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Told by Tommy Carden
Written by Roy Peter Clark
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 14, 2001
First of two parts
It has become for him an image of hope and longing, loss and regret, and more than anything, a bittersweet reminder of what might have been.
That feeling is captured in an old song. Sung in a crisp tenor vibrato, it echoes through the rafters of an elegant school building by the bay: "So be sure it's true . . . when you say "I love you' . . . It's a sin to tell a lie." It is the voice of Tommy Carden, the night watchman.
Even in his uniform, he is an unassuming figure, limping behind a metal cart to compensate for a bum knee. A fuzz of silver hair covers the back of his head. As he sings, his blue eyes light up, magnified behind reading glasses. His mouth cracks into a broad smile. As he likes to say, he wears "the map of Ireland" on his face.
I'm playing the piano for him. I teach by day where Tommy watches by night, watches and remembers. I've known him for a dozen years now. His is one of the many inspiring lives of a generation that is passing from this earth day by day. Tommy Carden carries the scars.
Of all God's creatures who have worn halos, Tommy is among the least angelic. He survived the worst battles of World War II, but at midlife he was a mess, a failure as a son, father and husband. Full of pain and self-pity, he prayed to God to take his life. Instead, the Almighty gave him a second chance.
To tell Tommy's story, I have rendered it in his voice, as if Tommy himself were the author. Many of the words here are Tommy's own; some are mine, organized to give his story its full context and meaning. I've checked Tommy's memory against documents and historical records and interviewed friends and relatives.
I dare say that every surviving member of the World War II generation has a powerful story to tell. Tommy's is just one of them. What happened to Tommy and the girl in that picture is the kind of story we need to hear over and over. It's part of their legacy and our inheritance.
Day One: Showing Off
That date was Dec. 12, 1923, the place was Youngstown, Ohio, a steel mill town. If you stood on Schenley Street facing our front door, I was born in the upstairs bedroom to the right.
My father was a tall, tough guy who fought in World War I and for a while was a professional boxer, a pug. After he got his nose busted, Dad got a job on the railroad that carried ingots from the steel mill. He worked hard, but even in the Depression he would drink away money that we needed for food. Then again, Dad had a good heart. He would bake bread for neighbors or secretly leave buckets of coal on their doorstep for heat. Imagine that.
Sometimes you can love a person with your whole heart and still be afraid of him, and that's how it was with my dad. Like I said, he was a boxer and knew how to settle things with his fists. I'll never forget the time I missed a 9:30 curfew. He was waiting, and before I knew what hit me I was staring at the ceiling.
I guess there's a reason God gives you two parents, because as rough and tough as my father was, that's how sweet and loving was my mom. Margie Sullivan was her name. She was tiny, but with a big, big heart. I know one thing for sure: You'll never have a better friend than your mother, so you should tell her you love her the first thing in the morning, and tell her again the last thing at night.
My mom and dad were "fish eaters" -- that's what they called us Irish Catholics -- and had lots of kids, six before they were done. When I was 4, Mom gave birth to twin boys, but they only lasted two weeks. Dad lifted me up so I could look into those two little caskets and see the bodies inside.
Theresa came when I was 12. Like I said, my mom was tiny, and it was a difficult birth. Before you know it, the priest comes to perform last rites and I hear my mother tell my father: "Take good care of Tommy," and that's when I lost it.
I ran to my room and cried and cried and fell to my knees and raised my eyes to heaven and begged Almighty God, "Please, God, don't take my mother. Please don't take my mother."
That was the first time Almighty God came to my rescue. God agreed that my mom could live to the age of 82, and that Theresa would grow up healthy and have eight children of her own. From that day on, I was my mother's best friend. I sang Irish songs to her and learned my Latin to become an altar boy for her, not for my dad.
Then one day, out of the blue, my father took the Pledge, went right up to the altar and swore before Almighty God that he'd never take a drink again, and he never did.
Now let me tell you about another tough person in my life: Sister Mary Jane -- my favorite teacher at St. Brendan's, God love that woman.
It didn't take me long to figure out that I was just plain dumb. I was one of those kids who had to repeat the fourth grade. One day I was working an arithmetic problem on the blackboard, and I just couldn't figure the darn thing out, and Sister was on me real good about it, until I threw down the chalk, said "Aw, s--," and run out of the classroom.
"Ahhh, Sister," my pal Tommy Maley said. "Why'd ya hafta yell at him. He cudda done it!" Wham! Tommy Maley's body flew backwards like he'd been whacked by Joe Louis.
But Sister made up for it later, when it came time for me to graduate from eighth grade into high school. "Tommy," that sweet lady said, "you don't have the grades to graduate." There were tears in my eyes, me thinking about how I was going to get my ass tore up when I got home. "But I'm going to let you go on anyway. Be a good boy and work hard in high school. And stop trying to attract so much attention."
"Yes, Sister," I said. "Thank you, Sister. I will Sister."
I wound up at good old Chaney High School, famous for its football team and its pretty girls. Especially Jean Hoffman. She was the girl of my dreams.
For as long as I can remember I've been what you might call a "leg" man. I guess it started with seeing Marlene Dietrich in The Blue Angel and Destry Rides Again. Man oh man, when she'd sit up on that piano and cross those legs. Wow! That's all I can say. Just, wow!
It's time to tell you about Steubenville, a town about 30 miles south of Youngstown. That's where the sporting houses were.
Now, in 1939 I was 16 years old. And I could make 10 cents by mowing a lawn. A Steubenville girl cost 50 cents. So although Sister Mary Jane wouldn't like it one bit, I suddenly found use for arithmetic: five lawns equaled one trip to Steubenville.
We piled into my buddy Joe Pacak's 1929 Oldsmobile sedan, "the Green Beast," we called it. We didn't have any gas money, so we brought along Benny, the doctor's kid, but only if he helped us siphon gas from his old man's Lincoln.
And we went into one of them houses, checked in with the madam, and saw all the ladies lounging in the parlor. And I picked one out; she had the leg. I mowed a lot of lawns back in those days.
That's not how it was with my girlfriend, Jean. I didn't take any liberties with her. I met her in the ninth grade, when I made the switch from Catholic school to Chaney. After school, we'd meet at the Westside Dairy for Cokes and ice cream. Jean thought I was good looking and kind of romantic, "a doll," to use her words, and who could argue with that?
She was smart, too. Jean was in all the accelerated classes, while I was with all the dumb asses. We'd try to hold hands in the hallway, although this kind of flatternization was frowned on by the principal, Mr. Ricksecker. If he seen you holding hands, he'd come up from behind and give you a little hand chop to bust you up.
I saved every note Jean passed me. You know, stuff like "I can hardly wait to see you," and, "I think about you all the time." I'd hide them under my mattress.
We were 16 years old -- that would be about 1940 -- and we'd meet at the corner on a Saturday afternoon and walk down to the Mahoning Avenue Theater. It smelled bad from all the popcorn butter, I guess, and the deodorizer Old Man Coates put on it made it smell worse. It was so crummy, my friend called it The Crumb. We could get in to the movies for 10 cents. If I had extra money, we'd stop at the Isaly Dairy Stores for a skyscraper ice cream cone or a milk shake with two straws.
During winter we'd meet at the bonfire at Lake Glacier in Mill Creek Park. Jean and her girlfriends would show up. They called themselves ONO, which was short for Our Night Out, and they'd wear those tight sweaters and short skating skirts that showed off their knees. Jean's father would watch from the hillside to make sure there was no hanky-panky.
If he wasn't watching, Jean would let me help her on with her skates. I'd get to touch her foot and peek up at those long legs. Wow.
You can guess why Mr. Hoffman didn't like me. He was German and a Methodist, and he had something against Irish Catholics, that's for sure. Jean told me that he had once seen a priest try to extort money from a poor couple. But I think he didn't like the idea of a leprechaun like me making a lot of babies with his little daughter.
I guess he had a right to be cautious because Jean and me did have a fantasy about running off to get married, like some of the other kids in school had. Our buddy even drove us to the cottage of the justice of the peace. But Jean decided that she couldn't disrespect her parents. It was a silly notion to run off, but I wonder what our lives would have been like if we had. What happened instead was the war.
They all tried to talk me out of it. My principal at Chaney High, my teachers, my buddies Tommy Maley and Tommy Gilmartin, my mom and dad, Jean, even the guy at the draft board. Why not wait four months, just four lousy months, until I graduated from high school? But there was no talking to me. I was no student, I was a dumb ass.
The one place I felt good about myself was on the football field. Look at our team photo in the 1943 school annual. I'm in the second row, third from the left, with my arms crossed. Old number 38. "Tom Carden -- a 193 pound lad who could not be bowled over" -- that's what the yearbook says about me.
To be honest, going off to war had a lot to do with my father. He was so stern that he was wearing me down. I thought of myself as man enough to play offensive and defensive line for Chaney High, and man enough to drive to Steubenville. And man enough to go to war.
Plus, I loved my country, and I loved Franklin D. Roosevelt. If it hadn't been for that man, we might all be goose-steppin' and saying "Sieg Heil."
I left on a cold day in February 1943. The buses met us at the draft board near the Westside Library. My mother cried and cried; so did my Aunt Aggie. Jean was there with her mom, and my sweetheart kissed me goodbye. I really planted one on her, a long smooch, the first real one between us.
I was stationed in England, near Liverpool, assigned to the Medical Corps.
I was an altar boy, but I was no angel. I loved hitting the pubs, like the White Swan and the Odd Fellows. My Italian buddy Private DiNucci, old DiNooch, he could play that piano, man, he could tear that thing up, and I'd sing and drink, and drink and sing, all night long.
More times than I can remember, the evening would end with a bar fight, and the next day I'd have to go before an officer. I got myself demoted from sergeant to private.
"What is it about you, Carden?" one of them Medical Corps stuffed shirts said. "You don't seem to like it here very much."
"You got that right, sir," I says.
"Okay, Carden, we can take care of that."
Before I know it, I'm in a new division, the 687th Field Artillery battalion, dragging around ammunition for cannons and lugging .50-caliber machine guns. Like I said, I was a dumb ass. I could have rode the war out pretty easy. Instead, I was part of the Invasion of Normandy. Looking back, I can say it was an honor. But that's just the looking back part.
I always thought we landed at Omaha Beach, but I read something that says we landed next door on Utah Beach on July 18, 1944, about six weeks after D-Day.
We didn't know it then, but a lot of blood had been spilled to secure that sand. And there I was on that same ground, carrying my .30-caliber carbine, and, in my wallet, photos of the people I loved the most: my mother, my father and my sweetheart Jean.
We were headed east with one goal in mind, to liberate Europe from the Nazis, and, if I had my way, to stick a howitzer right up the Fuhrer's ass.
Now, the second time Almighty God heard my prayers was during the battle of St.-Lo, a town about 20 miles south and east of Utah Beach.
I'll never forget the sight of dead cattle in the French fields, cows and calves on their backs, their hooves stuck straight up in the air. And I'll never forget the smell. The dead cattle smelled. The dead American boys smelled. The Germans smelled worst of all, maybe because we just let 'em rot in the fields.
Our planes dropped so many bombs that it made the ground shake. Turns out, we was dropping bombs on our own soldiers. Our own Air Force killed hundreds of our own men, including Gen. Lesley McNair. What kind of war is it when you drop bombs on your own general?
But the war wasn't only hell, sometimes it was a little bit of heaven. Like the day in the summer of 1944 when six guys in my outfit, riding in a 21/2-ton truck, took a wrong turn. We come upon an abandoned warehouse, and what was in that place but cases and cases of four-star cognac. We drank it on the spot, and we put it in our canteens, and we loaded cases in our truck and covered it all with tarps.
Oo-whee! For a whole month, six happy GIs celebrated the Fourth of July every day with the best hooch France could offer. It might have gone that way till the end of the war except for the night one soldier got bombed. I mean drunk-bombed, not bomb-bombed. He wanted to save his butt, so he blabbed to the officers where we had hid the cognac. You know and I know what happened to all that booze. It got taken from us grunts and went right down the officers' throats.
If Almighty God saved me throughout the war, it was not just me praying, it was also my sainted Aunt Agnes, God love her. Aggie was Irish Catholic from her head to her toes, the only girl in a family with 10 brothers. She attended Mass every day, prayed the rosary, made novenas, wore miraculous medals and lit votive candles. All for me, her little altar boy, who recited all his Latin prayers, "Dominus vobiscum" and all that. Aggie wrote me every day and would always tell me that Almighty God was watching over me.
My sweetie Jean, she sent letters all the time, too, sharing news and going on about how much she looked forward to the day old Tommy would come marching home. She worked in a factory that made gas tanks for fighter planes. I'd think about her sweet face behind that welder's mask. And those legs.
As the war went on, my letters got spicier. At the end of one, I wrote, "Be sure and keep your legs crossed." She had no idea what I meant, so she asked her mom and dad. I'm sure Old Man Hoffman appreciated that one.
I'm coming now to the worst day of the war, one of the worst days of my life, and I can barely think about it without crying. They say the Irish have bladders behind their eyes, and that's surely the case with me. Now, during the war when a soldier was killed in action, they sent a telegram home to his family. The official car would roll up to the house, and the chaplain or somebody would deliver the telegram: "We regret to inform you that your son. . . ."
Now, my mom and dad never got that telegram, but I did, in Dekirch, Luxembourg, after Nov. 13, 1944.
"Capt. Brown wants to see you, Carden." It was 1st Sgt. Buckles.
What the hell did I do?
Capt. Brown was tall and husky and from Oklahoma; you could just look at him and tell he was a leader. He handed me a telegram from the Red Cross. "Please advise the soldier that his father passed away."
Capt. Brown had followed me down into the basement, and he put his big arm around me. "Go ahead and cry, Carden," he said. God love that man.
He promised that he'd try to get me a hardship discharge, which never came, of course. What came instead was the Battle of the Bulge.
Hitler, that sneaky SOB, had ordered one last counterattack. The Germans advanced far enough into the Forest of Ardennes to create a bulge in our lines. That's how the Battle of the Bulge got its name. It began Dec. 16, 1944. I still play those numbers on my lottery ticket: 12/16/44.
The fighting lasted until Jan. 31, 1945, 47 days of frostbite, diarrhea and constipation. I wore a mackinaw with big pockets in it. I had my ammunition and my K-rations and my rifle and wore the same pair of socks for a month.
When the battle was finally over, more than 75,000 Americans were killed or injured. But Aunt Aggie's prayers were still working their magic. Thank you, Almighty God.
Then came the news; my buddies and I heard it on the radio on April 12, 1945: FDR was dead. We all broke down and cried. Every last one of us. What FDR did for this country, getting us out of the Depression, saving the world from the Nazis. The greatest man on God's green earth. And now he was dead. And my father too. What next?
Well, that question was answered about a week later when we moved into a place called Buchenwald. For years I carried photographs of what I saw that day because when I got back home no one would believe me.
It was right out of hell. Not human beings, but living skeletons. There were more than a thousand of the sick, crammed into stinking barracks. Naked corpses piled in the courtyard, stacked like cordwood. I put my hands on the cremation ovens. They were still warm.
We captured some of the SS guards and, given everything we seen, it was easy to figure out what to do with them. I could never have done it myself, of course, but we turned them over to some boys from Texas and Oklahoma, we called them the "goon squad," and bang that was all she wrote.
By May 8, 1945, Hitler was dead, good riddance you lousy no-good SOB, and Germany had surrendered. We was all collecting souvenirs, including weapons. One guy cleaning a German weapon had it go off in his hand, killing the soldier sitting at his feet. How the hell was that Red Cross telegram going to read?
The damn war was supposed to be over. And guys were shooting other guys with souvenirs. I've got to get out of here, that's all I could think about.
Now it's time to tell you about Marseille, France, which was the place we were shipped to begin the trip home to America. It was a little like Steubenville, except the girls spoke French.
The officers warned us, they said that if we contracted a venereal disease we might be delayed six months being sent back to the states. But you know me. At least I took precautions.
For each encounter with a mademoiselle, I wore not one, but two condoms. One right over the other. I called them "inner tubes." For good measure, I'd stop at a place the Army set up called a "pro station," where we'd get a "short arm inspection" and a good disinfecting. I guess that was a lot to go through for a little ooh-la-la.
Within two weeks, I was on a ship headed home. I thought about being reunited with the three women I loved most: my beautiful mother, my sainted Aunt Aggie and, of course, my sweetie, Jean.
But first there was a meeting with another woman, in New York Harbor. All of us were on the deck of the ship as we approached the city, and there she was, and if I've ever seen a better sight, I don't know what it is. No one spoke or cheered. We just stood against the rail looking at that beautiful statue -- with tears in our eyes.
I was decommissioned in Indiantown Gap, Pa., on Nov. 2, 1945. After all these years I can still recite my serial number: 35-534-119, sir.
I swung my duffel bag over my shoulder, bought a jug of Old Crow and got on the train to Youngstown. I took the streetcar down Mahoning Avenue, stopped in a tavern for a couple of toddies and walked down Eleanor Avenue.
I was still in my olive drab uniform with my medals on my chest: one star for each of the great campaigns of the European war, the Presidential Unit Citation and the French Croix de Guerre with a Gold Star.
The first one I see is my dad's brother, Uncle Eddie, up on a ladder painting a house. He just flew down the ladder and grabbed me up in this big bear hug. We talked about how bad we felt about my dad dying and all. Then a neighbor, Mrs. Davis, sees me through a window and comes running out of her house and throws her arms around me. And then I hear, "Oh my God!" and my mom is running down the street like she's floating on air. God bless that woman. You'll never have a better friend than your mother, so don't you forget it. Call her up now and tell her you love her.
Jean didn't know I was home until she heard this Irish tenor's voice on the telephone. She and I picked up right where we left off: going on dates, holding hands. Except I had a little money in my pocket, so we didn't just go to the movies or out for milk shakes. I took her dancing at a club called Mickey's, and it must have been the first time she had anything much to drink because before I know it we're out on the sidewalk, and she's hanging on to the lamppost getting sick.
By now you probably understand why Jean's dad didn't like me. He was a wiry little guy, a building contractor who had painted most of the Catholic churches in town. But he didn't care much for us fish-eaters. He had three daughters -- and he watched over them girls good.
These days people from different churches get married all the time, but back then it was a big deal for a Catholic boy like me to marry a Methodist girl like Jean. Her family didn't like the idea, that's for sure. They told Jean that she was too frail, that I'd force her to have 10 kids or something.
My family was against it, too. My mom and Aunt Aggie being so Catholic and everything, they squealed on me to the parish priest, a guy named Father Prokop. He knew me from my altar boy days. So one day after Mass he comes up to me, starts giving me the third degree. Who is this girl? What about her family? Is it true you plan to marry her? A real cross-examination.
I'm thinking, that's none of your damn business. But he was a priest and I was too respectful, so I didn't say nothing to him. But I should have, because something happened right after that that changed my life forever.
Before I knew it, Jean was gone. Gone away. Out of Youngstown. She told me she was going to visit her sister in Florida, but she never came back, and no one would tell me why.
Nothing that happened in the war, except my dad dying, hurt so bad.
One day I'm browsing through the newspaper, the Youngstown Vindicator, when I saw it. An engagement notice. Jean Hoffman was getting married. To someone named Bill Hale.
My Jean was going to marry another man.
Part Two
The conclusion of Her Picture in My Wallet
What happens to a young man, returning from the war, who loses his first great love? In the case of Tommy Carden, he descends into a life of alcoholic self-destruction. Then, when all hope seems lost, two events -- a prayer and a phone call -- clear the path for a second chance. Click here
About the writer
© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.


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My teacher gave me this brain teaser question and i can't figure it out.
He gave us four number and you have to add subtract multiply or divide it to get 24.
The number are 1 6 6 8 and he need it to be 24.
You can only use addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
You can also use the pharenthesis ().
I can't figure it out, please help me
Ps. Can you show your workings too.
Thank You
RIS Bangkok, Thailand.
There isn't really a way to work this out, you just need to keep trying stuff until you stumble upon the answer. Try it for a bit longer, and if you still can't figure it out, then the answer's
You need to think a bit laterally.
Why did the vector cross the road?
It wanted to be normal.
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subset: commoncrawl


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Hip Hop has always been the music of teens. It makes you jive and enjoy the time. It is the music that you can play while you are having the bad time. Back in 1970's it originated as music of black teens but now in 2016 it belongs to every community. It has strengthened its roots into the hearts and minds of the teens of all communities. This is not enough; other age groups also have affinity for it.
The hip hop is the music that has great messages to mend the society. It is the music that satires the bad societal norms and urge the people to set them right. In the beginning it was about the sufferings of black people and how they were treated by other communities.
The song "Who protects us from you" released in year 1989 by the Boogie Down production totally discussed the sad tale of the blacks and their sufferings in the society. With the passing time the idea strengthened its roots and was taken up by other communities as well.
The hip hop music industry saw a major shift in 2006 by the song "hurt". It focused on the gangsters. As opposed to the discussion of the societal wrongs in a negative way, this song threw a positive light to one major wrong of the society. It encouraged gangsters and their doings.
People started following this trend and every other teen could be seen rapping on this song. The 2016 engulfs within it all the previous trends from love to money and from negation of societal wrongs to their strengthening. This genre has become truly diverse. You can understand by simply listening to three great hip hop songs of 2016; all the way up, I got the keys and one dance.
All these three songs discuss three different affairs. So, hip hop is the way to send a message with in a rhyming tune so that the message can set into the minds of people. Moreover, it is the best way to make money.


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Posted by Stephen Newell on July 30, 2012 at 05:43:42 from (126.96.36.199):
In Reply to: Painting questions. posted by Fullers Farmalls on July 29, 2012 at 14:06:36:
I would use automotive paints however if you need to save money I wouldn't use tractor supply paint. I would buy a can of rattle can paint and make color samples and go to a major paint company like Sherwin Williams and get their best alkyd enamel. They can computer match any color.
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Thrones of Desire: A Foray into Sexy Fantasy à la Game of ThronesTuesday, October 9th, 2012
I know I've not been around for awhile here at my "Errant Ramblings" blog, so I wanted to give you a little update about my latest book release just so you know that I've not been skiving. (As if I'd dare!)
Those of you who follow my work have probably figured out that I like to do many different kinds of projects. I'd be bored if every book I did was the same – and I imagine my readers would be bored as well or, at the very least, feel let down. Therefore I decided to take a foray into the mystical worlds of sexy fantasy with my new anthology Thrones of Desire: Erotic Tales of Swords, Mist and Fire.
Now let me say that this isn't the first time I've delved into the realm of fantasy. My short story collection In Sleeping Beauty's Bed: Erotic Fairy Tales was a study in fantasy, albeit from the folk and fairy tale tradition. However, with Thrones of Desire, I've taken a leap off the cliff and gone the full Monty, grabbing onto a few kings, warriors, knights and dragons along the way, not to mention adding a bit of flavouring from the hit HBO TV series Game of Thrones (based on the bestselling George R.R. Martin epic fantasy novels). Oh, and I also grabbed onto Piers Anthony, the legendary fantasy author who lent his prolific pen to the book's foreword. I mean, if I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do it right!
I've amassed an eclectic collection of stories from an eclectic collection of international writers, all of whom are deserving of the highest praise. I've got stories ranging from lighter fantasy fare to stories that would satisfy even the most die-hard fantasy lover – and there's plenty of steam to keep those engines running too! There's even a website featuring excerpts, contributor info and other bits of news that you can check out at THRONES OF DESIRE.
So for those of you who can't wait for spring of 2013 and the return to the television screen of Game of Thrones, I've got the cure for what ails. Pick up a copy of Thrones of Desire: Erotic Tales of Swords, Mist and Fire today (and don't forget to pay for the book at the till – don't just walk out with it)!


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Quick Details
- Product Type: Mushrooms
- Type: Boletus
- Style: Dried
- Drying Process: AD
- Color: Brown, brown
- Source: Wild
- Part: Whole
- Processing Type: Raw
- Shelf Life: 1 Year
- Weight (kg): 1kg
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- Place of Origin: Yunnan, China (Mainland)
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- Category: wild mushroom
- type: AD dried
- Crop: 2017
- shap: bag
- MOQ: 1kg
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Packaging & Delivery
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5kg 10kg 20kg 50kg
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Dried boletus edulis boletus Yunnan wild dried mushroom
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A:Yes, normally, we can provide free samples 5-20g.
You could purchase a small amount of our products too.
If you need it, please don't hesitate to contact us.
Q:Do you have guarantee on your products?
A:Our products are 100% pure natural with high quality.
The products are conformed to European standard.
We are sure that every batch comes with the unique COA.
All extracts are tested in-house; random extracts are tested by authoritative analytical labs.
Kunming Tairao commerce Trade Co., Ltd. was founded in 2016.
We mainly specializing in agricultural products, Dried products. We invest in different factories branches, establish own planting base, science lab, workshops.
Our product have exported USA, Russia, Africa, Middle East, Southeast Asia, Korea,
Japan, ect, has gained good reputation.
The company has passed the registration of health, the Jewish certification, the U.S. FDA certification, ISO22000 certification system, IFS International Food Standard certification as well as the BRC Food Safety Global standards for certification.
Our products are 100% green, 100% safe, 100% quality and 100% healthy food project.
We are committed to achieve sustained, profitable growth by consistently providing high quality
products and services to our customers, committed to the continual improvement of our quality management system by monitoring, measuring, reviewing and updating our quality objectives. The products that we supply will comply with the statutory and regulatory requirements. To secure you with high quality products.
Our factory:
Market profile


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What's the matter with "TEN"!!?
I'm laughing SO hard!!
Earl, I was thinking of you recently and crockpots (as opposed to the crackpots in the first video).
So here it is Crockpot Oatmeal: Set it on low for 5 hours. YES, 5 hours.
The oatmeal will have the consistency of bread pudding when it's done. Also, use a non-stick spray first, otherwise the oatmeal sticks to the ceramic bowl, like white on rice and you'll have to argue with it to get it cleaned quickly/easily. Don't understand the science, but the long term cooking does to oatmeal what popping does to corn.
2 apples, skinned and sliced (if they're small make it 3)
1/2 C. brown sugar (if you like it sweeter add more)
1 tsp. cinnamon (if you like it ….add more)
2 C. oatmeal
2 C. milk
2 C. water
Pinch of salt
Charles Martel
Years ago my sainted mother told me about the time she saw Ricardo Montalban do an imitation on some talk show of what English sounds like to Spanish speakers. She said Montalban's take sounded somewhat like cats—a description I've heard from other sources.
I've tried since then to hunt down a video of Montalban's presentation, with no luck. Thing is, though, I've always wondered what English sounds like. I know that seems strange to say, but what I mean is, what does our tongue actually sound like if you've never heard it before?
Eventually I was able to find some Internet sites where that question was somewhat answered. Various non-English speakers have been all too happy to do Montalban-style initiations in a sort of nonsense proto-English that actually allows me to get an idea of what English sounds like to a foreigner.
My quest led to a secondary question: What foreign language comes closest to English? Most experts list Frisian, a Dutch dialect, and Dutch itself as English's closest relatives. But as many similarities as I saw, I kept asking myself if there was something even closer to English. Was there a true sister tongue?
Turns out there is, at least in the eyes of some linguists: Scots. Some language experts say that Scots, called Lalans ("lowlands") by its speakers, is a separate language that had a parallel evolution to English. It was a Saxon-Angle-Jute tongue that was slightly more influenced than English by certain other languages, such as the Scandinavian, and forms of French different from the Norman dialect that so heavily influenced Old and Middle English. The result was a language very close to ours, but different enough that Elizabeth I listed proficiency in Scots alongside her knowledge of French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, and German. If this very savvy woman, living on an isle that had so many different dialects, saw Scots as a separate tongue, who was I to dispute her?
So, the next time I'm riding in an elevator with a Scotsman, I am going to take into account that I am in the company of somebody who does not speak English. I'll be like a Spaniard standing beside a Catalonian.
Michael Adams
I would never say that English sounds like Dutch. However, when I see Dutch in print, if I read it aloud, I can understand more of it. I studied Old English in college, and afterward, not as a class, but when I was goofing off. So, I know about as much Old English as I know of ancient Greek. However, with Old English, I also have the advantage, when I read it aloud, of speaking Redneckian. A lot of phonemes that have died out in standard Modern English, survive in Rednecki9an, like the aesh, and some constructions, also, like a 'that' thrown in where we would not usually expect it, although, for Spanish speakers, it is thoroughly familiar. Think of the 'that' in Middle English, as in, "Whan that Aprille, with his shoures sote."
I watched the second one, and kept thinking of the Sync in my car, with it's sing-song-ie "I-did-not-under-stand-you" that drives me BATTY!
"Play artist Jethro Tull."
"Did you say, 'Play artist Adele'?"
"Play artist Jethro Tull."
"Say 'one' for 'play artist adele,' say 'two' for 'play artist Jefferson Airplane,' say 'three' for 'play all.'"
"Play artist Adele… 'There's a fire starting in my heart… Reaching a fever pitch and it's bring me out the dark…'"
Danny Lemieux
I actually do speak Dutch (long story for another time) and clearly remember the day in High School when, reading the Canterbury Tales in the original ye Olde English, I realized how close it was to Dutch.
Michael Adams
No, Danny, Canterbury Tales were in Middle English, not olde.
Olde English goes like, "an man haedde twa sonne" That's the beginning of The Prodigal Son in the Venerable Bede's translation of the Bible. (Apologies to the V.B. for the spelling. I'm at work and can't look it up.)
Did you have to memorize the Prologue when you were in high school? That was the secret handshake for graduates of Texas high schools, for about eighty years, from my grandparents, until well after me. Education "reform" put an end to that. This is more unfortunate than most people can understand. The historical context supplied by all sorts of historical knowledge, including philology, enables people to understand what the pools are doing to us now. If we understand serfdom, for example, and some of the debate surrounding the freeing of the serfs, we surely do have a clearer picture of what the welfare state does for us, and to us.
My wife and son and I read the Michael Crichton novel about time travel, (Title?) which had a character who had taught himself not only to read Middle English and Occitanian, but also to speak them. Spouse and offspring were both highly amused, and thought they'd have to put me in restraints to keep me from launching into more serious (maniacal?) study. I don't speak Occitanian, or personally know anyone who does, although M. Martel is quite familiar with a close relative. However, Middle English is fun, if only for the head game it allows one to play.
Back to the original topic. (Yes, there was one.) I am trying to get my home-care patient's family to learn English, because their monolingualism imposes a severe limit on their earning potential. I realize that one of the reasons for their reluctance is how Yanquis sound when we speak Spanish. It is hard to explain that Spanish accents sound charming to our ears, far from grating.
Michael Adams
Aieee! The pools are doing nothing to us, unless that is an amalgam of 'pol' and 'fool', a useful term, if it were more widely understood.
Charles Martel
Wasn't Occitanian the drug that Rush Limbaugh got strung out on a few years back?
I can still recite the prologue to the Canterbury tales, as well as "Abu Ben Adam." Kids don't memorize anything nowadays.
Michael Adams
Well, when you finally come to Austin, we can amaze/irritate everyone around us by reciting it in chorus. As for not memorizing any more poetry, when I was in college, the "settled science" of psychology told us that memorizing as a mental discipline did not help develop memory, so schools dropped the requirement that kids memorize poetry. Now, of course, the settled science has moved in the other direction, but the regs have not changed.
Oh, yeah, the Supremes, in 1973 had all gone to school in the 1930's, when an embryo was seen as "tissue." The later "settled science", including intrauterine photography, and later, sonography, made it rather clear that the inhabitant of the womb is a person, who is, "a person, no matter how small." Usually, abortions are done in the first trimester, when there are no bones, and therefore no extrauterine shape, but abortions are, as noted, thoroughly legal much later. I have helped women onto the exam table in the ER, whose babies suddenly slipped out. Slightly over three months, morphologically perfect, but legally abortable in most states.
Hammer, Limbaugh can only do Occitanian in the first two hours of the program. After that, his blood sugar drops, and he has memory problems. He forgets things that I know he knew, because I learned them from him. Pay attention to the difference. It's readily apparent if you are alert to it.
Timeline. The movie starred Gerard Butler.
I had a roomate who spoke Occitan. She was from Toulouse. Her father was almost militant about being an Occitanophone. It was very similar in a lot of ways to Catalan, and some Catalan speakers could understand her and her fathe(almost) when they spoke. The period of Crichton's book is about the end of Old Occitan.
I liked Crichton's "Eaters of the Dead," which was based on the idea of what would make Beowolf historical. I liked the film, (though apparently Omar Sharif is embarassed by it. (Dennis Storhoi was cute.) And the Beowolf refernece brings us back to…
Old English!
Michael Adams
In that part of France, people insist that Catalan and Occitan are the same tongue. These are the same people who tell me that in the Middle Ages, they were the same kingdom. Well, sort of. 'Kingdoms', in that sense, did not exist. It is truly difficult to unravel the skein of history and local gossip, accumulated over the past eight to ten centuries. The gossip part of it is definitely more fun.
Lee, thanks for being my bibliographer. Thanks, also, for the recommendation of "Eaters." I'll need to read that.
Michael Adams:
I am trying to get my home-care patient's family to learn English, because their monolingualism imposes a severe limit on their earning potential.I realize that one of the reasons for their reluctance is how Yanquis sound when we speak Spanish. It is hard to explain that Spanish accents sound charming to our ears, far from grating.
I will never say this directly to the person I am speaking with, but given the option of speaking in English with someone who speaks English with a strong Spanish accent, or speaking with them in Spanish, I prefer speaking in Spanish. I find it less grating to my ears. I have worked for nearly ten years with a Peruvian engineer whom I trained to use our software. Her command of English is good enough to have gotten a graduate degree here, but I am more comfortable conversing with her in Spanish than in her strongly accented English.
I worked in the oilfield with a number of Brits. I found the accent of Northern England to be the most difficult to understand- even harder than the Scots accent. One Northern English guy, when I said that I found him hard to understand- I didn't do so until our third hitch together- admitted that I wasn't the only one to find an accent from the North of England hard to understand.
I didn't have any trouble understanding Trinidadians from the cities. Some of the rural folk, whom I met while giving them rides, were difficult for me to understand.
Sadie: FIVE HOURS!?! So, if you want oatmeal for breakfast, do you get up in the middle of the night to start it….or make it the day before and heat it in the microwave….or what?
Gail is going to love that, I suspect…..she's a big oatmeal fan. Uses regular rolled oats and makes her morning oatmeal in the microwave. Reading the recipe makes me think I might actually enjoy oatmeal again…not sure I've eaten it in several decades. I'll give it a try.
Earl: Yes, FIVE HOURS. I've tried fewer hours, but the consistency is not the same. Short answer: make it the day before. I am using 100% whole grain/whole oats. Last batch, I added a 1 tsp. of cardamom and a handful of dried cranberries. The recipe makes 6-8 servings. Btw…I reheat a portion for 2 min. in the microwave and then add some milk to smooth out the texture before eating. As I mentioned the consistency is more like bread pudding, but denser.


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Whitby Dog Friendly Holidays Help
Whitby Dog Friendly Holidays - Q & A
Q.Who Are Whitby Dog Friendly Holidays?
A. We advertise Dog Friendly Holidays in Whitby and the surrounding area, along with Tourist Information and much more.
Q. How do I use the website?
A. Simple. If you are looking for accommodation choose the shore or the moors. Just click onto the property that catches your eye. Then Book Direct with the accommodation owners, by choosing the methods available.
Q. How do I know the property is genuine?
A. Exercise the same caution as you would normally. Listening to your instincts is sound advice. Also ask plenty of questions. If you still have doubts perhaps you should choose a different property. Always get a receipt and confirmation in writing.
Q. Who do I pay?
A. The Owner/s of your chosen establishment. We do not charge fees or commission on bookings taken. Your contact is with the property owner/s.
Q. Does paying a deposit mean my booking is confirmed?
A. Usually yes. But check with the owner. Everyone has their own booking policies. Make sure you know what they are.
Q. The property I contacted is no longer on your website - what do I do?
A. It may be being updated. Contact us, we will look into it for you. We do advise that you take the name, address, and contact number down if the property interests you. This is a back up if you can't remember the property you liked or can't seem to find it.
Q. I need to cancel what do I do?
A. Contact the owner of the establishment as soon as possible. Cancellation rules come into force. We would recommend you know what these are before booking. Taking out adequate holiday insurance for you and your dog is a very good idea.
Q. I want to make a complaint - do I contact Whitby Dog Friendly Holidays?
A. No - contact the accommodation owner as soon as possible. Don't delay or fester. Nip issues in the bud. Make your complaint concise and try and give examples of what you are unhappy about. It's best not to generalise. It maybe the owner genuinely isn't aware there are issues. They may be pleased you have brought this to their attention.
Q. I want to give feedback - where do I do this?
A. Each property has a review section - you can put your comments in there. We are pleased if you do take time to make a review. People booking properties find the reviews from previous customers invaluable.
Q. How many dogs can I bring?
A. This will be mentioned clearly on the advert. However, this may be subject to change. In all cases, contacting the owner is sensible.
Q. Will my dog be able to sleep in the bedroom with me?
A. Check this out before you book with the owner. Each has their own policy.
Q. Can I exercise my dog on the property?
A. General rule of thumb probably not - but contact the owner anyway. Most owners may be happy for dogs to play in gardens, but insist they are exercised off the property. This makes sense - remember, you may not be the only guests with a dog. In general if you asked yourselves what would you expect - you usually answer your own question.
Q. What if my dog breaks something?
A. This again is up to the accommodation owner. Ultimately, your dog is your responsibility. So we would advise keeping any eye on him. A hefty bill after a great holiday, isn't the ideal finale.
Q. Do I pay for my dog to stay?
A. We try and let you know in the advert - but check with property owner for updates.
Top Tips
Write down your needs and wants. Ask questions about anything you are not sure of. The more questions you ask and detail you go into, the less likely you are to encounter problems. Once you are fully armed with all the facts, decide whether or not you want to make a booking. Assume nothing. Assumptions can be costly and stressful.
Hot Dogs
All of you responsible owners know, we are sure, about leaving dogs in cars in the heat. This also applies if you are considering leaving your dog in the property you are staying in, or anywhere else that you are not familiar with. Temperatures indoors can soar. We would recommend you don't take the risk.
Coastal Heat
Heat by the sea is deceptive. Generally windy, the depth of the possible sun damage to dogs (and indeed their owners) may not be as obvious. If you do decide to sit on the beach with your dog, please protect him in the same way you would yourselves. Keep him in the shade and well watered. If he pants excessively, this would be a sign to take him off the beach into a cool shelter.
Would you keep an eye on your dog when they tootle off? Some people are frightened of dogs. You know your dog is harmless, but K9 phobics react quite badly to dogs coming up to them.
We hope you don't mind our little tips. We just want you and your dog to have a safe, happy holiday.
Q. Where is my dog allowed to go in general?
All the accommodation on this website accepts dogs (unless they have changed their policies and we have not been notified) Please check how many dogs are allowed and the size.
Where to Eat/Drink
We have highlighted eateries with outside seating where you can sit with your dog. Some allow dogs indoors. Town and Country pubs and Inns and some eateries may allow dogs indoors. Please check at time of visit. We have highlighted these where possible.
We have sourced a variety of very interesting Attractions for you and your dog to enjoy a great day out together. Some of the Activities, i.e. ballooning, naturally wouldn't suit dogs. However, normal practice with families who have dogs or not is to enjoy certain activities on their own for an hour or so, while the rest of the family may watch or go for a walk. You can all go to the same area if you prefer, just let someone attempt their lifelong ambition, gliding for example, while the rest of the family and your dog keep two or four feet firmly on the ground. Remember also, your dog may not fancy gliding in a plane even if he were allowed too!
There are shops in Whitby and other surrounding areas that allow dogs. Some may not be able to depending on the products sold, or congestion, especially in the height of season. Also your dog may fret in a crowded shop. Just ask if dogs are allowed before you take them in. But again, as above, if in a family group, not everyone may want to go to the same shops, so maybe one member can stay outside with your dog, then swap over.
Assistance Dog rules differ from other pet dog rules.
If we haven't covered your questions please feel free to contact us on 01947 811 264
or Email firstname.lastname@example.com


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One Direction Seventeen Coversby Free Britney at . Comments
The guys from One Direction cover Seventeen magazine. Swoon alert if you are a teenage girl.
This video is no longer available. Please check below for related videos.
- Stars:
- One Direction, Zayn Malik, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Liam Payne, Niall Horan
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text:
Thousands of Boston-area youths to sell lemonade for charities, including fund that aids Marathon victims
More than 2,000 local youths plan to set up home-made stands around the Boston-area on Saturday, selling lemonade and donating their profits to charities, including The One Fund, which aids those impacted by the Marathon bombings.
The local effort is being coordinated as part of the annual Lemonade Day campaign, which was founded in 2007 in Texas and has grown each year since. About 150,000 youths in 36 cities across America and Canada are expected to participate this year.
Saturday will mark the third year Boston has participated.
The campaign offers "a free, real-life learning program that teaches children not only how to operate their own business using a lemonade stand, but also imparts fundamental lessons about life, success and personal achievement," organizers said. "Inspiring kids to work hard and make a profit, they are also taught to spend some, save some and share some by giving back to their community."
One lemonade stand in the Copley Square area of Boston will donate its profits to The One Fund. That stand, named "Boston Strong Lemonade Stand at Copley Plaza," plans to be open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday.
For a list of other lemonade stand locations and hours of operation, click here.
Lemonade Day Boston is sponsored by the City of Boston and Babson College.
"When we teach students entrepreneurship, we teach them to invent their future," said a statement from Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino. "Lemonade Day Boston is a wonderful, important way to help Boston's young people become part of our innovation economy."
"At the heart of Lemonade Day is the most important lesson we can ever teach our children ─ to take charge of their own lives, to realize their unique potential, and to become the leaders of their own future," Babson President Len Schlesinger said in a statement. "My wife Phyllis and I are extremely pleased to support such a life-changing program that has expanded this year to reach even greater numbers of Boston's school-aged children. By spreading entrepreneurship to our youngest generation of learners, we unleash a transformational force for change."
E-mail Matt Rocheleau at firstname.lastname@example.com.
For the latest updates about your community, follow some of our local neighborhood, city and town Twitter accounts, here.


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Cafe 217, an overnight-through-lunch dining spot, is scheduled to open at 6 a.m. tomorrow (Wednesday, 8/22) at 12½ Delaware Ave., on the corner of Delaware and Jefferson Street, in Albany.
The owner is Susie Carrk, who has long catered to second- and third-shift workers and late-night carousers at her eponymous Susie's bar, located a few doors from the Lark-Madison-Delaware corner. Cafe 217 offers traditional breakfast fare — eggs and breakfast meats, waffles and pancakes from homemade batters, French toast — and lunch sandwiches from house-roasted hams and turkeys.
The cafe is open from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday; Wednesday through Sunday, it opens at 11 p.m. and serves until 2 p.m. the following day; closed Monday and Tuesday. (In other words, it's closed from 2 p.m. Sunday until 6 a.m. Wednesday.)
Some additional info is here.


text:
Fire destroys Sand Lake home
Published 4:12 pm, Friday, September 3, 2010
SAND LAKE -- An early-morning fire on Friday extensively damaged a Rabie Road home.
The fire at the home on the 200 block of Rabie Road was called in about 6 a.m. as sleeping residents were awakened by smoke, said an official at the Averill Park Sand Lake Volunteer Fire Department.
The house was fully involved in flames when crews arrived.
Everyone escaped and there were no injuries.
Residents were seeking shelter with relatives and the cause is still under investigation, officials said.


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Awesome Looking Samurai Stormtrooper Costume!
This is just so cool! I thought you all would get a kick out of this custom made Samurai Stormtrooper Costume!
Joey Paur — Co-Founder / Editor of GeekTyrant.com, and if you haven't noticed I write… a lot. Movies are my passion and I live and breathe all things geek. This site is part of my life's work, it's a part of me. I love what I do, and I enjoy sharing everything I can with you when it comes to movies and geekery. In my spare time I travel to the netherworlds to battle demons. @JoeyPaur | email@example.com
Featured Posts on GeekTyrant


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Media Advisory
|For immediate use
Dec. 15, 2006 -- No. 602
Southern Pines and Cameron students to experience
UNC's Destiny traveling science learning program
Media representatives are invited to climb aboard Destiny and Discovery, the traveling science laboratories from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Destiny science learning program, when it visits two Moore County high schools in Southern Pines and Cameron next week.
Tuesday (Dec. 19)
8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.
1:15 p.m. to 2:45 p.m.
Pinecrest High School
250 Voit Gilmore Road, Southern Pines
Students from two of Donna Ansted's biology classes will perform a lab exercise called "From Finches to Fishes." Students will learn fundamental principles of evolution and natural selection, and protein gel electrophoresis will be used to acquire molecular data with which students will construct an evolutionary tree for five fish species.
Tuesday (Dec. 19)
9:40 a.m. to 11:10 a.m.
11:17 a.m. to 12:47 p.m.
Pinecrest High School
250 Voit Gilmore Road, Southern Pines
During the same visit, students from two of Barbara Hayworth's classes will perform a lab exercise called "Biological Bodyguards." Students will examine the vital role that the body's immune system takes to fight illness and prevent disease. Assuming the role of medical lab technicians, students will use a simulated viral extract and perform an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to screen hypothetical patients for the presence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
Tuesday (Dec. 19)
8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.
11:15 a.m. to 1:15 p.m.
Union Pines High School
1981 Union Church Road, Cameron
Students from two of Karen Griffin's classes will perform a lab exercise called "Mystery of the Crooked Cell." Students will discover the molecular basis of sickle cell disease by using gel electrophoresis as a diagnostic tool to differentiate normal hemoglobin from hemoglobin found in individuals with sickle cell disease.
The Destiny traveling science learning program is Morehead Planetarium and Science Center's formal science education initiative serving pre-college teachers and students across North Carolina. Destiny develops and delivers a standards-based, hands-on curriculum and teacher professional development with a team of educators and a fleet of vehicles that travel throughout the state.
Destiny and Discovery, two custom-built, 40-foot, 33,000-pound buses, bring the latest science and technology equipment to students who otherwise would not see a high-tech laboratory or what a career in science can offer. The modules described above are among 13 offered as part of Destiny's curriculum. "Mystery of the Crooked Cell" is developed from a Boston University School of Medicine CityLab module. All of Destiny's modules are aligned with the N.C. Standard Course of Study.
The science buses are powerful visual images that heighten public awareness of the importance of and funding necessary for quality science education. The Destiny program first hit the road in 2000.
For more information, go to http://www.destiny.unc.edu.
Destiny contact: Claire Bury, (919) 843-5915 or firstname.lastname@example.com
News Services contacts: Lisa Katz, (919) 962-2093; Becky Oskin, (919) 962-8596


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Bio-mechanically correct instruction
Head Trainer, Kristi Frishman, holds a degree in kinesiology from the University of California, Los Angeles. Instruction is precise and based on the science of human movement.
Tailored training for high achieving riders
Genuine Farms designs individualized fitness and competition preparation programs for each horse/rider team. Your program will be designed around your life constraints and equestrian goals.
Training to Be Your Best
Competing and winning at "A" circuit (nationally ranked) shows is a talent that Frishman shares with her high achieving clients. Showing with and watching the top riders speeds learning exponentially.
A Boutique Hunter Jumper Barn in San Juan Capistrano
Genuine Farms is a full-service, training and show barn in San Juan Capistrano.
We focus on maximizing the potential of each horse and rider.
Whether your desire is success in the show ring, improving your riding skills for pleasure, or bringing along a young horse for re-sale, we have the resources to make it happen.
- lessons on your horse
- lessons on show quality lesson horses
- individual lessons
- monthly lesson packages
Training & Services
- full training including 6 days of care and 4 lessons
- 7 days of horse care available
- pro rides, turn outs and lunging as needed
- full grooming including tack ups, tack downs, bathing and more
- extra feed including beet pulp, pellets and grains to meet the needs of your horse
- customs programs available upon request
- feeding of your supplements
- complete showing services
Leasing & Sales
- 1/2 and full leases available on show quality horses
- consultation throughout the purchase of your own mount
- green horse development
- consignment sales
Great 2 Weeks at HITS Thermal
Great 2 weeks competing at HITS Thermal in the desert. Exclusive in the Hunter Prix and Fia Lotta MA in the 1.20.read more
Genuine Farms Proudly Offers for Sale "EXCLUSIVE"
8 year old, 15'3" Dutch Gelding Showing successfully in 3'3" Pre-Green Hunters. Fourth place in his first Hunter Derby week, Blenheim Spring Classic II Reserve Champion 3'3" Pre-Green Hunters, Blenheim Spring Classic II 2nd CPHA Pre-Green Hunter Stake, Blenheim...read more
Fitness: Building The Correct Riding Position
An article by Kristi, who is also trained in kinesiology, was recently featured in California Riding Magazine.... Kinesiology reveals why strength, flexibility and balance are big keys to consistent success in our sport. by Kristi Frishman At some point most of us...read more


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What the Budget Deal Means for Public Schools
A major component of the budget deal announced the evening of July 20 is a commitment by the state to pay back public schools $11.2 billion they have been shorted over the past two years.
Proposition 1B on the May ballot, which was defeated by voters, would have required the state to pay back $9.3 billion but the amount owed schools has grown. That growth is due, in part, to lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger being able to reduce spending for schools in the fiscal year that ended June 30.
Previously, it was thought that because the fiscal year ended, the $1.3 billion reduction sought by the governor – and agreed to by lawmakers – could no longer be made.
However, State Controller John Chiang had yet to mail nearly $1.7 billion in payments to schools for the previous fiscal year and so $1.3 billion of those payments were halted.
When lawmakers vote on a budget, one of the measures they will consider would authorize Chiang to halt the payments.
Under the terms of Proposition 98, the school funding formula initiative approved by voters in 1988, repayment of the $11.2 billion begins when the state's general fund grows at a higher percentage than the state's personal income.
Because of the more than $12 billion in temporary taxes imposed by the budget signed in February, a partial repayment could begin as early as the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2010.
Earlier this year, the Schwarzenegger administration argued that the Proposition 98 test being used to determine the level of school funding did not require paying back past obligations.
Now, the administration says schools are on a different funding test that requires repayment. Lawmakers will also vote on a measure certifying that is the case.
Filed under: Budget and Economy
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Good morning. I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly. Help me! Please help find sites for: Black and pink breast cancer ribbons. I found only this – metastatic breast cancer prognosis. Breast cancer, some women will have their malignant child of lap form also to live that it has overturned and is in radiation other arm body. All, you should undergo more, breast cancer. With respect :-(, Seif from Germany.
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Sue Glick's leadership on behalf of Senate District 13 and Northeast Indiana is being recognized once again with the announcement by the Professional Firefighters Union of Indiana (PFFUI) that they are endorsing her in the May 8 Primary.
"Due to her dedication and hard work on behalf of the men and women of the fire services, the Brothers and Sisters of the Professional Firefighters Union of Indiana are pleased to endorse Sue for reelection to Senate District 13," said PFFUI President Tom Hanify. "The PFFUI would like to thank her for her efforts. Her support has been vital to our member's health and safety. Her commitment in the Indiana General Assembly to improving training standards and protecting public pensions for firefighters and their families makes us proud to call Sue our friend."
Sue was also recognized by the Indiana Volunteer Firefighters Association, who named her their 2011 Legislator of the Year.
"Thousands of very dedicated, very brave public servants put their health and lives on the line each and every day to protect us and our families," Glick stated. "They deserve the very same dedication from us at the Statehouse. Working with my colleagues to ensure our first responders have the training and support they need to keep Hoosiers safe will always be a priority."
Senator Glick has also been endorsed by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, Indiana Right to Life, and the National Rifle Association.


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Program 1
|The Truth About Philadelphia
Glenn Holsten Lead-in:
Mary :
And it was this kind of a relaxed neighborhood, you know. Everybody had a nice back yard with roses in them. And our neighbors that lived on this side they didn't have little children so they had a thing about clotheslines. After you took your clothes in they wanted you to take your clotheslines down and take them in too. I mean these people, they had gardeners and it, I mean it was just, it was really kind of funny to me cause, so I insisted that I get a dryer cause I wasn't about to take no stupid clothesline in every week. But it made these people happy if they saw you taking down the clothes line.
But it was really a neighborhood that you thought about raising your children and being able to do a lot of things. We were able to take vacations because our house didn't cost a lot of money. We were able to go to Florida every summer for a two weeks vacation cause he's from Florida and I'm from North Carolina you know, it was really a kind of good life.
And, umm, then, uh, the trees got this disease and the trees started dying. And a couple people got their car stolen, you know, just things just started happening that you see it's falling apart all around you. And then the stores on 11th Street started closing, a couple stores on Louden had fires. On Broad Street a few stores got robbed and then they started opening up like the beer places and that kind of stuff. So, you know, just the whole neighborhood just you, you see a big turmoil thing happening in the neighborhood.
And, it was a mess. And then we, uh, got hit with the issue that, how some houses in our area had been built on unstable land, and, and they had been sold over and over again and then all of a sudden these houses all had to be vacated.
And so the whole neighborhood just kind of lost and now there's no plan for the neighborhood. We don't have a five year plan, a ten year plan, a fifteen year plan, there's nothing.
The first tree, some gentleman, overnight, you know, just stood in front of, I guess my mother's house, and just took off the bark off the tree, and killed it, you know. By the next summer, it just didn't come back. The one down the street in the middle of the block, someone bought a chainsaw, and figured hey, let me test it, and just cut the tree down. And then the one down at the corner, umm, I think someone was making a -- a -- a oil change and poured the oil on the roots of the tree, and killed it.
Greening, you know, it symbolizes, you know, growth, and -- and -- and hope, and that's what I want for that block. I want -- I don't want that block just to happen to, like, any other block that hope is lost and then the block just, you know, basically, you know, goes to hell. And I didn't want that to happen, so I -- I looked around and, you know, I had already ties with the Horticultural Society, and I talked to them, and I wanted to really hook up with them and see if, you know, we could get trees for the area.
So we got experimental trees, those are, umm, Prayer Blossoms, which umm, they're not used in City for greening. Most -- most of, uh, the greening in the City is done with Crab Apple. So uh, we used those, and uh, I was able to plant on one of the neighbors, and they're surviving, they're you know, they've grown I think, uh, three years, and they're really, really, doing good.
Ken :
But I think it symbolizes hope. In the neighborhood where, you know, originally, you know, William Penn had this great vision of, of green, you know, of a green country, you know, a City, but, you know, greened.
Artist Biographies | Director's Diary


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The originals were fine thread, the new ones are course. These come apart hard after 50 years I got mad at mine and simply cut and welded the new rods on after the plate. I know I know it's gin-rigging but works fine after many hours skidding in the woods.
I had my adjusters completely apart 17 years ago and they came apart hard with lots of heating and packed in dirt from many years of use. I had to re-thread the fine threaded bolt holes on the track frames also. PITA!
Worst case scenario would be that you break the bolts that hold the tensioners to the track frames and have to heat them to remove. When I did mine 17 years ago I used an impact gun and never broke one.
Good luck these are a fun machine when all fixed and running although a bit small for big jobs.
TRADEMARK DISCLAIMER: Tradenames and Trademarks referred to within Yesterday's Tractor Co. products and within the Yesterday's Tractor Co. websites are the property of their respective trademark holders. None of these trademark holders are affiliated with Yesterday's Tractor Co., our products, or our website nor are we sponsored by them. John Deere and its logos are the registered trademarks of the John Deere Corporation. Agco, Agco Allis, White, Massey Ferguson and their logos are the registered trademarks of AGCO Corporation. Case, Case-IH, Farmall, International Harvester, New Holland and their logos are registered trademarks of CNH Global N.V.


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The present-day impulse to misread the Bible merely as a self-help book is almost irresistible. A good example may be James 1:19-20, "Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God (ESV)."
"High church" and "low church" mean different things to different people
Here are some typical distinctions . . .
Tags: arenas of faith, catholic, clergy, confessionalism vs. conversionism, hermeneutics, high church, history of salvation vs. order of salvation, laity, low church, memorialism vs. sacramentalism., patternism, positive law, private vs. public salvation, Protestant, ritual, sacrament, sacramental, views of the kingdom
Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist, university professor, and NYT best-selling author, has for years been trying to help Liberals understand why they have so much difficulty in communicating with ordinary Americans.
Copyright American Conservative.
Use here in critical commentary is fair use.
It's a truism that pure democracy only works well within a small community.
Copyright BUSINESSINSIDER.COM.
Use here in critical commentary is considered fair use.
That's because pure democracy requires intense participation that's not possible in larger groups with less-interested participants. So when attempted on a larger scale, democracy must be subordinated to non-democratic institutions to prevent it from turning into a mob that loots and destroys society.
Aristotle's Four Causes provide a useful model for analyzing the question of whether climate change "causes" terrorism. By way of introduction, the figure below illustrates how the four types of causes come together to produce a home.
Tags: Aristotle, climate change, conference on climate change, four causes, global warming, terrorism
Picked this up from NewsBusters …
Copyrighted image. Use here in critical commentary is considered fair use.
I turned on MSNBC this morning in the admittedly masochistic hope of seeing Melissa Harris-Perry, only to find Harry Smith — of all people — hosting continuing coverage of the Paris attacks and related issues. After running clips of Ted Cruz, Ben Carson and Mike Huckabee questioning the admittance into the US of Syrian refugees, Smith immediately displayed on screen and read the passage of Matthew 25 that begins "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat … I was a stranger and you invited me in," etc. Smith then turned to the Rev. Jacqui Lewis, pastor of the hyper-liberal Middle Collegiate Church in NYC's East Village, and asked this hyper-leading question: "is this as important a piece of the New Testament as exists?" Surprise! Lewis agreed that it "absolutely" is.
Source: Harry Smith Cites Scripture to Rebuke Republicans on Refugees
Tags: gospel of matthew, harry smith, msnbc, parable, refugee, sheep and goats, syrian
\\\ Trigger Warning \\\ The New Testament (NT) documents can't be treated as entirely normative for the present-day church …
"Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch"
from The Bible and Its Story
by Charles Horne and Julius Brewer, public domain
Tags: arenas of faith, baptism, catechesis, common faith, community faith, corporate faith, inbreaking kingdom, objectivity, order of salvation, pattern, patternism, personal faith, private faith, salvation history, sinner's prayer, spirit, subjectivity
Survey results show popular attitudes toward Christians are frequently negative, with words like "hypocritical, judgmental, old-fashioned, too political, out of touch with reality, insensitive to others, and boring" coming to mind.
Tags: ideology, unchristian, worldview
Once upon a time, a husband and wife decided to solve their marriage problems by writing out a list of rules each would keep as a way of improving their relationship.
Tags: faith, imputation, moral righteousness, works-righteousness
This post responds to those who accuse conservative activists of having misplaced priorities in their preoccupation with LGBT issues, pointing out that Paul includes homosexuality among many other sins conservatives seem to hardly notice. For example,
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God — 1 Cor 6:9-10
A quote from former megachurch pastor Perry Noble exemplifies:
The world would change in an unbelievable way if the church would attack the issue of obesity as relentlessly as it attacks the issue of homosexuality! (It would also be way more relevant to the church!) Perry Noble, "Homosexuality and Obesity," 29 Dec 2014.
Tags: - Homosexuality, 1 Corinthians, alinsky, gay ideology, obesity, paganism, peter noble
Walt Kelley's most famous quote, "we have met the enemy and he is us," best illuminates how gay activists – a tiny percent of the population – have so successfully upended age-old understandings of gender and marriage.
Tags: - Homosexuality, christianity, gay, gay marriage, gender, ideology, romance, same-sex marriage
MAJOR PREMISE: "All true Scotsmen are fishermen."
MINOR PREMISE: "Ole MacDonald is not a fisherman."
CONCLUSION: "Ole MacDonald is no true Scotsman."
Tags: "no true scotsman", islam, logic, philosophy
Ted Olson and Tony Perkins on Fox News Sunday, 12 Oct 2014,
debate Supreme Court's decision not to consider gay marriage.
(Copyrighted image. Use here in critical commentary is fair use.)
How does the marriage of a single, same-sex couple damage the traditional marriage of the couple next door?
Tags: chris wallace, fallacy of composition, fox news sunday, gay marriage, supreme court, ted olson, tony perkins
Once upon a time, I thought the growing acceptance of gay ideology was simply due to the success of gay activists in deceiving basically good, but incredibly naive people.
Tags: - Homosexuality, christianity, gay rights, islam, secularism
Copyright The Names Project.
Use here in critical commentary is fair use.
The AIDS Quilt?
The medieval Roman Catholic sale of indulgences?
The Harvard Crimson has a better alternative to the First Amendment.
Tags: academic freedom, crimson tide, first amendment, freedom of speech, Harvard, Sandra Y.L. Korn, women's studies


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The images, script and projects on this page are free for personal use
The Gaffe compiler allows you to make non-interactive-, 2D- cartoons in a easy way.
First, select a base image (a scenery), some sprites and/or determine some regions of the scenery that are to animated. With this data, together with a script, the gaffe tool can generate small cartoons.
go up


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We've had really good results by posting graphics on Pinterest that link to our books or blog posts.
Marketing Online is definitely the best way to reach the masses! Social media is a vital tool in getting the word out about your book!
Do you work venues other than FB and Twitter? If so, what and what do you specifically do that you've found effective on them (G+, Pinterest, Squidoo, Triberr, etc.?)
God Bless,
Moms of Faith
Connect with Me:
- My Amazon Author Page
When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. - Isaiah 43:2 NLT
We've had really good results by posting graphics on Pinterest that link to our books or blog posts.
~Heather Hart
Servant, Wife, Mother
Lord, you establish peace for us; all that we have accomplished you have done for us.~ Isaiah 26:12
I think part of the choice of social media outlets is your audience. I write for children and homeschoolers, and Pinterest is huge with homeschooling moms. So I try to pin almost everything I blog about. It seems to be doing well in driving traffic to my site.


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The Yankees signed Russell Branyan this offseason as a guy who could compete with Raul Ibanez in spring training for the DH job against right handed pitchers. Unfortunately a back injury has kept him from playing at all.
It looks like the Yankees are intent to give him a shot though despite his no-show this spring. According to Mark Feinsand of the NY Daily News, the Yankees released Branyan from his minor league contract and signed him to another minor league contract.
Why would they make such a nonsense move? There could be two reasons. The first is that as per the new collective bargaining agreement veterans signed to minor league deals are owed $100K if they stay with an organization beyond a non-roster invite to spring training. This could be the Yankees way of getting around that. The second is that there may have been specific language in his contract that they must work around to keep him in the organization. It's not like Branyan has many other options after not playing at all this spring.
Where it gets interesting is once Branyan actually starts playing again. He's sure to report to extended spring training at first, but as a DH it won't take him long until he's in a minor league game. At which point he will have to compete with Jack Cust for playing time, the guy the Yankees recently signed as alternate Ibanez insurance.
For now there is no word on when Branyan will actually be back on the diamond. Obviously, keep checking back here for eventual updates.


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An evening rainstorm partially obscures the Shentou Number 2 Power Plant in Shuozhou, Shanxi province, China. In the foreground lays its coal ash pond. Coal ash, the solid byproduct of burning coal, is China's largest source of solid waste. After burning, the chemical compounds in coal become far more concentrated in coal ash than in raw coal. Lab tests by Greenpeace found more than 20 different heavy metals and chemicals in the coal ash samples. Ash is carried by wind over long distances, the heavy metals seeps into groundwater as well as rivers, and can easily contaminate the food chain. More than 1,400 coal-fired power plants in China produce enough coal ash to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool every 2.5 minutes. Over 375 million tons of coal ash are produced in a year.
© Zhao Gang / Greenpeace
1 - 12 of 5531 results.


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Prague (Jul. 20)
The self -styled "Defenders of Arab Palestine" who have sent threatening letters during the past week to Jewish organizations in Italy and England and who claimed responsibility for the blowing up of the Panamanian vessel Vrissi in Genoa harbor on July 11th, have extended their activities to France and Czechoslovakia.
The office of the Jewish Agency here received a letter from this group threatening its officials with murder unless they suspend their activities, presumably assistance to Palestine-bound immigrants. The letter was mailed from Paris.


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Yong Teck Lee:
"This is my promise to you, that our struggle continues and I will
always be by your side"...."Trust and integrity of the leaders are
fundamental to the future of a country or a government or, in our case,
SAPP as a serious political party of the future"
Send us yours to publish
Kota Kinabalu (Feb 26, 2009):
Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) urge the State Government not
to allow the Federal Government to use the Cabotage Policy to marginalize
the potential of Kota Kinabalu Sepanggar Container Port to become the
leading port hub in this region.
Datuk Wong Yit Ming, who is the SAPP Treasurer-General, said that the continued existence of the Cabotage Policy will dampen the success
of the Sabah Development Corridor or any other development schemes in
"The high freight charges will inevitably escalate the costs of
goods produced in the State, making any exported goods not economically
competitive." he added.
"As such, Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) supports the call by the
Federation of Sabah Manufacturer (FSM) to abolish the Cabotage Policy and
to develop Sabah Ports to become the leading port hub in this region.
"As mentioned by the President of FSM, Datuk Wong Khen Tau, Sabah is
located in the centre of South East Asia which is geographically nearer to
developed regions such as Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Taipei, Seoul, Tokyo and
others. By developing Kota Kinabalu Sepanggar Port as the regional hub, it
is not only putting Sabah as the centre of transhipment in BIMP-EAGA
region, but also helping the Sabah Manufacturers to be more accessible to
the international market and more competitive with lower freight charges.
"Sabah is already the poorest state in Malaysia, despite being very rich
in natural resources with large reserve of oil and gas, timber, palm oil
and others. Therefore, SAPP strongly urge the State Government to be
serious and sincere to demand the Federal Government to abolish the
Cabotage Policy immediately and develop the Kota Kinabalu Sepanggar
Container Port to become the leading port in this region." said Wong.
2009-02-27 (Daily Express) Kota Kinabalu: Sabah Progressive Party
(SAPP) said it supported the call by the Federation of Sabah
Manufacturers (FSM) to the Federal Government to scrap the Cabotage
Policy and develop the Sepanggar Container Port here to become the
leading port in the region.
Its Treasurer-General, Datuk Wong Yit Ming, said the policy would
only curb the potential of the Sepanggar Container Port, adding it
will also hamper the success of the Sabah Development Corridor and
other development schemes in Sabah.
"The high freight charges will inevitably escalate the cost of goods
produced in the State, making any exported goods not economically
competitive," he said in a statement, Thursday.
He said given the State's location in the centre of South East Asia,
near developed regions such as Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Koreas and
Japan, among others, the development of the port will not only place
Sabah as the centre of transhipment in the BIMP-Eaga (Brunei,
Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines-East Asian Growth Area) region but
also help manufacturers in the State gain access to the
international market and be more competitive with lower freight
"Sabah is already the poorest state in Malaysia despite being rich
in natural resources with oil and gas reserves, timber, oil palm and
Therefore, SAPP strongly urges the State Government to be serious
and sincere to demand the Federal Government abolish the Cabotage
Policy immediately," said Wong.
On Wednesday, FSM President Datuk Wong Khen Tau said Sabah is
unlikely to achieve its ambition to become a leading port hub in
this region despite its great potential to take over the role of
Port Kelang and even Singapore port if the cabotage policy for East
Malaysian states continues to exist.
The abolition of the policy could address the trade imbalance
between Sabah and the peninsula, reduce shipping cost which in turn
would reduce the prices of consumer goods and strategic items such
as construction materials, machinery, equipment and food, among
"We are not totally against the Cabotage Policy because in other
countries there are also such policies ... we are just hoping the
Cabotage Policy between the peninsula and Sabah and Sarawak will be
lifted and abolished," he said.
The policy which is meant to reserve the domestic shipping sector
for vessels owned and operated by national companies has resulted in
the creation of a huge shipping cartel, said Wong, adding there are
less than 15 shipping companies still depending on the policy for
their survival.
2009-02-26 (Daily Express)
Kota Kinabalu: Sabah is unlikely to achieve its ambition to become a
leading port hub in this region, despite its great potential to take
over the role of Port Kelang and even Singapore port, if the cabotage
policy for East Malaysian states continues to exist.
The Federation of Sabah Manufacturers (FSM) believes Sabah ports
actually have more potential than Port Kelang, and even the Singapore
port, as a hub not only for Malaysia but also countries within this
Its President, Datuk Wong Khen Tau, said this is among the reasons the
federation is supportive and proposing the abolition of the cabotage
policy for Sabah and Sarawak, as well as the designation of Kota
Kinabalu Sepangar Container Port as a port hub or regional port.
He said the other main benefit expected from the abolition of the
cabotage policy in Sabah is the reduction of the trade imbalance between
Sabah and the peninsula resulting from the cargoes generated from
manufacturing growth as manufacturing will be more competitive due to
the elimination of the shipping barriers.
Sabah can also position itself as the port hub to cater to the
Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asian Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA)
market, which has a population of 60 million, he said, adding doing so
can also reduce unemployment and uplift the status of Sabah as the
poorest state in the country.
He said a reduction of shipping cost will reduce the prices of consumer
goods and strategic items (construction materials, machinery, tools and
equipment, foods, etc). "We are not totally against the cabotage policy
because in other countries there are also such policies�we are just
hoping for the cabotage policy between the peninsula and Sabah and
Sarawak be lifted or abolished," he said.
Wong was speaking to reporters in a press conference held at the
Federation's office at Wisma HCS, Jalan Kolam, Luyang, here, Wednesday
afternoon, after he chaired a meeting with committee members. The
cabotage policy, which is meant to reserve the domestic shipping sector
for vessels owned and operated by national companies, has resulted in
the creation of a huge shipping cartel.
There are less than 15 shipping companies still depending on this policy
for their survival, said Wong.
He said the process of shipping goods from Sabah ports to ports in the
peninsula or Bintulu Port by feeder vessels owned by local shipping
companies is currently highly inefficient and ineffective.
"MIDA has identified that the shipping problem is the most chronic
problem that is hampering the growth of industrialisation in Sabah. The
State manufacturing sector's contribution to the Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) has been stagnant at approximately 11 per cent for the last 10
years compared to the national level of 28 per cent," he said.
He said the manufacturing sector of developed areas in the peninsula
such as Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Penang and Melaka, contribute more than
30 per cent to their State GDP.
"As a result, Sabah has the highest level of unemployment in Malaysia,
and is the poorest state in terms of per capita GDP despite having
abundant natural resources - large reserves of oil and gas, being the
largest producer of rubber, palm oil, cocoa and was the largest producer
of timber," he said.
A decision by the Transport Ministry on the cabotage policy is crucial
for Sabah, said Wong, adding it has a direct and wide impact on the
livelihood of 2.8 million Sabahans.
Sabahans have been adversely affected by the cabotage policy since the
establishment of Port Kelang as the national load centre in 1984, he
said, adding the costs of goods are higher due to higher shipping costs.
"Local products are not competitive in the international market due to
exorbitant shipping cost and longer delivery time compared to
competitors from the Asean region. Consumers in Sabah are paying more on
essential imported goods, which are mostly produced in the peninsula,"
said Wong.
Wong said the cabotage policy has adverse impacts on Sabah, which
include highly unreliable services provided by the operators of feeder
vessels. He said although fixed schedules are provided, feeder vessels
plying between Sabah ports and ports are always between one and three
days late and frequently make last minute cancellations.
"With the sailing time of three to four days from Sabah to ports, the
actual time taken is actually seven days," he said.
He said the problem is further aggravated by the fact that most mother
vessels in the ports do not accept booking connection from shippers in
Sabah before containers' arrival at ports due to the unreliable schedule
of feeder vessels. Extra costs are also incurred at hub ports for
temporary storage, extra shipping document fees and other charges, he
added, saying the cabotage policy has thus made it more costly, lengthy
and complicated for exporters in Sabah to export.
Container availability is also another problem, he said, citing an
example on Jan 2, this year when shipping companies in Kota Kinabalu
informed exporters that containers for export shipment would not be
available on Feb 13.
"The shipping companies get away with such inefficiencies since they
have the blanket monopoly of the local market under the pretext of
cabotage," he said. Wong said higher shipping costs result in not
competitive exports, higher prices of consumer goods and higher costs of
raw materials for manufacturing.
He said as of Jan 3, this year, shipping freight from Kota Kinabalu to
Southampton, United Kingdom, is US$1,400 (about RM5,180) per 40 footer
container whereas shipping cost from Port Kelang to Southampton is only
US$750/40 (about RM2,775) per 40 footer container.
"Such a difference is significant considering the total profit margin
per container is only US$2,000 (abour RM7,400)," he said.
Wong said furniture manufacturers in Kota Kinabalu had informed that
they have been advised by their overseas buyers to relocate their
factory to either Peninsular Malaysia, Vietnam or Indonesia due to the
huge difference in freight cost and shorter shipping time.
The huge difference in freight cost is always blamed on the imbalance of
trade between Sabah and the peninsula, he elaborated, saying the
eastbound trade from the peninsula to Sabah/Sarawak, generally, has
higher load factor as much as 90 per cent (for certain operators) but on
the backhaul westbound trade to the peninsula, the load factor may drop
as low as 20-30 per cent.
"There is no control mechanism on pricing, and prices are arbitrarily
decided by the shipping cartel since it is a protected market," he said.
He said as a result, most general goods that are produced in the
peninsula and marketed in Sabah are normally labelled with two prices,
for example, a baby milk powder is priced as follows - West Malaysia at
RM24.80, while in East Malaysia it is RM26.90, a difference of 8 per
Wong said the shipping cost of importing raw materials for manufacturing
is also exorbitantly high, putting the manufacturers in Sabah at a
disadvantage against the manufacturers in Peninsular Malaysia and the
Asean countries.
The Federation also claimed that the cabotage policy has created a giant
shipping cartel and that Malaysia lacks the regulation to regulate
indiscriminate price fixing.
Wong said Malaysia does not have a competition act, nor is there any
government body overseeing or administering competition rules or
regulations, which is known as Anti-Trust Law in the United States,
including the monitoring of abuses in the market or restrictive business
"Thus, consumers are at the mercy of the giant shipping cartel," he
A typical example is the drastic increase in Emergency Bunker Surcharge
(EBS), thrice in 2008 from RM320 per 20-footer container to RM853 in
June, and then to RM1,253 in September the same year.
"Fortunately, due to strong protest by shippers, the hike announced in
September last year was not implemented. The Government should act as
the balancing authority of various interest groups and should not favour
the cartel and put the future of the 2.8 million Malaysians in Sabah at
stake," he said.
The Federation also argued that the strategy of creating one port hub
has not worked in the peninsula.
Wong said the cabotage policy and the strategy to centralise cargoes in
one regional port does not work even in the peninsula where the 11
states are well connected by good road networks, let alone in Sabah
which is 2,000 kilometres away from the peninsula and separated by the
South China Sea.
"This is evident by the fact that after the establishment of Port Kelang
as the load centre in 1984, four other load centres such as Johor,
Penang, Kemaman and Kuantan were established.
"The latest load centre established in Bintulu, Sarawak and thus Sabah
should not be forced to transship shipment to the hub ports in the
peninsula knowing that this strategy does not even work in the
peninsula," he said.
Wong said the cargo volume in Sabah is too small to have significant
impact on the national shipping industry.
"The fear that has been created is that once cabotage is lifted, the
local shipping companies will be wiped out of the market, and thus will
jeopardise the shipping industry," he said.
He said the fact is out of the nation's 15 million containers
throughputs in 2007, only 400,000 or so were from Sabah ports, a meagre
4 per cent of the nation's shipping volume which is too marginal to have
a significant impact on the nation's shipping industry.
"Malaysia's biggest shipping company is amongst the Top 20 largest
shipping companies in the world with annual cargo turnover of three to
four million containers yearly, and derives most of its income from
international operations," he said.
Moreover, it would be illogical to assume that the local players would
totally be wiped out of the local market since they have been around for
the last 24 years, he said.
"It is simply not justified for 2.8 million Sabahans to be penalised for
the inefficiencies of less than 10 local shipping companies, and
continuously subsidise the operation of these few shipping companies,"
he said.
SAPP's 17 point Manifesto - Sabah deserves better in
terms of more equitable distribution of opportunities, in
social, economic and infrastructural development and a
better quality of life. [BM][Chinese]
SAPP's Economic Plan for Sabah - SAPP aims to achieve
economic prosperity and financial self-reliance for Sabah.
Version in [BM]
SAPP's Land Reform Policy - To promote and protect the
rights and interests of local natives and other citizens in
Sabah [BM][Chinese]
Oil Royalty - SAPP is not giving up its struggle for
more oil royalty payment for Sabah.
SAPP's Eight (8) Points Declaration
- Whereas our mission is to establish a trustworthy govt and
a progressive ...
SAPP's 14 point memo in 2006
- Time for Direct Preventive Actions
Constitution (booklet)
Books on ....
RCI Report on Immigrants in Sabah
The Birth of Malaysia
Malaysia Agreement
Article 1-11
The Original Agreement of Malaysia
Heroes of Kinabalu 神山美烈誌
Schedule 9 of the Federal Constitution
more on ...
Twenty points safeguard
20 Perkara
Illegals & IC issues
No to coal-fired plant
Sabah Gas pipeline
3 million
acres oil blocks ceded
The Formation of Msia & Devt in Sabah
Proclamation of Msia 1963...details
Restore Sabah's right to appoint JCs,
Ex-minister: Review 20-point
Supply Sarawak power to Sabah...
Sedition Act 1948
Continental Shelf Act 83 (1966)
Petroleum Development Act 144 (1974)
Petroleum Oil Agreement
SAPP bid to discuss Sabah claim rejected
Take action against anti-Malaysia elements
Call for Philippines Consulate in Sabah
Get the RM1 billion and solve the QEH debacle
SAPP's objection of coal-fired plants in Sabah
SAPP: Explain the RM 601 loan to KL company
The missing billion ringgit
"special grant"
SAPP on SEDIA Bill 2009
SAPP supports the call for the abolishment of Cabotage
Probe illegals having Mykad also
Political Autonomy for Sabah
Sabah Schools still awaiting share of RM30 million
Special fund: Eric wants ACA probe
Oil royalty: SAPP not giving up
Bernas monopoly on rice
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