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What the Future May HoldDecember 19, 2007 at 4:02 am | Posted in American politics, conservatives, corruption | Leave a comment
You bet it can. Read for yourself what a popular conservative thinks now about liberals.
The quintessential liberal fascist isn't an SS storm trooper; it is a female grade-school teacher with an education degree from Brown or Swarthmore.
It's not like these guys will suddenly retire in 2009. Nor are they close to death (most are still quite young). Will a Democratic victory in 2008 silence them? Of course not. Their unhinged stupidity will increasingly get worse. The question is, will rank and file conservatives realize how stupid their conservative ideology representatives really are?
These conservatives, people like Jonah Goldberg, will merely look at 2009 as a setback. They will push even harder. Times will get worse here in America, not better. This is merely the beginning. Unless rank and file conservatives begin to ignore and even push out people like Jonah Goldberg and Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. Will they do that? Not likely. The Savior will come first, methinks.
What A Popular Conservative ThinksDecember 17, 2007 at 3:46 pm | Posted in conservatives | 2 Comments
The quintessential liberal fascist isn't an SS storm trooper; it is a female grade-school teacher with an education degree from Brown or Swarthmore.
(courtesy of Matthew Yglesias
It's coming out January 8th. It's the 18th most popular book in the Conservatism section of Amazon.com. I bet it will be a bestseller. He writes for National Review, the center of modern conservatism. Is this truly how conservatives want to be represented? Is this truly how they want to be known? For such unhinged stupidity? Is this really the best modern conservatism has to offer? Let me just say, you guys are a sad lot if that is the case.
Various ItemsDecember 15, 2007 at 6:52 am | Posted in America, American politics, Barry Bonds, baseball, Bush Administration, CIA, Civil War, Congress, conservatives, corruption, Democrats, Ethiopia, Foreign Policy, George W Bush, Iran, Iraq, Israel, King George, Middle East, mukasey, Musharraf, Pakistan, Peace, Republicans, secret combinations, Somalia, Terrorism, Thoughts, War, World Events | Leave a comment
There are a few items in the news today that I feel are important.
Justice Department Seeks Delay in CIA Tapes
Surprise, surprise. The Bush Administration Justice Department does not wish for Congress to really know what was going on at the CIA when they destroyed evidence. What do you think, Mr. Chuck Shumer? Ms. Diane Feinstein? Was Mukasey worth this? Did you really think he would allow you into the deepest darkest corners of the Bush administration? Serious, high crimes have been committed by the Bush administration, ordered from Bush himself. Do you really think he would let you in?
Do Congressional Democrats realize just how frustrating they have been at allowing the Bush administration and the minority Republicans to thrash them so many times? Do Congressional Democrats realize just how frustrating it is for citizens to see them capitulate at the mere THREAT of filibuster. LET THEM FILIBUSTER ALREADY! Let them do it guys! Let's see Republicans talk themselves to death! Let them truly be obstructionist. Why do you give them such political victories, by both giving in to their demands without making them sweat for it, and letting them take the public relations coup?
I think we need new Democratic leadership. Y'all are cowards. Yes, you Mr. Harry Reid. Yes you, Ms. Nancy Pelosi. What do Bush and the Republicans have on you? Why do you bend over for them? STOP IT!
Musharraf Lifts Pakistan's State of Emergency.
Heh, one wonders why. Let's see, the reason given for the state of emergency two months ago was a threat to the state of Pakistan by Al-Qaeda. Now that the state of emergency was removed, can anyone point to any reduced threat from Al-Qaeda? Any evidence? Are they still a threat to Pakistan? Hmmm.
Maybe the real reason had to do with Pakistan's Supreme Court, which was about to rule against Musharraf. Let's see. Musharraf declares emergency, martial law, basically. He removes justices from the Supreme Court he didn't like, and places ones on there that would rule in his favor. He arrests some thousands of lawyers—a true threat to the viability of the state, no doubt—-but, well…nothing really drastic done against the stated threat, Al-Qaeda. Huh.
So, who, besides Musharraf, can even consider the upcoming elections as anything but fair?
Ethiopians said to push civilians into rebel war.
This piece of news is important because Ethiopia entered into Somalia at our request. We again farmed out what we should have done to someone else. Now that someone else, in this case, Ethiopia, is stretched too thin. Because many of its troops are in Somalia, Ethiopia does not have enough to deal with the rebels in a really dry region between Somalia and Eritrea. This is bad because it is undermining the strength of a fairly stable country on Africa's horn. Meanwhile, over in Somalia, the Islamic militants increase their power.
Huh, I wonder if Bush will pull a Bush senior move and send soldiers into Somalia just before he gets out of office forcing his Democratic successor to handle his mess.
Sealed off by Israel, Gaza a beggar state
I don't get Israel. I don't think they realize the enormity of the problem in Gaza, and that by continuing to starve them out, it will only be worse for them. 1.5 million people is a hell of a lot of people. I'm sure Israel would love it for them not to be there anymore, but there is no way for that to happen.
It is really sad. A peace conference photo-op was done at Annapolis just a few weeks ago, but notably absent are the conflicting parties. Where was Hamas? Where was Hesbollah? Where was Iran? Interestingly, where was Iraq? How can you make peace with your enemy if you do not invite them to a peace conference?
Voters offer mixed responses on Clemens' HOF chances
On baseball here. The Mitchell Report has certainly increased baseball talk, here in mid-winter. I'll be fascinated to see what happens in the Spring. But I wanted to quote from Ray Ratto, who is quoted in this piece. I think he makes some very interesting points in regards to baseball, the Hall of Fame, numbers, and more importantly, the business itself.
"I would vote for Bonds on the first ballot, as I would vote for Clemens, because the Hall of Fame isn't church," Ratto said. "It's the history of baseball, and this is part of the history of baseball. I can assure you that Bud Selig will be voted into the Hall of Fame, and he is the commissioner whose name will be linked with the steroid era by first ignoring it, then profiting from it, and finally blaming others for it.
"I know that Cap Anson is in the Hall of Fame, and he was instrumental in the creation of the color line, which is way worse than PEDs. So this discussion ends up being an excuse for people with no institutional memory or understanding to claim a moral superiority they're not really equipped to display."
I always liked Ray Ratto. I grew up in the Bay Area and read his opinions frequently. I think he says it best here. Firstly that the Hall of Fame already includes cheaters, as well as racists and womanizers. It isn't church. We don't need to deify these players.
More important is his point about how the business of baseball profited from these past 12 years of steroid and human growth hormone abuse. I remember seeing a comment from a reader on CNN.com who said that Barry Bonds was being used. This commentator wrote when Barry was indicted by the grand jury on perjury. Barry Bonds may be done playing baseball for good. But that is a point rarely made.
Barry Bonds was indeed used. Bud Selig was silent because Barry Bonds brought in money. Look at just this last year's revenue, over $6 billion dollars, according to sources. $6 billion dollars. That's almost as good as America's most popular sport—where enhancement drugs are also abused—football. On what did those baseball owners profit? On juiced up players of course. How much revenue did the San Francisco Giants get from the year 2000-2007? Shall we look at what profit Peter Magowan made during that time? How about Steinbrenner and the Yankees?
Baseball millionaire owners profited from their players getting juiced. And who gets blamed now? The players of course. Rape them for all they've got and then throw them to the trash compactor when you're through with them. Who is the public face of the San Francisco Giants? Barry Bonds of course. Who is the money behind the San Francisco Giants? Peter Magowan. Who will pay for the juiced player? Barry Bonds of course. Who will profit from the juiced player? Peter Magowan.
Remember that.
Mitchell Report can't be good for baseball's short term business
Read for yourself:
George Mitchell's steroids report hasn't just rocked the game of baseball. It figures to shake the business of baseball, too.
As an industry, MLB has been even hotter than Josh Beckett in October. It posted record revenues of $6 billion this year. Baseball has more than doubled its take of a decade ago and is closing fast on the NFL as the top-grossing league in sports.
The Mitchell Report, though, could jeopardize that run. Maybe Commissioner Bud Selig just couldn't stand too much prosperity. He ordered up the Mitchell Report and re-focused attention on a problem that, in many fans' eyes, had faded as a concern.
Just remember who profited on baseball's steroids. Not the players who get the fans' wrath. Oh no. People like Bud Selig. I wish we had our priorities straight, here in America.
American War Hawks, Wrong on Iraq, Wrong on IranDecember 11, 2007 at 9:01 pm | Posted in America, American politics, Bush Administration, conservatives, corruption, Iran, Iraq, War | 12 Comments
They were wrong about Iraq. So they shifted their target to Iran. Now that the NIE has proven them wrong, I wonder who the next target will be. Will they turn on Saudi Arabia, where most of our "real" enemies come from? Will they pick lowly Yemen? We've got (or had) a bunch of Yemenis in Guantanamo Bay prison. Maybe Algeria if Islamic insurgents overthrow the military government. We know they won't shift away from the Middle East. They're too addicted to the oil. In any case, TalkingPointsMemo created a nice little tribute to America's warmongers.
The CIA Destroyed Evidence of Torture!December 6, 2007 at 6:25 pm | Posted in American politics, Bush Administration, Cheney, CIA, conservatives, corruption, George W Bush, secret combinations, Torture | Leave a comment
Well, there you go, ladies and gentlemen. When facing scrutiny over its torture program, the CIA protected itself by destroying evidence.
The Central Intelligence Agency in 2005 destroyed at least two videotapes documenting the interrogation of two Al Qaeda operatives in the agency's custody, a step it took in the midst of Congressional and legal scrutiny about the C.I.A's secret detention program, according to current and former government officials.
The videotapes showed agency operatives in 2002 subjecting terror suspects — including Abu Zubaydah, the first detainee in C.I.A. custody — to severe interrogation techniques. They were destroyed in part because officers were concerned that tapes documenting controversial interrogation methods could expose agency officials to greater risk of legal jeopardy, several officials said.
They broke the law. They knew it. They destroyed the evidence that would prosecute them.
The C.I.A. said today that the decision to destroy the tapes had been made "within the C.I.A. itself," and they were destroyed to protect the safety of undercover officers and because they no longer had intelligence value. The agency was headed at the time by Porter J. Goss. Through a spokeswoman, Mr. Goss declined this afternoon to comment on the destruction of the tapes.
And we can trust the CIA to tell us the truth. Porter Goss, that's Bush's man.
It was not clear who within the C.I.A. authorized the destruction of the tapes, but current and former government officials said it had been approved at the highest levels of the agency.
That would be Porter Goss, Bush's man.
The recordings were not provided to a federal court hearing the case of the terror suspect Zacarias Moussaoui or to the Sept. 11 commission, which had made formal requests to the C.I.A. for transcripts and any other documentary evidence taken from interrogations of agency prisoners.
C.I.A. lawyers told federal prosecutors in 2003 and 2005, who relayed the information to a federal court in the Moussaoui case, that the C.I.A. did not possess recordings of interrogations sought by the judge in the case. It was unclear whether the judge had explicitly sought the videotape depicting the interrogation of Mr. Zubaydah.
Mr. Moussaoui's lawyers had hoped that records of the interrogations might provide exculpatory evidence for Mr. Moussaoui — showing that the Al Qaeda detainees did not know Mr. Moussaoui and clearing him of involvement in the Sept. 11, 2001, plot.
They obstructed justice. Is anyone surprised?
General Hayden's statement said that the tapes posed a "serious security risk," and that if they were to become public they would have exposed C.I.A. officials "and their families to retaliation from Al Qaeda and its sympathizers."
"What matters here is that it was done in line with the law," he said. He said in his statement that he was informing agency employees because "the press has learned" about the destruction of the tapes.
General Hayden, protecting his own. Not a follower of the law. And Mr. General, they would not have been exposed to retaliation from Al-Qaeda and its sympathizers, unless you are calling the long arm of the law Al-Qaeda.
Staff members of the Sept. 11 commission, which completed its work in 2004, expressed surprise when they were told that interrogation videotapes existed until 2005.
"The commission did formally request material of this kind from all relevant agencies, and the commission was assured that we had received all the material responsive to our request," said Philip D. Zelikow, who served as executive director of the Sept. 11 commission and later as a senior counselor to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Makes one wonder what else is hiding in that cavernous CIA headquarters that they might not want the public to know…
Daniel Marcus, a law professor at American University who served as general counsel for the Sept. 11 commission and was involved in the discussions about interviews with Al Qaeda leaders, said he had heard nothing about any tapes being destroyed.
If tapes were destroyed, he said, "it's a big deal, it's a very big deal," because it could amount to obstruction of justice to withhold evidence being sought in criminal or fact-finding investigations.
Indeed, and a worthy nominee for understatement of the year.
General Hayden said the tapes were originally made to ensure that agency employees acted in accordance with "established legal and policy guidelines." General Hayden said the agency stopped videotaping interrogations in 2002.
Guess they realized that the more they videotaped themselves torturing suspects, the more evidence there would be later on for prosecution. Can't have that now, can we.
A former intelligence official who was briefed on the issue said the videotaping was ordered as a way of assuring "quality control" at remote sites following reports of unauthorized interrogation techniques. He said the tapes, along with still photographs of interrogations, were destroyed after photographs of abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib became public in May 2004 and C.I.A. officers became concerned about a possible leak of the videos and photos.
Huh, like Abu Ghraib…that was bad and all. Imagine how nasty it would be to see the videos of the torture the CIA did. I'm sure the backlash around the world would be…intense.
It has been widely reported that Mr. Zubaydah was subjected to several tough physical tactics, including waterboarding, which involves near-suffocation. But C.I.A. officers judged that the release of photos or videos would nonetheless provoke a strong reaction.
"People know what happened, but to see it in living color would have far greater power," the official said.
Um, that's generally WHY you don't torture. But some people, see, lost their sense of morals and reason when terrorists hit us on 9/11.
Mr. Holt said he had been told many times that the C.I.A. does not record the interrogation of detainees. "When I would ask them whether they had reviewed the tapes to better understand the intelligence, they said 'What tapes?'," he said.
Lawbreakers. Torturers. This is what America has become.
Why This Dismal Annapolis Meeting Will Fail (UPDATED)November 27, 2007 at 11:50 am | Posted in American politics, Bush Administration, condoleezza rice, conservatives, corruption, Diplomacy, Foreign Policy, George W Bush, Iran, Israel, Middle East, Peace, War | 2 Comments
I noted in a previous post that Condoleezza Rice is a bumbling ignorant fool when it comes to the Middle East. She is attempting to somehow wrap up a peace deal between Israel and Palestinians before the end of her boss's term. This is solely a selfish move, as she is more concerned about her legacy (war war war) than about peace. She has had ample opportunities to force her ideologically driven boss to make the right decisions, but every time, she failed. Well she finally convinced him to throw her a bone, and, as you'll see, that's what he did, throw her a bone.
President Bush, who's largely ignored the risky business of Middle East peacemaking throughout his nearly seven years in office, will take center stage Tuesday at the international peace conference he's hosting in Annapolis, Md.
He won't remain there for long, however. Bush plans to head back to the White House after delivering his opening speech to the diplomats and dignitaries at the U.S. Naval Academy, and while surprises are always possible, White House aides said he wasn't planning to offer new American proposals to resolve the conflict.
Nor is Bush expected to jump into extended post-Annapolis negotiations or head off to the Middle East to pursue peace in the waning days of his tenure.
He's not going to really participate, get into the nitty gritty details. This may be a good thing, seeing how terrible a leader and diplomat he is.
It's not only that he won't really participate, but that he has completely ignored the REAL parties at conflict in the Middle East. Like, for example, orthodox Jews, who are none too happy about making peace with Palestinians. In fact, they, along with their counterparts in Palestine, Hamas, are counter-rallying against this meeting.
In a show of defiance against the U.S.-sponsored peace conference in Annapolis, thousands of Hamas supporters rallied in the streets of the Gaza Strip Tuesday and a second armed Palestinian movement vowed to intensify its attacks on Israel, saying "the only dialogue with the enemy with be with rifles and rockets."
The demonstration that filled Gaza City's wide central avenue came a day after thousands of Israelis, also opposed to fresh negotiations to create a Palestinian state, marched from the Western Wall, the holiest place Jews can pray, to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's residence near this city's center.
Among them were leaders of at least one party that is part of Olmert's governing coalition, a sign of the political tremors likely to follow the inauguration of the first Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in nearly seven years.
Israeli and Palestinian rejectionists — the term used to describe those who deny the other's right to a state nearly six-decades after Israel's founding — have hampered past negotiations and worked to undermine efforts to implement the few agreements that have been reached.
But the hawks on both sides hold particular power at the moment given the political weakness of Olmert, who is under criminal investigation, ill with prostate cancer, and still criticized for waging a poorly conceived war in Lebanon last year, and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president whose electorate is violently divided.
The biggest problem, of course, is that no one bothered to invite Iran to this meeting. Why not? Because the Bush administration is ideologically driven, rather than peace-driven. If the Bush administration truly cared about peace in the Middle East, they would be visiting Tehran, not rattling their sabers at Tehran.
More than four dozen governments, international organizations and financial institutions will be represented when Middle East talks open in Annapolis today. But it is the uninvited guests — Iran and its allies Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and other militant factions — that may have the biggest impact on the peace talks.
Containing Iran and its regional influence is the ambitious challenge for all the attendees except Syria, a goal officials from many participating nations contend is as important as producing peace in the Middle East.
"Iran will be the 5,000-pound elephant in the room, even though it's not present," said former U.S. peace negotiator Aaron David Miller. "It's in everyone's calculation and motivation . . . [plus] the impact of Hamas and the role it can play in wreaking havoc with whatever happens in Annapolis. . . . The balance of power is not in favor of peacemakers but in favor of the troublemakers."
And that there is the key to why this meeting will not accomplish anything. Think back to when Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton got Israel and two of her neighbors to sign peace treaties. Jimmy Carter focused on Egypt and Israel, and Bill Clinton focused on Jordan and Israel. In order for there to be peace between two nations, BOTH nations must be there for conferences that might spell out actions. Iran is nowhere to be found because no one invited Iran. That spells major trouble.
That also sends a signal to Iran that the United States considers Iran's regime's days numbered, not worthy enough to consider inviting to a meeting about peace. Think about that for a while.
I just have to add these great comics on this meeting:
Americans and Nation BuildingNovember 15, 2007 at 12:52 pm | Posted in American politics, conservatives, corruption, Republicans, Revising History | Leave a comment
Mr. Robert Novak writes today about the ineffectual and dismal nation building going on in Iraq. He writes:
This faulty allocation of U.S. funds is part of a broader problem in Iraq: Americans are not good at nation-building. The huge embassy in Baghdad is run by Foreign Service officers on the same model as U.S. missions worldwide whose function is reporting, not managing. Similarly, legal policy in Iraq is handled by assistant U.S. attorneys who focus on arrest and detention.
I'm sorry Mr. Novak, as experienced as you are in Washington, you are still a hyper-partisan who would rather paint everybody bad than the Republicans. It is the Bush administration and the Republicans that are bad at nation building, not Americans. They may be Americans, but they do not represent all of America. And yes, they are indeed terrible at nation-building (heck you should have figured that out back before Bush was elected when he scorned and scorned nation building). But there are Americans who actually are quite good at nation building. They just don't belong to the Republican party.
Musharraf: Protests are Producing Negative Vibes, Negative OpticsNovember 13, 2007 at 12:56 pm | Posted in Bush Administration, conservatives, corruption, Foreign Policy, Pakistan | Leave a comment
That's why he must be a dictator, because the protesting will "disturb" the election process:
The president of Pakistan, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, vigorously defended his declaration of emergency rule in a 40-minute interview, insisting that it would not interfere with the holding of free and fair elections.
He defended the decree issued 10 days ago that scrapped the Constitution, dismissed the Supreme Court and resulted in the arrests of 2,500 opposition party workers, lawyers and human rights advocates, and rejected an appeal by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to lift emergency rule.
"I totally disagree with her," General Musharraf said in an interview with The New York Times at the presidential building here on Tuesday. "The emergency is to ensure elections go in an undisturbed manner."
General Musharraf said the decree was justified because the Supreme Court had meddled in politics, specifically the validity of his re-election, and because of the serious threat from terrorists.
In the interview General Musharraf was critical of the opposition leader, Benazir Bhutto, saying she was confrontational and would be difficult to work with.
General Musharraf complained about her conduct since her return a month ago, saying: "You come here on supposedly on a reconciliatory mode, and right before you land, you're on a confrontationist mode. I am afraid this is producing negative vibes, negative optics."
In the interview, the general, dressed in a gray suit and blue tie, described Pakistan as suffering from a "disturbed terrorist environment."
"I don't know, I don't know," he said, when asked when the emergency rule would end. "We need to see the environment."
Can you say, whacked! Can you say, unhinged from reality! The man is holding on to power he knows he is losing. He's not going to last long, see. So he has to do whatever he can. Including coming up with the dumbest excuses for his emergency decrees.
This is George Bush's man. This is the foreign policy of the Bush administration. Coddle dictators who give false promises on democracy. See, if we were to actually have real democracy in the lands of our enemies, it just might end up that our enemies will win power. In the end, democracy is not our overriding priority. We are hypocrites.
Excellent Commentary on Iraq, From Early OnNovember 5, 2007 at 4:40 pm | Posted in conservatives, corruption, Iraq, Republicans | Leave a comment
And another hit and run, in which is asked a most pertinent question:
I find myself with a few spare minutes and make the mistake of reading Thomas Friedman again. His conclusion after a long, dull and witless ramble about the introduction of "democracy" to Iraq (just what the Gulf region needs, more puppet states) reads "If [it is] done right, the Middle East will never be the same. If done wrong, the world will never be the same". There's not much you can say to that except "shut up you silly man". But it does inspire in me the desire for a competition; can anyone, particularly the rather more Bush-friendly recent arrivals to the board, give me one single example of something with the following three characteristics:
1. It is a policy initiative of the current Bush administration
2. It was significant enough in scale that I'd have heard of it (at a pinch, that I should have heard of it)
3. It wasn't in some important way completely fucked up during the execution.
It's just that I literally can't think what possible evidence Friedman might be going on in his tacit assumption that the introduction of democracy to Iraq (if it is attempted at all) will be executed well rather than badly.
This was asked in February 2003.
Why this administration is losing me on Iraq, in which it is clearly laid out in August 2003 that if the Bush administration would not increase troop size immediately, the mission would end up being a failure. An excellent analysis.
The D-Squared Digest One Minute MBA – Avoiding Projects Pursued By Morons 101, in which sound business principles are applied to show how foolish it is to follow Bush into war.
Operation Agent Snipe, in the which it is highlighted how we were bamboozled by the WMD trick to our great detriment.
finally, The duToitification of the Western Conservative, in which the wimpification of the modern Conservative is well highlighted.
Will Bush Follow Musharraf's Lead?November 5, 2007 at 5:31 am | Posted in American politics, Bush Administration, conservatives, corruption, liberals, neo-conservatives, Republicans, secret combinations | 14 Comments
Juan Cole wonders:
If Bush and Cheney are ever tempted into extreme measures in the United States, Musharraf has provided a template for how it would unfold. Maintain you are moving against terrorists and extremists, but actually move against the rule of law. Rubin has accepted the suggested term of "lawfare" to describe this kind of warfare by executive order.
Realistically, how many conservatives would actually be upset if, say, Bush were to keep power and go around arresting liberals…
Protective Stupidity, or Right Wing Blogs TodayNovember 3, 2007 at 10:40 am | Posted in 1984, conservatives, corruption, secret combinations | 15 Comments
Jonathan Schwartz quotes George Orwell, whose main points, especially in 1984 are glaringly relevant today:
A Party member…is supposed to live in a continuous frenzy of hatred of foreign enemies and internal traitors, triumph over victories, and self-abasement before the power and wisdom of the Party. The discontents produced by his bare, unsatisfying life are deliberately turned outwards and dissipated by such devices as the Two Minutes Hate, and the speculations which might possibly induce a sceptical or rebellious attitude are killed in advance by his early acquired inner discipline…called, in Newspeak, crimestop. Crimestop means the faculty of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought. It includes the power of not grasping analogies, of failing to perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest arguments if they are inimical to Ingsoc, and of being bored or repelled by any train of thought which is capable of leading in a heretical direction. Crimestop, in short, means protective stupidity.
Clueless, Dangerous Mitt RomneyOctober 26, 2007 at 9:20 am | Posted in conservatives, corruption, Foreign Policy, Iran, Military, Mit Romney, Mitt Romney, secret combinations, War | 10 Comments
What does it take to raise the level of discourse of these Republican candidates for president? Here we have Mitt Romney responding on the new sanctions placed on Iran that he is in favor of "a military blockade or "bombardment of some kind" to prevent Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon."
A bombardment of some kind? A military blockade? Just what in the hell will those do? Are Republicans really this far unhinged? This shows a real poor understanding of foreign policy on Mitt Romney. It shows that he would rather pander to an out of touch political Right than state things as they are. Com'on Mr. Romney, you were a stake president for Pete's sake!
Republicans Revive Plot to Steal California VotesOctober 23, 2007 at 6:56 pm | Posted in American politics, conservatives, corruption, Elections, Republicans, secret combinations, Voter Suppression | 7 Comments
See, the problem is that because of centuries of gerrymandering there are particular districts in each state that are safely in one camp or the other, and there is no getting around it. What Republicans want to do is steal California delegate votes. They want the 20 or so votes from safe Republican districts (which will tilt the overall vote count). The problem is that these Republicans do not want to do this nationally (say in Texas or Florida or Ohio), just California, the biggest electorate prize.
Of course if this is done nationally, then it would wholly ruin democracy, as the only districts that will even get candidates to show up are the very very few that still happen to be competitive. As it is right now, because of the outdated electoral college system, only a few states actually count in the general election (Ohio, Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, etc). Voters in states like Massachusetts, Texas, New York, and California (not to mention all the small states like Rhode Island—very liberal—or Wyoming—very conservative—that will also not get any candidates stopping by, even though that was supposedly the purpose of the electoral college—to make smaller states competitive), do not count.
I believe that we must remove the electoral college system from our election process. Make the election truly representative of the plurality of voters.
An Excellent Reason to Vote For Hillary ClintonOctober 6, 2007 at 8:24 am | Posted in Bill Clinton, conservatives, corruption | 8 Comments
Via American Blog, one excellent reason to vote for Hillary Clinton as president is Bill Clinton. He reveals that his wife has asked him to be the Ambassador to the world, to restore America's image after eight years of the most horrible foreign policy decisions probably in the history of our nation.
If Hillary Clinton wins the US presidency, Bill Clinton will be given the job of repairing America's damaged international reputation, the former president tells the Guardian in an interview today.
Mr Clinton, 61, reveals that his wife has said she would ask him to "go out and immediately restore America's standing, go out and tell people America was open for business and cooperation again" after eight years marked by unilateralist policies that have "enrage[d] the world".
For the first time in his political life, Mr Clinton says, "ordinary US voters in the heartlands are concerned about who would be most likely to restore America's standing in the world" in the wake of the Iraq war, lack of action on climate change and other policies.
"The average American knows instinctively that we have almost no problems in the world that we can solve all by ourselves," he says. "And that, I think, is helping her candidacy, because people believe – I think rightly – that if she were elected she would quickly move to restore our standing in the world, and tell people there may be a few occasions when we have to do something on our own, but our strong preference is going to be to be cooperative."
The collective effect of American unilateralism has been "to enrage the world at the very moment when we had more support than we've had in recent memory, because of 9/11", Mr Clinton says.
The conservative right doesn't give a damn at what others around the world think of us, to our utter detriment. They really can't see the bigger picture, because they are stuck on their armageddon riff. They don't realize that their armageddon prophecies are self-fulfilling. We've gotta stop that madness.
"Why is the Blood of Iraqis So Free For Everyone To Spill?"October 4, 2007 at 9:15 am | Posted in American politics, blackwater, conservatives, corruption, Iraq, secret combinations, violence, War, War on Terror | 3 Comments
That is the question the father of one of the victims in Blackwater's murderous rampage two weeks ago asks.
The carnage has sparked outrage and demands to reform the private contractor industry. Almost three weeks later, the collective memory of Iraqis at the scene is raw.
"It was catastrophic. So many innocent people were killed," recalled Zina Fadhil, 21, a pharmacist. That day, she huddled in fear inside her store about 100 yards from the square as Blackwater helicopters hovered above. Like other eyewitnesses, she said she saw Blackwater guards firing down from the helicopters, an allegation the security firm denies.
"I am a peaceful person, but I wished I could have shot those people in the helicopters," Fadhil continued, her soft voice rising.
Not one of the victims or family members interviewed had been aware that Blackwater was immune to prosecution in Iraq under an order by U.S. administrators after the 2003 invasion.
"Why is the blood of Iraqis so free for everyone to spill?" asked Sahib Nasr, the father of one of the victims.
Shoot first, ask questions later? Is that really how we want the world to perceive us, America?
Kadhum, the doctor, and her son Haitham, who were in the flow of cars the officers were trying to stop, didn't react quickly enough. A Blackwater guard fired, striking Haitham as he sat in the driver's seat, three witnesses said.
"The bullet went through the windshield and split his head open," recalled traffic police officer Sarhan Thiab. "His mother was holding him, screaming for help."
The car, which had an automatic transmission, kept rolling. Another officer, Ali Khalaf, tried to stop the vehicle as another spray of bullets killed Kadhum.
Thiab fled first, then Khalaf, followed by bullets that struck a traffic light pole, a billboard and their police guard post. Then the Blackwater guards escalated their firepower, engulfing the sedan in flames.
In sworn statements to State Department investigators reported by ABC News, four Blackwater guards said they fired upon the sedan because it was traveling at high speed and would not stop. Khalaf and other eyewitnesses said it was moving slowly and posed no threat.
Imagine if that was your mother and brother. If you cannot handle that being done to your family, how can you tolerate that being done to other people's families?
On Monday, inside his spacious cream-colored house in Baghdad's Khadisiya neighborhood, Firoz Fadhil Abbas questioned whether anyone would be held accountable for the shootings.
He has met several times with U.S. military investigators, and every time they apologized for his brother's death, he said. But such words have done little to ease the clan's loss.
"It looks like everything is back to normal. The company is back in operation," Abbas said. "And we've lost the head of our family. There's no justice here."
Mohammed Osama Fadhil, Osama's 14-year-old son, quietly listened to the conversation. Seated near him was his brother, Ahmed, a solemn 7-year-old. Finally, Mohammed spoke, focusing on Blackwater.
"They killed many others before," he said. "Have they done anything to help those people, so that we can expect something?"
This is a clear case of murder, whether accidental or purposeful, those civilian guards fired on civilians and killed at least fourteen. For no excuse good enough to warrant the actions they took. And they are really above the law. They are not bound to Iraqi law. They are not bound to the military code. They are not bound by American law either. The Bush administration ensured that these mercenary guards are above the law.
Is this what you really want, America? If not, then make it known to Congress, the only power left to subdue this out of control executive. This is evil stuff. This is not the characteristics of a Christian nation, or any nation professing a belief in some sort of higher being. These are not the standards we were founded upon. These are not the standards our forefathers died for. Why do we accept them now?
$180 Billion Dollars For Iraq, ZERO Dollars For American ChildrenOctober 4, 2007 at 8:33 am | Posted in American politics, Bush Administration, conservatives, corruption, family values, George W Bush, King George, McCain, Mit Romney, Mitt Romney, Republicans, Ron Paul | 12 Comments
DemFromCT puts it in perspective what Bush's veto of the child health care bill really means.
George W. Bush is requesting $180 billion dollars for next year ALONE. The child health care bill would have cost $60 billion OVER FIVE YEARS. This is the priority of the Republican party. The four top contenders on the Republican side were all against this bill. Put them in office, America, and your children will never see health care. But you will see more warfare.
Oh and Ron Paul? What did he think? he voted against it.
If They're So Afraid of MSNBC, How Could They Possibly Take On Terrorists?!?September 29, 2007 at 6:44 am | Posted in Congress, conservatives, corruption, Republicans, secret combinations | Leave a comment
Republican Congressmen and women are now boycotting MSNBC because of David Schuster's strong stance against the poor little old Rep Blackburn of Tennessee. She thought she was going in for a safe interview, for a free shot at evil dastardly liberals. She was shocked, SHOCKED to find someone hit back. How DARE HE! "I'm a Republican Congresswoman! How dare you stick it to me!"
What a bunch of sissies!
Romney to Address Secret Combination Group – the Council for National PolicySeptember 26, 2007 at 3:43 pm | Posted in American politics, conservatives, corruption, Evangelicals, Mit Romney, Mitt Romney, neo-conservatives, Republicans, secret combinations | 13 Comments
Showing that indeed he's turned to the dark side and forever given up his moderate roots, Mitt Romney will speak to the extremist secret combination group, The Council for National Policy, where Dick Cheney will speak too. Here is what this group thinks:
"The media should not know when or where we meet or who takes part in our programs, before of after a meeting," the New York Times reported.
Hmmm, I wonder why…
What do they want?
In the summer of 1981, Woody Jenkins, a former Louisiana state lawmaker who served as the group's first executive director, told Newsweek bluntly, "One day before the end of this century, the Council will be so influential that no president, regardless of party or philosophy, will be able to ignore us or our concerns or shut us out of the highest levels of government."
Huh, sound familiar to y'all, my fellow Mormon readers?
The DailyKos diary I just linked to provides the most information about them, and is aptly titled Sith Lords of the Ultra-Right.
Get to know this secret combination, America. They've been ruling the country for twenty of the past twenty eight years.
"We wanted to send [Ahmadinejad] a powerful message"September 26, 2007 at 1:55 pm | Posted in Ahmadinejad, conservatives, corruption, Foreign Policy, Iran, United Nations | 1 Comment
the ridiculousness and petty childishness of our current administration continues
The U.S. delegation walked out of the General Assembly chamber when Ahmadinejad went to the podium, leaving only a low-ranking note-taker to listen to his speech, which also indirectly accused the U.S. and Israel of human rights violations. Gonzalo Gallegos, a State Department spokesman, said the U.S. wanted "to send him a powerful message."
Oh yeah, real powerful message. You only showed how petty and childish you really are. Why are you so afraid of this piddly man? Why does he instigate such fear in conservatives, enough to drive you to war?
You Will Be Bamboozled This Week, AmericaSeptember 9, 2007 at 3:04 pm | Posted in America, American politics, Bush Administration, conservatives, corruption, Iraq, Military, Republicans, Revising History, secret combinations, United Nations, violence, War, War on Terror, World Events | 14 Comments
Let's just be clear about all the obfuscation you will be hearing, all the muddying of the waters that you will hear this week from General Petraeus and Ambassador Corker. They are Bush loyalists, and will not tell you the truth.
First off is this little nugget in one report out today:
For two hours, President Bush listened to contrasting visions of the U.S. future in Iraq. Gen. David H. Petraeus dominated the conversation by video link from Baghdad, making the case to keep as many troops as long as possible to cement any security progress. Adm. William J. Fallon, his superior, argued instead for accepting more risks in Iraq, officials said, in order to have enough forces available to confront other potential threats in the region.
The polite discussion in the White House Situation Room a week ago masked a sharper clash over the U.S. venture in Iraq, one that has been building since Fallon, chief of the U.S. Central Command, which oversees Middle East operations, sent a rear admiral to Baghdad this summer to gather information. Soon afterward, officials said, Fallon began developing plans to redefine the U.S. mission and radically draw down troops.
One of those plans, according to a Centcom officer, involved slashing U.S. combat forces in Iraq by three-quarters by 2010.
They're not planning at all to withdraw, or even reduce the size of our forces in Iraq before 2010. They're in this for the long haul, whether you like it or not, America. Will you stand for this? They won't care if a Democrat is in power in 2009. They'll press on the lie to ensure more Americans are over in Iraq to die for…well, we're not quite sure what. Some "victory" whatever the hell that means.
The second comes from this fascinating report about a UN report supposed to come out now. But notice what is going on:
The United Nations has delayed the release of a quarterly report on human rights in Iraq to avoid criticizing Washington and Baghdad while they are seeking to rally congressional and international support for the war effort, according to U.N. officials.
The move follows a request by Ryan C. Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, to Ashraf Qazi, the United Nations' top envoy in Baghdad, saying Iraq needs "several weeks" to study the report, according to an account by a senior U.N. official. The delay will effectively postpone debate over the United Nations' view of Iraq's sectarian violence — and U.S. and Iraqi efforts to combat it — until after Crocker and Gen. David H. Petraeus deliver a crucial assessment of conditions in Iraq to Congress this week.
A draft of the U.N. report, which was completed last month, focuses primarily on violence committed by Iraqi militias and insurgents, according to U.N. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. But it also documents abuses by U.S. and Iraqi forces during more than four months of the U.S.-backed military buildup in Baghdad. It faults Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government, saying it lacks commitment to improving its rights record.
Gee, why would we want to avoid criticizing Washington and Baghdad while they're trying to build support? Shouldn't we know the full picture as they are trying to build support? Why hide? Doesn't the truth set you free?
So just know America. You will be bamboozled.
Oh, and the political positioning by Republicans now is all about 2012. They're pretty certain to lose 2008 to the Democrats and are trying to position the war so whatever Democratic leader starts in 2009 has a losing war to end, thereby creating the perfect opportunity for Republicans to come back in 2012 as the "saviors" of America from those dastardly liberals.
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Bob Evans
Bob Evans Restaurants are known for its signature favorites like Rise & Shine breakfast, sausage gravy 'n biscuits, turkey and dressing and our Knife & Fork Sandwiches. Also, known for its signature seasonal favorites, Bob Evans Restaurants offers up favorites like chicken salad, Bob Evans Bob-B-Q, pumpkin pie, among many others. Bob Evans has something for everyone at breakfast, lunch and dinner.
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Relatives of care home residents criticise continued Covid-19 restrictions as 'national scandal'
Relatives of care home residents have said it is a "national scandal" that restrictions will continue in care homes while they will be torn up for the rest of society at the next stage of the Government's road map.
They have also said they are concerned that easing restrictions in wider society too recklessly will lead to individual homes locking down and refusing visitors as cases rise.
The cap on how many visitors a resident can receive in England will be lifted at Step 4, but the Government has said infection control measures will remain in place to protect residents.
Currently, if two staff members or residents test positive for Covid-19 homes are advised to restrict visits, except for in exceptional circumstances, until 14 days after the last positive result, which families fear will become much more likely as transmission increases.
Those designated as essential caregivers are permitted to visit during this period, but a recent survey of relatives by campaigners suggested that many relatives are not applying for or being granted this status.
The unlocking from July 19 will see the scrapping of legal requirements to wear face coverings on public transport and in shops, social distancing in hospitality venues and limits on how many people can meet up.
It is understood that updated guidance will say that visitors and staff should continue wearing personal protective equipment (PPE), and that visitors should continue to agree visits in advance, be tested regularly and keep a distance from other residents.
Residents returning from overnight hospital stays and other high-risk visits will still be required to isolate for 14 days, the guidance, due this week, is expected to say.
While this guidance will not be underpinned in law, providers are expected to follow it, with breaches investigated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
The PA news agency spoke to the loved ones of care home residents to see how they are feeling ahead of Step 4.
Each person PA spoke to did not want to either give their full name or the name of the care home their relative is in for fear of potential negative repercussions, such as having visiting rights curtailed.
Carol, from Huddersfield, said her 87-year-old mother struggles to recognise her when she is wearing a mask but that she has been told she cannot visit without one.
She was initially told she could wear a visor, which she said was transformative for her mother.
The 61-year-old told the PA news agency she is "furious" that restrictions will continue in care homes while they are mainly scrapped for wider society.
She said: "I think it's a national scandal. I am absolutely horrified, frustrated, angry, devastated… because the rest of society in these last 15 months have been given freedom.
"They are the only ones who are still being cut off – how can this be allowed? It's beyond me."
It is understood that the Government wants to keep measures in care homes in place while it monitors the impact of moving to Step 4, with an aim to ease them in the coming months.
Experts fear there could be 200 deaths a day as cases surge, despite the protection offered by the vaccination campaign.
It is understood that the Government does not want measures such as PPE in care homes to become a permanent fixture.
The Sunrise Senior Living and Gracewell Healthcare group, which runs 46 homes, has written to Health Secretary Sajid Javid warning that "once protective measures are now damaging the wellbeing of care home residents".
Dorothy, who was given essential caregiver status to visit her 89-year-old mother after "endless fighting", said she believes it is inevitable that homes will lock down if cases surge.
The 60-year-old from London said the Government's Step 4 plans have made her feel "upset, angry, furious, ill and exhausted".
"I'd like a guarantee that if carers and whoever else is going into the home take cases into the home, we, the families, if we test negative, will not be denied access to our loved ones," she told PA.
"I do not want my mother to die alone, which she will do if we're locked out again."
John's Campaign said it is receiving reports from families of care homes restricting visiting due to positive cases in staff and residents, even ahead of the Step 4 move.
The charity has threatened the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) with legal action three times over its visiting guidance, which it said breached equality and human rights law.
It says the mix of unclear guidance and homes' varying interpretations of this "continues to make for an unacceptably varied range of decisions and experiences that often have nothing to do with individual needs and choices".
It is particularly concerned about the continued requirement for residents to self-isolate for 14 days after overnight hospital stays, and says homes are unwittingly in danger of acting unlawfully by confining residents without their consent.
Co-founder of the charity, Julia Jones, said families are upset by the "fundamental unfairness" of the restrictions, and that the Government must make clear on what legal basis they should continue.
She said: "Of all people, they need to build up their wellbeing and their resilience, so they should be treated the same as everyone else in the population.
"Keeping somebody safe doesn't mean shutting them in and isolating them, because that's terribly, terribly bad for people."
Ms Jones cited the example of a resident who wanted to watch Wimbledon with another resident but was told she had to watch it alone in her bedroom.
Residents and their families simply want to be "trusted to behave in the sensible responsible manner that everyone else is being trusted to behave in," she added.
The Government has been approached for comment.
Copyright (c) PA Media Ltd. 2021, All Rights Reserved. Picture (c) Jonathan Brady / PA.


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*warning, long-ish mommy ramble.
|(photo credit here, this is my gym's track, but not my photo)
Paul and I have been training for a 10K we are running in at the end of March, and since we started 3 weeks ago, Isaac has been trying to run with us. Week 1, Isaac looked like a little rhino plowing down the track, and he almost died at the end of a mile. Skip ahead to the next week, and Isaac complained bitterly through 2.5 miles, but kept going with us anyway. This week was week three, and I knew it was going to be harder for me to keep my running motivation since Paul is out of town for military business for the next 3+ weeks. (Isaac has said he will still be my running buddy though.) I ran 2.5 miles without Isaac on Tuesday, 2 with him complaining and partially walking on Friday, and then there arrived today; I needed to run a scary 3.5 miles/30 laps to keep up with my training schedule.
Now I'm not gonna lie; I'm not a runner, not even for pretend. I ran the very first all running mile of my life last summer while we were in Alabama so Paul could attend Squadron Officer School, and 3.5 miles was going to be the longest I have ever run, EVER. I was nervous but confident that I could *survive* it, although I didn't know what condition I was going to be in at the end. Isaac said he didn't think he could do it, and truthfully I didn't think he could do it either, (but he was willing to try to keep up with me for as long as he could,) so we started running.
Laps 1, 2, and 3-24 felt like no problem. I think I got a "runner's high" for the first time ever, where it wasn't like it didn't hurt a little, but like it was amazing that my body could do what I was asking it to do without slowing or shutting down, and I was excited and felt like I could just keep going. Isaac kept up with me the whole time.
Laps 25-28 still felt pretty good, but I could tell I was reaching my limit, I was wanting to slow down, and I was needing to think more about the running. Isaac was hurting I could tell, but he stayed right there with me.
Lap 29, suddenly Isaac set the pace……….He picked up enough speed I started having to pick up more speed to the point where I pushing myself to not fall back.
Lap 30 we both started running as hard and as fast as we could (Emmie joined us for this one, she's all about skipping the messy bits and jumping straight into a victory lap!) Isaac got 5 feet ahead of me, then 10, I started cheering for him to finish strong, and then he got 20 feet ahead of me, and I started screaming for him to finish and he pushed to 40-50 feet ahead of me – I could not catch him!!!
That's right, my 11 year-old complaining rhino suddenly turned into this speedy athlete right before my eyes! I was so excited, and I know the people at the gym must have thought I was crazy for cheering for him since no one had seen how far we had run. (we cycled through about 6 different sets of shorter distance runners, so no one else was there the whole time).
Anyway, after resting and drinking some water, we left the gym. On the way out to the car it was freezing cold, so as a joke I started sprinting without warning up the sidewalk so I could get in the car first and to tease Isaac that I still had (pretend) energy even after the 3.5 miles. Isaac suddenly came up on my left side, pulled ahead of me, and once again I couldn't catch him.
It has happened.
It only took 11 years, but it is time to begin the list. (If you have kids, then you know the one I am talking about, and you are probably even dreading this milestone – which in my case was literal and figurative!) My son is now officially better than me at something. I can no longer catch him at tag, or trash talk about how I'm gonna kick his booty in a race, etc.
I think all mom's have this running list of milestones in their heads that they are both looking forward to and dreading; it's those moments when their children reach for those *er* words, faster, smarter, taller, etc. The next step is bigger feet than me (we wear the same size now,) then he will get taller then me, then his hands will be bigger, then his homework will get to hard for me to help him (k, not gonna lie, I do google stuff from his homework already, but at-least I FIND the answers.)
BUT, no matter what, it all started today, the beginning of the list will always be him getting faster then me, and I am so proud! (and I want to cry!)
Thanks for reading!


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Delhi police commissioner BS Bassi on Friday objected to the Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's use of 'thulla' for his policemen.
Kejriwal, while speaking to a news channel, said that A case can be lodged against anyone by the Anti-Corruption Branch for being involved in corruption. But these people say that if a thulla is harassing a roadside vendor, then you can lodge a case against them. This is not acceptable"
Thulla is a derogatory term often used to address the members of Delhi police.
Bassi said that he found it unbelievable that anyone let alone the Delhi CM could use such word for his police force.
He said, "All institutions must have mutual respect for each other and the nation building can be done only if we have mutual respect for each other. So I refuse to believe that the honourable CM has said any word of this sort."
Another senior police officer on Monday added bitterness to Kejriwal's ties with Delhi police with a tweet that reminded the CM of the good things cops in Delhi had done recently.
One of our so called 'Thu**a' who rescued 4 yr old Khushbu from Kamla Nagar & reunited with her mother!! pic.twitter.com/mad7fBnjJ2
— Madhur Verma (@DCP_North_Delhi) July 19, 2015
Delhi government has been at loggerheads with the centre over the jurisdiction of the ACB, which had arrested a head constable of a Delhi police earlier this year on corruption charges.
Delhi police reports to the centre and, therefore, the Delhi government has no control over it even though the ruling Aaam Aaadmi Party had won a historic victory in this year's assembly elections.
More recently, the Delhi CM suggested the idea of holding referendum to decide if people wanted were in favour Delhi acquiring full statehood.
Among other things Kejriwal also talked about his party's intention to contest Punjab assembly elections before repeating his demands for Delhi to get full state's status.
On the subject of Delhi statehood, Kejriwal said that AAP is keen to hold a referendum in the capital to know that the public thinks. He said there was nothing wrong in listening to the opinion of the people of Delhi in this regard. Kejriwal also accused the Centre of not letting the Delhi government function properly.
The Delhi Chief Minister also hailed the work done by his state government ever since it came into power and expressed confidence that if the elections were to be held again today, 70 out of 70 seats would be won by AAP.


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May 11, 2010 (CHAPEL HILL, NC) Paul Meade, founder and president of Thought Leader Select, a North Carolina firm dedicated to key opinion leader (KOL) development solutions for the biopharmaceutical industry, received a master of public health degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on May 8, 2010.
The Gillings School of Global Public Health at UNC awarded Meade, a 25-year veteran of the pharmaceutical industry, with a master of public health degree and a certificate in public health ethics in the Public Health Leadership Program. Meade's research report, "How Volunteer Community Organizations Can Assist State Public Health Departments During Pandemic Influenza," explored specific possibilities for the Civil Air Patrol, a volunteer non-profit national organization and an auxiliary of the United States Air Force, to assist state public health officials during widespread outbreaks of influenza.
The master of public health degree is Meade's second master's degree. He earned a master of science in biomedical science from the University of Guelph (Canada) in 1977, following his bachelor of science degree in biology and chemistry from Acadia University (Canada) in 1971.
During his 25-year career in the pharmaceutical industry, Meade served in a variety of leadership positions at Merck and GlaxoSmithKline. During his ten years at Merck, Meade worked his way from a sales representative position to director of marketing planning for Merck-Frosst in Canada. At GSK, Meade served in several leadership roles, culminating in a position as worldwide commercial director of predictive medicine.
After leaving the pharmaceutical industry, Meade founded two firms, Clear Point Health and Thought Leader Select, in 2004 and 2006, respectively. Clear Point Health provides research and consulting services to the biopharmaceutical industry, including marketing planning and consulting for research and development, clinical operations, and medical affairs. Thought Leader Select delivers solutions for more sophisticated and effective management of biopharmaceutical industry relationships with thought leaders in the health care community at large, including physicians, nurses, physician assistants, pharmacists, veterinarians, and clinical researchers.
"Earning my MPH has enabled me to pursue new areas of healthcare research, such as policy and ethics" stated Meade. "Throughout my career, I have always strived to do what is right, for both my clients in the healthcare industry as well as with my employees." Meade also stated, "with the need for greater transparency between the biopharmaceutical industry, the medical community, and the general public, my training in ethics will help me keep our customers in compliance with guidelines and regulations."
About Thought Leader Select
Thought Leader Select is a specialty firm focused on providing solutions—research, technology tools and focused advice/consulting—for more effective KOL engagement and deployment in the healthcare industry. Thought Leader Select's groundbreaking work bridges the areas of research, communications and technology. With more than 70 years of combined experience working in and with the pharmaceutical industry, Thought Leader Select is addressing needs for better engagement and more sophisticated deployment of KOLs during drug development and the life cycle of the brand.
Media Contact:
Brian Castle
Director of Global Marketing and Client Relations


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....enabling returns from thin air.
There are about 20 types of Continuous Belay systems on the market today.
They can be categorised as 'passive' or 'active'.
Passive Contiuous Belay (PCB) refers to systems that do not require deliberate active manipulation to achieve activity/element transfers. SafeRoller is an example of a PCB system.
Active Continuous Belay (ACB) refers to belay methods where the user is required to deliberately and activly contribute (manipulate) the apparatus to effect transfers, passing and route/activity choice. Dehondt's CLiC-iT lanyard is an example of a ACB system as is Bornack's FallStop SAFE-link ssb lanyard and tweezle combination, Elrid's Smart Belay and Skylotec's Easy ESB.
Each system has it's own unique advantages and disadvantages. TouchCloud can assist clients in making the right choice for their specific circumstances.
ACB systems are evolving rapidly and system characteristics can range from - zipline compatible, dictate belay wire, permit passing, permit route choice, permit activity change, accomodate vertical mobility, use of direct mechanical mechanisms to the use of super magnets and/or electronics.
Of note is that TCg has developed an automated gate system (a.k.a SkygateTCg) that allows unsupervised guests to transfer at will between the pedestrian area and the activity area. CLiC-iT compatible gates are now available with TCg's Skymate Adventure Structures.


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The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a stunning country with tourist sights of all varieties. It also has an array of malls and historical places, but it has become most prominent in history for being the birthplace of Islam, which is one of the largest religions in the entire world.
Islam's holiest sites are in Saudi Arabia as well and follow a lunar calendar to observe the Islamic months and festivities.
As the month of Shaban ends, which is the month marks the time of year when Arab tribes spread out to find water. Shaban may also be related to a verb meaning "to be in between two things". Another account relates that it was called thus because the month is between Rajab and Ramadan, the month which has begun from tonight.
This month is believed to be the holiest month of the year within Islam, as it is the month in which the Quran was revealed to the prophet Muhammad. In this month, the gates of heaven are believed to be open and the gates of hell closed. Muslims are instructed to fast in the Surat Al-Baqarah, the second and longest chapter of the Quran.
One such holy month is that of Ramadan, which is the month of charity, fasting and overall to enhance a community amongst peers. The literal meaning of Ramadan is "burning heat", which one feels and endures when they fast during this month.
Burning is related to fasting due to the supposedly high temperatures caused by the excessive heat of the sun. Ramadan is the most venerated month of the Islamic Lunar calendar. During this time, Muslims must fast from pre-dawn till sunset and should give charity to the poor and needy.
The precise beginning of the lunar month can only be confirmed by the sighting of a slender crescent moon in the sky. Prominent mosques or groups of Muslim scholars often hold meetings to deliberate the sightings, sometimes leading to rival dates for the beginning and end of Ramadan.
This year, Ramadan is to begin on the evening of May 26th and last 29 or 30 days, depending on the length of the lunar month.
Technically, all "healthy" Muslims are expected to fast, but there are an amount of exceptions. Children, elderly people and pregnant, post-natal, breast feeding or menstruating women are exempt, as are travellers or people who are physically ill.
Non-fasters can compensate by fasting at a later date or feeding a person in need.
The holy month teaches the people a sense of community, the struggles of poor people and learn to give charity to those in need as the long hours of fast communicates them the hardship of those who have next to nothing.
People get together to eat before sunrise and at sunset with their families and friends. Saudis are highly family-oriented. Family bonds run strong and the family is still considered the single most important social institution. Loyalties encompass all facets of Saudi life, including the business world, and are the major basis of individual identity, status and social associations; all these are strengthened even further in the month of Ramadan.
To experience the sacredness of this month of godly devotion, visit Saudi Arabia to understand the true piety of its people.
So, to truly know this rich culture, and to live through these customs which are centuries old. If you love history and wish to relive the life of the old but with all the luxuries of the modern times, book a furnished apartment through Gurfati.com and select an apartment according to your needs and wants. Visit Gurfati.com, plan efficiently and travel effortlessly.
Download our App (iOS – Android) and book your travels on the go!
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Watch Epic, Action-Packed New 'X-Men: Apocalypse' Trailer
Death, destruction, hot mutant-on-mutant action: the final trailer for X-Men: Apocalypse promises that Marvel's most famous Homo superior superheroes will be in for some blockbuster-sized battles. Expanding on the footage that we saw last December, this new glimpse at Bryan Singer's fifth X-Men film showcases a much larger scale than the previous teasers.
As Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac), history's first mutant, wakes from his sleep and reigns havoc upon the earth, resident franchise bad guys Magneto (Michael Fassbender) and the shape-shfting Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) eventually joins forces their do-gooding counterparts to defeat a common enemy. "It's all of us against a god." But Apocalypse won't be alone in his fight, as his four horseman — including Psylocke, played by series newcomer Olivia Munn — have also come along for the ride. "Everything they built will fall," the raspy supervillain threatens; the ruined cities and massive collateral damage we see in this explosive new trailer suggests that he isn't lying.
X-Men: Apocalypse hits theaters on May 27th. The film also stars James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Rose Byrne, and Nicholas Hoult.
More News
Bernie Madoff's Historic Ponzi Scheme Focus of Upcoming Netflix Docuseries
- 'Monster of Wall Street'
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The mayor and chief of police in Minneapolis are asking for the public's help in finding out how a 10-year-old boy was maced during Wednesday night's solidarity march protesting the death of Tony Robinson.
At a press conference on Thursday, Police Chief Janee Harteau appealed on the marchers and motorists who were at the scene to come forward with testimonies and any video they might have of the incident.
"We must have a full set of facts," Harteau told reporters.
The police are investigating claims, backed by videos and social media posts, that a 10-year-old boy was among the marchers pepper-sprayed by police on Hennepin Avenue in downtown Minneapolis.
In their brief statements, Chief Harteau and Minneapolis mayor Betsy Hodges underscored that Minneapolis had a history of peaceful demonstrations and urged any future marchers to stay true to that tradition.
Minneapolis Police Pepper Spray 10yr Old at Tony Robinson Solidarity March – http://t.co/GotiYv3VXR #MPLS2Madisonpic.twitter.com/Mi978WYnSU
— Revolution News (@NewsRevo) May 14, 2015
"I understand and appreciate people's concerns and will gather the full set of facts as quickly as possible. I assure everyone this will be a thorough investigation," Harteau said in a statement on the Minneapolis PD Facebook page.
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported that between 50 and 100 people assembled on Wednesday evening before the Hennepin County Government Center, protesting the decision of authorities in Madison, Wisconsin not to charge a police officer in the fatal shooting of 19-year-old Tony Robinson in March. The solidarity march was organized by the local group Black Liberation Project, member Vanessa Taylor told the Star-Tribune.
Kids maced tonight in Minneapolis for standing in solidarity with Madison #TonyRobinson#MPLS2Madisonpic.twitter.com/M0QC8EQIoR
— Raqiyah Mays (@RaqiyahMays) May 14, 2015
Videos posted on social media show Minneapolis police using pepper-spray on some of the protesters. Caught in the blast was a 10-year-old identified as Taye.
"There were no warnings. No options. No aid offered. No other direction. Nothing," Taye's mother, Susan Montgomery, told Star-Tribune columnist Nekima Levy-Pounds. "My son comes out to many actions. Some big, some small and everything in between. To see him marching to the beat of the drum with his people, chanting and engaging in peaceful protest to get the message about his life and other black lives matter out just to get sprayed by chemicals was truly heartbreaking," Montgomery added.
(Warning: Strong language)
Minneapolis police just pepper sprayed a kidAnd for the record Raymond witzman was the second shooter, the cop towards…Posted by Idris Nero Mahdi on Wednesday, May 13, 2015
During Wednesday's protests in Madison, Wisconsin, as many as 25 demonstrators were arrested after they linked arms at the intersection outside the Dane County Courthouse and refused to leave the street. The arrests followed a day of peaceful protests over the ruling of Dane County DA Ismail Ozanne that Officer Matt Kenny's shooting of Robinson, on March 6, constituted "lawful use of deadly police force."
Protesters claim Robinson's death is part of a pattern of police brutality against African-American men, pointing to a series of deaths such as Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Tamir Rice in Cleveland and Walter Scott in Charleston, among others. Large-scale protests began last year, following the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
Levy-Pounds says Minneapolis, though it prides itself on being "progressive and much more liberal" than much of the US, is not very different than Ferguson. Citing the USA Today study of arrest rates, compiled from FBI data in 2014, she points out that the 2011-12 the black arrest rate in Minneapolis was 480.3 per 1,000 residents; while the non-black rate of arrest was 73.8.
"We are already Ferguson. We just don't know it yet," Levy-Pounds wrote.
Source: Pigs investigating after 10yo maced during Tony Robinson Minneapolis march


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Gib-San Pools is proud to have custom built the swimming pool at the $5 million Grand Prize Oakville Home as supplier to Princess Margaret Cancer Centre 2016 Welcome Home Lottery. View this amazing home and pool. Support the Princess Margaret lottery to fight cancer.
According to Gib-San COO Peter Friis, this 10 x 24′ Gib-San custom concrete pool is well equipped, including equipment automation and LED lighting by Pentair Aquatic Systems and a premium French Grey interior finish by Pebble Tec Canada.
Many Gib-San team members and families have felt the effects of cancer in our daily lives. It gives us great pride to know that all the ticket purchases for this lottery will help The Princess Margaret continue to advance their work as a top 5 Cancer Research Centre in the world!
The ISO 14001 Environment Management System (EMS) standard is a systematic framework to manage the immediate and long term environmental impacts of an organisation's products, services and processes. Quality objectives form the center of our system.
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The ISO 9001 QMS standard requires that we identify and describe our processes using business metrics, the purpose of which is to better manage and control our business processes. Quality objectives form the center of our system.


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15-year-old Bellis loses in 2nd round at US Open
NEW YORK (AP) Folks waited for hours Thursday to catch a glimpse of the latest tennis sensation, 15-year-old CiCi Bellis, the youngest player to win a match at the U.S. Open since 1996.
Once Bellis' second-round match began under the lights at Court 17, the overflow crowd cheered raucously for the home-schooled Californian who is ranked 1,208th and was playing in her first tour-level event.
Bellis started nervously, then won seven games in a row during one stretch, but in the end, was beaten 6-3, 0-6, 6-2 by 48th-ranked Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan.
That did not dampen Bellis' enthusiasm about the past few days, which included a first-round win against a woman who played in this year's Australian Open final.
''Like, this whole experience has been unbelievable. Like, mind-blowing,'' Bellis said. ''It's been crazy. It's been, like, the best couple days of my life.''
That makes sense, given her age - and the way she instantly became the sort of made-in-a-minute modern star who collects Twitter followers by the thousands and can't walk far without having items thrust at her for autographs.
The best thing she heard over the preceding 48-hour whirlwind?
''Just people saying that, like, I'm going to be the future of American tennis,'' Bellis said. ''I mean, that's what I've wanted to be since, you know, I was a little kid.''
Which amounts to the past eight or so years, she clarified.
After all, she's still young enough that she is entered in next week's junior tournament in New York.
''Maybe it didn't turn out how I wanted it to, but thank you, everybody, for coming out and watching,'' Bellis told the wildly supportive crowd in an on-court interview. ''It was amazing. I mean, I never thought I'd be here.''
Bellis earned a wild-card invitation from the U.S. Tennis Association by winning the USTA Girls' 18s National Championship, the youngest to do since Lindsay Davenport also won it at 15 in 1991.
On Tuesday, Bellis grabbed headlines by surprisingly eliminating 12th-seeded Dominika Cibulkova. That made the home-schooled Bellis the youngest player to win in New York since Anna Kournikova, 18 years ago.
''What surprised me,'' Bellis said, ''is that I could really, like, stay with these pros.''
Thursday's match was broadcast live on ESPN2, and Bellis did not start well. Heaving deep breaths before hitting serves, she got broken at love to fall behind 2-0 right away.
She was broken at love again to trail 5-3, and dropped that first set.
''In the beginning of the match, I was nervous and I was a little tight,'' Bellis acknowledged.
But she began playing more steadily - ''freer'' is the word she used - as the match went on, and after her shutout in the second set, she went up 1-0 in the third.
That, though, is where things began to unravel.
Bellis double-faulted to get broken and fall behind 2-1 in the final set, and started exhibiting some negative energy, yelling at herself and dropping her racket to the court.
At one point, she asked herself: ''How many errors are you making?''
Later, Bellis appeared to hurt her left leg on a stumble, then sat in her changeover chair and clutched at that calf.
Diyas is only 20 years old, but that makes her a veteran by comparison. This was her 10th Grand Slam match, including a fourth-round run at Wimbledon.
''I'm very proud,'' said Leo Azevedo, a USTA coach who works with Bellis. ''She did very well. I don't think Diyas can play any better.''
Follow Howard Fendrich on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HowardFendrich


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Tag Archives: What executives think of HR
Maturity in practice: the State Water experience
TMI's council member Rob Scott has led a team of maturity analysts to help State Water in Australia. This is HR Magazine's piece on the results so far: HR Magazine: Taking a Mature Approach
Posted in 10 Pillars of Maturity, Evidence-based management, Maturity Tales, Organizational culture, Organizational learning & development, Performance management, Professional HR standards, Talent Management, Whole system thinking Tagged HR maturity score, maturity, risk management, societal value, state water, What executives think of HR Comments Off on Maturity in practice: the State Water experience
Executive HR surveys reveal more about executives than HR
Anyone who has worked in HR for more than twenty years or so will have become used to seeing regular surveys of executives expressing their views on HR. Two recent surveys that fall into this category are from the Economist … Continue reading
Posted in HR surveys Tagged CIPD, Economist Intelligence Unit, HR survey, IBM, Oracle, Vance Kearney, What executives think of HR Leave a comment


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Simplicity in Lace is an easy yet, elegant top-down raglan pullover that only requires basic knitting skills. If you are a beginner knitter, you shouldn't shy away from attempting this project. Only two basic lace knitting stitches are required: purl two together (p2tog) and yarn over (yo).
This pullover is cast on at the neck edge and worked in rounds down to the bust. At this point, the sleeves are separated from the body, and worked separately. The knitting continues through the body with optional waist shaping down to the hem. Finally, the sleeves are knitted in rounds from the top down.
Gauge: 20 stitches x 32 rows = 4" (10 cm) in stockinette stitch on size US 5 (3.75 mm) needles; measured on a washed and blocked flat swatch. You are advised to ensure that both your stitch and row gauges are accurate.
Difficulty: Easy (raglan seam increases; knitting in the round; picking up stitches from a finished edge).
Needles: Size US 5 (3.75 mm) for body (or size needed to
get gauge), Size US 3 (3.25 mm) for ribbing
Yarn: Yardage depends on the yarn you decide to use. Estimated Requirements using Tosh Sport from madelinetosh yarns; 270 yards / 247 meters per 100 gram skein: 5 (5, 6, 6, 7, 7, 8, 8) skeins or approximately 1240 (1360, 1500, 1600, 1750, 1850, 1990, 2130) yards / 1140 (1240, 1370, 1460, 1690, 1820, 1950) meters
Languages: Simplicity in Lace is available in both English and German.
Introductory Promotion Code
Valid until midnight MDT on December 7th. Purchase Simplicity in Lace for only $2.99 with the coupon code SIMPLE.


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Magpie Sports established in 2012 as a sole trader by Chris Hill.
After 3 years of steady growth Magpie Sports developed into a Limited Company in 2015 with the experience of Mattie Thompson coming on board and both coaches becoming Co-Directors.
The company now offers a wide range of sports coaching including:
School PE & Clubs
Community Football Coaching For Ages 2-11 years
Holiday Clubs
Sports Parties
One to One Coaching
Youth Football Teams
Youth Futsal leagues
Magpie Sports LTD is an exciting provider of sports coaching that not only believes in maintaining a high standard of professionalism at all times but is also passionate about bringing a fresh new approach to coaching which can inspire and create a fun experience for all involved in a safe and secure environment.
Specializing in unique sports such as Fencing and more we intend to open children's minds to a whole new world of sport from what they already know, equipping them with an adventurous desire to try new things. Showing them that it is possible to have an enjoyable experience being part of an activity they may not have thought possible.
Magpie Sports offers a variety of sports clubs that all come with unique session by session planning of up to 10 weeks, including:
• Football
• Fencing
• Dodgeball
• Basketball/Netball
• Tag Rugby
• Kwik Cricket
• Tennis
• Hockey
• Athletics
• Gymnastics
• Invasion Games
• Dance
• Multi-Skills
... and more
We believe in the participation of all ages and abilities with the goal of a healthier lifestyle for every child that takes part which is why all our clubs include:
• Flexibility in club times to best suite personal requirements
• Unique session by session planning
• Structured session plans including, warm up, skill/drill, game/match, cool down
• Social building skills (new friends)
• Self-esteem and confidence development
• Award/Merit stickers every session
• Completion certificate for each child at the end of every club
• Extra-curricular clubs trophy awards
Learn more about our school clubs by clicking HERE
Magpie Sports Mission


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Impacts of AKST on Development and Sustainability Goals | 175
water-holding capacity, and the physical environment for root development.
Agriculture has accelerated and modified the spatial patterns of nutrient use and cycling, especially the nitrogen cycle..
Nitrogen fertilizer has been a major contributor to improvements in crop production. In 2000, 85 million tonnes of N were used to enhance soil fertility (Figure 3-1). The use of N fertilizers affects the natural N cycle in the following ways:
In addition, human alterations of the N cycle have increased the quantity of organic carbon stored within terrestrial ecosystems; accelerated losses of biological diversity, especially the loss of plants adapted to efficient N use, and the loss of the animals and microorganisms that depend on these plants; and caused changes in the composition and functioning of estuarine and near-shore ecosystems, contributing to long-term declines in coastal marine fisheries (Vitousek et al., 1997).
Innovative soil and crop management strategies can increase soil organic matter content, hence maintaining or enhancing crop performance.
The organic matter content of the world's agricultural soils is typically 50-65% of pre-cultivation levels (Lal, 2004). Strategies to increase soil organic matter (carbon) include the integration of crop and livestock production in smallscale mixed systems (Tarawali et al., 2001, 2004); no-till farming; cover crops, manuring and sludge application; improved grazing; water conservation and harvesting; efficient irrigation; and agroforestry. An increase of 1 tonnes in soil carbon on degraded cropland soils may increase crop yield by 20 to 40 kg ha-1 for wheat, 10 to 20 kg ha-1 for maize, and 0.5 to 1 kg ha-1 for cowpeas. The benefits of fertilizers for building soil organic matter through enhanced vegetation growth only accrue when deficiencies of other soil nutrients are not a constraint.
No-tillage and other types of resource-conserving crop production practices can reduce production costs and improve
soil quality while enhancing ecosystem services by diminishing soil erosion, increasing soil carbon storage, and facilitating groundwater recharge.
Low-External Input Sustainable Agriculture (LEISA) is a global initiative aimed at the promotion of more sustainable farming systems (www.leisa.info). In the US, more than 40% of the cultivated cropland uses reduced or minimum tillage. At the global scale, no-till is employed on 5% of all cultivated land (Lal, 2004), reportedly covering between 60 million ha (Harington and Erenstein, 2005; Dumanski et al., 2006; Hobbs, 2006) and 95 million ha (Derpsch, 2005). Minimum tillage is a low-cost system and this drives adoption in many regions. No-till can reduce production costs by 15-20% by eliminating 4-8 tillage operations, with fuel reductions of up to 75% (Landers et al., 2001; McGarry, 2005). Conservation agriculture, which combines no-till with residue retention and crop rotation, has been shown to increase maize and wheat yields in Mexico by 25-30% (Govaerts et al., 2005). In the USA, the adoption of notill increases soil organic carbon by about 450 kg C ha-1 yr-1, but the maximum rates of sequestration peak 5-10 yrs after adoption and slow markedly within two decades (West and Post, 2002). In the tropics soil carbon can increase at even greater rates (Lovato et al., 2004; Landers et al., 2005) and in the Brazilian Amazon integrated zero-till/ crop-livestock-forest management are being developed for grain, meat, milk and fiber production (Embrapa, 2006). On the down-side, no-till systems often have a requirement for increased applications of herbicide and can be vulnerable to pest and disease build-up (e.g., wheat in America in late 1990s).
Short-term improved fallows with nitrogen-fixing trees allow small-scale farmers to restore depleted soil fertility and improve crop yields without buying fertilizers.
Especially in Africa, short-rotation (2-3 years), improved agroforestry fallows with nitrogen-fixing trees/shrubs (e.g., Sesbania sesban and Tephrosia vogelii) can increase maize yield 3-4 fold on severely degraded soils (Cooper et al., 1996; Kwesiga et al., 1999). Unlike hedgerow inter-cropping, which as a high labor demand, these fallows are well adopted (Jama et al., 2006). Similar results can be achieved with legume trees and rice production in marginal, nonirrigated, low yield, conditions. The use of these improved fallows to free small-scale maize farmers from the need to purchase N fertilizers is perhaps one of the greatest benefits derived from agroforestry (Buresh and Cooper, 1999; Sanchez, 2002) and is a component of the Hunger Task Force (Sanchez et al., 2005) and the Millennium Development Project (Sachs, 2005). By substantially increasing maize yields in Africa, these easily-adopted fallows can reduce the gap between potential and achieved yields in maize.
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Salesforce Tips: Migrating Leads from Salesforce to Salesforce
If you would like to migrate All Leads from one Salesforce org to another Salesforce org, you may find the following notes useful.
For Unconverted Leads:
- If you would like to update the CreatedDate, CreatedBy, LastModifiedDate and LastModifiedBy field, you will need to request Salesforce support to enable this feature for you.
- Make sure that custom field type matches.
- CreatedBy, LastModifiedBy and OwnerId is referring to the User object. Each Salesforce instance will have a different set of User ID. You need to match them manually before running the data load.
For Converted Leads:
- Make sure the ConvertedDate > CreatedDate. Technically you can't convert a date before you create them.
- ConvertedAccountId and ConvertedContactId could be blank if the record is deleted or merged. You should manually fix it first.


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Hut 8 closed down rapidly after the surrender, there being little to do except clear up. After May 21st only 2 of the staff of about 130 were left.
Hut 8's accomplishment consisted in decoding during the course of the war about 1,120,000 messages; the total number of intercepts received was about 1,550,000. It is remarkable that since regular breaking began in the autumn of 1941 the situation has always been under control and no important key has ever ceased to be broken with the exception of Shark between February and December 1942. This continuity of breaking was undoubtedly an essential factor in our success and it does appear to be true to say that if a key has been broken regularly for a long time in the past, it is likely to continue to be broken in the future, provided that no major change in the method of encypherment takes place. This was the great failing of the German cypher authorities and the lesson is clear for anyone concerned with cypher security to read; the Germans introduced their cypher innovations seriatim and gave us time to recover from each blow before delivering the next. The introduction at one fell swoop of all the changes which took place, for example, in 1944 would doubtless have put us out of business but as a result of the methods the Germans adopted we were able to preserve continuity and breaking continued. The developments which were scheduled to take place during the months following the surrender appear alarming, but I believe that we should have survived these also for the same reason.
In finishing this account of Hut 8's activities I think that it should be said that while we broke German Naval Cyphers because it was our job to do so and because we believed it to be worth while, we also broke them because the problem was an interesting and amusing one. The work of Hut 8 combined to a remarkable extent a sense of urgency and importance with the pleasure of playing an intellectual game.
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The APEMH, the Association of Parents of Mentally Handicapped Children, was established in 1967 and for more than 50 years has been serving people with intellectual disabilities of all ages and in all areas of life.
To mark its anniversary, the APEMH wants to focus primarily on the inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities, under the slogan of: "Zesumme fir eng inklusiv Gesellschaft".
Every year some 940 people benefit either on a permanent or one-off basis, from one or more of the services offered by the APEMH.
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You can read part one, two, three, four and five.
I am such a homebody so when we arrived at Aitisfoul I could feel my whole mind and body let out a huge exhale. Home. We were home for the next week.
|The patio off our room|
As we went to bed that first night we could hear the rain hitting the windows and rooftop and it was the most dreamy way to drift to sleep after two long days of travel and sites. In the morning we were seeing Aitisfoul for the first time in the light and it was even more beautiful in every direction. My mind was constantly having a hard time taking in such foreign beauty.
Our days were full of art, our own time to create whatever was our whim, walks, amazing foods, sun soaked naps, stargazing on the rooftop late at night, long dinners with so much laughter, a cooking class, market days, mint tea from morning to night, sand covered feet, stitching in the warmth of the sun, nights staying up too late laughing and never running out of words with my dear friend, jumping into the pool with all of our clothes on, new friendships and such a sweet spot of deep rest.
I hope these photos capture some of it.
|Orly Avineri dying papers with black tea and hibiscus|
|I brought some of my art and had fun altering it|
|When others were painting I stitched and stitched while Alexis created a huge abstract piece|
|After a jump in the pool and then getting everyone else to do it too. Alexis is good for me|
|Our daily mint tea with small snacks of dried fruit and nuts|
|The view from our bathroom window|
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Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet
Documentary directed by Jesse Vile. 90 minutes. Opens Dec. 7 at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema. STC
What gets you is the smile, which first lights up his face, and then the room, reflected by everyone else who is in it. He had it when he was a toddler, and on into adolescence, and it shone another magnitude of brilliance when he was up on stage, playing his guitar.
Jason Becker no longer plays guitar. He can't. Neither can he move or speak. The smile, and his expressive eyes, and his fertile mind and musical genius are pretty much all that he has left. That and a wicked sense of humour. And the love and care of his family and friends. And for Jason Becker, that is more than enough.
Becker is the subject of an inspirational documentary, Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet, which chronicles his astonishing rise as a rock guitar prodigy, culminating with a coveted spot replacing Steve Vai in the David Lee Roth band. He was 19 years old, and already destined for greatness.
But destiny is a capricious thing. The kind of greatness Becker might have achieved if his life had continued on that rock-star trajectory is nothing compared to what he has achieved in the face of unimaginable adversity.
Just before he was due to go on tour for the first time with Roth, Becker was diagnosed with ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. It is not treatable. There is no cure. It very quickly robbed him of his strength and mobility, and ultimately even his voice. He was given maybe a couple of years to live.
But Jason Becker had other plans. And so did his parents, Gary and Pat, and his brother Ehren and uncle Ron and the rest of his extended family, from the musical collaborators who helped him continue to create to the ex-girlfriends who stayed on with him as doting caregivers.
As much talent as Becker was blessed with for playing guitar, his true gift would turn out to be the power of love. Love of music. Love for and from friends and family. Love of life. Twenty years after his ALS death sentence, Becker continues to make beautiful music, surrounded by his loved ones and those he has inspired.
The documentary, by newcomer Jesse Vile, evocatively chronicles Becker's story more or less as it happened. To this end, Vile benefits greatly from the Becker family's exhaustive record of his early life, from grainy home movies to rudimentary performance video of talent-show gigs from his early teens.
Within months of picking up his first guitar, he had breezed through early Dylan strumming and into note-for-note Clapton riffs. He quickly mastered classical guitar and incorporated that into his emerging sound. He was not yet 20, and he was already being heralded on the covers of industry magazines as rock guitar's next big thing.
Even before the diagnosis, it was clear that this kid was not going to be your average rock star. He was too focused, too pure, too goddamned happy just to be playing that the usual pitfalls, temptations and distractions did not apply.
And always there was that smile. When the roof caved in, and it all started to slip away, Becker was undaunted. There was no time for self-pity, or even frustration. If he felt any anger, it was immediately channeled into something more productive.
When he lost his voice, his father came up with a method of communication using only his eyes. A friend set him up with the technological tools to continue composing in much the same manner. The music, now deeper and more subtly complex, continued to flow out of him.
You suddenly realize, if you hadn't already known, that it is this what you have been listening to all along as the documentary score.
You do not feel sorry for Jason Becker any more than he feels sorry for himself.
"I often feel like I'm not sick," he says, via his father, in the doc's closing moments. "I just sit still. I have stuff to do in this life. I enjoy it. I'm not in pain.
"I still have so much passion. Not just music, but relationships and friends. I mean, life is full of love and fun."
And then you realize, you just can't help it. He's got you smiling too.