. For the days are coming upon you when your enemies will raise a palisade against you; they will encircle you and hem you in on all sides. They will smash you to the ground and your ... continue reading


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ELLE DECO International Design Awards 2013
From his fabled castle on the outskirts of Antwerp, Belgium, the antiques dealer and interior designer Axel Vervoordt reigns as one of the world's most influential tastemakers. His clients, who range from royalty to rock stars, are drawn to the Belgian antiquaire's cerebral good taste. An early proponent of mixing antiques with contemporary art, Vervoordt creates refined interiors—linen-covered furniture, an earthy palette, Old Masters mixed with archeological artifacts—that reach for the sublime. It's more, he says, than just aesthetics.
Here, Vervoordt in his own words:
· I started dealing in antiques when I was 14—silver, furniture, Chinese porcelain, and paintings. I wanted to be a collector, and it was a way to make money so I could buy more and better things.
· My father was a horse dealer. Some horses had a difficult character. I'd ride them and break them in, but then my father would sell them. It was a good exercise in learning detachment. I buy what I love, but I have learned not to love anything too much.
· Collecting is in your blood. My mother loved it as well. We didn't live in a grand house, just a small one, but she always made it look beautiful. She lit candles every night. I love rooms with atmosphere.
· I mix art and objects from different periods. We're all products of the past, but we must also take inspiration from the present. And we have a responsibility to build a new society for tomorrow.
· It's a pity when collectors go contemporary and get rid of their older art. I tell them to keep the best of the old and search for interactions with the new.
· We just had one of our busiest years ever. People seem to believe more in art today than they do in money. They're buying less furniture and more art. They want fewer but better things.
· Young collectors should surround themselves with serious dealers. They do their research. Your purchase will rise in value—both in monetary terms and in the pleasure you get from the object.
· Never buy art just because the color is right. Art should bring you further along as a person, while also mirroring your view of life. When you approach a collection that way, you can buy different things but there will always be a connection among them.
· Don't just buy what's fashionable. That kind of collection is much less interesting. And it's dangerous. Nothing is so quickly out of fashion as fashion.
Idyll in the Sun: Flavio Albanese's Pantelleria Home

subset: commoncrawl


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Microsoft Kinect may become the most popular add-on for the Xbox 360 console, according to an anlayst from Lazard Capital Markets, who also believes that the motion sensor is already in production and there would be enough of them for the launch later this year.
"We believe that Kinect units are already in production and should be available in adequate quantities for the November launch. We continue to expect that roughly three million units of Kinect will be sold worldwide in 4Q. [...] Over time, we also anticipate that motion sensors will show up in connected TVs, living room PCs, set-top boxes and other consumer devices," said Colin Sebastian, an analyst with Lazard Capital Markets, in a note to clients, reports Business Insider web-site.
Even though the analyst believes that sales of Kinect motion sensor will be high, he also believes that the $149 price-point is too high for the device and the "sweet spot" could be $99. Nonetheless, even being a little overpriced, Kinect is projected to attract new gamers to the platform.
"Kinect should broaden Xbox appeal. Games utilizing the Kinect sensor will initially include fitness, dance, sports and kart racing, suggesting that Microsoft is targeting a casual audience. Additionally, Microsoft is pricing many Kinect games at $49 – below the standard $59 price point for Xbox software, but competitive with Wii games. While there are still questions regarding the use of motion controls with core titles (e.g., first-person shooters), we see Kinect as a likely driver of accelerating unit growth for the Xbox," the analyst is reported to have said.
Considering the fact that sales of games for hardcore gamers are more or less stable, it is crucial for game console vendors to renew interest towards video games by casual audience, which is exactly what the motion sensor previously code-named Natal is aimed to do.
"We believe that Kinect, along with Sony's Move and Nintendo's 3DS handheld, are new potential catalysts to drive renewed interest in video games," Mr. Sebastian concluded.


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Cleveland has become nationally known for independent and sustainable restaurants, but it's the unique personalities and uncompromising hard work that the individuals behind these establishments infuse into each dish.
Been hearing this from different sources - that Cleveland is starting to develop a national reputation for good restaurants.
I'm not that much into the food biz, so any thoughts on if this is true or if its just some hype?


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Topic: Best Practices For "Look Up Tables"
Looking to know if anyone has a best practice or "Rails Convention" for creating and managing "lookup" tables in rails. For example I have a user form. Within this "user" form there will be a drop down that is dynamic and will give the user an option to select a "Role".
So it would be nice if I knew the following.
a) Could I organize my 'model folder' in rails like this. Essentially create sub_folders in the model folder? This way when I look at my "models" folder I know what files are lookups.
lookup (this would be a folder)
b) Is there any RAILS convention to follow for using 'lookup' tables or a best practices especially when dealing with column_ids ? I would think there might be because it seems something that's done a lot.


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I heard a meadowlark in the honey locust right outside our bedroom window yesterday morning. Five years ago, I wouldn't have paid much attention to this. Birds didn't impress me too much. I thought it was pretty neat that they existed and flew and stuff, but I didn't really notice them much. But now, I can't help but notice them. This may sound a bit too groovy, even for me, but I think they make me notice them.
Since living here on the Homestead, they have become hugely symbolic for me. They are one of the first signs of spring. And, I'm not sure why this is, but I notice them now in a fairly big way. Actually, I do know why this is. It's because we live in a quiet place with a 120 year old apple orchard. Birds love this place. The trees are so old and gnarled the birds have turned each tree into a bird house. They are so beautifully worn, with perfect holes that lead to some cavernous wonderland inside. I expect woodland creatures to pop out of them and start talking to me.
When the Northern Flicker calls, I hear it. Above the din of two children, music, husband and general household noisiness, I hear that bird, like it is calling to me. Before realizing it, I am out the door trying to find it. I talk to it, telling it how handsome it is, asking it not to fly away. Saying things like "I won't hurt you birdy-wirdy, don't worry." Truly feeling breathless with fascination when I get within viewing distance of such an elusive creature. I think it is magic.
Yesterday must have been the first time the meadowlark whistled its song outside my window because I heard it loud and clear. The pathways in my brain are there now: I hear birds. Not all. Some of the little chirpy birds that don't seem to have distinct calls are lost on me. But those songbirds and flickers really get my attention. The flickers, only because they are annoying enough to drown out the rest of the chirping. The meadowlarks, though, are so sing-songy it makes me smile.
My husband's mother was a real bird lover and noticer. She could name birds that flitted past her window without too much hesitation. I'm not there. In fact, I don't know many of the birds that make the Homestead their home, but the few that I do notice I consistently notice and have formed a bit of a relationship with.
These fascinating flying creatures are wild with excitement this time of year. The orchard is chattering with calls that sound like baby cries, whistles, fire engines, cats meowing and cats purring, clicks, chirps and chitter-chatter. It's truly amazing.


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Access your Emirates Skywards or Business Rewards account
Explore our website in multiple languages for a tailored experience.
Find flights, see our featured fares and earn Skywards Miles on your travels.
Find the best fares across our global network.
Check in online, choose your seats and add extra services with one click.
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With its distinctive pyramid shape and Egyptian style, Raffles Dubai is one of the city's most iconic landmarks. Situated in the heart of the city, Raffles Dubai is only 10 minutes from Dubai International Airport and a short drive from Downtown Dubai, Burj Khalifa and Dubai Mall. It's also connected to Wafi Mall, offering convenient access to one of Dubai's best lifestyle and entertainment complexes.
Decadent designs and warm tones make the 252 rooms and suites sophisticated and stylish. Among some of the largest in the city, each room has a spacious balcony and views of Dubai's impressive skyline. There's a choice of seven award-winning restaurants and bars, including the all-day dining restaurant Azur, cocktail bar Crossroads, lobby lounge Raffles Salon, authentic Japanese restaurant TOMO, homegrown Italian restaurant Solo and nightclub People by Crystal. For those looking to unwind and relax, the Raffles Spa is the perfect haven.
Every luxury stay is complemented by impeccable service synonymous with the Raffles experience.
Price rating: $$$
Back to Dubai Hotels
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Frigate's | North Palm Beach
The newest waterfront hotspot in North County, Frigate's Waterfront Bar and Grill has quickly become the darling of boaters sticking to the ditch. What was once a Denny's has transformed into a Key West-style bar and grill, complete with an indoor dining room and a stand-alone, open-air bar along the Earman River that boasts one of the best happy hours around.
The kitchen touches on all the basics, with a smattering of seafood and land offerings to keep most appeased. The "handhelds"—sandwich menu—serves two popular favorites: dolphin Rueben and fish tacos. As for an entree, the grouper francese is rich and delicate—a nice twist on an otherwise poultry-only dish. For those looking to make it a Sunday Funday, the Sunday Brunch is an all-hands-on-deck sort of affair. There is a children's menu ($7.95) as well as a full buffet-style banquet for adults ($14.95) that includes everything you've ever wanted in brunch: omelet, carving and bagel stations; shrimp and grits; biscuits and gravy; homemade waffles; and more. But drinks is where things get serious. For $12, the bubbles are endless with mimosas—traditional and passion fruit—as well as peach bellinis. For the tomato fan, the build-your-own Bloody Mary bar is worth the trip alone. For $8 ($10 for premium vodka), you can put just about anything into that drink—why not crispy bacon strips or hearts of palm?
For the sea-legged, there is more than 500 feet of dock space, available on a first-come, first-serve basis.
400 U.S. Hwy. 1, North Palm Beach, 561-855-7497


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A Poem in Marble, A Place on the Map: Byron R. White U.S. Courthouse, Denver, Colorado
A Poem in Marble, a Place on the Map is a documentary highlighting the Neoclassical style Byron R. White U.S. Courthouse. The 20-minute film chronicles the building's history beginning in the early 1900s through its Presidential Design Award-winning renovation 90 years later.
The 1916 Byron R. White U.S. Courthouse in Denver, Colorado, is one of more than 200 legacy buildings under GSA's stewardship. The film is part of GSA's efforts to support the Executive Order 13287, "Preserve America", which encourages Americans to explore and enjoy our nation's heritage. It was produced for the Center for Historic Buildings, Office of the Chief Architect by the Video and Broadcasting Team, Office of Citizen Services and Communications.


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Authors on Stage: Caroline Leavitt
Category: Authors
Location: Adrian Lamb Room
Caroline Leavitt, author of the new novel Is This Tomorrow, will speak at the New Canaan Library on Tuesday, May 28, at 7 p.m. in the Adrian Lamb Room. This event is part of the Library's Authors on Stage program, and is cosponsored by Elm Street Books, New Canaan.
What does it mean to be an outsider in a community? How do we keep the ones we love safe? in 1950s suburbia, everything is meant to be perfect, even as paranoia about Communism and nuclear bombs winds its way through the supposed paradise. But when divorced, sensual-without-meaning-to-be, Jewish single mother Ava rents a house with her 12-year-old son, Lewis, she struggles to fit in and find her place in the neighborhood. Lewis finds solace with the only other two fatherless kids on the block, his best friends Jimmy and Rose, but when Jimmy vanishes one day, Ava is suddenly suspect and Lewis and Rose's life will be changed forever. A novel about people trying desperately to uncover secrets about the past--and about themselves.


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GoingOutGuide Music
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The Scene: Galaxy Hut was supplying Arlington with cool beers, live indie rock and a laidback neighborhood hangout long before Whole Foods or Pottery Barn was a twinkle in some developer's eye. The Hut's one room is barely bigger than a studio apartment, and when bands set up on Sunday and Monday nights, booths and chairs have to be moved out of the way to make room for the crowd. (Official capacity: 48.) Most of the week, though, this is a place where locals gather to talk about their bands, play the vintage arcade games, or even hang out and read while sipping a beer. It's the perfect escape from Arlington's khakis-and-sports bar scene, and one of the places we always recommend to single women who want to chill out by themselves.
In Your Glass: One of Arlington's strongest selections of draft beers, with 20 taps ranging from locals to English ales, and another 30 or so bottles. Galaxy Hut doesn't have hard liquor, and the wine list is just okay.
Nice to Know: In nice weather, the Hut's patio -- a narrow, alley-width strip of pavement between the bar and an adjacent building -- is a good place to relax.
Price Points: Beers average $5, most bar snacks -- plates of fries, mozzarella sticks or jalapeno poppers -- are $4 to $7, and entrees are $8 to $12. Happy hour is from 5 to 8 daily.
-- Fritz Hahn (Oct. 13, 2008)
Galaxy Hut brings back the beef
By Fritz Hahn
July 31, 2013
Less than nine months after Galaxy Hut removed all meat from its menu, the longtime Clarendon watering hole is bringing back the bacon. And the pulled pork. And beef chili for the all-beef frankfurters, too. Owner Lary Hoffman says it all came down to a lack of sales.
Vegetarians and vegans are still catered to, as meat and vegan dishes will be prepped on entirely different grilltops, and just about every dish has available substitutions: the loaded cheesesteak can be ordered with vegan seitan as well as beef or roasted turkey. Plates of "Tot-chos" – tater tots served like nachos – can be served with bacon and two kinds of cheese, but also smothered with vegan cheese, or topped with a choice of veggie or beef chili. (It's worth noting that the fryer is completely vegan.)
A new addition is a menu of grilled cheese sandwiches, similar to the offerings at the Hut's sister bar, Spacebar. There are veggie options (portabello mushroom cap with onions, garlic and herbs), but you can also get cheddar, muenster and bacon, or roasted turkey, avocado and muenster.
Meeting demand, sans meat
By Lavanya Ramanathan
Friday, December 21, 2012
Artery-straining bar foods, including a cheesesteak and a barbecue sandwich, are still on Galaxy Hut's new menu. What's hard to find these days is meat, unless you count the faux kind.
The 22-year-old Arlington watering hole, long a vegetarian-friendly restaurant, has officially replaced bacon, beef and chicken with tofu, tempeh and the beeflike wheat protein seitan. Vegans can go even further and request dairy-free cheese and mayo.
The move, says Lary Hoffman, who owns Galaxy Hut and the nearby Spacebar, allows the restaurant to cook for vegetarians without contamination from meat. A vegetarian for 10 years, Hoffman says it also allowed the restaurant to focus on what it does best. "When people did talk about our food," he says, "it really was vegetarians and vegans."
Of the handful of vegetarian and vegan restaurants in the area, Galaxy Hut might be the only one serving unabashedly deep-fried, salt-loaded pub fare, the sort that's best scarfed down after a pint or two.
So why do dishes that should feel like a guilty pleasure more often evoke regret?
The meatloaf, served between thick wedges of toasty white bread, is dry and overseasoned. I expected more from a vegan BLT that should have had a refreshing snap from lettuce and tomato; instead, the soy bacon was too smoky and, worse, too salty. But it was the $8 nachos, which can precisely be described as storebought chips sprinkled with cheese, that left my table feeling as if we would have better luck preparing the dishes at home, in a dorm-room microwave.
In fact, Galaxy Hut uses widely available meat substitutes, including Field Roast brand soy products and Gardein seitan, which can be purchased from most grocery stores. It's what the restaurant does with them that counts.
For example, the cheesesteak, a sub stuffed with seitan, peppers, onions and American cheese, is a tasty junk food that even carnivores wouldn't turn down. The bar's new eggplant fries, too, are a welcome change from spuds.
On the subject of carnivores: Turn to the back of the menu, and you'll find that it's actually possible to score beef hot dogs, beef chili and pork bacon as substitutions for vegetarian items (go ahead, just ask the bartender for "dead stuff"). The kitchen prepares the dishes on entirely separate cooktops. As the bar grows into its new worldview, however, Hoffman says he hopes that customers will simply choose to eat meat-free.
When you're vegetarian, Hoffman says, "you don't always want to eat curry. Sometimes you want a chili dog. It's a niche thing.
"We're not a fancy place. Vegetarian food doesn't have to be fancy, it can be vegan comfort food."


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Paris Hilton | Very Serious About the Environment
Contributing Monkie Sarah Backhouse
Topics of Interest Body Painting, Nude, Paris Hilton
Published on December 16, 2008
Section G Living, Pop Culture / Celebrities
Details are as scant as Paris Hilton's wardrobe, but the hotel heiress is helping bring clean drinking water to millions in need. Wearing nothing but gold spray paint, Paris can be seen crawling through the Mojave desert for Rich Prosecco — that's her new line of champagne-in-a-can (classy, right?) — which promises to donate 20% of the proceeds of sales to organizations which help develop clean sources of drinking water. Continue Reading / See Additional Photos


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OrgSync Service Management System
To view the current listing of VSLC community partners, visit ECU's OrgSync Service Management system. On that site, you will be able to search partners according to partner name, issue and/or population served, time of service, location, etc. If you have an OrgSync account, you may login here.
Established VSLC Community Partners: Email the VSLC staff if you have not yet received login information for OrgSync.
New Community Partners: Please read more about expectations for partnership on the Partnering with VSLC webpage.
Calendar of Events: Complete this brief online form to have your agency's event posted to the volunteer calendar.


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For a down-n-dirty NYC meal, head to Hill Country for real Texas barbecue.
Kelsey shares one honey of a hoisin sauce for crispy roasted chicken wings.
Chicken salad goes nuts when you dress it up with pecans and herbs.
Cris Nannarone enjoys two of his favorites in one dish: chicken wing pizza.
This pot pie is so full of meat, the veggies have to be served on the side.
The Baron takes a ride with Bridgeport's self-proclaimed King of Jerk.
Zipper bags make Sweet-Sour Barbecue Drumsticks easy to take on a picnic.
Chicken pot pie like Grandma would make ... if Grandma were Vietnamese.
Ina creates a simple cornbread stuffing for her cornish hens.
Church Key takes regular bar food to a new level with fresh ingredients.
Get Cooking Channel on your TV.


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- Home
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- Puritan Backroom
Puritan Backroom
245 Hooksett Rd., Manchester, NH 03104 |
Get Directions
Specialty Dishes: Baklava Ice Cream
The Greek owners here pay tribute to their native country by mixing pieces of baklava (phyllo pastry filled with chopped nuts), cinnamon and honey into vanilla ice cream.
See an error? Report This Listing


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by Anton Shilov
Sony Corp. has unveiled its first laptop that will integrate a Blu-ray disk drive. Sony's Vaio VGN AR190G is the second laptop in the world – after Toshiba's Qosmio G35-AV650 – that will have a blue-laser optical drive. The notebook is also designed for multimedia enthusiasts and while it is lighter than Toshiba's, it is still too heavy for customers, who need mobility.
"The VAIO AR has the ability to capture, edit and record in HD on a notebook PC right out of the gate. Combined with unsurpassed storage capability our new Blu-ray disc enabled notebook computer offers users with limitless creative possibilities," said Mike Abary, vice president of Vaio product marketing at Sony Electronics in the
Sony Vaio AR190G comes in two different configurations: premium and standard. The AR premium version plays Blu-ray discs, whereas the standard does not.
Sony Vaio AR190G premium is equipped with 17" screen with 1920x1200 resolution, is based on Intel Core Duo processor 2500 (2.00GHz) and Intel 945PM chipset, features 1GB of dual-channel PC2-4200 (533MHz) memory, 200GB hard disk drive, comes with Nvidia's GeForce Go 7600 256MB graphics accelerator, sports 802.11a/b/g network controller, may be equipped with integrated TV tuner, MemoryStick/SD card reader and so on. The main feature of the notebook is its optical drive that allows to playback and record Blu-ray, DVD and CD discs.
The premium laptop is equipped with HDMI output and appropriate cables as well as Sony Pictures' House of Flying Daggers movie on Blu-ray media.
The Vaio AR190G is definitely powerful machine, but its weight is about 8.4 pounds (3.80 kilograms), which will hardly suit for those, who travel a lot, or use their notebooks in different locations. Therefore, just like the competing product from Toshiba, Vaio AR190G is mostly a desktop replacement computer.
The AR Standard model will start at about $1800, while the AR Premium Blu-ray disc enabled model will go for about $3500.


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|Walk a Mile in Their Shoes
|Tips & Facts
This report and guide is an effort to make the voices of families heard in the national dialogue on bullying and children with disabilities. The report builds awareness so the physical and emotional toll that children with disabilities experience may be prevented. They need their children's classmates, teachers, and community to "walk a mile in their shoes."
Topics: Disabilities & Special Needs
For more info please visit http://www.abilitypath.org/areas-of-development/learning--schools/bullying/articles/walk-a-mile-in-their-shoes.pdf
|Tips & Facts
AbilityPath.org interviewed experts, educators and parents regarding a silent epidemic facing children with special needs - bullying. The result was the report and guide, Walk a Mile in Their Shoes: Bullying and Special Needs.
Topics: None
For more info please visit http://www.abilitypath.org/areas-of-development/learning--schools/bullying/
|Bullying Prevention and Summer Camp Programs
|Tips & Facts
|American Camp Association
Bullying prevention is one of five hot topics on the minds of summer camp staff. To help address this issue, the American Camp Association, in collaboration with Dr. Joel Haber, is pleased to present several tools to aid in bullying prevention.
Topics: Prevention
For more info please visit http://www.acacamps.org/bullying
|See a Bully, Stop a Bully, Make a Difference
|American Federation of Teachers
The purpose of the AFT's campaign, "See a Bully, Stop a Bully: Make a Difference," is to raise awareness and provide resources to educators, students and parents.
Topics: Respond to Bullying
For more info please visit http://www.aft.org/yourwork/tools4teachers/bullying/
|Brain Works & Coping Skills for Kids
|Toolkit & Training
|Brain Works Project
This resource is based on research on pre-teens' coping challenges during the critical transition period from elementary to middle school. A national group of educators, emotional health and teacher education experts helped to create an open-access, "virtual classroom" where 9-12 yr. olds learn about brain and behavior changes during early adolescence.
Topics: Kids, Prevention
For more info please visit http://www.copingskills4kids.net
|How to Handle Bullying of Children with Special Needs
|Ayres, K
This site provides tips for how educators, parents, and advocates can work to develop anti-bullying philosophies and policies, to prevent school bullying and to promote the positive social inclusion of all children.
Topics: Disabilities & Special Needs
For more info please visit http://www.disaboom.org/
|Taking a Stand: A Student's Guide to Stopping Name-Calling and Bullying
|Tips & Facts
|Anti-Defamation League
This student handout provides practical strategies for responding to name-calling and bullying in safe and effective ways.
Topics: Kids, Respond to Bullying
For more info please visit http://www.adl.org/combatbullying/pdf/taking-a-stand-bullying-guide.pdf
|What Can be Done About Name-Calling and Bullying? Some best practices
|Tips & Facts
|Anti-Defamation League
This guide provides detailed guidelines and recommendations for schools on strategies to effectively combat name-calling and bullying
Topics: Schools, Prevention
For more info please visit http://www.adl.org/combatbullying/pdf/what-can-be-done-bullying-handout.pdf
|Curriculum Connections: Cyberbullying: Understanding and Addressing Online Cruelty
|Toolkit & Training
|Anti-Defamation League
Comprehensive curriculum lessons for elementary, middle and high school students to educate youth about cyberbullying.
Topics: Cyberbullying
For more info please visit http://www.adl.org/education/curriculum_connections/cyberbullying/
|Cyberbullying: Tips for Intervention and Prevention
|Tips & Facts
|Anti-Defamation League
When a cyberbullying incident occurs, it is important that schools, teens and families work together to minimize the potentially devastating consequences for the targeted individual and the school community as a whole. This resources includes ideas on prevention and intervention for administrators, educators, family members and students
Topics: Cyberbullying
For more info please visit http://www.adl.org/education/cyberbullying/tips.asp


text:
Apartment with Pool + BBQ
Maksimum Konuk Sayısı4
Yatak odası2
Boyut80 metrekare
Floor No.0(with elevator)
- Aile / Çocuk dostu
- İnternet/Kablosuz ağ
- Mutfak
- Çamaşır makinesi / Kurutma makinesi
- Engelli erişimi
- Havuz
- Binada asansör
Accommodation summary
|Arcangeles Bloqque Bajo C, 29018 Málaga, İspanya
|Mülkiyet türü
|Referans kodu
|Acceptance rate
|Response time
|A few hours
|Calendar updated
|3 weeks ago
The apartment consists of:
- An en suite master bedroom with double bed. You have a direct access to the terrace from the room and large bathroom with tub
- A second bedroom with two single beds
- A second bathroom with bathtub
- Terrace and garden, perfect for sunbathing or for a family dinner. Enjoy Malaga's weather!
- Lounge / dining room with a dining area for 6 people, two sofas, flat-screen TV , HD ,Wifi, P.C., DVD, Hi Fi...\r\n- A fully equipped kitchen (fridge, oven, dishwasher, coffee maker, toaster, microwave, mixer,etc.).
- A patio accessible from the kitchen, with the washing machine
- All household linen: sheets and covers, towels and beach towels, tablecloths, etc
In the complex you can enjoy the swimming pool with complimentary sunbeds, there is also a small pool for toddlers (0-2 years) where they are able to swim safely. Barbecue condominium is freely usable, simply book your slot from the keeper. Children can use the playground in the garden of the residence.
For your comfort, you will have access to a secure parking space in the basement. And note that there is one weekly cleaning included in the price.
The neighbourhood is very residential and quiet, you will be close to the beach (10 minutes walk). For the city center (20-25 minutes by bus) there is a bus stop 300m from the house (bus nº33) and other stop near the beach ( nº 3 and nº 11). The building is on the top of a hill, which allows for beautiful views of the sea.
It is an Aldi supermarket very close to the apartment and 5 minutes walk you will find a small shopping area with restaurants, cafes, pharmacy, ice cream, another supermarket etc..
Close to the apartment are the best schools of Spanish for foreigners: "Malaca Instituto", "Malaga Sí", "Don Quixote", etc.
If you want to visit Andalusia. This is the ideal accommodation. Malaga is in the center of the region and the apartment is located close to the A7 motorway, which can take you in 1 h 15 minutes to Granada, in 2 hours to Seville, Cordoba 1 h 30 minutes
Golf lovers, have two fields near: the Golf Club's "El Candado", 9-hole course ten minutes, and "Añoreta golf", 18-hole, 15 minutes via the motorway A7.
Ev kurallarıGuests must accept and comply with the community rules regarding the use of the swimming pool and communal areas.
|Weekly rate for up to 4 guests
|Monthly rate for up to 4 guests
|Check-in Saati (Sonrası)
|Check-in before
|Check-out Saati (Öncesi)
|İptal Koşulları
Bu mülk için yapılan yorumlar
Wonderful apartment in a quiet residential area east of Malaga. Highly recommend!! Antonio and Irene are wonderful hosts!
Antonio and his wife Irene are very nice and warm persons, they will always help you with any question you have. The apartment is clean and descent. Everything is in it, including (bath) towels and 2 bathrooms. Just visit them to discover it! No regrets at all staying there for 2 weeks with 2 children 18 and 13 years old.
A great and spacious apartment with all the facilities that you need. Very clean apartment and a great view from the terrace.
Great apartment for families with (small) children.
Antonio and his wife are very friendly, he even picked us up by the beach, to take us with his car uphill to the apartment.
And Antonio has a great music collection.
Recommended when you plan to stay in Malaga!
we are a mature couple (aged 60) from finland with a lot of travel experiences. as now retired we wanted to spend a nice three months in malaga. the apartment and its owner antonio with his partner irene were a great choice. the hosting couple gave us all the support, advice and help we needed for excursions, events, cultural experiences, etc. antonio likes to speak spanish and french, irene is very good with english. the apartment itself is big, offers many possibilities to relax and lies in the very beautiful and quiet suburb of cerrado calderon with all the necessary services within walking distance from the apartment. the next bus stop is only a 10 minutes walk away and travelling by bus or taxi in malaga is very easy and extremely cheap.the general bus fare in malaga is 1,30 euros for one hour! when using an own or rented car, the garage in the house and the quick and easy access to the highway make life of car divers very easy. for us the only minor disadvantage was the fact, that the apartment is situated a bit up in the hills. it offers very nice views over the suburb and the mediterrean sea, but it also means, that after visiting the very interesting city centre of malaga, the beach or other places, one needs to climb up rather steep roads before getting home. this makes the use of bicycles very challenging. but then one can always use a taxi. by bus the very centre of malaga is 30 minutes away from the apartment, to the closest beaches and their nice restaurants it is a 20 minutes walk downhill. overall we enjoyed the three months in antonios apartment, in malaga and in the many beautiful places in andalusia very much and we wish all of you similar great holiday experiences!
We had a wonderful stay in Antonio's apartment! It is a great apartment in a beautiful and quiet residential area east of Malaga. Antonio and his wife are kind, reliable and great hosts! Thank you for a wonderful stay!!!!
Highly recommend!
We really enjoyed staying at Antonio's apartment. It is a wonderful apartment in a beautiful residential area of Malaga. The large terrace with the sea and mountain views is beautiful! It is in a quiet area which makes you feel very relaxed. There is even a little garden area right below the terrace. It was perfect for us.
We met Antonio, his wife and son and they are excellent hosts. They showed us around the area and let us know where everything was.
The apartment was clean and fully equipped with everything we needed. The kitchen has plenty of cooking utensils, a large refrigerator and freezer, etc. There are 2 bathrooms which is a big plus. Both bathrooms have toilets and bathtubs/showers. There were also plenty of towels provided for us as well as extra ones if we needed them. In addition, there were also extra bedsheets if we needed them for any reason.
Even though you can get to the city by bus from the apartment, we decided to rent a car from Top Cars (which had excellent service) and were able to park our car in the garage under the apartment at no extra charge which was a nice plus.
Another plus is that there is a large Aldi supermarket within walking distance from the apartment.
My husband enjoys running outdoors and it was in a good area for that as you could run down to the sea from the apartment and then along the water up to Malaga center and back.
We highly recommend this apartment.
Thank you Antonio for a wonderful stay in Malaga!!!!!!
Hi Antonio
I would like to thank you for being a great host. We enjoyed our time in Malga and will love to come back again. The apartment is very clean and comfortable. We love the view out of the Teresa and the swimming pool. Super market is very close and also a very elegant area. The city center and the beach all short drive from the apartment. The kids loved the place. Thank you for everything.
Espanol: (for other languages please scroll down) (deutscher Text weiter unten) la accomodacion y el contacto con Antonio han sido mas que agradable. La comunicacion rapida y detallada, una persona que te quiere ayudar en cualquier manera. El apartamiento fue muy limpio y bien equipado (lavadora y lavaplatos son un verdadero lujo en vacaciones) y tambien el jardin fue perfectamente mantenido. Luego el sitio tenia una piscina compartida junto con banos y piscina de infantiles. Ademas pudimos usar el estacionamiento subterranio para el coche aquilado
English : Great condo with full equipment, even washingmachine and dishwasher are present. Your host Antonio is a most friendly person and will try to ease your stay in any matter. The cleanliness and maintenance was excellent and also the view from the terras was beautifull. The complex also provided a semi-public pool and leisure aerea with extra bathrooms and baby-pool. Plenty of towels were provided aswell, good to know when traveling with a low-cost-carrier. It must be said though, that eventhough shopping is available at walking distance, the use of a rented car or scooter is no luxory. I happend to know that part of Malaga as I learned spanish in a school up there 20 years ago, but due to a very steep road you might GET to the shore in 10 minutes, but beware of the walk home... Also the first sand you will find is not necessary the beach you want to relax on, so please do calculate a means of transportation when booking. Parking then again is no problem and you might even be allowed to use the indoor space in the garage.
Antonio has a very nice apartment in a residential area east of Malaga. It is in a quiet and peaceful area outside of the city center. The apartment is clean and well kept and has all of the amenities you need. Antonio is also a dependable and kind person. We rented a car when we were there and were able to park it at the apartment. There are buses that go into the city center from the apartment (however, I am not sure how often these buses run or how long it takes, maybe 15 mins by bus to the city?). There is a grocery store near the apartment that is within approximately 5-7 minutes walking distance. The apartment is on the ground floor and has a little fenced in garden area attached to it. There is also a nice terrace/balcony on which to be able to sit outside and eat. Thanks Antonio!!
Un delicioso, completo, limpio apartamento en el que pasó una semana.
Estacionamiento en la parte inferior del edificio de apartamentos.
Un coche se recomienda si se aloja allí!
Aldi a poca distancia, y una cocina completa en el apartamento.
Antonio habla a su muy amable y le explicará todo está bien, pero no habla Inglés
- Kalite güvenceli konaklama
- Her ev sahibi telefonla doğrulanmıştır
- SSL şifrelemesi ile güvenli ödeme


text:
Backgrounder #2567 on Family and Marriage
June 7, 2011
June 7, 2011 | Backgrounder on Family and Marriage
Abstract: Marriage and family are declining in America, following a trend well established in Europe. This breakdown of the American family has dire implications for American society and the U.S. economy. Halting and reversing the sustained trends of nearly four decades will not happen by accident. The federal, state, and local governments need to eliminate marriage penalties created by the tax code and welfare programs and instead use existing resources to better encourage and support family life.
The modern decline of marriage and family is well advanced. Whether measured by the increase in single parenthood, the increase in childhood poverty, the persistently high rate of divorce, or increasing cohabitation, the intact married family is a less common feature of life in the United States and other Western democracies than it was a generation ago. Buffeted by changing sexual mores, fraying family ties, and burgeoning welfare states that discourage family formation, marriage is in retreat in American culture and following a European pattern. Increasingly, this retreat is affecting the American middle class, formerly one of the strongholds of marriage. This retreat and the harms it inflicts will not be halted or reversed by accident.
After World War II, the United States, its territory largely unscathed by the fires of war, launched the Marshall Plan to rescue the shattered economies of Europe. The Marshall Plan focused on supplying the raw materials of economic recovery to nations at risk of a "breakdown of moral, social and commercial life."[1] The breakdown of marriage today, fraught with dire implications for national economic life and American society, calls for a similarly visionary response.
The best news is that a Marshall Plan for Marriage could reverse this decline. By maximizing the benefits of family life for the next generation of Americans, it could reduce the costs of family breakdown to taxpayers while fostering personal happiness, independence, and productivity.
The Trouble with Marriage
Marriage is in trouble in the United States. As the second decade of the 21st century begins, the institution of marriage itself, not just individual marriages, is heading toward the rocks. Americans are cohabiting more, marrying less, and marrying much later in life. Out-of-wedlock childbearing is reaching European levels and still climbing. Divorce levels, although below their peak, remain high. Public attitudes continue to shift, with Americans expressing less concern about various "family forms" even as the children raised in those forms continue to file frank and frequently negative field reports on their experiences.
In November 2010, Time magazine and the Pew Research Center released a poll showing that nearly four in 10 Americans think "marriage is obsolete."[2] A few pundits pored over the results like buzzards over roadkill, while others reflected soberly on the news. In December, the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia and the Institute for American Values published a report that reached a similar conclusion, but with a riveting twist: The report concluded that marriage is disappearing, but not among the poor, where it has struggled for decades, nor among the rich, whose attitudes about changes in marital patterns are far more liberal than actual practices are. Rather, marriage is disappearing among middle-class Americans, the broad heart of the nation's social order.[3]
W. Bradford Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project, writes that the "retreat from marriage" among middle-income Americans is "imperiling the social and emotional welfare of children" and "opening up a cultural divide in our nation that does not augur well for the American experiment in democracy."[4] The numbers are alarming indeed.
A higher percentage of children than ever before in American history start life with a single parent. Preliminary data show that the U.S. out-of-wedlock birthrate hit 41 percent in 2009.[5] For comparison, the out-of-wedlock percentage that so alarmed Daniel Patrick Moynihan in 1965, when his seminal study for the Department of Labor was published, was 28 percent for a single ethnic subgroup but only 7.7 percent for all U.S. women.[6] The U.S. out-of-wedlock birthrate doubled between 1983 and 2008. Similar trends predominate in Europe.[7]
Part of the increase in single parenthood is a result of a rise in cohabitation, which has been increasing since 1960, when a little more than 1 percent of all co-residential couples in the United States were unmarried. Today, the figure is more than 10 percent of all couples.[8] In fact, more than 60 percent of all first marriages today are preceded by living together, a practice that was virtually nonexistent just 50 years ago.[9]
While the majority of cohabiting couples are childless, about 40 percent have children while living together, increasing the ramifications of any differences in stability between cohabiting and married couples.[10] Those who cohabit tend to be less religious, are more likely to have been raised in a divorced household or to be divorced themselves, and are more likely to have experienced fatherlessness.
The rapid increase in U.S. cohabitation—up more than 74 percent since 2000—complicates analysis of its impacts, especially on children. However, David Popenoe of Rutgers cites studies showing that cohabitation is less stable for children everywhere it is practiced and that this relative instability has not been cured over time. Popenoe points to a massive study in Britain that found that nearly half of cohabiting couples with children broke up within five years. By contrast, only one in 12 married couples with children dissolves their relationship within five years.[11] A study in Norway found that the breakup rate for cohabiting parents was two-and-a-half times higher than that for married couples.[12]
Researchers acknowledge that these figures may reflect the inherent inability of many of these couples to maintain their relationships rather than the effect of cohabitation on their relationships. In previous generations, many of these breakups would have appeared in divorce statistics. While this may limit the effect of cohabitation as an independent factor in the decline of marriage, it nonetheless demonstrates that cohabitation—"trial marriage" in an earlier locution—remains extremely unstable compared with marriage, even when children are present.
Meanwhile, divorce law passed a historic benchmark on July 1, 2010, when New York, the last state to retain some version of fault-based divorce, repealed its law.[13] The laboratory of the states is now operating with a single dominant formula on divorce law. Because of the new factors depressing family formation, the raw improvement in the divorce rate in recent years must be understood with qualifications.
Nevertheless, the U.S. divorce rate peaked in 1980 and has declined slowly but steadily ever since, dropping by 27 percent from a high of 22.6 divorces per 1,000 women three decades ago to 16.4 divorces per 1,000 women in 2009.[14] Despite this improvement, divorce affects an estimated 1 million children each year, although government data on this question remain regrettably weak.[15]
The size and speed of these changes in common measurements of marital health are arresting, but do they translate into net losses for individual couples and for society? Social science research has consistently shown that for the most readily measured outcomes, most notably the impact of marital arrangements on children's educational, economic, and emotional well-being, the intact married household is reliably beneficial.
This has spawned efforts, including the work published in 2009 by the Institute for American Values and the National Center on African American Marriages and Parenting, to develop a multi-factored "index" of marital well-being in the United States. The report focused on five key indicators and concluded that overall marital well-being in the United States has declined by approximately 21 percent since 1970. More encouragingly, three of the five marital factors measured have actually improved or remained stable since 2000.[16]
Improvement on any key marriage indicator is welcome, especially because it demonstrates that a sustained downward spiral is not inevitable. What remains to be seen is whether sustained improvement is possible.
The modern experience in Europe is clear about the depth of the challenge involved. Measured solely by the increase in the proportion of children born out of wedlock, the trend across Europe is almost uniformly negative. A 2010 report from the Population Reference Bureau showed that the proportion of out-of-wedlock births has risen across all of Europe.
Reversing this trend will be difficult, but if any nation can make such a positive change, it is the United States. America's Founding was premised on a concept of limited government supported by thriving civil institutions, including the family. Alexis de Tocqueville, a close observer of American society and character in the 19th century, wrote, "There is certainly no country in the world where the tie of marriage is more respected than in America or where conjugal happiness is more highly or worthily appreciated."[19]
Evidence suggests the persistence of this national trait. Despite the negative trends affecting marital stability now, only 5 percent of Americans under the age of 30 express the desire never to marry.[20] Americans likewise remain more religious than most of their European counterparts, a factor that is positively associated with marital stability and happiness.[21]
Moreover, despite commentary from some that marriage and family are not declining but merely changing, recent studies in both Europe and the United States still find that children raised in single-parent households suffer negative effects. A major Swedish study published in The Lancet in 2003 found that Swedish children raised in non-intact households were twice as likely as children raised in intact families to suffer from psychological disorders, suicide attempts, substance abuse, and other disorders.[22]
If marriage were to disappear overnight, these harmful results would be obvious to everyone and generate calls for action. Instead, they form an accumulating stream of negative news that slowly alters the landscape and discourages policymakers and civil society leaders from taking steps to stanch the erosion and begin the process of reclamation. Nonetheless, this era when Americans are more attuned to the cumulative impact of economic and budgetary decisions that reverberate over 10-year and even 25-year periods presents a fresh opportunity to pursue policy changes and recover a sense of the "tie of marriage" in these turbulent times.
Rebuilding a Culture of Marriage
While the following principles are not a formal or comprehensive attempt to capture all of the actions that public and private institutions could undertake, they offer a framework of recommendations[23] that, if implemented, would eliminate pervasive biases against marriage without placing significant new demands on the public purse.
Principle #1: The decision to marry is inherently economically beneficial to couples and their children, if any. Any form of financial penalty in tax policy that masks or subverts this reality and deters marriage should be eliminated.
The 2001 and 2003 Tax Reform Bills. The 2001 and 2003 tax reform bills went a long way toward eliminating the major marriage penalties in the federal income tax code. Extending this relief for two more years in December 2010 was a positive signal that policymakers continue to understand the value of marriage in fostering economic independence among families. The Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that 35 million couples would have been forced to pay an average of $595 more in taxes in 2011 alone if marriage penalty relief had not been extended.[24] Making this tax relief permanent would be an improvement over existing law, which breeds uncertainty and raises the prospect that marriage-punitive federal tax policies could return.
However, Congress created an entirely new marriage tax penalty in 2010 by adopting the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which included a poorly designed affordability tax credit to help millions of Americans purchase health care insurance policies. As enacted, the law provides a new tax credit based on the individual's or family's income and the cost of their health insurance premiums for a plan purchased through the new state insurance exchanges that the bill creates. The credit is available to individuals and families at or below 400 percent of the federal poverty level and phases out with rising income. As a consequence of the phaseout, couples of all ages within the applicable income range may receive a much less generous credit if they combine their earnings through marriage. This credit design introduces a fresh marriage penalty in the very income ranges that Wilcox identifies as experiencing the most marital erosion.
The scope of this marriage penalty can be dramatic. When this law takes full effect in 2014, married couples will generally receive $1,500 to $10,000 less per year in health care premium support than cohabitating couples with the same combined income. The effect is greatest on a 60-year-old couple earning about $30,000 each. Their annual marriage penalty in lost premium reimbursement could reach $10,000. Even a lower-income married couple of the same age ($15,000 each per year) would receive an annual government bonus of $4,212 if they chose to divorce and cohabit.[25]
This penalty creates a strong incentive for the affected couples to choose not to marry—or to divorce and cohabit. Moreover, the phenomenon of senior cohabitation is already widespread due in part to other marriage penalties. The new health care premium tax credit could affect millions of wage earners making up to $85,000 per year.[26]
EGTRRA. The Economic Growth and Tax Reform Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTRRA) made one of the most important "fixes" to marriage penalties in the tax code when it modified the earned income tax credit (EITC). The EITC was first adopted in 1975 and has been expanded over the years to increase the earnings of the working poor in a highly targeted way that lowers or removes incentives to remain on government welfare programs, such as food stamps and public housing. Most of the more than 70 federal welfare programs include their own disincentives against work and marriage.
As the EITC grew in size and importance, the marriage penalty that it imposes on working couples, especially those with two or more children and relatively similar incomes, became a bigger problem. EGTRRA significantly reduced the EITC marriage penalty by extending the eligibility range for married couples, allowing more of them to combine their earnings without losing the maximum credit.
As several commentators pointed out, the EITC still included marriage penalties in certain scenarios after the enactment of EGTRRA. These effects were largest for couples with two or more children and those with a combined income at the upper end of the range at which the EITC began to phase out.[27] The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 addressed this by expanding the combined income range of the maximum EITC benefit to $5,000 for married couples, thereby further reducing marriage penalties.
Congress extended the 2001 and 2009 EITC reforms as part of the December 2010 tax agreement, but that extension will expire after 2012. While other and more wide-ranging changes in the tax code are being proposed and debated, Congress should signal that it will not restore the marriage penalties that existed in earlier versions of the EITC. For example, it could make the EGTRRA and ARRA reforms permanent. The phaseout rate of the credit could also be further reduced to eliminate the inequitable treatment of marriage in as many scenarios as possible.
Given the dozens of federal and state welfare benefits that discourage marriage among the poor, Congress should reaffirm the principle of marriage-penalty tax relief as a core objective of U.S. tax policy.
Principle #2: Policymakers and program managers should encourage pro-marriage messaging in existing government programs and other already available resources.
Pro-Marriage Messages. Pro-marriage messages are among the allowable uses of funds in many programs. Given how critical marriage is to every indicator of individual well-being—including employment and earnings, avoidance of delinquency, school dropout, and abuse—marriage promotion should be a routine public value. The value of marriage should become part of "what everyone knows," much as the unhealthy effects of smoking and obesity are almost universally understood.
Healthy Marriage Initiative. Direct federal support for a healthy marriage initiative within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is relatively recent, beginning in 2002 with a series of demonstration grants through existing programs designed to provide targeted assistance to children and families, including the Office of Community Service, Child Support Enforcement, and Head Start.
In the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, Congress reauthorized the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, which included marriage-building initiatives when it was enacted in 1996. The reauthorization set aside $150 million each year for five years to fund healthy marriage and responsible fatherhood program grants to the states: $100 million for marriage programs and $50 million for fatherhood projects. The first grants were awarded in the fall of 2006, and the longest of those grants will end later this year.
With the nation's fiscal situation deteriorating rapidly, the majority in the House of Representatives has little appetite for increasing funding, even in areas of considerable need. Moreover, in 2010, the Obama Administration proposed to recast funding for the healthy marriage initiative as more or less another form of income support, allowing the funds to be used for a wide variety of purposes that could include not only marriage education and skills-building, but also job training and more child support enforcement.[28] This is regrettable because the first generation of healthy marriage programs produced some useful lessons, and Oklahoma's Family Expectations program produced measurable positive results.[29]
The lessons from Oklahoma's healthy marriage program suggest that, with experience, program results can be improved and that particular beneficial features, such as using already-married couples as mentors, can be developed with further study. The Oklahoma program serves unmarried couples who are romantically involved and are about to have or have just had a baby—a time that is both promising and vulnerable for the future of their relationships.
With more than four in 10 children (1.7 million per year) beginning life with unmarried parents, federal and state governments need to focus more on programs that extend the benefits of marriage to more couples. For example, the federal government could redeploy some or all of the $6 billion spent on ineffective federal job training to marriage education programs that replicate and improve on the Oklahoma model. Education and job skills can do only so much to rectify the economic insecurity that children suffer due to their parents' unmarried status. Raising a child in an intact married family is about 2.5 times more effective in reducing child poverty than is adding four years to a mother's education.
The Safe and Stable Families Block Grant, another federal program that could be utilized better for marriage building, provides funds for states to prevent the unnecessary separation of children from their families and to facilitate reentry after a child has been in foster care. The program permits funds to be used for parenting skills training and "to strengthen parental relationships and promote healthy marriages."[30] The Obama Administration has requested $443 million for fiscal year 2012, a considerable sum that states should explore using in order to encourage the safest and most stable setting for children—a married household.[31]
Moreover, other existing government programs, including some that generally do not include pro-marriage messages, could devote a portion of their educational outreach to promoting the benefits of marriage to couples and their children. For example, information about marriage resources and the benefits of marriage could be made available in Head Start projects, Medicaid and public health clinics, contraception clinics funded through Title X, and unemployment offices, where a couple experiencing new financial stress might visit.[32]
In the absence of congressional direction to the contrary and consistent with the objectives of these social services, several states have considered or are considering proposals to require such uses of program funds. For a time, the Administration on Children and Families specifically encouraged marriage education efforts in Title X projects, and this effort could be revived.[33]
Broader media campaigns that promote marriage can also play an important role. Private resources deserve more attention, and a number of resources already deliver powerful messages about the ancillary virtues that can influence decisions to marry or remain married.
Similarly, a variety of course materials, including both secular and faith-based approaches, have been developed as a result of recent recognition of the need to restore marriage. Many of these curricular materials are catalogued with appropriate summaries and links by the National Healthy Marriage Resource Center, which was created under grants provided by the Administration on Children and Families. The center's TwoOfUs.org Web site[37] also offers specific marriage and relationship advice and expert video resources on a variety of topics. Expanding public awareness of these and similar resources to expand marriage education and skills training to save families would be socially and fiscally wise.
Principle #3: States should recognize that a significant percentage of divorcing couples, especially those with children, would respond to reconciliation efforts and restore their marriages. States should develop policies and programs that maximize the reconciliation option.
Current practices poorly serve the significant percentage of divorcing couples who would respond to voluntary reconciliation opportunities. All 50 states have adopted no-fault divorce statutes, and 32 states have no waiting period for divorce, although some limit it to instances in which there is mutual consent to divorce.
Divorce rates have declined by more than one-fourth from their peak of 22.6 per 1,000 married women in 1980.[38] However, the rise of cohabitation masks to some degree the magnitude of couple breakdown in the United States.
With no-fault divorce the universal rule in the United States after the New York legislature's action in 2010, the temptation may exist to believe that an organic evolution in marriage law has run its course and that American society has reached a new consensus to make speedy divorce normative practice. However, this belief runs contrary to continuing evidence that many divorced couples come to regret pursuing divorce too hastily with inadequate time for reflection and forethought, especially when minor children are involved. In addition, the steadily accumulating evidence from grown children of divorced parents shows that the effects of divorce are lifelong and more significant than the experts predicted a generation ago.
In 2002, Oklahoma State University published the results of a survey commissioned under the state's marriage initiative to assess Oklahomans' attitudes toward marriage, divorce, and related issues. Oklahoma's status as a Bible Belt state with one of the nation's highest divorce rates made it an especially ripe candidate for deeper examination and the application of potential braking mechanisms. The survey reported that more than one-third of divorced men and one-fifth of divorced women reported wishing they had personally done more to save their previous marriage.[39] This level of "divorce remorse" has encouraged marriage experts and policymakers to consider options that combine a waiting period with a requirement for both husband and wife to receive information and counseling on how divorce affects both children and their own well-being.
The Parental Divorce Reduction Act, introduced in the New Mexico Senate this year by state Senator Mark Boitano, is designed to "reduce unnecessary divorce, decrease parental conflict and litigation and educate couples on the impact of divorce on families."[40] The bill proposes that parents with minor children be required to complete a divorce reduction curriculum taught by a certified instructor and an eight-month period of "reconciliation and reflection" before filing a divorce petition. The bill provides for a number of exceptions to this policy to address situations of domestic violence, imprisonment, recalcitrant substance abuse, or abandonment that make completion of the curriculum infeasible. An online curriculum option would be offered where in-person instruction is unavailable. Recognizing budget realities, the couple would be responsible for the course fee, but the courts could waive the fee for indigent parties, and the state secretary of human services would receive the authority to use TANF funds to make grants to defray the cost.[41]
Principle #4: Policymakers should study, recognize, and reward success in marriage, recognizing the power of the bully pulpit and civic leadership to shape consensus and define progress.
While the wisdom of recognizing and rewarding success in marriage seems self-evident, policymakers, researchers, and legislators typically devote their time and resources to studying family breakdown and remedies to relieve its effects. While this attention is appropriate, an ethos has developed in some quarters that enduring families are either a relic of the past or an endangered species headed for extinction.
A poll released by the Pew Research Center in late 2010 found that 39 percent of American adults believe that marriage has become obsolete, a figure that has risen from 28 percent in 1979.[42] Many media reports reacted to this finding either with fatalism or with fascination.
The story is frequently different when a particular marriage dissolves in a segment of the population where stability is expected or when persons who have a celebrated relationship are involved. The recent breakdowns of the marriages of Al and Tipper Gore and John and the late Elizabeth Edwards, two prominent political couples who had seriously contended to be the nation's First Family, struck much of the reporting community as genuine tragedies that transcended political boundaries.[43]
This human response reflects not only the phenomenon of lower divorce and out-of-wedlock birthrates among the nation's most economically successful and educated class, but also a public familiarity with what a lengthy marriage really means. The demise of such a marriage powerfully reminds commentators, irrespective of their views on other issues, that an intact family unit is a community treasure.[44]
National leaders should exhibit this same sense of value—and the commensurate sense of loss when a family does not form or does not survive—in policy and in communications to families across all ethnic groups and all income ranges. Finding new and better ways to publicly celebrate and encourage enduring marriages may be one of the most critical ways that a Marshall Plan for Marriage could succeed. For example, civic organizations and churches that once honored or still honor couples on their 40th or 50th wedding anniversaries might consider honoring and encouraging married couples on earlier and pivotal milestones, such as their fifth or 10th anniversaries. Marital Longevity Day might be linked to National Marriage Week[45] or older celebrations[46] and occupy a place in the public mind as an occasion of immense personal and civic importance.
The cost of divorce and family breakdown, both to taxpayers and to long-term economic growth, is immense. Estimates of the annual cost of divorce and unmarried childbearing range as high as $112 billion.[47] Conversely, couples who avoid divorce typically save the taxpayer in reduced utilization of family courts, the criminal justice system, and social services.
For this reason, states and localities might consider experimenting with reductions in state and local taxes on wedding anniversaries. For example, a state could offer a 0.5 percentage point reduction of income taxes or similar relief in property taxes when a couple reaches a five-year or 10-year anniversary together. Such relief would amount to a rebate on their investment as taxpayers in government programs. The relief could be constructed and executed in such a way that its symbolism exceeds its cost, and the data generated by the rebates could spur policymakers to focus more on the health and well-being of long-term marriages in their jurisdictions.
Lest we lose heart, the data suggest that the United States may be nearing a tipping point for the institution of marriage. As stark as the record out-of-wedlock birthrate and cohabitation figures are for the United States, European statistics suggest that marital breakdown could increase by up to 50 percent over the next decade. No nation can afford to be neutral about the substantial impact that such dislocation imposes on the well-being of future generations and the resulting effects of spurring the growth of government and slowing the economy.
Halting and reversing the sustained trends of nearly four decades will not happen by accident. The nation needs to forge a fresh American consensus that rescuing marriage—a Marshall Plan to rebuild shattered American homes—is a matter of the highest national priority.
—Charles A. Donovan is Senior Research Fellow in the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society at The Heritage Foundation.
Show references in this report
[1]Library of Congress, "For European Recovery: The Fiftieth Anniversary of the Marshall Plan," July 27, 2010, at http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/marshall/mars0.html (March 25, 2011).
[2]Pew Research Center, "The Decline of Marriage and Rise of New Families," November 18, 2010, at http://pewsocialtrends.org/2010/11/18/the-decline-of-marriage-and-rise-of-new-families/2/#ii-overview (May 16, 2011).
[3]National Marriage Project and Institute for American Values, When Marriage Disappears: The New Middle America, December 2010, at http://www.stateofourunions.org/2010/SOOU2010.pdf (May 26, 2011).
[4]W. Bradford Wilcox, Paul Taylor, and Chuck Donovan, "When Marriage Disappears: The Retreat from Marriage in Middle America," Heritage Foundation Lecture No. 1179, February 22, 2011, at http://www.heritage.org/research/lecture/2011/02/when-marriage-disappears-the-retreat-from-marriage-in-middle-america.
[5]The Heritage Foundation, "More Than Four in 10 Children Are Born to Unwed Mothers," at http://www.familyfacts.org/charts/205/more-than-four-in-10-children-are-born-to-unwed-mothersundation
(March 28, 2011).
[6]James T. Patterson, "The Moynihan Future," The New York Times, May 28, 2010, at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/29/opinion/29Patterson.html (March 28, 2011). For the percentage of out-of-wedlock births for all U.S. women in 1965, see Stephanie J. Ventura and Christine A. Bachrach, "Nonmarital Childbearing in the United States: 1940–99," National Vital Statistics Reports, October 18, 2000, p. 17, Table 1, at http://www.suporior-surrogacy.com/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr48/nvs48_16.pdf (May 3, 2011).
[7]National Partnership for Women and Families, "European Union Sees Jump in Births to Unmarried Women," Medical News Today, September 14, 2010, at http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/200955.php (March 28, 2011). The proportion of out-of-wedlock births across the European Union was 35.1 percent in 2008, ranging from a high of 66 percent in Iceland to above 50 percent in Sweden, Norway, and France to 46 percent in Denmark and 44 percent in the United Kingdom. Overall, the percentage of births that are out of wedlock has doubled in the European Union in less than two decades. Stephanie J. Ventura, "Changing Patterns of Nonmarital Childbearing in the United States," National Center for Health Statistics Data Brief No. 18, May 2009, p. 5, Figure 6, at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db18.pdf (March 28, 2011).
[8]The Heritage Foundation, "One in Ten Couples Living Together Is Unmarried," at http://www.familyfacts.org/charts/110/one-in-10-couples-living-together-is-unmarried (March 28, 2011).
[9]National Marriage Project and Institute for American Values, When Marriage Disappears: The New Middle America, December 2010, p. 76.
[10] Ibid.
[11]Centre for Social Justice, The State of the Nation Report: Fractured Families, December 2006, pp. 9–13, at http://www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk/client/downloads/BB_family_breakdown.pdf (May 16, 2011). See also David Popenoe, "Cohabitation, Marriage and Child Wellbeing: A Cross-National Perspective," Rutgers University, National Marriage Project, 2008, p. 14, at http://www.virginia.edu/marriageproject/pdfs/NMP2008CohabitationReport.pdf (March 28, 2011).
[12]Centre for Social Justice, The State of the Nation Report, p. 14.
[13]Nicholas Confessore and Anemona Hartocollis, "Albany Approves No-Fault Divorce and Domestic Workers' Rights," The New York Times, July 1, 2010, at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/02/nyregion/02albany.html (March 29, 2011).
[14]The Heritage Foundation, "The Divorce Rate Is Declining but Still High," at http://www.familyfacts.org/charts/120/the-divorce-rate-is-declining-but-still-high (March 29, 2011).
[15]National data collection on divorce generally and related sub-issues, such as the number of children affected by it, remains weak. After 1957, information on divorce was gleaned from state vital statistics registries, but lack of funding led to the cessation of this activity in 1995. At its peak, only 31 states provided divorce data to the Census Bureau. With more family structures emerging and change occurring rapidly, improving data collection in this area has drawn the attention of academics and government officials, but it remains a long way from the detailed data collection that could allow analysis of marriage and divorce impacts, especially for states and localities. See Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, Data Collection Committee, "Counting Couples: Improving Marriage, Divorce, Remarriage and Cohabitation Data in the Federal Statistical System," workshop, Bethesda, Maryland, December 13–14, 2001, at http://www.childstats.gov/pdf/other_pubs/ccr.pdf (April 28, 2011). For a recent compilation of data through 1998 on the number of children affected by divorce each year in the United States, see Patrick F. Fagan, The Annual Report on Family Trends, 2011: The Behaviors of the American Family in the Five Major Institutions of Society, Marriage and Religion Research Institute, 2011, at http://downloads.frc.org/EF/EF11B31.pdf April 28, 2011).
[16]Institute for American Values and National Center on African American Marriages and Parenting, "The Marriage Index: A Proposal to Establish Leading Marriage Indicators," 2009, p. 5, at http://www.americanvalues.org/pdfs/IAV_Marriage_Index_09_25_09.pdf (May 16, 2011). The two factors that showed a strong pattern of deterioration during the first decade of the 2000s were the percentage of U.S. adults who are married (down from 61.0 percent in 2000 to 57.2 percent in 2008) and the percentage of births to married parents (down from 66.8 percent in 2000 to 60.3 percent in 2007). Out-of-wedlock births increased another 1.3 percentage points between 2007 and 2009.
[17]Carl Haub, "Births Outside Marriage Now Common in Many Countries in Europe," Population Reference Bureau, November 2010, at http://www.prb.org/Articles/2010/birthsoutsidemarriage.aspx (April 4, 2011).
[18] Ibid. The percentages are rising rapidly in Austria, Germany, Portugal, and Spain, which have out-of-wedlock birthrates between 30 percent and 40 percent.
[19]Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Vol. 1 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1945), p. 305.
[20]Pew Research Center "The Decline of Marriage and Rise of New Families."
[21]Patrick F. Fagan, "Why Religion Matters Even More: The Impact of Religion Practice on Social Stability," Heritage Foundation Backgrounder No. 1992, December 18, 2006, at http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2006/12/why-religion-matters-even-more-the-impact-of-religious-practice-on-social-stability.
[22]Gunilla Ringback Weitoft, A. Hjern, B. Haglund, and M. Rosen, "Mortality, Severe Morbidity, and Injury in Children Living with Single Parents in Sweden: A Population-Based Study," The Lancet, Vol. 361, No. 9354 (January 2003), pp. 289–295.
[23]An impressive array of policy ideas has been advanced in recent years to rebuild a culture of marriage. In June 2006, the Witherspoon Institute published a booklet that described 10 principles that are key to understanding the importance of marriage for the public good. The Institute proposed five policy priorities that, it argued, merited special attention to address the "radical crisis around human generativity." Witherspoon Institute, "Marriage and the Public Good: Ten Principles," 2nd ed., August 2008, p. 23, at http://www.winst.org/family_marriage_and_democracy/WI_Marriage.pdf (May 16, 2011). The marriage index report from the Institute for American Values included 101 ideas to improve America's marriage indicators. Institute for American Values and National Center on African American Marriages and Parenting, "The Marriage Index."
[24]Chairman Dave Camp, "Democrats' Ticking Time Bomb, Part III (Middle-Class Families)," The Tax Tracker, Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives, July 28, 2010, at http://republicans.waysandmeans.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=201136 (May 24, 2011).
[25]Robert Rector, "The New Federal Wedding Tax: How Obamacare Would Dramatically Penalize Marriage," Heritage Foundation WebMemo No. 2767, January 20, 2010, at http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2010/01/the-new-federal-wedding-tax-how-obamacare-would-dramatically-penalize-marriage.
[26] Ibid.
[27]Nick Kasprak, "The Potential Impact of Expiring Tax Cuts on Low-Income Taxpayers," Tax Foundation Fiscal Fact No. 250, October 7, 2010, at http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/26766.html (April 28, 2011).
[28]Charles A. Donovan, "Zeroing out Marriage," Heritage Foundation, The Foundry, June 26, 2010, at http://blog.heritage.org/2010/06/26/zeroing-out-marriage/ (April 25, 2011). The Obama Administration has proposed replacing the Healthy Marriage Initiative with the Families Innovation Fund. See U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Justification of Estimates for Appropriations Committees, Fiscal Year 2011, pp. 293–404, at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/olab/budget/2011/2011_all.pdf (May 19, 2011). Ironically, the project, housed within Child Support Enforcement at the Administration on Children and Families, essentially ended funding for one of the few innovative efforts by government to promote married families and parenting.
[29]See Barbara Devaney and Robin Dion, "15-Month Impacts of Oklahoma's Family Expectations Program," Mathematica Policy Research, August 2010, at http://www.publicstrategies.com/Report_3-11.pdf (April 25, 2011). This report examined the impact of a program of relationship skills and family services support over its first 15 months of operation. The study design included more than 500 couples assigned to the Family Expectations (FE) program and a similar number assigned to a control group. Participation was voluntary. While the program did not produce more marriages, it did achieve an increase in the FE couples' attitudes toward marriage, reduced reliance on certain forms of public support, more fidelity, and improved conflict resolution. In both the FE group and the control group, the marriage rate for couples was roughly 5 percent over the study period.
[30]Federal Grants Wire, "Promoting Safe and Stable Families," at http://www.federalgrantswire.com/promoting-safe-and-stable-families.html (April 29, 2011).
[31]U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Advancing the Health, Safety, and Well-Being of Our People: FY 2012 President's Budget for HHS, pp. 94–95, at http://www.mesoarch.org/files/fy2012bib.pdf (April 29, 2011).
[32]While evidence is mixed on the effect of marital status on the effective use of contraception, married women "are significantly less likely than unmarried women to resolve unexpected pregnancies through abortion." Susan Dudley, "Women Who Have Abortions," National Abortion Federation, 2003, at http://www.prochoice.org/about_abortion/facts/women_who.html (May 24, 2011). Recent controversies over abortions provided by entities that receive Title X funding should prompt more consideration of the role that marriage and relationship skills training could play in improving couples' ability to act responsibly in this area.
[33]Robert Rector, "Welfare Reform and the Healthy Marriage Initiative," testimony before the Subcommittee on Human Resources, Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives, February 10, 2005, at http://www.heritage.org/research/testimony/welfare-reform-and-the-healthy-marriage-initiative. Because marriage skills and education programs hold more promise for couples earlier in relationships, reaching younger people before anti-marriage attitudes and patterns are set makes sense. As Rector notes, "The potential for outreach through the Title X clinics may actually be greater than through maternity wards." Ibid.
[34]Values.com, "You Can Let Go," at http://www.values.com/inspirational-stories-tv-spots/103-You-Can-Let-Go (April 26, 2011).
[35] Ibid. and Values.com, "Good Stuff," at http://www.values.com/inspirational-stories-tv-spots/94-Good-Stuff (April 26, 2011).
[36]Love Is, Web site, at http://loveishere.com/index2.html (April 26, 2011).
[37]National Healthy Marriage Resource Center, Web site, at http://www.healthymarriageinfo.org/ (April 26, 2011). See also TwoOfUs.org, Web site, at http://www.twoofus.org/index.aspx (April 26, 2011).
[38]The Heritage Foundation, "The Divorce Rate Is Declining but Still High."
[39]Christine A. Johnson et al., "Marriage in Oklahoma: 2001 Baseline Statewide Survey on Marriage and Divorce," Oklahoma State University, Bureau for Social Research, June 2002, esp. p. 17, Table 14, at http://www.okmarriage.org/downloads/media/survey_report.pdf (April 26, 2011).
[40]Parental Divorce Reduction Act, SB 556, New Mexico Senate, 50th Legislature, 1st Session, 2011, § 2, at http://www.nmlegis.gov/Sessions/11%20Regular/bills/senate/SB0556.pdf (April 26, 2011).
[41]Interestingly, a detailed fiscal impact report on the bill prepared by the state Legislative Finance Committee poses a series of questions about processes and costs under the legislation, including the hourly wages of instructors, and thoroughly describes the existing stresses in the TANF program that have led to cuts in payments to meet a caseload that has grown by 47 percent since June 2008. Illustrating the difficulty of documenting the consequences of action not taken, the impact report does not mention the possibility of realizing savings from reconciled marriages, which do not burden the court system or make one party and their children dependent on public assistance. New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee, "Fiscal Impact Report: Parental Divorce Reduction Act," March 9, 2011, at http://www.nmlegis.gov/Sessions/11%20Regular/firs/SB0556.pdf (May 19, 2011).
[42]Pew Research Center, "The Decline of Marriage and Rise of New Families." An 11 percentage point increase in the proportion of Americans who think marriage is "obsolete" is significant given the harshness of the judgment expressed, but the datum does not indicate whether the respondents believe that marital obsolescence is a good thing. It does indicate that changes of small annual magnitude (0.3 percent since 1978) matter over time. A Marshall Plan for Marriage that produced a positive trend of that size is neither unthinkable nor unaffordable.
[43]"Al Gore, Tipper Gore Split: Friends, Political Observers React with Shock," Huffington Post, June 10, 2010, at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/02/al-gore-tipper-gore-split_n_597593.html (April 29, 2011).
[44]There were some notable exceptions to this response, including Sally Quinn, "The Gift of the Gores: Rejoice, Al and Tipper Have Split Up," The Washington Post, June 7, 2010, at http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/sally_quinn/2010/06/the_gift_of_the_gores.html (May 16, 2011).
[45]National Marriage Week is February 7–14. It was begun in the United Kingdom in 1998 and is now observed in nearly a dozen countries, including the United States since 2002. For more information, see National Marriage Week USA, "About Us," at http://www.nationalmarriageweekusa.org/aboutus/ (May 5, 2011).
[46]World Marriage Day was established in 1981 by marriage advocates in Louisiana and was adopted as an international observance by Worldwide Marriage Encounter, a Catholic marriage-renewal organization. It has been recognized by the governors of 43 U.S. states and by foreign leaders. See World Marriage Day, Web site, at http://wmd.wwme.org/index.html (May 5, 2011).
[47]Benjamin Scafidi, "The Taxpayer Costs of Divorce and Unwed Childbearing: First-Ever Estimates for the Nation and All Fifty States," Institute for American Values, Georgia Family Council, Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, and Families Northwest, 2008, at http://www.georgiafamily.org/resources/research/taxpayer-costs-of-divorce (May 5, 2011).


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13406 E. Philadelphia St. Whittier, CA 90608
The wildly popular, classic, holiday film, It's a Wonderful Life, has been adapted into a quick-paced and entertaining live performance radio play and will be staged as a benefit reading for the Enceladus Theatre Company, Sunday, December 8 at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. in the Ruth B. Shannon Center for the Performing Arts, Whittier College, 6760 Painter Avenue, Whittier, CA 90608. General admission ticket prices are $20, $15 for students and senior citizens, and $5 for Whittier College faculty, staff, and students. To reserve tickets or for more information visit www.shannoncenter.org or call 562.907.4203.
It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, adapted by Joe Landry, will be directed by Whittier College theatre professor and Enceladus Theatre Company Producing Artistic Director Gil Gonzalez.
The ensemble features Charlotte Bailey '13, Kyle Fox '12, Christian Mohn '14, Professor Seamus Lagan, Professor David Paddy, Katie Liddicoat, managing artistic director, Enceladus Theatre; and Chris Cannon, artistic associate, Enceladus Theatre.
Backstage crew include Katryna Dillard '15, stage manager; Alexx Zachary '14 and Alex Sanchez '15, production assistants; and Sarah Nelson '14 and Natalie Edelman '14, company interns.
The Enceladus Theatre Company is committed to presenting vivid, imaginative, and creative works of live theatre. We are passionate theatre artists determined to challenge audiences throughout the southern California region.
Enceladus Theatre Company is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. If you are interested in making a tax-deductible donation, volunteering time, or would simply like further information, call (562) 907-4833.


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Topic: Modelling pairs with named roles (e.g. Husband-Wife)
I was wondering if anyone here had experience, in Rails, of modeling pairs with named roles, such as "Husband" and "Wife" or "Leader" and "Follower" (the latter pair is what I'm working with in my dance application).
As far as I know there are two main design schools for this.
Named Column
So the table design would be
id, leader_id, follower_id, [+ anything else needed]
in this both leader/follower_id are foreign key links back to the People table.
Role Column
This method would typically require two tables
id, [any extra, possibly none]
id, couple_id, person_id, rolename, [any extra]
Where rolename would be either 'Leader' or 'Follower', etc (Or if you wanted, links to a look-up table/dynamic domain.
In the previous version of the application (PHP) I used the "Named Columns" approach. I'm re-impementing the application, not just porting it, so I'm not constrained by that. The first version makes queries of the form, get a list of all people registered slightly more cumbersome (ie either SELECT leader_id.... UNION follower_id or SELECT ... WHERE (peoplied=leader_id or peopleid=follower_id) etc) While the second form will require extra joins to re-assemble a particular couple. I've just about convinced myself that the performance implications are just about balanced -- when taking into account which queries are most used by back-end cron jobs and which are used by regular/admin users.
So the question really comes down to, is one of the two formulations more "Railish" or is there no real difference to rails? Is there another formulation I should be looking at? I was thinking that the second formulation, could be especially nice, if extra associations with conditions are added to simulate the first form at the application level, while still making it easy to express some of the "report" style queries.


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Never Settle for Less
May 23, 2012
After yet another dismal season, H&R Block presented a challenge: Motivate a skeptical, cost-conscious consumer to fire their current tax preparer and ask them to believe, instead, that with H&R Blocks expertise behind them, they stood a better chance to get more money back in their taxes.
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Vintage Terry Jacket
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