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I've received countless emails asking for details about the video, the cameras, the production software, the soundtrack, etc. Most of them were answered personally, but for those who are curious, here are a few details.
The helmet/floorboard cam is a Drift Innovation HD170. This is an EXCELLENT camera. I chose it over other popular models for a variety of reasons including its ability to rotate the lens to accommodate many mounting positions, the remote control, the aerodynamic form factor, the included and available accessories, and the excellent customer support I received before and after my purchase. If you're in the market for a feature rich, rugged, and versatile camera platform, I highly recommend you check out Drift Innovation.
The still images were captured using my Samsung Android phone a Nikon s9100 camera. The Nikon has a quick snap feature that will capture an image without the effort of pushing the shutter button half way while the camera focuses, which usually misses the shot on a motorcycle at speed. The Nikon will shoot a series of very rapid shots and select the best one for the final image. I kept the camera in my vest pocket for easy reach and could snap a quick shot on the fly whenever I spotted something interesting.
The video was edited using the Sony Vegas suite of applications. I consider myself reasonably astute with things technical, but this was a major endeavor. Due to my occupational obligations and the complexities of the project itself, it took five months to yield the results we did. I can't imagine what I would have would up with were it not for the help of my friend at HPR Graphics.
Many people have asked about the soundtrack and commented on the selected tunes. My musical tastes are pretty varied, but I lean towards harder rock music. For this video, I selected tracks with lyrics that spoke to me. Many have taken the time to express how appropriate and impacting they found the lyrics and the places the tunes appeared in the video. I'm grateful for the comments and approbation. I actually purchased mp3 files for all the tunes, although I'm sure that has zero relevance in terms of my legally using them for the video. I am neither seeking nor receiving any profit from the video and it's my hope that viewers who like the tunes will go purchase their own. The tunes are as follows.
Prologue/the Great Adventure - Steven Curtis Chapman
I Am the Highway - Audioslave
Born Free - Kid Rock
Bad Motor Scooter - Montrose
Xanadu - Rush
Melissa - The Allman Brothers Band
Blue Danube Waltz - Johan Strauss
New World Order - Ministry
End Game - Megadeth
On Top of the World - Cheap Trick
Walk - Foo Fighters
Slow My Roll - Kid Rock
Home - Foo Fighters
Good Riddance - Green Day
Standing On Top of the World - Van Halen


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Employers offer group benefits to attract talent, retain employees, motivate workers, and increase productivity. Group benefits play an essential role in your employees' overall compensation. Companies can invest a great deal of time and money in planning and executing a benefits strategy every year. These efforts can be wasted if employees do not know what group benefits are offered. It is important to understand how to communicate your group benefits plan.
Put Group Benefits Information Out There
Your employees are less likely to use their group benefits if they don't know what they are. Provide them with an employee booklet that contains all the information about your specific plan. It can be printed or made digitally available to employees. Your company may have different booklets for different classes of employees based on coverage levels. If the information is lengthy, provide a quick reference guide to make it easier for employees to learn about their benefits.
Educate Employees While Onboarding
Include information about the group benefits you offer in your job descriptions and careers page. When you are onboarding employees, educate them on the benefits available to them. Provide new hires with a checklist to sign up for benefits during the onboarding process and instruct managers to follow up on this part of the onboarding process.
Train Managers to Talk About Benefits
Managers should talk with employees under their supervision about benefits as part of total employee compensation. Train them to use group benefits as tools for providing support to employees, for example, health insurance or time off work. In one-on-one meetings and performance reviews, managers should be comfortable discussing every benefit included in the total compensation package.
Create a Digital Platform for Benefits Management
Establish an internal hub where employees can easily manage their benefits. A digital platform can make it easier for employees to access and use their group benefits. They can use technology to check coverage, submit claims, track usage, etc. Most people do not enjoy filling out paperwork. A digital platform can make your employees more willing to use their benefits.
Communicate Internally About Available Benefits
Employees may fail to take advantage of certain features even with an overall understanding of their group benefits package. Use internal communications to highlight less used benefits included in your plan. Bring them up in staff meetings or send out emails to remind employees to take advantage of the benefits you are offering. One idea is to send out quarterly emails listing specific cases of use for certain benefits. Sharing stories and ideas can encourage employees to use their benefits.
Request Employee Feedback
This is the best way to gauge how effective communications about group benefits have been. Get feedback from employees before your annual review of the plan for the coming year. This can help determine whether changes need to be made to your group benefits package.
Our knowledgeable agent can review your benefits package with you. We can help you create a comprehensive plan that helps your company attract and retain the best employees.
Article originally posted on www.insuranceneighbor.com(opens in new tab)

subset: commoncrawl


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Other Colors
The New 2-Inch Keitech Easy Shiner combines the unsymmetrical body of the Shad Impact with the Fantastic tail action of the Swing Impact. These versatile swim baits come in 4 sizes to match any fishing conditions. Keitech's original two-tone color injection process uses different types of salted plastics to achieve better balance and action. These great baits can be fished many ways. The 2" is truly a finesse bait. Try it on a small Super Round jig head with light line for slab Crappies. Team it up with a Mono Spin Jig or try it on the Drop shot.
Note that the 2" Keitech Easy Shiner comes in a pack of 12


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Michelle Hanlon-Mascari
May 28th 2012
An Interview with Michelle Hanlon-Mascari, Master JumpSport Fitness Trampoline Instructor
This week I had the opportunity to have a "walk and talk" with Master JumpSport Fitness™ Trampoline Instructor, Michelle Hanlon-Mascari. Michelle has been with JumpSport for almost two years, and she is as passionate about teaching trampoline training as ever. Her enthusiasm for the JFT is catching and in her special way, she is a Johnny Appleseed of the JumpSport Fitness Trampoline™ .
Michelle will be the first to tell you address that she is the mother of 2 and has 3 dogs with a combined weight of about 12 pounds. Michelle could very well be likened to her small pups in that she is constantly on the go-go and always happy to see you.
She was busy stacking JFT's and putting equipment away when I caught her. I asked her if she preferred to conduct our interview while she worked and she said with a Pomeranian smile, "Do you mind?"
Michelle's upper body becomes a mass of small outlines, her muscles contracting as she lifts a JFT over hear head to stack it. "The quality of the [JFT] equipment is beyond compare," she huffs out, "The quality gives you such diversity. There are a tremendous amount of exercises to pull from and to create new programming as well."
Known for her collection of creative instructor personalities, she invites the "mad scientist" in her "artists" as she refers to her instructors, to explore equipment and fuse, synergize, or create new ways to move the body casting a wide net and appealing to a larger and diverse audience.
"In a multilevel class for example, the intensity can easily be customized by the individual by how much effort the person is putting into the trampoline; the impact is controllable. The "tramp" can also be used from the bottom, the top, and the side, thereby working in all planes (frontal, sagital and transverse). Using props like the TRX or weights is easy because the trampoline is your cardio interval."
Perspiration rolls down Michelle's chest as she hauls the last of her trampolines in the back of the studio. She looks at me, her elbows bent in an "L" shape, her long nails clustered, pumping up and down, "And what about the lymphatic system? The bone density! I love how this addresses the lymphatic system? I mean c'mon! It's fabulous!"
Michelle resumes her work lining up kettle bells and tidying up the studio, at Cutting Edge Fitness in Boca Raton, Florida where she was recently hired to become their Program Director. A bevy of classes using the JFT are on the schedule including "Tramp and TRX" and the ever popular, "Tramp Camp."
"It's the endorphin release that is so special about trampoline training, it really is the it factor. It's a safe and effective way to release endorphins, no other piece of cardio equipment in group fit[ness] can give you that result and it's perfect for men, women, kids, and every level."
"You know I'm really impressed by JumpSport [Fitness™] because they continue to listen to the consumer. The product is great for a person at home using it by themselves, in group fitness, personal trainers, or even physical therapists. The constant adapting to the market place is something that is awesome. The new collapsible JFT and the plyo-kit? JumpSport is really taking all measures to meet the needs and desires of everybody involved in fitness and wellness."
With over twenty five years experience in the fitness industry and a leader in her own right, Michelle has seen a lot of products come and go. With JumpSport, it's a different story, she tells me, "The endorphin rush, that hormonal release, it's what grabs people and gives them that stress relief that they want so badly."
Michelle can be found in Boca Raton working with her circle of mad scientists or on the road with JumpSport Fitness Trampoline™. She is a much sought after Master Instructor known for her passion, safety, and client-first approach. She delivers a heart pounding workout that ensures everybody in the room is, using her favorite catch phrase, "ON FIRE!".
Michelle Hanlon-Mascari teaches several trampoline classes per week. She has facilitated the popularity of the work out with numerous gyms and studios in south Florida and in New York. To interact with Michelle or to watch her classes, check out Cutting Edge Fitness on FaceBook or follow her @CuttingEdgeBoca on Twitter.
Join me next week as I begin a series on downsizing. From pizza cupcakes to living with 900 items or less, this series will be an eye opener and perhaps have you thinking about how less is more in your life.
Until then, stay healthy and reflect joy!
Heidi Aspen Lauckhardt-Rhoades
Writer and Social Media Correspondent
Fitness Professional
Twitter: @ATweetFit


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I found out in a comment to my previous post, where I lamented the loss of Hap Erstein and his "Hapster" awards:
Thanks, but reports of the passing of The Hapsters has been exaggerated. They are alive and well...Turns out that Hap and a few other arts writers have started their own project, the Palm Beach Arts Paper. It seems to have launched in November of this year.
The team is impressive: besides Hap, there's Sharon McDaniel, Greg Stepanich, Scott Simmons, and Katie Deits. They see what should be obvious to the publisher of the Post: that there is a vibrant arts scene in Palm Beach, and arts patrons want to know - need to know - what's going on in it. The major dailies like the Palm Beach Post and Sun-Sentinel do not even seem willing to pretend to cover the local scene anymore, relying instead on "wire" stories out of Los Angeles or New York.
Maybe the publishers of the Post and Sun-Sentinel can afford to hop on a plane to visit those galleries, or see those shows. But the vast majority of us can't. We want to know about shows and showings that we might actually be able to get to.
I've added a link to their site to the side bar, and I've added a feed from Hap's blog for good measure. Congratulations, Hap; you are now more visible than the Sun-Sentinel and the Post, at least on the Theatre Scene!
Oh, and the Hapsters? Yes, Hap has indeed posted the 2008 Hapster Awards, a mere 24 hours before I complained of their absence. Here's the rundown of the Awards - read Hap's story for the meaty details.
1. Now you don't see them, now you do: Hap's take on the Carbonells.If you're interested in the arts scene in Palm Beach, be sure to add the Palm Beach Arts Paper to your "favorites." I know that I've already bookmarked it.
2. "Tonight, the part normally played by ..." actors' illness and injury lead to casting changes
3. Yes, but is he Celsius or Fahrenheit? The show doesn't have to go on for Jeremy Piven
4. Landmarked but still shuttered; Hap's view of the Royal Poinciana Playhouse.
5. Hapster trades in aisle seat for stage role; turnabout at the Mosaic.
6. Where there's smoke, there may not be fire; Political Correctness rarely makes for Good Art.
7. Kravis Center invents its own Broadway: the title says it all.
8. From the We Have Our Doubts Department: It seems Hap and I concur on some topics.
9. In Memoriam: those actors who made their Final Bows in 2008.


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Gynocentrism (n.) refers to a dominant focus on women's needs and wants relative to men's needs and wants. This can happen in the context of cultural conventions, institutional policies, and in gendered relationships.1
[see here for more dictionary definitions of gynocentrism]
Cultural gynocentrism arose in Medieval Europe during a period cross-cultural influences and momentous changes in gendered customs. Beginning in the 11th century, European society birthed an intersection of Arabic poetry, aristocratic courting trends, the Marian cult, and later the imperial patronage of Eleanor of Aquitaine and her daughter Marie who reimagined chivalry as a way to service ladies – a practice now referred to as courtly love.
Courtly love was enacted by minstrels, playrights, troubadours and hired romance-writers who laid down a model of romantic fiction that is still the biggest grossing genre of literature today. That confluence of factors generated the conventions that continue to drive gynocentric practices to the present.
Gynocentrism as a cultural phenomenon
The primary elements of gynocentric culture, as we experience it today, are derived from practices originating in medieval society such as feudalism, chivalry and courtly love that continue to inform contemporary society in subtle ways. Such gynocentric patters constitute a "sexual feudalism," as attested by female writers like Lucrezia Marinella who in 1600 AD recounted that women of lower socioeconomic classes were treated as superiors by men who acted as servants or beasts born to serve them, or by Modesta Pozzo who in 1590 wrote;
"don't we see that men's rightful task is to go out to work and wear themselves out trying to accumulate wealth, as though they were our factors or stewards, so that we can remain at home like the lady of the house directing their work and enjoying the profit of their labors? That, if you like, is the reason why men are naturally stronger and more robust than us — they need to be, so they can put up with the hard labor they must endure in our service."2
The golden casket at the head of this page depicting scenes of servile behaviour toward women were typical of courtly love culture of the Middle Ages. Such objects were given to women as gifts by men seeking to impress. Note the woman standing with hands on hips in a position of authority, and the man being led around by a neck halter, his hands clasped in a position of subservience.
It's clear that much of what we today call gynocentrism was invented in this early period, where the feudal template was employed as the basis for a new model for love in which men would play the role of a vassal to women who assumed the role of an idealized Lord.
C.S. Lewis, in the middle of the 20th Century, referred to this historical revolution as "the feudalisation of love," and stated that it has left no corner of our ethics, our imagination, or our daily life untouched. "Compared with this revolution," states Lewis, "the Renaissance is a mere ripple on the surface of literature."3 Lewis further states;
"Everyone has heard of courtly love, and everyone knows it appeared quite suddenly at the end of the eleventh century at Languedoc. The sentiment, of course, is love, but love of a highly specialized sort, whose characteristics may be enumerated as Humility, Courtesy, and the Religion of Love. The lover is always abject. Obedience to his lady's lightest wish, however whimsical, and silent acquiescence in her rebukes, however unjust, are the only virtues he dares to claim. Here is a service of love closely modelled on the service which a feudal vassal owes to his lord. The lover is the lady's 'man'. He addresses her as midons, which etymologically represents not 'my lady' but 'my lord'. The whole attitude has been rightly described as 'a feudalisation of love'. This solemn amatory ritual is felt to be part and parcel of the courtly life." 4
With the advent of (initially courtly) women being elevated to the position of 'Lord' in intimate relationships, and with this general sentiment diffusing to the masses and across much of the world today, we are justified in talking of a gynocentric cultural complex that affects, among other things, relationships between men and women. Further, unless evidence of widespread gynocentric culture can be found prior to the Middle Ages, then gynocentrism is approximately 1000 years old. In order to determine if this thesis is valid we need to look further at what we mean by "gynocentrism".
The term gynocentrism has been in circulation since the 1800's, with the general definition being "focused on women; concerned with only women."5 From this definition we see that gynocentrism could refer to any female-centered practice, or to a single gynocentric act carried out by one individual. There is nothing inherently wrong with a gynocentric act (eg. celebrating Mother's Day) , or for that matter an androcentric act (celebrating Father's Day). However when a given act becomes instituted in the culture to the exclusion of other acts we are then dealing with a hegemonic custom — i.e. such is the relationship custom of elevating women to the position of men's social, moral or spiritual superiors.
Author of Gynocentrism Theory Adam Kostakis has attempted to expand the definition of gynocentrism to refer to "male sacrifice for the benefit of women" and "the deference of men to women," and he concludes; "Gynocentrism, whether it went by the name honor, nobility, chivalry, or feminism, its essence has gone unchanged. It remains a peculiarly male duty to help the women onto the lifeboats, while the men themselves face a certain and icy death."6
While we can agree with Kostakis' descriptions of assumed male duty, the phrase gynocentric culture more accurately carries his intention than gynocentrism alone. Thus when used alone in the context of this website gynocentrism refers to part or all of gynocentric culture, which is defined here as any culture instituting rules for gender relationships that benefit females at the expense of males across a broad range of measures.
At the base of gynocentric culture lies the practice of enforced male sacrifice for the benefit of women. If we accept this definition we must look back and ask whether male sacrifices throughout history were always made for the sake women, or alternatively for the sake of some other primary goal? For instance, when men went to die in vast numbers in wars, was it for women, or was it rather for Man, King, God and Country? If the latter we cannot then claim that this was a result of some intentional gynocentric culture, at least not in the way I have defined it here. If the sacrifice isn't intended directly for the benefit women, even if women were occasional beneficiaries of male sacrifice, then we are not dealing with gynocentric culture.
Male utility and disposability strictly "for the benefit of women" comes in strongly only after the advent of the 12th century gender revolution in Europe – a revolution that delivered us terms like gallantry, chivalry, chivalric love, courtesy, damsels, romance and so on. From that period onward gynocentric practices grew exponentially, culminating in the demands of today's feminist movement. In sum, gynocentrism (ie. gynocentric culture) was a patchy phenomenon at best before the middle ages, after which it became ubiquitous.
With this in mind it makes little sense to talk of gynocentric culture starting with the industrial revolution a mere 200 years ago (or 100 or even 30 yrs ago), or of it being two million years old as some would argue. We are not only fighting two million years of genetic programming; our culturally constructed problem of gender inequity is much simpler to pinpoint and to potentially reverse. All we need do is look at the circumstances under which gynocentric culture first began to flourish and attempt to reverse those circumstances. Specifically, that means rejecting the illusions of romantic love (feudalised love), along with the practices of misandry, male shaming and servitude that ultimately support it.
La Querelle des Femmes, and advocacy for women
The Querelle des Femmes translates as the "quarrel about women" and amounts to what we might today call a gender-war. The querelle had its beginning in twelfth century Europe and finds its culmination in the feminist-driven ideology of today (though some authors claim, unconvincingly, that the querelle came to an end in the 1700s).
The basic theme of the centuries-long quarrel revolved, and continues to revolve, around advocacy for the rights, power and status of women, and thus Querelle des Femmes serves as the originating title for gynocentric discourse.
To place the above events into a coherent timeline, chivalric servitude toward women was elaborated and given patronage first under the reign of Eleanor of Aquitaine (1137-1152) and instituted culturally throughout Europe over the subsequent 200 year period. After becoming thus entrenched on European soil there arose the Querelle des Femmes which refers to the advocacy culture that arose for protecting, perpetuating and increasing female power in relation to men that continues, in an unbroken tradition, in the efforts of contemporary feminism.7
Writings from the Middle Ages forward are full of testaments about men attempting to adapt to the feudalisation of love and the serving of women, along with the emotional agony, shame and sometimes physical violence they suffered in the process. Gynocentric chivalry and the associated querelle have not received much elaboration in men's studies courses to-date, but with the emergence of new manuscripts and quality English translations it may be profitable to begin blazing this trail.8
1. Wright, P., What's in a suffix? taking a closer look at the word gyno–centrism
2. Modesta Pozzo, The Worth of Women: their Nobility and Superiority to Men
3. C.S. Lewis, Friendship, chapter in The Four Loves, HarperCollins, 1960
4. C.S. Lewis, The Allegory of Love, Oxford University Press, 1936
5. Dictionary.com – Gynocentric
6. Adam Kostakis, Gynocentrism Theory – (Published online, 2011). Although Kostakis assumes gynocentrism has been around throughout recorded history, he singles out the Middle Ages for comment: "There is an enormous amount of continuity between the chivalric class code which arose in the Middle Ages and modern feminism… One could say that they are the same entity, which now exists in a more mature form – certainly, we are not dealing with two separate creatures."
7. Joan Kelly, Early Feminist Theory and the Querelle des Femmes (1982), reprinted in Women, History and Theory, UCP (1984)
8. The New Male Studies Journal has published thoughtful articles touching on the history and influence of chivalry in the lives of males.


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Do you want to increase your net worth? Well we are all on the same page. Our pursuit of wealth begins while we were still young. We go to school, learn our lessons, strive to get good grades and pass our tests so we can eventually graduate and get a good job. We all want to have a good job so we can earn a lot of money. That is because we believe that the more we earn, the more we can increase our personal assets.
But if you really want to be super rich, you may want to figure out what the New Yorkers are doing with their lives. A recent study revealed that a lot of people living in New York City are millionaires. What exactly is causing them to become rich? Why are they so ahead compared to the other cities in the United States? Is it because they are one of the financial cities in the country?
New York ranks 4th in having the most percentage of millionaires
An article published on LATimes.com revealed that 1 out of 25 New Yorkers are millionaires. With that ratio, you can assume that approximately 389,000 people in the city are millionaires. So if you walk down the streets of New York, you are bound to rub shoulders with a couple of millionaires. Isn't that amazing?
A recent analysis from the consulting firm, Wealth Insight, revealed that New York ranks 4th in the world when it comes to cities with the most millionaires. It has to be noted that the millionaires that are counted do not include the value of their primary residence. The $1 million wealth is only in cash, bonds, investments and other assets that does not include the high valued homes. It means New York is home to 389,0000 residents with a lot more than $1 million in value. If you consider the value of the properties in this city, you can assume that these people have quite a lot of wealth in their bank accounts.
The LA Times article also said that not only is New York city home to a lot of millionaires, it is also home to a lot of billionaires too.
Does that mean you should move to New York in order to increase your net worth?
Why don't we look at the other cities that are included in the list?
The data published on SpearsWMS.com mentioned two other US cities in the Top 20 list but they are way below in ranking. They are Houston (18th) and San Francisco (19th). But the top ranking cities in terms of millionaire density are the following:
- Monaco (29.21%)
- Zurich (27.34%)
- Geneva (17.92%)
- New York (4.63%)
- Frankfurt (3.88%)
There are also a couple of Asian cities in the list too.
The Spears article mentioned a couple of qualities that the top 20 cities of millionaires share. Most of them are key financial cities in their respective countries or continents. Zurich and Geneva are both Swiss banking centers – which probably contributes to the wealth being distributed in the city.
The other cities included in the list are those that attract a lot of wealthy and foreign visitors – like London and Hong Kong.
The article mentioned that taxes, location and even political stability are factors that attract millionaires to live in a particular city. If one of these factors take a negative turn, then this might make the millionaires pack up and leave.
So it may be wrong to simply look at the location in order for you to increase your net worth. It takes a lot more than that to become a millionaire.
Tips to increase your personal wealth
Ultimately, it is not really about the place but how you choose to use the money that you are earning. It is also not about the amount that you earn each month. There are people who are earning 6 figure incomes but are so far from becoming millionaires. That is because they are all burdened with debt.
To help you increase your net worth up to a point that you are at par with the New York millionaires, then you need to implement the following habits.
Live below your means
You can only live below your means if you follow a budget plan. This is where you should start when you are trying to grow your personal wealth. This budget will show you the income that you take home each month and the different expenses that you are financing. Now this is when you will start taking control of your money. You will decide the different ways to cut spending so you can increase the extra money that you will have at the end of each month. That is very important. The only way that you can increase your net worth effectively is to increase your savings. That way, you have something to use to grow your wealth and become richer.
Create a financial buffer
When we say financial buffer, we are referring to your emergency fund and your savings. Your savings can be your fund to help you setup your money so it can earn you extra income. And as for your emergency fund, this can be used to keep you from a financial disaster. When the unexpected happens, you can use your emergency fund to help you get out of a tight fix. It will keep you from having to borrow money – which adds to the stress of being in an emergency.
Invest your money
One ofthe most proactive ways that you can increase your net worth is to invest your money. Remember the financial buffer that goes to your savings? That is where you will get the funds to invest. You have to learn how to invest to grow your personal wealth. Choose between stocks, bonds, equity and mutual funds. Invest in real estate if you have enough savings. This is how you can add more money into your net worth without working harder. That is how you grow your money.
Know how to use debt wisely
Increasing your wealth does not mean you do not have debt. The key to credit management is to understand just how much you can afford to borrow. According to SmartAboutMoney.org, your debt should be no more than 15% to 20% of your income. So if you are earning $4,000 a month, your debt payments should be no more than $800. This is true for all your credit card debt, student loans and car loans. If you want to buy a home and you cannot do it without a home loan, make sure that your other debts are under control to keep your payments to a minimum. The only time that you can borrow beyond that percentage is when the debt will help you setup your money so it can pay for itself. For instance, buying a rental home that will require you to pay $1,000 of mortgage payments is only acceptable if that property will earn you $1,500 worth of rental income. But even then, it should be approached with extreme caution.
Educate yourself
Lastly, you want to educate yourself so you can make better decisions about your money. Financial literacy is one of the important qualities of a millionaire. All the rich people are actually knowledgeable of the options that will put them in a better position financially. They are also aware of the dangers of debt and how it should be managed. These are the things that you need to do. If you are unaware of proper financial management, you will end up spending your wealth unnecessarily. All your efforts to increase your net worth will be for nothing.


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Réservez votre séjour
Fáilte go dtí Dingle Harbour Lodge
(Welcome to The Dingle Harbour Lodge)
A warm Irish welcome awaits you at The Dingle Harbour Lodge. This beautiful purpose built premises with stunning sea views, combines a touch of class with traditional Irish friendly hospitality. Recently under new management we look forward to ensuring that your stay at The Dingle Harbour Lodge and area in general is a memorable one.
Tel: +353 66 91 51577 Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Perfect Dingle Location
The Dingle Harbour Lodge, often described as "The Perfect Location" is a 5 minute stroll along Dingle's prestigious seafront to all of the town's amenities. The Yacht marina is directly across the road, which is an ideal area for a short leisurely walk, or perhaps some water activities such as kayaking or visiting "Fungi" The Dingle Dolphin. Also within walking distance along the seafront; Dingle Oceanworld Aquarium, Shops, Award Winning Restaurants and Traditional Pubs.
Dingle Accommodation
Overlooking the exquisite Dingle Harbour, the Lodge offers complimentary private parking, Large scenic patio, free Wi-Fi, on site lounge, breakfast restaurant and café. A Large selection of rooms boast stunning views over Dingle Harbour and Yacht Marina. Room features include a flat screen TV with satellite channels, an en-suite bathroom with complementary toiletries, and tea/coffee making facilities.
Local Area
Our friendly staff, committed to ensuring your stay will be one to remember, will be available at all times to share their knowledge of the Dingle area, so as to ensure every visitor has a wonderful time during their stay at the amazing Dingle Peninsula.
Why Stay with us?
- Quality, affordable, Guesthouse Style Accommodation – the perfect place to relax and enjoy spectacular views over Dingle Bay
- 100 meters from the Yacht Marina – soak up the atmosphere in one of the many friendly cafes, and restaurants.
- A short seaide stroll from Dingle town centre, renowned for its old world charm, colourful shop fronts and craft centres
- With an impressive range of top quality eateries and pubs on our doorstep, all tastes, budgets and parties are catered for close by.
- Dingle's countless activities and amenities will always bring a smile - Visit Oceanworld Aquarium, Horse-Ride on our famous beaches, try Golfing/Pitch & Putt, Sailing, Diving, Cycling.
- Why not trek to the top of Mt. Brandon and treat yourself to truly breathtaking views of the Dingle Peninsula or many of our other guide suggested walks.
- The famous Slea Head Drive – it's starts on our doorstep, this needs to be seen to be believed.
- Come meet our friendly staff and let them make your trip to Dingle a memorable one
- Private Parking available on-site
Tá súil againn go mbainfidh tú ard taitneamh as do thréimhse ama i nDaingean Uí Chúis.


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Aldi Special Buys this week: great deals on fitness kit
This article contains affiliate links. We may earn a small commission on items purchased through this article, but that does not affect our editorial judgement.
Aldi special buys are known for offering bargain hunters some great deals.
This week's special buys are focused all around fitness to give you everything you need to get fit, keep motivated and track your progress.
Keep track of your fitness goals and your sleep with this rechargeable fitness watch, which is a fantastic price when you consider all the features it offers.
The device monitors your heart rate and sleep, delivers messages and notifications from your phone, connects to your smartphone for alerts and gives multiple sports monitoring.
The battery life is also fantastic; lasting up to five days when in use and up to ten days when in standby mode. This watch can only be purchased online only.
This Crane Weighted Bag 20kg includes five handles, allowing you to change your fitness routine and perform different exercises that train your whole body.
It compliments your weight training and will boost your home workout routine.
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This bag is perfect to carry all your sportswear. It features a spacious main compartment, carry handles, and removable shoulder straps.
There's also a zipped pocket at the front so there's somewhere to keep your belongings safe and secure. This bag can only be purchased online only.
This 8kg kettlebell is an optimal training tool for the home that's perfect for strength, weight and whole body workouts.
It features a comfortable carry handle so you can be sure that your hands will be protected as you workout. It also has four rubber feet so it can be safely set down at home.
Enhance your fitness programme with this Crane fitness mat. It's available to buy in blue, pink, grey and lime green and is made using two layers of polyethylene foam, PE soft foam layers and anti-slip coating so you can be sure of a comfortable workout experience.
It's also has an anti-slip coating and includes an elastic band to tidy away.
Designed by top brand Salter, these scales give you everything you need to track your weight goals easily at home. Simply step on and your weight readings will be displayed instantly in either kilograms, pounds or stones, depending on your choice.
Made with toughened glass and an 'easy to read' display, these bathroom scales are practical for everyday use and they are available in three colours; navy, grey and blush pink.


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Discount coupon could be presented as a gift to your friends on special occasion for the purchase of items at the centre. This would allow your friend the liberty of stocking up with goods in their area of interest.
Use the coupon code when checking out. Contact us if you need this coupon to set your friend along this path of growth.


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Venetian Blue Collection - Bride Bouquet
- Regular price
$59.99 - Regular price
- Sale price
The Venetian Blue bride bouquet is a lovely merge of peonies, roses, muscari, heather and dusty miller in white and cream tones with soft blue.
- Bouquet is designed and hand tied with ivory satin ribbon.
- 21"x19"
Rental Terms
The customer is aware that our standard rental period consists of 5 days. The flowers are set to arrive 2 days prior to your wedding date and are to be shipped on the next available shipping day after your wedding date. For example, if your wedding is on a Saturday, your flowers will arrive by the Thursday before and should be shipped back to us by Monday following your wedding. If the your 5th day falls on a holiday, then the florals should be shipped on the next available
shipping day to prevent a late fee. Late shipping fees will apply if we are not notified of a late arrival.
Payment Terms
Customers have 2 Options for payment:
1) Make a 50% Deposit to secure your items.
Choosing this option allows the customer to pay 50% deposit at checkout, of the total amount due. The remaining balance will be automatically charged when the item ships. There is no need for the customer to resubmit their payment, as we will automatically charge the customer when the item ships for the remaining balance.
2) Pay in Full. This option allows the customer to pay in full at checkout.
Venetian Blue Collection - Bride Bouquet
- Regular price
$59.99 - Regular price
- Sale price


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New Organic Weed Control is Now Available
If you have been over-run with Dandelions and other weeds, you can REJOICE.
Now that the old weed killers have been taken out of our tool box, weed control is not as easy as it was in the past. Some lawns seem to be less green and more yellow blooms. More yellow than most people can tolerate.
Fiesta™ is 100% natural product that contains chelated iron. Iron occurs naturally in the soil. In fact, plants do require iron in small amounts. However, It has been found that grasses are more tolerant to iron than many broadleaf weeds. These weeds are damaged by a higher amount of iron that does not injure the grass plants. Susceptible plants include dandelion, plantain, clover, chickweed and many others, including moss.
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NOTE- Fiesta iron products may stain concrete, asphalt, decks and fences. We do our best to keep it off any paving or structures, but sometimes weeds are more prevalent at the edges of lawns.
Long term results- it is not instant - it takes times


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A duet of phalaenopsis orchids dance gracefully upward from a bed of natural seed gravel and moss. Presented in a serenely beautiful decorative planter, these tropical houseplants can thrive for years in the right conditions.
Two miniature lavender phalaenopsis plants are delivered in a footed planter, accompanied by gravel and moss.


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Felizabeth Schuyler Hard Enamel Pin
Purrning the litters that might have redeemed mew"
Felizabeth Schuyler rose gold hard enamel pin.
Approximately 1.75" tall.
Back stamped and double posted for secure positioning.
For every one of this pin sold (of any quality) $1 is donated to the IRC Charlottesville -because immigrants get the job done <3
Will be sent to you with a Hameowlton pin backing card and wrapped in (mostly) recycled packaging materials.
Enamel pins are a handmade product and they will potentially have some small variations in their appearance - This pin has two different quality options:
1. Standard quality - this is what has passed our quality control and represents the standard of this pin design.
2. Seconds - more affordable due to small cosmetic defects that do not particularly affect the pin from typical viewing distance (there may be a burr, small scratches, bubbles in plating or enamel, etc) but do not qualify to our standards.
Please be aware of the option you are selecting as stock is first come first served!


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Please visit our Open House at 2881 WOODBINE DR in North Vancouver.
Open House on Sunday, April 22, 2012 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Excellent opportunity! Cute & cozy bungalow just steps from Edgemont Village. Situated on a coveted sunny level lot with southwest rear yard exposure. Fantastic building lot surrounded by many newly constructed homes.House will be vacant June 1st, 2012. All measurements approximate and not guaranteed.


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Young RE, Milroy R, Hutchison S, Kesson CM.
"The Rising Price Of Mushrooms".
The Lancet
. 1982 Jan 23.
Young RE, Milroy R, Hutchison S, Kesson CM.
"The Rising Price Of Mushrooms"
The Lancet
. 1982 Jan 23.
Abstract (this page)
Full Text - English (558 K)
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Young RE
Milroy R
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Erowid RefID: 3785
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HARD on the heels of reports on the rapid rise in heroin addiction, the increasing drugs problem, and continuing solvent inhalations in Glasgow there has been an unprecedented epidemic of the abuse of indigenous hallucinogenic fungi. In September and October, 1981, 49 teenagers and young adults (44 males, 5 females; age range 12 to 28 years, mean age l 7 5 years) presented to the accident and-emergency department of four Glasgow teaching hospitals after deliberate ingestion of varying quantities of raw, freshly picked Psilocybe semilanceata (liberty cap), known colloquially as "magic mushrooms". 41(83 7%) had evidence of sympathomimetic stimulation including mydriasis and tachycardia, while 47 (95 9%) had experienced or were experiencing euphoria and/or.visual hallucinations. 4 patients had also ingested alcohol, but no other intoxicants had been taken. There was incomplete documentation of previous drug or alcohol abuse, but none had eaten "magic mushrooms" before, and none admitted to practicing solvent inhalation. Gastric ravage was carried out in 39 (79 Who) patients. 35 (7 l 4%) of the 49 were admitted for observation, and all of these made a rapid and uneventful recovery without further therapy. Of the remainder, 13 were discharged after. assessment and l refused to be admitted. At one of the hospitals 14 patients attended during September and October for the effects of "mushroom" abuse, compared with 6 for manifestations ofthe abuse ofather hallucinogenic agents or narcotics (2 cannabis, 2 toluene-containing compounds, 1 lysergic acid diethylamide, 1 heroin). The figures for the latter group of substances are representative for any two-month period in 1981. Ps. semilanceata is a gill fungus, commonly-found growing in troops among grass in parklands, gardens, fields, and heaths in Britain, particularly in western regions. It has a sharply pointed pale-yellow cap 8 to 14 mm wide and up to l8 mm tall, supported by a tall cream-coloured wavy stem.s 6 Its gills are purple/black with a white edge. A few hours after picking, the base ofthe fungus turns greenish-blue, especially the part which was below ground. This is due to an oxidation reactions which is characteristic of Psiloybe genus. Liberty caps appear in autumn (mainly September to November), and cropping is heavy when the season is wet. The fruiting-bodies contain indoles, 4 phosphoryloxy-N, N-dimethyl-tryptamine (psilocybin) and the demethylated equivalents of this (baeocystin and norbaeocystin), as well as the more unstable psilocin.8 All these are psychoactive compounds of varying potency and are found in varying quantities within the fungus. Psilocin is also produced by the hydrolysis of psilocybin after ingestion, and it is the more potent hallucinogenic agent. The effect of these substances on brain biochemistry is very complex and ill understood. They are thought to act by altering the concentrations of indoles, including serotonin, in the central nervous system, and thus interfering with the transmission of stimuli regulating the
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Data synchronization is the effort to ensure that, once data leaves a system or storage entity, it does not fall out of harmony with its source, thereby creating inconsistency in the data record.
What do I need to know about data synchronization?
Often the very purpose of an application is to modify and update data. But when data is modified in an application, you must take care that those changes are communicated back to other systems that use that data. Data synchronization provides a means of creating harmony and consistency among all the systems that have access to data.
Who needs data synchronization?
Every business will have some level of concern for the synchronization of its data. Data synchronization has been a growing business concern due to increased use of mobile devices, which require synchronization of users' personal data such as email and any operational data they may use.
What are the benefits of data synchronization?
Data synchronization prevents data conflicts, which can result in errors and low-quality, low-trust data. Synchronized, trustworthy data is essential for security, compliance, and a wide variety of operational functions. Organizations that can trust the quality of their data will enjoy higher performance, reputation, and cost-efficiency.


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Plants and Animals
Justicia americana Water willow
Key Characteristics
Mat-forming perennial of river slackwater areas; leaves opposite, narrowly elliptical; flowers pale violet marked with dark purple, borne in axillary clusters near top of plant.
Status and Rank
US Status: No Status/Not Listed
State Status: T - Threatened (legally protected)
Global Rank: G5 - Secure
State Rank: S2 - Imperiled
County | Number of Occurrences | Year Last Observed |
Barry | 2 | 2021 |
Livingston | 1 | 1939 |
Monroe | 5 | 2018 |
St. Joseph | 2 | 2017 |
Van Buren | 1 | 2021 |
Washtenaw | 7 | 2020 |
Wayne | 4 | 2002 |
Information is summarized from MNFI's database of rare species and community occurrences. Data may not reflect true distribution since much of the state has not been thoroughly surveyed.
Mostly occurring in large river systems and less commonly in lakes. It is almost always found along muddy banks at the edge of the shore.
Natural Community Types
For each species, lists of natural communities were derived from review of the nearly 6,500 element occurrences in the MNFI database, in addition to herbarium label data for some taxa. In most cases, at least one specimen record exists for each listed natural community. For certain taxa, especially poorly collected or extirpated species of prairie and savanna habitats, natural community lists were derived from inferences from collection sites and habitat preferences in immediately adjacent states (particularly Indiana and Illinois). Natural communities are not listed for those species documented only from altered or ruderal habitats in Michigan, especially for taxa that occur in a variety of habitats outside of the state.
Natural communities are not listed in order of frequency of occurrence, but are rather derived from the full set of natural communities, organized by Ecological Group. In many cases, the general habitat descriptions should provide greater clarity and direction to the surveyor. In future versions of the Rare Species Explorer, we hope to incorporate natural community fidelity ranks for each taxon.
Associated Plants
Water-plantain, sedges, spike-rush, northern manna grass, cut grass, smartweed, arrowhead, bur-reed, cat-tail, wild rice, water-milfoil, watercress, great duckweed, water-lily, bulrush, pickerel weed, arrow-arum, and pondweed.
Management Recommendations
Water-willow requires the protection of hydrology. Do not change the course of rivers or add impoundments. Agricultural run-off also likely has negative impacts.
Survey Methods
Random meander search covers areas that appear likely to have rare taxa, based on habitat and the judgment of the investigator.
Meander search
Survey Period: From first week of August to fourth week of September
Survey References
- Elzinga, C.L., D.W. Salzer, and J.W. Willoughby. 1998. Measuring and Monitoring Plant Populations. The Nature Conservancy and Bureau of Land Management, Denver. BLM Technical Reference 1730-1. 477pp.
- Goff, G.F., G.A. Dawson, and J.J. Rochow. 1982. Site examination for Threatened and Endangered plant species. Environmental Management 6(4): 307-316
- Nelson, J.R. 1984. Rare Plant Field Survey Guidelines. In: J.P. Smith and R. York. Inventory of rare and endangered vascular plants of California. 3rd Ed. California Native Plant Society, Berkeley. 174pp.
- Nelson, J.R. 1986. Rare Plant Surveys: Techniques For Impact Assessment. Natural Areas Journal 5(3):18-30.
- Nelson, J.R. 1987. Rare Plant Surveys: Techniques for Impact Assessment. In: Conservation and management of rare and endangered plants. Ed. T.S. Elias. California Native Plant Society, Sacramento. 8pp.
Technical References
- Cooperrider, T.S. 1995. The Dicotyledonae of Ohio Part 2. Linaceae through Campanulaceae. Ohio State University Press, Columbus. 656pp.
- Gleason, H. A., and A. Cronquist. 1991. Manual of Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada. Second edition. The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx. 910pp.
- Godfrey, R.K. and Wooten. 1981. Aquatic and Wetland Plants of Southeastern United States. Dicotyledons. University of Georgia Press, Athens. 712pp.
- Gray, A. 1950. Gray's Manual of Botany; eighth ed. Van Nostrand Reinghold, New York. 1632pp.
- Holmgren, N.H. 1998. Illustrated Companion to Gleason and Cronquist's Manual. Illustrations of the vascular plants of Northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. New York Botanical Garden, Bronx. 937pp.
- Mohlenbrock, R.H. 1986. Guide to the Vascular Flora of Illinois. Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale. 507pp.
- Swink, F. and G. Wilhelm. 1994. Plants of the Chicago Region, 4th ed. Indiana Academy of Science, Indianapolis. 921pp.
- Voss, E.G. 1996. Michigan Flora. Part III. Dicots (Pyrolaceae-Compositae). Bulletin of the Cranbrook Institute of Science and University of Michigan Herbarium. 622pp.


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Dual Extrusion 3D Printers
Whether you need to 3D print with two different colors, two different types of filament or support material for 3D prints that have complex geometries or overhangs, this collection of 3D printers fit the bill. Dual extrusion 3D printers can take advantage of the second material to create a scaffolding for the main 3D print, allowing for much more complex designs using PVA from a variety of manufacturers like Ultimaker, E3D, 3DFuel and more. Creators are also able to 3D print with an additional color or even another type of filament at the same time for endless possibilities.
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This week:
It's everywhere. Our community is no exception. In this week when Harvey Weinstein was sentenced, we return to the perspective from late October 2017, when the allegations against him had just gone public. Attorney Lisa Brauner provides legal perspective for women and organizations. She's a partner at Perlman+Perlman law firm in New York City. (Originally aired October 27, 2017)
There's more at tonymartignetti.com
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If you're a man of principle, compromise is a bit of a dirty word.
—Dick Cheney, 2013
In early 2007, as Iraq seemed to be slipping inexorably into chaos and President George W. Bush into inescapable political purgatory, Meir Dagan, the head of the Israeli Mossad, flew to Washington, sat down in a sunlit office of the West Wing of the White House, and spread out on the coffee table before him a series of photographs showing a strange-looking building rising out of the sands in the desert of eastern Syria. Vice President Dick Cheney did not have to be told what it was. "They tried to hide it down a wadi, a gulley," he recalls to filmmaker R.J. Cutler.
There's no population around it anyplace…. You can't say it's to generate electricity, there's no power line coming out of it. It's just out there obviously for production of plutonium.
The Syrians were secretly building a nuclear plant—with the help, it appeared, of the North Koreans. Though the United States was already embroiled in two difficult, unpopular, and seemingly endless wars, though its military was overstretched and its people impatient and angry, the vice-president had no doubt what needed to be done:
Condi recommended taking it to the United Nations. I strongly recommended that we ought to take it out.
Launching an immediate surprise attack on Syria, Cheney tells us in his memoirs, would not only "make the region and the world safer, but it would also demonstrate our seriousness with respect to nonproliferation." This was the heart of the Bush Doctrine: henceforth terrorists and the states harboring them would be treated as one and, as President Bush vowed before Congress in January 2002, "the United States of America will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons." It was according to this strategic thinking that the United States answered attacks on New York and Washington by a handful of terrorists not by a carefully circumscribed counterinsurgency aimed at al-Qaeda but by a worldwide "war on terror" that also targeted states—Iraq, Iran, North Korea—that formed part of a newly defined "axis of evil."1 According to those attending National Security Council meetings in the days after September 11,
The primary impetus for invading Iraq…was to make an example of [Saddam] Hussein, to create a demonstration model to guide the behavior of anyone with the temerity to acquire destructive weapons or, in any way, flout the authority of the United States.2
And yet five years after the president had denounced the "axis of evil" before Congress, and four years after his administration had invaded and occupied Iraq in the declared aim of ridding Saddam's regime of its weapons of mass destruction, the North Koreans had detonated their own nuclear weapon and the Syrians and Iranians, as the vice-president tells us in his memoirs, were "both working to develop nuclear capability." What's more,
Syria was facilitating the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq, where they killed US soldiers. Iran was providing funding and weapons for exactly the same purpose, as well as providing weapons to the Taliban in Afghanistan. They were both involved in supporting Hezbollah in its efforts to threaten Israel and destabilize the Lebanese government. They constituted a major threat to America's interests in the Middle East.
By the vice-president's own analysis the "demonstration model" approach, judged by whether it was "guiding the behavior" of the axis of evil countries and their allies, was delivering distinctly mixed results. No matter:
I told the president we needed a more effective and aggressive strategy to counter these threats, and I believed that an important first step would be to destroy the reactor in the Syrian desert.
Launching an air strike on Syria, as he tells Cutler, "would sort of again reassert the kind of authority and influence we had back in '03—when we took down Saddam Hussein and eliminated Iraq as a potential source of WMD."
"Back in '03" had been the Golden Age, when American power had reached its zenith. After Kabul had fallen in a few weeks, the shock and awe launched from American planes and missiles had brought American warriors storming all the way to Baghdad. Saddam's statue, with the help of an American tank and a strong chain, crashed to the pavement. The first of the "axis of evil" countries had fallen. President Bush donned his flight suit and swaggered across the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln. It was the "Mission Accomplished" moment.
And yet is there not something distinctly odd in pointing, in 2007—not to mention in the memoirs of 2011 and the film interview in 2013—to "the kind of authority and influence we had back in '03"? Four years after the Americans had declared victory in Iraq—even as the vice-president was "strongly recommending" that the United States attack Syria—more than a hundred thousand Iraqis and nearly five thousand Americans were dead, Iraq was near anarchy, and no end was yet in sight. Not only the war's ending but its beginning had disappeared into a dark cloud of confusion and controversy, as the weapons of mass destruction that were its justification turned out not to exist. The invasion had produced not the rapid and overwhelming victory Cheney had anticipated but a quagmire in which the American military had occupied and repressed a Muslim country and, four years later, been brought to the verge of defeat. As for "authority and influence," during that time North Korea had acquired nuclear weapons and Iran and Syria had started down the road to building them.
Given this, what exactly had the "demonstration model" demonstrated? If such demonstrations really did "guide the behavior of anyone with the temerity…to flout the authority of the United States," how exactly had the decision to invade Iraq and the disastrous outcome of the war guided the actions and policies of those authority-flouting countries? The least one could say is that if the theory worked, then that "authority and influence we had back in '03," in conquered Baghdad, had been unmasked, as the insurgency got underway, as an illusion.
The pinnacle of power had been attained not in Baghdad but long before, when the leaders decided to set out on this ill-starred military adventure. By invading Iraq Bush administration policymakers—and at their head, Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld—had managed to demonstrate to the world not the grand extent of American power but its limits. The most one could say is that the "demonstration model" had had the opposite result of that intended, encouraging "rogue states," faced with the prospect of an aggressive United States determined to wield its unmatched conventional military forces, to pursue the least expensive means by which to deter such an attack: nuclear weapons of their own. Now the Iraq war suggested that even if the Americans did invade, a determined core of insurgents equipped with small arms, suicide vests, and other improvised explosive devices might well be enough to outlast them, or at least outlast the patience of the American public.
By November 2007 two in three Americans had concluded that the Iraq war had not been worth fighting. President Bush, bidding fair to become the least popular president since modern polling began, had just led the Republicans to a decisive "thumping" at the polls, losing control of both houses of Congress—and had felt obliged finally to fire Rumsfeld, Cheney's longtime mentor, over the latter's dogged and strenuous objections. It was Rumsfeld who had brought the young Cheney into the White House in the late 1960s and who had presided over his astonishing rise, and it was Rumsfeld who had been Cheney's critical partner in advocating "the strategy of the demonstration effect." Even as Bush secretly interviewed Robert M. Gates, Rumsfeld's prospective replacement, at his Crawford, Texas, ranch two days before the election, discussing Iraq, Afghanistan, and the perilous state of the American military, the vice-president's shadow loomed. According to Gates, "After about an hour together, the president leaned forward and asked if I had any more questions. I said no. He then sort of smiled and said, 'Cheney?'"3
Two syllables. One word. Hearing it Gates "sort of smiled back." Reading it, we do the same. But what exactly does that word, accompanied by that "sort of" smile, mean? It raises first and foremost a question about power—secret power. Untrammeled power. Hard power. The power behind POTUS. The Dark Side. The man who, even as he could no longer prevent his longtime mentor and close collaborator from being fired, himself never could be.
Richard Bruce Cheney, the man who had acceded to Governor George W. Bush's request in 2000 that he lead his search to find a perfect vice-president, and who found that this arduous and exacting effort led to none other than himself, would be there at Bush's side, or somewhere in the murk behind him, until the bitter end. For all his experience and sophistication, that grimly blank expression—calmly unflinching gaze, slightly lopsided frown—embodied a philosophy of power unapologetically, brutally simple: attack, crush enemies; cause others to fear, submit. Power from time to time must be embodied in vivid violence, like Voltaire's executions, pour encourager les autres.
When it comes to Cheney's rise and his persistence we are in the realm of miracles and wonders. In 1969, Cheney was a twenty-eight-year-old fledgling academic wannabe from Wyoming laboring obscurely as an intern on Capitol Hill—and lucky to be there, having twice flunked out of Yale, twice been jailed for drunk driving. Five years later he was Gerald Ford's White House chief of staff. Can American history offer a more rapid rise to power? Even the firework arc of his mentor Donald Rumsfeld pales before it.4 He'd owed his rise in large part to Rumsfeld's patronage, but also to Watergate itself, to the once in a lifetime opportunities offered by the resignation of one president and the humbling of his successor. At close range Cheney, still in his early thirties, had seen the secret organs of executive power, notably the CIA, exposed to the light, humiliated, leashed. If it was true that "after 9/11, the gloves came off," Cheney, as a young and unlikely power in the Nixon and Ford White Houses, had had a front-row seat to observe the methods by which Congress first put those gloves on.
After Ford's defeat in 1976, Cheney won Wyoming's single House seat and rose with astonishing speed, advancing within a decade from freshman to minority whip, the number-three leadership position. He was on his way to the Speakership when he accepted President George H.W. Bush's offer to become secretary of defense and then, after leading the Pentagon during the wildly popular Desert Storm, left after Bush's defeat to become CEO of Halliburton, the giant oil services company. After gaining wealth and influence as a corporate leader, he finally departed to become—to use the commonplace but entirely inadequate phrase—"the most powerful vice-president in history."
And all the while, like an ominous ground bass booming along beneath this public tale of power and triumph, runs another, darker narrative of mortality, in some ways even more remarkable. While campaigning for the House in Cheyenne, Wyoming, in 1978, Cheney was struck down by a heart attack. His doctor, and coauthor of Heart: An American Medical Odyssey, Jonathan Reiner, remarks that he knows no one who had a heart attack in the Seventies who is still alive today. For Cheney that 1978 coronary would be the first of five, his survival increasingly owed to the most advanced medical technology that with almost miraculous fortune became available just as he needed it to survive—as if, Cheney writes, he "were traveling down a street, late for work, and all the lights ahead of me were red, but they turned green just before I got there." In the book's most striking scene, Reiner recalls hearing a colleague summoning him back to the operating table late one afternoon in March 2012: "Hey, Jon, take a look." Entering, he is confronted with a singular vision:
In Alan's raised right hand, festooned with surgical clamps and now separated from the body that it had sustained for seventy-one years, rested the vice president's heart. It was huge, more than twice the size of a normal organ, and it bore the scars of its four-decade battle with the relentless disease that eventually killed it.
I turned from the heart to look down into the chest…. The surreal void was a vivid reminder that there was no turning back.
No turning back would be a good slogan for Dick Cheney. His memoirs are remarkable—and he shares this with Rumsfeld—for an almost perfect lack of second-guessing, regret, or even the mildest reconsideration. "I thought the best way to get on with my life and my career was to do what I thought was right," he tells Cutler. "I did what I did, it's all on the public record, and I feel very good about it." Decisions are now as they were then. If that Mission Accomplished moment in 2003 seemed at the time to be the height of American power and authority, then so it will remain—unquestioned, unaltered, uninflected by subsequent public events that show it quite clearly to have been nothing of the kind. "If I had to do it over again," says Cheney, "I'd do it in a minute."
Yet lack of regret, refusal to reconsider, doesn't alter the train of cause and effect; certainty that decisions were right, no matter how powerful—and the imperturbable perfection of Cheney's certainty is nothing short of dazzling—cannot obscure evidence that they were wrong. Often the sheer unpopularity of a given course seems to offer to Cheney its own satisfaction, a token of his disinterestedness, as if the lack of political support must serve as a testament to the purity of his motives. "Cheney is an anti-politician," remarks Barton Gellman, author of the brilliant study of Cheney's vice-presidency, Angler.5 "But no president can be an anti-politician. No president can govern that way."
By 2007, even President Bush had begun to realize this, to understand the pitfalls and risks of Cheney's certainty. Having ventured his own one-word query in the interview with Robert Gates—"Cheney?"—Bush supplies his own answer: "He is a voice, an important voice, but only one voice." This observation would appear to be proved true in the debate over attacking Syria, in which Gates as secretary of defense joined Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley in opposing Cheney. "The idea that we could bomb the Syria reactor to make a point about proliferation in the face of uncertain intelligence," Rice remarks in her memoirs, "was, to put it mildly, reckless."
It was not just the possibility that such a surprise attack could ignite a regional conflagration and pull the Syrians and Iranians deeper into the Iraq quagmire, or the fact that the American public was exhausted with war and desperate to withdraw from the Middle East rather than attack another country there. The Chinese were deeply involved—they were critical to pressuring the North Koreans, who had helped build the Syrian reactor—and, Rice notes, "they (and the rest of the region) would never have tolerated the military strike the Vice President recommended."6
No matter. Cheney prided himself on keeping political concerns out of decisions about "what was right"; and no war gone wrong, let alone a defeat at the polls, would change his views on the terrible "nexus" between terrorists and their state sponsors and weapons of mass destruction. As he tells Cutler: "You don't want Syria to have that kind of capability that they might be able to pass along to Hamas or Hezbollah or al-Qaeda." Despite the ongoing war in Iraq, and the widespread fears of a regional conflagration, and the war-weariness and anger among Americans, the United States had no choice but to attack Syria and to do it without delay. And as Gates remarks, though "Cheney knew that, among the four of us, he alone thought a strike should be the first and only option,…perhaps he could persuade the president."7
Perhaps he could; if so, it would not be the first time that Cheney's voice, isolated or not, had carried the day. The vice-president lobbied the president directly and then made his case to a National Security Council meeting in June 2007:
I argued in front of the group and in front of the President…. I thought I was rather eloquent…. The President said, "All right, how many people agree with the Vice President?" And nobody put their hand up.
The days had passed when Bush would ignore the hands and choose Cheney's path anyway. There would be no return to the glorious "authority and influence we had back in '03." Having refused Israeli demands that he order an air strike, Bush also discouraged, at least nominally, direct Israeli action, supposedly intending to follow Rice's and Gates's insistence that the reactor be exposed at the United Nations. But the Israelis had other plans. Late one night in September 2007, American-made Israeli F-15s streaked across the Syrian border and, using precisely targeted bombs, "took out" the reactor. In the event, the Israelis made no grand announcement to promote Israel's "authority and influence" or that of its American ally. The Israelis kept the attack secret and insisted the Americans do the same—as did the Syrians, who quietly demolished the ruins and plowed them under. The era of the "demonstration effect" was over.
And yet we live still in Cheney's world. All around us are the consequences of those decisions: in Fallujah, Iraq, where al-Qaeda-allied jihadis who were nowhere to be found in Saddam Hussein's Iraq have just again seized control; in Syria, where Iraqi jihadists play a prominent part in the rebellion against the Assad regime; in Afghanistan, where the Taliban, largely ignored after 2002 in the rush to turn American attention to Saddam Hussein, are resurgent. And then there is the other side of the "war on terror," the darker story that Cheney, five days after the September 11 attacks, was able to describe so precisely for the country during an interview on Meet the Press:
We also have to work, though, sort of the dark side, if you will. We've got to spend time in the shadows in the intelligence world. A lot of what needs to be done here will have to be done quietly, without any discussion, using sources and methods that are available to our intelligence agencies…. That's the world these folks operate in, and so it's going to be vital for us to use any means at our disposal, basically, to achieve our objective.
The day after Cheney made these comments President Bush signed a secret document that, according to longtime CIA counsel John Rizzo,
was the most comprehensive, most ambitious, most aggressive, and most risky Finding or MON [Memorandum of Notification] I was ever involved in. One short paragraph authorized the capture and detention of Al Qaeda terrorists, another authorized taking lethal action against them. The language was simple and stark…. We had filled the entire covert-action tool kit, including tools we had never before used.8
This memorandum, as Rizzo remarks, "remains in effect to this day." So too does Congress's Authorization for the Use of Military Force that Bush signed the following day. More than a dozen years later these are the two pillars, secret and public, dark side and light, on which the unending "war on terror" still rests. Though we have become accustomed to President Obama telling us, as he most recently did in the State of the Union address, that "America must move off a permanent war footing," these words have come to sound, in their repetition, less like the orders of a commander in chief than the pleas of one lonely man hoping to persuade.
What are these words, after all, next to the iron realities of the post–September 11 world? The defense budget has more than doubled, including a Special Operations Command able to launch secret, lethal raids anywhere in the world that has grown from 30,000 elite troops to more than 67,000. The drone force has expanded from fewer than 200 unmanned aerial vehicles to more than 11,000, including perhaps 400 "armed-capable" drones that can and do target and kill from the sky—and that, following the computer directives of "pilots" manning terminals in Virginia and Nevada and elsewhere in the United States, have killed in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia an estimated 3,600 people.
The "black sites"—the network of secret prisons the CIA set up around the world, from Thailand and Afghanistan to Romania and Poland and Morocco—were ordered shut down by President Obama, but despite his executive order on his second day in office, Guantánamo Bay, the "public black site," remains open, its 155 detainees, but for a handful, uncharged and untried. Among that number live "high-value detainees" who were once secretly imprisoned at the black sites, where many were subjected to "enhanced interrogation techniques."9 Asked by Cutler whether he considers "a prolonged period of creating the sensation of drowning"—waterboarding—to be torture, Cheney's response comes fast and certain:
I don't. Tell me what terrorist attacks that you would have let go forward because you didn't want to be a mean and nasty fellow. Are you gonna trade the lives of a number of people because you want to preserve your, your honor, or are you going to do your job, do what's required first and foremost, your responsibility to safeguard the United States of America and the lives of its citizens. Now given a choice between doing what we did or backing off and saying, "We know you know their next attack against the United States but we're not gonna force you to tell us what is is because it might create a bad image for us." That's not a close call for me.
Quite apart from the large factual questions blithely begged, there is a kind of stark amoral grandeur to this answer that takes one's breath away. Just as he was likely the most important and influential American official in making the decision to withhold the protection of the Geneva Conventions from detainees, Cheney was likely the most important and influential American when it came to imposing an official government policy of torture. It is quite clear he simply cannot, or will not, acknowledge that such a policy raises any serious moral or legal questions at all. Those who do acknowledge such questions, he appears to believe, are poseurs, acting out some highfalutin and affected pretense based on—there is a barely suppressed sneer here—"preserving your honor." What does he think of those—and their number includes the current attorney general of the United States and the president himself—who believe and have declared publicly that waterboarding is torture and thus plainly illegal? For Cheney the question is not only "not a close call." It is not even a question.
As I write, five men are being tried for plotting the attacks of September 11, 2001. Though one would expect that such proceedings might be dubbed "the trial of the century" and attract commensurate attention, it is quite possible—likely, even—that you have not even heard of them. The five defendants accused of killing nearly three thousand Americans are being tried before a military commission at Guantánamo Bay. Those handful of visitors who are able to gain permission to attend, including a very few journalists, find the conditions rather unusual, quite unlike any courtroom they have ever seen, as Carroll Bogert of Human Rights Watch reports:
Visitors observe the hearings behind sound-proof glass, with an audio feed that runs 40 seconds behind. When something sensitive is said in the courtroom, the infamous "hockey light" on the judge's bench lights up and the comment is bleeped out….
The degree of classification of banal matters is bewildering. A former camp commander issued a memo on exactly what material the defense lawyers were allowed to bring in to their clients. One thing that was not allowed to be brought in? The memo itself.
The defendants include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the confessed mastermind of September 11, who was captured in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, in March 2003 and immediately disappeared into the CIA's network of secret prisons, spending time, reportedly, at black sites in Afghanistan, Thailand, and Poland, where he was subjected to a medley of "enhanced interrogation techniques," including prolonged sleep deprivation, beatings, forced nudity, "walling," cold water immersions, and waterboarding, which procedure he endured no less than 183 times. Though this particular information comes from CIA documents, including an authoritative report by the CIA's inspector general, which have long been public, any mention of the treatment of Mohammed, and the other defendants, is forbidden in court. And yet, Bogert writes, "Torture is Guantanamo's Original Sin."
It is both invisible and omnipresent. The US government wants coverage of the 9/11 attacks, but not the waterboarding, sleep deprivation, prolonged standing and other forms of torture that the CIA applied to the defendants. It's tricky, prosecuting the 9/11 case while trying to keep torture out of the public eye. "Torture is the thread running through all of this," one of the detainees' psychiatrists told me. "You can't tell the story [of 9/11] without it."
And yet in that Guantánamo pseudo-courtroom American military officers acting under color of law as well as some civilian lawyers are trying to do so. This peculiar, mortifying procedure—a futile attempt to render a kind of disfigured justice to those responsible for killing thousands of Americans and upending the history of the country—is one more legacy of the misshapen response to the attacks: not a remnant of a past we want to forget but of a present we are trying to ignore. Bogert goes on:
The 9/11 defendants are not being tortured today, at least not in the way they once were. But we don't know much about conditions in their prison. For years, even its name, "Camp Seven," was a secret. Proceedings have now ground to a halt while the mental competency of one defendant, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, is evaluated. He kept interrupting the hearings last month with shouts of "This is my life. This is torture. TOR! TURE!"
We're not sure what else he said…. Bin al-Shibh's audio went fuzzy partway through.10
Orwellian? Kafkaesque? The words seem pale and inadequate. Against the backroom noise of these distant, choked-off voices, largely forgotten and ignored, stands the former vice-president, speaking clearly and forthrightly, defiantly unashamed. One can't help feeling grim gratitude to him for this, for, as I shall explore in the next article, it was Dick Cheney, more than any other official, who set the terms for the post–September 11 world we all share.
—This is the fourth in a series of articles
This Issue
March 6, 2014
Beneath the Stars
A New Populism?
See my earlier articles in this series, "Rumsfeld's War and Its Consequences Now," The New York Review, December 19, 2013, "Rumsfeld Revealed," The New York Review, January 9, 2014, and "Rumsfeld: Why We Live in His Ruins," The New York Review, February 6, 2014. ↩
See Ron Suskind, The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America's Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11 (Simon and Schuster, 2006), p. 123. ↩
See Robert M. Gates, Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War (Knopf, 2014), p. 7. ↩
See "Rumsfeld's War and Its Consequences Now." Perhaps Theodore Roosevelt, who rose from New York City police commissioner to president in six years, comes close. See Tevi Troy, "Heavy Heart: The Life and Cardiac Times of Dick Cheney," The Weekly Standard, January 27, 2014. ↩
Barton Gellman, Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency (Penguin, 2008). ↩
See Condoleezza Rice, No Higher Honor: A Memoir of My Years in Washington (Crown, 2011), p. 713. ↩
Gates, Duty, p. 172. ↩
See John Rizzo, Company Man: Thirty Years of Controversy and Crisis in the CIA (Scribner, 2014), p. 174. ↩
See my article "US Torture: Voices from the Black Sites," The New York Review, April 9, 2009. ↩
See Carroll Bogert, "There's Something You Need to See at Guantanamo Bay," Politico, January 22, 2014. ↩


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Maternity Inspiration Shoot: Ray & Sara & Baby Bean Rice
This past May, a previous bride (Elizabeth Birchmore Riss), who is now a friend and a mom to be, invited me to her baby shower. It was a beautiful spring day and she was just glowing! We chatted about it, and she had her hair done, added a lil' makeup and found an incredible maxi dress. I thoughts to myself, every pregnant woman should do this at least once! Thus, this is where the inspiration came from for the this maternity shoot!
Ray & Sara Rice are dear, dear friends of mine, and I asked them if they would up for doing an Maternity Inspiration Shoot, and they both very excitedly said yes! I mean, who wouldn't right? So here is what we did:
- Found Sara a cute maxi dress- this can be from a local boutique or you can find beautiful ones at department stores, etc! We then found a thin belt from J. Crew to accent her bosom, and the tight fitting maxi looked stunning with her baby belly.
- Researched hairstyles that worked for Sara, and seemed to compliment her maxi dress. We searched mostly on Pintrest– makes it so easy these days!
- Scheduled an appointment at an incredible local salon in Jackson, New Hampshire known as Debony Salon.
- Had Ray dress in something casual and simple- and most importantly something he was comfortable in. And I mean, what guy doesn't look good in a white button down and jeans?
- Picked an incredible location for the shoot, right at sunset
Pretty simple right? Right! One of the best parts for Sara was being able to kick her feet up, relax, and get pampered at Debony Salaon. I went to visit her while she was getting the full treatment there by hair and makeup stylist, Tarmey Eliason, and Sara was in heaven! I think her exact words were "man, I wish I could do this once a week!". I asked Tarmey to give me a description of all the things she did for Sara and she replied:
I welcomed Sara into the shop and offered her a glass of water or our signature AVEDA hot Tea. Then Sara and I had a consultation about how she wanted to look and feel for the day. After discussing what the plan was I whisked her away to the shampoo bowl area. There I put her feet up and wrapped a warm steam towel that is soaked in our Dr. Hauschka Bath scents around her face and gave her a small scalp massage. Next I used our Dr. Hauschka skin care line and did a light cleanse of her skin, followed by the Dr. Hauschka Toner and Aveda translucent SPF 15. After this her skin was preped and ready for makeup! Here at Debony Salon we mostly use the Jane Iredale line and a few Dr. Hauschka products as well. Sara was wearing 2 lash extensions on each eye. Using the lash extensions in the corners of the eye gives it just enough of a romantic glam feel. For Sara's hair we wanted there to be alot of texture for the camera to see and pick up on. I did a soft braid along one side and brought all the hair over to one side, making sure to create a braid and a twist here and there. I wanted the hair to have interest no matter which way she turned. It was a treat to do Sara's hair and makeup! She looked beautiful!
And she did look beautiful, I mean g-g-g-gorgeous! Wow! My hopes? I hope this inspires all you future mom's to be to take an afternoon to pamper yourself, feel beautiful, and have a very special shoot to remember how absolutely incredible and beautiful you all are. So have a peek below, and enjoy!


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In today's competitive tech sector, tech support is crucial for businesses to stand out. CDM Technology Co.Ltd, with its exceptional technical team and cutting-edge research achievements, provides unparalleled technical support for incubation projects. Our team constantly monitors the latest tech trends and pushes the boundaries through ongoing research and innovation. Whether in depth learning, natural language processing, or computer vision. We possess extensive experience and unique insights. By working closely with enterprises, we offer tailor-made technical solutions to help them achieve breakthroughs and innovations, securing a leading position in the market.
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Two Charged With Criminal Mischief for Williamsburg Bike Lane Action
Activists from Monday morning's guerrilla bike lane striping on Bedford Avenue say two individuals were indeed given summonses for criminal mischief, contrary to media reports published today. Police haven't yet answered inquiries from Streetsblog, but organizers of the action confirmed that two were charged.
"The police took the names of two people, but they didn't haul anyone in. Then the cops showed up later at the bike activists' individual houses and gave them their summonses," says organizer Hayden Cummings.
The action brought together Hasidim and secular cyclists. One of those given a summons is a prominent member of the Hasidic community who volunteers to teach kids how to ride bikes, says Cummings.
A Critical Mass bike demonstration planned for Sunday won't sit well with some Hasids, says one bike advocate.
"People are going to get upset, I think," says Baruch Herzfeld, who owns a bike business under the Williamsburg Bridge. "It's better to find common ground, resolution instead of confrontation."


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The Central American country of Honduras held a presidential election yesterday. Honduras suffers from extreme poverty and it has one of the world's highest murder rates. The nation's politics have been dominated by elites and the military. Now, so far the vote count appears to favor the candidates from the right wing ruling party, but this election offered a little more choice than usual. Here's NPR's Carrie Kahn.
CARRIE KAHN, BYLINE: At this elementary school in a working class neighborhood, in the heart of the capital, hundreds of voters line up to cast their vote.
KAHN: A poll worker tries to keep the line moving, and directs voters to the transparent boxes to deposit their ballots. Claudia Mondragon, a mother of three, says she waited an hour to vote. Well worth the time because she says Honduras needs a change.
CLAUDIA MONDRAGON: (Spanish spoken)
KAHN: Look, she says, we are tired and we need new options. Hondurans definitely got a lot of choices in this of election. Eight candidates ran for president. That's quite a change from the past 100 years where only two parties and the military traded power. But since a coup deposed the democratically elected president in 2009, several new parties have emerged.
The most prominent newcomer in this election is Libre, led by Xiomara Castro, the wife of the deposed former president. She was the frontrunner in the months leading up to the election, but in recent weeks the ruling party's candidate, Juan Orlando Hernandez, who ran on a hard line platform to deploy the military to combat Honduras's raging violence closed the gap and brought out the voters.
I'm at a high school in a neighborhood in Tegucigalpa at a voting precinct and the polls have just closed. And there are a crowd gathering right now, because not only is the first time so many candidates have vied for the presidency, but the vote counting is going to be public. And now the poll workers are just about ready to open up the sealed ballot box and count the votes.
KAHN: Just a few hours later Orlando Hernandez took the stage to claim victory. Castro refused to concede while other candidates charged the ruling party with fraud. Such division has been the norm in the country since the coup four years ago ushered in a wave of violence that claimed the lives of journalists, judges and activists says Josue Morillo, of the Alliance for Peace and Justice, a coalition of civic and religious groups.
JOSUE MORILLO: It is still very polarized. I think we have not healed the wounds. You know, repression has that effect on people.
KAHN: The increased violence and a dire economic situation that has nearly two-thirds of the country living in poverty, has forced thousands of Hondurans to flee north to the U.S. The ruling party may have held onto the presidency but it did take a beating in the Congress. And that's what voter Nadia Moreira was hoping for. She voted to keep the National Party in the presidency, but split her vote among multiple parties in Congress.
NADIA MOREIRA: (Spanish spoken)
KAHN: She says this is the best way to bring true democracy to the country. But the real power in Honduras, more so than any other country in the region, remains in the hands of a few wealthy families. And Julieta Castellanos, the highly respected Rector of the National University, says that isn't going to change easily.
JULIETA CASTELLANOSE: (Spanish spoken)
KAHN: The elites in this country are not interested in reforms. She says for them democracy is only acceptable when it leaves everything the way it is - in their hands. Carrie Kahn, NPR News, Tegucigalpa.
GREENE: This is NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.