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Records and Information Management Perspectives
Part 1: Legislative and Legal Developments
Lee S. Strickland, J.D., is visiting professor in the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland. He can be reached by e-mail at email@example.com
Almost two years have passed since homeland security joined our national lexicon and became an issue of primary importance to Americans in general and information professionals in particular as we searched for solutions to meet this new challenge. Meanwhile, business and personal requirements for information continue to expand at a dynamic rate. As information professionals, we are most familiar with the theories and technologies by which information is stored, retrieved, analyzed, disseminated and archived. Yet, legal and policy developments can have an equal impact on information availability. Consider, for example, how information science and technology has created dynamic peer-to-peer information sharing, while legal and policy decisions may substantially limit the ultimate levels of use and benefit. In sum, these concomitant drivers technology and law suggest that we take a broad view of the critical information-centric issues facing our society and participate fully in the associated policy debates. This two-part article and three subsequent ones will survey the essential legal and policy issues in the areas of records and information management (RIM), intellectual property, privacy and national security, and, lastly, cybersecurity. We include with each article relevant recommendations as to sources of news and information for additional research and future developments.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act
If there was one positive development from the Enron debacle, it is the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act that brought major changes to corporate governance and corporate records management rules for publicly traded companies and public accounting firms. Here, in addition to creating the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board and requiring new levels of corporate responsibility through required accuracy, individualized certification and reporting, the act also establishes significant new records management (RM) law. It does this, in part, by creating a new law, 18 U.S.C. §1520, that requires any accountant who conducts an audit of a publicly traded company to maintain all audit or review working papers for five years from the end of the fiscal period in which the audit or review was concluded. Additional rules in this regard will come from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The act further establishes new records management law by creating tough new obstruction of justice criminal statutes that apply to any company, agency or individual and that address any form of direct or indirect destruction of records. Specifically, it creates another new criminal provision, 18 U.S.C. §1519, which prohibits (with penalties up to 20 years) any act to knowingly destroy, alter or falsify any document with the intent to impede, obstruct or influence the investigation or proper administration of any matter within the jurisdiction of any department or agency of the United States. It also amends the current obstruction of justice statute, 18 U.S.C. §1512; where previously the focus was corruptly persuading or forcing others, a new subsection (c) was added that addresses those who directly alter, destroy, mutilate or conceal a record with the intent to impair the objects integrity or availability for use in an official proceeding.
A Frequent Question Is How These Similar Sections Relate. The new §1519 is substantially broader than the original obstruction of justice law (§1512) available during the Enron and Arthur Anderson prosecutions. First, the new section applies to any matter within the cognizance of the federal government and not simply to official proceedings. And second, the new section provides for the lesser intent requirement of knowingly essentially that the activity was a conscious act whereas the original section has a requirement of corruptly meaning with a bad or evil purpose.
Other sections of note in Sarbanes-Oxley provide that attempts will be treated as harshly as actual crimes and that retaliation against informants can bring penalties of up to 10 years in prison. The bottom line, however, is that this new legislation is not the extent of new records management law. The law here will continue to be active and critical actions that heretofore may have caused difficulties in court will now clearly be criminal and/or result in substantial fine. By way of just one example, in December of 2002, five brokerage houses Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Salomon Smith Barney, and U.S. Bancorp paid Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) fines in excess of $8 million for records management violations. Specifically, the companies had ignored an SEC mandate that all e-mails be retained for three years with the first two years in a system that preserves accessibility and prevents destruction.
What we see today and tomorrow is that the SEC and the range of other regulatory bodies are actively promulgating new (or now enforcing old) RM requirements that will demand our attention. What is required is nothing less than a continuing effort at mapping an organizations records control schedule to current and emerging legal mandates.
Research and further information guide:
See www.cov.com/publications/297.PDF for a comprehensive summary of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act by the law firm of Covington & Burling (26 July 2002) and www.cov.com/publications/340.PDF for New Compliance Obligations Under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and Related SEC Regulations that identifies in table format the various provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and SEC rules and regulations adopted under that act.
Electronic Record Keeping Systems
Often referred to as ERKS or electronic records management (ERM) systems, such systems may conceptually be viewed as a composite system of hardware, software and management processes by which electronic records of a certain type (or all types) are created, filed, maintained and ultimately preserved or destroyed. Unfortunately, while simple in concept, many government agencies and many private businesses have failed to keep their records management processes in step with their development of electronic records. In practice, an ERKS system would consist of dedicated electronic storage, approved software for the creation of electronic documents, and necessary management processes that insure that e-documents, as they are created, are properly indexed, marked and filed. Additionally, such a system would also incorporate a series of future-looking rules and practices to insure that the e-documents created could be accessed over time, notwithstanding the natural degradation of physical media or the antiquation of hardware and software.
What Are the Essential Keys to ERKS Implementation? One essential key is the adoption of a comprehensive taxonomy for organizational records the rules by which the records of an entity are organized in a logical, functional, predictable manner. The second key is organizational discipline in the creation and storage of records in accordance with the adopted taxonomy a matter today that can be facilitated by a user interface with existing document creation software. The essence of this key is that any form of document creation includes the identification of necessary records management metadata and the independent, protected storage in accordance with the requisite records management schedule. A final key is the agreement on media and software standards for preservation although this issue should never delay the implementation of an ERKS since preservation is not an option but rather a legal mandate. In sum, an effective ERKS does not alter the required flow of information within a business it serves only, and largely behind the scenes, to preserve records for future use and archival preservation as required by law.
What Are the Difficulties in Implementing ERKS in Government and Private Industry? One is that some organizations have lacked the internal drive to impose the needed organizational discipline often until disaster strikes. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) learned in this regard and has made substantial improvements since the McVeigh debacle. Here, questions were raised about FBI records management when numerous field offices belatedly discovered a total of more than 3,100 pages of records that had failed to be disclosed as required by law to defense lawyers for Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. Subsequently, an inspector general's investigation blamed the missing document debacle on "antiquated and inefficient computer systems, inattention to information management and inadequate quality control systems."
FBI Director Robert Mueller responded by creating a Records Management Division and, with almost 1,000 employees, 22 units and five Senior Executive Service managers, it is the largest division in the FBI's headquarters in Washington, DC. In doing this, he has testified before a House committee that Records management is at the heart of the FBI's integrity as a law enforcement organization [and] we must be able to eliminate any doubt about the accuracy, completeness and fairness of our investigations." But in doing so, the director has acknowledged that the task will not be easy and that building a new records management system is not a unitary answer also stating to Congress that "every employee at the FBI will attend requisite, back-to-basics training that focuses extensively on proper document production, retrieval and management.
To implement this vision at the FBI, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) alumni William Hooton and Michael Miller are leading the FBIs new Records Management Division with necessary but daunting objectives: first, determine the scope and details of the FBIs records archives (estimated at more than a billion pages of largely paper-based information); second, convert that material to electronic, retrievable form (for example, scanning extant paper documents and manually tagging as necessary) and, third, build an electronic record-keeping system that agents can use from desktop computers to create and find records relevant to any given case. Their effort is exactly on the mark.
Another difficulty in implementing ERKS in the view of many familiar with the issue is that NARA has been slow to move forward with guidance and to approve agency schedules for electronic systems. In substantial part, the system ground to a halt with the Public Citizen v. Carlin litigation over General Record Schedule 20 that allowed for preservation of e-mail by printing out to paper a process ultimately deemed reasonable by the courts but hardly an aggressive step in the work of electronic records management. But in fairness, the lack of dynamic progress must be attributed in part to resource shortfalls at NARA as well as shortfalls in interest and resources at individual agencies. What is essential to progress is that senior management must uniformly recognize that records and information management is mission not overhead.
Further information on government-wide progress comes from the June 2002 General Accounting Office (GAO) report entitled Challenges in Managing and Preserving Electronic Records. It found that [t]he only real focus is printing e-records and perhaps less than 10% of the systems have this approach; everything else is at risk. And NARA does not disagree; it admits that the governments policies for preserving records remain focused on paper documents and that records management has not kept up with a federal government that creates and uses most of its records electronically. According to a July 2002 NARA report, a large majority of valuable electronic records never make it to the archival custody instead records that are essential to the government accumulate in office computers, reside in agency tape libraries and often are lost when systems are replaced or shut down. All of this and more is contained in that report a 46-page proposal for redesigning federal records management policy that places the focus on saving the most important e-documents "knowing that we simply don't have enough resources to deal with all of the records, according to Lewis Bellardo, U.S. deputy archivist.
Critics of the NARA approach, including the American Library Association and Public Citizen, suggest that the agency is overwhelmed and that the proposals offer little in terms of direct and concrete response to the problems facing government. Individual initiative, whether at federal agencies or private businesses will be the likely driver for success here in the coming year.
Research and further information guide:
For the final decision in Public Citizen v. Carlin, see 184 F.3d 900 (D.C. Cir. 1999); cert. denied, 529 U.S. 1003 (2000). The cited GAO report may be found at www.gao.gov/new.items/d02586.pdf and the NARA report at www.archives.gov/records_management/initiatives/rm_redesign.html. For a case study on one of the most significant current ERM efforts, go to www.nmciinfo.usmc.mil/ or the EDS contractor site at www.nmci-isf.com/ and consider the progress made to date on the Navy/Marine Corps Intranet. This effort builds on work by the FDIC with TRIM software and will ultimately serve 400,000 desktop PCs with a unitary repository and integrated records management, data management and workflow services. A prescient observation offered by the Navy CIO in this regard: Before ERM technology can be effectively implemented, it is necessary to address the cultural impact of an enterprise ERM solution.
An intrinsic element of records management in the government is the role and function of e-government the fastest growing medium by which records and information are maintained and made available to primary users. And it presents so many questions and so many different answers and approaches. Is the proper focus information or services or both? Should e-government have a cost-recovery model? What is the impact of the threat of cybercrime and terrorism? Are government agencies meeting the challenge as well as private enterprise?
At one level, the chilling anthrax-based terrorist attacks on the U.S. mail of October 2001 caused many to reconsider e-government, including specifically the need for new communications paradigms (such as Web-based) as paper-based communications and traditional government services were substantially impacted. We saw the U.S. Supreme Court, a classic mail and paper-centric business, effectively closed for many weeks as people scrambled for ad hoc solutions. We saw similar adverse effects at other businesses dependent on reliable mail service public utilities, mortgage holders and credit card issuers and for them there was little in the way of replacement services.
But we saw others, such as Senator Kennedy who had not perceived this specific threat but understood the value of e-government and business redundancy maintain services through a robust, redundant electronic information and communications processing system that prevailed over the U.S. Senate facilities closure. Since that time, in which four workers died from inhalation anthrax and an additional 13 developed various forms of the disease, there has been a slow but steady move to electronic services across the private and government spectrum. It is incumbent upon every information business to plan for redundancy in the delivery of services and communications with critical partners and customers.
But Are the Electronic Solutions Meeting the Requisite Need? The issue generally presented by each of these questions (including the challenge of terrorism) is simply that of performance. In August 2002 the PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) Foundation sponsored a detailed survey by California State University. It concluded that most sites remain hard to navigate and offer little more than the most basic elements of e-government; more specifically, it found that a few are exemplary (the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office is among the best) but that most lack a "thoughtful information architecture." It found that while most offer basic information and documents and elementary services such as employment information, only about half offered such useful items as downloadable forms, fewer still offered interactive forms and databases, and less than 13% offered e-commerce applications. Strikingly, the survey found that almost 90% failed to meet accessibility standards for people with disabilities despite the law in this regard.
To improve performance, agencies are called upon to solve both legal and technical challenges. While uncertainty as to legal requirements has bedeviled many eager implementers, the Department of Justice has issued excellent guidance to federal agencies with respect to implementing electronic government systems. The four keys in their opinion: availability (that is, the records persist and are accessible in an ERKS environment), legal sufficiency (for example, signatures), reliability (that is, integrity) and compliance with other laws (such as privacy or disability access).
Technical challenges on the other hand are often predicated more on cost efficiency than any other element. Here, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has the lead for e-government development and policy, and its February 2002 report on e-government strategies is well worth reading. More recently, OMB has embarked on supporting 24 separate initiatives at various agencies that have the potential for developing plug-and-play e-government components. It is an effort to watch although the GAO has offered some recent criticism on selection and accountability.
The final development of note in this arena is the E-Government Act of 2002. Lauded by many, it provides for funding and the creation of an e-government division at OMB, directs the Library of Congress to develop a national online library, requires the implementation of online court records (but with the Supreme Court to develop rules on privacy and security), requires Internet sites for federal agency rulemaking and docket information and makes permanent Congressional oversight of federal agency computer security.
But there is also criticism. Many believe that the act weakens the Federal Depository Library Program and that failure to provide guidance on electronic formats or to apply the act to Congress itself were significant errors.
Research and further information guide:
The PWC report can be found at www.endowment.pwcglobal.com/pdfs/StowersReport0802.pdf; the Department of Justice guide to electronic government systems is at www.cybercrime.gov/eprocess.htm; and the OMB report on e-government is at www.whitehouse.gov/omb/inforeg/egovstrategy.pdf.
The Cobell Litigation
If there is one litigation that should be in clear focus for every records and information manager in the government and in private industry and for every senior mission manager it is the Cobell civil action. Indeed, it is the quintessential object lesson for both information professionals and corporate managers in the importance of records management. Through multiple findings of contempt against cabinet secretaries and millions in fines and penalties, there are significant learnings: the critical role of records management in executing the direct mission of an agency, the equally critical role of RM in litigation and the fallacy that technology is a solution to pervasive data shortcomings.
The case a class action lawsuit filed on behalf of individual Native Americans in 1996 and continuing today is predicated on the government's alleged mismanagement of the Individual Indian Money (IIM) trust accounting system and is critical for information professionals to understand. At the heart of any trust litigation are financial records, and this case came to extensive public and media notice after the government failed for almost three years to respond to various discovery demands and exhausted the patience of the trial court after multiple efforts at compliance. By February of 1999 the matter was before the court on a motion to hold the heads of the defendant agencies (Treasury and Interior) in civil contempt of court. And the testimony of Paul Homan a former special trustee appointed by the President, whose specific task was to oversee and reform the trust system set the framework for the contempt hearing: The record-keeping system [for the IIM accounts] is the worst that I have seen in my entire life." Further, in his opinion, the Department of the Interior had become less, rather than more, responsive, due to repeated reorganizations. The trial court concluded that contempt was warranted from a combination of noncompliance, lack of good faith, cover-up and misconduct, noting The way in which the defendants have handled this litigation up to the commencement of the contempt trial is nothing short of a travesty. The result was findings of contempt against Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin, Interior Secretary Bruce E. Babbitt and Assistant Secretary Kevin E. Gover and an order for the government to pay $625,000 of the Indian's legal fees as a penalty. The censorious nature of the penalty and the language describing the defendants actions should speak clearly to every organization.
Yet, the matter did not end here since the February civil contempt proceeding had also concluded with the appointment of a special master to help oversee the production of documents. And, despite the clarity of the courts judgment, the defendants had additional bad news that was withheld specifically that in January it had come to the attention of senior department officials that some 162 boxes of relevant records had been destroyed, notwithstanding pending discovery motions and orders. But no mention of that destruction was made in February during the court proceedings nor afterwards until a letter on May 11, 1999, was delivered to the special master. The trial court immediately ordered an investigation that concluded with a detailed report adopted by the court on December 3, 1999, wherein the special master concluded that the destruction and notification delay stemmed from a lack of understanding of both records management and the obligations imposed by the courts various orders.
But things did not improve in the following months. First, on December 6, 2001, the judge forced the Department of the Interior to disconnect from the Internet as a result of a computer security test ordered by the court after allegations by the plaintiffs that the trust fund data was at risk not only internally but also by outside hackers. The Department was crippled from its inability to communicate internally among employees, to receive data from remote sensors and sites, and to disseminate information to government, business and private customers. And, second, on December 10, 2001, another contempt trial began now involving Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton and an assistant secretary for Indian Affairs. These charges centered on the failure to perform a historical accounting project, computer records failures and the filing of a false quarterly report on departmental progress.
The magnitude of the records problems was apparent in the testimony of Thomas M. Thompson, the deputy special trustee of the fund. He stated that when the court ordered the probate section of the trust fund resolved two years ago, the Interior Department thought there might be 7,000 backlogged cases; he now believes there may be 15,000 cases and even that number may be inaccurate. Contempt citations and the award of additional attorneys fees resulted on September 17, 2002 (estimated to be more than $1.5 million), and on February 5, 2003, the court ordered personal sanctions and fines against a number of government attorneys, including the chief of the Department of Justice Civil Division for attempting to cover up false statements and misrepresentations by the defendants. The bottom line is that despite (or irrespective of) the infusion of substantial sums for technology, the grasp on the data is little better today.
What Lessons Do These Troubling Facts and Draconian Results Present to Us as Information Professionals? First, they highlight once again that records are assets, not overhead, and that, as such, records management is a critical facet of asset management. Second, they serve as an example that the demands of law are becoming ever more central to the work of every records manager whether in government or private enterprise. Third, they confirm that information managers are key members of every litigation team without this requisite linkage, the best legal representation will be ineffectual. Lastly, they confirm that resolving compromised data remains a uniquely human effort.
Research and further information guide:
Relevant opinions are reported at 37 F.Supp.2d 6 (1999) (holding defendants Secretary of the Interior and Secretary of the Treasury in civil contempt of court for discovery abuse); 1999 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20918 (D.D.C. 3 December 1999) (adopting report of the special master as to additional discovery abuses including unlawful destruction of records), affirmed, 240 F.3d 1081 (D.C. Cir. 2001); and 226 F.Supp.2d 1 (D.D.C. 17 September 2002) (finding additional contempt).
In Part 2 of this article, we will turn to the policy debate over access to public information.
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Information Science and Technology


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Contact: AJ Freeney-Ruiz
Indianapolis, IN - - Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita today praises the arrests James A. Martin III, 38, and Anthony Pittman, 24, both of Greenwood and the filing of criminal charges against them by Johnson County Prosecutor Lance Hammer and Deputy Prosecutor for White Collar Crime Kathleen Hash. Investigators from Rokita's office assisted Detective Aaron Hagist of the Greenwood Police Department in the arrest, which has led to charges against both men.
Pittman faces a total of nine counts including six counts of theft punishable under the Indiana Loan Broker Act and possibility of serving twenty-seven years in prison if convicted on all counts. Martin currently faces two counts and a total of six years, however an ongoing investigation in Shelby County may lead to additional charges and if convicted he is eligible for an additional thirty years for being a habitual offender due to past convictions.
Martin and Pittman were arrested at approximately 6:30 Friday morning at the InTown Suites in Greenwood, IN where investigators from Rokita's Securities Division had tracked them. Martin and Pittman had warrants out for their arrest as a result of various schemes which resulted in more than $400,000 being taken from victims in New York, California, Florida, and Indiana. That money was taken through check schemes, illegal loan broker operations, illegal actions as a collection agency, and investment schemes over the last eighteen months.
"This case is a prime example of why we have our Prosecution Assistance Unit [PAU]," Rokita said. "These men represent an element of crime that is often difficult to investigate and prosecute. This successful cooperation on the part of all offices involved sends the message that Indiana will not stand by and let its citizens be victimized and that we will use every resource at our disposal to apprehend these offenders."
Rokita's office was brought in on the case after the state police, who originally received the complaints, realized the crimes were securities violations. The PAU will now work with Hash, who under Indiana law has authority to file criminal charges.
"Secretary Rokita's office was vital in bringing these individuals to justice," Greenwood Police Chief Joseph Pitcher said. "This was our first time working with the office and it was extremely helpful. The PAU was highly professional and extremely competent, and without their level of expertise the case would have been far more difficult to prosecute."
"I want to congratulate Prosecutor Hammer and his office as well as Deputy Prosecutor Hash for their hard work on this case. I am also proud of the work done by Securities Commissioner Wayne Davis, former Securities Commissioner James Joven, Kim Haskins and Charles Williams from our Prosecution Assistance Unit, and Greenwood Police Chief Joseph Pitcher," Rokita said. "I also want to specifically thank Detective Hagist who made the arrest."
The Prosecution Assistance Unit was created by Rokita and former Securities Commissioner James Joven in 2004 to further existing investigations and facilitate local law enforcement's prosecution of alleged Securities Act violations. The focus of the office is to assist state court prosecutors in an effort to work together at the courthouse and statehouse to root out this white collar crime.

subset: commoncrawl


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Bryan Cranston, who recently completed his run in the AMC drama series "Breaking Bad," will be taking his current stage role as President Lyndon Johnson to New York. The actor will appear in "All the Way," by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Robert Schenkkan, on Broadway later this season, but no opening date has been released.
Producer Jeffrey Richards made the announcement on Sunday. (Schenkkan had broken the news earlier via social media.) Cranston has been appearing in "All the Way" at the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Mass., where the sold-out run is set to close on Saturday.
The play depicts the early period of LBJ's presidency and his relationship with key political figures, including Martin Luther King Jr., J. Edgar Hoover and Sen. Richard Russell.
PHOTOS: Hollywood stars on stage
"All the Way" originated at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where it premiered in 2012 with a different cast. Bill Rauch, artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, will direct the Broadway transfer.
The play, which runs close to three hours, received mixed reviews for its A.R.T. run.
The production would mark Cranston's first time performing on Broadway. The Los Angeles native got his early start on the stage in regional theater in Southern California. In 1987, he received some strong notices for the play "The Steven Weed Show" at Theater/Theater in Hollywood.
Cranston returned to the stage in 2006 in a Geffen Playhouse production of Sam Shepard's "The God of Hell," which was directed by Jason Alexander.
Bryan Cranston plays LBJ onstage as 'Breaking Bad' ends
Bryan Cranston to take on LBJ in play by Robert Schenkkan
Bryan Cranston joins Annette Bening in 'It's a Wonderful Life'
PHOTOS: Hollywood stars on stage CHEAT SHEET: Spring arts preview 2014 PHOTOS: Arts and culture in pictures
PHOTOS: Hollywood stars on stage
CHEAT SHEET: Spring arts preview 2014
PHOTOS: Arts and culture in pictures


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In his new book, "Intellectual Morons," Daniel Flynn exposes the dangers of blindly following intellectual elites who support and promote idiotic ideas and theories. Chris Banescu, who recently wrote the review of the book, interviewed Flynn about the origins of the material and the impact its revelations will have on our culture.
Chris Banescu: What inspired you to write this book?
Daniel Flynn: My goal in writing Intellectual Morons is to get more people to think with their brain rather than their ideology. By exposing ideologically-inspired hoaxes and frauds, the book not only rebuts falsehood but helps immunize readers against future frauds and hoaxes by putting them on alert.
The phenomenon of intellectuals justifying dishonesty when it serves their agenda inspired me to write Intellectual Morons. As evidenced by the mottoes of countless universities (Yale: lex et veritas, Harvard: veritas), truth is (was?) the sine qua non of scholars. For too many intellectuals, political concerns now override truth.
Banescu: How did you select the "gurus" that you analyzed and exposed?
Flynn: The individuals discussed in the book all have massive cultural import, and have fallen for or propagated foolish ideas. Sex pervert Alfred Kinsey's reports helped launch the sexual revolution. The modern feminist movement began as a result of Betty Friedan's Feminine Mystique. Stalinist W.E.B. Du Bois finds his face on a U.S. postage stamp, his life the subject of two Pulitzer Prize-winning biographies, and his name gracing the tallest library in the world at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
According to one study, anti-American propagandist Noam Chomsky is the most cited living person in scholarly journals relating to social sciences and the humanities. Paul Ehrlich touted a coming environmental apocalypse and received foundation prizes and bequests well into the seven figures; appeared frequently on The Tonight Show, Today, and other widely watched television shows; and sold millions of books. Other movements and personalities discussed in the book have had similar impacts on the world of ideas.
Banescu: Which three intellectuals in your book do you think will be the hardest and take the longest to debunk?
Flynn: A lie is easier to counteract than an entire system that embraces dishonesty as an integral part of its program. Herbert Marcuse, Jacques Derrida, and Leo Strauss spawned intellectual movements that incorporate dishonesty as an endorsed method of discourse.
Herbert Marcuse, the guru of the New Left of the 1960s, waged war on language by renaming intolerance as tolerance, violence as nonviolence, and dictatorship as democracy. Marcuse's Newspeak led to the Left rationalizing censorship, acts of violence by radicals, and support of totalitarians like Castro or the Palestinian terrorists--all while claiming to advocate tolerance, non-violence, and democracy.
Jacques Derrida is the father of deconstructionism, which directs readers to ignore the intentions of authors and insert their own meaning into texts. This nonsense has expanded beyond literature into architecture, music, and scores of other fields.
Leo Strauss is the Right's deconstructionist. He saw the entire history of philosophy as a massive conspiracy theory, in which nearly all of the world's great thinkers--Plato, Machiavelli, Locke, etc.--dishonestly advanced one message suitable to the masses while encoding their real message "between the lines" to other wise men. Strauss purports to find these hidden messages by using a form of numerology, searching for implied contradictions, projecting special meaning on the first and last words of a text, and adding importance to passages in certain locations of a book. These crackpot methods have led to confusion rather than enlightenment.
Banescu: What can be done to counteract the influence these intellectual hypocrites have over the minds of the American people, especially on college campuses?
Flynn: Since the release of "Why the Left Hates America" in October of 2002, I've lectured at more than 70 schools across the United States through Young America's Foundation and the Leadership Institute's Campus Leadership Program, the outfit that I now direct. I probably would have sold more books had I focused on conservative audiences, but I would have made less of an impact.
Professors, textbooks, and guest lecture programs aren't going to fairly present conservative ideas to students. Conservatives need to do that themselves. More conservative leaders need to stop preaching to the choir and start going out to the campuses to make new converts. Conservative donors need to stop subsidizing liberal ideas by supporting their liberal alma maters, and start supporting the student groups on those campuses responsible for getting the conservative message out. More conservative students need to come out of hibernation and get active with the young conservatives who are already making a difference. Conservatives have already succeeded in bringing more balance to the media. It's time to put our dollars, time, and energy into doing more to bring intellectual balance to academia.
Banescu: How do you deal with those critics who seek to silence you, rather than to confront the actual issues you bring up?
Flynn: Attempts to shut me up have in effect resulted in the Left putting a megaphone rather than a muzzle in front of my mouth. Speaking at Berkeley a few years back, a mob shouted me down, an activist "mooned" me, and a group of thugs rounded up copies of my writings and held a Nazi-style book-burning. At Michigan State in 2003, a director of the building I was scheduled to speak in threatened me with arrest if I took the podium. Last year, spoiled rich kids at Connecticut College erupted in random shouts throughout my lecture, with one student standing in front of the podium for the duration of the speech to obscure the audience's view. In each of these cases, the actions of the Left backfired and resulted in more publicity and debate for the issues that I was raising.
Banescu: Does Dan Rather's forged memos fiasco provide even more support to your theory that ideology is more important than truth to this crowd?
Flynn: Rathergate is a microcosm of the main idea of this book, which is that ideology makes smart people fall for stupid ideas. Had Dan Rather and his underlings at CBS been motivated by getting at the truth rather than advancing a specific political agenda, they would have never fallen for the forged memos.
Banescu: As someone who has lived and suffered under the tyranny and insanity of communism, I am truly astounded by the passionate support for this deadly ideology displayed by many in academia, the mainstream media, and the Democratic party. How do you explain such complete ignorance of an ideology that is responsible for the enslavement of billions and the agonizing deaths of roughly 100 million people since its beginnings?
Flynn: Communism works perfectly in textbooks. Within nations, it doesn't operate so flawlessly. Since academics inhabit the theoretic world and not the practical world, it's unsurprising that they would embrace something that works in the former but not in the latter.
Communism promises heaven on earth. If you deluded yourself into believing that Communism could deliver on this bold guarantee, what would you do to empower Communists? Lies, oppression, and murder are a cheap price to pay, they believe, for earthly salvation. The road to heaven on earth always detours to hell.
Banescu: Ultimately, what kind of an impact do you think and hope your book will have on our culture, especially in the world of academia?
Flynn: The book is an antidote to postmodernism, cultural Marxism, and most of the other "isms" that pollute lecture halls on campus. Some people don't want the antidote. They prefer flattering lies to uncomfortable truths. For these people, the book will have no impact. For the openminded, the book will shatter myths and alert them to the negative role ideology plays in their own response to issues, ideas, events, and people.
Banescu: Are there any closing thoughts or remarks you would like to make in regards to your new book?
Flynn: "Intellectual Morons" breaks new ground in a number of areas. Specifically, all of Margaret Sanger's major biographers fail to mention her very detailed plan for American concentration camps housing millions. I do. None of Alfred Kinsey's biographers even bothers to interview one of Kinsey's child victims. I do. The book contains a lot of important information, but it's a fun read geared toward all readers and not a tiny coterie of academics. I spent several years of my life writing this book. I'm excited that tens of thousands of people will spend several days of their lives reading it.
Chris Banescu is an attorney, entrepreneur, and university professor. His business, ethics, and management articles and podcasts can be found on www.ChrisBanescu.com. He is a regular contributor to OrthodoxyToday.org, manages the conservative site www.OrthodoxNet.com, writes articles, and has given talks and conducted seminars on a variety of business and management topics. He has also written book reviews for Townhall.com and articles for Acton.org.
Read this article on the Town Hall website. Reprinted with permission of the author.


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Mayank Shekhar's round-up 2011: Best and worst movies
Drain Inspector's Report: We pick good gunk from bad gunk to reveal the best of the worst films of the year! Also presenting trophies to the best movies of the year.bollywood Updated: Dec 30, 2011 19:41 IST
As with all art, I suppose, there's no such thing as a good or bad film. There are films that affect you, others that don't. Some can blow your mind. The ones below did mine. They deserve awards, except no one will care to roll out red carpets for them next year. We humbly oblige. Presenting then the 10 films of 2011 that topped from the bottom of our brains. These were movies so bad they turned out to be beyond good:
About 75 per cent of the movie, in flashback, is a picture called Ankhiyon Ke Jharokhon Se, a 1978 Bollywood version of Eric Segal's Love Story. The rest is set in the present; here the hero meets another girl, who looks the same as his dead girlfriend. You begin to see in twos: actor Sachin at 21 in his frizzy curls; Sachin at 54 in what looks like a wig. Heroine Ranjeeta, with a hennaed fringe, scary eyelashes, in a sari; a much younger Ranjeeta as Lily in shirts and skirts. Your grandmom and your girlfriend on either side in the theatre: One leaves humming the melodious bhajan type romantic number, Ankhiyon Ke Jharokon Se; the other goes home with a worrying headache. This is classic mild. Smoke it.
Stranger than fiction: Tarique and Sahil Seth's A Strange Love Story
The heroine's a screechy nymphet. After her mom died, her dad ran away with a girl her age. This is why, she says, she smokes a lot of cigarettes! She is now being followed around by "jinnaat" (plural for genie). You see, the world is divided between humans and animals. And then there's another species called — "ek aur specie jinko kehte hain" — Jinnaat. You either believe her, or shudder in disbelief: effect's the same.
So far we've met a Christian priest and a horny Hindu Godman "Jai Mahakaal". Finally, we're at a Muslim Baba Mustafa's den. Devotees are in a state of trance. The usher plays football in a field where you can no see no other players. The ball gets passed around still, from one corner to another. The teams are invisible. A goal gets scored, because one of the unseen players, the goalkeeper, is apparently away.... That's it. You need no more proof. This underground genie stuff is work of sheer genius. Try this at home, under medical supervision, of course.
Turd Reich: Rakesh Kumar's Gandhi To Hitler
"Dr Goebbels ko bulao," Adolf Hitler yells. "Bulao" (bring 'em on), you say (in your head). Given 'Mungeri Lal' Raghuveer Yadav is Hitler in blue contact lenses, you wonder if 'Dr Dang' or 'Gabbar' will land up for Dr Goebbels. It's an Andheri actor all right. Naseer (pedophile from movie Page 3) plays architect Albert Speer. He shakes his head when Hitler commands, "Yeh saare pull uda do (blow up all the bridges)." Uda do.
The stage's set. This is a fabulous fancy dress show. What do the characters — Gandhi, Hitler, Aman Verma — have to do with each other? Doesn't matter. The filmmakers find enough in this time-space continuum to break into an upbeat Holi song and a couple of good quality ghazals.
Hitler's nervous. Towards the end, his body shakes like he's getting epileptic fits. His partner, Eva Braun, that's Neha Dhupia, says, "Some music, my Fuehrer? Main aapko aisa nahin dekh sakti (I can't see you like this)." "Theek hai," says Hitler. "Kuch acchha sa laga do! (Put on something interesting)." Put it on, the movie's DVD. Right now.
Boman Irani is front-runner to the prime minister's post in Thailand. Abhishek Bachchan is a casino owner in Istanbul. Jimmy Shergill is a Bollywood superstar. Anupam Kher is a billionaire with a private island, who calls all these assorted guys over, hosts them for a night, so they can murder him! Investigation starts.
Kangana Ranaut is the world's top-most detective, whose sleuths are connected with close circuit cameras and under-cover cops everywhere, from the streets of Greece, Thailand to the pandu hawaldar in Andheri police station. Background score is an indoor concert. What more do you want? Let the game begin!
Dam and dumber: Sohan Roy's Dam 999
Couple looks at a river embankment. "You remember this dam?" hero asks. "They're holding pressure like us!" Audience laughs. The woman with a perpetually constipated expression on her face had been dating the hero since childhood. Their horoscopes didn't match. Once they'd held hands, a family member passed away.
Billions of bilious blue blistering barnacles, imagine what would happen if they were to make out. So you know what happens next. This is a disaster movie. But nobody could have prepared you for Ayurvedic massages, astrology mumbo-jumbo and a Brit gent, who could be mayor in contemporary, communist, Godless Kerala.
You do look inwards, given the film's Vedic philosophy, and finally wonder, "What's this heavy helmet resting on the bridge of my nose? Is this a 3D movie?" Yup. Uncles at the Academy heard its soundtrack, nominated it for the Oscars. They should've seen the film. They would've loved it far more. You will too.
Going ding ding: Puneet Issar's I Am Singh
Appalling Americans murder and beat the hell out of Sikhs after 9/11, confusing them for Afghans and Arabs. One after another, the movie provides us with Aaj Tak type TV recreations of various hate crimes against Sikhs, from Arizona to California. What does the hero do? To start with, he wakes up the sleeping Sikh patriot within him, imagines warriors holding up swords, marching to medieval battlefronts, fire lighting up the line of defense, as an angry bird casts its shadow on the troops.
After this, he goes to fight his case in an American court! White skinheads growl. Officers from the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) turn out to be terribly rude, racist, incompetent, and even worse actors. The film's director, Puneet Issar, best known for injuring Amitabh Bachchan on the sets of Coolie (in 1982) walks on to the screen, chanting in his inimitably croaky voice, "I'll be the victaar in the turban case."
This Sikh character was suspended from LAPD because of his turban. He should be commissioned again, right away, you plead. Send him back to the cops, please. Just lower the volume while you enjoy his flick though.
Salacious, hilarious: Sushen Bhatnagar's Monica
We're in New Delhi, the nation's corrupt capital, where literally everyone's in bed with the other, if not with Monica. Sex is no bar. Pamelaji, for instance, is a catty industrialist. Pammi aunty also strokes Monica's bare back as they tuck themselves into a satin bed cover. Monica's also bedding the telecom minister.
She used to cover universities for a local newspaper in Lucknow once. By now, she is a special correspondent, no less, from a "mamuli (ordinary) sub-reporter," the filmmakers suggest. They probably mean a cub reporter, or a sub-editor.
She can become associate editor if she listens to her boss, who has no control over what she publishes as front-page lead stories in the paper he edits!
Heroine's on the run. Minister, editor send out goons to hunt her down. Filmies in Bombay find their lives misrepresented in the press. If this film is any indication of what journalism could be like, God save the news. You mustn't deny yourself this precious education still; this tragicomedy comes strongly recommended.
Deliriously dumb maal: Indra Kumar's Double Dhamaal
Javed Jaffery plays a UD (under-developed) man-child Manav here, as he did in Dhamaal. He ups the act further in this sequel, changing his costume, hamming it up as a moronic kid with Mickey Mouse hair, besides other mimicries.
The other three actors (Riteish Deshmukh, Ashish Chaudhary, Arshad Warsi), Manav's buddies, double or quadruple up their parts, non-stop for over a couple of hours, impersonating everything from a fake gorilla making out with a real one; a black-polished Caribbean lover-boy in a huge Afro; a Gujarati businessman with weird teeth; Sikh security guard getting his Punjabi right; Spanish prostitute with massive cleavage.
When they're in their own character, relatively normal selves, they're supposed to sound like Shatrughan Sinha, Shah Rukh Khan, Sanjeev Kumar. What for, but? Frankly, I don't know. I don't think they asked either.
The sort of public embarrassment Indian actors endure for our entertainment's sake; they should be entitled to a gallantry award. Come on, the least we can do is watch them.
Uncomfortable on screen, untrained performers off it, casually low on body movements, high on screen time; mostly given to monosyllables and mono-expressions.
One (Chirag) is a blue-eyed boy of a Bihari politician (Ram Vilas Paswan); literally, unless those are blue contact lenses in his eyes.
The other (Sunil Joshi) is the son of a major Gutka baron: cute, chubby faced hero, with a smart stubble, shaven chest, hairy back, he loves bazookas, car chases, mortal combat, rock-climbing, globe-trotting, Hollywood blockbusters and a Playboy Playmate (Candice Boucher).
Both leading men have built their bodies, perhaps learnt a dance step or two. Crores have been spent to turn them into super-stars. Surely you can spend Rs 100 or two to watch such corny moments of movie history. What, you're looking for stories instead? Go read a book.
Salman Khan (Bodyguard, Ready) was the top performer in Bollywood of 2011. Let alone that terrible news. Here's the good one: there's a whole world within striking distance from where you can hear cash registers ringing incessantly, and the movie that's killing it at the box-office is neither a Southern remake nor being panned by reviewers.
This was the year when critical acclaim, in a lot of cases, simultaneously spelt commercial success. In case you missed these films, you can watch them on DVD, many years later as well, which is what counts for more than a first weekend's collections. Here's my list of the top 10 of '11:
1. Zoya Akhtar's Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara
Heartrending yet hilarious, expansive, still intimate, this is an urbane bromance that, like its predecessor Dil Chahta Hai, will pass the test of time. Easily the best 'mainstream, commercial' film of the year.
2. Abhinay Deo's Delhi Belly
At once outrageous and outstanding, this picture proved that crass toilet humour, served with such no-holds-barred sense of purpose, can be loved and appreciated for its honesty still. Full respect.
3. Kiran Rao's Dhobi Ghat
Calm, lyrical, expressive, minimalist: all of it in about 90 minutes, paying tribute to a city where classes merge into a common river of sorrow, beauty and hope. We remain unaware of how each of us affects the other every day. If you're conscious, this film's subtlety will touch you for sure.
4. Tigmanshu Dhulia's Sahib Biwi Aur Gangster
Punk chauffeur, scheming wife, credulous landlord, and a page-turner script set in Middle India that has a twist waiting for you at every corner. This Macbeth-like tragedy reminds you less of Guru Dutt's Sahib Biwi Aur Ghulam, more of Vishal Bhardwaj's Maqbool. What better compliment to pay.
5. Imtiaz Ali's Rockstar
In a word, this movie displayed, beyond doubt, Bollywood has an altogether new rockstar now. In time-honoured tradition, if it's not a Khan or Kumar, it's a Kapoor!
6. Shoaib Mansoor's Mansoor Bol
This Urdu gem's poetic enough in its dialogue to make you feel like you're at a mushaira. Screenplay is a literary tour de force, almost like an accomplished novel, set in contemporary, apolitical side of Pakistan. Performances, especially of the flawed old Hakeem (Manzar Sehbai), remain unmatched. Truly, super bol, this.
7. Krishna DK and Raj Nidimoru's Shor In The City
Very Guy Ritchie in its goofiness, completely Mumbai in its chaos, this richly textured, inspiringly cast, stream of consciousness plays along with several stories meeting on Ganesh Chaturthi. I suspect if Suketu Mehta's stupendous Maximum City was a film, it'd come close to this.
8. Rajkumar Gupta's No One Killed Jessica / Milan Luthria's The Dirty Picture / Anand Rai's Tanu Weds Manu
Semi-realistic, hugely entertaining, smartly original: girl-power galore. I guess if the vane super-stars continue to play themselves on screen, it's the ladies who must take the lead. Audiences thankfully approve.
9. Amole Gupte's Stanley Ka Dabba / Sanjeevan Lal's Bubble Gum / Nila Panda's I Am Kalam
Child is clearly the father of (the leading) man, the mentioned movies showed this well: each of them truthful at heart, sorted in the head, deeply evocative, marvelously inspired.
10. Sudhir Mishra's Yeh Saali Zindagi / Prawal Raman's 404
Both thrillers: one, slightly Dickensian, the other, super-natural. Tension is at once withheld, and released, and withheld again. So is the suspense. As they say, on the whole (ah, I love, on the whole), neither disappoints!
First Published: Dec 30, 2011 11:49 IST


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Physics News
Physics graduate student Jared Buckley's research published in International Conference on Scientific Computing
Jared Buckley has just published a research paper in the peer-reviewed, International Conference on Scientific Computing that will be held in July 2014 in Las Vegas. His paper is titled "Parallel Scaling Performance and Higher-Order Methods" and it clearly demonstrates that under certain conditions, higher-order numerical methods exhibit performance challenges on a parallel supercomputer and therefore offer limited benefits for solving differential equations that commonly appear in physics problems. This work was funded by the National Science Foundation, and was supervised by Prof. Khanna, who is also a co-author on the published paper.
Jared Buckley joined the Physics Department at UMass Dartmouth as a Masters student in Spring semester 2014 upon graduating from Bridgewater State University. Jared's research interests are in the area of Ocean Physics and he will work on his dissertation with Prof. Tandon over the next year.
Physics Department's Prof. Khanna receives funding from the Department of Defense
Prof. Gaurav Khanna has received research funding for a short-term project from the US Department of Defense's High-Performance Computing PETTT program that will extend from March - August 2014. The project is titled "High-Precision (64-bit and higher) Floating-Point Operations using Hardware Single-Precision (32-bit) Operations" and has a total budget of $43K over the 6-month period. The goal of this PETTT project is to develop and evaluate a software approach towards double- (64-bit) and quadruple- (128-bit) precision floating-point numerical computation on modern commodity processors such as multi-core CPUs and many-core GPUs. The rationale being that such an approach may offer higher cost-effectiveness and the possibility of performing numerical computations with a level of precision beyond the industry standard. Physics student, Ed McClain will assist Prof. Khanna on this research and will be supported through this grant over the summer months.
Physics Department's Prof. Khanna receives funding from the National Science Foundation
Prof. Gaurav Khanna has been awarded a continuing National Science Foundation grant with a total budget of $90K over 2 years, starting September 1st, 2014. The project is titled "An Evaluation of Video-Gaming Technologies for Scientific High-Performance Computing in Gravitational Physics" and it supports Prof. Khanna's long-term research program on the potential of gaming technologies like the Sony PlayStation and consumer video-cards for cost-effective high-performance scientific computing. These technologies will be utilized to support research in the areas of black holes physics and pulsar searches.


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False Bay Hope Spot
False Bay Conservation
False Bay Hope Spot stretches from Cape Point to Cape Hangklip and is rich in biodiversity and has a wealth of diverse cultural and social history. The bay is important because of its fisheries and the many people in the area who depend on the sea for their livelihoods, particularly those involved in tourism.
Because of the pressures on False Bay and the tendency to sometimes pollute it the Hope Spot initiative opens exciting possibilities to help improve both the False Bay environment and economy of the area.


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Posted by on April 13, 2011
The legislation, introduced by Insurance, Housing and Community Opportunity Subcommittee Chairman Judy Biggert, enhances the authority of FHFA's Inspector General and expands reporting requirements to Congress.
On April 6, 2011, the Capital Markets Subcommittee approved H.R. 31 on a voice vote.
Posted by on April 13, 2011
For years, the Federal government used the GSEs to make homeownership available to people who posed a greater credit risk and would not have otherwise been able to obtain mortgage credit. GSE-manufactured demand boosted home prices to artificially high levels and fostered enthusiasm for the wave of exotic mortgage products that began to flood the market. In light of the risks created by requiring the GSEs to promote affordable homeownership, this bill repeals the GSEs' affordable housing goals. The legislation is sponsored by Rep. Ed Royce.
On April 6, 2011 the Capital Markets Subcommittee approved H.R. 1226 on a voice vote.
Posted by on April 13, 2011
The legislation, introduced by Rep. David Schweikert, prohibits the GSEs from offering, undertaking, transacting, conducting or engaging in any new business activities while in conservatorship or receivership. This restriction will reduce Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's market dominance and limit their size.
On April 6, 2011, the Capital Markets Subcommittee approved H.R. 1227 on a voice vote.
Posted by on April 13, 2011
The Small Company Capital Formation Act encourages small companies to access the capital markets — allowing them to invest and hire employees. The legislation increases the offering threshold for companies exempted from SEC registration under SEC Regulation A from $5 million — the threshold set in the early 1990s — to $50 million. The SEC has the authority to raise this threshold but has not done so for almost two decades. The bill is spnsored by Representative David Schweikert.
Posted by on April 11, 2011
The legislation, introduced by Rep. Steve Pearce, requires the Treasury Department to approve any new debt issuance by the GSEs. If Treasury approves a debt issuance, it must explain and justify its decision to Congress and the FHFA within seven days. The legislation limits the amount of GSE risk taking.
H.R. 1225 was approved on a vote of 18-0-1 by the Capital Markets Subcommittee on April 6, 2011.
Posted by on February 28, 2011
H.R. 830, The FHA Refinance Program Termination Act:
H.R. 830, introduced by Rep. Robert Dold (R-IL) on February 28th, terminates the FHA Refinance Program and protects taxpayers from having $8 billion of their money from being spent on this ineffective program.
Click here to view a copy of the legislation.


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On the day of the 2010 NHL draft, the Canucks, already bereft of their 2nd and 3rd round picks – which, they'd used to acquire Steve Bernier and Andrew Alberts respectively – traded Michael Grabner, Steve Bernier, and their first round pick (Joey Hishon) for Keith Ballard and Victor Oreskovich. As a result, the team didn't pick until the fourth round, when they used the 115th pick to select gifted offensive defenseman Patrick McNally from Milton – a prep-school in Massachusetts.
Patrick McNally was coming off a solid junior season in which he recorded fourteen goals, thirty-five points, and was named New England Prep School's Defenseman of the year. For the 2010/11 season, McNally opted to stay in school, as opposed to joining the USHL, and captained Milton to the school's first ever New England Prep-School championship. Along the way he scored twenty-two goals and put up fifty one assists against inferior competition, scoring a hat-trick in the semi-final after his team dug themselves an early deficit. I asked all around bad-ass dude Kirk Luedeke – a prospects writer for the New York and New England Hockey Journal – for his general impressions of Patrick McNally's play and leadership ability, here's what Kirk had to say:
"McNally wore the 'C' at Milton, so he had a clearly defined leadership role from coach Paul Cannata. He certainly carried the offensive play, but at times was pretty reckless and undisciplined in terms of his decisions to rush the puck as opposed to making the simple play. That said, his team went all the way, so things worked out well for him. He never really struck me as a player who exerted his leadership on- or off the ice, but he was certainly a productive player for the Mustangs. And, he captained them to a prep championship. So, I would say mission accomplished."
McNally will join the Harvard Crimson this upcoming season – we all know Gillis likes his players smart. McNally should play a modest role at even-strength and get some prime powerplay time. Dave Gagner said at Canucks prospect camp that Crimson head-coach and former NHLer Ted Donato plans on using McNally as a "top power-play guy" in McNally's NCAA rookie season, and on giving the defenseman some freedom to rush the puck. Gagner also compared McNally's puck-rushing skills to Brian Campbell and Duncan Keith, which, is (absurdly?) high praise.
In the absence of any NHL equivalency numbers for New England prep-hockey, I decided to compare McNally's senior year offensive production with other Massachusetts Prep-School players who've made the NHL (or been recently drafted). Some Massachusetts Prep-School products include: Hal Gill, Paul Mara, Tom Poti, Ryan Whitney and Zach Bogosian. When I crunched the numbers, however, I realized I should probably restrict my comparison to the last ten years, because the numbers in the early and mid 90s were hilarious. Poti, for example, had two straight seventy point seasons (playing less than thirty games) from the blueline, and Hal Gill scored 25! goals in 20 games in 1993. I also threw out Whitney and Bogosian because they left the Prep-School system before their senior years. That left me with the following six players: ECHL/AHLer Anthony Aiello, Mark Fayne of the Devils, Patrick McNally, AHLer Noah Welch, Phoenix Coyotes All-Star Keith Yandle, and Colorado Avalanche prospect Gus Young. Here's how these six defenseman performed offensively in their senior years:
|Anthony Aiello
|Mark Fayne
|Patrick McNally
|Noah Welch
|Keith Yandle
|Gus Young
Obviously that's the sort of production one wants to see as a Canucks fan, but, let's not get too excited here. First of all, McNally is clearly an extremely talented offensive defenseman – but Yandle is a singular talent. It's highly unlikely that McNally will ever match Yandle's quality of play in the NHL. Secondly, McNally is going to the NCAA next season. Yandle on the other hand, went directly from high-school to Moncton where he put up 80 points, won the QMJHL title and was named the leagues best defenseman in his first season. Still, I'm a giddy homer, so I decided to ask Kirk about the Yandle comparison in particular:
Yandle isn't a bad comparison for McNally, but to Yandle's credit, he's come a long way defensively from what he was in prep- he's learned to do a lot of the little things that he wasn't asked to do at Cushing because he was such a dangerous puck rusher/offensive contributor. McNally possess the requisite skill to lead the rush and take some chances, but he did do a lot of free-wheeling. That kind of thing worked for him at the prep level, but won't at higher levels. He's got the tools, but he's going to have to rein it in a bit and not be the kind of go-go-go player on offense all the time. He's got some legitimate upside, but he's raw because of the competition level and has a lot of developing to do. Like most guys coming out of prep, he's on a longer-term projection and glidepath for the NHL, but he has the talent to become a player eventually.
Having read that, and looked at the numbers, it seems to me that McNally may ultimately have a higher ceiling than the likes of Ryan Parent or Adam Polasek. Certainly the package of speed, size and production that McNally brings looks promising, but how he develops over the next couple years at Harvard will determine whether or not he ends up being a steal for the Canucks.


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Who is the guardian for marriage if there is no father?
I married a woman from an Islamic country, I divorced her twice. We had an 'urfi marriage, customary marriage that is not lawfully registered. Her wali was a sheikh her father entrusted. Her father died some time ago, and all her brothers are younger than her. I do not know her wali. I want her to be my wife again, after two years apart as result of divorce. Does she have to have a wali for our marriage to take place, knowing that her father has passed away and all her brothers are younger than her? Is it correct Islamically if I marry her without wali attending, especially that she was my wife before?.
If a man divorces his wife and the 'iddah ends, then she is not permissible for him unless there is a new marriage contract, and the wali is one of the conditions of the marriage contract being valid, so marriage is not valid without a wali.
Ibn Qudaamah (may Allaah have mercy on him) said in al-Mughni (7/5): Marriage is not valid without a wali, and a woman cannot do the marriage contract for herself or for anyone else, or appoint anyone other than her wali to do her marriage. If she does that, the marriage is not valid. End quote.
The evidence for that is the words of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him): "There is no marriage except with a wali." Narrated by Abu Dawood (2085) and al-Tirmidhi (1101); classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in Saheeh al-Tirmidhi.
As you divorced this woman two years ago, her 'iddah is over, and after the 'iddah ends, the ex-husband is a stranger to her like all other men. So she is not permissible to you except with a new marriage contract, and it essential that her wali do this marriage contract, or her wali appoint someone to do the marriage contract with her for you.
If there is no father, then the grandfather is the wali. If there is no grandfather then her brothers are her walis, and it is does not matter if they are younger than her, but it is essential that the wali be an adult. If one of her brothers is an adult then he is her wali, even if he is younger than her.
It says in Fataawa al-Lajnah al-Daa'imah (18/147):
No one can act as a wali for a woman's marriage contract except one who is an adult of sound mind. If there is no such person then the qaadi (judge) is the wali, because the ruler is the wali of the one who has no wali, and the qaadi is his deputy in such matters. Adulthood is achieved when a person emits maniy with desire, whether as the result of a wet dream or otherwise, or when hair grows around the private part, or when one reaches the age of fifteen. The one who is of sound mind is the one who handles matters well, by seeking a compatible suitor who is appropriate for the female under his care. End quote.
If all her brothers are minors, and none of them is an adult, then the role of wali passes to those who come next, namely the paternal uncles. If there are no paternal uncles then it passes to the sons of the paternal uncles (cousins).
If none of these walis are present, then the shar'i judge should act as wali for her marriage, because the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: "If they dispute, then the ruler is the guardian of the one who has no guardian." Narrated by Abu Dawood (2083) and al-Tirmidhi (1102); classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in Saheeh Abi Dawood.
Based on that, if you want to marry this woman and she does not have any wali, then you must refer to the shar'i qaadi in the court so that he may act as the wali for her marriage.
Note: You say that your first marriage was done without any official registration. Even though it is valid if it meets all the conditions – because it is not a condition of a marriage contract being valid that it be registered officially – we should point out that it is important to register marriages, and we advise people not to take this matter lightly, so as to protect people's rights and so that foolish men and women will not toy with the matter of marriage contracts.
And Allaah knows best.


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Revival's and remakes are often a mixed bag.
I mean, there was no reason to remake "The Karate Kid" – a timeless underdog tale that still holds up – but someone still attempted to cash in. In the case of Brian Rolston's return to the Bruins, the results were mixed and the team befell the same conclusion.
Before Rolston left for richer pastures, Boston lost in the first round to Montreal. After he was picked up at the 2012 trade deadline, the Bruins lost to Washington in the first round. He was a bigger part of the cast back in 2004, but in Boston's balanced forward corps there was still opportunity for Rolston to contribute.
Once thought of as an extra forward, Rolston was forced to play a bigger role and actually got a hot hand for several weeks down the stretch. While he wasn't too bad of a liability in the defensive zone, he didn't give the power play a necessary lift.
If Rolston wants to continue his playing career, someone will look at his 15 points with Boston and give him a shot. The Bruins aren't likely to be that team, though.
Regular season: With Boston, 21 GP, 3-12-15, plus-7+
Playoffs: 7 GP, 1-2-3, minus-2
Contract status: UFA 2012
Regular season recap
Highlight: The Bruins love to stick it to Toronto. On March 19 at TD Garden, the Bruins routed the Maple Leafs, 8-0, and Rolston erupted for a goal and three assists. He was plus-4 in just 14:36 of ice time. The four-point night was part of a seven-game points streak for the veteran forward.
Lowlight: It took Rolston nine games after he returned to the Bruins to score a goal and he only recorded one assist over that span that it took him to get used to being back with Boston.
Playoff recap: Rolston and the rest of Boston's third line held their own against the Capitals. Disappointingly he was on the ice for Joel Ward's series-clinching goal.
Grade: B. In addition to contributing more than anyone expected from him offensively, Rolston was a solid dressing-room presence. Still would've liked to see him cash in on the power play a couple more times.
Carnac predicts … Rolston will turn 40 next season, but he'll have a job somewhere if he's willing to keep on playing for somewhere in the $1 to $2 million range.


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14.22 acres of lakefront land perfect for a dream home!
† Excluded Feature
0 Crestline Dr, Upatoi, GA, 31829 is a Lots and Land for sale at $125,000 with a lot size of 14.22 Acre(s). 0 Crestline Dr has 0.0 baths. The property's zip code is 31829 which is in Upatoi, GA
Based on 20.00 % down and a 4.13 % financing rate
Includes Mortage, Insurance, and Tax payments
Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
The data relating to real estate for sale on this web site comes in part from the Broker Reciprocity Program of Georgia
MLS. Real estate listings held by brokerage firms other than Weichert's are marked with the Broker Reciprocity logo and
detailed information about them includes the name of the listing brokers.
Copyright 2018 Georgia MLS. All rights reserved
Financial calculator disclaimer:
Default based on a 30-year fixed rate of 4.125% with 20% down. The estimated payment is offered for convenience and is not an offer of credit. Due to market fluctuations, interest rates are subject to change at any time and without notice. Your individual rate may vary. Rates may differ for FHA, VA or jumbo loans.


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MILWAUKEE—After announcing that his campaign for the U.S. Senate was broke following a contentious Republican primary campaign, Tommy Thompson said Wednesday he has raised more than $2 million in the six weeks since and expects to have enough cash on hand to be competitive with Democratic challenger Tammy Baldwin.
Thompson revealed his fundraising totals to The Associated Press following a campaign stop Wednesday. Both he and Baldwin by Monday must report their totals for the three-month period that ran through the end of September.
Polls show they are locked in a tight race for Wisconsin's open Senate seat caused by the retirement of Democratic Sen. Herb Kohl. The Nov. 6 election is less than four weeks away. Both Thompson and Baldwin, as well as outside groups supporting them, have been blanketing the airwaves with millions of dollars in ads.
However, immediately following the Aug. 14 primary Thompson and his allies were outgunned on television 3-to-1 by Baldwin backers, based on analysis by Kantar Media CMAG, a Washington, D.C., firm that tracks political ads.
That helped Baldwin go from being down 9 points in a Marquette University poll done in August to being up by 9 in September. The most recent poll, released last week, showed Baldwin ahead by 4 points.
Baldwin's spokesman John Kraus said she would release her latest fundraising totals on Monday.
Thompson said fundraising since the primary has been "exceptional."
"I feel very good about the resources we have and we will be competitive," he said after speaking at the 105th anniversary celebration at Busch Precision in Milwaukee.
Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan was scheduled to be in Milwaukee on Sunday to host a fundraiser for Thompson. Thompson said he did not know how much money would be raised at that event, but last week Ryan brought in $2.8 million for the presidential race at a similar event also in Milwaukee.
Thompson said Ryan, the congressman from Janesville, told him he was not doing fundraisers for any other candidate.
"I'm the only one," said Thompson, the former four-term governor.
Thompson, 70, served as governor from 1987 until 2001 when he left to become U.S. health secretary under President George W. Bush. He left government in 2005. Ryan, 42, was first elected to Congress representing a southern Wisconsin district in 1998, the last time Thompson was elected governor.
Baldwin, 50, also was elected to Congress representing the Madison area in 1998.
The same polls that show Thompson and Baldwin locked in a tight race have shown President Barack Obama with a double-digit lead in Wisconsin. However, those were conducted before Obama's debate last week with Romney, which Republicans have touted as a positive turning point for them in the race.
Thompson said he wasn't viewing his race in the context of how well Romney does in Wisconsin.
"I don't think you can ever depend on anybody else," he said. "I have to win this race myself. … I'm hoping I can with enough to help Romney win Wisconsin."


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With the Bruins making it official today that center Gregory Campbell has signed a three-year deal with the club and fellow pivot Chris Kelly has reached an agreement in principle on a four-year deal with the team, Boston now has 12 forwards who played a major role on last year's team under contract for the 2012-13 season.
Only Benoit Pouliot (RFA) and Brian Rolston (UFA) aren't in the mix with less than three weeks remaining until the start of free agency.
While the Bruins' current roster makeup might make one think general manager Peter Chiarelli has changed his mind since he declared in early May that he wanted to add a top-nine forward, he doesn't see it that way. He's just setting himself up for a scenario where he's not able to add the player he wants.
"I feel really good with our lineup right now," Chiarelli said during a conference call about Campbell and Kelly Wednesday. "To add a player like I talked about still isn't out of the realm of possibilities. It gives me a lot of flexibility going into the free agency. But this is as solid a forward group as you could get. So if we do nothing, that's fine. But if something comes across that looks attractive and we have to look at it, we'll certainly look at it."